How to Land Big-Name Contracts (Regardless of Your Company Size)

The secret to landing big contracts isn’t deeper pockets or more manpower—it’s getting prospects to trust you. Understanding this fact has not only helped our startup marketing company land on the Inc. 5000 list, but it has helped the roughly 2,000 small businesses we’ve coached to compete with the world’s largest financial institutions. Based on our experience, here are six ways…

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Things to Consider When White Labeling

Entrepreneurs have a drive to do it themselves. It’s the secret sauce behind their success. At times, it can also be a hindrance. If creating your own product to sell through your franchise is slowing the forward progression of franchising, you may want to consider white labeling. Many business owners pause when exploring this option.…

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Wooing a Big Business? Don’t Make This Common Pricing Mistake

If your B2B small business finds itself on a nice growth curve, you will eventually run up against a very common problem: How to sell successfully to very large companies. There are some structural and cultural barriers that often prevent small businesses from gaining big businesses as customers and clients. For one, small businesses are…

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What is the Schedule K-1 Tax Form for Businesses?

According to the U.S. federal tax code, businesses can be arranged as pass-through entities. This designation means that instead of a business being taxed separately at the corporate level, its taxes, deductions, losses, and other activities pass through to the personal tax requirements of its owner(s). Some examples of these business structures include a general…

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Does Your Innovation Engine Need a Tune Up?

Today I had three separate conversations with: A startup that was running out of cash; A mid-sized, 50-year-old business looking to reinvent itself; and A Fortune 2000 with seemingly unlimited resources that has worked for years on innovation with virtually nothing to show for it. Each had innovation engines that weren’t performing but for completely different…

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3 Ways Co-Marketing Can Help Your Small Business Thrive

Co-marketing is helpful for a business of any size, but it’s a necessity for small businesses. Why? Traditionally, small business might be lucky to have a small dedicated marketing department. But, more often than not, they’re sharing marketing duties with another function, like sales or accounting. That doesn’t leave much time available for marketing a…

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Are You an Inventor or an Entrepreneur, or Both?

Most of the technologists I know inherently believe that the terms inventor and entrepreneur mean the same thing, so they are frustrated and surprised when they build their products and no business evolves. They don’t understand that most great entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, had a partner with complementary skills on the business or technical side. In…

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