Short pieces, one topic at a time.
Marketing & sales
Marketing, promotion and advertising: what sets them apart
Promotion is two questions: what you offer and how you offer it so people respond. It happens at every point of contact, not only in the ad.
5 min
How much to promote when your diary is already full
Promote above what you can get through this week, never above what you are able to deliver. Today's capacity should not decide how many…
5 min
Why one offer per message sells more than three
One offer per message outsells three, because it keeps the customer's attention in one place and spares them a choice they are not ready to…
4 min
What a public is, and why your customers are several
A public is not everyone who might buy from you. It is a group held together by a shared interest, trade or status, so most businesses have…
5 min
What an opinion leader is, and why it is not a big name
An opinion leader is the person your public turns to for a view on things, not necessarily a famous one, so you measure them by influence…
5 min
How to build a business image with no marketing budget
A small business image is built first from integrity, word of mouth and useful work, not money. And good work that nobody hears about is…
5 min
What a sales phone call is for, and why not to sell on it
A sales phone call has one product: a date in the diary. The phone is good at booking meetings and poor at selling, so what you give away…
5 min
Why you cannot qualify a client over the phone
You cannot tell on the phone if a client is able and willing to buy. Qualifying happens in the meeting; the call only checks for a reason…
5 min
Why a customer who cannot reach you goes elsewhere
A call the customer starts is worth more than one you start, and when they cannot reach you they do not think you are busy. They think you…
5 min
Why you do not know what the client needs, and what they want
Clients do not want your service. They want something to stop happening to them, so assuming you know their needs is the biggest risk in a…
5 min
Why you never ask a client to decide in a sales meeting
In a sales meeting you never ask the client to decide or choose. Deciding takes understanding, and asking too early only weighs the client…
5 min
What a sales objection really is, and how to spot an alibi
A sales objection is usually the buyer's fear of getting it wrong, not a point about price. A real objection keeps coming back; an alibi…
5 min
Why customers who already bought are your biggest asset
The people who already paid you are your business's potential income. Most owners never count them, and never reach out after the first…
5 min
Why customers refer you, and why it isn't a favor
A customer who just bought from you gives you a friend's name because they need to: seeing someone else buy too reassures them they chose…
5 min
Why the work you deliver is your strongest marketing
Most new clients come from people you already served well and who send others your way, so the quality of your delivery outsells your…
5 min
What your price is measured against, and why it is not cost
A price is measured against its value in the buyer's eyes, not the market or your costs, yet you still need your full cost, so it sits…
5 min
Who really pays for what your business gives away free
What you give away was never free. It goes into the price of something else or comes out of your profit, and what matters is whether you…
5 min
Why selling more won't rescue falling income
Money represents work that was delivered, not work that was sold. When income falls because delivery is stuck, more sales only dig the hole…
5 min
Organization
Why being busy all day still isn't producing anything
Activity is not a product. A business is measured by what goes out the door and earns something in return, not by your hours or how full…
5 min
What you are actually selling, and why it matters
What you sell is not what you do. It is the thing someone outside your business will give you something for, and when that slips, income…
5 min
Fixed it and nothing changed? You fixed the wrong problem
A problem that survives every fix is not the real problem. The real one sits somewhere else, and fixing harder only spends more time on the…
5 min
You have a goal for your business, so why isn't it moving
A business goal rarely fails because it's too big or you lack discipline. It fails because the links that turn it into real actions are…
4 min
Goal, purpose and ideal scene: the difference that matters
A goal is the big long-range direction, a purpose is the smaller aim of one activity, and an ideal scene is that purpose worded as a…
5 min
Business policy: you have one even if you never wrote it
No business runs without policy. When you never wrote one, a random policy appears and everyone decides for themselves, so the question is…
5 min
What a business statistic is, and which numbers to track
A statistic is a number compared with its own earlier value, counting product delivered rather than effort. A lone figure or hours worked…
5 min
Why the wrong action can hurt your business more than none
Run the actions that belong to a lower condition than the one your business is in, and you end up there. A wrong diagnosis takes you down…
5 min
Why explaining a slow month never brings the number back up
An excuse for a falling number doesn't raise it, and the excuse itself is the finding. What helps is preventing the drop and acting fast…
5 min
Why the costliest business problem is what never got done
The most overlooked problem in a business is not a mistake but something that should happen and does not. It is silent, so nobody complains…
5 min
Why owners are the last to see the problem in their business
The owner is the person least able to see the problem in his own business: admitting your own error is hard, reasonable answers blind, your…
5 min
Why your staff know the procedure and still don't follow it
Knowing a procedure and performing it are two different things. Most checks test only the knowing, and what closes the gap is drill, not…
5 min
What a hat is, and why it isn't just a job description
A hat is everything someone else needs to hold a role in your business without you. A job description names the post; a hat lets you hand…
5 min
Why handing over a job in a small business fails on day one
A handover fails when someone gets the title before they can do the job. A learner is assigned beside whoever is responsible, and posted…
5 min
How many roles one person can hold, and which to keep apart
One person can hold several roles if they share a pole. Production and organising on one head pull in opposite directions, and organising…
5 min
The three hats every business owner wears, even alone
Every business runs three functions: driving production, organising the flow and building the foundation. Blur them and production always…
5 min
Why building the business is not production work
Whoever builds and maintains the foundation of a business should stay out of production. Production has no bottom, and once pulled in…
5 min
Why stopping the business to get organised never works
The week you stop everything to get organised almost never comes, and when it does it fails. Order grows out of the work, so you organise…
5 min
Your business grows and breaks: the problem isn't growth
What looks like growing too fast is almost always too little organisation: volume and demand race ahead while the capacity to handle them…
5 min
What overwhelm really is, and why less work won't fix it
Overwhelm in a business is not too much work. It is things coming in and not going out, so the fix is to restore the outflow, not to cut…
5 min
Why the owner becomes the bottleneck in their own business
When everything in your business waits for you, the cause is rarely control. Too much runs through you, and nobody was trained to hold what…
5 min
Money
What solvency is, and why your bank balance can't tell you
Solvency is income greater than outgo plus making enough money, measured by two numbers: the cash you really hold against what you owe…
5 min
What counts as income, and why promised money isn't yours
Income is only money you hold and can bank today. Money that was agreed but has not arrived, or money you owe someone else, is not your…
5 min
Why the biggest loss in your business is not spending
The big loss in a business is the gap between what it could bring in and what it does, so cutting costs in a weak month works on the small…
5 min
People
Why a new hire isn't working: two reasons, both yours
When someone you employ is not performing, there are only two reasons: you did not recruit the right person, or you never trained them on…
5 min
Why an employee with no initiative may not know their limits
An employee who seems to lack initiative usually does not know what they are allowed to decide. A written, trained job makes them steadier…
5 min
Why the owner ends up doing everything, even with staff
An owner who does it all alone rarely has weak staff. They lack a place in the structure, a written post and training, three things the…
5 min
Why a regular client stops coming and never tells you why
A client who goes quiet was almost always hurt by a small moment nobody handled, not a big dispute. The break shows first as a change in…
5 min
Why you and your client remember a different deal
When you and a client remember a different deal, the cause is usually a word like urgent or soon, which is an agreement, not a fact, read…
5 min
Why a broken promise costs more than the customer you lost
The most common breaks with customers do not come from the product. They come from broken promises and admin slips, and they cost you…
5 min
What leadership actually is, and why it is not a trait
Leadership is not charisma or a gift you are born with. The source says it rests almost entirely on giving orders and checking they get…
5 min
What a manager is for, and what the job really demands
According to the source, a manager exists to get things done: people produce what they should, in a sustainable quantity, without flawed…
5 min
What team morale is made of, and why comfort won't lift it
Team morale does not come from perks or team-building days. The source says it comes from production, shared purpose and obstacles beaten…
5 min
Personal
Too much work? Why the volume is rarely the real problem
When it feels like there is too much work, the volume is almost never to blame. The source says what sinks you is mishandled items, not…
5 min
When a task is really finished, and why so much stays open
A task is finished when you won't have to handle it again, not when you did it. The source names three reasons things stay open, and what…
5 min
Why a backlog never sits still, and why it is hard to escape
A backlog is not a pile waiting for you. The source says it grows by itself, creates work that blocks you from clearing it, and half-done…
5 min
What a business code of ethics is, and why posters fail
A code of ethics is not a values poster. The source says it is a list of restrictions you take on yourself and keep even when nobody checks.
5 min
Why managing by fear backfires, and what works instead
A threat works once, and then people report what you want to hear. The source says a manager leads with subgoals and gives each person…
5 min
What you owe your team, and what your team owes you
The source says responsibility between a person and a group must weigh the same both ways. Demand it without giving it back, and a quiet…
5 min
Why your explanation for a business problem is not the cause
A good explanation for a business problem is not always its cause. The source says a cause is measured by results, and fixing the wrong one…
5 min
How to tell you found the wrong cause of a business problem
According to the source, two signs give away a wrong cause: you knew it long ago and nothing changed, or you have to strain to invent a fix.
5 min
Why the economy and your supplier are not the real cause
The source says the real cause of a business problem is limited to what you control. The economy or a supplier can be true and still not be…
5 min