Business Tips by Chris Reich

Tips from growing a business to dealing with disputes

The One Thing You Must Do

Place a clean glass on the counter next to the sink.Now, you want that glass filled with fresh clean water. You are thirsty.You can have a great idea for a unique way to fill the glass.You can really want the glass to be filled.You can pray that the glass will be...

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Time to Ban Telemarketing

It's annoying. It can cause problems. It's disruptive. It's rude.Sometimes it works so that encourages them to keep doing it.But I say there are other ways to market and it's time to ban telemarketing.Marketing is about getting the word out about your offering and...

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Google Analytics Matter

Google offers a 100% free service for all website owners: Google Analytics. As they say in advertising, "accept no substitutes!"One of the first questions I ask new clients is whether they have set up analytics for their website. Very few answer yes. Of those, it's...

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When Is It Time to Raise Money?

It get at least 2 calls a day from people asking me to help them raise money. I always ask the same question. are you starting a new business or is your existing business doing so well you must expand?Silence.Then, no, neither. I can't live on what the business is...

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Good Week

Sometimes I have to boast.Met some new people this week. One new client said something very nice, "I liked you instantly."Another said, "wow, actual helpful advice. There's a first. Thank you. No one has been this helpful and it's our first conversation."A client of...

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Words Matter

We get up in the morning and go to work. We work at ABC. Don't interrupt me, I'm working. We need to get more work done.What exactly is all this talk about work? How much of what is done at "work" actually contributes to what the business really wants, profit?What is...

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TeachU Aphorism Number 2

If it works, find out why.Sounds like a simple enough thing to do. Why don't we?When something is successful at a business, rarely is the time spent to look at why that success happened. We often make snap judgments like, "great idea! Adding the off switch really made...

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Saturday Book Recommendation

Since this week started with my unsuccessful website design causing me to run backwards all week to fix THAT problem. Because I came across that amazing reverse video which stimulated some thinking, I want to recommend a wild, non-business, book that fits right...

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Friday Fun Video

I put this in the category of 'Small Improvements" because this is an example of where making small, incremental improvements leads to a perfect product.Not only is the video interesting, but there is a lot of solid business advice about quality in every frame. Take...

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Backwards Is NOT Pure Reverse

I'm not going to even try to come up with a business parallel. I offer this for fun and perhaps to stimulate thinking----fun thinking. Because we need to have fun at work! This was made by the artist walking backward through various events and then reversing the video...

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On Failure

So I created an entirely new and (I thought) original look for my website. I spent a LOT of hours on it. Then I paid for a crowd source review and it got very bad reviews. Very bad. What I thought was edgy and original was rated pretty unanimously by a very large...

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Business Tip #1

If it isn't broken, break it! Why? This drives improvement. Nothing will drag a business down to the point of no return more reliably than improving a product or process that is becoming outdated. That's entropy at work! Worked with a business this week that had a...

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Looking Back at 2009

Note: This article was written and published in 2009. It's fun looking backRemember when... If you're in, or as some would say 'into', business, you've probably looked at the statistics for Gross Domestic Product per capita in some almanac or world factoid book....

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Marissa Mayer Got It Wrong

No more working from home according to Marissa Mayer's (Yahoo CEO) latest edict. This brilliant decision comes under the heel of her guidance of Yahoo's new and unimproved homepage. Perhaps that was a failed homework assignment?Frankly, I don't really care what...

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Explain Yourself Sir!

Explaining things seems like a fairly straightforward process until you try to make a great idea clear to a client. You meet objections and delays. Don't they see the benefits? Maybe not. We often explain things in ways we understand but may be completely intangible...

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