Implementation. Execution. Basics. A friend and I were talking about essential concepts. They are critical to your business, but they are not exciting. They are in fact boring. These boring ideas determine whether or not you’ll succeed in business or anything, really. My friend said, “Here’s a quick list that comes to mind: * execution…
The bottom lime for survival of a business eventually comes down to making sales. You need to get money coming in the door. There are many ways that you, as a business owner, can make your product and services available. One way used successfully by many art and craft businesses is by participating in shows…
Small Business Saturday and its Shop Small slogan get a lot of attention, but they aren’t the only holiday shopping project small town businesses can join for more buzz this season. Shift Your Shopping Shift Your Shopping is a theme you can adopt for any local shopping campaign. The emphasis is on shifting more of…
The Small Business Saturday® celebration and Shop Small slogan are great for small business and most closely identified with founding partner American Express. This brings much-appreciated attention to local merchants and independent small businesses. In the US, it falls right after Black Friday (when customers rush big box stores for well-publicized deals) and before Cyber Monday (when…
With all the flood of tips for retailers to get ready for the holidays, what about other businesses? How can service-based businesses get ready for the holiday season? Next week, we’ll talk about other ways to be productive during the holidays, but this week, let’s focus on making more sales. Make your services into…
I recently did a post for another blog, Power of Business. In it I discussed the fact that marketing is much more than making a sale. Marketing should happen early, be often and continuous. You must understand who your potential customer is, what motivates them, and be prepared to use all of the marketing tools available. …
In any retail business, the last quarter of the year may beat the entire rest of the year for sales. That’s enough reason to to pay extra attention to getting ready to make the most of it. Here are five of my ideas on how to get more people through your doors in the…
I recently received the Ice Bucket Challenge (which I accepted). If you haven’t heard about this challenge, the idea is to either have a bucket of ice water over your head or donate money to the ALS Association. This challenge has went viral. You probably have even heard about it or participated in it. Today over…
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