While being very successful reaching the top of your heap, it can be a very deceptive trap to “relax and enjoy” that status. No matter where you are in your market position, it is never guaranteed.
Bloomberg Businessweek points out, “Popularity is not a state of grace. In business, it is treasure hard-won on the battlefields of product development [...]

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Ramping up your business is easy to do, right?  Before settling on that conclusion, check this. A careful understanding of your market and your customers is essential.
Now that you have launched your new product or your new company, the sales are starting to roll in. Your beta testers have been enthusiastic and you have made [...]

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Many businesses are begun with a few ideas scribbled on a paper napkin. While this is all well and good, the truly successful business must have much more important planning and research to operate well. Furthermore, the plan should be in written form. Writing the plans down forces the owner to put the plan ideas into concrete, understandable form. That will be important as a definable benchmark to which to refer later.

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I deal with a great many business in a variety of fields and find that a distressing number of the people consider many things and miss one of the most critical elements in that decision.
Businesses in trouble often run hither and thither trying solutions again ignoring this critical element.
That critical element?  Market Research!
Anyone, at the [...]

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Here is a classic example of a large corporation’s failure to effectively take the customer’s psychology into account.

While I’m certain Macy’s spent a lot of money on marketing before they made all the changes described in the New York Times article, they only concentrated on the proper things with the proper scientific testing after they had lost billions of dollars and run off some valuable customers forever! And this doesn’t even count a dramatic drop in Macy’s stock price!

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Anything difficult to read won’t be! … read, that is!
When you see something that is too difficult to read, what do you, yourself, do?  If your are like most of us, you skip over it or promise yourself you will read it “later” when you “have more time.”  Of course, “later” rarely happens.
Let’s each examine [...]

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Is psychology important in marketing?  Absolutely!
Yes, the psychology of the intended customer is of paramount importance.  This is the beginning discussion of this essential element in your marketing.  Failure to pay the proper attention to this basic element, customer psychology, will seriously hamper your message and your sales.
While each of us may believe he or [...]

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Test everything !
One of my “88″ is that you should never leave to chance anything over which you can exert some control.
Yes, you should test everything, of course, but there is more to the story.  Sometimes some of the most subtle are also very potent determiners of your customers’ responses.
As a part of the consideration [...]

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Here is a timely post from http://www.ideablob.com/posts/332 that all small businesses should take to heart in these difficult times.
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Category: Inside ideablob
1. Customers who don’t pay: If a customer is late, you need to take swift action. If you wait beyond 60 days, it’ll probably be too late. As a result, make sure you provide notices to [...]

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