How to Cold Contact B2B Using Facebook, Step by Step

Why would any small business owner want to learn to cold contact B2B using Facebook? If your business serves other businesses, the lifeblood is getting new leads. But getting those leads can be like walking barefoot into your kid’s room. You never know what sharp objects you might step on, just trying to do your […]

The One Day Business Plan

The One Day Business Plan. I like the sound of that, don’t you? This is actually less a “business plan” and more a sales and marketing plan. But since the sales and marketing plan is an integral part of a business plan, and I’m going to argue that it’s the most neglected and least understood. […]

4 Steps to Make Your Word of Mouth Advertising Blow UP!

In today’s two minute read, discover 4 Steps to Make Your Word of Mouth Advertising BLOW UP! (uh, in a good way 😉 ) Heya, Steppers! Ready to do one thing that makes your business better today? Woudja appreciate tne powerful strategy to make your word of mouth advertising go sky high, …that makes everything else […]

Install Habits: Increase Success in Business and Life

Welcome back! In the last installment of this series, we visited the phenomenon of “ego depletion”. Willpower has a limit. No matter how “Strong willed” a person is, there’s a breaking point where he or she reaches for the donuts, or the pipe, or the bottle. Whatever YOUR weak point is… whether it’s procrastination (guilty!), […]

Tiny Habits to Double Your Effectiveness

Today’s Daily Success Step is “Tiny Habits to Double Your Effectiveness.” Our behaviors are what determine our success. Yes, luck can play a part… so can the advantages and disadvantages imparted to you at birth. But in the end, it’s about actions that you take repeatedly that determine your outcome. Every behavior you do can […]

Side Hustle to Full Time Income, Part THREE: Always Look for the Next Step

Taking your “side hustle” to that hallowed place where it replaces your full time income… is accomplished by a series of uncovering sources of new clients, while doing a great job serving your current clients. Business books talk about this in theory all the time. Actually doing it has a cumulative effect. Just stack the work […]

Six For Saturday; How I’m Staying Current with Digital Marketing

Good Morning Steppers! It’s 0558 on October 31st and I’m starting a new tradition: Six for Saturday. Here’s where I tell you the W’s… What, When, Who, Where, Why, and hoW I am staying current with the state of Digital Marketing for small businesses. But first… since it’s Hallowe’en after all… let me urge you […]

Get Found on Google Locally: Front Page, Zero Ad Spend!

In today’s post, I’m going to give you nine clear steps to get your local business on the front page of Google multiple times when potential customers in your local area search for the products or services you offer. Can you imagine having an endless stream of new leads, customers and business… but without having […]

My New Direction for Shoestring101

Greetings, Steppers! So today I have a tiny announcement: I’m changing Shoestring101’s overall look, feel, and message. Heh… okay, maybe that’s a BIG announcement. 😉 Thing is, for about a year now my message, medium and mission hasn’t really felt exactly right. It’s because of going back and forth between too many types of marketing […]

Find Periscope Followers to Consume Your Marketing

  If there’s one saying I’m known for it’s this: Making money is a simple as having access to a thing of value, and a way to communicate with others that value that thing. -Kurt Frankenberg, Shoestring101 Periscope is my newest way to communicate. And though it’s not making money for me yet personally (shoot, […]