Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia 
Who would imagine that a business strategy and a 1970s rock ‘n roll band would have anything in common — until you listen to their little known song, “All Mixed Up”. Their song title, in a nutshell, sums up the present day understanding of business strategies and tactics.
Most entrepreneurs are technicians who have launched a business enterprise. They are accountants, lawyers, dentists, doctors, therapists, consultants, coaches, web designers, graphic designers, printers…..you get the point.
Small business owners are, in earnest, masters of their craft — not entrepreneurs. As a result, much of their day is spent exercising the technical skills of their chosen field. It’s what they know. Therefore, they continue to act in the capacity of an employee. They work “in” their business.
Traditional marketing is becoming obsolete. As more consumers turn to the web to buy products and services, its time for small business owners to acquire clients by shifting to a new marketing strategy. It’s time for small businesses to go inbound!
Let’s face it! Sometimes our best made plans just don’t come to fruition. Rather than waste valuable time and energy trying to force your plan to work, you may need to renegotiate — with yourself.
Entrepreneurs are driven to continually improve productivity. Taking a page from Lifehacker’s This is How I Work Series, here are some productivity tips that help me work grow my business, and that of others.
It’s tempting to offer hefty discounts to clients. Whether your choice to markdown your fee is to seduce clients into an initial purchase or acquiring more of your services, price discounting dramatically slows your business revenue.
Making decisions in your business, especially with so much riding on that decision, is tough. Do you follow your gut? Your friend’s suggestion? The latest information published at Entrepreneur.com? Although all are good resources to facilitate your decision-making, your best decisions are strategic decisions.
I know all the stats….companies that blog 15x or more per month get 5x more traffic than those who don’t blog. Businesses that increase the number of blog posts from 3-5x per month to 6-8x per month, double their leads. When the TOTAL number of blogs on a site grows from 20 to 50, traffic increases by 45%; spike the TOTAL blog posts past 100 and you’ll see a 59% upturn in traffic. Those are the results I wanted yet I limped along at my blog-a-week pace…and it was brutal.