/ Articles by Geoff Hoppe

The white-collar world loves to talk about telecommuting, working from home, and the mobile office. Fleet managers, however, have managed employees in mobile offices—on wheels—for decades. Before texting or Google Hangouts were even around, fleet managers sent their drivers off on America's interstates, trusting them to manage up to 40 tons of freight and engine.

What does business intelligence software cost? Short answer: enough that it’s a serious investment. Many business intelligence software companies don’t list their product’s cost on their website; they tell you to give them a call. There’s a legitimate reason for this, given how many different needs BI software can meet and how customizable it can be to each business.

Obviously, all businesses want to be successful. We could start with the usual clichés about business success—spend money to make money, get there firstest with the mostest—but those clichés don't tell you what you really need to know.

Company names are the new elevator pitch. The venerable 30-second elevator pitch is now, sadly, 22 seconds too long. If you want to be front of mind for any prospective customer, you need a name that packs in everything you used to put in an elevator pitch.

I never intended to be any small business's worst nightmare. But I'm somehow, inadvertently, the Freddy Krueger of small business cash flow. That's because I'm terrible about paying people on time. Loan me $20? I'll forget to pay it back. Send me an invoice? I will misplace or forget it. Not only is the customer always right, he's always late (at least in my case).

To all the technology marketers out there, here's a question for you: How much would you pay to get your hands on a crystal ball that tells you exactly what your potential leads want to buy in the next few years?

If they made a horror movie for small businessmen, the villain wouldn't be a nightmare with knives for hands or a machete-wielding hulk. It would be a clock with no numbers ... just the phrase, "It's later than you think."

The Supreme Court's June 2018 ruling on eCommerce sales tax is causing small businesses a lot of consternation. And that consternation is well placed.

I never mean to peek at other people's computers, but sometimes it happens. It's the downside of working in an open office, where everyone's monitor is easily visible. There's one monitor I never look at, however, because it scares me too much: the one that belongs to our office manager, Gabrielle.