Hits at 3 am

The beauty of the American free enterprise system is that you are free to pursue your dream no matter where it leads, and if often leads into some painful places. Joseph built a large HR firm, but his success was much harder than it needed to be.

Bill was a hard worker in an extremely competitive industry, but margins did not provide enough of a return on his investment or his hard work. What Bill didn’t realize was that most of his competition had failed and disappeared.

Sara and Bill ran a typical “Mom and Pop” coffee shop/diner; a steady if unspectacular business.  But Bill and Sara encountered lots of folks who figured they, too, could run a successful restaurant just because they enjoyed eating out.

Sam was from the old school. Sam ran the industrial paint and coatings company profitably, if autocratically, but had no faith in his son’s ability to carry on the business.

Gary’s local downtown area was undergoing significant change. The city center had many vacant buildings. Gary saw an opportunity -- buy, renovate and rent these empty buildings, but only if he could “buy them right.”

Mind + Metrics = Success By Tom Durkin, in the business section of The Union — Nevada County

Roger's equipment manufacturing for the building industry was growing, buy why were the profits squeezed?

Business was booming for Gordon's fiberglass boat manufacturing, even when they added a second shift production was still not meeting demand.

Charlie's engineering company won a 2-year state contract to improve 25 miles of highway. It was soon apparent they had significantly underestimated the costs and were heading for a loss of several hundred thousand dollars.