Monthly Archives: May 2008

Ok, you may have heard this before, but I think its hillarious.    Of course, this would never work at FastUpFront, because we don’t ask for collateral!  This joke is going to be outdated soon. 😉 A well-dressed blonde woman goes into a bank in centran Manhattan and sits down to speak with the loan officer.  […]

If you have ever been in Canada during the month of November, you are sure have to seen a plethora of red poppies on people’s lapels. Although Remembrance Day is November 11th (the US’ Veterans day), the entire nation buys and wears the little red cloth flowers in memorial of fallen soldiers from the Canadian […]

My colleague, Gary Barzel, recently posted the “Definitive Guide to Turning Your Business Green”. Although it would be nice if we were all inspired to “go green” for the pure motivation of saving the environment – many of us are more motivated by the other type of green: MONEY. I’d like to expand on a […]

As children, most of us learn how to resolve, defuse and avoid conflict with our peers, parents and siblings. We may even learn how to “always win”. However, as professional adults, we often only remember how to defuse and avoid conflict; resolution escapes us. You might wonder: “What’s the difference?” or “Of course I want […]

The topic of workplace bullying has been grabbing the spotlight in recent years. Far from those playground days when the class bully would wait to pounce on his victims as they made their way to and from school, in the work environment, physical threats are replaced by emotional and psychological harassment that can at times […]

“The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.” – IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr. “There is something about losing and coming back from it that burns character into a man’s soul, breeds confidence without arrogance, and makes a man believable when he talks about problems.” – John Sears, Campaign Manager for Ronald Reagan […]

Read How to Avoid Being Screwed by Customer Service (Part I) first. A supervisor can help you. They have: More ability to provide perks/freebies/refunds Power to put a note (good or bad) in the file of someone else you spoke to. Special training to deal with customer grievances to prevent them from escalating to the […]

Because such a large percentage of small businesses are restaurants, I would like to make a dedicated series of posts to running a successful restaurants. There will be a post for this series about once every week or two. Please request specific topics via the comments form of this post. Two of the many points which […]

The trend to “go green” has been leaving its footprint in countless industries. Small businesses that typically have limited resources to invest in things like renewable energy or environmental business consultants can still have a positive effect on the environment without making a huge investment of time or money. Here is a “how-to” for small […]

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the supposed benefits of the of the US/ Iraq war, with many bemoaning the economic impact of its astronomical cost. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Iraqi war has cost Americans over $500 billion dollars. In 2007, the US budget for the war came to $4,988/Iraqi, the […]