Igniting Enthusiasm – Six Lessons From a Zydeco Concert

It was late Sunday afternoon when my husband reminded me that we had tickets to see a show that night, Buckwheat Zydeco.  It was one of “those” Sundays – the kind where you never take off your pajamas, or brush your hair, let alone think about leaving the house.  My brain screamed, “Nooooo!  You can’t […]

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Developing a Rational Approach to Irrational Customers

You know your industry is broken when 52% of customers would rather go to the dentist than your store. You know you have to make a major change when the end result of your customer experience is when the customer leaves your store in handcuffs.  That was the incident that drove John Coyle, Senior Director […]

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Filling the Gender Gap – Educating and Training Women as Angel Investors

The glass ceiling is alive and well, especially for start-up entrepreneurs. According to American Express Open 29% of all US businesses are owned by women and their numbers are growing by 1 and a half times the national average.  “There are over 8.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating nearly $1.3 trillion in […]

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8 Steps for Small Business SWOT Analysis – It’s Not Just for the B-School Classroom!

Do you know what SWOT stands for? Of course, it means Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats When was the last time you did a SWOT analysis for your business? Uhm, I’m not really sure. So how did you learn what SWOT analysis is about? Oh that’s easy, we covered it when I was getting my MBA. I have conducted […]

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Understanding Small Business Cash-Flow

We’ve all heard that expression, “Cash is King!” And if you own your own business you know that is never more true than when cash is tight!  Not knowing whether you can pay your bills or make payroll makes for sleepless nights and anxious days.  Unfortunately, when you desperately need cash is when the bank […]

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10 Reasons You Need a CFO

1.  You want to increase your profits Sometimes a business will plateau at a certain level of sales or profitability.  An outside pair of eyes can often see new opportunities for growth. 2.  You haven’t prepared an annual budget A budget should be your yardstick for measuring your performance.  A budget provides comparative data to […]

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Increase Your Efficiency – One Checklist At A Time!

  With pennies hard to come by these days, every step you take to improve your productivity can add dollars to your bottom line. A simple way to increase your efficiency is to use checklists. Checklists ensure that tasks get done the same way every time, in the shortest amount of time possible, and with […]

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