Michael Costigan, Contributor
A youth motivational speaker, Michael Costigan is one of the nation's youngest CEOs who was recently named 'Young Business Leader of the Year' by the National Financial Educators Council.
No Marketing Budget? 3 Proven Strategies for Direct Selling
For cash-strapped startups, spending big bucks on marketing isn't a possibility. Instead, here's how to drum up customers directly.
Time Management — No, But Really This Time
We all want to do more things in less time. It's a common theme throughout all of corporate America, and it even extends into professions like healthcare, education, and civil service. We can't rely on the institution we've placed ourselves …
4 Lifestyle Patterns Successful Entrepreneurs Share
Successful entrepreneurs make profits from their passions. They decide what actions they must take in order to establish or grow their own business. After speaking with many entrepreneurs from all different fields, it has become increasingly apparent they all share …
Four Startup Lessons Learned the Hard Way
It has been a while since I wrote an article on startups, and with good reason too. I have spent the last few months making mistakes in my own startup and learning these lessons the hard way. You can never …
How to Recover, Rebrand, and Revive Your Business
As a brand strategy consultant for a few small companies, I've recently seen a worrisome trend growing progressively worse: business stratification. Typically businesses stratify for two reasons – sometimes they stratify for growth, but more commonly to prevent a collapse. …
Streamlining Your Life for Maximum Effectiveness
There are a million and one things out there we have all read about productivity and efficiency. I've read The Four Hour Work Week, Getting Things Done, and Rework. These books offer many helpful hints, but they also have quite …
4 Effective Ways to Increase Publicity around Your Brand
When you first launch a personal brand it can often take longer than you would expect to gain traction. We have unrealistic expectations for how long it should take us to reach a certain number of Twitter followers or fans …
4 Ways to Increase Publicity Around Your Brand
When you first launch a personal brand it can often take longer than you would expect to gain traction. We have unrealistic expectations for how long it should take us to reach a certain number of Twitter followers or fans …
3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Author Content
Web users today have grown accustomed to websites built around constant fluidity. Since the blog revolution of the early 2000s and now the rise of Facebook and Twitter, almost every website the average person will access on any given day …
Thoughts on a New Year's Business Resolution
As in our own lives, the start of a new year energizes us as business owners to sit down and plan out our goals for the coming year. We consider what sales figures we hope to achieve, the many directions …
4 Critical Aspects of Closing Any Deal
In the business world there is a term called the "unqualified prospect". This is an individual who claims to want or need your service/product, but who has not yet confirmed whether or not they will be able to make the …
4 Best Practice Tips for Managing Independent Contractors
Hiring independent contractors to work on a per project basis and/or extended periods of time at both established companies and startups has become an increasingly popular choice over the past few years. There are many reasons for this, among which …
3 Simple Things You Can Do Today for SEO
If you're not an experienced web developer or webmaster, there are a few things you may not be doing that could significantly contribute to helping your website(s) rank higher in search engines. These are simple things that anyone with basic …
5 Steps to Legally Forming or Incorporating Your First Business
First I must make a disclaimer, I am neither a business lawyer, nor do I hold any professional qualifications in business law. This article is written merely on my experience and understandings after having co-founded a Limited Liability Company (LLC) …
4 Steps to Becoming a Master of Google AdWords
Google AdWords is something most all of us have probably heard of, however many people spend more money than they have to, or misspend money because their campaigns aren't properly optimized. The system is simple enough: choose a demographic, set …
3 Steps to Bagging an Awesome Mentor
It goes without saying that every entrepreneur, no matter their age, can always benefit from the expertise of a skilled and seasoned mentor. This is a person who's gone through the whole "been there, done that" type of thing. Furthermore, …
Personal Brands are All the Rage – Here are Four Reasons Why Many Fail
Today's world has many successful personal brands – Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Tony Robbins to name a few. Their success has led many to believe that their own ideas and philosophies can be practically applied to the world market …
4 Online Tools That Can Help Any Internet Startup
It seems like everyone is looking for a way to start a business online. Some try and sell their services online, others their manufactured product, still others even start online social networks and "Web 2.0" SaaS (Software as a Service). …
