Hard to believe it but on February 14, 2011, I celebrated six years of business.  They say that most small businesses fail within the first five years. Kind of like marriages hit that rocky point around seven. Well, as a business owner I have passed that hurdle. I thought I would take a moment and [...]

On Friday I had the pleasure of presenting my Social Media workshop to the participants of the Stark County Board of Mental Health during their annual conference. The group was lively and engaging and I had a great time.  During my discussion about social shopping and the consumer trend to connect with businesses, one of [...]

Building customer relationships, earning customer loyalty – these are passions of mine and I was pleased to see an article offering 7 key steps to creating customer loyalty in Fast Track magazine. Author, Micah Solomon, opens his list with this comment: A personal bond with customers lets your company escape the commodity pricing wars and provides [...]

This topic seems timely on the eve of Black Friday frenzy.  Retailers are expecting a record breaking volume of shoppers and sales this week . In an effort to gain the customer’s first dollars they are opening even earlier – some on Thanksgiving day!  The ads, the offers, the promises being offered in pre-Thanksgiving day [...]

When you look at the company budget – do you spend equal dollars on marketing for new customers as you do servicing your existing customers? When the economy started to tank, one of the first things companies pulled was training. The focus on customer service shifted from having importance to a “nice to have.” I [...]

Last evening I had the opportunity to participate in a radio show – Reader’s Entertainment Radio – hosted by Sheila English.  Sheila interviewed myself and Sherre DeMao – founder of SLD Unlimted Marketing/PR, Inc.  Sheila led us through a series of questions which uncovered our philosophies of effective marketing and communication with our prospects and [...]

Here’s a great observational comment that Norma Rist made to someone she was coaching: “You are treating your customers as transactions but you need to think of them as lifelong relationships.” Have you ever been in sales? Or operations? It is the 16th and you are fast approaching the end of the month.  Will you [...]

My son has his first sales job; selling Cutco knives.   It is quite an experience.  He went through 16 hours of unpaid training and had to purchase the sales kit prior to making any money so he is invested in the process.  At least financially. He’s too new in the sales game to have learned [...]

I just bought a new chair. It was time. The last time I bought a chair I was pregnant with my first born. That’s him sitting in the new chair. He’s 19. I went to Levin because they had a 50% off sale and if you purchased on the weekend, it was free delivery. I’ve [...]

Just saw this link on a tweet The Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution. If your customer is between the ages of 18-35 – you need to learn to master the art of social media – or at the very least – be listening real close and often to what is being said. Of all [...]