Newsletter Blogs

I believe that many businesses have brands that suck. I mean suck away opportunities for sales and profits! Let me explain. First, there are many companies out there with brand names that only indicate they sell printing or promotional products. Names like, "City Printing Company" or "Peoria Promotional Products LLC." These names suggest the company…

I'm sorry I've been away so long, fave five fans. What can I say? I've been busy trying to get ahold of everything in Nissin's Ramen merchandise collection. But I'm back now, and I wanted to share some promotions I saw this week that are my new favorites. Let's hit it...

Question: Can I enter credit card charges as journal entries in QuickBooks Premier? Answer: QuickBooks strongly discourages making journal entries, except in a few rare instances. You should not enter credit card charges as journal entries. QuickBooks has an icon on the homepage just for that. It’s in the lower righthand corner of the homepage…

No matter what you think about Amazon, you have to admire its founder, Jeff Bezos. He has become the wealthiest person in modern history. Here’s what he says about failure: “Nine times out of 10, you're going to fail. But every once in a while,…

You are in the middle of working hard and accomplishing important work. You are in the groove and the juices are flowing, allowing you to operate at peak productivity with really impactful ideas. You are in the zone and you are unaware time is passing. You feel great. You are about to … You were…

Question: I have customers that pay me by credit card, but the credit card company takes out fees. I am receiving less than the total amount on the invoice. How do I handle that in QuickBooks Premier? Answer: I am seeing this situation more often, where the credit card company takes out the fees and…

Sometimes in sales we need to sort out those who are truly interested and qualified from those who are just wasting our time. They aren’t necessarily bad people. Perhaps they just don’t know how to say “no” or how to be fully candid. After 40 years in sales, I have developed a method of sorting…

Upon release of a new feature or invention, I hear people say, “I wish I had thought of that.” Depending on the topic, I occasionally hear people say, “I thought of that, I could be a millionaire!” Just last week, I opened my Kindle reader on my iPad and tried the “continuous scroll” feature. I…

Question: I send my bank and credit card statements to my accountant at year end to do my taxes. What benefits are there to using something like QuickBooks instead? Answer: There are lots of reasons. First, in QuickBooks, you are able to write and submit orders to customers and suppliers. From there, you can track…

It never ceases to amaze me that airplanes can fly. These big, heavy metal bodies loaded down with lots of people and baggage are able to take off and fly through the sky. Airplanes are able to fly because they are propelled to move forward, and their fast, forward motion, combined with air coming off…