I'm not a believer in discounts, unless they are part of a marketing campaign. Half-hazard discounts, just because someone asks for one, force you to work harder for less pay to justify your normal price. And you're not giving them a reason for the discount, so what does that say about what you were going to charge them? That it wasn't a fair value? I wouldn't want to send that … [Read more...]
Action Items: The Joys of Slicing Cheese
A colleague and I are constructing a new type of organization, and at times at the outset I felt overwhelmed and a bit paralyzed. It comes with having an enormous vault of ideas, and a need for speed, while needing also to quickly put up an infrastructure (in this case a marketing infrastructure) that is woven piece into piece. This weekend, I revisited my part of the plan, and … [Read more...]
Starting a Business Blog That Doesn’t Suck
"I'm a landscaper or plumber - how do I start a business blog? Who would want to read it?" Exactly. Or maybe. I hear that a lot. It's a reasonable question. "And if I write it, and I don't know what I'm doing, won't it suck." Probably not. It could, if you don't keep an open mind. But it won't otherwise. Image by Getty Images via Daylife So how is it done? That's … [Read more...]
Prices: To List or Not to List?
Personally, I rarely publish prices for services, because I think it encourages price shopping, and creates a climate where I can't add value, and so I can't compete. That's bad for the client, because they always get nickel and dimed with mediocrity. With pure price shopping, I'm competing even with unscrupulous and dishonest service providers and even with incompetent ones. I … [Read more...]
The 2-minute Resignation Letter
Here it is, time to write another resignation letter for a family member. This is sort of my role in our family. The reasons for leaving are employer incompetence, but naturally I reach for the most tiny, most dull, most trivial format there is. Yes, I'd like to say, "you people are tards who are running your own business into the ground by rewarding mediocrity and using some … [Read more...]
