thinking/critical

The biggest danger to a business owner is lack of originality – generally demonstrated by virtue of getting trapped in his or her industry’s trends. Industry trend following simply turns your business into a commodity business. Avoid the trap, and maintain your margins.

Sure the economy is difficult. But you’re going to go to work anyway, right? So take a page from the independent retailers (booksellers, music stores, jewelry stores, video stores) who have thrived in the face of significant big-box retail competition. If you start viewing the difficult economy as if it were a difficult competitor, perhaps you can convert that helpless feeling of anxiety to a bout of righteous activity instead.

Worried about wasting advertising dollars on substandard promotional efforts? Don’t lose sleep over designing your next advertisement or marketing campaign. These eight simple steps will make the process of writing effective copy and creating strong graphic design much easier.

What you are measuring is whether or not your cost trend mirrors the industry pricing trend. In the example shown, the trendlines for the baby doll category are roughly equivalent, suggesting that costs are not decreasing at a slower rate than competitive pricing. However, the trendline for the dollhouse category indicates that costs are decreasing disproportionately to competitor selling prices, indicating a need for deeper analysis.

No, I don’t believe innovation is unimportant. I do think the word is over-used, and I think people would rather attend expensive seminars in San Francisco to learn about it than actually engage in it. But I think it’s important. I also think it is woefully misunderstood. And I think the primary reason for our ongoing misunderstanding is our failure to recognize the importance of relevance.