Lean business practices
Lean Marketing tips: business card as selling tool
Mike | September 26th, 2011Just about everybody has one. Your desk has probably is littered with little piles of them. I would be willing to bet good money, that right now you have a few of your own in your wallet or purse. In the past year you have probably handed out and received literally hundreds of these tiny [...]
Small business and startup tips: which type is your brand?
Mike | September 12th, 2011Building and managing your brand, its identity, its name, and its reputation is critical to your company’s ultimate success. How (and when and where) you connect with your customers is determined in large part by your branding and by how your audience relates to your brand. markets are more competitive than ever, and the quality [...]
Small business and startup tips: training day!
Mike | July 18th, 2011Just like our larger brethren in the Fortune 100, lots of small businesses have training programs for their workers: lectures, classes, role-playing exercises, and motivational speaker sessions. However, most small businesses and startups ignore training programs altogether, or cobble together ad hoc strategies when on-boarding new hires. These differing approaches are sometimes stylistic, sometimes strategic, [...]
Consumers Prefer Better Looking Websites
Ross | July 13th, 2011Successful businesses know that to develop long-term relationships with their customers, they must find ways to build trust. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. According to the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer study, U.S. consumer trust of companies dropped 8 points from 2010 to 2011. In fact, this trend seems to be [...]
Not Everyone Is The Right Customer
Ross | June 29th, 2011A few days ago, Christian Jung, a designer and consultant from Germany wrote an interesting post – Goodbye Basecamp, This Is The End Of A True Love. My Heart Is Broken, explaining why he would no longer use Basecamp, popular project management software created by 37signals. Christian decided that after six years, his needs changed [...]
Website Traffic or Conversions: Which Is More Important?
Ross | June 21st, 2011Most companies, especially small business and startups, obsess about the amount of traffic to their online sites. Site traffic is important – it brings attention, a certain degree of validation, and the opportunity to convert visitors into users or paying customers. But traffic alone isn’t enough and more importantly, we tend to overestimate its impact. A [...]
Lean Marketing 101: Giving good interview, or how to get a reporter to eat from your hand
Mike | June 20th, 2011In the world of startups and small business there are two basic kinds of company: those the media pays attention to, and all the rest. If your company has a compelling story, a unique product , or an interesting personality behind it you may be fortunate to leverage that advantage and convince a reporter to [...]
Lean startups: Office space for the 21st Century
Mike | April 25th, 2011When starting a company it is important to figure out not just how the team will work together, but where the team will work together. Lots of factors will drive this decision, including what type of company you’re launching, who your customers are, how large your team will be, what your budget is, and where [...]
