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Frustration is all around these days as many businesses struggle to get customers in. Advertising can sometimes be black hole that simply sucks the money out of a business with no return.  Therefore, it is not uncommon for business owners to feel that they may be better off not doing any advertising or marketing. Are they right?  We will explore this question and find the real answer to the advertising black hole problem.
 

 

These days it is apparent that the way we sell and the way that we market is changing right before our eyes. For some business owners not being able to flex with the changes is causing major problems with their profitability and with some it has meant closing down altogether.  Therefore, being able to change as our market changes is critical to maximizing our market share and profits.

 

There is an old saying that I have always

liked, " It aint over until the fat lady sings".  This is as true in sports as it is in business.  It is so easy to prematurely give up when the odds appear to be totally against us. The annals of business are full of stories of small, new, and under capitalized companies being able to overcome the efforts of multinational corporations.

There are a billion different ways to grow your business, but there is a particular set of three "levers" that you can use to make game-changing increases in cashflow.

Your businesses cashflow is basically defined by:


This means that if you can increase any of these three variables, you can grow your business.

Let's look at each of these variables in detail and go through a few examples.

Creativity is one of the best skills that any small business owner can do to increase their profitability and market share. At times just being able to find creative ways to sell products and services  can make the difference between success and failure.

Everyone always talks about "Thinking outside of the Box", but who's actually doing it?

Many times I am asked by clients to review their business model
in an effort to help them with their marketing or business development.
There are many times that these same clients have actually developed a product that they feel is superior in performance and appearance.

When I ask them why anyone should prefer their product to any other similar products they always tell me that their product has one or more features that make it better.  In this post we will look at the importance of innovation, the traps and the advantages and how to prosper from it.

Last week my wife and I were invited to be a guest of CH Premier Jewelers as they hosted the Patek Phillipe watch collection. For those of you not familiar with Patek Phillipe, it is one of the worlds top luxury watch makers that can trace their origination to 1839. So, if you like complicated watches and have an eye for quality workmanship this is the brand that you look to set the standard. Therefore, when I received the parchment invitation I quickly accepted.

All of us are aware of changes that are occurring to business landscape. Some are thriving out there while others are simply being forced to close their doors. The interesting thing is that business failure is not specific to one type of business or based on the time that business has been in business. These days an inability to market can make take out even well established businesses just as easily as it can a new business.

So let's take a look at one business sector that is very competitive and see what we can learn from their experiences.

In our previous post we discussed the importance of finding a large starving crowd. The second important element goes hand in hand with the first.