by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: May 18,2012
When our son, Patrick, was in the Air Force, he worked on F-15 fighter jet avionics systems. Everyone who touched one of those airplanes was required to fill out a checklist and sign it. If something went wrong, the powers-that-be had a written record of who did what and when. After a crash occurred (thankfully, [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: April 20,2012
Carol owned a thriving company. Her best friend was a bookkeeper and needed a job, so Carol hired her. The arrangement seemingly worked well for 15 years. The two friends remained as close as ever, with their families sharing children’s events and major holidays. Carol trusted her friend completely and gave her unrestricted access to [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: March 23,2012
How’s this for a reality check — we’ve already gone through nearly an entire quarter of 2012. You probably started January with some business goals in mind for the year. Have you made any progress in these first three months? If not, you need to focus on the big rocks. If you’ve never seen this [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: March 16,2012
The most rewarding part of owning a consulting firm has been helping business owners improve their companies and see tangible results. On the other hand, the hardest part has been meeting someone who had allowed problems to progress to the point that their business was in desperate trouble. In many cases, it was questionable whether [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: March 9,2012
You hear a lot about work/life/balance these days. In fact, a Google search on that combination of words yields more than 36,000,000 results. People are busy and none more so than business owners. Busy entrepreneurs have to balance running their companies with having quality family and personal time, taking care of their health, and simply [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: March 2,2012
There’s an old expression in business that “cash is king” and it’s so true. Cash is the lifeblood of any business because you can’t operate without it. In recent years, cash flow has consistently been listed as one of the top reasons why businesses fail, although that may be improving according to The Gallup Economy [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: February 24,2012
We had an interesting experience this past summer. Wanting to see if we could lower our home phone and Internet bills, we called around to get quotes. One of the giant companies offered a great deal if we “bundled” our phone and Internet service, so we decided to give them a try. The deal didn’t [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: February 17,2012
If you own a business you need sales, regardless of your industry or business model. Whether from new or repeat customers, sales bring in the cash that lets you stay in business. When sales aren’t doing so well, it’s easy to point at certain factors and say they’re to blame. Things like poor closing techniques [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: February 10,2012
We’ve really enjoyed both of the recent Sherlock Holmes movies and Laddie has read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on his Kindle. The fictitious Holmes is a genius at solving mysteries, seemingly with ease. A famous quote attributed to him is “Elementary, my dear Watson,” but it turns out his character apparently never said that. [...] [...]
by Laddie & Judy Blaskowski Published: February 3,2012
If you’ve been a business owner for any length of time and have employees, you’ve most likely had this scenario occur: You asked someone to do something, thought you had made your instructions clear, and expected it to be done. But it wasn’t done correctly or at all. You felt frustrated, annoyed and maybe downright [...] [...]
Loading ...This poll is not a scientific sampling, but offers a quick view of what readers are thinking.
On The Horizon: Read calendar items from the print edition of the Business Journal here.
To submit your event to our community calendar, set up the event as an appointment in your email calendar and invite events.csbj@gmail.com as an attendee.
