Welcome to my blog.

In working with numerous entrepreneurs over the last decade, I have often heard one main theme: “I never went to business school.”  To these entrepreneurs, they feel that their businesses are somehow at a disadvantage because they are not experts in business.

But why would they need to be experts in business?  After all, business owners need to be experts in their specific industry.  Well, these entrepreneurs understand that their business does have a “business side,” which can result in HUGE returns - if properly managed.

The good news is that I don’t believe that anyone is at a disadvantage for not having gone to business school.  In fact, I feel that not going to business school can actually be an advantage for a business owner.

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Advertising is the key to any successful Karate dojo.  The reason for this is simple: you need students to make money and advertising is what brings in new students. 

As I recently explained, marketing for martial arts studios should be all about getting students in the door.  Of course, you then have to have a strategy to keep them around, but the key to advertising and marketing efforts is to get them in the door.

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I was recently talking to a martial arts studio owner and we were discussing the importance of marketing for his business.  We both agreed that the goal of martial arts marketing is to get new students into the doors of the studio.  While other businesses use marketing to reach both new and existing customers, martial arts studios often just focus their marketing efforts on new customers.  The reason for this is that as the business model of a martial arts studio is naturally designed to retain customers - once a student signs up, they continually work towards different belts.

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Every buyer takes a journey with your business.  Some of these journeys last years and produce great profits, while journeys end before they really begin.  Instead of thinking of sales from the prospective of a business, the buyer's journey focuses on how a customer evolves in their engagement with your business.

In developing a business model, it is important to understand that there is a natural progression every buyer takes in regards to their engagement with your business.  It take time to build trust with a buyer and it takes a pretty significant effort for them to walk through their journey of doing business with you.  To understand a buyer's journey, we must start by looking at the stages a buyer takes during their journey with a business.  There are four stages to a buyers journey...

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This summer, my family and I vacationed in Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, MI.  On the island, employees would hustle to get sales as they were giving out samples and soliciting customers on the street - doing just about everything possible to get a sale, and they often did.  People were spending all kinds of money.

But in Mackinaw City was different.

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Over the last month I have talked with several business owners who have expressed a need for something different with their website.  They have one of two problems: they are paying too much for their website with not enough return, or they currently don't have a functional website.

The good news is that there are some great do-it-yourself website options available today - options that are affordable, beautiful, and easy to use.  Honestly, I have seen these DYI drag-and-drop sites look and perform MUCH better than “professionally developed” sites.

While there are numerous website platform builders available, I have chosen three to discuss.  These have been chosen based on popularity, functionality, design, and ease of use.  You really can’t go wrong with either of these three options though each has...

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