Accountability. It sounds bad, doesn’t it? It reminds me of exams, report cards and getting called to the carpet. Terrible! But getting an award, promotion or testimonial are also forms of accountability. Those aren’t bad! Accountability is the measurement of your skills and outcomes against an objective standard with actionable next steps for improvement. The…
Many of you have just watched the Super Bowl, one of the most popular sporting events in America and around the world. It pits top teams with extraordinary athletes against one another in an epic match-up of strength against strength. In Sunday night’s game, player after player said their whole season came down to that…
We spent a lot of time crafting the Anchor Advisors, Ltd. marketing message. It’s amazing how long it can take to come up with a few measly words! But they were important words. They communicate what we do at Anchor Advisors and when we were finished with the process, I was happy with the result….
When I go on a trip, I start off with a plan. Where am I going to stay? How am I going to get there? What’s the trip going to cost? I look at the plan each step of the way, maybe making a few modifications as we go along. But for the most part,…
Now that we’re getting settled into 2010, the economic climate is starting to change – slowly, but it’s changing. The intense pressure is off and business owners feel like they can breathe (a little) again. Many have realized they didn’t lose as much business as they thought they would, and some are seeing their businesses…
If your business survived 2009, good job! As business advisors whose mission is to help businesses grow, we never thought there would be a day when we would congratulate business owners for just surviving. But 2009 was tough! We’ll give you that. Some of us had to make radical changes to our businesses in 2009,…
I love to ski. But, much of skiing is not even skiing; it’s waiting in line and riding the lift. So, you learn to find enjoyment in those down times. When I’m riding the chair lift, I spend my time watching other skiers on the slope below. My eyes are usually drawn to the skiers…
Many small-business owners take pride in saying that “we’re like family” when talking about their business. When they say this, they are referring to the fact that people who work for their company care for one another, are willing to pitch in and help with whatever needs doing, and feel like they belong or have…
By Jeannie Walters, President of Vox, Inc. Whenever I tell people that Vox is focused on the customer experience, I hear about someone’s last bad experience as a customer. I would say about 80% of the time, it’s related to an employee at the company. (The other 20% is reserved for inexplicably complicated – or…
Most business owners start their businesses with a good amount of confidence. They think they have something special to offer the world, and believe people should pay top dollar for it. And then reality hits. They’re not seeing the profit they had hoped for, the staff isn’t productive as they should be, and new business…