Insight into People, Places,and Things

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The Top Five Problems Small Businesses Face and How to Overcome Them

There’s nothing easy about starting your own business. The road to success is a bumpy one indeed and you’re sure to encounter some problems along the way. There’s no need to worry, however, because every problem has a solution. Just like anything else, building your business is a process that takes a lot of work. We’re going to take a look at a few problems you’re likely to run into and how you can overcome them.

1. Developing a Business Plan

Before you even get started you need to develop a business plan. Your mission statement for what you want to achieve with your business needs to be very clear. If you don’t have set goals, you won’t have anything to reach for.

Prior to getting your business off the ground, sit down and write out a business plan. Brainstorm what you want to achieve. Where do you see your business six months from now? Where do you see your business one year from now? These are things you need to figure out.

2. Marketing

You can build a business all you want but if no one knows about it, you’re not going to get very far. Developing a marketing strategy is a must. You need to cover all angles when it comes to marketing. That includes both internet marketing and conventional marketing methods.

Whether you love it or hate it, social media is a must in today’s business world, so learn how to run your social media accounts from the beginning. However, you shouldn’t get so wrapped up in social media that you disregard conventional marketing means such as print ads, radio advertisements and more. To stand strong you need to have a marketing campaign that covers everything.

3. Keeping Your Finances in Order

This is without a doubt one of the most common problems small businesses face. You need to keep an eye on your finances or else you could go broke very quickly. If you’re not qualified or don’t feel confident that you can do this, hire a bookkeeper or an accountant from the get go. It may cost a little more in the beginning but it will also save you from experiencing a big headache in the end.

4. Getting Customers and Keeping Them

Everyone knows that the most important part of building a business is finding loyal customers to keep you afloat. While a lot of building your customer base relies on a good marketing strategy, keeping them will depend on how good your customer service is. Always make yourself approachable and do your best to create a personal relationship with your customers. Developing a personal relationship builds trust, trust builds loyalty, and loyalty is what your business will be built on.

5. Putting Together the Right Team

Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to build a business by yourself. In order to get your business off the ground and do it correctly you’re going to need some help. You need a team of people to help you do the things you may not have experience with.

This is one area where you shouldn’t be afraid to take your time. Make sure to partner with people you can get along with who are equally as motivated as yourself. People may not come to you so don’t be afraid to go searching for them. A good team will build your business — you just have to build the team first.

Starting a business may be scary but there’s no reason to panic. You can overcome any obstacle and build your business into a reputable company. The only way to get your business off the ground is to start today. Refer to step one, develop a business plan and go from there.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/the-top-five-problems-small-businesses-face-and-how-to-overcome-them

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17 Things You Need to Test Regularly

The entire point of copywriting is to boost sales. Even if you write copy with the objective of getting more newsletter sign-ups, the entire point is still to boost sales. But, how do you know if what you’re doing is working? You’re writing, and hiring, and writing some more — but do you even know if all the work you’re doing is paying off? The best way to know is to test, test, test. Here’s a list of things you need to test regularly.

Your Headlines — How do you know a particular headline works over another? You conduct an A/B test. Make two slightly different headlines and send each headline to half your list. Which performs better?

Your Offer — If you’re not sure about your offer, try testing more than one offer. Like the A/B testing mentioned above, only change something small, and send each to half your list. Or if it’s a sales page, put both up, and see which performs better.

Your Copy Format — Are you considering where the reader is reading the copy? If your audience is reading on a mobile device, is the copy format effective? How do you know? Test it.

Snippets of Your Copy — If you have a long sales page, you can take snippets of the copy and reuse it on social media or other places to see what the response to the words are.

New Products — This doesn’t mean create new products, but test out new products such as project management systems, social media marketing automation, email marketing programs and more. Stay on the cutting edge by regularly spending a small time testing new products.

Graphics — Are your graphics the right graphics to use for your particular audience? If you’re not sure, conduct more A/B testing. Change nothing but the graphics and see how it affects conversion rates.

Functionality — Of course, you should test how your websites function. Does the checkout process run smoothly for your customers? Is something hanging them up along the way to prevent making a purchase?

Audience Responsiveness — Are you posting your heart out on Facebook but no one is responding, even though people are reading? If you’re not sure why, ask them.

Accuracy — Your copy should be well studied to be accurate. Don’t post false information either on purpose or by accident. Check your sources and check your facts.

Complexity — You don’t want things to be too hard for your reader to understand. If you’re using too many big words, change them to small words. Speak directly to your audience, not over them.

What’s in It for Me — Remember the fundamental test for effective copywriting. It doesn’t matter what platform you’re posting the copywriting on; your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. If the copy doesn’t answer that, start over.

Double Entendres — Sometimes double entendres are okay, but sometimes they can be disastrous. Be very careful with accidentally posting something that really means something else, especially if it’s controversial or dirty.

Spelling — Yes, spelling matters. Even on Facebook.

Sequence — If you post something that has a sequence, such as creating a recipe, or steps to accomplish something technical, does it flow in the right order? Ask someone who knows nothing about the topic to read it to test if it works or not.

Clarity — One of the most important aspects of copywriting is to ensure that what you are trying to impart to the reader makes sense. You don’t want to accidentally offend someone with your words. Read and re-read, and have others read for clarity.

Above the Fold — No matter what medium you’re putting your copy on — whether it’s print, webpages, or social media, the important stuff needs to go at the top, or you need explicit directions to scroll down to read more.

Originality — Is the copy original? There are a lot of ways to test this out such as with Grammarly or Copyscape. You want your words to feel familiar to the reader, but you don’t want them to be copied.

Links:

Grammarly — http://www.grammarly.com/

Copyscape — http://www.copyscape.com/

Since the entire point is to boost sales your first thought might be to look at your sales numbers, but you would not be looking deep enough. Plus, if you don’t look at a variety of factors and perform several tests, you may very well continue wasting time on activities with no payoff, or you might stop doing some that are paying off.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/17-things-you-need-to-test-regularly/

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When Life Throws You a Curve Ball – Blog about It!

It can be difficult sometimes to come up with a topic to blog about, but your life can also be your topic. It can even become your niche. Have you discovered you have a disease? Are you getting a divorce? Do you have a special needs child, or are you experiencing other turmoil in life that you are willing to blog about publically? If you are going through something difficult, you can bet that other people are also going through the same thing.

Bare Your Soul

If you are willing to bare all and learn as you blog, blogging about the curve balls life has thrown you can not only be therapeutic but also profitable. It doesn’t have to be exploitive either. People like reading about others who are going through the same thing they are. They are also willing to buy coaching, eBooks, and proven information to help them through the same turmoil created by someone who has been there. Being there, or having been there, gives you credibility that simple education cannot provide.

Life Happens

Even if you have a normal blog for your business, blogging about the turmoil in your life can be beneficial if you can find a way to make sure that it fits your target audience. For instance, if you are an affiliate marketer who has experienced issues such as an ill child, spouse or parent, blogging about what has happened can humanize you, help you get support for your emotional needs, and show how flexible your business is because it allows you to deal with family issues.

When Failing Is Succeeding

Other types of turmoil can also be beneficial, such as business failures. We all know that not every single idea ever works out. You can document a specific example of something you’ve tried that did not work out, and why it did not work out. You can use your turmoil as an example of what not to do, or what you will do different next time to make the idea work out better. Again, the admission of failure humanizes you, and going through in a step-by-step fashion what went wrong and what went right can not only help your audience - it can help you, too.

Whether family, financial or business turmoil, there is always opportunity in turmoil to learn and create. If you think about it, turmoil in life is what creates the need for solutions. Having the lack of time to do everything you want to do creates the need for hiring someone to help, such as a virtual assistant, a content writer, or even a nanny. Having a sick relative that needs your care can create within you a thankfulness for the business you’re in that allows you to be flexible, and in the process help you figure out more ways to be even more flexible without ruining your business.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/when-life-throws-you-a-curve-ball-blog-about-it/

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Eight Ways to Boost Your Creativity

Every person on this earth has the capacity to be creative in some way. Some people are creative in the arts, others in business, and others in more ways than can be described here. The thing that you need to know about creativity is that everyone has the ability. It already exists inside you; you only need to figure out how to bring it out

1) Be More Mindful

There are a lot of things we do every day without even thinking. We get up, shower, brush our teeth and go about our lives mostly on autopilot. Try getting up in the morning with a new mindfulness about even the most mundane activities. Think about how your sheets feel on your body right before you get up; think about how the shower water feels; think about how the tooth paste smells and tastes and so forth. Take new pleasure in everyday experiences and really be in the moment as you experience them.

2) Look at the World Differently

If you drive to the store the same way every day, take a different route. If you have a viewpoint in life that is different from a friend’s, take the time to give their world view some consideration. You don’t have to tell them; it’s simply a practice to looking at the world through a different lens, which might bring rise to new ideas and thoughts that you never allowed yourself to experience before.

3) Go for a Walk

If you’re working on a project and feeling blocked, get up and get out. Go for a brisk walk. While you are walking, try not to think of anything but your walk for the first couple of minutes. After that, it’s okay to think of your project and brainstorm ideas as you walk. You might consider bringing a recording device with you so that you won’t forget anything that comes to mind. Often, taking the pressure off is the best way to become more creative.

4) Change Your Environment

One of the best things about working for yourself is the ability to change your environment. If you are smart enough to use cloud computing software like Dropbox to store your files, you can take your laptop to the park or the local coffee shop to do some work. If you can’t do that, try cleaning up your office, painting it a new color, and moving around the furniture. Change helps your mind work better.

5) Learn Something New

Take a class; read a book; go to a conference. However you choose to do it, learn something new. It’s important that you are always learning and growing. What you learn doesn’t actually even have to be related to your niche. It can be something just for you such as learning how to garden, or golf. It can also be something that helps you more directly in your business such as learning a new software program. The important factor is that you make it formal enough that you do it regularly and once you’ve learned, move on to learning something else new.

6) Get Moving

Yes, walking is moving, but you need more regular exercise in your life than a walk when you are frustrated or blocked. People who work at a desk and sit for more than four hours a day are at a higher risk of sudden death than those who have other types of jobs. The scary part is, many of us sit for more than 11 hours a day which increases your risk of death early by 40 percent. Join a regular exercise plan or create your own regiment, and then get up every 90 to 100 minutes and move around for 10 minutes or buy a standing desk.

7) Eat Better

The brain needs glucose to think. That’s why you crave all that sugar when you are doing a lot of work and really want to stuff your face with chocolate or ice cream or both. Give yourself permission to eat more fruit while you’re working and you’ll find that your brain works better. Studies show that people who eat sweets during or before a test perform better. Make the sweet something healthy like a banana or a sweet juicy peach. A green smoothie is even better.

8) Take Action

Sometimes being more creative is simply a matter of going from thinking to doing. The truth is there is no such thing as a creative block. You’ve likely heard of “writer’s block” but have you ever heard of “Cashier’s Block” or “Doctor’s Block” or seriously any other career that gives you an excuse not to get to work other than so-called creative professions? These blocks really don’t exist. Your creativity is there for you on command as soon as you accept that it is.

Try these eight ways to boost your creativity and you’ll find that you’re going to be able to better manage the times in which you choose to be creative. You won’t have to wait for the urge any longer, instead you’ll be able to become creative on demand and get more done in less time.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/eight-ways-to-boost-your-creativity/

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How to Develop a Success-Focused Mindset

The truth is, the more focused you are on success the more likely you are to experience it. Most of you have probably heard of “The Secret” where they espouse the idea that putting out positive thoughts into the universe, and even being very specific about those thoughts, will result in you getting what you want. While it’s not really that simple, having a success-focused mindset will help you achieve more success. But, if you’re not naturally predispositioned to think in terms of success, how can you develop a success-focused mindset?

Developing a success-focused mindset starts with developing three important aspects of yourself: the mind, body and spirit. If you can focus on all three of these, having a success-focused mindset will become second nature.

Mind

Your mind is the part of you that makes you who you are. It enables you to reason and perceive the world around you. Your mind is the part of you that feels emotions, and is able to judge right from wrong. By taking care of your mind, you’ll be able to think more positively and focus on success.

Body

Your body is important because while your mind controls your body, if your body is not healthy no amount of mind control is going to help. Keeping your body healthy by moving around every day, eating right, along with getting regular check-ups, will help you keep your body healthy as well as allow your mind to focus on success.

Spirit

While often a touchy subject, the spirit is what you make of it. Perhaps you are religious, perhaps not. But think of your spirit as the part of you that either feels at peace or does not feel at peace. If your spirit is distracted it shows up in your mind as bad thoughts – intrusive feelings that keep you from staying positively focused on a success-focused mindset.

The trick to developing a success-focused mindset is to experience success. Start trying new things that help you feel successful.

Evaluate

The ability to look honestly at any situation and evaluate it without emotion is an essential part of turning your mind around to successful thoughts instead of thoughts of failure. For instance, don’t automatically conceded failure if someone doesn’t return a call. There may be many reasons, including not even getting your message to start with. Assume a real reason before making up negativity in any situation.

Focus

Many times when put under pressure we tend to have some go-to attitudes and emotions that we feel. Some of us automatically give up. If you’re one of those, tell yourself you’ll give something a particular number of tries before giving up. Adversity is a necessary component in life. Without trials and tribulations, what good is success? Think how sweet success feels when it wasn’t simple to achieve.

Make Lists

Try keeping a daily schedule for work, with to-do items listed in order of priority. As you check them off, you feel successful. The ones you don’t check off move to the next day and become priorities for that day. As you get used to feeling as if you’re accomplishing something each day, you’ll feel more successful and therefore automatically develop a more success-focused mindset.

Finally, it is important when trying to become success focused to maintain your focus on positive affirmations and thoughts. Turn each negative thought into a positive, flip it around in your mind, and move forward. Sometimes you only need a little modification in something to turn a sure failure into an outright success.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/how-to-develop-a-success-focused-mindset/

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Which Is Better - Concentrating on One Project at a Time or Multitasking?

As a contractor you’re likely to be working on many projects together simultaneously. You might have five to ten clients with various projects at different stages. But, is it better to focus on one project at a time or multitask? Well, the verdict is in about multitasking: study after study shows that people who think they are good at multitasking really aren’t.

Therefore, the real question should be: How do I handle multiple projects by multiple clients in an efficient manner?

* Set Up a Workable System — You’re going to need a project management system of some kind, whether it’s a series of Excel spreadsheets and file folders on your computer or whether you invest in a system like Basecamp.com.

* Create a Work Schedule — Based on deadlines that your clients give you for projects, work your way back to the date each project was assigned. Give yourself enough time to focus on each task needed to complete the project on time, including a built-in buffer for things to go wrong.

* Use a Calendar — Google has an excellent online calendar that will send you reminders and notifications, and so does Basecamp. Whichever type of calendar you use, it’s imperative that you use one that is easy to look at so you know what’s coming up and what needs to be done today. On Google Calendar you can give each client their own color to code it.

* First Things First — Sometimes getting started is the hardest part, so if you have a system in place where you know that when you do something you start at step one, that will make it easier for you. For example, you have been instructed to create a 10-part email marketing series for product X. The first thing you have to do is outline the series. The next time is to write or assign the write of the series, then edit, then format, then load into and schedule the messages.

* One Thing at a Time — When you work out which parts of a project you need to do, and what order projects need to be done in order to assign deadlines to others appropriately, and to yourself in the right order, you’ll be able to do one thing at a time toward completion of the project in an organized way.

* One Client at a Time — It can be very confusing to try to work for multiple clients at once, and the best way to avoid issues is to only work on each client’s work one at a time. Don’t try to batch upload articles for multiple clients to email autoresponders, for instance; this could result in a disaster. Concentrate on just one client at a time and you’ll be able to focus better and avoid mistakes.

* At the Right Time — Know yourself enough to know when you work best and do certain tasks best. If you are better at writing in the evening, schedule your evenings for writing so that you can post the articles the following morning when you need less mind power.

* Learn the Tools of the Trade — When you pick tools and software to use, such as Basecamp or AWeber.com, learn everything you can about the software so that you can be of most use to your clients and stay organized for yourself.

* Start and End Each Day with the Schedule — If you start and end your day getting focused by looking at your calendar and task list, you will be less likely to miss something. Looking at the calendar helps you concentrate your mind on the tasks at hand.

So, this is the long answer to, “Which is better — one task at a time or multitasking?” Do one task at a time, one project at a time, one client at a time. We all do some measure of activity that we think is multitasking, but if you really think about it, you’re not actually multitasking unless one of those tasks is something you can do on automatic, like typing and composing an email. The typing is automatic, but the email crafting is something you have to think about. You can’t write an intelligent email and talk on the phone at the same time, for instance.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/which-is-better-concentrating-on-one-project-at-a-time-or-multitasking/

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What You Need to Know about Your Competition

Your competition delivers a similar product to yours, to the same audience as you do. Studying your competition will help you deliver a better product or service to your audience than if you don’t know anything about them. Your business will improve by the act of studying your competition.

How Are They Different from You?

No competition is going to be exactly the same as you. You are uniquely you and they are, too. Identify the ways in which your products and/or services differ. Note exactly what is different so that you can see whether or not you need to make changes, or whether or not your product is different enough to make your business stand out.

How Do They Market to Their Audience?

In what ways does your competition market to their audience? Do they use social media, freebies, blog content and/or other means to get the word out about their products and services? Plus, how successful are they in their efforts?

How Is Their Product the Same as Yours?

In what ways are your products the same? Is there something about their products that could be confused with yours? If so, how can you make yours stand out better and how can you improve yours so that you are one step ahead of them in terms of the quality of products that you deliver?

How Do Their Prices Compare to Yours?

Are they less expensive or more expensive than you? Why? Is there anything you can do in order to change your own price to make your products stand out better? If they are cheaper, can you make your products better in order to not be the low-cost leader?

How Do They Use Their Website to Market Their Products?

Check out every aspect of their website, from the colors to the words on the page. Do they have a newsletter sign-up? Do they offer a freebie giveaway? How are they using their website on the whole to market their business?

How Do They Use Social Media?

Do they have sign-ups on their website for social media? Do they use share buttons on their blog posts? Are they answering questions on social media and engaging with their audience? Knowing how your competition uses and misuses social media can help you become better at using it.

What Type of Content Is on Their Website?

Is your competition using content on their website that is keyword rich? Do you think it's private label rights articles, ghostwritten, or written by the website owner? Do they use a variety of different forms of content such as text, video, infographics and so forth?

How Often Do They Update Content?

Is the content updated often? What days and what time? Is the audience commenting on, liking and sharing their website content regularly? Does your competition share their content updates via social media, email newsletter and other means?

Don’t study your competition once and then rest on your laurels. Instead, take the time to regularly look for new competition and check out your old competition. You never know what you can glean from the information you collected. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to continue following and observing your competition at all times in order to stay abreast of your industry.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-your-competition/

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Are You Leveraging the Right Resources to Grow Your Business?

Marketing your business with online content is the ultimate way to bring traffic to your website. You can use articles, newsletters, blog posts, social media updates, FAQs and more to help bring traffic, but there are ways to do it so that you can grow your business the right way. Having a lot of followers isn’t indicative of success. Earning money is. So, if you want to grow your business you have to know which resources to leverage.

Content Is Still King

Everything revolves around content. Content is needed for every aspect of your business. If you create information products you need even more content. However, even if you sell other types of product or service you still need a lot of content in order to educate, engage, and encourage your connections to buy from you.

Forms of Content

There are many different forms of content that you can use, such as blog posts on your website, guest posts and articles on other websites, inside print publications and online newsletters. Content can be text, audio or visual in nature. Having a combination of different forms of content will ensure that you reach more of your audience.

Have a Plan of Action

The other key to ensuring that you are leveraging the right resources is to have a plan of action. Don’t just create or have content created without a point of view, voice, and the goals for the content in mind.

Create a Publication Calendar

When you know what content you want to create, it’s important to spell it out in a calendar so that you will do first things first. For instance, if you are launching a new product in three months, you can start whetting the appetite of your list now.

The Email List Is the Most Important

They say the money is in the list, and that’s as true today as it was five years ago. Social media marketing hasn’t replaced email marketing; it has created another way to lead people to your email lists. Leverage your social media to build your list.

Develop Incentives to Collect More Email Addresses

The point of your blog posts, social media updates, and even webinars is to collect information from your target audience so that you can market to them within your email lists. Host webinars, ask for sign-ups on social media, and incentivize lists with free give-aways or low-cost entry products and services.

All Content Should Work Together

Starting with the product, service or event that you want to promote, work your way back to today to decide the different types of content that you will use to get more email subscribers to whom you can market and promote your wares. Decide what type of content they need to become educated and informed about your products and services so that they will purchase.

Consider Drawing a Workflow

Looking at how all your content works together to bring in buyers as well as encourage the purchase, may help you identify gaps in your content needs. Your content workflow might look like this: Email Subscription Bait > 7-Day ECourse > Webinar > Short Report > Long Report > EBook > Coaching > etc… Seeing it written out should help you decide what you need.

By knowing what your goals are for the content that you create, you’ll be able to use it more efficiently to grow your business far beyond what you thought possible.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/are-you-leveraging-the-right-resources-to-grow-your-business/

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How to Find the Best Business Coach for You: Eight Questions to Ask

When you decide that you want to get a business coach, you need to ensure that you find the right coach for you. Nothing is worse than hiring the wrong coach because it can be a large expense and you want to get a return on any investment that you make in your business. Therefore, if you do the research you need to do before hiring a coach, you’ll save yourself a lot of problems and missteps.

Before hiring any coach, they’re going to have you go through a lot of questions to make sure you are right for them, but you should also ask the questions you need to ask to ensure that they are right for you. These are good questions to ask, but remember to also keep in mind what’s good for you. You want a coach that challenges you, and pushes you outside of your boundaries; otherwise you won’t experience the wonderful benefits of hiring a coach.

1. Which Certifications Do You Have?

While having coaching certification isn’t required by law, nor even required to be a good coach, the fact that someone spent the time and money on going through a program to become certified is a good sign that they take their business seriously and are devoted to making this profession their career. Listen to how they answer the question whether or not they’re certified; it will say a lot about how they deal with pressure.

2. How Long Have You Been a Business Coach?

This is an important consideration because if you plan to use a brand new coach you should pay a lot less since they aren’t experienced. But, if they’ve had training, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t do a good job if everything else comes together. The important thing here is to listen to their answer. It’s important to value honesty and hear how the coach deals with your questions.

3. What Type of Business Owners Do You Normally Work With?

The coach needs to be clear on who their target audience is if they want to help you be clear on where you’re going in your business. Do they work with only six figures and up businesses? Do they work with start-ups? What stage of business do they want to work with to best use their skills?

4. What Size of Businesses Do You Normally Work With?

Do they like working with sole proprietors, or larger companies? A coach who is used to working with a corporation might not like working with a work-at-home mom, for instance. The answers are really important and if they don’t normally work with your size of business, you should follow up with asking why they want to work with yours.

5. Which Industry Do You Specialize In?

Knowing what type of industry they like to work with is very useful. If your business works with authors, but they normally work with businesses who sell retail merchandise, they might not be a good fit for you. Hiring a coach familiar with your industry and what it takes to be successful is imperative, or they may not be able to advice you well.

6. What Are You Good At?

The answer to this question should be something new over and above the insight you received from the above questions. They may be tempted to repeat their specialty, but dig deeper and find out what they’re really good at within that specialty.

7. How Do You Quantify Results?

When you are hiring anyone to help you within your business, it’s a good idea to always think about the numbers and which metrics you’ll study to find out if what you’re doing is working. If your ideal coach doesn’t know which metrics they can help you improve based on what you want to work on with them, you might want to question whether or not the expense is worth it.

8. What Additional Skills Do You Bring to the Table?

If you need a lot of guidance in getting your business off the ground or to the next level, having a coach who brings other skills aside from typical coaching to the table can be an additional help to push your business to the next level of success. It really depends on what you need as to which answer you like best for this question.

The important thing is to be clear on what you need prior to interviewing a business coach. You may not be sure at first, but interviewing several coaches may help clarify for you what you want in a coach and what type of personality you’d work best with. Remember, as they interview you, you need to interview them as well.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/how-to-find-the-best-business-coach-for-you-eight-questions-to-ask/

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Analyzing Your Competition’s Social Media Efforts

One the best ways to give your own business a boost is to check out your competition. Your competition, even if your business is more popular, can give you a lot of insight to your audience and how you can improve to make your business even more profitable. One way to do that is to analyze your competition’s social media efforts. Here’s how.

* Follow Them on All Social Media Accounts  —  See how they are using each social media account to give information to their audience and how they get more followers. Does it appear that they are using automation software?

* Sign Up for Their Email List  —  Email lists are a really good way to check out your competition and see how they’re using their email in conjunction with social media to market their products and services.

* Read Their Blog Often  —  Set up their blog on RSS feed so that you can keep track of the type of information they’re disseminating to their audience. Do they ask their audience to share blog posts? Do they make it easy to share?

* What Do They Share Using Social Media?  —  What does their goal seem to be using social media? Do they try to lead you back to their email list, blog, other social media accounts, or something else?

* How Do They Get People to Like or Follow Them?  —  Did they incentivize their audience to like or follow them on multiple social media accounts? If so, are they giving new or the same information on each account?

* How Often Do They Send Out Updates? — Track how often your competition sends out updates.

* Track What Time Your Competition Sends Updates  —  What time is the most common time that your competition sends out updates?

* What Is the Reaction of the Audience?  —  Is the audience engaging with your competition based on their updates?

As you ask these questions, you will need to keep track of the answers. Some good ways to do so are to:

* Create a Spreadsheet  —  Enter the information you collect into a spreadsheet in order to keep track of the questions you have about how each of your competition uses social media.

* Use Evernote  —  This is a great way to keep track of different things that you would like to try that your competition is doing. Make a note of it, and then put it into practice on your own.

* Write a Report —  Taking each of your competition separately, write a report with the information so that you can easily look at it for future reference.

Tracking what your competition is doing, as well as how your audience responds to the competition, will help you know what to do more of in your own social media marketing efforts.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/analyzing-your-competitions-social-media-efforts/

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Habits That Make Networking More Enjoyable

Networking is something very important to ensure that your business succeeds.

You’ve probably heard it said that “it’s who you know, not what you know” that makes you a success. While it’s not really true completely, it is helpful to know people and to make your business known to others. Whether you network with peers, your audience or educators, it’s nice to learn habits that can make the experience more enjoyable.

Learn Communication Skills

Communication takes two people - a person with a message and the person deciphering the message. It’s up to the person who is giving the message to speak in a way that the receiver can understand the message. So, it’s up to you to practice delivering the message you want your audience to hear in the right way.

Plan Ahead

Don’t go into any networking event without a plan, but don’t be so rigid that you’re not natural. It is okay to divert a little from the plan if it’s ultimately giving you a result that you wanted when you set your goals for the event. A plan of action is going to see you through the event in a more successful way than just going in blind.

Choose the Right Opportunities

The networking events that you want to attend should be focused on the needs of your business so that you can reach your goals. Attend events that have a purpose such as connecting you with the right people who can help your business grow. Plus, you want to go into it with the idea that you can also provide value.

Practice Your Elevator Speech

It’s important that you know in advance how you’ll introduce yourself and talk about your business to each person you meet. You don’t want to sound like a broken record, though, so don’t memorize one line - instead understand everything you can about your business and your audience so that you can easily let people you meet know what you do in a way that that person will remember.

Develop an Attraction Hook

Depending on the type of event, you can create an attraction hook that will help people remember you. Some people are known from their brightly colored hair, or funny shirts, or a particular catchphrase. Ensure that your hook is appropriate for your audience; you want to be memorable but not a joke.

Focus on Quality over Quantity

Giving your business card out to everyone at the event should never be your goal. You should know in advance who is going to the event and who you’d like to meet. If you know some people who can introduce you to the people you want to meet, all the better.

Build Relationships

While you do want to sell things, you also want to build relationships with people. The relationships you build through networking events are more important than any amount of money you can make. As you learn to focus on relationship building, the networking events will automatically become more enjoyable because you’ll lift the pressure of performance.

Follow Up Fast

When any event is over, the moment you are back home or in your hotel room, or sign off from the online event, make notes of what happened, who you conversed with, what they said, what you said, and their information if you collected it. Then, within the next 48 hours, email the person a nice letter, and/or if appropriate send them a card in snail mail. The follow-up is almost the more important than the event. It will make you stand out among the others since most people do not remember to follow up.

When you go into a networking event prepared with a plan of action, you’ll automatically enjoy it more because you’ll know what your goals are and how you’ll achieve them. By placing your focus on building relationships and even making friends instead of just what you can get out of it, you’ll truly enjoy networking events more.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/habits-that-make-networking-more-enjoyable/

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The Part Outsourcing Plays in Running a Business

Outsourcing is an important part of running a business efficiently, and it can grow and become more profitable over time. After all, you don’t expect a CEO to do everything on their own; instead they have assistants and experts to do a lot of work for them. This is what makes them look amazing - their ability to pick and choose amazing experts to put on their team and motivate them to get work done.

1. Do More in Less Time – If it takes you two hours a day to go through emails that someone else could deal with, and this is especially true of customer service email, then you should outsource it to someone else. Those two hours might cost you 20 to 30 dollars an hour to pay someone else to do, but it’s costing you potentially hundreds of dollars an hour in new ideas, new products, and whatever it is that you do that you’re an expert in.

2. Duplicate Yourself – Many times you can also outsource work that you do yourself, and if you find the right people you can duplicate yourself and thus serve more clients. For instance, this is true with virtual assistants. Say your expertise lies in setting up shopping cart solutions for clients. As there are only 24 hours in a day, you can hire others who are also good at setting up shopping carts to increase your business.

3. End Repetitive Tasks – Any daily repetitive tasks that you do you can totally eliminate by outsourcing to someone else. This again frees up a lot of time for you to be able to focus on other things that will move your business forward.

4. Build an Empire with an Exit Strategy – By outsourcing to others, you can actually build up a business that depends less on you. This can feel scary to some people, but the truth is, this is a good goal to have in mind because your family will still be cared for if your business can ultimately run without you, or if it is sellable.

5. Expand Your Capabilities – Is there a skill that would add to your business that you do not have? For instance, maybe you’re excellent at technical skills and coding but you’re not that great at marketing or writing. You can find an expert to take care of these aspects so that you can get more clients and get more work.

6. Focus on Your Efficiencies – When you outsource work that is not your expertise, you can focus better on what you do best. If you’re not sure what your expertise area is yet, you will need to discover that so that you can outsource almost everything else and focus on that one thing. For example, public speaking; you can’t outsource that, but you can outsource everything surrounding public speaking so that you can focus on being the best public speaker possible.

7. Grow Your Business – As you find ways to outsource, you can grow your business beyond what it can be with just you working in it. A corporation often has hundreds of employees, but with outsourcing you can look like a big corporation while simply being a sole proprietorship who outsources to experts in any area ripe for growth.

8. Pay As You Go – The great thing about outsourcing is that the cost is flexible. It only goes up when your income goes up and you get more jobs. Therefore, each time you outsource, you will actually increase your income rather than reduce it.

So, if you want to grow and improve your business, you will learn to outsource to experts. It’ll make your business better, it’ll help you earn more money, and it’ll solidify your business to continue to grow without you.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/the-part-outsourcing-plays-in-running-a-business/

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How to Demonstrate Respect without Opening Your Mouth

According to anthropologist Edward T. Hall, up to 60 percent of all human communication is non-verbal. Understanding this fact will help you learn how you can demonstrate respect to others without ever opening your mouth. This is a great skill to learn because the more you listen and the less you speak, the more people respect you and perceive you as intelligent, helpful and creative.

Make Eye Contact

Eye contact is really tricky. You want to make eye contact but you don’t want to stare crazily at people and make them feel uncomfortable. They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul and it is true that you can tell a lot about a person by looking them in the eye.

In a group situation, always make eye contact with the person speaking, and then generously spread around the eye contact as people respond to the speaker. When listening, it’s good to break eye contact every four to six seconds so that the person doesn’t feel creeped out by your gaze.

In a one-on-one situation, if someone is talking a long time you can look at their mouth part of the time and they’ll feel more comfortable. Try looking at their mouth, each eye, their hair, and moving your gaze around but focus mostly on listening to what they are saying.

Learn to Shake Hands Properly

When you first meet someone, usually people shake hands. Some people get really carried away and shake too hard. Some larger men have even been known to draw blood when shaking a woman’s hand when she’s wearing rings. Some people, often women, tend to shake hands too lightly with a very limp wrist. This can feel kind of like shaking hands with a wet noodle and is very unappealing.

Both ways of hand shaking can make the person look less than confident. One is over-compensating and one is downplaying their importance. Both have bad reactions from others and neither should be continued. Both men and women should shake hands in essentially the same way.

To shake hands properly, look the person in the eye, put out your right hand, grasp the offered hand firmly but don’t squeeze hard. Pump your hand up and down three or four times and that’s it. Mind whose hand you’re shaking, too. If it’s an elderly person or a small person, don’t squeeze as hard. When appropriate it’s okay to do the double handshake where you enclose their hand in yours with both hands.

Keep Your Body Posture Open

Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do when you’re standing there without a podium or anything to protect you. Your arms feel heavy and you do the worst thing ever — you put your hands in your pockets or you cross your arms, thus hiding your hands. Try to stand with an open posture with your hands to your side so that you can use them freely for gesturing.

Showing your palms to others is akin to a dog showing his belly to show submissiveness. It’s a sign of respect and when you show respect to others you’ll get respect in return.

Do What You Say You’ll Do

No talking needed to follow up and do what people expect you to do. Doing what you told people you’ll do is one of the most important things you can do to show your respect for people. What’s great about this is that it really doesn’t require anything extra out of you, just sticking to your promises. Remember to always under promise and over deliver and you’ll always manage to accomplish this.

Lean in to Show Interest

When someone is talking, instead of leaning away and doing something else like checking a text message, get rid of the technology, lean in and truly listen to what the person is saying. Listen with your ears, your eyes and your body language by leaning toward the speaker a little.

Smile Comfortably

Always smile at people when you greet them and when they are talking as you’re listening — unless, of course, they’re talking about something sad or horrible. Be sensible in your smiling so you don’t look crazy. You don’t have to smile in a huge way; just turn the corners of your lips up a bit and put a smile in your eyes as you listen.

Face People Who Are Speaking to You

When someone is speaking, it’s important that you face them as they speak. Turing your back, looking around, looking at electronics, and doing something other than facing the speaker will look disrespectful.

Acknowledge “Comfort Zones”

People have different comfort zones for personal space, but in general it’s about 30 inches. Keep that in mind when you’re standing in a group, leaning in, or you’re conversing with people. Staying in their space too long will make the person uncomfortable and feel disrespected.

Keep in mind that these suggestions assume American, Canadian or Western ideas of respect. If you are dealing with other cultures, be sure to look into what different gestures mean by simply typing in the name of the country, and “gestures” to a search engine. Don’t underestimate the power that these suggestions will have on your interactions with others.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/how-to-demonstrate-respect-without-opening-your-mouth/

[socialana]

How to Write Your Business Vision

Every business needs a vision. A vision is like the big daydream you have in the middle of the afternoon after paying all your bills. It's about sitting on the balcony of your beachside resort room watching the sunset while working from your laptop. It’s the fanciful but possible potential of your business dreams. It’s not going to happen today, but if you reach for the stars, and work toward it, it could happen.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

* What is your USP? – This is about your products and services now. * What is in your mission statement? – This is about what you will do for your customers, how and why. * What is your five-year vision – Where you will be, and how you’ll get there.

Use this information to figure out where you’ll be in five years from now or ten years from now. That is your business vision.

Example:

Acme VA Services will be the top grossing, premier virtual administrative providers in North America by providing reliable, consistent and knowledgeable administrative and author services to six-figure e-book authors.

Once you write a business vision, use it to take action, create a strategy, and formulate tactics to actually reach your vision. Use the vision to motivate yourself, employees and contractors. You know how they say to dress for the part you want? Well, it’s the same with your business vision. If you have the vision to be the top-selling Kindle e-book seller, then you need to act like you already are and do the things it takes to make it a reality.

Maybe money isn’t the most important thing to you. Maybe something else is important to you. If that’s the case, this should show up in your business vision as well. What’s right for one business might not be right for another. Perhaps you want to be able to donate millions of dollars to charity by giving away 10 percent of your profit each year. If that’s the case, and your dream, write it down.

Your vision can include dreams about:

* Finances – This could be about supporting yourself, your family, retirement or supporting employees, contractors, or a community.

* Reputation – This might be about the business’s reputation with customers, employees, contractors and other interested parties.

* Quality – Your vision could be to provide the best of whatever it is that you make.

* Value – You want to give your customers valuable information, products and services.

* Growth – You may plan to double your business in two years, quadruple in five and so forth.

* Passion – You show your customers how much you and your employees (contractors) love doing what it is that you do.

* Charity – You want to be able to donate to and help charities.

* Sustainability – You care about environmental issues or other long-term issues.

* Service Oriented – You care about doing service for others.

* Community Minded – You want to help your community, be it local or within your industry.

You can include any number of other issues that you find important within your business vision. Not everyone is in business only to make money. After all, this is about a vision that you have and it’s personal to you about your path in the world and with your business.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/how-to-write-your-business-vision/

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How to Stop Overcomplicating Things and Letting Your Assistant Handle It

Many business owners have a really hard time letting their assistant handle various tasks. This is because many business owners have the feeling that if they let their assistant do things they will lose control. Additionally, they feel like no one can do “it,” whatever “it” is, as well as they can. But, most of the time the truth is if you’ve hired the right assistant they can do it as well as or even better than you can if you let them.

1. Define the Tasks – Be clear about the tasks that you want done and the results you expect up front so that your assistant doesn’t have to ask you too many questions throughout each day. They need to be able to make some decisions on their own or else there is no point in having an assistant.

2. Focus on Deliverables – Instead of worrying about the process and how someone does something, create checklists based off deliverables for every project that you’re involved in so that you can provide some guidance without micromanaging.

3. Hire the Right Assistant – Interview assistants based the type of projects you do so that you will know up front what you want them to do. That will help you hire people with the right expertise so you’ll feel confident turning over things to your assistant.

4. Use a Project Management System – There are many different project management systems such as Basecamp.com, Asana.com and others. It’s imperative that you and your assistant use something like that and not rely on email to keep track of the things that are to be done each day, week and month.

5. Set Milestones and Deadlines – Within the project management system and in concert with your assistant, set milestones and deadlines based on the expectations of what you want them to do. If you turn over work to your assistant that they automatically do each month without too much input for you, so much the better.

6. Check in Regularly – You don’t want to bother each other too often but you can check in for five minutes each morning or once a week; whatever works for you. It will make you feel better and make your assistant more confident to have regular contact with you so that they know what is going on.

7. Provide Adequate Support – Whether it’s a budget to work with, or access to software that makes their job easier, it’s important to provide them with what they need. If you want someone to be your true assistant, they’ll need access to the things you have access to in order to better help you.

8. Motivate and Reward – Provide feedback on a regular basis to your assistant, including positive feedback. That is a good way to motivate and reward him or her. The happier an assistant is, and the more secure they feel within their position with your business, the harder they’ll work on your behalf.

Finally, it’s important to let go of perfection and allow people who are experts in what they do, do what it is that they do. You can’t do everything. No successful CEO does. In fact, most successful CEOs mostly do nothing but delegate tasks to the smart, capable experts that they hired.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/how-to-stop-overcomplicating-things-and-letting-your-assistant-handle-it/

[socialana]

Why Your Business May Need a New Website

Many business owners build a website and then kind of forget about it. The website is nothing more than a brochure that people view online after seeing the URL on a business card or in a commercial. It is unfortunate, because websites can work for you, bringing in business leads 24/7 if they are designed correctly.

If you didn’t know that, it’s likely you probably need a new website. If you’re still not sure whether or not you need a new website, consider the following.

* Your Website Is Dull — Go to your website and look at it as if you’re a member of your target audience. How do you feel when you see it? If you’re unimpressed and bored, your audience is too. A website should be designed with the audience in mind. If it’s not, the audience will not be impressed.

* Your Target Market Has Changed — Over years of doing business, sometimes the focus of the business changes to a new target audience — whether due to a better understanding of target markets or due to a real change in products and services. If your business has experienced this kind of change, it is important to consider a new website design.

* Your Website Content Lacks Proper Focus — While not requiring a total remake in design, if your content isn’t focused on your audience and written with them in mind, then you’ll need a complete overhaul of the content on your site.

* New Technology Is Available — Is your shopping cart, newsletter, blogging or content management system outdated? If it’s been a few years since you updated the technology you use then it is likely time to consider updating it.

* Your Search Engine Ranking Is Dropping — Old technology isn’t good at keeping up with new search engine technology. Plus, if your website looks outdated to visitors who do find it, they’ll just click away.

* Your Website Is Not Mobile — More people are using mobile technology to access websites than ever before. In fact, mobile technology is outselling personal computers. If your audience member clicks through to your site and cannot read it, they won’t be back.

* Your Site Is Not Interactive Enough — A new website with all the interactive bells and whistles and interactivity is expected today. The ability to make comments, share on social media, and engage with the audience is very important. If your website lacks that ability, it’s imperative that you update your website today.

* You Want to Ramp Up Your Design — You simply are ready for a refreshed website with a new outlook that better captures your audience’s attention in a way that makes it easy to deliver the message you want them to know.

Sometimes you just need a new website because you want one, but other times you need a new website design because yours is old-fashioned and no longer serves your audience.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/why-your-business-may-need-a-new-website/

[socialana]

Making Your EBook Stand Out from the Rest

Digital eBooks have changed everything in the publishing world, but it’s not that big of a surprise to online marketers who have been selling their information for years via PDF format. But now, there are many different avenues in which you can promote your eBook, including the old PDF format as well as digital eBooks through Amazon’s Kindle and other online book sellers. In order to stand out from the crowd, your book has to be special.

Write the Book for a Particular Audience

Believe it or not, people who write novels for entertainment also have a particular audience for whom they write. If you are writing an informational book, you should be no different. Know who the audience is before you even think of a subject. Then write your book directly to that audience based on a topic that they want to know more about.

Format It Correctly

This might not seem like a big deal when it comes to selling, but getting good reviews will help you sell more books. And if your book looks wonky, you’re not going to get a good review even if it’s a great book. Start from the beginning with a properly formatted book with a well thought-out table of contents. Usually people can see the table of contents prior to buying your book, so keep that in mind as you name each chapter.

Get It Professionally Edited

It’s really hard to edit your own writing. Find someone who can edit your book for you, if not two or three people. One person could read through the book for grammar issues, another could fact check, and yet another can ensure that your book is presented in a logical order. Editing prices vary but you can find people on Guru.com, Elance.com, and Fiverr.com.

Don’t Skimp on Cover Design

One of the most important aspects of your book when you want to get someone to buy it, is the cover art. You don’t want it to look like cheap clip art or “homemade” — you want your book cover art to look just as good as those put out by famous publishing houses. Fortunately, if you’re not talented in that way you can outsource this to professionals who will do a great job for not a lot of money.

Create a Dedicated Sales Page

Even if you are selling your eBook on Amazon, it’s important to create a dedicated sales page in order to get the word out about your eBook. The sales page will just link directly to the Amazon checkout instead of your own checkout page, but will serve the same purpose as it did prior to the Kindle publishing platform being available.

Design a Stand-Out Author’s Page

On your website, your blog, the sales page, and the various author pages that are allowed on the publishing platforms, make sure that your author’s page is excellent. Have a professional headshot taken, and get help crafting a profile and biography about yourself that attracts people to you and makes them want to buy from you.

Create a Well Thought-Out Book Description

Your book description should explain to the reader what is in the book, why you should be the one to write it and why they need to read it. On Amazon they currently allow for up to 4000 characters for your book details. Use them well.

Use Resources Wisely

Amazon offers some special considerations and marketing functions to authors who sign up for Kindle Select and choose to let Kindle offer their book exclusively for 90 days. During the period you’ll get some free marketing options. It’s a good idea to offer your book this way first to take advantage of these options.

Build Anticipation

Start marketing your book before you’re done writing it. If you start out with an outline of what’s going in the book, the name of the book, and other information, you can get your audience excited about the book before you’ve even finished writing it. Just stick to your writing schedule and be ready to meet your deadlines.

Create an EBook Trailer

While you’re writing your book, you can create an eBook trailer with digital video to use in your marketing efforts. The trailer can go on your sales page, in email marketing, and on YouTube, as well as be pushed out to social media as the publishing date draws near.

Making your eBook stand out from the rest is just like making any product or service stand out. Be a little clearer, a little faster, and a little more compelling than the next guy and you’ll be the one to make the sales.

This article originally appeared here: https://www.socialana.com/making-your-ebook-stand-out-from-the-rest/