Business Blogs: Trends, tips, and real-life anecdotes from industry experts.

I am often asked whether or not it is a good idea to invest in a “hot, new franchise concept” or to go with a “safe” established brand. Certainly, established franchise brands typically have a higher success rate as compared to younger franchise systems. Yet, while investing in a new franchise concept may come with [...]

When you send messages for a marketing campaign, you have to balance your message frequency. It’s a fine line. Send too often and you’ll annoy the recipients. Send too sparingly and your messages won’t stay in their minds. Either way, you defeat the entire purpose of your campaign.
I’ve found that bi-weekly or monthly schedules [...]

With eBay insertion fees being the cause for some eBay sellers to lose out on much of their profits, it is becoming increasingly important to implement some major strategy to pull buyers into your eBay store without spending an arm and a leg on fees.
One of the oldest tricks in the book is to create [...]

This has been an interesting week - not so much business-wise, but due to a friend’s personal problem that is affecting us. My husband’s boss (and good friend) just found out that his wife of 20-years has been cheating on him… with his best friend. This has caused him to go off the deep end. [...]

Tomorrow’s the day!! The annual Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival is here!! What began as a joke for Suzanne and I 15 years ago (she told me that she could never marry a man who ate Log Cabin “syrup” on his pancakes) has turned into an annual obsession.
To get to Vermontville, Michigan from Detroit, you [...]

So your customers log into their in-box. They don’t see your message; it’s lodged between two other emails down at the bottom of the page. You normally have excellent open rates, but this message just doesn’t seem to make an impact.
Everyone has his or her own preferred time to deal with email, but we’ve found [...]

I spent last week in Boston, Annapolis, and Washington, DC. While I dreaded spending an entire week out of the office — and not on vacation — it turns out it was time very well spent. Among other activities, I went to OnDemand, a major industry trade show. It was fascinating, and I met many [...]

It’s a common misunderstanding that businesses with many locations are all franchises. In fact, many of the places you frequent on a daily basis are NOT franchises at all, but corporate-owned and operated stores. For example, FedEx/Kinkos, The Gap, Red Lobster and yes, even Starbucks are NOT franchises. These are all large companies that operate [...]

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked by someone thinking about investing in a franchise “How much money can I make?” It’s far and away the number one question prospective franchisee want answered. And why not? Isn’t money the primary reason most people go into any business? I love my job and [...]

So often new startups spend lots of energy on marketing instead of simply doing great business and allowing (with some smart marketing help) the service to speak for itself through happy customers. Here’s an example of how this played out in my world recently:
I was talking with family members about finding a massage therapist. It [...]