Mother’s Day is coming up again very quickly – in 8 days, in fact. I won’t ask if you are prepared. The more important question is: Are your prospective customers? As a mother of two small children, I would take a completely clean house over flowers any day (after all, who is going
In the marketing world advertising gurus like to throw around big words like “branding” and “positioning”. Are those only for the big corporations like Starbucks or GM? Nope. Everyone can have a brand and — as a small company – yours may even be more important tha
I love Steven Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. It really identifies techniques that accomplished people have in common. One of my favorites is “Habit #7 – Taking the time to sharpen the saw”. And, basically it is the concept that if you are a woodsman chopping wood all d
You Are Not Making the Big $$ Money That You Should – “A high percentage of businesses fail”, is what we have all heard. Some even say as high as 90%. However, I couldn’t find any statistics to actually back that up. What I did find was a study done by NFIB that says that over the lifetime of a busi
“How can we compete with the cash-under-the-table cleaners?” is a question that I hear at least once a week. And, my short answer is “don’t” compete with them because they are not your competition. Let me tell you my experience with this. For a while I was in that same
You may or may not have heard the term “Viral Marketing”, but I bet you’ve seen it in action. Block long lines outside of a new Krispy Kreme grand opening, X-boxes being released at midnight that draw crowds of thousands, the buzz about the Blair Witch project movie a few years back, and even the sp
Have you heard? Fox News and the Comedy Channel have announced that Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert will trade appearances on their respective shows. These are very unlikely co-stars due to the controversial nature of their two opposing shows. Bill O’Reilly is known for his #1 top-rate
Question. “I just blew over $500 on mailer coupons with only 3 responses. Why didn’t it work? ” Answer. There a lot of things that go into an effective marketing or advertising piece. Recently I tweaked a client’s advertising pieces to pull more than double what they did befo
You may have noticed your clients being a little more cranky than usual as the stress of the holiday season takes hold. My tip this week is to remember to use humor whenever possible to avoid customer problems. Consider this, Southwest Airlines immediately set themselves apart from the rest of the p
Ah, the holidays. I say, tis the season for closet organizing. For, if your house is like mine, it is jam packed with tons of too much stuff! And for many of us the holiday season means more things to pack in. Well, why not take the road less traveled this year, and grow your business at the same ti
