Tag Archives: business ownership

Your Fault. My Consequence.

My friend Larry Linne, the author of “Make the Noise Go Away” has a great saying about employee mistakes.”Your Fault. My Consequence.” A good employee will accept responsibility, and be accountable for screwing something up. Unfortunately, it is still the owner’s … Continue Reading

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The Peter Principle Goes All the Way Down

Every small business, if it is to be successful, needs a competent Second In Command (SIC). In many companies that position is held by dint of tenure or loyalty as opposed to pure ability. When we see a key employee … Continue Reading

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Recessions, Recoveries Bring Out the Sharks

This article appeared in the San Antonio Business Journal on Friday, March 4th A number of our business owner clients have been calling lately to ask about an offer that seems too good to be true. The owner gets a … Continue Reading

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Does the Economy Affect Your Business?

I love this quote from Paul Krugman in a breakfast speech a few weeks ago. “The Financial Industry rolled along extending credit to everyone, until they had their Wiley Coyote moment. You know how that works. Wiley Coyote runs off … Continue Reading

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Employee Incentives that Work

After four blogs on the long term motivations for running a business, perhaps it is time to return to some more practical advice. One of the most persistent issues for a business owner is trying to motivate employees with incentives. You install … Continue Reading

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Lifestyle or Legacy – Part 4

Last week a client told me “You are wrong. I have a lifestyle business that is ALSO a legacy business.” Sorry, but that doesn’t fly. He has built a good company, and continues to improve it. Be he is not driving … Continue Reading

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Lifestyle or Legacy – Part 3

Let’s turn to the Legacy Builders.They are the business owners who have achieved Lifestyle status (as defined in the last posting) but continue to work hard to build their businesses. Their objective is a company that does far more than … Continue Reading

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Lifestyle vs. Legacy – Part 2

Let’s define a lifestyle business. For our purposes, I’ll start with what it isn’t. It’s not the small retail store being run by someone who doesn’t need the money. A few years ago I was on a judging panel for a … Continue Reading

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Lifestyle vs. Legacy – Part 1

There are three types of business owners. The first, which encompasses the vast majority of small businesses, is the one who simply wants to make a living from running his or her business. They dream of the day that they … Continue Reading

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Entering 2011: a tale of two economies

In January of 2009 I blogged here titled “The Strategic Triple Threat” At that time, Congress had just passed the TARP act, saving the world from financial meltdown. The Federal Reserve was predicting a short recession followed by a resumption of historical … Continue Reading

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Humbug!

It happened again last week. I heard a business owner say “I’ve decided to terminate Bob, but I’m going to wait until the first week in January to do it. I don’t want to ruin someone’s holidays.” I go through … Continue Reading

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From the Small Business Advocate newsletter

This is from Jim Blasingames “Small Business Advocate” newsletter, and is based on a show we did last week. If you don’t get Jim’s newsletter, or want to hear the show, I strongly recommenfd that you go to http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/ Here is … Continue Reading

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