Guest Columnists
Business Smarts: Avoiding Scams Takes Effort
Many of us hear about scams and wonder how anyone could fall victim to them. We would never wire money to the prince in Nairobi who has e-mailed because he has money for us. We would never give our credit card number to someone who had called claiming to be an IRS agent. The list
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Policy: Time to Streamline Sales Tax
As our culture evolves and the internet continues dominating our lives, we need to make updates to our tax laws to keep pace with the changing economy. The state, county, and municipal governments that rely on sales and use taxes to fund public services are increasingly unable to provide the services and infrastructure necessary to
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Diversity: Where Do We Start?
Congratulations! Your employer has confirmed a commitment to diversity and inclusion initiatives and has named the individual within the organization who will manage those efforts . . . YOU! So where do we start? We must understand that the first hurdle — the acknowledgment that a commitment is necessary — has been jumped. Many, however,
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Policy: Paving the Way Forward
“What are we going to do about our roads and bridges?” I’ve heard it from Missourians across the state since long before I got involved with politics. The Missouri General Assembly just concluded a highly contentious session with no answers for our infrastructure (but another task force to further study the issue). It’s been
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Business Smarts: Working with Unhappy Customers
One of the Better Business Bureau’s most important functions is providing a bridge between customers and businesses when the customer is unhappy and files a complaint. Excellent customer service can often solve problems long before they reach that point, but now and then every business encounters an unhappy customer, and employees need to be trained
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Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Overdue
I expected that, by the time this article was published, the Missouri General Assembly would have passed a prescription drug monitoring program that would make Missouri the last state in the country to adopt one. They didn’t. Prescription drug monitoring programs in the U.S. are not new, but they’ve constantly evolved as policies have reflected
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Getting More from Online Reviews
Businesses know all too well the power that can come with online reviews, whether good or bad. Customers rely on online reviews to help make buying decisions, and reviews can also make a big difference in a company’s overall search engine optimization, making it more likely that potential customers will find them when searching online.
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The ‘Why’ Behind Diversity and Inclusion Efforts in Business
Many companies nationwide have stated a commitment to diversity, yet that commitment, and how it’s exercised in the workplace, varies. One way to uncover a company’s true understanding of diversity is to visit their website and review their statement on diversity and inclusion. Check to see if the company has a page dedicated to
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Business Smarts: Real Estate Resources
Mid-Missouri has a strong real estate market, and some would say this is a good time to consider buying commercial or residential property. As our population continues to grow, we can see the nearly constant addition of real estate. There are plenty of opportunities to buy and sell and plenty of real estate professionals who
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Your Company Needs a Privacy Policy
Don’t you want to know how businesses are using the private information they collect from you? Don’t you think your customers want the same thing? Depending on where you live and what you’re doing, having a privacy policy for your customers’ information may actually be required. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, recommends privacy policies
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Talking through Discomfort
It’s no secret that we would rather avoid conversations, situations, people, places, and things that make us feel uncomfortable. It’s easier to play the avoidance card than deal with discomfort. It’s human nature. However, when conversations of importance come into play – such as those that deal with basic respect for fellow colleagues, friends and
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Uncovering Unconscious Bias
In the workplace, our biases — that is, our preconceived opinions about something or someone — affect who we recruit, who we hire, who we promote, who we take advice from, and even who we have lunch with. Biases we’re not aware of, unconscious ones, impact everything we do. These biases can affect our bottom
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Don’t Assume Excellent Customer Service – Train It
Each of us has a handful of stories about great customer service experiences. But we probably also have at least that many stories about horrible customer service. Offering excellent customer service is one of the easiest ways for a small business to differentiate itself from larger, better-funded competitors. It’s also a powerful, inexpensive way to
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Business Smarts: Small Business Scams
Many of us think scams target individuals, but businesses are all too often the victims. One Columbia business I know of learned this lesson the hard way. Today, they’re out $11,300. One afternoon, one of two company owners — a smart, successful, self-made business leader in our community — received an e-mail that looked like
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Business Smarts: Make Cybersecurity a Priority
Most of us know that Yahoo was the victim of a cyberattack this year, and that the data of more than 500 million users was stolen. Not enough of us, though, give sufficient thought to the possibility of this sort of thing happening to our own small businesses right here in mid-Missouri. Business owners and
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Airport Terminal Improvements Needed
“Something has to be done. There’s something not quite right with having passengers waiting out in the snow.” – Ray Beck, former city manager, commenting in 1977 on airport terminal issues. And yet, as Columbia Regional Airport is on the cusp of celebrating its 50th anniversary, passengers are still walking out of a “temporary” 38-year-old
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Mike Matthes: A Brief History of Flying
“Come Josephine in my flying machine. Going up she goes! Up she goes!” – Fisher & Bryan, 1910 Written in the early days of “aeroplanes” and aviation, the song tells the story of daring young pilots courting their sweethearts with “flying machines.” The lyrics express the technological optimism of the era. I can only
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Mike Matthes: Death and Sales Taxes
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin Franklin never envisioned the Internet, which would allow consumers to purchase goods of all kinds from all over the world — free of taxes. And while tax-free shopping is likely appealing to a large number of us, it
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Mike Matthes: So, Why a City Manager?
Almost three score and ten years ago (no kidding), Columbia voters discarded the political party system and adopted a council-manager form of government. In 1949, we were categorized as a city of the third class — meaning 3,000 to 30,000 citizens, much smaller than today — but experiencing post-World War II growing pains, as the
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Peter Stiepleman: From Generation to Generation
The story I am going to relate to you is really a parable. It speaks of a rite of passage, but its purpose is to do something even more significant. It is a rallying cry for our community’s future. In just a short time, my 13-year-old son will celebrate his bar mitzvah. A bar mitzvah
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