Cyber Monday was born out of data. In 2004, according to Scott Silverman of Shop.org, research revealed that the Monday after Thanksgiving was one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The data revealed that many people shop in person on Black Friday but would finish their shopping online the following Monday. This led savvy retailers to leverage this ...
Recently, I met with a 25-year-old entrepreneur who had already had three failed businesses and was working on his fourth. I love the passion of young visionaries, but I hate to see the pain many have experienced due to a lack of discipline. My encouragement to this young man was that I saw tremendous potential for his future, but he ...
After recognition that you have started a business, the second business tip I would share with a new entrepreneur is to “Separate your business and personal funds.” When businesses start, many people begin depositing business income into their personal checking account. Further, they often start paying business expenses and personal expenses all from the same account. This causes many problems. ...
When Kathy and I married, we rented a reception facility from one of the wealthier men in our county. On our wedding day, I went to check on the reception hall and found a man dressed in work clothes setting up chairs. He looked like a custodian. When he told me his name, I was stunned! I blurted out, “Aren’t ...
If you’ve managed people for long, you will eventually have someone who is not meeting your expectations. Determining the next steps can be challenging. When someone is confronted with poor performance, some will get defensive and immediately assume that the problem is yours, not theirs. Their arrogance or overconfidence can prevent them from being willing to correct their issues, making ...
There was a surgeon who came in occasionally to the bank where I worked. He would park his new Mercedes by the front door and brag about his car to our staff. He wore lots of jewelry and flashy clothes and loved to talk about his success. One day this surgeon met with me to request a loan. I discovered ...
My good friend Rick and I both graduated from the same school with accounting degrees. We also both started with respected CPA firms upon graduation. Rick dreamed of becoming one of his firm’s youngest partners and he began diligently working towards that goal. I also dreamed of being a partner, but soon realized that public accounting was not for me. ...
As the Chief Lending Officer of a small bank, I was trying to clean-up a lot of problem loans made by the previous CEO. My focus was on collecting the business loans we had, rather than trying to make questionable new ones. So, when a guy I knew from high school asked for a new loan, I was skeptical. When ...
When I began my banking career, I spent time investigating bank frauds. One of the frauds I worked on was that of a bank president who determined his significant pay wasn’t enough. This president began producing false travel expense reports, claiming that he was driving to headquarters, four hours each way, multiple times a month. His spending habits, however, continued ...
As the new Chief Lending Officer of a community bank, I was charged with controlling the lending activities of the former CEO of the bank. Fred had made so many bad loans that he was required to report to me on any loans made. One problem we encountered was that Fred would make loans to people who were already bankrupt. ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
