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May 2017
21 Good Excuses to Get Off the Phone with a Friend or Client
Legitimate Excuses to Get off the Phone When Working from Home Whether you’re looking to end a phone call with a friend, family member, boss or client, you’ll find my 21 excuses especially helpful. Quick Story About My Excuses For the past 17 years, I’ve been working from home as a marketing communications consultant. As you can imagine, there have been numerous awkward moments that demanded I get off the phone. Most of these situations were caused by my children or an elderly dog who needed to empty his bladder — pronto. Therefore, I’ve become quite savvy at drumming up...
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Mar 20177 Key Marketing Steps When Opening a Hair Salon
Marketing Checklist for Opening a Hair Salon So you’ve decided to open your own hair salon or spa. I’m happy for you! It’s a big undertaking that’ll ultimately bring you many rewards. What follows are the top seven marketing strategies to implement as soon as possible in order to generate clientele and create immediate cash flow. These strategies are in no particular order, since they’re all essential. Note that I’ve included a special consultation offer specific to hairstylists and salon owners at the end of my post. Without any further delay, here are my best marketing ideas on how to...
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Feb 2017How to Retain Customers During Times of Change
No matter what industry you work in: banking, insurance, restaurant, fitness, retail, health care and so on, when your customers experience a change associated with your small business, you run the risk of losing these customers. Therefore, let’s talk about how to retain customers during a period of change. To be clear, examples of change include: Retirement, death, leave-of-absence Sale of business Price increase Product update or removal New employee, business partner, etc. Rebranding or business name change RELATED: If you’re pondering a price increase, be sure to check out my special report: How to increase prices without losing customers....
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Jan 2017Simple Techniques to Increase Client Referrals
Contemplating how to increase client referrals? Many consultants and other experts rely heavily on referrals. And why wouldn’t you? Positive word-of-mouth is the most affordable way to grow any small business. Therefore, what follows are three common reasons why businesses miss out on referrals. What’s more, to help you fix this problem, I provide several referral positioning and messaging examples. Here are the three reasons why you’re not seeing the referrals you want and what you can do about it: #1 — Fear of Referring Most noteworthy: Many customers may be hesitant to refer your business for fear you’ll talk about them...
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Nov 2016What Your Email Signature Should Include
You may be losing sales leads if you’re limiting your email signature to just your name, phone number and website. As small business owners with limited budgets, we need to optimize every marketing channel available. This includes our email signatures. To help you, I’ve outlined several ideas below. What’s more, I conclude this post with three detailed email signature examples. Specifically, an email signature for a CEO, another for an owner of a small company and then my own. The Making of a Profitable Email Signature First, every email you distribute should include an email signature — even if you’ve...
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Oct 201617 Rules for Marketing & Running a Successful Small Business
Beyond needing high levels of determination, building and running a successful small business requires a certain approach. To achieve your business growth objectives, follow these 17 marketing rules. When you do, revenue will increase and you’ll be well on your way to running a successful small business. #1 — Answer the Question. I know what you’re selling, but why are you selling it? When your prospects agree with you, they’ll buy from you. #2 — Think Mobile. Assume your message will be viewed on a tiny device. To increase readership, add numbers, subheads and photos. The latter is friendly on the...
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Sep 2016Entrepreneur Marketing Plan Ideas & Strategies That Differentiate
How to Define Your Key Competitive Advantage Within Your Entrepreneur Marketing Plan If you’re a solopreneur in the throes of creating an entrepreneur marketing plan, then be sure to define and exploit this key customer benefit… Your ability to provide swift and impeccable customer service due to your extremely small size and agility. First, Let’s Consider Ways to Express This Crucial Entrepreneurial Advantage Aside from our unique skill sets, hands down, the greatest customer benefit we independent sole-proprietors have is our ability to provide great service. The key to generating revenue is to transform this customer benefit into a tangible experience within...
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