Entrepreneurial Insight – Big Orders Mean Big Headache

November 23, 2009

In the past few weeks my company has taken two fairly large orders for our merchandise totally approximately $40,000. Although these orders are great for us, they have brought big headaches to Sand Shack.

After getting over my excitement of making some fantastic sales, I quickly realized the apparent difficulties with handling large orders for a [...]

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Make More Money: Forget About Personal Blogging

October 12, 2009

I began personal blogging more than a year ago.  For the first 8 months I was religious about posting, pumping out quality articles three to four times a week. Now I’m lucky if I put out two a month.
Before this summer, I was spending more than 15 hours per week writing articles and working [...]

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Guest Post: An Inside Perspective on Integrating Ocean Conservation and Business

October 6, 2009

Today I had the privilege of writing a guest post for Deep Sea News.  The authors of Deep Sea News are Craig McClain and Kevin Zelnio.  Craig and Kevin are active ocean conservationists and marine biologists and all around great guys. I reached out to them a few weeks ago to introduce myself and thank [...]

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4 Lessons Learned From Growing Sand Shack’s Social Media Presence

September 24, 2009

This past summer has been an exciting time for my company, Sand Shack, and me.  We have seen strong growth and our products are now found in nearly 200 stores around the United States.
Despite founding Sand Shack in 2006, I did not begin to use social media to market the company until recently.  This [...]

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What Entrepreneurship Has Taught Me About Personal Branding

August 20, 2009

Since starting my company 3 and half years ago, I have learned many important lessons – few are more significant than the following:
I’ve learned that the entrepreneur’s personal brand is just as important, if not more important, than the brand of the company he or she is building.  In fact, they are inseparable, especially [...]

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Local or Global Outsourcing – Knowing When to Go Global and When to Stay Local

August 15, 2009

Growing up as an American overseas, my natural inclination was to go directly to Asia to manufacture my products for Sand Shack.  I was comfortable dealing with Chinese and Filipino manufacturers and the language and cultural barriers did not worry me.  Since manufacturing my first product overseas in 2006 I have had no major issues [...]

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Sales is Still King – Social Media Has Changed Nothing

August 10, 2009

As businesses embrace blogging, Facebook, and Twitter at an ever-faster rate, the clutter and garbage being put out there is increasing exponentially. Many people believe that using social media will increase their company’s sales, but few companies are seeing a positive ROI on social media use.

I see two problems in how companies are using social [...]

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How the Gift and Resort Industry Can Use Social Media To Increase Business – A Seminar

July 19, 2009

This summer has me flying all over the United States, not just exhibiting Sand Shack products at trade shows, but speaking at them as well.
I am conducting hour-long seminars at multiple trade shows in front of buyers for gift and resort merchandise shops across the United States. I am honored and privileged to be [...]

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entreTip – Stop Wasting Time, Listen to Podcasts

March 5, 2009

entreTip is a short video clip that provides you with entrepreneurial advice to help you think bigger, work smarter, and grow your business faster.
How many hours do you spend each day listening to music? Do you spend hours in the car or on the plane doing nothing? You should stop wasting time and do something [...]

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How to Find Overseas Manufacturers to Make Your Products

March 4, 2009

You now know what you want and you have accurate designs or a prototype of the product you would like to manufacture.  Now comes the most fun and difficult part in the outsourcing process; finding a manufacturer.
If wiring thousands of dollars to an overseas manufacturer who you have never met is daunting to you, you [...]

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