As I set out on my bicycle in the pre-dawn darkness, following the tail beacons of other riders beginning the annual Three Oaks Michigan Apple Cider Century bike ride early that morning, I realized that it was going to be a cold, windy day.  In fact, as the ride wore on, it was apparent that the wind seemed to be blowing hard from every direction.  I was thankful for some extra help that I had to address this situation: a new breathable windbreaker in highly visible fluorescent orange, toe and hand warmers, and that cup of extra strong green tea and lemon that I sipped just before starting out.

When running your business, where do you turn for that extra help?  Do you have an IT expert on staff that can manage a Sales CRM system that supports your sales staff, but who is also aware that it needs to keep the institutional knowledge of your customers safe if a sales person leaves to go to a competitor?  Do you have an operator who has the bandwidth to utilize that expensive new 3-D printer that will allow you to quickly prototype a job to respond to your client’s unexpected design change?  Click on the attached file to continue reading.