SOFEI Insights™

Attend this seminar to receive business secrets to grow your business. Really? Let’s face it; there are no secrets to doing business, just strategies. Instead of spending money and time attending seminars or workshops to find secrets, take a deep breath and revisit your purpose for going into business. Here are a few questions to think about when developing your business strategy: Who are your clients and how do they find you? What’s your strategy to deliver your product and/or service to prospective clients to meet their needs, solve their problems, or enhance their lives? Who are your ideal business clients? How well do you know your prospective and current clients? What’s your strategy to keep your clients happy and transform them to raving fans? What resources will you need to support your strategy? What’s your strategy to handle disgruntled clients and build their trust? What’s your strategy to continue moving your business forward when funds are low? What method(s) will...

Entitlements – programs (e.g., Medicare or Social Security) funded by taxpayers that supposedly benefit non-taxpayers. How can this be especially for taxpayers that worked and contributed towards these programs? And, why are Entitlement programs on the chopping block to balance the budget or reduce the deficit in an effort to stop people from riding free? Free riders are from different ethnic and economic backgrounds. They’re people who cheat on their taxes or avoid paying taxes due to tax shelters buried under complicated tax codes. They’re people who can afford to pay for healthcare, but choose not to; passing their expenses to the shoulders of people strapped with the high cost of health insurance. They're executives who receive government bailouts and bonuses, in spite of their misuse or ill investments of hard working citizens who lost their life savings. They’re also celebrities indulged with expensive gifts they can afford and may not want. What about the poor? A...

Another federal government agency was snubbed last week for allegedly wasting tax payer’s dollars (50 million) for training conferences over a three-year period. Training is a waste of time and money when its goals and objectives aren’t clearly defined and connected to an organization’s mission, and the actual value training will add when completed. Government waste didn’t start in this Administration; it has been a normal way of business to avoid a decrease in appropriation dollars for each fiscal year. When an agency learns that it has an excess in appropriation dollars towards the end of their fiscal year, many government employees reap the benefits of training, conferences, and/or new equipment. Training should never be used as a last resort to save appropriation dollars that will result in waste. This strategy decreases the value of education and training. If a government agency can operate on less money than originally appropriated, this money should be returned to Congre...