Out The Back Door

In working with various churches and small businesses I’m very surprised at the amount of funds going “out the back door”.  You may be wondering what that means, especially when I use the word “Church”.  This would be funds that are being used for various “non-authorized” expenditures.  Yep, I’m talking EMBEZZLEMENT here!  Now I’m sure [...]

Innovation

We live in a world today that is constantly changing.  If your business, church or organization believes that the old ways are the only ways, well, good luck keeping the doors open.  Then there are those that are constantly changing, never slowing down enough to get organized.  I think a better word for change would [...]

Computers

The other day a few of us were reminiscing about the “old days” when the PC first came out.  Remember when they actually put a 5 MB HARD DRIVE in a PC?  How about the first version of Lotus 1-2-3?  Churches and small business’s certainly didn’t do their accounting on anything but ledger paper or cards [...]

End of Year Contributions

December 31st is not only six days after Christmas but it’s also the LAST day that you can legally accept contributions for the current calendar year.  Either the contribution has to be in-hand or post marked by this special day.  You’re probably in agreement with me on this UNTIL Mr. Big Giver walks in the [...]

OUTSOURCING

Do you ever wonder what a company that has laid off staff does to complete the tasks they did?  Or what about the growing company that needs to hire additional staff but isn’t ready to commit long term to more employees?  Sometimes layoffs happen to slow or stop production or to get rid of redundant [...]

Can you be the next Mickey D’s?

When you decided to start your small business or when you decide to hang up your shingle, will it be a hit like good ole McDonalds?  Back in the 60′s there wasn’t a fast food restaurant on every corner.  In fact there really weren’t fast food establishments in general.  Then a guy had the foresight [...]

Sick Day…..

You woke up this morning, realized what was about to happen, and before you could do anything, you SNEEZED! Your eyes are itchy, you can’t breathe out of either nose (as my daughter used to say) and your head is pounding.  You feel like you need at least TWO boxes of Puffs (kleenex just aren’t [...]

Your startup “ain’t very good”!

I wonder how Bill Gate’s friends and family responded when he told them he was starting a company to write software for personal computers?  Maybe something like “what’s a personal computer”?  Or “nobody would every have any use for something like that”. We all see a thousand reasons why a new small business won’t work.   Your product is good [...]

Don’t Have An Office?

When you start a small business, many times you don’t have an official “office” or “building” to go to every day.  This has its positives and negatives.  First, you have to get yourself out of bed in the morning and get going. If you choose, you can drive down the street to Panera, get yourself a bagel [...]

Making Your Small Business Look Big

Why is it that when you run a small business you tend to do things at either the bare necessity or go way overboard?  Take business cards for example.  We either print off our own on the do everything computer on cheap white cardstock or have the most expensive printer in the city design them for us [...]