Continuous improvement is a culture and a mindset. In the organizations that I’ve worked for that embraced this mindset, we had quarterly meetings designed to discuss how we can become better at a specific goal that we set for the session.  These meetings are the polar opposite of what takes place in a quarterly sales meeting and are not a ...

My 4 key selling techniques from my time in specialty electronics retail that I still use today to close more sales “I’d like to make that appointment.  They are obviously just a bunch of kids playing with wires so I decided it’s better to pay more and get it done correctly.” Classic Stereo & Video Customer in the late 90’s ...

Have you ever felt “stuck” in your business?  All of us get stuck from time to time but rarely do we take action to prevent it from happening in the future.  We either just deal with the issue or tell ourselves that we will fix it next time.  Right now we don’t have time to deal with it.   Sound familiar? ...

Skilled trade businesses start their businesses servicing a defined niche set of customers, which through word of mouth advertising, the business scales.  Over time, the business continues to scale and you hire more employees to take on the additional workload. At some point, if you want to scale your business even further, you will need to create a business development ...

Architects and Designers use documentation to show the client their vision for the project and sets the expectation for the client.  It’s also a key piece of information that aligns all of the trades involved ensuring everyone knows what the expectations are and what the end result should look like.   Without it, the project will fail. Most integrators only use ...

It’s easy to spot waste at the park or at the beach but how do you identify it in your business?  I’m not talking about the overflowing garbage bin in the office, I’m talking about the waste that is slowing you down, creating bottlenecks and employee frustration. In Lean Six Sigma, we use various tools to identify waste in order ...

Have you ever built a strategic plan for your company?  It’s a daunting process that can take hours and leave you even more overwhelmed than before you started.  The SWOT Analysis tool is a simple and easy to use tool that can help you build a strategic plan in a quicker and more organized fashion. What is a SWOT analysis? ...

Implementing software into your business can be a daunting task. Sometimes we do it because we have to.  For example, all businesses need to run some sort of accounting software like Quickbooks in order to pay for items, process invoices, etc.  If you have a more mature business and are looking into making certain areas run more efficiently in order ...

In a previous blog, I talked about the principles of Lean Six Sigma and how at its core, the goal is to remove waste from a process.  You can’t remove waste if you don’t know your process and while writing down your process is a great first step, visual documentation allows you to see how a process should work…and it ...

Congratulations!  You started a business, it’s growing and you’re busy.  Now what?  Do you still own a business or do you own a job?  Most owners in the skilled trade industry start out as technicians but quickly have to learn how to run and manage a business.  There are a lot of different skills used to run a business like ...