by Lisa Canning | Oct 2, 2026 | Marketing
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. There’s a position in every small market that produces outsize returns: the recognized voice on the category. Not the biggest player. Not the cheapest. The...
by Lisa Canning | Sep 25, 2026 | Sales
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. There’s a difference between an audience that grows and an audience that recruits itself. Most small businesses are working hard to build the first, when...
by Lisa Canning | Sep 18, 2026 | Marketing
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. This is the first of two issues on the visibility engine — how sub-$10M businesses build durable founder authority and category recognition. We start with PR,...
by Lisa Canning | Sep 11, 2026 | Sales
Most small business owners think of awards the way they think of vacation: nice if you can afford it, not central to how the business runs. That framing is costing them money. Awards — the right ones, applied for the right way — are one of the highest-ROI sales...
by Lisa Canning | Sep 4, 2026 | Sales
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. This is the first of three issues on partnership architecture — how sub-$10M businesses build growth capacity through structured partner relationships rather...
by Lisa Canning | Aug 28, 2026 | Sales
Customer acquisition cost is one of the most misused numbers in small business marketing. Most owners calculate it wrong, compare it to the wrong benchmark, and make decisions on the result that quietly cost them years of growth. Nowhere is this more true than in...
by Lisa Canning | Aug 21, 2026 | Marketing
There’s a moment in almost every sales process where the buyer goes quiet. They were responsive. They asked questions. Then suddenly the replies stop, and the deal that felt warm goes cold. Most operators read this as a closing problem. It’s almost never a...
by Lisa Canning | Aug 14, 2026 | Sales
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. Most founders treat speaking like a chore — something they do when an event organizer asks, with mixed enthusiasm and no follow-through. The result: a...
by Lisa Canning | Aug 7, 2026 | Sales
Most small businesses I work with describe the same problem in different words. They tell me their funnel is leaking. They tell me referrals have slowed. They tell me ad costs are climbing while close rates aren’t. And every one of those framings sends them...
by Lisa Canning | Jul 31, 2026 | Sales
Examples in this piece are illustrative composites based on common situations, not specific named clients. Most B2B sales conversations are one-to-one. One seller, one buyer, one decision. The math of that model is unforgiving: every sale costs you a meeting, and your...
