by jim muehlhausen | Jun 14, 2010 | Starbucks, Uncategorized
One has to wonder if the once-vaunted Starbucks business model is in decay. For many years, Starbucks has relied on the overall customer experience as their defacto advertising. Now, Starbucks is engaged in an old-fashioned television, radio, and newspaper media...
by admin | May 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
A member of one of our CEO Focus groups in Maryland, Sam, was building a new home generator repair business. A “consultant” told him he should do radio ads to bring new customers. Off Sam went and spent $60,000 on radio ads! Did they work? Nobody knows,...
by admin | Apr 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
I know most of you would rather not talk about hiring new people at this time, because you think it means adding to headcount. Increasing costs during a time of economic uncertainty is certainly not a wise choice. I’m also quite certain that many of you viewed the...
by admin | Apr 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
Michael Gerber, author of The E Myth Revisited, states that in a well run business, “systems run the business and people run the systems.” Most of the time, we think of this in terms of a production system, or a human resources system, or an accounting...
by admin | Apr 19, 2010 | Uncategorized
As mentioned previously, it’s sometimes “good to be the king” provided you focus on, and wisely implement, the key strategies for small business success. Last week we touched upon the first four keys. Here are brief explanations of the remaining three. 5. PERSPIRE: To...
by admin | Apr 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
It’s frustrating to see good ideas fade away when we know they are right for the business. Small organizations struggle with this problem more than larger organizations — generally because people are spread thin, there are not as many “change agents” available...