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How the heck would a painting company use AI?

I come from a family of early adopters. I remember when we got our first microwave and VCR. My mom was even a beta tester in the early ’80s for QuickBooks—on her Apple IIe. The same Apple IIe I took to college in 1984, when everyone else brought electric typewriters. So, it’s no surprise that our office has jumped headfirst into using AI. Here are just a few ways it’s helping us out: Our…

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Want to get a new hire up to speed quickly? Then make your hiring process really slow. Read my 5-step hiring process that returns great employees.

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Looking busy.

Yes, you can now hire me to recruit great staff. There’s a big difference between working and making progress. It’s easy to fall into doing what feels productive, even when it’s not moving the needle. Take social media, for example. I can post all day for my painting business. But let’s be honest—no one’s looking to be Facebook “friends” with their painter. We’re painting, not doing backflips…

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Selling rare big-ticket items? Remember: your customer’s just a beginner.

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The Thrill of a No-Spend Month.

I just wrapped up No-Spend January. I’ve always spent less in January. Mostly as an antidote to my holiday spending hangover, and also because January is my company's slowest month. But this time, I wanted to take it further and see if I could spend nothing. Of course, I still bought...

I just wrapped up No-Spend January. I’ve always spent less in January. Mostly as an antidote to my holiday spending hangover, and also because January is my company’s slowest month. But this time, I wanted to take it further and see if I could spend nothing. Of course, I still bought necessities like groceries and gas, but everything else? Off-limits. Here were my rules: I could buy…

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Hi, I'm Paige

I help small business owners not hate marketing. What if you could recognize marketing opportunities all around you? Like when you’re thinking of buying an orange car, and you suddenly see orange cars everywhere. Marketing is simpler than you think. None of this is rocket science, and I try to boil down the theory into concrete actions.  Even after 30 years, I find running a small business…

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The Dip.

"Excited to order coffee in French, only to struggle with grammar and rapid native speech? The dip. See quick weight loss, then hit a plateau? The dip. Great freshman year, but now in a sophomore slump? The dip."

Recently, I took up watercolor. I started with a pricey watercolor set and high-quality paper to ensure my tools wouldn’t hold me back. I spent hours at Michael’s pondering which brush was best. There was something meditative about weighing the options, feeling the bristles, and imagining how each one would shape my strokes. I started small, painting postcards. I didn’t realize at the time…

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Hybrid Calendaring: Paper and digital calendars unite!

Each Friday afternoon, I plan for the following week. Friday afternoons are usually unproductive, and planning requires little effort and offers a huge boost to productivity. I started this when my kids were younger. Back then, I’d often find...

Each Friday afternoon, I plan for the following week. Friday afternoons are usually unproductive, and planning requires little effort and offers a huge boost to productivity. I started this when my kids were younger. Back then, I’d often find conflicts, like the Kindergarten Halloween Parade smack in the middle of a staff meeting. By planning at the end of the week, I gave myself time to pull…

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Disproportionate joy.

Brittney Hodak is a customer experience expert who spoke at a conference I attended last week. She shared fun ideas aimed at making the customer experience more delightful. And demonstrating how these (free and inexpensive) touches are good...

Small things = good business. Brittney Hodak is a customer experience expert who spoke at a conference I attended last week. She shared whimsical ideas aimed at making the customer experience more delightful. And she demonstrated how these (free and inexpensive) touches are good business. It’s a case of disproportionate joy: The ability for something small to make us feel really…

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A culture of noticing.

When my kids were little, they were given a small allowance for folding the clean towels and pillowcases. I sweetened the deal by offering to double their allowance if they noticed the laundry needed to be folded, and did it without being told...

When my kids were little, they were given a small allowance for folding the clean towels and pillowcases. I sweetened the deal by offering to double their allowance if they noticed the laundry needed to be folded, and did it without being told. I even dumped the linens in front of the door to their room, so they couldn’t help but trip over it. But most times, they stepped right over the pile,…

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The G.I. Joe Fallacy

Professor Laurie Santos from Yale, coined the phrase "G.I. Joe Fallacy." She explains it like this: In the 1980s, there was a popular Saturday-morning cartoon about G.I. Joe. At the end of each episode...

Professor Laurie Santos from Yale, coined the phrase “G.I. Joe Fallacy.” She explains it like this: In the 1980s, there was a popular Saturday-morning cartoon about G.I. Joe. At the end of each episode, the show featured a public service announcement where a character would deliver a safety tip or life lesson, ending with the tagline: “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” But, as…

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When delegation feels like work (and why that's normal)

Longtime readers know I have a fraught relationship with delegation. I know I should delegate to leverage my time. But I have a hard time letting go....read more

Longtime readers know I have a fraught relationship with delegation. I know I should delegate to leverage my time. But I have a hard time letting go. I’d think things like: “If I have to stay involved, I’ll just do it myself.” “I shouldn’t need to check in to be sure safety lessons are being completed.” But then I came across an interesting perspective from time management expert Laura…

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Chief Reminding Officer

If you own a business and feel like you're constantly reminding your staff about rules and processes, rest assured—you’re not alone. When I first started my business, it was nimble. I made a rule one minute, and the next minute it was put into action...

If you own a business and feel like you’re constantly reminding your staff about rules and processes, rest assured—you’re not alone. When I first started my business, it was nimble. I made a rule one minute, and the next minute it was put into action. Subscribe Even when I hired my first few staff members, it was easy to talk over a problem and set up processes that would almost always…

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Should NPS "promoters" really be called "promoters?"

We use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure client satisfaction, and even when we receive a 10, I definitely wouldn’t call most of those clients “promoters.” Sure, most are satisfied with the work we’ve done, but that’s not the same as true advocacy...

We use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure client satisfaction. When we get a score of 10 (indicating a promoter), I definitely wouldn’t call most of these clients “promoters.” Sure, most are satisfied with the work we’ve done, but that’s not the same as true advocacy. And with “survey fatigue” folks give companies good scores without much thought. I think of real promoters as the…

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Stuck with it.

It turns out many early decisions stick with you years later. Read about this on today's post.

In my attic I have a box from a computer I bought in the 1990s from a company called “Gateway 2000.” 2000 sounded so futuristic back then. But by 2001, it was like spotting holiday lights still up in April. I’ve come to realize how important it is to choose a good name from day one, because the name you start with will almost always stick. Today, we still call the production software we…

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Really apply.

Take applying to the next level in my latest blog post. #SmallBusinessManagement, #Entrepreneurship, #BusinessStrategy, #DigitalMarketing, #ProductivityHacks, #TimeManagement, #EmployeeRelations, #Leadership, #BusinessGrowth, #MarketingStrategy

I’ve been thinking about how one of the definitions of the word “apply” often takes center stage: ap·ply verb Make a formal application.“He filled out the Common App to apply to college.” But there’s another meaning of “apply” that doesn’t seem to get as much use: ap·ply verb Give one’s full attention to a task; work hard.“She applied herself to perfecting her baking skills and won the Great…

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Run to the problem

Each week, I post something that didn’t go quite as planned. The other day we got a 3-star Google review from a client who wasn’t completely satisfied. This is why we have a “emergency” protocol in place to handle issues like this quickly. Here’s how it went down: I receive notifications from Google each time a review is posted so I was able to respond within 30 minutes of the posting. Notice…