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Biz and Marketing

How Can A Small Business Compete? Part 1

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If you’re a small biz owner struggling to make a profit, you know that competing with the big dogs is usually a no-win situation. Wal-Mart has an obvious advantage over your local ma and pop shops. The huge chain gets drastic discounts from vendors, can afford to sell for little to zero markup and makes their money based purely on volume.

This applies to online businesses as well. If you are selling any merchandise online you are going to have to contend with giants like Amazon and Ebay whether you like it or not.

Copy and Messaging

21 Ways to Create Engaging Web Content

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If you own a website or blog, you probably already know that the bulk of your visitors have the attention span of a gnat. Unfortunately that’s just the way it is. So if you are creating content, and you want them to stick around and read some of it, it’s got to be engaging. So here are 21 easy ways you can spruce up your content and make it more engaging and interesting to your readers.

Branding and Image

Building Your Personal Brand As A Freelancer

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As a freelancer you are the ‘Big Cheese’ when it comes to your business. You are ‘Head Honcho’ and your brand is YOU. So it’s important to keep that in mind when going into business for yourself.

* You are responsible for the world’s perception of you and your services.
* You are responsible for marketing yourself and creating a name for yourself.
* You are responsible for following-up on leads and responding to client inquiries.
* You are responsible for making your clients happy and delivering on time.

See the trend here? It’s all about you and what you have to offer as a business or service provider. How you position yourself will determine how successful you are.

One of the best ways I know of to position yourself properly is by setting up your own website with your own blog attached and utilizing social media to spread the word and send eyes to your web content.

When I first started as a ghostwriter I didn’t know anything about marketing or positioning. I set up a website with a few samples of work and rates and then posted in forums that I would write $6 dollar articles in exchange for testimonials.

Over time I learned that I had talent, was working like a horse for very little pay and getting burned out. So I raised my rates to $10 articles, and learned about marketing and positioning by reading a ton of books and following successful marketers like Chris Brogan and my good friend Jenn Dize.

Fast forward a few months and I had set up my own blog and started writing on a topic I am passionate about (copywriting). I began to brand myself as an expert in my field. As I went I gathered testimonials from some of the big names in Internet marketing and began upping my rates again.

Branding and Image

Selling Yourself…Legally!

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If you are running a small business, YOU are the business. Even if you’re actually selling a product, what you’re really selling is yourself and your service. So how do you sell yourself? Legally that is? 🙂

First of all, be accessible. Set up your business so that your clients can contact you, personally. Doesn’t have to be a phone number, but email access is great. Have a website, check (and respond to) e-mail, create a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Given the inherently impersonal nature of the Internet, it is even more important to give your clients legitimate ways to reach you since the likelihood is high that you will never meet face to face. Let your online persona match your business, but also let it match your real-life personality. Skype is also an excellent method of contact, and building out your LinkedIn profile increases your credibility as well.

Mindset and Inspiration

When You Need Some Inspiration

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Sometimes life is hard. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or work a J.O.B. life gets crazy. It’s hard and days are long and people can just suck. Business might be slow, money might be tight, friends might be distant. The thing to remember is that this is true for EVERYONE.

Not just you alone. You aren’t alone and your life isn’t the only hard life on the planet. You’re not the only one who has a bad day. And life WILL get better, it always does even if only for moments. But in case your having trouble remembering, I think this video is a great up-lifter. I welcome thoughts and comments below.

Off-Topic

Question Of The Day- Why?

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I’ve found that goal setting is so important to success in not just business but in all that you seek to do. Everyday you should be writing down or mentally setting new goals for yourself to better your life and your mind. Even if it is a small goal such as reading one new good book a week, or making one new healthy dinner a week, or writing just one new press release to promote your business each week.

But some people get bogged down with the question of WHY you should put forth so much effort, WHY you should do things like seek higher education, or start your own business… and the answer to that could be answered better than in the video below. It’s short, so just take two minutes and listen.

Biz and Marketing

Guest Post: Bootstrapping on Steroids- Build an Internet, Technology or Software Company for Zero Dollars Part 3

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This is the final piece in this 3 Part series, courtesy of Alex Genadinik. Here is Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to catch up.

Introducing: Guest blogger and fellow Tweep Alex. Alex has a background in software engineering and is currently focused on building semantic systems for the business world. He is the founder of Semantic Valley, a web 3.0 start-up specializing in creating taxonomy and ontology based products. Their alpha-stage demo of a semantic search of shoes can be seen at MilderWilder.com. Say hello on Twitter too! @genadinik

Are Some Things Impossible to Do for Free?

Legal Documents

At some point, a company needs patents, trademarks, copyrights, operating agreements and equity-vesting schedule documents. There are at least two options on how to get these for free.

You can barter. Some lawyers will work for equity, but this is my least favorite method because the documents listed above require an intellectual property lawyer, a general business lawyer, and likely along the way, you will need a few other types of lawyers. Typically, the fewer equity holders you have the better.

My favorite approach is to D.I.Y (Do It Yourself). Make sure you only create the documents you really need. A lawyer might write up a 50-page partnership agreement that will take tens of hours and cost tens of thousands of dollars, but it is much easier to work with partners you can trust and be able to write a simple document that covers the basics and allows you to move on and focus on running the actual business.

Office Space

There is some debate in the bootstrapping world about whether to have an office or not. I would say it is much better to not have an office. Don’t make your partners waste time, money and stress tolerance on commuting. Why not use those to work on the actual company?! And when there have to be meetings, just get creative and find what works.

Holding Meetings

Get used to online meetings using Skype video chat, and other remote conferencing software. It will help you avoid trekking down to the local Starbucks and more importantly, open you up to working and collaborating with people anywhere in the world.

Registering Domain Names

This is one area where you have to pay a little. A domain name costs about $10/year. I realize nearly all the good domain names are taken. My advice is that instead of going out and buying a $1,000 domain name, hold out on buying a domain name for your company until you have at least a somewhat clear marketing and branding strategy. Once do you do decide to look for a domain name, here are some good qualities of a name you should look for:

Copy and Messaging

Universal Laws of Good Copywriting Part 4

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Congratulations – you’ve made it to the final article in this series of copywriting rules. Here is Part 3 in case you missed it. By the time you’re done here, you should have an excellent idea of how to craft the best possible sales letter, using the most triggers possible.

Here’s a quick refresher of what we’ve gone through so far:

* Set out writing to one person.
* Use your prospect’s language.
* Use emotion.
* Time’s ticking, make sure you keep their attention.
* Make the copy visually compelling.
* Make it easy for people to buy.
* Use scarcity.

Let’s move on to the last 2 important rules.

Rule #8: Social proof can make or break you.

Use testimonials as often as you possibly can while creating sales material. If other people have used your product or service and liked it, ask them for a testimonial (just make sure the testimonial adheres to the new FTC guidelines).

Prospects feel a lot more trust when they know that other people have used the same product or service they’re thinking about buying. They believe that you (the seller) will obviously brag about yourself – but seeing neutral peoples’ opinions changes that.

If you don’t have testimonials, borrow as much social proof as you can. For example, if your product is about golf clubs, find a quote from Tiger Woods talking about how important the right golf club is. If you’re selling copywriting services, find a quote from a top marketer talking about the importance of the right kind of copy.

Rule #9: Have a clear call to action.

Biz and Marketing

Guest Post: Bootstrapping on Steroids- Build an Internet, Technology or Software Company for Zero Dollars Part 2

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This is the Part 2 of a 3 part series, courtesy of Alex Genadinik. Part 1 can be found here.

Introducing: Guest blogger and fellow Tweep Alex. Alex has a background in software engineering and is currently focused on building semantic systems for the business world. He is the founder of Semantic Valley, a web 3.0 start-up specializing in creating taxonomy and ontology based products. Their alpha-stage demo of a semantic search of shoes can be seen at MilderWilder.com. Say hello on Twitter too! @genadinik

Why Everyone Should Have Partners to Round Out the Team

Sometimes engineers who have become confident in the business world can pull off a start-up by themselves, but most people need partners. Business people always need engineers for the obvious reason that someone has to actually build the product. Engineers need business people and additional engineers because it is just too difficult for one person to write code, go to business meetings, network, deal with legal issues, do marketing, branding, social media, a slew of other tasks, while keeping a clear mind to maintain focus on their entrepreneurial vision.

The Perfect Skill Set of the Founding Team

Traditionally it has been thought that a perfect founding team consists of 2-4 people. The ideal mix should consist of one person who covers all things having to do with the business side, and the rest of the team members who have strong backgrounds in creating technology.

The engineers should ideally have different backgrounds within tech. One may be more of a back-end server engineer who would be in charge of architecture, while another could write business logic and focus more on the user-facing part of the application. As for the business person, she has to stand on her head doing all the non-tech tasks (legal issues, business docs, business networking, lead generation, light accounting, etc.) possible to allow the engineers to focus on building the core product.

Hunt for the Right Partners

Find A-players who buy into your idea and are willing to work crazy hours, side by side with you to grow the idea into a company. But how do you know whether people will deliver? People often say they will or can do various things, but often cannot or just do not. They may have the best intentions in mind, but few people can work in a highly-demanding and unstructured environment for a long time; especially without a regular salary.

My view is that everyone should be given a chance, and put into a position to succeed, even if it is a long shot. At the same time, to ensure you do not waste your time, let them prove themselves by assigning immediate tasks and see for yourself how they will perform. This will help you weed out bad partners.

Here are some specifics to look for:

*
o Responsiveness
o Professionalism
o Honesty
o Accountability
o Sharing of vision
o You respect them as people and professionals

If any of these qualities are not there, see it as a big red flag.

Appreciating Your Partners

Once you do find good partners, recognize that working for equity is much more difficult than for a regular salary, and appreciate their work. At the same time make sure they always have momentum-building, challenging but not overwhelming tasks.

Copy and Messaging

Universal Laws of Good Copywriting Part 3

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If you’ve been following along, you will see that we’re now on Part 3 in this “Copywriting Rules” series of articles.

Throughout these articles, we’ve gone through several important copywriting rules. To reiterate, these rules were:

* Set out writing to one person.
* Use your prospect’s language.
* Use emotion.
* Time’s ticking, make sure you keep their attention.
* Make the copy visually compelling.

Now we’re going to go through even more rules you should know about in making the best possible piece of sales copy.

Rule #6: Make it easy for people to buy.

Don’t give your readers a reason to say no. Remove as much risk as you possibly can. You can do this in a few ways, with the most obvious being a secure guarantee.

Many copywriters find that the more outrageous and secure the guarantee, the better the conversions. The ironic part, though, is that the longer the guarantee period, the less refunds a company usually gets.

This could be because most people put off putting things back until “later”, whereas they have a sense of urgency with a shorter guarantee period.

Whatever the reason, a strong guarantee makes it hard for your prospect to say no. If you tell them that if they don’t like your product they can get their money back, they have no reason to object. They have absolutely nothing to lose by trying your product out.

On the other hand, if they have to take on a lot of risk, they’re going to be more apprehensive about buying. In this Internet age, a lot of people are nervous about being scammed. If you haven’t yet done business with a prospect, they’re going to be wary – and rightfully so.

Don’t give them any reason to turn you away.

Rule #7: Use scarcity.

Like we mentioned earlier, people are quick to put things off until the elusive “later”. By using scarcity, you will force people into moving NOW.

You probably see this in action all the time. Department stores use sales to get people to buy by a certain time. Infomercials will give you an extra widget if you order “in the next 5 minutes!”. High-end automobile manufacturers only have “x” amount of limited editions for certain cars.

There are several ways in which you can implement scarcity. You can:

* Limit your product or service to “x” amount of people

* Only give special pricing to “x” amount of people

* Have a special deal/coupon for people who order by “x” date

All of these things are designed to make people move quickly, thinking that they’ll “lose out” if they don’t.

It’s important to remember that whatever scarcity tactic you choose to employ, that you make sure to honor and uphold that. Lying one time may get you sales the first time, but it can severely damage your ability to make more sales down the road.

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