Many Naive Entrepreneurs Think That All Web Traffic Is Created Equal and Fail to Correctly Target Traffic. Traffic Can Be Divided into Traffic You Attract, Rent, Or Own. The Goal of Every Business Is to Get a Prospect into Its Communication Funnel to Build Trust.
How to Correctly Target Web Traffic to Drive Growth Read More »
There are a lot of reasons why startups have trouble raising money but most of those problems are self-inflicted and can be avoided. Discover the 4 times startups try to raise money too early, and how waiting will increase their odds of getting the funding they actually need.
Raising Money? Increase the Odds of Getting Your Startup Funded Read More »
There is a very disturbing historical correlation between the causes that contributed to the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis and the current state of digital advertising. If your business is monetized by ad revenue, or your business uses digital ads to drive traffic to it, you should take into account the unstable nature of advertising and not get blindsided when the bubble bursts.
You Need to Prepare for A Digital Marketing Meltdown Read More »
Brand Awareness has two goals. The first is moving the knowledge of your product or service from the unknown or unconscious mind to the conscious mind. The second is making a positive association with the brand.
27 Free/Inexpensive Proven Ideas to Create Brand Awareness Read More »
Enjoy the following excerpt from my FREE What You Need to Know About Starting a Business course where I talk about the difference between a 1099 subcontractor and an employee. Video Transcript (Lightly edited for clearity) If you have independent contractors and if you tell them when to show up, you provide tools for them, and you
VIDEO: Know Your Hiring Options – Contractor Vs. Employee – What Is Better Read More »
The Great Resignation Is About Achieving Greater Personal Fulfillment from One’s Work. Ikigai Is a Concept That Allows a Person to Find What Makes Them Fulfilled.
How Ikigai Is Driving Personal Fulfillment and Changing Small Businesses Read More »
Let’s Take a Detailed Look at Taking Risks. What Type of Risks You Should Go For? What Risks Should You Avoid? What Mindset Do You Need to Pull the Trigger When You Know the Time Is Right?
Taking Risks – Read This if You’re Scared to Pull the Trigger and Bet on Yourself Read More »
Different in That Regard. Here Are 8 Ways Entrepreneurs Think Differently from Most People
8 Simple Ways Entrepreneurs Think Differently Than Most People Read More »
The Taxes That You Have to Pay Is Related to Your Entity Choice. Learn How Entities Are Taxed and How to Pitch Investing to Investors.
Video: How Your Entity Choice Affects Your Taxes Read More »
Most Businesses Still Rely on Old Fashion Interruption Marketing Techniques. Stand Out by Not Going Wide but Deep by Employing Permission Marketing Techniques Instead.
The Complete Guide to Permission Marketing Read More »
Many People Associate Upselling with A Sleazy Sales Practice. However, When Done Properly, The Upsell Can Enhance the Customer’s Overall Perception and Enjoyment of The Product or Service, Build A Deeper Long-Lasting Relationship with The Company, While Improving the Company’s Profit Margins, And Customer Lifetime Value
3 Proven Ways to Upsell a Customer Read More »
Making your marketing message stick in a consumer’s mind is not about being charismatic pitchman, having lots of resources behind you, or even being a creative genius. To communicate a marketing message successfully the message must have a simple and relatable core message (Simple). It must make people stop and pay attention (Unexpected). It must make people understand and remember it (Concrete). They also need to agree or believe it (Credible), care about it (Emotional), and be able to visualize it (Story).
How To Make Your Marketing Message Stick Read More »
Search Engines Work by Crawling Websites, Gathering Info, Indexing It, And Then Ranking Based on Factors Like Content Quality, Load Speed, Mobile-Friendliness, And Keywords. Understanding These Steps Is Vital for Effective Digital Marketing and Higher Search Rankings.
How do Search Engines Work: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking Read More »
The Gartner Hype Cycle Is a Graphical Depiction of The Expectations of The Market’s Perceived Value of a New Technology or Innovation Over Time and Is Closely Linked to The Five Categories of Adopters.
How to Apply the Gartner Hype Cycle to Small Business Read More »
Discover Some Important but Often Unknown Facts About the Role of the SBA, Using Retirement Funds, And Private Investors as Sources of Funding
Video: Important And Unknown Facts About Some Common Sources Of Funding Read More »
There is really only one way to break a person’s preoccupation (without physical contact) and that is to appeal to their emotions. Emotional appeals come in four irresistible flavors: money, self-protection, recognition, and romance.
How To Make People Stop And Pay Attention With Emotional Appeals Read More »
Building a product or service that leverages the network effect is the secret sauce that adds the potential to make it go viral. A network effect is when the more people use it, the more valuable it becomes.
How To Go Viral with The Network Effect? Read More »
Most Nascent Entrepreneurs Follow the Crowds and Target Products or Services with Mass Appeal. This Is Often a Horrible Strategy. Most Business Owners Are Far Better Off Focusing on The Smallest Viable Market Segment, Known as A Niche Market.
Why You Need to Focus on A Niche Market Read More »
Enjoy the following excerpt from my FREE What You Need to Know About Starting a Business course where I talk about two common small business funding options for small businesses. We will discuss what I call the debt continuum, how lenders control risk and reward, and the value proposition for equity financing investors you can use to convince investors to fund your business.
Video: What You Need To Know About Your Funding Options Read More »
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would do anything to get it? That feeling does not happen overnight; a sales process created that yearning inside you.
16 Powerful Principles to Influence a Sale Read More »
The Three Ts Stand for Teach, Tailor, And Take Control and Come from The Book the Challenger Sale and Act as A Reminder to Salespersons of The Three Steps Necessary to Conduct More Successful Sales Presentations.
How To Improve Sales With The 3 Ts – Teach Tailor Take Control Read More »
Understanding A Prospect’s Or Customer’s DISC Profile Is One Of Those Concepts That Small Business Owners Should Really Grasp If They Want Sales Success.
Recognizing A Prospect’s DISC Profile for Better Sales Success Read More »
A break-even analysis is a technique used by business owners to assess how many units and at what price they need to sell them at to make a profit.
VIDEO: Why You Need to Conduct a Breakeven Analysis Read More »
Most business cultures follow a rather predictable business evolution as they progress and grow. There are four stages that a business must go through from birth to death.
What You Need To Know About Business Evolution Read More »
Work style is the foundation on which businesses grow, operate, and thrive. It refers to the way we think, organize and structure our work. There are eight different work styles.
What is Your Work Style? Definition and Importance Read More »
Consumers that visit your website don’t want to hear your life story. They will scan the page for key elements. The story brand framework will allow you to cut through the noise and clutter and deliver the concise message that will compel them to buy.
How To Use Your Story Brand Framework to Refine Your Homepage Read More »
The following video excerpt comes from my FREE What You Need to Know About Starting a Business course where I talk about the five things every small business needs to be successful.
Video: The 5 Things Every Small Business Needs To Be Successful Read More »
Your story brand framework can be used to create a roadmap to grow your business by creating a one-liner for your company, a lead generator to collect email addresses, an automated email drip campaign, collecting and telling stories of transformation, and a system that generates referrals.
How To Turn Your Story Brand Framework into A Roadmap to Grow Your Business Read More »
Stories are a great way to clarify and communicate your brand’s message to employees and to prospective customers to get them to buy from you. The story brand framework is a 7-step process to help craft that story.
How To Develop A Story Brand Framework For Your Small Business Read More »
Draws and distributions are simply a mechanism that allows owners to take out excess cash from the business. In pass-through entities, there are no tax consequences for doing either an owner draw, distribution, or a cash infusion in the normal course of business. This concept often creates a level of confusion for founders not versed in a few basic principles of accounting.
The Truth About Why Draws and Distributions Are Non-Taxable Read More »
One of The Most Important Decisions A Founder Will Have to Face Early on In Their Journey Is to Retain Power and Control or Focus on Creating Wealth and Growing the Business Fast in What Is Known as The Founder’s Dilemma.
How To Choose Between Wealth and Power, Understanding the Founder’s Dilemma Read More »
There is a mismatch between what science knows about motivation and what the business does. Many businesses continue to use techniques designed for the industrial era workers that no longer work.
Your Old School Management Practices Are Dooming You To Failure Read More »
Education-based marketing involves sharing information and educational resources with potential buyers while setting the purchasing criteria they should use that favor your offering.
Why You Need to Employ Education-Based Marketing Read More »
Measuring the Right Things When It Comes to Business Is Critical. Too Many Businesses Measure Inputs and Not Outputs.
Why You Need to Be Measuring the Right Things Read More »
The Maverick principles consist of eight steps and outline how small businesses need to define their social media strategy.
Why You Should Adopt the Maverick Principles for Social Media Read More »
Being Self-Employed Is Not in The Economic Interest of the IRS. They Get Paid Less Frequently, Earn Less, And Expend More Effort to Process
4 Reasons the IRS Really Does Not Want You to Be Self-Employed Read More »
Simply put, branding is your reputation and is your most valuable asset. Branding builds trust between you and the consumer and takes time to build. A trusted brand is more profitable and creates gravity for customers, employees, and the media.
Why Branding Is So Important for You and Your Business Read More »
Mindsets And Attributes Are Critical to Success. Here 8 Key Attributes of Movers and Shakers Who Have Built Multi-Billion Dollar Companies
8 Attributes that Nobody Talks About that Make for the Best Entrepreneurs Read More »
Social Sector Organizations Are Very Different from For-Profit Businesses. Their Economic Engine Is Replaced with A Resource Engine and The Leadership Required Focuses More Upon Legislative Leadership vs Executive Leadership Common in For-Profits.
Several Revealing Ways That Social Sector Organizations Are Unique Read More »
A culture focused on exceptional customer service is difficult for competitors to replicate and is a strategic advantage in the marketplace.
6 Rules of Exceptional Customer Service Read More »
A Value Ladder Takes A Prospect From Free To Your Highest-Priced Product Or Service Through A Series Of Rungs On Your Value Ladder. Each Rung Provides Increased Value And Monetary Commitment From The Customer As Their Trust In The Business Increases.
How to Extract More Revenue Using a Value Ladder Read More »
“The Window and The Mirror” Is A Leadership Metaphor. The Window Is Looking at External Conditions and The Mirror Is About Self-Reflection.
Mirror Leadership: The Window and The Mirror (Neurons) Read More »
Business success is not the result of a single intervention or initiative. Rather it is the result of consistently pushing in one direction over an extended period of time or what is known as the Flywheel concept.
The Flywheel Concept – How To Become A Great Company Read More »
There are 11 distinctly different steps required to conduct a successful crowdfunding campaign which can take upwards or 20 weeks to complete
Crowdfunding Primer – What You Need To Know For A Successful Campaign Read More »
There are many good companies but to make the leap from good to great, the company needs to discover the intersection of what they can be the best at, what drives their economic engine, and what drives their passion.
The Hedgehog Concept – How to Become a Great Company Read More »
The traditional view of marketing captured by the 4P’s comes from the perspective of a business looking at its prospects. However, a fascinating new concept known as the 4A’s reverses the viewpoint to consider how the perspective view of the business.
How to Transform Your Marketing With The 4A’s Read More »
To Raise Private Equity from Acquaintances to Sophisticated Accredited Investors, Founders Will Need to Consider One Of Seven Funding Options.
An Introduction To 7 Useful Funding Options Beyond Friends And Family Read More »
Pricing mechanisms come in two principal forms: fixed and dynamic. Fixed pricing has predefined prices based on a static set of variables while dynamic pricing changes prices based on market conditions. Price mechanisms can affect both your revenue stream as well as your costs.
Why You Need To Understand Pricing Mechanism Types Read More »
A Value Investor Looks Beyond Just Financial Metrics When Investing in A Business. They Will Consider Both Quantitative Factors Such as The Amount of Return on Their Investment and Qualitative Factors Such as The Management Team and Commitment of The Founder(s).
Why Founders Must Acknowledge the Value Investor Mindset Read More »
These days, customer loyalty depends on the total customer experience, not just price and quality. As a consumer, I rarely pay attention to your marketing pitch, but I certainly always remember a exceptionally positive total experience with your team, based on a memorable set of interactions from first contact to discussions with friends. Yet, as a business consultant,
8 Steps To Delivering a Consistently Memorable Customer Experience Read More »
If your industry requires practitioners to be licensed by a state licensing board then you likely cannot organize as an LLC because you are considered a professional service company. You can however register as a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC) which is a bit different.
What You Need to Know About State Licensing Boards and Creating a PLLC Read More »
Is it a good idea to have your spouse as a member in your LLC to make it a multi-member LLC? While it is often better to have an unrelated 3rd party be a member in your LLC, having a spouse as a member can work if you follow 3 rules.
The Truth About A Husband And Wife LLC Read More »
Choosing the Right Business Entity Is Not to Be Taken Lightly. There are 39 Considerations You Should Explore Before Selecting the Best One for Your Business. Here Is A Side-By-Side Comparison of the 5 Types to Help You Decide
39 Considerations When Choosing The Best Business Entity Read More »
Centralized management in an LLC is where a professional manager, who is not a member/owner makes most of the decisions in a company.
What You Need To Know About Centralized Management In An LLC Read More »
Paying Taxes at The Corporate Level Is Undesirable for Most Small Businesses, So the LLC Was Born. To Avoid Being Considered A Corporation by The IRS, You Can’t Look Like One. There Are Four Selectable Characteristics that Are Common to Corporations. As an LLC, You Can Only Pick Two Of The Four.
How to Know If Your LLC Is Compliant with IRS Rules? Read More »
Research shows that what you name a business can powerfully influence the way your prospects see your product or service offering.
15 Rules When Naming a Business Read More »
An “Assumption” is where you believe something to be true, but it is yet unproven while a “belief” is something you are certain is true. As a small business owner, you should always challenge a belief and treat it as an assumption because your beliefs may not be facts.
Assumption vs. Belief – Why You Need To Know The Difference Read More »
Trying to Get A Meeting with That Important Prospect That You Have No History with Can Be Difficult. However, Providing Something of Value to The Prospect Before You Try to Get A Meeting with Them Shows You Have Their Best Interest in Mind and Will More Often Than Not Get You That Face-To-Face Meeting You Want.
How to Make Cold Calls That Will Get a Meeting with Important Prospects Read More »
The Word “Startup” Has Become Ubiquitous in The American Vocabulary. However, There Is Really No Common Understanding of The Definition. This Is Because There Are Actually Two Types of Startups
What Is A Startup? Why You Need to Know the Different Types Read More »
Many Businesses That Choose the Business Expansion Route by Opening A Second Location May Be Jeopardizing the Success They Already Achieved with The First Location Because They Underestimate What Is Required to Expand to Additional Locations.
13 Business Expansion Risks When Opening A Second Location Read More »
An often misunderstood concept relates to how to allocate initial equity in a startup. Doling out equity in your business is a pivotal and often difficult task for many founders, but it does not have to be.
How to Allocate Equity in a Startup Read More »
As A Business Grows, Its Capabilities and Sales Do Not Increase in A Linear Manner. This Is Known as The Step Dynamic. Business Growth Therefore Needs to Follow A Process.
How To Apply The Step Dynamic To Business Growth Read More »
Financial ratios measure the relative health of your business as it compares with other businesses in your industry.
Why You Need To Know How to Benchmark Your Financial Ratios Read More »
Social media has matured as a marketing channel over the years and is often paired with other channels like websites, blogs, videos and more to accomplish a specific business goal. I believe there are essentially six social media goals worth considering.
How to Define Your Social Media Goals Read More »
Entrepreneurship has changed in recent years and why you may no longer need to write the classic version of a business plan.
Why Being Told You Need a Business Plan May Be Bad Advice Read More »
Businesses Have Lots of Ways to Measure Employee Performance, But Performance Alone Is Not Good Enough to Maintain A Successful Organization.
Why You Need to Use A Performance Vs. Trust Matrix Read More »
If you want to scare a bunch of business-school students, show them what it really takes to be an entrepreneur.
The Smartest Business Model Ever Read More »
A Common Term Used in Business Is “Economies of Scale”. Unfortunately, It Is Often Used Incorrectly to Refer to Economies of Scope.
What You Need to Know About Economies of Scope Read More »
JP Morgan Was an International Financier and A Titan of Industry Whose History Contains Many Valuable Lessons for Small Business Owners.
7 Valuable Business Lessons from the International Financier JP Morgan Read More »
The Journey That A Band Goes Through Turns Out to Be Very Similar to A Business Founder’s Entrepreneurial Journey. Founders Can Expect to Encounter Many of The Same Issues and Challenges That A Typical Band Goes Through on Their Way to Stardom.
Entrepreneurial Journey – 11 Powerful Lessons I Have Learned from Bands Read More »
Andrew Carnegie Was a Steel Baron and A Titan of Industry Whose History Contains Many Valuable Lessons for Small Business Owners.
11 Valuable Business Lessons from the Steel Baron Andrew Carnegie Read More »
The Planning Fallacy States That People Often Overestimate the Amount of Time They Have to Complete A Task and Underestimate the Amount of Time It Will Take to Do So.
Why You Need to Beware of The Planning Fallacy Read More »
There comes a time in the life of every business owner when you need to move on to something new, retire, or let your business go to someone with new energy and ideas.
10 Mistakes To Avoid When You Want To Sell A Business Read More »
When We Have A Vested Self-Interest in A Situation or Outcome, Regardless of How Well-Calibrated We Think Our Moral Compass Is, We Unconsciously Disregard Evidence That Negatively Impacts Our Desired Outcome.
The Truth About How Motivated Blindness Affects Business Decisions Read More »
JD Rockefeller Was an Oil Magnate and A Titan of Industry Whose History Contains Many Valuable Lessons for Small Business Owners
13 Valuable Business Lessons from the Oil Magnate JD Rockefeller Read More »
Our Anchoring Bias Creates an Expectation That Can Be Used to Make A High Price or Time Frame Seem Reasonable Even When It Is Not. Simply by Initially Thinking of Higher Numbers, All Future Numbers Will Be Skewed Up and By the Anchoring Effect.
How to Leverage A Customer’s Anchoring Bias in Business? Read More »
Cornelius Vanderbilt Was A Shipping Tycoon and A Titan of Industry Whose History Contains Many Valuable Lessons for Small Business Owners.
8 Valuable Business Lessons From The Shipping Tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt Read More »
The Five Things That A Business Needs to Have an Infinite Mindset Are: A Noble Purpose, A Culture of Trust, Rivals to Learn From, The Capability to Pivot Your Direction, And the Courage to Take Actions.
Why It Is Important That Businesses Develop an Infinite Mindset Read More »
Many behaviors that helped you to launch a startup are incompatible when it comes time to scale and can cause real problems.
5 Early Entrepreneur Strengths That Can Limit Growth When You Scale Read More »
Management Practices Defined in The Industrial Era Focused on Extrinsically Motivating People. Today, These Practices Need to Be Replaced to Intrinsically Motivate Stakeholders with A Noble Purpose.
How to Intrinsically Motivate Stakeholders with A Noble Purpose Read More »
A risk matrix is a tool that is used during risk assessment to define the level of risk by considering the probability or likelihood that an event against the severity of the consequence to the business if it were to occur. A risk matrix is a visibility representation of risks to assist a business in decision making and mitigation.
How to Develop a Risk Assessment Matrix For Business Success Read More »
Most Brands Tell You What They Do but Successful Brands Tell You Why They Do It. Consumers Make Decisions Based On Emotions and Justify Those Decisions with Logic. Your Why Addresses the Emotional Part of The Brain That Makes Decisions.
How To Create A Powerful Brand By Sharing Your Why Read More »
Whether you are writing copy for a landing page, developing a sales presentation, or creating an ad, the structure and techniques used in infomercials can help you achieve greater conversion rates. Included are several infomercial examples
Unlock The Secret Formula: How Infomercials Drive Sales Read More »
In some industries, trademarks can be an effective way of protecting your intellectual property. For others, it may not be as important. Learn what trademarks are, how they are used, the five levels of trademarks, and the pros and cons associated with each.
What You Need to Know About Trademarks Read More »
Let me start out confessing that I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I bet a lot of you reading this suffer from the same malady. Amazon is like the giant squid threatening to swallow up Tokyo – seemingly unstoppable. They gobble up entire markets and drive retailer and e-tailers out of business. And when
6 Lessons B2B Companies Can Learn from Amazon Read More »
Online Stores Can Sell Either Niche Products or Commoditized Products. Each Type Has Its Pluses and Minuses and Requires A Different Approach to Stand Out from The Competition to Be Successful.
What is Best to Sell? Commoditized Products or Niche Products? Read More »
Every Business Spends Considerable Amounts of Time, Effort, And Money Driving Traffic to Their Website. But the Ugly Truth Is That Many of These Visitors Leave Before Making A Purchase. Live Chat Is a Great Way to Engage with Visitors So They Are More Likely to Buy from You.
How To Improve Customer Experiences With A Free Live Chat Tool Read More »
Are you totally overwhelmed? Hire a Virtual Assistant. You might say “I can’t afford one”, but you can’t afford NOT to hire a VA.
Why Hire A Virtual Assistant? (And How To Go About It) Read More »
Ad Fraud Causes Many Businesses to Waste Much of Their Advertising Budget. Fake Websites and Bots That Imitate Humans Are Used to Drive Up Revenues of Ad Tech by Defrauding Businesses. Moreover, Ad Fraud Pollutes A Company’s Attribution Models That It Relies On to Conduct Campaign Optimization.
Ad Fraud – The Hidden Way Ad Tech Is Stealing Your Ad Dollars Read More »
Founders Can Certainly Amplify Their Probability of Business Success by Being All In. Are You Committed 100% To the Outcome? Are You Willing to Quit Your Day Job to Remove Your Options for Retreat?
Why You Need to Quit Your Day Job Read More »
When it Comes To Raising the Minimum Wage, the Real Winner is the Government and the Real Losers are Workers. Here is What You Need To Know.
The Truth About Why A National Minimum Wage Is A Devastating Idea Read More »
Learn how finding, attracting, and nurturing social agents allows you to employ the principle of cumulative advantage to scale your business.
How to Apply Cumulative Advantage and Social Agents to Scale Your Business Read More »
Looking for A New Way to Engage, Reward, And Even Retain Customers? Consider the Use Of Gamification In Your Marketing And Sales Campaigns.
How to Use Gamification to Build Loyalty & Generate Buzz Read More »
Why politics and calls for more taxes paid by the rich will hollow out the small business community that creates 1.5 million jobs annually and account for 64% of new jobs created in the United States
Taxes – How New “Tax The Rich” Policies Will Destroy Small Business Read More »
The more senior the decision-making unit, the more data they have but the less specific that data is. The best decision is to entrust decision-making power to the lowest possible decision-making unit.
What You Need to Know About Hierarchical Decision-Making Read More »
The recent actions of Twitter and Facebook to delete user accounts are examples of businesses looking for an easy, short-term solution that fails to solve the right problem. They both failed to look at the second-order effects of their decisions, making the solving of the real issues much harder in the future while hurting at the same time their business and economic models in the process.
Why Businesses Fail to Solve the Right Problem Read More »
To make a better decision, business owners must go beyond stage-one thinking, look past the immediate or perceived outcome of their decision, and ask a series of “and then, what will happen?” questions to find the unseen consequences of their decision.
And Then, What Will Happen? – Getting Beyond Stage-One Thinking in Business Read More »
Positive word-of-mouth messages spread more slowly than negative ones, therefore businesses need to be much more proactive when it comes to spreading positive word-of-mouth to get referrals
How to Make the Most of Word-of-Mouth Marketing Read More »
An Angel Investor is “smart money”, in that the Angels have expertise and connections that the fledgling business entity desperately needs.
What You Need To Know About Angel Investors Read More »
Many things have changed when it comes to business planning and the Business Model Canvas has emerged as a valuable tool especially for startup businesses. In this video, we discuss what has changed and why the business model canvas is something that businesses need to embrace as part of their business planning.
Video: Why You Need to Start Using The Business Model Canvas Read More »
