Reflecting back over the last year, we’ve seen a number of local businesses close their doors and countless more struggle. It hasn’t been an easy year for us either.
Through tough times come some of the most valuable business lessons. The biggest one is to avoid facing tough times whenever you can. In my opinion, it is far better to be struggling with growth challenges.
Part of being in business for 17 years is making […]
Your prospects naturally compare your business to what they perceive as your competition. If you want to get leads and acquire customers efficiently, you have to choose your market and ideal clients carefully.
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It turns out how we feel about our achievements is relative to how we measure ourselves. How we perform in the future, is impacted by how we relate to the results of the measurement.
If you graduate at the top […]
The key to being the ultimate survivor in business in an extremely competitive landscape is to have a strategic plan. These five components will help you thrive.
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Before I stopped watching television, I used to watch Survivor. One of my favourite scenes was an episode where Rupert stole shoes and other items from the other tribe, and then they used the pirated loot to trade for more useful – and untraceable – […]
Most starting and early growth entrepreneurs are focused on costs. Shifting your mindset about marketing budget can change your results dramatically. These 3 questions help you do that.
If you own a business and someone says you should use some powerful integrated marketing software that costs $800 per month – what is your first thought?
If an online marketing firm comes to you with a proposal to increase traffic and lead generation from your website and it will cost $4,000 a month […]
One of the keys to strategic marketing is to make the best use of your limited resources for the greatest results. One of the most powerful drivers of marketing results is to define your ideal clients precisely.
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The best way to show how this works is to take you along on my latest journey to do just that for the online marketing services portion of our business.
A good strategy is just as much about what you will not […]
The oil and gas industry is notorious for riding the boom and bust cycles inefficiently. When oil is over $80 a barrel, the profits are large enough companies choose to ignore innovation and spend on growth instead. The problems compound the faster you grow until you can’t survive below $70 per barrel.
When prices are low, there is a slash and burn reaction because the company was never set up to be efficient. Now, the money and resources are not there to support creating efficiencies. […]
In rehab, you engage with experts and specialists to get through the first few stages of recovery. You can also speed it along by outsourcing to clinics outside of the public health care system.
At some point, you have to do some of the work on your own. If the exercises are too complicated or time-consuming, most people won’t do them.
So here are some simple but powerful exercises you can do to rehab your business. You will get stronger faster, by pushing the exercises […]
Running out of cash is the biggest risk a growing business faces. There are three instances when the risk is much higher.
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We’ve been in business for over 16 years. I’ve been studying what makes businesses successful (or not) for much of that time. These are the lessons I’ve picked up.
You have a much better chance of survival if you can anticipate problems with your business strategy, planning, and operations. Unfortunately, many business owners rely on very simple projections and assumptions when planning. […]
This month’s theme (Oilfield Pulse) is about conspiracy theories. This theme immediately got me reminiscing about the X-Files television series. It is possible, that somewhere behind all the woes we are facing as a province and industry, there is cigarette smoking man who is somehow in on it.
Or, maybe the truth is more mundane.
It could be that we still don’t have those pipelines because people don’t want them in their backyard for an abstract benefit […]
Like many people, I’ve been following the U.S. election. It has become nasty and full of hate. The Internet, the media, and social media are amplifying the effect. A year ago, we watched the Conservative Party try a few...