Other People’s Recycled News | August 17-23

Breaking retail’s addiction to discounting

Retailers need to show comp store sales growth — and profit, margin and salesperson and staff sanity be damned. The longer-term implications? The retail universe will continue to devolve to “okay, available and cheap.”
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The small saviours of Canada’s economy

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” says Mark Hanna, president of Leeza Distribution Inc. of Montreal. “If you’re going sideways, you’re dead,” agrees Jeff Lem, president of qdata inc. in Markham, Ont. “If you think you are going to get killed, you get killed,” adds Oren Nutik, president of MDS Power Inc. in Montreal.

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How to ensure a smooth transition

According to Industry Canada, most small businesses do not survive the succession from one generation to the next. The most commonly cited reason is simply that family-owned businesses tend to avoid succession planning and fail to prepare the next generation to take on the leadership role.

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Cyber-savvy retailers shine

Online retailers’ digital proximity to clients puts them on the economic front lines, but it also puts them on a knife’s edge when it comes to consumer confidence. When confidence is high, so are sales, but when buyers are feeling the economic blues, online retail traffic ebbs away. Small wonder business online are forced to be rapid responders.

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So, you have one hour to plan for a disaster …

Disaster prep is one of those tasks that many small business owners keep planning to get to, but keep putting off. And it certainly may not seem like a priority at a company that’s contending with slumping sales and cash flow during a recession.

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Making Your Employees Into Your Advocates

Many small businesses don’t need a big marketing budget in the traditional sense.  Quite often, they have everything they need already in the form of their most valuable resource – their employees.  Treat them well and give them incentive and they’ll come through for you time and time again.

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Communications Lessons from “Brand Obama”

Companies often get in their own way when it comes to practicing transparency because they think it will mean they have to dispense trade secrets or data that undermine their ability to compete.

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Maker or Manager: Do You Hate Meetings?

Focus: in personal productivity, focus is power. Or maybe I should call it concentration. Have you ever borne down on a task, locked out all distractions, and gotten more done in an hour or two than you thought you could get done in a day?

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