Posts Tagged ‘business gains’

Just Over the Horizon

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

This is my “just back from vacation” article. You remember vacations, right? The place you go to relax and forget about “real life,” the place you go to re-think and clear your head. That place. My place this year was Edisto Island, S.C. pictured here by my friend John Sinclair and taken from the deck of the house a bunch of friends shared for a week. Just look at that moonlit horizon. You remember horizons, right? The imaginary line that recedes as you approach it. Happiness is like that for some people. Are you one of them? Do you think of happiness as being out there for you “someday, maybe, as soon as…? Just like those horizons?

Now before you get offended and write me a snippy little email, consider the words of a man who lived 2,000 years ago. “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn…‘” Evidently people two thousand years ago – just like people today – believed moods were the result of circumstances and environment. But unless you suffer from a chemical imbalance, I believe your mood is the result of where you’ve chosen to focus your attention.

While I didn’t really want to come back to work, from vacation (sorry clients- like you but didn’t really miss you), it made me able to re-think what I’m doing and how I do it. Here is my thought: (more…)

Social Media or Social Media Marketing? At which are you better? Part 2

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

In my previous entry I wrote about Nordstrom and their commitment to the customer “over” social media marketing. I’ll let you read it to catch up. But to continue the conversation, the differences are vast. It’s the difference between using social media tools and adopting social media philosophy; the difference between sparking posts about your marketing and posts about your product or service; the difference between marketers who focus externally on how the brand is broadcast versus internally on how the brand is realized.

Several years ago I woke up one morning and had a voicemail message; no missed calls, just a message. I clicked my voicemail and listened intently and then humorously as Samuel L. Jackson called me by name, called out a friend’s name and told me some wild story—all while issuing a tirade of expletives. It was a computer generated promotion for the yet to be released movie, “Snakes on a Plane.”

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Measuring Your Brand Effectiveness

Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Brand Measurement

Brand Measurement

How do you measure your business success? Where does your company stand, and where would you like to improve? It’s often about more than financial gains. Consider these seven ways to chart your business success.

1. Gross sales
Most companies rely on a single number to assess success: gross revenue from sales of products or services. But this figure can be misleading, particularly if you have high overhead or other expenses that can distort this snapshot of overall business activities. Calculating your gross revenue over a specific time period is a good place to start, but don’t rely on it as your only yardstick.

2. Profits
Imagine two very different businesses. One business with low overhead and high profit margins. The other is a much larger business with higher sales volume but with an overhead and other expenses that eat up much of the profits. Both companies end up with the same net profit. Which is the more appealing business? I argue that it’s the lean and nimble firm, one that drives profits while steering clear of the complexities that so often drain the management of a larger enterprise. Remember, at the end of the day, it’s net profits — not gross dollars — that really matter. (more…)

So much to accomplish!

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

CATAPULT-COVER_tammy-210x300There is so much to accomplish! Our world changes so rapidly and every day seems to bring a new challenge or crisis for a business that is not keeping pace.

“The Catapult Effect” is about new effectiveness in new ways in a very quick time. It can be as simple as closer relationships with customers, speeding a new product to market, or collaborating with a new team. We are talking about transformational change. It happens oftentimes very quickly and not in the most positive of ways. Relationships end, an accident changes a life, a business closes and people lose their jobs. How quickly those changes happen, sometimes in the blink of an eye. The point of the Catapult Effect is to take the crisis and manipulate it for our good or betterment, not for something bad from which we may not be able to recover.

Have you downloaded your copy today? It’s FREE! Get it here

What is one thing you can do today?

Monday, August 10th, 2009

CATAPULT-COVER_tammy-210x300To change your business, your department, your company or your life?

Everyday, business emergencies, crises and disasters suddenly liberate organizations from the restraints of the institutionalized barriers to performance improvement. These events evoke powerful and dramatic responses that cannot be matched by any of the structured programs and technologies a company may currently use.

Excerpt from the Introduction: The singular purpose of this book is how you, yes YOU– as an owner, manager, leader, individual can use the knowledge, thoughts, and experiences I am about to impart to RADICALLY and QUICKLY change your life, save your business, and not only “live to tell about it” but to grow and prosper even in this extraordinary economic climate we exist in today!

I call it the “Catapult Effect;” building your own machine of force, power and energy– which you control and which you choose to “release”– to launch you, your business or both into the place you want to be! Then, by using the methods you have just learned, create increasingly ambitious gains.

So put your incredulity on hold for now. Suspend the belief that you are at the end of your rope. Release the notion that your business is at the limits of its performance. And imagine that awesome ball of breathing burning energy flying through the air and smashing down the walls of your obstacles giving you a breakthrough to unimagined achievement.

The Catapult Effect is available here for download.