Business Lessons You Don’t Need to Learn the Hard Way!

There are several lessons that business owners throughout history have already learned for you.

Why would anyone readily agree to learn these lessons the hard way?

Business lessons

1. Niche Selection: Pick One You Actually Understand

Like Tony Robbins has famously said many times “find something that gets you outta bed early and keeps you up late at night.”

That’s the first step. You also need to have intimate knowledge of your chosen niche industry – the products that sell, positives and negatives that will affect a successful operation, and most important: the types of customers you’ll be serving.

Even venture capitalists who make a dozen deals a week still make sure they know the industry they’re investing in, or have a trustworthy expert at their side advising them on the nuances of the business.…

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Why You Need to Hang on to Troublesome Customers

We’ve all been there at one point or another in business: dealing with a mean, snarly, over-bearing, impossible-to-satisfy customer that seems hell-bent on milking every last dime of profit from your business.

As a business owner, it’s so easy to focus on these “PIA” customers: concluding that telling them to “hit the bricks” is the only sensible solution. They exist in your world only to waste your time and money, and generally put you and your employees in a bad mood.

Nagging customer

The good…

Mr. Jones makes his purchase and you never hear from him again until he lavishes you with yet another order every month.…

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Tips for Getting an Underperforming Team Back on Track

When a team member starts to perform poorly it will affect your company’s business but when the whole team slips off track it can be a lot more serious.

In this sort of situation it is important to take the initiative and try to resolve the problems as soon as you can. Thankfully, there are some simple and sensible tips to let you do this quickly and efficiently. The following are some excellent ideas for getting back on track as soon as possible.

Lead your team to get back on track

Talk to Them More

A common problem in many businesses is that the staff feel that their bosses don’t talk to them enough.…

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5 Tips for Running a Successful Social Media Contest

Social media contests are popping up all over, but do you know the right way to use them for your company? In order to maximize benefits, it is important to understand what you need to do before you launch a contest. By spending time on setting up the rules and establishing firm objectives, there will be fewer questions later on, and you and your employees can focus on creating meaningful relationships with entrants.

Social media contest winners

Check out these five ways to run a successful social media contest below.…

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The Gift That Keeps on Giving – ROI on Corporate Client Gifts

Getting the best ROI on a corporate gift is more about being impressive than being lavish. Making an impression on your clients doesn’t mean a private jet pool party in the Maldives. On a small business budget, being impressive simply means conveying your branding message in a way that generates a return on the investment. So, how is it done?

Business growth via corporate gifting

Redefine “Impressive” in your mind

When it comes to small business branding, being impressive is about conveying the right message about your brand, in a memorable, valuable way. If you’re in the business of growing other businesses, this may mean a “growth” themed gift.…

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Tips On Getting Your Event Promoted

If you are thinking about planning an event of any kind, you will hopefully have realized that how you advertize and promote the event will in most cases determine whether it is a success or failure. By now you probably have a date set for the event, the location and you are now left with just letting your audience know about it.

Business event promotion

The methods used for promoting your event will invariably change depending on the purpose of the event, the type of audience you are targeting to attend and the budget and resources you have at your disposal.

Take a look at a few pointers you can consider when determining your very own promotion plan.…

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Don’t Waste your Money Hiring Consultants: There are Better Alternatives

Hiring a consultant is expensive, and not all small business owners have the privilege to hire one due to budgetary constraint. Before you decide on hiring one, you need to ask yourself this question: Do you really need to hire a consultant?

Business consulting

Please be clear early on: I personally think that small business owners need to find as much help as possible in order to improve their businesses. However, help often doesn’t come cheap.

Consulting fees usually come in the hundreds of dollar an hour. A typical 6-week engagement with McKinsey will easily cost over $500K. This is not ideal for many – even most – small businesses.…

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Innovation in Marketing Creates Impact That Lasts

Marketing has taken a new turn in the recent years. Innovation and creativity should not only reflect in the advert being showcased but also through the media being used.

“Nobody remembers the number of ads you run, they just remember the impression you make,” said Bill Bernbach, founder of the world-renowned Doyne Dale Bernbach Advertising Agency.

Pepsi augmented reality ad

Integration of marketing with technology has become a must in today’s world where everything has become digital. More and more people are using mobile phones in India. 23% of this population is hooked on to smart phones, and this number is increasing as we speak.…

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What is The Best Online Address Book? A Debate Revisited

Let’s get clear up front – we’re talking about ‘online address books’, which for the purposes of this article means an address-book, a place where you hold information on how to get in touch with people, that is online. No, I promise this will not be the most patronizing article ever written, but it is important to clear up a potentially misleading set of terms.

Online address book

Let’s also be clear on is what we’re not talking about: phone books, like those you may still receive from your landline provider. We’re not talking about those.

Now we’re all singing from the same song-sheet, let’s get down to the business of looking at the market for online address books, and where we seem to be heading, what is now about 10 years since Facebook entered the mix.…

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5 Benefits of Project Management

SMB CEOs – if you want to get things done within your company, you need to set every goal as a project, and projects need to be managed for the best results. Let’s explore project management benefits, shall we?

Project management

On a contrary to what people believe, project management is not only about new product launch or customers’ orders.

Let’s define “project”: It’s a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result (source.)

Launching a new store is a project. Recruiting new employees is a project. Improving your IT system is a project.

As you can see, everything needs to be considered as projects.…

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