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Great Customer Service Begins With a Smile

By Glenn Muske

Smiley face

The idea that providing good customer service is important to your business should come as no surprise. But can that be translated into dollars and cents? The value of customer service is hard to quantify because it is part of a store’s brand and reputation. There are, though, some indications of what it can mean […]

August 22, 2013 Filed Under: marketing, mistakes, rural, Small Biz 100

What to do if you hate your website

By Becky McCray

I talked to a small town Chamber of Commerce director. She told me how much she hated their current website. She was eager to get a new one, but replacing it would involve a committee, and bids, and approvals, and a long and expensive process. You don’t have to be a Chamber of Commerce to […]

July 16, 2013 Filed Under: economic development, marketing, mistakes, rural

Beware of Small-business Myths

By Glenn Muske

A great deal of information about starting a business is available. Some of the information is accurate and helpful. Other information is best called a myth, although it may hold a grain of truth. Probably the biggest myth is that of “free money” available for starting a business. The reality is that there is little […]

May 15, 2013 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, mistakes, planning, rural Tagged With: startup

Are you mortgaging your time?

By JNSwanson

Broken clock

We mortgage our time when we say yes to a project. If we say yes to too many projects, we can create a huge debt, more than we could ever get done with the new time we get. There are catastrophic strategies. We may have a breakdown. We may declare time bankruptcy and walk away […]

April 24, 2013 Filed Under: mistakes

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