In business, when progress seems to have embarked on a downward spiral, a sudden reversal can be key to survival. The ability to look at the business objectively, and see where the new opportunities lie, can spell the difference between the life and death of a company. However, when the spiral has existed from the [...]
At a marketing course on how to be asked to be a guest speaker at universities, an observation was made: If you want instant credibility, write a book. Interesting logic, considering that many writers are people I wouldn’t necessarily want speaking at an event, or even consider credible because of their writing. For some, writing [...]
Getting people to pay on time can be difficult, and can frustrate business owners as they struggle to create a reserve large enough to float unpaid invoices. There are many strategies published that address this issue, and how to best manage getting paid in a timely manner. How do you go about ensuring that your [...]
A recurring problem that many people have is running meetings effectively – that is, where the meetings in hindsight are not deemed a waste of time – for any of the participants. This can be quite problematic, as different people coming to a meeting will often have different objectives, and reaching everyone’s objective in a [...]
In studying the business applications of being a personal trainer, there was a comment that piqued my interest: Within 6 to 9 months of becoming certified, if you are not getting 75% of new clients via referrals, you’re doing something wrong. This is particularly interesting to those in service-based industries. Getting new clients is generally [...]
No matter who you are, at some point, you will encounter failure of some sort. It could be a major event in your life or a tiny insignificant occurrence that barely registers. Regardless, failure will have occurred, and you must deal with it. Naturally, the way in which people deal with failure is somewhat dependent [...]
A concern arose on one of the various question sites I frequent – a manager was hired on contract to supervise a project, which was cancelled a short time later. As a result, the contract was terminated. Normally, this would be percieved as a standard part of business as a consultant – except for this [...]
I participated this week in a chat regarding the difference between knowledge and experience, and, more specifically, whether or not formal education is worth the price paid. Living in Canada, the price of an undergraduate degree is about $25,000 which is significantly lower than in the US. As a result, the length of time required [...]
Elie Kochman is the author of Advice for Small Business Owners and the founder of Optimal Upgrade Consulting. Using his experience working in the corporate world along with his exposure to the world of small businesses, he writes these articles to assist others avoiding common pitfalls of growing a business. His experience in the corporate world, building his own business, and working directly with other growing businesses has given him some perspective on the trials and pains of running a business.
