Archive By Section - Business Columns
Ken Keller: Goal setting, coaching builds a successful team
I had the opportunity to visit the Dallas Cowboys' football training camp last weekend in Oxnard.
Jerry Citarella: Where can you find retirement income now?
There's long been a tradition in our country of working hard for most of our adult lives. We accumulate as much savings as we can; possibly get some type of retirement benefits from our employers, and then retire on income generated from a few different sources. If we saved more, we'd have a bit more income and if our employers were generous we might have even more income through a hefty pension plan. Nevertheless, we ...
Ken Keller: Foundation of business growth
Many business owners want to grow their businesses; they want more clients, more revenue, higher revenue per client, improved cash flow, reduced variable and fixed costs and high profits to reinvest back into the business to grow it even more.
Carl Kanowsky: Facebook, social media and employment law
Joan applied for the receptionist job at Imagoner Funeral Home. She was tired of her job at Tilted Hooters, wanted something not as exhausting and a job where people looked at her eyes, not elsewhere.
Joe Klocko: Employee-focused metrics improves every business
What are the key metrics that you use to manage your business? Undoubtedly, they include the "big three," which are sales, profit and cash flow. After that, there's a lot more variability than you might imagine. Especially when moving between industries such as consumer products versus durable goods and manufacturing versus service.
Ken Keller:NFL coaches lessons
No business can win with the wrong employees on the payroll. The responsibility of the owner is to make sure that only the right people are on the team, and to coach them individually and as a team, to success.
Carl Kanowsky: Car-buying adventure begins as lease ends
The lease on my sporty Volkswagen convertible ends in August, so I've been on a mission to replace my ride with a new, sexy vehicle.
SCV prime for home sales
After years of dismal news reports about the residential housing market, it has been pleasurable to have month after month of uplifting reports.
Brad Watson: Understanding HOA decisions
Dr. HOA, After nearly 20 years with the same management company, and the same manager at our clubhouse, our association's board of directors decided to change management companies. We did not even learn of the management change until after they were already hired. Can the board of directors hire and fire our manager and management company without a vote of the homeowners? Wouldn't this decision need to be made during a board meeting with homeowner ...
Should you pay down your morgage or not?
Security and peace of mind are everyone's concern. More than ever before, having "a roof over your head" seems so important.
Ken Keller: How to be a better people manager
Scientific research says that the single most important determinant of individual performance is a person's relationship with their immediate manager. Lacking a strong relationship with a manager that sets clear expectations and is willing to make investments to improve performance, an employee is unlikely to perform, let alone stay.
Carl Kanowsky: You can’t walk a mile in this guy’s shoes
You've probably heard the proverb, "Never criticize someone until you've walked a mile in his shoes." Well, for Jose Robles, this old saying has come to haunt him.
Health care law’s effects detailed
One of our goals at the Small Business Development Center at College of the Canyons is to provide the small business community with actionable information on economic opportunities that can affect their business.
Signal Sales Beat - July 17, 2012
Every week the Signal sales staff updates readers on local business news and tips it picks up while out in the field.
Signal Sales Beat - July 10, 2012
Every week the Signal sales staff updates readers on local business news and tips it picks up while out in the field.
Articles by Section - Business Columns
Ken Keller: Here are ten mistakes that business owners make
A former leader of a large Fortune 500 company was quoted in an interview that "People who do things make mistakes. The biggest mistake is doing nothing."
Ken Keller: Front line makes bottom line
Once a month, like clockwork, a gentleman comes to my house in the early morning and sprays for insects and bugs. We've spoken a few times and he always hands me his card, telling me to let him know if he needs to come back between visits. I think I have called him once in the last decade.
Bob Khalsa: Rising prices lift sinking homeowners
Local home resale prices last month hit the highest level in five years, with each leap up in prices rescuing legions of underwater owners, in effect, throwing them a life preserver and pulling them to dry land.
Ken Keller: Lessons learned in college apply to business
Thirty-six years ago this month I graduated from college. I didn't study a major that paid immediate dividends, meaning a job, and I wasn't ready for graduate school.
Ken Keller: Permission to argue is granted
Peggy Noonan wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal on April 20 about her attendance at Margaret Thatcher's London funeral service. She commented that Mrs. Thatcher was often frustrated with her staff. Thatcher once said to her aides, "I don't need to be told what, I need to be told how."
Bob Khalsa: Statewide median home price at five-year high
Heated market conditions fueled by a tight inventory and strong sales in higher-cost coastal regions drove California's median home price in March to its highest level since May 2008. Local prices, right here in the Santa Clarita Valley are headed higher, too.
Ken Keller: How one company turned it around
This week I'd like to introduce a company in a far different place compared to just a year ago. The organization has gone from despair to celebrating success. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the owner said his company had "…Increased sales, reduced costs and improved our overall financial position in terms of positive cash flow and profitability, as well as reduced debt."
Steven Tannehill: What do businesses want, anyway?
This is part two of a two-part column.
Bob Khalsa: Feds ease loan modification rules
Some homeowners who are still struggling to avoid foreclosure may soon benefit from streamlined rules that offer an easy way to lower monthly payments and modify their mortgage without requiring financial or hardship documentation.
Ken Keller: Here are the vitamins a leader must distribute
Looking back on those individuals who were my bosses, a clear distinction comes to mind.
Holly Schroeder: New homes benefit more than just buyers and builder
The only people who benefit when a house is built are the family members who get to live there, and the builder who constructed and sold the home, right?
Steven Tannehill: What do businesses want anyway? Part I
This column is part one of a two-part column.
Ken Keller: Lessons to be learned from lack of feedback
In 1970 I started my first official job. I worked nine hours a week at a small grocery store. For the next two years I grossed $11.25 a week.
Bob Khalsa: Prices, sales rise as SCV’s housing market continues its recovery
The residential housing resale market in the Santa Clarita Valley continued to recover during February, with sales and prices up to their highest levels in years.
Ken Keller: Getting crystal clear about your business
There is a terrific exchange in the courtroom drama "A Few Good Men." Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicolson, turns from being a witness in a court martial to being the prosecutor when he asks Lieutenant Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise: "Have you ever spent time in an infantry unit, son?"
