A friend of mine and his wife once started a weekly newspaper in a very rural area. She was a graphics professional and he was a former newspaper reporter, so it was a natural fit. Before their launch date, the wife hit the back roads and visited all the local businesses selling ads and setting […]
By Liz Greene Acquiring new customers isn’t the easiest of tasks. When a new prospect walks through your door, you only have a 5-20 percent probability of selling to them. However, when an existing customer is the target, the probability of a sale skyrockets to 60-70 percent. You know what else your existing customers are doing […]
Small business owners focused on merchandising for the next major shopping holiday and worried about making next week’s payroll often have a difficult time taking a step back and looking at longer-range goals. Failing to understand, form and implement a strategy for long-term success, however, will put you on a slow road to failure. There […]
A friend lives in a townhouse and it’s about time to pressure wash the exteriors. The homeowner association got a few bids, but one owner spied a Groupon deal, which would have been significantly less expensive. He tried, unsuccessfully, to talk all the other owners into jumping on the Groupon deal. Had he been successful […]
“If you build it, they will come” is a fine philosophy for a modern day fable of baseball and family values, but it’s a recipe for disaster if it’s your strategy for launching your startup. You need to do more. I’ve been taking notes on interviews with startup founders as they’ve discussed their initial customer […]