by Dave Carlson | Mar 26, 2020 | Local Marketing
Over the last couple of years, I’ve had a side hustle of refinishing furniture and making large signs out of old fence slats. I’ve even converted an old piano into a wine bar. Things got more serious about a year and a half ago when I started working part-time for 4...
by Dave Carlson | Jan 4, 2018 | Local Marketing
Should, should, should. We need to quit shoulding on ourselves. Small business owners face an overwhelming number of things they should be doing. Rather than heap guilt on you about the million things you aren’t doing, let’s pick a couple of things that will move you...
by Dave Carlson | Dec 11, 2017 | Website Design
I recently redesigned the website for Hands of the Carpenter. They are a nonprofit in the Denver area that seeks to help single moms and widows with reliable transportation in their move toward self-sufficiency. They do this through vehicle placement, repairs,...
by Dave Carlson | Nov 1, 2017 | Local Marketing
Nick was checking his phone as we waited for a presentation to begin. On his phone’s background was a picture of a dog. I asked Nick about it. It was his dog that had recently passed away. He said he was the best dog ever. Nick’s dog had some border collie in him and...
by Dave Carlson | Sep 9, 2017 | Website Design
Doing a Before/After picture with your own design is a bit awkward. You can’t bash the previous designer because you were the previous designer. But that was over five years ago. The new site is a vast improvement in design and function. It has a richer, more...
by Dave Carlson | Sep 2, 2017 | Local Marketing
This afternoon I looked through a stack of business cards. I collected them over the last several months and have great intentions of inputting them into my database. So many of them were so generic that it would never inspire me to call the person who gave them to...
by Dave Carlson | Aug 24, 2017 | Website Design
Last week I got an email from someone who needed a website. Someone offered $500 to build it for them. That sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it? When I see a price like this I surmise the offer was by TGMBK (This Guy My Brother Knows) or a PFK (Pimply-Faced Kid). A...
by Dave Carlson | Apr 30, 2016 | Local Marketing
On the TV show Restaurant: Impossible, host Robert Irvine fixes failing restaurants in two days on a $10,000 budget. He helps improve cash management, décor, and ownership issues. One thing he consistently does each episode is reduce the size of their menu. When there...
by Dave Carlson | Feb 23, 2016 | Local Marketing
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball to predict which prospects will be problematic clients or a bad fit for your business? Everyone knows a good crystal ball can be expensive and unpredictable. What we really need is common sense, preparation and a strong will....
by Dave Carlson | Jan 29, 2016 | Local Marketing
The phone rings and you think, Oh that could be a potential customer. But then the canned message says they are from Google and you need to fix your local listing. Ugh. As a business owner, I get these fake phone calls several times a week. And they are getting...
