business briefs

Continuous Improvement

How to Track Your Shop and Order Pizza at the Touch of a Button

As wood industry professionals, our relationship with technology has been “stand-offish” at best. We’ve all been frustrated when dealing with super technical “code gurus”. We’ve felt the pain of having a 12,000 lb “paperweight” machine rendered useless by software that nobody besides a German engineer understands. Tech and woodworking have had a rough go and, there has always been a giant gap between the two.

Continuous Improvement

Can You See Your Business?

What’s the ‘thing’ that really sets you and your employees into action? When “X” happens, we go to work… For an employee at the machine, it’s usually something like “When the cutlist is put on my clipboard, I cut it out”, which is pretty simple. What about you, though? How do you know what to do and when to do it? What is ‘it’ that makes you act?

Continuous Improvement

Perfection Prevents Progress

Seth Godin, a well-known author, recently wrote in his daily blog what he called the “Two-Review Technique.” In this post Godin challenges readers to write down two kinds of reviews for a project (company, product, or service).

Systems

One small shop’s perspective in dealing with suppliers

In this video interview, we learn from a small cabinet shop owner (Colton Rasmussen) and his positive/negative experiences of working with suppliers. Rasmussen Custom Cabinetry is a custom kitchen and bathroom cabinet manufacturing company that was started in 2012 by Colton Rasmussen,Curtis Leavitt, and Joshua C. Riedesel. 

Systems

The Roman Army Business Model

The Romans built one of the largest empires that the world has ever seen. How? The Roman army was both feared and respected. Wherever it marched, it conquered. It was the hammer that integrated the ancient world into one large empire.How does the Roman army apply to your business?

Systems

Theory of Constraints for Dummies

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a business theory introduced by Wolfgang Mewes (a German business economist), which was then further proliferated in the United States by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his book The Goal, (a cult classic). In order to optimize profits at your shop, you need to understand this theory.

Sales

Three Ways You Can Increase Inbound Sales

Mass emailing, cold calling, and visits are all versions of outbound sales that are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Compare those to inbound sales - the process of allowing customers to come to you, and you’ll see a vastly improved way of acquiring new customers.