2009
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How to Choose a Good Brand Coach
Jul 8
A brand coach isn’t an all-knowing guru, just someone who knows the right questions and brings a customer’s eye. Three things to watch for: how much they listen, how they give advice, and whether they’re comfortable outsourcing.
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Pay Time
May 22
A sales seminar reframed something I thought I knew: billable hours aren’t the same as pay time. Double your new-client meetings and you grow the bottom line, even though you can’t bill a minute of them.
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Know Your Customer
May 13
I do branding and marketing for individuals, local small businesses and start-ups: clients with a goal who won’t compromise their values to reach it. I’ve spent a long time defining my perfect customer, and I even turn away work that doesn’t fit.
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Marketing on a Shoe-string
Apr 20
When budgets get cut, marketing is usually the first thing on the chopping block. You can’t afford Times Square, but you can still market. Five ways to do it on a shoe-string, starting with ‘who do you know…’
2008
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Inflation?
Jul 28
As a kid I was jealous of my brother’s $5 colored pencils. Now a box of Crayola pencils costs a dollar and a big box of crayons twenty-two cents. So where did the inflation go? It moved to adult products.
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Commodities
Jun 25
A woman at the coffee shop asked us to watch her coffee — and left her brand new laptop on the table. Coffee and computers have traded places between my two categories, luxuries and necessities.