It costs a lot of money to get a customer to buy from you for the first time. Do you make money on that first transaction? Many businesses don’t. They need to get the customer to come back again. So it’s a mistake to focus all your Read More

A modern, high-tech shopping experience isn’t for big companies only. Smaller businesses can take advantage of new technology and innovation to offer their customers a more fun, engaging shopping experience—and better empower their employees at the point of sale. At Microsoft*, I’ve seen many smaller retailers Read More

“I can do it myself.” Without fail, my five-year-old niece offers up this predictable response to any offer of help. She utters this phrase with complete confidence, despite being too short for certain tasks. Any words of caution are met with another, equally certain statement: “I Read More

It has been well said that you should hire your weakness and focus on your strengths, and most of us feel vulnerable in the area of sales and marketing. So it seemed perfectly reasonable that I should get outside help, bring in a marketing “expert” to Read More

There’s a good reason why companies confuse blogging and content marketing: No two people seem to have the same definition of content marketing. The Content Marketing Institute, a credible source, defines content marketing as: “… [A] strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, Read More

The employees that you hire can make or break your business. And while first impressions are important, it can be difficult to discern a prospective hire’s true personality, work ethic and how well they will fit into your organization within the limits of a half-hour interview. Read More

If your small business is successful enough to start growing, you can count on one guarantee: some day you will have to contend with having a crappy employee. Or two. Or five. Of course, you can always fire crappy employees. And sometimes you should: if they Read More

Nearly three-fourths of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2019, according to a new study by Cisco Systems.  That’s a 13-fold increase between now and 2019, proving once again that video is a juggernaut.  With so many of us gobbling up content on Read More

I’m really good at many things. I also recognize that I’m really bad at other things. But I get into trouble when it involves the things between those two categories. I want to be really good at some of those things in the middle. But the Read More

What do Cirque du Soleil™, Cracker Jack® and a jack-in-the-box toy have in common?  Their charm is based, not on product, price or solution, but on surprise.  Cirque du Soleil plays to sell-out crowds…over 90 million people have attended one of their shows. Cracker Jack has had Read More