Author name: Steven Imke

Steve giving a speech

Essential Advice You Need to Know Before Starting a Small Business

Before Starting a Small Business

Unlock the Secrets to Success with This Insightful Guide for First-Time Business Owners. From Perseverance and Authenticity to Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, Discover Essential Advice to Overcome Challenges, Embrace Growth, And Define Your Own Path to Achievement. Learn How to Conquer Fears, Build A Supportive Network, And Harness the Power of Stage-Two Thinking.

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Teaching a workshop

How To Build Trust and Reach a Wider Audience Through Reputation Building

Small Business Marketing / , ,

Discover the Transformative Power of Reputation-Building Strategies for Small Businesses. Learn Why Positive Word-Of-Mouth and Testimonials Hold More Weight Than Self-Promotion and Explore Practical Tactics Such as Online Reviews, Community Engagement, Social Media, And Differentiation to Create Opportunities for Others To Talk About Your Brand.

How To Build Trust and Reach a Wider Audience Through Reputation Building Read More »

Girl Drinking a Coke

The Law of Expansion: Branding Inversely Proportional to Scope

Learn to Think Like a Customer /

The Law of Expansion States That the Power of Branding Is Inversely Proportional to Its Scope. When A Brand Extends Itself by Adding Products or Services, It Risks Diluting Its Brand Message and Losing Its Impact. This Phenomenon Can Be Observed in Various Industries, Where Brands Known for Quality Introduce Lower-Cost or Unrelated Offering, They Diminish Their Overall Brand Strength. Understanding The Law of Expansion Is Crucial for Small Business Owners to Maintain a Focused and Impactful Brand Identity.

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The Ugly Truth of Employee Ownership Without Capital Contributions

Equity Funding (Ownership/Stock) / ,

Discover the Potential Pitfalls of Offering Employee Ownership Without Capital Contributions. Explore The Reasons Why Employee Ownership Is a Hot Topic, The Financial Risks and Responsibilities Employees May Face, Operational Skills and Mindset Challenges, Fairness Issues Among Shareholders, And the Complexities Involved When an Employee-Owner Leaves the Company.

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Senior Woman

The Baby Boom Women Demographic Represents Huge Opportunities For Business

Small Business Marketing /

Unlocking Profitable Niches: Small Businesses Seize the Growing Market of Senior Single Women – Discover the Untapped Opportunities for Entrepreneurs to Cater to The Unique Needs of Senior Single Women, Opening Doors to Thriving Businesses in An Expanding Market. Explore The Potential for Success in Meeting the Evolving Demands of This Demographic and Seize Your Chance to Make a Lasting Impact.

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Frustrated caller

How To Master the Art of Superior Customer Service

Learn to Think Like a Customer / ,

Exceptional Customer Service Is Crucial for A Brand’s Customer-Centric Reputation and Success. It Ensures Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, And Differentiation. Neglecting Customer Service Can Lead to Missed Opportunities. To Succeed Today, Businesses Must Prioritize Customer Service as A Strategic Investment and Deliver Outstanding Experiences.

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Outbound Sale

The Ultimate Sales Showdown: What You Need to Know About Inbound Vs. Outbound Sales Tactics

Small Business Sales /

Inbound and Outbound Sales Are Two Distinct Approaches to Driving Revenue for a Small Business. Outbound Sales Involve Actively Seeking Out Potential Customers Through Email Outreach, Cold Calling, or Social Selling. Inbound Sales, in Contrast, Focus On Identifying and Engaging with Prospects Who Have Already Shown Interest in a Company’s Products or Services.

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Contractor working onsite

Unleash Your Consulting Power: Why Being Exclusive Is Holding You Back

Small Business Sales /

Many Consultants Are Hired for a Period of Time on a More or Less Full-Time Basis in Support of a Project. They Are Compensated on an Hourly or Daily Rate and Are Often Required to Show up On-Site like Regular Employees. This Is a Bad Business Model for the Consultant and the Client for Various Reasons.

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JOLT Effect

How to Close More Sales Using the JOLT Effect

Learn to Think Like a Customer /

The JOLT Effect Provides a Four-Step Methodology to Deal with Indecisive Prospects: Judge the Indecision, Offer Your Recommendation, Limit the Exploration, And Take the Risk Off the Table. This Approach Helps Salespeople to Determine the Source of Indecision, Provide Proactive Guidance, Limit the Number of Choices, And Remove the Fear of Making a Poor Decision from The Prospect.

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Sales Call

Powerful Words to Deal with Indecisive Prospects

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know, Small Business Sales /

When It Comes to Making Sales, Sometimes the Prospect Is Indecisive. As A Business Owner or Salesperson, You Want to Get the Prospect to Move the Sale Along, but Either the Prospect Comes Across as Dismissive, Saying They Know Something and You Know They Don’t, or They Are Just Fearful of Taking the Leap and Choose to Procrastinate. There Are Four Sets of Powerful Words That Every Business Owner or Salesperson Can Use to Get an Indecisive Prospect to Commit One Way or The Other.

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ChatGPT

11 Unique Ways I Use ChatGPT To Make My Life Easier

Small Business Operations / ,

AI Tools Like ChatGPT Can Be Incredibly Helpful in Simplifying Tasks and Creating More Efficient Workflows. The Key to Making an AI Tool Like ChatGPT Provide Accurate and Useful Results Is to Focus on Prompt Engineering, Which Is the Practice of Constructing Detailed Queries So the Tool Can Develop a Context-Rich Response. Here Are 11 Ways I Use ChatGPT.

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Salesman on Phone

Powerful Words to Resurrect a Stalled Sale

Small Business Sales /

When It Comes to Making Sales, Sometimes the Deal Gets Stalled for One Reason or Another. As A Business Owner or Salesperson, You Want to Get the Prospect to Move the Sale Along, but You Don’t Want to Come Across as Too Pushy or Confrontational and Risk the Deal. Here Are Two Sets of Powerful Words Every Business Owner or Salesperson Can Use to Resurrect a Stalled Sale. When Would Be a Good Time…” And “I’m Guessing That You Have Not Gotten Around To…”

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Selling a dream

Powerful Words To Inspire Prospects to Buy

Small Business Sales /

When It Comes to Making Sales, There Is a Fine Line between Coming Across as Too Pushy and Being Assertive Enough to Get a Prospect to Make a Purchase. The Following Are A Few Phrases That Every Salesperson Should Use During the Sales Process to Get a Prospect to Consider Their Offering “I’m Not Sure If It’s for You But…”, “How Open-Minded Are You About…”, “How Would You Feel If…” And “Just Imagine…”

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Man handing out cash

What You Need to Know About a Merchant Cash Advance (MCA)

Small Business Finances, Debt Funding (Loans) /

Traditional Term Loans for Small Businesses Involve Fixed Monthly Payments of Principal and Interest in Exchange for Upfront Cash and Rewards a Company to Pay Off the Debt Early. A Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) Provides A Cash Advance in Exchange for Variable Payments Based on A Percentage of Every Credit Card Purchase Received by The Business and A Fixed Predetermined Payback Amount.

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Buyer Persona

What is a Buyer Persona, and Why is it Important?

Small Business Marketing /

A Buyer Persona Is a Fictional Representation of a Company’s Ideal Customer, Based on Market Research and Real Data About the Customer. It Is Used to Understand the Customer’s Needs, Behaviors, And Motivations. It Can Help a Business Align Its Marketing and Sales Efforts with The Needs and Behaviors of Its Target Customers. The Goal of Creating a Buyer Persona Is to Gain Insight and Understanding About Why Buyers Choose Products and Services.

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Ancient Hunter

What You Need to Know About How Dyslexia and ADHD Can Drive Small Business Success

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

What Are Often Considered Human Flaws in Today’s Society Such as Dyslexia and ADHD Can Actually Create More Effective Small Business Founders. For Millions of Years, Natural Selection Favored Hunters. Then The World Adopted Farming, and Genetically Well Adapted Hunters Were Marginalized in Favor of Farmers.

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The Gen Z Effect

6 Powerful Forces Shaping the Future – The Gen Z Effect

Learn to Think Like a Customer /

Gen Z Is Not Simply a Generation Such as Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, And Gen Y. Gen Z Has Experienced a Series of Forces During Their Formative Years That Not Only Define This Generational Cohort but Has Redefined All the Previous Generations by Blurring the Traditional Generational Boundaries in What Is Known As “The Gen Z Effect.”

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VIDEO: Why You Need To Be Better At Responding To Change

Small Business Operations / , , ,

One of the advantages of a small business is their ability to change direction quicker than larger corporations.  Moreover, the rate of business change continues to accelerate which has given small business a leg up on larger corporations.  However far too many small businesses continue to rely on business principles defined long ago when the rate of change was much slower.   In this video discover that has changed and what you can do as a small business to be more responsive to change.

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PetPal Minimum Marketable Product

How to Reduce Startup Risk with an MVP, Minimum Marketable Product, and Minimum Lovable Product

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

Before Investing Time and Energy in Engineering a Final Product, Founders Need to Begin by Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to Validate Their Overall Idea and Concept, Progress to a Minimum Marketable Product to See If Others Will Exchange Money for It and Get Genuine User Feedback, and Finally Scale the Solution to Create a Minimum Lovable Product That Appeals to The Mainstream Users.

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Sales Discovery Meeting

How to Use Sales Discovery Questions to Close More Deals

Small Business Sales, Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

When It Comes to Sales, Too Many Small Businesses Spend Too Much Time Pitching Their Solution and Not Enough Time Listening to the Prospect. Small Businesses Need to Use Sales Discovery Questions to Control the Buyer’s Journey and Uncover Their Needs, Challenges, and Goals Before They Offer Their Solution.

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Debt collection

Five Things You Need to Know Before Hiring a Debt Collection Agency

Small Business Operations / ,

Many businesses these days have a lot of invoices that their clients have left unpaid. According to Entrepreneur, the estimated amount of outstanding invoices across the US is somewhere around $825 billion. This puts every small business’s average amount of unpaid invoices at $84,000. It is not uncommon that some of these debts are paid

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Direct to consumer purchase

8 Challenges to Direct to Consumer Business and How to Overcome Them

Small Business Marketing / , , ,

Small Direct to consumer Companies Are Finding It Harder to Maintain Margins and Profitability Given Rising Customer Expectations and Customer Acquisition Costs, Along with a Worsening Ability to Measure Ad Effectiveness, Ad Fraud, and Ad Blindness. Coupled with Soaring Shipping Costs and Supply Chain Issues, Direct to Consumer Companies are Feeling the Squeeze.

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Buy Four Green Houses Before You Buy a Red Hotel

Successful Business – Buy Four Green Houses Before You Buy a Red Hotel

Before Starting a Small Business / , , , ,

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, discussed the value the game Monopoly had in his education when he wrote that “You buy four green houses and trade them in for a red hotel.” The message here is that to have a successful business you don’t buy the red hotel right out of the gate. You build up your tacit business knowledge so that when you can afford the red hotel you are more likely to be successful.

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