5 Success Practices of Ultra-Effective Business Teams
It takes an effective team to attract and serve a community in business these days. With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer.…
Read MoreGoing Into Consulting? Prepare for Scope Creep
Are you new to consulting? Planning to start soon? Beware of scope creep. It’s a real problem in a lot of professional services. I ran into it in my years of consulting related to high-end planning and market research. Scope creep is what happens when you’ve done the consulting (or programming, design, engineering, etc.) you promised but your client…
Read MoreCyber Crime Isn’t Just a Problem for Big Business
As companies progressively store confidential data and information in cloud services, the need for more complicated and security strategies and practices are clear. Although headlines about security violation are typical for large enterprises, the threat of cyber crime is still present for small businesses, where the online security is much weaker. The problem is that…
Read MoreA Solution for the High Cost of Poor Customer Service
When I go shopping, I have a tendency to wear my business hat while I walk around the stores. I assess the quality of service I receive to gauge how well the business is doing and if it’s losing sales because of poor service. It’s like being my own self-assigned mystery shopper. The only thing…
Read More5 Free and Easy Ways to Promote Your Small Business Today
TWENTY MINUTES. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED. Ten minutes to read this blog. Ten minutes to carry out one of the five actions below. Time: twenty minutes. Cost: zero. Not too much to promote your business is it? OK, so let’s get on with this. Tell One Stranger You Meet About Your Business In a supermarket…
Read More6 Powerful Ways to Invest in Your Employees
Larger companies and unicorn startups have ample resources to invest in their employees. From professional development classes and career coaches to flexible schedules and free catered lunches, these businesses go the extra mile to retain and empower employees. While small businesses have considerably less funding for employee development, it’s still an advantageous and necessary endeavor. It helps to create a…
Read MoreHow to Build Your Small Business’s Reputation from Day One: Part 1
You can say anything you want about Warren Buffett, but one thing is for sure—the man knows how to make money and that is why it is a good idea to listen to what the man has to say. Among other things, he says, It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes…
Read MoreWhy Trade Shows Are Still Relevant
Marketers have a tendency to claim that rival fields are dying, and this has certainly been the case when writing about event marketing in recent years. With the rapid growth of digital marketing over the last decade, there has been a continuing trend of businesses shifting their budgets towards online ventures. Therefore, as the focus…
Read MoreChoosing Which Law to Use When Creating Your Franchise Agreement
It might sound funny to read, “Choose which law you want to enforce,” but for franchises expanding outside of their state of origin, there comes a moment when a franchisor needs to choose which law to apply in the FDD. This isn’t an arbitrary look at the laws governing a state. Instead it’s a moment…
Read MoreHow to Build a Service Business with an IoT Framework
What is the machine of the future? It’s still an assembly of parts, gears, and electronics—but that’s not all. The machine of the future is also an integrated collection of sensors and actuators connected by software (think Tesla). That’s according to Dr. Timothy Chou, author of Precision: Principles, Practices, and Solutions for the Internet of Things (Crowdstory, 2016).…
Read More