From the category archives:

Business Basics

Customer Reviews Set Consumer Expectations

June 7, 2010

Expectations of your business will literally shape the whole consumer experience for your customers.   This is nothing new. In my post, “Social Media – It’s a Moral Imperative” I wrote about how a movie’s marketing campaign painted an unrealistic expectation of being a comedy – and then delivered scenes of horrific violence and very little [...]

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Overcome Business Fear of Sharing

April 27, 2010

Learning to share was by far the hardest thing I had to learn to do as a child.  My parents tried to buy my love and as a result, I had some GREAT toys.    Learning to share those great toys was a real challenge for me.  It took me a long time to recognize that [...]

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Are you a young bull or an old bull?

April 14, 2010

“Softly softly, catchee monkey” is an idiom thought to have its origins in the early 20th century.  The saying  is a shorthand way of advocating  patient, careful and stealthy strategic planning. There’s a popular parable which illustrates the importance of planning and patience called “The Story of Two Bulls“. There are two bulls walking side [...]

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Social Media is Consumer Controlled Conversations

April 7, 2010

Ah the “buzz” around social media is burning like a wild fire out of control – it’s the bright shiny bauble of our time.  Everywhere you turn there’s another guru offering yet another “product” promising to provide everything you need to know to harness the power of social media and magically build your business.  The [...]

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Old school “selling” strategies fall flat in a social media world

March 31, 2010

Old school selling strategies were very “push” oriented.  Push – Push – Push: Buy-Buy-Buy. The communication methods associated with “old school selling” are very “one way”.  The business talks AT a prospective customer via traditional media sources – and the customer has two alternatives:  buy or don’t buy. Then – a new school of selling [...]

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Before you spend one penny on an AdWords campaign….

November 23, 2009

Before you spend one penny on an AdWords campaign – take a walk with me – a customer – through the whole “searching for a product or service” on the internet. Yesterday – my clothes dryer quit working.  While draping my clothes over the railing of the upstairs over look is an option, it’s not [...]

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Are your customers wearing tin foil hats?

November 19, 2009

In Business Building Strategy: The most important question of all…, I suggested that the word”why” can turn a simple complaint into an essential business building strategy question.  Sometimes – a series of very mystifying actions can have their root in a very simple disconnect which can be quickly and easily discovered by simply asking “Why?” [...]

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Business Building Strategy: What will you do to get their money?

October 30, 2009

I’ve been doing a lot of individual work with clients and a phrase I’ve been using a LOT lately is…. “What are you willing to do to get their money?” It’s easy to blame those idiot customers for not being smart enough or willing to work hard enough to do business with you. You know [...]

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This is how social media works to build your business…

August 25, 2009

Here’s another real life story on “How Social Media” works.  I hope it helps to illustrate WHY it’s so hard to put an ROI value on your social media participation. “Suzy” is a client of mine and she has a problem.  Actually, she has more than one problem.  She has MANY problems because that’s just [...]

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Hiring Help and – if you can – avoid hiring the VA from hell

June 24, 2009

I recently wrote about how your Your Two Most Important Business Assets are time and money. When you’re starting a small business, it’s almost a given that you’re going to be short on money and often, you’ll find you’re short on time as well. In the course of building a business – every business owner [...]

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