Niche down! Be specific! Know who you serve! And… “When you try to serve everyone, you serve no one.” Sound familiar? Whether you’re a service provider, building online courses, speaking, writing, coaching, or consulting, your business success rests on a foundation of “know your customer.” But when it comes time to choose the subset of people you want to serve, it can be really hard to narrow down. Maybe you have an idea that would …
Post updated by Tara Malone How would you like to know EXACTLY what to say in your marketing messaging? To know EXACTLY what sort of blog post to write to generate lots of comments? To know EXACTLY what brand identity you need to have in order to inspire a large group of people and turn them into raving fans? These are exactly the kinds of things you’ll know when you clearly understand your ideal customer …
“Alexa, what’s the temperature outside?” I say as I juggle my daughter and son into their clothes for daycare. Five years ago, I didn’t think I’d end up asking a little round gizmo to give me information. Especially since I already had a mini-computer in my pocket—my phone. But here I am talking to a machine… and getting a response back! That’s how quickly our world is changing. Artificial intelligence, voice-based search, augmented reality…. Those …
Your eyes open with a start. Drenched in cold sweat, you shudder, as you try to piece together the images swirling through your mind. They’re hazy, taunting you with the threat of vanishing forever. But slowly, they coalesce. You know this feeling. You were having a nightmare. Your mind frantically examines the fragments as they reassemble, looking for clues. Did something really happen? Or was it all just a horrifying dream? As it all comes …
Sometimes the hardest things are surprisingly simple. Not easy, but simple. We set goals, and we strive to achieve them. We work, we reach, and we stretch in the direction we’re trying to grow. Sometimes, we find greater success than we ever expected. Sometimes the goal posts move and, without realizing what happened, we just keep on chasing. And sometimes we find that, in pursuit of those goals, we’ve veered off-course, to a very different …
If you’re reading this blog post, you can probably relate to how I felt when I launched one of my first online businesses. I was excited, optimistic, and scared all at the same time. The business we started was BootstrapBay, a marketplace for Bootstrap themes and templates (i.e., web design templates). As the initial wave of excitement wore off, we needed to figure out the answer to that one key question… “How are we going …
Is your new business more like a money pit than a money printing machine? Perhaps you have a great business idea, a slick logo, a catchy name, and—as far as you know—a winning strategy. Maybe you’ve got your advertising campaign, operations, and even supply chains and logistics figured out. But you’re short on capital and haven’t a clue as to how to get started. Finding enough capital and investment to start up a business can …
Consider these four stories: A young woman buys the only pair of boots that will go with the new dress she plans on wearing to the club on Friday night. The boots are two sizes too small and painful to wear. But, damn, they look good. An angry man sends a letter bomb to the wrong address. When it’s returned to him, he opens it. In a competitive seller’s market, a married couple, who are expecting …
Ever been in a crowded place where a voice sounded familiar and you turned around to find it was someone you know? Among the cacophony and the rumble of hundreds of voices, your brain picked up on the one you recognized. Our brains are good at recognizing patterns and so it’s no surprise it keeps a record of voices it encounters repeatedly. But what about “voices” you come across through text or messages? It appears …
