You are not your target market. This simple sentence is powerful. It is my best advice for recruiting volunteers. And on the plane ride home from BlogWorld, it inspired three more stories. Here’s the first one: Quit hanging around with your own people. Go find the customers. I see many business owners or freelancers talking…
The narrower your niche, the wider your opportunity. After I wrote that story, Darrell Hyatt asked a great question: Sheila Scarborough and Darrell Hyattshare a laugh at dinnerat BlogWorld Expo 2010 When you narrow your niche, how do you find the clients inside it? Let me walk you through an example, from my own business…
At the Revitalize WA conference I sat in on a session by Scott Day with Urban Development Services, on Fifty Ideas for Retailers That Cost Less than $50. This is part two of the best of his tips. Go back and catch part one: Small Town Retail Ideas.Floor Plans Boehs Hardware in Helena, Oklahoma,has an open floor plan,baskets…
At the Revitalize WA conference I sat in on a session by Scott Day with Urban Development Services, on Fifty Ideas for Retailers That Cost Less than $50. People are not buying the same way they did three years ago. People are thinking and buying “inexpensive” far more often. Scott recommended a few tactics to…
What can you do when you need business and income right away? Here is one thing that almost always works: Call your existing customers. Phone by Ant & Carrie Pick up the phone, and call your existing customers. Just say hello, check in that everything you’ve done for them is still working, or whatever the…
How’s your business plan? Have you looked at it lately? Could you find a copy if I asked? Do you even have one? You benefit two ways when you create your own plan: Preparing your plan forces you to actually evaluate your business, and having a real-world plan serves as a guide post and reminder…
One of the milestones of small business is your first office space. But how do you know when the time is right? And where do you find space that works for a small business? My favorite “home office” on safari Know your planJeffrey A. Landers divides home-office businesses into two group, with two distinct solutions: If you…
Free is a pretty compelling price. How can you compete with that? Is it possible to add enough value to be worth more than a competitor that is free? Cheap or FreePhoto by Chris Brogan The recent controversy within the social media community over Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics newsletter provides a pretty good example. I’ve…
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