Simple Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

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.

3 Simple Steps For Coming Up With 100 Unique Business Ideas

In my last article I talked about how an idea is not going to make a business. I said what’s important is who is behind it, but you still need a business idea to start a business and the better product or idea you have the easier the process will be. Here are 3 steps you can take to easily come up with 100 business ideas in less than a year.

Step One:

Keep a file on your mobile phone named “business ideas.” If your phone does not have this capacity or you do not own a cell phone carry a small piece of paper and a pen around will you instead. What you must to is every single time any sort of business idea or product idea comes to your mind you instantly write it down in your phone with a simple sentence or two. Don’t worry about how wired of an idea it is or how stupid it may sound to you now just jot down the idea. The key to this step is that the best ideas usually arise when you are going through your daily lives. Ideas will strike you at the most interesting times when you are encountering daily problems and engaging in daily conversation. The one thing you cannot do is thinking the idea is undoable or unprofitable you must write it down anyway. As long as starting a new business is a focus for you ideas will keep coming to you during your daily life.

Step Two:

Next to your desk you must keep a notepad and it is best if the note pad can stay in view at all times (it might be best to put it on a wall you always see or next to your computer.) The reason for this is to keep you focused on your goal of coming up with new business possibilities. Label the top of these notepad business ideas. Once a week write the list you have created on your phone and list these down on your business idea note pad. It is very beneficial to keep this note pad in view and on your mind to remind you of your goal of coming up with quality business ideas.

Step Three:

This step takes the most commitment. Dedicate one hour of every week (you should usually do this after you transfer ideas from your phone to your note pad.) During this hour you must look at the ideas on your note pad and analyze them. See what the good aspects of them are and the bad ones. See if any of them can fit together in anyway or if the spark any new ideas and write any new ideas down. That should take no longer than 10 minutes.

After that, any idea on your note pad that seems reasonable in anyway should be put into a spiral notebook. Title this notebook “Business Ideas” and number the pages 1-100 or 1 to whatever number your trying to reach. For each business idea that isn’t completely ridiculous you need to write three short paragraphs. The first paragraph should be titled “Product” the second, “Market” and the third “Value.”

For the product paragraph simply give a brief explanation of the business model or product.
In the market paragraph describe whom you will be selling this product to. You must be more specific than 18-24 year old males. It should be something similar to 18-24 year old male college students who go to the University of Oregon and golf recreationally. The more specific the better.
In the value paragraph you need to explain the value your customer will obtain by buying this product. If this is hard to come up with it probably isn’t a very good business idea because it has no real value for your customers.

Filling out the spiral notebook will take different amounts of time depending on how many entries you have that week, but each entry should not take more than 8-12 minutes to make. If it does you are spending too much time on it.

You should have some extra time after this (if not that’s OK and you have already added a lot of products to your notebook.) Spend the rest of the time analyzing the ideas on your notepad, revisit some old ones and come up with new ideas to add to the spiral notebook. You can also read some of your old product ideas to see if you can come up with some variations for new product ideas. Basically spend any extra time focused on thinking about new product ideas.

Once you have filled your notebook with business ideas you can look over all of them and pick the most promising and write full business plans for them. Not all of them will look very attractive, but you are bound to have a few that catch your eye as having some good potential or maybe even a few that you really have you motivated to get started.

The “100 Business Idea Journal” is a great way of coming up with some quality business ideas to get started with, but for it to work you must be serious about coming up with some quality product ideas. After a while you should start getting a few solid business ideas outlined every week and be getting closer to starting a business that you find really has some potential.

Remember the Simple Business Ideas?

With a lot of hype and a lot of people working to find the great new way to achieve any kind of success in the internet marketing realm, simplicity is often forgotten and the tried and true methods that have made people millions of dollars are avoided for the latest and greatest thing. Things like Article Marketing, buying and selling website, AdSense, PPC and of course, finding the products by becoming an affiliate.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of those simple business ideas that doesn’t cost any money to start. Anyone can start article marketing with a little effort. If you have the slightest ability to research information for your keywords and content you can write and if you can write, you can submit articles to platforms like EzineArticles and article king with a back-link that provides some quality traffic. All it takes is the product you’re selling, time to write, some research for your keywords and the patience to submit. This can be repeated for different article sites and different products and depends entirely on your ability to create content that sells.

Buying & Selling Websites

Buying and selling websites are still one of the ways to make the most money with a small investment. Sites like Flippa and buysellwebsites.com are some places that provide a platform to sell your site for 12x the current income it’s making. If you already have a site that’s been up and running for a few months and has some income, this could be an option for you.

AdSense

AdSense is still making tons of money for a lot of people and with a few WordPress applications and added SEO in a variety of niche markets, you could provide a website that offers quality information and generates some traffic then you can gain a massive consistent return on your efforts. If you understand this process, you have found a continuous way to make large amounts of cash on the internet.

PPC

This one is for people who have a lot of start-up income and just want to invest in something that’s going to make a return. PPC or pay-per-click, is a way for people to make a lot of unlimited income by buying traffic and referring them to the website that pays you for a sale. This is mostly playing with numbers all the time and doing a lot of diligent work with keyword research.

Simple Fundraising Ideas? One Woman’s Crazy, Adventurous Quest in Search of Ideas For Fundraisers

When I began my parenting journey several years ago, I didn’t realize that I was also embarking on a never-ending search for simple fundraising ideas. Truly, I had no idea that one of the primary responsibilities as a parent would be continually drumming up ideas for fundraisers.

Even after I had resigned myself to the fact that fundraising would be a regular part of my life, I still had no idea that it would be such an adventure.

You see I’ve got three kids in school selling everything from pies to pizza. We’re involved in drama, soccer, basketball AND I sit on a hockey board that is solely self-funded by–you guessed it–fundraisers.

I’m trading commodities with friends, “I’ll take that pie and trade you cookie dough…good we’re even.” My family members won’t even answer their phone anymore, afraid they’ll be buying more things they don’t need.

We’ve done ’em all!

Let’s see, there are the gift-wrap/specialty item/trinket sales. If you ask me, these types of fundraisers are overused and overpriced. Every time I turn around my child has yet another catalog! In this economy when I can buy wrapping paper for $1.00 at the local dollar store, why would I want a roll of wrapping paper that costs me $9.00? (So what if it is better quality, it just gets ripped off the gift anyway.) I would actually rather write the school a check then try to sell this stuff.

Of course, we’re so tired of selling stuff anyway, so half the time, I just place a good sized order for my own family (reluctantly, of course).

Case in point: My daughter recently came home and mentioned that the “The Cookie Dough Guy” said that if they wanted enough money for their field trip to the Boston Museum, they were “encouraged” to sell at least two tubs of cookie dough (for $14.00 each!). I spent $28.00 on two itty bitty tubs of cookie dough. I could have gone to BJ’s, bought a BIG tub of Tollhouse Cookie dough for $6.99 AND bought my daughter’s admission into the museum for less than that! Why didn’t they just ask for the money for the field trip? It’s absurd!

And, how about those booths at craft fairs or festivals?

Okay, so if you’re ever asked to “man a booth for a couple of hours” be very wary. Our organization signed up for a booth at our community’s Summerfest in June. I signed on for the early shift (I’d get my shift over with and enjoy a fun filled afternoon with my family). Yeh, first mistake. Funny how your “replacements” never seem to show up to actually replace you. So, there I was, 6 hours later “manning the booth”. If that wasn’t annoying enough, suddenly, the skies grew dark, the wind kicked up and we were in the middle of one of those horrific thunder and lightning storms. Everything was blowing wildly; the canopy was about to take flight. And the rain was coming down in droves. Needless to say, we earned very little money that day. (Even putting the

“severe thunderstorm factor” aside, the event was not very profitable because even though there was a lot of traffic, there was also a lot of competition.)

Oh and let’s not forget one of my favorite “simple” fundraising ideas, pizza kits and pies.

Okay, yes they are pretty decent sellers, but the logistics of the whole thing are crazy. First of all, you need to arrange an EXACT delivery time with the company because they need to keep the goods frozen. Then, you need to let everyone know when that EXACT delivery date is and pray that they actually come to pick up their products. And, when they don’t . . .well, let’s just say, it was a darn good thing I had a spare freezer in my basement to store some of those overly large boxes! And, don’t get me started on how I had to make a bazillion phone calls to those people who failed to show up at our EXACT delivery time.

But, my all time favorite adventure was “The Bottle Drive”. The most basic of simple fundraising ideas. You collect, basically, people’s trash and exchange it for money. Piece of cake.

That’s what we thought too. The conversation went something like this: “We’ll have a bottle drive!” “Yes!” “On New Year’s Day.” “Great idea!” “All those New Year’s Eve parties! We’ll make a ton of money!”

It became an obsession. I’m in the grocery store and I run into Mike. He says, “Hey, we’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you and John should stop by.” Great, I’m thinking. Give his address to one of the drivers to pick up their bottles in the morning. I get so swept up in it, that I actually find myself eavesdropping to find out where everyone is going to celebrate.

So it’s New Year’s Day and with maps in hand and addresses of all those parties that happened the night before, we jumped into our trucks and headed out. Did I mention we live in Maine? We had been hit with several December storms and today we were in for a Nor’easter, as they are so endearingly called. (In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, this basically means that the snow falls in unassuming small crystals at a moderate but relentless pace until you suddenly realize that you are completely socked in.) That wasn’t going to deter us though . . . no worries, just bundle up and get an early start.

Here’s a curious concept…an early start on New Year’s Day. Okay, so not everyone spent New Year’s Eve like me — in their pj’s, snuggled up next to the woodstove, going to bed early so we could get an early start in the morning for the bottle drive. At 9:00 a.m., if you had a party, you are NOT likely to be moving around, much less cleaning your house. So, many doors went unanswered.

Finally, one neighborhood proved to be promising until we saw…the Boy Scouts. We couldn’t believe it. They were having a bottle drive as well! (It’s amazing how fast a bunch of not-so-thrilled-to-be-up-this-early-on-a-weekend teenage hockey players can actually move when they are trying to outrun the Boy Scouts.)

My friend and I decided, enough of this door-to-door stuff, we’ll hit up the local restaurants and pubs. We hit the mother load at our local Thatcher’s. We rock! Our hopes were high. Then, we hear, “Sorry, you need to talk to the manager and they aren’t working on New Year’s Day” or “We have lots of bottles in our shed out back but unfortunately the plow guy hasn’t plowed us out from the last storm. Come see us in the spring.”

Okay, this was getting discouraging. We traded cell phone calls and met at regular intervals at the local redemption center. The snow was coming down faster than the plows could get the roads clear and we realized that it was getting too dangerous to have vehicles on the road. With an army of twelve trucks, we headed back to the redemption center only to discover it had closed due to the weather!

Now what do we do?

“Bring them to my garage” (What, who said that? Me? Note to self: you are far too accommodating.) Of course everyone thinks that is a great idea!

Before I know it, my garage is full of stale smelling beer bottles, my hands are sticky and cold, I’m exhausted, my husband is ready to divorce me AND my car is now outside covered by 18 inches of heavy, wet snow because there isn’t enough room in my garage!

Over the course of the next week, my husband and I bagged up the bottles and made several trips to the redemption center. Woo Hoo! We made $350 for 15 people, spending a cold, snowy day, driving all over town. There has got to be a simpler way to fundraise!

Simple Side Business Ideas

These days it is really not that uncommon for some people to have one or two or even three jobs. And this is not only because they just want to keep their families afloat, some are just basically willing to make certain sacrifices – like giving up sleeping and their free time just to be able to work their way to the top. However, all work and no play will certainly make anyone go insane so while it is perfectly okay for you to consider having side business ideas, it certainly will not hurt you either to make sure that you choose the one that will be perfect for you.

As long as you are not too picky and you have a wide range of interests and skills, then you can easily take your pick from the many side business ideas that are going around out there.

If you are a stay-at-home mom, some great side business ideas that you can do – even from your home are:

-At-home telemarketing: just simply set your own office, make use of your computer, your internet knowhow and your headset and start making those calls.

-Freelancing: got great writing skills? Lots of companies are looking for freelance writers to outsource to help them with their many marketing projects especially with SEO.

-Transcribing: all you really need is to be able to type fast and have good hearing to ace this.

If you are a student, here are some great side business ideas that you can easily do during your spare time and still be able to focus on your studies:

-Freelance researcher: make the most of the researching skills that you have acquired from school and make yourself useful to companies who are looking for freelance researchers that they can outsource to help them do their extra work. Work time is flexible, you can take as many assignments as you can handle and take a break whenever you feel that you won’t have the time for it.

-Freelance creative writer: have a knack for writing creatively? If you have a way of easily convincing people through the sheer power of the written word, they you should consider other freelancing gigs like that of a freelance writer. Side business ideas like that of freelancers are great for students like you who need to be able to have a decent schedule to be able to still ace his or her schooling. Just make sure that you have a portfolio of your sample works ready once your prospects start calling you up.

And whether you are a struggling employee, a stay-at-home mom or a student, one surefire way to get the big bucks rolling in is to make the effort to put up a multi-level marketing business that you can do from your home. You can easily research on the internet for possible product ideas and sales and marketing schemes that you can make use of to have a successful multi marketing business.

How to Start A House Cleaning Business In 7 Simple Steps

One of the main reasons people start businesses is to make money. For some it’s a blessing to make money doing something they love. I’m not saying that you have to love house cleaning in order to have a successful house cleaning business; however it would be a good idea if you didn’t hate it.

How much money you make depends on how big you want your business to be. It could be a one person operation where you set up at home and service areas close to home, or you could set up a commercial office and hire people to work for you.

Here are 7 simple steps to get you started on your own house cleaning business.

1) Decide exactly what kind of house cleaning services you will offer.

Here you decided what cleaning you will do, like making beds, vacuuming, mopping and waxing floors, dusting and so on. Also note what you won’t do, e.g. laundry. You can also decide to specialize, e.g. by cleaning carpets only, or cleaning suspended ceilings only.

2) Pricing your housecleaning service.

To have an idea of how to charge for your housecleaning service, use your competition. Check your telephone directory and the classified ads section in your local newspapers for cleaning businesses, call them up (pretend to be a prospective client) and find out exactly what cleaning services they offer and how much they charge. With this information gathered decide the best price to charge for your cleaning service.

3) Workout startup costs.

For this you need to consider, tools, material, transport, advertising, insurance etc. Write down a list all the tools and material you need, like cleaners, sponges, mops, carpet cleaning equipment etc. Next find out the cost of each item on the list and write it down next to the item.

Transport: you will have to estimate your costs here. You see it depends on where your client is located and your means of transportation to get to your client. (Having your own vehicle would be to your advantage).

Advertising: You can use free advertising (word of mouth) and paid advertising (classifieds, telephone directory ads etc). Phone calls to your local newspaper and the telephone company who publish your telephone directory will tell you the cost of placing ads.

Once you’ve gathered all this information, calculate your total startup costs.

4) Name your business.

Choosing an appropriate name for your house cleaning business is important. Here are a few examples I got of the internet, ‘Maid Brigade’, ‘All Shine Cleaning’, ‘White Glove Cleaning Service’. Please avoid using ‘Your Name Cleaning Services’. Using your own name as part of your business name is over done by many house cleaning businesses. Brainstorm and come up with a name that helps you stand out of the crowd.

5) Learn the zoning regulations of your community.

Check the city clerk’s Office or your local library for a copy for a copy of the zoning laws governing your community. Your reason for doing this is that some zoning regulations prohibit home businesses in a community.

6) Do a few free cleaning jobs.

Well you’re not actually doing them for free. You’re doing them in exchange for references (these add to your credibility for future paying clients and are invaluable). You can offer these free cleaning jobs to friends, non profit organizations in your communities etc.

7) Get your first paying client then get another and another and another and so on.

Tell everyone you know that you’ve started a cleaning business and place ads in the local newspapers. In the beginning you need to spend most of your time and money getting paying clients. However, the more clients you get the less time and money you spend on marketing and more time you spend on cleaning and making your clients happy.

This is just the beginning. Once you start making money take a house cleaning business course to help you better manage your business in terms of growth, accounting, taxes, insurance better marketing strategies and more.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. fayolap@yahoo.com

OPIE: A Simple Process for Project Management by Teams

Sometimes teams will start an assigned project and not be able to manage it due to insufficient knowledge of how to plan and implement it. Other times, the team may have a successful project in the works and are unwilling to bring the project to conclusion or do not know when to tell the primary project is complete. Having a process that shows how to plan and implement as well as start and stop procedures will enable a team to manage projects better. A simple process teams can use is O.P.I.E. The O.P.I.E. process consists of 4 main stages necessary to complete a quality project by a desired date. The stages of O.P.I.E. are Open and Plan, then Implement, and finally End. Pronouncing the O.P.I.E. acronym can be either O-P or O-Pi. Not all projects will require all the steps and outputs of each process stage, however all projects will require each major stage is done.

Key Steps in the Open Stage

Determine Objective – to communicate the project is worth doing
Do Analysis – to make sure the project is worth doing
Get Preliminary Approval – to make sure the project is feasible
Assign Project Manager – – to make sure the project goes forward

Key Steps in the Plan Stage

Document Specification – to make sure everyone knows the extent and outcome of project
Develop Schedule – to make sure the timeline is feasible
Determine Resources – to make sure enough people, equipment, and supplies are given
Estimate Budget – to make sure the project is cost effective
Get Plan Approval – to make sure the project is finances

Key Steps in the Implement Stage

Hold Meetings – to make sure the project problems are discussed and solved
Execute Plan – to stay on track to schedule
Monitor Plan – to track resources and budget
Develop Communications – to let everyone know what is happening with project
Handle Problems – to make sure team is working together on same goal
Prepare Progress Reviews – to let team and management know what is happening with project
Get Performance Approval – to let management approve/disapprove changes

Key Steps in the End Stage

Close Administration – to share lesson learned as well as close schedule and release resources
Hold Celebration – to thank team for contributions and motivate future performance
Plan Compensation – to motivate team members in future performance
Do Evaluation – to measure project using specific success indicators

Not all team projects will require all the steps and outputs of each process stage, however all projects will require each major stage is included. Utilizing the O.P.I.E: stages of Open, Plan, Implement, and End; should help teams to know what to do on each project assignment as well as insuring the project has a stopping point so the team can return to normal jobs on a full-time basis or begin work on an important new project.

Note: The process steps above are from the book “O.P.I.E. Project Planning and Implementation for Teams.”

2 Simple Steps Before Starting Your Business

There is so much small business information available today that it’s easy to be bogged down by the sheer volume of it all. Where does one start? Well, it’s safe to say not all the information you’ll receive will be of equal value. So it’s important to be discerning when you’re thinking about applying any suggestions to your new business. In many cases, you’ll find some suggestions don’t match your business type, management style, budget, or industry. This could lead to wasted dollars spent and time lost. So learning how to research and compile information will be key in developing a plan that is tailored to fit your business needs.

What I suggest is a methodical and basic approach to starting your business. No matter what the industry, in most cases, these two initial steps will always be the same.

Take a crash course in small business. There is no better place to start then http://sba.gov. Not only will you find dozens of free tutorials on business planning and managing but you will also find important information regarding legalizing your business in respect to your location and your industry. In addition, you will find links to other leading small business sites and resources. Visit the site and remember to bookmark this page. Try to develop a schedule and visit the site on a regular basis to familiarize yourself with small business ownership and all its related issues, regulations, requirements, and rewards.
Network with other small business owners. Join community websites specifically geared towards small business owners so you can find solutions to common problems such as time management and financing. It’s also the best way to build a support system while you are planning to launch your business. Some entrepreneurs give up because they feel they are going at it alone! But there are so many other people out there going through the same challenges and are more than happy to assist you.

Don’t let your confusion or the amount of information available overwhelm you into paralysis. Once you’ve gained knowledge on how to become a successful entrepreneur don’t stop there. Each day try to work more and more towards formalizing your plans. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. Remember, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you but these first two steps will ensure you don’t head into entrepreneurship ill-prepared.

PIE: The Simple 3-Step Process for Creating Your Strategic Business Plan

Many business owners (especially those with a non-business background) struggle when it comes to creating a strategic business plan for their business. Chances are they’ve never ran a business before, and even in their “employment” days were not involved with the day-to-day business management.

So when it comes to running their business they struggle!

“Still need to figure out (sit down and actually learn) how to do this!” said one business owner to me earlier this week.

They have a dream for their business, are an expert in whatever it is they do, but have no idea how to take that idea/dream and turn it into a viable and profitable business… so they continue in a state of overwhelm and frustration, with a slow growing business.

Spending some time planning all of your business activities is crucial if you are to succeed long-term. It’s not just about planning your business – you need to understand the strategy behind what you’re going to be doing. And you also need to understand how all the different pieces of your business fit together to create one coherent business.

Today, I’d like to share with you my simple, 3-step process, for sitting down and crafting your own strategic business plan.

PLAN – schedule some time in your calendar to work on your business plan. Some people opt to take a mini-retreat away from their office. It could be spending the day in your local coffee shop, or actually going out of town for a few days. Or you could just schedule one or two hours and sit quietly in your office planning out your business (that advantage of doing in your office is that you have all your business information right there with you). Whatever works best for you is going to work best for your business. But the important thing is, you to schedule in the time to create your plan!

INVESTIGATE – what is it you’re going to be offering over the coming 90 days; 6 months; 12 months? I like to have a loose 12-month plan, but then have a very specific 90-day plan in place. It’s much easier to focus and implement with a shorter time-frame than it is to do so over, say, a 12-month period. Sometimes planning out so far ahead can feel overwhelming. But it is important to have that “big picture vision” in place so that you know where you’re heading.

Also when you’re deciding what it is you’re going to be offering ask yourself, “Does this make sense? Does it fit my big picture vision?” This is where understanding the strategy behind your business comes into play. It’s no good deciding you want to do a live event, or offer an online training course, if you don’t understand how this fits into your “Big Picture Vision”. All paths must lead you to that “Big Picture Vision”.

EXECUTE – now that you know what it is you’re going to be offering and when, it’s time to put that plan into practice. One thing that I do in my business is “reverse engineering”. I always start with the end date in mind and then work backwards. For example, if I’m offering a 4-part live training class on a specific date, what do I need to do to promote that training class, and when. It’s much easier to plan out the promotions if I work backwards from the start date of the class. That way too, I can see if I’m leaving enough time for the promotions or if I need to adjust something in some way.

So there you have my simple 3-step process for creating your strategic business plan. No go ahead and create your own!

Marketing Ideas: 7 Simple Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business Now

Marketing is the life-blood of your business; yet, for many, marketing is a complex beast that they do not want to deal with. When you break it down to a simpler process, marketing can become your new favorite practices! Here are 7 marketing tips that you can use right now to boost your business:

1. Understand Your Target

No matter what business you are in, whether offline or online, you MUST know your target market. When you understand exactly who you are selling to, you know exactly where to advertise, what to say and even what to sell. Researching your target market will help you understand where they are in life right now and where they hang out which makes advertising a whole lot easier!

2. Build a Database

One of the most important aspects of online business is building a solid database by collecting information from your visitors. Building a database allows you to market to your visitors and customers over and over again for little or no extra cost. I highly recommend Aweber for your email marketing and database building needs. Most online business owners collect names and email addresses while others collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses. When making your decision about what to collect think about your marketing plans. If you will be including physical mailings then add home addresses.

3. Give Customers a Preview of Your Work

A great way to build your database is by offering visitors a preview or free offer for joining. This free offer can be a report, audio interview, video, or even a CD or DVD that you mail directly to their home. This offer gives your customers a great preview of who you are and what you can do to help them achieve their goals. Put the time and effort into helping them understand your business in a way that will benefit them.

4. Branding

Branding is a term that is often thrown around in marketing circles. Building a cohesive message from your logo to your website to your blog to your email messages to your twitter account and to the products that you sell is branding. You want your customers to hear your name and think a power word or phrase. For example, when you hear “like a rock” do you think Chevy? Or “MMM MMM Good” did you think of Campbell’s Soup? It doesn’t matter if your business doesn’t have the advertising budget like these two companies, always include your name, logo and slogan on all of your marketing materials, emails, products, etc.

5. SWOT Analysis

During my undergraduate degree at Penn State, every single project, assignment or paper that I had to complete for my advertising and marketing courses needed a SWOT analysis. What is a SWOT analysis? SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. For every client that I work with and every online business that I’ve built, I take the time to work through each one of these steps because often I uncover information and opportunities that I’ve never thought of including for my business. For Strengths, I work through the strengths or advantages that I have over my competition. For instance, I have a very strong background in the marketing and advertising area, so I know how to market my business and bring more targeted traffic to my website. For Weaknesses, I work through the weaknesses or advantages that my competition has over me. For example, when starting out, my competition has a larger market share and more individuals recognize another’s name or work over mine. For Opportunities, I prepare a list of opportunities or possibilities that I have with my business like the new markets that I can penetrate or the new products that I can offer an existing marketing because of my background. Finally for Threats, I look at environmental or outside threats to my business. For example, if you work in a medical niche, you must be aware of laws and regulations surrounding your business. Many online business owners fail to plan their businesses and often fail because they didn’t plan. A SWOT analysis allows you to carefully analyze your business or idea without spending days writing a full-fledged business plan.

6. Be Enthusiastic

Did you ever have that monotone professor in high school or college that put you to sleep every time they started talking? They never showed excitement or enthusiasm and you probably never cared for what they were teaching, right? To attract attention and customers, you need to be enthusiastic about what you sell and what you do! Your enthusiasm will transfer excitement to your products and services for your customers.

7. Be Persistent

This is probably the biggest mistakes most business owners make in marketing and advertising. Many think that marketing is the magic pill. One advertisement is going to solve all of their problems. Yet, it couldn’t be further from the truth! The average consumer needs to see a message about seven times for it to be effective and for them to take action. You can’t simply run one newsletter advertisement and expect it to explode your mailing list; many times you need to run it multiple times for it to be effective.

Marketing is truly the key to being successful in business both online and offline. It is a necessity to share your products and services with your target market. If you are on a limited budget, choose one method and make a commitment to running your advertisement at least three times then analyze your results.