Avoiding a Financial Crisis: How to Keep Your Small Business Alive

Having a superb product, soaring sales and stupendous customer service are undoubtedly some of the things which go into making a successful business.

But all of this is irrelevant if you suffer a financial crisis.

How to Start a Business in 10 Days

A hyper-intense, super-condensed guide to launching a new profitable business.

An important step is to make your business as simple as you can. Keep it simple and scale it up.

10 Tips For Any Business Online Or Off

10 Simple tips to help you build your business.

Tip 1: Use Social Media
Promote your business with the help of social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
Let other like-minded people know exactly what services you offer or what you sell, and you’ll be amazed at the response you get. Best of all – it’s free!

Tip 2: Use Good Keywords
Subliminal messages have been used for generations, and they’re more common than you probably realise. Using specific words when having a conversation with a prospective customer can put an idea in their head without them being aware of it.
A sentence such as “By the time the next model comes out you’ll wish you’d bought this one” the word ‘by’ has been changed to the word ‘buy’ in their minds. It’s a simple tactic, but an effective one.

Tip 3: Emphasize What your Product / Service Offers
If your product or service specializes in a particular area, then make sure you emphasize it.
If you offer a 3-room special on carpet cleaning, or upstairs windows cleaned for free if the downstairs ones are paid for, let people know.
It’s a great selling point and one you shouldn’t be shy about pointing out.

Tip 4: Be Resilient and Determined
If things don’t seem to be progressing as quick as you’d like don’t lose heart or give up at the first hurdle. It can take a few tries before everything falls into place, but when it does you’ll be glad you persevered and were resilient.

Tip 5: Take Responsibility
If you take responsibility for your business then you can take the credit when it’s a success. Don’t be afraid to admit when you’ve made a mistake, but learn from it, move on and do better.

Tip 6: Give Back to the Community
Many new businesses have the help of others to get started. And very often once a business is established that help is forgotten about.
Make it a policy to give something back to the people who have helped you, and they’ll be loyal customers for years.

Tip 7: Value your Time
Know how important your time is, and don’t waste it. Even if you work from home have self-discipline and make sure you start and finish work at a set time.

Tip 8: Be Prepared to Get your Hands Dirty
Don’t ask anyone to do what you yourself wouldn’t. It’s your business so you should be prepared to get your hands dirty in making sure it’s a success.

Tip 9: Cross-Sell your Product
Don’t just assume that your customer wants just the one thing he or she ordered. Maybe they simply haven’t thought about buying a pair of slippers to go with the pajamas they just bought as a gift for someone.

Tip 10: Use Eye-Catching Headlines
Make sure any news letters, emails or advertizing posters etc have eye-catching headlines.

You want to draw prospective customer’s attention from the very first words and make them want to carry on reading all about your business.

How to Not Waste Money on Marketing

If you own your own business, you're probably inundated with advertising and marketing opportunities and salespeople.

Maybe you've even been hit up by the premium company trying to get you to buy pens with your company name on them.

So how do you know what to spend your marketing dollars on, and what to pass on?

Three Mistakes to Avoid When Advertising Your Services

Service providers are all over the Internet these days. You can find them on forums, advertising on Craigslist, using job boards like ProBlogger or on freelancing sites like E-Lance.

There are lots of ways that you can advertise your services but one thing you want to keep in mind is that it’s easy to make mistakes if you haven’t ever advertise before.

Keep Motivated With Some Simple Tips...

Let's get motivated.....

So, here are a few tips for you:

1. If you don't wake up motivated, you have to do a serious gut check on what's wrong. Don't let that become your new normal.

2. When you're first learning how to read people, be careful of trusting your gut too much. Your gut has to be trained. Just like a muscle.

3. People think time is the enemy, but remember time can also be an ally. For example, time reveals the truth about who your true friends are.

4. So many people talk about going to heaven. That's fine. But what about creating heaven on earth in your life?

5. With each decision you have to make in life ask yourself this question, "Will this bring me closer to heaven or hell on earth?"

 

Stop Using Excuses And Do Something

Stop Using Excuses And Do Something

or Please Don't End Up Like Dave.

If you ever have the misfortune to meet my neighbour Dave, then try not to engage in conversation about pretty much anything regarding work.

Dave is a British male, 50 years of age and has a trade as painter & decorator.
He has been out of work for around 6 months now and has recently had to sign on the dole.
I bumped into him the other day and wished I hadn't.

I enquired if he had got any work lately. "No..what's the point?. It's all seasonal round here. There is nothing for me. no painting work. Nothing"

I continued "Have you thought about doing something else? You never know, that may well lead to a painting job" "Nope, i made a mistake moving here. There is nothing" I was starting to get irritated.

I trained as telecoms engineer and did that for around 20 years, 6 years for BT and then 14 as a self employed tech. The market started to change in the late 2000s and i realised I needed to do something else. Plus the fact I had got a bit fed up with the work as the technology with broadband and customers demands had become more needy, I wanted something else.

I became a cleaner for a couple of years, did some retail work and then found that I enjoyed working as a support worker for people with special needs. A job I still do and enjoy part time now and have been doing for the last 4 years.

I continued with Dave. "What about working in care? There are loads of positions around here for support workers and it's great fun too helping other folk" Before I could actually finish thats sentence he interrupted "I ain't doing that...no way..money is rubbish" "I tried to get a job at the supermarket and Argos...but they never got back to me....so that is that"

"What about doing gardening for people?"   "Nope, not doing that"  "You like walking your dog....why not walk other peoples dogs?"  "Nope, not doing that..too much responsibility"  "What about retraining? The Job Centre can help with courses"  "Nope..no point..I am 50!"

I could not believe what I was hearing. Here was a bloke who had clearly decided that his working life was over.
"Problem with here is, way too many foreigners taking all the jobs. And the wealthy, they look after their own..they give nothing back to people like me. That's why there is no work around!"

I just stood looking at this idiot. Trying not to rise to an argument.
The world owes Dave a living...and the only place where that statement lives and flourishes...is in Dave's head.

He is certainly right when he says that he is on the scrapheap. He is. He owns that scrapheap. He has a huge house that he has built on it.
It's built with all of the negative tools and thoughts that he has decided are fact and he has built a deep and miserable foundation that the house sits on.

Unfortunately for Dave though he is 100% wrong.

He is his own problem. He has decided he can't or won't do anything else. However it is not his call. He wants benefits. But guess what? He won't get them. He hasn't reckoned on the fact that the whole benefit system has changed.
He will have to attend meetings, interviews with the benefit office, attend courses, go to organised interviews and essentially toe the line if he is to get anything at all.

He is an angry and miserable SOB. Blaming everyone and everything for his own failings and refusing to see that he is surrounded, like we all are, by opportunity.  

You need to take opportunities and see what else you can do in your current job or indeed if you have an idea or want to change direction.
There is a huge range of things you can do, you just need to look and get active in finding new things.

And if you are out for a walk and meet Dave....just keep on walking.

Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them

Unfortunately very few start up businesses make it beyond their 3rd year.

Failure is usually down to a number of clearly identifiable mistakes, which if small business owners are aware of, can increase their chances of survival.

Here are the top 10 common mistakes which small businesses tend to make.