People need compelling reasons to change what they're doing, even if they're not doing anything.

Your clients' confidence in you is critical to earning return business.

Getting you to return comes from you getting the little things right, even if you're the only game in town.

How hard would you work for someone you can't trust?

What's riskier, standing out or staying in lock step with everyone else in your market?

Training is a critical component to building a team that brings clients back repeatedly

The incremental cost of service is usually tiny when compared to the cost of losing the client.

Someone out there is fighting the same fires as you, and despite that, still taking steps to restructure your market.

What inconsistencies can you address to increase repeat and word of mouth business?

Are you doing $10 an hour work or $100 an hour work?

There's rarely a bad time to help your staff produce their best work

I didn't do a Friday the 13th promo last week. Did you?

How good is your business at pricing custom work?

Does your guarantee provide value and eliminate risk for the prospect, or does it simply give their money back?

While giving their money back is often seen as an ideal guarantee, the fact is that while it’s the easiest effective guarantee you can make, it’s also the least common denominator.

Does your business reputation depend on least common denominator service? I suspect it doesn’t.

During some extended time away from my office, my thoughts tend to wander to bigger picture items that involve business while reaching beyond it.

This time around was no different and was provoked by transportation drama introduced into the family’s recent trip to Oregon.

As I waited for family members to arrive at Portland’s Union Station via the four hour late Empire Builder (which would be six hours late making the scheduled 15 hour return journey), I found myself thinking about politics and infrastructure decisions made decades ago.

Infrastructure helps make civilizations possible, when running late.