Successful Blog

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Never Get There

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By Jennifer Dunn

Where is your business headed in 40 years? Yes, that question probably sounds ridiculous to you right now. You’re busy trying to survive another year, month, week or day, or even attempting to get your business off the ground in the first place. At what point are you supposed to think about 40 years in the future?

Honestly, you should be thinking about the future, because it will be here at some point. While you may not have to specifically worry about 40 years ahead, you should be considering where you want your business to be. If not, it could lead to some pretty bad situations for you that could lead to the demise of your business.

If you don’t have a plan for your company, it’s like it’s a plane without a destination – you can fly high for a while, but at some point you have to come down. If you don’t know where that is, you could be in for a rough landing.

Goals and Vision

Everyone has a vision for their business as well as a reason for getting into business in the first place. This reason could be absolutely anything – you wanted to spend more time with your family, or had a great idea for a product, or wanted to escape the rat race. It could even be to prove to yourself you could do it.

There is no wrong or right answer here. Your reasons are your own. The point is you have to honor those reasons and your vision for your company. If you don’t, you could end up with a monster you can’t control.

For example, let’s say you wanted to never compromise your product line as you believe it can change the world. It’s a lofty goal, but a great one nonetheless. Now let’s say you have an opportunity to sell your company to a bigger company. At some point you may realize the big conglomerate wants to change your product. Now you have a big problem – do you choose the money or the reason you went into business in the first place?

Find Your Destination

While this initially may not seem like such a big deal, eventually moving away from your original goals could lead to a point where you abandon your business. If you struck out on your own to spend more time with your family but you let your company get so big that you no longer have no time for them, you’ve defeated the entire purpose of starting your company.

This is why it’s important to look toward a destination for your company. If you have a place in mind for your company to land, you can make better decisions that will keep you happy and invested in your business. Even if something unexpected pops up you’ll be able to handle it with ease as you know where you want to end up.

Keep in mind this destination and your goals may change. You may start out wanting to make a ton of money and get rich but switch it later on to just being comfortable and being happy working on your own. Again, there’s no wrong or right answer – just make sure it’s what you want for your business and yourself!

Where are you heading?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

Writing a Company Profile in LinkedIn – Make It Short and Effective

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By Leslie Anglesey

LinkedIn is the leading social networking site for professionals. With over 200 million members (and growing), it is an excellent place for you to promote your products and services, find talent and share news and updates. If you’re in business, you should be taking advantage of this business-to-business resource.

If you want to motivate viewers to follow your business, you need to create a compelling profile. Here are some tips that will make your profile stand out from the pack.

Update your LinkedIn profile

1. List your most important product or service first.

Don’t make viewers hunt through the listing to determine what your company is all about. Make it clear from the outset exactly what your company sells, makes, offers, distributes, or does.

2. Avoid writing with jargon.

Write a draft of your company description. Go back and read it from the point of view of someone who has just clicked on the profile and who knows nothing about your company. Is the description clear and easy to understand? If you are left scratching your head wondering what it really means, then you need to go back and do some editing. For writing use short, simple language that talks directly to the person reading the profile, not above the person’s head.

3. Add an image to grab visitors’ attention.

The cover photo appears at the top of the home page of your LinkedIn company page. Make sure that you choose one that is visually appealing and appropriate to what your company does. The idea is to entice viewers to learn more about your business. Be sure to include a message in the image that describes what your company does in a few words; your summary doesn’t appear until the bottom of the home page.

4. Give your description from a unique angle.

The “About Us” portion of the LinkedIn profile will be at the bottom of your home page, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take care to present your company in an interesting manner. What sets your business apart from your competition? Share something about how it was founded or a noteworthy accomplishment. Let your visitors see the human side of the business. People like to buy from people, not corporations, and if you can let them get to know your company, they are more likely to become customers instead of browsers after reading your profile.

You want your company profile page to be found through relevant searches, so be sure to use appropriate keywords in your About Us section.

5. Fill in your products and services tab.

This is the section of the profile where you can include product images and descriptions, as well as links where customers can buy from you online. Fill in this part of your profile to highlight what your company has to offer. By writing your advantages you can show potential customers the benefits of your products and services directly from your LinkedIn profile.

6. Add a career information page

LinkedIn is a great resource for finding talent for your business. If you are currently looking to expand your workforce, add a Careers page to your LinkedIn profile. Job seekers are using this resource to find opportunities and you could be missing out on some great candidates if you don’t have a way to connect with them.

7. Include company updates.

Give people a reason to check out your company profile by writing some interesting information. You will want to create some content that your followers will find noteworthy. Has your company reached a sales goal, won an award, or introduced a new product? Write it on the LinkedIn profile page! These are the kinds of events that you will want to share with your followers.

You can also write testimonials from customers or product or service reviews on the profile. Feature them on the profile page so that new visitors can see your company in a positive light from the beginning. You’ll want to make a positive impression, and it’s a way to fill in space without having to keep creating content yourself.

Writing your LinkedIn profile should be an ever-evolving process. Don’t let it grow stale. Feature different pages so that your visitors can see some fresh content when they visit, you’ll be able to use this resource to help your business grow.

Have you buffed up your company LinkedIn profile lately?

Author’s Bio: Leslie Anglesey, PhD, is an affiliate professor who loves to dedicate all her free time to writing. She is an editor at http://www.essaytigers.com and is always helping others to bring passion to their writing.

Image: Ideagirlmedia via Flickr CC.

Entrepreneurial Tips – How to Maintain a Positive Attitude

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By Ronald Alexander

As entrepreneurs, we put work just above everything else. Unfortunately, sometimes when we are working toward something, we forget to maintain a positive attitude, which can lead to additional stress and an unhappy all-around life.

The 10 tips listed below will help you to stay positive while at the same time driving your business in the right direction.
How to maintain a positive attitude

1. Work with people that you like

It’s easy to be unhappy in a business where you are surrounded by negative people all day. This is why it is vital that you hire and work with people who have a positive attitude and don’t drain you emotionally.

2. Don’t hesitate to fire people

It is 100% okay to let people go who are not doing all they can do to help your business. Usually a primary cause of stress for entrepreneurs in the workplace is having people who make them unhappy because they either don’t work hard enough or constantly stress out about little things. It’s a great release when you know that you have just made your work environment better for everyone by letting someone go.

3. Create long-term goals

Short-term goals are good, but having goals that extend decades will allow you to be more focused on where you want your business to go. These goals are usually far less stressful and will show your team that you do know what you want out of your company.

4. Feed your creative mind

Every entrepreneur is creative, so it’s natural that we need to fill our off-time with things that will feed that creativity. Some people like to read, while others get their creative juices flowing by taking a long walk. Whatever you need to stay charged up, you need to make sure that it is included in your weekly schedule.

5. Continue to be yourself

People often forget what got them to the point of being an entrepreneur and having a business. The fact is that you need to continue to be yourself even as you are taking off as an entrepreneur. The people who work for you and the business contacts that you make need to know who the real “you” is. You don’t have to develop a phoney business persona, which, I promise you, will lead to additional stress.

6. Don’t be a yes man

Many people have the instinct that saying yes to their employees will keep all parties happy, but in reality a business has to be run by someone who knows when to say no. If someone needs help with something and you have an important task that you are dealing with right now, you have to tell them no and they’ll need to find another solution to their problem. Always take a second to assess everything before you answer questions at work so you can be honest with yourself and others.

7. Remember to take a break once in a while

Entrepreneurs are usually workaholics, but everyone needs a break to stay fresh. The truth is that those breaks that you take every day will allow you to get better work done, which should be reason enough to take them.

8. Expect stressful situations and deal with them the right way

Work is stressful no matter what you do for a living, so it is each person’s responsibility to deal with every bit of stress that is thrown in their direction. It’s tougher earlier on because you are new to all of the business scenarios that you will face, but with time you will learn how to deal with the stress. Just go into every situation knowing that there will be stress and then conquer it.

9. Don’t expect flawless work

It would be nice if everything we do in our work life ends up being absolutely perfect, but that’s just not reality. You want to draw things up to be perfectly played out, but the most important thing is that you reach the end goal in everything you do. Don’t focus too much on the imperfections; this can help you put off some burden.

10. Don’t try to do everything on your own.

You have a team for a reason, so you have to learn how to delegate responsibilities. It’s not easy at first, but you shouldn’t try to do too much of the work on your own. You run the business, so figuring out who should be doing what all day will help you to take a lot off your plate.

To sum up: You need to figure out what’s keeping you from being as happy as you can be in your business life. Going over these tips should help you to figure out how to lessen the stress so you can focus on getting your business to where you want it to be.

Author’s Bio: Ronald Alexander is a passionate writer and avid blogger currently associated with Forsyth.co.uk, which provides business services including flexible office space and virtual office services in Manchester.

Image source: Pixabay by Nemo

How to Drive Traffic to Your Website For Free

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By Michelle Rebecca

Starting a website is easy; driving traffic can be a little more difficult for many that are just getting started doing business online. There are many people out there that will offer plenty of ways to advertise a website, however many of these options can cost a pretty penny over time. In addition to the initial website costs, many businesses can be inundated with online marketing fees. Finding ways to drive traffic with grassroot techniques that are free is an excellent option for those on a tight budget.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

There are entire books and even companies that are dedicated to teaching SEO techniques. However, there are many things that business owners can do on their own to increase website visibility on search engine sites. While all take time and effort, many are free to do.

Keywords

Searches are done primarily with keywords. Therefore the first major step in being found online is to make sure your website is matching searches being made. Common words that relate to the product or service along with local references such as town names, counties and landmarks should be sprinkled throughout a website where they add value to the content. Even if keywords were entered throughout the site and included in the original website pricing, they need to be updated periodically.

Content

Keeping content on a site fresh and intriguing is another aspect to SEO. A blog page can be a great way to add new and interesting information related to the products or services on the site. Try adding new content at least once a week consistently.

Links

Linking a website to as many other high quality sites as possible is a great and often free way to increase exposure online. Links can be added through the Internet in many ways. Having social media sites that are linked, social bookmark sites and other posting sites that all have a link back to the website are all great ways to increase traffic. Some free websites to check out are Squidoo, Hubpages, Dropjack and Onlywire. Use caution with links, and avoid directory sites that are simply “linkfarms.” Those links will do you more harm than good.

Free Ads

Putting classified ads out online for a business site is often free and worth the effort. Sites like Craigslist and US Free Ads are great ways to advertise with no fees involved. Try putting ads under many different topics that are related to the website to get the most exposure.

Video

Another technique for driving traffic is to create interesting and informative videos related to the products or services on the website. YouTube is the most well known video site, but there are others, including Vimeo and Shutterfly.

The trick to building traffic online on a small budget is to be willing to devote time and effort to creating as much exposure as possible. There are literally hundreds of websites that are free to join that can drive traffic and improve search engine rankings. As with all marketing efforts, these are ongoing processes that need to be updated regularly to be effective, but with time and creativity, they can add many new visitors to any site!

Author’s Bio: Michelle Rebecca is an aspiring writer who enjoys blogging about a vast variety of topics. She loves that blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience. You can find her blogging about social media at SocialWeLove.com, and you can reach her on Twitter at @Mich_Rebecca.

Tips for Getting More Facebook Shares

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By Charles Mburugu

Everyone would want to have their Facebook posts shared by as many people as possible. A share is somewhat like a vote of confidence, showing that someone values your content enough to share it with others. Therefore, getting many shares enhances your credibility and exposes your Facebook profile or page to a wider audience.

Here are some guidelines which will help you increase your Facebook shares.

1. Post at the right time

When you post on Facebook is as important as what you post. Therefore, you need to take time to study the Facebook habits of your audience. In most cases, people look at their updates first thing in the morning, during their lunch break, after work or on weekends. This means that anything posted during business hours might be missed by your target audience. However, not all audiences are the same. Study your audience and find out what would work best for them.

2. Be relevant

People like Facebook pages or follow profiles which cover topics of interest to them. Therefore, you cannot afford to just post anything on your Facebook profile. Make sure all the content published on your profile is relevant to your theme as well as your audience. For instance, if your page is for a gym, it would be inappropriate to post anything about home improvement.

3. Use videos and photos

Sharing visual content can be very powerful way of capturing the interest of your audience. When people are scanning through text-only updates, they could easily miss something. However, when updates are accompanied by videos and photos, your audience is more likely to pay attention and even share with others. Therefore, sharing relevant visual content on your Facebook profile is a very effective way of increasing the level of audience interaction.

4. Have a clear call to action

If you want people to follow your profile, like a page, share updates or simply comment, ask them to do so. This means that all your posts should be accompanied with an appropriate call to action. When you tell people what exactly you want them to do, they are likely to heed the call to action.

5. Post educational content

Most people would love to learn something new in their topics of interest. This is why it is important to occasionally share relevant educational material on your Facebook page or profile. Every time you publish a how-to post on your blog, remember to share the link as a Facebook update, as well as a brief summary of what the post is all about.

6. Share useful lists

People love lists. Take time to create a great list on a relevant topic and share it with your Facebook followers or fans. Where possible, you could present it in form of an infographic. If the content is great and presented in a professional way, it could easily go viral, thus ensuring more visibility for your page name or profile.

7. Inject some humor

Your Facebook page or profile does not have to be dull and boring. A sprinkling of humor can do wonders in getting the attention of your audience. When people come across something funny, they are likely to share it with others in their social network. Therefore, take time to look for humorous content which can be shared once in a while.

What are you doing to increase your Facebook engagement?

Author’s Bio: Charles Mburugu is a HubSpot-certified content writer/marketer for B2B, B2C and SaaS companies. He has worked with brands such as GetResponse, Neil Patel, Shopify, 99 Designs, Oberlo, Salesforce and Condor. Check out his portfolio and connect on LinkedIn.

Simple Sentiment Analysis for Small Business

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Stop reading this post right now if you’re rolling in cash, have a team of more than 10 people involved in your marketing efforts, or if your social media headquarters looks anything like this:

Social listening command center

OK, now that those lucky folks are gone, let’s talk reality for most of us.

Are you relying solely on Google Alerts to find out what your customers are talking about? Maybe you took it one step further and set up a Hootsuite column to track Twitter mentions. What are you doing with that information as it accumulates?

Welcome to the club.

But we can all take it up several notches this week, by implementing a few simple routines.

Step One – Start Proactively Listening

Use the free tools at your disposal and start seeking out mentions of your brand, your company, and your industry. Both Topsy and Social Mention are great options, and will cover Google+ and Twitter, as well as blogs. I do this task weekly, gathering the resulting information into a spreadsheet.

What’s that you say? No-one’s talking about you? Not to worry.

Turn the tables, and evaluate sentiment about your big brand competitors. Find larger companies that are in your industry and see what people are saying about them. Is it positive or negative? You might uncover a great business opportunity, or a competitor weakness by doing this. Bonus: you might discover topic ideas for your blog!

Step Two – Self-Exams Are Useful Too

Particularly if you don’t have a lot of external social discussion going on yet (maybe you just launched, or you haven’t gotten traction yet), evaluate the contents of your email feedback or support questions. Analyze whether the questions and reactions you’re getting from your own customers are positive or negative. Talk to your colleagues and collect some anecdotal evidence if you don’t have a formal online feedback tool.

Step Three – Act on the Data

Now that you have some indicators of sentiment, get further value out of the exercise by engaging with those who mentioned you. For example, if Topsy revealed a Tweet that gave you a shout-out, you might reply to that person with a thanks. If you found that a certain person has been promoting your content consistently, you might want to reach out and look for some of their content that you can promote.

On the flip side, if you find someone who is unhappy with your services or who has mentioned your company in a negative light, evaluate whether you can address the issue and turn them around. This is one of the strong suits of social media—the ability to capture those negative reviews and the opportunity to respond to them.

Are you doing any sentiment analysis right now? How might you add this data to your marketing tool kit?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee