Articles and excerpts

Here are reviews to be found on the back cover of Characters Who Can Make Or Break Your Small Business : "There is such an incredible wealth of wisdom in this book - and it's possible to just dip into a chapter (character) at a time. I loved the conversational,...

Think about your car’s dashboard. Depending on the model and the age of the car, the dashboard will have a varying number of dials, gauges, and digital readouts. They all tell you something about the performance of the vehicle (and sometimes a whole lot of other...

(First posted in 2017 and subsequently published by Soundview Magazine. Now repeated because the message is timeless and warrants revisiting). I was recently dismayed to discover that my favourite art supply store was no longer offering free cookies. My first stop in...

Picture yourself in a cottage in the woods. The sound of the lake lapping the sandy shore drifts in through the screen door on the warm, loamy forest air. A chipmunk scurries about on the wooden deck and beyond that, a solitary fisherman sits in a small aluminum...

If you’ve not yet experienced business banking, you might be wondering whether it’s an exaggeration to suggest that bankers and small business owners dwell in different worlds. Be assured, it’s not. Bankers live in a nine-to-five bureaucratic world of policies and...

On the day of the hearing David and I were seated in awkward silence in a courtroom awaiting the judge’s arrival. The judge entered, introduced herself, settled down behind an elevated bench and stared down at us over the top of reading glasses perched on the tip of...

One hesitates to write about a family member in the way one hesitates to prod a bear with a pointed stick—neither is going to like it and both will let you know this in no uncertain terms. Family-member business relationships are common in the small-business...

"Have a great day. I hope that meeting doesn't drag on too long this afternoon, but if it does don't sweat it. Just let me know and I'll delay putting dinner into the oven. Oh, and where's your laundry slip? I'll pick it up for you on my way home from work." The front...

Only a tiny minority of small businesses appoint outside directors, but pinning down a number is difficult. Business literature largely ignores the topic, and even sources such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Statistics Canada -- which can...

A mentor’s three essential qualities The first two of three essential qualities a small business mentor must have are obvious: knowledge and experience. They’re so obvious we don’t need to explore them here. The third is not so obvious, but it’s certainly essential....

When the time comes to negotiate or renew a lease, not all landlords will approach it with the take-it-or-leave-it attitude Graham and Andrea experienced. Much depends upon circumstances such as prevailing vacancy rates in the area and the general economic outlook,...

Usually the broker’s service doesn’t cost you a penny—he or she is remunerated by the insurance company with whom your business is placed. But therein lies a potential conflict of interest and further reason to select carefully. You want to trust that your broker will...

If ever a proverb applied to small business and alarm systems, it's the one about the futility of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. To invoke another old expression, I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard about a small business calling an...

Unfortunately for this company, a benchmark for screen printing ink manufacturers had been established in my mind months before when I attended a similar meeting at an ink factory near Atlanta. The contrast couldn't have been starker. There were no ink stains on the...

The degree to which this type of business neighbour can be detrimental ranges from merely irritating to seriously destructive. Such neighbours could break your small business if, in a worst-case scenario, by their presence or behavior, they discouraged customers from...

This character is a regrettable reality with whom a small business owner is bound to cross paths—in some cases, repeatedly. I’ve chosen the burglar to represent an entire class of characters with the same objective in mind: ill-gotten gain at the expense of a small...

Their first encounter set the tone for all subsequent visits. Ryley was woken from a deep sleep in the sunbeam by a sniffing noise and a rubber cup inches from his nose. The rubber cup instantly suffered the same fate as a veterinarian’s stethoscope that was...

Now, almost four hundred years later, we still discuss and study laughter, not so much to understand its impact on human health (it’s generally accepted to be beneficial), but to understand why it’s beneficial because neuroscientists still aren’t sure what happens in...

Your small business will generally have access to one of three computer technician resources, depending where you’re located—there may be exceptions in some countries and small towns. The choice lies between sole practitioners, companies consisting of a staff of...

Emergency maintenance is required when a malfunctioning asset threatens to cause costly damage or impede operations. One good example is a restaurant freezer malfunctioning while stocked with expensive food. Another is something that happened to my business late one...

It’s one of the business world’s most common mantras: “The customer is always right.” It’s also nonsense. The customer is not always right. Far from it. This slogan-turned-mantra was apparently popularized over one hundred years ago by renowned retailers such as Harry...

If the driver is a long-haul trucker, the tractor part of the rig will have a sleeper berth (living quarters) complete with bed, fridge, TV, air conditioner, microwave, and other home comforts. I once met a long-haul trucker whose sleeper berth included a bed for the...

I don’t think most small business owners give much thought to how a courier can impact the impression customers have of their business. I didn’t—until a customer made me. In the early days we used a courier company for local deliveries within about a 150-kilometre...

Let's return to our broad-brush definition of "competitor" and focus on this part of it: "a company in the same industry who offers a similar product or service." Interpreted too broadly, this can be misleading. Much depends on what we assume "same industry" and...

Small businesses face this choice when trying to promote themselves and their services and products—words or images or both? I’m suggesting that in many circumstances, images (or perhaps images accompanied by some wording) will do a much better job. This shouldn’t...

Online media developers come in many guises including the neighbour's kid, your geeky niece, or retired Uncle Fred with too much time on his hands. These enthusiastic amateurs are not, however, the online developers I have in mind for you. I'm talking about qualified,...

It’s been about a half hour since takeoff. Drinks have been served. The flimsy little fold-down tray can’t accommodate both a plastic glass of chardonnay and a paperback, so she closes the book and puts it on the vacant seat between them. She stares out the window....

Harbouring regrets is unhealthy—I get that. But if I were allowed to harbour one regret, it would be that I didn’t routinely schedule whole days off from my business for recreation. That’s where the fishing friend comes in: a character who embodies a commitment to...

I can’t explain why I believed I had no time for an annual vacation, particularly in the earlier years, which are often the toughest in the life of a business. Ironically, it’s during this time that you most need the vacation you believe you can’t take. My problem...

A real-life graffiti artist’s writing on the wall is quite often profane and unworthy of attention. By contrast, our metaphorical graffiti artist’s writing on the wall is always worthy of your small business’s attention. Some messages warn of impending doom while...

Meet the character many small business owners have in mind from the day their business opens—the person who’s one day going to take it over and send them on their way with a bag of money. This is the acquirer. The only reason for shunning the acquirer would be an exit...