How to Go Local While Maintaining Your Brand Image The day you decide to expand your company into new markets is a big one. You've built a strong brand and established your business's staying power. You're now ready to take your show on the road, bringing your winning formula to new...
How to Get Ahead in Business Without Leaving Your Family Behind Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle” may have made more grown men cry than any other song: The story of a father who’s too busy working to spend time with his son cuts to our deepest fears as parents. Even Chapin...
Why Retailers Shouldn’t Use Secret Shoppers to Solve Problems The secret shopper is a charismatic creature. Slinky and crafty, it presents a pair of faulty socks like a gauntlet, just willing your employees to mess up. OK, secret shoppers are people, too. But there are some big downsides to outsourcing your quality...
Differentiation Will Keep Offline Customers From Going Online Let’s be honest. It’s far more convenient to shop from your couch than drive to the store, find what you need, load it in the car, and then unload it when you get home. Isn’t it easier to have everything delivered to your...
iBeacon: Just One Piece Of Your Retail Marketing Puzzle No doubt, iBeacon is creating a marketing revolution. With this technology, you can understand exactly where customers are in your store. This gives you the opportunity to send them relevant, contextual advertisements, offers and alerts in real time. Just imagine communicating with customers...
Best Advice I Ever Got: Don't Put Your Sanity Second Your well-being impacts your bottom line. Don't let yours take a backseat to business. Let's face it: When it comes to building a successful business, everything else seems to take a backseat, regardless of how important it may be. Health and family...
Surviving Your First Solo Business Trip at That Lonely Table for One The prospect of your first solo business trip might seem intimidating. In addition to dealing with the stress of going through airport security and navigating a strange city, you'll be facing any setbacks all by yourself. If you miss a client meeting because...
Be Your First Customer: Why Beta Testing Is Right for You It seems like almost all technology goes to market with a “beta” tag attached. Google is notorious for this, releasing many of its products in beta form — and sometimes even leaving them in that phase for years. After all,...
The Common Practice That’s Slowly Eroding Your Company When you’re contemplating how your business can rise to the next level, you might turn to an internal performance audit to gather information on the overall health of your organization. After all, audits provide a way to systematically analyze how your employees and...
How to Maximize Omnichannel Sales While online retailers might want to give the impression that brick-and-mortar stores are dying off, big-time brands beg to differ. In fact, 2014 looks to be the year of the retail giant: Apple is preparing to expand its retail presence; Gap is franchising stores in Hungary, Mexico and...
