Owning Up
One CEO describes his tactic for providing employee benefits without giving up a single stock share. Read story
Bruce G. Posner
Taming the Mail
A CEO is creating a direct-mailing system so companies can accurately target customers while saving money. Read story
To Have and to Hold
Information on controlling the employee turnover rate with added benefits. Read story
You Get What You Pay For
Considerations to heed if you are thinking of incentive compensation. Read story
Right from the Start
Lincoln Electric Co. compensates employees based on individual productivity. Read story
Locked Out
If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, as the song says, and so Kryptonite Corp. found during 17 years of selling its bicycle locks in New Yo... Read story
Good Vibrations
A new recording studio stakes it pitch on service, but will its customers care? Read story
The Two-year, Three-product, Nine-million-dollar Turnaround
STORY PROPOSAL Bill Sadleir made enough mistakes to sink several companies. He was naive, had the wrong product, and spent several million dollars ... Read story
A Company Of Salespeople
If you depend on repeat customers and referrals, you've got to keep employees focused on the top line, not the bottom Read story
Salsa Fight
Long gone are the days when a company could develop a safe niche, sit back, and count its money. In every industry, niches have become trenches that smal... Read story
Today Brown Deer, Tomorrow The World
It's easy to forget that a bank is just another kind of business, until you run into a banker like Dean Treptow. Using practices straight out of In Searc... Read story
A Limited Success
Limited partnerships still offer an attractive source of capital for growing companies -- provided you can figure out how to sell the deal. Read story
The Hottest Entrepreneur In America
How John McCormack's unique approach to managing people and information produced one of this country's premier growth companies Read story
Laughing All The Way From The Bank
How a few clever companies finance their growth without relying on those undependable lenders Read story
The Brave New World
The 1986 Tax Reform Act has raised new questions about virtually every compensation tool a company has Read story
May The Force Be With You
How Au Bon Pain discovered a way to turn lackluster clock-punchers into a team of gung ho professionals Read story
Breaking Away
This year's crop of M.B.A.s has more in mind than investment banking and high-paying consulting jobs Read story
It Takes A Tender Man To Make A Tough B-school
With around 650 American colleges and universities currently offering graduate business degrees (up from 389 in 1974), some people wonder whether the coun... Read story
Recruiting;
If your help-wanted ads aren't turning up the right kind of candidates, maybe you should consider offering an incentive designed to attract them. That wa... Read story
Persona Non Grata
It's one thing to sell your business -- but quite another to find that your identity has been unwittingly sold along with it. Just ask Steve Herrell. ... Read story
Customer Relations;
Customers can be a good source of new product ideas, but if you don't acknowledge their contributions, you may be missing out on a chance to win their loy... Read story
Resources;
We all know that slides can spruce up almost any presentation, whether to customers, investors, or employees, but at the rates charged by graphic-arts and... Read story
Finance;
The new federal law known as COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) may contain a hidden bonus for some small companies -- a provision tha... Read story
Contracts;
Most business deals depend on trust to some extent, but don't make the mistake of signing a contract, sending it off to a customer, and charging ahead on ... Read story
Marketing;
Many businesses are launched on a hunch about a market for a particular product or service, but just because your hunch pans out and sales take off, don't... Read story
Purchasing;
If your supplier's sales rep is being unusually cooperative these days, it could be that he's just a terrific guy. Then again, it could mean that you're ... Read story
Credit;
Sometimes it pays to keep your problems to yourself. That's what Jim Ansara decided when he suddenly discovered in late 1985 that his company, Shawmut De... Read story
Hitting Your Numbers
Whether you win or lose in business may depend on how you read the numbers. Here's a way to make them work for you Read story
Office Equipment;
The new tax law may increase the temptation to lease office equipment, but don't fall for it, at least not when you're shopping for small photocopiers. Wi... Read story
Wall Street Goes 'hollywood"
Last year, we told you investors were looking for proven management and a history of solid performance. Well, they changed their minds. Read story
Taxes: New York's Wayward Fishing Trip
Given how tough it is to raise taxes these days, it's not unusual for state governments to go fishing for delinquent taxpayers. Many state, including New... Read story
Margin Management
Frustrated with trying to run your company on a budget? Jim McManus has a better way: focus on gross margin. Read story
On The Mark
The latest crop of start-up books includes a few winners. Read story
All My Sons
Ben, Abe, and Sam made all the right moves until it came time to decide which of their kids would take over the business. Read story
The Great Tax-reform Brouhaha
Contrary to what you've been hearing from almost every tax expert in the country, the Tax Reform Act may yet turn out to be a bonanza for small private compa... Read story
The Silver Lining In Bank Mergers
The deregulation of U.S. financial markets and the recent wave of bank mergers across state lines have caused many small-business owners to fear the worst... Read story
Once Is Not Enough
Why the marketing genius who made Perrier a household word has fizzled as a small-business consultant. Read story
Health Insurance;
Self-insurance may be the way to go these days, but who's going to catch the overcharges on employees' hospital bills? Even a top-notch utilization revie... Read story
Checking Credit;
When checking up on a customer's credit-worthiness, you don't have to rely exclusively on Dun & Bradstreet, whose information is notoriously incomplet... Read story
