So many people seem to be rushing to do things and with no real or permanent results. This is especially true in business or work activities. The motivation to rush in any case seems to be based on fear and can never generate any permanent or worthy results. Read the rest of this entry »
Having high ideals and standards is very important to building a business. There is absolutely no way a business can survive without improving all areas of its operation at some time or another. This is very evident when you consider competition, especially when it comes from a large company.
There are two vital points in further proving the importance of constantly raising a business’ standards: If you have an existing business, customer loyalty and the company’s reputation are its life. Lose one of these, and chances are you’ll lose the other. Having high ideals and standards helps to keep a company ahead of itself. It means constantly improving upon your best qualities and eliminating your weaknesses. Read the rest of this entry »
True or false? It takes large amounts of money in order to achieve the extraordinary. Perhaps you might think this is a trick question. For me, it is a very valid question.
You see, I have noticed that most people have the desire to accomplish or attain something extraordinary in their businesses, careers or personal affairs. I have heard many reasons why a thing couldn’t be attained. The most common reason I hear is the lack of money.
Now let’s think about this question of extraordinary achievement. What does it mean? It means to me getting something that is beyond the ordinary. What is ordinary? To me, it means the routine or traditional activities that we become accustomed to over time. Ordinary things or activities seem to always be the same. This seems to be a fair explanation of the differences between what is extraordinary versus ordinary. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s in a name? Well when it comes to your business a lot. Your name is a label used so people can identify your business. If well-thought out your company name has a unique quality that helps people to remember your business or its products and services. Of course, when you’re trying to build business your need more than just a good name, Your business should be easy to recognize. In other words, you need a strong identity. Read the rest of this entry »
Three Abilities for Business Owners’ Success
All business owners should always consider themselves special individuals. They have stepped forward to provide for themselves and others a means of expression that reaps many rewards. Sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation — whatever structure you have doesn’t matter. It certainly doesn’t matter to your customers, employees or vendors. There may be a few exceptions. Read the rest of this entry »
Use Your Experience to Build Your Business
Because of my experiences and exposure to businesses and their owners, I have to address the issue of ideas. For some strange reason, it appears most business owners feel that their success depends on the best idea at the time.
And they change their direction as frequently as the ideas come. I feel we need a reality check. Read the rest of this entry »
A Firm Positive Attitude Guarantees Success
I would like to caution all business owners. We know it’s important to make money or build business. Just don’t get so wrapped up in getting your ideas out too fast. Sure you need or want instant results. But how many times have you heard of any business becoming a success overnight? It is much wiser to take the time to think your ideas through than to jump right into them. Unfortunately, many business owners become absorbed in their problems instead of the goals. Read the rest of this entry »
Merchandising Your Company
Many times, business owners are found constantly pushing their product — product, product, product. It’s no wonder competition gets steep. If everyone’s pushing product, it has to be based on price. That means price wars and thin profit margins. As a solution to being competitive or appearing to be the best value, we only hurt the customers and ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
How often have you looked at your company’s service and asked how good it is? Or does it matter? Whether business is good or bad, its service is something that needs to be looked at constantly. Of course, if you’ve follow my articles, you learned that marketing is ultimately service. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve discovered some very interesting things over the past 3 decades. There exists a type of small business quite unique to most. They seem to be creative and progressive. They are in retail, professional, services, construction, manufacturing, warehousing — everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
As I continue to support marketing for small and local businesses, I also continue to hear business owners say they don’t need marketing. It is obvious that they don’t fully understand what marketing is. There are several viewpoints. Some business owners feel marketing is selling — when a person brings in a product or knocks on your door to try to sway you with a lot of fast talk and fancy gimmicks. Others feel marketing is advertising. There are some who believe marketing is some kind of gift item given away to try to get customers. One of the biggest is the multilevel selling. This where you buy into an organization’s product and sell it through other people. You make money from everything sold by those recruited by or through you. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
If I were to tell you that you can get 10 of the best ideas for building and marketing your business, you would probably jump for the opportunity. Well, what if I told you there are dozens of books with marketing ideas to help you build your business? Now you’re probably wondering what I’m up to. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
Many small businesses build their companies to meet demand. Of course, when the demand slows down or is not there, we may have a problem. You must understand a few basic things. One is that you should build your business to meet the demand for your product or service. Two is that you should be a major part of creating that demand. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses start up because of demands that appeared to not be met. Others start because the idea seemed worthy of survival, or be your own boss. Read the rest of this entry »
Marketing is ultimately service!
By Stanley El
Marketing is ultimately service! This has been my definition of marketing for nearly forty years. This definition clearly provides the focus needed by both local and national companies when seeking sustainable success. While marketing has traditionally meant advertising to many, advertising alone does not means success. Even the best advertising campaign stands the chance of falling short of meeting a company’s goals, if not backed by exceptional service. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
I can’t help noticing the number of businesses using newspaper advertising in the area. Print advertising has been the mark of local small business marketing for a long time. I often ask, when consulting small business owners, how well their advertising works. The typical answer is they don’t know. Except when advertising is their only means of promoting their businesses. As a marketing specialist, I need to know why they advertise if they don’t know if it’s working. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
Let’s begin by defining small business. I’ve learned that any business can be a small business, especially if you have big competition. The small businesses I’m writing about are those who needed the greatest support. They might be a family-owned, a local professional service, manufacturer, distributor, or one-person business. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
How do you build a successful image for your business? Well, begin with deciding what that image is. If you’ve done your homework, that’s not a problem. You know what kind of image you need to be successful. I did say “need.” Many times the image we want for our business isn’t the one we need. So you have to work that out first. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
When marketing, business owners need to know exactly what they want to accomplish. It’s one thing to say the owner wants to increase sales. I suggest you use the Five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
Just stating the need to increase sales is not enough. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley J. El
Running a business and building a business are very different, as different as managing the business and marketing the business. Too many times I find business owners who are well qualified to run a business fail at maintaining its growth. In almost every instance, the problem is they don’t want to do what is needed to keep their business growing. Some owners get comfortable with the pace of their business’ “success, ” at least until the bottom appears to drop out. Then it becomes a rush of hits and misses to get things back to normal. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stanley El
Attaining your goals requires more than just writing them down, although that is an important step in the process of goal setting. The power released through goal setting is seldom discussed, yet this understanding is vitally important to those who seek high attainment. Goals must be compelling. They must stir a passion within you to experience the fullness of all an experience has to offer. The accomplishment of a goal must be seen and felt with intensity and clarity long before the physical pursuit. Read the rest of this entry »
