Business Coaching

B2B Stories

Unintended Messages: Treat Your People Well All the Way to the End

On Sunday, November 10, 2024, a college football coach was fired.  A college football coach being fired late in a losing season is typically not surprising news. However, in this case, the firing and the way in which it was handled made national news, and its ramifications may well be felt at that institution for years to come. In addition, I believe the firing and its mishandling provide lessons for organizational leaders on how to handle such situations in a way that limits potential damage to their organizations and the

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B2B Stories

Election Lessons and Reflections

Now that we have had a week to digest the results of last week’s Presidential election, I think it is a good time to reflect on what we might have learned. Even though the votes are still being counted, it appears that the popular vote will be very close, with President-elect Trump coming out slightly on top (50.4% to 48.0%) over Vice President Harris. However, the Electoral College outcome does not look so close, with President Trump garnering a 312 to 226 margin of victory on the strength of sweeping

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B2B Stories

How Salespeople Portray Your Company

As you may remember from my first column after the storm, one of the major “impacts” the storm had on me personally was the total loss of a vehicle after it was struck by a fallen tree.  The vehicle was a 2013 Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with almost 160,000 miles on it. I typically buy a vehicle that I think will last a long time, maintain it well, and typically donate it (while it is still running very well) when I finally decide (or my wife forces me) to replace

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B2B Stories

Teaching small businesses how to create retirement funds

Volunteers from the Aiken office of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) recently held a workshop to teach small businesses how to create retirement plans ranging from simple to sophisticated. Led by Will Rogers and Damon Cline of Confident Life Wealth Management at Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC., the workshop looked at differences between defined-contribution plans and defined-benefit plans. Cline said there are two basic plans businesses can consider, a Simple Employee Pension (SEP) plan or a Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRA. “These SEP plans are fully employer-funded,

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B2B Stories

Sometimes A New Voice is Needed

Shortly after the Atlanta Braves ended their 2024 season by losing to the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs, the team decided not to bring back three of their coaches for the 2025 season. (Note:  All three coaches are under contract for 2025 and will be paid their contracted salaries.) The most notable of those coaches was their primary hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer. Seitzer has been a major league hitting coach for most of the past eighteen years, with the last

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B2B Stories

CSRA Facebook groups kept everyone connected post-Helene

During a disaster, social media provides up-to-the-minute news information – power outage alerts, road closure updates, designated help areas, shelter locations, and more. Of all the social media platforms, the CSRA benefitted most via Facebook. Like many businesses and residents, our Augusta Business Daily staff was also impacted by Helene’s 100+ mph wind gusts and 8’ to 12” of rain. Like many of you, most of us had no power, we were running on fumes in our cars and lost food in our refrigerators and freezers. When we found limited gas

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B2B Stories

Two-Way Courtesy Pays Dividends to Businesses and Customers

In the words of Michael Jordan upon his return to the NBA after his foray into baseball, “I’m back!” Maybe you didn’t notice, but I haven’t written a column for Augusta Business Daily (ABD) since the last Wednesday in August. I took the month of September off to help provide space for the sponsors of that month’s ABD Connections and Careers event. Then, my return was further delayed by the impact (both literally and figuratively) of Hurricane Helene. My wife and I have been refugees/vagabonds for the past couple of weeks. We were

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B2B Stories

Learning from small business experts

Entrepreneurs and small business startups benefited from a workshop led by experts from the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC). Co-sponsored by Make Startups and theClubhou.se, the specialists explained the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) processes. The federal grant programs help fund startups and small businesses while owners maintain full ownership of their companies. “When I first saw that it was the SBIR, I’m a little familiar with them because I used to work for a national Chamber of Commerce. So, when I saw that,

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B2B Stories

CSRA takes a $6.5 million hit from event cancellations: Chamber events also canceled

A weeklong schedule of activities that was set to kick off today has been canceled. BSidesAugusta organizer, and COO of Security Onion Solutions, LLC, Phil Plantamura shared the update with ABD on Sunday. “Completely canceled. We’ve canceled all events for BSidesAugusta, the Security Onion Conference, and the training. We had a speaker dinner. It’s been canceled, volunteer orientation, and all that has been canceled. We’ve issued refunds to all ticket purchasers, including for the training,” he said. Destination Augusta had estimated the full week of activities, originally set for Sept.

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