Prices - It Pays To Keep Them Up

Most buyers typically rank price around fourth in their list of buying criteria. Price is important only when the product or service we're selling is a commodity.

Why Strategic Planning is Important Even for Small Businesses

Small business owners mistakenly believe that the size of their business negates the need for strategic planning but the opposite is actually true. Its inherent size is actually what makes strategic planning more important because it can be means for a small business to gradually evolve into a huge and thriving multinational corporation.

Assumptions Continue to Derail the Best Strategic Business Plans

What assumptions do you live and breathe within your business without knowing them? How are these assumptions creating dissatisfied customers?

Open A Dollar Store - How to Reduce Freight Costs

Knowing how to successfully reduce freight costs is a required skill for every person who is about to open a dollar store. Freight costs add significantly to the cost of good sold. As fuel prices increase, freight costs tend to increase as well. Fortunately there are several steps that every business owner can take to help reduce freight costs for their business.

Business Growth - Examining Five Killer Strategies For Trouncing the Competition

Winners in business play rough and don't apologize for it. Toyota has steadily attacked the Big Three where their will to defend was weakest, moving up the line from compact cars to mid- and full-size vehicles and on to Detroit's last remaining profit centers, light trucks and SUVs. All the while, Toyota has dared its rivals to duplicate a production system that gives the company unmatchable productivity and quality.

Your Strategic Thinking Coach's List of Ten Key Components of Effective Strategic Alliances

Let me start by defining strategic alliance. A strategic alliance is a partnership, a collaborative agreement and/or a relationship between two or more companies or organizations formed to pursue a set of agreed upon goals while remaining independent companies or organizations. Strategic alliances exist in a variety of shapes and sizes and include a wide range of scopes of cooperation levels. Strategic alliances usually are most effective when the entities involved have complementary strengths. What makes a strategic alliance effective? What are the key components of effective strategic alliances? Here is my list of ten (10) key components of an effective strategic alliance.

Clearing Up The Myths About Strategic Thinking and Planning

I continue to be amazed at the amount of misinformation and the number of myths that exist about strategic thinking and planning. During my entire career, I have heard business owners, senior executives and not-for-profit board members and executive directors utter “mythical” statements about strategic thinking and planning. And I have observed that these same people truly believe that these myths are reality. My purpose in writing this article is to share what I believe are the 5 biggest myths and also provide some insights into what I believe are the 5 biggest “realities” of strategic thinking and planning.

Work The Steps Of A Strategic Plan

What ever success you are looking to achieve you need to have a strategy to get there. Once you have your strategy on how you are going to attract and get new clients you need to implement at least portions of your plan.

More On Strategic Thinking

On February 20th, I returned from St. Augustine, Florida, where I attended the 7th Annual Meeting of The First Tee (www.thefirsttee.org) and was a featured speaker on Strategic Thinking and Planning. It became clear from the reception and comments I received after my power point presentation, that I had accomplished my goal of sensitizing the attendees to the benefits of strategic thinking and planning and getting many of them to commit to starting the strategic planning process soon after they returned home.

Is It Time to Review Your Strategic Plan Given That You Have Only 9 Months Left?

An effective strategic plan demands quarterly review. The year is now 3 months old. Is your business where you wanted it to be?

Strategic Planning Helps to Avoid Dead Horses

Do you have dead horses in your business? Read how strategic planning can help you make those course corrections necessary for business success.

Strategic Planning Can Grow Your Business with a United Vision and Personal Accountability

Strategic planning begins with a vision. To achieve business results must include personal accountability. What piece of the strategic planning pie are you missing?

Opening A Dollar Store - First Steps to Take

There are so many things to do as a part of moving toward opening a dollar store. Without taking the right steps, your successful start-up will be much more challenging. If you have made the decision to open a dollar store be sure that you don't forget these steps.

Opening A Dollar Store - Assemble Your Due Diligence Team

Are you considering opening a dollar store? If you are planning to purchase an existing store, there are some suggestions to consider. Every potential business buyer is strongly encouraged to start by identifying and utilizing a team of experts.

Opening A Dollar Store - What Is Dollar Cost Averaging?

Are you considering opening a dollar store? If so, one of the areas of focus for you as you work to keep costs under control will be the cost of the goods sold. Merchandise costs are often the single largest expense for a dollar store. Knowing what dollar cost averaging is, and how to best use it can be a powerful tool for the entrepreneur whose goal is to reduce those costs.