First Word

When business starts to wane, jump in and use the adage "outflow gets inflow". Many motivational books suggest you focus on gaining business vs. losing business. Whenever I face the slippery slope of decreased sales, I do the following: 1. Promote to my existing mailing lists some kind of special deal. Run a special seasonal deal or sale of some kind and promote it to your lists. This often has the results of spurring people to remember to think about your business and gives you exposure. 2. Follow-up on existing opportunities . I want to comment on this action in particular. Business people tend to leave opportunities on the table due to lack of follow-up or any kind of follow-up program. My rule is simple: follow-up with a handful of people per day. Set a goal such as following up with 5 people per day. I know it can be uncomfortable if you've been persisting with the same 5 people. but what do you really have to lose? What do you have to gain? I like to follow-up ...

Employee turnover is said to cost a business $100,000 in loss from the transition, which is one of the reasons I've always gone out of my way to treat my team with respect and loyalty. When you find an excellent team member you do not want to lose that person. Always be respectful and lead with loyalty and kindness and understanding so your team will WANT to work for you. As noted, loss on average per employee is $100,000, which for a small business is costly. Let me give you an excellent example: when I worked in corporate I worked very loyally for my employer for 14 years. Pay raises though were always a bone of contention. Existing inequities between the executives in the company for reasons I won't share existed. As a loyal and hard worker, every time it came time for a raise it was a hard-fought battle with lots of justifications to go round. At the end of the day, I often went 2-3 years without even a cost of living adjustment. Finally in the last year I asked for a ver...