the best management ideas ever

The beginning of the year is often flooded with goal setting. Goals are wonderful. They're motivating. They're often a way of tracking your success. Goals are great. 

But let's get one thing straight. A strategy isn't the same thing as a goal. A strategy is the how and the why. It's choosing what to do and what not to do. 

And a business without a sound strategy fueling its actions is sunk no matter how good you're at setting goals. 

The word resilient has two definitions in general use. The first refers to a person or entity that's able to withstand and recover from difficult situations. The second reference an object with the ability to spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed. 

It’s that time of year again. The time where we look back and assess where we’re at and what we’ve done. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t and make plans to do even better moving forward. With that said, the end of 2018 is closing in fast. Did you accomplish all of your business goals for the year? Achieve all of your business dreams? Or do you feel you’ve fallen short?

Savvy consumers are moving away from single-use products - and so are savvy businesses. After all, the easiest way to ensure customer retention is to build it into your business model. So how are they doing it? With the subscription model.

Gone are the days when subscriptions were only associated with newspapers and magazines. In 2018, 29% of the value of the top 100 brands is in subscriptions - up from 18% in 2009.  If you shop via Amazon Prime, watch TV through Netflix, cook using Blue Apron and pay for an annual Microsoft Office license, you're buying into the subscription economy. 

So why are subscriptions so great, and why should you build them into your business?

The vision many people have when they dream about running a business is often a far cry from the day-to-day reality. The freedom, flexibility and fine dining lunches don't necessarily materialize. In their place, many small business owners struggle with long days, stress and cash flow.

Though common, those issues don't need to be part of the experience. Often, they arise when small business owners need a stronger grounding in the basics of business operations and process.

Here's what you need to know to ensure that your business ticks along like a dream.