Articles

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" February13, 2012

Keep your eyes open for these red flags; they could make a partnership go off the rails.

For a business to succeed, you may need to look to partnerships in order to grow. You may want to offer another service to your customers, or another business might want to offer your services to their customers because it’s not a core competency of theirs. Either way, stars need to align, customers need to be happy and both parties need to take it seriously if any partnership is going to succeed.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" February 6, 2012

Does the press love your business as much as you do? Here are five ways to grab the media's attention--no PR expertise required.

I’ll admit it, I wasn’t a public relations expert when I started my e-mail marketing company, VerticalResponse. I’m a marketer; more specifically, a direct marketer. I need to have a result and attach it to how much I’ve spent to get that result. PR is a bit squishy, so it was hard at first to embrace having to do it. But over the years, I’ve seen the success of PR and am a big supporter of getting your business name out there in the press.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" January 30, 2012

Small businesses are always thinking about clever ways to save money, and cab drivers are no exception.

Driving a taxi is a small business and a tough one, especially in San Francisco, where I live. They’ve got a ton of rules and regulations preventing them from making good money, and get this: The city’s bus drivers get paid more than they do! On top of it all, they are probably the last bunch of taxis in a major city to hop on the credit card bandwagon.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" January 23, 2012

Those few minutes you save by hitting "cc" might not be worth it. Here's why.

I was talking to our head of technology, Eric, the other day about some engineering costs we’re going to incur with an outside vendor. Eric was looking around at two or three different vendors to do the trick for us. So I asked him about one of the vendors he was assessing. He put a pretty strong kibosh on them. I’d never seen him shut a company down that quickly. What could they possibly have done? He told me, “A clerical error, but a pretty big one.”

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" January 16, 2012

The secret to successful selling? Don't sell right away.

If you’re in a position to “sell” at your company (and no matter what you do for your company, you should be), then you know it’s not always easy to get the ear of the prospect you’re trying to sell to. The worst thing you can do is get on a call or get in front of someone you don’t know and–without knowing their problems–start selling. It’s off-putting to the person you’re selling to, and ultimately you’re wasting both his/her time and yours.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" January 6, 2012

Will anyone show up? What if people get bored? Check out these five ideas to set your next company event up for success.

Throwing a company event is a fantastic way to meet new people, spread the word about your business and have some good old-fashioned fun. But if you’re the organizer, it can be quite intimidating. How do you get the word out? Will anyone show up? Will people get bored? Here are a few ideas to combat some of the biggest event planning fears, so you and your guests can focus on having a great time.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" December 20, 2011

Your "on the street" employees can be an important resource for business-building ideas.

It’s crazy to think that all great ideas need to come from you or from your top managers. Chances are, your employees who are your “feet on the street” know more about your customers than you might. If they know so much, why not tap into that knowledge and ask them for ideas?

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" November 29, 2011

How, and when, to react to employees' social media posts can be challenging. Here, some tips.

I treat Facebook and Twitter pretty differently – I use Twitter ( @janinepopick ) for business and Facebook for both. I am somewhat selective when it comes to whom I accept as a Facebook friend. But with Twitter, I think the more followers, the better. If you follow me on Twitter, I pretty much set the scene for what I’ll be posting.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" November 14, 2011

My company recently moved to a new space, and even the slightest changes made a big difference in employee morale.

We've been around for 10 years, seven of them in the same building (which I loved). But as a result of our growth, we ended up on two different floors. Divided. It's tough to keep a culture together when a company is split in two.

Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Girl Power Female CEOs" October 31, 2011

What worked well for your company yesterday may not be the best today. Make sure you're getting the best results by putting various parts of your business to the test.

You should be constantly trying new things in all parts of your business to get better results and, in the long run, grow. Here are a few ideas you might try to test.