Telefini Small Business Blog

As I was planning what to do for my mom this Mother’s Day weekend, I started thinking about what I truly appreciate about her. While reflecting, it occurred to me that many of the qualities I see in her are the same qualities that drive entrepreneurship – self sacrifice, patience, pride, optimism, and intuition. For this we ...

Sheely is my nickname, and I have been going by this since 3rd grade. My full first name has been a challenge for people to pronounce. While growing up, I dreaded the first day of class as attendance records inevitably listed my full name, and I’d have to introduce myself after teachers inevitably butchered the pronunciation – it didn’t help tha ...

Over the past year or so, I started hearing the term “value added” used in conversations around strategy, time management, and training. To be honest, for a long time I wasn’t a fan of the phrase, and I’m still not a 100% sold on it, primarily because I just don’t like the way it’s typically used in a sentence (“is that value added?”)…but I digr ...

Sure, you’re wondering if you read the title correctly, or if I’m referring to another Richard Engel besides the NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent. (Or maybe you’re asking, “who in the heck is Richard Engel?!”) Your initial thought was correct. I’m talking about the Richard Engel, whom you’ve probably seen at least once over the past few year ...

It takes resiliency to live in the Northwest through the month of February. We’re known for the rain and never-ending gray days that even hide our beautiful mountain ranges - hence the phrase, “the mountain is out” when the sun happens to break its way through the thick blanket of dullness. February in Washington really pushes you to be strong. ...

We’ve already posted one article to honor our favorite IT gurus, but we feel that Geek Appreciation shouldn’t be limited to one single day. Plus, it’s never a bad time to learn a few more useful tech tricks. As I’ve mentioned, we’re PC people, so the tech tricks listed below reflect that bias. However, the offer still stand ...

With trout fishing season officially kicking off last weekend in Eastern Washington, I’ve found myself reminiscing about my childhood years of going fishing with my dad. This was the time of year that we’d go to renew our fishing licenses, pick out new bait and supplies, and of course grab some yumm ...

I am a huge fan of deadlines. I’m an even bigger fan of using every second up to the deadline – after all, you’re not late if you complete a task before the deadline occurs, right? During school, I was definitely one of those students who stayed up all night finishing a paper and printing the final copy just minutes before class started. There ...

To be honest, I don’t know if there is an official Geek Appreciation Day, but here at Telefini, we’re taking today to recognize the hard work of all the wonderful “geeks” (a.k.a. IT Professionals) who are serving or have served us over the years. We know the outstanding support and service these professionals offer can tend ...

I think we’ve all been there at some point – staring at a blank screen, tapping a pen repeatedly on a desk surface, or my personal favorite, typing a string of nonsense letters such as “lakjd flkj alsdkfj” just to see something written down and to give my fingers a small sense of usefulness. Momentary lapses of creativity are common, but when mo ...

For me, the little things truly make my day. I don’t mean this to be cheesy. I genuinely get excited when I learn a new trick for example in Excel or Word. Just recently (and I can’t believe I’m admitting it), I learned that if you have a couple tabs open in one Internet Explorer window, you can actually drag out each tab into its own window (wh ...

For as long as I can remember, my dad has been a loyal Nordstrom customer. I always liked the smell of the perfumes as you first walked into the store, and hearing the pianist play beautifully near the escalators. As I grew up and to this day, I still appreciate the fantastic selection of children’s shoes - my close friends and family know that ...

In college, I majored in psychology, and I was fortunate to have some fantastic professors who made lectures both engaging and memorable. The Psych 101 course provided a broad overview of the various disciplines within psychology, including neuropsychology. While I can’t recall a ton about the various str ...

...Don’t let your business repeat the mistakes of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar   Every year in my high school English classes, we’d focus on one of Shakespeare’s plays. While Julius Caesar was actually my least favorite, I always liked the line, “Beware the Ides of March.”  In thinking about running a business, this quote, along ...

The Mattress Queen? In case you’re wondering, I’m referring to none other than Sunny Kobe Cook, founder of Sleep Country USA. Sunny started her business in 1991. While she is currently an author, professional motivational speaker, and successful businesswoman, I can recall key lessons I learned from Sunny during college that have stayed with me ...

From 5th to 8th grade, if I wasn’t in school or sleeping, you could pretty much guarantee I was at Gonyea Boys & Girls Club, and more specifically, in their swimming pool. During that time, it wasn’t unusual for me to spend 3+ hours in the water, as I went from open swim, to co-teaching swim les ...