No one likes to engage in “uncomfortable” or “difficult” conversations. Unfortunately, these conversations are sometimes necessary—particularly when team members fail to meet an agreed-upon set of targets and goals. In these cases, it’s important for the manager or...

If you’ve been collecting email addresses for a while, chances are you have hundreds or even thousands of names on your list. That’s a great start. But now what? Done correctly, email marketing can generate a lot of hot leads quickly and cheaply. For those of you who...

Typically, I meet business owners who do not have a customer onboarding process unless they are in the software or hardware space. In IT, deploying and installing software or hardware goes hand-in-hand with onboarding a new customer as a means of integrating their...

Every business must, at one point or another, share what’s viewed by customers as “unwelcome” news—the need for a price increase for products or services. Some businesses simply set the wheels in motion and hope for the best. Others tiptoe around the issue, never...

It’s a challenge every business faces at some point in its lifecycle—the need to raise prices in order to maintain operations and secure revenue to finance future growth. But the marketplace is littered with companies that attempted to achieve this goal but lost much...

What sets you apart from your competition? Chances are, one key differentiator is the quality of your products or services. Even in an era where quality is supposedly a "given," your customers nonetheless value your offerings because of their consistently high...

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have struggled to survive.  But for some, the pandemic has provided an opportunity to thrive.    Garden Connections is one of those businesses. “COVID-19 was a game-changer for us,” says Fred Hann, owner...

When you’re a business owner, your best lessons often come from two places:  failure or wise words from leaders who have been there. There are going to be unavoidable ups and downs in every career, but taking advice from leaders who have already learned some lessons...

How active should a CEO be in directing and/or promoting marketing efforts within his or her organisation? Larger companies generally have a chief marketing officer at the helm to strategise and oversee marketing campaigns, inbound and outbound marketing, content...

This is a high-level summary of our key findings from the February 2017 Small Business Pulse Survey. This survey concentrated on What It Means to Be A Leader in 2017. Hundreds of entrepreneurs were surveyed to measure their outlook for the year ahead and to find out...

Just how well do your sales and marketing teams interact? Can you point to tangible achievements as a result of close sales/marketing collaboration? Or is the situation more akin to military platoons advancing with little or no contact with one another? In fact, many...

Are you ready to make your content more effective when it comes to real conversion data? Don't worry, content ROI is certainly out there – and we have the tactics you need to tap into it. Calls to Action This step is very, very obvious, but we need to mention it...

Owning your own business can be a time-consuming undertaking. And despite many of us wishing for more hours in the day, time is finite. Everything we choose to spend time on comes at the expense of something else we will not have time to do.   To aid in the constant...

While every business owner has their own story about how they got started in business, if there’s one thing we all share in common, it’s that we hope our business succeeds. When many of us began our entrepreneurial journey, we dreamt big and had a vision of where we...

If you’ve never thought of your finance and accounting departments as profit centres, you are not alone. In my experience, most companies do not do a great job of planning for how their accounting functions will support their profitability instead of operating simply...

As Winston Churchill said, “All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.” Being a leader comes with a lot of responsibilities and pressures. Not only are you accountable for your business’s success, but you also have to maintain a positive work...

Content marketing continues to serve as a key marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. Those businesses that make a commitment to provide informative and useful content build a stronger bond with their target audiences, leading to greater sales and enhanced...

It’s a safe bet that most of your customers are active on social media. Therefore, it stands to reason that your marketing efforts should include reaching out to existing and prospective customers on various social media platforms. But this form of marketing differs...

Fewer customers, fewer sales, decreased revenue streams. These conditions are familiar to virtually all CEOs and small business owners during this time of crisis. While some might argue that engagement in marketing activities during a slowdown is unwise, plenty of...

Keeping cash flow viable is a challenge for small businesses in the best of times. And we can all likely agree, this is not the best of times. With customer demand down and businesses of all kinds currently treading water, it’s more important than ever to pay close...