Business Strategy Archives – Page 32 of 38

13 Mar 2009

The Biggest Sale Ever

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:32:47-06:00March 13th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

What if you had something really big to sell? What if you only have one of them and could never sell it again? What if you had worked on making this thing for a good portion of your life? You only have one chance to maximize the selling price.

How would you sell it?

Would you create a detailed brochure and mail it to 10-20 prospective clients?

Would you put an advertisement in a classified listing (online or traditional) and sell it like a house?

Probably not.

The Biggest Sale Ever Is…

Your business. Yet most privately held businesses do not treat the sale of the […]

11 Mar 2009

Coke – Mercury Edition

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:05-06:00March 11th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

First there was Coke, then New Coke and then Coke Classic. Well according to the news program I was watching this morning, Coke now contains mercury (in many instances).

Apparently, the sweetener of choice for Coke is corn syrup (or fructose-glucose in Canadian labels). They switched a number of years back from table sugar to reduce costs. In the process of extracting the sugars from corn they use a chemical with Mercury in it. Sometimes, they don't get all the mercury out… mercury in your body is bad. And by the way, this is a problem for all foods with corn […]

10 Mar 2009

Vision and Leadership Required

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:10-06:00March 10th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

Is it my imagination or did Alberta squander another boom?

During the Klein years, the focus was on slaying provincial debt and creating the Alberta Advantage, which near as I can tell was really about creating an environment for business investment (a good thing normally) in the province (low taxes, etc.), and not necessarily for having better quality of life, hospitals or educational systems. This led to a runaway provincial economy where costs were skyrocketing (too much of a good thing).

If you weren't in the Oil business, it was actually getting hard to compete outside of Alberta because of excessive rent […]

6 Mar 2009

Bench or Busy?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:13-06:00March 6th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

The other day I read something about how having a lot of technical staff or developers on the bench was a strength for a vendor (this predates the current economy).

I suppose they are thinking, "Hey we can respond to your needs more quickly".

I guess you can put a positive marketing spin on anything.

Having been on both sides of the equation (vendor and customer), I don't see it as a positive thing at all.

Why are all those people on the bench?

Personally, I want the vendor and people that everyone else wants. If they are busy it should mean that […]

26 Feb 2009

Time to Sprint Again

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:31:00-06:00February 26th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Sunwapta Solutions has been in business almost 9 years. Just like any budding or experienced entrepreneur, you do some things right and make some mistakes along the way.

Over the past couple of years we have been really revisiting what makes a business successful. You can read some of my archive collection for what I have learned and shared to date.

More recently we’ve launched a number of initiatives and are in the process of forming or solidifying what I hope are lasting and successful partnerships. The ink isn’t dry yet on the arrangements but I am very excited by the potential. I […]

19 Feb 2009

Happy 20th!

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:33:56-06:00February 19th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Our sister company in Toronto entered its 20th year in business this year.

They share a lot of similarities with us (Sunwapta Solutions) both in size, market segment and their growth plans. We have done a lot of work in the pension (actuarial) space and they are focused on the insurance (actuarial) space. We also share the same technology stack (Microsoft and .NET) for our development efforts.

Even more importantly, we share many of the same business goals and values. They respect their customers and value long-term relationships.

Every person and company needs "friends and family" to support each other in […]

17 Feb 2009

Going Against the Herd

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:34:00-06:00February 17th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I used to ride horses quite a bit. Now in the food chain, horses are naturally big prey. They survive by running from big predators or if cornered by kicking them. They are highly in tune with the herd.

If one horse panics, generally the whole group panics. If one horse looks like it's going somewhere important (better food) they all follow the leader.

Fear and greed motivate horses.

The job of the media is not to give us the news. It's to sell news. We all know this.

The financial industry is there to make money from us, not make us rich. […]

11 Feb 2009

Outliers

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:32:24-06:00February 11th, 2009|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I am always fascinated by what makes some people succeed and why some very gifted people don’t really accomplish anything of note.

So the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell was a pretty good read, not because of the underlying ideas but because of his writing style and the examples he used.

Some of the premises of the book include:

Being an intellectual genius does not guarantee success.
Once you are smart enough, other skills come into play, like how to deal with people in the real world.
There are few “instant” success stories, mostly it’s hard work and persistence.
Your parents […]

10 Feb 2009

Good Reading – Sprint

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:34:14-06:00February 10th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Sprint, by Seth Godin was one that hit home for me. Go at it full out, get it done and then regroup. In today's economy, speed is a critical factor and sprinting may be the way to get results without getting caught up in the day to day distractions or fear.

Decide on something that needs doing and get it done fast. Move on.

10 Feb 2009

Gangsters are Subject to Today’s Economy Too

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:34:18-06:00February 10th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog|

I read an article yesterday in the Calgary Herald about how gangsters are moving back to Ottawa.

To my surprise, it was not a political column… gangsters and drug dealers who had previously come to Calgary to participate in the booming economy were now returning to their hometown of Ottawa.

The speculation was that there was no longer enough profit and too much competition (i.e. violent competition) to stick around.

Hopefully my readers are all more traditional entrepreneurs and business people and I hope you are doing well.

How is the economy affecting your business outlook?