A Marketing Lesson From TV's American Idol
I love the reality TV show American Idol. And probably not for the reason you think. Yes, it's entertaining to watch all those very bad singers get up and act as if they're the next Kelly Clarkson.But that's not why I love it.I love it because it's a show about people who have a dream and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that dream come true.Its about people who don't let anything get between themselves and success.They're not afraid to take a risk.And put themselves out there and possibly fail.They're not afraid to work hard.They know success isn't always about being good at wh

How to Create Massive Business Growth...By Cleaning Up the Inside
The other day I was cleaning out my refrigerator. I hate to admit it but it's not something I do often - note to self, delegate fridge cleaning.While I was tossing out stale bread and stinky leftovers (some I couldn't quite recognize...yikes!), it occurred to me that in business the things that prevent you from growing rapidly are often found inside your business.Yes, lack of marketing, poor selling skills and an ineffective model can slow your growth but rapid growth is really an inside job.Here are the top three growth stealing culprits that could be lurking in your business: I refer to them as the 3 P's:1. PeopleDue diligence, what is it? According to a definition on investorwords.com due diligence is the process of investigation, performed by investors, into the details of a potential investment, such as an examination of operations and management and the verification of material facts.

Sounds easy enough right? Then why don’t more of us actually employ due diligence prior to investing our hard earned money (or for the lucky ones, pocket change) into stocks. I mean, it must be a rather large issue if the BC Securities Commission is launching a whole public awareness campaign based on fraud and how to help investors avoid getting scammed, to read the press release click here http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=4398.

Investing on emotions….

It is so easy to get caught up in the hype, you see a stock rising and think, I must get in that and before you know it, you are along for the ride. What we seem to forget is that, what goes up, must (almost always) come down. The ride isn’t all that fun when you ride it both up and then right back down to where you bought it from. The important thing to remember is to try and find the reason behind the spike in price. Investing in a company simply because you like the name of it or the stock symbol reminds you of something special, isn’t really investing for the right reasons.

Now, how to execute that fancy due diligence stuff? Well, it really doesn’t take too much time out of your busy day and should make you feel better about your investments or maybe even scare you off from investing all together. Some easy steps to take to decide whether a company is worthy of your dollars may include:

Website – see if the company has

tually employ due diligence prior to investing our hard earned money (or for the lucky ones, pocket change) into stocks. I mean, it must be a rather large issue if the BC Securities Commission is launching a whole public awareness campaign based on fraud and how to help investors avoid getting scammed, to read the press release click here http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=4398.

Investing on emotions….

It is so easy to get caught up in the hype, you see a stock rising and think, I must get in that and before you know it, you are along for the ride. What we seem to forget is that, what goes up, must (almost always) come down. The ride isn’t all that fun when you ride it both up and then right back down to where you bought it from. The important thing to remember is to try and find the reason behind the spike in price. Investing in a company simply because you like the name of it or the stock symbol reminds you of something special, isn’t really investing for the right reasons.

Now, how to execute that fancy due diligence stuff? Well, it really doesn’t take too much time out of your busy day and should make you feel better about your investments or maybe even scare you off from investing all together. Some easy steps to take to decide whether a company is worthy of your dollars may include:

Website – see if the company ha

tp://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=4398.

Investing on emotions….

It is so easy to get caught up in the hype, you see a stock rising and think, I must get in that and before you know it, you are along for the ride. What we seem to forget is that, what goes up, must (almost always) come down. The ride isn’t all that fun when you ride it both up and then right back down to where you bought it from. The important thing to remember is to try and find the reason behind the spike in price. Investing in a company simply because you like the name of it or the stock symbol reminds you of something special, isn’t really investing for the right reasons.

Now, how to execute that fancy due diligence stuff? Well, it really doesn’t take too much time out of your busy day and should make you feel better about your investments or maybe even scare you off from investing all together. Some easy steps to take to decide whether a company is worthy of your dollars may include:

Website – see if the company ha

ride it both up and then right back down to where you bought it from. The important thing to remember is to try and find the reason behind the spike in price. Investing in a company simply because you like the name of it or the stock symbol reminds you of something special, isn’t really investing for the right reasons.

Now, how to execute that fancy due diligence stuff? Well, it really doesn’t take too much time out of your busy day and should make you feel better about your investments or maybe even scare you off from investing all together. Some easy steps to take to decide whether a company is worthy of your dollars may include:

Website – see if the company ha

cute that fancy due diligence stuff? Well, it really doesn’t take too much time out of your busy day and should make you feel better about your investments or maybe even scare you off from investing all together. Some easy steps to take to decide whether a company is worthy of your dollars may include:

Website – see if the company has a website and visit it. Do you like what you see, does it make you want to rush to your brokerage account and purchase shares or do you shudder at how ugly and outdated it is? Is it easy to navigate and find the information you are seeking? Is the contact information easy to find and accurate? Does it contain any information on the company’s management? In this day and age, not having a website may raise a red flag as this is the easiest way for any organization to communicate with its shareholders, both current and potential ones.

Contact the company – what does it hurt to drop them an email or if they have a toll free number, pick up the phone and give them a call. Does a human ever answer your call? Or do you just float around in the computer que wondering if anyone actually works there? Talking to the president of a company (or, more likely, somebody in investor relations) should give you a better idea of what the company is all about, what direction they are headed in and so on. One thing to keep in mind when communicating with a company though is beware of empty sales pitches and grand things coming out of someone’s mouth that may never come to fruition. Go with your gut feeling here, if something is saying this sounds too good to be true, odds are, it probably is.

Research the company – if there isn’t any information on the