This week we talked about how the “market rate” for your services is irrelevant — your specific qualities and capabilities will attract different prospects than others in your market. Those qualities impact the price you can charge more than the market does. We also talked about we can identify ONE critical feature or benefit that…
About a year ago, I started experiencing some foot pain. One of the doctor’s recommendations was to try some different shoes with wider toe boxes and better insoles. I tried a bunch of things with varying success until I broke down and tried a pair of Birkenstocks. Why did it take me so long to…
In my recent survey of over 100 business owners, I asked them to agree or disagree with the following statement. We are priced significantly higher than our competitors. The results showed an almost perfect “bell curve,” with a slight tilt toward agreeing. Which brings up the question, “How do we know what our competitors are charging?…
As the boss, you get to see daily progress. When a deal closes, or a project finishes up, you know it. When a client is excited about the changes you made for them, you hear their praise. You have access to a lot of positive feedback that the rest of your team doesn’t see or…
I was interviewing team members at a new client’s company, and I heard a similar story from all of them. They loved working for this company; they felt like it was a place for them to thrive. The team was great AND they believed in the mission. In fact, everything was great, except…they were exhausted. …
I clearly remember the moment I decided to hire a virtual assistant (VA). As my business started growing, I realized that more clients meant more work to get done! Pretty soon, I was so busy that I was missing emails and failing to get back to people because I just never had the time. I…
I frequently tell business owners, “A CEO’s job is to break things. Just don’t break them faster than your team can fix!” I do believe that — someone in every organization has to push the limits to achieve the “next thing.” Someone has to call out the stuff that’s not done well and advocate for…
I’m so grateful for those who have written in the last few weeks. I’ve gotten a bunch of positive responses like this one from Byron, When you decided to increase your emails to this current pace I was “Crap, now I will have more emails to delete”…..just the opposite…I am amazed how you can come…
In a recent survey I did of over 100 business owners I asked this question: What’s your biggest business challenge? More than 50% of respondents answered, “Obtaining New Customers.” Not only was it chosen by a majority of responses, but it was also the most chosen answer by owners of every sized business, big,…
What are you dreading about your day or week in the office? These things are like little rocks in your shoe. They aren’t crises, just annoyances, right? You tolerate them for a while — some you become callused to and stop noticing them — others build up until you can’t stand it anymore. But if…