The broadly held definition of the difference between small business ownership and entrepreneurism boils down to a single word: “growth.” Increasing sales is not, by itself, growth.

Tags: Business Insight, Dealership Growth, Global Tire Expo, Roger McManus

The one thing about advertising is that it is very hard to “aim.” Not the outgoing part, the incoming part.

Tags: Business Insight, Mobile Marketing, Roger McManus

I’ve always admired how a cartoonist can say so much with a few images and a couple of captions. I remember years ago reading the comic strip Garfield — you know him, he’s the chubby, orange cat that is always questioning why things don’t seem to work out well in his world. In this particular comic strip, Garfield sat with this puzzled look on his face, and it read, “Just when I finally figure out where it’s at, somebody moves it.”

Tags: Advertising, Business Insight, Wayne Williams

When the telephone rings at your store, the odds are better than two to one that your customer or prospect is using a cell phone or one of the newer “smartphones.” Today, there are more than 280 million mobile phones in use by about 80% of Americans, age 18 and above.

Tags: Business Insight, Richard Morgan, Telemarketing, Telephone etiquette

Knowing what you want out of life can help you become a better person and better business leader. One way to sharpen your focus is to put pencil to paper — or fingers to keyboard — and craft a personal mission statement. It helps zero in on why you’re here (surely there’s more to life than worrying your mother).

Tags: Business Insight, Tom Gegax

One day, Eric Randa, our vice president of loss prevention, dropped off a three-page memo. I scanned it and called him back into my office. “Eric,” I said, “this is a great memo, but I need you to condense it and make it simpler.” In fact, I said, write every memo like it’s for the president of a company, someone who has to read a hundred memos a day and doesn’t have time to read two pages, let alone three.

Tags: Business Insight, Public speaking, Tom Gegax

Jim Pascale was just 27 when we hopped into my car and took off for Iowa. It was our first market outside Minnesota, and I’d just promoted Jim to Iowa regional manager. Speeding out of Minneapolis and down I-35, I asked to see his schedule. Gripping the wheel with one hand, Jim grabbed his planner from the backseat and handed it over. I was a little shocked by what I saw.

Tags: Business Insight, Scheduling, Tom Gegax

There is a strong parallel between making sure your children get a college degree and providing an on-going training program for your employees.

Tags: Business Insight, Customer relations, Paul Chizeck, Training

It’s pretty darn hard to get from here to there without a road map. Laying out your goals bridges the gap between who you are today and the person you sketched out in your mission statement. Yet when I ask people all over the country whether they write up their goals each year, barely one in 10 say they have. But that 10% gushes over how spelling out their goals transformed their lives.

Tags: Business Insight, Gegax, Tom Gegax

In the NBA, when anyone on the basketball team is playing for himself rather than the team as a whole, failure is eminent. In business, when anyone in the company has an “I” mentality, it’s only a matter of time until failure creeps into the organization.

Tags: Business Insight, Mark Eaton, Teamwork