Category: Consulting with Small Businesses

I’ve been dabbling with the new “social media” app called Foursquare. It seemed, from the very beginning to be a great app to help small businesses reach new customers. So I decided I’d not only try it out, I’d jump in and do everything you could do with it so I could really see how…

Somehow, overnight it seems, flat screen TV’s are no longer available as an upgrade. Nope. Now flat screen is the default. In fact, if you want to buy a regular cathode ray tube TV, you’re going to have to go to an electronics store, or eBay or Craigslist. Because, Wal*Mart isn’t going to special order…

Ever seen Dog the Bounty Hunter? He’s a Harley-looking dude in Hawaii who goes around rounding up the bad guys. But he doesn’t just round them up, he takes them down with style. Duane “Dog” Chapman and his family have turned their little bounty hunter enterprise into a full blown reality TV sensation. Since 2005…

Structuring your social media platform as a business gives you an opportunity not available to a consultant or sole proprietorship. While I spend a good deal of the time branding my own image, a company has the option of allowing it’s “employee faces” to brand themselves as employees or to make the “employee faces” anonymous…

So you’ve got a website and you’re proud of it. In fact, many of you were probably excited to tell people once it was up and going.  I’ve got some questions for you. What is it for? What does it do? How do people find it? How do people use it? Do you know the…

When you want a Facebook Page –  that’s when you shouldn’t create one. There is nothing strategic about “wanting”.  From a business standpoint, Facebook is a tool no less or more useful than is a hammer for a handyman. If you’ve spent anytime trying to figure out what you’re going to do with your Facebook page – you’ve thought…

The biggest problem most people have trying to write their marketing plan is getting stuck on the details. They got bogged in some detail and can’t move beyond it. So don’t let details slow your plan. Your marketing plan should almost reflect a flow chart.  Work it backwards from the day you receive your first…

So you’re familiar with Groupon, I’m going to assume. It’s a great service for those of us that like 50% off – but like many lead generating services you’ve got to be prepared on the back-end. Most companies that use Groupon get excited about all the traffic that’s coming to their front door, but don’t…

So many horror stories, and yet they can all be avoided. Learning how to use Groupon for your business really means . . . what do you know about your business? How do you make money? The first step in using Groupon for your business is understanding where money is made in your business. For…

Being a social media for offline business guy, I take special note when anything local businesses are doing online and making visible to the customer. This weekend I had the pleasure of dining at MaggieMoo’s on West End in Nashville and thought I’d share that experience. MaggieMoo’s is the first place I’ve been where their…