Long about my second or third year of college, I'd taken to wearing an old Army jacket of my father's. It was a ratty old green thing, but I was into it, and it kept me warm for a winter…
Greg LasloApril 26, 2009
Attracting returning customers is more efficient than marketing for first-time customers, and they're actually better for your small business than, say, price-sensitive discount shoppers who don't know you from Jacques Cousteau. And just as importantly, getting your old customers to…
Greg LasloMarch 18, 2009
Back in my former life, when I drove a fire truck in addition to a dive store van, my crew fought a ripping fire at an artsy home-décor store. We were cleaning up, and helping haul out the owner's undamaged…
Greg LasloFebruary 11, 2009
...I figured I'd talk about getting a clue. Here's the deal: How many of us are prepared reflexively to put our best foot forward with new prospects? I clearly wasn't, and the bus would have left the station before I…
Greg LasloFebruary 5, 2009
By the end of the second summer spent working toward my dive instructor certification, I was spent. I could barely even look at my dive gear, and the smell of wet neoprene gave me a headache. I worked hard to…
Greg LasloFebruary 4, 2009
Let's slow down a bit. Even good customers have issues and complaints that they need help to correct. And they're good customers, so you obviously want to keep them around. Conveniently enough, the skills you use to diffuse an upset…
Greg LasloFebruary 3, 2009
"Even if people are extroverted doesn't mean they're very good," says Ken Marsh, author of "Fearless Networking." "Extroverts tend to talk more about themselves than they do other people, so they really have to learn how to be more introverted,…
Greg LasloJanuary 31, 2009
... "Because it was part of my family, it was an easier decision," Tami says. "If it wasn't a family thing, we would have never done it." All in all, it looked like an opportunity they shouldn't turn down. "It…
Greg LasloJanuary 30, 2009
To be sure, Xers are a travel-oriented generation; so much so that they're off taking "mileage runs" -- that is, taking trips for the sole purpose of earning frequent-flier miles, provided they can nab a fare that's cheap enough to…
Greg LasloJanuary 24, 2009
The first shop I taught for had a decrepit, white Chevy van. Actually it used to be white; it had about as much white paint left on it as I have on me right now. It was a sad sight,…
Greg LasloJanuary 23, 2009
