Author: Pamela Swift

Categories
Entrepreneurship

Ways to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Creativity

Article Contributed by Haley Kieser

Innovation and creativity are the heart-and-soul of successful entrepreneurship. In today’s hyper-information marketplace, success and overcoming competitors is often about developing creative, thoughtful or out-of-the-box solutions to a problem. For example, ride share services like Lyft and Uber go against everything we were taught as children, but they’re among the most creative and groundbreaking solutions to an ancient dilemma: how to get from point A to point B.

It’s easy to find what the “best practices” are for any given industry. But what do you do when those methods and ideas fall short of your goal? You can plummet to the ground and watch your business or idea fail. Or, you can foster creativity and try something new. Even if that new idea fails, you still tried to explore what possible solutions arise and that might lead to a new insight.

But what if you’re simply not a creative person and your mind is hard and robotic? How can you foster these industry-leading ideas and make yourself, your company or project flourish? Fostering creativity is all about finding the necessary change to be made in your current processes.

Here are five ways entrepreneurs can boost their creative juices and discover new solutions.

  1. Surround Yourself with Diversity

Creative thoughts are often molded by looking at a problem with a different mindset. The best way to create a new mindset is literally with a new mind. After all, as the idiom goes, two heads are better than one. Lone creative geniuses are largely a myth and truly great ideas often come from teams. To be creative, surround yourself with people who share your values and motivations but have differing skills, talents and backgrounds. This might mean exploring online forums, visiting local Meetup groups, or even working in a shared office space.

  1. Use Time Wisely

Deadlines are both ripe with benefits and fraught with drawbacks. Setting a deadline itself makes you block out extraneous distractions and focus solely on the task at hand. But, you’re more closed off to ideas and solutions that you might find helpful. The rule of thumb is to avoid shirking deadlines in the name of creativity.

After all, completing a task is often a better outcome than trying to achieve perfection and never hitting the goal. So, reduce your stress levels and give yourself more time to think about problems, research the facts and come up with creative solutions. Keep your deadline and give yourself a healthy margin to meet it.

  1. Embrace Failure

Truly great moments of inspiration and creativity don’t happen with an “aha” moment, but a “that’s funny” reaction to an unforeseen problem. Failure, in appropriate doses, is a good thing. It allows you to analyze what you’re trying and discover how and why that attempt failed. Creativity is grown in an environment where failure is encouraged. Reward yourself when you fail at a task or a new idea.

If you’re uncomfortable with failing, don’t worry, you can teach yourself to both embrace it, while having fun. Consider looking for local deals to try new tasks or activities you’ve never done before. For example, take a pottery class or learn how to swing dance. You likely won’t be good at them right off the bat, but by doing something fun and interactive you can teach yourself to fail in a stress-free environment.

  1. Travel to New Places

Seeing new places, experiencing new cultures and trying new activities are among the best opportunities to get your creative juices flowing. Travel broadens your breadth of knowledge and empowers you to solve problems in new and unfamiliar situations.

If you have the money and the desire, consider taking a sabbatical year to backpack around Europe or Southeast Asia to show yourself new ways of approaching life and its problems. Simply by experiencing these different mindsets, it allows you to find new ways to tackle your own issues.

If budget or time is an issue, traveling to a neighboring state or city you’ve never been to before can also open new waves of creativity.

  1. Leave Your Comfort Zone

Creativity, by its very nature, forces us to consider new opportunities and leave our comfort zone. If what was comfortable and natural to us worked, we wouldn’t need a creative solution. But the more comfortable you become with discomfort, the easier it is to enter those moments of clarity where trying something new presents a new solution.

These leaps and bounds away from your comfort levels don’t have to be very big. The new event simply must be different enough to make your mind consider new possibilities and jog a tangential link between what you’re doing and the problem at hand.

Categories
Online Business

Reasons You Need Your Website Optimised for Mobile

It’s 2018, and by now you have heard that mobile is big. In fact, it’s the bigger than desktop. Mobile is here to stay. With technology getting better and smartphones becoming more accessible, this trend will only get bigger. That means you need your website optimised for mobile. So, why is it must?

We all have a mobile

It’s now at the stage where a significant portion of the world has a smartphone. Access to mobile phones is easier than ever. Statista claim that the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. That means the majority of people who are online are on mobile. These numbers are only going to grow.

Mobile drives more traffic 

If you have a website, you want more traffic. Similarweb suggest that mobile now drives 56% of all traffic. Yes, mobile drives more traffic than desktop. It has been that way for many years now. Over half of the traffic on the web is via mobile. You can improve the experience for the majority of your audience just by optimising your site for mobile. Why can’t users just interact with my desktop site via their phones? Mobile users are different to desktop users, leading us to the next point.

Different behaviour

While it’s the same people behind the various devices, people tend to behave differently when using desktop and mobile. It’s common for mobile users to consumer a disproportionally higher amount of visual media. There is a significant focus on images and short videos. Social media sites like Instagram, and formerly vine, gained huge success offering only video and images. Getting this traffic requires a different design that aids these types of media and engages the users.

Different strategy for different landing pages

Your landing page is critical for conversion. Generating online revenue starts with landing pages. Did you know that what works for a desktop landing page may not work for a mobile landing page? There are a set of principles that remain the same, but mobile screens can’t handle the same style of presentation you find on desktop.

If you want your business to take advantage of the small, frequent purchasing behaviour of mobile users; you must create a landing page specific for mobile. There are a few things you need to include on your landing page, five-word headlines, minimalist design, bright button CTA and a quick page-load speed. To bolster your knowledge of IT and strategic management head over to Upskilled for flexible online courses.

Google supports mobile responsiveness

Google like mobile responsiveness. For that reason, they favour a site that is mobile friendly when it comes to rankings. Google is continually updating their algorithms, and now sites that don’t meet their standard for mobile friendliness will incur significant penalties. If you want to improve your mobile traffic, or not lose it, you must optimise for mobile.

Social media referrals are on mobile

Social media continues to grow and evolve, and its place is on mobile. A substantial majority of mobile internet access is used for social media and other social activities. Your business most likely participates in social media marketing; chances are, all the incoming traffic from that social media marketing is on mobile.  Not offering a good user experience can negate your marketing efforts and waste your money. Take full advantage of your marketing budget and create a seamless browsing experience.

Who buys more?

Mobile users spend more compared to desktop users. Mobile users make small but frequent purchases. Smartphone users account for the lowest dollar amount per transaction.  Finally, tablet users have the highest average transaction value of any device.

Mobile users switch screens

It’s thought that almost 90 percent of users will switch device throughout the sales process. Even if a person prefers desktop, at some point throughout the process, they will switch to mobile. Typically, people will function in the reverse order. Start browsing on their mobile device, then move over to the desktop to complete the purchase once they decide on something.  Your site needs to be able to handle everything.

Remember, mobile is the present and future.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Promoting New Content without Breaking the Bank

Article Contributed by Michelle Laurey

Your marketing content may be designed to spur direct action, such as to appeal to a direct need so that your customers make a purchase. It may also be created to improve relations, such as by offering product-related tips. In some cases, it may even develop your brand’s image.

When you spend the time, energy and money creating exceptional content for your marketing campaigns to achieve specific goals, it only makes sense that you would take every reasonable step possible to promote it. Through promotion, you may be able to extend your marketing reach and get your content the attention that it deserves. You may think that this would cost a fortune, but there are actually multiple steps that you can take at little to no cost.

Sharing Is Caring

Your content isn’t worth much when it’s not seen by the target audience. Fortunately, you can increase its reach by sharing it multiple times on various platforms. Simply change the teaser for maximum appeal and increase the chance that your potential clients will see it and pay attention to it. Sharing your content on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms is free and simple: you can automate it using tools like Buffer. Another wise idea is to ask your close contacts – friends and family – to share the content. It’s enough that just a few of them do it to reach hundreds of other people.

Online resources, such as Open Site Explore and Ahrefs, can tell you which websites linked similar content, and you can personally reach out to the owners of these platforms to ask for a direct link to your content. Likewise, you can research who shared similar content via Twitter or Facebook, and you can contact those individuals directly with a similar request. It may be wise to offer the similar effort in return so that the other party gets something beneficial out of their actions.

Another smart idea is to keep track of influencers. Rather than contacting them directly to request content sharing, mention something positive about them in your content. Then, create a link to their page. Through this indirect method that appeals to their self-image, you may generate a share from a major influencer. This may even be viewed as a testimonial by some of your customers. If this happens, you may essentially be getting spokesperson-like benefits from an influencer without having to pay this person a penny.

Do Some Volunteer Work

Research industry blogs that appeal to your target audience. Ask the bloggers if you can create a guest blog for their website. It might seem like a waste of your time at first (since it won’t earn you anything), especially when you’re first starting your business. You are still paying off your office space, worrying about paying the taxes, trying to see if you are actually making money. Yet, you must be willing to sacrifice time to later reap the benefits. You will reach more people, people who maybe wouldn’t usually visit your blog. Do your best to create great content even if it’s for someone else’s blog.

You also should ask readers to share comments and testimonials directly below the blog post. This strategy typically will not result in a huge number of sales immediately. However, you will gain more recognition, and this can pay off with long-term gains.

Use “Old-Fashioned” Methods

While there are many new technologies available to help you get the word out about your business now, remember that there are also tried and true methods that marketers have been using for years. Specifically, be aware that email marketing continues to be more effective than social media marketing. In fact, you are six times more likely to generate a response from an email campaign than from a Twitter comment. Remember that your email subscription list is a list of people who have specifically asked for information from you. They are interested and engaged.

Also, don’t disregard the older customers who maybe don’t feel comfortable in the online world. These are individuals who may not regularly check email or who even maybe don’t use email. That is why you should also consider printing hard copies of your marketing material to directly hand to your older consumers or to snail-mail to them. On these hard copies, you may include a call to action to visit your website for more information. If you have many older customers in your target audience, this is a veritable necessity.

Final Thoughts

It can take time and resources to create interesting, engaging content. Therefore, it makes sense to maximize the mileage from each piece that you create. Use these tips to expand your reach in the most cost-effective ways possible.

Author bio:

Michelle Laurey is a freelance writer who enjoys fitness, relaxing in the fresh air, trying to live a healthy life and daydreaming about visiting new places (and actually visiting them). Her best ideas and problem solutions appear while she’s riding her bicycle. You can reach her via Twitter.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

7 Reasons Why Women Make Better Entrepreneurs

Contributed by Usman Raza

You don’t have to be a man to be a successful entrepreneur; women are as equally great or are better entrepreneurs. In the past, entrepreneurship was once considered a man’s domain; but in today’s society you’ll find that many (although not enough) of them are run by women too. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, more than 9 million U.S. firms are now owned by women, employing nearly 8 million people and generating $1.5 trillion in sales. Although our society has evolved and more women are embracing entrepreneurship, they often face challenges and are still looked down on when it comes to running a business.

Despite the challenges and mishaps, women remain strong and continue to grow in number as years pass by. From lawyer firms to tech and fashion to beauty; women start businesses in many categories. No matter what line of business women entrepreneurs are in, they see that there are many changes that need to happen in the specific field. Women entrepreneurs strive to bring those needed and refreshing changes to it. And because of this; women tend to bring a brand new perspective, attitude and skill set toward business like creativity and organizational skills, which often helps make them better entrepreneurs.

Below are 7 reasons why women make better entrepreneurs than men:

Women are more honest.

Let’s be honest (ha); women are not afraid to open up and talk about their fears or sharing their failings because they have a less ego attached to the success or failure of the business. Women typically rather address issues firsthand than ignore them. In short, women are more open and honest about what is going-on and that makes it easier for others to help.

Women are not afraid to ask for help.

Women entrepreneurs are not afraid to ask others for help and constantly ask questions when they need it. As a result, this helps to prevent numerous problems from occurring because help was asked for. Getting help from others not only gets the job done right but also allows entrepreneurs to grow and learn more.

Women possess strong communication skills and social intelligence.

Women show more empathy, which allows them to form and make more connections with those surrounding them in their work. While most men are working only for the financial aspect, quite a few women work to take pride in helping others as well. Because of this, many women entrepreneurs have the ability to create long lasting relationships in their business.

Women are perfectionists.

Women entrepreneurs make sure the job is done right. They believe taking their time is way better than rushing to get it done – this allows them to produce much high-quality results.

Women value relationships and well-being more than business.

Unlike men, wealth is not their primary focus. Women entrepreneurs will always put the health and wellbeing of their spouse and family as their main priority. If they have to choose between the business and the family, the family always wins. Men typically prioritizes business first then health and wellbeing in order to support the family down the line. Many times, because of this, by the time the business is financially successful the family may have moved on because they were not a priority.

Women are great multitaskers and are very organized.

Naturally, women can handle more than one task at a time, while still keeping organized. Because of this, many women entrepreneurs can work on various areas of the job at once without any trouble.

Women possess creativity.

Women have creative minds – they often think outside of the box to create things that will help to provide better services and make unique products.

Author: Usman Raza is freelance writer, marketing specialist at SnoringAids and co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts. When not working, he’s probably spending time with his family. Follow him on Facebook @usmanraza40 and Twitter @usmanintrotech

Categories
Work Life

Top 4 Tips to Organize and Manage Your Time When Working from Home

Working from home is a dream that many people have had for decades. That dream has come true for many in today’s modern world. There are quite a few jobs out there that you can do from home now, from being a freelance writer to starting your own photography business. Once you have that business, however, you often find that organization and time management becomes a problem, as working from home is quite a bit different from working outside of the home. Here are a few tips for organizing and managing your time when working from home.

Leave the House 

While you will want to do most of your work from your home office, sometimes it can help to get out of the house for a while. Take your laptop to the local coffee shop and work there for the day. If you are in the video business and have your own crew and equipment, you should check into a video studio rental for a day. Leaving the house for an hour or two, or even the whole day to work can help you to separate your work and personal space.

Always get Dressed

The saying, “you need to dress for success,” you heard growing it is never truer than when running a business from the comfort of your own home. Taking a shower and getting dressed in normal clothes just like you would do when you were heading outside of the home to go to work is important. There have been experiments done that prove that clothes make you feel better about yourself and that the more time you take on your appearance, the more of the get it done attitude you will have.

Invest in a Home Office

While it may be tempting to pile up in blankets on the bed with the laptop or curl up on the couch and watch Netflix while you work, it’s not a good idea. You need to invest in your future by purchasing the stuff needed to make yourself a comfortable home office. It’s best to go with an ergonomic chair and other types of furniture for your office. It’s important for your workspace to promote your health and spur you to action.

Know When to Stop Working 

While you may hear success stories from others about working 80 to 90 hours a week nonstop so that their businesses could soar. However, what you usually don’t hear is that these same people do take time off. To be productive in what you do, you have to get some rest and downtime. There is nothing wrong with stopping working for a few hours to take a walk or binge watch Netflix. Just remember you do have work to do and do the majority of it before you take that break.

These are just a few tips out there for helping you get organized and develop good time management skills when you are working from home. From working outside of the home, a couple of days a week to knowing when it’s time to call it quits, these tips will help your work at home business be the success you have always dreamed it would be.