Give-to-Get and the Business Power of Cooperatives In my article, Working with Charities, I expand on the fact that although most people do a good deed for the simple act of having helped, if examined further these types of feel-good actions can actually benefit a business in lot of ways.  Some returns are obvious, like tax deductions, but other rewards are not so obvious; like cross-promotions and marketing value. An...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rId95N2teUc Well here we are my friends, the penultimate day of 2020. It's been quite the year for my team and I. I launched this blog way back in March, 2019 (which I hope you've all enjoyed reading, and will continue to enjoy for years to come), traveled overseas several times, had the opportunity to attend the Toronto International Film Festival (which was a blast), and have hopefully accomplished much in my goal to...

There were several points over the past couple of weeks where I could have posted this up, but for one reason or another it happened to fall on today, which for many of you out there is the night before Christmas (and all through the house....). I've said before that holidays are of the utmost importance, and that there is quite literally no good reason that you should not enjoy...

I've been reading a lot about the apocalypse that was supposed to happen today, and pondering whether there were people out there who were actually silly enough to go out and stockpile things to prepare for it. Since you're reading this instead of huddling in your basement trying to escape impending doom, it's pretty obvious that the world didn't meet its untimely demise, and the end of the Mayan calendar...

There's yet another old saying, that goes "never mix business and personal." While I don't one hundred percent agree with the statement, there are times when it's not necessarily in the best interests of your business to mix the two, and that's what we'll be discussing today. Under some circumstances, it can actually be a boon to your business. In others, perhaps not so much. The trick lies in telling...

The concept of the carrot and the stick is something that most people should be familiar with. The earliest recorded use of the phrase was in December 1948 in The Economist magazine. The concept is drawn from the idea of a cart driver using a carrot suspended in front of his or her horse, mule, etc. just out of reach to motivate it to constantly move towards it, while holding...

I've spoken at length in a pair of previous articles about what debt can do to a business (in a two part article, found here and here). But what about the other side of the equation? It's one thing to be in debt yourself, but what if one of your clients becomes indebted to you? Obviously this is a situation none of us wants to face, but it can, does,...

In today's day and age, smartphones are more prevalent than they've ever been. One need only take a look at the people around them as they go about their day to see countless Blackberries, iPhones, and one of the many, many  Android offerings currently on the market. Tablets too are increasingly popular, with almost every major electronics manufacturer in business today having one on the market. People are connected to the...

For everyone out there operating their own business, the urge is most likely very strong to operate every aspect of your business yourself. After all, as the old saying goes, "If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself", right? Wrong. See there's another old saying you should be aware of. I honestly can't remember the exact phrasing or the source, but its message is no less clear....

In a previous article, we discussed how important it is to be honest with yourself. Today, I'll be getting in to more detail on a point I raised back then, which is the importance of being honest with your clients. We all know repeat business is the key to maximizing your Personal Independent Earnings. This is irrefutable cold hard fact.  But in order to earn the repeat business you desire,...