Business Coaching

B2B Stories

Mondays with Rick: What it takes to be an entrepreneur

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week he talks about entrepreneurship and whether it can be taught. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: How do you define entrepreneurship? Rick: I define it as the ability to start a new business, of being able to bring a product or service to market and make money from it. It could be a new product or it could be a new way

Read More »
B2B Stories

Thoughts from the General: Helpful hints on how to plan

For two marvelous years, I had the pleasure of being the top planner in the Air Force. The learning experience was extraordinary. Helping the military as well as corporations, churches, and non-profits with long-range planning have been great fun. Here are a few techniques that can be used in any organization, for-profit or nonprofit, large or small. Never make any important decision without considering the long-term implications. Here are a few examples. When Saint Paul’s church decided to complete the upper rooms, it was decided to make them very attractive.

Read More »
B2B Stories

Mondays with Rick: Preparing for the coming recession

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week he talks about preparing to successfully survive a recession. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: In a recent survey of CFOs, 100 percent believe we’ll be in a recession in the next 9-12 months. There seems to be no question of if there will be a recession, just how bad it’ll be. How should businesses approach this? Rick: The lesson we learned

Read More »
B2B Stories

Thoughts from the General: Important decisions – the bad and the good

Perry M. Smith, Jr. is a teacher, speaker, TV, and radio commentator and best-selling author, and executive producer of four videos. Hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide came to know him during the 1991 Persian Gulf War for his more than 100 appearances as a military analyst on network television.  Smith served for 30 years in the U. S. Air Force. He commanded the F-15 fighter wing at Bitburg, Germany where he provided leadership to 4000 personnel. Later, he served as the top Air Force planner and as the commandant

Read More »
B2B Stories

Mondays with Rick: Tips on recruiting and retaining good employees

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week, he talks about recruiting good employees and the importance of retaining them. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: It seems everyone these days is looking for employees. What’s going on? Rick: We’ve always had a good relationship with the local community but we’ve never had so many businesses, both small and large, be as proactive with us because they’re so in need

Read More »
B2B Stories

Mondays with Rick: The key to the back of the store is efficiency

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week he talks about one of the important aspects of running a business, the second of a two-part series. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: Last week we talked about how to operate the front of your business, which involves customer interaction. You left us with a teaser that this week we’d explore the back of the store, which requires more expertise. Explain

Read More »
B2B Stories

A checklist to improve your non-profit’s fund-raising efforts

Perry M. Smith, Jr. is a teacher, speaker, TV, and radio commentator and best-selling author, and executive producer of four videos. Hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide came to know him during the 1991 Persian Gulf War for his more than 100 appearances as a military analyst on network television.  Smith served for 30 years in the U. S. Air Force. He commanded the F-15 fighter wing at Bitburg, Germany where he provided leadership to 4000 personnel. Later, he served as the top Air Force planner and as the commandant

Read More »
B2B Stories

Local accident survivor shares inspirational story with business group

Like most business professionals, Jeanna Hancock experiences her share of stress as operations leader with Hargrove Home Inspections. But she was inspired by the harrowing tale Terrence Sansbury shared as guest speaker at this month’s CSRA Home Connections meeting on Wednesday, May 11. Sansbury, who has worked for the Wilson Family YMCA for 22 years, discussed many adversities he has overcome throughout his life, most notably a 1999 motorcycle accident that severely damaged his spinal cord and left him wheelchair-bound. “This wheelchair doesn’t define me,” he said. “My motorcycle accident

Read More »
B2B Stories

The call center director says the key to happy customers is happy workers

Imagine walking into a call center and hearing music or seeing employees dressed up for an indoor Mardi Gras parade. If that sounds a little too far-fetched, those kinds of things happen at T-Mobile’s Augusta call center, according to Rachel Romero. Romero, the center’s director, was the guest speaker for this month’s Third Thursday Business Builder, hosted by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. The topic was “The Art of Customer Care Post-Covid.” As a director, she oversees a team of more than 800 Customer Care Experts, as

Read More »
B2B Stories

Unleash the power of your brain for professional and personal success

The human brain weighs just three pounds and is mostly water, yet it contains incredible power. According to marketing expert Mark Alison, it has power far beyond what the average person realizes. Alison, a marketing expert and founder of The Alison Group (now Alison South), presented Future Planning in a seminar at Auben Realty last Thursday. His goal was to help those in attendance unlock the power of the brain. “You have two brains – the working or subconscious brain and the thinking or conscious brain,” Alison said. “A thinking

Read More »