If you're a small business owner, you know how important it is to stay ahead of the game. Thinking outside the box isn’t a one-and-done move, and you can't just rely on what's worked in the past or stick to the same old ideas. You've gotta keep evolving and finding new ways to stand out from the competition. Perpetual innovation, friends. If you’re not changing…you’re falling behind.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the importance of continuous innovation for small business owners and provide practical steps you can take to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

The Dangers of Complacency

Not to be overly dramatic, but complacency is a silent assassin that gradually erodes a business's competitive edge. Complacent = stagnant =  failure to adapt to the evolving needs and preferences of customers and missing out on some serious growth opportunities. A lack of innovation leaves you vulnerable to emerging competitors who are eager...

Pivot: /ˈpivət/ /ˈpɪvət/ to turn or rotate like a hinge or a successful business owner.

During a recent episode of our Podcast, The Liquid Lunch Project, my partner Matthew Meehan and I addressed the need for a business to be agile and its ability to effectively Pivot when the needs arise.

This is the tale of one of the greatest Pivots of all time.

In 1967, five students from Charterhouse, a boarding school in Surrey, England formed a rock band that would go on to transform the style of rock. Imagine a graduating class including Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Steve Hackett! Incorporating innovative themes and nontraditional instruments, Genesis went on to becoming one of the most sold and highly decorated bands of all time.

From 1970 to 1975, Collins played drums and percussion for the Band. 

In August 1975, following The Lamb Dies Down on Broadway tour, Gabriel left Genesis. The band placed an advert for a replacement...

A great article was written by our very own, Matthew Meehan (CEO, Shield Advisory Group) being featured in #Forbes today!

 Check it out and let us know your thoughts. 

Three Team-Building Tips For New Business Owners

The Truth (Ahem!) Behind the First Assembly Line

“If I Have Seen Further, it is by Standing Upon the Shoulders of Giants” Sir Isaac Newton

The notion of organized systems is ages old with brilliant examples across history.

Adam Smith discussed the division of labor in the manufacture of pins at length in his book The Wealth of Nations published in 1776, apparently a banner year for Americans.

The Venetian Arsenal, a complex of former shipyards and armories clustered together in the city of Venice, dating back to circa 1104, operated similar to a production line. Ships moved down a canal and were fitted by the various shops they passed. At the peak of its efficiency in the early 16th century, the Arsenal employed some 16,000 people producing one ship each day, and could fit out, arm, and provision a newly built galley with standardized parts on an assembly-line basis. Although the Arsenal...

Spanish Proverb

People have a huge impact on your life. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” says American entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn.

You should think about the people you are associating with the same way you think about what you eat and how you’re exercising. Here are a few examples on just how poignant this one reality can be.

The “PayPal Mafia” is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and developed additional successful technology companies such as Tesla, Inc., LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Affirm, Slide, Kiva, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. Most of these so-called members attended Stanford University or University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at some point in their studies.

Why do we denigrate a smoothly run southern Mediterranean conglomerate with tight hierarchical...

Sunk Cost Fallacy Theory and Knowing When to Leave the Casino.

Anyone miss the blackened fingers from reading your daily newspaper to get your news in the morning?

Any urbanites out there reminiscing about folding the paper into columns so you could read the newspaper while strap hanging on a roller-coaster-like subway ride?

When did we stop getting our daily dose of news from tree pulp?

Excite was launched in 1995, think of it as another Yahoo. A person could get news, weather, a search engine, email address, instant messaging, stock quotes and a customizable user homepage. Excite was the 4th most visited website in the world. Excite even negotiated a deal with AOL, where AOL agreed to make Excite its exclusive search and directory service. DOJ Antitrust Unit is still preparing the briefs on that one. If you remember AOL and how big it was at the time, this deal was a massive win for Excite. In ’99 Excite was acquired by @Home network. This merger of two internet tech...

“Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom and nature.” – Roman author, architect, civil engineer, and wanna-be-accountant Vitruvius

No field is this one sentiment more critical than in accountancy. Bookkeeping and accounting standards are designed to ensure consistent presentation of financial statements, making it easier for people to read and comprehend the information contained in the statements.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles were eventually established primarily as a response to the Stock Market Crash of ‘29 and the subsequent Great Depression, which were believed to be at least partially caused by less than forthright financial reporting practices by some publicly-traded companies. The federal government began working with professional accounting groups to establish standards and practices for consistent and accurate financial reporting. Generally Accepted...

In this video, we will talk about how we're eliminating all credit card processing fees across the boards for all merchants.

If at First You Do Not Succeed…

An incandescent light bulb is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a bulb to protect the filament from oxidation. Current is supplied to the filament by terminals or wires embedded in the glass. A bulb socket provides mechanical support and the electrical connection. Piece of cake!

Let us consider the variables: the shape of the sphere, thickness of the glass, type of inert gas to fill the bulb, metal of the filament, etc. Piece of cake! Let us consider what can go wrong: Wrong shape of glass…boom. Too thin glass…boom. Wrong gas…boom.

Contrary to popular belief, Edison was not the only inventor to speculate on a bulb to emanate light. He was, however, the inventor of the best version of the lightbulb.

Incandescent bulbs are manufactured in a wide range of sizes, light output, and voltage ratings. volts. They require no external regulating equipment, have low...