Sometimes it is the tiniest of details that can cause the biggest headaches.

In July of 1977 New York City suffered a 24-hour blackout that resulted in riots, looting, arson and other incidents of general mayhem. Over 1,600 stores were damaged, 1,037 fires were started and 3,776 miscreants landed in jail.

Why? Lightning struck Con Edison’s Buchanan South substation, but it wasn’t that. Substations are equipped to handle the occasional bolt or two. No, it was a single locknut that an employee neglected to tighten that prevented the circuit breaker from reclosing, therefore cutting off the electricity to most of the city.

If you’re a small business owner, you may be struggling to do so many things at once that the idea of managing your customer relationships may seem like a neglectable detail. However, making repeat customers a priority can help you gain traction in sales and even reduce your workload too.

Need help? A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place can help you manage your customer relationships through automation that allows you to be in several places at once. you’ll end up being more effective in your marketing, customer service, and the bottom line as you reap the rewards of satisfied (and may we say delighted) repeat customers..

The Founding Fathers agreed that the U.S. Constitution wasn’t quite complete, so they added a set of amendments - ten of them - right off the bat. It became apparent that in order to head off the negatives of old European governmental systems, they needed to guarantee certain specific rights for the average citizen.

It was a bit like including some average Joes and Josephines in the room when our republic was in the planning stages. In answer to the “what about us?” question, the framers came up with ten privileges that couldn’t be removed without due process of the law.

On this day we can establish religious groups, own a gun, and get a fair trial without our government depriving us of the opportunity for no reason.

The Bill of Rights and the other 17 amendments make it clear that the interests of regular citizens is important enough to be included in our core lawmaking document.

The same should go for any business. When we say, “The customer is always right,” What does that mean, exactly? It means that your company should look at being customer-centric by making and keeping some promises- a “bill of rights” for leads.

Quick! Name your favorite swamp…

Oh, those marshy, boggy, bug-infested, zones of stagnant water. They serve their purpose, but only a very few hardy (and a little crazy?) souls want to live there.

Now picture a babbling mountain stream, cold, clear and rushing down it’s rocky streambed like it’s in a big hurry to get where it’s going.

Where would you rather be?

What’s true of B2C is also true of B2B. If you want your B2B business to be successful, your list of leads must constantly grow. Without the right leads and connections, your sales get stagnant - and your business takes a slip backwards into a green, murky, swamp-like state.

A constant source of leads and customers can transform a stagnant business into a glacier-fed, scenic river. So how do we lose the mosquitos and bring on the pines and salmon?

Your Website Address, For the Leads!

About domain names… Some people have their own domains that seem so real, but they're just inside their heads. They get to be king or queen of their private domain, but since its imaginary it doesn't do too much for their business.

Perhaps your domain is your business. Whatever you say goes, boss. It's fun to be the potentate of your own office until you realized you can't keep your employees longer than a few months.

Even though the domains we're talking about are invisible and you get to do whatever you want in them, they aren't just imaginary figments or political arrangements. No, they are online domains.

What we're talking about is a virtual space on the internet that is reserved for you, a principality marked out in megabytes and Kilohertz. This domain is the place where your customers get to know you, and ultimately decide to buy from you.

Why is your domain name important? Because a long, forgettable or irrelevant domain name makes you unfriendly. Your domain name represents you to world!

IIINNN THIS CORNER… Never Enough Tiiiiime

IIINNN THIS CORNER… NNNot Enough Monnnneeyyy

Every day for a small business owner feels like fight night, not enough time versus not enough money. It’s a tough one because growing your way out of the pinch takes sales, and sales takes marketing. The OTHER problem is that Fast and Cheap solutions almost never give you what you expect.

The temptation is to join your competitors who are galloping full-tilt after leads and chasing down sales using a carpet-bombing approach, but a healthy, sustainable focus on marketing may get lost in the dust. And it only gets you part way there.