Older marketing methods like direct mail and cold calling just don’t work as effectively as they did a few decades ago. There are two reasons for that: The trust level between people has dropped more than 20 percentage points in the last few years; people are more skeptical and untrusting of each other than ever before. The amount of marketing messages we receive on a daily basis has increased exponentially, to the point where most…
Read MoreDoes Your Accounting Department Have Holes in It? You’ve got someone to do your federal and state income tax returns, and you have a bookkeeper. So that’s all that a small business needs when it comes to having an accounting department, right? Wrong. Large companies have many functions in their accounting departments, and small and mid-sized businesses need many of the same functions as well. They just won’t need as many staff to handle them.…
Read MoreJust about every business relies on “word-of-mouth” marketing to get the vast majority of its clients. If this is true for your business, then it just makes sense to figure out how to boost your referrals from all sources. Referrals are almost always easier to sell and they keep your marketing costs low. But how can you do that? The first step is to make sure that you know who your best current referral sources…
Read MoreAs a business owner, you’re likely torn in a hundred different directions every day. It can take up most of the work day just fighting fires, serving your customers, and answering employees’ questions. It’s super-easy to lose sight of what you can be doing to move your business forward the most. That’s when “the one question” can come in handy. It’s something you can ask yourself at the very beginning of each day, even before…
Read MoreThe holiday month of December brings celebration as well as reflection for all the events that occurred in 2014. It also gives us great hope for a new fabulous start in 2015. Here are three ideas to start 2015 with a bang. Find a focus for the year. Instead of getting into the rut of making and breaking resolutions, consider having a focus for the entire year. Choose your focus from among things like: Developing…
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