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Business Is Personal

Business Is Personal

Hot, Crispy Bacon

Last week, I was on Amazon to pick up a copy of “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives“. I’m always looking for another edge and this one sounded worthwhile for a number of reasons. Anyhow, like a successful salesperson would, Amazon’s shopping cart tried to upsell me. It said […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Pigeon Apartheid

Those of you who know my backstory know that I was trained as a programmer and that I worked in the software industry for 17 years before coming to my senses. IE: before owning my own software company. A real one, not those other ones. So much for that coming to my senses thing. This […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Ever Messed Up a Bid?

Ever messed up a bid? One of the hardest things to do accurately is bid a sizable time and materials-based project. If you’re in the software business, you know all the reasons. Oddly enough, the reasons aren’t much different from industry to industry. Stuff changes. Requirements aren’t necessarily what they really are. Features get added, […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Avoiding the Seat of Your Pants

Everyone just loves performance evaluations – whether they have to give or receive them. Employees tend to find them annoying because they’re often a useless exercise of “well, you’re doing ok, see you in 6 months or a year or whatever”. Sometimes you’ll hear that you need to improve something, but more often than not […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Two Sentences

Recently an acquaintance who advises “creative professionals” (graphic artists, web designers, print designers and similar folks) asked me to contribute some wisdom to a collection of business advice he was putting together for his clients. The rules were firm: Offer two sentences of advice that I would give to struggling business owners. Two sentences. No […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

That’s a FACTA, Jack

Despite the fact that Blondie (our golden retriever) gets credit card applications in the mail, identity theft is not a concern for her. First off, you’d probably be suspicious if she came in and plopped her Mastercard down on the counter and ordered the prime rib, despite those sad Golden Retriever eyes that the ladies […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Selling Garbage

A few weeks ago, my last comment was something along the lines of “You’re only as good as your last transaction.” Earlier today in a related conversation, I made a comment to someone that “every job is a sales job”, which provoked a response from one acquaintance – “even the garbage man?” Yes, indeed. Let’s […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Arrogance vs. Confidence

Last week, Myers Reece talked about his concern regarding the potential downfall of local sports coverage, speaking specifically of the success of ESPNChicago.com vs. the Chicago Tribune and big picture-wise about ESPN’s announcement about an upcoming expansion of local sports coverage in Dallas, LA and New York. Regardless of what we think, if ESPNChicago.com was […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Les is More

Last week, we talked about little things and how they can transform an experience. Recently, I had another little adventure that shows how impactful those little things can be. As usual, it goes back to vehicles that revel in their ability to annoy me. First, there’s junior’s car which needed tires. It’s not really his […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Priceless Little Things That Matter

Restaurants put a buffet-sized effort and several ladles of money toward creating an experience that motivates you to tell your friends all about it. Note: If you don’t own a restaurant, don’t think this is off-topic for you. It isn’t. If you own a restaurant, what you really want to hear in line at Albertson’s, […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

What to do With That Song in Your Head

A few weeks ago, I talked about some examples of how to leverage all that stuff you’ve got stored away in your head – and how to monetize that knowledge by repackaging it into something someone would actually pay for. At the time, we talked about some opportunities that a welder might have. Shortly after […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Eating the Scenery

Wow, has it been six months already? Seems like just yesterday (or maybe the day before yesterday) I was digging three feet of snow out of the driveway. It’s been an (ahem) interesting 2009 so far, so let’s look at how you’re doing with half of the year behind you. Unless your business model is […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

What if Henry Went After Your Market?

Not long ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about a photographer he knew that was in the middle of shooting a Sikh wedding. I’ve never been to a Sikh wedding, but it sounded like it lasts several days and ends up resulting in 6000-10000 photos. Quite a celebration, apparently. I suggested that […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Out of Work? Check the Mirror

A long time ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop talking to a guy from Jackson Hole about our family’s dream to move to the mountains. At the time, I had a great paying job and was negotiating to take it to the mountains with me (that later fell through). He gave me some […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Listen to Crusty Old Dudes

By now the series is probably over, but as of a couple days prior to my writing this, the Lakers appear a little vulnerable against the Magic. In the Lakers’ game three loss, the Magic seemed to focus a little more and work a little harder on fundamentals than the Lakers. As a result, their […]

By Mark Riffey