Business Calendars.

One of the biggest challenges for start up entrepreneurs is staying organized and on top of things. With so many tasks and follows up to make running a business isn’t as easy unless you have a virtual assistant or someone that takes care of your scheduling.  One of the oldest strategies in the book that is used today is scheduling your work tasks, appointments, meetings and follow-ups on a business calendar. In fact most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that it is important to create and use a business calendar to stay on top of your business needs.

In the online world there are so many different options to choose from, the most common is your outlook calendar, I phone calendar or Google calendar. With smart phone usage there is an increasing trend of entrepreneurs scheduling and using calendar apps that automatically syncs with their computers or laptops. Scheduling appointments has never got easier yet many startup entrepreneurs make the common mistake of not staying organized.

This is one of the most crucial basic business elements that many overlook. Not having a business calendar also gives your customers a poor impression of how you do business. Follow ups, scheduling times and sticking to them as well as showing up on time for meetings are all positive signs that you take your business seriously. If you want your potential customers to buy into you, you must make it easier for them to believe you are organized.

A recommendation is to manage your calendar weekly and to project and plan your meetings at the start of your week. Leave room to manage some free time in between appointments so you don’t feel so compressed for time. Most importantly look, tweak and manage your calendar accordingly at the end of each night. Colour coding the different type of appointments if its a phone call, meeting, conference or a follow up might also give you a  general idea on your week. The more you put into your calendar, the more you get out of it to help you stay productive.

Tips on working from home to increase productivity.

There are more entrepreneurs today who work from home. In fact this number is increasing every year. The challenge I find most home based business owners have is actually working a full schedule from home with so many distractions. In fact it becomes harder when you have to balance your work schedule and your home life. This can impact your productivity.

The following are tips from successful home based business entrepreneurs on how to increase productivity.

  • Set a schedule and fit in a business calendar of all your accountabilities.
  • Every night write out a list of goals for then next day.
  • Dress the part the way you would for a normal job.
  • Take a break after every few power hours of work.
  • Stay committed and disciplined on tasks and accountabilities.
  • Create and follow a daily routine.
  • Create minor rewards during the day for accomplishments
  • Avoid distractions.

Perfecting these tips will help boost your results and you will start to get more out of your work schedule.

Email marketing for offline businesses.

We are starting to see trends where offline businesses that don’t even have a web presence start to perform email marketing. I was reminded of this when I was asked for my email information recently at a retail store that had no presence online. If your an offline business wanting to accelerate your business start collecting your clients email information.

If you’d been collecting your clients’ names and email addresses (with their permission) when they came up to the cash register to pay, this is all you’d need to do:

1. Spend about 10 minutes writing an email message, where you give great content and reward clients a discounts on certain services.
2. Send the message out to your list of clients. Provide a call to action and give out your phone number or offer coupons.

Your phones should start ringing off the hook! What was looking like a slow month will soon be booked solid — and all you had to do was put together a simple email message, which took you 10 minutes to write.
Of course, you don’ t need to sit down and actually send a separate email to each and every one of your customers. That could literally take you days!

But with services like mail chimp, constant contact, a weber, you have the power to send out an email promotion to your entire list automatically.
As you collect the names and addresses of your contacts, you just add them to a database. Your email management program will merge the email addresses with your message and sends it out to your whole list at the click of a mouse. It can even personalize each message with the person’s first name… or with whatever personal information you want to include!

When you’re ready to mail, you just have to write the letter once, and the program will insert the personal details for each person into each email, so it looks like you wrote each one individually.  The biggest tip offline businesses need to start doing is collecting consumer information. You are losing money every time you let a client walk out of your offline business without gathering relevant contact information.

Using Testimonials

People buy people now more than ever. Credibility is something that is very crucial to your sales process.

Never underestimate the power of a good testimonial! Posting reviews and comments from satisfied customers on your website is a terrific way to increase your credibility in the eyes of visitors and encourage sales from first-time buyers.

An effective testimonial can convince your reader that your product really DOES do exactly what you promise — especially if you run a small business and don’t yet have a widespread reputation.

Here’s how to gather quality testimonials and benefit from them immediately:

  • If you already have some positive feedback from clients, ask their permission to include their comments on your site. Try to choose testimonials that are packed full of concrete benefits that tell your customers exactly what they can expect to gain from purchasing your product or service.
  • Every testimonial should also have a first name, last name, and location — they help prove the recommendations are coming from real people.
  • To encourage new testimonials, add a link to your site attached to a form that allows customers to give you their vote of confidence. For example, “Click here to tell us what you think!”
  • Create an autoresponder that contacts your buyers after they’ve purchased your product to ask them how they’re enjoying it.
  • When customers send you glowing praise in a letter or email, contact them and ask for permission to add it to your site.
  • If you don’t have any testimonials yet, offer your product free of charge to a group of customers in exchange for their thoughts on the product.

Once you’ve accumulated some good testimonials, include them on your site:

  • Put your best testimonials on your homepage.
  • Insert some testimonials in the middle of your salescopy.
  • Create a page on your site that features only testimonials.
  • Put testimonials on each page of your website.

Testimonials will have higher impact if there is a visual. Video, Audio and picture are very effective if perfected. The more natural the presentations looks and feels the more engaged your audience.

It’s that simple!

Consumer Influence

Some of the most respected marketing experts out there are all saying that the industrial revolution is dead. The sales and marketing approach is rapidly changing. Circles of people with common needs and goals are starting to form. Some of these circles are being tapped into while others are yet to be discovered. The truth is attraction marketing is winning. Any business that can attract consumers is thriving at this current moment. Consumers are buying from people that know, like and trust.
Some of the more noticeable action steps you need to take to influence your consumers are as follows
  • Creating consumer awareness of your business, brand the services you offer.
  • Your marketing strategy should create an attraction where consumers want to be in your circle because of what you offer.
  • Your sales approach should promote client assurance and trust.
  • Create an alliance with resources and partnerships that can compliment your business.
  • Deliver awesomeness on all your content.
If you build a loyal base of followers across your platforms who will want you to influence their consumer needs. Some of these influences you will create wont happen on the first contact. In fact you need to over deliver now more than ever. Some marketers believe you have to give away 6 deposits of awesomeness before you can even expect a return on revenue. While this might not be the case for all your sales, building a following will tap into various revenue streams in different sales cycles.
Buying decisions are made when consumers are influenced and inspired by your business brand!

Branding Slogans

The biggest trend right now is a consistent brand across all platforms for business both online and offline. We all know that branding can bring many benefits to a business. Most entrepreneurs have a common question and that is where to begin when you are branding a business. Most entrepreneurs spend countless hours trying to figure catchy business names but a company slogan typically is a great starting point.
Here are 9 recommended tips from branding experts when you consider putting a slogan together for your business
1- Keep it short.
2- Keep it simple.
3- Be Humble.
4- Solve a problem
5- Make it catchy.
6- Stand out.
7- Make them smile!
8- Can it rhyme?
9- Show Commitment.
The biggest key strategy to consider is put yourself in your clients shoes. If its hard to read for your audience, its probably not something you want to brand. Your customers need to relate with your slogan and know within 5 seconds what problem you solve. When branding a business always put the customers needs first and try to relate with their needs. This will win you a major audience.

Flexibility in Business…

Listening to clients?
If your a consultant, coach or a service provider. If you are a business where you sell a service that requires your face time, consultations or a coaching session you have probably experienced what we call a communication break down. The biggest contributor to communication challenges with your clients is when the creativity on the service provider doesn’t match the clients vision. In fact this mismatch can cause so much tension and in some case business being lost on the table. We constantly hear service providers complain that their clients are too picky. The questions to ask is are your clients picky or are you not willing to listen to their needs.
If you are the service provider you must ask yourself if your creation is a bigger priority to you over your clients vision. This is an important question to ask yourself. If you choose to be flexible the chances are you are more open and flexible to your clients requests. If you are not able to make that sacrifice and your non negotiable is that your creative stamp must go on all client projects regardless of what their vision is than you must be upfront. The challenge you come across is the conflict caused from not properly going over the boundaries when servicing a client.
The next important factor to consider is what happens when you disagree with your clients vision.
1- Do you inform the client about your disagreement?
2- If the client doesn’t take your advise, do you put it in writing?
3- Should it be important to outline that the client is making a decision on the project at their own risk?
4- Is your client willing to take that risk?
5- Would you like to proceed with the client or is it time to pull out?
These are questions you need to have with your client before you get into business together. This way there isn’t any surprises or conflict that could occur. I find when expectations are clarified in advance, proper communication and follow up are met, the service process is easy. It all boils down to effective communication and knowing what your limitations are?
What are your limitations? Are you flexible? What are your non negotiable limitations? Picky clients are created by service providers. If service providers took the extra steps and communicated carefully they wouldn’t encounter this problem. Most of the time these situations can be avoided if proper planning, patience and open mind is shown between client and service provider.

Website Message Clarity.

Does your website have a clear and precise call to action?
Are you confident that online visitors understand what you do in the first 30 second?
Do you have the right messaging on the front fold of your website?
Where are you directing your visitors?
What do your online visitors see when they first come to your website?
These are questions that many entrepreneurs looking at having an online platform overlook. In fact, the majority of online businesses that fail spend so much time on themes that they forget to pay attention to the necessities. If you have trouble giving out the right message on your website on who you are and what you do, your potential customers will probably be having the same difficulties.
Most businesses dont event pay attention to keywords that could direct clients to their websites. However even before you perform keyword research your website message needs to be clear, precise and direct. Your customers need to know what they are required to do and why they are on your website instantly. If you fail to accomplish this you are losing money. Picture a retail store without a sign of their services. The reason why they have signs at stores is to make it easier for the potential consumer.
A few items that will help with the clarity of the messages on your website are as follows
  • Descriptive domain name
  • Catchy Slogan that embodies what you do
  • A title that enables your client to understand who you are
  • A call to action form
  • An opt in and lead capture form
  • A video about who you are or what you do or video sales copy
  • Proper listed pages that show organization of your site
  • An organized website with clear and precise content.
  • Easy to read content
  • A list of your services
  • A website path
  • Headlines and highlights of what your website is about
  • A blog
  • A sales funnel if you are promoting a sales squeeze page.
These are just a few items that will assist you in defining a clear message on your website

Successful Productivity Tips For Entrepreneurs.

Most entrepreneurs complain about having too much to do and very little time to perform them. In fact some entrepreneurs get so overwhelmed with so much going on that they end up stalling on their goals. It has been a known fact that staying top of your tasks increases productivity. However most entrepreneurs on the go aren’t the most organized. Successful people are those who follow successful habits. The following are recommendations from successful entrepreneurs on how to increase productivity in your business.
  • Break down major objectives into smaller goal vectors.
  • Once tasks are broken step by step, focus on goal vectors one at a time. Avoid multitasking, instead focus on getting the tasks done systematically.
  • Track accomplishments and celebrate milestones.
  • When focusing on important tasks avoid distractions. Isolate yourself from anything that might prevent you from staying focused.
  • Pick certain times to handle social media, emails or any other online distractions. Create an email to handle emergency situations.
  • Emails are not designed to manage healthy conversations. Use the phone to quicken the process where possible.
  • Work in power intervals and schedule down time. Taking breaks frequently gives you time to recharge.
  • Make your work fun and turn it into something you look forward to.
  • Enjoy the grind.
  • Celebrate and take the time to reward yourself every time a major accomplishment occurs.
  • Spend time finding ways to automate processes
  • Research technology and applications to quicken processes in the future.
  • Develop a routine. Consistency creates success.
Incorporating these tips into your daily schedule of work will quickly organize yourself and eventually increase your productivity. These tips, once perfected, will elevate your business instantly. The key is to practise and implement these strategies.

Should your business have a marketing budget?

Businesses today have been faced with a lot of adversity when it comes to marketing a business. In fact one of the most common areas where expenses are cut are usually in the marketing department. The causes might be a global recession, consumer buying habits or a sales decline. Unfortunately businesses correlate the decline in sales directly to the cost of marketing. While this might be the case for some businesses its not the only reason why your business might not be doing so well. The bigger challenge is most start up businesses get into the start up phase with the focus on getting ground up. All resources get tied into the start up that when it comes to the marketing platform there isn’t any budget left. This is one of the common reasons why start ups or businesses fail.
Everyone is so focused on getting the best results for the cheapest cost or for free that most start ups stop functioning quicker than the time it takes to get up. In fact most entrepreneurs don’t give their product line a chance because they expect customers to come in without any marketing. The truth is its not a matter of whether your business needs a marketing budget, its a matter of how you use the budget. There are a few factors to consider on a marketing budget.
  • A marketing budget doesn’t have to be big or small, instead the budget needs to be consistent.
  • Marketing budgets are used to experiment marketing strategies.
  • The results of the marketing get you to gauge results to determine what works and what doesn’t work
  • This in turn will help you spend future money on strategies that convert.
  • Take calculated risks by analyzing cost, effort and risk.
  • Track your results and stick to what works.
  • Identify reasons as to why marketing is failing
  • Keep up with marketing trends.
  • Marketing should be catered to engage your consumer audience.
  • Portion out your marketing strategies on paid strategies as well as free strategies.
Like any thing in life the more you put in the more you will receive provided you put the budget to good use. A marketing budget isn’t just about quantity anymore but more how you use it. Its okay to be frugal however avoid being cheap with your marketing strategies. Time are tough not because marketing doesn’t work but because consumers make buying decisions based on needs and wants.

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