Archive for Better business

Front Stage Versus Back Stage

It’s critical that you execute on your promises and deliver what customers expect. If they expect something great and receive something mediocre, their perception of you plummets.
Systems must be in place to ensure perfect delivery. If you don’t execute and keep your promises, these customers will tell everyone about it, and they have the [...]

Why One Mortage Firm is Thriving in a Horrible Lending Environment

I met Kenton Brown, co-founder of Sente Mortgage, at a Wizard Academy seminar.
Having experienced first-hand the ugly failure of the lending market, I was curious about how their business was handling the recession.
“So how’s business?” I asked him.
“Never been better,” Kenton responded enthusiastically. “We’re having our best year ever.”
Surprised, I asked, “So what are you [...]

Get Out of the Box To Pinpoint Your Limiting Factors

Some factor, or a variety of factors, are holding your business back. You’re hitting a ceiling.
The problem is, you can’t see these limiting factors. Why? Because you’re stuck in the “box” of your business. You see all the wonderful reasons why customers should buy from you.
Unless you can get out of the box, you’ll [...]

Build Community Loyalty Rather Than Incentivizing Bargain Hunters

Jeff Sexton, copywriter for Future Now, published an excellent article on Social Media Examiner entitled “Are You Unknowingly Bribing Your Social Media Fans?”
He warns against a pattern of “ethical bribery” that engages your customers on a purely economy level. It trains them to always look for the incentives, rather than stay loyal to the brand.
So [...]

5 YouTube Channels For Small Business Advice

Mashable recently published a great article listing five YouTube channels providing excellent education for small business owners.
Their list of five includes the following:

Harvard Business Publishing
Google Business
U.S. Small Business Administration
Robert Scoble
Fast Forward

Not only will you learn applicable knowledge for your business, you may discover some ideas to leverage YouTube in your own business.
Check them out!
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Stephen Palmer [...]

Is Your Business a One-Hit Wonder?

The music industry is full of one-hit wonders. You know, bands or musicians that had one big hit, and then you never heard from them again.
There are also many companies that were formed around one-hit wonders.
Maybe it was a product that was hot at the time or even a service that hit a niche [...]

Why do YOU procrastinate?

Hey, I wasn’t talking to all of you! I was asking myself that question. 
Why do I sometimes put off the big jobs and focus on the little ones? Why do I at times slide the hardest projects to the side and work on the simple ones, or even pass over the tough emails and answer the [...]

The Knowledge You Need to Succeed

That you are subscribed to this blog is probably a signal that I’m preaching to the choir, but I want to emphasize something that I’m deeply passionate about.  We have a problem with leadership and success education in this country.  If I wanted to I could find all sorts people, organizations, and government policies to [...]

PR and ROI–Two Old Acronyms with Two New Meanings

This is a tale of two acronyms and how they’ve changed.  In a time where costs could be measured to the penny and big advertising budgets ruled the day, companies measured their effectiveness and success in many ways.  Two of the most popular acronyms were PR and ROI.  PR stood for Public Relations and ROI [...]

Professional Blogging Isn’t About You

One of my blog readers once posted the following comment on an article:
“Thank you for opening my eyes on the power of blogging. Before reading your article I had a negative point of view on blogs. In my opinion it was a loud statement saying ‘I need attention, does anyone care?’
I learned as I was [...]

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