Monthly Archives:: April 2022

By the age of twelve, I felt I had mastered most of life’s important lessons and I mostly stopped listening to adults giving out warnings. Luckily, I was smart enough to make a few exceptions. I remember the day on our grandparent’s Illinois farm when my brother and I told Grandpa we were headed back… Read more »

Last week, I debated whether a business owner should ever scold an obnoxious customer. I wrote that, even though I know a few small business owners who allow themselves the luxury, to me there is something unholy about a business owner blasting a customer. But, we’re all human and anyone can have a bad day…. Read more »

“I don’t like you. I don’t want your money. I hope you never call me again.” I imagine that most small business owners have wanted to speak those words—or a more vulgar variation thereof—to one of their customers. The question I’d like to debate today is: Should a small business owner tell off a customer?… Read more »

For many years, I hated the schedule book in our office. For me, it represented being chained to an “1800s way of running a business,” as I used to complain to my secretaries. I encouraged them to toss that tattered book and switch to an internet calendar to log our technicians’ daily schedules. But my… Read more »

Well, Home Defenders customers, after a slick salesman made his pitch to me and my secretaries yesterday, you folks were almost reduced to nothing more than pie chart statistics. But, we quickly realized that human customers are better than statistical ones, so we put an end to the whole affair. It all began with a… Read more »