by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
For many entrepreneurs, starting and running their own business is the culmination of their life’s ambition; the chance to be their own boss while doing what they love. But as an entrepreneur, is your goal really to continue your business for the rest of your life? Or to pass your business on to the next generation of your family? Or to simply let it fade into oblivion? The point is, unless you’ve taken the time to specifically think about the future of your organization beyond you, you really don’t have an exit strategy. Continue reading “Do You Have an Exit Strategy? Why You Should.”
There’s an old saying that has been used to describe exceptional salespeople: “They’re so good that they could sell ice cubes to Eskimos.” The point being that Eskimos, living in a cold climate, really don’t need ice cubes, and are likely an audience that is going to be tough to crack. But, great salespeople could crack them.
In the world of sales and marketing, we often hear the terms “value” and “price” used interchangeably. Specifically, many people think that the lowest price option is the best “value” because it’s the cheapest. That may be true in the narrow context of commodities – $100 for X amount of ABC grain is a better value than $150 for X amount of XYZ grain, because for true commodities, there is no difference between ABC and XYZ brands. But for non-commodity products and services, value and price mean very different things, and marketers need to be aware of the difference. 
For the last several years, companies have become increasingly aware of the importance of social media in their marketing efforts. For many business owners and marketers, social media marketing largely supplanted directed marketing using traditional mail or email. Interestingly, the trend may be coming full circle as many marketers are now looking at using direct messaging apps in conjunction with their other social media marketing.
Public relations can be a tricky business. Issues can emerge very quickly and unexpectedly, and just as quickly become very public. Both experienced PR professionals, as well as non-professionals forced into a PR role from time to time, have to think on their feet, acting on both instinct and experience. Particularly in a lightening-fast communication environment, it’s not surprising that there are often mistakes made by PR professionals and others in the public eye. 
So, you’re in the market for a strategic marketing professional. You’ve screened hundreds of applicants, and it’s down to the handful you’ve picked to invite in for interviews. But this is an inherently creative position, and cookie-cutter interview questions about an applicant’s past experience or about their evaluation of their own qualifications might not give you enough insight to pick the right man or woman for the job. 
Any business school graduate has probably had a healthy dose of Michael Porter’s Five Forces, and for good reason. The framework is a great way to look at the competitive landscape. Porter’s framework is designed to look at the competitiveness of a particular industry, as opposed to companies within that industry. For example, you might use the framework to determine the attractiveness of starting a soft drink company, as opposed to investing in PepsiCo versus The Coca-Cola Company. We’ve provided a 
Michael Porter developed his Five Forces framework as an associate professor at the Harvard School of Business in 1979 as a way to help evaluate the attractiveness of different industries based on the primary five forces he saw driving the competitive environment of those industries. We’ve 
In 1979, Michael Porter, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, developed what would become known as Porter’s Five Forces, a framework intended as a tool for determining the attractiveness of certain industries based on the level of competition within those industries. The five forces — threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, supplier power, buyer power and competitive rivalry — collectively determine the degree of competitiveness within an industry. We’ve 
Michael Porter revolutionized the world of business strategy when he developed his Five Forces framework, which evaluates the competitiveness — and resulting attractiveness — of an industry based on five competitive forces.