7 Keys to Becoming a Business Superstar

Some businesses – and business owners – just seem irresistible.  They’re the ones earning the highest fees who rarely seem to go searching for clients and customers because clients come to them. How does this happen? It’s not an isolated phenomenon. These kinds of “bankable” businesses exist in almost every industry, says Andrew Sobel, co-author [...]

6 Surprising Truths About Business Growth

All growth is good. Bigger is better. All businesses must either grow or die. Most business owners accept those business axioms. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. “At best those beliefs are half-truths and at worst they’re pure fiction,” says Ed Hess, a business professor at the University of Virginia and author of the new book Grow to [...]

6 Strategy Secrets for Small Business

Strategy is strange. It’s one of the most talked-about concepts in business – yet one of the least understood.  Corporate titans tout “strategies” of infinite variety every day; never mind that most are not strategies at all. At best, many are simply sets of goals. At worst, they are recipes for disaster or perpetuated mediocrity. [...]

10 Ways to Tap Twitter for Leads

Slowly but surely, many business owners are realizing that Twitter is a terrific (and free) tool for a variety of business purposes, including marketing, customer service, branding and PR and generating leads. Those who use it effectively are generating traffic for their websites, building networks and getting closer to their customers. Using Twitter specifically to [...]

3 Deadly QR Code Miscues and How to Fix Them

Quick Response (QR) codes are turning up more frequently in small business advertising and marketing materials, including posters, business cards, packaging, drink coasters and you name it. But unless local businesses use them properly, QR codes are wasting your time.  But few businesses are using QR codes in a way that lets them track their [...]

6 Things that Growing Small Businesses Do Right

What sets growing businesses apart from their small biz brothers and sisters whose revenues are flat or falling? The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute wanted to find out so it commissioned a study to compare what owners of small firms with rising 2011 revenues did differently than their counterparts at businesses with flat or [...]