• Risk management

    The huge catastrophe caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico can teach medium-sized businesses about risk management. BP clearly did not adequately assess the risk and failed to put in place procedures for managing potential risk and the results of a risk being realized. In a column in The Globe and Mail, Ian Brown quoted “This is what I don't understand,” an unnamed person admitted. [...]

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    Decision making is driven by knowledge and information

    Hear the voice of your customers. Hear the voice of your competitors. Understand the needs of your market. For most businesses, information is golden. But where do you find good, up to date information when you aren't tracking it yourself? There are numerous sources, depending on the nature of the required information. Some of these sources are hidden, and can only be found if you really know [...]

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    Knowing your customer

    Knowing how your customer thinks will definitely impact on business decisions, including how you can effectively sell more to them. Defining the difference between the demographics and the psychographics of marketing is critical for businesses to know. All of these factors influence decision making in business and understanding their customer, whether the customer is a business or a consumer [...]

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    Accounting for large jobs

    In the March 2010 article on Measuring Profitability I reviewed the importance of a business taking steps to ensure that profit is properly measured in each month and year and discussed some of the challenges that small businesses face in doing that with some suggested solutions. One of the larger challenges that I did not discuss is for a business that has large contracts or jobs that span a [...]

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    BANG! The generation divide is hitting home. Are you prepared?

    Boomers vs Generation Y - the generational divide is making an impact on business and we all need to start dealing with this reality. Whether they are our customers or clients or vendors or referral sources or employees or partners, the differences in these generations need to be taken into consideration whether we like it or not. Generation Y thinks differently. They communicate differently. They[...]

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    Measuring profitability

    Several clients come to mind when I consider measuring profitability. These examples illustrate the challenges that many small and medium sized businesses face when the owner/CEO is not sure what profit/loss the business has made in a given month, or even over a year. I recently reviewed a new client's monthly income statements for the previous year. The first thing that caught my eye was the [...]

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    The Digital Umbrella

    It is clear that the world is going digital and that is impacting on the ability of companies and marketers to effectively market their wares. Whether it is websites, search engines, social media, email, video, marketing automation, digital advertising, or a multitude of other media or marketing techniques, digital in itself is becoming a miniature industry, with numerous specializations entwined [...]

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    Group Insurance - What am I paying for?

    With each renewal of your group insurance plan you likely enhance your understanding with respect to pricing and have a better sense for what is fair and not fair. With good education you can feel more confident that you are getting a reasonable deal from your supplier/carrier. Let's spend a few minutes to address some of the hard and soft facts around price. To begin with insured benefits like [...]

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    It's a brave new world

    As the digital world expands and grows, it is taking all of us for a ride. Do you remember the day that the fax machine was the next new thing? And a really big thing it was back then. I know I'm dating myself a bit, but back in the 80's I just could not work out how they got that darn piece of paper through the telephone line, and why there wasn't a paper traffic jam with all these pieces of [...]

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    High Impact Tax Strategies for Business Owners & Their Corporations - Part 2

    As an entrepreneur, you face a multitude of challenges in running a successful business. You must keep your eye on the ball in order to navigate the often turbulent waters of the marketplace. To that end, it is important that you have a trusted accountant/business advisor who is proactive in identifying opportunities for you and your corporation. In our last column, we discussed some high-impact [...]

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