Even though Valentine’s Day is over for this year, this applies year-round. By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print What’s involved in ‘romancing’? Everyone wants to feel special. Listen to them – find out what they want. Can your business make minor adjustments to make them feel more comfortable or ‘heard’? Let them know they’re […]

By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print Let’s explore a new type of New Year’s Resolution and decide to give up an obvious behavior that isn’t working for you and see what happens next. Try giving up one of these: Instead of trying to do one more thing at home before you leave for work, […]

By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print Daylight savings time ending grants us an extra hour each year. How will you spend it? One more hour’s sleep is tantalizing…but so is an hour of quiet contemplation uninterrupted in the morning calm before the daily storms appear. What if we planned to NOT do something predictable? […]

By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print Was Columbus an entrepreneur or just an early independent contractor? Either way he sailed out into a beautiful blue ocean on a giant spice hunt. Even though this happened more than 600 years ago, some things never change. The seas got rough, the storms came, and the crew […]

By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print If you asked me 2 weeks ago what I thought of when I heard the name, Harvey, I probably would have flashed back to the 6’ invisible rabbit I fell in love with watching an old Jimmy Stewart movie. But now, Hurricane Harvey has forever changed my association […]

By Sheila Askov Putting Personality in Print The wonder of a solar eclipse is about to visit us. Oregon is privileged to be in its direct flight path. Along with the excitement comes the warning, “Don’t look directly at the eclipse without protective glasses.” One of my aunts, now deceased, looked at an eclipse when […]

By Sheila Askov Do you adjust your business practices to accommodate the weather? Successful retail and service providers always do. They take into account what people are likely to want, need, and respond to when the hot weather rolls around. Sometimes expanding the hours of operation to match the longer days is a smart move. […]

By Sheila Askov The 4th of July is gone, but the pursuit of freedom and independence continues. As a small business owner, that’s part of your motivation for getting up in the morning and working those long, hard hours. Isn’t it interesting that the road to independence is in fact dependent on being mindful of […]

by Sheila Askov When the sun peaked briefly through the rain-drenched clouds this week, I felt my spirits soar in response. I couldn’t wait to go outside and see what was blooming in the yard and neighborhood around me. Sure enough, the plants appeared unfazed by the prolonged downpours and many of the bushes and […]

LESSONS FROM A GROUNDHOG When the groundhog makes his appearance on February 2nd and we watch the TV to see if he casts a shadow, humans begin predicting how many more weeks of winter are on the way. Depending on whose stats you use – the groundhog’s shadow is right about 50% of the time. […]