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You are here: Home / Archives for Sales

How to Drive Inbound Leads and Turn Them Into Revenue

September 7, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

Business woman on phone

For many small businesses, inbound leads are among the most valuable sources of potential sales. When someone picks up the phone or goes to your website to contact your business, they are usually much closer to making a buying decision than someone casually browsing online. They already recognize they have a problem and are actively […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Cash Flow & Finance, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, Sales, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: advertising, google business profile, inbound leads, lead revenue, sales

How to Get Your Business Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season

August 17, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

The holiday shopping season can be the most profitable time of year for small businesses, but only if you are prepared. Customers are ready to spend, companies are purchasing year-end gifts, and people are actively searching for products and services that make their lives easier. However, increased demand also brings more competition, tighter deadlines, inventory […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Customer Service, Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Grow Your Business, Sales, Side Hustle, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: Customer Service, holiday offers, holiday shopping, inventory preparation, marketing calendar, preparations for holiday customers, revenue goals, seasonal help

Thinking About Selling Your Business Someday? Here’s What You Need to Do Years Before the Deal

August 10, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

Most business owners spend years building a company and only months preparing to sell it. Unfortunately, that’s backwards. Steven Covey said it best, ‘Begin with the End in Mind.’ The most successful business exits are not created during negotiations. They are created years before a buyer ever appears. The difference between a good exit and […]

Filed Under: Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Sales, Solopreneurs, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: entity structure, family governance, Life Plan, ownership records, protect your assets, selling your business, Wealth planning

Sales Slow? You Might Have an Offer Problem

July 27, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

When sales slow down, most entrepreneurs immediately assume they have a marketing problem. They convince themselves they need more leads, more social media followers, more website traffic, more networking opportunities, or a bigger advertising budget. As a result, they spend time and money trying to attract more prospects into their sales funnel. But before you […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Technology, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: boost sales, creating offers, customer motivation, marketing challenges, sales offer, slow sales

How to Use Reddit to Market Your Small Business

July 20, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

Reddit is one of the most misunderstood marketing platforms on the internet. Most small business owners know about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube, but Reddit is often overlooked because it does not work like traditional social media. You cannot simply show up, post a sales pitch, drop a link to your website, and expect […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Technology, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: online community, organic marketing tool, Reddit, social media for marketing

Half the Year Is Gone: 7 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask Right Now

July 13, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

Can you believe we’re already halfway through the year? Back in January, you set ambitious goals, created revenue targets, mapped out growth strategies, and planned product launches and promised yourself that this would be the year you would finally break through to the next level. Now it’s July. The question is not what you planned […]

Filed Under: Business Inspiration, Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Leadership, Sales, Solopreneurs, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: cash flow, entrepreneur, goal setting, leveraging AI, measurable results, product launches, revenue targets, Time management

Should You Start a Business Right Now?

June 1, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

For many aspiring entrepreneurs, the answer is No. No one should build something from scratch right now. Over the next 5 years, with so many baby boomers retiring, there’s a lot of business inventory available. Buying an existing business or investing in a franchise is often the faster, more reliable route to cash flow, financial […]

Filed Under: Business Inspiration, Cash Flow & Finance, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, How to Start, Sales, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: become a successful entrepreneur, business acquisition, buying a franchise, existing business, invest in a franchise, leadership in business, starting a business

The Owner Absence Test: Can Your Business Run Without You?

May 25, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

Few questions matter more to a business owner than this one: Can the company continue to operate smoothly if I step away for a period of time? The Owner Absence Test is a practical experiment that answers that question. It exposes single points of failure, uncovers undocumented processes, and reveals whether your team, systems, and […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Business Inspiration, Featured Post, Fix Your Business, Grow Your Business, Leadership, Sales, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: business owner, business systems, maintain business objectives, measure metrics, owner absence

Why Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers Should Think Like Publishers Before Writing a Book

May 18, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

A book can be the single most powerful tool for a coach, consultant, or speaker to build authority, expand reach, and create new revenue streams. But a book is also a product, a marketing platform, and an operations project. Treating it as an ad hoc creative exercise rather than a business initiative is how promising […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, Sales, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: book publishing, negotiating book contract, product launch, promotion of book, publishing path, sales and marketing

Sell More Without Spending More on Ads

May 11, 2026 By Melinda Emerson Leave a Comment

If your first instinct when sales slow down is to spend more on ads, we need to have a real conversation. In this economy, throwing money at marketing without fixing your internal sales systems is one of the fastest ways to burn cash and get frustrated doing it. Costs are up across the board. Digital […]

Filed Under: Branding & Marketing, Featured Post, Grow Your Business, Sales, Starting A Small Business, Women in Business, Your Small Business Tagged With: consistent communication, digital ads, email marketing, follow-up systems, online real estate, referral program, referrals

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How to Drive Inbound Leads and Turn Them Into Revenue

For many small businesses, inbound leads are among the most valuable sources of potential sales. When someone picks up the phone or goes to your website to contact your business, they are usually much closer to making a buying decision than someone casually browsing online. They already recognize they have a problem and are actively […]

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