Contributor

Are you sitting at your computer wondering where your marketing dollars went? You’re not alone. Many business owners start marketing plans with grand ambitions, then quickly lose track of what’s been spent where, with what, if any, return.

So, you have a great a great idea for an iPhone application. All you want to do then is get on with it and ace your rivals. Not that fast. You might be better off thinking through the entire gamut of consequences — most of all the legal ones that could haunt you for years.

Think that a reality show has nothing to do with business? Think again. I don't know about you, but I'm hooked on The Voice. With other talent’ programmes delivering pretty much the same old format, The Voice has a positive new take that’s proving a ratings winner for the networks.

Without having clearly-defined goals, the chances of living the life you deserve are not in your favour. Do some serious navel gazing and then, you need to ask yourself a few powerful questions. What are the chances of achieving your goals if you have not set them?

People are at the centre of almost every business. Customers, shareholders, staff and other stakeholders are increasingly talking to one another. Lately, their conversations increasingly are taking place online and even more so on social media platforms. So, whether you like it or not, you are in a social media business.

I believe there is no decision more important than to take charge of your own financial future. We live in a country of opportunity and yet most Australians are buried in credit card debt, car loan debt, personal debt and other debt. Don’t get me wrong, debt is not a bad thing per se, but there’s good debt and bad debt.

Do you cut prices, and give up your margin, because you don’t know how to say ‘no’?  If you do, it’s time you realise that it is no good for anyone — not you, your customer or the industry. 

Two months ago, I made one of the hardest decisions in my life. I decided to shut down my startup business, Skimp. It took me three years to build the business. In the end, it took me just three days to close it.

“Things just fell into place” “I guess I was due a turn” “I've been lucky” Rubbish. You make your own luck. Preparation and hard work is what will put you in the right place to experience ‘luck’ and bring new opportunities.

With NBN on the horizon, there has been an increase in businesses looking to take the ‘virtual leap’ towards high-quality, feature-rich IP voice solutions, commonly called VoIP (Voice over IP) or hosted/virtual PBX. There are other options to the traditional landline for business telephony.

A trend appears to be emerging in the world of digital marketing. There is an increasingly common expectation that marketers should be able to code. Yet, coders are not expected to be able to market or do sales. Why are companies trying to turn marketers into generalists?

Consultants will advise you on how to build a good website, but few will dwell on what not to do. Here is the bad stuff you want to avoid at all costs. In the online world, all that matters is usability, usability and usability.

Almost four out of five Australian businesses don’t have mobile friendly websites. This means that, even if they do advertise on phones, their customers won’t have an optimised website.

Advanced Selling Strategies author Brian Tracey said: “The world belongs to the askers.” The habit of asking must be developed, not only in daily life, but also in business activities. Here are just some of the wonderful things you can achieve in business if you dare to ask. Chicken?

Businesses make this mistake time and time again: their customers buy from them but they never get their details. Then they just sit around and hope and pray that they will remember them...that somehow the "exceptional" service they have offered will keep them coming back for more.

The volume of security companies in the market place competing for your business is almost over-whelming. Add to this the fact that all of them promise to deliver the ‘best service ever’ at the most competitive rates and by the most experienced people in the industry and you’re left playing a game of eenie meenie miney mo.

The only time I was ever grounded by my parents was in high school – my mother had discovered a wad of hundreds of dollars in cold hard cash in my top draw and had assumed what all mothers fear most: that I was developing an expensive heroin addiction in my spare time. Of course, my mother didn’t believe my excuse – that I was providing financial backing for my friend’s start-up ebay business; because everyone knows 15-year-old high-school students could not possibly start their own business. Right?

If property investment is all about location, location and location, successful business management is all about marketing, marketing and marketing. One of the most common causes of business failures is a failure to understand all there is to know about the market and the potential customer. Entrepreneurs need to gain this knowledge even before developing a product or service. Here are three marketing questions you should ask yourself and answer to succeed in business.

Valuation of an early-stage venture can set you on the right path for future success. Most entrepreneurs rocking the pre-revenue stage base their valuation on Discounted Cash Flow, Net Present Value, or using the early valuation of more successful companies deemed to be comparable.

Whatever your politics on the war in Afghanistan, there is no question that Retired US General Stanley McChrystal was, and remains, a very successful leader. He reveals, in this TED talk, uncommon insight into the realities of modern leadership. Boardroom or battlefield, some things remain the same regardless of the setting.