• CPI - Consumer Price Index or something much more exciting?

    CPI is a term that most people who studied economics, accounting or business would understand and relate to as: Consumer Price Index.  While this term is sometimes used to measure inflation at a consumer level, it has a new and more exciting meaning that will represent a new capability for business owners and executives looking to grow, improve or transition their businesses. In this case, CPI [...]

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    Three rules for making a company truly great

    The April 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review carried a front cover story that is particularly interesting if you own, lead or manage a business.  It is particularly relevant because we always look for so many ways to improve the performance of a business and we forget what is most basic, tried and tested. It serves as a reminder to us all that the KISS principle should be alive and well if we[...]

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    Overcoming Challenges that Prevent Small Business Growth

    By Julie King, Published on CanadaOne. Growth is often the bulls eye businesses aim for, yet ironically enough, when it arrives the sudden surge can cause a company to falter or even fail. James Phillipson, a chartered accountant who provides strategic financial management skills to small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), has a good grasp of the "growth challenges" smaller companies face. For [...]

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    Create Explosive Growth in your Business

    An excerpt from the new book: Big Bang for Business: 8 Steps to Create Explosive Growth and Success "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning." Thomas Edison. It is no coincidence that Edison had the foresight and creativity to invent the electric light bulb. With the same enlightened foresight, you are invited to read this book and use it as a guiding light for your [...]

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    Customized marketing strategies deliver on your specific needs

    Case Study Company A provides tax consulting to high net worth individuals, through their trusted advisors - their accountants. In this case, the company needed to reach out to these high end accountants who would use their services. Given the nature of these accountants, it was useless trying to reach them with traditional methods such as advertising, or telemarketing or social media or the [...]

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    The art of collections

    Two recent conversations reminded me of the importance of collections to the cash flow of a business and the ability to use that cash flow to grow your business. Too often, I find that businesses have delegated collection of accounts receivable and then do not adequately supervise that critical function. The art of collections is based on persistence and regular calling of customers with the [...]

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    Big Bang for Business - striving for transformational growth

    Some businesses bob along in a sea of sameness and an ocean of simple existence or complacency .  Others see the opportunity and strive for growth, change, market share, innovation and improvement.  What kind of business do you own/manage/work for? It continues to amaze that that some people are not driven towards continual improvement.  "Everything's fine" is their mantra, even while they [...]

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    Social Media is Bullshit - true or false?

    According to author B.J. Mendelson in his recent book "Social Media is Bullshit": "We live in a world where it is far easier to make money telling people how to get rich using the Internet than it is to actually get rich using it". Social media has legions of fans as well as critics, and try as one may, any attempt to sway them from whichever position they hold would be a waste of time and [...]

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    The Key to Making Marketing Work

    A dairy company ran a promotion that had a device inside small milk cartons that made a "moo" sound when the carton was opened. The promotion hit the wall when one of the cartons was opened on an airplane and the "lucky winner" looked inside and saw wires. Panic ensued and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing. The dairy company was held responsible for all the costs associated with [...]

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    Surround yourself with smart people

    In The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Harvey Schachter quotes Peggy Cunningham, Dean of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax who says “…surround yourself with smart people who have different perspectives and different skills. Listen to them respectfully and attentively, draw out their ideas, and work to integrate their perspectives into your plans and solutions to problems.”[...]

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