Posts tagged as:

small business

Resolutions Are Horse Feathers

December 30, 2009

Last week, Michael Long, aka The Red Recruiter posted this very interesting tweet: Everywhere you turn, especially at this time of year, there are a million posts about making and keeping New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I think most of it is a bunch of hooey like “visualize your success” and “strive for goal congruity.” What [...]

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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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Purple Cow Prospecting

December 14, 2009

In case you have not read “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin, go get it – today. It’s about being remarkable, how to exceptionally market yourself, your products and your services. The idea is that in a field full of cows, if you’re purple, you’re going to stand out. Long-term business success requires more than purple [...]

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The Gossip Grapevine Part 2 – Minimizing The Negative Impact of Gossip

November 19, 2009

Old School Why do we love to gossip? In the first post on gossip, we found out that people gossip because it is a way for them to find support, feel justified and to protect what they feel is being threatened. But regardless of the reason for gossip, it is still destructive. Gossip is here [...]

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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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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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A Little Sales Kick In The Pants

October 1, 2009

I do a lot of networking and relationship building and what I ask everyone (people I know and people I don’t) is “How’s business?” I do that because I care and because I’m really interested in their response. Most everyone I speak with lately has said that their sales are down. And not just down, [...]

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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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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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Touchy Feely A Legitimate Business Strategy

August 24, 2009

August 21, 2009 – Day 5 Today was the last day of the five-day Disney Institute program; I learned a great deal about Disney and how they do business. A friend of mine challenged me to distill a week’s worth of learning into a single sentence applicable to business owners. I’ve thought about it quite [...]

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Mickey Nemo & Small Business

August 12, 2009

When I think of Dori, small business is not the first thing that comes to my mind. But after a couple of conversations with Stacey Thomson, PR Manager for Disney Institute, I will be thinking about Disney and small business for a long time. In case you haven’t heard of it, Disney has a world-renowned [...]

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Things I Learned My First Year in Business

June 30, 2009

Not too long ago, I celebrated the anniversary of my first year as a business owner. I have been in the business world for many years, but this was a celebration of my independence, an affirmation that I have what it takes to do it on my own. My first year was a tough one. [...]

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