Planning

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 ...

Whether you’re running a mega-agency or a boutique, following these proven management guidelines makes sense.
Learn what motivates each of your employees
Use this information to help manage their performance. Although status, power, or additional authority might motivate some people, others might be more excited by the opportunity for tapping into their flair for creative, job-related activities or more face-to-face contact with customers. Rewarding good employees with assignment that speak to their unique motivations, interest and long-range career goals can help you retain them.

10 WAYS TO FIGHT TELEPHONE FRAUD by Peter van Aartrijk Jr. Telephone industry analysts estimate that telephone fraud in the United States costs businesses and residences as much as $4 billion pe...

10 WAYS TO IMPROVE IN-HOUSE TELEMARKETING by Peter Belanger Follow these proven principles and watch your telemarketing program grow sales and earnings. The mistakes that agen...

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:

'So dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay.'
Robert Frost
'There are no more power elites.'
Manuel Castels in The Information Age
The painfully obvious implication of these quotes can be seen in the business world: IBM pulls its PCs out of retail venues because it no longer considers them profitable. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 1998, there were $301 billion in sales via the Internet, while the manufacturing sector did $350 billion in overall business. It took the Internet roughly 36 months to reach this figure; manufacturing needed 150 years.

22 EFFECTIVE WAYS TO OUTMARKET THE COMPETITION by John Graham Outmarketing competitors is easy - if you do it right. This takes a combination of work and savvy, but the results ...

Just when we think we've grasped what's happening in business, something changes to disrupt the precarious balance. It may occur in the economy, an industry, a region, a particular market, or technology that alters even the most flexible business plan.

Establishing a strategy, then staying with it, was possible for most businesses until the last decade. Planning a year or more in advance was relatively easy. Ups and downs would occur but with a high degree of predictability. Hitting sales and revenue targets was almost a natural outcome.