Blogs

Who are your customers? Do you know them, really . . . or do you just think you do. For most small- to medium-sized businesses, I’m betting on the latter, and here’s why: you would be amazed at how many times I’ve been asked to spearhead a marketing effort, or retool one, without benefit of…

These days, as consumers, we expect the businesses we frequent to be concerned with more than just their bottom lines. Sure, we still demand top quality products and services, but merely satisfying our demand for materials, things, and know-how just doesn’t cut it anymore. Businesses need to stand for something, preferably something bigger than just their bottom…

Sometimes ideas just pop into our heads. Intuitively, we seem to know what to say or write about our product or service, or some incredible insight we want to share with the world. The ideas and words come freely, easily, as though they’re on auto-pilot. Then there are other times when the ideas don’t flow…

“Content is King.” That’s what Bill Gates wrote back in 1996 while Microsoft was still the king of software and the Internet, and Google was still toddling in diapers at best. Of course, a lot has changed in 16 years, from the ascent of Apple and the departure of Steve Jobs for his next gig;…

We take for granted that students learn in different ways. Some are visual learners. For them seeing is believing. Some are more inclined to reading. They get their information through words. Some require more hands-on activities, while for others that’s no so important. Educators must therefore tailor the way they teach to address a variety…

In my end-all, be-all of monkey sales dreams, the ideal transaction would go something like this: I grow a great crop of bananas; I tell my fellow monkeys how awesome the bananas taste and how good they are for them; and then my monkey “prospects” literally fight over who gets to buy the bananas and…

Back in 1600, when Shakespeare penned Juliet’s now-famous line “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” I doubt he ever imagined it would be used in a 2012 business blog about “branding.” But here it is. And with my sincere apologies to The Great…

Creativity is amazing. Seemingly out of thin air, creative types produce great works of art and literature, they innovate with architecture, technology, medicine, song. If you can name it, chances are there was a creative person behind it. You think Albert Einstein wasn’t creative when he came up with the theory of relativity? Think again.…

[Laurie Pehar Borsh is a public relations professional, social media PR consultant/guru, and member of the Barrel O’Monkeyz team (http://www.lpbpr.com/).] How do you track results from your traditional direct mail or advertising campaigns? If you’re like most small business owners and entrepreneurs, you probably compare the number of phone or email inquiries you get before…

[Laurie Pehar Borsh is a public relations professional, social media PR consultant/guru, and member of the Barrel O’Monkeyz team (http://www.lpbpr.com).] Nobody likes to be outright “sold to” either online or offline. Just think of the last time you went to lease or buy a car. It’s not much fun to be on the receiving end…

I hurt my back recently and the outpouring of support from friends, family, and colleagues has been amazing. THANK YOU everyone for your well wishes and your empathy. At times like these, I often like to step back and see if there’s some underlying message I only have to open my eyes and mind to…

Learn from the past. Apply lessons in the present. Create a better future by looking six, 12, 18 months ahead. The above seems like a good formula for success—a no-brainer, really—whether you’re talking strategic marketing, engineering a project, building better relationships, or simply living a more balanced life. You’d be surprised, though, how many people…