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Are you building a Marketing Machine?

Any small business owner who wants to grow their business and eventually free themselves up from the day to day grind is going to have to solve a few things. You’re going to have to learn how to market your products and services effectively.  I’m differentiating marketing from sales as the activities and efforts that […]

Devastation of Joplin Missouri

  photo by el clinto Tornados are scary…you may go years without being anywhere near one…but if you do happen to get caught in one I can only imagine how helpless you’d feel.  The devastation caused by the tornado in Joplin is hard to imagine…I’m sure you’ve seen many of the pictures. My thoughts and […]

Discover the Power of Storytelling

  photo by Ian Hayhurst I bet you’re really good at what you do.  You add a lot of value to the right kind of customers…probably way more value than you charge for (if you’re like most business owners I know).  You know your industry, your product and service inside and out.  In fact you […]

Do you really have Great Customer Service?

  photo by Phil Dowsing Customer service is critical to long term success…everyone says so, which is why you have great customer service – right? Think about it though…what company doesn’t think they don’t have good customer service? Go into any establishment and there’s at least one sign in every business promoting customer service, even […]

An Opportunity to Stand Out

  photo by jeffsmallwood If you do much networking, then you’ll quickly realize that everyone starts to blend in…which does absolutely nothing for you.  Garet King – a branch manager at CoreFirst Bank here in Kansas City shared the following article with me that does a great job of addressing this situation – take it […]

7 Incredibly Useful™ things I’ve learned…

  photo by chuckyeager I started Aspire 4 years ago, give or take a couple of days, and it’s been a fun, exhausting and enlightening ride so far.  Not only have I had a chance to learn a ton of great things through my own business efforts, but I’ve picked up a lot of amazing […]