Business Building Basics Most people when they think of business building they think of creating a product, selling the product, and hope to make enough capital to finance their next product idea. This kind of thinking is short-term, and doesn’t lend itself well to a long-term business venture. When you stop and think about a [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, Small_Business, Startup, strategyDefining the causes of lost business value is not what many large consulting firms do. Many benchmarks of corporate practice start by looking at successful companies. But a recent Booz & Company survey took the opposite tack. They decided to study the biggest losers: companies that, in one way or another, had seen their fortunes [...]
Read More Business_Intelligence, leadership, organization, strategyThere has been a lot of pre-presidential election discussion about the strategies to create jobs. Both presidential candidates agree that America needs to encourage businesses to hire more people. Frankly, the espoused tactics to achieve this goal are vague at best. At some points during the second debate, I was intensely offended by both candidates [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, financing, Startup, strategyEarlier this week we talked about the 5 Lies of Social Media. This is a rebuttal to that post by Greg Lieber. My responses to Greg are in italic. Earlier this week, Mikal Belicove published a well-written but misguided article entitled “Five Lies About Social Media Marketing.” While several of his suggestions may be useful for [...]
Read More branding, Marketing, small business, Small_Business, social media, social networking, strategyOK. It’s the end of the week. I’d like you to take a look at your schedule this week, business owners. How much of your time is taken up with activities that don’t create new products or services, drive more sales or find new customers? If the answer is a lot, it’s probably time to [...]
Read More organization, Small_Business, staffing, strategyEvery time a grocery bagger said paper or plastic, Margaret Moss would cringe, envisioning the stashes of used bags in her car or kitchen. Her yearning to go green eventually led to a business idea: a set of reusable bags that fit into a handy pouch. In 2009, after investigating consumer camping gear and experimenting [...]
Read More strategyThis is the time of year when business strategists are asked to give their take on the future of the web and online entrepreneurship in general. I’ve been asked no less than a dozen times between October and the end of December to prognosticate in writing about trends and predictions for the upcoming year. And to date, I’ve successfully [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, Marketing, strategy, web tools, websiteEverybody’s already published their “Top 10″ predictions or trends. So I thought I’d add mine to your list. This is one about customer service. Let me know your thoughts. Customer service is a perennial issue that is critical to all small business owners. Although it is included in every company mission statement, no one wants [...]
Read More customer service, strategyWhen I worked in the corporate world (think global corporation with 30,000 employees and a Board of Directors complete with an audit committee), this was the time of year when everyone in the enterprise received their final financial targets for the following fiscal quarter, as well as numbers for all of the next fiscal year. Bonus and incentive plans [...]
Read More communication, organization, strategyRob Croak, founder and CEO of BCP Imports. Photo Courtesy of BCP Imports If you haven’t spent time in playgrounds recently, you might not know about Silly Bandz, the colorful silicone rubber bands that come in hundreds of styles. Shaped like animals, numbers, letters and a range of objects, Silly Bandz have become a schoolyard [...]
Read More branding, Marketing, Small_Business, strategy