Dealing with difficult clients? I hear horror stories all the time from my colleagues and clients about their own customers (also -- vendors, mastermind group members, partners and employees) who constantly step outside the boundaries of what's considered good social behavior. Sure, we all make mistakes from time-to-time, but these folks make a …
A Little At a Time, That’s How Big Things Happen
Many small business owners feel overwhelmed with what they have to do and the time constraints they have for accomplishing both big goals and everyday tasks. I heard an interview with Zack Hample (who wrote a book about baseball). Zack has a 203-pound rubber band ball in his home. The interviewer asked Zack if he was obsessive about building this …
Avoid Pricing and Discounting Mistakes
In 2008, Pizza Hut saw its sales drop because of the Great Recession. Competitors were lowering their prices and offering discounts -- and Pizza Hut figured they needed to offer a discount if they wanted to compete with Dominoes Pizza and Papa Johns Pizza for a dwindling market. So in 2009, Pizza Hut began to offer a large cheese pizza with three …
7 Tips for Managing Information Overload
Do you ever have that disturbing feeling that trying to squeeze one more piece of new information in your brain will render you senseless? Information overload causes stress and a loss of productivity. We're so busy gathering information that we never get into action around implementing all these great ideas. And we can't seem to put our fingers …
Courage, and the Self-Employed
Each week, I hear people telling me they want to build their small business, but they don't (or can't) move forward on their dreams because they're afraid. There are so many things to be afraid of when you're self-employed: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection, illness, or lawsuits. No money, no time, no skills, no help, no …
Just Three Tasks a Day
A colleague of mine in one of my mastermind groups shared a great tip with us a few months ago: instead of writing a huge to-do list every day (and never completing all the tasks), focus on just three tasks a day. I've been trying this technique now for about 2 months, and I'm happy to report it is a winner! Truthfully, I don't know "how" it …