As the traditional workforce has deemed itself immortal, can the gig economy measure up? The gig economy sparked following the Great Recession of 2008 as the demand for temporary and quick-starting jobs increased. In the decade since, however, the gig economy as expanded at an exponential rate. There are as many as 75 million American […]
Strategic Planning
Designer Joe Doucet’s Secret to Success: Forget Inspiration and Embrace Fear
“I am most interested when a project scares me, when I have absolutely no idea even where to start,” says Joe Doucet, designer and founder of Joe Doucet and Partners design firm, based in New York and London. Watch Doucet talk about his 3D-printed concrete public-seating project—seating that also serves as a protective barrier for […]
The Future of the Hemp Business
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized American production of industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive strain of cannabis sativa containing less than 0.3% THC. As hemp’s popularity increases, more than 1 in 4 Americans have consumed CBD to relieve pain, stress, and anxiety. Subsequently, the Cannabidiol industry is determined to hit $20 billion by 2024. The hemp market […]
The Upside to a Recession
When we talk about a recession, we don’t usually tell happy tales. We talk about struggles, cutbacks, and loss. If you were old enough to be in the workforce, own a home or business in that 2007-2010 season, you remember the challenges that we all faced, personally or professionally. But from a marketing perspective, I […]
How Much Do You Spend on R&D? Is It Enough?
Why do profitable, mature businesses die away? One of the most obvious reasons mature businesses die away—when we look in the rear view mirror—is that they did not spend to renew their product or service when newer entrants into the business arrived with better products and services built upon newer technology. Should be an easy fix […]
“Nail It Then Scale It”: The New Mantra for Startups
I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them—vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Maybe it’s time to look harder at the mantra of a new breed of gurus and successful entrepreneurs, including Steve Blank and Eric Ries, called “nail it then […]
4 Strategic Ways to Increase Your Business Revenue
One of the primary goals of running a business is to bring in more money. Realistically speaking, it is easier said than done since more than fifty percent of small to medium-sized businesses do not make it past the first twenty-four months, because of cutthroat competition in various industries. Profit is your number one indicator […]
Reinvent Your Business!
Businesses that forgot to reinvent If only newspaper publishers, book publishers, record companies, and movie producers would have had the vision to see their future as we now see it, we might have become a digital society with much less disruption and loss of jobs than we have experienced these past years—and continue to experience. […]
How to Build a Purpose-Driven Organization
As we learned in How to Inspire Brand Loyalty with Purpose, “People want to buy from companies that stand for a purpose with which they personally identify and reflect their values and beliefs.” A recent research paper by Quartz Insights and WE entitled, Leading with Purpose in an Age Defined by It, gives us additional statistics and reasons […]
How to Set a Balance of User Growth vs. Profitability
A question that I still hear debated often is whether a new startup growth strategy should focus on user count or profits. First of all, the glory days of “dot.coms” are gone, when investors “didn’t care” about profitability, and all the big money was focused on user count growth. In the long run, everyone wants […]
