10 STEPS TO OVERCOME COMPETITION by Jack Burke Remember the first time you experienced a Chinese box set? As each box opened to reveal a smaller box, you wondered with childlike curiosi...

10 TIPS FOR RENEWAL RETENTION by Ken Buehler Much has been said and written about the costs of acquiring new business. These costs are so high that it's essential to retain t...

10 TIPS FOR RENEWAL RETENTION by Ken Buehler Follow these guidelines and watch your retention rate (and bottom line) grow. Much has been said and written about the costs ...

10-STEP REFERRAL PROSPECTING SYSTEM: SELLING/PROSPECTING/LEADS by Bill Cates You can create a steady flow of high-qual...

11 SUREFIRE TACTICS TO GAIN CONTROL OF RECEIVABLES by Ken Buehler If you have a receivables problem, now is the best time to contain it. Most agencies with receivables problems believe th...

There's nothing better for business than a booming economy. Unfortunately, it often encourages faulty thinking and spawns erroneous ideas. When sales are strong and profits meet projections, we're quick to take the credit. When things go sour, external forces get the blame.
A good economy tends to mask distorted thinking and inappropriate ideas. For example, personal computer sales have been drifting downward, even while prices have been dropping. Manufacturers are petrified. Out of near desperation, they jack up power to a sizzling 500 MHz to try to capture customer attention. Just as this happens, free PCs appear. In the midst of all this, one company rediscovers itself. To IBM's credit, it figured out what business it's in: solutions.

12 LOW-BUDGET MARKETING IDEAS TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS by Emily Huling Its nearing years end, or weeks end for that matter, and your people are looking just ...

The goal in business is to outdistance the competition and make profitable sales by producing more customer-friendly products or services. To reach this goal, you need an advantage to improve your batting average-but it's getting more difficult and complicated to obtain this advantage, let alone keep it.

A CPA firm spends $11,200 on a Web site that attracts only a handful of visitors. An insurance agency invests $80,000 in an advertising campaign and no one sees the ads. An alternative health clinic sends out 8,000 direct mail fliers and gets 26 responses. A manufacturer spends $28,000 on an attractive brochure that no one uses.

Becoming accustomed to a growing economy is easy and dangerous. Although there are always pockets of problems, we forget that success is often more the result of a good economy than our business acumen. If everyone else is doing well, our major challenge becomes how to pull ahead of the pack. Unfortunately, many business people tend to get a bit lazy-and that's when we can get caught.
There are ways to become more successful, keep business booming, and give companies the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Here are 15 ways to develop an extra edge: