Risks are part of business. So we need to know how to successfully avoid risks. That means that first of all we have to acknowledge the risks facing our projects and whole enterprises. ‘Positive Thinking’ doesn’t eliminate risks, it just naively ignores them. Looking for the risks isn’t ‘negative thinking’; it’s the opposite! It’s only …
Category: Recent Posts
Strategic Marketing avoids Bad Customers
Not all customers are good customers! Strategic Marketing will avoid and deter bad customers. Customers can be bad customers for all sorts of reasons. They can be unprofitable or troublesome. They can waste your time or cause stress. Some interfere too much. Some aren’t worthy of including in your portfolio. Others pay late, or never. …
Exponential Growth Business Model in the creative sector
Most businesses in the creative and digital industries want to grow and I advise them on growth strategies based on their ambitions and their own definition of success. Business growth in the creative and digital industries requires a combination of creative passion and smart business thinking. Plus hard work and a fair amount of luck. …
Ansoff’s Matrix for Creative Business Development
Strategies for creative business development and growth using Ansoff’s Matrix (or Ansoff Matrix). When advising creative and digital businesses about strategic marketing and growth, this tool is useful to consider different options. In a Masterclass I gave on creative business development in Ukraine, there was a question about developing new products for new markets, which …
Devise a REAL Business Strategy
Most so-called “business strategies” are in reality just audacious goals and ambitious growth targets, bundled with a ‘vision of the future’, then packaged as a ‘business strategy’. A REAL business strategy is different. A real business strategy is a clever solution to a particular challenge or problem. A creative manoeuvre. The problem must be understood …
The ‘3Ms of Marketing’ for creative businesses
The best way to illustrate the technique of using the 3Ms of Marketing most effectively is to use a true story. Julie, a jeweller, asked me for some marketing advice. With a limited budget for marketing communications, she couldn’t decide whether to invest in a better website or in a printed brochure to promote her …
Don’t be a ‘busy fool’ – act strategically
Are you a ‘busy fool’? We avoid doing difficult things by occupying ourselves with trivial things. We deal with urgent trivia instead of what’s really important. Keeping busy like this allows us to avoid having to make important decisions. In my work, advising and training hundreds of businesses all around the world, I see too …
Your Competitive Advantage
What’s your Competitive Advantage? Knowing what you can excel at in relation to competitors – and then building your business strategy around that focus – is probably the most important element of any successful business strategy. If you are competing in a market place by offering the same thing as many other rivals, then you …
Word of Mouth Marketing : Not ‘proper marketing’?
Word of Mouth Marketing. Some people think it’s not ‘proper marketing’. Pedro, an entrepreneur in Colombia, told me he wasn’t able to do any real marketing because of a lack of budget in the early stage of his web design business. He assured me that once he had generated some profits he would devise ‘a …
Increase prices with a winning marketing strategy
Devising a successful marketing strategy leads to charging higher prices for your creative products and services. It also works the other way around. If you increase your prices, you will have to devise an improved marketing strategy. Whichever way you tackle it, you can increase prices with a winning marketing strategy. This is because a …