Articles for the small business owner and those developing business plans that offer tips and advice on naming your small business, marketing your products and services and crafting your business image.
Seven Efficient and Tasteful Ways to Market Your Business
A few years ago you couldn’t sit down to family dinner without a barrage of calls by telemarketers. Now, marketing techniques that interrupt are more likely to push customers away than to attract them. Today’s entrepreneurs are challenged to find smarter ways to market, methods that don’t annoy or alienate consumers. Here are a few of the permission marketing methods that are effective in today’s wildly evolving marketplace. Read the full article
Seven Keys to Crafting Your Business Image
Smart owners invest in creating the image they want their small business to portray. For small owner operated businesses, the image arises directly from the owner and is within his or her control. Once an enterprise begins to grow and take on employees or contractors, it gets more difficult to manage and can quickly spin out of control. For example, a few moments of poor service behind an owner’s back can cost the business a sale, a client or much more in terms of reputation. Here are seven keys to crafting your business image. Read the full article
Tips for Choosing a Name for Your Business
Naming a business can be thrilling and spooky. It’s exciting because naming a business always gives a feeling of getting closer to bringing your fledgling business into the world. But it can also be stressful because the wrong name can cost you. Today’s environment is such that, even when you do everything right according to the local authorities, you can still be blindsided by a business owner from a far off jurisdiction. Read the full article
Give me a Black Belt
A black belt expert will often inflict less accidental pain on you than an inexperienced, overzealous learner will. To illustrate this, you need only think back to the last time you were approached by an acquaintance that had recently become impassioned about a multi-level marketing business. There are few things as painful as being accosted by someone who hasn’t yet acquired the finesse to sell and close the deal. Nothing alienates friends and family quite as quickly. You must do whatever it takes to acquire black belt level skills in your profession or your business. Read the full article
Go the Extra Mile to Ensure Your Customers Have a Great Experience
As a customer, I just might be your worst nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not malicious and I am fairly easy to please. When I encounter poor customer service, I’m unlikely to stage a hissy fit. I go away quietly, never to return, and never to refer future customers. Customer complaints are gifts. Smart business owners will always prefer an unhappy customer’s feedback over their silence. Customers that go away to tell others about a negative experience can be a business owner’s worst nightmare. Read the full article