You’ve probably heard a great deal about the rewards of running your own business. But you must also be aware of the trade-offs and sacrifices that come with being in charge. Over time, those long hours, missed weekends and pressure-packed deadlines may take their toll on your physical and emotional health, affecting relations with your employees, family and friends in … [Read more...]
Conducting Market Research
What Information Do You Want to Know and Why? What information about your current or potential customers will help you serve them better? Demographic data and travel patterns can help you determine the feasibility of opening a new location, while knowledge about their daily schedules can help you set more convenient hours of operation.See What’s Already Been Discovered. … [Read more...]
Create a Marketing Plan
Creating a Marketing Plan A marketing plan is an essential tool for business. Developing one will help you think about what makes your business unique and how to get the message out to desired audiences through a variety of channels.A Marketing Plan is Strategic Just as you plan for other aspects of your business, such as inventory, production and billing, thinking ahead … [Read more...]
Trust your gut, value your intuition
Part of the research behind Malcolm Gladwell's remarkable best-seller, Blink, was done by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Now, Gerd Gigerenzer provides an engaging explanation of the science behind it in his new book, Gut Feelings. Gigerenzer illustrates how the key concept centers on rules of thumb and how such rules serve us well in the analytical … [Read more...]
Getting a Web Site On-line
By Tammy Miller, President, Virtualtech Web Site Design and Promotion Creating a Web site can be intimidating and overwhelming if you don't understand what is involved. These feelings stop many people from proceeding, which is a real shame as a Web site is a powerful marketing tool and can be a lot of fun. There are four steps in creating a basic web site, they are: Step One: … [Read more...]