If you didn’t know by now, I am an avid reader.  Learning is a passion.  My wife jokes that I would be a professional student if our finances allowed.  I have a series of favorite information sources, one of which is Entrepreneur magazine.  Jason Feirfer is the editor in chief and published many great articles.  If you don’t already subscribe to Entrepreneur, I suggest you consider picking one up.  In today’s podcast, I will share an article Jason published in the Fall 2019 Startups edition entitled Your Future Is Just Six Steps Away.

Running a conference is a unique way of creating another revenue stream as well as create MANY new relevant relationships. We take a look at starting and running your own conference and discuss the costs, skills required, and time commitments involved.  We also have a discussion with an expert, Shelley Webb, who shares her insights on how to get started in the business of running a successful and profitable conference.

Hope is a powerful tool in your daily living arsenal.  Are you using it as an active tool or a passive tool?  Or are you void of hope?  Today’s podcast episode is a republishing of an article written by Bill Howatt for TheGlobeandMail.com but is a worthy reminder of how critical HOPE is to success in life.

Small business people often make a huge business mistake right out of the gate, they waste time in the sales process by placing the burden for completing the sale on the buyer.  The eight most miss-used words in sales are “Let me know if you ever need a” {fill in the blank}.  Asking this question will not lead to many sales and thus force you to ask it more often in many different places—wasting loads of precious time.  In today’s episode, we are going to discuss the sales process and how a small business owner can regain time simply by improving their sales process.

A SWOT Analysis is a simple yet powerful business development tool every business can use to identify problem areas and growth potential. A completed SWOT analysis is not the end goal, but the beginning of a strategic development process. It is intended to identify internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving your business objectives.  This episode presents information on how to complete your own SWOT Analysis.

Today I want to share a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with Jayne from Cave B Winery which is located in Quincy, Washington. They are right next to one of the, if not THE most, beautiful amphitheaters in the world, The Gorge Amphitheater.  Major acts from all over the world play this venue and are blown away at the magnificent view. It has made for some epic concerts to say the least. In fact, the Dave Matthews Labor Day concerts, which the staff at Cave B call the Labor Dave concerts, are nearly impossible to get a ticket to because of how great they are.

We take a look at starting your own social media marketing business and discuss the costs, skills required, and time commitments involved.  We also have a discussion with an expert, Phil Anderson, who shares his insights on how to get started in the profession.

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber is a book published in 1986 but he “Revisited” and wove a story within the E-Myth concept, re-plublishing the book in 2004. The story is about a women who’s aunt owned and operated a bakery. This women LOVED the bakery and her aunt LOVED doing what she had a passion for: Baking. If Ed was here he certainly would have something to say about this! Anyway, her aunt passed away and this women took over the bakery. The problem was, it wasn’t HER passion and subsequently, she struggled at many aspects of the business. Her aunt clearly had a great system and didn’t mind getting up at 2 in the morning to go to “work”.  But she wasn’t her aunt and those early mornings got very old very fast. 

It’s not unique; as a business owner, we want something (the sale) and the client wants something (not overpaying). How you negotiate the deal can set the table for the rest of the business relationship. What if there is only one winner? Is that ok? In today’s episode of the Business Buffet, we’re going to talk about negotiations in business and how they can affect the lifetime business relationship.

Are you making it difficult for your customers to do business with you?  Do your customers have to jump through hoops just to pay you for your products or services?  Sometimes it is the little things that matter most. We talked about Consumer Friction in Mid October and I think we may not have completely explained what we meant by this term. Lucky for me, it continues to come up in my life.  One such time was when I was in New York City recently.