Stay Busy

If you own and run a small business, you know being “busy” can be a very good thing, if busy means demand is strong, and you and your team are being productive and meeting customer needs. Then it only serves to follow that if busy is good, then being very busy is even better, right?…

Big Ideas, Small Business

The entrepreneurial spirit is hardwired into the DNA of millions of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Marylanders. Maryland is home to a vibrant and diverse small business community, in a wide range of industries, run by a wide range of owners. Just like opening any business anywhere else in the country, it takes a…

Higher Education Demands Immediate Action.

Institutions of learning have been bringing people together for more than a century on missions to embolden, ennoble, engage, educate, and empower new generations. The landscape has continued to rapidly evolve in the MOOC and modalities age, and we have all been working hard to change with it—to be relevant, to do the mission. Now…

Innovation on a grander scale.

You don’t need to have an academic degree to be a successful REALTOR. Studies do show that REALTORS with degrees make more money on average than their peers without degrees and that those with advance degrees make even more. It is also true that there are many REALTORS that make spectacular money that do not…

Self Inflicted Innovation

By Christopher Cullen Future Proofing through Disruptive Innovation Now that’s a mouthful.  It generally means do it to yourself before someone else does it to you.  The idea is like building a fail-safe around current and future industry innovations, by generating them yourself, instead of hoping they never happen.  If it’s going to happen anyway,…

The New Good Old Days

By Christopher Cullen While it can be joyous personally, reminiscing can be a professional liability. The good old days were great, but they are gone. It is time to shape and embrace the new good old days. My father was a primary care physician, he was called a GP, for General Practitioner, my brothers are…

What We Do Now

Zodiac has been serving associations and non-profits for decades, and we are still learning: What We Do For Associations and Non-Profits in 2018: Associations and Foundations in one form or the other, have been bringing people together for more than a century on missions to embolden, ennoble, engage, educate, empower and leverage the combined strength of…

Foundations for Engagement

A Point of View on Fundraising for Associations Member-Centric Focus Typically, members join an association for a few reasons — most of which are tied to their peers, profession and personal growth. At some level a member may know that their association is a non-profit, just like we all know most universities are non-profits; but…

Strategic Planning Patience

Speed is not important, but momentum is your friend It is an oxymoron of course. Leaders of organizations of all stripes do strategic plans. Some do them every year, others do a strategic plan every time there is a change of leadership, and others only when they are obligated to surrender one to some overseeing…