Author Archive for Nick Rice

A Lesson From The Garage

Written by Nick Rice
on November 29th, 2006 / 11 Comments / Print this

I wanted to tell you about a recent small business experience.
I recently decided to stop leasing cars. I’ve leased new vehicles for the last ten years and finally came to my financial senses. So I bought a nice used car - a Nissan that’s about 5.5 years old. It’s in great shape and should [...]

Lack of Creativity is Killing Business

Written by Nick Rice
on November 22nd, 2006 / 13 Comments / Print this

First off, thank you for all of your prayers and support while my son was in the hospital. He’s doing wonderful now. It looks like there will be no side effects and he’ll grow up to be a completely normal kid - or as normal as one can be in our house. It was awesome [...]

The personal side of Small Business

Written by Nick Rice
on October 16th, 2006 / 11 Comments / Print this

This is completely off-topic from what we normally chat about here. But I have to call out how wonderful people in small business can be. My wife and I welcomed a new baby boy into the family on Oct. 10. The bad news is that he was born with a heart defect and is waiting [...]

Lead Generation Techniques and Hierarchy

Written by Nick Rice
on September 30th, 2006 / 10 Comments / Print this

Obviously, there are a lot of ways to generate new business. I’m going to list a few here in order of effectiveness.

Cold Calling
Direct Mail / Sales Letters
White Papers
Tradeshows
Executive Seminars
Speaking Engagements

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, cold calls can be effective. You just have to be seen as a business peer (not a [...]

The Value Of Customer Service In An Emergency

Written by Nick Rice
on September 14th, 2006 / 8 Comments / Print this

Around 3:00pm Saturday afternoon we discovered that our washing machine had been leaking for about an hour. And by leaking I mean wide open. I immediately shut off the water valve to the washing machine while my wife was busily putting down every towel we could find on the floor (and she’s almost eight months [...]

The Call For Project Management

Written by Nick Rice
on August 31st, 2006 / 3 Comments / Print this

It’s rare that I see a marketing team value project management as much as an IT or software development team. And to be honest, I’m not sure why. I think it’s just a cultural thing. But here are the facts, marketing projects have deadlines, they have delicate interdependencies, they have budgets, they have multiple teams [...]