Online Business Adviser

The Forum For Online Business Success

It seems somewhat serendipitous, but I was looking through some of my old content last night to see if my views on anything had changed since I started Online Business Adviser, and discovered that it is exactly one year ago today that I wrote my first blog post (other than my “Hi, welcome to the blog” post).

Back then I spoke about the importance of finding your online business niche, and that you shouldn’t build a business out of a desire to make money.

If I am to reflect on this post alone, I can definitley say that I am of the same opinion, particularly after reading Crush It (my review here), where Gary Vaynerchuck talks about building a business around and through your passion.  Read more...

I’ve just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuck’s Crush It. The book was released in October last year, so I know that a lot of people may have already picked it up, but if you haven’t and you are new to online business, looking to take it to the next level, or have any interest in social media at all – buy and read this book now.

For those of you not familiar with Gary’s work, he took his father’s $4 million a year wine business and managed to turn it into a $60 million a year goliath through the power of social media and personal branding.

There are many things I loved about this book. Firstly it’s less than 150 pages long, which makes it a very quick read. In every one of those 150 pages, it’s almost like Gary himself is there telling it to you. Watch him on www.winelibrary.tv to see what I mean. Rather than talking about how to run a business that will make a fortune, he talks about capitalising on your passion in order to be successful – whatever that success looks like.  Read more...

Yesterday I was shopping for my wife’s birthday present, and was at the counter when I was asked if I had a Myer One card. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked this question – it’s the stock standard one that all Myer staff are required to ask.

But something different happened today. When I said no, I was asked, “would you like to apply for one?”

This is the first time I’ve ever had a sales person try to upsell me to their rewards card, and it made me wonder how many new card customers Myer is missing because not all of their staff ask this. Obviously not everyone would say yes (I still didn’t) but even if it gathered a few more applicants a day then surely it’s a worthwhile exercise?  Read more...