The Freestyle Entrepreneur

  It’s early in the downturn, and I’m already seeing some companies — mostly the new kids on the block — going under.  It’s a shame.  How can you guarantee you won’t be next?  You can’t.  There are no guarantees in business!  But there is one thing you can do — work like a dog. [...]

The Issue: SBOs barely have enough time to change their socks once a day, so getting to those piles of non-business reading is usually a non-starter.  Ever feel if you could only read faster you’d miss out on less important or interesting information? What I Think:  I never could speed read the old way. Remember? [...]

BECOME MASTER OF YOUR SCHEDULE IN 2009  [The following article first appeared in the October edition of Corporate Report Wisconsin]   As a business owner, your work is never done.  There is always another figure to check, prospect to call, problem to solve.  If you are not careful, you will end up working seven days [...]

How SBOs Can Get Customers to Pay Up in Spite of it All The Issue: With American consumers drowning in the unsecured-debt crisis, and the financial industry in turmoil, Congress responded with the $700 billion rescue plan (Was there no better way, people?). Whether they believe the bailout will work or not, however, financial experts [...]

  Odds are that business will get a whole lot tougher before it gets easier.  And that doesn’t matter who wins the election.    If McCain pulls off a miracle, let’s face it, the Republicans today are ill-equipped to truly lead.    If Obama strolls into the White House in January, you as a business [...]

Keeping Your Small Business from Being Swallowed By the Big Boys The Issue: Wall Street nose-dived this month when investors realized the administration’s $700 billion rescue plan and steps by other governments were not unfreezing credit markets fast enough. Predictably, the effects of that market shakeup have been reverberating all over Main Street. What I [...]

Stop shaking your head about the uncertain economy.  We’re all in the same boat.  The goal is to make darn sure that, no matter what happens, you are still afloat when the turnaround comes around.   Remember, some people made money in the Great Depression.  That’s because they refused to take a sky-is-falling attitude.   [...]

There’s only one thing worse than tough, rotton, lousy times.  That’s uncertain times.  Our economy could be nose-diving into the sea … or it could be on the verge of pulling out and soaring back up into the wild blue yonder.    What to do: Don’t over-react.  Instead, take the time to assess your business [...]

Dealing Effectively with Employee Performance Problems The Issue: SBOs and managers often don’t know (or don’t want to know) how to deal effectively with employees spending too much time at work doing things that have nothing to do with business. Are you among them? If so, trying to avoid being the office Bad Guy when [...]