Marketing & Advertising

The CEO of Gilt.com (an amazing luxury ecommerce company), Susan Lyne just revealed her vision of the future of “curated“ commerce. She describes why Gilt ”curates” their site and shares 3 new rules for doing business online.  That’s great, but let’s go further and just say it — these 3 secrets apply to all businesses.  Whether you sell online or otherwise,  to attract [...]

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Taking my own advice

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You read this blog because you need solutions to tough problems.  We tackle issues like finding angel investors, improving profitability, and setting growth strategy.  And sometimes we even discuss brands and marketing… So you might have been surprised that this blog never had a name.  But a recent shout-out by Intuit, naming me to a [...]

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Pricing: 4 steps to Price for Profit

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There are plenty of ideas about how to calculate the perfect price for your products or services, but none are very interesting or useful for your small business. If you are looking for something to put you to sleep, reading about “price theory” is perfect.  You could learn to set prices using games, options, alternatives, arbitrage, [...]

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American Idol made my business ROCK!

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After 10 seasons of watching American Idol, the endless Coke commercials and Ryan Seacrest jokes have paid off: I’ve gleaned great business wisdom from watching American Idol. The idols, judges, and millions of wanna-be’s have taught me at least three things that every entrepreneur should know: Idol Wisdom #1: It takes 6 months to make it big Between [...]

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Monday Rant: The Lame Name Game Takes Another Victim

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There are few companies that I love, but Administaff was one.   Why?  Because they did exactly what their brand name says — they took care of all the administration of my staff, including HR, payroll, benefits, liabilities, hiring, compensation, etc.   Administaff was my trusted partner / PEO (Professional Employer Organization). But now Administaff is [...]

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What’s a Tweet Worth? About $5…or $50,000 if you are Charlie Sheen

I've always wondered… what's the value of a Tweet? Fortunately, someone far smarter than me has put pencil to paper and come up with a good guess.  (Here's the whole story about the Value of Facebook Likes and Tweets, but I'll save you the click.)  Here's the results: So how do tweets get value?   [...]

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300 Reasons to Stay Up All Night

I spend waaaayyyy too much time online these days.  So much so that I haven't been out to a bar or club or restaurant in weeks.  Some of you are laughing (and you should) but too many of you aren't laughing.  It's easy to understand how even reasonable people get stuck in the web.  Stuck [...]

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The World’s Most Secret Advertising Secret in the World

What is it about us humans?  We are smart, big-brained animals.  We are (almost) on top of the food chain, and advanced enough to build skyscrapers and rocket ships.  But when it comes to advertising, we continue to fall for the stupidest stuff in the universe. 17 Secrets of Hollywood Diet Gurus 9 Secret Ways [...]

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The $24 Wrong Number — the cost of phone sales

Quick!  Do you know the TRUE cost of a phone call? If you are like me, you may have answered smartly, “almost zero — unlimited phone calls are free from most phone companies”.  Well, yes, that’s technically correct, but there’s more to it than that. Alright, let me be more specific.  What’s the total cost [...]

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