Articles on: Small Business Strategy

What can 5 Guys teach you about business?

I had the chance to go to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries over the long weekend (the closest one for me is over in Olathe on 119th and Blackbob. If you haven’t been to 5 Guys, it’s a burger franchise originally started in Washington D.C. about 20 years ago and it’s growing really fast.  They […]

What can Craps teach you about Business?

©2004 Martin Ouellet It’s been a while since I’ve been to Vegas, but one of the things I really enjoy there is the game of craps.  It’s a fast moving game that the players and the crowd get excited about.  You can win (and lose) a lot of money very quickly, but if you play […]

Why should you work ON your business?

   photo by thrig  Imagine you’re playing a game like chess.  Your goal is to win the game, but instead of looking ahead several moves, trying to drive your opponent’s moves, setting up situations that benefit you – you start brand new on every move and react only to the move that just happened. If […]

What Pillars are holding you back?

  picture by NCinDC  I’m a big fan of models or metaphors as a way to discuss complicated ideas.  Anytime you can give someone a visual representation for a complex idea you’re a lot more likely to get your point across. One model that I stole ran across recently is called the 8 Pillars of […]

How would you like to start doing less?

photo by padraic woods One of the common themes I’m getting from business owners is that they are doing too much.  A major reason for their stress is that they’ve got too many balls in the air and they are constantly juggling priorities, commitments to themselves and other people and things they’d like to be […]

A really important question you should be asking

  photo by Harpersbizarre  A few months ago I wrote about a fun story that Verne Milot shared with me on the importance of facing the tiger.  Verne is the owner of a coaching firm called Growth Associates in St. Catherine’s Canada (near Niagra) and a fellow coach in the PBCA. Anyway, I recently had […]