Defining Owner Pay and Profits for Creative Companies

Owner pay is tricky to navigate. There is no right way to pay yourself as the owner. And there are no magic formulas. But great books like Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits give us some guidance as to how to pay the owners of a growing business. Greg Crabtree, the author, makes the point…

Culture in a Crisis – Tropical Smoothie Cafe Inspires

We are all working through difficult times and many businesses have had to adjust their way of thinking and operating. At Tropical Smoothie Cafe, we have adapted quickly in ways that might help you, your team or your entire company navigate this situation. The Tropical Smoothie Cafe mission, simply put, is to Inspire Better. We…

For a Planet in Recovery, it’s About Our Customer’s Mission, Not Our Company’s Mission

In a society thrown off its axis, company messages of safety, support and ‘how we’ve adapted’ have been a positive, timely response. In the months to come, though, most of us are depending on an economic recovery to help restore our businesses. And the recovery, in turn, will depend on us. Companies will need to…

Do You Know Where and When to Spend Your Next Marketing Dollar?

Now more than ever, small and large companies are trying to determine if they should invest in marketing, pull back or stop all together. Why is there such a struggle in determining the answer? The primary culprit is the lack of integrated marketing planning and analytics needed to understand true Return on Investment.  Are Facebook…

Down, But Not Out… A 30-Day Plan to Come Back Stronger Than Ever

Nearly every business and brand around the world has hit a brick wall. Retailers. Restaurants. Hospitality. Travel. Small business. Big business. Public companies. Bootstrappers. The playing field, at least for the foreseeable future, is level. Few are winning. Many aren’t even allowed to play. This article isn’t about new rules and regulations that will take…

Demand Without Brand is an Incomplete Proposition

By Randi Drinkwater During the early days of the digital marketing boom, the all-encompassing, all-powerful marketing concept known as “brand” came to be seen as a “four-letter” word. It was the start of the martech revolution, the early days of marketing automation, and the rise of a new marketing master, demand generation.   It didn’t…

Networking in 2020: Fun with LinkedIn

By Anita Hampl Is “networking” one of your words for the New Year? If so, LinkedIn should be part of your game plan. Need an icebreaker at the coffee line or at a table of strangers at a conference? Suggest that everyone connect on LinkedIn! You can bring higher exposure to each other before the…

Breaking News: Employees Are People

By Vanessa Whited  90,000 hours. That’s how much time the average American will spend at work in his or her lifetime.* Take a second to really think about that: ninety thousand hours – a third of your life – spent working. That’s pretty scary. But you know what’s even scarier? The fact that one-third of…

Activating Remote Employees: The Science of Cats and Dogs

By Eric Berrios Here’s the thing about cats versus dogs. Cats form bonds with their environment, not their caregiver. When you take a cat outside of it’s home or territory, cats freak out. It makes no difference if mom is there for the cat – it’s the environment that the cat is connected to. Dogs,…

Put Me In, Coach

Ways to Access Career Coaching Regardless of Your Income Are you stuck in a professional rut? Are you the dog that caught the car by landing your dream job and now you don’t know where to start? Or, maybe you’re kickin’ it at work and haven’t stopped to think about how to leverage your recent…