Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
What to Do When Tenders Rule the Day
“So long as new ideas are created, sales will continue to reach new highs.” – Charles Kettering A reader, MR from South Africa, wrote in to ask a question about marketing. He has a 13-person consulting company that provides engineering and agricultural advice to governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. They get their clients by “normal” means,…
Read MoreA Business Lesson Every Entrepreneur Should Learn
“Competition is easier to accept if you realize it is not an act of oppression or abrasion – I’ve worked with my best friends in direct competition.” – Diane Sawyer A recent Wall Street Journal article about a joint venture in China highlights a couple of ideas that we have been talking about in Early…
Read MoreThe Optimum Strategy for Acquiring New Customers
“This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming back.” – John Ilhan I believe that for every business, at any given time, there is an optimum strategy for acquiring new customers – and that the…
Read MoreFeeling Better and Achieving More by Fighting Stress
“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” – Lee Iacocca Stress. It’s not good for business. According to a survey of 800,000 workers in over 300 companies, the number of employees calling in sick because of stress tripled from…
Read MoreMaking Our Lives Golden
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx I have always been a strong opponent of television. But, as I told you on Friday, K and I recently started watching it together. Just a little bit here and…
Read MoreThe Choices We Have
“Every choice moves us closer to or farther away from something. Where are your choices taking your life? What do your behaviors demonstrate that you are saying yes or no to in life?” – Eric Allenbaugh Now that our last child is about to leave home, K and I are talking about getting television service.…
Read MoreHow Do You Spend That Hour Before Work?
“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” – Richard Whately Jack and Jill live in the same apartment building and work in the same office. They both wake up at 7:00 a.m., shower, have breakfast, and get to work by 8:00 a.m. It is at this point…
Read MoreHow to Handle Being Badmouthed at Work
Handle being badmouthed at work by remembering that what is said about you behind your back says more about the speaker than it does about you.
Read MoreKill Your Business Idea Before It Kills You
“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.” – Edward de Bono Most people will spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to keep a favorite business baby breathing. Yet studies say (and my experience confirms)…
Read MoreGetting Scammed in Park City
“In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.” – Alice Macdougall Hotel Park City appears to be one of the best hotels in Park City, UT. Certainly, it’s one of the most expensive. But I have come to look at it as a high-class scam operation. If you had…
Read MoreDoes It Make Any Sense to Turn Your Business Into a Club?
“Dear fellow artists, why so free / With every sort of company, / With every Jack and Jill? / Choose your companions from the best; / Who draws the bucket with the rest / Soon topples down the hill.” – William Butler Yeats I was hoping it would never happen, but it did. And now…
Read MoreHow NOT to Start a Retail Business
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” – Alexander Pope I don’t normally recommend getting into retail. (To learn why, reread ETR #152.) But if your dream is to run a brick and mortar business, you can learn a lot about what not to do from one entrepreneur’s mistakes. Yesterday, in the middle of…
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