14 Killer Advertising Tips for Startups

As a startup, you’re likely on a tight budget when it comes to advertising. Getting a business up and running is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time. You need to get the word out about who you are and what you have to offer, but the expenses seem almost mountainous at times. Fortunately, there are…

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How to Manage Online Reviews and Business Reputation

Since most small business owners are justifiably proud of the service they deliver, they don’t even anticipate a negative online review or threat to their reputation, until it happens. Unfortunately, trying to recover after the fact is tough. The best way to protect your reputation online is to solicit good reviews proactively, so an occasional negative one…

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How I Improved the Memorability of My Brand with This Simple Change

Brand… What does this word mean to you? A brand is recognizable. Memorable. Trustworthy. Brands penetrate society at every level. They create trends. Influence lifestyle. Determine spending patterns. As much as we convince ourselves we are in control. That we rationally determine our journey in life, the things we do, and the products we buy.…

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5 Ways Writing a Book Will Kick-Start Business Growth

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. In my experience as a business advisor, one of the best ways to get all of these, is to publish a book on the…

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Planting Your Brand’s Seeds

Branding. What is it and how do you define it? In most cases, people mistake the word branding to mean one of two things. A logo or a tagline. Both are tools you use to communicate your brand but neither is your actual brand. Brand has been described in many ways. Advertising icon David Ogilvy…

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The Importance of Small Business PR

If PR to you conjures up images of Ab Fab types quaffing Champagne at client meetings without doing anything productive you could be forgiven for shunning the idea of PR. But there are some very good reasons not to—as Rose Calendars explains. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), defines PR as “the planned and sustained…

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Building Your Personal Brand—Again

There’s a lot of discussion about how important it is for salespeople to “build their personal brands.” I’ve written about this topic several times before, even using the same title before. But it’s a topic, as much as I wish would go away, doesn’t. But what does it mean to build our personal brands? Many…

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The Name of the Game

A new business opened up around the corner and I couldn’t help but notice the name. It is A-1 Iowa Plumbing and they’ve hung a big banner announcing that they’re open and ready for new customers. The name is a good reminder of several common naming mistakes that I thought were worth sharing. Whether you…

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