May 2016

The full title of this book by Carol Wain and Jay Conrad Levinson is

“Guerrilla Tourism Marketing: Increase Your Profit by Leveraging Marketing, Technology and Relationships“.

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a rating of Four Stars. This means I consider it to be Good.

Here is my book review.

A Very Good Book For Hotel Type Businesses

I am a big believer in marketing books targeted at specific niches because I think the hardest business to market is your own. The closer examples of good practice are to your own business, the easier it is to see their power and practicality.

I’m also a believer in the principles of Guerrilla Marketing but, unfortunately, this leading brand of small business marketing advice has been spread in too inconsistent a way as the creator, Jay Conrad Levinson teamed up with others who did the writing. This is one of the best. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Nick Kolenda is

“Methods of Persuasion: How to Use Psychology to Influence Human Behavior“.

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book a rating of Five Stars. This means I think it is Excellent.

Here is my book review.

A very interesting read

You will have noticed that there are a lot of very positive reviews about this book. However you need to know that within it, the author blatantly uses the described methods to persuade readers to think highly of the book and to then write a positive review on Amazon. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Dr Treat Preston is

Psychological Triggers – Triggers That Cause Buyers to Open Their Wallets

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 2 Stars.

Here is my review.

Best avoided

This isn’t the book I was expecting to read at all.

It is packed with marketing tips but there doesn’t seem to be any structure or order with them and they are written in a very irritating style that doesn’t flow. Most points start off with “Always …” or “be sure to…” or “Never…”. [continue reading…]

Theory of Constraints Handbook

I gave this very large, very intensive look at the Theory of Constraints a rating of Five Stars in my review on Amazon.co.uk.

Here is my book review.

The Serious Guide To The Theory Of Constraints

If you’ve read “The Goal” and a few other books about the Theory Of Constraints and you want to implement it yourself or through a specialist consultancy, this is the most definitive guide I’ve seen.

It is massive with 38 chapters which end on page 1135 before the Bibliography and Index… and that’s with a smaller print font than I’d ideally like.

Its size is both a strength and a weakness. I’ve had it for five years and I use it to dip in and out of as a reference rather than as a book to read from start to finish. Its bulk is intimidating and it’s heavy to hold. [continue reading…]

When you have a problem as a business owner, it’s very easy to feel unsure about what you need to do next to improve your business.

You feel stuck (see symptoms of being stuck) and it’s hard to get unstuck on your own.

Quite simply, you’re too close to see things objectively.

This makes it hard to move from the symptoms to the underlying problem so the temptation is to try to cure the symptoms again and again.

It’s like playing whack-a-mole. [continue reading…]

Sometimes you know you’re stuck because you have a problem going around and around in your head without reaching an answer. Other times, you or your business might suffer from some of these symptoms:

1. You’ve lost the feel good factor of being your own boss.
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2. You feel conflicted about your business, as if you’re being pulled in at least two directions at the same time..
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3. Profitability is lower than you want.
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4. Cash flow issues regularly arise like being paid late by customers or having to fend off suppliers who want to be paid before you’ve got the money.
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5. You get to the end of the day and feel as if you’ve acquired more new jobs to do than you’ve completed in the last ten or twelve hours.
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6. Your employees seem to create more problems than they solve. Morale is down and you might have lost or be in danger of losing your best employees.
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7. You know your customers are disgruntled because you can’t give them the service they demand and you want to give.
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8. You’re unsure where you should focus the time you do have for business improvement in the future.
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9. Customers continually encourage you to cut prices just to keep their business, let alone increase it. You’ve lost ground on the factors that used to make your business attractive to customers because it was different from your competitors.

[continue reading…]