We often move throughout our day with neither thought nor purpose. Sadly, this same whirlybird approach is applied to the work presented to clients on a far-too-regular basis—especially as it relates to promotional products. If you want to stand out from the product pushers and grow your business, it’s time to not just work with thought and purpose, but to share that with your clients…
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How to Plan for Year-End on QuickBooks
Many accounting systems can be quite complicated at year-end, requiring that you manually close the income and expense accounts into your balance sheet. This zeroes out the income and expense accounts to be ready to start another year. This is how your income and expenses go to zero at the start of a new year…
Read MoreGrow Your Promo Business on a Shoestring Budget
Think of growing your business as growing a garden. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and care. Working on it a little every day will reap results before you know it. You might need someone to teach you what to do and how to do it, so get help if that’s the case. Just make sure it’s someone who is already getting organic leads…
Read MoreIf I Hadn’t Seen Such Riches…
I love the song “Sit Down” by James. In the song there are two lines that in many ways define my life, “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor.” Truth is, I grew up in a middle-class family. My father was a meat salesman, and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. Growing up, I had no idea about the lifestyle of wealthy people…
Read MorePast and Future: 7 Promo Lessons From a Departing Industry Veteran
I’ve spent one third of my life dedicated to the promo industry, and I’ve had the absolute pleasure to work with so many phenomenal people and share so many amazing memories along the way. Throughout the years, I’ve learned countless things about myself, my business and life in general, and I thought it’d be great to share some of those…
Read MoreBig Competitors, Disloyal Clients and the Pandemic Got You Down? It May Be Time to Look in the Mirror
You—your attitude, how you respond to outside forces and your work ethic—are the most critical factor in determining your success. Realizing that you are ultimately responsible for your prosperity—or demise—is the first step in creating a brand that matters to your clients…
Read MoreIs This Driving You Crazy?
We are all busy. Busy with lot of activities every day. Busy with a long to-do list. Busy trying to catch up on emails. Busy with lots of activities. But are those activities driving you closer to the goals for your life? Or are they driving you crazy? The key is to look at your to-do list and your calendar and ask yourself three questions…
Read MoreThe Why of Whataburger: How Singular Focus on Being Different Leads to Success
If you choose to compete directly with the “big guys” by providing similar services and value propositions and extolling your “creativity,” your road to success is going to be bumpy at best. Instead, look internally to understand what you do better—and differently—than anyone else in the marketplace. Just like Whataburger found, the right clients are willing to pay for that…
Read MoreWho Is Quarterbacking Your Company?
As anyone who watches football knows, the quarterback is the person that sets the tone for not only what happens on the field but off it as well. Nothing happens on the offensive side of the ball without the quarterback, period. When I look at a business, there’s a department that’s clearly the organization’s quarterback—and it’s not one you’d expect…
Read MoreMillion Dollar Mindset vs. Limited Mindset
Everyone has a mindset. One type is a million dollar mindset, where your success knows no limits. The other type is a limited mindset, where your path to success knows lots of limits. The choice is yours. I know of massively successful people who who rightfully could have seen their circumstances as limiting, but they looked past their limitations and persevered to amazing success…
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