3 Overlooked Reasons To Network With The Competition
Why in the world would anyone want to network with their competition?
Especially when the competition may discover a key business competitive advantage, steal a major customer, or poach a prized employee?
We all understand the importance of networking in our personal and professional circles but yet we often hesitate when networking with our competition.
But we understand that business, jobs, and even friendships come from people - not products, ideas, theories, experience, or services. People are at the heart of any company and connecting with them is one of the most important things a business owner can do.
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Do Consumers Super-Hate Your Organization?
Hate is an amazingly strong word.
Sometimes we are conditioned to it, but when we think about the word, it should cause us to take note. By definition it means “intense or passionate dislike.” And if someone uses that word regarding an organization, then it is probably worth taking note.
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3 Easy Ways to Make Products Sticky
When I first started working in the financial industry over a decade ago, the bank that I worked for talked about making their products “sticky” for their customers. They explained that the more products we sold, the stickier our company would be for them and the harder it would be for them to leave. Stickiness was their main customer retention strategy.
I now fully understand what they mean and why they focused on "stickiness." In fact, I still bank with that organization even though I haven’t worked there in nearly a decade.
But why? Because the services I have with them truly are sticky - it would be a major headache to switch banks.
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5 Reasons to Not Make Assumptions About Others
I made a mistake this week. I made two assumptions that were completely wrong.
I am not typically one to make assumptions, but I was a bit off my game this week and fell into the trap I had been warned about many times over the years: "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me."
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3 Amazing Hacks for a Struggling Restaurant
Why do some restaurants struggle while some thrive?
This question is loaded with variables, of course, but the reality is that some restaurants just know how to do business better than others.
Fortunately, there are several tricks of the trade and somewhat unique innovations that every struggling business should consider before rolling up its doors and closing.
The following three hacks can have a huge impact on any restaurant - struggling or not:
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Managing Allergies; An Elementary School Hack that Businesses Can Learn From
With all of the allergies kids must deal with, schools are faced with an amazing challenge: managing all of these allergies.
From school lunches, to class parties, to special food sales and candy treats, the schools must be careful to ensure that each allergenic child does not receive a dose of her poison while on school time.
Typically, schools ensure that all of their teachers are trained and know what to do for children with allergies - if there happens to be a child with an allergy in the classroom. But what if there was an easier way?
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The Three Most Important Things For Business Growth
As a business owner, I can assume you want to grow your business.
Whether this means to increase revenue, add employees, or just see a higher sales volume than what you have done in the past, you would like to do better than what you have done in the past. This is part of being an entrepreneur - we aren’t satisfied with not growing.
But what if you could only work on three things for the entire year to help grow your business? What would those things be?
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Restaurant Customer Retention
One of my favorite jobs when I was younger was waiting tables at a brand new restaurant.
This restaurant was a franchise from a larger chain and I learned a lot about selling from working there. I got great tips, many of which came from up-selling techniques to increase the customers overall bill. For example, I learned that if the first person to order a drink set the stage for what the others were going to buy - if the first person ordered water, the whole table got water, but if the first person ordered a Pepsi, at least half of the table would get fountain drinks.
But all of this was just how to sell when the customer was already in the door.
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Six Leaderships Lessons Learned From Driving In Bad Weather
As I do fairly significant amounts of driving for my day job, my least favorite times of the year are the winter months. Snow, sleet, and ice are words I despise as I head out on trips that take up to 7 or 8 hours - with good road conditions.
Unfortunately, I don’t have too many options when the weather is bad because my schedule is often set over a year in advance. So good weather or not, I still have to make it to my destination.
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When A First Impression is Actually Made
First impressions are huge.
Our minds form beliefs, interpretations, and understandings before we even realize what happened. In fact, we often don’t even realize we have made a first impression as much of the impression is actually a subconscience action - our minds work to connect dots in a way we rarely recognize.
And first impressions happen quickly. We only get one chance to make that first impression, and it is often made before we even realize it.
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Location Isn't Everything. Or Is It?
A few years ago I was working in a part of town that had significant amounts of road construction. Traffic slowed everywhere and some businesses were extremely difficult to access. As a driver, it was an area that you wanted to avoid at all costs.
But this caused a problem for the local retail stores that thrived on visitors to their brick and mortar stores.
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