Successful Blog

The Secret to Progress You Can Start Today

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Rosemary O’Neill

There is one tiny change you can make to your daily life that will have a huge impact on your success. In work, in relationships, and in family life. Lean closer, because I’m going to have to whisper it.

Look back.

The Secret to Progress You Can Start Today

My car has one of those built-in video screens so that I can see what’s behind me when I’m backing up. Skateboards, basketballs, and even the occasional kid have all survived my driveway because of this rear-vision feature.

We’re all told constantly to plan, set goals, look ahead. And in these next few weeks you’ll be barraged with people telling you to sit down and create a roadmap for 2013.

But before you do that, it’s essential to grab a cup of coffee and review 2012. How can we ever savor life, see our progress, and learn from our mistakes and successes if we don’t ever take a moment to look for them?

Daily Gratitude

At the end of every day, as you’re settled in bed and closing your eyes, take a couple of minutes to think back and be grateful for the day just passed. Give yourself a high five for any accomplishments.

Weekly Review

At the end of every week (I do it on Sunday afternoon), sit down and actually write out your successes. Write down lessons you learned during the week. Write down things you meant to do but didn’t and figure out why. Write down things that happened that made you feel awesome.

Monthly Check-in

At the end of the month, glance through your weekly review notes, as a reminder of your progress and things you’ve learned. It will solidify the lessons learned and give you a boost going into the coming month.

Yearly Wrap-up

Almost everyone starts the year with some sort of vision or goals (let’s not say resolutions anymore, ok?). But do you ever sit down at the end of the year and see how you did? So maybe you didn’t finish that novel, but you did publish your blog three times a week. It’s ok to celebrate that. And since you have your weekly reviews in front of you, you can really see and remember everything. Before I started writing these things down, I wouldn’t have remembered some of the minor victories that really stack up.

Do you take time to look back? Do you have any review tips to share?

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

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

15 Tips to Effectively Use Social Media for Small Business

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Brian Jenkins

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Why Small Businesses Struggle with Social Media and What They Can do about it

A recent survey conducted by Manta, the popular online community for small businesses, showed that 90 percent of small business owners are involved in networking online. Of those, 74 percent believe networking online is just as, if not more, valuable than networking in person. Almost 50 percent of the small business owners surveyed believe that targeting and gaining prospective customers is the most valuable benefit of networking online.

However, the large number of online and social media channels that exist makes it challenging for small business owners to effectively navigate and properly use them.

  • 58 percent of small business owners say they have a difficult time finding value in using Facebook for promoting their business. Pinterest and Groupon, two popular consumer websites, have proven to be ineffective for small businesses.
  • Many small business owners struggle with social media because they don’t have the budget to hire a social media marketing expert or they don’t have staff members with enough free time to learn how to effectively use social media.
  • Many of the online articles that provide social media tips for small business owners are not specific enough, and what’s worse, many of the articles contradict each other, making it very difficult for small business owners to confidently create a social media marketing plan.
  • Many small business owners fail to gain an audience through social media platforms and increase sales because they either don’t have a substantial amount of content or enough engaging content to keep folks interested.
  • Unfortunately, many small businesses simply don’t try to engage people at social media sites; they instead annoy prospective customers by bombarding them with promotional messages. Many small businesses fail to nurture social media relationships. Instead, they’re just looking for a quick sale.

15 Tips to Effectively Use Social Media for Small Business

  1. One of the best ways to learn how to use social media is to learn how other small businesses, especially those in your niche, use it successfully. Follow some successful brands on Twitter and see how they engage their audiences.
  2. Work on becoming an authority in your niche at social media websites.
  3. Increase your online popularity with how-to videos. Create a custom channel on YouTube; video thumbnails in search results attract people more than text does. Videos also help you get to the top of search results. Most people spend significantly more time watching video than reading web pages. Provide how-to tips that your competitors don’t provide. Create a collection of short instructional videos about your products or services which include testimonials from happy customers. Make sure your videos are three minutes or less.
  4. Be social with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites; don’t just announce products and services.
  5. Run competitions on Twitter and Facebook.
  6. Ask bold or interesting questions to provoke a reaction from your Twitter followers.
  7. Encourage people to retweet your content.
  8. Use Facebook to show visitors what you’re passionate about.
  9. Create a custom welcome tab on your Facebook page. Use a call-of-action to encourage non-fans to become fans. After you get the “Like,” offer a valuable free item in exchange for their name and email address.
  10. At your Facebook page or blog, create a list of interesting questions and provide insightful answers to the questions online. Provide new questions and answers every day.
  11. Work to obtain links to your site from authoritative blogs in your niche or a related niche. Offering to write guest posts is one why to do this.
  12. Providing content that solves your visitors’ problems builds trust and the content may get linked to and shared with others.
  13. Start a blog and ask visitors to participate. Effective blogs include bold headings and plenty of images. Provide a call-to-action at the bottom of every blog post. Ask visitors to leave a comment, share the blog post at one of their favorite social media sites, or click on a link for information about a product.
  14. Post funny photographs or humorous short stories that are relevant to your business.
  15. Be responsive to your audience. Business is all about relationships, so be generous to people and take a genuine interest in them.

Small businesses that have had success with social media have found that what works online is much like works offline — offering specific value that’s relevant to their customers, friends, and fans.

What tips might you add for small business success with social media?

Author’s Bio: Brian Jenkins writes about a variety of topics related to careers and education, including careers in marketing, for the Riley Guide.

Thank you, Brian! Great advice!

— ME “Liz” Strauss

Do You Own What You Know?

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2016 GeniusShared Read from Liz StraussIt’s Time to Own What You Know

I’ve been getting more and more chances to talk with you about what you’re doing and I see so much that adds up to so much. It’s hard to miss how many of us are making things happen in huge and outstanding ways. The pile of accomplishment between us is higher than 23 school buses stacked up toward the sky.

One question troubles me … Why do so many of us seem aware of everyone’s accomplishments except their own?
It’s important to own what you know.

Take Ten Minutes to Catch Up With Yourself

When I ask you what you’re doing, do you discount the far road you come?

Everyone of us came to be who we are without a practice session or a lesson plan. We’re learning to build our future as we live each day. What we forget is that our lives aren’t dependent on what the guy next to us does.

Does the guy next to you seem to have more ideas? Does the woman down the street have a more impressive blog or a longer client list? When we concentrate on what we’re not doing, soon enough the world gets out of control and we start feeling less than small.

Would you do me a favor? Take ten minutes to reflect on where you were a few months ago. You know more about yourself, your life, and if you look to your strengths, you also know more about what you can do.

If you never reflect on what you’ve accomplished in the last few months, you could still be walking into a room thinking you’re the person you were in 2010 or maybe even who you were in 2014, rather than the person who’s done all you’ve done since then.

Take 10 minutes to catch up with yourself.
What have you done in the last year that you’ve not owned up to?

Owning your accomplishments is irresistible.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

 This post was updated in July 2016 by Jane Boyd & Liz Strauss. It has been listed as a suggested resource in a recent GeniusShared newsletter article by Liz entitled Owning Your Voice.

Thanks to Week 372 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Is Restaurant Ownership Is Right For You? 10 Deciding Questions

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Meagan Gordon


Photo Credit: foodwoolf.com

If you have a burning desire to own your own restaurant then chances are you will be good at it.

Following Your Dreams of Restaurant Ownership

Our fears often cause us to question our motives and delay us in fulfilling our dreams. We question why we should make major life changes, or do something we did not necessarily go to school for. We worry when other people’s lives would be affected by our decisions. Leaving a job that offers us security and benefits can seem so risky that it can cause fear so strongly that we have physical symptoms as a result.

On the flip side, not fulfilling a desire can also cause physical symptoms and stresses. If you really have a burning desire to be an entrepreneur and work with others in a restaurant setting, but do not follow your inner calling you can become depressed, irritated with others, or not perform as well at your current job. There is much truth in the old adage; you must be good to yourself before you can be good to others.

Is Restaurant Ownership Is Right For You? 10 Deciding Questions

Explore your thoughts surrounding restaurant ownership. The more you question your own motives and what may be holding you back the easier the answers will come. By writing down answers to these 10 deciding questions you may be able to learn what is really right for you.

    1. When did I first come up the idea that I would like to own my own restaurant?
    2. How did the thought come about and how did I feel?
    3. What was happening in my life at that time that may give me clues about why this thought came about?
    4. When I picture myself working in my restaurant does it seem realistic, and am I happy even when I envision chaos or problems that will be inevitable?
    5. Have I had dreams of myself working in a restaurant or symbols in my dreams that if analyzed could represent this desire?
    6. When I am in restaurants do I find myself mentally running the place, or do I have many ideas about how to make improvements?
    7. Do I truly envision myself enjoying working with the public, and people that would be my employees, even when conflicts arise?
    8. Would I be happy if I had to multitask as well as delegate jobs to others?
    9. Is there a part of me that wants to do this to please someone else or feel important? If I take away that person and or the feeling of importance would I still want to proceed?
    10. Who may be holding me back in my own mind? Make a list of all the people in your life and how they would react? If the reaction is negative or unsupportive what are the reasons? Is it really his/her own fear, or is it a concern the person legitimately has for you? If valid explore that thought and whether or not you believe it.

Starting any new venture can be scary. The best way to move fear aside is to gain knowledge. In exploring the idea you may learn that restaurant ownership is not really for you, but rather it was the idea of independence, or to please someone else that really appealed to you deep down. If this is the case then nothing was lost and only new self-knowledge was gained. If you do find becoming a restaurant owner is what you feel you were meant to do, then next explore the ways to make it a reality, and good luck in your journey!

Do you have a story about when you began your own restaurant or own business? In the comments below, let us know what you went through to make it happen.

Author’s Bio:
Meagan Gordon is a professional blogger that writes on a variety of topics including places to eat. She writes for Restaurants.com, a leading directory of restaurant ratings

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

5 Twitter Advantages for Your Small Business

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Rosemary O’Neill

5 Twitter Advantages for your Small Business

Are you still trying to make sense of Twitter?

As an onlooker, it appears much the same way the New York Stock Exchange looks from the observation window–messy, chaotic, and disorganized. But stand a moment and keep looking, because you will start to see groups of people gathered around specific topics. Over here, a loud tribe of Kardashian followers (we’ll just step around them) and over there in the far corner, an intense crowd of small business owners.

They pop in to conduct their transaction and then move back to their desks on the trading floor.

What’s great about Twitter is that anyone can step out onto the floor and mix it up in the trading scrum.

Use Twitter as a Small Business Advantage

  1. Network and share your expertise – join a regular Twitter chat (check out the massive list of chats here). At the appointed time, go to Tweetchat.com and type in the hashtag for the chat. Follow the conversation and add your own thoughts. With regular participation, you can form a strong network. I highly recommend the #SOBCon chat!
  2. Build relationships to support your PR efforts – it’s an open secret that journalists like to hang out on Twitter. Your faxed press release will get tossed in the recycle bin, but it’s very easy to learn insider information on media likes/dislikes, beats, and current projects on Twitter. One place to start is Twellow’s news and media category (http://www.twellow.com/categories/news).
  3. Find leads – yes, you can actually find real people who might want to be your customer on Twitter. Use Twitter’s advanced search to find people who are searching for “help” plus your keyword, and then offer assistance. The important thing to remember is that you’re providing help, not a sales pitch. That’s the fast route to loserville.
  4. Be available to your customers – Twitter is the open phone line, and although all of your customers might not be on Twitter, the ones who are will appreciate having access to you. Just be sure to subscribe to alerts so you can hear the phone ring when someone mentions you or sends a direct message.
  5. Show your human side – Mix in some personality to your business Tweets, and use it as one more way to humanize your business. Not to share a steady stream of cat pictures, but sharing your passion for motorcycles or movies can be a great conversation starter.

Are you still procrastinating on jumping into Twitter? Share your fears here and maybe we can work together to get you out onto the trading floor.

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

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss