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CEO Confidence Surges Heading into 2025
As seen in Cascade Business News - 3/5/2025 According to the Vistage International 2024 Q4 CEO Confidence Index Survey, CEO confidence is at its highest in nine years, with optimism driving strategic investments, hiring plans, and growth initiatives. Since 2003, the Vistage CEO Confidence Index has captured the sentiment of small and midsize business CEOs and business leaders in the United States about the economy each quarter.... [keep reading] Rethinking Goal Setting – Is There a Better Way?
Challenging the value of goal setting might seem like business heresy. After all, every leader has been taught that setting goals is essential. As the new year approaches, countless articles, blogs, and podcasts preach the same advice: establish SMART goals ... [keep reading] Four Critical Issues for 2025
As seen in Cascade Business News - 12/4/2024 If you’re a business leader, chances are you are beginning to turn your attention to strategic planning for 2025, like most CEOs around the world. As the world’s largest private advisory program... [keep reading] Two Keys to Building High Performing
As seen in Cascade Business News - 10/16/2024 The most common complaints I hear from employers about today’s workforce are that employees: Are not motivated. Are not well equipped. Don’t own their jobs. Don’t treat the business as if it’s their own. Are uncommitted and transitory. Are self-indulgent. Lack accountability. Don’t want to work. Are too easily distracted. Expect too much too soon from the job, i.e. money, promotions, acknowledgment and praise... [keep reading] Accelerate Your Leadership
As seen in Cascade Business News - 09/18/2024 If you are a leader, you're well-aware of the need to continually grow and build your leadership skills. The marketplace is in constant change. Shifting employee demographics demand fresh leadership perspectives. A steady stream of new government regulations, a troubled economy, political uncertainty... the list goes on an on. And it requires all of us as leaders to unrelentingly sharpen our abilities... [keep reading] How a New Supreme CourtCourt Ruling Ruling Could Blow Up Your Estate Plan
As seen in Cascade Business News - 08/07/2024 If your business has multiple shareholders, read this article carefully. Chances are you have a buy-sell agreement in place. If you do not currently have a buy-sell agreement, I suggest you contact your corporate attorney immediately and get one drawn up. In short, a buy-sell agreement is negotiated among a corporation’s shareholders to define in advance how the corporation and its surviving shareholders will address the shares... [keep reading] Measure 110 - How to Fix the Failures
As seen in The Bulletin - 11/21/2023 The Bulletin and many other news outlets across the state and nation have detailed the many tragic failings of Measure 110, which decriminalized the possession of hard drugs. I won’t recount them here. By now, every semi-conscious Oregonian knows that Measure 110 is an abject failure. However, not everyone is willing to do what it takes to correct the devastating impacts of this poorly conceived and abysmally executed measure...[keep reading] |
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Significant SBA Loan Updates for Business Buyers & Sellers
As seen in Cascade Business News - 11/01/2023 To navigate the financing of a business purchase and sale effectively and to successfully complete transactions prudently and sustainably requires skilled professional advice. A seasoned mergers and acquisitions advisor, an excellent transactional attorney, a capable CPA and selection of the right lender (not all SBA lenders are the same) can make the difference between celebration and consolation…or desolation...[keep reading] |
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The Value of Values
As seen in Cascade Business News - 10/18/2023 Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal qualities we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be; the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for conduct...[keep reading] |
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Corporate Engagement: A Virtuous Cycle
As seen in Cascade Business News - 09/20/2023 Corporate engagement at its finest flows out of a sincere desire to serve the community. When you think about it, what we call “business” is simply an organized way to offer and provide help to others…at a profit (which makes the process sustainable). At its essence, then, a business is just a vehicle to provide help and serve others. Profit is a legitimate result of doing that well. It’s the outcome of providing value...[keep reading] |
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Expanding Your Generational Awareness
As seen in Cascade Business News - 09/06/2023 With five generations represented now, the marketplace is decidedly different than it was five or ten years ago. In a post-COVID world, it’s a business development that has sort of snuck up on some leaders. Five different age demographics make the job of a leader immensely more complex, as effectiveness with each age range requires different background listening, different insights, different language, different tools and different approaches. Understanding the overall differences between the generations is essential for effective leadership and communication...[keep reading] |
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The Rigorous Elimination of Stupid
As seen in Cascade Business News - 07/19/2023 Everyone makes mistakes. Even smart people do dumb things. And it can be expensive. Think about the three dumbest things you’ve ever done in business, personally or relationally. How much better off financially would you be today had you not made those dumb decisions? If you’re like most business owners, the number is painfully large...[keep reading] |
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Achieving Your Impossible Goals
As seen in Cascade Business News - 06/07/2023 Any reader of this publication has likely engaged in a variety of goal setting exercises and practices over the years. In the course of that, you’ve probably heard it said that your goals should be SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-Bound. There is nothing inherently wrong with this way to set goals…especially small goals. However, it is severely limiting when your ambitions are high, and you are considering goals that might seem impossible...[keep reading] |
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The Overlooked Owner
As seen in Cascade Business News - 05/17/2023 We widely accept that determining the value of a business is a scientific process. Most people think that determining the value of a business simply involves looking at the books, sizing up the market, and doing quantitative analysis. It is also common to evaluate the management team and their skills and track record. The most overlooked aspects of determining business value are often the owner and their intentions...[keep reading] |
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School Choice is the Solution to Oregon's Failing Public Schools
As seen in Bend Bulletin - 04/30/2023 With the upcoming election, there's much focus on schools and school boards. However, we have a much deeper problem. By nearly every meaningful measure, Oregon's public school system is failing ... and it has been on a downhill slide for a long time. Recent reports, by the Oregon Department of Education, show only 30% of Oregon students are proficient in math and only 43% in English/Language Arts. Public school enrollment is falling. For example, Portland School District reports elementary school enrollment has declined by 17.3% since 2018-19. The state's "solution?"...[keep reading] |
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"Bank Failure" Two Very Scary Words. How to Tell If Your Bank Is Safe.
As seen in Bend Bulletin - 03/30/2023 Few words strike fear into people like news of a bank failure, especially the failure of very prominent banks like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. It’s especially scary for small business owners. The cash to pay employees, vendors, landlords and lenders is on deposit in a bank or credit union – frequently a relatively small local financial institution. News of a bank failure is like a punch to an entrepreneurial gut. Fear-filled imagination can run wild. Some people panic…which is the worst response...[keep reading] |
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Building Enterprise Value with Standard Operating Procedures
As seen in Cascade Business News - 03/15/2023 Most of the strategies we employ to help clients build enterprise value involve steps to mitigate a potential buyer’s perception of risk. The lower the perceived risk, the higher the price a buyer is likely to pay. Minimizing risk factors takes deliberate attention, time and specific strategies. One of the most straightforward ways to improve operating efficiencies, increase short term profitability, and simultaneously enhance enterprise value, is to establish and document Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)...[keep reading] |
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Focus: Essential for Success
As seen in Cascade Business News - 03/01/2023 The ability to focus is essential to achieving success in any area of life. For business leaders, maintaining focus is especially important. Focus helps us remain on track and ensures that we use our time effectively, leading to more successful results. Achieving and maintaining focus, however, is not always easy ...[keep reading] |
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Making Money in a Tough Economy
As seen in Cascade Business News - 01/18/2023 Pricing is one of the most important, and perhaps one of trickiest aspects of business design and operation, but it’s critical to profitability. Price too low, and you leave money on the table and reduce the legitimate profit you could have had. Price way too low...and you go out of business. Price too high and you risk customers shopping your competition, you risk losing sales, you risk diminishing customer satisfaction, you risk producing overly demanding customers, and you risk alienating customers forever"...[keep reading] |
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Launching 2023 with a Sense of Direction & Accomplishment
As seen in Cascade Business News - 12/21/2022 If you’ve been in business awhile, you have undoubtedly done goal-setting exercises. Perhaps you are doing one now in preparation for 2023. It’s well-established that business leaders who establish and write down their goals are more likely to achieve them, and that those who don’t set and write down goals fall short of their potential. This is also ancient wisdom. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote in the Book of Proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The issue is not whether we should set and communicate goals, but perhaps how best to do so ...[keep reading] |
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Quarterbacking Your Business 2023 - Scrambling or Scoring
As seen in Cascade Business News - 12/07/2022 Imagine for a minute that the last three years have been the first three “quarters” of a football game, and you are the quarterback. Now you’re coming up on the fourth quarter (2023). Your first quarter (2020) started great with an eighty-yard kickoff return and a quick surgical pass to the endzone for a touchdown, followed by a picture-perfect field goal ...[keep reading] |
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Turning a Service into a Product
As seen in Cascade Business News - 11/16/2022 Many businesses I work with offer a service or a product that they attempt to differentiate through offering a higher level of service. Perhaps you do too. If so, you’re probably being disproportionately impacted by the economic disruption caused by the pandemic year ...[keep reading] |
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Highest and Best Use of Central Oregon Land
10/31/2022 Often people point to land use laws and regulations as if they are God-given rights or Constitutional provisions. The truth is, they are all made up. When Central Oregon was settled, there were no property boundaries, zoning laws, environmentally protected zones or urban growth boundaries. These artificially created distinctions evolved to meet the changing needs of a growing population. It’s time for them to change again"...[keep reading] |
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Innovation vs. The Entrepreneurial Centrifuge
As seen in Cascade Business News - 10/19/2022 As a business owner, it’s easy to get distracted. It’s easy for your employees to get distracted as well. With limited time and resources, how do you prioritize your efforts and keep your team focused on activities that yield the highest return? ...[keep reading] |
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Solving the Child Care Crisis for Small Businesses & Working Families
As seen in Cascade Business News - 10/05/2022 The lack of safe and affordable childcare has a major adverse impact on parents and children, and in the workplace. The problem is well-recognized. Our state has even been called a childcare desert. The question is, “How do we fix it?”...[keep reading] |
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Breakthrough Strategies for 2023
As seen in Cascade Business News - 09/21/2022 I believe a pro-business legislator should produce events that support and bring together the business community. Thus, I’m producing the first annual Central Oregon Small Business Forum on October 11, 2022. We need business sense in Salem, and the same tool that I use to help business leaders enjoy innovation and breakthrough success is applicable to bringing fresh ideas and strategy to Salem...[keep reading] |
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Deal Guides – A Merger and Acquisition Intermediary's Role
As seen in Cascade Business News - 8/17/2022 As a State Representative, the job is to advocate for constituents while negotiating with a variety or special interests, all vying to get their way. It’s a lot like putting together deals as a mergers and acquisitions advisor, serving buyers and sellers of small businesses, which has been my career for over 30 years. To get a sense of the skill sets that must be developed to succeed in this career, read the short article below that was published in our local business paper... [keep reading] |
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Establish Your Exit Plan On A Firm Foundation
As seen in Cascade Business News - 8/03/2022 My professional life has been devoted to serving small business owners. After decades of consulting and coaching entrepreneurs, I have a deep appreciation for and understanding of business. Consequently, I’ll be a strong champion for small business as a State Representative. Here’s an example of the practical advice I offer to small business owners... [keep reading] |
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Negotiating Lessons From Big Whitewater
As seen in Cascade Business News - 7/20/2022 Tons of books have been written about negotiating. Many of them focus on manipulative tactics or hard-nosed, hip-shooting techniques that you're supposed to use to beat the other guy. Most of this stuff is useless or detrimental. Fortunately, there are better and more effective ways to think about negotiating... [keep reading] Taxpayer alert: Your home mortgage interest deduction is at risk
As seen in the Bend Bulletin - 7/14/2022 Wouldn’t it be great if our government officials had to take the political equivalent of the medical doctor’s Hippocratic oath: “First, do no harm?” If they did, we would not see the growing interest among state political leaders in eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction. This is a tax deduction available to every single homeowner and potential homeowner in the state of Oregon, regardless of demographics. At a time when many Oregonians are just scraping to get by, and with tougher times ahead, it’s foolish of our state leaders to consider eliminating a tax benefit available to all working-class Oregonians....[keep reading] |
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Small Business Resilience – Strategies for Challenging Times
As seen in Cascade Business News - 7/6/2022 These are challenging times for small businesses in Central Oregon. We face inflation, labor shortages, lingering employee COVID fears, employee motivation issues, retention challenges, rapidly escalating wages, skyrocketing cost of goods sold, supply chain shortages and delays, increasing taxes, and never-ending government regulations. Unfortunately, things will likely get worse before they get better....[keep reading] |
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It’s Time for True Equity in Oregon Transportation Funding
As seen in Bend Bulletin - 5/23/2022 If you drive in and between Bend, Redmond and Sisters, you know that traffic has never been worse. Central Oregon is growing quickly, and Highway 97 and Highway 20 are important freight corridors for goods moving through the region. They are also becoming increasingly dangerous. Oregon state statistics show our statewide fatalities are four times higher than other developed countries and two times higher than Canada. Locally, in just the last 6 months of 2021, there were over 250 reported crashes on Highway 97...[keep reading] |
