Celebrating Small Business Week: What’s Your ‘Why’?
By Michael Gunther National Small Business Week is May 5th to 11th this year. This week is a great reminder to us all to shop local and support small businesses. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are 28.8 million small businesses in America...
Take Time to Work on Your Business
By Michael Gunther Two tiny words can completely change your work life. What do these phrases mean to you? Work on your business. Work in your business. At Collaboration, we have clear definitions. When a leader is working in their business, they are engrossed in the...
It’s Not a Goodbye, but a ‘See You Soon’
By Rachell Smith In my nearly five years as a proud Collaboration team member, I have grown just as much as this amazing company. But now, it's time to say farewell as I move on to achieve my own breakthrough performance at another SLO-based organization. I first...
Closing the Gender Gap: How to Face the Challenge of Being a Female Entrepreneur
By Erin Hoffman Forty percent of all businesses in the United States are owned by women. Women business leaders have come a long way over the decades, but research and anecdotal evidence supports the idea that there are still some ingrained traits that hold women...
How To Prep Your Team To Lead Without You
This article was originally published on Forbes. By Erin Hoffman “I’m taking a week off!” are words said by no small-business owner — ever. The amount of work and leadership involved in owning and running a small business means there is little time to completely...
Business360°: Breakthrough and Plan Your Two-Year Vision
By Michael Gunther March roared in like a lion for us at Collaboration as we hosted our inaugural Business360°: Advanced Strategies for Leaders event. I presented our proprietary Scalable Growth Model™ to an eager crowd of business leaders, and I taught strategies on...
Insights into the WBA LGBT Economic Summit & Conference
By Michael Gunther I am so excited to be speaking during a breakout session at the Western Business Alliance (WBA) LGBT Economic Summit & Conference taking place Mar. 14 to 16 in LA. As a member of the LGBT community and head of a team of allies, this is a great...
Maintain a Healthy Company Culture While Managing Change
By Jill Dagion Late last year, I attended the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce’s Insight Studio Workshop “Managing Change”, facilitated by Aaron Himelson, a local management and business consultant. This workshop was of particular interest to me as I encourage our...
Business360°: Our New Speaker Series for Seasoned Leaders
By Michael Gunther As relentless learners, our Collaboration team is driven to educate ourselves and our fellow business leaders to learn new techniques that will lead to success. That’s one reason why we decided to launch a speaker series, Business360°: Advanced...
Five Common Misconceptions About Hiring A Management Consultant
By Erin Hoffman This article was originally published on Forbes. During my tenure as a management consultant, I've helped hundreds of companies determine their areas of improvement and develop success plans. Management consultants can have many different specialties,...
2019’s Key to Success: Effective Delegation
By Michael Gunther The new year is a great time to re-educate yourself on best business practices and ways to strengthen your leadership. However, a lot of what you may find in online business articles are tips and tricks when what you actually need is advice on...
Celebrating 2018 Success
By Rachell Smith Before we start to work on our 2019 goals, we wanted to take some time to reflect on an incredibly successful 2018. From business growth to accolades, join us in recognizing the outstanding achievements of some of our clients and community leaders —...