CSR Latest Articles

The Procrastinator’s Client Gift Guide

Black Friday has come and gone, Cyber Monday’s deals have expired, and you still have no idea what to give your favorite clients or referral partners. Lucky for you, CSR’s annual gift guide was assembled with procrastinators like you in mind. With most international travel still restricted due to the pandemic, bring some holiday cheer in the form of exquisite meats and cheeses to clients afflicted with wanderlust. Check out websites like La Tienda for authentic treats, or sim

Five Tips To Increase WFH Productivity

Earlier this month Twitter announced it would not be requiring employees to return to work upon the reopening of their offices. Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey found that the large tech company “saw no significant change in productivity as people started working from home every single day”. Which poses the question: Will working from home become the new normal? Working from home has its perks for both employers and employees. Twitter is among several major companies that have noti

Harnessing The Power Of The Hotshot

We’ve all been there before: just as you’ve acclimated to your role and gotten the hang of your responsibilities, some hotshot comes in with a new idea or innovative system that radically transforms how you do your work. This disruptive hotshot shows you up by finding a way to do your job more productively and somehow achieves better results. The hotshot phenomenon is universal, no matter what industry or role you’re in. Whether you’re an executive assistant, a CEO, a doctor,

Silver Linings In The Coronavirus Pandemic

The experiences of the last few weeks have been a real whiplash with the promise of more turmoil to come. CSR’s expertise has always been in solutions for your professional AND personal success, but those two realms are mixing in very new ways due to the coronavirus pandemic. Our clients are balancing the challenges of business in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, while working remotely, many caring for children all day at home, monitoring teleschooling, and worrying about

It’s Too Much. I Give In.

As a small business owner, how many times have you thought this? “There’s just no way I can continue to not only provide services but also do what’s necessary to grow – and that’s if there is no curveball that comes from out of the blue to upend my very delicately balanced applecart…” I hear you and understand. There is an awesome book written by Doug Tatum called No Man’s Land that talks to a lot of these issues. For us at CSR, we have used it in our client work as well as i

When It’s Time To Get New Digs

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] “Okay, I’m getting out of Corporate America and we’re going to do things the right way. I’m going to work when I want, how I want, and deliver incredible value to my clients. Instead of wasting time and energy moving into a stuffy office, w

3 Reasons Your Company Will Fail Without A Mission Statement

Did that grab your attention? Maybe. Maybe not. A few years ago, I would have been in the ‘maybe not’ category—let me tell you why. A mission statement? Why do I need that? I was in Corporate America forever and the only time I ever bumped into mission statements was when I saw them in etched glass over the receptionist’s desk or on the back of our business cards. I come in to do my job—that’s my mission. Au contraire mon frère! A truly well-thought-out mission statement is a

No More Single-Shingle Firm

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] For all of you refugees from big-firm life, this is for you. You’ve gone out on your own. Risky as it was, you spoke to your trusted confidantes, checked out your savings and did a gut check. And then jumped. You’ve been at it for a while

4 Steps For Successful Interviewing

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” border_style=”solid” module_alignment=”left” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.74″] Ah, the dreaded interview process. You searched through hundreds of resumes, painstakingly combed

Intentional Ignorance: It’s Not Cute Anymore

We all know someone who has this, and we’ve probably all suffered from the condition at some point: intentional ignorance. The engineers who claim that “the right side of my brain is a raisin.” The baby boomers who pretend to fear each new technological advancement. The artists who couldn’t care less about decent spelling and grammar because (supposedly) that’s just not their skillset. I call it “intentional ignorance” (the term is borrowed from Noam Chomsky, and related to b

Taking Time Off: El Camarón Dormido Se Lo Lleva La Corriente

For you non-Spanish speakers out there that are going to Google Translate the title of this post, don’t. It will come back as “Shrimp Asleep takes him Stream.” If translated less literally, it’s actually “A sleeping shrimp is swept away by the current.” However, that’s not what it means. What it means is, basically, “You Snooze, You Lose.” Okay, great, we got that straightened out – but what does it have to do with taking time off? Isn’t the moral of the story the antithesis

What Crocheting Lace Taught Me About the Business World

I’ve always been what you could call a “crafty” person. Way before Pinterest, at the age of six, my grandmother taught me how to crochet and knit. Soon after, I learned how to cross stitch, “weave” potholders, make and fix jewelry, and basic sewing skills. In recent years, I’ve taught myself how to make everything from screen printed t-shirts to tie-dyed dresses, rearview mirror “dice” to duct tape wallets, wine cork coasters to wrapping paper…But through it all, I keep going

Ripping Off The Bandage

Okay, to what could I possibly be referring? Well, as pleasant as removing a large, bloody, hair-ripping Band-Aid is (comparable to getting your knee drained after an ACL repair – thanks Atlanta Old White for that rugby memory), many people think terminating an employee ranks right up there. Like with a Band-Aid, you can fire someone slowly or quickly. My preference is to not get “cut” at all, if possible (to avoid having that Band-Aid to begin with, right?), but if the situa

Lent For A Small Business

Lent! Time to take things seriously. Interestingly enough, it seems to be the season for planning. Whether Christian or not, many go into “planning mode” during this time of the year. Some (either for faith-based commitments or because spring break is coming up) modify their schedules. If we naturally do this at certain periods of the year such as Lent, when and how often do we do this for our business? And when we do this how strategic is it really? After all, the first

When Caring Is A Mistake

At CSR, we talk about the importance of being patient when mistakes are made – and to try to minimize the impact of the potential mistake. Most importantly, we talk about the need to only make mistakes once. One of these critical “gotta-learn-it-but-don’t-let-it-happen-again” mistakes is that of caring too much. Caring too much? Aww, how sweet… Wait a minute, wait a minute – caring is a big deal. In fact, it’s such a big deal that it is one of our core values. Caring means g

No Resolutions This Year…Sort Of

As a former intern with CSR, I was asked to write a post about New Year’s Resolutions. But what advice can I, a lowly college senior with no Five-Year Plan and very little business experience, impart upon you, dear reader? I’m not one of those wunderkinds who resolved to learn a new language or patented an invention by age 12. In fact, my New Year’s track record is pretty awful. In years past, I approached the New Year armed with a long list of resolutions that ranged from th

6 Steps To Learn A New Program—Fast!

As CSR’s resident millennial, I am often dubbed the “tech-savvy” one who knows how to use every program and website. I’ve even had people ask me to teach them how to use software I’ve never heard of before! What’s the key to this amazing ability? I’ll tell you a secret: I’ve never taken a software class in my life. I just happen to know the quickest and most effective ways to learn the basics of a program or app. It’s a pretty simple process, really—just follow these steps: D

Five Ways To Get A Small Business Owner To Make A Change

Change. It’s essential for small business growth…and it’s also something many owners resist. Their reasons are always very valid, but the fact is transitions and changes just have to happen sometimes. So when you decide that the business needs something new, you need to be careful about how you introduce the idea. Whether you’re proposing using a CRM, starting a blog, switching email providers, or just finally getting a smartphone, there are specific strategies you can employ

When Should You Hire A Personal Assistant?

My conversations with Alex about this topic went the same way that most of our conversations about change go. Alex: You need help, let’s get you a personal assistant. Wendy: I don’t know how to do that. I don’t need it. I don’t want to. Alex: You’re spending a lot of time doing things you don’t like to do that someone else could do for you, and that would give you more time to do the things you enjoy and that the business really needs. Wendy: I don’t know where to find someon

Leaders Wear WIGs (Wildly Important Goals)

How many times do you start off your day determined to accomplish x, y, and z? …then you look at your watch, it’s 6 PM, and you haven’t even finished the first item on your list. Know that feeling? I call it the “whirlwind of daily activity.” You do so many things yet accomplish so little, so much effort for so little result. How can you break away from this? I call it “putting on a WIG.” Although their use has almost faded into oblivion, historically wigs were worn to shield