I get dozens of marketing pieces in both my mailbox and email box on a daily basis. I’m betting that you get more than your share, too. How do you sort through it? Most of us only read the headline and take a quick glance at the photo on direct mail pieces – using less [...]

Last week I received an email inquiry from a woman named Donna. She told me she was having miserable luck getting referrals from her clients and ask, “What am I doing wrong?” After a few email exchanges to determine how she was approaching clients, I was a bit stunned to learn the way Donna was [...]

We print it on our business cards and stationery. We give it out to (almost) anyone who asks for it. We conduct research and gather valuable information with it. We rely on it for communication with associates, friends and family. “It” is e-mail. And there’s no denying that e-mail is as common of a communication [...]

I often receive e-mails from business owners asking for advice in marketing, publicity, finance and operations management. Unfortunately, most of the advice I give has to be in fairly general terms because in order to give advice that will benefit each specific business, I would need to fully understand the dynamics of each individual situation, [...]

It’s June. Have you made vacation plans?  If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Self-employed professionals and small business owners are notorious for delaying vacation time. You might escape to the golf course for a half day or take a three day weekend to attend a wedding, but a full-blown pack-your-bags-and-get-out-of-town-for-a-week-or-two vacation is tougher to justify. [...]

“It’s easier to ride a horse in the direction it’s going.” – Abraham Lincoln Abe was probably talking about leadership, but the above quote is excellent advice for marketers. Go in the direction your customers want to go, and it will be an easier sell. In other words, make sure the marketing you do for [...]

Every day I turn on the news, it seems there is another report about some company ready to lay off thousands of their workers. While it may not be the worst times there ever were, there’s no denying that the economy is throwing some tough challenges our way to keep our businesses going. Big business, [...]

If most of your best ideas seem to come to you while you’re in the shower but appear to have gone down the drain when you try to recall them later, try this: keep a grease pencil in the shower area so you can write ideas or key phrases on the shower stall walls. (But [...]

If you have people who can’t serve customers because they are doing other tasks (i.e. making calls, tracking orders, preparing a bank deposit, etc.), arrange for them to perform those duties somewhere else. It’s frustrating for customers to approach an employee who is not willing to wait on them, or to be told to find [...]

I’ve been fascinated by magic and magicians since I was little. A successful magician can reach behind my ear, say “abracadabra” and – voila – pull out a quarter. Or with focused concentration, and two taps of a wand, a rabbit comes out of a top hat that was previously proven empty. On a bigger [...]