Here’s an interesting notion: Do you realize that there are mistakes you can make at various stages of your business’ growth that can be slowly killing it for months or even years if you don’t watch for them?
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It seems paradoxical – the more you give away, the more people are willing to pay for your services – but it’s true. This exact approach has worked quickly and effectively for me for years. The key is that it’s got to be good and of high relevance to your target audience. This builds people’s confidence that you consistently know your stuff and that you can be counted on for long-term value. People soon realize that if you’re willing to give away such valuable expertise, think how great the solutions they pay for will be!
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What is Branding?
Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more.
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Business is tough in today’s world! Most small businesses go bankrupt or are closed abruptly in the first five years. Over the course of the next five years many of the remainders also “pack up” shop and lock their doors. Why do so many businesses fail?
The reasons lie in three main spheres. Those spheres of influence can be labeled personal, customer, and operations.
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I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how to pronounce “niche” until just a few years ago. That being said, no matter how your pronounce it, it’s very important to the success of your business. Let’s say you are interested in starting a home-based business. You also want to use the Internet for your work-at-home idea. However, you are not sure if you can make money online. To make matters worse, you are confused about what home-based business opportunity to pursue.
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Once you’ve got your business plan written it’s time to iron out some of the basics. This part is important because it’s something that I’ve seen business who are making 10+ million dollars a year skip out on, and it’s come to bite them in the rear when they least expected it.
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It may seem boring or like a waste of time, but taking the time to write a clear comprehensive business plan for your business is very important. The reason reason is that it forces you to:
Create a vision
Define what success looks like
Identify what problem you’re solving
Know who you target audience/customer is
Decide how you will reach that market
I was asked the other day what personality traits I thought were important to business owner success. I immediately gave my preprogrammed reply about passion and dedication and hard work. After taking some time later to ponder the question a little deeper (I normally operate in shallow waters), I came up with a more detailed checklist for entrepreneurial success. This is by no means a definitive list, but I'd be willing to bet that if you don't have at least a majority of these traits, your chances of business success will be greatly diminished.
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As an old teacher of mine used to say, “When you prepare for an emergency it ceases to exist.”
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Without the right things in place you are setting you and your business up for failure.
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It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur—in the last decade, technology has leveled the playing field and propelled an entrepreneurial revolution. As an entrepreneur, you now have more access to information that enables you to make intelligent choices quickly. You have an advantage over big businesses in that you’re lighter, more flexible, and faster on your feet. You can target new markets more quickly, and you can turn on a dime.
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