I recently attended a seminar where Lorraine Howell of Media Skills Training coached us on preparing an “elevator speech.” The premise is that if you get on an elevator and someone asks, “What do you do?” you have a concise way of communicating your business. Most importantly, Lorraine says, “The goal is to generate interest.”... View Article
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the cosmetics store Sephora, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vitton, was recently sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of 5 Spanish-speaking latino workers who were reprimanded for speaking Spanish to one another even on their breaks. The company had not officially implemented an “English-Only”... View Article
Many large companies face vocal critics of their business practices often focusing on domestic or international hiring and wage issues or envrionmental issues. Companies typically confront these challenges with a signficant use of PR to play them down or downright deny them. Wal-Mart is a company that has traditionally viewed PR expense as unnecessary but... View Article
As you may have noticed, it’s been awhile since my last post. This was due to what we all call “technical difficulties” — and what I call “piling” on technology. So you have an internet connection that works, a phone that works, and cable TV that works. Then you decide to put in a cable... View Article
I recently attended a seminar sponsored by the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where Carolyn Logue from the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) https://www.nfib.com/ spoke about the organization and key issues they are lobbying for in the upcoming legislative session. The NFIB is a membership organization for small businesses that surveys its members... View Article
When my web designer suggested I add a blog to my website, my reaction was “Why? Do businesses use blogs?” As I have learned through my quest to better understand blogging, many companies use it to share employee viewpoints and sometimes to obtain opinions from customers on various topics. REI recently began a blog for... View Article
In continuing with the Business Plan theme, many people find the most difficult aspect to be building the predicted financial performance of a new company (also known as pro-forma financial statements). Where do you start and how do you ‘guess-timate’ these figures? Financial statements, in general, always consist of at least three inter-related documents, the... View Article
Let’s start with a critical element that many small business owners ignore – The Business Plan. You’ve got a great concept and all the details worked out – in your head. Putting the concept to paper will help you recognize the holes in your plan, your strengths and weaknesses, and will focus your business building... View Article
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