2007 Sept/Oct

• Q&A with … Brent Bowers, author of “The 8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs”

  Cape Business spoke with Brent Bowers, author of “The 8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs”
  
  

• The Law at Work: Overtime requirements for seasonal employers; Federal minimum wage increase

  Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses overtime requirements for seasonal employees and the federal minimum wage increase.

• The New Cape Cod

  Six seismic shifts in the economic landscape that could determine your business success in 2007 – and beyond.
  
  Note: Cape Business is holding a series of seminars on on how your business can adapt and grow in the New Cape Cod. To learn more, click here.

• A new arrangement

  The arrival of a new maestro is more than the next chapter for the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra. It reflects the changing face of Cape Cod, and suggests other possibilities that can dramatically alter the cultural and economic landscape of the region.

• There’s no ceiling to this business model

  Russell Cazeault faced a true challenge for a successful business. No matter how much he excelled, no matter how many more skilled employees he could hire, he always would face a gauntlet to growth beyond his control – the weather.

• Revitalizing Main Street Buzzards Bay

  Building by building, block by block, Main Street in the village of Buzzards Bay in Bourne is starting to revive.

• Your budget: Helping ensure that reality meets expectations

  Budgeting is a management tool for dealing with the future. It helps you turn expectations into reality. More often than not, businesses don’t prepare an annual budget, and then wonder why reality does not meet their expectations.

• The A to Z of growing your sales and profits

  Customer service can determine success or failure for any business - good relationships with your customers will cause them to return again and again and recommend your company to others. Bad customer interactions can be a death knell, even if you have an excellent product or service to offer.

• Three critical drivers of corporate growth and prosperity

  Corporate growth and prosperity is an elusive goal. To achieve prosperity, a number of factors must coalesce. Above all, three elements are essential to developing and maintaining focus, thereby leading to prosperity. They are: visioning, organization and execution.

• Beefing up the content of your Web site

  On the Web, content is king. If you want people to visit, stick around and come back, give them substance to satisfy them.

• The ABCs of communication

  It is so basic in business that we tend to ignore it. But how you communicate with your customers, employees, vendors and business associates can make or break your company. Whether it is that one-to-one elevator speech or a presentation you must make around a conference table or in front of a large audience, your communication skills can prove the competitive advantage.

• An evolving landscape

  Bob Maffei turns to General Electric, McDonald’s and Morton’s Steakhouse for inspiration building his growing business.
  
  Note: Maffei Landscape Contractors was one of 15 businesses awarded Build a Better Mousetrap awards by SCORE and local chambers of commerce.

• SCORE’s Mousetrap award winners

  Most small businesses fail within the first five years. To recognize those that survive, SCORE awards its Build a Better Mousetrap award to small businesses that have survived the first five years and appear to be headed for long-term success.

• Today’s commercial real estate market adds urgency and profits to sale-leasebacks

  Do you have a large portion of your balance sheet tied up with your real estate assets, effectively making only a 7.5 percent to 8 percent return on value in today’s market? If so, that money invested in bricks and mortar might be better spent elsewhere.

• Wastewater warnings

  We know wastewater imperils the Cape.

  The big question is: What will the business community do to solve the growing crisis before we suffer irreparable harm to property values and the economy?

• Septic is the main culprit

  Nitrogen leaching from septic systems causes 70 percent to 85 percent of coastal saltwater eutrophication, the over-enrichment that produces algae, reduces underwater life and limits swimming, boating and fishing. Storm water delivers 5 percent to 8 percent of the nitrogen loading within estuary watersheds.

• Chatham’s $300 million solution

  At the elbow of Cape Cod, surrounded by water on three sides, the town of Chatham is completing a $300 million plan for expanding its existing sewage treatment plant and connecting up to 70 percent of the town to the sewer system.

• Q&A with … Andrew Gottlieb

  Cape Business spoke with Andrew Gottlieb, interim executive director of the Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative, for a Q&A on the wastewater situation on Cape Cod.
  

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