The Gray Cat Blog
A growing library of practical business articles and insights created to help entrepreneurs, small business owners, franchisees, and multi-unit operators strengthen leadership, improve operations, drive growth, and build more profitable organizations.
Life can come at you in a bunch of different ways.
From work to hobbies to relationships to health, balancing all that life gives us is a challenge.
In this podcast with Lorraine Chai, we discuss fa...
From a manager trainee at one location to managing 1,000's of stores.
It may seem easy, but not everyone positions themselves to take advantage of huge growth opportunities.
I was very fortunate to ...
“And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun…” - Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright
The original message still holds true: time p...
Want to have long-term clients?
Provide quantifiable value to their organization and they will always throw more work at you.
In this podcast episode with Eido Almog, I discuss how initial projects ...
Over the course of my career, I have learned that one of the most important skills a leader can develop has nothing to do with spreadsheets, strategic plans, marketing programs, or operating reports. ...
The conversation usually starts like this:
“Do you know your customers?”
“Absolutely. I know many of them by name.”
“Great. How are you going to tell them about your sale this weekend?”
…Silence.
...
I have always enjoyed technology. I was an early adopter of laptops, mobile phones, and social media. I joined LinkedIn when it had only a couple million users—long before it became the professional n...
For many entrepreneurs, passion and vision are what launch a business. But sustainable growth is built on something far less glamorous and far more important: financial discipline. Understanding your ...
Over the course of my career, I have been involved in hundreds—if not thousands—of negotiations. Some involved multimillion-dollar agreements, while others focused on something as basic as the cost of...
Being a fractional and/or interim executive presents a number of challenges.
Evaluating the talent at an organization is perhaps the most critical, yet touchy part of the role.
You have been instill...
The world’s strongest brands don’t become iconic because they have the best advertising.
They become iconic because they know exactly who they are—and who they are not.
Every successful brand has a ...
One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is assuming that once the grand opening is over, customers will simply continue to show up.
Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
Many store owners inves...
