I recently moderated a panel discussion for WIC on Best Practices to Grow Your Consulting Business titled "If I Only Knew Then What I Know Now". Panelists were Jan Robertson of SiVal Advisors, Kelli Richards of All Access Group and Norma Watenpaugh of Phoenix Consulting Group.  My company is Strategic Marketing Solutions. We're all veteran Read more...

I recently read the book, “Attitude is Everything: Change Your Attitude…Change Your Life!” by Jeff Keller.  At first I thought it was just going to be a corny book that I could not identify with, but I found that it had some deep truths that I could possibly implement.  Here are five key points I Read more...

What’s the best way to manage business risk? Go toward it. Does that sound risky, itself? It can be. The alternative, however, can be far worse. Real business risks, ignored...well...it's not pretty. Remember, first, that not all risk is the cliff diving, high-flying, life-defying kind. Many of the circumstances that bring about these types of extreme risk Read more...

If you have a high-deductible health insurance plan, you should have a Health Savings Account (HSA) to save for those medical expenses that come out of your pocket. Not only is it a good idea to save for the unexpected, the tax benefits of Health Savings Accounts are pretty compelling, if you qualify. To qualify, Read more...

By now you have heard about the WIC (Women in Consulting) membership drive, which was announced earlier this week. It launched on Valentine's day, and will be going on from now until the end of June.  I am so excited about this membership drive, because it is a great opportunity for WIC members to share what they Read more...

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit. Henry B. Adams Making babies is surely the epitome of human creativity, the closest we can get to fulfilling our destiny—having been created in the creative image of God. Yet the baby-making process does not seem to be characterized by orderliness, in any dimension. And neither is baby-birthing. Read more...

Let’s face it; 'revenue' is the IRS’s middle name.  Their job is to collect as much money as they think taxpayers might owe.  The only way to know how much they need to collect is to conduct audits of a sample of the population. The IRS is continuing to raise the number of these audits Read more...

Our guest speaker for our January General Meeting will be Steven Van Yoder, CEO of Get the Word Out Communications and the author of "Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort". Steven will speak on Thought Leadership Marketing. Steven is also the founder and director of Global Read more...

IRS statistics show that business owners are choosing to form S corporations at an unprecedented rate – and with good reason. After all, operating as an S corporation means that you can pass net profits to yourself without having to pay self-employment tax (Social Security, Medicare etc.) on the earnings. This is unlike partnerships or Read more...

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie Carnegie’s wisdom is timeless.  The explosion in data and “content” coming at us every day has created more market noise and more customer Read more...