Category: Small Business

Marketing is about values-here’s the 2 questions you need to answer

Steve Jobs put it best of all when he explained how marketing was about values. You need to know: Who you are, and What you believe When Jobs was launching the “Think Different” brand marketing campaign in 1997 he said, To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world; it’s a very… Continue reading Marketing is about values-here’s the 2 questions you need to answer

Do You Need to Carry Out a ‘Vulnerability Audit’ in Your Business?

When I was building a block of apartments in Edgeworthstown, Longford in 2006 I made it my business to learn how to drive a teleporter. A teleporter, as you probably know, is like a bit like a cross between a digger and a forklift because it is essentially a tractor with an extendable boom and… Continue reading Do You Need to Carry Out a ‘Vulnerability Audit’ in Your Business?

Things I Will Unhesitatingly Spend Money on Every Day

Are there things in your life that you would never hesitate to spend on? Leaving aside the basic needs of food, shelter, security there are some things that I spend money on every day or week. And I do so without question, unhesitatingly. What are they? Books I never hesitate to spend on books. I… Continue reading Things I Will Unhesitatingly Spend Money on Every Day

How to Write a Great Advertisement-5 Steps

Ever needed to write a good ad? If you are involved in business you should know how to write a good, or great, advertisement. Whether you are notifying the world that you have a job available or have a product or service that cannot be ignored you will need to tell the world about it.… Continue reading How to Write a Great Advertisement-5 Steps

Gravitas-what is it and how do you get it?

I am listening to an audio book at the moment by Caroline Goyder: “Gravitas”. It looks at gravitas and advances a definition of what gravitas is and how to acquire it. Goyder defines gravitas as knowledge plus purpose plus passion, less anxiety. It is probably a reasonable definition but gravitas is something that is hard… Continue reading Gravitas-what is it and how do you get it?

Why Emotional Intelligence Trumps a Towering Intellect

I listened to a fascinating interview on The Business Programme on RTE 1 radio yesterday. It was so interesting that I was unable to get out of my car until it finished. The interviewee was an Irish man, Walter O’Brien, who has a towering IQ- the 5th highest IQ (197) on the planet.  He now… Continue reading Why Emotional Intelligence Trumps a Towering Intellect

Substance over form in your marketing-the value of authenticity and choosing cattle over hat

I had just come back from a Sunday morning run at the time of the Maria Bailey hotel swing fall case controversy when I made a video about the matter. My video sought to extract some lessons from the whole affair; not political or public relations lessons but legal lessons based on the principles of… Continue reading Substance over form in your marketing-the value of authenticity and choosing cattle over hat

Digital Panhandling Is Not a Marketing Strategy

If you are running your own small business and it is heavily dependent on spamming your friends on the various social media platforms to buy your stuff you probably don’t have a real business. You almost certainly need to reconsider your marketing strategy, assuming one was generous enough to consider such unwanted, uninvited interruptions online… Continue reading Digital Panhandling Is Not a Marketing Strategy