October 2011 Archives

Study your competition if you want to win the game

As published in the Colorado Springs Business Journal on October 21, 2011. By Laddie & Judy Blaskowski.

If you were the coach of a football team, one of the things you would spend a lot of time doing is studying your opponents. You would watch tapes of their games over and over again to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses. Then you’d use this information to develop strategies that would make you better than your opponents so you could win the next time you met on the field.

A business is much like a football team and if you own a business one of your goals is to try to beat your competitors every time you face them. This reality can seem harsh because you may actually like your competitors on a personal level. But when there’s a limited “pie” of people or companies to sell to or service, you want a hefty piece of that pie and want to beat the competition.

Posted by Laddie Blaskowski on Oct 28, 2011

How do you know when you should fire a customer?

As published in the Colorado Springs Business Journal on October 14, 2011. By Laddie & Judy Blaskowski.

Many of us started out in business hearing “the customer is always right” and some people still adhere to that philosophy.

But sometimes we want to shout out a resounding “No!” The customer is not always right and sometimes you need to end the relationship.

Posted by Laddie Blaskowski on Oct 20, 2011

Why employees who have potential for success often fail

As published in the Colorado Springs Business Journal on October 7, 2011. By Laddie & Judy Blaskowski.

We once had an employee who was a nice guy but was never as productive as others in his department. Supervisors discussed this with him on several occasions but his output didn’t improve. Then, in a staff meeting one day, he spotted something on the wall and remarked, “Sometimes I’m sitting at my computer and stare at a speck on the wall, and the next thing I know, 45 minutes have gone by! This happens all the time!”

He didn’t last long.

Posted by Laddie Blaskowski on Oct 18, 2011

Make your business plan simple, yet powerful

As published in the Colorado Springs Business Journal on September 30, 2011. By Laddie & Judy Blaskowski.

Laddie once met with a new client at his location and asked to see his existing business plan. The man reached for a binder covered in dust that sat on top of a bookcase. It held a document 50-or-so pages long that obviously hadn’t been touched for several years.

Posted by Laddie Blaskowski on Oct 07, 2011