In a 1990's edition of the comic strip Dilbert, the Pointy-Haired Boss announces he's going off to a 4-star hotel for a two week management retreat. Needless to say, his staff isn't impressed. The strip hints at the underlying feelings many people have about corporate retreats: expensive wastes of time where executives practice silly exercises like trust falls and rope challenges, all the while gorging themselves on exotic foods in some tropical paradise.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Properly planned and executed, a staff retreat can provide a wonderful vehicle to re-energize yourself or your team, encourage cooperation across different departments and strengthen internal bonds.

“Never put off till tomorrow what can be put off until the day after tomorrow.”
“Me?  A procrastinator?  I’ll prove you wrong, just you wait and see.”

Do any of these quotes sound like you, when it comes to doing your taxes?  Like the tide, you can sense the filing deadline washing inevitably towards you, yet you still haven’t gotten them started.  Don’t worry: you’re not alone. The last day of tax season is also one of the busiest. If you’re the type that likes to put everything together at the last minute, here are some tips to help:

Since we were children, we’ve been taught about the importance of goals.

We set them, achieve them and work towards them. Sometimes, like the plants in our homes or offices, we conveniently forget about them, or at other times, we lose sight of them in the shuffle of our daily lives. But if our goals are to bear fruit, we need to occasionally remember to turn to towards the light or water them.

Integrate Your Site To Your CRM! Managing a membership site can seem like a herculean task, but when you combine it with one of your other tools it can become a breeze.

Beware of Data Skew

Simply put, the more lists that you have that contain the same data, the more likely they are to not match up. This is called data skew.

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Sherrie at SLS Event Planning and Consulting LLC, organizes, sets up, and manages various corporate, public, and private events and meetings.

We’ve known Sherrie a long time and have confidence and respect for her amazing event planning skills, so please give her our regards when you call.

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The Sales & Marketing Software for Small Business.

Customer & Marketing management: Manage and automate all facets of your customer relationships. Infusionsoft revolutionizes the way small businesses drive and manage their growth. With a robust dose of marketing automation, Infusionsoft replaces your diverse incompatible systems and provides you with an "all-in-one" solution that leaves you with more time to strategically grow your business.

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Your day has 1,440 minutes in it, so what difference will 15 minutes make? At just over 1 percent of those potentially available minutes, it seems like no time at all. For starters, it’s long enough to get something done, and short enough to make sure you can chisel it out of your schedule.

If you’re prepared, you’ll be surprised to find you can get more done in 15 minutes than you can in an entire afternoon.

“You’re my #1 customer,” says workaholic Howard Langston in the 1996 film Jingle All the Way. It may be a phrase that works wells for Langston’s clients, but it’s not what his wife wants to hear when she calls him at the office to ask why he’s not attending the graduation ceremony for his son’s karate class.  Like many of us, Langston is passionate about his work, but even when we’re passionate, we still need balance.

An interesting real-life example of devotion to business and family to the professed exclusion of all else is Carlos Brito, 55-year-old Brazilian CEO of InBev, which took over Anheuser-Busch in 2008. If you are a GKIC member, read about him in the January 2016 No B.S. Newsletter. If not, check out Fortune.com’s interview here.

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 One Click Upsell

If you sell products, services or entry to events, using Infusionsoft's order forms, and you are not leading the new buyer to an immediate up sell, YOU ARE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE!!!

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Change the RULES of Mobile Marketing.

Before now, mobile marketing was severely limited. You could only send a single text in response to a single incoming text message. This caused people using mobile marketing to settle for less than effective marketing strategies.

Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.

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Change the RULES of Mobile Marketing.

Before now, mobile marketing was severely limited. You could only send a single text in response to a single incoming text message. This caused people using mobile marketing to settle for less than effective marketing strategies.

Try Automated SMS for Only $1!

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Days have an annoying habit of only having 24 hours in them. Your email is full of important messages, and reading time is in short supply. The bottom line is that if you’re going read a business or marketing blog, it had better be time well spent.  

Not to worry. These are blogs that you won’t mind taking up space in your inbox, including a few about some of the greatest marketing geniuses of all times. And why not lead off with one of those geniuses?

In an iconic Calvin and Hobbs comic strip, Hobbs is reminding 6-year-old Calvin that his leaf project for school will soon be due. “You haven’t even started.”  

“I work better under pressure,” Calvin responds.

“You only work under pressure,” Hobbs grumbles.

When it comes to taxes, many of us can relate to Calvin. The forms, the hassles, the annoying number crunching and obscure rules can make it a nuisance we’d rather not deal with. On top of that, you need to plan for the future as well as deal with the present, which means not only filing this year’s taxes, but gearing up for next year’s as well.

How do you build your business? What are the oncoming trends that you must pay attention to? Will some new philosophy come along to change the way business is done? Each year hundreds of thousands of pages and countless digital gigabytes are devoted to these questions. No matter how dedicated you are, you’ll never have time to read them all. You probably shouldn’t even try. Here are five of the best 2016 has to offer:
 

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Automagically Email Your Infusionsoft Contacts When You Update Your Blog or Feed

With FeedBolt, simply enter your blog URL, select an Infusionsoft Tag, and choose your template. FeedBolt takes care of the rest.

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