Here we are in the midst of the holiday season, and many small business owners, myself included, are searching for ways to say thanks to our customers and clients. Making the right choice is often difficult, particularly with tight budgets. How much should you spend? What’s appropriate and what’s not? To help you make a […]
Sometimes I feel like I should be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for attending the most seminars and conferences, especially when it’s the end of the day or of the event and I’m toting around a bag of “swag.” I hear that the swag bag they give participants in the Oscar awards […]
I’m wondering if Shakespeare wrote “Much Ado About Nothing” with Small Business Saturday in mind. Yes, the Bard was a genius, but I doubt that even he could have anticipated the American Express promotion back in 1598. For the week leading up to Small Business Saturday, virtually every story written about “small business” was about […]
A friend of mine writes newsletters for a variety of clients and they often send him photographs and art to include in their newsletters. He always asks if they have permission to reprint the graphics. Usually the answer is “no.” When it is so easy to reprint art from almost any Internet source, it is […]
Some of you may be old enough to remember when Japanese industry, especially manufacturing, was seen as a juggernaut. It was characterized by the world’s highest levels of quality, unflagging company loyalty and lifetime employment for workers. The quality standards are still there, but the loyalty and lifetime employment are very much on their way […]