Let’s talk about the elephant in the room … money. I’ll preface this by saying I am well aware that money doesn’t buy happiness which is why you won’t see a suggestion of what to charge or how much is reasonable to charge because there are way too many variables. I left a corporate role[…]
Yesterday morning I was reminded of an invaluable thing. Nothing new. But the best stuff is almost always the simple stuff. When dealing with your clients, DON’T make assumptions. “Yeah, yeah” you might be thinking “I don’t do that!” Hmm… are you sure?! If you’d have been talking to me yesterday and said that I’d have[…]
RANT: FREE CONSULTING WORK I’m not sure if there’s something in the air or its just an anomaly but I’ve seen two separate threads this week on what to do as a consultant when people want to “pick your brain” or “buy you a coffee” or say they’d love “your opinion on their strategy”[…]
Ok, this one is probably also going to raise the hackles of a lot of people who are of the ‘just do it’ school of thought, or from the ‘DIY everything for MVP and just launch’ camp. And yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, and some people are very clear on their brand,[…]
This one is so often misunderstood. And it’s deceptively simple. So it can be tempting to go “Yeah well obviously customer service is important, we give great customer service.” Hmmm. Let’s dig in to this a little more though. So, I want to be clear here that I’m not talking about customer service at all,[…]
Oh boy. I’m already cringing just thinking about the outrage and debate this one is sure to unleash. I’m sure your first reaction was “WTF?” And yes, technically, what I do for my clients falls into the ‘marketing’ bucket. So, aren’t I just saying no-one should hire me because marketing doesn’t work?! Um no. I[…]
It’s just you, or just two of you, but you’re leaving the corporate world where ‘organisations’ have teams of tens and hundreds of people, and you think they get as much business as they do because their size denotes their level of ability and value, and for you to be able to get business in[…]
#6 – Competing on price instead of value. How does this happen? Well, it’s pretty simple really. Most of us are doing something that other people do too, very few of us offer something truly unique, even if the other people doing it deliver their service differently or their product isn’t quite the same, from[…]
#5 – Spending Money On Tactics Without Strategy Strategy: Surprise attack Tactics: Jump like crazy and throw spear very hard I’m amazed at how few small business have any kind of marketing strategy. Yet every single small business is doing some form of marketing (or often many forms). Your strategy is the dish you want to[…]
#4 – Setting Everything Up Before Thinking About Who – What – How. Let me explain. What I mean is that most of us, oh and yes, I’ve done this myself more times than I’d like to admit which is why right now you’ll see I don’t have all my ducks in a row from[…]