Consider This

When Employee Differences are Night and Day

I recently read an article in the London Evening Standard titled “Why Morning People Rule the World” and it got me thinking about how to best utilize your employees strengths throughout the work day. As a manager, it’s easy to know who your morning and night people are. Your morning people probably got [...]

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A Needed Lesson in Management for North Carolina’s Governor

As managers, we continually face decisions how to address difficult employee matters. Governor Perdue gave us a lesson yesterday in dealing with the troubles facing the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
On Wednesday, July 7, 2010, Governor Beverly Perdue met with 160 of the top officers in the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Here was her message:
“If you [...]

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Does Fear Motivate Employees?

I recently read this article in Entrepreneur by George Cloutier. Cloutier is Harvard Business Graduate and is widely known as a small business expert. He argues that companies should be run like a dictatorship, using fear as a motivator in order to be successful. I agree with some of his points, [...]

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Providing Good Customer Service Should Be Easy

We have all experienced poor customer service. Not every company is as customer-centric as Zappos, but perhaps they should strive to be so. No one expects companies to be 100% perfect all the time, but it IS reasonable to expect wrongs to be righted in a professional manner. In theory, customer service should [...]

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Taking Risks with your Business

Starting your own business is a risk in itself and I know that I have always told myself, “no risk, no reward”. Using this motto for business is imperative. We live in a fast-paced, ever changing world and you must take risks to stay relevant. Offer new products and services to adapt [...]

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A Look at Corporate and Non-Profit Partnerships

This blog post from the Public Affairs Council brought to mind a situation The Results Company was in several years ago. We created an advertising campaign for a North Carolina non-profit that helps individuals manage their health care needs. The non-profit was really making a difference. The deal was shot down by [...]

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How to Write an Effective Job Posting

One of the most challenging aspects of obtaining a new hire is writing an effective job posting. Whether you are using Craigslist, Monster or HotJobs, you want to make sure that the right people apply for the job. Most importantly, you want the candidate to be clear on what the job is before [...]

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Downmarketing

Downmarket products, also known as low-end products are often sold to low-income consumers or businesses, but these days almost everyone wants to go downmarket to accommodate tighter budgets. As a business, you want to accommodate your customers, but cheaper products can be inferior and tarnish your brand.
A smart way to move downmarket [...]

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Sales, Sales Sales!

If you are a sales manager or a sales person, this blog post is for you! We will cover sales tips from a top sales person, sales tips from customers and well as delving into the mind of a sales person. Without a sales department, most companies would not exist, so all managers [...]

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Competitive Intelligence

Gathering information from competitors is an old strategy, but is still used today. Bigger companies often have entire departments dedicated to Competitive Intelligence, but watching what your competitors are doing is just as important to small business.
Who Are Your Competitors?
First, you should identify your competitors. A recent article in Inc. suggests [...]

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