It’s impossible, right? In order to get more done, you need to invest more time. Working ten hour days will make you more accomplished than a colleague that only works seven. Studying three hours a day will get you better grades than the guy who skims through a few chapters before the test. More work = more results.

I disagree. Working smart beats working hard. In some cases working more can actually damage the amount you get accomplished. In both cases, the degree effort matches outcomes has been overstated.

Working less and accomplishing more isn’t easy. It requires thinking creatively to find more effective ways of doing things. But first, you have to be open to the possibility that your methods aren’t as efficient as they could be. Once you do that you can look for ways to get more accomplished without just increasing your to-do list. So in this blog I'm going to share some of the rules I use to approach my day to day operations, so read on and enjoy!

Remember the old Yellow Pages ads that said, “Let your fingers do the walking?” (Yes, I just aged myself.) The phrase was clever slogan meant to encourage consumers to shop by browsing the yellow phone book page listings for a product or service. In other words, let's allow your customers to do the talking so client and customers do the walking to your website or business to give you the business. So in this blog I'm going to talk about how customers testimonials are very effective to your marketing plan so read on and enjoy!

Which would you rather be in your business: Efficient or Effective? If you're like most people, your gut-level response is BOTH of course! And you can be. But.... have you ever stopped to think which one needs to come first? Steven Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People said:

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at efficiently climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy - very busy - with being very effective"

This is especially true when it comes to marketing. When your busy working on your business most people often make the mistake of "doing something, even if it's wrong", mistaking activity for effectiveness. It's easy to do in the real-time world of social media where everyone is looking for instant gratification in the technology world we live in. They get busy placing adds, buying lead lists, building a web presence, sending out mailers, attending networking events, creating brochures, and so forth. In other words, they get busy doing something and in this blog I'm going to talk about how to be efficient and effective while using both strategic and tactical marketing to your advantage so read on and enjoy!

​In the world of marketing, controversy and contrarianism are often used to gain an audience’s attention or generate media exposure. Many people confuse these two methods as being the same thing. Yet, there is a marked difference between being controversial and being contrarian. And in this blog, I'm going to discuss the differences based on the current issue that has created headlines and a firestorm of emotions from people all across the country. So ready on and enjoy!

​Every year thousands of people set goals and commitments that they either achieve, quit, or make excuses and reasons why they cannot accomplish their goals. And the biggest thing they do to themselves is disrespect the relationship they have with THEMSELVES by allowing those excuses to keep them from continuing. If you want to STRETCHYOURSELF to the next level, there are specific disciplines and simpler ways of seeing the world through your eyes that will help you understand that being committed will enable a happier life that responds to you.

Sometimes we make life more complicated than it is. We attach happiness to achievement and then look for it in all the wrong ways and in all the wrong places. Of course, you don’t have to live like this. If you feel like you are, it’s time to simplify things. It’s time to get back to the basics. So this blog is about helping you become more committed to achieve the things you want in life, while respecting the relationship you keep with yourself so read on and enjoy!

Have you ever felt like you're not applying the knowledge that you've learned from seminars, classes, and workshops you've attended or books you've read?   I know I have, many times. In the past I caught myself talking myself out of trying something more often than I wanted to admit, and eventually I knew I in order for me to STRETCH myself I needed to APPLY WHAT I KNOW.  Not all at once, but in bite size manageable projects that would build my confidence.  So this blog is about applying what you know so read on and enjoy!

In this blog, we'll be talking about the The Rule of 1%  to increase your ultimate customer experience.  But, before you can do this there are two things you must strive for excellence in or it will never work.  If don't correctly, you experience a huge increase in business over time so read on and enjoy!

​Failing doesn’t always mean you’re out of the game. Sometimes you have to look at the bright side of failure and learn from it. Let’s take a look at some famous failures and how these people, and the work they produced, achieved astounding successes.

In my last business post (Shh...I have a secret 27 Jul 2015) I talked about the first secret to building a solid customer service plan and how to decide what your vision is. 

In today's blog I'm going to talk about the second secret to turn your satisfied customers to raving fans. You must know what your customers want. Know who your customers are and you will know better how to serve them. Demographics are really important here. An upper-class woman in her 30’s is going to have completely different expectations than a working class man in his 50’s.  So read on and enjoy!

In the The Corporate Puzzle post we talked about the first three of the 7 specific areas you need to consider if you decide to franchise your business.  In the franchise prototype process there are seven areas that you need to be clear and definite. Here are all seven again:

1. Primary Aim
   
2. Strategic Objectives
   
3. Organizational Strategy
   
4. Management Strategy
   
5. People Strategy
   
6. Marketing Strategy
   
7. Systems Strategy
   

These 7 areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. Today we are going to cover the last four.

The 7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process:

1. Primary Aim
   
2. Strategic Objectives
   
3. Organizational Strategy
   
4. Management Strategy
   
5. People Strategy
   
6. Marketing Strategy
   
7. Systems Strategy
   

These 7 areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. In this blog we are going to cover the first three.

Today I'd like to talk about the three keys to business development and how you can put the right bricks in place to build a solid foundation.  There are three main areas of business development:

• Innovation
  
• Quantification
  
• Orchestration
  

If done well these three areas will help you build a solid foundation for you business. Let’s talk about each one of these for just a minute.

The biggest area of turn-key businesses is franchises. There is franchise for ever industry in the world and they are fairly easy to acquire and come with practically a pop out of the box pre-assembled system. McDonald’s is a prime example. In fact, a $40 billion, 28,707 strong example. 

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

• Business Format Franchise
  
• The Franchise Prototype
  
• Franchise Prototype Standards
  

In this week's blog I'm going to talk about the life cycle of a business and how to get the most out of each cycle while also extended the lifespan of your business. The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

• Infancy
  
• Adolescence
  
• Growing Pains
  
• Maturity
  

I’ll talk a little about what each of these cycle’s means and how they can each help expand your business’ lifespan.