Many of the CBI clients ask for help with their marketing message. Some of the things we cover during business coaching sessions are summarized below:
A successful marketing plan is built on consistent messages. When you’re building your business it’s tempting to want to try to be all things to all people. Your marketing messages can end up being all over the map. The result: It confuses your customers, and can get confusing for you as well. Continue reading
Congratulations to the Roane State Community College Cumberland Business Incubator Crash Course MBA Accelerator participants that will be working on their business skills and business growth over the next few months. Mark your calendars for Pitch Night – May 3rd when all are welcome to hear the business presentations and the outcome of the accelerator process. The Accelerator participants include: Continue reading
Change your life… by the books you read. The list below is from Stephen Heiner, “an American in Paris” who sold his business in Kansas City to move to Paris and start several more. I have read many of the books that Stephen lists, and although I may not have considered it before, I do believe that many of them have had an influence on my life. I thought you might enjoy reading what Stephen and I have read. From Stephen: What follows is a brief list for those interested in the life of travel and entrepreneurship you can create for yourself through deliberate and personal lifestyle design. Continue reading
One of the ‘secrets’ to a successful small business is having employees who are engaged, aligned with what you’re doing and enjoy working with you and your team. We’ve all experienced interactions with businesses where the employees are clearly just showing up for the paycheck and don’t care at all about what they’re doing. That’s a business on life support. It’s equally easy to see when employees genuinely like and believe in what they’re doing…and that makes all the difference to a customer and ultimately the business. Continue reading
The season where we all start to look at our numbers will quickly be upon us. The end of the year. The context that those numbers are in matters, so take a deeper look this year until you understand what your numbers are really telling you.
Let’s say you brought in $200,000 of revenue this month. Is that good or bad? It depends. If you brought in $100,000 last month, it’s good. If your expenses were $400,000 this month, it’s bad. Everything in context. Continue reading
The seven stages of building a total online presence according to Duct Tape Marketing are:
1.Content Platform – Much of what happens online revolves around content. It’s how you get found, why people pay attention and how you start to exchange value. Content platform starts with building a listening station with tools like Google Alerts, TweetDeck, Trackur, Social Mention, Sprout Social and Raian6. You’ll be listening to gain insight into your market, your competitors and important groups, including key journalists, working toward a better understanding of the most important keyword phrases that resonate with customers in your market. Continue reading
“Good leaders must first become good servants.” Robert K. Greenleaf
45 years ago, the phrase “Servant Leadership” was used by Robert Greenleaf. Since then there have been a number of business books written about this style of leadership and what it means. The topic of leadership is always a hot one. We’re all looking for better answers. Although servant leadership isn’t always specifically referenced in business writing, most successful leaders practice it to some degree. Continue reading
“Your title gives you claim to the throne of our country, but men don’t follow titles, they follow courage.” – William Wallace, Braveheart
Why? Leadership is much more than a title. Many business owners are finding that out as they seek to develop their next generation of leadership for their companies. True leadership is earned and it is much more than just knowledge of the business and a title.
Applications will soon be accepted for the Cumberland Business Incubator’s (CBI) 2016 Accelerator, 100 Days to Launch – Tourism. The selection committee will review applications to find the top candidates with an existing business or those interested in launching a new business with a tourism focus. Continue reading
Gift cards are big business. Each year $400 billion worth enter the market. About 30% of gift-card values go unspent annually, in part because it’s so easy to forget about that piece of plastic you’ve tucked away somewhere. At 23 George Bousis started his Chicago-based company, Raise, offering gift-card holders the chance to sell the cards they don’t want and buy others they do want at a discount. With the new mobile app, Raise lets consumers grab discounted cards as they wait in line to make a purchase. Continue reading