By Pierre DeBois - May 19, 2013 -
It was just a couple of years ago that I lamented about the lack of finance guides aimed at small business owners. Meanwhile, the number of non-traditional finance resources has increased, competing with traditional banking sources. As a result, business owners have clamored for books outlining all finance options available.
Among the most stellar coverage of small business finance resources is Spank the Bank: The Guide to Alternative Business Financing. Karlene Sinclair-Robinson (@KarleneSinRob), founding member of finance consultation …
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By Ivana Taylor - May 18, 2013 -
Have you ever “owned a room?” I don’t mean in terms of actual real estate, but rather in terms of mental real estate?
If you have, you’ll never forget the feeling of having every eye in the room on you, people practically breathing along with you. I think that’s what they mean when they say having them “eating out of your hand.” Now, have you ever completely lost control of the room? As you look around, eyes are glazed over, people sneaking peeks at their smart phones and mobile devices or just typing on their computers (and …
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By Pierre DeBois - May 12, 2013 -
To me, the fun fact about famous people is not the TMZ-style stories of who-left-whom-for-who. It’s the business end. I get a bit fascinated by musicians, and how they attempt to balance artistic statement with being accessible to the public – another way of saying, “Gimme enough sales so I can continue my artistic statements.”
At least that was the thesis for the music business of yore. Without a doubt, the Internet and digitizing the music format has reshaped how music artists garner fans. Witness how YouTube expanded the …
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By Ivana Taylor - May 11, 2013 -
Multi-functional work teams were a hot trend in the 1990’s.
If you can remember back when American manufacturing was reeling from the onslaught of Japanese high-quality products hitting our shores, you’ll recall that the culture of American individualism was considered passé. That’s when U.S. corporations made a commitment to figure out how to work in teams so they could gain back their competitive advantage.
I was part of that culture -- excited about the prospect of leveraging our creative strengths to create even greater …
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By Pierre DeBois - May 4, 2013 -
Consumer goods manufacturers have coveted the African American consumer base. But the landscape of the African American community is changing.
The author of Black Still Matters in Marketing starts off the book by examining the changes in the past five years, and asks two questions: Is Black consumer behavior much different from Whites? Is it now time to stop labeling, and perhaps limiting ourselves with race?
After acknowledging the many changes, she concludes: Black still matters in marketing. And then she goes on to explain that …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 28, 2013 -
You won’t believe how I got a copy of this book. Staci, the Operations Manager here at Small Business Trends, sent me a link to the promotional video on the book site. Then I watched the video. She and I instant messaged about it for a few minutes exchanging “ha ha ha’s” and “LOLs.” That’s when I knew that I had to get a copy of the book to review it.
But I didn’t know Dave Carroll and I didn’t have a lot of faith in reaching him via the website. So I found Dave Carroll’s Twitter ID (@DaveCarroll) and told him …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 27, 2013 -
The other day I had a really sad meeting. I was doing a favor for a friend and agreed to meet with a guy who was networking to find a new job. We met in person at a coffee shop. He showed up dressed in a suit and he had copies of his resume. He did everything perfectly – if -- if, it was 1998.
Nothing about this meeting was working.
I came away committed to referring him to a client, friend or a fellow business owner who was looking for help. But I just couldn’t get to the information that I needed to make the referral. …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 21, 2013 -
Want to know my sure-fire advice for taking your video viral? Just video yourself doing anything you’d never want a single soul to see – ever. That should do it. Up until I read Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger, that was the best advice I could give.
Aren’t you glad I got my hands on this book? I’m glad too because now I have a much more solid understanding of why things go viral and even more importantly, how to put certain elements in place to increase the likelihood that my product, service or video will …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 20, 2013 -
I recently participated in an interesting Twitter Chat. The topic was spring cleaning your business. The idea was to share tips for running your business like a well-oiled machine.
I’m already going through the spring cleaning process at home, so this week, I’ve vowed to take a fresh look at my business and clean out all the wasted time, projects, clients (yes, even clients) that are mucking up my money making machine.
For help and assistance, I turned to an unlikely source – a new business book I just received as a …
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By Anita Campbell - Apr 14, 2013 -
In book news, a recent report shows that book publishers received nearly 23% of their revenues from sales of ebooks (versus paper books) during 2012. That's up from 17% the year before. That comes from full-year data by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The AAP includes 350 publishers, including large ones such as Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Harper Collins, as well as independents like Sourcebooks.
Self-published ebooks growth is strong
The above numbers would not include self-published ebooks. For that data, …
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By Pierre DeBois - Apr 14, 2013 -
Content marketing is certainly among the hot social media trends today. It's become so popular that one could say it's the “new black” for marketing. But how should businesses deploy their content effectively?
Sonja Jefferson and Sharon Tanton note the ins and outs of content marketing with their book "Valuable Content Marketing; How to Make Quality Content the Key to Your Business Success." Jefferson is the founder of UK marketing communication firm, Valuable Content. Tanton is a successful content creator. Both ladies gathered the …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 13, 2013 -
Is it really possible that more people love Satan than Dow Chemical? Well, according to the trusty Google search conducted by Bob Garfield and Doug Levy - yes. When you type in the words “I love Satan” you get 293,000 hits, and when you type in “I love Dow Chemical” you get just 3.
And so begins "Can't Buy Me Like: How Authentic Customer Connections Drive Superior Results." The book is a tale of what it takes to woo customers these days. The narrative is skillfully woven by Bob Garfield (@onthemedia), Host of NPR’s "On the …
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10 Marketing Books You Can't Live Without 13 
14 Books on Leadership Every Young Entrepreneur Should Read 15 
Top 10 Books About Sales 8 
Read "Rules of the Hunt" and Start Playing Successfully in Business 1 
Own Your Niche and Remove the Fear of Internet Marketing 4 
Best StartUp Books 5 
Reading The Good Fail Can Make You Successful 5 
Anita Campbell
Joel Libava
Big Mike
Pierre DeBois
Rodney