October 2015 – Page 3 – Vertū Marketing

3 Big-Business Strategies to Grow Your Start-Up

October 15, 2015 by tylie eaves

Most business owners dedicate their hearts and time to carefully tending their small businesses in order to one day watch them bloom into something much greater and more meaningful. However, no matter how much hard work an entrepreneur puts into tending his or her newly sprouted start-up, it will not go anywhere unless the right techniques are used.

Strategies for growing a business from a seedling to a towering tree are not necessarily difficult, but they do need to be on target and related to reaching the overall end goal. Here are three strategies that most big businesses have mastered in order to maintain steady growth patterns:

1) Become a master of one trade, not a jack of all. A business is better served by creating and focusing on a few really excellent products rather than a myriad of mediocre ones. A business that is a leader in an industry or a specific product tends to be far more appealing to customers searching for products in that area.

2) Create your own space in the market. Appealing to a wide range of customers is a nice idea, but not always profitable. Understand exactly who your customers are and focus marketing and other efforts toward that demographic. Sure, there might be a few outlying customers, but knowing the target demographic will create a space where a business can thrive.

3) When in doubt, acquire. Other small businesses will no doubt try to stake their claim in industries in which other businesses are already successfully running. From time to time, some of those businesses will actually have a new perspective or better technology, which can sometimes be used as a boost rather than a threat. Acquiring other growing leaders in the industry can be expensive up front, but in the end, can help push a business even higher than before.

Just like a garden will struggle and ultimately fail to thrive in the absence of the right nutrients and care, a business cannot build and grow without the right business strategies. Some entrepreneurs are hasty to dismiss the strategies of big business, but these founding strategies enabled a myriad of successful companies to grow to where they are today.

What the Average Entrepreneur Knows That You Don’t

October 13, 2015 by tylie eaves

With a good idea and a solid Internet connection, virtually anyone in the world can start an online business at pretty much any time. This seems easy enough, but so few people seem to ever actually succeed at the goal of acquiring wealth through small business ventures.
So what is going on? In all likelihood, the inability to create and then grow wealth through entrepreneurial endeavors comes down to what successful entrepreneurs know, and what you don’t.

Wealth does not always come fast.

Sure, there are stories of successful entrepreneurs who hit the $1 million mark a year to the day after making the first sell, but these do not necessarily reflect what the average entrepreneur experiences. Most small businesses take time, dedication and a lot of tender loving care before they are fully operational ventures that net a solid profit.

Wealth takes hard work.

Forget the 40-hour work week and say hello to anywhere from 60 to 100 hundred hours. Late nights and early mornings dominate in the early days of a new business, but those days do not last forever. As business and profits grow, owners can eventually step back and spend their hours on other wealth-growing strategies.

Wealth does not come from a single income.

Just because business is doing good for the time being does not mean that it will continue on that same trajectory. Life happens, economies tank and technology makes certain services and products redundant. Diversifying income streams to include investments can keep wealth steady even as business takes a dip.

The wealthy have been slapped with a rather unfair stereotype of being privileged individuals who simply choose to lounge around, but what most people fail to see is the years of hard work and dedication that go on behind the scenes. The most financially successful and wealthy entrepreneurs understand the importance of putting in that behind-the-scene work in order to build up true and practical wealth.

How One Woman Turned Vlogging into an Empire

October 13, 2015 by tylie eaves

Blogging, as a tool for online business, certainly is not going anywhere any time soon, but for some go-getters, the platform is changing. Video blogging, more commonly known as vlogging, creates a space where vloggers and their subscribers can interact more directly. Beauty and makeup how-tos have taken off in recent years, but one vlogger stands out among the rest — Michelle Phan.

She started her beauty vlogs in 2007, in which she demonstrated how to apply makeup to achieve very specific looks, including some based on Disney characters. The outgoing and upbeat persona displayed during her tutorials shone through, and she became the first woman to achieve a billion unique views on the popular video hosting website, YouTube.

Phan did not stop there, and she soon turned her beauty vlog empire into a successful business venture with Ipsy. The California-based company provides subscription boxes to over one million customers in both the United States and Canada, and each month subscribers receive a Glam Bag stuffed with makeup items from brands that have partnered with Ipsy. Business is going so well that Phan plans to start expanding the subscription-based Glam Bag into Asia.

In addition to focusing on her own strengths and success, Phan is also creating opportunities for other entrepreneurs by creating a production studio. Named Open Studios, the studio will be equipped with various sets and cameras that artists and start-up hopefuls can use to launch their very own success stories.

After rising from a humble childhood to an empire worth millions, Phan certainly has not forgotten what it means to help others succeed.

Perfect Fall Activities That Can Lead to Finding Your Purpose

October 9, 2015 by tylie eaves

For much of the country, it is the perfect time to get outside and take a deep breath of that fresh, fall air. This simple act is especially important for online entrepreneurs who have been holed up inside all summer while working at their computers.

While getting outside and enjoying nature has plenty of health and emotional benefits, the following activities have an added bonus. If you are still in search of your purpose in life, put these at the top of your to-do list.

Strap on your helmet and take a ride on a mountain trail. There is something especially magical about riding underneath a great canopy of red and gold leaves. The weather is perfect, the scenery is beautiful and riding a bike means that your mind is free to wander instead of staring at a screen.

Lace up your boots and go for a hike. Okay, so not everyone has a mountain nearby or within driving distance, but you can still ride a bike or a take a nice long hike along a walking trail in a public park. Like bike riding, the act of getting outside and leaving your phone in your pocket can give your mind the freedom to roam.

Pop a tent! As, virtually, any entrepreneur or online startup founder will tell you, technology is fantastic. Smart phones certainly are phenomenal pieces of technology that have made life easier in any number of ways, but, sometimes, finding your purpose takes more of a back-to-nature approach. So load up the car, pack the tent and bring plenty of water and instant coffee. Camping is a great way to spend two or three days enjoying nature and thinking about the important things in life.

These outdoor fall activities are all helpful for finding your purpose for the same reason — they eliminate the background noise of life. All too often, we get caught up in the emails and the phone calls and the work obligations, which leave no time for inner contemplation or care. Fall is the perfect time to take advantage of all that nature can offer, including creating the perfect environment for finding your purpose.

Build Your Small Business Brand in 4 Simple Steps

October 8, 2015 by tylie eaves

Before customers ever connect with a product or service, they first make a connection with a brand. There is usually little doubt that branding is necessary, but a significant number of small business owners and entrepreneurs still struggle with the creation and implementation of their brands.

So, if the success of a business relies so heavily on brand, why is it such a difficult concept? Branding is essentially an aspect of successful marketing that helps consumers understand a company’s identity — something that business owners tend to believe their products do on their own.

Follow these five steps to get your wayward brand back on track:

1.Give your brand a personality. As people, we all tend to connect better to other human beings than to computers or electronic devices. A flat, colorless brand will lead potential customers to one conclusion — that the product is flat and lifeless too.

2.Make sure this personality includes trust. Remember your friend who made promises to meet up for coffee or to see a movie, only to call minutes before the prearranged meeting time with some sort of excuse? Do not let your brand be this friend. Follow through on promises and create a relationship between your brand and your customers that is built on trust.

3.Yes, your brand can be original. Being influenced by “the greats” is something to which almost every great rock band admits, but that does not mean they completely mimicked their influencers. Learn tips and tricks from big and popular brands, but avoid copying.

4.Your logo is not the most important part of your brand. Instead of applying a logo to pretty much anything and sending it out on the Internet, consider foregoing the logo in certain instances. It is a new generation, and consumers enjoy discovering what brand is behind certain posts for themselves, and, soon enough, the brand will be able to speak for itself.

5.No matter the situation, bring it back to your brand. Everyone involved with or employed at a business should be well-versed in exactly what the brand represents. Whether a sales rep is pitching a product or a customer service representative is addressing an upset or dissatisfied customer, bring it back to the brand. If customers have a different experience than the brand indicates they should have, no amount of promotions can erase that experience.

In the early days of a startup there is usually little wiggle room in the budget to bring in outside marketers or advertising professionals. Therefore, entrepreneurs take on the tasks themselves. Branding is so much more than creating a logo and posting a few tweets; it is a personal experience that consumers should be able to experience, feel and touch. Is your brand accomplishing this?

The Three Primary Success Factors

October 8, 2015 by tylie eaves

So many people want to know “what’s the secret to success?” I get that question all the time — and I LOVE when people ask. Because, when someone asks that question, it’s usually a sign that they ALREADY HAVE at least one of the three primary success factors. Once I learned what those three factors are, it changed everything for me. And I think there’s a good chance it might change everything for you too!

Do you have the three primary success characteristics?

If not, the good news is that you CAN have them. Don’t give up on yourself. Don’t let your circumstances tell you where you have to go. You were born for greatness – it’s time to own it. <3

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Success?

October 7, 2015 by tylie eaves

In certain situations, there is great value in the process of carefully evaluating and considering certain choices. For instance, is it really worth it to shell out the money for a plane ticket, hotel room and travel expenses to attend the wedding of an acquaintance you only briefly knew in college? Most likely not; although, if the wedding is going to be held in a city or at a location that you have dreamed of visiting, there might be some pros and cons to weigh.

This same process is often applied to the world of startup businesses, but is it smart?

If you look at the success of certain serial entrepreneurs, not really. The online business world is in constant flux, so taking the time to overthink various options can put business owners behind the competition and, ultimately, out of the game.

So what kind of decision making skills separate the best entrepreneurs from the rest of the pack? The answer to this question is simple: it’s their ability to make decisions and then move forward with them. If they work, that is fantastic! If not, they learn from the mistakes, make other decisions and go forward with them.

Some startup founders are indecisive and, in the face of problems that require quick action, take too much time and overthink every option, which can result in failure.

So, what is the most important takeaway from entrepreneurs who understand the importance of quick decision making? Being nervous is okay, but refusing to take action is not.

Affiliate Sales Is a Business, so Start Treating It Like One

October 6, 2015 by tylie eaves

Sure, business plans are great for real entrepreneurs and business owners, but they are useless for affiliate markets, right?

Oh my goodness, wrong!

In order to succeed at any online business venture, a clearly defined path to success is crucial to thriving among the other affiliate marketers who are often gunning for the same products or programs.

Not sure what goes in your affiliate sales business plan? Make sure it includes the following:

What need your business fills and how your services will accomplish that
Who your customers are
What the financial needs of your business are and how you will fill them

These are essentially the bare bones of any business plan, but it is necessary to fine tune and gear them toward your specific area of business. As an affiliate marketer, you will ultimately be serving as a marketer for certain products, and that means you need to be intimately familiar with what you are marketing. So let’s add something else to the business plan.

How you will research and study the products you market

Now that we understand what services to provide, who the target customers are, what financial resources are available and what is necessary to understand the products that we market, did we miss anything?

Yes. A very important part of the equation still must be determined.

Remember those target customers? We need to reach them. Most affiliate sales marketers find great success through blogging, which can be a lucrative business prospect in and of itself but can also serve as the foundation for an affiliate sales business. Blogs that support affiliate sales need to be interesting, engaging and need to fulfill a need of their own. Consider them the free samples that will keep readers (and consumers) coming back time and time again. Moving forward, there is still one more item to add to any successful affiliate business plan:

What platform the business will use

No matter how others might try to slant the world of affiliate sales, the truly successful people in this business understand that it is a business and that it takes all of the dedication and hard work that any other online venture takes.