I just saw this quote on a business forum I belong to…

“Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
– Peter F. Drucker

Certainly these are words to think about, especially for those of us running our own businesses. Sometimes it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.

It is easy to get bogged down in the day to day details, and myriad of minor decisions which must be made, and lose sight of the dreams we had that were what got us to the place where we are now!

So take a deep breath and remind youself that the small nitpicking details will probably not destroy you business, but losing sight of the dreams that formed it certainly will!

Keep your eye on the big picture and try to keep the JOY!

Tink

PS - Do I win a prize for the most cliches in a short post?

Here is an example of an innovative blog, used to market an artist/crafter’s work…
Loosetooth.com Shop Blog

She is doing so many things right! And look at how well she is using CafePress!

(more…)

I just wanted to share my GREAT experience with Konica Minolta.

My relatively new (and definitely under warranty) 2430DL died…rather spectacularly… (There was a stomach churning THUNK and then a *FATAL ERROR CODE*!

(more…)

Here are some VERY interesting stats:

Recent statistics indicate that more and more often people are turning to the Internet — instead of the yellow pages — to find local businesses like yours that are close to home. Check out these stats from the Kelsey Group…

• 74% of households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally!
• Approximately 45% of people searching locally intended to buy!
• Respondents who used traditional Yellow Pages decreased from 75% to 62%

As a local business owner, it’s crucial to realize that the Internet is now — more than ever — an extremely important tool for attracting customers.

This issue is just one of those that we’ll be discussing at the Marketing Edge for Retailers site!

Keep watching. I hope/plan to go live in the next week…

I’ll announce it here and in the Groups.
Tink

Jeffrey Gitomer is one of my favorite Sales Mavens. He sends out an Email Newsletter on Tuesdays that is well worth reading.

http://www.gitomer.com/index.cfm

Today he was talking about how the internet is affecting the sales process and discussing buying an automobile. The couple of points that I found were significant are:

*quote*

Because an automobile is so personal, most customers want to see it, touch it, and drive it before they purchase it.

*end quote*
(more…)