More than a Few Words

The more you know about a prospect, the easier it is to sell. Asking questions is a great way to learn what you need to know and avoid wasting time talking about your product or solution if you don't know if you are talking to the right person . So, what should you be asking? Of course, there are the basic question which kick off the conversation. Why did you call me? What are you hoping we can do...

If you are like me, you probably spend a lot of time on social Media. While these tools are helpful, are they the best resource for your business.  My guest, Megan Brame has eliminated both her Facebook and Instagram profiles. How is she generating leads? By going back to basics, relying on word of mouth, phone calls and email.    Megan Brame   is a 5x award-winning entrepreneur, author, and Advan...

Like many business owners I made the transition from paper to digital tools a few years ago, but some days it feels as if I am juggling too many digital tools.  So my goal for this year is to streamline my digital toolkit and make those tools really productive.  To help me do that I turned to Dr. Frank Buck, author of Get Organized Digitally for a few productivity tips and tricks.  He suggests:  I...

Marketing is addicting. You do a little marketing, you get results, you do a little more and suddenly you’re hooked. You can’t imagine your business surviving without the jolt from your social media, Yellow Page ad, email marketing or whatever you use to get your marketing buzz. Your addiction isn’t necessarily a bad thing if the marketing activities are generating results. Just remember that when...

Lots of people make the mistake of thinking good design is just a pretty picture. But, as our guest Jacqui Naunton  explains, it is so much more that that.  And when done correctly can have an enormously positive impact on your business. It starts with a good first impression because people are inundated with images every day and so you only have a split second to make a statement or create an imp...

Have you ever been to a website that just makes you feel right at home? Everything is where it's supposed to be. And you know, you've come to the right place. That's a website that's was designed with the user experience in mind. What is user experience?  According to our guest Joey Donovan Guido user experience is the positive, negative, or neutral experience somebody has when they show up on you...

One of the things I love about living n Indianapolis is the activity at the racetrack.   Yes, it is true, I am a race geek.   I love the cars, the drivers, the back story and the history. I have a favorite spot high in turn one for qualifications, and there is nothing quite like the feeling when you hear the call for , "ladies and gentleman start your engines!" Watching the car and motorcycle race...

So you want to start a business but you really don't have an idea of what you want to do.  In that case, a franchise might be just what you're looking. Our guest, Diane Pleuss has matched hundreds of entrepreneurs with their perfect fit franchise opportunity.    Franchising is often a good fit, when seasoned professionals think about leaving their corporate roles behind. Maybe they have been downs...

Even for the most accomplished writer, creating an effective blog post takes time.  This is especially true as the word count requirements have grown. Even if it is only an hour or two, over the course of the year, that adds up. As you are working on your plan, make a list of all the things which need to be done to make that successful. So how long does it really take to write a blog post?  Resear...

Small business owners never have enough time. There is always more to do than than a day a day it fits in a day's work. Guest, Alex Brueckmann believes a good strategy becomes your system to prioritize rigorously where you invest your time and also your money.  Your strategy starts with an outline of what you want your business to be.  A great business won't happen by accident. Writing down your v...

It often feels as if the world is just a little nastier than it used to be with online attacks to individuals and businesses.  Well it turns out that's not new. The internet has made it a little bit more visible, but history is filled with examples of public attacks on professionals, politicians and businesses. Jason Viovich thinks we can learn so much from how others have handled criticism and ne...

My husband loves scotch and it was on his bucket list to see where it was made. So several years ago, I found myself wandering through distillery after distillery hearing about malting, mash and wort, the importance of good water, roasting temperatures for barley and what yeast does to the mixture. At first I thought all the tours were the same. Then, I began to really listen to the tour guides, w...

We like to think of ourselves as evolved creatures, but according to Felix Cao the primal brain is actually the place where the subconscious mind lives and that actually, influences up to 95% of our everyday decisions. The study of neuromarketing  looks at how the brain is structured and how information physically enters the brain and use the biology to improve your marketing. Felix Cao is a neuro...

 If I asked you where the keys to your house were, might take you a minute, if you're a little bit like me and put him down somewhere in the house, but within a minute or two, you'd know where your keys were. Why? Because it's important that you protect your home by locking your doors and having a set of keys with you. The same is true for your website, you need to know where the keys are to your...

As a business owner you are active on social media to do more than just make friends.  You are there because you ultimately hope it will lead to sales.  if you want to  that to happen you  need to do more than just hope.  You need to take an active role, using the tools in an effective social sales process.  This week, guest Patty Farmer describes social selling as a process to cultivate relations...

I am a fan of Walt Disney, not just his movies, but his vision and creativity as an entrepreneur.  He understood the importance of a clear company vision expressed passionately through stories and ideas, not cold facts and numbers. When Disney started construction on Disneyland he worked closely with the construction crews mapping out every detail of the park. He envisioned a magical place and wan...

LinkedIn can be an incredibly valuable resource for your business, but it won't work if all you do is post content telling l people how awesome you are with a link to your blog or website.  If you want to actually drive results, you will need to focus on engagement.  Our guest, Sam Moss shared some tips on how to do just that.  Make sure this is where your customers and potential partners are hang...

Write Your Goals Down As the new year begins, take a few minutes to think about your goals and what you want to accomplish in 2018. Dream big both personally and professionally. Maybe you want to lose weight, expand your team, launch new products, or close more sales. Be specific; do you want 5, 50, or 500 new projects. Write your goals down. There is lots of research which indicates even the simp...

Everyone talks about finding your ideal client. But how do you do that? Today my guest Tim Fitzpatrick of Rialto Marketing explains it can be as easy as answering three questions. Who do you enjoy working with, because why would you want to be in business and work with people who make us bang our head against a wall?  Who are your most profitable clients?  Surprisingly, this may not be the people...

Your brand doesn't happen by accident.  Our guests Tonya Eberhart & Michael Carr, partners behind BrandFace have created The 3 D Process for building your brand.  Define - In the define stage, start with a look at who are your ideal customers, because you can't do business with everybody. If you try to help everybody, you'll just help yourself right out of business.  Develop - In the development p...

Why should you care about conversion optimization? When I ask business owners about their website performance, most can easily tell me how much traffic they get in a given week or month. Even if they don’t have the number top of mind, they can hop into Google Analytics, and in just a moment see exactly how many visitors viewed their website. They feel good if the number is increasing every month....

If you own a business, you have stress. It seems to come with the job, but our guest Debra Sunderland suggests that your stress often comes from lack of clarity. She says the reason we have stress is because the small part of our brain called the amygdala, often referred to as the ego, wants to have all the answers in order to keep you safe.  When it doesn't it sets off alarms inside of our body T...

I have been blogging since 2007. Back then blogging was popular among writers and geeks.  I am not sure which I was, but I enjoyed the opportunity to flex my creative muscle on a site called More than a Few Words. Yes, before it was a podcast, it was a blog. The posts were short snippets of what I was thinking about at the time.  Some of the content was funny, some of it was serious. There were th...

If you are a small business owner, there is a good chance you feel a little bit like a gerbil on a treadmill. You're running and chasing the food, but you never quite catch it. Our guest, author Matthew Turner doesn't think it needs to be that way. In his new book Beyond the Pale, he explains that many of us think we own a business, but somehow it starts to own us. When you make a decision to work...

We routinely tell business owners that great blog posts are an important part of their sales, marketing and SEO strategy. With so much riding on each and every post, it's tempting to push the sales element really hard. But that is exactly the opposite of what you should do. The hard sell is one sure way to turn off prospective customers. Think about the late night television commercials that screa...