Al Writes

What are you going to do right now to make things better moving forward? One of the ways to make your future better is to organize your workspace.

Making smart long term investments involve spending money. Are you starving your future by pinching pennies today?

Business is serious business, am I right? Yes—and no. There are times when taking a light hearted approach can be helpful and a welcome release of the tension that tends to build up when the company is running full tilt. In this episode I provide some guidance for when to bring humor into the mix to make things better.

Everything’s going well. You’ve got customers. The phone is ringing. Time to start another service line, right? Not so fast. In this episode I outline the perils of acting out of boredom rather than from the foundation of a solid strategic business plan.

You’re being watched—did you know that? Your employees are studying your every move to determine what is OK behavior at your company. In this episode I explain how to make that crystal clear and why you must tow the line like everyone else if you want to make it work.

Family’s fight. It’s what they do. My brothers and I are very close and when we all were working together in the famly business, we had some doosies. In this episode, I’ll provide some guidance on how to successfully navigate through the family dramas to get everyone refocused on the business.

Conferences, training seminars, webinars, demonstrations—who goes? If you’re like we were in my company, it was us! In this episode I explain why it’s more beneficial to use those opportunities to train your techs so that they can become more capable and better at their jobs.

If the culture is crummy in your company, whose fault is that? Yours! The good news is that because you created it, you alone can fix it. In this episode I’ll tell you how.

Scared to take time out of the business to work on it? In this episode I wax on about how there is a 90 percent chance nothing bad will happen if you take two hours a week to work ON the business instead of in it, along with some tips on how to do just that.

Getting rid of a bad employee can improve your business immediately, but if not done carefully also can cause a lot of problems. In this episode I talk about the steps of corrective action you can use to document departures from expectations outlined in your operating manuals and either get them back on board or make separation easier for both parties.