All Blog Entries

  1. Keeping Business Interesting

    I’ve talked in previous articles about the workload and risk considerations with owning our own business. However, aside from running the company, we enjoy the tree servicing business and it has become a source of some of our most memorable and rewarding experiences. From emergency tree work to learning how to climb trees, there is humor in it all …



    About six years ago, Steve was called out on an emergency tree job at 7 o’clock at night. It was dark out and there was ...
    Categories
    small business
  2. A Plumber’s Pipes Never Work

    In 2010 close to five feet of snow accumulated from December to March. For Alexandria VA, while snow is expected and even considered profitable by us snow plowing nuts, the onslaught of large quantities of snow and the resulting tree work was overwhelming, at times perplexing, and ironic in its own special way.

    Due to the heavy precipitation accumulation, trees were dropping like flies everywhere. Just as we finished plowing from the first snow, our crews moseyed directly into ...
    Categories
    small business
  3. Family Business: The Pros and Cons of Working with Relatives

    I’ve personally experienced the worst examples of the “family business”. My memories include relatives clocking in to get paid and leaving for the entire day, relatives opening the restaurant an hour late while customers are waiting outside and no prep work is done, and relatives stealing money and food in quantities that make you wonder if they are shipping it overseas to third world countries. But those examples are bland compared to the sheer entertainment of husbands and wives having pay-per-view-worthy ...
    Categories
    Small Business
  4. Restaurants: How to Upsell

    Upselling and cross-selling is how you divert customer attention to the items you’re trying to push. The reasons for doing this are to get the customer to buy more food and possibly more expensive items which will increase the profits for both the restaurant and the server. The other reason is to encourage the customer to buy items that you are trying to get rid of such as fish when it’s getting close to its expiration date. When upselling, you should always:

    Know which items to ...
    Categories
    Small Business
  5. Small Business: How Not to Do It

    There are countless “How To” and “Top Ten” (or some other number) articles on the subject of starting up, sustaining, and growing a small business. We thought it might be fun to take a different tack and instead deliver some great ideas on how to at best stall your small business, at worst end up having to close your doors.

    Don’t waste time figuring out the vision or mission of your business. That way you won’t have even the most basic foundation necessary for making good business ...
    Categories
    small business