Owning or managing a small business or SME is filled with challenges. The global pandemic made this abundantly clear. There are constant daily issues dealing with employees, customers, vendors, and cash flow. Generally, these normal occurrences are short-term in duration and can (or could) be handled fairly quickly with some degree of efficiency. On the…

All organizations recognize the importance of communicating their strategy to their people. However, few do a very good job on it. That’s evident in companies’ inability to execute their strategy. The common approach to strategy communication includes a day or two of live events with strategy presentations and discussions on the new strategy. After that,…

Every business or organization of any size has a “culture.” In the business world, many refer to this as business culture, corporate culture, or organizational culture. What Is a Culture? Business culture cannot be pinpointed or defined in detail. It is, however, culture or atmosphere that prevails about how employees behave and generally their beliefs….

If your goal is to build a more valuable company, stop selling your time. Billing by the hour or day means customers are renting your time rather than buying a result, which means that your business model lacks leverage. To grow, you need to either work harder or hire more people. Since it can take…

One of the best parts of the 2021 Cascade Strategy Fest was hearing speakers and participants share mental models that they used to cultivate strong strategic thinking. Often these models encoded some timeless business wisdom but did so in a way that was easy to remember and act. And once one of these clicks, it…

Some might say that marketing is easy, especially if there is an unlimited budget. Money can be spent on numerous components aimed at a very broad target audience. Some aspects of the campaign might work effectively while other aspects of the campaign might be a complete waste. When a business has a limited budget, however,…

Business strategies are what every business needs to be successful. Craig Paxson, BCC, CVB helps business owners ask the right questions to determine the best strategies, processes, and procedures for positive business growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3sOGwi3a3w

Small businesses are not exempt from this requirement. In fact, it might even be rationalized that knowledgeable employees are more important in a small business than they are in a large enterprise because there is no redundancy of job functions. What doesn’t get accomplished by one employee in a small business might very well not…

One of the most resonant themes that we saw coming out of the Strategy Fest was how important understanding your customer base actually is. As strategists, we can often get caught up with preconceived notions as to who our ideal buyer is, and it doesn’t always match up with the real customers that are coming…

Many factors are involved in making a business successful, and many factors contribute to business failure. Two contributing factors to business stagnation or, even worse, business failure are lack of integrity and credibility. This is true for any type of business, any size, or any location. Integrity Integrity is the quality of being honest and…

Suppose you ever read about innovation or strategy in a textbook. In that case, you’ll find a myriad of wonderfully inventive frameworks, tactics, and theories that wax lyrical about how a business can craft and nurture the right strategic plan to take on the world. These are all carefully researched and draw on decades of…

Business fraud occurs everywhere. It happens in small businesses, large businesses, rural areas, metropolitan cities, startup businesses, established entities, for-profit businesses, or non-profit organizations. The perpetrator might be a Baby Boomer, GenX, or Milliennial. It doesn’t matter. Dishonest and/or desperate employees have no preferences or age restrictions.  Fraud Losses Fraud losses might be small or…