The book Good to Great by Jim Collins was the result of a research study Jim and a team of researchers did on why some large companies are great while others are not. Although their study was around large companies the book contains many lessons for the small business owner. For example they found that…
Do you have something in your business or our life you want to change … some situation you want to have a different and more positive out come? If so, read ‘Switch ~How to Change Things When Change is Hard’ by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and then give it a try. This witty and…
Alex was bored with his business but that was okay because it gave him plenty of time to pursue his real passion; sailing. And it was this passion that led him to invent a product that took him on a successful and rewarding business journey. He invented a hat for the sailing community that would…
Published: October 27th, 2011: By: Nick Hughes Ed Mirvish was 15 when his father died. As a result, he had to drop out of high school to run the not very successful store his father had opened in Toronto. He struggled to keep it afloat for 9 years before conceding defeat. But this inauspicious start…
For some obscure reason it has been decided (by whom I do not know) that October is small business month. Never one to miss an opportunity for a celebration I thought we should celebrate Canadian business. And so let me introduce you to two of Canada’s many successful businesses. In just 30 years these 2…
This month’s blogs have been all about customers. How to care for them. How to deliver excellent customer service that thrills them. How to recover from a customer service snafu. And so I thought it was appropriate to end the series nominating companies for the Customer Service Hall of Fame. Here are my nominations. Porter…
We all want to give our customers the very best service. Unfortunately, Murphy is lurking in the shadows to ensure that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. And Murphy was an optimist! So despite our best effort things will go wrong and a customer will experience bad or horrible service from our company. When…
“Do you provide good customer service?” We ask every business owner who crosses our path that question. Not surprisingly, they all say yes! Who would say no? We all believe we provide the very best customer service, but do we? Or more importantly do our customers think we do? There are five levels of customer…
You went into business because you wanted to do what you love and you wanted to make a good living doing it. Why then do so many small business owners, especially in the early years, not pay themselves enough? Not writing yourself a proper pay cheque may seem like the right thing to do when…
I recently went to see “The Kings Speech”. I thought it was brilliant. I believe it deserved to win Best Picture. Colin Firth was brilliant as King George. He was made even more brilliant by the incredible support of Geoffrey Rush as Lionel and Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth. David Seidler had an incredible…