“Check Your Drawers, and Other Timely Advice for Managers”

THIS POST IS THE TITLE CHAPTER IN MY BOOK “Check Your Drawers, and Other Timely Advice For Managers” It is over 70 chapters of lessons like this one. All true life personal experiences and I tried to inject a humorous approach to learning from my experiences as a Manager moving up through the ranks, so here it is! Wheweeee! “Check Your Drawers” What’s that? … Read More

Paint the Picture

Robert B. Eaton, Author, Check Your Drawers, books for managers, books or bosses, book for business coaches, book on management,

When I was managing a chain of automotive shops one of the things that  I became aware of was that I constantly had to demonstrate to the manager that his  performance was not up to our standards.  Over time I decided that what we  really needed was a way to demonstrate clearly our standards. For example what we thought was a clean … Read More

Pride goes before a fall !!!

I ran into a friend from back in my High School days. He had opened a business selling Motorcycles many years ago. We worked together at a Gas Station during highschool. His father owned the local fast food franchise some forty years ago. This friend and I began talking and he told me he had just shut down his business. After over twenty … Read More

Sometimes Top Performers Are Theives

I read onetime somewhere that many child molesters are over achievers in their field. The reason behind this is because when someone accuses them it won’t be believed since they are so respected and looked up to in the community. You can have a similar thing going on in your company. Once I replaced a manager who was considered a … Read More

Should I buy a business or am I crazy?

I recently had a gentleman ask the question should I buy a business, or am I crazy? The answer is no, you are not crazy, and yes you should buy a business with certain caveats! I want to disclose here that I was a licensed Business Broker and I am writing this as personal, not legal advice.  I have tried … Read More

It’s not how fast you grow, but how well you grow fast!

While working at Xpert Tune we were trying very hard to expand the company and I was in charge of Human Resources. Having been given the task of hiring and training new managers for new stores that we were opening we would usually run an ad and receive over 100 resumes to choose from. We went through a period where … Read More

Management Depth, Can we Really Do That?

While serving as H.R. Director at the automotive Service Chain back in the late 1980’s we had just grown our company rapidly  from 12 to 25 stores and the owner wanted to buy out a large competitor out west with 244 stores for around $70 million dollars.   

What to do when asked for a price reduction?

First remember customers are not in business to be concerned what your costs are. Never respond immediately, say “I will have to get back with you on that!” and never give out detailed information that justifies the cost for your service or product and make sure your staff knows that this is a hard and fast rule. You don’t want to … Read More

How to diversify your Business to grow sales and increase stability!

Most people understand what it means to diversify so don’t resent me for giving a simple definition for the beginners. To diversify your business is to create or acquire a new product or service to offer your existing customer base. If your intention is to acquire a new customer base then to me you are really entering a new business. … Read More