Strega Nona, the Missing Kisses, and Your Competitor’s Back End
The other day, my wife and son were reading Tomie de Paola’s wonderful children’s book Strega Nona. In the story, Big Anthony comes to work for Strega Nona and overhears her incantation over her magic pasta pot. The result: He learns the spell to get the pot started making pasta… and memorizes the words to turn the pot off. But because he is hiding while doing this, he misses the visual accompaniment to the “stop-the-pasta” spell: blowing three kisses…
READ MOREEntrepreneurial Lessons From The Blue Whale
The first day, our new restaurant was jam-packed. People queued up to sample the food, and we immediately made a profit. We had an incredible chef, and the waiters were efficient and always full of alacrity. The restaurant thrived that whole summer, and our reputation spread across town.
READ MOREFast-Response Bonus
One of the most effective weapons in your marketing arsenal is urgency. Urgency makes your prospective customer feel that he has to take action and respond to your offer immediately. Your job is to give him a good reason to do it.
READ MOREHow to Survive Excessive Recession Hand Wringing
Has the looming recession got you scared yet?
The mainstream media sure hopes so. Sells more newspapers, boosts cable ratings on CNN and Fox and MSNBC, makes the populace hyper-aware (like jittery squirrels gathering nuts in a dog park), and gives advertisers a tidy little narrative to help position their products.
READ MOREShame on Wal-Mart?
Forget that Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million people in the U.S. alone. Forget that it saves consumers billions of dollars each year on retail purchases. Forget that its employees, on average, earn about double the minimum wage. The word from some disgruntled employees is that Wal-Mart doesn’t treat its employees “fairly” – whatever that’s supposed to mean.
READ MOREDear ETR: Should I stay in school or start a business?
I am a student currently attending university. Between school and my job, I have found very little free time to dedicate to the things that I really see as beneficial to my future. The question is, with the doom and gloom market we are in, coupled with the constantly diminishing value of a college education (even from a private university), would it not be better to focus on starting a business now?
READ MORESimple Investing Works Best
The longer I invest, the more I realize that simple investing works best. The fewer rules you have, the better.
Simple investing should be a natural outgrowth of having more knowledge and a better understanding of how investing works. Your ability to pick out what’s truly important and what works for you is key.
READ MOREIssue #2438 The Art & Science of Bear-Market Real Estate Investing
“Something is worth precisely what someone else is willing to pay for it.” So said a stock-market analyst to me one fine bull-market day many moons ago.
A statement like that can seem profound, but it’s useless. Yet it is the mantra of many investors in all fields. In bull markets, the sellers say it. In bear markets, the buyers say it. But it is about as helpful as saying, “Wherever the sun shines, there it is daytime.” So what?
READ MOREIssue# 2438 Break Out of the Crowd to Get Free Publicity
A big article about your business in a publication (online or offline) – or even a brief mention on television – can catapult you to a whole new level of success. That kind of exposure just can’t be bought at any price. As a result, there are hordes of businesses trying to attract the media – and that makes it difficult for you to stand out from the crowd. Difficult… but not impossible.
READ MOREDear ETR: How does a weak dollar affect housing and stock prices?
“I can understand the prices of oil, precious metals, food, etc. going up when the dollar is devalued – but how does that reconcile with housing and stock prices going down?”
READ MOREAn Easy-to-Prevent Scam
When you’re just starting out in the real estate business, take advantage of what others have already learned through experience… without sacrificing your own time and money. Here, for example, is a scam that you can sidestep by learning from my own mistake.
READ MORE6 Steps to Getting Your Phone to Ring Off the Hook With New Clients
New copywriters write me all the time, asking how to get a high-paying gig. A desperate few just want to know how to get any assignment.
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