Quite often I will have clients bring in old photographs of their ?elder? relatives that were taken before colour photography was around. This generally means that the photos in question are either black and white or, in many cases, the photos have been tinted, usually a muddy brown colour better kn...

I see a PR firm has done a survey on the amount of time Canadian CEOs spend on communication, and found they spend almost half of their time on communication. I think we`re supposed to be impressed that CEOs spend that much time on communication. But, quite frankly, what else does a CEO do? And, if ...

There is nothing in this world more annoying than being place on hold for an extended period of time. Not only is the music mostly horrible, but many companies use it to try and fool you into thinking you`re really not holding for very long. Wrong! Most telephones today have the ability to track ...

Diversify - to make diverse, give variety, to balance, to divide securities in different industries, to produce variety, to engage in varied operations. Diversification is a wealth building strategy; it is also an excellent method for becoming more profitable. By working on your business instead of ...

Being inconsistent when it comes to marketing your business can be a recipe for disaster. Nothing is more irritating to a potential customer than inconsistency. When we consciously create consistent messages, brands, systems and communications, our customers begin to relax and know that we are trus...

Your mission as a business owner is to develop a marketing strategy which offers your potential clients/customers a way to improve their situation in a certain way, solve a problem, provide more value, or open new opportunities for them which will motivate them to pick up the phone and buy from you....

Do you want to complete an online degree? Obtaining a degree online can seem like a dream come true. You can improve your education (and chances for a better job), while learning from the comfort of your home. But how do you know what program or university is right for you? Picking the best Interne...

Today`s issue of Lean Marketing Champions features tips on doing your own PR from one of our authors and PR goddess, Paula Gardner. 1. A Website. Even if you think a website isn?t going to directly to contribute to sales, having a web presence makes it a lot easier for journalists to suss out a bit ...

Introduction The relevance of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional integration process emanates in part from the view that there is a trade-off between regional integration and integration with the global economic system. Whilst integration with the global economy could provid...

Sarbanes Oxley is not only the original Act, but also all the interpretations in the new (after Enron and World Com) legal and political context. There is no room to "forget" to include legal proceedings after Sarbanes Oxley. The Act imposes a number of new disclosure requirements designed to enhanc...

Your sales are down and leads are rare. The phone?s not ringing. Let?s blame marketing! If you join this band wagon to rationalize your poor sales results, you need to step up and take responsibility for your own fate. It?s amazing how often sales teams play the victim here. They blame the market...

Do you own a home business? Now I`m not talking about the twice yearly yard sale. I am talking about a legitimate home based business. It doesn`t matter what type of business you are running affiliate marketing, ecommerce website, ebay auctions, etc.). The question remains the same: Are you in it fo...

How do some online businesses go from relative obscurity to household name in a very short period of time? While the number one answer might be advertising, it is also the most expensive method of gaining recognition. It is also extremely important that every aspect of your business model from admin...

Well... first off, let`s define exactly what a Forum is so that you`ll be able to relate to what I`m about to explain within this article. The simple definition of a Forum is... it`s a online community with a open discussion that allows you to `Post` questions or queries related to a specific topic....

I would like you to begin thinking of mailboxes in a new way. Contrary to popular belief ? it isn?t a symbol of an inept postal service. In fact- it is one of the Best ways to communicate with your customers. And I am not talking about sales flyers either! Are You Saying Thank-You To Your Customers...

A bank or mortgage company is nothing more than a box in which to keep money. The owner of the box has to do a few calculations.  Firstly, how much is he going to offer those people who deposit cash in his box, in return for such a deposit? Secondly, how much of that money should he keep as cash in ...

If you left your last job under less-than-ideal circumstances, you probably dread the "Why did you leave?" question that almost always comes up at job interviews. Here`s how to handle it.

First and most important, never lie. If you were fired, don`t say you quit.  It`s very ...

Is your business in a post-holiday slump? It happens every year; service companies face a dip in business as consumers tighten the purse strings to compensate for holiday spending. Coupons may help bring in some business, but they can only do so much to improve the bottom line. So how do you keep yo...

Having a great resume is the first critical step in a successful job search. Unfortunately, most people don?t know the best ways to get that resume noticed. In today?s job market, where you are competing with hundreds of other resumes, knowing the right way to distribute your resume can make all t...

Check Out Your E-Habits
Another week has ended. And, despite moving at the speed of light, you?ve once again barely made a dent in your more important goals or projects. Just about everyone wishes they had more time to focus on the really important things: Activities directly tied to job or key ...

The way you structure your payment offers can increase your sales. I`m not talking about the way people pay like credit cards, digital payments, checks, and cash options. What I`m taking about is can your customers try before they buy, pay later, make payments, do they get a rebate, etc. Below are ...

What does it mean to be a passive candidate? In the recruitment world, recruiters and hiring managers use the term ?passive candidate? to describe someone who is not actively looking for a job. A passive candidate is typically someone who isn?t looking for a new job but who would (or might) consider...

A successfully positioned business sometimes doesn`t win a new client. And that, my friend, is the point. Let me illustrate with an anecdote. Recently I was making a new business pitch to a Charlotte area professional services firm. The second meeting took place after I had provided a detailed propo...

Some businesses flourish while others slowly fade away. There?s usually a good reason.  Here are two examples.

Bernadette, my wife, has a busy schedule.  She will often call for a manicure at the last minute.  She?s been going to Carol?s Beauty Shop and Day Spa for the past two years.  Accor...

A few months ago, we attended the recent Austech 2005 Expo. It was a large trade show that showcased over 500 manufacturers selling machines, equipment and systems. The good news was that around 40% of the exhibitors had a trade show video running. It was inspiring that many exhibitors understood ...

You?ve seen it happen many times. An organization that provides top wages and benefits loses a great employee to a competitor for no apparent reason. Of course, some employee turnover is to be expected, but if your company is truly engaging your employees, there is no good reason for the unexpected ...

Congratulations! You`ve finally landed that job interview you`ve been waiting for. Now the real work begins! Remember, resumes don`t get jobs; they merely get you in the door. Here`s how to make your resume come alive and make a good impression. Tell Your Story in 60 Seconds or Less. Believe it...

Do you have employees that are out and out fighting with each other at work? Yelling, screaming, not getting along or perhaps has difficult relationships with their supervisor? Conflicts in the workplace happen frequently and the fallout can be costly to the employer and the employee. Developing t...

The 80/20 rule (the `Pareto Principle,` named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who discovered it) says 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts. There`s a variation that says you should spend 80% of your time on the solution and only 20% on the problem. For our purp...

This is a true story about a homeless man from Illinois. This man slept in alleys, park benches and wherever else he could find enough space for himself. This man used to beg for food and money. He had nothing but time to himself. He knew he was capable of being more than just another homeless man. ...

In the story of David and Goliath, young David challenged the mighty Goliath. King Saul wanted David to wear his armour so that he could fight Goliath in the traditional way. But David chose to forgo the armour, used a weapon of his choosing, and relied on his own speed, and was ultimately successfu...

I was just asking myself what advice I?d give you, today, to help you to increase sales. We could cover ways to open sales calls, describe your products and services, closing techniques, the best methods for delaying and answering objections and the like. And it hit me. Instead of reading this artic...

If you`re looking for a successful salesperson to hire, a salesperson who not only can sell but will sell, look for a salesperson with PRIDE. PRIDE is an acronym for 5 characteristics that will help ensure that the salesperson you hire will get the job done for you and make the revenue results you d...

In today?s competitive world shorter product life cycles, customers rapid demands and quickly changing business environment is putting lot of pressures on manufacturers for quicker response and shorter cycle times. Now the manufacturers put pressures on their suppliers. One way to ensure quick turna...

If you`ve ever been to a popular forum hosted by a singal indivual, you would probably notice that most of the members of said forum take the owner or moderators advice as gold. Allan Gardyne is a good example of this, with his affiliate advice forum. Whenever he posts, people listen and will active...

Note: This article was written for a internet business site. It is a promo for my work with the business world. I published it here for anyone who is interested in a shamanic perspective on creating success, in both business and life. If you read between the lines, it will offer you some help when d...

How do you build a mortgage marketing strategy that can have real estate agents hunting for your services? Agents are bombarded everyday with a continuous stream of marketing messages from loan officers. They cope with this information-overload by ignoring most of them. So how do you stand out in an...

Most small business marketing materials are really bad! They don`t provide any real information and make no case for anyone to inquire further let alone buy your services. Are poor quality marketing materials limiting your opportunities? If yours don`t provide enough information and make a compellin...

So you`ve decided to write your own business plan because you know the value that the experience will give you. With the books and software that are out there today you can probably sit down and complete the plan in a day or so, right? Plug in the numbers, add the notes, write the whole narrative (s...

Search engine optimization can take a long time to show results. The Google sandbox alone can delay optimization results by 6 to 8 months. So, what can you do to get traffic while you wait? Pay-per-click [?PPC?] campaigns fill the time gap. This article discusses the basics of PPC advertising. What ...

The homebased and small business owner is the "Unsung Hero".  Why? The small business owner and today even the homebased business owner are the cornerstones of our society. The homebased business owner employs a number of independent contractors. Small businesses account for a large percentage of ou...

You?re doing a sales presentation, and suddenly you look across the table and see aliens from another galaxy. They seal your lips, so none of your eloquence can escape, and through telepathy they say: ?Listen to us sales unit. Your product sucks; it?s no different than any other. In fact, you?re luc...

"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows nobody to see him; and by which he does not know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing with. - Abraham Lincoln on his reason for relieving Gen. John C Fremont of his Missouri command. (September 1861) How many times have you b...

That?s right?there really are million dollar home based business opportunities out there. Where? Well to be honest they?re everywhere! Just like beauty being in the eye of the beholder so is opportunity. Opportunity really does greet us at every corner we turn! Opportunities are even laid out for us...

Unexpected expenses sneak up on the best of us. Paying these unexpected expenses looks impossible when you are in debt and barely making the payments from month to month. If you`re like most, you have to reach for the credit card and then find yourself deeper in debt and farther behind. What do ...

Before you call your next meeting, the FIRST step is to decide if it is really essential. To determine that, ask yourself the following:

• Is this meeting essential?
• Can we do without it?
• Can we accomplish the task without a meeting?
• Can it wait another week?
• Can w...

Going through the motions of a bad interview is like peeling back the layers of an onion. Sally learned this lesson the hard way, hands-on during an interview that should have been a piece of cake. Sally applied for a position that fit her qualifications perfectly. When she received an invitation to...

Here?s a scary statistic. According to four prominent research firms, only around 20% of all IT projects are finished in a timely manner. By ?timely? the researchers mean without loss of quality or being over budget. They go on to say the average project runs approximately 200 percent late, rough...

Do you have what it takes to become an FBI special agent? Do you have a sincere desire to enforce federal laws and investigate crimes? This job requires hard work and can often times be dangerous and stressful. You`ll undoubtedly be in close contact with crimminals and victims of crime. But a spe...

When it comes to launching a new business or product, some marketing consultants might say that EVERY product is appropriate for a publicity or media exposure campaign. That is true to a degree, but as a PR/publicity professional and former media person, I would qualify that statement by saying that...