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How often have you entered a store: 1) And observed two clerks continue to chat instead of turning to smile at you? 2) To find that the order you called in the day before is not at the counter, ready for your quick pick-up and payment, because the clerk said she “got busy with other customers?” 3) And asked the clerk a question about a product and Read More

Maybe your fixed costs are not as fixed you think. With the recession continuing in full force, you may find that everyone — from the company that supplies your office with water to your neighborhood banker — is willing to renegotiate their existing arrangements with you to keep your business. Closely analyze every contract you have and look Read More

You've read a bunch of different productivity posts, blogs, books, and magazine articles — admit it — and yet it's always so complicated. You just want to accomplish great things, without all the fuss. And while there are many great systems out there — GTD, Zen To Done, Extreme GTD, The Power of Less, and more — it always takes a lot of work. Y Read More

I thought this was an effective idea, "When you're stumped trying to come up with remarkable features to talk about in your marketing -- go the opposite way. Talk about something awful, opposite, or different." Check out this example from TripAdvisor to see how it can be done. Read More

Obama and Geithner proposed a plan last week to use $15 billion from the TARP fund to purchase small-business loans on the secondary market in order to encourage banks to make more of them. This week, that plan blew up in their face. Here's the how and why. Read More

Here are five more inexpensive—yet powerful—ideas that can help you and your business come out on top. Read More

In the weeks since President Obama proposed rolling back federal income tax rates on the nation's top two marginal tax rates as part of his federal budget, the term "small business owner" has turned into a political football. Proponents of the budget proposal claim that less than 3% of small business owners have net household income above $ Read More

Despite a continued preference among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) for receiving marketing information via direct mail and in other traditional ways, major marketers to SMBs are cutting back on these tactics and switching to lower-cost, online marketing to save money. These efforts are at odds with what SMBs say they prefer. As a so Read More

Businesses of all sorts and sizes will be able to dip into the flood of money pouring out of Washington. Here's how to improve your odds. By now we've all heard one of the newest American complaints -- all this stimulus and bailout money, but where's mine? Like many individuals, most businesses won't get much government help. But many savvy Read More

Have you heard of the conversion funnel? This is the process in which customers get to your site and go through a number of steps that ultimately lead them (hopefully) to the checkout. In a post on the Google Analytics Blog, Alden DeSoto brings up a very good point. In a brick and mortar store, a salesperson can judge in person things that mak Read More