(Photo by Peter Frey/UGA) Imagine graduating from high school with $200,000 in sales from a business you started as a freshman. That’s the reality for some students at Brookwood High School in Snellville, GA thanks to University of Georgia graduate Cindy Quinlan. The history-loving, world-traveling educator is on a mission to disrupt education through entrepreneurship. And […]
Strategy
Do This to Develop Leaders Who Are Strategy-Driven
Every successful small business faces the challenge of growth. When that happens, others must be relied upon to provide the same level of commitment, smarts, and grit to get the job done. Developing others with the same passion as yourself is never easy. Research indicates, however, that a planned and intentional approach that focuses on […]
Digital Isn’t a Department
Many companies are trying to “manage” the onslaught of changes brought about by today’s digital trends by creating a department to deal with all of the new technologies, social networks, web trends, marketing automation and other aspects of this quickly changing landscape. I get it. It’s a lot to wrap your arms around. It’s comforting […]
What is a SWOT Analysis? It Positions Your Business!
A SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool to help you position your business within your market and your industry. The components that make up SWOT are: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. As a bonus, you can also throw in an additional T (SWOT-T), Trends. Here’s a short description of the SWOT components: Strengths: What are your business’ strengths, […]
Customer-Centric Strategies Win Over Product-Centric
Is your marketing focus product-centric or customer-centric? If you only sell products, it’s time to realize that times have changed. With a wealth of products now available, customers look for the most memorable experience, not just the best product. These days, a fun shopping experience, or no-question returns, often tips the scales over extra product features or […]
Holistic Security: The Most Effective Strategy for SMBs
The fight against cybercrime is constant—as soon as new security measures are established, hackers are working to counteract them. Whenever a new tool or update is released, it introduces other vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited. In addition, with attacks costing small businesses an average of $34,000, and as many as 60% having to close […]
Investors, Your Board, and You: Who Controls Strategy?
You’re building a company from your vision and a passion, and lots of people are going to tell you that you have this or that wrong, and that it just won’t work. Business plans rarely survive market contact The truth is that very, very few early business plans survive in a form completely recognizable when looking […]
How to Establish a Video Marketing Strategy for Your Business
A recent study concluded that the human brain processes videos at nearly 10,000 times the speed at which they process text. Quite clearly, videos are one of the most engaging forms of marketing for the millennial customer. However, compared to text, videos are also a lot more resource-intensive to produce. Establishing a clear marketing strategy […]
5 Key Elements of a Winning Business Strategy Today
Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? Certainly that has been the strategy of many companies, and has worked in the past, but today’s customers and workers are looking for more. They want relationships, positive experiences, […]
The Value of Retrospectives After Marketing Projects
For all the millions of articles, eBooks, videos, and podcasts explaining marketing best practices, we have to face facts—success comes down to experimentation and continuous improvement. It’s easy to get stuck in silos as we try to make continuous improvements to our strategies. The social media team thinks about how to boost engagement. Email marketers try to improve […]
