Idiom: Horizon

by Amy Lively | Blog, Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms

“International Talk Like A Pirate Day” is celebrated every year on September 19. So, ahoy! Let’s put the periscope up to your eye (not the one with the black patch). What do you see, Matey? What’s on the horizon? Do you see land ahead? Is there...

Idiom: Rules

by Amy Lively | Blog, Communication, Family Business, Generations, Retail Idioms

Turn signal flashing, Mrs. Customer carefully pulls her Buick up to your store and asks to see matching tables for her living room. Ms. Customer peels into the lot, glove box bursting with parking tickets, and asks if you have a red leather chaise for her bedroom....

Lather, rinse, repeat.

by David Lively | Blog, Communication, Family Business, Products

Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads, wrote this week about what he calls The Extraordinary People Myth: “It’s like you’ve asked him to defend his religion; the business owner who believes in growing his businesses through exceptional service delivered by...

It’s not your fault.

by David Lively | About Retail, Blog, Communication, Family Business

Sometimes leaders just have to pay the price. The price of people’s failures: People just “leave the ranch,” they break laws, they backslide and backstab, they believe it’s your job to solve their problems, the list could go on. Leaders have to...

Idiom: Peace

by Amy Lively | About Retail, Blog, Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms

World peace. Peace of mind. Give peace a chance. Your customer might not have inner peace about shopping at your store. It’s going to cost her a lot of money. It’s going to take a lot of her time. She’s going to have to face off with salespeople who...

Generational Stew

by David Lively | Blog, Communication, Family Business, Generations

Things are whacky. Never in the history of the world have four distinct generations been working in such close quarters. Craig Arthur is a Wizard of Ads partner. You can visit his site Wizard Partners if you’re interested in checking out his point of view. I was...