Today I want to discuss how costly inaction can be for small businesses. Using some recent examples I’ve come across, I’ll demonstrate how doing nothing is often the worst thing you can do.

Like rabbits caught in the headlights, small business owners can often be paralysed by fear. Without mentioning names, I’ve given some examples below. Read the rest of this entry »

The new series of The Apprentice is upon us. If you tuned into BBC1 last night at 9pm you’d have seen the teams working on a task that involved creating a new flavoured beer and selling it to the trade and public.

In this article I’ll look back on what happened and discuss the lessons I think every small business owner can learn as a result. Read the rest of this entry »

I was driving to a meeting this morning and heard a radio advert that sparked this blog post. Keep reading to discover what it was and how it stresses the importance of timing in getting your marketing messages across.

The advert was for a well-known takeaway food retailer and started with a question asking if I couldn’t decide what to have for dinner before telling me about their deals. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s so much information around on how to run and improve businesses and websites, but one thing often gets overlooked.

Discover an incredible resource you can learn from each and every day. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the first questions I ask small business owners when I work with them is “what does your business stand for?”

Very few people are able to give me a proper answer to this question. Without meaning to sound harsh – if you don’t know what your business stands for, how can you communicate effectively with your target market? Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard by now that Google has decided to shut down its RSS reader later this year. The reaction has been a mixture of shock, dismay and even anger in many quarters.

In this article I’ll take a look at what business lessons can be learned from the demise of Google Reader. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been a huge buzz about content marketing for some time now and already this year I’ve dozens of blog posts about it.

Keep reading to find out what content marketing is and its one big problem… Read the rest of this entry »

With Valentine’s Day not too far away, I thought it was appropriate to discuss how to make customers fall in love with your business.

Smitten customers are every company’s dream because they generally tell everyone they know about how good you are.

Keep reading to discover five simple tips to put a spring in the step of your customers. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a whole host of reasons why one of your customers may become lapsed over a period of time. If you just choose to forget about them, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Keep reading to discover why you shouldn’t give up on lapsed customers and how you should keep in touch with them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s now 2013 and SEO, social media and blogging have all been around for some time. However, I still see online companies doing nothing at all on any of these fronts.

There’s no excuse to hide a business away online. Every activity could be providing extra sales and enquiries. Listed below are five of the most common ways companies of all sizes hide away when it comes to online marketing. Read the rest of this entry »