Your Industry Could Use Some Disruption—Just Ask a Mattress Seller
Let’s take a minute to talk about industry disruption. Why does it happen? Aren’t things usually going just fine? The point of disrupting industries is to break them out of a rut. When things are done a certain way for ten, twenty, thirty years or more and you ask why and the response is because…
Read MoreHow to Post Your Local Business Video to Google Maps
Whether you love or hate Google, you must admit that it’s a company that doesn’t let the grass grow under its feet and we’re really seeing that with its Local Guides program. For the local small business community, Local Guides can be extremely powerful. I discussed the basics in this post, but almost as soon as…
Read MoreDon’t Cut Yourself Short—Go Long Form
In a world where 140-character tweets, Facebook posts, and USA Today style graphics are the range, it’s easy to assume that brevity is the key to great content creation. Add to that the reality that more and more of us are accessing our online news, social networks and other content via our smartphones and it…
Read MoreAvoid “The Tyranny of the New Office” Syndrome
One of the most obvious observations I make with growing company CEO’s is that planning for a new office is done with an optimistic view of the future, incorporating planned space that compromises only slightly the measured needs for the next three or more years as outlined in the financial forecast. The result, signing a…
Read More5 Strategies for Starting 2018 Off Right
About a year ago, I realized I wasn’t spending enough time doing the things I love: hanging out with my kids, surfing, traveling. Life started to feel lousy. I’m a founder of a fast-growing contract management software company that more than triples its revenue each year. When founding the business, I thought, “I’m going to…
Read More5 Ways to Know if Your Small Business Has Franchise Potential
It’s important as a small business owner to evaluate different options to expand your business in the future. One choice that can be very attractive is franchising. It could allow your business to grow quicker than it might otherwise, without the kind of capital investment required if you do it alone. Taking your small business…
Read More5 Reasons Your Blog Marketing Strategy is Failing
Business blogs can be an effective medium to demonstrate authority, build a brand and generate leads for your business. But given the sheer amount of blogs being published each day, your strategy might fail to bring results without a proper marketing roadmap. In this article, we take you through five reasons why your blog marketing…
Read MoreHow to Reduce Workplace Drama and Improve Results
Is it just me in my role as business advisor, or is emotional drama in the workplace increasing? Team members seem to be spending more and more time venting to anyone who will listen about the motives and actions of others, and less time introspectively focused on their own productivity and accountability. The result is…
Read MoreClinging to the Past
Both we and our customers struggle with change. Think, for a moment, how many times you may have said, or you’ve heard within your organization or from your customers: “But we’ve always done things this way…….” “If it ain’t broke……” We live in business and personal worlds characterized by turbulence and change. Clinging to the…
Read MoreMolding the Next Generation: More Than a Third of Business Owners Lack a Retirement Plan
Retirement is a subject many small business owners either deliberately shelve or shy away from taking any meaningful action. Research conducted by online resource center Manta indicated that 34% of nearly 2000 small business owners surveyed do not have a retirement plan. Of this group, another 36% said that they would still seek other job…
Read More