• The 5 most important questions to ask BEFORE you start marketing

    Many people jump into marketing with a gut feel.  They make decisions before asking some critical questions and really evaluating the answers.  While this often leads to quick decision making (aren't we all guilty of this more often than not?), it does not always lead to the most educated decisions, and ultimately the best decisions. Marketing without a good deal of thought may end up being an [...]

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    Ten simple steps for obtaining value from a bonus

    I often find that new clients award a significant bonus to an employee but without significant communication. It is not uncommon for a busy CEO or manager to telephone a staff member and say something like “Hi Joe, I’m calling about your bonus. You are getting $X.  Well done.  You did a great job last year.  Thanks.”  Often the employee is not sure what it is that he did well, or what [...]

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    Marketing - a prerequisite for growth

    Is business growth inextricably linked to the need for effective marketing? I posed this question to a number of colleagues and they had interesting perspectives, all of which pointed back to what marketing really is: Marketing is the thinking part of selling – deciding what products to sell at what price, with what channels of distribution and how to promote them.   It is a planning, [...]

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    The lost sale syndrome - finding out why

    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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    Social Media - is it really the magic bullet?

    Social media.  The new marketing reality for everyone - right?  Right!! This is the issue facing everyone that is promoting any kind of business, product or service.  Over the last couple of years the new media reality of Facebook, Twitter and the like has dominated the limelight and people from all walks of business have flocked (or are looking to flock (!)) to this new magic bullet that will [...]

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    Welcome and Trends 2011 - opportunities for 2011

    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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    Health and Wellness - No more excuses!

    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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    Beware of the tax man

    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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    Back to the Future

    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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    Motivating finance department staff

    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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