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Many aspiring entrepreneurs believe that once they have their business idea, pulling together a kick-butt team that will help build the new company to success will be easy to do and that those team members will stick around until the end. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

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How your customers and potential customers perceive your brand directly impacts your bottom line. Here are six questions to help you ensure your brand is more engaging and appealing. Read More

You can learn a lot from an examination of how you manage (or don’t manage) your online brand. If it helps to think of a social media audit as something else—a marketing mastermind, maybe?—then so be it. Don’t let the word “audit” get in the way of checking in regularly with your social profiles. I Read More

Don't waste your time messing around on social sites that have no ROI for you. Here's how you can do better at gaining leads on the sites that are perfect for your business. Read More

There are two damaging misconceptions about competition that I see new entrepreneurs believing all of the time, either of which could tank the company (or prevent it from even getting off the ground in the first place). Those two misconceptions are that unless you have a completely new idea, you ca Read More

After representing entrepreneurs for more than 20 years, I remain dismayed at both how quickly and how often they issue equity ownership of their business to co-founders, employees, strategic partners, consultants, and vendors.

Overeager entrepreneurs too often use equity as currency without con Read More

Much has been written about what goes into the pitch decks founders write to entice venture investors to fund their startups.  But what about the best tactics to catapult yourself into the venture community? How do you go about setting up those meetings if you’re not particularly well networked (or Read More

The conversation around brand loyalty has been on a steady decline since the advent of social media.

Ever since the term "engagement" snuck into the picture, marketers have been blowing smoke about how important it is to regularly engage with customers, touting the untold benefits of regular con Read More

Years ago I saw a study for Travelers Insurance that showed persuading people to complain could be, in fact, the best business move a company could make. Only 9 percent of the non-complainers with a gripe involving $100 or more would buy from the company again. On the other hand, when people did co Read More

Going into a negotiation with someone who holds more power than you do can be a daunting prospect. Whether you are asking your boss for a new assignment or attempting to land a major business deal with a client, your approach to the negotiation can dramatically affect your chances of success. How Read More