Heather Villa

No, this Tips In Ten is not about how to become one of those costume-jewelry-wearing fortune tellers at the circus. This article (and the one that follows) is about staying on top of the trends that will impact your business. Foreseeing trends and acting on them before everyone else does gives you two distinct advantages: [...]

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There is an invisible set of stairs that entrepreneurs perceive in the life of their business and every business owner has the desire to move their business up these stairs toward some (possibly unknown or unstated) level of success. They know that each level requires new efforts and techniques and ideas and comes with its [...]

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With only hours to go before 2010, your planning is probably finished. Your strategizing is tucked away. Your dreams are sitting on your desk, waiting for you to show up on Monday morning. You’ve done everything you can do this year and now it’s coming to close. And the champagne is flowing generously.

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Innovation comes in many forms. Sometimes it is developing something brand new and bringing it to market. Sometimes it is putting your unique twist on an existing product to make it more suitable for your target market. And sometimes innovation is simply trying something new in your business that you haven’t done before… even if [...]

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Running a small business is all about problems! You’ll be more successful when you identify a problem that your target market is facing… and you solve it. While many of your customers will leave happy, some will return the product or express dissatisfaction with the service – that’s a problem. You’ll also encounter problems each [...]

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This blog post was on my list of “things to write about” for two weeks now, but I’ve been busy with other things. That’s okay, though, because it’s a perennial topic. I was recently reading a blog in the New York Times (published October 15th) by a CEO of a NY-based company. She referenced that, [...]

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Great discussion today on #businesslunchclub (on Twitter; but see BusinessLunchClub.com for more details). The conversation today centered around delegation, and specifically around something that @IAC_Heather calls “the 3 Strikes, You’re Out” rule. The conversation was primarily between @IAC_Heather, @askleo, and myself (@AaronHoos), with @Hazewalker chiming in towards the end. You can read our entire conversation [...]

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