When running a small business it’s easy to be seduced by the siren song of percentages. Many owners concern themselves with percentages of COGS and gross profit margin, basing important merchandising decisions on rules of thumb. Often they’re businesses are dashed on the rocks of bankruptcy, all because they neglected the more important dollar amount [...]

When I visit with family in Utica, or chat with my friends scattered across the country, a question that invariably pops up is, how are things in Rochester?
Aside from the usual sound bites about my career, relationships, and shenanigans (varies by audience) I grab nearly every chance to plug how great it is to live [...]

A tough challenge faced by every executive, manager or supervisor, is how to maintain employee motivation? Christine Corelli’s concise answer is you must be leader rather than a manager. She goes on to provide a wealth of differences between being a boss versus a leader. Looking these over I noticed alot of similarities to what [...]

The war for talent is raging, to attract the most competent knowledge workers you have to retool your job interview process.
I had an interesting experience with the Brockport Auxillary Service (BASC) a little while ago, and it struck me as related to a post Seth Godin wrote some years ago about the end of the [...]

Two choices.
Error on the side of caution and tradition, content to tweak existing products and services.
or…
Be bold, reshaping and creating things that are completely new.
Each has its rightful place. The tough part is figuring out which to choose. Congratulations Kraft, on knowing when to take the bold path.

The ski shop where I work, Snow Country Sports, went under last year. You might chalk up the closing to a string of miserable winter seasons. However that would be a wrong assumption. Despite this year’s off and on winter, the new shop, Snow Ski & Board, has outperformed Snow Country’s figures from last year.
What’s [...]