In a soft economy, it’s common for clients to push back on our fees or the other terms under which we want to do business. It’s just as common for us to acquiesce. We tell ourselves that a sub-optimal client is better than none at all, we agree to their terms, deliver our best work, [...]

I just went through the arduous process of revising my website. I’ve lost count of the revisions that preceded this one (it doesn’t help that I’m a perfectionist), but the hard work paid off. Besides an improved end-product, the process helped me to crystalize what I do. In the past, I’d go to networking events [...]

Getting new business is good for the coffers. So is collecting the fees you’re owed for the services you’ve already delivered. If you’re like most service professionals, you have at least one client who consistently forestalls payment, turning you into a part-time debt collector. Perhaps you’ve sent a polite email reminding them that they owe [...]

As memorable as you are, you and your fellow 21st century earthlings live in an era when the constant bombardment of information makes it impossible to keep anything “top of mind” for very long. Here’s an example: Assuming you read it, can you remember the subject of my last blog? How about the one before [...]

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I write a lot about what you can do to improve your business development. Do this. Do that. Get more clients. Grow your book of business. But this week I’m recommending a course of inaction. Because I’m finding that all of this doing comes [...]

If you participate in any kind of social media, you have more “friends” now than the captain of the football team did when you were in high school. And yet, in spite of all our connections, most of us don’t harvest the many business opportunities that are available in our networks. This six-minute video will [...]

Last week’s edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal profiled my company and some of our business development training programs. They even put a picture of me on the front-page masthead. When I first saw it, I had mixed feelings about the article, as it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I called [...]

I smiled when I saw Frank’s email pop up in my inbox.  The subject line read “lunch.” It had been roughly three months since he and I had seen each other, and he was building his net. When I first met Frank, his law practice was struggling. He had a lot of enthusiasm, but very [...]

91% of the businesses in the world are using at least one of the social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube) to market their products and services. This six-minute video shows you how to use social media to market yourself more successfully in 2012. After you watch it, scroll down to learn where you [...]

When it comes to New Year’s reflections, I am a fan of Chris Brogan’s “My 3 Words” approach. He discourages his readers from making resolutions, reminding us that we often break our promises to ourselves. Instead, he encourages us to identify three words that will serve as personal themes for 2012. Last year, I blogged [...]