Why Should I Buy From You?

“Why should I buy from you?” is probably one of the hardest, and most important, questions for a business owner to answer. The answer goes to the heart of your competitive strategy and is the key to outperforming your closest rivals. It’s more than just marketing. It impacts everything your company does—the markets you target, the customers you attract, the products and services you offer, how you sell and distribute and so on. It’s the glue that holds all your company’s activities together in a cohesive system.  It’s what gives you a Big Strategy.

But all too often, the answers I hear are “you should buy from us because we partner with our customers” or “our technology is better” or “it’s our people that make the difference”.

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Tony Collins

About Tony Collins

Over the last 25 years, Tony has started, turned-around or helped grow over five different small to medium sized businesses in a variety of industries.

The True Cost of Raising the Minimum Wage

Recently the idea of increasing the minimum wage has come back to the attention of politicians and social manipulators in our media.  In many respects, proponents of this have good intentions. The theory is understandable that raising the minimum wage will help low wage employees obtain a better lifestyle, take pressure off social service agencies, create more dedicated employees, and boost our economy. Having been in business for myself since 1975, I have seen first-hand that in the real world, all of those beliefs are dead wrong.

I don’t have any minimum wage employees in my companies and never have. However, there are many companies that rely on the entry level and youth employees that are most impacted by the minimum wage. A 24% increase in the minimum wage, as proposed during the State of the Union address recently, would devastate businesses like restaurants and retail stores where these wages are in use. There is no room in the profit margins in those establishments to absorb the added cost of an increase in the minimum wage.  Their only logical moves will be to either reduce the number of employees, raise prices to make up the difference, or a combination of other business changes, none of which are good for either the consumer or the economy. There are many other costs associated with increased wages, such as employer match within Social Security and Medicare, plus SUTA, FUTA, and other mandated employment costs.

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Jeff Annis

About Jeff Annis

Jeff Annis is a lifelong entrepreneur from Augusta, Ga. where he built Advanced Services, Inc. from a startup to one of the top 125 pest control companies in the USA, out of 19000 in 26 years, one customer at a time. In another role, Jeff is a partner at Work Life Advisors, LLC, a company that trains and coaches entrepreneurs how to have a great business and a great personal life at the same time.

A Tribute to a Family Business Legend, Dr. Leon Danco

Last week our country lost a true friend, leader and mentor, Dr. Leon Danco.  Considered the nation’s foremost authority on family-owned business and privately-held companies, Dr. Danco was a pioneer in this field. He founded family-business studies and dedicated over 50 years to understanding the unique dynamics, issues and opportunities of family and the family business. He was a speaker, consultant and author of many books on this subject, including Beyond Survival:  A guide for the Business Owner and His Family. But, he is most well known for his sage mentorship of families and individuals, instilling in them the importance of a transformative principle: take care of the family business, as well as “the business of the family.”  With this counsel, he helped business owners to salvage relationships, create healthy families, and prosperous organizations.

Clay Mathile, former owner of The Iams Company and founder of Aileron, benefitted greatly from Dr. Danco’s wisdom. Clay acknowledges Dr. Danco as one of his most influential mentors, whose expertise and guidance helped Clay navigate his personal journey in the deep and unchartered waters of owning his family business.

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Joni Fedders

About Joni Fedders

Joni Fedders is the president of Aileron, overseeing its strategic direction and operational activities.

The Tyranny of the Comfort Zone

Recently, I provided comments to a Forbes writer on how to deal with irrational people.  At that time I didn’t think I came across them very often but explained that when we do, here is how we help them. We have them act like a company evaluating potential markets to pursue. They describe the market and discuss key factors that will impact it over a reasonable time period. Then we put them back into the picture and compare their company against this picture of reality and they draw their own conclusions. At that point, even the most irrational minds will usually open. It is tough to argue with your own facts.

I keep thinking about those comments on the subject of irrational thought. Upon reflection it now appears to me that, much of the time, most of us act less than rationally. Before you rise up in protest, let me defend my point of view. If you’ll go online and look at your dictionary (we’ll come back to this comment later), you will see that irrational behavior is defined as a state of mind deprived of reason, mental clarity or solid judgment.

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Dave Sullivan

About Dave Sullivan

David L. Sullivan is president and managing partner of Shamrock Group, Inc., a management consulting firm located in Denver, Colorado. The Shamrock Group specializes in strategic management and board governance. In this role, Dave also provides advisory, coaching and mentoring services to boards, presidents and CEOs.

Resolve to Make a Lifestyle Change

Today, I am driving my wife’s car. It’s very similar to mine except, her Satellite radio is always set to classical music. Molly is driving my car today and as she knows, my settings are talk radio.

Arriving at my office, refreshed for a change, I was able to re-think a decision made last week. Most mornings, my 20-minute commute finds me angry about taxes and worried about new regulations.

So, a novel idea struck. Why not adopt a New Years resolution to listen to soothing music, say once a week? And, while I am at it, how about all that letterhead I ordered a few years ago?

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Tom Besanceney

About Tom Besanceney

Tom Besanceney is president of Marketplex, Inc. a public relations focused marketing, branding and social media firm he founded in 1986 after working on Wendy’s: “Where’s the Beef?” ad campaign.

Based in Cincinnati, Marketplex serves a wide variety of clients in health care, hotels, retail and non profit. Since 2005, consulting services have included the formation of Advisory Boards for privately held companies.

Active in a number of civic organizations, Besanceney’s board service includes: Downtown Cincinnati, Inc., Xavier University National Alumni Board and the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Ohio.