AUTHOR ARCHIVES :

I Will Not Surrender To The Economy!

Last week I wrote the post, “Candle Wax + Rising Fuel Cost = Zero Profit” and was amazed at the responses I got almost immediately.   I want to thank everyone who took the time out to read and respond to my article.   I took all of your comments into careful consideration.

In response to my article;  reader Mark Riffey wrote “Quitting For The Wrong Reasons”  on his blog, Business Is Personal.   I really enjoyed reading Mark’s post written from his point of view and the quality comments it produced.  

I realize from the business side that shutting down my candle shop was probably not the best or smartest choice.  …

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Candle Wax + Rising Fuel Costs = Zero Profit

image010.jpgFor the past 4 years, I have had  the pleasure of turning my hobby of candle making into a full time business.   Kiski Valley Kandles was born from my own desire and need for  highly scented candles that not only smelled great but looked great also.   Let me tell you, it is not a cheap hobby to have.    However,  after  many trials and tribulations, I was able to begin offering my candles to customers locally and online.   I prided myself in being able to offer great candles at reasonable prices.  

Everyone is aware that when  it comes to your supplies, price increases are bound to happen at least yearly.  …

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Delegation in a Virtual World

In today’s microenterprise world where many times there is only one person actually in the business, delegation takes on a whole new meaning.

Typically even a microenterprise has to perform the same functions as a larger business but they tend to use outside suppliers and partners to perform and manage those functions.

For example: Most of us don’t host our own websites or email or e-newsletter systems, we delegate that to an outside provider.

If we process credit cards we might use Paypal or another merchant account supplier along with our bank.

Almost all of us outsource our legal needs to a local firm or possibly even one of the new online legal firms that provides legal support for a fixed monthly subscription fee.…

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You’re Not After Clicks: You’re After Sales!


My thanks to a special guest blogger, Caroline Melberg of SmallBusinessMavericks.com. This is a content and practical advice packed post, take your time and absorb.

It’s no secret that in today’s world, online success depends in large part on how much traffic you drive to your site. The amount of traffic you get depends on your search engine optimization. When your site is primed for search engine optimization, you get tons of traffic coming to you for free. Great, right?

Of course! You see, on the web you have a choice – you can pay Google or Yahoo tons of your hard earned cash for PPC clicks, or you can search engine optimize your site to drive new customers to you.…

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Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Hope for Our Future

My daughters middle-school 6th grade recently held an innovation fair. Each student had 3 weeks to invent a product. They received guidance on how to find an idea, build a prototype and present to potential investors.

At the fair each adult (parent) had $25 to invest $5 each for five different product ideas. In total about 250 students participated.

The event was great and there were some great product ideas presented. Many of the kids were dressed in business attire, had a presentation ready and were even able to demonstrate a working prototype.

Here are some of the ideas:


This is my daughter Liz.…

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Top Ten Podcasts of 2007

Over at The Small Business Trends Radio Show we had a great year and we wanted to share the Top 10 Small Business Podcasts for 2006 with you.

Congratulations to the small business experts listed below — they had the most requested podcasts for 2006.

Here are the Top 10 Small Business Podcasts for 2006 (in no particular order):

Steve Kinney of Search Optimizers SEO Success for Small Business
Guest: Steve Kinney, Founder of Search Optimizers
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help your business beat your biggest competitors.

Gary Schoeniger on How to Start a Business With No Money How to Start a Business With No Money
Guest: Gary Schoeniger, Founder of GarySchoeniger.com
Gary Schoeniger started a business dead broke with a borrowed ladder.…

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Caffeine and Small Business

ePrize, the worldwide leader in interactive promotions, today announced the launch of a new technology specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that delivers interactive promotions to enterprises of any size. ePrize’s Caffeine Promotions Platformâ„¢, available at www.caffeinenow.com, offers smaller businesses the power to build and deploy advanced and fully customized online sweepstakes, instant-win, and coupon-based promotions in fewer than 10 minutes, anywhere in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Caffeine’s unique technology makes it easy, fast, and efficient for small businesses to develop and deploy an end-to-end interactive promotion campaign without the burden and risk of development, prizes, security and compliance.…

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The Blog Chain Letter Craze

I have been tagged by Anita Campbell at SmallBizTrends in the chain-letter blogging craze.

Here is the way it is supposed to work. I have to answer five questions. Then I get to tag five other people to answer the questions. They in turn can tag five others. (That’s where it resembles a chain letter.) And so on.

So what’s in it for you, you ask? Reading the answers is a good way to get to know me and other people online.

Here are the five questions and my answers:

1. What have you learned so far from visitors to your blog?…

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Presentation Skills for Entrepreneurs

Presentation Skills for Entrepreneurs is now available at The Great Big Small Business Show.

This week is a mashup of 6 different podcasters discussing various aspects of Presentation Skills for Entrepreneurs.

(Below is the transcript from my portion of this weeks Great Big Small Business Show)

This is one of my favorite topics, I have been giving presentations for just about 25 years and I have learned many lessons along the way. Today I want to share with you what I think are the Top 3 keys to Delivering an Effective Presentation.

Key Number 1: Focus on your audience.…

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How to Build Client Relationships

A few years ago, before I started my own business, a friend and I set out on a research project. We wanted to know why some people could make an effective relationship with someone very rapidly and others would take much more time and sometimes they would never get to the point of having a good relationship.

We were doing this study in the context of selling, why would some people get to a trusting relationship quickly and therefore have a higher likelihood of sales success?

Of course we felt that trust was the key to a successful sale of anything that is complex and expensive.…

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