Your most valuable asset may be your business. A business owner can spend decades building a business and reputation. As they approach retirement age, they likely have questions: How do they value their business? How do they maximize the value and minimize taxes upon sale or succession? Determining value So what is the value of [...]

Every new employee brings a possible threat to your business. Those threats include theft, sexual harassment, physical violence, identity theft, fraud and drug use. The potential for ruinous legal actions is higher today than ever before. That’s why a background check before you hire an applicant could save your business. However, it’s essential that background [...]

Employers face many challenges stemming from the diverse needs and expectations of their workforce’s four distinct generations. Rising health care costs, living expenses, and evolving needs mandate reevaluating traditional employee benefits offerings. By catering to each generation’s specific needs and preferences, employers can foster a culture of support and engagement that transcends age barriers and [...]

Photo courtesy of Leila Brewster Photography and Greenwich Tent Co. Of all the famous studies regarding child behavior, one usually rises to the top of the list when it comes to overall recognition by the public and effectiveness at determining the future success of a child: the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. In the experiment, children were [...]

Curiosity is a catalyst for creativity, problem solving and continuous improvement. By creating a culture of curiosity, we can tap into the collective creativity of the people that work with us and for us. It stimulates critical thinking, encourages us to be open to possibilities and leads us to explore a deeper understanding of customers, [...]

While working in my family distributorship, I had the importance of gross margin dollars drilled into my head at a very young age. We occasionally talked about sales when it came to an extraordinary order, but the next question out of every mouth was—how did we do on it? In other words, did we make [...]

Workers with L & A Tent & Event Rentals are shown opening fabric for an install. In addition to weddings, the company focuses on the educational, corporate and event segments, and has become more selective about the jobs it accepts due to labor shortages. Photographer: Envious Media Group; photo courtesy of L & A Tent [...]

I was recently speaking with a group of operations managers and they raised the topic of outsourcing. Outsourcing of services has always been something that my clients have traditionally shied away from. They often outsource functions in the early years, but as they grow, there is a tendency to bring things in-house. Perhaps the perception [...]

Leadership and management are closely related; however, despite often being spoken of in the same breath, they are certainly not synonymous. If we use those terms interchangeably, we tend to behave as if these roles are interchangeable and equivalent. Doing so means we miss critical components of excellence within our organizations. Destination vs. the path [...]

Don’t you hate it when things don’t work in the warehouse? You jump on the forklift, ready to unload a 40-ft. trailer, and the battery is dead. As you are cursing your misfortune, you grab the pallet jack and the hydraulic pump is shot.  I have recently been teaching a class on warehouse management. When [...]