Drew Schiller

From the category archives:

Business

Laziness Leads To Losses

June 1, 2009

I had a nice brunch over the weekend at a little restaurant in a bedroom community outside of Iowa City. After our meal ended, the four of us sat at our table chatting. At 1:30 p.m., we were one of two tables in the restaurant, and the staff was starting to relax from their day’s [...]

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You Don’t Practice Enough

May 26, 2009

Sports teams spend hours each week practicing unique end-of-game situations and crazy situational plays that may never get utilized. Why? Because if a game comes down to the last play, there isn’t time to practice, there is only time to execute. The teams that practice these rare situations often have amazing results and win close [...]

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Add Value To Your Bottom Line With Your Brand

May 11, 2009

Businesses, especially small ones, are traditionally valued by what can be tallied by accountants and auditors. Sales, inventory, payroll, accounts receivable, debts, etc. This is a fine way to value a business to settle on a purchase price, but this doesn’t account for what I see as the most important factor in valuing a small [...]

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Always Be Serving

May 8, 2009

“It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.” – Napoleon Hill We have all walked into a business (or contacted a customer service department, etc.) and [...]

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Stop Ignoring Wanda

May 7, 2009

Your website is your most valuable employee. Let’s call her Wanda; Wanda the Website. Wanda is the 24×7 liaison to your customers; working in 194 countries on evenings, weekends, holidays, while you’re on vacation, when you’re in meetings—she is always available. Here’s the thing about Wanda: she can be the ideal employee. When you tell [...]

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The Secret To Recession-Proofing Your Business

April 30, 2009

The New York Times ran a story recently about Selfridges, a London-based department store celebrating its 100th year of business. Talk about recession-proof — this store has been through two world wars and the Great Depression, let alone several recessions. What’s the secret to their success? Paul Kelly, the chief executive of Selfridges, says that [...]

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Your World, Only Smaller

April 29, 2009

How big does your business need to be to be effective? John’s Grocery, a tiny 61-year-old grocery store located in downtown Iowa City and near the University of Iowa campus, used to be a corner store that offered staples like dry goods, breads, etc. to feed families. Growing with their audience (while staying the same [...]

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A Tale of Two Parking Tickets

April 22, 2009

Part 1: The Good While visiting my jeweler last week (sorry wife, no new bling, it was simply a business discussion) I was surprised to learn that he gladly pays for any parking tickets his customers get while shopping in his store (whether they make a purchase or not). Not only is he happy to [...]

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How to beat the Internet

April 16, 2009

The low overhead, drop shipping, and economy of scale of Internet businesses make it impossible for local businesses to compete on price. So don’t even try. Local businesses need to compete on value. Consumers want the lowest price available, but they are almost always willing to pay for services “included” in that price. If you [...]

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The extra ingredient

April 7, 2009

Why is it that food tastes better at some restaurants, even when their menu items are similar to lesser establishments? Great chefs will often tell you they use an extra ingredient: love. Love (you can also call it passion, enthusiasm, or obsession) is the extra ingredient that can help any company’s products or services stand [...]

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