Author: Pamela Swift

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Recommendations

Free Business Cards from PrintRunner

PrintRunner has offered to give away a set of 250 business cards to 3 readers of GetEntrepreneurial.com. PrintRunner’s business cards come on premium 14 pt card stock with water resistant UV coating. The cards are available in full color, black and white, one-sided, two-sided, matte or glossy, according to your preferences. You can choose to design the card yourself or choose from hundreds of free templates available on PrintRunner.com. Please note that shipping is not included and will need to be paid when placing the order. Shipping costs vary depending on where you live, but U.S. shipping is generally around $10 or less (for ground shipping).

PrintRunner.com is one of the top printing companies on the web. PrintRunner specializes in affordable high quality printing and offer a wide range of products including business card printing, catalog printing, brochure printing, postcard printing, flyer printing, sticker printing, and much more.

To participate in this giveaway, just leave a comment on this post by Sunday, 11 APril 2010. Three lucky winners will be selected by random and contacted with further details. Good luck!

Official Rules:

  • One entry per person
  • Open to U.S. residents online
  • Must be 18 and over and not an employee or relative of an employee of PrintRunner LLC
  • No purchase necessary
Categories
Online Business Sales & Marketing

The Basics of Content Syndication

Content syndication is a hot topic in social media, and there is a lot of confusion about what it is, and how to do it. In the most basic sense, content syndication refers to the process of efficiently distributing your content around the internet.

Since effective content syndication does require a little bit of technical know-how, most people’s eyes glaze over when they hear about it. The problem is that if you’re ignoring the power of content syndication, you are only getting about 1/3rd of the value from your social media efforts as you could be.

Done correctly, content syndication can help you accomplish four main business goals. It can help you generate more targeted visitors to your website and blog, it can help you improve your search engine positioning, it can help you build your following, and it can build your expert status. All of these are valuable outcomes for a process which doesn’t really take a lot of time.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is in creating content (for their sites, blogs, teleseminars or trainings) and then only using the content one or two times. This means that your time to create the content is only paying off minimally.

Far better to repurpose your content into multiple formats, and be able to use it multiple ways, so that you are getting maximum value from the time you spend creating the material in the first place. Repurposing efficiently and regularly is one of the key underpinnings of an effective content syndication strategy.

An example of repurposing your content would be to take a written blog post, convert to an audio (instant podcast), turn to a slideshow, and then convert to a video. Your one blog post then becomes deployable in multiple formats, and can be sent out to the various article, audio, and video sites. So, in essence, you get four times the value for your content. There are multiple other ways to repurpose your content, and you’ll find, as I have, that once you get good at doing it, it’s kind of addictive.

So now that you understand the background of content syndication, let’s look at some easy ways you can get started:

1.   Make use of RSS. RSS stands for “really simple syndication” and is one of the easiest and fastest ways to start syndicating your content. RSS is a technology which takes your content and puts it into a special format (you don’t need the details) so that the content can be shared easily and republished across the internet. The majority of the open social sites use RSS. You can find the link to your RSS feed by searching for the RSS icon, which often looks like the icon at the beginning of this paragraph. Sometimes it’s colored differently, but this symbol denotes the RSS feed. What the RSS feed represents is an aggregated container of that content.

To actually start using RSS, you can take your RSS feeds (such as from your blog) and submit these to RSS search engines, such as Bloglines, Blogpulse, DayPop, and Feedster. (There are many others, this is just a partial list.) The idea is that the RSS format allows for content to be deployed and shared in a consistent and standardized way. When submitting your blog’s RSS feed to these search engines, you are increasing the likelihood of your content being found, and, also, potentially giving others the option to republish your content with attribution to your site.

You can also submit RSS feeds from your Twitter account, as well as other social sites. There are specialized software programs that can help you rapidly submit your RSS feeds as well.
RSS submission is one of the easiest ways to get started with content syndication.

2.  A second strategy for getting started with content syndication is to send your blog updates to your Twitterfeed. If your blog is built on WordPress, you can configure a plugin such as Twitter Tools to send blog posts to your Twitterfeed. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site, especially if your titles are compelling, and you don’t overtweet your new content. Since Twitter updates are searchable, you can find yourself getting first page ranking in Google for your content. This listing may not last, as tweets are constantly updated, but it’s a good way to get your content out in front of more people.

3.  A third simple strategy for content syndication is to import your blog posts into Facebook and LinkedIn. You can use the Notes application in Facebook to get your blog posts publishing in there, and you can use the WordPress application in LinkedIn to get your blog content published there as well. Again, if you focus on highly relevant content, and use strong titles, you will see clickthroughs to your site. Importing your content into these sites also helps establish your expertise and credibility, and can grow your brand following.

While there are many other content syndication strategies you can use, these are three solid strategies to get you started. As you invest more fully in content syndication, you’ll find that your online following grows, that you get more opportunities, and generate more leads into your business.

Content syndication is an important step in the chain of social media profitability. Get started using it today.

To get 4 weeks of focused training on content syndication and repurposing, check out From Platform to Profit.

RachnaJainPhoto.jpgDr. Rachna Jain is Chief Social Marketer at The Mindshare Corporation.  Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business  owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing  strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media  process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and  visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased  website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and  more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at The Mindshare Blog

Categories
Starting Up

Starting a Business — A Five Step Reality-Check to Evaluate Your Own Idea

Article Contributed by Jim DeLapa

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is, “How can I be sure my new business will succeed?” Sadly, there is no crystal ball that can accurately answer that question. However, if you are serious about starting a business there are five steps you can take that will begin to give you a clearer picture. By following these steps you will gain tremendous insight into what lies ahead. Whether this reality-check convinces you to dive in, or hold back, you’ll be well served by what you learn. While we are huge proponents of founders developing a well written business plan, the steps below can be followed even before you start your small business plan.

Step 1: Write a simple elevator pitch to see if your business idea is compelling to others. If you haven’t created an elevator pitch before, you can stitch together the essentials very easily. Write a one sentence answer to each of the following questions. What problem will your company solve for its customers? Who has this problem and how large is that group? What will make your business unique so that customers will buy from you instead of a competitor? Finally, what are your qualifications to run the business? If you force yourself to write and re-write the very best one sentence answers to each of these questions, you will have the elevator pitch you need for this purpose. Now, try out your elevator pitch on 10 people you trust and respect to get their feedback and reaction to your well-formed business concept. This is the warm up for steps two and three.

Step 2: Talk to would-be customers to find out if there is a true need for your product or service. When you are thinking about starting a business, you obviously feel there is a void in the marketplace. Don’t wait until you open your business to find out if the need for another business is real or imagined. Armed with your elevator pitch, go have face-to-face discussions with future customers. You are not going to them to sell, or pre-sell. You are doing market research. After describing your business by generally following your elevator pitch, go into “ask and listen” mode. To get the information you are seeking, ask questions like, “How are you currently meeting your needs for (insert the products or services your company will provide)?” Listen carefully—this is the voice of the customer. In step one, you spoke to friends and respected colleagues. In step two, you are talking to people who currently buy products or services like those you will be selling. Select individuals who will be focused on the content of your ideas and less concerned about simply wanting to be encouraging.

Step 3: Become an expert on the competition. Identify 5 other companies that are already doing what you plan to do. Learn as much about them as you can. One of the best things to learn is if they expanding or shrinking. You want to be entering a business where the market and demand is growing! Take everything you learn and ask yourself what it says about the opportunity for your new business. If you can’t find any companies that already do what you’re planning to do, there two likely reasons: 1) There is not enough demand to support a business; 2) You didn’t look hard enough. The third possibility, and the one most often cited incorrectly, is that a genuinely new opportunity has been discovered, one that nobody else has ever thought of, and so there is no competition. Rarely is this the case.

Step 4: Develop a rough estimate of your breakeven costs. Think about the process of engaging the customer to the point of making a sale. What are all the things that you must have in place to make that sale? Do you need an office? A building? A sign? Computers? Phone service? Special equipment? Employees? Will you need to take a salary from the business from its inception? How much will you spend on marketing so that customers find out about your business? List all of the major items and estimate their costs for the first full year. Divide this number by twelve to see your total monthly fixed expenses.

To calculate their breakeven sales number, some types of businesses must also take into account their “cost of sales” or the additional cost that is incurred for each sale made. In a pure service business, such as consulting, there will be little or no “cost of sales.” A consultant sells his or her time. The breakeven revenue for this type of business would be the total monthly expenses calculated above.

Other businesses, such as restaurants or retailers have to take into account the cost of the goods they sell. For example, consider a company whose total monthly expenses are $10,000. If they sell picture frames for two times what they cost, they will need $20,000 in revenue to break even. The first $10,000 will pay for the picture frames and the next $10,000 will cover the base costs of the business.

Knowing your total costs and breakeven revenue requirements are essential in evaluating a business idea. As intended, this is a rough estimate which you can carefully refine if your business idea passes all your tests.

Step 5: Identify the person responsible for selling (and that person is probably you). Too many people start businesses without really taking into account how much will need to be sold, and who will be responsible for selling. In hindsight they say things like, “I always loved to cook, so I started a catering company.” “I worked as a carpenter for 10 years, so I decided to become a general contractor.” Upon starting their businesses, the chef and the carpenter immediately had the same goal–to become “salesperson of the year” in their respective businesses. When you start a new business, the business will fail or succeed based on whether or not you hit your sales targets. Regardless of who is doing the selling, the responsibility for seeing that the company sales goal is met falls on the founder. If you can say, “I am ready to be responsible for driving sales in my new company” then you have passed step five of the reality check.

Summary. If you take the time to put your business idea through the five-step reality check you will be well on your way to answering the question, “How can I know if my business will succeed?” You will have gathered all of the essential information to make an informed decision about starting the business. Next, take the foundation developed in the five-step reality test to start developing your business plan. You’ll find that the things you’ve already learned will give you a great head start.

About the Author

Jim DeLapa is the founder of GreatBusinessPlans.com, a leading provider of small business plan assistance for current and future small business owners. DeLapa has launched and invested in numerous successful startups and played an active role in nurturing two of those from inception through being acquired by publicly traded firms.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

7 Time Tested Tips for Making Your Advertising Work

Article Contributed by Troy White

The entire marketing and advertising business is backed on testing. If you are not testing different marketing methods, different advertisements, different media, etc., then you will never know what works and what doesn’t. It’s not exactly rocket science what I just said – but the fact of the matter is that less than 5% of businesses test anything.

So if it is so simple – why aren’t more people doing it?

Laziness, time constraints and lack of knowledge are the most common reasons I hear. I can’t help you with the first 2 – but I will share with you a number of marketing ideas you can test. Try one – measure the results, then test another. You are looking for the most powerful marketing method that you can continue to run for months/years to come.

(1) Tell a story – one of the best ways to pull your readers into your marketing and get them to buy. The Wall Street Journal runs a one-page story talking about Two Young Men – both from the same upbringing and neighborhood – how one went on to accomplish great things and the other went about life with dismal results. This incredible story has been running for decades now and in that time it has generated billions of dollars in subscription sales.

(2) Use clichés like “sick as a dog” – people can relate to them and there is a comfort feeling around them. As well, most people talk in clichés – so you must write like you talk. But a word of caution, do not over use them.

(3) Never write any marketing pieces if you do not believe in what it is you are selling or trying to accomplish – it will be very obvious to the person reading it that you don’t believe it.

(4) Don’t try and be cute or sophisticated. Be sincere, educational and passionate in your writing. Do whatever it takes to get into a peak emotional state before you start writing – be it music, exercise lots of coffee – whatever floats your boat.

(5) Write to a grade 7 reading level. This can be easily checked in Microsoft Word – go to “Tools at top – then – Options: then Spelling and Grammar: check the box that says Show Readability Stats. Every time you do a spell check form now on it will tell you what grade level your writing is at. This is your lowest common denominator and a guideline you must use in all your business correspondence and advertising – unless you know without a doubt that 100% of your market is at a Ph.D. level.

6) Pretend you are sitting around a fire with one of your best friends. You know that they have some possible interest in what you are selling. But they are skeptical at the best of times. What would you say to them to get them to try it out? How would you say it to them? This is exactly what your ads need to read like.

(7) Always use real postage stamps on your envelopes – never metered mail. Make it look as personalized as possible – not like it came straight from a machine.

There are 7 simple ways to get better results in your marketing and advertising; but they are useless if you don’t try them. Try one this week and see what happens. And please let me know how it goes.

About the Author
Troy White is a top marketing coach, consultant & direct response copywriter based in Calgary, Canada. He has a powerful approach to growing small businesses and entrepreneurial run ventures on a budget. His FREE Cash Flow Surges newsletter shares tons of great strategies and he blogs at http://www.smallbusinesscopywriter.com

He also publishes the incredibly powerful Cash Flow Calendar system that gives you daily, weekly and monthly marketing ideas to promote your business and stand out from the crowd. To get your free tips for growing your business, you can register at http://www.cashflowcalendars.com

Or you can take his business mastery course in marketing and advertising at http://www.thebusinessmasterycourse.com

Categories
Starting Up

Writing a Business Plan? Start with a Great Introduction

Article Contributed by Jim DeLapa

When it comes to writing a great business plan, most soon-to-be-new business owners struggle with the same question: Where do I start? In this case, the age-old answer to that question is the best answer, “at the beginning.” The most important part of your business plan is a well written introduction.

If you are seeking investors or a small business loan, your introduction must hook the reader so that they will feel compelled to read the rest of your plan. The first thing a lender or investor will want to know is what problem your business will solve for its customers. That is what businesses do—they solve problems for customers so convincingly that customers willingly give them their money. The first objective of your business plan introduction is convincing the reader that people will actually give you their money to do for them what your business will do! An example will help to go through the steps.

If you were starting a lunch deli, shift your focus away from the savory breads, top quality meats, cheeses and vegetables. Focus on the problem you will solve for your customers. “Downtown workers struggle to find quality food, at a fair price, with a convenient location that lets them get back to their offices in fewer than 30 minutes. These downtown workers don’t want to hassle with driving and parking just to get lunch. They are simply not willing to spend an hour out of the office in the middle of the day.” That’s the problem and it begs to be solved!

Your next objective is convincing the reader that there are a sufficient number of people who have this problem to sustain your business. The exercise varies depending on the type of business you’re starting, but it all comes down to knowing the size of the market you can reasonably hope to reach. For our deli friends, this might be stated as, “There are over 6,000 office workers within two blocks of our planned location. With phone in ordering and delivery service we will have the opportunity to reach all of those customers five times a week.”

Next, preview your unique selling proposition to the reader—tell them what makes you different. You’ll be able to delve into the competition later in the plan. For now, just let them know how your business is unique in the eyes of the customer. Let the reader know in a convincing manner that your business will not be a “me too” business in a crowded market. “Our deli will be the only ground level restaurant with both dine-in and over-the-counter takeout serving baked or cold cut sandwiches on freshly made bread, within six square blocks of the Triple-Towers.”

Finally, speak briefly about your credentials for operating this business. Again, you’ll be able to go deeper in the management section of your business plan. For now, let them know you are the right person to be operating this business. Our deli friend might simply say, “After growing up and working in the family restaurant business for more than 15 years, Joe Hamm our founder is an expert with customers, vendors and employees.”

What has the introduction accomplished? We’ve identified that there is a problem to be solved. We’ve established that there is a big enough market to support the business. We have clarified that our deli will stand out in a crowded downtown environment. Finally, we’ve let the reader know about the credibility of the founder.

More importantly, we’ve done what every good business plan’s introduction should do. We’ve left the reader hungry for more. The only solution to that problem is for them to read the rest of the plan.

About the Author

Jim DeLapa is the founder of GreatBusinessPlans.com, a leading provider of small business plan assistance for current and future small business owners. DeLapa has launched and invested in numerous successful startups and played an active role in nurturing two of those from inception through being acquired by publicly traded firms.