Posts tagged as:

Business

What Corporate Can Learn From Small Business

January 26, 2011

I was recently interviewed by a local magazine and the interviewer asked me this question: “You worked with a wide range of clients, from family-owned businesses to several Fortune 500 companies, what have you learned from both?” I think the answer to that question merits a post. I learned that both business models have a [...]

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How Entrepreneurs Can Take A Real Vacation

October 4, 2010

Business Owners, when was the last time you took a real vacation? Definition of a real vacation: Unplugged. Completely unplugged. No emails or business phone calls. Peace of mind. It’s not as impossible as it sounds. It just takes determination and some advanced planning. How To Take A Vacation & Stay In Business 1 – [...]

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How To Name Your Business

July 13, 2010

“How do I choose a name for my business?” It’s an important question. Run your ideas for a business name through some of these filters and see what you get: 1. Is the url available? If not, look for something else. The synergy of having your company name match yourcompanyname.com is too important to ignore. [...]

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Thank You For Your Complaint

May 4, 2010

A few years ago, my husband bought a car battery from O’Reilly’s Auto Store which included a warranty. This weekend, the battery died and he took it to the O’Reilly’s location where he made his purchase. The manager of this location looked at my husband with suspicion and questioned (in a decidedly non-customer friendly manner) [...]

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This Should Not Have Happened

April 13, 2010

She sat across the conference room table from me wiping the tears from her face. Her tears were streaming unabated because of news she received three weeks ago: after 35 years, her company did not need her anymore. Today is her last day. The company thoughtfully wanted to support her in her job search and [...]

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Alicia 1 Perfectionism 0

February 25, 2010

In case you’re new to this blog, I’ve shared that I am a “recovering perfectionist.” Perfectionism wastes time, energy, money, kills relationships and stalls businesses. Having said that, every perfectionistic leaning I have was challenged yesterday by a training perfect storm. This is what my morning felt like yesterday. Okay, perhaps not this bad, but [...]

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Following My Own Advice

January 27, 2010

It’s funny how being a coach causes me to turn inward and examine my business practices. I regularly have to ask myself if I’m taking the advice I give to my clients. Unfortunately, the answer is “not always,” particularly with regard to niche markets. You see, I’m doing a lot of work with clients (and [...]

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Beach Houses And Business Planning

December 28, 2009

When you started your business, did you do it because you wanted to work 80 hours a week? When you took the plunge, was it your hope that you would never see your family? Did you want to lose sleep, lose hair and make Tums your own personal food group? Of course not. Most small [...]

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Choices And Lessons

December 16, 2009

As most of you know, there was a bit of drama yesterday regarding one of my blog posts. To those of you who reached out to me via blog comments, on Twitter and in direct messages I thank you! As I write this, I’m  feeling deeply appreciative of my friends and colleagues. And so, I’d [...]

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Charlie Brown Business Sense

December 7, 2009

Forget business for a moment. Let’s talk Christmas trees. Have you ever been to a tree lot with a perfectionist? That one’s too big. That one’s scrawny. That one has a gap on the left side where a bird had a nest. Too small. Too short. Too green. Too pine-y. Too spruce-y. And after hours [...]

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The Gossip Grapevine Part 1 – Why We Love To Gossip

November 10, 2009

New School Gossip and rumors…we see it portrayed in cartoons, played out in comedy television such as The Office and Everybody Loves Raymond, and listen to tunes such as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” We even have “gossip columns” and “rumor mills” all in the name of finding the scoop. For the most part, [...]

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Why I Am Sponsoring HRevolution

November 2, 2009

I love the idea of a revolution. Revolution represents change, taking a critical look at the status quo, new beginnings. Evolution is another exciting word. It’s about stretching, growing and transformation. Back in July, when my friend Ben Eubanks told me that he and Trisha McFarlane, were working on an unconference called HRevolution, I was [...]

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Vampires Friends And Sales

October 29, 2009

So I’ve got a couple of friends who are emotional vampires. Take “Sherry” for example. We started out as great friends! We’d laugh together, shop together, support each other and just hang out. Something started changing though. Sherry started having drama in her life. Serious drama. This happened, that happened and “it’s so terrible.” Over [...]

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Is Winning Everything

October 20, 2009

October, 1996, an upset happened in the boxing world that no one expected. Heavy-weight champion Evander Holyfield hit Mike Tyson, knocked him out and Evander won the much anticipated match.The media, the fans and Mike all asked for a rematch. They got it on June 28, 1997. It was a $100 million rematch. We had [...]

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Is Honesty The New Authentic

October 5, 2009

How many times have you heard the word “authenticity” in the last seven days? If you are online or went to any of the social media/tech conferences last week, I bet you heard it a bunch. The messages “be yourself”and “be authentic” are the mantras, of social media evangelists. It is the 2.0 way of [...]

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Please Dont Like Me

September 17, 2009

This is one of my favorite scenes from the movie “Ocean’s Eleven.” This is where Rusty (played by Brad Pitt) is instructing the newbie Linus (Matt Damon) how to con the casino owner. Ever felt that way? Just like Rusty, well-meaning people in your life will tell you what you need to do to be [...]

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Are You Being A Zax

September 11, 2009

As a child, you might recall reading the Dr. Seuss story called “The Zax” in which two Zax found themselves coming from opposite directions only to come face to face; neither of them were willing to budge or to change. As one Zax stated “For I live by a rule that I learned as a [...]

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Could Should or Want (Target Market Part 2)

September 10, 2009

In my last post “Are You a Crystal or a Magnifying Glass” we talked through the importance of having a laser-focused, clearly defined target market for your products or services. The next step is actually defining it. News Flash Defining your target market does not begin with market research, demographic analysis or a business plan. [...]

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Are You A Crystal or Magnifying Glass™

September 8, 2009

There is a common theme emerging among my business coaching clients; it is a death knell that most fail to recognize. What are the symptoms of this downward progression? A sense of being overwhelmed Frustration that sales haven’t significantly increased, despite time and effort The inability to clearly and powerfully articulate what they do These [...]

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Is Your Picture Worth A Thousand Hits

September 2, 2009

I was on an excellent conference call Monday with Bill Boorman. The topic was, “how to get noticed in social media.” When I was asked what causes me to pay attention to someone on Twitter, my response was “the picture.” I’m not certain that answer went over well; perhaps everyone was expecting something a bit [...]

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