Archive for August 2010
Although there is no one answer that fits all businesses, there are a number of practices followed by successful, happy business owners. No matter what you sell, you’ll be ahead of the game if you live by these ten essential rules for succeeding in your own business.
1. Be true to yourself.
No matter how much money someone else makes, if you don’t enjoy the business, wouldn’t be proud to show your relatives what you are doing and how you are doing it, then don’t do it. If you run a business you don’t like or don’t believe in, even if you have temporary success, it will come back to haunt you one way or another.
2. Find a need and fill it.
Yes, you’ve heard that a million times. But it still works. The easiest business to run is one that produces products or services that people already know they need. The reason: you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money convincing prospects they need what you sell. You can focus on why you are the best source to satisfy their need. Just be sure the “need” is one people will spend money to satisfy.
3. Choose products or services that you can sell for a lot more than it costs you to make or buy them.
If the difference between your cost and selling prices is too low, you will have difficulty growing the business. When profit margins are too low, you won’t have enough money to hire employees, pay for rent (when you need to move the business out of the house), advertise more, and do other things needed to expand.
4. Make realistic estimates of your expenses… then double them.
Most new businesses either forget about marketing, fulfillment, overhead costs, income taxes and self-employment or greatly underestimate them.
5. Be true to your customers and prospects.
Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Don’t lie or exaggerate the benefits of what you sell and always deliver a quality product or service. Word-of-mouth marketing has always been one of the primary ways small businesses find customers. The Internet and social networking sites spread the word (good or bad) to even more potential customers.
6. Understand the importance of marketing and learn how to do it effectively.
The world won’t beat a path to your door just because you build a better mousetrap or write a great ebook about how to grow tomatoes or teach a child to read. To get customers you will have to market your products or services effectively and continually.
7. Treat your vendors, manufacturers and service providers with respect and let them know you appreciate them.
They are an important part of your team and your success. If you speak down to them, pester them with questions you could answer yourself, imply that they don’t’ do a good job, nickel and dime them to death, or are an ongoing pain in the neck, they’ll never go out of their way to help you — and might drop you all together. No business needs picky, annoying, time-consuming customers.
8. Embrace the web.
No matter what you sell or to whom, there’s a good chance your customers will turn to the web in one way or another to make their purchase. They may turn to online yellow pages to find a florist in Florence, SC; or go to Google, MSN or Yahoo and search for a phrase like “Elder law attorney Farmington Hills MI”, or “plumber weekends Astoria NY” If customers can’t find you in their queries, they are likely to give their business to one of your competitors.
9. Don’t expect miracles.
Yes, people do make money in their sleep or while they’re away on vacation — the Internet makes that possible. But only after they’ve invested a lot of time , effort, and money in building the business and building the team that keeps it going and growing.
10. Remind yourself that one is the loneliest number in business.
One product, one service, one main client, and all your records stored on one computer hard drive without regular off-site backups is a recipe for failure. If you only have one product or service you’re missing out on the chance to profit by selling more things to people who already know and trust you. If you have only one main client, you ‘re up the proverbial creek if they decide to change vendors or run into cash flow problems. And if all your records are on your computer and you don’t have always up-to-date backups of your important files, a hard drive crash could destroy your business.
If you are a business owner and you’ve seen your business grow to a level where you can manage a team to help steer the business towards profit, you may be at a turning point. Management techniques should always be adapting with time. Many small businesses may reach the level of $1-3 million in annual sales, or 5-15 employees. This is the perfect time to revamp your management techniques.
A manager of a business must evolve from technical thinking and expertise to a manager of people and strategy. It is critical to learn how to manage your company in a way that will grow long-term.
There are 3 aspects of successful business owners listed below that will help you succeed in business, in relationships, in life, and in whatever you choose to put effort into.
Positivity, Persistence, and Patience
Successful business owners have a level of commitment to their goals that is difficult to find many places. The dedication it takes to nurture your projects will not just be handed to you, it must be earned. Entrepreneurs are one breed of a few that understand there is not too much of a difference between an obstacle and an opportunity. Successful entrepreneurs know how to turn both to their advantage.
Strategic Business Plan
Having a business plan is great, sticking to it is even better. Many of you reading this post will feel reassured; of course you have a business plan. However, when was the last time you updated it? Obviously if you are going to change your managerial tactics, your whole business strategy needs to be updated with the times as well. Stagnant businesses are the ones who fail.
Organized Company Structure
According to Robert A. Normand, a writer for Business Know-How this system should have policies and procedures that encourage all associates to perform to their utmost capabilities. It should reward those who excel in proportion to their contributions. It also disciplines those who deviate from acceptable behavior. Positions, tasks, duties and responsibilities are defined and communicated and performance is routinely measured. Training, job enrichment programs and incentive compensation plans are designed to encourage each associate to excel. Successful owners view their associates as their most valuable asset and resource.
In conclusions, successful business owners have a positive outlook on their business and their lives that helps them stay persistent, committed, and patient. They have a living strategic business plan that they stick to, and update as times change. They also have an organized company structure that helps their associates perform and excel, all in the best interest of the business.
If you are a business owner and you’ve seen your business grow to a level where you can manage a team to help steer the business towards profit, you may be at a turning point. Management techniques should always be adapting with time. Many small businesses may reach the level of $1-3 million in annual sales, or 5-15 employees. This is the perfect time to revamp your management techniques.
A manager of a business must evolve from technical thinking and expertise to a manager of people and strategy. It is critical to learn how to manage your company in a way that will grow long-term.
There are 3 aspects of successful business owners listed below that will help you succeed in business, in relationships, in life, and in whatever you choose to put effort into.
Positivity, Persistence, and Patience
Successful business owners have a level of commitment to their goals that is difficult to find many places. The dedication it takes to nurture your projects will not just be handed to you, it must be earned. Entrepreneurs are one breed of a few that understand there is not too much of a difference between an obstacle and an opportunity. Successful entrepreneurs know how to turn both to their advantage.
Strategic Business Plan
Having a business plan is great, sticking to it is even better. Many of you reading this post will feel reassured; of course you have a business plan. However, when was the last time you updated it? Obviously if you are going to change your managerial tactics, your whole business strategy needs to be updated with the times as well. Stagnant businesses are the ones who fail.
Organized Company Structure
According to Robert A. Normand, a writer for Business Know-How this system should have policies and procedures that encourage all associates to perform to their utmost capabilities. It should reward those who excel in proportion to their contributions. It also disciplines those who deviate from acceptable behavior. Positions, tasks, duties and responsibilities are defined and communicated and performance is routinely measured. Training, job enrichment programs and incentive compensation plans are designed to encourage each associate to excel. Successful owners view their associates as their most valuable asset and resource.
In conclusions, successful business owners have a positive outlook on their business and their lives that helps them stay persistent, committed, and patient. They have a living strategic business plan that they stick to, and update as times change. They also have an organized company structure that helps their associates perform and excel, all in the best interest of the business.
You will never succeed at anything unless you believe you will. Of course your initial reaction to that statement may be “how is the power of positive thinking going to help my financial statements?”
“We are what we repeatedly do”
Pursue Your Passion
If you are not passionate about what you are doing, you will not succeed. It really is as simple as that because in the same industry, people ARE passionate about what they are doing. They will in turn, achieve more than you because they are more motivated and driven to work for their end results.
Prioritize
As humans, we naturally get distracted. However, the most important exercise to practice is getting the harder tasks out of the way right off the get go. Say for example, you are dreading working on your company website, do as much work as you can in the very beginning. It will dramatically increase your motivation when you start seeing your workload decrease. You just have to get to the halfway point.
Research
Simply put, the more informed you are, the more equipped you are. You need to do your research about the market to help your marketing strategy. You need to research your competition to see their sales approach. There is a lot of effort to be put forth and you will continuously need to make adjustments as you progress.
Give Yourself a Break
Relax after an intense effort. You will feel revitalized and motivated to do it all over again if you simply take time to reflect on the amount of progress you made by simply focusing for designated periods of time.
Having an online presence is the most important thing your small business can do to gain exposure, build a customer base, and establish credibility. Most businesses have an online presence to make themselves available to consumers who turn to the Internet for all of their resources.
There are many reasons why being a part of online communities contributes greatly to the success of your business.
Universal exposure
As part of an online community, you are able to reach people around the world and it is as though you are all in a room together, interacting on issues that are important and interesting to all of you. It is incredible that you are now capable (through social media) of reaching numerous people at once from one location. This allows you not only to market your business easily and successfully but also lets you do a large number of other things connected with your business. Remember that connecting with your online communities does not mean that you should be giving those people a hard sell. You should be sharing valuable information with them.
Learning from others
As a member of an online community, you have the opportunity to learn new ways to market your business to other marketers. You should take advantage as much as possible of the expertise of other people who are members of your online communities and put their principles into practice, where appropriate.
Strategic partnerships
You will have many opportunities to form strategic partnerships with other members of your online communities. There will be a lot of synergies between you and others and if you find that your skills and expertise compliment those of people in your online communities, you should approach them and see how you can work together most effectively.
Build your online relationships
It is very important to continue to develop relationships with those people with whom you interact online. A good way to do this is by continually sharing information with them that you feel they will find valuable and that will help them in some way. Not only will your online connections want to interact with you but they will also speak favorably about you to others online.
Having an online presence is the most important thing your small business can do to gain exposure, build a customer base, and establish credibility. Most businesses have an online presence to make themselves available to consumers who turn to the Internet for all of their resources.
There are many reasons why being a part of online communities contributes greatly to the success of your business.
Universal exposure
As part of an online community, you are able to reach people around the world and it is as though you are all in a room together, interacting on issues that are important and interesting to all of you. It is incredible that you are now capable (through social media) of reaching numerous people at once from one location. This allows you not only to market your business easily and successfully but also lets you do a large number of other things connected with your business. Remember that connecting with your online communities does not mean that you should be giving those people a hard sell. You should be sharing valuable information with them.
Learning from others
As a member of an online community, you have the opportunity to learn new ways to market your business to other marketers. You should take advantage as much as possible of the expertise of other people who are members of your online communities and put their principles into practice, where appropriate.
Strategic partnerships
You will have many opportunities to form strategic partnerships with other members of your online communities. There will be a lot of synergies between you and others and if you find that your skills and expertise compliment those of people in your online communities, you should approach them and see how you can work together most effectively.
Build your online relationships
It is very important to continue to develop relationships with those people with whom you interact online. A good way to do this is by continually sharing information with them that you feel they will find valuable and that will help them in some way. Not only will your online connections want to interact with you but they will also speak favorably about you to others online.
Search engines are getting smarter. In order for your website to appear higher on any search engine, you need to optimize your website with the right keywords and phrases. The problem is, how do we know which words will work and which ones won’t?
Here are a few tips to follow to boost your position in search engines.
Separate Keywords with Punctuation
When search engines crawl through a website, they do not register punctuation, bullet points, line breaks, capitalization, and other stylized forms of writing. They only rank letters. This will help you use more keywords without disrupting the flow of content
Example:
In order to boost your exposure, dive into the world of social media. Marketing towards individual consumers through social networking sites will help build your brand equity.
Put Keywords into Bullet Form
Using lists are great for your readers specifically because they are easy to read and draw the readers’ attention. They are less cluttered than big blocks of text. So by expanding on the frequent viewership of bulleted lists, insert keywords into the list because again, search engines do not register style, only letters.
Use the Opposite of Your Keyword
By talking about the opposite of the image you’re trying to convey, you can still use keywords and also discuss important points with your readers.
Example:
Search engines are getting smarter. In order for your website to appear higher on any search engine, you need to optimize your website with the right keywords and phrases. The problem is, how do we know which words will work and which ones won’t?
Here are a few tips to follow to boost your position in search engines.
Separate Keywords with Punctuation
When search engines crawl through a website, they do not register punctuation, bullet points, line breaks, capitalization, and other stylized forms of writing. They only rank letters. This will help you use more keywords without disrupting the flow of content
Example:
In order to boost your exposure, dive into the world of social media. Marketing towards individual consumers through social networking sites will help build your brand equity.
Put Keywords into Bullet Form
Using lists are great for your readers specifically because they are easy to read and draw the readers’ attention. They are less cluttered than big blocks of text. So by expanding on the frequent viewership of bulleted lists, insert keywords into the list because again, search engines do not register style, only letters.
Use the Opposite of Your Keyword
By talking about the opposite of the image you’re trying to convey, you can still use keywords and also discuss important points with your readers.
Example:
What Makes A Great Entrepreneur?
Posted on: August 24, 2010
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, your biggest question may very well be: “How do I get to the next level?” Many entrepreneurs make common mistakes, so I have compounded several insightful details from a Harvard Business Review article series about Advanced Entrepreneurship.
How to Generate Income
Entrepreneurs need to begin focusing on how to generate income, as opposed to how to raise seed cash to start their business. Fund-raising is important of course; any entrepreneur understands the importance of raising cash to keep the business alive until there is self-sustaining cash flow. Generating income however, is the proof that a business contributes long-term value to the marketplace.
What Makes a Great Entrepreneur?
The three factors all great entrepreneurs have in common are scalable business models, effective distribution methods, and genuine consumer engagement methods that directly contribute to their revenue.
Great Entrepreneurs Take Risks
However, what separates an entrepreneur from a great entrepreneur is that great entrepreneurs recognize that business plans are good for illustrating assumptions, but they aren’t truly useful for projecting the realistic outcome of future events.
Building your brand is the most essential component of gaining customer loyalty and driving traffic to your website. As e-commerce grows, so does the mistrust of shopping online. For Internet consumers, certain brands are more trustworthy than others.
A good image doesn’t always equate to good service.
Some retailers provide excellent service but don’t communicate it in their image, and vice-versa. Branding is often misaligned with sales and operations. A small update to the company’s online image, brand, or information design can communicate a luxurious, simple or fun shopping experience. Your brand sells the experience of doing business with you before someone does (just as a menu sells the food before someone orders it), so communicate clearly.
