Abonar's Blog

A Resource For Managers, Business Owners, & Entrepreneurs

  • “Cost Accounting is Productivity’s Public Enemy Number One”

    This quote comes from Thomas Corbett’s book “Throughput Accounting.” Corbett quoted this from the godfather of Theory of Constraints (TOC), Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is a bold statement but is true. Cost accountants and business managers are not stupid, so how can this be? This blog explores these questions and proposes a solution. Why…

  • Hockey for Business?

    My hockey team lost in the finals yesterday. I hate losing, most people do. But I’m proud of my team and the fact that we chose to compete at the highest level we could play. We could’ve entered less competitive divisions and greatly increased our chances of winning a championship. But what would’ve been the…

  • Coffee’s for Closer’s Only – Some Insight Into Big Sales

    We all know the archetype of the salesman. The alpha male, type 1 personality that who’s motto is “Always Be Closing.” Conventional sales training emphasizes five key skills: Opening the call. Find ways to connect with the buyer and make some initial benefit statements. Investigating needs. Use open questions to get the buyer to describe…

  • A couple networking tips for the day!

    It’s obvious that having the right contacts is beneficial for personal and/or business promotion. But when you’re out networking how do you know you’re talking to the “right” person? It’s a good idea to be on the lookout for businesses that compliment yours. For example, commercial lenders and accountants are professions I keep an eye…

  • You can’t trust conventional wisdom.

    Like last week, this week’s blog comes from the world of sports. I grew up in Saskatchewan and got an engineering degree at the University of Saskatchewan. This means that in my spare time, I analyze data surrounding men’s curling results (yeah, yeah, I know). Why would I write about curling in a business blog?…

  • 2010 Winter Olympics – A model for handling business obstacles and failures

    I was in Vancouver during the last weekend of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I have to say I was really impressed by the city’s organization, appearance, and performance quality. But most of all, I was impressed with how they handled themselves professionally and creatively to overcome shortcomings and criticism of the winter games. Something that…

  • Fire Your Customers – When the customer isn’t right, show him the door

    We have all heard the conventional wisdom that “the customer is always right” and “we exist to serve our customers,” but what if you have a customer that is so bad that his association with you damages your business? I say fire him. This blog post came from the news report of a St. Andrews,…

  • How to network for your business?

    Networking is one of those things that doesn’t come easy or natural to everyone.  Who do you talk to? What do I say? How do I approach people? How long should it take? These are a few of many questions I hear about networking. A lot of individuals have told me how frustrating networking can…

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