When I was young, if I wanted to talk to my best friend Randy without going over to his house or meeting him somewhere, I had only one choice - call him on the telephone. Of course, I could only call him if he had previously given me his phone number or if I knew the last name used for setting up...

A few years back, I wrote an article on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and I even interviewed an expert on the subject. ITIL has always been thought of as the best practice library for big corporations, but it is folks like myself who are trying to pull that curtain down all...

As I'm writing my book Getting To The Next Level and rounding out the chapter on this thing I call the organization Compass, I put together an anecdote to help drive home the importance of getting it right. Besides being a sneak peek at more of the book before it releases, it's a great compass...

I’ve been meaning to blog about this thing I call the Pyramid of Purpose and Value for the longest time. Well, I ended up writing about it extensively in my book Getting To The Next Level, so I’m taking advantage of that and posting the introduction to the Pyramid directly from...

By my definition, it is the most valuable intangible asset of any organization. The Human Element is the actuator, custodian, and perpetuator of the organization’s culture. It is the single most powerful determinant of success for a healthy and viable business. Only with a healthy company...

Have you ever wanted to put on a small event to showcase or show off your product or services but just don't have the budget? Then you should know about what is called the Marketing Development Fund or MDF for short. It is the term used for funds available from vendors and partners of products...

Are you running a help desk, service desk or a call center? And do you know the difference? I find it odd that so many small companies try to run some version of a help desk as if they had infinite technical resources like a call center. They say, “We want a real person to answer the phone...

I usually blog about things that are directly related to running your business, but I do have things related to exercise, relaxation, motivation, and just good old inspiration I'd like to share from time to time. Well, it's that time. :)

I make it a point to eat right and exercise regularly to...

If you're a small business, including sole proprietors, there is a bit of global information that you may not realize is actually very important to your business - it's the US Stock Market. Now, if you're in China, Japan, India or the UK and you only do business inside your own country, you...

You have to learn how to filter your world to stop the interrupts and in today’s business world that means everything from your phone, the people around you when you’re in an office, to the content that's stuffed into your face as you do your job. And now in the 21st century,...

Having worked with so many service companies over the years I've seen and felt the pains of the roller coaster that is the tech workforce. The smaller your company is the more you feel it when someone even gets sick let alone has to part ways with the company. I say you should always know who the...

One of my measures of the maturity of a service team is their ability to have a weekly stand-up meeting every Monday morning. Rain or shine, good or bad, fire and flames or all quit. By the way, I actually prefer the term Scrum as it is an Agile term and it really is more appropriate for how I...