management mondays Tag

04 Mar

Posted at 07:50h in Integrated Marketing, Small Business by
If you run your own company, you may or may not be involved in the marketing duties. In some instances, company owners can afford to reach out and hire a marketing specialist to work onsite with them, while others take the option of having an outside firm that specializes in marketing do the job for them. Whichever way you determine to be best for your business, there are a number of factors that you should focus on, allowing you the best possibility of succeeding with your marketing needs. Don’t hit the panic button - First and foremost, you will find your business going through peaks and valleys during the course of the year, so never hit the panic button. You may get the urge to scale back your marketing budget when things are not going well, but that is likely the worst time to do that. While you’re toning down your marketing budget, your competition is likely going in the opposite direction. Reevaluate from time to time what’s working and what isn’t working, giving you the guidance necessary to move around money and efforts if need be. Remember, the day you stop marketing could be the prelude to the day you close your business. According to research from AWeber Communications, close to 70 percent of small businesses said they would be adding to their marketing budgets this year, with some 97 percent planning on doing no less than maintaining their present level directed towards marketing expenses. That being said, some well-known companies noted in the last year that they were scaling back their marketing over the next 12 months, with one even noting in hindsight, such a decision ended up costing his business customers and revenue. Those making headlines included:

31 Oct

Posted at 05:57h in Management Mondays by
I often get accused of having bad "work/life balance". I'm often told I need to get off the grid, stop being available 24/7, etc. I've already written about what happened the one time I succumbed to pressure and turned off my cell phone for a day, almost missing a HUGE opportunity. I've also written about why going off the grid for any length of time is dumb.  So today I've decided to explain to you why I think work/life balance is a crock.  I apologize if this sounds defensive but I'm feeling like maybe it's an opportunity to teach people that happiness is not based on how much "life" you have in proportion to how much you "work". The lesson I've learned is when work is fun and exciting and fulfilling, it's part of life. It's not something you have to do to HAVE a life. To make my point, I think you need to see how much time I spend goofing off. Probably 80% of these items are during the week, as Saturdays are reserved for spending time with my mom and Sunday mornings are sacred.  I do like to get ready for the week by working on Sundays, like I am now. So here are some stats about my life in 2011 - since I put just about everything on my calendar it wasn't too hard to add up. 

25 Jul

Posted at 07:26h in Integrated Marketing, Management Mondays by
If you run small business or you're a consultant or salesperson, you've had "that client". You know, the one that turns your stomach into knots when you see their name pop up on your phone screen. The last two years have been tough for many small businesses, and mine has been no exception. I've taken on smaller pieces of work, gone outside my wheelhouse and even put up with some abuse in order to keep Wax Marketing going and to preserve the indepedent lifestyle I have built for myself.  A couple months ago I had to take a stand however with a couple of my clients. I told them I wasn't sure their business was good for my business. And we parted ways.

18 Jul

Posted at 05:28h in Management Mondays, Small Business by
There are about as many interviewing techniques as there are people who conduct interviews. Everyone is different, so that provides opportunities for us to learn from one another. I hope to offer a few ideas of my own for your consideration. Some of these ideas might seem a bit odd. That’s okay, because it’s the odd stuff that gets us thinking, and if it works to our benefit, then it quickly becomes perfectly normal. So, let’s look at what some might consider odd interviewing techniques. As odd as they may seem, they can help us make a nice match between our enterprise and the candidates who make themselves available to fill positions we have to offer. Better yet, perhaps these techniques will help you find someone who can make their own position within your firm, even if you don’t have an opening. Does that seem odd? Yes? Okay, then let’s discuss that as our first of many interviewing techniques.

11 Jul

Posted at 07:34h in Management Mondays, Small Business by
Occasionally I’ve gone outside the boundaries of this blog and talked about management, not just pr and marketing. Since those posts always seem to get a ton of attention, I’ve decided to take the liberty of tossing in a few more for a  “management monday” post here and there. After last week’s jobs report it may seen odd to start with interviewing tips. But despite the report, many of my small business clients ARE hiring again (and I think we’ll see that reflected in the numbers later this summer). So if you’re rusty on interviewing after a couple years of working just to keep the ship afloat, small business blogger Clair Schwan offers up some great advice! By Clair Schwan Let’s look at some useful tips on interviewing prospective employees. More specifically, let’s look at how to make the best use of your time before interviews even start. Interviewing potential employees is time-consuming, and picking good employees is essential, so we need to make effective use of our time to ensure best results from this important effort. If we screen our prospects, we’re likely to make better decisions in less time. And, the time we save can be invested in the finalists we choose to interview.