BizSugar.com › User › cbrendlinger › Upcoming

Congratulations on your election. Clearly there is a strong sentiment for change in the United States, and it appears that you are the beneficiary. I hope that supporting small business, the engine of job creation and innovation in our economy, is part of your plan to make America great again. Read More

When we start planning for the sale of a company, many owners ask me about sharing information with employees. They are naturally concerned that an ownership transfer will cause their workers to seek more secure positions elsewhere. This is true whether you anticipate an external or an internal sal Read More

Most of us have heard something like this expression of employee gratitude. “I’ve enjoyed working here. You taught me so much, and you’ve always treated me well. But the company down the road is paying a lot more for people with my skills and training. I’m sorry, but I just can’t turn them down. Read More

Every owner wants to maximize resources. The whole concept of profitability is based on doing the most with the least, but we often are trapped in the prevailing thought pattern about how things “should” be done. Read More

In an owner-managed company, a CEO job description can be a bit vague. The simple (and usual) answer is that the CEO of a small business has two responsibilities. He or she does whatever he wants to do, as long as it includes everything that no one else wants to do. Read More

There are various approaches to employee peer review. Comprehensive multi-level feedback, top-down and bottom-up comparisons, and even the lightening fast Stoplight 360. In many instances, however, the most powerful rating system is the internal market. Read More

Employees who make bad choices in their personal lives usually create problems in the workplace. Should you take their issues outside of the business into consideration when hiring or assigning responsibility? The legal answer of course, is “no.” Employers are expected to erect a Chinese wall aroun Read More

We own businesses because we want to choose for ourselves. The majority of decisions made by a business owner every day are about NOT maximizing profits. That’s our privilege. Profitability is not the only reason we own businesses. Read More

We are finally seeing software that searches for comparative information on its own. Are you ready for a program that sends you a message like “You made a change in the freight charge policy last month. Would you like to see the impact on average order size and profitability?” It’s coming. Read More

Who decided that letting the people cast binding votes on important issues was a good idea? Would any sane business owner run his or her company that way? We misuse the term democracy to mean any type of government where the people have regular input into their representation. That’s wrong. Read More