IowaBiz had an excellent post about how as a business owner, it can be incredibly frustrating when your employees always want a little more. Victor went on to suggest some ways that you can help your employees understand the investment you make in them. What a perfect segue to what I wanted to talk about today. Want to know how to create a workforce that appreciates you and all you do for them? Appreciate them first. It doesn’t have to be big bonuses or fancy prizes or trips. Most small businesses can’t afford that sort of lavish reward. So unfortunately,…

You unleashed a blog post on Twitter So compelling, I had to click On a cell phone I was, but t’was no matter Thank God for unlimited plans, that are super quick Patiently I waited For your blog on this tiny screen With each ticking second My excitement deflated Finally I see it! But alas! I had to scroll forever, to read Lucky you For normally, I would have long ago quit Please don’t pick on my poetry skills, I am a geek after all, not a poet 🙂 . Allow me to explain what this is all about. In…

(My Review of Yaro’s Conversion Blogging Video) This text will be replaced Ok I have something to admit, I’m a terrible affiliate. I’m an awesome promoter but terrible affiliate, how does that make sense? If you’re an affiliate promoting other companies products obviously you’re promoting them right? Not Always Right I’m really great at promoting things to people in person VS. over the internet, I can promote face to face, but don’t do that great a job of promoting products that I believe in, so this really is my Affiliate Experiment. I’ll be posting soon about more products and services…

Yaro Starak (the previous owner of this blog) is launching his Blog Mastermind Program. I’ve been listening to his program via the IRiver I received from him in the mail a while ago. I have to be honest to say that I have listened to only a few of the audios as I’ve been busy taking other courses which I’m sure I’ll share here as well. The one thing I noticed with Yaro is that he has a relaxed voice so it makes it easy to learn from him. I even took him to the gym and it actually motivated…

Not everyone throws on their spidey outfit and relishes leaping into the fray of the business sales arena. As a matter of fact a great deal of people sell because it is just part of what they do. If they could get the sales some other way, they’d probably jump at it. In the mean time all of the reluctant sales people out there, have to do they best they can with the few sale skills they have. For the past few months I’ve been in touch with several reluctant sales people from around the world, and we’ve been sharing…

Are you providing customer-focused service? This guest post today is by Bill Hogg, www.billhogg.ca Recently I had to go to a local collision repair shop for an estimate for some repair work on my car. I was sent to this particular shop by my insurance company for a quote, but was told I could have the actual repair done at any accredited collision repair shop. The first thing I noticed was a sign on the back wall that stated “Quality starts with great service”. I was greeted quickly by the receptionist who took some basic information and then asked me…

Always go the Extra Mile Guest post by Bill Hogg of www.billhogg.ca Recently MarketingProfs sent out a note about going the extra mile. In it they referenced an article (Giving Firms an ‘E’ for Effort: Consumer Responses to High-Effort Firms) by Andrea C. Morales, assistant professor of marketing at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Their research indicated that customers reward companies that are seen to go the extra mile — even if they don’t personally benefit from that effort. In fact, customers are willing to pay more for a product, frequent one store rather than another,…

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business Larry Weber describes in his updated and expanded Second Edition of Marketing to the Social Web how marketing the social web requires a new way of communicating with potential clients. It doesn’t mean that you should forget everything you ever learned about marketing, it means that you have to adjust to the new digital way and open up your mind to the new social marketing possibilities. He introduces the reader to the social web, how to make the transition to the social web and cut your marketing budget…

Let’s face it. Everyone is envious of Apple right now. They were the king of cool with the iPod. But then they got out cooled. By the iPhone. Who doesn’t want to be the iPod or iPhone of their industry? But that’s the rub. The more you chase cool, the less likely you are to catch it. That’s the premise of the book Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace by Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman. The book interviews brand visionaries about how they discovered, invented or in some cases, tripped over cool. Here are a few cool deal…

Steve Weber, the book marketing guru and author of “The Home-based Bookstore”, the No. 1 book on online retailing, gives insight into how to sell your books and ebooks. Ebooks and digital content have become the fastest growing publishing sector for the past five years. The author talks about their importance, no upfront costs for printing, storage and shipping and also introduces the reader to Amazon’s ebook reader device, Kindle. He provides information on how to publish to the Kindle store, how to solve formatting issues, pricing and other related topics. The author offers advice and tips on how to…