It's impossible to avoid making decisions! I regularly speak with small business owners, who have left important areas of their business suffering, rather than make a decision and take action. Their concern, is that they will make the wrong decision. So, they do nothing at all, which often has serious implications for their business and their ...
What do you think, when you visit a commercial website and find the information there is out of date? I have just booked accommodation online for a last minute trip, and found that details on each of the 5 hotel websites I found, were out of date. One had a "latest news" section, which had not ...
I've received quite a few emails recently, from people who want to market a new business venture, even though they have no budget. Whilst it's common for new projects to have limited budgets, having zero budget is still thankfully relatively rare. Several of these emails closed with the statement ...
One of the primary reasons that so many small business owners miss out on sales, is that their marketing messages lack clarity. When it comes to sales, clarity is king. In fact, one of the oldest sayings in the business is: "A confused mind always says NO!" In other words, if ...
When I was starting out in marketing, almost 24 years ago, I remember my boss giving me some advice, which seemed odd at the time. I asked her what she liked best about being wealthy. I figured she would know, having built a multi-million pound business from scratch. Her reply was simply this: "Jim, the ...
Recently, I have had a lot of people asking me how I come up with fresh ideas for new posts. So, here's what works for me and hopefully, will be just as useful for you! The short answer is that the more you write, the easier it gets. For example, I used to publish blog posts ...
Have you ever wondered about the value of posting content to a business focused blog, like this one, during the weekend? If you have, you might find my experience interesting. Blogging on a Saturday Reader numbers here drop like a stone on Saturdays. I get around 50% of my weekday average, sometimes even fewer. Yes, there are ...
It seems that some things in business just never change. Like those people we affectionately call time wasters. I was prompted to write this, after being emailed today by a reader, who had wasted a lot of time dealing with a time waster. This guy claimed to be interested in using her ...
How would you describe the way you market your business? When I used to speak with marketing students, I would explain the three basic small business marketing approaches like this. Marketing approach 1: Chopping down a tree with a hammer Yes, you can chop a tree down with a hammer but it ...
Yesterday, after one too many unanswered tech support emails, I invested in a new web hosting provider. The new provider is around 400% more expensive than the previous one, but their customer service is extremely good. I had already researched them months ago and was really impressed. My old provider offered an ...
Do you find it odd, when business owners complain about the growing pains caused by the success of their business? After all, it wasn't growing that caused them the pain. It was their decision not to plan ahead! As business owners, we need to always have an eye on the future. ...
Here are 5 tell-tale signs that your competitors are not marketing their services professionally: Their marketing contradicts itself. For example, they will have a website that was clearly "built on the cheap" - Yet their cheap looking website will tell you that they focus on quality. Clearly they do not! This ...
Today's post is a very personal one. I have written it exclusively for those of you, who are going through a tough time with your business and want to put it right. As a marketing professional with over 20 years experience, I can assure you that right now, there are people in your industry doing very ...
Have you ever noticed that it's easier to attract new clients or customers when business is already going well, and that it's harder to attract them when your business is struggling. One of the primary reasons this happens, is that business owners tend to act, communicate and make decisions very differently, when times are good ...
There are thousands of marketing ideas and answers here on the blog, spread over hundreds of pages and that number is growing daily. Of course, as new material is being added, it can get harder and harder to find what you are looking for. So, to make it easier for you to find the ...
Steve Jobs and Apple in general, never cease to amaze me. This week, Apple announced their latest product, the iPhone 4 and received, as always, millions of dollars worth of free publicity. I watched a live video of the iPhone launch event at the World Wide Developer's Conference, and saw journalists ...
Why would one person earn 10 times more than someone of the same age in the same profession? I've spoken with service providers in the same town, serving the same marketplace and yet one person is out performing the other by over 1,000% in financial terms. They work the same number of hours, so why would ...
Some people have asked me, why I place so much emphasis on building a community rather than a following. Yesterday, within a 30 minute period, I received 2 emails from people enquiring about my services. I believe the way these emails begin, (see excerpt below), demonstrates the marketing value of community. Email 1: "Dear Jim, You don't know ...
If we want commercial success, there is always a price to pay! That price is the courage to do all the things we need to do, in order to succeed; rather than cherry-picking the things we find easy, and ignoring the rest. Think of it like this: If you were to try and bake a cake, but ...
Don't you find it amazing that in 2010, people are still using the 1980's sales and marketing model of pestering and pursuing people? Here's the problem with that approach: People hate being pestered and pursued. For example, I received an email last week, whilst I was on holiday with my wife and 4 year old son. The ...
