Ballpoint killed the fountain. Overseas manufacturing devalued the ballpoint. Typewriters – and then computers – supplanted handwriting. What a terrible climate if you’re selling pens! But what if you aren’t really selling pens? What if you’re selling class? Fame? The slow elegance of a simpler time? The unmistakeable cachet of a top-of-the-line writing instrument? Something […]
“Here comes the bride, The make-up cannot hide, Her ultra-stressed out manner, She should have hired a wedding planner.” 😉 Twenty years ago, no one but the super-rich and famous had wedding planners. Today (and I speak from experience) people think you’re nuts if you don’t have one. What changed? Well it could be “Say
Are you priced right? Are you charging the right amount? Is it as high as it should be? That’s a tricky question for a business to ask, and even trickier to answer. That’s why I got Phil Telio on the phone. Phil runs a consultancy called Embrase that advises major corporations around the world on
“Yo, dude– look at those gas prices!” “I remember when X cost Y.” “Oh noes! Inflation’s ruining everything.” Sometimes it seems like prices everywhere are going up, but are yours? Chances are they should be. Why? Because… it’s Four Questions of Marketing Month here at Mirasee: 4 questions, 4 weeks, 4 jumps in your profit,
My journey into online marketing has been a real experience. A roller coaster ride of the ecstasy of selling my first e-book (the system works and I’m making money, hurrah!) and the frustrations of building traffic and engaging subscribers (build it and they will come, pah!). Having plugged away for the past 18 months, I’m
Banks aren’t winning any kind of business popularity contests. Between their high rates and fees, to the terrible service, to a general perceived lack of trustworthiness, banking has become the industry that we all love to hate, and for good reason; when a company charged with stewarding your money starts demanding fees and issuing service
If anyone knows how to launch a superstar blog on the cheap, it’s Brian Clark. He never took venture capital, or raised any kind of funds. In fact, the entire Copyblogger empire was started as a one-man-show with about a thousand bucks of design and hosting fees. He grew the audience, he listened to what
People don’t like change. This is true in general, and it’s even truer when it’s about something we use every day. That’s why email isn’t the easiest space to break into. We haven’t been using it for all that long (although it’s hard to remember “the time before” isn’t it?), and a lot of people
There are trends in almost everything. Clothes, values, television, the terrible music kids listen to these days… and in baked goods, too! Yes, that’s right, even desserts as iconic as the wedding cake get a little nervous when a new, sweet young thing comes to town and gets all the attention. But that sweet little
After their first year of operation, Freshbooks had a grand total of 6 customers. Less than a decade later, they’re servicing over 4.5 million happy customers. Want to know how they did it? So did I. That’s why I reached out to Saul Colt, their “Head of Magic” (that’s his real title!). Over the course of 25
