The ultimate goal when defining your key activities as part of your Business Model Canvas exercise, is to help you discover what activities you need to address in order to differentiate your product or service from your competition.
Key Activities and Your Business Model Read More »
It Is Always A Good Idea To Review Your Risk Exposure From Time To Time And Develop A Plan To Deal With Things Before You Are Forced To Deal With Them During A Crisis.
How to Determine Your Financial and Governmental Business Risk Read More »
A company’s key resources allow it to create and deliver its value proposition, reach its target market and maintain a quality customer relationship with them so that the business can earn revenue. For a company to produce a product or service, it needs access to physical resources, intellectual resources, human resources, and financial resources.
Key Resources and Your Business Model Read More »
It Is Always A Good Idea To Review Your Risk Exposure From Time To Time And Develop A Plan To Deal With Things Before You Are Forced To Deal With Them In Real Time During A Crisis. Here Is A List Of Some Operational Business Risks Your Business May Face So You Can Consider Ways That Mitigate The Effects If Things Go Wrong.
How to Determine Your Operational Business Risk Read More »
A company’s cost structures represent the specific costs that the business will incur while operating under a particular business model. Through understanding the key resource, key activities, and its key partners, the business can determine its available cost structures. By choosing to be either Cost Driven or Value Driven and properly using Operating Leverage, the business can find its optimal cost structure.
Cost Structures and Your Business Model Read More »
Everyone Lies the Only Question Is the Degree to Which One Lies. Learn How to Become A Human Lie Detector to Know When You Are Being Deceived
How to Become A Human Lie Detector Read More »
When you suspect an individual may be lying, it may be time to ask a few questions to see how they react to give you further evidence of their deceptions.
How To Tell If Someone Is Lying Using Questioning Techniques Read More »
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your own personal lie detector to recognize if someone is being less than truthful? Well, there is a science that has identified ways to detect if a person is lying or being less than truthful just through observation.
How to Spot Lying & Deceptive Behaviors Read More »
Lying in business situations is very common. Most people are poor lie detectors because we want to believe the lie rather than look for clues that the other person is lying.
The Truth About Why Lying in Business is so Common Read More »
When it comes to defining your revenue streams, especially when you are developing a business model canvas, there are many factors that you need to consider that affect your potential income source. Will you use a fixed or dynamic pricing mechanism, and is your revenue based on transactional and reoccurring sources of revenue?
Revenue Streams and Your Business Model Read More »
Abraham Maslow theorized that people are motivated by five types of needs. How an employer meets these needs changes with each level and contributes toward employee job satisfaction resulting in lower turnover and higher employee retention.
How to Improve Employee Retention with Maslow’s Hierarchy Read More »
Both Demographic and Psychographic information play an important role in market research. They both provide insights into the customer and are fundamental inputs to a business’s marketing strategy.
What is the Difference Between Demographics and Psychographics? Read More »
Do you know what it costs when you make a bad hire? Do you know what it costs if one of your star employees leaves you to work for a competitor?
How to Calculate the Cost of Employee Turnover Read More »
The old economy had limitations on shelf space and the ability to target niche markets and as a result, companies only invested in offerings that appealed to a very large population. Today we live in the Long-Tail Economy, where a business can target a very specific and often very small market segment for next to nothing and distribution bottlenecks are vanishing, making the offering of niche products and services not only possible but more desirable by consumers.
The Long Tail Economy-What You Need to Know Read More »
For companies that have to compete for skilled talent, the world is getting harder every day. This is based not only on economic expansion but also on the demographics of the workforce.
How to Become an Employer of Choice and Why You Need to Read More »
WOW statements are crafted to invoke a “Wow, tell me more” response from the other party. They must create curiosity, contain imagery, and be brief.
How to Create a WOW Statement Read More »
As salespeople, we are frequently challenged about our claims and a good salesperson would be wise to incorporate techniques used by master debaters.
How to Win Arguments in Sales and Negotiations Read More »
Cognitive tunneling is one of the principal causes of accidents that involve human error and is also the source that prevents many business owners from seeing all possible solutions to everyday business problems causing them to make bad business decisions.
How to Avoid Cognitive Tunneling and Make Better Business Decisions Read More »
Entrepreneurs Should Be Skeptical Of All The Information They Consume Online. They Should Bring Into Question Any Motives That The Author Of The Content Many Have In The Way They Present The Information.
Lateral Reading: How To Learn To Tack Against The Winds Of Misinformation Read More »
The role of CEO and President, and sometimes Chairman of the Board are often used interchangeably. In a small business this might be true, but each title has a different set of duties.
CEO vs President – You Need to Know That Their Roles Are Different Read More »
If You Want To Get People To Buy From You, You Need To Understand The Reasons People Employ When Making Purchasing Decisions. Price May Be Important But What About Quality And Reputation? There Are Many Reasons Customer Buy From You.
You Need To Know The 8 Reasons Customers Buy From You Read More »
Search Engines Are Always in A Battle with Developers Attempting to Hack Their Algorithms. Therefore, Search Engines Have Adopted a Series of Practices to Try to Detect If the Site Is Trying to Cheat or If They Are Truly a Rising Star.
How Your SEO Actions Expose You As A Cheater Or A Star Read More »
As a small business mentor, I see so many startups willing to risk everything on an untested idea. Since they like their idea, they are sure they know everyone who sees it will too.
Have You Defined Your Leap of Faith Assumptions? Read More »
Find The Keywords That Search Engines Use To Rank Your Better Performing Pages So You Can Improve Your Pages Position In The Search Engines.
How To Find The Best Performing Keywords And Rank Higher In SERP Read More »
Leadership and management are both essential elements of business success. Leadership is closely aligned with the role of a CEO and Management to the role of the President. Even though there is a difference between leadership and management most people use them interchangeably which is incorrect.
What is the Difference Between Leadership and Management in Small Business? Read More »
What Makes A Good Backlink? The Answer Includes Relevance, Diversity, Location On The Page And Keyword Usage And Placement. While You Can’t Directly Control Your Off-Page SEO, It Is Important To Understand How The Construction Of The Backlink Affects How The Search Engines View You As The Destination For The Link.
What You Need to Know About a Backlink and SEO Read More »
What is operating leverage and why should you care? Ignoring the financial mumbo-jumbo, operating leverage represents how having debt can affect a company’s bottom line profit. In some cases, Operating leverage can improve a company’s profits and in others, it can destroy it.
Operating Leverage for Small Business: When You Should Use Read More »
The Most Important Factor in SEO Is Also the Hardest. On-Page SEO Represents All the Things That You Can Directly Control. Off-Page SEO Primarily Consists of Getting Links, Known as A Backlink to Your Pages or Your Site from Other Websites on The Internet, Which Are Out of Your Direct Control. Therefore, While Getting Backlinks Is the Most Important Part Of SEO, It Is Also the Hardest.
What You Need to Know About Link Building Read More »
There is an art to writing a great attention-grabbing headline. However, there are a few tried and true formulas that generate more click-throughs than others.
How to Write a Great Headline for a Post Read More »
On-Page Visible Elements Include Headings, Images, Paragraph Text, And Other Formatting Elements. Proper Use of Visual Elements Can Make Your Web Page Easier for The User to Read and Help Highlight the Search Engines Your Keywords.
What You Need To Know About On-Page Visible Elements And SEO Read More »
When We Talk About On-Page But Hidden SEO Techniques We Are Talking About Several Clues You Can Provide To The Search Engines To Tell Them What Your Content Is About. It Can Also Control What And How Your Message Is Displayed In Search Results
On-Page But Hidden SEO Techniques You Need To Understand Read More »
Most businesses have been encouraged to focus on relationship builders salespersons. Unfortunately, the study shows relationship builders have the fewest number of top performers. There are in fact 5 salesperson archetypes and one out performs the others by more than 2X.
The Five Salesperson Archetypes and the One that Performs Best Read More »
Using The Proper Keywords That You Have A Realistic Chance To Rank For In A Search Engine Is How You Become Visible To New Customers. The Key Is To Finding Powerful Keywords Is To Find Ones That Have A Good Search Volume But Limited Competition.
20 Steps to Find Powerful Keywords Google will Rank High Read More »
Word-of-mouth marketing is not just making a good product or delivering a good service, and magically your clients will tell their friends how great you are, which will, in turn, lead to a greater number of sales. To achieve an epidemic you must employ some specific strategies.
How to Achieve a Word-of-Mouth Epidemic Read More »
To Make Your Website Visible To The Public It Needs To Be Found And Indexed By The Search Engines And To Be Properly Indexed You Need To Focus On Your Keywords.
Keywords-Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask Read More »
SEO Primer – What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Understand About How to Improve Their Content to Generate More Organic Website Traffic
SEO Primer – Everything Small Businesses Needs to Know About SEO Read More »
Many entrepreneurs do not understand the difference between a business and economic model. Simply put a Business Model is primarily customer-focused while an Economic Model is owner-focused.
Why You Need To Know How Your Economic Model Drives Profit Read More »
Running a small business is complicated, especially if you have employees. As a manager, you have many tasks that have to be organized into a chain of subtasks and to assign responsibility to team members and subordinates if you want to succeed. A RASCI chart is the answer.
RASCI Chart – How to Manage Employee Roles and Responsibilities Read More »
Business owners can use a PESTEL analysis to assess which macro-environmental elements could potentially impact the success of their business. Each of the six elements of the PESTEL analysis can either impede a company’s growth potential or serve as a strategic opportunity.
How to Improve Your Odds of Success by Conducting a PESTEL Analysis Read More »
When buying or selling a business and the discussion comes around to financing options, few have ever considered the role of an earn-out. An earn-out can benefit both the buyer and the seller when used properly.
How to Increase Business Sale Profits with an Earn-Out Read More »
Economists looked at why different industries are more profitable than others and defined a model to explain why some have low-profit margins such as airlines and cafes, and why other industries have high-profit margins such as soft drinks and drug manufacturers.
How to Improve Profit Margins with Porter’s Five Forces Read More »
Business owners too often market the positives and ignore the negatives, hoping that the customer will not notice their shortcomings. Ignoring what your customer probably already know can be a mistake. Good marketers know how to turn the negatives into something that their prospects will value.
How To Turn A Business Negative And Make It Positive Read More »
What if you had a crystal ball that would let you see into the future to see if demand for your product or service was going to get stronger or weaker with time. Well, you can stop wishing. There is such a tool.
How to Predict the Future with Demand Curves Read More »
As consumers, we have a very hard time recognizing a business’s investment in expensive and specialized tools, or paying for a person’s knowledge or acquired skills. All they see is that they are paying a lot for something that didn’t seem too difficult for a person or business to deliver.
How Transparency Asymmetry is Destroying Your Value Read More »
The human desire for fairness can distort the perception of value and can have unexpected and often catastrophic outcomes, if not handled properly in your marketing.
What You Need To Know About How Fairness Shapes Value Read More »
Within the world of debt financing, there is a continuum, as different lenders have different appetites for risk and reward.
What You Need To Know About The Debt Continuum Read More »
A common belief in product development, born out of the day of mass markets prior to the long tail economy was that as a product developer, your goal was to find the best and most profitable segment and go all in. The theory of horizontal segmentation changed everything.
How to Crush the Competition with Horizontal Segmentation Read More »
When it comes to marketing there are two primary approaches. One approach focuses on what your offering does and the other is how it will improve their life. Unfortunately, many business owners spend too much time describing all the bells and whistles and not enough effort trying to connect them to the benefits.
Features & Benefits: Why It Is Important To Know The Differences Read More »
There are two basic types of wealthy people in the world-income statement wealthy and balance sheet wealthy.
Not All Sources Of Wealth Will Keep You Rich Read More »
Do you get calls from vendors nearly every day trying to pitch you on their products or services?
Self-Weeding Your Economic Garden Read More »
Rather than employ a more traditional sales or market-led approach, some SaaS companies have seen serious traction for their offerings using a product-led strategy that uses a freemium version to attract new users.
How to Make a Profit with a Product Led Freemium Offering Read More »
Many individuals with stellar academic performance go on to become wonderful scientists, engineers, and even professors but with mediocre earning potential. Entrepreneurs need to be a jack of all trades and not an academic master of one.
Success Comes From Being a “B” Student Read More »
What if you could create additional value for your product or service in the mind of your customer so you could charge more and that it would cost you nothing, would you be interested?
How to Use Consumption Vocabulary for Profit Read More »
Being labeled a “Creative” congers up someone who is right brained and unsuited for business. However, creatives have found a seat at the business table as their virtues are being valued as Elizabeth Diane explains.
Why You Need to Cultivate Everyday Creatives Read More »
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with tasks? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night fretting over the next day’s tasks you have to accomplish? What if there was a better way to organize all the task you need to perform. Well, there is.
How To Make The Best Use Of Your Precious Time Read More »
In June 2018 the US supreme court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the state of South Dakota could force the online retailer Wayfair, a retailer with no nexus (physical location) in the state to collect sales taxes. This ruling sent shockwaves through the eCommerce community. Therefore, online retailers may now be required to collect sales tax on goods they ship.
How To Be Compliant With Internet Sales Tax Laws Read More »
As humans we all are guided by our own self-interests. Savvy business owners should craft their marketing messages to appeal to the customer’s self-interest.
Why You Need to Harness The Power of Self-Interest Read More »
Consumers are predictably irrational especially when it comes to customer satisfaction. In fact, when you pay has more to do with customer satisfaction than what you pay.
A Simple Pricing Hack to Increase Customer Satisfaction Read More »
While there are plenty of books and articles about email marketing, there are some less discussed secrets that only expert email marketers consider as part of their strategy.
7 Simple Secrets To A Great Email Marketing Strategy Read More »
In June of 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that even if an online business does not have a physical presence in a state, the state can require online retailers to collect and remit sales taxes.
Many businesses fail not because they have a bad product or service. They fail because they are not located in the right location.
Why Your Location May Be Bad For Your Success Read More »
When entrepreneurs look at debt financing, their credit score (FICO) plays an important role in being able to get a loan. Essentially, a person’s credit score is computed on five dimensions, each with a different weight.
Why You Need To Understand Your Credit Score Read More »
Consumers have been conditioned to focus more on what they are spending than on what they are buying. Consumers buy things today not because they need them, but because they are convinced that they can get it for a great price.
How to Tap into the Consumer’s Emotional Need For a Bargain Read More »
One of the biggest obstacles that prevent a buyer from making a purchase decision is the fear that they will pay too much. From the seller’s perspective, there is also the fear of pricing a product or service too high or low leaving money on the table.
How to Remove Buyer and Seller Remorse Read More »
Have you ever discovered something new and thought “What a great idea for a new business?” Often the signals you observed are only part of a short-lived fad.
How Responding to Popular Fads will Destroy a Business Read More »
Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor can prove to be a very expensive mistake for a business.
How to Avoid Misclassifying an Employee as an Independent Contractor Read More »
Every day, business owners face the challenge of finding ways to differentiate their products and services while remaining relevant in an increasingly competitive market.
The 4 Dimensions That Will Transform Your Business Model Read More »
Veterans are more likely to become entrepreneurs then non-veterans. However, not all veterans have the same propensity for entrepreneurship. There are a few sweet spots.
Do You Know Why Veterans Make Good Entrepreneurs? Read More »
A Cognitive bias is the psychological tendency of the brain to draw incorrect conclusions, even in familiar situations or when presented with clear information. When talking to small business clients I refer to a collection of three common cognitive bias as the Everest Effect.
How Your Cognitive Bias Can Destroy Your Business Read More »
I often ask people I meet if they ever consider business ownership and if not, what is holding them back. This post list 19 popular responses I get from people on why they are not following a path of business ownership.
The Top 19 Reasons For Not Launching a Business Are Wrong Read More »
The age-old marketing question is “How do you get people to talk about your product or service?” I believe the answer lies in being able to change the way your customer thinks about your offering.
How to Supercharge Word of Mouth Read More »
With the rapidly changing business landscape, companies who are beholden to their shareholders are shifting their risk from the business to the employee.
Income Security: Why Being an Employee is Just too Risky Read More »
Have you ever heard the saying “any customer is a good customer” or that “the customer is always right” Did you know that such mantras have destroyed many a business?
How to Quantify a Customer’s Economic Attractiveness Read More »
CEOs are not born they are made. However, the attributes and experience of what it takes to be the leader in a small business are distorted by articles and books based on the needs of large companies, little of which pertains to a small business.
What is More Important For a CEO, Sale or Marketing experience? Read More »
The Buyers Utility Map is a valuable tool to help businesses document the buyer’s experience, and discover areas that can be leveraged to create a leap in value.
How to Create a Leap in Customer Value with the Buyers Utility Map Read More »
Mystery is a powerful tool that creates a powerful desire in a person to discover the answer. Used properly it creates a kind of gravity to make a prospect want to spend his time and energy to learn more and creates buzz. I often drink Rolling Rock beer. For people unfamiliar with Rolling Rock, on the
How To Create Customer Desire With Mystery Read More »
In a perfect world, what a customer spends for something should be based on their opportunity costs. However, customers are irrational when it comes to money. By distorting a customer perception of their opportunity cost, a savvy business can make the customer spend more and be happy to do it.
How to Grow Profit & Satisfaction with Pricing Read More »
While being self-employed, a freelancer, a jobber, and even having a side-hustle technically make you a business owner, you’re are not a small business in the eyes of the government or lenders.
You are not a Small Business in the Eyes of the Government Read More »
A business that offers products and services just like everyone else’s in their industry are viewed as a commodity. Commodity businesses compete on price meaning low or often negative margins, especially for a new small business. Instead of just following the crowd there is a better way.
Why Compete – How To Find An Uncontested Market for Profit Read More »
Many individuals with a new idea for a product have the wrong idea about the role patents play in business. They see patents as a way to simply make money off their idea. However, patents exist to encourage innovation which is not the same.
The Honest Truth; Why Patents Are Often Not Worth It Read More »
A business can create value even before the business has revenue. This is important when giving equity to early-stage partners and investors.
Raising Capital: A Lesson From The Ship Of Gold Read More »
Scientists have discovered that as we go through life, our senses are constantly scanning the world around us and sending messages to our brain. The brain processes this incoming information automatedly to assess if a given individual can be ignored, is worthy to approach, or is somebody to be avoided
How to Master the Friend-Foe Continuum to Hack Relationships Read More »
Business owners too often confuse cause and effect and expend significant effort solving the wrong problems. A tool that can help business owners to separate cause from effect is known as a fishbone diagram.
Do You Suffer From a Cause and Effect Fallacy? Read More »
People like to work with and buy from people that they like. However, sometimes you need them to change their direction without leaving a stink on your relationship. Here are three strategies that can be used to help you get what you want in business relationships, with the added benefit of making you come out smelling like a rose.
3 Simple Business Relationships Strategies to Get What You Want Read More »
There are six easy-to-implement strategies that can intensify your offer to make customers on the fence buy from you.
Six Ways to Intensify Your Offer Read More »
When a prospect feels good about themselves and they do not attribute the good feeling to a specific cause, they tend to associate the cause of that good feeling with the person or persons who are physically close to them at the time.
How to Use Misattribution of Memory for Better Sales Read More »
The successful entrepreneur is one that keeps his eyes and ears open and takes stock of events happening around him. This is important not only to determine the margin price but to consider the impact potential events could have on the margin price in the future and develop contingency plans to deal with them.
To Maximize Profit You Need To Understanding Margin Pricing Read More »
With respect to sales, the similarity principle is based on the idea that certain facts when presented during a sales presentation can serve to heighten the probability that two individuals will be drawn to each other and experience a positive outcome in their interactions. Since prospects are far more likely to buy from a salesperson that they like and trust the similarity principal is an important tool for sales professions to understand and master.
How to Leverage the Similarity Principle for Better Sales Read More »
In the world of business, there are eleven popular business models that have survived the test of time.
VIDEO: 11 Tested & Proven Business Models That Drive Profit Read More »
Empathetic statements and complements that are crafted properly go a long way to predisposing a person to like you. That is because when someone feels good about themselves, they will also like you.
Verbal Statements That Will Improve Your Sales Read More »
In our tech-savvy world when it comes to communications, we are losing our ability to read and transmit subtle nonverbal signals. As a result, our nonverbal skills continue to atrophy.
How to Master Nonverbal Communications to Improve Sales Read More »
When it comes to service-related business, one of the biggest misconceptions about business is that the more things a business can do, the more valuable it will be in the eyes of the customer. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Profitability comes from being an “inch wide and a mile deep”.
You Need to Be an Inch Wide And a Mile Deep Read More »
The human brain is a fascinating and complex organ that is capable of being subconsciously manipulated by savvy business owners. When it comes to marketing and sales most strategies focus on the conscious side of the brain. However, tapping into the subconscious part of a prospect’s brain can pay huge dividends.
How To Tap The Subconscious Mind For Greater Profits Read More »
All successful entrepreneurs have experienced failure in their careers. The key is to not give up but to use failures as lessons.
Business Failure: Your Path to Success & Wealth Read More »
As consumers, we often have no personal experience with a new business and subconsciously look for observable clues to make our decision. I think many prospective clients, consciously or sub-consciously, judge a business by what they see.
How to Make a Business Look More Professional with This Simple Trick Read More »
For the business owner, it is important to understand the difference between a customer and a consumer. Often the terms are used interchangeably, but each requires a different message during the marketing and sales process.
Customer or Consumer? Why Knowing The Difference Is Important Read More »
Isaac Singer didn’t invent the sewing machine. He just perfected it. However, as a businessman, he was quite an extraordinary individual. His ability to spot opportunities and develop unique solutions was unmatched by any of his rivals.
How To Grow Rich By Thinking Like Singer – A Business Lesson From Isaac Singer Read More »
One of the first things most new business owners do is register their entity with the Secretary of State. While this may seem like a logical first step there are several important questions that need to be addressed first that you will come upon once you begin the application process.
How to Properly Register a New Business Entity Read More »
Insurance by definitions is a hedge against catastrophic loss. Having personal property insurance has its benefits. However, when it comes to insurance for a business, having too much insurance is not a good thing.
Insurance – Your Friend or Your Enemy? Read More »
Many small business owners come from corporate America and adopt their outdated contracting and payment processes when they set up their project and billing processes.
The Best Way to Contract and Get Paid as a Service Business Read More »
