by Susan Caminiti. Christopher Gardner first made headlines with his best-selling memoir, The Pursuit of Happyness, the story of his homelessness, which was made into the movie of the same name starring Will Smith. Today, he is the CEO of Gardner Rich & Co., a Chicago-based brokerage firm and the author of Start Where You Are—Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Recently, business writer Susan Caminiti spoke with Gardner about the challenges of running your...

Recently, I was speaking with a client at a large tech firm about her business and she was explaining to me that she was very busy because they had recently bought a smaller business and she was part of the team that was working to integrate the two companies. The companies faced all sorts of challenges combining their two distinct forces – work overlap, communication, and geography – but guess what the biggest issue was? Culture. The smaller business was still in startup mode and did...

Is your big, new idea a winner or a loser and how do you know? As a small business owner, you probably have good business instincts, but the smart entrepreneur knows that gut instincts and a small sample are not the kind of research you can, literally or figuratively, take to the bank. Your idea may be a winner, or it might not.  The important thing is that you carefully analyze your idea, and the market, and make sure you are not the only one who thinks that it will work.  A hunch simply...

While your small business may have a mission statement on the company website or in materials, have you thought about what exactly the statement should convey? Below are four important considerations about the purpose of a mission statement. Even though they are only a few sentences long, mission statements should express the value of your company and clarify what it offers. A mission statement has less to do with the daily ins and outs of your business and more to do with your customers’...

While the current economic climate may not allow for more than cost-of-living-salary raises, there are many other ways to show employee appreciation. In fact, studies have shown that employee’s value praise, care and compassion more than getting paid more. If you’re looking for cost-effective or innovative ways to reward your staff, here are eight ideas to consider: Be a matchmaker.  If you’re unable to provide holiday bonuses, you might want to form a holiday savings program.  Employees can...

It is probably a safe bet to say that most folks who manage other people think that they are a good boss. After all, we have all had bad bosses, and no one likes working for a bad one, let alone thinking that they are the bad boss. As you may remember, I wrote “Top 10 Signs You Are a Bad Boss” in an earlier column, you can read that article here. The truth is, all bosses are not created equal. So which are you? Let’s find out. Here are the top 10 signs that you really are a good boss....

Ineffectively managing your supply chain can result in serious losses for your small business. It could cause you to lose money and customers for the following reasons: poor inventory management, a missed delivery date and/or fulfillment issues (the closing of a business transaction between the business and the customer and everything that happens in between). In order to protect your small business, here are some dos and don’ts for maximizing supply chain efficiency:        Dos Do enlist...

It is normal for workplace issues to arise amongst colleagues – after all most Americans spend more time at work than any place else. When employees are having difficulty getting along with each other, or when they are having performance problems, small business owners may question how to handle the issues at hand. Companies of all sizes must manage employees that turn out to have difficult personality traits, are a poor fit for their current role or have trouble working with others....