Competitive Advantage: Know Thyself

This saying from ancient Greek, “know thyself”, is often used as a warning against boastfulness. That’s good advice when it comes to describing your competitive advantage.  You don’t want a value proposition that merely says you are better than the competition. Indeed, you don’t want a value proposition that talks about your competition at all. …

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Why Should I Care About Branding?

A question I have heard many times, though expressed in different ways.  It might be:  “A brand is a logo and colors, right?” Or else: “I am my brand, what else do I need?” It is not always clear what a brand is, or why it matters to a business.  Branding is everything you do…

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Branding: Personal or Business

What are you branding when you brand your business? Is it the product? Is it the culture? Or is it you personally? Yes, yes, and yes.  There are degrees to branding: all of what I mention above deserves separate consideration in terms of branding.  When you are a small business owner, it starts at the…

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Be The Best Option – A Case Study

People have options. The content in this blog is about finding ways to always be the best option.  To be the best option, you must be targeting the right clients and then solving their particular problems.  I saw this happen recently with a CPA firm.  The problem They were serving anyone.  Everybody needs to file…

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Information – Knowledge – Wisdom

Learn the Lessons

Information is knowing what you are. Let’s say, you’re a CPA. Saying “I’m a CPA” demonstrates that you have the correct information. Knowledge is knowing what you do. “I complete your tax return and do your monthly book keeping”. This demonstrates that you know what the information means, you know what being a CPA entails.…

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Value: It’s Not About You

value proposition

Last week we looked at how price and service are intrinsically linked, because service determines value and price is the manifestation of value. Value is a key area where my business mantra applies: It’s not me, it’s you.  There are two key things to know about Value: It is subjective It is what clients buy,…

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Quality – What’s In A Word

You see it all the time: a website, a brochure, a speaker, promising that their company’s number one mission is to provide “Quality” of product or service. And I have to ask: what is the alternative? If the best you can promise is quality, you have not given enough thought to what makes you good…

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How do you differentiate yourself from your peers?

Unique Value Proposition

A fairly common question. And an important one. I answered this on an online forum recently, and it is worth sharing those thoughts here. As with much of what I say: start by being deliberate about who you are, what you do, and how you do it. The Answer Start by asking yourself: What do…

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Be The Best Option

People have options in life. Whenever you buy a product or service, you choose what to buy, based on the issue you want resolved. Your clients are the same, they have choices. You may know that you are the best and obvious choice for them, but here’s the problem: all of your competitors know that…

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