Why you're frustrated and what to do about it Employee turnover. Customer complaints. Unplanned expenses. Competition everywhere you look. Pain in the neck vendors. An endless string of new technologies you’re supposed to learn how to use. Social #%?@! media. It’s enough to make you want to go get a job. This isn’...
You’re always looking for new ways to grow. But the trap most owners fall into is that they spend too much time figuring what they’re going to do, and not enough on what they’re not. It’s the ‘secret ingredient’ to our 6 step planning process—the simplest way we know to figure out where you want to go and what nee...
In 1995, I was 24 years old and I had the opportunity to buy a martial arts school from the Master I was originally training with. The school was a year old when I took it over, and at the time the monthly revenue was about the same as the rent so I quickly realized that I needed to institute some things that woul...
I've been working with a client who was struggling with self-organization and time-management. After our last meeting, he took it upon himself to create a weekly list and make note of all of the different projects, initiatives, conversations, and people that he was avoiding in his business that built up during the...
There are a lot of things marketing automation software can do for you. It can help you increase traffic, educate and inspire potential customers, and give you a microscopic view of what happens at every step of your buyer’s journey. But like all good things, it’s not quite that simple. It takes a real investment ...
It’s never been easier to chase after the wrong customers. With the explosion of online marketing tools, you and your team can spend all day (and all night) doing it. Which is why it’s never been more important that you have something—or more specifically, someone—to guide you. The challenge for today’s business o...
You’ve got a blog. Maybe an email newsletter. You’re tweeting and linking and trying to figure out the whole social thing. You even set aside time each week to meet with your team to try to come up with new ideas for how to get people interested in your product. It seems like you’re doing all the right things, but...
Inbound marketing is drastically changing the way we think about customers—down to the very terminology we use. There are a lot of new things to think about: personas, calls-to action, buyer stages and so much more. It’s about creating remarkable content, understanding who your customers are, what frustrations the...
Would you apply for a job at your business? Think about it for a moment. With where you are in your life—with your unique talents and dreams—is it the kind of place that would support you in getting closer to the life you want? Do you think you have any employees who aren’t evaluating their jobs, right this very m...
There’s no substitute for being in the same place as your employees. And that’s a good thing. Part of the joy of going to work is that you get to spend your day with people you respect, and we hope, enjoy being around. And while there are some good reasons to have people on your team who work remotely, you have to...
Is your blog getting you down? Do you wonder whether it’s worth all the effort, whether people are really getting something from it, whether you’re “doing it right”? Maybe you think you’re not a writer, or you simply feel like you don’t have the time to write with all the other demands of your small business.
It's probably easier to see now, but you didn't start your business just to make money. You did it to feel something - independence, a kind of freedom and control over your life, to be able to do it your way. And you "re-earn" that freedom with every headache and heartache that comes with being a business owner. B...
We spent $500 billion globally on advertising in 2013. Every year we're spending more money, to interrupt more people, more often, with messages they don't care about and don't pay attention to. We've come to believe that the way to succeed is to have an advantage—by being different or better, more visible, or jus...
As a business owner, do you also think of yourself as a coach? Embracing this part of your role - to help your people grow while your company does - is more important than ever before. Because even if they don't always say so, everyone on your team wants the same thing: to feel that their work mattered today, to y...
With the launch of Evoke 2014, we're shifting gears today to honor business coaches - those in our network and others from around the world. As an EMyth follower, you understand the value of coaching and mentoring, but sometimes it can be hard to describe what these incredible people really do, who they 'are' in t...
You need to get out there and be 'social' as the business owner, right? Getting active on Twitter, LinkedIn, to tell your story and be transparent–that's all the rage. And while it might be good advice, there are some crucial nuances that we rarely pause to think about in terms of what's actually in the best inter...
Working with people you have personal relationships with can be a wonderful thing. And it often doesn't turn out that way. It can easily get 'complicated' when you're trying to juggle two kinds of relationships with the same person. And while it's easy enough to say 'just be yourself', we all know that when it com...