Just because Google Plus has made Hangouts on Air so accessible to the public, doesn’t mean everyone should have a show. A lot of preparation will go a long way when planning your show. Step 1: Who is your market? This seems to be the hardest exercise for most business owners. You need to get…
In an increasingly noisy world of content creation or “inbound marketing” content without curation is a rabble, a jumble of impossible to decipher DATA. Examples of content curation are easy to find: Navigation on any website. Finding related images. Adding related links and perspective from gurus and thought leaders. Responding to comments. Sharing content on…
When blogging and curating, sharing your relevant and inspiring stories keeps you at the top. Over time, this generates your distinctive brand narrative. Your distinctive brand narrative is your unique voice in the world. It is how you distinguish yourself from others. Your brand narrative helps mold and shape not only how you conduct your…
Of the leading challenges small business owners report that they face, sales has always been in the top three. But, since 2008 (recession), sales has been the top answer (National Federation of Independent Business monthly survey). The other problems listed are different sides of the same coin and are solved with increased revenue. So let’s talk about…
Without revenue a small business is just a hobby. So, how does a typical small business go about getting clients and revenue? More importantly, how can a small business establish a process that continually creates new clients and helps grow revenue? The answer to this question proves elusive for many entrepreneurs. Typical small business…
We’re in the second week of 2014. My guess is most of our New Years Resolutions have gone back to where they were before the new year started: We’ll start them next week. Maybe next month. Nah, how about next year? Personal habits, both in the realm of business and one’s personal life are tough…
“There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. … Therefore, any business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation” Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954 Bold statement. Now, think about all the small businesses you’ve encountered that are poor at innovation and marketing and…
In this weekly series on online community building, I’ve been talking about how to appear online as the distinct entity you are using unique content, whether you’re representing yourself as an individual or as an employee of a company, or as a business. Today I want to focus for a moment where all that content might…
Note No sooner than I finished this post than my friend Evan Sanchez Tweeted that Google purchased Nest.com for $3.2B. If that doesn’t make you want to fire up a startup I don’t know what will. Amazing and Nest.com is covered in our Distributed Home section below. In Startup Trends 2014 I covered five macro…
Every business needs a business plan. Right? That’s what you read on the “authoritative” business sites. The Small Business Administration says not having a business plan is a cause in over 80% of small business failure. So, perhaps you’ve found a template and created one. If you don’t have one, you feel guilty, don’t you? …
