Menu

Author: Miriam Vializ-Briggs

15 Strategies To Make Your Home Rental Business Successful

June 9, 2016
| No Comments
| Categories: Life Lessons, Small Business

Whether it's a full house, an apartment or even one (tiny!) room, the vacation rental and home rental business is getting larger and larger by the day. Between Airbnb, HomeAway, and FlipKey alone, there are nearly 4 million listings worldwide. Perhaps you see an opportunity for yourself to start a home rental business. Go for it!! We did, eight years ago now, and we've been happy with the results. We approached marketing our condominium by applying the same principles we teach to small business owners: Target: Who do we want to appeal to and, by definition, who could we not serve well? Product:...

Read More

How to Make Your Pop-Up Show or Trade Show Booth Work for You

May 18, 2016
| 6 Comments
| Categories: Promotion, Small Business
pop-up show or trade show booth tips

Exhibiting at trade shows, conferences, or pop-up shows is a great way to promote your product to a targeted audience. You’re able to interact with your customers or prospects, and you get to see what your competition is up to. But, it can be expensive when compared to email or social media marketing. You need to account for your trade show booth, exhibitor fees, the packing, set up, dismantling, and transportation of your exhibit, plus travel costs. And, you’re investing time. Oh, and yes, your feet will be killing you by the end of the day, guaranteed! Follow along with our accompanying Trade Show Guide and...

Read More

4 Steps to Creating an Effective Message

May 11, 2016
| 6 Comments
| Categories: Blogging Tips, Branding, Market Research
creating an effective message

I get asked a lot by small business owners how to convey what they have to offer in the most compelling way. In most cases, they don't lack for what to say, but rather how to sharpen its effectiveness. This guide provides 4 steps to creating an effective message.   Step 1: THE TARGET: Who is my audience for this message? Messages are most effective when set in the context of a specific audience. Step 2: THE MESSAGE: What is the solution I am providing? This is the core of what you're promising to customers. Your unique value that is meaningful...

Read More

Want to Create an Ad? 7 Questions to Get it Right the First Time

May 3, 2016
| 2 Comments
| Categories: Promotion, Small Business, Social Media

Advertising your business is absolutely necessary. If all the great brands do it (think Coca-Cola®, Apple®, Nike®), you need to do it too. With so much competition for people's attention, there's a need to constantly remind current customers AND potential new ones of what you have to offer. If you want to create an ad that will have a positive image and ROI, you'll need to do some important upfront thinking on your part. I've seen many small (and large) businesses have to re-work their ads after poor results: expenses that could have been avoided. Grab the 10 page workbook that goes along...

Read More

10 Marketing Lessons I Learned the Hard Way–So You Don’t Have To

April 28, 2016
| 2 Comments
| Categories: Life Lessons, Small Business
10 marketing lessons

I’ve spent a career working across many different businesses, in the consumer and b2b domains. I've been on some of the best brands globally–Jell-O Gelatin, American Express and IBM. For anyone who spends a significant time in an area, you know you build up both muscle and scar tissue in doing so. As you plan your own marketing efforts, even if you’re just starting with a Facebook page, the following is a list of my top 10 marketing lessons, learned the hard way. Here's to your success. Superior value: Ensure that what you’re offering is better in all ways than what the competition is providing....

Read More

3 Effective and Low Cost Ways to Cultivate Your Customer Knowledge

April 21, 2016
| No Comments
| Categories: Market Research, Small Business
hree Effective and Low Cost Methods to Cultivate Your Customer Knowledge

I found this African proverb not long ago, “Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.” It serves as a reminder about the importance of challenging ourselves to continually seek to understand what is going on around us and in the world at large. For those of us who run a small business, it can be especially hard to spend the time to look outward given our limited time and financial resources. But cultivating your customer knowledge and applying it immediately to your business can be easy and cost effective; just by leveraging a few...

Read More