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The best way to plan for the quarter is to get AWAY from your business.

I’ve heard this from Gazelles and others as well – you can get tied up working on the day to day inside your business, or you can work on building, growing, and improving your business – that happens from the outside.

Strategic thinking and planning should happen every three months. It’s now almost September – we’re approaching our last quarter; have you taken time out to reflect on the year to date and plan for the next three months?

Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles, is a huge advocate of yearly planning, quarterly strategic meetings and more. He preaches that every company must enter into the market place with a plan, a plan that is reviewed and updated every quarter.

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Canadian retailers a hot item

“Canada has performed better than anywhere in the world,” said Richard Baker, chief executive officer of NRDC Equity Partners, which owns the Hudson’s Bay Company. “We are very bullish on Canada,” Baker said in a telephone interview. “We are highly interested in an additional investment in Canada.”

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Housing, manufacturing data point to end of recession: economists

An astounding rebound in the resale housing market combined with good news out of the manufacturing sector Friday to suggest that Canada is slowly but surely digging itself out of recession. The Canadian Real Estate Association reported that 50,270 homes traded hands on the Multiple Listing Service in July. This is up 18.2% from a year ago and set a record for the month of July.

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Q&A on Sourcing Manufacturing in China

Another important point is it doesn’t always make sense to use a Chinese, or foreign, contract manufacturing facility.  We’ve seen a number of examples of companies bringing manufacturing back to the US.

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The way you portray leadership qualities and instil confidence directly affects your employee’s performance

During good times and especially in bad, do you portray leadership qualities in your daily interactions with your staff? As leaders, we always have to conduct ourselves in a manner that instils confidence in the eyes of our team. Employees look to management for leadership during turbulent times. And in today’s economy this is more important than ever.

Okay, so you believe that you do instil confidence in the way you conduct yourself. Well, what about those little personality quarks or habits that come out when things aren’t going so well? Do you have a “tell”? That’s the poker term that used for habits of physical ticks that gives away someone’s hand when they’re trying to bluff. You may be wondering, what are some of these tells? (more…)

Ontario poised for economic rebound

Ontario’s economy is poised to rebound next year, boosted by financial services, transportation, and stimulus from Ottawa, according to two forecasts released yesterday.

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The gift of customer feedback

Reduced consumer buying power coupled with fewer resources at most businesses prompts a poignant question: What can be done to maintain or even grow sales without spending money?

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You Need a Credit Policy

In this tough economy, many business owners are finding that customers who have always paid on time are struggling to stay current. Other customers who were already slow payers are falling farther behind or are unable to pay at all.

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Sometimes Less is More

When it comes to purchasing for any retail business, the very first thing that must be addressed is clearly defining who you are, what your company stands for and, most importantly, who you are not.

I recently did a speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio at the Ohio Florists Association’s (OFA), Annual Short Course. The first topic they asked me to present on was purchasing strategies and secrets.

This reminded me that when it comes to purchasing for any retail business (or most any business for that matter), the very first thing that must be addressed is clearly defining who you are, what your company stands for and most importantly, who you are not.

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