Category Archive

New year, new you, or so the saying goes. When we change our calendars, it feels like we have to change ourselves; a fresh start is here, and the drive to become someone better is renewed. You can argue that the time for change is always here, and that the new year is an arbitrary point to start enacting those … Read More

You’re a small business with a great and unique product or service. You have the knowledge and expertise to make sure your customers are satisfied every time, and a top-notch staff to solve problems and pounce on opportunities. The most important thing for you now is getting customers in the door; differentiating yourself from other, similar businesses, in order to … Read More

Here in Winnipeg, January can be a pretty hard month. It’s the coldest month of the year, and it can be a struggle to leave your home; it’s the month of ordering in instead of going out. Lifting your mood can be hard enough for the average Winnipegger, but for businesses, especially those in retail, January is especially tough. The … Read More

You’ve started your own business, and you’ve found success; congratulations are in order! It can feel incredible to build something with your own two hands, to have a vision and the wherewithal to see it through. You’re living the dream, after all; you set your sights on a goal, and through your ambition and dedication you’ve made it happen. To … Read More

Ah, the budget. For some, it’s an absolutely essential part of the business; there are folks who wouldn’t even dream of starting a business without a detailed budget, let alone running one without everything carefully accounted for. For others, it’s a dreaded chore; they see budgeting as guesswork, drudgery and, worst of all, almost pointless. The second type of person … Read More

Today, we’re going over more tips for the reluctant budgeter. Budgeting can seriously improve the efficiency of your business by providing you with realistic expectations about income and expenses, but only if you’re diligent about it. You have to go into budgeting with the right mindset, the right team, and a good knowledge of the type of budgeting that will … Read More

One of the hardest things for a company to do is establish trust. If you want people to buy what you create, they have to be convinced it’s worth the money. One of the ways we decide whether or not something is worth our hard earned cash is by asking our friends and family for recommendations, or by reading reviews … Read More

Marketing is all about targeting; you want to understand your customer, and find ways to reach out to them. Everything from the method by which you reach out to the messaging you put in your advertising can be targeted to a particular customer profile. The first step to this targeting is to create the customer profile; assess who exactly you … Read More

The days of advertising with only billboards and word of mouth are over. You need a website in order to attract customers to your business, even if you don’t have any wares to sell online. People will use your website to figure out your hours of operation, to get contact information, to find out what you sell and what’s available, … Read More

The ubiquity of internet access in North America has changed everything, from our modes of communication to the way we shop. In the United States, Amazon has become one of the top retailers for everything from televisions to groceries; it has the variety of the department stores of old, with none of the challenges of keeping a large store well … Read More