Are you investing in your business?

I’m not just talking about time. Of course you’re investing time, right? If you’re not, then you’re likely not very successful.

But what about money? Are you investing money into your business?

Over the past decade, I’ve worked with hundreds of small and medium-size business owners. Some have been startups with funding while others have had large marketing and PR budgets.

But I’m not talking about those businesses. I’m talking about small business owners. I’m talking about corporate trainers, business and marketing coaches, personal development experts and other service providers. I’m talking about clients whose businesses are generating less than $150,000 per year. In other words - small businesses. [ continue reading & share your thoughts → ]

If you run a business you’ve got to realize one thing…no one cares about what you do.

Really. Your audience doesn’t care about you, your story, how you got to where you are, who you’ve worked with, or what services you offer. They don’t care that you’re the best widget maker in the midwest. And they could care less if you’ve got some new perspective on their health crisis. They’re simply not going to hear that.

So why do the great majority of businesses still market themselves as though people care? It’s not very effective. It reaches only a small audience. And it’s a huge waste of time, energy and money.

So what do people care about then?

[ continue reading & share your thoughts → ]

What does it take to be remarkable?

According to Seth Godin the path to being remarkable is paved by stones of curiosity.

I’d have to agree. If you’re not curious about things, about processes, about life - and about your business, you have little hope of growth; of change. Yet success in business (and in life) happens through growth - which is built on change.

This is why I say a business is never finished. Rather, a business is always a work in progress. How else could it be? No successful business, regardless of how much planning, ever stays the same. [ continue reading & share your thoughts → ]

So what does Seth Godin mean when he says that being good enough is not enough?

He means that if you’re average, your business will be average too. And an average business will usually do one of two things - succeed at a very moderate rate or fail.

Why? Because people don’t want average. When’s the last time you said, “I bought my car because it was average?” Or, “My spouse was pretty average, that’s what I was drawn too?”

We don’t want average. We want excellent. We want great. We want stupendous. We want remarkable. Remarkable in every sense of the word. But more than anything else, as consumers, we want to buy things or participate in experiences that we can share; that we can remark about. [ continue reading & share your thoughts → ]

In truth, having a web-based business isn’t difficult.

What’s difficult is getting really clear about who you are, what you do and who you do it for. The problem is, there are tons of approaches for doing this which sometimes leads to confusion. Do I need to write a business plan? What about vision? Etc. The questions are many, but the answer are endless.

Of course, once you’ve answered the questions about your business, you have to ask a whole other series of questions around marketing. What system? What mediums? How best to reach our target audience? Etc. This can lead to even greater confusion, frustration and waste of time and money than the business development quesitons.

This whole process can be really big. That’s why I’m always looking for ways to simplify it. Because, really, developing and growing a business isn’t as hard as we make it. Basically, we need to create a compelling service - one that solves a problem that people need solved. Then, we put our service in front of the people who have the problem. That’s really it.

So it’s really very simple - especially with the internet.

That’s why I was excited when I found Matt Cutts‘ 3-step process to building up a really good site (read: business). Take a watch:

Matt Cutt’s 3-Step Process

1. Create a compelling service - spend the time to create something people can love.
2. Start a blog - get links and engage in conversation.
3. Smart marketing - SEO and have something interesting to say.

Pretty simple, right?

So if I was taking Matt’s 3 steps and putting them in my language, I’d say:

1. Create a service, you love, that solves a problem that needs solving. What are you good at? What do you love? What is the need? Bring these three questions together and you’re on your way.
2. Start a blog - and learn how to use it. First write, and write often. Join in the conversation on other blogs immediately. Learn about linking and link often. And really learn how to use one of the social networking sites. You can get to the others later.
3. Get the word out and be authentic - Matt says if you use WordPress, much of your SEO is handled for you already. I’d say 80%. The other 20% is in the details. So worry less about SEO in the beginning and more about the quality of your content. And have something interesting to say - but say it in your way. Be a real person because it’s people that people want to do business with.

So if it’s this easy, why don’t more of us do it? What gets in the way? And why do we make it so difficult?

What do you think?

(note: image, Joe Walking Up The Steps from hip.kids on Flickr)

Want to know one of the biggest secrets to social marketing? It’s really quite simple…

People share things they find enjoyable, helpful or interesting with people they know. In other words, people pass it on. That’s what social marketing is about - passing it on.

But sometimes we forget. We’re rushed or tired or just ‘messing around’ on the web and we may not think to always share things we find with people that might like or benefit from them.

So why not remind them? And when you remind them, make it easy.

Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, and one of my favorite marketers, suggests just that. In is book he suggests:

Someone is on your website, looking at something that you are selling - and they feel the urge to tell someone else. Make it easy. That person is about to advertise for you, for free. Or they need to ask someone a questions before they buy, Or they just like what they see. Do whatever it takes to let the word of mouth happen.

I couldn’t agree more. Make it easy for people to share what they find on your site, on your blog and in your products and services sections. Really, everywhere. You never know where people will be on your site that will inspire them to share with a friend. So make it easy.

On page 124 of Andy’s book, he offers the secrets to creating effective tell-a-friend forms:

• Make it fast.
  Design a form that can be filled out in less than 15 seconds. Get rid of optional fields, passwords, or anything that gets in the way of the referral.
• Ask for several referrals.
  Be sure to explicitly ask users to forward the message to multiple friends. The more you ask, the more you get. Design the form so it is easy to add lots of names without confusion.
• Use the sender’s name.
  When you deliver the message, make sure it is from the referrer, not your website. The recipient isn’t expecting mail from you and might delete it. He will open a message from his friend.
• Include a personal message.
  Let the sender add text to the message. The referral is far more powerful when the talker gets to put it in his own words.
• Make it forwardable.
  Take a look at the message that recipients get. Is that message a ready-to-go viral email, or is it some cryptic link?
• Protect privacy.
  And brag about it. Be clear and explicit that you respect the privacy of the senders and recipients using the form and that you won’t use their emails for any other purpose (and stick to what you promise). Usage will skyrocket when you do this.

Just to drive the point home a little more, here’s a short video I found of Andy talking about how tell-a-friend is worth 1.6 billion dollars.

How do you ask people to pass it on? Oh yeah, and by the way, please feel free to share this blog with anyone you’d like.

(note: image from Duncan Davidson on Flickr)

Over the weekend we spent some time Christmas (oops) Holiday shopping. Of course, the mall was packed and the stores were full of people making decision on what to buy the people they care about.

Being so cramped with other people, I couldn’t help but here the conversations they were having about gift their gift selections.

“I think we should get this sweater for mom.” “Don’t you think Jas would love this truck?” “How much should we spend on Aunt Jennie?”

Everywhere I turned I heard questions like this. And while they may seem perfectly normal and benign, I got to thinking…

Aren’t these people marketing themselves?

Sure, none of them were actively promoting their business or selling their products to each other. On the contrary, they were trying to sell other companies products to each other.

But what they were doing is promoting their opinions; selling their ideas. Isn’t that marketing? And isn’t that what each small business owner is trying to do - market their ideas of how to solve your problems?

What do you think? Are you convinced?

image Are You Convinced by yueproduction on flickr