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Business Is Personal

Business Is Personal

Don’t Hang Up on Your Customers

Imagine you’re talking with a prospect or client on the phone and right before the critical word or phrase that almost always closes the deal, you suddenly hang up. You’d never do that, would you? I mean, you’d think that might make it a tad difficult to close a sale. What if I told you […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

It’s No Time To Be Sheepish

If you’ve ever coached a kids’ baseball team, you probably remember reminding players to take the bat off of their shoulder, at least during the early going. Leaving it on your shoulder requires too much adjustment to hit a pitched ball. Most young players can’t adjust fast enough at that age. Not asking the right […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Social Media Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid

As promised last week, we’re going to discuss a few easy-to-make social media mistakes that small businesses should avoid. Mistake # 1 – Where’s the fire? This one is the easiest to commit so of course it’s one of the mistakes that can make your social media efforts far less effective – and perhaps a […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Social Media: Examples for Business

Last week, we talked about what social media is and why a business would want to use it. This week, let’s look at Twitter, a major social media site. Twitter is a microblogging platform. That means you can “tweet” (Twitter-speak for send a message) what amounts to very short blog posts. A tweet can be […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Social Media: Time-Waster or Business Tool?

If someone threw a party for your customers and prospects, wouldn’t you want to be there? Social media can help you do just that. You may have heard about social media and if so, I suspect you’ve wondered what it is and why you should care. If you’re more aware of social media, you may […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

E-I-E-I-SEO

A week ago last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with Dani and Mike from BigforkWeb, Arnold from CrestonTech and John from Snowdog. We were the technically oriented (ie: computer geeky) speakers for Montana West Economic Development‘s E2 (Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur) session for April. These are monthly sessions organized for small business owners, […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Without Reservations

Airlines teach so many lessons about business that I could write about them for weeks. What kind of lessons? How not to treat people. How not to empower our staff. How not to give people an experience that’s so amazing they can’t wait to come back. Despite being frustrating to deal with air travel hassles […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Why 68% Stop Being Your Customer

Happens almost every day. I run across small (and not so small) businesses who are wasting one of their most valuable assets: Their current customers. If you have 1000 customers and you average $1000 per sale per year for each of those customers, your business is raking in $1,000,000 per year. Regular studies have shown […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Shipping is Personal

You might not be aware of it, but my wife is a junior high school teacher. 6th grade to be specific. Know what that means? Hormones. Drama. Lots of change and other stuff. Having a teacher in the family means we watch every teacher movie ever made. Last night, The Ron Clark Story was on […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Would Anyone Notice?

If you replaced your entire staff today, would anyone notice? More importantly, would anyone care? Think about the last customer to visit your store. If they walked into your business tomorrow and all your staff was different from their last visit, would they notice? Would someone notice if they’ve been coming to see you for […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

CPSIA Lead Law – A Pawn in Partisan Chess Game?

Late Thursday, Senator Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) amendment to the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) came up for a vote in the Senate. The amendment appeared rather straightforward, yet Montana Senators Tester (D) and Baucus (D) both voted against it. The final tally fell almost entirely along party lines. It’s difficult to say whether Senator […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Going Dutch. Or Not.

You may remember that I’ve repeatedly suggested that you use the news in your advertising. Some days it’s just too easy. I see that some have done just that, but beware: Just because you use a good suggestion, don’t think that a great message isn’t required. For example, it seems everyone mentions the stimulus package […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Once Again, Congress Takes Aim at Small Business

For decades, I have avoided getting involved in politics. It annoys me. For almost two years, I have (mostly) avoided getting into it here at Business is Personal and the other places where I publish business advice. But they keep on trying to drag me in, the CPSIA being the most recent evidence. Once again, […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Smouldering Buildings

It’s a perfect morning. You hit the local coffee roasters for your morning java, spending a little time with the local paper as you down your first cup. Before long, it’s time for work. You’ve got a full day planned. As you aim your rig toward downtown, your thoughts turn toward the day’s ToDo list. […]

By Mark Riffey
Business Is Personal

Being Maxwell Smart

A few weeks ago, we talked about my contention that now is THE time to start a business. I was a little surprised that no one told me I was nuts. Almost makes me wonder if you read that issue. Assuming you did and didn’t disagree, or if you’ve changed your mind since your younger […]

By Mark Riffey