Month: May 2025
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Profit from Referrals and Reviews
First, what’s viral marketing? Going “viral” isn’t just for social media platforms. It’s having a product or service with an experience such that customers feel compelled to tell others. Here are 2 components of viral marketing that are worth your time (and easy to execute): 1) Customer Reviews Studies show: Translation? First, you need an online presence;…
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Avoid Cash Crunches with a 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast
Let’s take a look at one of the most useful tools in all of small business (actually, businesses of any size should be using this). Imagine a financial roadmap for the next three months. That’s what a 13-week cash flow forecast is. It’s a simple tool to predict your business’s incoming and outgoing cash over…
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10 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Do
How are you spending your day as an owner, operator, or advisor to businesses? Here’s a quick and easy daily task checklist I use to manage my portfolio of companies: Most of these are easy habits to work into a normal routine without much effort and many can be finished in the first 30 minutes of the…
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10 Traits of a Great Business
What makes a great business? When I worked in the investment industry studying and investing in public companies, I was often searching for “great businesses” and over my career developed a short list of characteristics that (I think) make a company great. Why should this matter to you? These traits are in no particular order,…
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Understanding Labor Costs
Looking at Labor Dollars Some common things I’ve heard when it comes to managing the financial side of labor costs: Most of these are anecdotes, and that’s how I see most companies running their business from a labor cost standpoint. We’re hosting a webinar for members next week covering labor efficiency (save your spot below). So consider…
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7 Types of Pricing Power
Pricing Power What comes to mind when you hear the phrase: “raise your prices”? Pricing will always be the fastest path to profitability. Full stop. The trick is getting it right. Before we unpack what goes into it, let me share this Charlie Munger quote on the concept of “pricing power” in business. Buffett and…
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Are you a Wartime or Peacetime CEO?
Business is war (usually) It was a perfect storm. Payroll and loan payments were set to hit on the same day. And the largest vendor was demanding payment for some stale invoices. Oh, and your best customer was dragging their feet on a (very late) invoice. Business owners are battling every single day. Whether it’s:…
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What’s Your Neighbor Up To? (A Guide to Benchmarking)
Wouldn’t it be helpful to know the financial performance of other businesses with your exact same business model? It’s a surefire way to see if you’re leaving money on the table. “I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out.” — Charlie Munger What is benchmarking? After completing a financial review,…