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First Steps: Identify and Find Ideal Customers

Designing Strategies newsletter March - April 2018            Volume 15 - Issue 82   Face it, if your small business doesn’t have customers, who will purchase your products or use your services?  You’ll be out of business in no time.  A steady stream of revenue coming in on a regular basis is what keeps businesses of all types running smoothly and profitably.  Advertising and marketing to the masses is not the way you want to go.  Unless you are selling a commodity like soap or toothpaste, you need to be looking for your ideal customers.  Ideal customers [...]

By |2018-04-06T22:48:53-04:00April 6th, 2018|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Newsletter|
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Top Social Media Trends for 2018

Designing Strategies  eNewsletter Volume 15                          Issue 81 Social Media Trends Changed Many Times Over 20 Years Social media trends are constantly changing.  It is hard to believe, but back in 1997, social media was born.   Twenty years ago.  Two decades of digital socialization.   Can you even remember not having a social media presence?  In its earliest versions, it was meant to provide platforms for people to connect and 'be social'.  Today, a lot has changed through innovation and changes in technology.   Vast numbers of changes have occurred.  There are [...]

By |2018-01-28T02:52:39-05:00January 28th, 2018|Marketing, Newsletter, Social Media, Trends|
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Customers Deserve Our Thanks and Appreciation

Designing Strategies  eNewsletter Volume 14                          Issue 80   Happy Thanksgiving  and the Coming Holiday Season Everyone! It's hard to believe that we are half way through Fall and that Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Somehow these holidays have a habit of sneaking up on us.  Lots of cleaning to do.  Long grocery lists with ingredients for traditional family recipes are on refrigerator doors or in our digital To Do list.  Run the good china and silverware through the dish washer.  Pull out that special table cloth.  Time to [...]

By |2017-11-30T03:02:19-05:00November 20th, 2017|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Newsletter|
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Get Your Small Business Growing: Off the Treadmill and Onto a Conveyor

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter September - October, 2017                                         Volume 14  --  Issue 79   Do you find yourself doing the same things in your business that you did last week, last month or even last year?  Not good.  You have reached a plateau where  you are comfortable and decided to stay put?  Really not good.  You know what happens when something sits still in the same place don't you?  If you've ever watched 'American Pickers' on the History channel, you'll understand that [...]

By |2018-01-05T03:40:43-05:00September 22nd, 2017|Growth, Newsletter, Systems and Processes|
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Exceptional Customer Experiences:  7 Infallible Rules Not To Be Ignored

Every small business claims to have excellent customer service.  I’m not kidding.  Go out and do an informal survey of your own.  At your next association meeting, ask ten or twelve colleagues – read:  competitors – how they rate their own customer service.   I’d be willing to bet that 9 out of 10 will tell you they are just ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ when it comes to customer service and exceptional customer experiences. For those of you who prefer to speak in simpler terms, that very, very long word from Mary Poppins just means “exceptionally good”.  By claiming to have exceptionally good customer service, [...]

By |2017-11-20T16:22:24-05:00August 9th, 2017|Customer Experience, Customer Relationships, Newsletter|
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Your Unique Definition of Success – The Foundation of Your Small Business

'Designing Strategies' e-Newsletter Volume 14               Issue 77   Success – what does it mean?  From a quick Google search, Success is defined as either:  the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, or the attainment of popularity or profit.  Ask any small business owner or entrepreneur what they want to get from their start-up enterprise and odds are, they will respond with:  "Success.” or "I want to be successful."  Sounds about right, doesn't it? In reality, those answers are simply not enough.  What does success mean to you, as an individual, small business owner? [...]

By |2017-11-20T16:21:24-05:00June 2nd, 2017|Newsletter, Strategy, Strategy|
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8 Important Management Factors That Affect Small Businesses

'Designing Strategies' newsletter March - April, 2017            Volume 14  -  Issue 76   There are eight important management factors identified by Neil C. Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis in the Harvard Business Review.  They apply equally to any small business start up.  Four of the factors apply to the business owner.  The other four apply to the small business itself.  Their research noted factors that affect both the small business owner and the business entity itself.  Those factors are as follows: Important Management Factors for the Business Owner Personal and Business Goals Without specific, clear [...]

By |2017-04-21T01:31:04-04:00April 21st, 2017|Newsletter, Strategic Management, Systems and Processes|
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Grow Your Small Business By Adding and Empowering Employees

'Designing Strategies' eNewsletter Volume 14                     Issue 75   If a typical day at your small business involves staff waiting for you to come into the office so they can get your approval of progress on a project, it's not a good thing. If employees are standing in line to get access to you to answer questions, that's not good either. Odds are your firm is in Stagnant Stalemate mode. Your firm is not growing. It is not expanding. Staff can't accomplish anything because you have a death grip on control [...]

By |2017-01-28T02:49:34-05:00January 28th, 2017|Employees, Growth, Newsletter, Strategy|
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Trend Hunter’s Megatrends for 2017

'Designing Strategies' Newsletter November – December 2016                      Volume 13 – Issue 74   2016 is coming to its end and 2017 is emerging on the horizon just behind. Out with the old, in with whatever will be new. Baby New Year is trying on his sash for final alterations as Father Time shuffles to his finish line. I started off the day with an exclamation of “Egads, it’s almost December!” Thanksgiving is already behind us and a plethora of year end events and holidays are ahead. On the business side, we rush to get year-end [...]

By |2017-01-11T01:19:09-05:00November 28th, 2016|Newsletter, Strategy, Trends|
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Create a Small Business Bucket List to Get What You Want

'Designing Strategies' Newsletter September - October 2016                      Volume 13 -- Issue 73 Have any of you written a personal bucket list? A bucket list is pretty simple, it is just a list of things you want to do and places you want to see during your lifetime. It’s a matter of putting down in written form those hopes and dreams you don’t want to miss out on. Writing them down improves the likelihood they will actually become a part of your reality. Wait! How about creating a Small Business Bucket [...]

By |2017-01-10T01:05:44-05:00September 20th, 2016|Newsletter, Strategic Management, Strategic Planning, Strategy|
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