The Freestyle Entrepreneur

Customer Service, Client Building & Follow-Up
The Issue: Small-business owners–and anyone else who enjoys a good sandwich–need a place like “Shelly Deli.” This sandwich shop in a convenience store by the bay in Safety Harbor, Florida makes the best “Cubans” and hoagies in town. Any town!
With friends coming for lunch Thursday, we’d phoned-in for two-dozen sandwiches [...]

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. –James Madison
The Issue: As much as Obama & Co. wants to direct the efforts of American business by appearing to be confident, in-charge leaders who know exactly how things will turn out, it’s all an illusion. No one in this administration has gotten his hands [...]

Issue of the Week
Together Again for the First Time
We’ve Made It This Far. What’s Next?
The Issue:
In 2006, the oldest of 78.2 million Baby Boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, turned 60 years old. That, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, works out to 7,918 turning 60 every day or 330 every hour!
But if [...]

Issue of the Week
Need a Loan?  If You’re an SBO, Forget It!
The Issue:
Wall Street is back doling out the usual six-figure bonuses as if the U.S. economy hadn’t been in the tank for the past two years. But SBOs looking for routine financing are finding they’re still plumb out of luck.
What I Think:
How solid is [...]

Leadership Lessons For SBO Managers
Leadership, Like Class, is Hard to Define, But Easy to Spot!
The Issue:  Not all of the SBO stalwarts we write for and about on Freestyle Entrepreneur are lone guns struggling to build their businesses from a spare bedroom. Some of you lurch uncontrollably into conspicuous success, and find yourselves with actual [...]

 
 
The Issue:  SBOs need to correct misconceptions they may have had about others…especially if they’ve dragged them out into the open…in print…online…for the world to see!
What I Think: Last week, I sounded off about the young fellow I called about detailing my car.
He had a first-class Website, devoted readers will recall, but sounded about as [...]

The Issue: SBOs need to match professionally designed Websites with equally professional-sounding telephone voices.
What I Think: I’ve written in this space about grown women on TV/Cable with girlish voices losing a lot of their authority. The same goes for SBOs of both the popular genders who’ve taken the trouble of mounting a winning Web [...]

The Issue
With today’s modem-based auto-dialers, telemarketers can easily manage thousands of outbound calls in one shot. A handy device for call center operations or telemarketers working solo, with its flexibility in recording calls auto-dialers also work just fine with market research.
Basically, clicking the Dial button triggers a call to the next number on the calling [...]

The Issue
Whatever happened to “You’re welcome?”
What I Think
Several months ago Issue of the Week gently chastised sales and customer-contact people…and waaay too many others in all types of businesses…who say “No Problem” when thanked.
Not that I thought we’d nip that particular verbal transgression in the proverbial bud, but it’s been getting worse. Much worse! Lately, [...]

The Issues
This week we tackle two issues:

Avoid blocking visibility and creating hazarous conditions in your parking lot.
Why many women need voice lessons, and what they can do about it.

What I Think
What’s the connection? None really. Except that it’s better to know sooner than later about potential problems—or things that are keeping people we care about [...]

By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue
Small-business owners should take time to put their companies under a microscope, assessing what they’re doing and what they could be doing better, and fixing what needs to be fixed.
What I Think
If this is a good time for you to do that, consider the following tips:

Comparing your business to similar businesses [...]

The Nine C’s of Leadership
Compiled By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue
Remember Lee Iacocca? The guy who rescued Chrysler Corporation from itself?  Well, he’s 82 now and has a new book: Where Have All The Leaders Gone? (Scribner, $26). What follows is another part of my series of macro and micro “Leadership” Book Reviews and [...]

By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue
The car business is big business run by The Big Boys; franchised car dealerships are small businesses run by small-business owners like us. The relationship, never cozy, has soured since the economy hit the skids—soured perhaps permanently.
Ironically, many car dealerships that have had their franchises yanked are well-run, highly successful businesses. [...]

Putting Your Best Foot Forward
By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue
Among many other pearls wisdom my parents offered is this: “You can go anywhere and be dressed for any occasion in a blue blazer.” They were right: in fact, one way for small-business owners to put your best foot forward at work–no matter who comes to [...]

By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue
What is your management style? Are you a macro or micro manager? When is micro management appropriate, and why, and when is macro management appropriate and why?
What I Think
As a small-business owner you interact with your employees more than you would in the corporate world. That is, if you have employees. [...]

The Issue
Can’t wait to outgrow the ties of scale that keep your small business small? Be careful what you wish for! With success comes stricture, and it doesn’t take long to outgrow the fierce independence and responsive vitality of being a freestyle entrepreneur.
What I Think
True story. The names have been changed to protect the hopelessly [...]

The Issue:
What’s the number-one business killer on the internet?  It’s pretty obvious, but many of us miss it. The answer? Not being found on the first page of Google.

What I Think
Millions of Internet searches are punched in every day, many looking for exactly what you and I are selling. The trouble is most potential [...]

Issue of the Week
Many of the folks you ask to join your company will think like entrepreneurs from the get-go. But not all. People hired for their must-have knowledge and skills may be clueless about working at a small business or for an independent cuss like you. Think computer geeks and shipping mavens, for [...]

The Issue
At a time when landing new customers may be at the top of our SBO agendas, ignoring existing customers can soon become a self-inflicted, perhaps fatal wound.
What I Think: Last summer, Sue and I purchased 30 feet of sliding glass doors for our waterfront Clearwater, FL condo. Other than letting in lots of sunlight [...]

The Issue
If you have an incorrect medical bill or denied insurance claim, getting it corrected can become a lengthy process. If the denial is for coverage or a service or procedure, it can mean fighting the insurance company tooth and nail…their very large teeth and extremely sharp nails.
What I Think
First of all, as noted, this [...]

The Issue
Are you ready for anything? In these uncertain times, with Washington pols providing little if any credible leadership, Freestyle Entrepreneurs better know when its time to flip the switch from inaction (normalcy) to action (adaptability).
What I Think
Air force aviators are taught survival in the most hostile environments and worst possible weather. They must learn [...]

The Issue
Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus package on February 13, 2009. The measure passed in the House with no Republican votes. Three Republican senators, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter joined the Democrats to pass the bill, by a vote of 60-38, in the Senate. President Barack Obama, who originally drafted the American [...]

The Issue: Remember when doctors came to your home when you were sick? Anyone who grew up in the ‘40s and ’50 probably does. A relic of the past? Well, yes. But apparently one that’s worth a second look; this time as “Elite Care MD,” a medical practice that caters to business owners and anyone [...]

The Issue:  Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, from Mom & Pop retail operations to independent professionals, manufacturers and, increasingly, developers of on-line businesses. This last group is the focus of this Issue of the Week.
 
What I Think: Although the nuts and bolts of online business vary widely, one thing is true of them [...]

By Bill Willard
Contributing Author
The Issue: The nation’s economy is in dire straits, but Congress, whose charge is fixing the problem, has demonstrated one thing: They’re not up to the job. 
What I Think: As Ronald Reagan always maintained: The Federal government is not the solution, it’s the problem. indeed, the perfidity of many in Congress got [...]