According to a recent study of online advertising by Nielsen/NetRatings and WebVisible, search engines such as Google and Yahoo are the #1 resource used by consumers looking for products and services from local businesses. This presents a tremendous opportunity for local businesses to use the Web to promote their business.
The survey goes on to demonstrate that consumers are switching from traditional types of advertising such as yellow pages, newspapers and television. In fact, 73% said they would rather use a search engine to find a business than to have marketing materials sent to them, like direct mail. The survey suggests that consumers are feeling inundated by advertising, and perhaps are using search engines as a means to avoid other types of advertising and zero in on the specific type of business that they are seeking. Overall, 86% of consumers have used a search engine to find a local business, claims the survey.
WebVisible is giving away the survey findings in a free report that you can download here on GetEntrepreneurial.com. Click the following link to download your free report:
About Webvisible:
WebVisible is a global leader in local online advertising for small businesses. Our business philosophy is local business owners are too busy minding their stores to successfully navigate the complexities of creating and managing their own online advertising, whether pay-per-click, banner ads, call-based products, or ROI measurement tools. WebVisible solves this problem by offering turn-key, fully managed local interactive advertising solutions with predictable pricing and guaranteed results. By employing a world-class software platform and creative services, we provide the local business owner with the value of a focused team and the experience of over 50,000 small business marketing campaigns. WebVisible can be reached at 877-932-8476 or www.webvisible.com.
Month: July 2008
Most entrepreneurs and executives really want to become a published author, but few have the time or resources to write their book. Writing a book is a big commitment, and many aspiring authors just can’t seem to get started. If you fall into that category, you may decide that you need a ghostwriter or a writing coach. On the other hand, you may just need a gentle nudge to get started.
If you’d like to make this year the year you finally write your book, these 10 tips to getting your book done can help:
1. Make the Commitment – In order to write a book, you really have to decide to do it. Make the commitment to begin. Write it down as a goal with a deadline. Be intentional and take action!
2. Write One Hour a Day – Every day, make time to write – even if it’s only an hour a day. Get up a little earlier to establish a set time daily. Carve out an hour and do nothing but write!
3. Blog Your Book – If you want to chunk down your writing and make it less intimidating, try “blogging” your book. Start a blog and post your entries every day or so. Before you know it, your blog content will grow into the chapters of your book!
4. Write What You Know – Make book-writing much easier on yourself by writing what you know. Use your background, expertise and experience to create the content of your book. When you go with what you know, the writing will just flow!
5. Repurpose Existing Content – If you’ve created a seminar, speech, article or e-book, then you’ve already got some content for your book. Be sure to review your existing materials – from blog posts to e-courses – and recycle what you can.
6. Write Fast, Edit Later – Set a timer for 30-minutes and just write. Don’t put too much thought into it, just get the words down. It’s a lot easier to re-write than it is to write, so write first and edit later.
7. Develop Your Structure – Don’t jump blindly into writing without an outline or chapter structure. You may change it on the fly, but working without an outline is like working without a safety net!
8. Break Through Writer’s Block – There are many tricks for overcoming writer’s block, but most of it comes down to discipline and determination. If you’re stuck, take a break; do something different; then come back at it with a vengeance!
9. Use Writer’s Groups – Joining a writer’s group gives you accountability partners and support. Take advantage of the power of groups, whether it’s an online group or an in-person group.
10. Get Some Help – If all else fails, enlist the support of a writing coach, a collaborator or even a ghostwriter. You may want to explore the possibility of working with a co-author to split the work and make the journey more enjoyable.
Whatever tactics you choose, make this year the year you finally write that book!
Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.
This article contributed by Michelle Ulrich.
Why should you think about your niche, your ideal client and your message? If you don’t and your competitor does, guess who will get the client or close a sale? Your competitor will. These three areas will set you apart, create your unique selling proposition, and differentiate you from your competition.
As you work your way through each of these steps, you will begin to unfold the reasons why someone would want to do business with you versus your competitor.
Before we begin exploring your niche, let’s discover your passions. Your passions will tell you more about yourself and what to focus on in your business than you thought possible. Write down your current passions, things that you love to do, things that you could spend all day on if you had the time and no one interrupted you. Next, write down passions you used to feel that way about. Finally, write down things you think you would love to learn, things that you think would absolutely love to do someday. Don’t cheat yourself by writing things down you think others want you to do or explore. This is for you and you alone!
Grab a piece of paper, make three columns with the headings: 1) Current passions, 2) Past passions, and 3) Future passions (to explore). Write down as many things that come into your mind. Try not to let your mind tell you that you can’t write something down—write whatever comes to your mind. Don’t let negative self-talk enter your mind and keep you from writing something down. It could be the best stuff that comes out of your brain!
Now, look at all of your passions and see if there are any items that might correlate, like a child’s matching game. Draw a line connecting the items you think you’d like to match up even if you think there is no way they could realistically work together. Sit with this, sleep on it and then ask yourself if there are any possibilities, creative ways to match up these passions into your business. If you still don’t see it, ask others what they think. Be careful to ask others who are non-judgmental, and impartial. Seek out a SCORE counselor at www.score.org and ask the counselor what they think. Asking family and friends may work if they know you and are open-minded. Sometimes, those closest to us can be the most closed-minded. You may even ask a child, a high school student, or college counselor what they think.
Once you’ve determined your passions, you can layer on your skills to add a new dimension. Let’s try this example:
Michelle’s current passion is speaking on Virtual Assistance, her past passion was writing poetry and a future passion she would like to explore is traveling. She could match these up and combine them by speaking on Virtual Assistance as she travels throughout the country. In addition, she could write poems or do creative writing in her speeches, her Virtual Assistant practice, or as a ghost writer for her clients.
Identify Your Niche Specialty
Your niche could be the type of work you perform or the industry in which you would like to work. So, don’t get caught up on an industry type. You can confidently say to those who say you ‘should’ have a niche, “Yes, I work in [type of work] or [industry] as my niche.”
1. Identify your niche (type of work), then narrow it down further to specific areas of concentration
a. Academia – theses, term papers, reports, research…
b. Event Planning – small, medium, large
i. Corporate, small business, individual
ii. Themes, holiday, other
c. Ezines
d. Graphic design/Desktop publishing – advanced, intermediate, simple
e. Real estate – transaction coordination, marketing, listings…
f. Shopping carts
g. Transcription – general, court, medical – dental, surgery…
i. Digital, video, DVD…
h. Travel – research, bookings – air, car, cruises, hotel, destination
i. Web design – advanced, intermediate, simple
Write down your top three specialties.
Identify Your Niche Industry
2. Identify your niche industry then narrow it down further to specific areas of concentration.
a. Animals – veterinarian clinics, breeders, pet sitters, dog groomers…
b. Authors – fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, cookbooks…
c. Coaches – business, corporate, life, relationship, financial, parent, holistic…
d. Environment – entrepreneurs, builders, solar professionals…
e. Food – caterers, bakeries, dessert diners, and mom-n-pop deli’s…
f. Real estate – luxury homes, commercial, residential, horse property…
Write down your top three industries in which you’d like to work.
Your Ideal Client
3. Identify your ideal client. Get as specific as if you were describing your best friend, or the neighbor next door.
a. Gender – female
b. Age – 30-60 years of age
c. Values – easy going, passionate, excited about their business, fun, want to be connected and is aware of what is going on in their industry, and wants to stay on the cutting edge as they grow their business.
d. Profession (s) – authors, coaches, speakers
e. Financial – financially fit and make an excess of $50,000 per year
f. Health – fit and work at it every day
g. Spiritual – doesn’t matter as long as they respect my different points of view
Describe your ideal client. Let your imagination run wild. If you describe your ideal client as if he or she is sitting across from you while you have a cup of coffee or tea, that is the perfect set up/scenario. Pretend you are conversing with him/her; write down on your paper how you would describe him/her as if you were introducing him/her to your best friend. Don’t leave out important details like being able to afford you, they respect you as a person and as a professional, etc.
So, now, your ideal client should be clear in your mind. Example: “My ideal client is between 30-60 years old, a female author, coach, and/or speaker, who shares my values. She is both financially and healthfully fit, in addition to being respectful of my spiritual boundaries.
Your Message
4. Write out your 30-second message, read it aloud to yourself, read it aloud to your family, then your friends, then your colleagues, and finally, to strangers who could be your potential clients. Rehearse it in the mirror to see how it looks, record it to hear how it sounds, and keep improving until you feel you’ve nailed it and it doesn’t sound rehearsed. Find passion in your voice when saying what you do; others listening will become excited, too.
Example: “I specialize in working with authors, coaches, and speakers who struggle to keep up with e-commerce and new technologies. I take the struggle off their shoulders, relieving them of the stress. I implement their needs to help them grow their bottom line without having to learn all the new technologies themselves.”
Try this for your business. “I specialize in working with [fill in the blank] who struggle to keep up with [fill in the blank]. I implement their needs to help them grow their bottom line without having to [fill in the blank].
You are now prepared to go forth and prospect for clients. You know your passions, niche (type of work or industry), who your ideal client is and you also have a clear message. Now, you can help others to be empowered to help you find and refer the right clients to you without hesitation.
Go with passion and excitement—it’s yours for the taking!
About the Author
Michelle Ulrich is the Chief Villager and founder of The Virtual Nation, an educational destination for Virtual Professionals around the globe. Michelle is an avid believer in giving back to her industry and she does this by offering coaching, teleclasses, resources, and tools, in addition to providing a community of learning, a nation of culture, and a virtual village for her members. Education is the foundation of her organization as well as for her own personal and professional development. Michelle has been a community college instructor teaching a Virtual Assistant certificate program online. Aside from coaching and teaching, she is also a speaker and soon-to-be author on the subject of Virtual Assistance. She maintains her private practice where she specializes in working with authors, coaches and speakers who struggle to keep up with e-commerce and new technologies. Clients can check out her services at www.virtualbusinessmarketing.com, while Virtual Assistants can find her over at www.thevirtualnation.com. She can be reached by telephone at (916) 536-9799 in the Pacific Time zone.
There are some businesses that don’t do well. Why is it that over 90% of businesses fail? What’s the rationale behind it?
The first major reason why most businesses fail is because most businesses are not started by entrepreneurs but by technicians thinking they are entrepreneurs. And this is quoted by this person called Michael Gerber who wrote this book called The E Myth.
And what he says is really true. He says that the fatal assumption people have is if you know how to make the technical product of a business, then you know how to run a business that makes the technical product. That’s a fatal assumption. What does that mean?
A lot of people assume that if I can cook, I can run a restaurant. If I can train, I can run a training company. If I can style hair, I can run a hair salon. I am sorry, you can’t. It’s totally different.
The hair stylist who goes to start a hair salon, she was good at what she was doing, she was cutting hair. But when she starts a hair salon, she sucks. She’s a hair stylist. She can’t market, she can’t sell, she doesn’t know accounting, she doesn’t know how to set up business system, she can’t lead a team and that’s why the business collapse.
So that’s the first reason why they fail. So if you are a technician right now, or if you are a hairstylist, what do you do?
What these groups of people should do is to learn how to run a business, learn marketing, and learn finance. Or find a partner or partners that can add on to the skill sets you need.
Second reason why people fail is because of, product sameness, a lack of a Unique Selling Point or USP. Most people, when they start a company, you ask them. So what makes you different? And they can’t answer that question.
And even if they do answer that question, there’s a lot of fluff, oh we are different because we can do it better but how, they can’t tell you.
And sameness kills.
For example, let’s say you are in the food business and you start a chicken rice stall, there are hundreds of them around. You know what happens at the end of the day? You have to compete on price. And when you compete on price, your margins get slashed and you end up making no money.
You start a hair salon. There’s another hair salon down the street, what makes you different? You start a tuition center? There are hundreds around, what makes you different?
So never start a business unless you got a USP, you are sure that it’s different from the rest of the people.
These are the two reasons why businesses fail. Now that you are aware of these two reasons, you will be able to plan, steer and manage your business in a manner that would increase your chances of your business being more successful and profitable.
While research shows that most people believe they can’t be sold, the fact is those same people can indeed be persuaded if they don’t recognize that a sales technique is being used.
The trick lies in the different persuasive strategies used then and now. Lets use a car salesman this time since they top the list as the people you absolutely cannot trust in a poll.
Then: They go on downloading information in you, telling you EVERYTHING you need to know AND don’t need to know. Basically, its like taking a shotgun with pellets in it, hoping that one of them will hit the target. This doesn’t work anymore!
The following are strategies for you to adopt as you attempt to persuade your audience, be it one or many.
1. Aiming at the Target
Have you been in a situation where a salesman or saleswoman was trying to sell you something by giving you the 4-1-1 of what he or she is selling while you absolutely couldn’t wait to get away from the guy? That he or she was boring you nuts with all the information?
You felt like running away as soon as he turns his head because he never found out what was IMPORTANT to YOU.
Ask a simple question : “What’s most important to you when you buy a car? ”
“What’s most important to you when you enroll your kids to a programme? ”
“What most important to you when you look for a life partner…( ok you get it by now don’t you? ) ”
This simple question is what gets you the most answers. So for example, if I’m going to go buy a car, what’s important to me is the price.
So if you’re going to sell me a car, you should immediately address my pricing concerns and not go rambling on how energy-efficient and how many awards the car has won. This saves your breath and of course, time spent.
2. Never start your questions with ” WHY? “
Not only is it annoying but you get only excuses.
Lets use an example: If your kid comes back from school with his report card dominated with D’s and E’s and (God Forbid, F’s ), You’ll probably be in a rage and ask ..”WHY did you get D’s and E’s ?? ”
And the answer (or rather, excuse) that you’re going to get is:
“My teacher ate my test paper.”
“My teacher doesn’t really like me.”
“The kids bully me if I get A’s.”
So how can you ask the same question but get solutions instead?
Start your questions with “What” or “How”. These 2 words empowers action in people. You’re still asking the same question, but you shift its mode and then you start to get changes!
3. Use STORIES to convey your message.
Its important to highlight before I continue with how we can use stories that people tend to be too obvious when they use their stories. As a result, they shift back into a sales mode.
Most people cannot come up with a story on the fly. Even Paul suggested practice and fine-tuning our stories to ensure an impactful message and one that really sinks into the human psyche. Remember? Stories, like humour is a process. Your stories are not going to come out fantastic the first time you tell them. Hence, you must be willing to let your stories develop over time.
Eric Feng is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to impress your investors and customers through public speaking. For more tips and tactics that you can use immediately in your next presentation, visit The Public Speaking Blog.