Small Business Conversations

Christine Corelli, author of Wake Up and Smell the Competition,  brought an interesting topic to tonight's program. The discussion  centered on her comment, "shoppers are good but buyers are better". This  is a recording you will want all of your staff to hear - probably  several times.

Michael Kalscheur of Castle Wealth Advisors spoke to a packed phone line  that had more questions than we could cover in our hour. We talked  about planning for the time you want to sell your business. We also  talked about maximizing the price for the business. Surely, all small  business owners will come to that point in time where they sell the  business to an outsider, an employee, or transfer the business to  another family member. You will want to listen to this program.

Ron Friedman made his second visit to the e-ret@iler conversation to  tell us about a book is writing. The subject of the book is the selling  and using of gift cards in your business. We talked about the accounting  aspect of the transaction as well as how you can use gift cards to  promote your business. Ron said a gift card can be the best selling item  for any business. Listen to this recording to hear how you can do it.

The saying may be, 'April showers may bring you flowers'.  With this call, we think it is, 'April taxes bring you May  accountants'. Are you one of those who have gathered all of your tax  information in the first quarter of the year and given it to your  accountant? Did you also sit with your accountant during that time and  discuss your taxes?

Our guest for May's conversation, Mike McCormick,  CPA, tells us this may be the wrong arrangement. Mike says you should  visit with the accountant after the tax season to determine how you can  learn from what happened last year as well as what has happened in the  first few months of the current year.

Listening to what Mike has to say may change the way you do business with your accountant.

Joyce Weiss, an expert on conflict in the workplace is  the guest for the June conversation. We are discussing conflicts between  employees and customers; employees with each other; partners; siblings;  and parent/child; all within the workplace.

If you have experienced any of these, you will want to listen to the wise advice that Joyce shares with listeners.

July is Independent Retailer Month. Our guest for the  e-ret@iler conversation was Kerry Bannigan, co-founder of the event as  well as the individual who is the driving force of the event.

The big question of the night; 'What are the  advantages an independent retailer has over a box store, chain store or  mass merchant?'

Kathy Walsh of Coast to Coast Insurance in Tampa, Florida visited as an  expert on small business insurance needs. We discussed how to determine  what types of insurance you and your business needs as well as how to  determine how much insurance you should purchase.

Did you know that how a person sees your blog, email or  website makes a big difference as to whether or not your message is even  read? With an increasing number of people using their smart phone to  'showroom', "webroom", read emails, view websites, and maybe even talk,  any message you have needs to be mobile friendly.

Karl Stearns returns to the conversations program to discuss how to make your blog, emails, newsletters and website mobile friendly.

Randy Dean, the e-mail sanity expert, joined Tom Shay to discuss how you  can get more control of your time by managing all of those things that  intrude into your day - phone calls, emails, tasks, calendars, and  people. There was a lot to be learned and implemented from the ideas  Randy shared with us.

Every small business owner comes to that point in time when they are  thinking about getting out of the business. You may think of selling the  business, closing the business, or transferring the business to a family  member. There are a lot of considerations in your transitioning out of  the business; from both a personal and financial standpoint. That's why  we are visiting with Mike McCormick to discuss the many components you  should consider with selling or closing your business.