• Dealing with difficult customers

    Published On: March 1, 2024Categories: Business

    Every business at some point is forced to deal with difficult customers. Perhaps they are unhappy with the level of service, the product or a member of your team. Or maybe their expectations are just unrealistic. Understanding how to navigate challenging interactions, however, can turn a negative situation into a positive experience that builds stronger [...]

  • Small business smarts during career transitions

    Published On: January 1, 2024Categories: Business

    Our industry has many examples of successful marine fabricators closing their shops and becoming employees of larger companies. The specific lessons learned as a marine fabricator/business owner include time management, finances and accounting, and strategic sales and marketing—all critical skills that will help fabricators excel in the corporate world.   Ironically, when you examine the [...]

  • Navigating the future of labor

    Published On: August 31, 2023Categories: Business

    Organizations need to be thinking about tomorrow and, more specifically, how the future of work, the workforce and the workplace will be dramatically different from what we know today. And more important, from what it has been in the past.  Warp-speed changes ahead Let’s start by thinking about today and taking a pulse of the [...]

  • Leadership and management smarts

    Published On: July 1, 2023Categories: Business, Management

    Leadership and management are closely related; however, despite often being spoken of in the same breath, they are certainly not synonymous. If we use those terms interchangeably, we tend to behave as if these roles are interchangeable and equivalent. Doing so means we miss critical components of excellence within our organizations. Destination vs. the path [...]

  • The lighter side of OSHA

    Published On: May 1, 2023Categories: Business

    When most of us hear the word “OSHA,” we instantly conjure up images of ticket-writing cops invading our workplace. And these aren’t the $35 tags that grace our windshield when we linger in a parking spot too long. These citations can easily hit the four- or five-digit mark depending on the severity of the violation. [...]

  • Marketing old and new

    Published On: January 1, 2023Categories: Business

    I majored in marketing in college. I thought I was great at “packaging an idea” and running with it. Now that I have owned Onboard Interiors LLC in Marblehead, Mass., for almost 20 years, I understand that marketing changes with the world, and the marine world is a unique market for sure. Are boat shows [...]

  • Young marine fabricators in Australia

    Published On: September 1, 2022Categories: Business

    Employing young people is painful.” “They don’t know how good they’ve got it.” “All they know how to do is play games on their phones and computers.”  I hear these things often, and they are just so wrong. I love young people. I used to be one! Here in Australia, I’ve had the pleasure and [...]

  • Workflow in a seasonal environment

    Published On: July 1, 2022Categories: Business

    As I have grown Precision Custom Canvas Inc. from a single-person operation to a business of four full-time staff and two seasonal positions, I have struggled with the concept of providing a consistent living wage to my employees through the off-season while snow blankets the boats and ice fills the harbors. I have always known [...]

  • Ransomware attacks affect small businesses

    Published On: May 1, 2022Categories: Business

    The recent proliferation of well-publicized cyberattacks has revealed ransomware to be a serious national security threat. Still largely hidden from public view, however, are the attacks on small businesses, including many within the industrial, specialty and advanced textile industry, that don’t make the headlines. Surprisingly, while ransomware attacks have become a multibillion-dollar threat, the average [...]

  • Find creativity in marine fabrication frustration

    Published On: March 1, 2022Categories: Business

    Are you dogged by missteps? Do you perceive your mistakes as creative opportunities or simply as failures? Are the challenges of custom work creating stress in the rest of your life? And finally, where do you as a fabricator find purpose in your life? I can’t speak for everyone, but I discover mine in every [...]