A writer friend of mind told me that when she is considering her next novel, she starts with one question: “What if?” What if a Southern Belle played flirty with a handsome Southern gentleman during the Civil War? Or, what if a widower found a letter in a bottle from his long lost love? And, from that, classics are born.
Asking simple questions can lead to big things. [Read more…]
I’m about to say something extremely controversial, which may go against every business guru’s advice, but here goes: you know when you’re told to create a business plan? Well, my best advice is… don’t.
Don’t feel compelled to write up a long detailed business plan that is designed for a third party like an investor, a plan that typically has no flexibility and simply ends up on a shelf.
(Don’t make your business plan like the Great Wall of China. It’s pretty, but has no flexibility) [Read more…]
Do you have a marketing plan? You don’t? Then you’d better get one. If you don’t have a road map for targeting the right product to the right people in the right way, keep your website on MySpace and start buying truckloads of lottery tickets.
I was searching for a marketing professional recently to do some work on my company’s website. The promises made on some of these professional sites seem to promise the moon, or at least “number 1 on Google in record time.” Things like that.
But can these marketing pros really do what they say?
I am not one to just take someone’s word for it; I like to do the homework (after all, that’s what I counsel my clients to do!). [Read more…]
Businesses talk about creating an environment that encourages innovation, change, openness, and so on. They believe that getting employees motivated with some good ol’ “rah rah” enthusiasm will make their workers feel good and inspire them to be more productive and innovative. They couldn’t be more wrong. You need to learn to think outside the box.
Entrepreneurs are curious by nature, yet time and time again, we’ve come across entrepreneurs who say they are ready to start a business. Yet, in my meetings with clients, I ask some basic questions about running of the business, like, “why are you different?” or “How will customers learn about your business?” and “How are you pricing your effort?” or “Who is your direct competitor?” And, I get that look of fear, or of confusion. Yet, these are basic “business 101” questions. [Read more…]