Next Level Strategy · 01. June 2017

Too many business executives believe, wrongly, that differentiation requires blazing new paths or innovating something from nothing. Instead, paying attention to trends can help you differentiate and identify needs and opportunities like nothing else can. Being a “trend getter” is a best-kept secret among high-growth companies, with executives envisioning new ways to approach and leverage what already exists. Here are some ways to make "trend getting" an ongoing initiative in your company....

Momentum Building · 01. April 2017

Too often, owners and managers operate their businesses in silos that cause many opportunities to be overlooked. Accounting focuses only on accounting. Operations focuses only on operations. Marketing focuses only on traditional sales and promotion. Safety and maintenance only focuses on safety and maintenance. I could go on and on. High growth companies understand that each area of the business is a spoke on a wheel that works in tandem to truly keep opportunities flowing in and turning into...

Momentum Building · 01. November 2014

Is your business implementing a marketing effort or a marketing strategy? I was inspired to write this column after continuing to see a pattern in what I would classify as the top five band-aids companies use with the belief that their sales will skyrocket or when a desperate need for sales exists. Using a "Band-Aid" to resolve any type of a problem is an American idiom for a temporary solution or something that seems to be a solution, but has no real effect. If you are frustrated by a lack of...

Momentum Building · 01. July 2014

How you approach your operations from a marketing standpoint is key to its success. Marketing for many small businesses is viewed as a necessary evil or a mysterious phenomenon that seems to be all too elusive when it comes to getting results for the business. You try this tactic or that tactic. You implement this program or that program.You ramp up your sales efforts or develop exciting new promotions. And yet, nothing seems to have any sticking power. If you are doing any of these five...

Momentum Building · 01. May 2014

I am continuously amazed how often I witness opportunities being missed, time being wasted or resources not being effectively leveraged due to a lack of initiative. While you would think this is something that is not an issue with an entrepreneur, it is more often than you think because of beliefs about what initiative is and isn't. People in general don't take the initiative they ultimately could and then wonder why they are not realizing success or progress as they had hoped. Could you or...

Momentum Building · 01. April 2014

Wearing multiple hats is nothing new in the life of an entrepreneur. However, this column is going to focus on the hats you throw upon others. Too often hats are being tossed onto the wrong person or for the wrong reasons, which have a negative impact versus the positive relief you envisioned. Have you or are you placing hats on the wrong heads, causing more confusion or chaos than collaborative gusto? 1. Just for a While Hat: I witness this all the time. An employee is asked by the business...

Profit Building · 01. August 2013

In a radio interview with a show called Uncommon Giving, I was interviewed along with the CEOs of two companies featured in my book, 50 Marketing Secrets, to discuss the link between profitability and charitable giving. Both of these companies were in industries that had been severely impacted by the Great Recession that occurred between 2007 and 2010, and yet they each realized triple-digit growth. When being interviewed recently, they confirmed that each had continued to grow their charitable...

Confidence Building · 01. May 2013

Over the past several weeks I have witnessed, advised or helped rectify numerous encounters and situations related to technology with business owners. What I have concluded is that business owners are perhaps trusting too much, don’t know enough to properly manage their Internet presence and technology, and then are left at the mercy of others at the most inopportune of times. Part of the problem is in assumptions that business owners make or because of what they don’t know that they...