A colleague recently asked me what she should expect to pay a Virtual Assistant. Another colleague asked me the going rate for a Website Designer. Someone asked me if they could get a Copywriter for less than $10 an hour. As your business grows it become apparent that you can't do it alone. Finding skilled consultants and assistants greatly …
The Green Office: Library Books
When was the last time you visited your local library? Remember that feeling of being surrounded by thousands of books and knowing you could take any one of them home with you? I rediscovered my local library when we moved to the countryside two years ago. Sure, I can order business books through Amazon, but the nearest bookstore to us is 25 …
Is Word-of-Mouth Too Passive to Be Effective?
If you've been anywhere around the Internet in the past five years or so, you would have heard about the internet equivalent to word-of-mouth advertising: viral marketing. Lots of people love the idea of word-of-mouth and viral marketing because it doesn't require a lot of work. Just ask people to talk about you, right? Wrong. Word-of-mouth …
How Often Should You Update Your Blog?
I use a blog reader to look at the blogs I've subscribed to. The blog reader not only shows me the most recent blog entries for each blog but also shows me how long it's been since the blog has been updated. I was amazed to notice that some big-name internet marketing folks hadn't updated their blog in a month or more! It seems to me that when you …
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times
What would happen if your revenues decreased by 44% in one year and looked like they would continue to fall in the next 12 months? Or increased by 30% rapidly and because of an unpredictable series of events? The recent downturn in the mortgage market reminds us how quickly things can go sour. Countrywide, a mortgage lender, …
What’s Your Most Important Business Skill?
I was pondering this question over the weekend: Out of all the business skills I have, which one has served me best, been the most practical, and had a direct bearing on my success? I did not choose the skills I learned while attending college for a business degree. By and large, they were geared towards a career as an employee in a corporation, …