Why Your Business Needs To Be On Instagram

October 21, 2015 by tylie eaves

Instagram for business – the reason it works.

The rise of social media has impacted every area of life, from the dating world to the business world. As Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms continue to evolve and new platforms come into popularity, it is wise to determine how these outlets can be beneficial to the average small business. Instagram is one of the most accessible, simple-to-use, yet overlooked, social media outlets.

As most businesses do engage with customers through Facebook or Twitter, many more are now unlocking the potential of photo and video sharing on Instagram. Since customers now demand instant access to information, an effective social medial strategy is now essential to the success of any small business. As part of this strategy, implementing Instagram for business allows brands to connect with followers and potential customers in a simple, yet personal, way.

Instagram for business is one of the fastest growing marketing methods online!

Pictures and videos are an easy way to share new products, offer behind-the-scenes looks at the operation of the business and pass along pertinent information. The video sharing capability is a particularly powerful tool for businesses available through Instagram. As of 2015, there is more user-brand interaction through Instagram than on any other social media network, including Facebook.

A smart social media strategy will use Instagram to increase brand awareness and remain actively engaged with a customer base. Using social media the right way will translate directly into increased growth and a loyal following.

Is your business on Instagram? If it is, find out how you can become even more engaged with your followers through this and other social media. If your business is not on the photo and video sharing network, allow us to explain how incorporating this into your social media marketing strategy is a smart decision. You have a free marketing tool on your hands–let us help you use it strategically.

How to Create Business Wealth Without Investing

October 21, 2015 by tylie eaves

There is little doubt that investments are one of the most effective options for not only creating but also sustaining consistent growth, but their benefits are typically not felt in the short term. Outside of investing additional money in such things as stocks and rental properties, business owners can also make changes in their day-to-day operations that can net a higher profit.

Create Packages

Do you have one product that pairs great with another? Consider packaging the two together and offering the combination at a slightly lower price. For customers who are hesitant to shell out two different prices for two different items, creating a bundle with a slight discount creates incentive to buy more than they would have otherwise.

Offer Incentives

Rebates and discounts on future purchases can lead customers back to your business the next time that they need a product. Rebates do not have to be huge and can account for anywhere between 2-3 percent of the original cost, but “money back” is an almost sure-fire way to give your product an extra appeal.

Eliminate Redundancies

Are the responsibilities of two departments overlapping? Do you have a high employee turnover? Both of these issues can put financial strain on companies and create ineffective and unproductive work environments, further throwing money down the drain. Consolidate departments, provide employees with a reason to stay and watch your net profit grow.

None of this is to say that business owners should not continue to invest profits in order to accumulate wealth, but there is value in understanding that multiple roads can still lead to the same destination. While these moves can provide mostly short-term wealth satisfaction, paired with investments, they arean important aspect of overall wealth growth.

Confused by Business Lingo? Brush up on These 5 Key Business Terms

October 19, 2015 by tylie eaves

Starting an online business certainly does not have to be complicated, but when encountering certain terms, first-time entrepreneurs may believe otherwise. Everything from writing the business plan to effectively networking can be a herculean task without the right information.

Set aside some time to review these 5 important business terms, then consider what impact they might have on your future business.

Niche – A niche is a particular and clearly defined part of a larger market. Instead of just selling bicycles, a niche market would focus on road bikes for commuters.
Profit and Loss Statement – This document sums up money in and money out for either the fiscal year or the quarter. Speaking of the fiscal year…
Fiscal year – Unlike the calendar year, the fiscal year does not have to start on Jan. 1. In business, the fiscal year is the period of time for which the annual budget is calculated.
Bylaw – These are the guidelines to which a company will adhere during all business operations and should be contained within a single document.
Business structure – The vast majority of online entrepreneurs choose to structure their businesses as limited liability companies (LLCs) or as sole proprietorships. An LLC is an entity separate from its owner, whereas a sole proprietorship views the business and owner as only one entity.

These are by no means the only new terms you will be encountering on your journey through entrepreneurial success, but for those approaching their very first startup, they are an excellent place to begin.

Do You Have the Visits but Not the Clicks? 3 Quick and Easy Affiliate Sales Tips

October 19, 2015 by tylie eaves

How’s the traffic on your website? Good? That’s great! Now how about those clicks?

Steady traffic without the corresponding affiliate link clicks is pretty useless, and your first instinct might be to find a way to bring in even more traffic to your site. Instead of exerting time and effort toward attracting new visitors, focus on the ones you already have; because, honestly, there is a reason those affiliate links are not used. Not sure why? Let’s go down the checklist:

Are you trustworthy? Just because your neighbors asked you to feed their cat for the weekend does not mean that visitors to your website or blog have the same level of trust. Before bringing in the affiliate links, focus on creating a bond with your visitors. Consistent and valuable content is one of the top ways to create a sense of trust that consumers will come to rely on.

Are you honest? Not every product is a perfect 10, and, yes, your visitors know this. There is no need to write reviews that are inconsistent with your personal experience, but be sure to still focus on the positive aspects even while sharing some of the cons. Most people who click on affiliate links do so because of the reviewer’s perceived benefits and honest opinion.

Are you utilizing email? Email lists are a fantastic way to remind your site’s visitors of what you have to offer. You can use email lists to remind readers of useful past articles or to create excitement by using strategic calls to action. Better yet, creating an email list allows you to keep the conversation going with visitors long after they have moved off of your site.

Similar to many other businesses, affiliate marketers need to spend time establishing a relationship with their customers. Instead of heading out in search of new viewers for your website, make sure that you are first taking care of the ones that you already have.

Philosophy’s Role in Your Purpose

October 16, 2015 by tylie eaves

Who are you?

This is an understandably difficult question to answer, and it is one that even philosophers still toil over. Is a person a collection of cells, an assortment of memories stored in the brain or much, much more?

The truth is that each person will have to define that for him or herself, but most philosophers do tend to agree on one thing:

To know your purpose, you must first know yourself.

This might seem easier said than done, but we can break down part of discovering who you are into components. For instance:

Your passion
Your desire
Your strengths

At the intersection of these components is you, and within you, your purpose. Admittedly, most people have more than one passion and desire, which is what so often leads people to question what their purpose in life is meant to be. A closer look usually reveals that multiple passions and desires do not necessarily have to conflict with one another. A passion for art and nature can coincide with the desire to accumulate wealth or start a business.

Where people tend to stray is when they head toward only one passion or goal rather than digging deep for a purpose that will accommodate every aspect of themselves. For those who are still struggling with their purpose and, indeed, with themselves, take a moment to consider if you are respecting all aspects of your desires, passions and strengths, or if you have left important aspects of yourself out.

Maximize Your Affiliate Sales by Minimizing Your Specialty

October 16, 2015 by tylie eaves

A hallmark mistake that many new affiliate marketers stumble into is spreading themselves far too thin. They sign up for every program possible and hock products with which they are unfamiliar in unorganized and difficult-to-read blog posts, most of which turn customers away rather than draw their attention.
Starting out in the world of affiliate sales is, admittedly, an exciting prospect, but that excitement too often translates in a lack of focus or direction. Even if you have already set out on your journey as an affiliate marketer, you can still implement the following to get your earnings back on track.

Get Focused

Try starting off with one or two products or companies with which you are already familiar and that you actually enjoy. Familiarity with a product is essential to creating content that compels customers to click on affiliate links, and if you have too many products with which you are working, that sense of familiarity goes straight down the toilet. Create time solely dedicated to getting to know these products.

Quality not Quantity

This applies to friends, technology and affiliate sales, and it is something that you will need to remember. This concept ties in with remaining focused, as you can churn out 10, 20 or even 30 pieces of content and never garner a single click; however, one solid piece of content can become something with which your competitors simply cannot compete. Create guides, how-tos and even do-it-yourself articles that tie in with an affiliate product. The more helpful and useful customers find your content, the more worthwhile they will find following the affiliate link.

The break down is this: affiliate marketing should create real sales and repeat customers, so high-quality content is without a doubt one of the most important foundations for affiliate marketers to create. Once you establish yourself as a trusted provider of quality content, you can consider slowly expanding to other products, but when starting as a newbie, keep your material and your content as focused as possible.

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.