A Must-Have in Any Business
Some years ago, I was having lunch with a business associate at a fine restaurant. The food was superb, but when you pay eighty bucks for lunch for two people, you also expect great service. When the waitress brought our appetizers, I asked her to please give me some cracked…
How to Give Your Customers the WOW Experience
One of the things I’ve always been committed to is giving my clients the best service and experience that I possibly can. My thought is this: If I can let people have a “WOW Experience”, it will endear them to me. But beyond that, it will compel them to tell…
An Open Letter To Those Who Are Struggling
Dear Friend, Thank you for your letters and emails. I appreciate you sending me your ideas, but also for sharing your frustrations with me. It takes a lot of courage to be that open and honest. But just as importantly, I appreciate your enthusiasm and ambition. You have the right…
Why You Must Not Wait
Waiting for something to happen in your business just plain sucks. Sometimes you’re waiting to hear back from a prospect or a vendor—sometimes you’re waiting on a payment from a client or a customer. At other times, you’re waiting on someone to do something that they said they were going…
The Customer vs Employee Challenge
For many years, I felt a moral obligation to inform business owners whenever I thought they had a personnel or customer-service problem on their hands. I say moral obligation, because I have always been grateful to customers — or anyone, for that matter — who have taken the time to…
The Coffee Shop Entrepreneur Myth
It’s time to kick back in a coffee shop here in Toronto, surrounded by beautiful people, listening to my favorite music, and getting a ton of work done. Just kidding. That’s now how it works in the real world. If I tried that, I wouldn’t get half of my regular…
Simplify Your Life, Streamline Your Business
We don’t live in the Information Age; we live in the Information Overload Age. There is simply too much information: too many interruptions, too many channels, too many emails for us to handle on a daily basis. Ironically, when we have too many choices in life, our stress level goes…
How to Catch Fish with Strawberry Shortcake
Can you catch fish with strawberry shortcake? Apparently not. Dale Carnegie was quoted as saying that while he loves to eat strawberry shortcake, when he goes fishing, he does not use it for bait. Instead of using the food that he’s obsessed with for bait, he chooses to bait his…
How to Get Out of the Rat Race
As a service professional or business owner, how do you set your product prices or rates for your services? There are more books than you’d ever want to read about this topic. I’m sure there’s good advice out there, but there’s also a ton of bad advice mixed in—especially the…
The Brand Promise
Motek promises to make their customers “Heroes.” Advanced Circuits guarantees the “Quick Turnaround” of custom printed circuit boards. Rackspace promises to deliver “Fanatical Support.” FedEx is promising “peace of mind.” Southwest Airlines has been delivering “low fares” from the very beginning. McDonalds has gone back to “speed.” What is the…
The One Thing You Should Do in Business
When I talk to people who are starting a business (or have a business), I get asked THIS question a lot… “What Is The One Thing I Should Focus On To Build A Successful Business?” Well, I wanted YOU to get my BEST ideas on building a business, so here’s…
Why You Need to Make Friends with Your Marketing Enemies
With the economic climate as crazy as it’s been, now’s a great time to look to your ‘friendly’ competition for opportunities to help grow your list and add extra revenues to your bottom line. Even better, this can be done for virtually no out-of-pocket cost. Let me explain… For many…