I am struck by how often a good product or service will be the victim of its own success. Scaling a business is challenging, no doubt, but I am amazed at how often companies abandon the principles of their early days in order to scale. I recently tried to build a eBay store for a […]
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How To Answer Your Business Phone (Please!)
I love working with small businesses. I really do. The people I’ve met over the years have been amazing – inventive, creative, thoughtful, and above all, hard working. Which is why I shed a tear inside every time I call a small business and someone answers ‘Hello.’ Just ‘Hello’. Nothing else. Nada. I find this […]
Is Your Process Helping or Hurting You?
I recently tried a dry cleaning service that picked up and delivered right to my office. It sounded ideal, and a great solution to my problem of timing pickups. With a hectic after-work schedule, I have always struggled with getting to the local dry cleaner before 6pm. A delivery service would at least put the […]
Competing on Kindness: The SME Advantage
Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine, recently posed the question “Why Is It So Hard To Be Kind?” on his Harvard Business Review blog. In the post, he tells of the experience his father had purchasing a new Buick, and how one dealer went over and above to secure his father’s business. He closes […]