Bookshelf

February 24, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Learning on the job? Protecting Profits in Any Economy is for you. Small business consultant Don Crist  directs his lessons at entrepreneurs without formal business training. Says Crist, "I have been in many businesses where basic financial and organizational concepts are replaced by seat-of-the-pants management styles. The owners are skilled at the tasks but not at managing the business."

A Managing for Profit tutorial makes up section one; section two is 12 Things Your CPA Didn't Tell You About Running Your Business and the Secret to Success is section three. The text includes first-hand examples, plus a "no cost" incentive plan to replace bonus payments, a sample "flash report" and tax ideas

January 21, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Get motivated every day -- Literally. 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day: With Little or No Money, published by Atlantic Publishing, includes advice from real-life companies about how to retain your best workers and keep morale and productivity high even when raises, bonuses and other monetary incentives are limited or totally off the table.

Quint Studer’s Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top (Wiley, $24.95) teaches employers how to create and use a Standards of Behavior contract to boost morale, customer satisfaction, and profitability. He recommends that organizations: seek input from all employees in creating the document, align desired behaviors with desired outcomes so success is measureable, be very specific in wording, hold a ceremonial Standards of Behavior "roll out"...Read More

November 25, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

You're not alone. But now there's help. No, it's not a pill or a psychic friend, it's Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence, by Philip Kotler and John A Caslione. The authors present a system for insuring against risk, taking advantage of uncertainty and nagivating through turbulence without being caught up in it. This includes early warning systems, worst case, best cast, and most likely scenarios and a shorter time cycle in three-month intervals. Strategies include pushing for more market share, investing in more customer research, increasing the marketing budget, providing customers with a feeling of safety, quickly drop...Read More

November 18, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Yes, there really is a chapter on flipping a coin. (It's number 16). But there is a lot more to it. Michael E. McGrath, the author of Business Decisions! Making Winning Management Decisions in Today's Economy covers hot topics such as managing risk, wishful thinking and other reasons people ignore important choices, focusing on the short-term and forgetting long-term consequences, throwing good money after bad, indecision and other pitfalls. One risk you may not have thought of? Like minded thinkers. A decision making group that agrees too often may not have enough diversity to see all the alternatives. 

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November 11, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Maestro of Crystal by Brian F. Havel, tells the story of Miroslav Havel and his role in Waterford Crystal. For a Waterford retailer, selling  the book could vary a display and produce an add-on sale at an affordable price point that complements, without competing with, crystal offerings. 

Making it required reading for sales associates could also deepen their ability to "sell a story". While most people think of the romance of the artisan as the province of individual crafters, not long-established major brands like Waterford, author Brian F. Havel ...Read More