Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in a small mastermind. Four of the five people participating had sold or built businesses for at least $1 million, and the fifth person was a successful, high-income earner in real estate.

I attend a lot of marketing meetings and conferences, and listen in to many conversations entrepreneurs have. And it struck me that the conversation we were having varied significantly from the conversation most beginning entrepreneurs have in one significant way… (more…)

If I hear someone say “I am a life coach!” in their elevator pitch one more time, I swear I’m going to go all Homer Simpson and throttle them around the neck.

Let me explain. You see, I go to a lot of networking events…and I meet a whole lot of people. Unfortunately, 99% of those people are completely forgettable. That’s a problem, because when you go to a networking event, you really want it to be profitable for you. But how can it be profitable when no one remembers who you are and what you do? (more…)

“What do you think of this idea for my new startup?”
“Eh, yeah, it sounds pretty interesting.”

Ever heard this before? If you have, your startup may be barking up the wrong tree. (more…)

Set up a referral program for your business and
turn it into a “referral machine”. As small business owners, referrals from existing happy customers are one of our easiest (and best) ways to gain new happy customers. So why do we often make it harder than it should be for our customers to refer new customers?

In this post, I’ll show you a few ways you can put a referral program in place so your customers can easily refer others to help your business grow. Putting this plan into action may increase your sales by 100% or more, so make this a priority. (more…)

Richard writes in with a question: “When can a person tell a blog is just about making money with affiliate sales vs. truly helping a person or business? Sometimes they sound really alike.”

This is a great question. Many bloggers–myself included–run promotions for both our own and other products on a regular basis. Some blogs are heavily promotional, with an affiliate link in nearly every post, whereas other bloggers make their money mostly through advertising and only rarely include affiliate links in their posts.

First, let’s look at things from a blogger’s perspective. Then, I’ll give you a few metrics to help you decide which marketers to follow online. (more…)