By John Shanahan, Lighthouse Window Cleaning
Are you tired of looking through a cloud of water spots on your windows and shower doors? There are several methods and tools that will help prevent and eliminate unsightly water spots.
Four Simple prevention tips
1. Adjust sprinkler systems to avoid overspray on to your windows.
2. Never hose down your windows. Dust and dirt on your windows will turn in to invisible mud. When the water dries, it will form a hard water stain. The next time you hose down your windows there will be a small etched water spot that will collect additional mineral deposits. Water spots form like moguls on a ski hill.
3. Wash your windows before the next rain. Many people wait to wash their windows after the rain season. The best way to prevent hard water stains is to have your windows cleaned before the next rain. This gets the minerals off and allows the next rain to dry spot free through the winter.
4. Use a squeegee on shower doors after each use.
Removal of water stains will depend on how badly and how long mineral deposits have etched in to the glass. There are a few quick home remedies and there are some products that will take care of the tougher spots.
Home Remedies
1. Try a piece of “0000” steel wool. That is right! Steel wool on your glass. Make sure it is “0000” This referrers to the size of fiber in the wool. Use a tablespoon lemon Joy and two tablespoons of Lemon ammonia in a gallon of water. Easy to remove spots will come off using a circular motion.
2. Rub lemon Juice on the affected glass. Then, make a paste using baking soda and vinegar. Rub on the water spots in a circular motion. The chemical reaction combined with the abrasion of the soda will break down the hard water stain. For tougher spots, Use “0000” steel wool.
So you have tried the home remedies and spots still exist. There is still hope. I have found two products that work well.
Bio-clean is very effective. There is a mild abrasive in the paste. Rub it in with a circular motion. Let it dry and buff out with a dry cloth. This took care of the heaviest stains. It took a lot of scrubbing and was messy but the finished job good. After several applications, the water stains are gone.
A-Maz is the other water stain remover I have found to work well. The process is the same as Bio Clean. A-Maz is not as toxic as bio clean and works equally as effective.
Would it surprise you to learn that most business people do not have a 30-second commercial (otherwise known as an elevator speech)? In my travels, even those at the highest level have not completed a few versions to suit any occasion in which they might be asked the age-old question, "What do you do?"
It is not only prudent but truly crucial that you be able to simply and quickly describe what you do and who your target audience is no matter the occasion. The purpose of your 30-second commercial is to tell who you are, who your company is, and what you do. In addition, it asks one or more power questions, makes a power statement that shows how you can help others and ends with why the prospect should act now.
Tips for Creating Your Personal Commercial
Follow your plan. When you write a business plan, you prepare the executive summary last because you can't effectively summarize something you haven't already thought out. The same holds true with your personal commercial. Write your personal business plan first. Then, align your personal commercial with your mission and the roadmap you have developed for achieving it.
Make it memorable. Apart from the need to exchange pleasantries, you tell other people what you do for two reasons: they might have a need for your services or they might know someone else who has a need for your services. In either case, they should remember enough of what you told them so that they think of you when the need arises. To make your personal commercial memorable:
o Use an energetic group of words that leaves them wanting more!
o Avoid using industry jargon unless it's absolutely necessary.
o Talk about benefits... "I help lawyers find ways to win more business from existing clients."
o Speak slowly, audibly and clearly.
o If possible, personalize it -- for example a trademark attorney speaking to someone who has expressed concern about cyber squatters might say "I protect companies from cyber squatters," in addition to saying "I am a trademark attorney."
Keep it simple. Test your personal commercial on a seven-year-old. If they can't understand what you do, then you need to do some editing.
Have more than one version. The level of detail you provide at a cocktail reception is often very different than the detail you provide during a client meeting. You need to be prepared with at least two (preferably even three versions) of your 30-second commercial. The first version is quick--perhaps one or two sentences. The second version is as long as one or two paragraphs and should expand on the information provided in the first version. For example, you might expand on your responsibilities or explain in greater detail what your firm does. The third version lasts one or two minutes and could include further explanation of the second version as well as key clients, case studies and other information relevant to the current audience.
Primary Goal of the 30-Second Commercial
To develop a series of sentences that take 10-30 seconds to articulate, sharing how you add value to your customer's business and life. The purpose isn't to tell the other person everything that you do. It's to keep them from saying: "So what!" "We've already got something like that." "We're all set." or "Good-bye!"
30-Second Commercial Outline
Name and Title ... Hi, my name is Honorée Corpron, Visionary, Business Strategist and Performance Coach.
Company Name ... My company is Honorée Enterprises.
Creatively say what you do ... I work with CEOs, senior level professionals and entrepreneurs to achieve profit-doubling growth in 60-80% less time than it would take them to do it on their own.
Insert your Power Question ... Wouldn't it be great to be able to reach achieve more goals in the next 12 months with support than you could achieve on your own in the next decade?
Insert your Power Statement (how you help) ... I think I might be able to help you. Let's get together to discuss ways to implement systems and strategies into your business to help you be the most effective and efficient you can be, all while maintaining balance in your life.
Why the prospect should act now ... Would you like to schedule a brainstorming session, or have lunch or coffee to see if I can be of assistance to you?
Creating your 30-Second Commercial. First, list five ways you improve your clients' business, save them money or money, and/or help them to get more of what they want. Then list five reasons why people do business with you. Combine the most important elements into your 30 Second Commercial.
Power Questions
The Power Question qualifies the prospect and sets up your response. Use these five questions when formulating the Power Questions in your 30-Second Commercials:
1. What information do I want to get as a result of asking this question?
2. Can I qualify my prospect as a result of this question?
3. Does it take more than one question to find out the information I need?
4. Do my questions make the prospect think?
5. Can I ask a question that separates me from my competitor?
Here are some lead-ins to Power Questions that will expose areas of need:
o What do you look for ...?
o What have you found ...?
o What has been your experience ...?
o How do you propose ...?
o How have you successfully used ...?
o How do you determine ...?
o Why is that a deciding factor ...?
o What makes you choose ...?
o What is the one thing you would improve about ...?
o Are there other factors ...?
o What does your competitor do about ...?
o How do your customers react to ...?
o How are you currently ...?
o What are you doing to keep ...?
o How often do you contact ...?
o What are you doing to ensure ...?
Using some of the lead-ins above, as necessary, make a list of 25 Power Questions that make the prospect think and give you the information you need:
Combining all of the necessary elements in creating your 30-second commercial, along with mastering your Power Questions will assist you in attracting more of the clients and customers you want to work with - and they'll know exactly why they should hire you right away!
What is Digg?
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our community. We’re here to provide tools for our community to discover content, discuss the topics that they’re passionate about, connect with like-minded people, and make some new friends in the process. By looking at information through the lens of the collective community on Digg, you’ll always find something interesting and unique. We’re committed to giving every piece of content on the web an equal shot at being the next big thing.
How does Digg work?
Digg builds lists of popular stories being shared across the web. Every story has a digg button. Along with that button is a number that is the number of people from the Digg community who have said they like that like or digg that story.
The amount of diggs a story collects over time can effect how that story spreads and gains more popularity as it spreads more.
Where does Digg news come from?
News on Digg comes straight from the digg community! The best links found from around the web are shared on digg to gain traction and exposure as the link is shared virally.
Find an interesting link on the internet? Digg is the best place to take that news further and spread it quickly amongst a vibrant community.
What is Top News on Digg?
Tens of thousands of stories from a wide variety of interests and sources are shared on Digg everyday.The most popular stories on of the moment are promoted to the Top News section of the web site. Top News is the global zeitgeist of Digg. It’s a snapshot of the most interesting, relevant, quirky, and fun content that the web has to offer.
What is My News on Digg?
My News is where you’ll find a list of stories chosen specifically for you. Stories on in My News are selected based upon the people you choose to follow, the stories you like to read, and the stories that are trending across the entire Digg community.
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To know if an inbound marketing campaign is effective, a business needs to closely monitor its web analytics. A recurring part of successful online marketing, web analytics confirms whether or not a company’s marketing strategies yield results, such as bringing in more leads or customers. Seeing results, in turn, justifies the investment of time and money in online marketing and reveals aspects that need improvement, both of which may drive business growth.
Site Traffic
One of the most important metrics of online marketing is site traffic. How many visitors did each marketing technique, such as blogging, social media interactions, and search engine optimization, draw? The more visitors a business’s online marketing campaign draws, the more opportunities there are to convert those visitors into leads and eventually customers. Business owners should, however, examine carefully the reasons behind an increase in site traffic. Website traffic can refer to three things: total, unique, and repeat site traffic.
Total site traffic is the total number of visits to a website and is the sum of unique and repeat visitors. Total site traffic reflects the overall interest a company website generates. Repeat site traffic, a component of total traffic, is the number of people who visit a site twice or more. Repeat traffic implies regular visitors’ ongoing engagement with the website and thus a website’s stickiness.
Unique site traffic is the number of unique visitors to a website and reflects how well a site is attracting new people to its content. It is important for a business to maintain a healthy ratio of new and repeat visitors. If too many visitors are repeat visitors, a business's reach may not be growing. This is especially true for businesses that sell one-time products or services. While engaging existing visitors may strengthen a business’s online brand and enlarge its supporter communities, acquiring new visitors is key to increasing or maintaining business revenue. There is no fixed ratio for success—a business can determine the proportion of new website visitors that best supports its business growth.
Referring sources are another factor to examine. Just looking at the total number of website visitors does not tell a business owner where the traffic is coming from. To understand which part of its inbound marketing strategy is effectively driving traffic, a business needs to know which proportion of website traffic can be attributed to certain channels. Did the business get a new link from a big website? Is traffic from SEO efforts increasing? Other categories such as email marketing, social media, and paid search should also be examined.
If some sources are not generating website traffic, a business should either work to optimize that channel's ability to send referral traffic or decide whether further investment is worthwhile.
Page popularity is the third element of website traffic analysis. Besides sources of traffic, a business can also break down website traffic by the number of visits individual pages receive. Pages that draw the most visitors contain the most popular content on the website. Knowing what people like to view on a company's site helps a business decide what types of content to keep producing and what to reduce. A page with high page popularity that is often found through search engines may indicate that it is well-optimized for search engines through on-page SEO or that it is targeting strong traffic-driving keywords.
Keywords are the fourth way of categorizing website traffic. What terms or phrases being used on search engines like Google and Bing send the largest number of company website visitors? Are these phrases optimized on the company website and do they match the keywords with which the company wants to be identified? If misalignments exist—when a company does not want to be identified with terms that draw those website visitors—it should start optimizing for keywords that help build its online brand. On the other hand, if a company already ranks well for certain keyword phrases that are related to its business value, it should leverage these “lowhanging- fruit” terms to draw more site traffic. A business can do this by creating content around those terms and thus further optimizing its search rankings for these keywords.
Traffic-to-Lead Conversion
The next step in the sales cycle is to cultivate website visitors into leads, which makes lead conversion another important component to analyze. A business should measure the proportion of visitors that become leads—that is, lead conversion rate. While website visits mainly reflect industry interest, traffic-to-lead conversion reflects prospects’ deeper commitment with a company. In terms of achieving business objectives, conversion rate is hence a more important metric of business success. A channel that generates less traffic but yields a higher lead conversion rate is considered a source that yields qualified traffic, or traffic that draws highquality prospects who are more likely to become leads.
Besides measuring the aggregate lead conversion rate of the website, a business can follow methods outlined in the previous section to measure conversion rates of specific referring sources, pages on the website, and optimized keywords. It should then summarize the kinds of content that yield high conversion rates and continue investing in them.
Closed-Loop Analytics
Customer acquisition is an incredibly important aspect of web analytics. A company can measure what proportion of its leads become customers and from what online sources. With this information, a business can conduct closed-loop analyses to examine the closing rates of individual marketing channels. That is, closed-loop analytics utilizes visit-to-lead and lead-tocustomer conversion rates to help a business understand the cost of customer acquisition from beginning to end for each marketing channel. For some companies, most sales and “closing calls” may take place offline. Even offline-sales-oriented companies, however, can use loop analytics to gain insight into the return on investment of a lead source, whether it’s from an online or offline channel.
Other Metrics
Using the metrics above, a business can monitor its marketing performance. A company looking to improve its marketing effectiveness can use free tools to understand what online tactics it is not yet leveraging that could boost online visibility, site traffic, or lead conversion rate. For example, Website Grader, a free tool developed by HubSpot, helps identify a company website’s missing elements that are critical to getting found online. Specifically, the tool provides companies with a Website Grade. This percentile score not only gives a business a comprehensive analysis of its performance relative to that of its competitors but also makes specific recommendations for improvement to help the business reach online marketing success.
Other metrics, such as direct traffic, should be measured as well. Direct traffic refers to visits from people who directly type a URL into the search bar. These visitors don't have to be existing customers. They may be people who already know the website from memory or perhaps have found the URL in a newspaper article or pamphlet. As a result, direct traffic can reflect word-of-mouth popularity of a company brand on and off the web. A business that measures every technique it implements for each step in its sales cycle will obtain a holistic understanding of its online marketing performance. This information helps a company make more informed decisions that can eventually drive growth and overall success.
If you build a Facebook Page, will fans come? This is the great hope for many businesses.
However, fans do not magically appear from the Facebook mist.
People must be lured to your fan page. And there are some good and bad ways to go about doing this. In this article, I’ll share a big myth and 21 ways to drive more fans to your Facebook fan page. (Though Facebook recently changed the “Become A Fan” button to the new, omnipresent “Like” button – and a fan page is called a “Business Page” or “Facebook Page” – we can still call them fan pages and people who join are fans!)
The Big Myth
There’s a great myth that once you create a Facebook fan page for your business, the first thing you should do to get fans is invite ALL your friends from your personal profile using the “Suggest to Friends” feature.
Unfortunately, this strategy may not be that effective and can, in fact, often backfire. I have seen many industry gurus complain that when they decline a fan page request, it’s frustrating to continue to be asked again and again.
There are several reasons not to use the Suggest to Friends feature:
• Facebook users can only like up to 500 pages and may wish to be selective. (Though I have seen it’s possible to go over this limit).
• Fan page suggestions may often build up, unnoticed. (At last count, I have 593 overlooked fan page suggestions and am already a fan of 500!)
• To aggressively pursue all your friends to join your fan page – for no apparent incentive – is counterintuitive to the nature of social media.
So, the good news is there are many ways to promote your fan page and proactively increase your fan base without bugging all your current Facebook friends, and also by thinking wider than just Facebook.
Here are 18 ways to get more fans for your Facebook fan page:
#1: Embed Widgets on Your Own Website, Blog etc.
Select from a number of the new Facebook Social Plugins and place them on your website and blog. The Fan Box widget is now the Like Box and it works well to display your current fan page stream and a selection of fans. I would recommend adding a title above the box encouraging visitors to your site/blog to click the “Like” button (which makes them a Facebook fan).
You might also consider the Live Stream widget for more advanced uses, particularly on an FBML custom tab of your fan page itself. The Live Stream widget allows Facebook users to add their comments to a live event, for example, and that activity pushes out into their stream.
#2: Invite Your Email and Ezine SubscribersAssuming you have an opt-in email list, definitely send out an invitation to your subscribers via email (several times, over time) letting them know about your fan page and encouraging them to join. Ideally, provide them with a description of the page and an incentive to join.
Be sure to have the Facebook logo/badge appear in your HTML newsletters. Instead of the usual “Join our Fan Page,” say something creative like “Write on our Facebook wall,” or “Join our Facebook community,” or “Come add your photo to our Facebook group” (where “group” is actually your fan page). Users have to be a fan in order to interact with your fan page in this way.
#3: Add to Your Email Signature BlockInstead of promoting your Facebook personal profile (if you do), include a link to your fan page in every email you send out. If you use web-based email, check out the Wisestamp signature addon.
#4: Make a Compelling Welcome VideoCreate an attractive landing tab (canvas page) with a video that explains exactly a) what your fan page is about, b) who it’s for and c) why they should become members. The result: you’ll increase your conversion rate from visitors to fans. One of my favorite fan page welcome videos is by Steve Spangler, the Science Guy! After watching his video, you can’t help but want to join! (By the way, with the new Facebook changes, if your custom welcome tab and video talk about clicking the “Become A Fan” button, you may want to change the wording to “click the Like button” now).
#5: Get Fans to Tag PhotosIf you host live events, be sure to take plenty of photos (or even hire a professional photographer), load the photos to your fan page and encourage fans to tag themselves. This, again, pushes out into their wall and friends’ News Feeds, providing valuable (free!) exposure. And, a picture says a thousand words – we notice the thumbnails in our feed more than text.
#6: Load Videos and Embed on Your SiteFacebook’s Video feature is extremely powerful. You can load video content to your Facebook fan page, then take the source code and embed on your blog/website. There is a “Become a Fan” button right in the video itself.
#7: Place Facebook AdsEven with a nominal weekly/monthly budget, you should be able to boost your fan count using Facebook’s own social ad feature. It’s the most targeted traffic your money can buy. To buy an ad, scroll to the foot of any page inside Facebook and click the link at the very bottom that says “Advertising.” From there, you can walk through the wizard and get an excellent sense of how many Facebook users are in your exacttarget market.
Then, when you advertise your fan page, Facebook users can become a fan (click the Like button) right from the ad as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, Facebook displays several of your friends who have already liked you, thus creating social proof.
#8: Run a ContestThis is somewhat of a gray area because Facebook changed their Promotional Guidelines last year. Essentially, you need prior written permission from Facebook and need to be spending a significant amount on ads per month. However, you CAN require Facebook users to become a fan of your fan page in order to enter a contest, sweepstakes, drawing or competition.
#9: Link to TwitterLink your Twitter account to your Facebook fan page and automatically post your Facebook content to Twitter. You can edit what gets posted, choosing from Status Updates, Photos, Links, Notes and Events.
You have 420 characters on the Facebook publisher and 140 on Twitter. In the tweet that goes out, Facebook truncates your post past a certain character count and inserts a bit.ly link back to your fan page. To track click-through stats on that link, just paste the bit.ly link that Facebook created for you in your browser’s address bar and add a “+” sign to the end. This works for any bit.ly link!
I also recommend you promote your Facebook fan page on your Twitter background and possibly in your Twitter bio/URL field too.
#10: Get Fans to Join Via SMSYour fans can join your fan page via text message! You’ll need to get your first 25 fans and secure your username. Then, to join your fan page, Facebook users just send a text message to 32665 (FBOOK) with the words “fan yourusername” OR “like yourusername” (without the quotes).
This feature is ideal when you’re addressing a live audience, say. Have everyone pull out their mobile phones and join your fan page on the spot! This would also work well for radio or TV. (Note that this only works for Facebook users with a verified mobile device in his or her account.)
#11: Use Print Media
Look at every piece of print media you use in your business. Your Facebook fan page (as well as Twitter and any other social sites you’re active on), should be clearly displayed. Put your Facebook fan page link (and the logo) on your business cards, letterhead, brochure, print newsletter, magazine ads, products, etc.
#12: Display at Your Store/Business
If your business is run from physical premises, put a placard on the front deskletting your customers know you’re on Facebook. Ideally, you have a simple, memorable username. Incentivize customers to join right away via their mobile device and show you/your staff the confirmation for some kind of instant reward!
You might give out physical coupons promoting your fan page. For restaurants, put the Facebook logo, your username and a call to action on your menus.
#13. Add a Link on Your Personal ProfileIf you’d like to promote your fan page to your Facebook friends, just under your photo on your personal profile there is a section to write something about yourself. I call this the “mini bio” field and strongly suggest adding a link to your fan page like so:
Be sure to format the URL with http:// otherwise it will not be clickable with just the www’s. You have a limited amount of characters, so keep it succinct and leave out the www’s. You can put in hard line breaks though to make the content easier to read.
#14: Add a Badge/Button to Your Profile
Using an app like Profile HTML or Extended Info, you can create your own custom HTML, including a Facebook badge and/or graphic to embed.
#15: Use the Share Button
The Share button is all over Facebook and is a very handy feature. It only works for sharing on your personal profile. So periodically go to your fan page, scroll toward the bottom left column and click the “Share+” button. Add a compelling comment along the lines of exciting news, recent changes, special incentives, etc., happening on your fan page and invite your friends to join if they haven’t already. I find the Share button far more effective than the Suggest to Friends approach. (And, if you’d like to Share content from the web on to your fan page vs. profile, I highly recommend using theHootlet bookmarklet tool at HootSuite.com).
#16: Use the @ Tag
As long as you’re a fan of your own fan page, you can “@ tag” it on your own personal profile wall. From time to time, you can let your friends know about something happening on your fan page by writing a personal status update that includes tagging your fan page with an @ tag. Simply start typing the “@” symbol and the first few letters of your fan page name (this works whether you have your username registered or not), and it will appear from a drop-down menu to select. This then makes it a nice, subtle hyperlink that your friends can choose to click on.
#17: Autograph Posts on Other Walls
A subtle way to gain more visibility for your fan page is to add an @ tag for your fan page when writing on your friends’ walls as a way to sign off.
Use this one sparingly and, again, monitor the response from your friends. I have never been a fan of adding a signature block on Facebook wall posts because our name and profile picture thumbnail are always hyperlinked right back to our profile anyway. But the simple @ tag could be effective.
#18: Autograph Other Fan Pages
As with adding your fan page @ tag to posts you make on your friends’ walls, you could equally use the same technique when posting on other fan pages. Thisneeds to be used with discretion and I would advise against doing this on any potentially competing fan page!
So, these are just 18 ways to create strategic visibility and promote your Facebook fan page.
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Every business needs a business plan - no matter how small!
What information needs to be in your business plan? What is the order of information that will make the most sense to lenders and investors? You can answer these questions with the business plan outlines provided below.
What are the standard elements of a business plan? If you do need a standard business plan to seek funding — as opposed to a plan-as-you-go approach for running your business, which I describe below — there are predictable contents of a standard business plan outline.
For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation, and Financial Analysis. The precise business plan format can vary.
Is the order important? If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the sequence I suggest for a business plan. I have provided two outlines, one simple and the other more detailed.
Simple Business Plan Outline
- Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
- Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
- Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
- Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.
- Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results.
- Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing strategies.
- Management Team: Describe the organization and the key management team members.
- Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables.
Build your plan, then organize it. I don’t recommend developing the plan in the same order you present it as a finished document. For example, although the Executive Summary obviously comes as the first section of a business plan, I recommend writing it after everything else is done. It will appear first, but you write it last.
Standard tables and charts
There are also some business tables and charts that are normally expected in a standard business plan.
Cash flow is the single most important numerical analysis in a plan, and should never be missing. Most plans will also have Sales Forecast and Profit and Loss statements. I believe they should also have separate Personnel listings, projected Balance Sheet, projected Business Ratios, and Market Analysis tables.
I also believe that every plan should include bar charts and pie charts to illustrate the numbers.
Expanded business plan outline
Here’s an expanded full business plan outline, with details you might want to include in your own business plan.
1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
1.3 Keys to Success
2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
2.2 Company History (for ongoing companies) or Start-up Plan (for new companies)
2.3 Company Locations and Facilities
3.0 Products and Services
3.1 Product and Service Description
3.2 Competitive Comparison
3.3 Sales Literature
3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment
3.5 Technology
3.6 Future Products and Services
4.0 Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.2.1 Market Needs
4.2.2 Market Trends
4.2.3 Market Growth
4.3 Industry Analysis
4.3.1 Industry Participants
4.3.2 Distribution Patterns
4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns
4.3.4 Main Competitors
5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 Strategy Pyramids
5.2 Value Proposition
5.3 Competitive Edge
5.4 Marketing Strategy
5.4.1 Positioning Statements
5.4.2 Pricing Strategy
5.4.3 Promotion Strategy
5.4.4 Distribution Patterns
5.4.5 Marketing Programs
5.5 Sales Strategy
5.5.1 Sales Forecast
5.5.2 Sales Programs
5.6 Strategic Alliances
5.7 Milestones
6.0 Web Plan Summary
6.1 Website Marketing Strategy
6.2 Development Requirements
7.0 Management Summary
7.1 Organizational Structure
7.2 Management Team
7.3 Management Team Gaps
7.4 Personnel Plan
8.0 Financial Plan
8.1 Important Assumptions
8.2 Key Financial Indicators
8.3 Break-even Analysis
8.4 Projected Profit and Loss
8.5 Projected Cash Flow
8.6 Projected Balance Sheet
8.7 Business Ratios
8.8 Long-term Plan
Business plan outline advice
Size your business plan to fit your business. Remember that your business plan should be only as big as what you need to run your business. While everybody should have planning to help run a business, not everyone needs to develop a complete formal business plan suitable for submitting to a potential investor, or bank, or venture contest. So don’t include outline points just because they are on a big list somewhere, or on this list, unless you’re developing a standard business plan that you’ll be showing to somebody else who expects a standard business plan.
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Social media marketing and social networking are superb marketing tools…if they’re used right, use them wrong and they can be a waste of time.
If you’re one of those people who say “Tried it. Social media doesn’t work for my business.”, here are some reasons why you might not be seeing success.
You don’t have a plan.
Social media is marketing, and successful marketing requires a plan. Random tweeting or posting is a waste of time and effort.
You don’t have a target audience that you want to engage (you would if you had a plan!).
Pretty tough to know what to post if you don’t know what your followers are interested in. Remember you are the expert in your business, post interesting tips about your biz and industry.
You’re all about self-promotion.
This is about as effective as thinking networking is all about telling everyone why they should buy from you. If the bulk of your posts include “I” or “me”, you may want to fix them.
You don’t get the “social” part of social media/networking.
Being social requires some sort of interaction…..like sharing and connecting. Commenting on other people’s posts, retweeting, sharing posts that you find interesting, sharing posts that might help someone else, responding when a friend asks a question. If you’re not doing that, you’re doing “solo” media. Lots of luck with that!
You’re not following anyone.
We don’t go along with the “follow everyone who follows you” theory, but we do know that we learn a lot from following the right people (those who tweet about what we're interested in or fun quirky things). So we're always looking for interesting people to follow. And we periodically go through oury new followers to see if we want to follow them in return.
You’re boring people.
If your posts aren’t of interest to your followers, why should they follow you? Or recommend that others follow you? Your network will stagnate. Make your posts and tweets interesting, timely and relevant. If your goal is to gain visibility as a graphic design expert, talk about graphic design and related topics. Trends you’re seeing (or reading about). Helpful tips for prospective clients. And don’t be afraid to throw in the occasional quirky post just to make it fun. Posts that make people smile get shared.
You’re inconsistent.
It’s not necessary to tweet daily….but it doesn’t hurt. I’ve read some tips that say 4 times a day is optimum but that’s assuming you have something of value to tweet about. Watch the people who have a lot of followers, and see what they tweet about and how often. Same goes for Facebook. Don’t post and then disappear for a month. Your followers will do the same.
And don’t forget that your ranking in Google is affected by Twitter and Facebook. The more you tweet and post, the more Google finds you and the higher you appear in search.
You over post and tweet endlessly.
If you have logged on to Twitter or facebook only to find numerous tweets in a row from one person, then you know how annoying that is. Try and space your tweets and posts out during the day. Don’t fill your followers newsfeeds with you you you. They will hide you, immediately.
You forgot about keywords.
One of the best things about Facebook and Twitter is that your posts and tweets get picked up by Google. This not only gives you more visibility but moves your rankings up. Always use keywords in your posts and profiles , this is how people will find you.
You’re using an auto responder to thank people for following you.
Yes, auto responders are convenient and oh so appealing to save time, BUT we are typically following you because we think you may tweet something interesting. Jamming up our email with messages that say “thanks for following me” or “have a good day” are nice and all but hold no value. They’re automatically generated so it’s not like you’re sending them to connect with us.
You’re pretending to connect but you’re really all about selling.
After receiving a nice invite to connect, you say "ok I would love to connect", and the next thing you know you are given the big pitch. That is not connecting, that is being sold.
You’re not being authentic.
Authenticity and transparency are two of the key attributes for a solid social media/social networking connection. Try and portray yourself as someone you’re not, and you’ll get called on it.
You’re not big on sharing.
Since that’s pretty much what social networking is all about, if you ‘re not into sharing, you shouldn’t be here.
