Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

When you sell to people you truly can't stand, you make yourself less effective and hurt your sales growth. For the past week—the first I’ve had off since February 2007—I’ve been trying to decide how to best start out the new year

Billy Joel’s schmaltzy ballad “Honesty” spoke the truth back in 1979. Yet at the time, the accepted strategy for building a brand was creating perceptions that were often far removed from reality

Self-promotion is a necessary evil for anyone starting a business.

By focusing efforts on your best customers, you can increase customer value and grow your business.

For Jonas Eliasson to bring the Me-Mover to market, all it took was one eureka moment. And then 13 years of painstaking improvement. Like any sane human being, Jonas Eliasson hated commuting.

Balancing competing demands is just part of being an entrepreneur. But what do you do when your customers square off against your investors? Of all the balancing acts an entrepreneur faces, one of the trickiest is trying to keep investors and customers happy at the same time.

On the heels of Live Nation's acquisition of BigChampagne, the consumer data analytics firm, the ticket seller is set to make yet another high-profile pickup: Ethan Kaplan, Warner Music Group's former SVP of emerging technology, will soon join the company. Together with BigChampagne founder Eric Garland, the two will help redefine Live Nation and Ticketmaster's business through big data

On the heels of Live Nation's acquisition of BigChampagne, the consumer data analytics firm, the ticket seller is set to make yet another high-profile pickup: Ethan Kaplan, Warner Music Group's former SVP of emerging technology, will soon join the company. Together with BigChampagne founder Eric Garland, the two will help redefine Live Nation and Ticketmaster's business through big data

How knowing that you don't know much can help you make smarter decisions. You probably don't know nearly as much as you think you do. I certainly don't

These will be the five hardest slots for you (and any start-up) to fill in the new year. The year flew by mostly because it was a very, very busy one. Although the economy continues to face many challenges, the startup and tech industries are very much alive.

Women control $13 trillion in consumer spending. But most of the assumptions you make about them in your marketing are way off

Your online customers need help, not template e-mails.

Gifford's ice cream has been a New England institution for decades. Will its super-vivid new packaging help it go national or alienate existing customers? Gifford's ice cream has been a New England institution since the family-owned creamery, based in Skowhegan, Maine, opened its first ice cream stand, in 1980.

The challenging economy has forced everyone to look at cutting unnecessary costs.

You need to get the word out about your new product or service. What if you paid someone -- or a lot of people -- to review it for you?