“A few of the reasons you go into business with your spouse is because you have a common goal, you get to meet each other’s colleagues, and you get to celebrate each other's successes as well as the organization’s success,” says Margie Blanchard, Ph.D. Margie has earned a reputation worldwide as a motivational speaker, an accomplished management consultant and trainer, [ Read More ]
“I played in the company warehouse as a kid and worked in the office during the summers and throughout my high school years,” says Kim Stout, recalling how she grew up around the family business that she now works for, Coastal Pet Products Inc. The business was founded by her father and uncle, Jim and Tom Stout, in 1968. [ Read More ]
In this post, Aileron Founder, Clay Mathile, shares what you need to know before your first board meeting. Involve Your Team As the CEO/owner of your business, you most likely don’t have the time to plan every detail of every meeting. After you have selected your outside board of directors, rely on your team to schedule, collect data, notify [ Read More ]
The hardest resource to give is your time. As a leader, when we're giving our time to people, we're giving them love and we're encouraging them,” says Scott McGohan, CEO at McGohan Brabender. We sat down with both Scott and John Meredith, President and Owner of SaverSystems, to talk about the power of giving back, including how part of taking [ Read More ]
While it is not as easy as it once was before the Great Recession, all banks and other lenders still need to loan money to small business. The key is to know how to do it and get the best terms. Here is a simple 7 step process: Step 1: Start before the loan is needed. It is critical [ Read More ]
One of the last things that may be on a business owner's mind when starting a company are legal issues. Unfortunately, many unforeseen issues can be a result of what business owners didn't think about when starting out. Here are the top 9 legal mistakes made by small business owners, including what can be done about them (in addition to [ Read More ]
When thinking about an organization, many people think of a hierarchical, “org chart” view—a visual view that is top down or bottom up. Often, that picture of an organization has the leader at the top, with the management layers underneath. But does this traditional view of an organization tell us anything about the factors driving quality, customer loyalty, employee [ Read More ]
An ESOP, or an employee stock ownership plan, is a retirement program that allows participating individuals to acquire ownership interest in their employer’s organization. ESOPs are most commonly used by business owners to transition a business (if they are departing or want to move ownership away from a concentrated group of owners), as a benefit to employees. There is [ Read More ]
Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” His point is, obviously, that if you don’t have a vision of where you want to be, there’s no right or wrong next step. When you think about strategic planning, the same idea applies: If you don’t have a [ Read More ]
During my years of consulting with family-owned businesses, I have encountered a number of mistakes made by the older generation when they have tried to transition their company to the next generation. During the transition, they were not aware of making any mistakes, only to find out in later years they had wished things were done differently. In consulting [ Read More ]
