Monthly Archives: August 2011

Analytics and the Independent Insurance Agency

by Posted under Analytics, Metrics, Small Business | 2 Comments
I just read a great piece in Forbes magazine about Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. SAS is the leader in high-powered analysis software. SAS helps large to midsized business analyze their data so they can make better decisions. The author asked Jim the following question: “What do businesses want to analyze today?” Jim’s response was, “Businesses are looking at customer data to gain insights into cross-selling and up-selling.” This sounds very familiar. It’s the old adage, “it’s cheaper to KEEP the customer you have than to acquire a new one”. Businesses are starting to realize that they need to objectively understand their customers better. Every customer leaves clues Read more [...]
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The Law of Comparative Advantage Applied to Business

by Posted under Small Business | No Comments
I just read a great blog post on the Law of Comparative Advantage. According to Wikipedia, the law states the following: “Two countries (or other kinds of parties, such as individuals or firms) can both gain from trade if, in the absence of trade, they have different relative costs for producing the same goods. Even if one country is more efficient in the production of all goods (absolute advantage), it can still gain by trading with a less-efficient country, as long as they have different relative efficiencies.” In Bussgang’s blog, he applied this law to start-ups. I’d like to expand the law to all small businesses. To quote Bussgang: “As such, they [owners] get sucked into spending Read more [...]
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Embrace Change

by Posted under Small Business | No Comments
It’s seems like just when I have things under control, a new challenge presents itself. When I first started Astonish Results, I had a picture of what our business would look like. I was always looking to the future. I thought that if we could only get “X” customers or “$X” in revenue, then we’d really have arrived! I also found myself thinking this way in my personal life. I would look to the future, and say to myself, “If I could only get to this point, things would really be great.” If I could only make $100K in income, have that huge house with a pool or you fill in the blank. Do you ever catch yourself thinking this way? Then one day it hit me. When I actually get to the Read more [...]
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