Small Business Wins That Don't Show Up on Your P&L
If you ask most small business owners how things are going, they will tell you about revenue. Maybe expenses. Probably whether they hit their numbers last quarter. The profit and loss statement has become the default answer to a much bigger question. I understand why. But if the P&L is the only measure you are using, you are missing most of the picture. The Client Who Came Back There is a particular kind of win that does not show up anywhere in your financials. It happens whe
Three Things Every NC Business Owner Should Do Before Labor Day
The fall busy season has a way of arriving before you are ready for it. One week you are in the relative quiet of August, and the next you are fielding calls, closing deals, and wondering where the last three months went. Labor Day is the unofficial starting gun. Here are three things worth doing before it goes off. Pull Out the Business Records Checklist and Actually Use It Earlier this year I published a fresh-start checklist for organizing your business records. If you rea
Email Marketing and the Law: What Small Business Owners Need to Know About CAN-SPAM
If you send marketing emails to your customers, you are subject to a federal law called the CAN-SPAM Act. Most small business owners have never read it and many have never even heard of it. That is a problem, because the penalties for violations are steep and the rules are not always what people assume. This law is not complicated law once you understand what it actually requires. Many business owners, however, get tripped up on the same few points again and again, so let's
