Are You Ready To Start Your Own Business?

 No Responses »
May 122013
 

The 4 Key Questions You Must Ask!

your own businessEvery year millions of people answer “Yes” when asked if “they are ready to start their own business” and every year that answer costs many of them money, time, confidence, and heartache.

According to the SBA, two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years and 44 percent survive at least four years. Two of the key factors in the survival rate and ability to thrive for new business owners are the owner’s education level and the owner’s reason for starting their own business in the first place.

There are resources available to small business owners that not everyone might be aware of. See ” Are You Taking Advantage of the FREE Mentoring Available to all Small Business Owners?” for more information about SCORE (An association with over 12,500 volunteer small business owners and executives who are still working, retired, and in-transition who give their time to counsel and mentor entrepreneurs and other small business owners).

How can you make sure you come out a winner in this “game”? The answer depends upon many things, including your answers to the following questions:

1. Are You Ready

Have you mentally prepared yourself for the changes that will take place when you switch from employee to boss? You are going to be the one making decisions now about everything! You will be in complete control and you have to be sure you are prepared for this type of responsibility. This can be a double-edged sword in that the desire for complete control is often the driving force behind many people’s decision to start their own business yet it can also be the source of much angst for entrepreneurs.

It is important to remember that in a small business you will wear many hats. Even if you manage to start out with one or more employees you will each fulfill more than one role in your new business. And if you are running a one-man or one-woman show then you serve in every capacity from file clerk to maintenance crew to salesman to CEO. Can you handle switching from task to task and role to role like that? Are you willing to make those switches?

Similarly, have you prepared your family and friends for this switch in attitude. Your life is going to change — probably pretty drastically — and that change can have a positive or negative impact on your family life and social interactions. It will make things much easier if your friends and family are supportive going into the process.

2. Where Is Your Niche?

Have you identified your niche yet? One of the reasons many businesses fail is that they fail to focus on a target audience. Yes if you are a major discount chain then you can sell everything from peanuts to wallpaper but this type of business requires vast resources that just aren’t available to the small business. But small businesses dominate the marketplace (creating more than 50 percent of the private gross domestic product last year) by finding a different approach — a niche.

Knowing your niche means you are better able to find, target, and maintain your customers as well as provide the best possible goods and services to that customer base. That focus is one of your best chances to not only survive but to thrive in a very competitive marketplace.

3. What Is Your Plan Of Action?

Another key factor in the survival and ultimate success of your business is how much planning you do before you open your electronic or physical doors. You need to decide if your business will be based on the internet or include more traditional models. Are you going to work full-time or part-time at your new business? Are you going to hire help or go solo? Have you written (or at least outlined) your business plan? Dreaming, thinking and planning can save you much trouble and waste later when things are hectic and problems strike. Planning can also help keep you focused and to balance your spending and time.

4. Who Are You Going To Call?

Ghost Busters! Sorry, couldn’t resist that one :) At some point, no matter how experienced a business person you are, you will need help. You will need support, advice, tools, or information — or all of the above. One of the beautiful, and most frightening, aspects of growth is that it can lead you to places you never imagined. No matter how much planning and experience you bring to your new position as CEO the unexpected will arise. How will you cope with this? It is important to recognize that no business is an island. It is not failure to seek help. Failure is when your business shuts down because you didn’t get the help you needed.

The best way to get timely help is to work on your support system while you work on building your business. That way you will already have a ready list of resources available that you can quickly tap into when emergencies strike. In today’s world there are many marvelous resources available to you no matter what your business model may be. These include:

~ Publications (newsletters, magazines, books)
~ People (professional advisers, mentors, teachers, consultants)
~ Networks (organizations and forums in your niche as well as general business and marketing)
~ Education and training (tutorials, courses, and seminars)

After you have answered these four key questions you are now ready to ask yourself that one big question again — are you ready to start your own business?

What Questions Should You Ask Yourself Before Starting Your Own Business?

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Social Media is the Marketing Tool that will Make or Break Your Business

 1 Response »
Oct 112012
 

You Have To Be In The Game To Play

social mediaIf you are not using social media as part of the marketing strategy for your business, then the only thing you are accomplishing is losing business to your competitors. Your competitors are using social media to attract new clients and communicate with existing ones. It is no longer a question of whether or not businesses should be using social media networking and marketing; the question is now how businesses should be integrating social media into its marketing mix.

It’s Not a Trend

Marketing is one of those tasks in a business that is necessary but daunting at the same time. It may also seem as if a new marketing trend comes along all the time and if you tried every one, you and your business would be broke. This, however, is not the case when it comes to social media marketing. This type of marketing is not a trend and is here to stay.

What this means for your business is that you need to learn how to leverage the power of social media now or suffer the consequences of lost customers and a decrease in profits later.

It Creates a Sales Force

Still not convinced that social media is a powerful tool for promoting your business and boosting your sales? Consider that the average Facebook user has about 140 friends. Assume that one of your clients mentions that they just bought your product or used one of your services and how great it was. You just received a positive advertisement for your business that reached at least 140 people.

Then, multiply the 140 people the initial message reached by the 140 people each of these friends has on their Facebook page, and now we’re talking about some serious numbers. And, all you had to do is create the platform for these conversations to take place and your sales force to start spreading the word for you.

It’s Free

When it comes to the marketing budget, it is always music to a business owner’s ears when they find out that the use of social media marketing is free. You or an employee should put together a social media marketing plan and someone has to implement the plan, but other than the time it takes to do this, social media marketing does not cost you or your business a dime. Stop fighting it. Join the millions of small, medium, and huge corporations that are using social media as part of their marketing strategy today. If you continue to fight it, you may as well just refer your customers directly to your main competitor that is using social media.

The Power of Social Media


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Building Your Business Online So Your Potential Clients Can Find You!

 3 Responses »
Oct 082012
 

You Can’t Afford NOT To Be Findable In Today’s Market

found in searchSmall businesses should understand that the Internet is replacing the Yellow Pages. And just like the good ole days of the Yellow Pages, when a customer starts searching they are usually ready to buy.

Will Your Potential Clients Be Able To Find You?

If your business doesn’t have an Internet presence as part of your Marketing Strategy then you probably can’t be found in the place where 80% of potential customers start their search for your product or service.

Your Customers Expect You To Be On The Internet!

Whether you are a real estate agency, plumber, dentist, lawyer, contractor, it doesn’t matter, if you can’t be found on the Internet you are losing business. Even if you have a website that isn’t being promoted it’s like putting up a billboard in the desert. It still means NO customers.

Internet Marketing is NOT Just About Having a Website. It’s About Being Found by Customers Ready to do Business With You and Making More Sales!

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Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

 No Responses »
Aug 232012
 

Your Ability to Craft Good Emails in Your Email Marketing Campaign Can Make or Break Your Business

mistakesYou’ve worked hard setting up your business funnels, drawing tons of traffic and converting them into leads. Now’s left the difficult task of making profits through your email marketing campaign.

Mistakes to Avoid in Your Email Marketing

-Using spammy looking headlines. If you send emails with spammy-looking headlines such as those that contain the words sex, Viagra and drugs, your emails will get caught in the spam filters and you’ll have a much lower delivery rate overall.

-Using long weird looking affiliate links. It’s good to make affiliate income but you must bear in mind, many affiliates are long an unsightly. The solution? Use an affiliate link cloaking software or a url shortener such as TinyURL or Bit.ly.

-Using long email width length. Ideally, the length from left to right for the text of your emails should be no longer than 200 characters. This will help you to improve readability and usability. People have a tendency to scroll up and down rather than left to right.

-Too much hard-sell. Treating your customers right is important, and while making profits is important as well, it should not go at the expense of your readers attention. A good guideline would be to send 1 promo offer for every 9 emails of valuable content. That way, you can “train” your readers to lookout for your emails for good stuff everytime you send something and not opt out from your list.

In short, strive to provide the utmost value through your email marketing campaign and you will be paid in direct proportion to the amount of value you provide. There are no shortcuts to success.

Guide to Email Marketing

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How to Make YOUR Marketing Message Stand Out

 6 Responses »
Jun 232012
 

How Do You Make Sure Your Marketing Message is Heard as Your Target Travels Along the Information Highway?information marketing message

You must first identify your ideal client.

Clearly describe what you do.

Use action words.

Don’t be boring!

Deliver your message in video.

Pinpoint the main benefits of your offering(s).

Deliver your message on websites, blogs, newsletters, emails, promotional materials and more.

Make sure your Marketing Message is… Descriptive, consistent, valuable, and …UNFORGETTABLE!

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Effective Email Marketing Builds Relationships

 19 Responses »
May 022012
 

Building a Solid Relationship With Your Subscriber

business relationshipBuilding a relationship is important because it can make the difference between making a sale and losing it to your competitor. If you had a choice between making a purchase from a friend or a stranger if you needed a certain product or service, all other things (including price) being equal, who would you choose to buy from? Your friend of course. People like to do business with people they know and trust.

Email Marketing Can Give You A Competitive Edge

When two companies offer the same or similar product or service, building a strong rapport with your list can give you the competitive edge.

How to Build Rapport With Your Subscriber

  • Keep in touch with your mailing list often.
  • Don’t mail them only when you need to promote a product
  • Ask about their needs and concerns.
  • Use questionnaires and get them involved.
  • Ask them what they want you to provide for them to help them with their business.
  • Send them freebies occassionally. It could be in the form of free reports, blog templates, graphics or even free membership access!
  • Be personal. Let them see your human side or your personal life. It sure beats dry, stale E-mails that talk about product launches all day.
  • Be educational. When you impart something of value to your subscribers, they will see you as your industry-expert that lends credence to what you have to say. This will come in handy when you want them to ‘listen’ to you and buy whatever you are selling

Establishing Your Credibility

  • Talk about your experiences as a business professional. If you’ve run an offline business before, use it to establish your credibility as a business owner. If you’ve been in sales and marketing before, use it to establish your credibility as a marketing professional.
  • Let others tell the story. It would be better to let others sing your praises – especially in the form of testimonials.

Helping Small Business Owners Leverage The Internet

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  • Develop and Nurture Trusting Relationship With Your Customers
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You can see Introducing The Instant Sales System From Priceless Possibilities on my Youtube Channel along with other videos about Small Business and Video Marketing.

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How to Become Your Industry Expert

 35 Responses »
Apr 142012
 

It is All About the Value Your Provide as Your Industry Expert!

Providing ValueYou don’t have to be the originator or all the content you provide to your target market. YES original content is important so you should definitely provide as much original content as you have. However, there are many other ways to help establish yourself as your industry expert. How?

Share Other Industry Expert’s Content

Does this mean take someone else’s content and put your name on it? NO! That would be stealing! It DOES mean that you could and should SHARE their content with your target market/lists/clients/potential clients.

Be Selective, Do Your Research

You don’t want to just share anything. Remember your goal is to provide VALUABLE information from other authorities in your niche. The more value you provide, the more people will follow you, listen to you, and know where to go when they need answers/solutions/products/services. How?

Set up an RSS Feed

Don’t listen to me – this is not my area of expertise. However, it IS one of Kimberly Castleberry’s so read her post Create or Subscribe To Google+ Public Shares By RSS Feed with PlusFeed. How’s that for a real-life example of what this post is about? :)

Why Should You Establish Yourself as Your Industry Expert?

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Who Has a Longer Memory – an Elephant or the Internet?

 23 Responses »
Apr 262011
 

Did You Know that Elephants are More Intelligent than Humans?Elephant

Yup, that is what the scientists tell us.

The elephant brain is denser than the human’s, and the temporal lobes, associated with memory, are more developed than in humans. Elephant’s lobes also have more foldings, so that they can store more information. That’s why elephants have excellent memory.” (source). So here is the question, what has a better memory, the elephant or the Internet?

This post is actually following up on a comment by Rick Lelchuk about personal responsibility and how the onus of this responsibility falls on the individual. He used the memory of the Internet as an example, meaning if someone uses bad judgment once and blurts out something online without thinking of the long and far-reaching consequences of this action, it will haunt them for a very long time – because the Internet remembers.

I have heard of many specific examples where people are suffering from these unwanted consequences of “bad” Internet behavior – some not even by choice. One woman in particular was mentioned in an article about a scandalous case when she actually had nothing to do with the case; she came on the scene after the incident. This is actually not an example of personal responsibility, as she had nothing to do with it, but it is a good example of the very long memory of the Internet. Her name still appears on the first page in Google, and although it doesn’t say anything negative about her, we all know about “guilt by association”. Couple that with the fact that many people don’t read beyond the first paragraph or so and tend to make judgments based on perhaps only half of the facts. How many times have you heard someone say, “I read a review about such-and-such and it proves the product (or service) is crappy’, yet if you check out the same review, you might often find the second, third, fourth, etc. reviews are actually positive?

Take another example of someone losing their cool online and acting unprofessionally – as we have all seen. This person’s comment will be showing up in Google for a lot longer than he or she will appreciate – no doubt. There are reputation management companies out there specifically for the purposes of managing and/or helping re-build business’ reputation. Have you seen examples of people saying something online that has left its mark on their reputation? No names please :)

Charlie Sheen & Lindsay Lohan or Bust?

 17 Responses »
Apr 132011
 

Give the People What They Want?

I just finishcenter stageed reading Elegant Gurus Beating Straw Men by Greg Satell where he discusses, with wit, how many notable business Guru’s backed by impressive credentials have chosen hyperbole over substantiated facts in some of their writings. His sentence: ““However, in seeking to sensationalize business trends by citing and then continually reiterating false premises, they do us all a disservice” brought to mind two words – “Charlie Sheen” and that conjured up the image of Lindsay Lohan and what I have been saying for a while about both of them: They both need to have the silver spoons ripped out of their mouths and get a real good spanking for being “bad”.  Why are we constantly hearing about these lost souls and why are they getting so much media attention? Because sensationalism sells – period (which is exactly what I wrote on Greg’s blog post).  Why prominent business experts are falling prey to similar tactics is something I will leave to Greg to continue writing about as this is his area of expertise and he does it so well. But what does this mean for small business owners?

Well, it doesn’t mean that we should all go out, get drunk, party all night, and get arrested that’s for sure. I think it means that we need to be more creative in our marketing efforts and lean towards Guerrilla Marketing tactics. We are always hearing about how we have to be different and stand out from all our competitors. That is not so easy when most markets are already over-saturated, competition is incredibly fierce, and everyone is faced with information overload every single day. Think about those companies who have utilized unconventional marketing strategies. Remember the old Calvin Klein commercials? They had nothing to do with jeans but were very suggestive – sex sells and do did Calvin Klein. How about the Herbal Essence commercials? Who doesn’t remember those? Same topic – totally different product. If one’s goal is brand awareness and brand recognition, even being obnoxious like Crazy Eddie will get your brand remembered – whether or not it will increase your sales is another story altogether.

So maybe the next time you are considering doing something a little unconventional in your marketing initiatives but stop yourself before carrying it out – maybe you should give it a try. You never know! It might work. What do you think? Here’s mine:

Promote Your Brand With Video Emails and Increase Your Sex Drive!

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