Give-to-Get and the Business Power of Cooperatives In my article, Working with Charities, I expand on the fact that although most people do a good deed for the simple act of having helped, if examined further these types of feel-good actions can actually benefit a business in lot of ways.  Some returns are obvious, like tax deductions, but other rewards are not so obvious; like cross-promotions and marketing value. An...

In today's day and age, smartphones are more prevalent than they've ever been. One need only take a look at the people around them as they go about their day to see countless Blackberries, iPhones, and one of the many, many  Android offerings currently on the market. Tablets too are increasingly popular, with almost every major electronics manufacturer in business today having one on the market. People are connected to the...

In a previous article, we discussed how important it is to be honest with yourself. Today, I'll be getting in to more detail on a point I raised back then, which is the importance of being honest with your clients. We all know repeat business is the key to maximizing your Personal Independent Earnings. This is irrefutable cold hard fact.  But in order to earn the repeat business you desire,...

You've crunched the numbers. You've fine tuned your product. Every i has been dotted, every t crossed. Every conceivable thing you can think of has been taken care of. You've planned, you've budgeted, you've built your team, your marketing is ready to go. It's time for you to put your business out there in the world for all to see. Nervous? Don't be. This is probably the hardest part of...

It's very easy for anyone in any industry to think that competition is a bad thing. After all, there's somebody else out there offering a similar product or service and making money on it. Money that could be going to you. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Competition is actually a very good thing. You see, with a competing service out there, it inspires you to try...

As I previously discussed in my two part post on The Art of Negotiation (Part 1 here, part 2 here), everybody loves a good deal. There isn't a person alive who can resist a sale or special, especially on a product or service they've actually been looking for. Or even on things they haven't. Impulse buys play a big role in pulling in business during a special offer as well....

You hear about it almost every day. Another company faced with a multi-million dollar lawsuit, brought forth by a former customer or employee. Another business owner facing charges for illegal practices (more often knowingly than not). Now fortunately, as a small business, your chances of being waylaid with a gigantic seven figure lawsuit are extremely low, though the possibility of being sued should something along the way be less than...

The world is cyclical. This is scientifically proven fact. Ice ages come and go, weather patterns change, and then change back. Animals migrate to one area, only to later head back to where they started. This is as true in business as much as it is in nature. Look at how many products that were once popular, died away almost entirely, only to come back again years later. Bell bottoms...

Social media is the single fastest growing method of staying connected with your client base. In today's ultra-connected world, there is no better way to link up with your clients, providing them with useful information, and getting immediate feedback in return. But you know this already, I've written about it before. If you've been following my advice, you should already have fairly active social media accounts. The shift in the...

As I'm sure we've all noticed by now, the quality of products and services available these days is dropping at an alarming rate. Extremely expensive consumer electronics appear engineered to break, call centers where clients expect competent and timeless conflict resolution are instead outsourced to countries where the Customer Service Representatives barely speak English and read almost everything from a script. And when was the last time you heard about...