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	<title>Aardsma</title>
	<link>http://www.aardsma.com</link>
	<description>On life and business.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:30:01 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Changing Prices</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Setting prices for your product or service is an inexact science. I think the guesswork that goes into setting prices also makes it tempting to leave prices unchanged for too long. But leave them too high and you lose customers. Leave them too low and you lose margin. Two questions to ask when prices might [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-02/changing-prices.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=changing-prices</link>
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		<title>Optimal Conditions for Change</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We are most likely to change when: There is a problem&#8230; That we care too much about to just tolerate&#8230; That we can&#8217;t get away from&#8230; And is challenging but not overwhelming. These &#8220;optimal&#8221; conditions remind me of some of life&#8217;s most difficult and painful circumstances. Apparently optimal change comes through experiences that feel extremely [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-02/optimal-conditions-for-change.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=optimal-conditions-for-change</link>
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		<title>The First Question in Sales</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As a training exercise, I&#8217;ve been taking a look at proposals before our sales reps send them out to customers. Before I even look at the proposal I ask the sales rep &#8220;What&#8217;s important to this customer?&#8221; It might be lead time, price, color matching, control of a specific frequency, you name it. I can&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-02/the-first-question-in-sales.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=the-first-question-in-sales</link>
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		<title>Checking Progress vs. Creating Progress</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I love dashboards that show the vital stats of an organization at a glance. I recommend them wholeheartedly. There&#8217;s a danger though. Once that beautiful real-time dashboard is a click away, it can be tempting to spend too much time checking results. (I&#8217;ve been known to check real-time sales stats before, during, and after a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/checking-progress-vs-creating-progress.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=checking-progress-vs-creating-progress</link>
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		<title>Reverse Assumptions</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I participated in this exercise with a seminar speaker recently. It&#8217;s fun and surprisingly eye-opening. Thinking about your business, your organization, or any unit of your life, write a list of the main things that make it what is. Example: If you own a restaurant: We make food. We have menus. We charge for food. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/reverse-assumptions.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=reverse-assumptions</link>
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		<title>But Nobody&#8217;s Born with It</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week I saw a young music star belting it out on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. His confidence and comfort in the spotlight amazed me. It&#8217;s tempting to say &#8220;He was born different than me, that&#8217;s why he can do that and I never could.&#8221;. That might be comforting, but it&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/but-nobodys-born-with-it.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=but-nobodys-born-with-it</link>
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		<title>It&#8217;s In You</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently learned the story of a new friend who started and grew a new division in an established company. He made it a success in spite of challenging circumstances, less-than-supportive bosses, and less-than-plentiful resources. The essential ingredient in the mix wasn&#8217;t funding, a trail already blazed, or any external factor. It was him. He [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/its-in-you.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=its-in-you</link>
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		<title>The Tension Between Sales and Production</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When a customer says &#8220;We&#8217;ll place this big order, if you can rush it.&#8221;, sales usually feels pretty enthusiastic, because that means extra commission, and company growth. When sales calls production to share the good news, production is not so enthusiastic. For production that means extra effort, and changes in plans. My take on this [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/the-tension-between-sales-and-production.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=the-tension-between-sales-and-production</link>
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		<title>Unforeseen Improvements</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In my companies we make plans for each year&#8217;s growth, but honestly, most of the growth comes from new ideas we didn&#8217;t foresee in our planning. We don&#8217;t have a bank of awesome but unused ideas to copy/paste into the annual plan. When we come up with a great idea, we try it right away. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/unforeseen-improvements.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=unforeseen-improvements</link>
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		<title>Overthinking</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This cartoon is so me. So much of what we fear can&#8217;t really hurt us.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.aardsma.com/2012-01/overthinking.html?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=overthinking</link>
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