Business Solutions

What is Your Personal Policy?

October 8, 2010 by Susan Hamilton Leave a Comment

Most people don’t really think about their personal policy until a situation comes up and it’s time to take a stand. If you’ve ever said something like, “Well, my personal opinion is …” or “Personally, I think that if I were in that situation I’d …” then you’ve experienced a time when your personal policy came into question.

In day-to-day affairs, our personal policy defines our character in business, too. It may be as simple as making decisions that cause you to be timely, or even decisions about how you expect yourself to react to a circumstance.

For instance: [Read more…] about What is Your Personal Policy?

Plan Before Phone Conferencing

June 3, 2010 by Shari Voigt Leave a Comment

More and more business is handled over phone lines and screen-share. Well planned, these are brilliant ways to do business. If you miss important details, however, it can really take away from the experience. Those details have a way of seeming insignificant when two or more parties who haven’t met in person try to become conversational without facial cues. It can get awkward real fast. Don’t you just love it when someone tries to break the tension with a really poor joke or comment? That helps, right? Not.

Time may be a luxury you’re not used to taking, but the truth of the matter is that preparation is going to take a little time. Time is a necessary component. Without taking those minutes to think about objectives, roles and time frames, it can be too easy to have a misunderstanding between teammates or even between your company and your client.

Is Your Business a Referral Engine?

May 14, 2010 by Shari Voigt 4 Comments

Reading a good book involves a certain amount of tension. You want to get to the next page, but not miss anything along the way. Okay, usually this refers to fiction, but it’s also applicable to John Jantsch’s new book, The Referral Engine. Now that I’ve finished reading it, I’m going to buy a copy for each of our team members – then read through it again, workshop fashion. I expect it will transform the way we do business. It’s already transformed the way I think about our business. [Read more…] about Is Your Business a Referral Engine?

How Much DO You Spend on Marketing?

March 1, 2010 by Susan Hamilton 1 Comment

If you’re a smaller residential service company, chances are you create your own fliers and marketing materials. It’s likely you create your own business cards and order your invoices and time cards from a company that also offers t-shirts, baseball caps, and embroidered name tag button-down shirts. It’s affordable. You get to have the appearance of a legitimate company and no one selling you pricey services and telling you how your message needs to sound to your clients. Certainly, these things are important for you to stay in control of your costs and your reputation.

Keep An Eye On The Rearview Mirror

April 1, 2009 by Gerald Voigt Leave a Comment

All your marketing efforts are working and business is starting to take off. Great! Then suddenly you find yourself unable to deliver what you promised. One of your suppliers has slipped and fallen on hard economic times and is no longer in business or cannot sustain the required flow of resources. [Read more…] about Keep An Eye On The Rearview Mirror

Special Offer – B to B Magazine

March 18, 2009 by Shari Voigt Leave a Comment

As a copywriter, I’m most often tasked with writing copy for the B2B market. Beyond asking questions of my customer, this requires access to sources of information about various industries. One of my most valuable resources for the past few years has been B to B Magazine, which I receive free as a TradePub subscriber. You can do the same and I’ll provide you a link at the end of this post.