Tag: small business owners

Last week we had to put off one of our remote workers in my technology startup, something that many small business owners have had to do of late. I dwelled on it for two months and tried to figure out how I could keep him on staff and in the end I was pushed against a wall. I had to make a decision.

When building a business or taking the one you have to the next level, it is important to consider how you want to grow your nest egg. What happens when one marketing campaign turns into a rush for your product and service and is this the way you want to grow? Or do you want to maintain a regular increase in sales month-on-month at a sustainable level so you can keep customer experience at an optimum level and ensure that your team of people are growing with you?

When it comes to brand recognition and fostering an engaging and innovative brand image, Apple Inc. is one business by which all others should be measured.


Before you go about measuring yourself, however, ask what strategies did Apple use to build their brand and stock so high and what lessons can we learn from them?

It's the last day of work for the year and I am exhausted. I have had a Christmas party or dinner every night for 2 weeks and on top of that, I have been literally working my arse off. Excuse the language, but I think we are 'friends' now so we can really say it how it really is. Feel free to throw expletives back at your own discretion or fire at me a "watch your language!" precursor.

I digress - but who wouldn't when you have lived on 4 or 5 hours sleep for a week and there is still a 'to do list' sitting beside your computer that is pages long, with big fluro marks on every single entity reminding you that these things are very urgent. 

No matter who you are, at times, as a small business owner, you will get stressed.

It's how you deal with it that counts.

Which has me thinking. I am what I affectionately call a "stress pet". Someone, who stresses a lot. If not daily, bi-daily. I find things to stress about that sometimes deserve my attention, and then others that certainly don't.

Managing stress has always been an issue and I have over time tried everything. But just like any diet, or new health regime, you need to keep with it long after the actual decision to do it in the first place and constantly remind yourself that it is something that requires ongoing work, not just a quick fix.

We are 6 weeks into a new financial year. The market took a big nose dive last week causing many sleepless nights for people around the globe and housing prices are on the decline after a heated market that seemed to go for far too long effecting the sentiment of all consumers.

The Facebook's, Google's and Twitter's of the world, are rightly so, oblivious to any changes, because people are still flocking to their profitable billion dollar platforms that see the founders and investors laughing all the way to the bank. It's as if they won the lotto and the rest of us just keep putting our tickets in each week, in hope.

I have a problem. Actually, I have many but this is just one of them that I need to address really fast.