Constantly learning, iterating, testing, and evolving helps keep your business ahead of new challenges and beating the competition. New innovations can be as simple as new software tools, addon services, or updated deliverables, but can make your business...
‘The Best Damn Small Business Newsletter on the Internet’ archives
Strategy Article Archives
Keep a running ‘progress & goals document’ so you can more easily look back on your growth
True growth is incredibly slow. It's a series of marginal improvements over a long enough period of time until you finally become proficient or successful. For example, they say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert (which is debatable, but this is just an...
Getting started with business systems and procedures
Standard operating procedures, systems, and processes are amazing because they keep everyone on the same page, keep client work consistent, reduce errors, and, honestly, take some of the thinking out of repetitive tasks and projects. Instead of setting up every...
Ask clients for feedback (instead of assuming)
After a few years in business (or in our chosen careers), we fall into this bad habit of assuming we know what our clients and potential new clients want. And, like all assumptions, that makes an ass of you and me. Bad assumptions lead to unhappy clients, weak...
Always have a Plan B
A major aspect of starting and running a successful small business is experimenting until you find what works for you then doubling down on it. You need to find the right processes, marketing channels, software, locations, employees, service providers, etc. And, once...
Reader question: “How do I respond to a bad review?”
Bad reviews are the worst. You're busy juggling client demands, admin tasks, and your personal life while genuinely trying to do a great job, then, out of nowhere, you get a bad review. It's the last thing you need and an absolute downer. But, more importantly, it's...