Blog

Did you ever lose a sale that you thought was "in the bag?"  You nurtured the prospect and all the signs were good, only to find out that they bought from someone else? Did a client or customer stop buying from you "all of a sudden" and you don't know why?  Very often the client may provide a reason but it really doesn't sound plausible? These situations are happening more and more often and [...]

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Deciding whether to invest in social media requires some tough questions....

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Welcome to our new-look newsletter that will now take the form of a Blog.  As trends go, we at Mastermind accept the new digital environment in which blogging plays a seriously important role.  And so, as we move with the times it’s probably appropriate that our most recently posted article is included with some of the newest trends that we see expanding through 2011.  Some of these trends [...]

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Newspapers and magazines are now full of articles that relate to wellness and healthy living. It seems that we all have a huge "appetite" for tips and top ten lists telling us how to eat, exercise, sleep, and manage a good work-life balance. Society is becoming addicted to the education of healthy living and once they get a taste they want more! Organizations of all sizes are now discovering why [...]

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Tax issues to avoid when preparing your exit strategy All too often, business owners neglect to plan ahead for the succession of their business. And while this is likely to affect their options for transitioning out of their business, there can also be severe tax implications that could have been avoided with a bit of forethought and advance planning. In many cases, the ultimate tax burden [...]

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A colleague of mine at Raphel Marketing in Vermont came up with a neat way to be a little Marketing-retro (Thanks Neil). I thought what he did was fun and have included it below. However, I don't believe that one should only limit ones comments to a handful of retro items because most business people would weigh up some of these "retro" tactics against the new digital media. Be warned: every [...]

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Optimize the performance of your staff through motivation Do your staff have more work than they can manage? It is often said that work expands to meet the time available, but this does not occur when staff are motivated to do their best. Solid supervision by a department head can often go a long way to encourage staff to go the distance. In this article I review some of the basic skills that a[...]

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Given the competitive environment today, organizations need to find ways of developing unique ways to compete. So, can strategizing at the subconscious level enable organizations to reach deep within in order to truly differentiate themselves in a compelling, relevant and authentic manner? According to Margaret Reynolds, Owner of Reynolds Consulting, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri: "What people might[...]

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Marketing is about making choices Many people feel that by just implementing a whole range of marketing tactics and activities, they are doing the right thing. Well, as Sun Tzu has indicated, that may just be the noise before defeat. Without developing a strategy, those tactics could lead to trouble. And especially if the tactics have been developed without consideration for the options or [...]

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For you to remain aware of the potential issues and changes in your business on a timely basis, your Controller (or Accounting Manger, CFO, VP Finance, or other person with similar responsibilities) should prepare a regular update of the key information and indicators for management. Many of the more sophisticated ERP and accounting systems provide a feature that will do this automatically once it[...]

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