Should you build a personal brand or a business brand? I know that’s been a big question buzzing around the last few months, especially in social media. I think it depends on your objective, but in most cases you’re better off building a business brand than a personal brand, and I’ll give you a couple reasons why.

If you build a personal brand and something happens to sideline you from your business, everything you’ve worked for could be derailed when someone else needs to take the helm.
If you decide you want to sell your small business, it will be more difficult …read more

There are times when your customers are going to need to call you. And it’s possible that there’s no way around it. The customer’s question could be complex or hard to explain via email or web contact form. Maybe they have already tried contacting you via other methods, but either they’re not getting the point across or they don’t understand what you’ve told them. It could be any number of things. When they contact you via phone, you have the opportunity to shine – or shame yourself. Which will it be?
We all have nightmare tales about endless phone trees, waiting …read more

Worth reading:
I Want to Speak Like Steve Jobs – Drew McLennan, like a lot of us, is a student of one of the geniuses of the personal presentation.
The ‘Mystery’ of Lousy Customer Service – An adversarial attitude toward customers or employees is a sign of a company that doesn’t know how to behave, says Mary Schmidt on Lipsticking.com. Mary also has her own marketing blog.
300 Free Employee Engagement Keys – David Zinger has a free downloadable e-book with tips on employee engagement. Link via Phil Gerbyshak.
Creativity Slayer – Communicatrix Colleen Wainwright looks at how creativity is affected by procrastination …read more