Tag: Business

5 Publicity Hacks For Startups To Grow Your Business Now

One common thread about startups is that most are pressed for time and money.

They know they need to establish their brand, but lack the major funding of most established businesses.

Many try to muddle through in an attempt to pique the interest of journalists and secure media coverage.

They understand the longer it takes to create name recognition the longer it will take them to build sales and profitability, but they aren’t sure how to get the process rolling.

Here are five publicity hacks for startups to quickly attract the attention of newspapers, radio and TV stations, and generate the needed publicity for immediate growth.

#1. Create a short summary highlighting what makes the business special and why it is different than other companies in the market space.

A startup should avoid the standard press release if possible.

The common mistake is to create the typical release and just send it everywhere hoping something will stick.

Instead, depending on the type and scope of the business, offer an exclusive story to the media with a lot of news “hooks”.

Point out interesting details and pitch the local business journal, daily newspaper, or a TV station announcing your company’s launch before it happens.

You can put together an interesting summary with an eye catching headline. Journalists like to break stories and are always watching for new businesses they can write or talk about.

Businesses can always issue and distribute a standard press release later after a major news outlet or two have broken the story.

#2. Develop a short, quirky video for social media.

Video, of course, is highly used in today’s highly digitized world.

A video can humanize the owners and team, and get people talking about it.

Many people would also rather watch something than read about it.

A video can help cover all the bases. It can depict some emotion and show aspects of the business print cannot deliver.

A company can also link to their video for added PR value when the business does send out its press release.

#3. Host a special event.

A special event can create excitement for the leadership, team and recruiting. The right type of event can also have a lot of media value.

Creating a special event is where creativity kicks in. You can do something a little off-the-wall such as creating the world’s biggest cheeseburger or selling 50 dresses in 50 hours to build revenue for a nonprofit or repairing a house for a needy homeowner if you are a painting company or construction firm.

You can do something related to computers if you are a tech firm.

Many ways exist to execute an event and accomplish your goals. Remember a business will need something visual if you wish to attract local TV stations.

#4. Tie-in a charity.

Community outreach can be a key part of a communications program. A new company can develop something at the outset that benefits a local charity and gains the attention of the media.

Editors and producers like companies that do something creative and give back to the community.

You can do some special things with nonprofits that involve bringing your pets to work or small children. The media loves dogs and kids.

#5. Publicize your press coverage on social media and your website

Your newsroom should be kept up-to-date and make sure you link to your stories on all your social channels.

Print, video and digital all play off each other with SEO benefits as well.

Keep in mind the more coverage you get, and the more media relationships you establish, the more credibility you will have for future stories.

Benefits of Mass Media For a Business

Over the past 15 years, mass media has changed dramatically. Improvements in applications, technologies, changes in consumer needs and an explosion of new media platforms have all played a part in this unprecedented evolution.

Now one can flip back and forth between several websites on the World Wide Web, 24-hour cable channels and even radio programs to stay connected to business news. Access to products and services on the Internet is no more a complicated issue in today’s “informed” times. These changes in the business end of media marketing are just some of many factors that have altered the way media is now managed, reported and used.

Today, business communications are not immune from the appeal of mass media. Many businesses have already benefited from this kind of marketing. If you want your business to create a niche on the web map, it is advisable to go for thoughtfully planned media endeavors. It is always good to remember that communications work is not merely a way to advertise products or services for a business in the media or before the general public – it can also help a business to reach its programmatic goals without any hiccups. Such an awareness campaign can help attain good results when it comes to engaging the public. Giving importance to appealing web designs templates and web development sites can prove to be an excellent option for a business in the long run.

In addition to such awareness campaigns, social networking sites and Weblogs (blogs for short) can prove to be excellent options for a business interested in creating awareness about itself, its products and services. This is mainly because modern day customers spend a lot of their time on these web mediums.

To stay close to optimum marketing benefits, a business must always offer itself as a resource, ready and full of clear, precise and unambiguous information when going for small business website development. Moreover, this information must be relevant to the goals and vision of the business.

It is important to note that dedicated commitment and strategic thinking are required to make the most of mass media campaigns. If you really want your business to move ahead of competition then patience and thoughtful planning are the best virtues before expecting any long-term results.

Great News, Business Credit Has No Impact on the Business Owner’s Personal Credit

When done properly, business credit is obtained without the SSN being supplied on the application.

This means there is no credit check from the business owner to get approved. This also means that anyone who has bad, even horrible personal credit can still be approved for business credit.

Reports to the business credit reporting agencies, not the consumer reporting agencies.

So as it has no adverse impact on the owner’s consumer credit because it’s not reported to consumer agencies.

This means utilizing the account, even over 30%, won’t have any adverse impact on the personal scores.

And there are no inquires on the personal credit when you apply for business credit as long as you don’t supply your SSN.

30% of your total consumer score is based on utilization, so if you use your personal cards for your business and if you use those cards you will lower your scores. Using more than 30% of your limit WILL result in a score decrease

So if your limit is $1,000, having a balance above $300 lowers your scores. This means 40% of your total score is damaged. With true business credit, 0% of your score is affected.

10% of your total consumer score is based on inquiries, so if you are using your personal credit to apply for business loans and credit, your scores will go down as a result of those inquiries.

Plus, those inquiries can remain on your for an extended period of time affecting your ability to borrow more money.

And some unsecured business lending sources won’t even lend you money if you have two inquiries or more on your personal credit reports within six months.

The credit doesn’t report to the consumer agencies, so neither inquiries nor utilization have any effect on your consumer scores.

How to Devalue Your Business

Anyone who has sold or bought a business will tell you of the importance.

All potential buyers can easily obtain extensive information about your business, just by obtaining your business credit report… that anyone who wants it can get.

This means they’ll quickly know details about your business including:

• Credit scores

• High credit limits

• Past payment performance

• Employees

• Revenues

And much more…

Now that you know how easy extensive credit and financial information is to get for a company, if you were a buyer wouldn’t you get it?

Based on what’s on your business credit report, would you want to buy your company?

Does your report reflect that your company is “established”, does it show that you pay your bills, do you look like a successful company from your report?

If you could choose from two companies to buy that were the same in every way except business credit, which one would you buy…

… The one with a very limited or no credit profile… or one with a credit profile that reflects good payment performance, and one with available credit.

Import Export Business Components and Segments

The Indian export business has been growing steadily for the past several decades. Indian exporters have succeeded in taking the export business to an international level.

Factors Contributing To the Growth of Export Sector

Several factors have contributed to the growth of export business in India. The growth of Small and Medium enterprises is one of the most important factors that have led to an increase in the export of the country. Most of the Indian exporters include the SME sectors which have grown tremendously during the past several years.

Some of the most important and profitable sectors in the export business include textiles, chemicals, telecommunication hardware, food grains, iron and steel, consumer durables and electronics. India is second largest exporter in the world next to China.

Another important factor that has led to the acceleration of exports is the online business to business web portals. The use of business directory by the Small and Medium enterprises has led to a global exposure of products and services.

Today Indian exporters can easily find markets for their products through online portals. The small enterprises found it difficult to reach the target audience but with the use of the b2b directories, these industries are able to showcase different products and services in the global markets, make better and faster transactions and have an in depth knowledge about market situations.

Indian exporters have a healthy competition with neighbouring countries which has further led to the growth of export sector in the country. The government has created new opportunities by introducing several policies to augment the export sector. By the year 1990, government introduced liberal policies to boost the export business in India. The introduction of various trade policies have led to a substantial flow of foreign currency.

Some of the Important Export Products

The Indian exporters maintain cordial trade relations with neighbouring countries. Majority of the commodities produced in the country are exported to foreign countries. Some of the most important and notable commodities include:

  • Iron and steel: India is the leading exporter of iron and steel to different countries all over the world.
  • Leather products: leather products like shoes, bags and belts are exported to different countries on large basis. It is one of the most profitable sectors of the Indian economy.
  • Textiles: another sector that contributes to the GDP of the country is the textile industry.
  • Chemicals and pharmaceuticals: India is the leading exporter of various chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The export of petroleum has also increased during the past several years.
  • Ready-made garments: Indian exporters are well known for their ready-made products in the international markets. Indian dresses and fabrics have immense appreciation all over the world.
  • Jewellery: Indian jewellery has craved a niche in the global markets with its unique blend of traditional and contemporary styles.
  • Dairy products: a leading exporter of milk products and eggs, the current census show a considerable increase in the export of dairy products.

The growth of SMEs and the use of business directory have led to a notable growth of the export sector of the country in many ways. Today the country is a leading exporter of many commodities in the international market.

Cyber Hackers Can Mess With Google – Are You Afraid For Your Business?

If you have been reading the news lately and picking up on all the commotion around hack attacks on some of the big guns like Google, Yahoo and Adobe you may be experiencing a twinge of anxiety over the security for your own business. You may have believed your network was invincible so this news could leave you feeling shaky. You have good reason to feel this way – according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald the number of hackers tampering with private financial information belonging to Australian business is on the rise. Obviously using the internet and intranet for business has become a viable solution to accomplishing company objectives, but on the downside the criminal faction sees just as much opportunity.

Australia is a Frequent Target for Cyber Crime

Symantec, a data security firm reported that Australian and New Zealand businesses suffer 75% more security breaches than the global average with 89% of the companies polled in the last 12 months admitting at least one intrusion. Hackers are not necessarily going after the major companies where they can make off with large sums of money. Like any other thief, they go where the risk is low and they can get in and out of a system quickly and without detection. The fact is you don’t have to be at any particular level of business profitability to be targeted. Smaller companies tend to use less comprehensive IT security making them more susceptible. In general, hackers are interested in easy money.

Google and Other Large Corporations are Not Exempt

The threat does not always revolve around banking information or sensitive intellectual property. As Google discovered in December 2009, issues such as human rights are at stake in cyber attacks. The advertising and search giant was appalled that a highly organized effort dubbed “Aurora” was being made to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human right activists. They managed to infiltrate only two accounts and were not able to see the account holders’ actual correspondence. The action put Google in the position where it felt it necessary to warn the Chinese human rights community of the attack and to prepare to withdraw business ties with China. Officials at Google did not directly accuse the Chinese government of being the perpetrators but they decided to review doing business with the country based its attempts to limit free speech on the internet. Google stated concern for the safety of the Chinese citizens and the potential for them to be interrogated and imprisoned.

There were at least 20 other large internet, media, finance and technology companies included in the attack: Yahoo, Adobe, Symantec, Dow Chemical and Northrop Grumman to name a few. It was accomplished through a technique called “spear phishing.” This resembles an attack against 100 IT companies in July 2009 where company employees were targeted with infected email attachments.

Small and Midsize Businesses have Minimal Defense

Most businesses are totally defenseless against these sophisticated attacks. They use instant messages and emails that seem innocent at first because the senders appear to be friends and trusted colleagues. The messages are fine-tuned to evade the anti-virus programs designed for these applications. Evidently the best practices for IT security that have successfully held attackers at bay for many years are no longer sufficient. There is an innovative caliber of attacks circulating around the globe using custom malware written specifically for individual companies. The hackers don’t seem to mind if it takes longer to get around the antivirus software in use by the large corporations. They continue painstakingly to tweak their malware until it is effective. Smaller companies that don’t have the budget for a large scale security have not stood a chance. The hackers have the ability to commandeer only one employee’s laptop and make it a gateway for total administrative access to the company’s entire network.

The security firm, iSec Partners that investigated the attack on Google and ensuing corporations recommend we make fundamental changes to the way we protect our networks. They say we have simply not been prepared for the level of sophistication demonstrated by the new cyber criminals.

Hacker Stories in the Australian News

Internet news sites report the direct effects of cyber hacking on Australia. Today Online posted a news article about a hacker called “Ghostbuster” that has been targeting Melbourne businesses as a response to violence against Indians. The person behind the attacks has been sending threatening emails stating Australian servers will be hacked until racism against Indian nationals is ended. The action came in the wake of the murder of a 21-year-old Punjabi student in January 2010. Several Melbourne businesses were victimized when their entire networks were thrown into chaos.

In the technology section of The Age is a report describing the effects on government websites by hackers associated with the group “Anonymous”, known for its attacks on Scientology. This is the same group that temporarily blasted pornography across Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s website. On the morning of February 10, 2010 a number of government sites were down. The attack was in opposition to the government’s plans for internet censorship. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was not happy with the fact that Australian citizens could not obtain needed services online and felt it was irresponsible on the part of the hackers.

In the Sydney Morning Herald one journalist mentions the statistics that there are now more mobile devices in the country than Australians. It is not unusual for an individual to own two or three. The rising use of wireless broadband provides accessibility and convenience for subscribers but it also expands the territory for cyber criminals. Currently there are more barriers to cyber hacking wireless devices than terrestrial networks, such as the cost of making a phone call. However with the advances in mobile device technology to the point where it can replace the need for owning a laptop computer the potential for being targeted by hackers exists. The actual devices may be secure but the Wi-Fi network, often free and faster for users in public places is a temptation for cyber criminals. You may believe you have connected to a site operated by an airport, hotel or coffee shop, but there is no way of knowing for sure who controls the IP address that now has access to everything in your computer or mobile device. It is not that difficult for hackers to present a fake website you feel you can trust that they can use to steal from your network at any time in the future.

Millions of dollars are stolen everyday from individuals and businesses that use the internet. We are warned frequently about viruses, worms and phishing scam but somehow we get caught anyway. The situation is getting worse as hackers become better adept at breaking down the unique systems designed to keep them out. If you are still experiencing discomfort about the vulnerability of your network it will pay off to attend to your gut feeling.

Could Celebrities Be Cutting-Edge Marketers – Leading Online Business Entrepreneurs?

“Where is The Future of Online Business –

Could Celebrities be showing mainstream business the way?”

Have Your Competitors ‘Caught On” and already Talking to Your Customers in this latest marketing evolution for Web Success? (And are they doing it Auto-matically and VERY Cheaply!) SO MANY Crucial Questions to answer… please read on.

The following Report is the Cover Story for “Australian Business Solutions” magazine“

YOU WILL DISCOVER HOW CELEBRITY MARKETING STYLES ONLINE LEAD ‘AUDIENCES’ TO WANT TO BUY RATHER THAN THE CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS APPROACH OF SELLING AND CLOSING. YOU WILL DISCOVER VALUABE, IN FACT ESSENTIAL INSIGHTS AND IDEAS THAT EVERY MARKETER, ENTREPRENEUR AND BUSINESS OWNER MUST NOW EMBRACE!”

(WARNING: THIS REPORT MAY FRIGHTEN YOU… IT WILL DEFINITELY ENLIGHTEN YOU!)

There is a buzz around on the television news, radio, in the print media, at business networking groups and meetings and especially on the internet right now. There seems to be a shift of focus for how people look for products and services and then decide how they spend their money.

In terms of influence and power, the new way people search for products and services and make their buying decisions online could even rival the search engines. And it’s been said that this buzz could be the single biggest thing to happen in business since the industrial revolution!

Sounds over the top, but is there enough evidence (for you) to be a part of it too? And is this buzz a fad or could it be here to stay?

If you’ve watched TV news or listened to radio or brought a newspaper in the past 2-3 years, you will have noticed references to websites in both stories and advertising, where you can find out more – including how to get more information about a product or service and/or how to buy instructions. In more recent times nearly every news presenter, TV show host, journalist and celebrity are also promoting how you can ‘follow’ their lives, interests and activities online too – and it all seems to be centred around websites such as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, Digg.com and more, collectively known as Social Engines.

Celebrities are using these sites to raise their profile, build their brand and most importantly, solidify their popularity and [hopefully] longevity in their profession and industry. AND, these sites enable their audience (loyal army of fans) to talk directly back to them. And this is at the heart of the buzz and current shift – and why it’s so very important you read on and learn more.

On the Social Engine Twitter.com, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more followers (fans) than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama. Their brand awareness and popularity building is personal, although as that increases, so too does their value to corporations looking for product endorsements to drive their market penetration and increase their market share.

Sporting stars like celebrities have broadened their talent base too, becoming more entrepreneurial and business savvy, seeing their name, brand and product value increase, in many cases, to a higher income level than the actual core sporting talent. In other words, acting, playing a sport, being a comedienne or whatever is their core talent is no longer their only talent. They have embraced the concept of brand building (and protection), marketplace communications and conversations – opting for direct contact via sources like online Social Engines. Here they can touch far more people quicker and easier than say a traditional autograph signing exercise.

A true business woman, leader and entrepreneur, celebrity Oprah Winfrey instantly connects and updates a loyal army of over 2 million+ people that follow her on Twitter. Her power and influence is no surprise or revolution in itself, but her army of followers are able to directly provide instant feedback and ideas to her too -and marketplace feedback is a life blood to your business growth and long term sustainability. (Try ignoring it and see where your business goes.) Everyone wants to be heard and Social Engines give you, your business and your customers a voice.

A loyal army of followers can also provide a viral effect to disseminate information quickly too, meaning they can ‘spread the word for you’ if you ask them to – this can be particularly useful if you want to spread good news and conversely if your brand comes under attack via other mainstream media mechanisms or on the Social Engines themself.

Although it might be hard to fathom, could celebrity entrepreneurs like these be showing more traditional businesses how to connect, behave, build our brand, increase our marketplace value and build our business too using these Social Engines?

Is this a valid idea and model for mainstream business or not?

Firstly, the power of Social Engines extends far beyond Twitter.com alone. Some of the other leading Social Engine sites sprout some pretty impressive visitor and member statistics, as well as services.

Facebook.com – If it was a country rather than a website, it would be the world’s 3rd largest after China and India.

On Facebook there are more than 250 million active users and more than 120 million of them log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). The fastest growing demographic is 35 years old and older and within that, the fastest growing segment is 55-65 year-old females. Do people 35+ and women influence the buying decision for your products and services? This is worthy of your attention.

And there’s more… more than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week on Facebook alone and more than 2.5 million events are created and advertised each month. More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site and more than 50 language translations of that content are available on the site. The people supplying all this content include business owners and professionals, some of whom are surely in your industry and probably your competitors. And if you think because you’re a localised business that this doesn’t count, you’ll find this statistic most enlightening- 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.

All of those statistics are just for Facebook alone (source Facebook.com/press/statistics).

You can also purchase Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression advertising on Facebook (and other Social Engines). They take your spend to a whole new level of value and ROI with their member data allowing you to display your adverts for keywords AND additional, specific demographics of the member base. For example you can display your advertising message to women, 55+ in Melbourne who are single. You can even target people specifically on their birthday with a relevant offer.

YouTube.com – take a look at YouTube (which is owned by Google for good reason) – People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube -including promotional videos, education, product consumption/direction videos and client testimonials for business. Plus every video you add to YouTube includes a spot on the webpage where you can put a link back to your website. PLUS you can add these videos to your blog posts, making them more interesting to your blog readers on other Social Engines too (more about blogs in a moment).

YouTube’s user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.

And could this be the good reason Google brought YouTube? It’s the 2nd largest search engine in the world today, 2nd only to Google.com. If you want to connect with your marketplace on volume, this is worthy of your attention.

Twitter.com – let’s take a statistical look at that quickly too. Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users in June with 83.1% of users over the age of 25. In July 2009, the Twitter website recorded 23,284,395 unique visitors – who else wants to be ‘front-of-mind’ to an audience of that size? Does your target market include people 25+? This is worthy of your attention.

Twitter has been described as the “Pulse of the Planet” given its instant, viral spread-the-word-to-the-world-instantly nature. It has boosted box office numbers and it’s killed them too, just ask the makers of the movie “Bruno” – overnight ticket sales dropped by more than half thanks to the frank and instant feedback from those that had just seen it. It was so quick too because 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime – imagine what that means for bad customer experiences and you!

Do you let your customers walk away with a bad experience, only to stand out the front of your store or hang up the phone and blast their frustration and disappointment to hundreds, thousands maybe millions of people -in the ‘heat of the moment’?

The true power of Social Engines is not to be feared, it is to be embraced and when done well, you can influence large numbers of people in the ways you want them to know and represent you. This is worthy of your attention.

Understanding the nature of Social Engine participation is important and the question to answer is – What are people doing on these Social Engines? They are looking for ideas, insights, invites, offers, information, inspiration and conversation.

Savvy business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are providing it all to them and at the same time, in a more passive or softer way than conventional advertising, promoting their business, building their reputation and ultimately getting more leads and customers to their web sites. These business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals are using resources within services like Facebook that include a Personal Profile Page, Business and Product Pages, Fan Clubs, Groups, Time-sensitive Events/Promotions, Classified Advertising (PPC) and more… and the really smart ones are sharing content direct from their website blog feed too (more about that in a moment).

Then there are sites like LinkedIn, a professional social network and directory of business owners and professionals who can communicate quickly and easily with one another. In a 2009 survey, 80% of businesses and companies who are members were using LinkedIn as a primary recruitment tool to find new employees. This is worthy of your attention.

On these Social Engines, people can say what they want about you and it’s uncensored. What do you do about it? Ignore it and hope the customers and prospects that really matter to you don’t see it? Should you take a proactive approach and start by monitoring what’s been said about you and then start providing your brand of information, insights, ideas and inspiration to your marketplace and control the information flow you want through them?

We are living in an era now where what happens in Vegas goes ON and STAYS ON YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and more.

“Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, WORD of mouth has become WORLD of mouth.”

Love them or hate them, social engines are here to stay simply because ‘the people’ love them and trust others on them. Facebook and MySpace are among the most popular destinations on the web. And even though they can be extremely annoying, there is one inescapable fact: the most irritating thing about Facebook is the 200m-strong army of people who use it.

And here’s the final enlightening point- Social Engine participation has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web.

SO Do you get involved or not? And if so, how do you do it easily and cheaply but still ‘play the game’ like a Celebrity with a 2m+ loyal army of followers?

The reality is that even if you’re not involved, your customers and prospects AND competitors probably are – and they’re talking to one another, perhaps about you and without you so the sooner you start, the better chance you have to becoming both a part of the conversation and then lead it.

The answer for businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals is automation – this is the single biggest break-through strategy and tactic that very few people have worked out, including many larger corporations who are successfully using Social Engines but they are not leveraged with automation, also known as things happening ‘auto-magically‘.

In many cases, businesses are employing specialist online staff on top of web masters and advertising/SEO experts. With automation, you can do a whole lot for very little extra time and virtually no money.

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?

At its essence or core are six words that will transform the way you generate leads and make repeat sales online – those words are YOUR WEBLOG FEED PLUS SOCIAL ENGINES.

A Weblog or blog as it’s more commonly known is a type of website or part of an existing website that allows you to add content as blog posts or articles and display them on your website – content like information, ideas, insights, offers, news, invites, images and more and you can create blog posts quickly and easily without ever needing to get a webmaster to do it for you.

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs online today and that number grows every day. Again, not all blogs and blog owners are equal, many are neglecting to include automation and leverage and integration with Social Engines so there are many nay-sayers about blogging, but that attitude is changing as more people are enlightened.

A Feed or RSS Feed as it’s more commonly known will distribute your blog posts well beyond just displaying them on your website. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates of your blog posts, delivered ‘auto-magically‘ via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for your content (information) to be packaged into “widgets,” “gadgets,” mobile devices, and other technologies as shortened or full length messages, which Social Engines happen to LOVE. Your Feed makes it possible to display blog posts just about anywhere on the web or web connected device and most importantly directly to the millions of people online every day.

That means a Blog with an RSS Feed can ‘auto-magically‘ distribute information you create about you, your business, your products and your services quickly and easily across thousands of sites on the web. And you only have to create your pieces of content once!

A blog is a powerful code (invisible to the human, non-techie eye) and every time you add content to an existing or new blog post, like you would add content to a word document, it is distributed around the web in seconds and is fed directly into the biggest marketplaces and communities of people online every day.

What makes a blog with a feed even more powerful is that it reaches the biggest sources of people (leads) online – who by the way are not just using Search Engines anymore to find out about products and services, they are also using the “Social Engines”. PLUS your Blog Feed can also ‘auto-magically‘ update Google and Yahoo about your site too, so you still stay connected with the Search Engines for no more extra work, or money.

Now if you’re anything like me, when I first heard about these Social Engines, I dismissed them as not being a viable business and marketing channel because they appeared to be for personal networking and friendship (and they are indeed used for those reasons). Whilst many businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals are using these engines and winning new business – only a handful are doing it easily and quickly, because most of them do not know about the power of connecting your Weblog RSS Feed and how it fits in with using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and hundreds more Social Engines.

In my own experience, I was wrong to not get involved with Blogs and Social Engines sooner (like many business owners and professional managers still are) as my competitors began to build an edge I did not have with my marketplace, simply because I did not understand and connect these two key points about connecting your blog directly to Social Engines. If you want to find new customers quickly and easily and build better sales from existing customers:

  1. Your website must be a Blog with a Feed and/or include one as part of your website
  2. Your online marketing mix and strategy must include sharing your blog post information with people on Social Engines like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg etc.

And here’s why…

Your competitors have possibly already figured out that social engines are where they can connect with people who include your customers and potential customers because the Social Engines are where your customers and potential customers are going online – and they’re going to these Engines regularly and for long periods of time. And people are making buying decisions based on the conversation they are having and the feedback they are hearing.

Even if you [believe you] have no competition, you’re not connecting with your marketplace as directly and as easily as you can, if you are not using the true power of Social Engines. These online sources or marketplaces attract people 24/7/365, who stay for a while each time. How could you NOT promote you, your business and your products and services there?

Every time you add content to your blog, it is circulated out to many Social Engines, once you set up a FREE account with them… people at these Engines who have an interest in what your business offers then come to your website to find out more.

Here’s an example of how your website Blog, its Feed and these Social Engines work together. (Note this diagram also includes the two largest Search engines -let’s not forget them. Using your Blog and RSS Feed, you can ‘auto-magically’ update them too.)

At the centre of this relationship are your website blog and its RSS Feed. Every time you add content to your blog, the Feed distributes it out to the Social and Search Engines with a link back to your website. People on the Social Engines instantly see a summary of your blog post and a link back to your blog/website. If they are interested in you, they click on the link and follow it back to your website to find out more about you and move forward with you.

“Although we like to feed information to the Search Engines for free listings, the Social Engines outperform them in providing INSTANT, FREE traffic (people) to your website… meaning Social Engines host millions of people live online at any given time who are exposed to your blog post instantly… and not only will they follow your link back to your blog/website if they are interested, they also have the power to make your Feed ‘viral’ – voluntarily passing it on to their friends who in turn pass it on… and so on.

The Social Engines and the people on them help you grow your prospect and customer base quickly, easily and cheaply – you can’t get any cheaper than free!”

The Social Engines are places where people go to and stay at; whereas Search Engines are places people only pass through ‘in search of’ a final site destination. This is the major difference and the significant extra power you’re missing out on if you are not involving your business in the Social Engines. Remember though, the Blog Feed is vital to ensuring your participation is mostly ‘auto-magic’ otherwise participating in them could over run your day, your week and your life!

The Blog Feed allows you to ‘auto-magically‘ update the Social Engines, minimizing the ‘air time’ you personally allocate to this.

So, who’s already taking this seriously and using Social Engines as a powerful, quick, cheap and easy tool and media to generate free leads quickly too?

Firstly, no matter your business, products and services, you’ll find prospects and possibly existing clients already participating in these sites on a regular basis. You are bound to find your competitors there too, it makes good business sense to be present on an Engine where millions of people congregate, converse and seek out people with the products and services they require – someone in your industry is probably joining them and being ‘front-of-mind’ and it should be you.

Everyone that gets it commits to it. These world-wide companies, brands and industry leaders have dedicated resources to connect and cultivate relationships with prospects and clients on the Social Engines with reportable, measurable results:

Motor Vehicle Industry: Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, Honda

Travel and Tourism Industry: JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Luxor Las Vegas, Marriott International Hotels and Resorts, Carnival Cruise Lines, Hertz Car Hire

Sporting Teams: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego Chargers

Entertainment: 92Y, The Travel Channel, ComCast, Marvel Entertainment, Direct TV, Pop Caps, TV Guide

Finance: Wachovia, H&R Block, Intuit

Retail: Best Buy, The Home Depot, American Apparel, Rubbermaid, Whole Foods, Zappos.com

Food and Beverage: Starbucks, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Popeye’s Chicken, Tastidlite, Kraft Foods (see Vegemite Case Study below)

Other Global brands: Dell Computers, EMC and Kodak – all benefitting by directly connecting with their target marketplace – whether that’s existing customers and/or potential customers.

Case Study:

Kraft Foods have taken an interesting Corporation-Consumer collaborative approach to product promotion and development using Social Engines. Here’s what they say about their social engine strategy:

For many of our strong brands such as Vegemite – we acknowledged that we are simply (proud) brand custodians and that the brand is owned by ‘the people’. We focused our first two years of social engine participation on simply listening and asking questions.

Two of these questions were:

  1. How do you individually like your Vegemite?
  2. If there ever was to be a Vegemite variation what would this be?

Recently Kraft launched their latest product “Name me” a vegemite plus cream cheese experience. Here’s how they are using Social Engines to develop it.

“This is a work in progress; we spent two years listening and now with the product on shelves the Kraft Communications team is engaging with Vegemite loyalists and cynics alike on the 12 top social engines. They are engaging and getting samples out on and off line- and encouraging debate on the new products. There are a number of Facebook groups sitting in the following camps: pro original, pro new flavour and anti new flavour.”

This is just one way Social Engines are helping businesses already to grow brand, product and corporate awareness. There are many other ways to use it too that can and do lead to direct and immediate sales. No matter the size of your business and marketplace, Social Engines, like the internet at large give you a level playing field with industry leaders like Kraft Foods and the others mentioned here.

Your website with a blog and feed will provide regular content to the Social Engines ‘auto-magically’. You need to support that by also visiting the main Social Engines and engaging people on a weekly basis, as it forms part of your marketing, CRM and all the other pay-offs mentioned previously.

Adding content regularly to your Blog Feed, ‘auto-magically‘ keeps you in touch and front of mind to millions of people around the world, on the Social Engines (and Search Engines) so they can access your business, products and services quickly and easily.

The buzz appears to be more than a fad so for your business it becomes not a question of ‘if’ these Social Engines are going to be a valuable marketing tool for business. Rather, the question now is:

“How quickly will you get your business on the Social Engines

… to Capture Your Competitors Clients too?”

HOW TO GET STARTED

Here’s a checklist to help you get started with your new, exciting and FREE Social Engine Strategy:

1) Get a Blog website with a domain name of your choice OR if you already have a website, get a new sub domain or folder added called blog

2) Open an account with at Google, Feedburner, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and LinkedIn.

3) Install an RSS Blog Feed and set up a Pinging list on it then add your Blog feed to the Search and Social Engine accounts you created in the step above.

4) Create content-rich education videos that can be added to your YouTube account and your Blog – that is then ‘auto-magically‘ added to your Search and Social Engine accounts.

5) Actively participate in or create new Facebook Groups, Events and Pages.

6) Make promotional videos about you, your business, your products, how you help and support people and upload them to your YouTube Channel then add them to your blog posts.

To really make this all work well for you, you need to know there is a big secret in succeeding with growing your business using Social Engines. You’ve read this far, so here it is: Social Engine success rest largely with you getting to grips with:

  1. Being a ‘face’ of your business and allowing people to connect with your ‘authenticity’ as a person ahead of a product, and
  2. the need to ‘listen’ to your marketplace, innovate with change to meet their ever-changing needs and then share information that will help them, rather than push product.

Millions of dollars are spent monthly with pay per click advertising on these sites and more millions are paid to ‘search engine specialists’ who supposedly help you reach number 1 ranking on keywords relevant to your business. It’s a fierce fight between serious players for top spots on search engines, both free and paid listings. An entire industry is built on it and around it. But you now know how to become a leader in your industry on the most powerful Social (and Search) Engines online today and how to do it Quickly, Cheaply, Easily and Auto-Magically.

In some cases, target market demographics may not be using Social Engines; therefore it would not be worthwhile. Consider these statistics when making your evaluation:

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Do you rely on 3rd party endorsements to build buyer confidence? If this is not a necessary part of your marketing and sale process, you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing.

Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy – Listening first, selling second. Would your competitors be prepared to connect and listen to your prospects and customers directly to discover what they want, and then give it to them? If not, then you may be able to ignore Social Engine Marketing… and least for a little while.

The worst part is the first part. When you start, your ‘following’ could be small but that is far better than not monitoring what’s been said about you at all! The only way to change that is to get in the game!

Get started right now, before your competitors do -it’s the future of marketing your business online, because that is where the people you want as your customers are going online. It’s only a matter of time before someone in your industry emerges as the leader on the Social Engines – get you and your business front-of-mind first. Enjoy the experience and I’ll ‘meet and tweet you’ on the Social Engines of the World!

4 Simple Ways To Promote Your Business Online

There are many ways to promote your business on the internet without having to spend tons of cash on advertising. You may not have wads of cash when you are starting out your business venture, but with a little bit of creativity you can still effectively advertise your products and services online. Before the advent of internet, small businesses had only a few ways to market their products cheaply, using methods like printing out and distributing fliers or by sponsoring local events. Now there is a big world of opportunities open for you on the world wide web – you just need to know where to look.

Let us discuss below a few ways to promote your business online without needing to spend lot of money.

1. Register with Google, Bing & Yahoo – The first step which you shouldn’t skip is to register your business with ‘Google Places’. This will allow your business to show up on Google Maps as well as be found easily on Google searches. The process is very easy – all you have to do is fill up a simple form and then verify yourself through either phone or email. Also register your business with ‘Yahoo Local’ and Bing as these 3 are the leading search engines and they have huge databases of businesses from around the world.

2. Press releases – Whenever your business does something which is newsworthy, do not hesitate to make a public announcement of it through a press release. Press releases can be very effective in generating publicity for your business. There are many news websites which allow businesses to submit free press releases. Try out sites like ‘PRLog’ or ’24/7 Press Release’. If you want added exposure you can go with paid press release distribution.

3. Participate in online communities – You can find online communities in almost every possible niche where people gather to discuss problems and other things related to that niche. Register an account at a few of these online community sites. They are usually free to join. You can get awesome amount of exposure through active participation on these community sites. You can passively promote your business through a link in the signature or by mentioning about your website whenever the context is appropriate.

4. Photo-Sharing and video sites – Sites like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr are not just for photographers or teenagers alone. Any business can make use of these sites to generate traffic and get free exposure. You can post images or videos of your office, staff, events, products or any other newsworthy content related to your business.

Ways to Get an Online Presence for Your Business

Technology is getting bigger and better and this means that the world is gradually becoming a global village. Today, anyone can sit in their homes in the Nigeria or Ghana and be able to know the latest news in India, United States of America or even Venezuela. Yes, this is the power of technology that we are gradually learning to deal with and also acknowledge in our lives. Today, businesses are looking like the best beneficiaries of technology especially due to the internet. Yes, today every business is gaining and trying to gain online presence to ensure that they are always on top of their rivals. The internet has helped to make small businesses very huge and also known in the parts of the country they never thought was possible.

Also, many people are having great fun sitting in the comfort of their homes to shop from the internet. The truth is that, the influence of technology in the world is growing and will be much bigger than it is now; this is why businesses are advised to catch up and make good use of these new ways of business marketing and promotion. Today, there are so many small businesses that have so many clients all over the world that they have never met before but do business with all the same. This is great because; you offer better services to people you do not even know. There are so many ways however; to get the right online presence you need to get your business on the road.

You can start first by designing or having a business website designed for you. Yes, this can be done by professionals or software’s you can download from the internet. Your website is what speaks to clients or markets your products on the internet for you. This is why you need to ensure it is in the best of condition at all times with the right information. Make sure all information with regards to your services; charges, etc are not left out.

Another way you can boost your online presence is by using online social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the many others available. Doing this can give you an opportunity to see some of the international customers you have and also get more people knowing about your business and the services you offer. Online presence can be got through so many processes however; it will be best to ensure that you do exactly what you is needed and the best for your business.

Small Business Owners: Your Leadership Style Can Increase ‘Profits’

Covid-19 pandemic has forced a lot of business closures. Government leaders are issuing stay-at-home orders and the government is reopening in phases, which has limited customers sizes to 25%, 50% and 75% for the health safety of our community. How can you lead in constant changing environment? How do you motivate employees and simultaneously look for the next product to keep the doors open? How do you change your management style to be an effective leader in such a uncertain future and ‘doing more with less’ employees.

Leadership

I suggest send out a survey of what qualities they want to see in a CEO (then pledge to do everything you can to live up to these expectations)

Leaders need to provide coaching, because no one ever got to be the best without the constructive feedback, probing questions and active teaching. Be honest and positive in all communication messaging.

Search for opportunities to improve

  • What’s new?
  • What’s next?
  • What’s better? And not just for yourself but also for those around you.
  • Find a significant purpose for addressing your challenging and most difficult assignments.

Who you are and what your values are (then you give voice to those values)

Leader must affirm the shared values of the group.

Inspire a shared vision

  • Envision the future by imagining, exciting and enabling possibilities
  • Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
    • Imagine the possibilities
    • Find a common purpose

Leaders who focus on the future attract followers more readily

  • Read trends
  • Listening to Podcasts
  • Watching documentaries

People regard most favorably those leaders who regularly talk about the ‘why’ of work and not just the ‘what’ of work

People who are leaders want to do something significant, accomplish something that no one else has yet to achieved.

Motivating Employees

  • Cross Training Employees about each other roles/responsibilities
  • Mentoring
  • ‘how can I help you?’… walking around 30 minutes a week
  • Delegating responsibilities
  • Brown Bag lunches (training)
  • Praise and Work for work above normal day activities

Sending them to seminars

Have them to do presentations

Quarterly Corporate Town hall Meetings (teleconference)

Weekly recognition of outstanding performers

  • Email
  • Walking around
  • Must be based on ‘visible’ performance (daily if outstanding)
    • Monthly meeting (recognize your performers)

Social Media interaction with customers

  • Do you have a scalable website (WordPress)
  • Do you have LinkedIn profiles about employees and products
  • Engaging with customer markets about current happenings
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Reddit
    • Twitter
    • Weibo (china)

Finally, some business owners will make the necessary changes to keep afloat and some will drown. Navigating in rough waters, takes a team effort, innovations and commitment to ride it out!!!!

Your job as a business leader is to communicate, communicate with honesty and positivity to build trust in customers, employees and shareholders.

Before You Take the Entrepreneurial Plunge, Consider Various Business Models

There are some business models that are more accessible than others, to individuals who have little or no collateral, little or no cash, little or no entrepreneurial experience, little or no training, and little or no choice but to pursue an entrepreneurial dream without the benefit of resources which would ordinarily be nice to have. The purpose of this article is to briefly review some of the alternatives.

First, there are product oriented businesses versus service oriented businesses. In the case of the former, questions arise as to the source(s) of supply, how the inventory is to be managed, whether the product is perishable, and how the product is delivered into the hands of the customer. The business may need a substantial physical infrastructure. In the instance of a product like new cars, you need a lot, a parts department, service and cleanup capacity, and a sales, financing, and administration area. You will also need lighting, security, and other amenities to ensure that buyers have a sense of confidence in the business. If you’re selling ice cream, you need to keep it cold; this implies freezers and refrigerated trucks, perishibility, and substantial energy bills. If you’re selling clothes, you need display and storage space for a variety of sizes and styles. In all of these cases, you need the product itself in inventory. You might also wish to categorize this type of business as having one other similarity among others of like kind: these are “brick and mortar” businesses.

Service businesses may also require “bricks and mortar,” so just because a product is not physically stocked or otherwise identified as tangible, one must not jump to conclusions. A day spa, a bank, or a hotel, are all examples of service businesses that are also brick and mortar businesses. Generally speaking, brick and mortar businesses rely on a “place” where they must exist, and acquiring such a place requires capital. The “place” characteristics of a given business may carry great weight in the eyes of its customers or clientele. It should not be a surprise that many hotels and apartment complexes invest heavily in lobby and entrance areas when designing their facilities.

One might expect that professionals such as attorneys would charge significantly more, or less, simply judging by the type of offices in which their practices are located. Let’s compare two hypothetical situations. The first is the instance of an attorney whose office comes complete with marble floors, collectable paintings, and an attractive, albeit somewhat pouty, reception area representative. We could then compare this to another attorney, whose office is combined with an income tax service and a small engine repair business. The difference between the two is about $300 an hour. There’s a reason that high profile celebrity defendants hire so-called “dream teams” for representation: they get positive results.

Some businesses sell undifferentiated products or services. This means that the product or service offered by one business is the same, or substantially the same, as the one offered by competing businesses. A gallon of gasoline is probably a good example. (At the present time, it appears that every provider has the same goal: reap substantial profits from consumers.) One station may attempt to distinguish itself from another through slight pricing differences. Oil companies may proclaim “we do research to protect the environment with clean burning fuels that are better for your car”; but, a gallon of gas is a gallon of gas in the eyes of most consumers. Any slight price differences, auxiliary services such as clean rest rooms and a convenience store, and location largely determine where consumers will ultimately spend their money (in ever increasing amounts, it seems).

All business models require some form of promotion. The “person on the street” typically confuses terminology that is actually quite specific. The terms promotion, advertising, and marketing are often incorrectly used interchangeably, for instance. Marketing is inclusive of price, product, place, and promotion. A business can be promoted through word-of-mouth and referral; therefore, a good reputation and testimonials should be cultivated by any business. Some products require heavy paid advertising. “Paid” is the critical word here, in that it suggests that the advertiser has some choice in placing a message before a desired audience. By definition, advertising is paid, non-personal communication; ordinarily it is underwritten by an identified sponsor; it is meant to be informative, if not persuasive in nature. By far, most advertising is local, even though one might tend to first think of national advertisers and brands in an advertising recall test (a test of what someone remembers).

Another way to promote a product is through personal selling efforts. Some types of businesses use independent representatives for this purpose, because it makes sense. For example, suppose that one has a line of porcelain figures that are sold primarily through gift stores. However, as a small business, it would be hard to afford a staff of in-house sales representatives to call on thousands of gift stores nationwide. One could use a firm that represents several product lines (such as greeting cards, writing pens, and silver) and simply add the porcelain figurines to the list of products that might be presented to gift store owners and buyers during sales calls. In a small business, it is the management team’s job to make sure that someone is doing the selling. It helps if the owner is comfortable with this role, as his or her passion for the business can usually be leveraged. However, if you are a prospective business founder, and you are not comfortable addressing audiences one-on-one, in small groups, or behind a podium, you’d better enlist one or more individuals who are competent in this area, for the sake of your future success.

After reviewing more marketing and business plans than I can any longer count, I can just about bet that material under the heading “Promotion,” will be the Achilles’ heel in a majority of plans. Authors of these plans, who are often lacking adequate financial wherewithal, tend to sum up an entire treatise on promoting a proposed product, service, or business with: “We will use word-of-mouth to advertise [sic]…” Word-of-mouth is a fantastic way to promote, if is nurtured. A large “buzz” can be created with a great product that is professionally represented through an in-house sales force, or independent representatives. Companies selling encyclopedias, vacuum cleaners, and cosmetics were built through independent representatives who approached consumers directly. More recent examples have utilized network marketing, where an emphasis on building organizational teams has been made. Senior representatives’ roles are to mentor the development of new representatives.

There are labor and equipment intensive businesses, and there are knowledge intensive businesses. Either can be relatively easy, or relatively difficult for a competitor to duplicate. It all depends on the degree of investment and specialization necessary to get into a business. This concept also suggests that there are certain “entry costs” into a given line of business or industry, and these costs represent barriers that must be overcome. The opening statement to this article, where I outlined various “little or no” scenarios, should be reiterated here. You should find a business that meets the “little or no” test according to your set of circumstances. A personal service or consulting-type business is far less expensive to launch than a restaurant or a retail store. If you have speaking skills and a set of overheads and hand-outs, consider a training and development business. If you’re good at matchmaking, become a recruiter or a dating expert.

Most of my own prior business endeavors have been service oriented businesses that required some specialized knowledge. Building a clientele and personally servicing that clientele has been a central premise in each of these entrepreneurial instances. That has often entailed long hours, scheduling dilemmas, and few breaks in between: clients want what they want, when they want it, which, more often than not means “yesterday.” With the advent of the Internet, an entirely new realm of entrepreneurial opportunity was opened to me and millions of other would-be entrepreneurs around the globe. Recognizing some fundamental differences in business models, I registered the Internet domain name, “WebPreneurship.com,” along with numerous others.

The main difference in Internet business models has to do with the fact that one can create an online presence, with the capability to represent numerous types of products or services, many of which can be entirely transacted and delivered using the Web as a facilitator of that process. Digital products can be downloaded; physical products can be delivered through contracted fulfillment services. A related concept, known as drop-shipping, can allow an Internet business to overcome this latter obstacle as well. Drop-shipping means that when an order is generated on an entrepreneur’s Web site, the product supplier or manufacturer will receive the order and send the shipment directly to the consumer. There is a virtual presence facilitated by technology and strategic relationships, as compared to a physical presence with associated brick and mortar costs. Hence, my own working definition of “webpreneurship” began to take shape.

Information products such as electronic books and reports have also created yet another new term in our vocabulary, known as “infopreneurship.” Infopreneurship has to do with making a living (on the part of the infopreneur) by providing information of value. Prior to the advent of the Internet infopreneurs did exist, although they operated under a whole different set of constraints that had to do with the costs of advertising, mailing, shipping, printing, and other expenses that the Internet has largely eliminated.

Even those business types that cannot complete the full product or service creation, selling, and delivery cycle, can enhance their presence over the Internet. For example, you can’t get a haircut on the Internet, but you certainly can look at styling options, pricing and service options, and location information (including interactive maps and directions); subsequently, you can book an appointment time and date. Basic Internet businesses can be created at relatively low cost, and can be maintained with a flexible schedule, assuming that they are fully automated and sell a product such as information and reports as compared to one that requires a physical product to be shipped. An entrepreneur may exercise the drop-shipping or fulfillment services mentioned above, or handle this for him or herself in-house. Of course the latter situation, relative to business models, entails providing availability to customers that confines the entrepreneur to the business during its publicized hours of operation.

Franchises and business opportunities (including buying an existing business) provide one major advantage over other business ventures that are started from scratch: greater certainty derived from a formula that is “tried and true.” If you have no idea where to start, but you are trainable and ambitious with a few dollars to spend, consider a franchise. There are some franchises that use what amounts to a “promote from within” approach, favoring successful managers as candidates for franchise ownership (and providing a helping hand toward financing the franchise fees). Bootstrapping and sweat equity go hand-in-hand, and if you really want a piece of the action, there are individuals out there who are looking for partners–you could quite possibly earn your way into owning a share, or even all, of an existing business.

As for me, I have come to enjoy having multiple roles and avenues for personal as well as professional fulfillment. I teach entrepreneurship at a university, write, and engage audiences as a public speaker. I have invested in several Internet sites. I have created several of these sites myself, while others are turn-key sites. (A turn-key site is one where a system is already in place to provide a product or service as well as technical support, transaction processing, and customer service.) For instance, I have one site that provides Internet domain names, and that is a turn-key site which I purchased for less than two hundred dollars. I am also an independent consultant for a network marketing firm that offers consumable health, wellness and beauty products. A network marketing structure offers me the opportunity to develop, train, and mentor persons who are interested in growing a business opportunity. Meanwhile, as a continual learner myself, I can enhance my skills and knowledge and benefit from peers and individuals who have already blazed a trail before me.

Every business model implies trade-offs and unique characteristics as well as lifestyle choices. I enjoy teaching, but I also think that staying connected as an entrepreneur makes me a better teacher. I like to learn, so I am always pursuing new insights through casual as well as formal research (which I share through writing and speaking). I enjoy helping others, and teaching, mentoring, and guiding others is essential, to me. As a person of humble beginnings whose accomplishments have often been the result of starting from scratch, my most profound lessons have been acquired from the “school of hard knocks.” If I can smooth out someone else’s path, I’d like to do that. I also have enduring financial obligations, like most people, as well as responsibilities and love for friends and family members. Thus, any entrepreneurial decision has a direct impact on every aspect of my life.

In your own way and given your own set of circumstances, you will have to juggle to achieve your own unique entrepreneurial and lifestyle solutions. Before you take the entrepreneurial plunge, consider various business models and their implications completely. Your decisions will impact your life in ways that are to be considered just as seriously as the business models that you scrutinize. The right model will serve as a pattern for your fulfillment and success. Whatever you do, I suggest that you seek spiritual, emotional, and professional balance as a guiding light in your entrepreneurial journey. Making the right choices will enable you to find your “groove,” gain your freedom, and live the kind of life that you’ve always wanted, both on and off the entrepreneurial playing field.

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