When you wake up each morning, your to-do list is already too long. But what if, instead of doing “a little bit of everything,” you tackled your most threatening problem first? I call that eating the frog. It’s hard, unpleasant, but transformative. In conversations with dozens of business owners, I ask: “What’s holding you back?” The … Read more
Many small business owners think they need to scale to compete with larger companies. They imagine growing bigger, serving more customers, and automating processes will lead to success. But what if scaling your business leads you down the wrong path? What if the best path to long-term success is to focus on the things that … Read more
Demystifying the power of branding “What is branding, anyway?” That’s one of the most-asked questions I get from small business owners. “A brand refers to the unique, intangible, and often indiscernible, association prospects and customers have regarding your products and services,” I say to them. Having a respected brand helps you stand out from the … Read more
My opening to the group of entrepreneurs I spoke to earlier this week was “You must build a brand. The success of your business depends on it.” During the talk, sponsored by Selph Marketing, I shared how-to advice on a number of topics I’ve seen hold small businesses back, and needlessly so. Chief among those … Read more
For small businesses, customer experience beats brand and price because it removes friction at the exact moment of choice. Start with follow-ups, service recovery, and proactive check-ins. My recent experience of buying a washing machine after my old one suddenly went kaput gave me a new appreciation for customer experience. In many ways, it’s now … Read more
Why hire a consultant? Small businesses of all sizes can benefit from hiring a consultant, in large part because of the wealth of experience, industry knowledge, and problem-solving ability consultants bring to the table. Consultants, because they have often worked with dozens—if not hundreds—of similar brands, are a force multiplier for small businesses, allowing them … Read more
The Jobs-to-Be-Done framework has been a boon to my business and the businesses I work with daily. As a business strategist with nearly two decades of experience helping brands online and offline, one of the most disheartening occurrences I experience is telling business owners their ideas are unlikely to be (near) as successful as they’d … Read more
Across the country, smart small business responses to COVID-19 are desperately needed. Small businesses are hurting. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown healthcare and the economy into a tailspin that’ll take us years to recover from. But no group is being battered more right now than small business, which forms the backbone of the economy. Many … Read more
Customer experience is the lifeblood of any service- or product-related business. It accounts for the many and varied interactions a prospect or customer has with your brand, before, during and after they do business with you. If the experience is positive, you can earn a customer for life. If the reverse is true, you’ll not … Read more
Brands as publishers? Rubbish! Your brand doesn’t need to be a publisher to be successful at content marketing. In fact, publishing your own content could actually be a detriment to your business. I attacked the logic of brands as publishers before, making the point that publishing content is one thing but attempting to adopt a … Read more