Profits by Mail
It’s so irritating to pay a late fee when you return a rental movie a day (or 30 days) late. Was anyone else really trying to rent Gigli during the two extra days I held on to it? Not likely. So why should I pay a fine when the movie was just going to sit on a shelf?
READ MORE10 Simple Ideas to Help Your Business
“How is the job hunting going?” I asked my friend Jane. “Well, nobody EVER hires during the holidays, so there’s no point in looking. Actually, I’m kind of hoping I can get my unemployment benefits extended.” If my dad had heard that, he would have had a fit. He strongly…
READ MORENow You Can Enjoy Your Chocolate Fix Even More…
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD tested the effect of dark chocolate on platelet activity, C-reactive protein (CRP – an indicator of heart disease and stroke risk), and lipid profile in 28 healthy volunteers. For one week, the volunteers ate dark chocolate (providing 700 mg of flavonoids per day). At the end of that time, the researchers found that, on average, their LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) had fallen by 6 percent and their HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol) had increased by 9 percent. Their CRP levels, too, were reduced.
READ MOREGet Out There and Sell Yourself!
In tough economic times – like right now – you may have fewer new customers or your existing customers may be more cautious about spending. Worse, you may feel that there’s nothing you can do.
As unfair as it may seem, you’re on your own. Nobody is going to give you a bailout, nobody owes you a thing, and you have no right to anything except that which you create.
READ MOREThe Tricky Tactics of the Pharmaceutical Industry
You may think you’re up on the latest health information. But even if you were to read all the thousands of medical journals out there, you probably wouldn’t be getting the whole story. Because when they are trying to get their studies published, drug companies are more likely to submit outcomes of those that favor benefits of the new drugs they are promoting.
READ MOREThe Plain Truth
Have you ever asked yourself what it is that gives someone power over you? The truth be known, it’s a matter of perception – both the other person’s and yours. By this I mean that most power is abstract, and therefore impossible to quantify.
READ MOREWhat’s Just as Important as Your Product?
A bonus is the free special report you get when you sign up for a newsletter… the MP3 download you get when you buy a book… the 6-in-1 kitchen tool and set of precision steak knives you get when you order a Ginsu knife… or the free shipping you get when you order a Land’s End fleece jacket.
READ MOREFollow the Cash
If you can’t turn on the lights, you can’t make money. That’s the dark reality of a company unable to pay its bills. And without cash lubricating an economy, businesses dry up. I saw it happen in Asia (where I did a lot of business as CEO of a trading company) in the late 1990s. One by one, Asian currencies came under attack by aggressive currency traders. Local currencies quickly sank to one-half to one-fifth of their previous values.
READ MOREHow to Get Your Offers to Celebrities
When I was getting ready to promote the 2008 International Sketch Comedy Competition, I needed a celebrity host. I’d been producing this event for several years – but this time, I intended to market a video of it. And I knew that if I wanted to have a chance of doing that successfully, I needed a “name.”
READ MORETake a Good Hard Look Behind You
I discovered long ago that if I wanted to continually improve my company and my own performance I need to leverage my past experience for all it’s worth. Stated more simply – to make 2009 the best it can be, you need to analyze what took place in 2008.
READ MOREAre You Risking Cancer With This Fat?
You know by now that there are “good” fats and “bad” fats. And you’ve probably heard that small amounts of omega-6 fatty acids from seeds and plants are essential for your body. When combined with omega-3 fatty acids from fish, omega-6s appear to play an integral role in maintaining health. Together, these two fats can help regulate brain development, energy production, and immune function, and control inflammation.
READ MOREMore Mispronunciations
In an earlier installment of “The Language Perfectionist,” I presented a list of the most commonly mispronounced words, courtesy of Charles Harrington Elster, a leading expert on pronunciation. In that column, I pointed out that if you don’t pronounce words properly, your image and reputation could suffer.
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