Action Coaching

How Content Marketing Defines Your Internet Niche

The Internet is designed to share information. It is used for education, advancing new ideas, expressing personal opinions, enhancing name brand recognition, and promoting the sale of products or services. Article marketing sites, also called article directories, help improve the efficiency of this communication process. They establish a number of dedicated marketing outlets. Each article directory provides a multitude of users with the opportunity to give free information in exchange for valid Internet backlinks.

When successfully applied, content marketing is an effective means for expanding your business outreach. It can attract qualified Internet leads, establish long-term customer communications, and be used to define your precise market niche. Companies and individuals post articles that are specific to a given industry or targeted market niche. When the content of the article successfully:

• Engages the desired reader base your company prospers
• Relays relevant information your name brand identity expands
• Establishes a sense of honest information exchange, you gain a reputation for providing expert advice in a given field.

The math is simple. The Internet provides an abundance of free information. Prospective customers seek advice from trustworthy sources. Successful content marketing enables you to establish yourself and your business as an Internet authority in a given field of expertise. It works just as effectively as display ads or PPC, but the cost of playing is much less expensive.

Content Marketing Enhances the Power of Internet Selling

In a recent thread on how to be successful on the Internet, the author penned an eight-word answer: “Produce great stuff and sell it to people.” These words read slick, but they over simplify a very complex task. Unless you are marketing a self-promoting, self-selling product or service, you must engage in some manner of active product marketing.

Reliable business leads are not always easy to generate. The Internet is bloated with information, misinformation and overstuffed information. The competition comes and goes but it never dies. Internet selling may involve the most competitive arena the marketing world has ever faced.

Content marketing provides a cost-effective solution to the greater demands that Internet selling places on modern businesses.

The Concept Made Real: Using Content Marketing To Increase Your Business Leads and Your Internet Authority

Okay. You are now ready to use article marketing as a means of promoting your website or blog. Every content marketing strategy must be designed to meet two primary goals:

1. Targeted Traffic: Whether it relates to product sales, membership promotions, or content subscribers, you need traffic that will remain on your site, return to your site, and eventually become an income generating client in whatever format you have set as the focus.
2. Relevant Links: Article directories are designed to enable you to generate relevant links to your website. These matters pertain to search engine optimized (SEO) keywords. The purposes for search engine optimizing your content falls under a separate subheading of this document. For now, just remember that content marketing helps develop relevant backlinks to your website or blog.

Knowing the purpose of content posting is only half the battle. You must also understand the principles of how to produce content marketing that actually increases your business leads and your reputation as an Internet authority in a your given field of expertise. Furthermore, you must learn what it takes to bring your posted directory content to the top of the search engines. Here are some questions that will help you get started in the right direction:

• What is your area of expertise, your market niche?
• Who is your target market?
• What should be the primary topic for your articles?
• Is your target market large enough to support multiple subtopics?
• What are the subtopics that you might use for additional articles?
• Who is your primary competition?
• How well are they performing in the content marketing field?
• What is your competition doing right?
• What are they doing wrong?
• Which, if any, of your competitor’s articles are making it into the search engines?
• What keywords are they using?
• What synonyms and acronyms can be used to create the same keyword effect?
• What related keywords are producing desired search results through the inline search engines on various popular article directories?
• How much time are you willing to devote to writing and marketing your content?

The Value of Search Engine Optimized Article Content

Perhaps you know the ins and outs of your business niche better than most people know the details of a well-watched classic movie. You can write about it. You can talk about it. You can express the details in terms that most people don’t even understand. Now realize the insufficiency of knowledge alone.

Content marketing is not about being discovered. It is about pushing your content to the top of the information chain. For this, you must learn to utilize the power of search engine optimized keywords. This is a critical line to success. In order to establish your mark as an Internet authority in any field, Internet users must see and read your materials.

Here are a few basic SEO tips:

• Keyword Research: Start by learning how to identify the keywords or key phrases that specifically define the content of your articles and your website. Measure the competition for those keywords or key phrases. Now pick your battleground with care.
• Keyword Tools: These are the doorways into your keyword research. Many Internet vendors present an array of keyword tools, include detailed “how to use” instructions. Start with the Google Keyword Tool.
• Keyword Strategies: This ties into keyword research. The number of free materials available on the subject of keyword strategies exceeds counting. But if you intend to produce content marketing that works, be sure to read up on keyword strategies.

Content Marketing Increases Your Business Leads and Your Presence as an Internet Authority

The conclusion to this discussion is obvious. The online evidence speaks for itself. Content marketing is a powerful and aggressive means for increasing your business leads and establishing yourself as an Internet expert in your given market niche. Don’t pass up this avenue to success. Even if you must hire a ghostwriter to clean up your content and to distribute your image to the article marketing websites, go for it. Content marketing pays off.

Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve Success

Women are making great strides in the business arena, but they still have a long way to go. More than 40 percent of small business owners are women, according to the business website StartRunGrow.com, and women are hailed for their unique style of leadership. That unique style, however, is not enough to fully overcome overt gender discrimination, false beliefs and stereotypes that still run rampant in the workplace.

In many cases, men still receive higher pay than women for doing the exact same job. Men are also more likely to receive promotions and move up the corporate ladder, especially in firms where false beliefs and stereotypes about women remain engrained.

One false belief is that women do not want to work in the first place. If they do work, there is no way they are as dedicated to their jobs as guys are. This means, of course, women are not willing to do any overtime or relocate.

People often think women’s dedication to their families detracts from women’s dedication to their careers. This means women will always put their families before their jobs – even if the women are single with no children. The topper is that women are too emotional to lead. After all, they do tend to cry at sappy greeting card commercials and chick flicks.

The macho attitude also comes into play when men who hold firm to their stereotypical beliefs are stuck with a female boss. Such a situation actually has the power to make a man feel ashamed that he must answer to a woman in the workplace.

Other pseudo fears men have about women bosses include the woman’s lack of knowledge and confidence in the business arena, a woman’s inability to perform complicated tasks and the fact that they are so hard to please. The latter false belief makes an especially dandy excuse for men who turn in shoddy work. If she’s telling me my work is not right, a man may think, it must mean she’s never satisfied no matter what type of job I’ll do.

Another false belief is that women must act like men in order to successfully lead. This belief was strong in the 1980s and resulted in masculine-styled “power suits” with obnoxiously overstuffed shoulder pads. Women thought they needed to keep up with football scores – or look like a football player – to compete in a man’s world. On the flipside of the issue, if a woman dresses more feminine at work, she can often be labeled a sexpot or worse.

While some of these beliefs are laughable, they still prevail, as does the flack women often receive for being assertive in the workplace. Women are often seen as not being aggressive enough – yet when they exhibit aggressive behavior, they are often labeled a witch, to put it mildly. On the other hand, when women lead in a manner that is nurturing and kind, they are often seen as spineless, weak and incompetent – although great for a chat around the water cooler.

Tips for Overcoming Stereotypes and Achieving Success

Rather than trying to lead “like a man” or “like a woman,” GenderSmart Solutions President Jane Sanders suggests women kick out the set styles altogether and lead with flexibility as each situation merits. She notes that sticking with a single leadership style can perpetuate the stereotypes rather than help eradicate them.

Another major key for overcoming the stereotypes is for women to just be themselves. If a woman is naturally outgoing, her leadership style should reflect that, just as an introspective woman should lead with her natural abilities in mind. Women can do well by not trying to live up what style is expected, but rather by focusing on their strengths and leveraging them to their advantage in the business arena.

Women can also pay attention to the way they interact and communicate in the workplace. Certain behaviors may also be reinforcing the stereotypes without women even realizing it, Sanders notes. These include exhibiting a lack of confidence by seeking validation at every turn as well as adding disclaimers to your work. “This is a good idea, right?” exemplifies the former while “I would have done a better job on this but…” exemplifies the latter.

Other changes women can make include getting rid of constant apologies, taking credit for their work and otherwise making sure their progress in the workplace is known. Providing a boss with regular updates on a project can work well, which is a way to show you are working toward a solution or answer to an issue. Making decisions without the consult of several other people is also a plus, showing a woman’s independence, self-confidence and ability to think for herself.

Women who are succinct, to the point and confident about their work are seen as much stronger and more effective than those that ramble on aimlessly or cower in the face of conflict. When conflict does arise, women can exhibit even more confidence by dealing with directly but also with a touch of empathy, Sanders says. When a woman has center stage she needs to learn how to keep it. She should not tolerate interruptions, although a polite response to “please hold that thought while I continue” works better than an abrupt or curt comment.

Keeping a personal life personal is another must for women. Since the stereotype about family already prevails, keeping talk of them out of the workplace may help diffuse the false beliefs. Women also do well by keeping other personal details private, such as weekend plans, new boyfriends or trouble with the hubby. Any mention of drinking, sex or redecorating the kitchen can and may be used against her.

Trying to talk people out of their stereotypical beliefs generally does not work, notes StartRunGrow.com. Some of those beliefs may be so instilled it would be easier to draw water from a rock. Action always speaks louder than words and women should instead keep a positive attitude and not be afraid to proudly display their strengths. Such action can allow their true talents and value to the workplace shine through.

Hesitate to make sales calls? Rushing to lose money?

Procrastination: the great wealth thief. We’re not talking about reading important journals or writing thank you notes. How many games of solitaire do you play before getting on the phone? How many idiotic emails do you receive? And forward? Time wasters, that great sucking sound you hear coming from your wallet. When you hesitate to make a call, you hurry to lose extra income.

Want to know how expensive a computer game is? Forget the price. Multiply the number of times played by the number of minutes each time and the number of business days. For example, 10 minutes x 2 times x 250 work days = 5000 minutes/year. That’s more than one working day per year.

Are you an average sales person? Above average? That’s 1000 prospect calls per year. If you meet three prospects for a sales interview out of ten calls, that’s 300 sales calls – more than one per day. If you sell one out of three of these prospects, that’s 100 extra sales per year.

What’s your average commission? Let’s use $100 for this example – $10,000 per year to play solitaire. Are you hesitating to make calls, getting “mentally ready”, or just rushing to lose money? And yes, you can make four more prospect calls per day.

When your inner doubts bully your dialing finger, the delay costs you money, commission, prestige, even vacations and prizes. Why do we let this happen?

Rituals mollify our subconscious mind. Do you have a morning routine to ready for work? Professional athletes are notoriously superstitious on game day. Completing the routine assures our brains we’re ready to go.

But has the ritual always been the same? How do we learn these habits? How do we create better habits? Rituals change over time. If you grow a beard, your shaving and grooming habits change. If you shave your head, you alter your showering technique. So, changing goals or styles lead to a change of habit. Intrigued?

Change your morning ritual and make four sales calls to prospects to replace whatever your particular time waster is… crossword puzzle? Origami? Listening to the radio waiting for your favorite song? Delete these routines and replace them with starting your marketing correspondence as early as possible. At the end of the day, you can decide to work later if needed, but you can’t decide to work earlier.

Habits are replaced, not broken. The following rules help you replace time wasting habits with productive ones. Follow these rules and sell time-effectively.

Good Habit #1

Set a time to write and answer personal emails, texts, social networking, and similar activities for the end of the day only, and strictly abide by this schedule. Your social life is important, but not urgent.

When you behave as though social networking is more important than marketing calls, in your mind, it will become more urgent. Prioritize marketing first.

Some psychologists refer to “tomorrow thinking”, as in its best to start this task later. If you consider prospecting calls onerous, you are more likely to hesitate to make that first call. Prospecting gets you closer to a sale. This task is most important.

Decide when to work and how many hours. Stick to this schedule and do not let time wasters creep in.

Good Habit #2

Write notes confirming meetings, e-mail clients, check your calendar and call list, then start calling. Call the entire list. Replace that time wasting behavior with morning organizational tasks. They are easy, non-confrontational, and very useful. This activity can be part of the mental commute to work, personal business to business.

Activity decreases worry and discomfort. Worry depends upon a negative prediction of future events. How well do you predict the future?

Excuses like it may be a bad time to call or suppose I have the wrong name, or number, delay calling. This bad habit is contingency tomorrow thinking. It may be inconvenient to call later too; nobody can predict the optimal time.

Here’s a prediction: if you waste 5000 minutes per year in non-productive, time wasting pursuits, you’ll be $10,000 poorer.

Self deception is a powerful mental tool. Hesitators tend to use the deception to not act; but it is just as powerful in focusing on tasks. Once you have a useful “begin work” ritual, such as opening your email and answering only business related correspondence, or better yet, isolating the two functions using two email servers, your mind will be all business.

Ironically, when you use the end of the day personal correspondence strategy, this will mentally trigger your work to social mental commute. True recreation begins.

Good Habit #3

Do not joke about your slow starts or hesitation in calling prospects.

Joking distances the joker from the severity of the procrastination, unless you find a joke to fit the loss of income punch line,

Admit this hesitation is problematic, and then return to Good Habit #1.

Successful marketing and sales require routinely prospecting for new opportunities. Unfortunately, calling is often the most neglected, delayed, or avoided activity although potentially the most important.

Train your mind to understand and focus on this activity. Think about the cost of playing computer games or doing crossword puzzles when hesitating to begin or complete your call list. And by the way, your prospects and clients deserve your undivided attention.

Don’t rush to lose money.

Finding the Store Front that Fits Your Business

People love to shop stores that are unique and fashionable. So the unspoken challenge is for small business owners to have a store that appeals to and attracts people to their shop. The best place to start with any remodeling project is the store’s front. The store front is the very first thing that people see. Their impression of the place is set within the first 30 seconds of them coming up to the store. It is imperative to have a store front that is inviting and appealing.

Stores that are Visible on the Street

The store front of a business is often set by the real estate that they own or lease. In some case the owner of the property of leasing agent may already have a set standard for all the store fronts. However, they still allow certain freedoms for business owners to choose the right display for them. It is important to design the front display very well so it does not become an embarrassment to the store.

Storefronts give people their first impression of a business. Ideally, they lure people in by providing an image of quality and making them curious about what the store holds. A well designed front display will provide benefits to the store for years to come.

When first starting out with the design process, it is important to know your own limitations. If you are a person who has trouble designing displays, then it might be beneficial to hire a professional to assist in the design process. The designing agent will be able to guide and direct in what colors and styles fit your business the best. Be sure to always check with local codes and laws so you meet all the set standards of building codes and zoning laws. There is nothing worse than to put up a display and have to tear it down because the zoning laws were not followed. So be sure to educate yourself accordingly.

When you have educated yourself on all the regulations, then it is time to start with the design process. There will be many choices for you to choose from as you head down to the road towards completion. It is important to pick a design and stick with that same one. Changing your mind in the middle of project only causes longer delays and higher costs to the store. So it is important to listen to the design agent and stick with your choices.

Store fronts have to fit in with all the surroundings. The colors should attract people and not repel them. For instance, if you own a furniture store, you might want to consider choosing colors that are warm and inviting so people will feel more at home. If your business is within the food industry, it might be a good idea to have colors that fit the mood of your establishment. Colors play an important part of how any display looks to the public.

Another thing to consider is what kind of material the display should be made from. How the store front is positioned will dictate the types of material that are to be used. Stores that face the sun should consider using a material that does not reflect the light so much. Nobody likes to go into a store and get blinded by the sun’s rays. If you are in a position to choose material freely, and then choose a material that will last a long time. Stone and brick are materials that have proven themselves over time. Signs should be made of light weight material that can withstand bad weather and extreme temperature changes.

Store fronts should also appear to be very open. Having large display windows allows people to see what is inside the store and allows light to fill the space. A well lit and open store is always fun to shop in. Large windows allow for people to shop with ease and comfort. They also give the store a demanding presence within the community.

Stores that are Visible on the Internet

The internet has opened up a whole new realm for business owners to sell their merchandise. In the past store owners were limited to customers that lived in the same region that they were located in. In today’s competitive environment they now have the opportunity to show themselves to people all around the world.

In order to take advantage of the ever growing market it is important for a business to have a well designed website. A website allows customers to shop and learn about a particular business without having to live in the same region. So it is important to have a website with an inviting store front that is attraction.

A well designed website will be inviting to everyone that comes across the page. Any business that is serious about marketing their merchandise will create a site that limits the number of third party ads to the buyer can shop with ease. The home page of the site should be inviting and contain content that catches the reader’s attention. The goal of the home page is to give an overview of the site and display the best merchandise available for purchase.

The colors should be well chosen and not be a distraction. Consult with a design host specialist as to what colors work best for online content. Once the colors are chosen make sure to have a format for all the pages. Customers like to see simple but well organized pages to shop from.

The goal of the store front should be to allow the reader to transact business as easy as possible. If a person has to struggle to make a payment they are more likely to cancel the transaction rather than struggle through a tough system. By keeping the design simple and professional you will attract more customers who want to do business with your store.

Tune Your Inner Voice to Success

Garbage In! Garbage Out! Even the most advanced computer does not match the potential of the human mind. Who would treat their mind like an old computer tossed in a pile of rubbish? Every person on the planet has that inner voice that has been referred to as the conscience since the beginning of time. We can be a prisoner of it when we have guilt without forgiveness, sorrow without joy, fear without assurance, and defeat without victory. The list will continue throughout our life as worry without dependence, hate without love, doubt without faith, value without self-worth, and many other elements that can cause our inner voice to keep us from reaching our potential. Without having to go through these hurdles of life, we would not be ready for larger battles that are ahead. When you were a kid, you may have had the challenge of raising a pet. As an adult, you possibly are in the process of raising a family. The inner voice aids us through these life experiences. From the simplest tasks to impossible feats, the inner voice can help us turn those stumbling blocks into stepping stones, when we are willing to take the steps for a better tomorrow.

Think Like Your Child Self

When children are small, they are both trusting and vulnerable. They notice the little things like bright colors, little creatures, pretty flowers, and things that make them smile. They are not afraid to share their feelings and do not let people keep them from asserting themselves. They are very forgiving little people who are very resilient to defeat simple tasks, such as learning to walk. As adults, we are more mature, but some of the simplistic aspects our own childlike approach to life should never change. If you stop being a child, you will stop learning, growing, and reaching.

Know the Reason for the Inner Voice

You only have one mind. Steps to success will be limited by their own volition, or by those whom they have allowed themselves to mimic. The inner voice is designed to act as the conscience. It tells us stealing, murder, child abuse, and other horrific acts are wrong. It acts as our guide when we accomplish great ventures. It acts as a teacher and coach to help others get through their own hurdles, and back on track.

White Balance Your Inner Voice

The white balance effect of a camcorder is when the camera lens is set to a white background so the colors of the shoot will be more true. The inner voice will reflect the image it sees in the back of your mind. If your sense of morality has been altered, your inner voice will be distorted. This is why people who have been addicted to drugs alter their minds to think that what they are doing is okay even when it may hurt others. Likewise, people who think they are failures have been fed the mental drug of defeat. The inner voice can only speak the truth when the mind has been fed the truth. You are not ugly, worthless, or unable to succeed.

Know the Enemies of the Inner Voice

The world has a lying voice that says it cares. It will trap you in places you would not want to be. It will also move out of the way of someone who knows where they are going. Self has a voice that remembers past failures. It can be unforgiving and the cause of defeat. It will be the final decision maker, so handle it with care. Like the conscience that helps us know the difference from right and wrong, there is a voice from the unknown that distorts what is truth. It will send you down the path of defeat. This is the voice that literally brings thoughts into the mind that we never know where they came from. Flee from them.

Feeding our Mind Becomes a Carbon Copy

Your inner voice has a recording device that will replay everything you have ever let enter. Its diet is based upon what you feed it, and the protein that provides the energy to succeed will be based upon the quality of the mental food ingested. Everything you see, feel, and touch adds to the memory in the channel of experience. Tragedy strikes and brings trouble. The birth of a child brings joy. These things become a natural part of life, and the inner voice becomes a product of those life experiences. However, the things we let enter our minds can have a bigger impact by the places we go, the people to whom we listen, and the books we read.

Expect Greatness

No one is born without purpose. Zig Ziglar, a famous motivational speaker, says we have to get rid of the “stinkin’ thinkin’”. Also, he says that you will be like the books you read and the people you listen to in the next five years. Where are you headed? Do not be afraid to change. If you feed it, success will come. It may not be in the form of material wealth or fame. However, it will make a difference in your life and those around you.

Small Business vs Large Business

In the world of business there are differences that a person needs to know about when seeking to start their own business or seeking a place to work. When a person starts up a business they find out right away that there are things that define their business. People seeking the best place to work should realize that a small business can offer things a large corporation cannot offer and a larger business has things a small company cannot offer. So what are the difference between a small business and a large corporation?

Differences of Small versus Large

When people think about the differences between a large and small business environment the first thing that comes to mind is the amount of resources that each one has. Resources can be in the form of money, equipment, real estate space, personnel and community influence. When comparing large and small businesses it is easy to see that a small business may not have as much money as a large corporation. What is often not seen is that a small business can have a much greater impact in the community than a large business. A local office often has its pulse on the community and they begin to form long lasting personal relationships with their customers. A large corporation may have a satellite office in the area but it is often limited to just employees and will not allow the community access to the site. It is for business only and not for shopping.

For the person seeking a great place to work there are things about each type of business that they need to consider. A small business is often limited in career advancement. An office that only employees a few people lacks the promotional ability that a large corporation has. The larger the business becomes the more opportunities there are for moving up the career ladder. On the other side of the issue a small business has more to offer than a large business. A small business tends to have an atmosphere that is more like family. People get to know each other better and they realize that when one of the workers is struggling the whole company struggles. Each one shares in the success and failures of another coworker.

One thing that affects both a small business owner and a person seeking a place to work is the flexibility of a small business over a large corporation. A smaller business has the ability to more mobile than their larger competition. Should there be a need to move a small business can perform the action quickly and without much strain on the employees. A large business has to plan and strategize the entire process from start to finish and they have to hire a moving company to haul all the equipment to the new location. However, a large corporation usually more flexibility when it comes to vacation time. A worker may be given a few weeks per year that they can take for time off. In a small business there usually is not a person to carry on the duties of the employee that is missing. In a large corporation the work load can be distributed to other coworkers and things move forward as normal.

What is Similar of Small Versus Large

One thing that a small business has the same as a large corporation is that both can operate effectively by using best practices. Best practices are plans that are followed so the flow of business operates smoothly. The flow chart for operation may be different in size for each business but the principles are still the same. Both companies will have better customer service and they will find that they will have more sales as a result of following best practice methods.

Another area that small and large businesses have in common is that they seek to hire only the best qualified people. No business great or small wants to hire someone who cannot perform the job duties that are assigned to them. A small business owner will often interview the job seeker personally and a large corporation will have a human resource person screen applicants but they both are seeking the same result; a person who is qualified to fill the vacate position. No business wants to hire a person that will not stop up to plate and deliver their very best.

Small businesses and large corporation have areas that are vastly different and they have a few that are the same. When seeking to start up a business or seeking a place to work a person needs to consider all the differences and similarities between both environments so they can make the best decision for what they are seeking to accomplish.

Maintaining Work/Life Balance

Meeting the constant demands of a fast-paced workplace is challenging for every small business owner. As the person in charge of your company and livelihood, you may feel pressure to work 12- to 16-hour days to manage the many aspects of your business. This high workload inevitably leads to stress and burnout. Taking time to yourself to maintain work/life balance is essential to the success of your business.

The Importance of Maintaining Work/Life Balance

Chronic stress negatively impacts your health and ability to efficiently run your business. Stress is associated with high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, and reduced longevity. Lesser-known side effects of chronic stress include mental fuzziness, poor memory, impaired decision-making abilities, and mental burnout. These cognitive effects of stress directly impact the success of your small business, making work/life balance a priority for any business owner. Achieving work/life balance is the result of reducing the daily demands of your job as well as increasing the time you dedicate to relaxing and recharging.

Get Organized

Staying organized is key to managing the stresses of business ownership. Begin by monitoring both work-related and personal activities for at least one week. Write down the time of day, how much time the activity took, and whether it was a regular appointment or unexpected activity. Carefully assess your schedule, cutting the length of time you spend on unimportant or unhelpful activities and focusing on the ones that matter most.

After analyzing your schedule, make more efficient use of your time by using a calendar or planner to mark deadlines for filing important paperwork, completing projects, or reaching key goals. Rather than scheduling meetings throughout your day or week, try to set aside blocks of time to have multiple back-to-back meetings. This frees up uninterrupted time for you to complete other business tasks without intrusions. Consider using a whiteboard or computer spreadsheet to make lists of things you need to do; sorting them by time sensitivity and importance helps you prioritize your work.

Delegate

In the beginning stages of your business, you were likely involved in every aspect of its organization and operations. As your business grows, it is no longer reasonable to expect yourself to perform every task or oversee all operations. Facilitate better work/life balance by delegating responsibilities. Hire trusted employees to take over the day-to-day operations of the business. Consider recruiting a chief financial officer or chief operations officer to decrease your overall work burden. After hiring these individuals, trust them to effectively perform their jobs without micromanaging their work. Schedule regular meetings with staff to ensure they perform efficient, high-quality work that meets your expectations.

Take a Vacation or Spend Time With Your Family

One of the joys of being a business owner is being your own boss and setting your work schedule. However, owning a business also means that you constantly must worry about the health of your company. Schedule vacation time for yourself several times each year to relax, recharge, and refresh your mind. Whether this is a weekend getaway or a longer vacation, commit to using the time to reduce your stress. Resist the urge to check your work email and refuse to make calls to the office for the duration of your getaway. Instruct your staff members not to contact you unless there is a serious work crisis. In the absence of any real emergency, reading work-related emails simply prevents you from maintaining the work/life balance you need.

Unplug from Technology on a Daily Basis

In addition to taking vacation time throughout the year to restore balance to your life, make it a priority to prevent your business from consuming your waking hours. Smart phones, computers, and other technological advances make it easy to monitor the operations of your business 24 hours per day. However, spending too much time thinking about work prevents you from enjoying the moments you spend with family and friends, reading a book, or spending time outdoors. Commit to turning off your cell phone and computer at a certain time each evening or during all family events to resist the temptation to monitor your work. Making a conscious decision to disengage from technology allows you to appreciate your time away from the office and maintain work/life balance.

Nurture Your Body Through Healthy Living

Because chronic stress has such a devastating effect on your body and mind, it is important to take care of your physical health. To combat high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and chronic fatigue, incorporate physical activity into your routine every day. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per day reduce your stress and improve your overall health. If you find it difficult to make time to get to the gym, break your workout into smaller 10-minute segments. Walking, biking, swimming, dancing, gardening, golfing, or jumping rope count as aerobic activities. Also maintain a healthy diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole-grain foods, and lean protein.

Taking care of yourself, scheduling personal time to de-stress, and delegating work responsibilities improves your work/life balance and ensures the success of your business.

Video Marketing – The New Trend for B2B Marketers

Writers are often admonished to “show” their readers rather than “tell” them what happened, and B2B marketers would do well to follow this advice by adding video marketing to their suite of tools. According to a recent study conducted by Forbes and Google, over 80% of senior executives say they watch work-related videos online. The same study, entitled “Video in the C-Suite” further discovered that 65% of executives who viewed a business-related video have actually clicked through to a vendor’s website afterward. And more than half of senior executives surveyed said that they shared these videos with colleagues. A smart, well-produced piece of video marketing is much more likely to “go viral” than a white paper; and those who view the video are more likely to inquire after more text-based information after viewing the video.

Showing potential customers, via video marketing, how a product or service can solve their specific business problems, save time, money and garner more sales, can have a powerful effect on decision makers – and at a relatively low cost per view compared to other marketing media. The following ideas can help B2B marketers implement a video marketing strategy that promotes the company’s core goals while demonstrating value to potential clients, moving them to click-through, follow-through, share and purchase:

Focus and Target

The key to producing an effective video marketing campaign is to target the video message to a carefully-selected audience, which means doing the research on that audience. View the video creation process as a way to start a conversation with potential clients. A tightly-focused video that speaks to a client’s needs, showing them how a product or service answers those needs better than the competition, will have a much more powerful effect on decision makers than a broadly-focused message that goes out to just any group of potential clients. This may very well mean producing a collection of short videos targeted to specific groups of potential clients, current clients, inactive clients, etc.

Keep it short

Executives and other decision makers are pressed for time. This is one of the reasons why video marketing is so successful: It takes maybe two minutes to watch a video on YouTube, whereas it could take half an hour or more to read a white paper. On the other hand, a short, engaging video with an offer of a free white paper at the end may just get a potential client to take time to read the white paper. Also, focus groups have determined that those videos approaching five minutes or more start to lose viewers, so the key is to keep the video message short (between 1-2 minutes), to-the-point and engaging. Producing multiple, targeted videos that speak to specific core benefits of a company’s products and services have a better chance of inducing decision makers to click through to view other videos, or simply cut to the chase and request more information.

YouTube: Cost Effective & Familiar

YouTube is probably the most efficient platform to use for a video marketing strategy. It is fairly simple to embed customized YouTube videos into the home website. A company can also create its own YouTube channel with very little effort and expense. Its universal reach also makes it very easy for clients and potential clients to watch and share video marketing clips. YouTube is also easy to use and people know what to expect when someone sends them a YouTube link. The last thing a video marketing strategy needs is to restrict its videos to a little-used, proprietary video platform that very few people use or trust.

Get Attention, Track and Analyze

YouTube also provides analytics tools that enable B2B marketers to track how, where and when people are viewing the videos. This enables marketers to see which videos are the most popular and effective so that the video marketing strategy can be finely-tuned going forward.

It is also important to stress that video marketing campaigns can be search engine optimized (SEO) so that when a client runs a Google search for the product or service, the video results should appear near the top of the search results page. Spend time researching keywords and be sure to use them in the title and description for the videos so that search engines can properly index them.

In short, B2B video marketing is a great way to cost-effectively spread a company’s message and the core benefits of using its products or services. And there are so many possibilities for using it: engaging factory tours, product benefit demonstrations, happy customer testimonials, live-streaming trade show events”¦ the list goes on. A well-targeted, engaging video marketing campaign can make all the difference for B2B marketers, boosting their leads and sales while keeping costs down. Video marketing really should be an integral part of every B2B company’s marketing strategy today.

Essential Skills & Qualities of an Effective Leader

Being an effective business leader is not just about having a good idea, but about having a set of skills that will allow you to make it happen and lead others in joining with you to make your business the best it can be. Many people have some of the business skills naturally, but you can also work to develop the skills that you notice you are lacking or are not as strong in.

Some of the best ways to develop skills are to study and to practice. Doing one without the other is often ineffective because you either do not understand what it is you need to be doing or you don’t actually know how to do what you grasp conceptually. Therefore, you should balance study of a skill through reading or taking a class with practicing the skill in your business. Of course, the longer you work in business, the more potential you have to be a truly skillful and effective leader.

In addition to benefiting yourself, knowing the skills of an effective leader can also help you identify employees in your small business who should be promoted to positions of leadership. People who demonstrate most of these characteristics will probably help your business grow if you give them the opportunity to step up and take responsibility over some aspects of the business. Therefore, keep an eye out for these important skills in the people you hire, and give them the chance to demonstrate these skills and grow in them so you will eventually have a business full of people who can effectively take leadership on projects when you need them to.

Communication
Leaders who are off in their own little bubble and cannot communicate effectively with those around them ultimately do not have their ideas put into practice well. As a leader, you must be able to interact well with the people you work with, and this can be done through written or verbal communication. Verbal communication skills are a must-have, because you need to get a message across when you are working with others. Written skills are also helpful because you can create materials that effectively supplement your verbal communication to drive the business onward.

Listening
Closely tied to communication is the skill of listening. Being a good listener is the first step toward communicating well because it keeps you from talking past each other when you aren’t on the same page. Practice listening to people and hearing them out before assuming you know what they are thinking. Use reflecting questions to confirm that you are hearing what the person is saying. Often people will come to you with problems and think you solved them, but really you just lent a listening ear and allowed the person to talk through the issue and come up with a solution.

Charisma
A charismatic leader is one who can rally people in support of a business idea. In addition, once the ball is rolling, the leader can keep people on board through good times and bad by maintaining energy with a charismatic personality. If you don’t naturally have much charisma, practice energizing yourself before beginning work every day, especially if you have to lead meetings or talk with clients. In addition, pay attention to engaging your own and others’ emotions to be more charismatic in your business leadership.

Vision
Without vision, your business is not going to go anywhere. As a leader, you need to be good at looking ahead and seeing where the company is going. You also need to have an idea of what it is you want your business to accomplish. One of the best ways to have vision as a leader is to write a great vision statement for your business. This statement should describe what the business will look like in five years. If you refer to this statement regularly, you will be able to use it in making decisions and have it pervade your leadership of the business.

Foresight
Closely tied to vision is the skill of foresight. In addition to seeing where you want to go, you also need to be able to identify what obstacles you might face in the coming months and years. This big-picture thinking is partly based on a solid education in the realm of your business and an attention to the overall trajectory of your field, but it is also based on intuition. A great leader has a gut feeling of what might go wrong, and can adjust for it even when the intuition is not a conscious awareness.

Strategic Planning
Leaders need to make strategic planning decisions and guide other people who work for the business in acting according to these strategic plans. After getting a grasp on the situation, the leader needs to be able to create a plan that will actually work. Much of this is based on an intimate knowledge of the industry and an education in basic business practice. However, the leader also needs to have creativity to think up a plan that will work better than the standard business practice in situations that require something new, not the same old plans that all of the competitors are using.

Adaptability
Plans don’t always go the right way, so the next skill an effective leader needs is adaptability. You must be able to gauge how a plan is going and adjust it on the fly to meet the changing demands of the situation. One of the hardest things for many leaders is being able to let go of a plan that is going awry, despite having poured time, energy and resources into it already. As a successful leader, you must gauge when a plan is a lost cause and when it is wiser to transfer your resources to a modified approach.

Coaching
If your business employs anyone other than yourself, another critical skill to have is the ability to coach or mentor those who work for you. Unless you are really lucky or have a lot of money, you probably won’t be able to hire the best employees right away. Instead, you need to find people who have potential and work with them to develop that potential and make them into effective employees for the work you need them to do. As the leader, you need to be able to coach your employees and give them input and direction, while also giving them the freedom to try new things and learn on their own rather than being completely dependent on you.

Teamwork
A leader cannot stand alone all the time. Instead, the leader must rely on others in the team to do their part to make the business successful. As a leader, you need to surround yourself with others who you trust to do their jobs well and propel your business forward. If you are good at identifying people who have the skills that you are weak in, this will help your team to be stronger. In addition, you must be good at delegating tasks and leading sessions in which a team can work together to come up with a better idea, plan and execution than you could have done on your own.

Integrity
One last leadership skill to focus on is integrity. Having this will ensure that your business operates with honesty and ethical behavior in a world that encourages the opposite. Although integrity might not seem like it will put you ahead in the short term, in the long run, it will help your business’s reputation greatly. It will also help you develop a loyal following of employees and clients. Before acting, always consider whether what you are going to do captures the spirit of integrity, and if not, modify your plans until they show integrity.

How To Tell the Good from the Bad

You are a go-getter woman. You have a work ethic that has propelled you to the forefront of your profession. You have come to the point in your life where you would like to be your own boss, selling products and services to the public.

Should you invest in a franchise?

If you are a woman seeking an entrepreneur venture, you may be interested in investing in a franchise. You will be selling a product that has already been created. The franchisor has also established itself as a brand-name company with a must-need and recognized product that has customer demand.

If you don’t have your own invention or product to market, a franchise can be your first stepping stone in getting involved with marketing and promoting an established product. You need to consider several factors concerning whether this route will suit you.

1: Does the product interest you?

You must decide on a product that captures your interest. You must feel eager to invest your time and money into promoting and selling the product in you locale.

Having personal knowledge concerning that product can give you an edge in how to best promote it and garner customer interest. Even if you have no knowledge, doing as much research as possible can help you decide if this is a franchise for you.

2: Is it within your budget?

You must invest capital into the franchise through franchise fees. These fees involve purchasing the right to use the brand-name and product for selling purposes. This initial fee may also involve training materials and programs concerning the product.

If the franchise fees are more than you wish to spend, or you receive little information concerning the nature of the product, be wary that you may be getting involved in a scam.

3: Does the franchise offer what you are looking for?

As a budding entrepreneur, do you seek to have a more flexible lifestyle? Would you like to make your own hours with more free time and control over your operations? Or are you looking to make more money than you could from your previous work?

The franchise you choose can effect all these factors. You need to decide just how much time you have to invest in selling the product, if it will provide a good balance between your work life and your free time, and what profits do you seek to earn during short-term and long-term goals.

4: Is there a market demand in your area?

Having a great franchise with a remarkable product won’t mean anything if you don’t have customers buying it. Before deciding on the franchise, you must determine if your location has a market for the product. If there are already a number of franchises selling similar products, you will have a hard time bringing in a profit in an oversaturated playing field.

Always do your research concerning whether a product will do well with the customers in your area. Just because a product is selling great in one part of the country does not necessarily mean it will do well in your location. Ask questions. Conduct surveys. Find out if your customers have a need for this product before investing in the franchise.

Also find out who your main competitors are. Determine your competitors selling tactics and product reach in the marketing area. This can also effect how many sells you’ll be able to make, or if you would have to expand your promotions in other avenues.

5: Is the franchise legit?

Before signing your signature on the franchise agreement, you must determine if the franchise is legit. You don’t really have to worry if the company is world-renown for its products. Yet smaller or new franchises just finding its selling legs can be more shady in its dealing.

Always perform the proper research with the franchisor. Request for a contact list of other franchisees. Ask them about the product, whether they received adequate training concerning the product, and how does the franchisor handle customer problems or complaints.

Check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) concerning the company. Take note if there are a large number of complaints filed against the company and how the company responded to each.

Don’t ignore the warning signs of a bad franchise. If the franchisor fails to disclose a credit history, if they have a bad credit history, if the franchisor changes their contact information often or doesn’t have a permanent location for their main business operations, it’s better to keep your investment money safely in your wallet.

One of the biggest franchise scams out there is known as a pyramid scheme, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). For these scams, the franchisor is more interested in selling franchises than marketing any type of product. The heart of the scam is to have those people who invested in the franchise try to recoup their investment fees by getting more people into the franchise game who pay more initial fees to the franchisor. No product is ever sold during this scam.

Yet not every bad franchise is a potential scam. Mismanagement, poor planning or an unsellable product are other factors of a bad franchise. The franchisor simply may not have the knowledge on how to properly train others in the workings of the product, or the training manual may be too difficult to understand.

6: Take those first steps into success.

Once you’ve found that franchise that feels right for you, dedicate your time and energy in making it succeed. Create a marketing strategy to promote your product to the most number of potential customers to reach your yearly goals. With time and dedication, you will make profits as you watch your venture grow.