Strength In Business

Writing a book has something magical to it. It is like having a meeting with an empty sheet of paper and being invited to color the canvas with what resides inside of you. You get to communicate your thoughts, emotions, frustrations, desires and even your deepest fears. It’s a very liberating process and if you have written a book yourself, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. The followi...

It’s been almost a decade since I grabbed my microphone and recorded my very first podcast. 400+ episodes later I’m still in the podcasting game and have no intentions to turning a back on it. A lot has changed since recording my first episode of the Strength In Business Podcast . I moved from my laptop mic to more fancy solutions such as the Blue Yeti mic or the Zoom H4n portable mic. I migrated...

Contracts come in different shapes and forms. They go from simple to overly complicated, from oral to written; from loose to legally binding and enforceable agreements. And then, there’s trust. It’s the Holy Grail in sports, marriage, love and business. A word that encompasses so much, yet falls short in real life. We all want to believe that things will last, that we can rely on somebody’s word t...

On the way back from my recent Facebook Advertising workshop in Berlin I reflected upon the mistakes that popped up during the sessions. Some of these mistakes were common, whereas others were directly correlated with the level of know-how each participant had. One of these Facebook advertising mistakes stuck with me as I’ve seen it come up over and over again in my workshops irrespective of the c...

When it comes to burger or fries you automatically think of McDonalds, Burger King and other similar chains. But what if your business has burgers and / or fries, too? What if you have several burgers but no sides in your portfolio? And what about those businesses which focus entirely on fries, shakes and muffins without ever considering adding a burger to their menu? Today’s topic goes beyond the...

Who doesn’t love some marketing quickies that you can understand on the fly and more importantly, apply effortlessly? Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not what today’s post is about. Quick fixes seldom last. And most things you acquire effortlessly, you value less. Marketing strategies, tactics and tools change all day long. What don’t change though, are principles. They govern the universe. Th...

Meeting somebody in person requires time, energy and resources. Obviously, technology has made it easier for us to communicate and exchange information at lightning speed, however, when it comes to closing deals, nothing beats Face-to-Face (F2F) . To this day, F2F has the highest sales impact. Mobile phones are omnipresent. People are better connected than ever and yet, many feel isolated and comp...

A lot has changed in the Facebook Advertising world since 2011 when I first joined the party. The platform has evolved and so have the challenges. The number of campaign types you can run has increased dramatically. New targeting options were added almost on a daily basis. We had two dashboards for ad setup: newbies were using the Ads Manager, pros the Power Editor. Then came the Business Manager...

Mass marketing or personalized marketing? What’s it gonna be? Are you going to blast out your posting to the masses or will you deliver individualized messages to your most relevant audience? Sometimes you can do both whereas other times you’re better off with the latter. I’ve seen both marketing strategies in action and I’ve also applied them both myself. My first significant exposure to mass mar...

Having all your revenue coming from one source is a huge risk. Using a single sales and/ or marketing channel to market your business is a fatal mistake. Single-source dependency aka over-reliance on any one thing can ruin your business. Let’s take a step back and go through everything that I mentioned above. To make you understand why this is so important to consider, I’ll showcase some examples...

The sales cycle is probably the most important part of a business cycle. You can be a master in lead generation however, if you don’t turn those leads into paying customers, you might as well call it a hobby instead of a business. If you look up the web, you’ll find all kinds of business and sales cycles. Some of them will be very theoretical, others will have a long list of steps to follow and im...

Ultimately it all comes down to sales. You can do the right thing when it comes to marketing and branding, that is create valuable content for a relevant audience, onboard leads via Facebook ads and build relationships on LinkedIn — but if you can’t generate sales, you’re in trouble. I share a lot of insights about marketing on this blog, however, today I’d like to switch gears and talk to y...

Getting the right customers through the door, hiring talented personnel, managing cash flow , putting marketing systems in place to be able to sell more products and services, reducing inventory… these are some of the small business challenges that you’ll encounter if you decide to embark on this journey and be your own boss. It’s fascinating to me to see how small business owners of different age...

Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that, “Change is the only constant in life” . If there’s one area this applies to more than ever, it’s social media. Since the birth of Facebook, Twitter & Co., our lives have been shaped in ways hardly anyone understands. Some researchers consider the new addiction to social networks more dangerous than the addictive behavior towards alcohol, drugs or...

This is the second part of the Cash Flow (CF) series. Last time we dissected the first part of the Cash Flow equation – which is income, and I shared with you several actionable marketing tactics to boost your income and thus increase cash flow. Today, we’re going to have a look at the second part of the equation, which if left unmastered, will cause major pain in your business, often leading to y...

Cash flow (CF) is the Holy Grail. It’s the lifeblood of your business. Knowing how to pick the right mix of marketing tactics to boost your CF pot will be of tremendous value to the future of your company. It’s cash flow that keeps your doors open for business. No cash flow and sooner rather than later you’ll be out of business. That’s the harsh reality. Therefore, your number one goal in business...

What’s one of the most enjoyable memories you have from visiting a restaurant? Who was there with you? Was it your favorite place? How was your meal served? More importantly, when I asked you to choose your most enjoyable memory, why exactly did you pick this particular experience? There were some amazing marketing recipes at play here that allowed you to remember this occasion and store it in you...

Your happiness is up to you. It’s up to you to increase your awareness and use your strengths to develop happiness and fulfillment in life. When you identify your unique strong points, you’ll be able to bounce back from adversity a lot quicker than others. Furthermore, it will give you a good starting point for developing strategies that will keep you “in the flow” so that you can effectively side...

Marketing is not an event. It is definitely not a random event. Marketing is a strategy-based multi-step, multi-media process. If you don’t have proven systems and marketing funnels in place, you’re doomed to fail. Thanks to strategic advisor and direct response marketer Dan Kennedy , I learned this early on in the game. Therefore I’m giving credit where credit is due. This is the eighth part of t...

Podcasting seems to be the new marketing “miracle” these days. New shows arise daily like mushrooms after the rain and newbies who join the game are often mislead into thinking they have found “the holy grail of marketing”. Yes, podcasting is very popular. But is podcasting really the holy grail of marketing, or is it just another marketing vehicle you need to master AKA know exactly how to deploy...

Huge egos, unapproachable, know-it-all individuals… Medical professionals are a very difficult category of people to deal with. I find that these types of generalizations are always dangerous. Obviously, there are MDs who match the description above and I have encountered some of these individuals, too. However, there are loads of doctors, surgeons and dentists running hospitals, practices and bus...

Why invest your precious time on Twitter when you have Facebook, Instagram and YouTube where you can reach way more people and eventually generate higher levels of attention? You see the majority of small business owners don’t fully understand the power of Twitter. Furthermore, they haven’t come to terms with the fact that over the past few years, Twitter has evolved and with that the ‘tweets’ and...

Why do you need Email marketing when you have Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat? Everybody seems to be hooked to social media and nobody is reading fancy emails. Is that really so? Then why is it that people are twice as likely to sign up for your email list as they are to interact with you on Facebook? [Source: Forrester ] This is the fifth part of the Small Business Owners series I started recently...

What works better: offline or online marketing? Live events – no way! I hate speaking to a crowd of people. Yellow pages have always worked great for us, so why change our strategy now? How about we stick to Facebook and Google AdWords and forget the rest? These are questions that pop up in a lot of small business owners’ minds. Actually they are thinking patterns. They are so ingrained in people’...

Everyone has at least one book in them – a quote that is often used to motivate people to get something done. Replace the word “book” with webinar, podcast or song and you’ll get the picture. This is the third part of the Small Business Owners series I started recently. In the previous months, I covered the topics of social media and Facebook advertising . Today, I’d like to talk to you about harn...