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Showing posts with the label Strategies

Stop Comparing Yourself to Competitors. Start Perfecting Your Craft.

We’re hard on ourselves professionally. Competition is fierce in the business world. We compare ourselves to the competition every chance we get. But I’m here to tell you to stop. Stop the comparisons. They’re doing nothing to your competition. Much like disliking a person that doesn’t know you exist, it only hurts you. Emotional energy is what makes us great. It is the blood, sweat and tears that we experience when pursuing our deepest passions and dreams. The smile that comes when you get the sale or the tarnished ego that ensues when you don’t. It’s the yearning desire to want more and to keep pushing. It can also be very draining and damaging if you don’t focus on the necessity of positive emotional energy. Do not sabotage yourself by draining your emotional energy on what everyone else is doing better than you. Your craft needs that emotional energy much more than your competition. Your craft needs your passion, your fire and your creative genius to push forward. Your co

If You Want Greatness, Take Responsibility

“If you had to pick one quality that someone needs to possess, what would that be?” someone recently asked me.  After I was forced to give just one answer, I said, “If I had to pick just one quality, it would be taking complete and full responsibility for your life.” Yes, there are a plethora of different qualities and habits that must be developed to truly become great, but there is no better starting point than taking complete responsibility for your life. We live in a world where maximum results are expected with minimal effort given. If something goes wrong, it’s someone else’s fault. If you’re not happy financially, it’s the economy’s fault. If you’re not happy in your marriage, it’s your partner's fault. If you’re not being compensated as much as you would like, the company doesn’t pay enough. Any of those sound familiar? Chances are some hit home. It’s human nature to blame circumstances or the next person instead of taking ownership. However, in order to live a

Curing the Addiction to Growth

Companies in all industries eventually see their revenue growth slow. Retailers are no exception. Fickle consumers, intense competition, changing markets, and the rapid encroachment of online retailing all combine to exert pressure on the top line. The retail graveyard is filled with chains such as Circuit City, Austin Reed, Linens ’n Things, Loehmann’s, British Home Stores, RadioShack, and the Sports Authority—that expanded rapidly and then, faced with declining growth, couldn’t find ways to change course. What should a retailer do when growth slows? Is it doomed, or is there a way to prosper when its business matures? To answer these questions, we examined the financial data of 37 U.S. retailers with recent sales of at least $1 billion whose top-line annual growth rate had slowed to single digits. Some of these retailers had seen their bottom lines fall even faster than their top lines; others had achieved double-digit earnings growth and above-average stock market returns. Our

5 Branding Strategies for Smaller Online Retailers

Just about 10 years ago, at a time when in-store purchases still dominated retail sales, some sceptics believed that e-commerce was just hype and the bubble would burst anytime. 10 years later, the bubble only seems to be getting bigger. Worldwide e-commerce sales was   estimated at USD 1672 million in 2015,  and is expected to cross USD 1672 million in 2019. Alibaba, an online marketplace, claims to have over 300 million customers. Amazon’s annual revenue is over $67 billion, Apple made over $ 10 billion in revenues in online sales. Even brick and mortar stores like Walmart, and Staples clock annual revenues of over $10 billion just in online sales, according to a report on  Insider Monkey. E-commerce now seems to be dominated by some large players who control a major share of the online market. Now, how can smaller online retailers compete with the big guys? Here’s a list of branding strategies for smaller e-commerce businesses: #1 Money back guarantee In th