October 1, 2010 Is Busyness Hurting Your Business? All too often the “shoemaker’s kids have no shoes” effect takes place in businesses. Many business owners get so wrapped up in the day-to-day struggles of staying afloat that they forget to step back and look at the bigger picture as often as they should. Whether you are a small, independent business or not, you should have a marketing strategy that ensures your company is properly equipped and focused to move in the right direction. Sit down with a pencil, and write out your objectives; your long-term goals and vision; your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; and what you can…
September 20, 2010 Understanding the Real Life Social Network When you hear the growth figures for social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Facebook recently surpassed 500 million users (that’s half a billion, folks – more than the populations of the US, Canada, and Mexico combined), and Twitter reports 300,000 new accounts per day. With all the chatter going on in the social sphere, what can small businesspeople like us do to keep from becoming just so much white noise? For starters, we need to put the numbers in context. Just because there are 500 million users on Facebook, that doesn’t mean we need…
March 30, 2010 Can I Speak with a LIVE Person…PLEASE!?! Why are businesses using automated answering services during normal business hours, as a replacement to nice, friendly, helpful, AND LIVE, customer service representatives? Do business owners actually believe this is a good idea? An upgrade in customer service? I don’t know anyone who hasn’t felt utter frustration, at least once, after encountering an automated answering machine when calling to place an order or ask a question. The worst is the kind that is supposed to recognize your voice commands, but no matter how perfectly you enunciate, it can’t differentiate yes from no. When people call your business, they want to…
