Over the coming days and weeks I will write some more articles on business startup success that I hope you will find useful. Below you will find 5 tips that have been found to consistently improve an entrepreneur’s life and make it easier for them to be successful long term.

Hire Generalists early and specialists later- Obviously, success doesn’t occur in a vacuum and you are going to need staff at some stage. Early on, you shouldn’t look to hire staff that are too generalist. You need people with knowledge but you also need people whom understand that some days it is just ‘all hands on deck.’ As you get bigger and you see consistent profits and growth you can look at options to hire specialist staff.

Make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthily and exercise- As much as you may want to work 20 hour days and not leave your desk, this is not conducive to good decision making for your business. A healthy lifestyle where you get enough sleep, exercise and eat healthily will stand you in good stead as your business grows.

Have a product or service and start charging early- I don’t care how many millions of hits your website is getting. And you shouldn’t either. If you are not selling a product or service and you are not making any money then you are wasting your time. You can’t eat with analytics.

Vendors are customers too- You will need to engage vendors when in business – whether your phone provider, your landlord or whomever provides the product (or parts for the product) that you are selling. You should treat them with the absolute same amount of respect that you give your customers for two reasons – you want them to be your partner and help you when something goes wrong, and, 2 they may be your customers one day.

Use your product or service yourself and live your vision- The most successful businesses are those that are run by people who either use their product or live their service and vision. You need to be genuinely excited about what you are promoting and selling so that your customers will see and understand your passion. This will make them more comfortable purchasing from you instead of your competitor.

Starting a business is, and should, be fun. Following the tips that I have mentioned above should make your life easier and give your business more chance of success.

The purpose of this article is to share with you 5 important tips that I feel are key to business success when you are starting out. If you ignore these tips you may not fail but you certainly diminish your chances of success. These tips are in no particular order but I feel they are all relevant to all business entrepreneurs whether this is the first or the tenth business that you have started.

Watch your cash- Whilst it is easy to get excited by sales numbers, sales alone are not the key to a business’ success. Without cashflow you are dead in the water. You need to know how much cash is coming in to your business and you need to lower your outgoings if at all possible. There is not point making a lot of sales if you are spending more money then you are bringing in. Identifying large expenses in your business, or growing expenses, may show an area of your business where you can look to cut costs – either by changing the way you do something or changing suppliers.

Avoid Distractions- You cannot be everything to everyone. Decide what your business stands for, decide who you want to be and who you want to target, then go out there and sell, sell, sell. You shouldn’t keep adding to your product or service catalogue just to try and earn money. Also, stay away from negative people as they will only want to bring you down to their level. Keep your head in the game to help boost your chances of success. And remember, there are so many hours in the day and you still want to spend time with friends and family. There is work time and there is play time. Don’t procrastinate all day on Facebook and Twitter and call it work.

Support Customers Manically- You need customers. You need someone to pay for your product or service. You want them to pay you, not your competitor. Support your customers manically by going above and beyond. With any luck, thanks to the powers of social media, you will get them to rave about your business to their contacts and this can lead to you getting more customers and making more money. You really need to go above and beyond with your customers as it is much easier to up sell or resell to an existing customer than it is to go out there and prospect and find new customers. You don’t want to spend all your time getting new customers in the front door only to find that your existing customers are all filing out the back door feeling like you have forgotten about them.

Write a Blog- You may not be the world’s best writer but I still recommend that you document your journey along the way. A Blog helps you clarify your own business, it positions you as an expert in your field and it is a great marketing tool. A well thought out blog post can be easily shared through social networks and with some basic search engine optimisation it can be found easily when people search for terms related to your product or service. I’m also a big believer in contributing to other websites so you can broaden your readership beyond those people that may have already found your website or heard about your business.

Decide with Data- Don’t make decisions about your business on the fly or off the cuff – especially decisions that require you to spend money. You need to look at stats and figures before making a decision. You don’t necessarily have to conduct your own market research – you may be able to find the statistics you need with a search through Google o using some other free tools online. As an example, if you were looking at keywords to target on your website for SEO, a great free tool to look at is the Google Adwords tool. It tells you how many times a month certain phrases are searched for in different parts of the world. This tool can also tell you how competitive a particular search term may be making it easier for you to decide whether or not you should compete on particular terms, or whether you should search for perhaps the low hanging fruit. You may find that ranking for certain keywords is not popular at all and you may find that some terms are only used by tire kickers or freebie seekers.

I hope you have found these tips helpful as they have certainly helped me in growing my business interests.

MasterChef showcases human resilience and how people handle stress and demanding situations. Time pressures and increasingly difficult tasks set for the contestants showed us how different people manage different situations to ‘produce the goods’.

MasterChef gives us a great example of leadership and performance, both of which are crucial to sales and achieving business success. Luckily for the MasterChef contestants they are only subjected to this for about three and a half months. Working chefs are required to take the ‘heat’ everyday albeit in environments they can control.

There are a number of professions where every action and outcome is scrutinised on a daily basis and this is especially apparent for sales people. Often working in environments which are not of their own design, sales people are often presented with a ‘Mystery Box Challenge’. They have to be able to think on their feet and create outcomes that clients need and want. They need to know how this goes with this to that.

For sales people, resilience is the key to success. Of course, there are many behaviours and skills to become a great salesperson but any good salesperson will tell you that they have learned not to take ‘no’ as a personal rejection. All effective sales people will be continually exercising and getting fitter, developing our skills, knowledge and mindset all at the same time.

Sue Barrett is one of the leading female voices commenting on sales today. Sue is an experienced business speaker and adviser, facilitator, sales coach, training provider and entrepreneur and founded Barrett Consulting, an end-to-end consulting practice with a reputation in the Australian market as trusted experts and advisors in creating high performing, sustainable people, teams and leaders. Visit www.barrett.com.au

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.”

Have you ever felt on the door step of something BIG in your business? That the next level is just within your grasp, and contemplate if you have what it takes to make it happen? Or wonder if you can actually handle it? I had started to observe this with students and clients of mine.

I started to wonder, “Why is everyone so afraid of the next level? Why don’t we just reach out and make it happen?” After some reflection it dawned on me that my clients were essentially holding a mirror up to me, as deep inside I have been feeling the same fear of leaving my current comfort zone for something much bigger.

Things have been going great in this business but I still had this nagging feeling that the next big leap was about to show up. Plus it seemed like the universe was telling me to step up my personal growth. ‘Healer, heal thyself’, I saw how to teach others about this ‘marketing stuff’ and to help them to just ‘get it’ but I had to surrender to what was possible for me. You would think this would be easy, but somehow, for both my clients and for me it’s still a challenge.

I questioned whether I was ‘willing’ to do what it takes, whether I had the courage to go the next step. Have you ever felt that way? But we all have a destiny for greatness. It can be a little scary to tackle a big idea. The calling for our next stage of growth and success is always upon us. There is a journey that you are being asked to take, something big and exciting. But instead of embracing the journey, we often say to ourselves, ‘Who am I to do this? I don’t have what it takes. I’m not good enough for that.’ But the truth is, we must come to the realisation that we are all called to do something great. Whether it’s in our business, in service to others, in our income and abundance, it doesn’t have to be hard work and it is ok that we are not presently the person able to deliver that destiny. But we will grow into it if we say ‘yes’ to the challenge. That’s all it takes. The universe does not call the qualified, it qualifies the called, through the ‘yes’.

The important thing to note is that the person who says YES to the call, will not be the same person who delivers that destiny. We are constantly evolving and unfolding based on our ability and willingness to say ‘yes, I’m willing to go on this journey’. When you say yes to that call to reach the next big level you begin to receive the resources, the skills, the guidance, the money…. Everything begins to show up. And then you change and grow into the person able to deliver the destiny…

The struggle comes when the ego steps in and tries to protect the comfort zone. The ‘old’ way for many is the struggle and frustration. Why are we so adamant about holding to frustration? Because it’s what you’ve been accustomed to for many years, it’s the only thing you know. Anything else requires change and for most people they don’t like change or stepping outside of their comfort zone.

The thing is… to reach that next level of greatness you must be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and be willing to make the changes. There is no other way. In fact, if the change is not made, things may become even more difficult, more complicated and more struggles come up.

But you know what, you DO have what’s needed to take your business to the next level. What I know from past experience is that the ‘fear of change and the unknown’ is much greater than the actual discomfort of walking into the fear.

It’s your choice: Mediocrity or….. GREATNESS! Which do you want in your life and your business?
To attract ideal clients and dramatically increase your income, I suggest looking at my ‘Easy Marketing for Client Attraction’ coaching program. It includes everything you need to know to prioritise what to work on first, and how to continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, with me critiquing your marketing all the time. That’s why clients have gotten great results from it. It’s so easy! For more indepth details go to: http://www.jaxon.com.au/Easy-Marketing-for-Client-Attraction-pg14534.html

These principles stand the test of time… so let’s explore some ways to apply them in our marketing.

Commitment
Once customers have committed to buy something from you, it’s fairly easy to ask them to take the next step. This works on the psychology that once we’ve committed to ‘yes’, we don’t like to about face and say ‘no’. Selling lawn seed? Promote the best fertilizer to go with it. Never let an opportunity go by to sell more to an interested, convinced customer.

Authority
We naturally believe people with authority: well-known people, or well-accredited people. For instance, if David Koch says it’s a good idea to do a business plan, you’d believe it. There is also the authority of statistics and logical conclusions. In your sales copy, find some valid statistics or quotes from authorities to back up what you’re saying.

Social Proof
There have been many experiments to prove that if we see similar others doing something, then we will do it too. Using testimonials and case studies gives us this social proof. Writing from the perspective of a real person who uses your product can be a winner as well – just be careful to always sound the same.

Reciprocity
Another psychological principle is the tendency to want to give when we have received. This is the reason that free gifts or free advice are a powerful marketing device. The more valuable the gift to the user, the more they will want to give back.

Liking
Advertising genius, Claude Hopkins, most often used a persona in ads, so that a man was talking, not “a soulless corporation”. He used a signature in the ads too. He was always very careful to carry the same tone in series of ads.

Since we tend to buy from people who we like, why not be personable in your web copy, ads, and brochures. While everyone else is talking guff and trying to sound impressive, you’ll win more sales by being enthusiastically yourself.

Scarcity
When we feel that we could miss out on something really good, it makes us hurry up and buy. Sure, we can all tell when scarcity sounds fake, e.g. “only 36 copies at this price”, but if you give a valid-sounding reason for the ‘limited stock/limited time sale’, then you’ll be more effective in your sales.

So next time you’re preparing a marketing message, don’t forget these principles – and the fifth P of marketing: people!

To attract ideal clients and dramatically increase your income, I suggest looking at my ‘Easy Marketing for Client Attraction’ coaching program. It includes everything you need to know to prioritise what to work on first, and how to continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, with me critiquing your marketing all the time. That’s why clients have gotten great results from it. It’s so easy! For more indepth details click on ‘Easy Marketing for Client Attraction’.

Deborah Jackson, Director of Jaxon Marketing, helps coaches, consultants, trainers, accountants, service professionals and small biz owners understand how positioning, brand and other key marketing strategies contribute to their success. To receive her gift, a special report, visit http://www.jaxon.com.au and get her fabulous new book “Easy Marketing For Women” written specifically for women who run their own business with the one-of-a-kind 6 step marketing program: http://www.jaxon.com.au/Products-pg13739.html. You can contact Deborah on 0438 443 646 or through deborah@jaxon.com.au

Here are three themes from Harry Potter that are as relevant in the wizarding world as they are in the business world.

Loyalty is the most important trait- Harry Potter is loyal to his friends and loyal to his teachers. He knows where to place his loyalty and it never waivers. This loyalty is always returned. If you are loyal to your friends and colleagues, hell if you are loyal to everybody in your network, then karma suggests that you will get loyalty in return. That way, people are less likely to double cross and will be happier to do you a favour if you need one.

Teamwork is important for all success- The most successful people in life are not loners. They have a team behind them to help them with their success. Harry Potter has his close friends there to help him when he is in a bind. Even though he is a star and the most talented amongst them, Harry Potter would not have been successful without the help of his friends. As an entrepreneur, whilst you will want to take the lead with your business, you need to get a team behind you to help you reach your goals. This can be staff as well as a circle of mentors to help you achieve the results that you want to achieve.

The good guy always wins- Whilst the war between good and evil crosses 7 stories in Harry Potter, Harry wins all the battles and eventually wins the war. He will not compromise his values and yet still always wins. You cannot hope to take shortcuts or compromise your values and truly be successful in life. Whilst you may see some short-term results you will lose out in the end.

If you have not yet read the Harry Potter books or watched the movies, do yourself a favour. Do it with a critical eye and you will see the themes that I have mentioned above and how they can be utilized in our business.

• Palm shortcuts for the things you do most
• Touchscreen and full keyboard
• Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional Edition
• Outlook® email with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology and HTML support1,2
• High-speed data with UMTS/HSDPA3
• Instant-on Wi-Fi button1
• GPS for navigation, turn-by-turn directions, and local search1
• Microsoft® Office Outlook® Mobile for Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks
• Edit native Microsoft® Word and Excel® documents4
• Open and view PowerPoint®, PDF, and ZIP files
• Use Internet Explorer® Mobile to search the web fast1
• Functions as a high-speed modem for your laptop5
• Personal email including Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Gmail1
• Chat-style view for SMS and MMS6
• Windows Media® Player Mobile for audio and video
• 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture

Source:
http://www.palm.com/asia/assets/pdf/products/ds_treopro.pdf

What others are saying

“The Palm Treo Pro is a smartphone destined to put a smile on the faces of many business people, and perhaps wipe that self-satisfied smirk off the mugs of BlackBerry and iPhone lovers. It’s been refreshing to see an attractively design Windows Mobile handset without resource-sucking interface modifications slowing down our experience. The battery life could be better and the keyboard is tricky to use, but these complaints haven’t managed to sully our time with the Pro. Those looking for a Windows Mobile handset to take care of business, who don’t care for showy glitz and flare, should consider the Palm Treo Pro.”

Source
http://www.cnet.com.au/palm-treo-pro-339291458.htm

What I think

If you don’t want to spend a fortune, but you want the features of a Smart Phone, then this phone may be for you. The Palm Treo Pro does not worry about all the bloated software of some of its contemporaries, it just works.

Get yours today. Contact me for the best deal available.

The team at Google have finally put together a guide as to what they see being important in terms of SEO.

Get your Google SEO Starter Guide here.

1. A product or service
2. Potential Customers who know you are selling a product or service, and
3. Potential customers who trust you enough to purchase from you.

I cannot reinforce the importance of point 3 enough. Whether you have an online or an offline business, people are more and more going online to find out what they can about you.

The thing about the World Wide Web and Google is that they may not just find your website. Other people may be talking about you, your company or your product. Do you know? Have you checked to see what others are saying?

There may be people making negative comments on forums or in blog posts and you may not even know about them. There would be nothing worse than just leaving these comments be as these can create doubt in people’s mind about the trustworthiness of you or your product. You do want your existing clients and customers to be happy, don’t you?

If you haven’t previously seen what other people are saying about you out in internet-land, I would suggest you open up a new tab or window, go to google and get searching. Search for your company name, your product name, and then your name.

Also, set up feeds and notifications so that you get notified any time someone mentions your name or your product name. Some great services for this include:

• Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) – Bloglines gives you an easy web-based platform to monitor updates from other blogs in your niche.
• Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) – Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Go for as it happens so you can see if there is a crisis developing. You will have to learn to scan pages to see which are important, which should be filed away and read later and those pages that can be ignored.

Forums are a great way to communicate with and influence your target audiences. They are a place where a plethora of individuals from your target audience gather together to discuss issues. As such, forums are also a great way to identify and monitor issues you may face.

If you are going to participate in an audience, you need to follow these rules.

1. Lurk first in the forum and see what other people are saying and how things run.
2. Make sure you follow the rules. A forum is a privately owned website, not a democracy. There are rules you need to follow to participate in any forum
3. Don’t preach to people in a forum. Speak to them as equals- even if you think they are stupid. Also, avoid fights- this makes you look stupid and a web page can be permanent.
4. Don’t lie. Online, if you lie, you will get caught.
5. If you are going to make a comment in a forum, make sure yo quote the relevant post you are replying to.

Blogs

Do you have a Blog? If not, why not. A blog gives you the opportunity to establish contact directly with your audience, bypassing traditional media outlets. Blogs are great because they are a platform that provides you with instantaneous publishing as well as the opportunity to receive instantaneous feedback from your audiences or target customers.

A note of caution: Do not use your blog to just publish your press releases. Use your blog to engage in two way conversation with your audience. Give them the opportunity to leave comments, and reply to any comments that are left.

Another question that is often asked is whether you should moderate comments. This is a tough question to answer. You should delete spam, and any commentary that is illegal or defamatory, You should not however just delete comments that are negative to your organisation. You should engage these people in conversation.

How to Read a Business Book.
1. Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.
2. If you’re going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It’s simple: if three weeks go by and you haven’t taken action on what you’ve written down, you wasted your time.
3. It’s not about you, it’s about the next person. The single best use of a business book is to help someone else. Sharing what you read, handing the book to a person who needs it… pushing those around you to get in sync and to take action–that’s the main reason it’s a book, not a video or a seminar. A book is a souvenir and a container and a motivator and an easily leveraged tool. Hoarding books makes them worth less, not more.

I think this could be timely, and useful, for those of us who sometimes make a habit of reading ebooks for enjoyment and not necessarily getting enough from our reading.

Cheers,

Hamish