For the Rest of Their Lives

Marketing. It’s something we all do, to varying degrees of success. Maybe it’s time that we rethink our approach: our website, our business cards, our fliers, our advertisement, our social media, our elevator pitch. Maybe the main purpose of our marketing isn’t to let people know we’re here; maybe it should be to make it abundantly clear that if they …

Beer and Cigarettes

Many business owners despise the regulations imposed on them by the regulators. Why can’t I just do what I want to do? If we stopped bitching for a minute and looked around, we’d see that civil society is full of regulations. We go when the light’s green and stop when it’s red. We can’t take something from someone else simply …

Don’t Freak Out

Many new business owners freak out when their launch date finally arrives. They’ve been building it, working on it, and fretting about it for so long, that when at long last the date of their grand opening finally arrives, they lose their mind. It’s really not all that bad. We just have to remember, the launch is not an isolated …

We’ve Always Done It That Way

As humans, we’re often at the mercy of our brains, subject to whatever crazy, irrational thinking is going on up there in our heads. The mind is an amazing thing, but sometimes it can “think us” into a bad place. One of those bad places is called The Sunk Cost Fallacy, which basically means that we’re hesitant to make changes …

And Then What Happens?

We’re forced to make lots of decisions every day. Most of them are pretty benign: Where do you want to eat tonight? But some of them are much more important: What are you going to do about this problem? Many times, these decisions can have long-term implications for us and our future. All too often it seems, we default to …

The Right Road

We’re all looking for help. How do I get to where I want to go? What do I need to do to achieve my goals? If I do this right now, will I make it? What if what we really need isn’t the answer to our questions, it’s someone to tell us that we’re asking the wrong questions in the …

All Hell Breaks Loose

As a service provider, our job is to provide information to our clients. We’re paid for the words we say, so those words are very important. Say the right words, and everyone is happy and content, and our lives are full of joy! Say the wrong words (or even the right words not fully understood by our clients), and all …

Benefit of the Doubt

We all want to market our brand. To get it out there. To make ourselves known to our potential customers. But what is marketing, anyway? Is it simply shouting from the rooftops, or it there more to it? Seth Godin, in a recent blog post, succinctly defined what marketing is: Marketing involves making a promise and keeping it. Marketers understand …

Where There’s Smoke

All too often our businesses (and our lives in general) are controlled by the next emergency. We jump from crisis to crisis, doing our best to manage an unmanageable sequence of events. We spend all our waking moments putting out fires, and this causes us to ignore the source of our troubles, leading to even more fires waiting for us. …

Getting Them Involved

Lots of people like to feel involved; like they contributed something; like they played a part (even if it’s a small part) in the finished product. That’s why lots of things that we buy have a few tiny steps that need to be finished (by us) before we can start using our new product. The manufacturer could have easily completed …