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‘Fail’ your way to the top in 2019
Fred Berns Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementMake 2019 the year you really get to know "no." Make it the year that you get turned down by more prospects, try and fail to "upsell" more clients, lose out on more bids, miss out on more opportunities, come up short on more proposals, and attempt unsuccessfully to close more deals than ever before. In short, make it the year that you "fail" more. Why? Because only when you put yourself out there more, can you fail more. And only when you put yourself out there more can you succeed more.
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Can an introvert be a good leader?
Terri Williams Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementDo you think of leaders as outgoing, sometimes larger-than-life individuals who command attention? If so, you may have a hard time seeing an introvert as a good leader. And those misconceptions may be stopping you from promoting some of your best and most talented employees. "It is sometimes incorrectly assumed that an introverted leader cannot be an inspiring public speaker, a strong facilitator, or a tough negotiator," according to Suzanne Vickberg, Ph.D., senior manager of Business Chemistry at The Deloitte Greenhouse Experience.
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Meaningful marketing: Use wise words and avoid wimpy ones
Fred Berns Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesSo, you're a designer with an "intuitive eye for scale and proportion." Or, you're a showroom manager who sells furniture that "connects people, technology and space." So what? What does that mean? What’s in it for me? Those are the questions that all your prospects ask, all of the time. And those are the questions that so many design professionals and industry partners fail to answer on their websites, in their social networking, and in their marketing materials.
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New year, new skin for your spa clients
Elizabeth Donat RetailOur clients will certainly be setting goals and New Year's resolutions for 2019: starting a new exercise routine, a dietary cleanse, or perhaps a goal to finally give themselves the skin that they always wanted. We, as spa industry professionals, should be several steps ahead of them and ready to guide them in the right direction when it comes to making major improvements in their skin for this upcoming year. Follow my expert tips below and help your clients transform their skin in 2019.
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‘Look the part’ and the new year will be your best year
Fred Berns Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesThis is the time of year that companies in most every industry, in most every market set goals for the year ahead. And no matter if those firms are big or small, they often have a similar ambition: to get bigger jobs from better clients. It’s a worthy goal, to be sure, but a difficult one to achieve. So many companies work so hard to attract major projects from luxury-level clients, yet so few succeed. Why? Most don’t attract high-caliber clients because they don’t look like high-caliber companies.
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A stock market survival course: Part 5
Patrick Gleeson Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThis is the final article of a five-part investor’s survival course designed to give you essential information you need to succeed as an investor in the stock market. None of it is mere opinion. The previous articles summarized the research indicating that while individual investors underperform the market by more than 60 percent, only about 5 percent of professional investors beat the market in a given year. In this last article I’ll summarize current research on the relationship between risk and return and, finally, will suggest a slight modification of the investment program advocated here that takes advantage of the market cycle.
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How to improve Instagram Story ads in 2019
Emma Fitzpatrick MarketingAs a social media marketer, you must be adaptable. Think back to last year at about this time. No doubt, you had carefully pinpointed all the tactics that worked best for your brand on social media that year. This year, you hoped to do more of the same! But the leaders of social media platforms had a different idea. Facebook rolled out one of its most substantial algorithm updates in January, which completely derailed brands’ social media plans. With each algorithm update, we find ourselves scrambling to keep up and discover the new "secret sauce." In 2019, don’t let the hunt drive you crazy. Instead, go with the constant.
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Infographic: Why succession planning is key to the survival of your business
Zack Painter Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIf you’re a business owner, you know how much planning goes into launching your business: You need to secure funding to cover startup costs and think about how to balance your profits and expenses so you have sufficient cash flow in the years to come. One thing you probably haven’t thought about, though, is developing a succession plan for your business. What would happen to your business if something happened to you?
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What do your written words say about your brand?
Anne Rose MarketingBusinesses frequently invest a lot of energy and many resources into ensuring that their brand identity accurately reflects what they’re about. Misspellings, bad grammar, invented words, misplaced apostrophes can all detract from that carefully crafted identity. I recently passed by a boutique chocolate shop that advertised custom, specialty chocolate desserts, handmade with attention to detail. But glaring at me from the store window was a big sign advertising that they sold chocolate carmels. You read that right: chocolate "carmels."
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A stock market survival course: Part 4
Patrick Gleeson Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThis is the fourth of a five-article survival course designed to give you essential information you need to succeed as an investor in the stock market. The first three articles established that individual investors underperform the market by over 60 percent, and market professionals generally underperform the market as well. A better approach is to give up the attempt to beat the market. This article discusses easy ways of diversifying your investments to lower risk and improve returns.
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