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While the economy seems to be slowly recovering, it’s far from smooth sailing, and many businesses are still struggling to find firm footing. Even so, you don’t have to look hard to find businesses that are thriving. What’s the secret behind these companies that the struggling ones haven’t found? It may be tempting to think […]

Every industry and every business tends to have at least a few competitors who know only one way to compete: unreasonably low pricing. These businesses undercut pricing so much that few make any profits. Unfortunately, as they go down the tubes toward oblivion, they often drag a few good companies with them. Everyone knows that

Henry Ford, the famous Ford Motor Company founder, was known for many things. Among them was his role in promoting the assembly line as a viable means for mass-producing automobiles, a process that made cars more affordable for middle-class Americans. Ford had a global vision with consumerism as one of its centerpieces. He had an

There are skills you can learn from textbooks, skills you can learn in business school, and skills and lessons passed down from mentors and peers. Then there are the skills that can only be learned in the school of hard knocks and the real world. An entrepreneur who wants to be a true leader must

What is a Premium? A premium is anything of value that you offer a prospect or client in exchange for taking an action that you direct them to. This could include an incentive or a gift. The right premium could encourage someone who might otherwise set aside the mail to act now instead of later

What’s a unique selling proposition (USP)? First the Wikipedia explanation: “The unique selling proposition (a.k.a. unique selling point, or USP) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and

Typically, many hours are spent deciding on the logo, layout, and tagline to include on a company’s business cards. But not much time goes into thinking about strategies to make those business cards actually work to bring in customers. That is a mistake. Business cards are like mini ambassadors for your business. They represent you,

Most advertising today is of the “me too” variety. When you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The louder they yell: “LOOK AT ME!” the faster you want to toss the ad in the trash, change the channel, or click delete. Open the yellow pages (if you can still find one!), look inside a magazine

Let’s get right to the lessons: Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Studies of sales practices continue to show that most salespeople don’t follow up more than one or two times after making a presentation or giving a quote. Marketing is no different.

Networking events such as Business After Hours and organizations like BNI and Meetup.com provide great opportunities to meet and mingle with other, like-minded businesspeople outside their place of business in a more relaxed and non-threatening environment. Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs do not get the most of this great opportunity because they feel awkward or simply don’t