Manhasset Minuteman Press

Every business would like to grow sales and profits. The future of the business and the livelihood of its employees depend on it. So, as business owners, we go to networking events, make phone calls, send out mailers, and even spend time on social media. Yet growing the business is never as easy or simple as that. Making prospects aware of your products and services is important. If you don't do it, no one else will. But that's only one part of the equation. There's something far more important that needs to be done first. When a doctor goes into surgery, steps must be taken beforehand to prepare the patient. No patient would want the doctor to arrive on the day of surgery and begin poking holes and cutting skin at random to find the issue causing the problem. Yet many businesses go about prospecting and looking for new customers in the haphazard way of the unprepared surgeon. To win more business, first you must isolate the pain points. What's the problem y

In an increasingly noisy world, people are looking for businesses to believe in. The business world is filled with hype, over-commercialization, and marketing nobody can believe. Fortunately, there's one simple, yet overlooked way your business can stand apart from the muddled masses: by having a strong company vision statement. A strong vision statement isn't just for putting on the walls of the company lobby or the back of business cards. It clearly communicates that this business lives what it preaches. Why having a clear business vision is important Vision starts with a belief... specifically the belief that your business exists to make a difference in the world. The specifics of that belief could be simple or more complex, but whatever your vision, it must clearly state the core values and purpose of why your business exists and what it wants to accomplish. A vision is an ideal your company strives to achieve. There are many benefits to creating a company v

The secret to increasing sales is simply to increase the marketing of your products and services. Or is it? There's one other critical part of the puzzle that needs to be addressed in order to grow a business. Without this, all the marketing in the world won't help. Marketing done correctly with channels like direct mail (using postcards as an example) can equal more leads and prospects. However, all the leads in the world won't necessarily equate to hefty sales and profit increases without the ability to sell. Therefore, the ability to sell yourself, your services, and your products becomes the second important piece of the puzzle. Some have attached a stigma to selling with the image of a pushy used car salesman, but there's no need for slime or hype if you have a great product and service to sell. There's a five-step business life-cycle and ecosystem you need to adhere to in order to have a truly successful, growing company. Step 1. Marketing

Behind the scenes of your business, you make products or deliver services. But on the front lines, where interactions with customers occur, you have to deliver more than that in order to have a dynamically growing company. You must deliver a promise and hope. The promise revolves around the benefits your actual products and services deliver. The hope is what can set your business apart from all the other companies that promise to deliver the same things you do. People want to believe in your company and what you can deliver, but many have become jaded due to the culture of over-promising and under-delivering that is all too common in the marketplace. To get past this wall of skepticism, you have to deliver more. Companies like Coca-Cola, Apple, Starbucks, and Disney World took off when they figured out they were selling much more than a soft drink, computer, coffee, and theme park rides. These businesses understood that in order to stand apart from their competitors, they h

If you're a small business, you have a noise problem. There are so many ads out there that your potential customers just block them all out. This means that most marketing campaigns are just a visual form of white noise that people instinctively ignore. So your have to find a way to stand out and seize the attention of a jaded audience. Unconventional marketing is not a choice; you have to be different if you want to beat your competitors. Larger corporations have massive advertising budgets that allow them to flood the media and Internet. You don't have that luxury, but you do have another advantage. You may have a smaller target customer base, but you also have a closer connection to them. You know what your customers want and what is important to them. That knowledge is something larger corporation spend thousands of dollars trying to get. Your familiarity with your community must be the basis of any marketing push you do. The purpose of an unconventional marketing

Tom Watson, Sr., the legendary leader of IBM, reportedly said that in order for a company to become truly great, it needs religion. The kind of religion Watson was referring to is the idea that a great company needs to have core beliefs. It needs to have a unifying message that all employees adhere to. Some refer to this as a vision and mission statement for the company. Why is this important? When you clearly state what you and your company are all about, you're announcing to the marketplace what you consider important and what people should expect from you. This can have a powerful effect. When you clearly stand for something, you often stand apart in a competitive marketplace. When you make your core belief something unique, your company will be seen as extraordinary in a world of copycat dullness. Your Credo Credo is Latin for "I believe." A strong credo not only unifies everyone in the company but also helps attract like-minded customers who wan

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur who has been in the news recently but someone you may not know much about. He started his entrepreneurial career at the ripe old age of 12 by creating a simple video game and selling it for a profit. Since that early success, he has gone on to found Paypal (the popular online payment system), Tesla Motors (the first viable production electric car), SpaceX (one of the largest space exploration companies in the world), and Solar City (one of the largest solar panel companies in the world). So what was the key to his success? Early success. The victory Elon had with his video game was a small but important step for his success. Success changes your beliefs about what is possible. This belief creates a connection in the brain that helps you realize success really is possible. Not everyone can be an Elon Musk, but we can all learn from him. His story teaches the importance of momentum. Momentum feeds off confidence. And confidence comes from actu