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.
“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.” — George Jessel
Public speaking has intimidated people for generations. In many surve...
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” — Bill Gates
Few ...
      Who knows more about your business than anyone else? You do.
Too many small business owners wait for someone else to notice their success. The reality is that if you don’t tell your st...
One of my favorite presentations is titled “There’s a New Store in Town—Are You Ready for the Disruption?”
The presentation explores how changing consumer expectations are reshaping
...
For a growing retail chain, few initiatives deliver a greater return than developing a store attribute predictive model.
Every company has limited capital. Every new store, remodel, relocation, or ...
During a recent podcast interview, I was asked a simple question:
“What’s the single most important thing a leader can do?”
My answer came without hesitation:
Hire people who are smarter than you...
As I reflect on my career, I realize how fortunate I’ve been—not simply because of the positions I’ve held, but because of the people I’ve met along the journey.
Over the years, I’ve had the privil...
During a recent strategy session with one of my clients, we found ourselves discussing a deceptively simple question that every growing retailer eventually faces:
Who are we?
It sounds straightforwa...
One of the greatest challenges facing foodservice operators today is balancing two competing priorities: giving customers more choices while maintaining operational simplicity.
Consumers continue to ...
Most business owners devote enormous energy to increasing revenue.
That’s understandable—sales drive growth.
But there’s another way to improve profitability that often requires far less effort th...
When I joined Little Caesars, the company operated approximately 1,300 stores.
Five years later, that number had grown to more than 5,000 locations—an astonishing pace of roughly one and a half new...
The film industry has embraced the freelance model for decades.
When a movie studio begins production, it assembles a team of highly specialized professionals—directors of photography, production d...
