Category: Debate

10 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business Offline

While most people are focused on online marketing nowadays, there are still tons of offline marketing strategies to create buzz around your brand. In this post, I share 10 guerrilla marketing ideas to grow your business offline.

As a business owner, you’re constantly looking for ways to grow your business. While most of the articles I write focus on growing your business online, today I’m going to focus on the offline side of things.

Before the internet came along, one of the oldest forms of marketing was called Guerrilla Marketing. This marketing concept was established to help small businesses expose their brands or products by direct offline exposure via foot traffic or word of mouth buzz from people who were talking about their brand or products.

Guerrilla marketing is a strategy used by small businesses who are facing budget constraints to hire a professional firm for their advertising needs. This strategy aims to achieve conventional results by using unconventional methods. This marketing strategy invests in energy, idea and creativity rather than money to reach its target market.

Here are 10 guerrilla marketing ideas to grow your business offline:

1. Public Relations

PR has been one of the oldest forms of guerrilla marketing. However, it still remains to be one of the most effective ways to get buzz building around a business or brand even today.

The great part about PR campaigns is that it generally is absolutely FREE and you promote your product or brand to major publications. These publications will highlight your business or write an article featuring your business it in, thus exposing your company to a large audience. When launching StatFuse, this was one of the ways that we obtained 10,000 users in 2 weeks during our beta!

2. Street Propaganda

Another very old & effective form of guerrilla marketing is known as street propaganda. Coming up with creative marketing campaigns in local neighborhoods or areas that you think your business is relevant is a great way to get some attention.

I am definitely not promoting you to tag up your local neighborhoods with graffiti, but ideas of street propaganda can vary. For example, we’ve had local kids in the neighborhood that are already hanging out earn some extra money by handing out our flyers. The aim of street propaganda is to really give your brand exposure in a certain area.

3. Give Discounts

The next best word after “FREE” to capture someone’s attention is “DISCOUNT” or “SALE”. A popular and effective guerrilla marketing strategy used by businesses often times is offering coupons.

While sites like Groupon and LivingSocial tend to dominate the coupon market, there are numerous other ways to get your coupons out there. People still tend to read local print newspapers and many neighborhoods will often have coupon books distributed to the houses in the area. By including your business and a small little coupon, you can definitely expose your brand to a new audience.

4. Support Local Community Events

One of the most successful ways that I’ve been able to give my business positive exposure over the years has been through supporting the local community. If your local community is having any charitable events, become a sponsor. By becoming a sponsor, you can do a meet and greet with the locals while promoting a great cause.

Building a solid relationship between your business and the community can help boost popularity and sales. You can offer products or giveaways to the public while embedding your brand and business, which can lead to them buying from you and increasing your sales down the line.

5. Give Stuff Away

Remember how earlier I said that the best word people love to hear is FREE? If you have a little bit of a budget and are willing to use it for a giveaway, you can really get some hype around your business.

Free is a word that everyone loves to hear. Give something for FREE away to your customers in exchange for an email address or a phone number. I see these types of giveaways taking place all the time. In fact, just the other day I was at the Angels baseball game and Honda was doing a giveaway. Get a free backpack and pair of sunglasses by just filling out a form with your name, email address and phone number. They must have collected at least 2,500 data points at that game.

6. Random Acts Of Kindness

All marketing aside, entrepreneurs should all go in with the mindset of making the world a better place. That’s why I’m an entrepreneur. Making money, having awesome sales numbers and scalable business models are all great, don’t get me wrong. Howvever, making a difference in the world is the greatest thing of all to me.

Another way to reach your market and advertise is by doing something that can put a smile on the face of your customers. Everyone wants to receive simple acts of kindness, such as free hugs for children from having a brand mascot act a fool (if you have one). Find ways to be creative while helping people as you capitalize on exposing your brand.

7. Make It Rain With Stickers

Another super awesome way that we made StatFuse go viral in the early months of launching was through the use of stickers. We were targeting high school students and we decided to print a bunch of stickers to give away to them for FREE.

Stickers were an amazing form of advertising for us. They were sticking our stickers on their notebooks, backpacks, laptops and even other students. The best part of all this was that our brand was constantly being exposed through the use of these stickers. Stickers are an inexpensive and efficient to way show off your business to the world.

8. Pop Up Shops

 

This method of guerrilla marketing has become extremely popular in recent years and many businesses have thrived as a result of it. Another way of reaching your target market, is by reaching them in the flesh.

Setting up a pop up shop in various high traffic locations can be a GREAT way to gain brand exposure and to directly sell your products to customers. Setting up a temporary physical store at street corners, or within a store, is a way of bringing your point of sale to your customers.

9. Hire An Influencer

While most people turn to social media influencers to be a brand ambassador, you can look to offline influencers as well. Hiring an influential person to promote your product can influence your customer to purchase your product.

Influencers, as they are called, can use their fame and connections to endorse your product and get noticed by the public. If you have a product that doesn’t necessarily cater well to a social influencer, try to find an offline influencer that can make a big difference.

10. Urban Hacktivism

Now before I mention this, I am in no way condemning anything that is illegal or done without the permission of those who need to be asked. An unusual way to advertise and evoke curiosity to the market is by using creativity through the urban world.

A really awesome and cool marketing idea I had seen a few years ago was in Downtown Los Angeles. A street wear brand had created a ‘scavenger’ hunt of sorts that led to their store and warehouse. They ran this scavenger hunt by using the existing street signs as clues and leaving behind clues at various public places. I don’t know exactly how successful this campaign was, but when I did visit the store during the time that they were running the scavenger hunts, I noticed a line all the way to the parking lot.

Conclusion

Guerrilla marketing is about using your marketing skills mixed with creativity, ingenuity, imagination and innovative ideas that can titillate the public’s interest at a low cost. In this post, I shared 10 guerrilla marketing ideas grow your business offline.

8 Niche Marketing Examples That Show You How Much Money Can Be Made In Targeted Industries

From this post, you can see 8 niche marketing examples that show you how much money can be made in targeted industries. If you’re thinking of launching a business, don’t hesitate to attack a smaller market because the rewards can be massive.

A niche market is a growing market that focuses on selling a streamlined type of product or goods that is within a specific category, or niche. This marketing strategy enables the entrepreneur to become the face of an industry or space that may not necessarily be serving a massive audience, but fills a deep void.

Niche marketing does not appeal to a broad range of customers, but it caters to the special demands of the small group that they target. Niche markets benefit the entrepreneur in a number of ways, such as premium pricing, lower costs to attract customers and the opportunity to become the go-to company in the chosen niche. These kinds of niche businesses are beginning to thrive and becoming very successful.

Here are 8 niche marketing examples that show you how much money can be made in targeted industries:

1. LuluLemon Athletica

This is an example of a typical niche retail company that has become successful in its chosen niche. It specializes in marketing exercise equipment, athletic wear and exercise accessories that are designed for women. The retail company has countered the stereotypical market that often has exercise accessories and athletic wear designed for men.

The company has narrowed its focus and came up with LuluLemon Athletica that targets women who exercise and do yoga by selling them just the right items for their needs. These products come at a much higher price, but it’s a targeted niche that has been very successful.

2. Ties.com

While there are plenty of online clothes retailers like Amazon, Zappos or Gap, Ties.com has joined the hyper-focused niche market of ties. The company focuses on selling only ties, which are an everyday essential for numerous working men in the world.

This company provides the largest selection of neckwear on the planet as it specializes in producing ties. If you are looking for a unique tie that is of superior quality, Ties.com can provide it to you. This retail company is dominating the online market with their unique products.

3. Lefty’s

This unique retail store has become popular to many in the US. About 10% of the US population is left-handed and most of the retail stores that sell school supplies, kitchen goods, or gardening tools are selling items that are made for right-handed people. This retail store is the most successful in its niche. It provides items and goods that are designed for left-handed people.

Being a unique store, the company has invested in PPC advertising that has helped their business to reach their target market. Whenever a left-handed person searched for a left-handed item, the Lefty’s advertisement would appear. This helped them become extremely popular while gaining brand recognition among left handed individuals.

4. Lehman’s

Lehman’s is a successful store that specializes in selling nonelectric, old fashion appliances and tools. Their products are often used by groups of environmentalists, homesteaders, hunters and fishermen.

Some of their products are even used for Hollywood sets that replicate historical places. They may be nothing compared to retail stores that sell electrical appliances, but Lehman’s has been in the business for over 50 years now. They focused selling their products to a core group of people, the Amish, which allowed them to achieve massive success. This strategy has won them over the rising competitive market.

5. Bonobo’s

Bonobos is a company that set out to solve the problem that most men deal with on a regular basis – pants. Most of the store-bought slacks for men just didn’t fit right for men.

They provided their customers with the adjustments to men’s pants as suggested by their audience. They reached their prospective customers by sending emails and using social media to let men know they had a solution to their problems.

6. Just Right Packages

If you want to talk about niche marketing examples, this one is my favorite. Just Right Packages allows you to send care packages to inmates who are in prison. Just take a moment and think about how niche that category really is.

Not only do you have to know a close friend or family member that’s in prison, but you also have to really care for them enough to send them a care package. While the market may not seem massive to you, Send A Package has done extremely well in this unserved space.

7. Drybar

Drybar is a salon catering to a very niche problem. People with curly hair who consistently enjoy getting blowouts since they’re tired of straightening their every day go to Drybar to get a blowout for an affordable price. When the founder had an issue with her curly hair, she knew that others must have felt the same way.

From there, Drybar was born and it has been an extremely successful venture. Not only do many women look to Drybar to get affordable blowouts, but they’re coming back over and over again to get the job done. This is a great example of someone who took a problem they dealt with and found a creative solution to it.

8. Throx

Throx is genius. Throx is a company that sells socks, but instead of selling you a pair of socks….they sell you three socks at a time. Now, if your anything like me and tend to lose your socks all over the place, you’re in luck. Throx’s niche is targeting clumsy people who tend to lose things by selling them three socks.

They are a very successful company that didn’t do anything radical or revolutionary. All they did was add an extra matching sock with each order to help give careless people such as myself a peace of mind.

Conclusion

From this post, you can see 8 niche marketing examples that show you how much money can be made in targeted industries. If you’re thinking of launching a business, don’t hesitate to attack a smaller market because the rewards can be massive.

How to Market A Book And Make It A Bestseller

In this post, I share my tips on how to market a book and make it a bestseller. If you’re launching a new book or ebook, this is the perfect guide for you!

Launching your own book or ebook has become easier than ever before. With that, making your book a bestseller has become tougher than ever. So the million dollar question remains to be, what makes a book a bestseller? But what makes a book a bestseller?

Being a bestseller can boost your credibility and give you the recognition you deserve as a leader in an industry. For an author to be recognized as having a bestselling book, it’s an honor and a privilege. Whether you produce a paperback book or an ebook, you need to have a strategy to turn your work into a bestseller. When I launched my book, Limitless Thinking, I went in with a game plan and executed upon it.

In this post, I’ll share my tips on how to market a book and make it a bestseller:

Step 1: Write A Great Book

For you to be become a bestseller, you need to write on a topic that people want to read about. Your book must create value and answer a question or fill a void that people are looking for. Start off by asking the following questions:

– Is my topic popular on Amazon? Are many people buying books in this category? Are there tons of books covering this topic?

– Is my book going to give people what they want instead of what I think is valuable?

– Who’s my audience and what’s the easiest way to reach them?

– Is this a topic that my audience relates to and is looking for?

– Am I writing to them in the proper tone and language that they will understand?

In order to write a great book, you have to start by writing about something that they’re looking for answers to.

Step 2: Make A Killer First Impression

First impressions are everything. Would you go to your next meeting wearing unwashed clothes smelling like trash?

Probably not because you know better. When authors create a book, they often times don’t know better and they make this horrifying mistake. You have to make a killer first impression if you want to convert your ‘viewers’ into ‘buyers’. Ask the following questions:

– Is my cover professionally designed and something that will convert well?

– Does my title and subtitle exactly explain what the book is about?

– Is the description for my book compelling?

– Do I have a handful of good reviews that talk about the value of my book?

– Is my book formatted well for Kindle and other publishing platforms that I launch on?

Step 3: Select The Right Categories

In order to be a #1 bestseller on Amazon, you don’t really need to sell the most books. You just really have to sell more books in a certain time period compared to author authors in a specific category.

See how much easier it became to be a #1 bestseller? Many people often think that you have to outsell every book on Amazon for a day to become a bestseller, but that’s a myth.

Since you can select a couple categories, find two that relate to your book but don’t have as much competition as some of the larger categories on the marketplace.

My book “Limitless Thinking” is a book for entrepreneurs helping them find their own path in life, but the Amazon category I used to propel my book to a bestseller was Personal Transformation in the Self-Help category. The category has much less competition and it’s much easier to become a #1 bestseller, but the content of my book is still relevant to that category.

Step 4: Start Marketing Months Before Launch Day

You know your book is great, but it isn’t very easy to convince others right? You need to get the word out months before launch day. While you’re still writing your book, create hype around your book.

– In the time before you launch your book and make it officially available for download/purchase, build up buzz, get people to your website, start collecting emails for your list and let the world know that a book will be released soon.

– Days before launching the book, get people excited by teasing some of the content in the book, running contests/giveaways and dishing out bonuses to people who are you on your list.

– If you build hype for your book long before you ever launch it, it’ll make hitting the bestsellers list a lot easier. Many people make the mistake of getting too focused on writing their book that they do nothing to market their book.

Step 5: Dominate Your Launch Day

Ready for the easiest part to become a bestseller if you follow all of the things mentioned above? For 24 hours, have as many people as you can download or purchase your book. You need to show Amazon a killer sales volume for a short period of time (preferably as soon as you launch out of the gates) to propel yourself into the bestsellers list.

– Start with the email list you collected and email everyone letting them know that your book is available for sale.

– Offer discounts, promotions and coupon codes for a ‘limited time’ to get people to take action immediately within the first 24 hours.

– Message friends, family and loved ones to support you by purchasing your books and leaving you positive reviews/feedback.

– Leverage your social media platforms by sharing posts with a link to your book so that people can easily purchase it.

– If you do blog or write guest posts, this is the day to have all your posts released while doing a small promo for your book.

Monitor and track your sales while you watch your book climb the charts and make it to the bestsellers list!

In Conclusion

In this post, I shared my tips and strategies on how to market a book and make it a bestseller. Have a question? Hit the comments!

5 Ways to Earn Residual Income

The wealthy get wealthier not by spending more time working, but rather finding ways to make money while they sleep. In this post, I share 5 ways to earn residual income.

You’ve probably heard the saying quite often that “the wealthier get wealthier.” It isn’t because of luck or good fortune in most cases. In fact, it’s because the wealthy are earning money in a completely different way than most others do or even think of.

There are many stories of people who were born into poor situations or lifestyles that were able to turn it around with hard work and strategic mindsets to become millionaires or even billionaires. Opportunity surrounds our daily lives, it’s just a matter of capitalizing on it.

Most people are focused on ‘active income’, which is the concept of trading a certain number of hours in exchange for compensation. The wealthy are focused on ‘residual income’, which is the idea of working for a set period of time to create an income stream that will allow you to get paid even once you finish the work.

The mass majority of businesses that I have built or currently work on are set up in this manner as well. If I leave tomorrow to go travel the world for 365 days, I’ll still get paid and earn an income. For most others who don’t have awesome travel benefits, if they leave their job to go travel the world…they probably won’t be earning a dime.

So how can you earn residual income? In this post, I will share 5 ways to earn residual income:

1. Sell Information 

Selling information is something that can be done in many different mediums. Some turn to informational products or courses to sell a subject they are a master of to a large audience. Others create information through e-books or paperback books and charge a fee for that.

You can build your own website and sell informational products or you can leverage a platform such as Udemy to create a course to sell to an audience. For e-books and paperback books, you can sell it direct to consumers through your website or use a self-publishing platform such as Kindle. If you want to take it a step further, you can even seek out publishers to market and sell your books for you.

2. Sell Physical Products On The Internet 

Find a niche or a product line that you have a good amount of knowledge in and white label it. You can also go the more extensive route of innovating your own physical products and selling it to an audience. Find a niche, locate a supplier and start creating products under your own brand.

Take those products and you can either sell it through your own e-commerce or Shopify website. On top of that, you can directly sell with platforms such as Amazon, Jet, Walmart and many others. Once your brand is large enough, you’ll even have the ability to try to get into retail stores or develop partnerships with drop-shipping websites. Once you have all this set up, you can hire employees to do the customer service and inventory management while you rake in the residual income.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is better described as performance-based marketing. It is the way for a company to sell its products by enlisting affiliates to market their products in exchange for a commission. The affiliates are responsible for marketing the product to their audience and they can generate additional passive income.

In fact, many people that I know have successfully done this over the years. Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome and John Lee Dumas from EntrepreneurOnFire are just a few examples of the most successful affiliate marketers that I know. They took great products they believe in and promoted it to an existing audience that had a need for it as well.

4. Rental Properties 

Going back to what I was speaking about earlier, the wealthy get wealthier by reinvesting their profits. If you take your money and put it in the bank, I guarantee you that the bank is making more on your money than you ever will in the entire time you keep it in your ‘savings accounts.’ The wealthy understand this concept and are constantly using their money to leverage residual income.

A fairly hassle-free way to earn residual or passive income is through rental properties. By properties and do one of two things. One, you can buy a property and rent it out to others (you can even hire a property management company to do all the hard work). Two, you can even use platforms such as Airbnb or HomeAway to list your property as a vacation home that can generate you some really nice residual income.

5. Build A Mobile App 

Building mobile applications have become easier than ever in this modern era. You don’t even need to know a thing about coding in order to build your app. You can hire freelancers or an employee to build your mobile applications. Come up with the concept, hire the graphic designers and developers and see your mobile app ideas come to life.

Whether you decide to monetize with advertisements, outright payments or in-app purchases, mobile applications are great for passive income. Build a great app once, have your existing team update it and reap the profits for years to come. Many of the top apps such as Candy Crush or Clash of Clans generate millions per day from a game they built over a 6-12 month period of time. Developing apps that are simple, easy to use, but are unique can generate significant passive income.

In Conclusion 

In this post, I shared just 5 ways to earn residual incomes. What are some ways that you’ve been able to successfully earn residual income over the years?

5 Ways to Market Your Business Digitally in 2017

In this post, we shared 5 ways to market your business digitally in 2017. Even in 2017, digital marketing is the easiest way to reach out to consumers and promote products and services.

In the modern world, advertising and marketing isn’t as easy of a thing to do as it once was. Nowadays, marketing is constantly changing and many business owners have a tough time keeping up. If you don’t adapt to the new trends in the marketplace, your business can fall behind real quick.

Digital marketing is now the trending way to promote products and brands with the use of technology. Consumers nowadays spend more time in front of the computer and use the internet far often than they used to in the past. Shopping is also done online and this has changed the effectiveness of offline marketing.

Today, marketing means targeting the audience and showcasing yourself to them where they spend most of their time, which in most cases is somewhere on the internet. Digital marketing involves channeling your campaigns where you are getting exposure through web, mobile, social media and other digital networks.

Here are 5 ways to market your business digitally in 2017:

1. New Social Media

You’re probably thinking, wow I’ve heard this one already. Well, social media is still one of the supreme ways to market your business digitally. However, the social media channels you use have changed dramatically in the last 12 months.

Your customers and consumers in general are spending more time than ever on social media. If your business isn’t reaching them through the social media platforms where they spend their time, you’re missing out on potential impressions and even sales. In 2017, SnapChat, Instagram and Periscope have become the supreme social media channels to advertise on. Start adapting and shifting your digital campaigns to these social networks.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, but is also one of the most successful forms even until today. The funnel for email marketing has always been the same, the only thing that has changed in 2017 is the content you use in your email campaigns.

Find a way to collect email addresses. My best method is to give away a FREE handbook, guide or e-book in exchange for an email address. Once you have the email address, the marketing really begins. Instead of pushing people to buy your product through email, connect with your audience. Give them daily or weekly content that they can relate to so they don’t ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘mark as spam.’ By doing this, you’re raising brand awareness for your business.

3. Video Marketing

It has been a proven trend as of 2017 that consumers prefer video content compared to text or image campaigns. In fact, majority of my advertising campaigns to promote mobile apps that we have made have completely shifted to video. As a result of making this shift, we’ve seen our conversions increase by 65%.

The new age is here and people would rather watch content than read it. Now, the power is in your hands. If you can market through videos instead of the old-fashioned strategies you’ve used, your business can see a solid marketing push.

4. Webinars

As I mentioned to you earlier, video is everything. Why are webinars doing so well in 2017? People love to watch and listen instead of read. Webinars allow you to create trust with your potential customers while also positioning you and your business as industry leaders.

It’s not too hard to set up a webinar. Figure out a topic that you can speak on intelligently for about 45-90 minutes. Create a “how to topic” that you think your audience would enjoy learning and build a presentation around it. Typically good webinars follow the format shown below:

Start with an introduction of who you are, what your company does and why you’re credible.

– Discuss the overview of your presentation and what people can expect to learn.

– Get into the “how to” for your presentation.

– After covering the main elements of your presentation, connect with your audience. Try collecting emails, let them know about future events and find a way to send them the slides.

– Send emails and nurture your relationships with your audience.

5. Make Data Your Focus

The big thing in 2017 is going to be data. Analytics, measuring and tracking the most important metrics in your business and data is vital to the success of your business. If you cannot utilize data to make more informed decisions, you’re already behind your competitors.

My businesses are successful for a number of reasons, but the main reason has always been our ability to collect and analyze data. Start by making a list of metrics that are important to your business. For example, if you have a blog…your most important metric might be how many people sign up for your email list or how many recurring visitors you have. Now if you’re an e-commerce website, your most important metric is probably conversion rate, ad spend and how people react with your buy pages.

In Conclusion

Even in 2017, digital marketing is the easiest way to reach out to consumers and promote products and services. In this post, we shared 5 ways to market your business digitally in 2017.

7 Work From Home Jobs You Can Start Immediately To Earn Money

In this post, I shared 7 work from home jobs you can start immediately to earn money. Some people thrive by working at home while other people find it extremely tough.

In this era of modern technology, almost everything is powered by the internet. With the use of search engines, it is very easy to look for things that we want to know about. Nowadays, using books and encyclopedias to do research is often times looked at as ‘old school’, where most people turn to the internet for answers. With just a few clicks and taps, you can find the answer to just about anything.

Nowadays, the new ‘work trend’ is working at home. There are several jobs offered that can be done at home or even on a tropical island, all you need is a laptop with an internet connection. Truth be told, a lot of the days I’m sitting in my pajamas on my couch working while managing my businesses.  Whether you decide to build your own business from home or work for someone else, the opportunities are endless.

Before I talk about the work from home jobs that can generate you income right away, here are a few of the reasons why working from home might be the best option for you:

1. Less Distractions

Often times, when we work in an office, some of our colleagues can be distracting. The arguments between coworkers, bantering,  and irrelevant meetings can often cause distractions. Distractions can make it tough on those who have a tight schedule to finish a job on time. Distractions can also cause a person to become inefficient and less productive at work.

If you work from home, you can create your own schedule when you are most productive and your build your own working environment where you are most focused. You do not have to worry about others causing a decline in your productivity.

2. Less Stress

Stress at work is not only caused by coworkers, your boss or your job. Traveling to your job and back each day can cause a lot of stress. Some of my friends spend over 2 hours a day on the road with their daily commutes here in Los Angeles. When you experience that on a daily basis, there is a big chance that you will be stressed out long before you’ve arrived at your workplace or begun your day.

When you work from home, you don’t need to worry about commuting or spending a ton of time on the road. You can always wake up, have coffee and work without worrying about having to get to and from your office.

3. Closer To Friends & Family 

When you work in an office, chances are that you are far from your family and friends. For those starting up a new family, imagine being able to work from home while still being able to be close to your children, loved ones or friends.

When you work from home, you can cater to your family member’s needs and spend time with them all while still earning a paycheck. The key though is not to get distracted and to maintain a strict work schedule when working from home.

Of course, working from home has advantages but there are also disadvantages that you need to consider. Here are the disadvantages of working from home:

1. Isolation

If you are a person who enjoys socializing with others and working in a group setting most of the time, working at home is probably not the best fit for you. When you work at home, you are most likely going to be isolated. Isolation can sometimes cause a person to experience depression. If you work at home, you need to be resourceful on how you create a balance so that you have a social life as well.

2. Distractions

When you are working in an office, your distraction comes from your coworkers and environment, whereas when you work at home, children can cause distractions or other family members. These distractions can interrupt you for hours from your work despite your physical presence at the house.

3. Self-discipline

When you are working at home, you need to discipline yourself to not get distracted by the environment and the distractions surrounding you. While it’s a blessing being able to work from home, it can also be a curse for many. People begin to take advantage of the comfort and luxury of their homes and their productivity takes a massive dip. You have to stay motivated and keep yourself in check when you feel as if you aren’t achieving the results you normally would.

Working from home is not always an ideal fit for everyone. First you need to figure out whether or not you can actually work from home. If you’ve decided that you can handle working from home, you’re ready to find a job to generate you income.

Here are 7 work from home jobs that you can start immediately to earn money:

1. Virtual Assistant

All companies need an assistant and many businesses are looking to virtual assistants to help with their day to day needs. The work of an assistant is to schedule meetings, manage calendars, reply to emails and manage customer service. Companies hire a self-employed virtual assistant to do the same tasks as the assistant in the office would do.

Sometimes they can also be in charge of managing the social media accounts of their employers, entering data, organizing the companies books and doing other tasks crucial to the daily operations of a company. A virtual assistant is often paid between $5 to $20 an hour depending on their skills and experience.

2. Online Teachers

This job is perfect for teachers or people with a skill who do not want to spend hours standing in front of students. A typical teacher spends most of his/her time at school, whereas an online teacher can spend only 4 hours per session. Instead of standing in front of the students in a classroom, with the white board and books, the teachers teach their subjects through Skype or prerecorded sessions. Today, there is a growing demand of online teachers for all subjects.

An online teacher’s salary can reach up to $30,000 in a year. Some employers even offer health insurance, retirement savings account and  paid time off.

3. Freelancer 

Freelancers are a broad topic because of the wide array of jobs/tasks that you can perform. Being a freelancer just means that you do work for people on a project to project basis instead of being employed on a long-term basis. Some of the most sought after freelancer services include design, development, writing, recording and even marketing. If you have the knowledge or talent in any on-demand service, sign up for UpWork or another freelance website and start bidding for jobs.

The pay for freelancers really depends on what jobs they take on, their skill level and how often they work but I know some freelancers who are making $150,000 a year.

4. Transcriptionist

A transcriptionist’s job is to listen to audio files and transcribe that audio into a written file. It is considered as one of the easiest work-at-home jobs available. Most companies who hire a transcriptionist do not require experience from their employees. The file that needs to be transcribed can vary from a college lecture to a doctor’s medical dictation. A hired transcriptionist only needs a working computer to do this job. The employee should also have keen listening skills with attention to detail and the ability to re-write the sentences with proper grammar.

A transcriptionist can earn $25 or more per hour.

5. Travel Agent 

A really cool work from home opportunity I came across was creating your own travel agency or working as a travel agent for another agency. When I was booking tickets for my next trip, I came to find out that the agent helping me ran her entire business from home. As a travel agent, you just have to market your services and then you book/plan out trips for people who are too busy to do it themselves.

A full-time travel agent can make around $40,000 a year while the owner of a travel agent can make upwards of $150,000 a year.

6. Online Tutor

Online tutors are often a great working option for people who are looking for an additional source of income by using their extra time to tutor students. These students usually need an extra help with a  certain subject and the tutor’s job requires them to help the student get a better grasp on that topic.  Tutoring sessions can be as short as 30 minutes or last as long as 3 hours and you can be working with people from the elementary level all the way up to the collegiate level.

An online tutor is paid on average between $12 to $35 an hour.

7. Customer Service Representatives

Companies hire workers who can speak English fluently and have a strong speaking ability. Customer service representatives or CSR’s are in high demand and their job is to help customers with pre-purchase questions or post-purchase disputes. CSR jobs are often offered in a full-time position and offered with benefits. To give you perspective, I recently hired a Customer Service rep full-time for one of my businesses.

A CSR is paid between $8 to $25 an hour.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, working at home has its pros or cons. Some people thrive by working at home while other people find it extremely tough. In this post, I shared 7 work from home jobs you can start immediately to earn money.

10 Entrepreneurs Who Changed An Industry Forever

In this post, I discuss 10 entrepreneurs who changed an industry forever. As you can see, it just takes a big idea with persistent execution to achieve success and change the world around you.

From technology to cosmetics, a lot has changed over the years, or should I say has improved our way of living. You might have heard from your elders on how they have dealt with life in the past. All of this changed when technology emerged and since then, everything has improved.

The people who made it all possible are called entrepreneurs and they are the people who are not afraid to take risks to create a business or enterprise. Entrepreneurs are considered as agents of change and they engage themselves in disrupting industries.

Here are 10 entrepreneurs who changed an industry forever:

1. Steve Jobs – Technology

We all know who Steve Jobs is, he is often times even considered the father of technology for what he has contributed to the Tech Industry. When he was just a young man without direction in life, he and his friend, Wozniak, launched the Apple computer. They financed their entrepreneurial venture by selling their assets, such as Jobs’ Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s scientific calculator. They started their business in the garage of Steve Jobs’ house.

The duo started to revolutionize the computer industry by releasing their first Apple computer. Their computer machine was smaller, cheaper and could be accessed by the consumers easily. They also promised an intuitive product that can make a difference to anyone’s life. This is how they started democratizing the technology. Nowadays, Apple has developed more types of technology within our reach and has dictated the evolution of modern technology.

2. Mark Zuckerberg – Social Media

Mark Zuckerberg started his fascination with computers and programs at an early age. At a very young age, he developed his own messaging program which was used by his father in his clinic and by the whole family. He also developed computer games that he and his friends played and was considered a prodigy in his pre-teen days. When he studied at Harvard University, he developed a program to match the course selections of students to others, and during this time, he also invented Facemash, a program that compared two students, but was later on shut down by the school administration.

During his time at Harvard, some of his fellow classmates sought his help to develop a dating site for the Harvard elite, but later on, he dropped out of school to work on his own social networking site. This was named as The Facebook, where a person could make their own profile, upload photos and communicate with other users. A lot of investors and companies have invested in Zuckerberg’s “Facebook”. Now, Facebook is one of the most popular social media networks. It helps connect people from anywhere around the globe and helps advertisers reach consumers with ease.

3. Bill Gates – Software Industry

Bill Gates has shown interest in computers at a very young age, together with his friend, Paul Allen, who at the time was two years his senior. When Gates was studying at Harvard, Allen showed him an article about Altair 8800 mini-computer kit; they contacted the company and proclaimed that they can run the Altair computer with the BASIC software they are working on. The company became interested and asked them to demonstrate to them their software. They developed the software in Harvard’s computer lab and Allen demonstrated the software without even trying if it works on an Altair computer, which luckily ended up working.

They named the software Micro-Soft, later on dropping the hyphen and known today as Microsoft. Microsoft and Gates went through a lot of struggles to lead Microsoft as one of the top software companies in the world. Nowadays, Microsoft is one of the most popular software systems used around the globe and most computers are ran on Microsoft Windows.

4. Jeff Bezos – E-Commerce

Like all other kids, Jeff Bezos was fascinated with how things worked and grew interested into computers when his family transferred to Miami. He continued his interest in computers when he studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. He worked at several firms on Wall street and became the youngest vice president for D.E Shaw investment firm, but he did what others think is crazy, he quit his job to venture into internet marketing by selling books online.

He developed a software where he could sell his books and he named it Amazon.com. The test was successful, and the launch was a hit as they began reaching foreign countries selling books. Today, after the ups and downs the company and Bezos has experienced, Amazon is still successful and they have have diversified their products. They offer a different array of products that people would want to purchase, ranging from clothes, electronics, toys and many others. Amazon has become an easy way to shop for those who do not want to go out and have ever since offered the easiest and fastest way to shop online.

5. Larry Page and Sergey Brin – Internet Search Engine

Although the two came from different countries, they shared a common goal, to develop a dot-com business based on their own terms and not because they have been dictated by the prevailing business culture. They started by arguing with each other when they were both studying for their Ph.D. degree, but soon found themselves having a common fascination and later working together on a research project. Their goal at the time was to develop a search tool that when you input a word or a phrase, the first link to appear is the most relevant one to the subject.

They developed their search tool, without compromising their Ph.D. studies and slowly worked on their project. When they have released their search tool, they became successful in their aim to show the most relevant web pages associated, and they tried licensing their technology. However, no company was interested, and the founder of Yahoo.com suggested that they form a search engine company, and Google was born. Now, the word Google is very common in any household. If you are looking for something, people will say, “Just Google it”.

6. Richard Branson – Music 

Richard Branson always had the desire to become an entrepreneur, just like his mother who was also an entrepreneur. He struggled in school and when he was 16, he dropped out of school and started running a magazine called The Student. In his magazines, he would interview prominent personalities and advertise records which instantly became a success. He changed the name to “Virgin” and sold records at a lower price compared to other outlets. It started the Virgin Records label where he ended up build ing a recording studio and his first artist was Mike Oldfield.

He continued to expand his business through his entrepreneurial efforts and created a travel company. Later on, he launched the Virgin Atlantic Airline, and some series of Megastores. He experienced financial struggles and was forced to sell his company, but he remained focused and started again. Now, his Virgin Group has over 400 companies under its control and is still continuing to expand.

7. John D. Rockefeller – Oil and Gas

John Rockefeller was a businessman who worked as a commission merchant. He studied the opportunity of growing an oil business during his time and he decided to establish an oil refinery. He named it the Standard Oil Company, and it instantly became a success. After the success, he expanded his business by buying out his competitors’ oil refineries.

With his move, it led to an American monopoly. Rockefeller was credited with helping shape America as to what it is today and is also considered as one of America’s pioneering businessman.

 8. Ray Kroc – Fast Food  

Ray Kroc participated in the World War I as a Red Cross ambulance driver and worked as a salesman after the war. One of his clients was the McDonalds brand, and the brothers purchased some of his products and he offered to work as a franchising agent for them. He, later on, eclipsed the brothers and became the president of McDonald’s Corporation.

He bought out the owners and was able to surpass its competitor, Burger King. He retained some of the original employees while continuing to incorporate new elements. Today, McDonald’s is one of the most successful fast food chains around the world, serving burgers and fries to millions on a regular basis.

9. J.K. Rowling – Fantasy Novels 

One of the most recognized authors of today’s generation is J.K. Rowling, the author of the book series “Harry Potter.” She experienced struggles when she was divorced and left alone with her daughter. She struggled to support herself and her daughter when they were both living on welfare for numerous years. She also thought of committing suicide, but later on realized that it’s wasn’t the solution to her problems as she diverted her energy into the thing she enjoyed most – writing.

She had an idea of the story she wanted to write and she tried to sell it to publishers but received numerous rejections. When it finally was bought and published, it became a hit in every country. After selling the first three books, it also earned a movie deal and added to her earnings. Her books and the story of Harry Potter is now embedded in the minds of millions of adolescents everywhere who have read and watched the entire series.

10. Mary Kay Ash – Cosmetics

In the world of cosmetics, Mary Kay is a reputable brand that women use constantly and she has also helped the women’s empowerment movement. When Ash worked as a salesperson in a company, she worked diligently, but the company promoted the man, whom she trained, above her and was earning a higher salary than her. She quit her job and started her own business by formulating her own cosmetic products.

Mary Kay, Inc. was born, and this helped women achieve financial success. Today, Mary Kay, Inc. helps women to become more beautiful by using their cutting edge cosmetics products. It also stands as living proof that women can achieve massive success by pursuing their dreams as well.

Conclusion

In this post, I shared with you 10 entrepreneurs who changed an industry forever. As you can see, it just takes a big idea with persistent execution to achieve success and change the world around you.

5 Reasons Why You Haven’t Been Able To Fulfill Your Full Potential

In this post, I’ll discuss 5 reasons why you haven’t been able to fulfill your full potential yet. Achieving your potential isn’t easy, but it’s something everyone must find.

A lot of the emails I get on a daily basis from various people have to do with people who are unhappy with their current situation. Whether it’s their family life, social life, bank account, career or education, they just really want to be happy more than anything else.

To be happy, you must find purpose and you must be able to fulfill your potential. That sounds easy, but it’s a really tough thing for many. I was fortunate and lucky enough to find my path in life at the age of 17 but some people never find out what their purpose on this Earth is meant to be.

In this post, I’ll discuss 5 reasons why you haven’t been able to fulfill your full potential yet:

1. Allowing Fear To Control Your Life 

Anytime you do something new, it’s scary. That’s just how human emotions work because we fear change. I say this all the time because of how important it is to understand that comfort and change don’t go together. If you’re unhappy and you want to reach your full potential, get ready to be uncomfortable while you change your life.

If you want to be comfortable, change your life and rid yourself of the unhappiness….it’s just not going to happen. Learn to embrace your fears, work at your own pace but continue moving forward. If fear sends you back or stops you, you’ll never be able to achieve your full potential.

2. More Talk Than Action 

I see this all the time even in my own personal life. People love to talk about the crazy things that they want to do and they know exactly what it’s going to take for them to be happy. However, when it comes time to walk the walk….they are nowhere to be found or they’ve got some kind of excuse to make.

Believe it or not, finding that million dollar idea or knowing exactly what you need to do to find purpose in your career isn’t the hard part. Actually taking the steps necessary to act on those discoveries is the toughest thing and the biggest reason why people never succeed. If you have an idea, start turning it into a reality.

3. Surrounding Yourself With The Wrong People 

Your network is your net worth. Forget even the money, your network is way more than that. The people you spend time with and hang out are the people you become. Take a minute and observe your surroundings, who do you spend time with and what kind of people are they?

If you surround yourself with negative or toxic people, something I’ve done in the past….you’ll see a decline in your own life. If that’s not who you are, identify those people and separate yourself from them. Many people never succeed because they’ve got all the wrong influences guiding them in their life.

4. Negative Beliefs 

What you believe and what you think is extremely crucial to whether or not you can be successful in life. Too many people I come across don’t have self-confidence and are constantly talking themselves down. Why would you critique yourself so negatively that you reduce your own chances of succeeding?

If you want to achieve something, you must believe that you will make it a reality. Before you can even achieve it, you have to already visualize what it’s going to be like when you get there and know exactly the path that will be required to get there. Encourage yourself and stay motivated, don’t ever allow small bumps in the road bring you down.

5. Seeking Permission & Validation

Happiness is about you. Don’t ever ask for permission from someone else to be happy or seek validation. That’s when other people start controlling your happiness instead of you and that’s very dangerous.

As someone trying to achieve your full potential, forget about asking for permission or seeking validation. Do what truly makes you happy and gives you the purpose that you’re seeking. It’s all about YOU when it comes to your life and don’t get stuck in the trap of allowing others to control it.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared 5 reasons why you haven’t been able to fulfill your full potential. What are some reasons you believe you may not have achieved your potential?

How To Use Your Personal Brand To Generate Revenue

In this post, I share how to use your personal brand to generate revenue. Many people have personal brands, but most people are either skeptical or fail when monetizing their brand.

Believe it or not, if you have some skill or talent that others are interested in acquiring or perfecting, you can monetize your personal brand. The art of perfecting your personal brand and monetizing it is something that many people struggle with.

Over the years, I’ve learned different methods that have generated me a lot of revenue when it came to monetizing my personal brand. I am mainly writing this post because I’ve started seeing way too many ‘experts’ charging thousands and thousands of dollars to teach others how to monetize their personal brand.

Instead, I’m about to give away the secrets on how to use your personal brand to generate revenue for ABSOLUTELY free:

1. Showcase Yourself

Find a platform to showcase your talents and another platform where you can get people to follow you. My platform to showcase myself is this blog where I write about my experiences, lessons and knowledge. I get people to follow me through my social media platforms such as Twitter & Facebook.

No matter what your talent or skill is, if you wish to build a solid personal brand….you must find a place to showcase your talent (preferably for FREE) and another place where people can keep up with your updates as you post them.

2. Premium Content 

One of the most popular models that have been successful for many others I know is something known as a ‘FREEMIUM’ model. They give certain things away for FREE and then they charge for other things. This model is known as a FREEMIUM model that has been very successful.

If you think you can give away something for free and charge a nice upsell for an additional service or piece of content, that’s a great starting point for your personal brand. As long as you have exceptional value in your upsell and the personal brand to back it up, you’ll get paid nicely.

3. Speaking/Consulting 

This has been one of the biggest revenue generators for me that resulted from my personal brand. By showcasing my knowledge and experiences, numerous other young entrepreneurs and conference managers reached out to me for my services.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak at conferences all around the world where they paid for my travel, hotel and expenses while also compensating me for my speech. Speaking gigs can pay very nicely while giving you the ability to travel the world. Another big revenue generator for me over the years has been consulting. Even though you have to trade hours for dollars, you can earn a pretty penny by helping others succeed.

4. Affiliate Partnerships 

Affiliate marketing has a really negative connotation in the world because of many people have abused it. However, affiliate marketing when done right can be a splendid thing. All you’re doing is taking is products or services that you believe in and sharing it with others who would be interested in it as well.
If your reader or follower decides to purchase, you get paid for it. The big mistake many people make is that they promote irrelevant things or too many things to their audience. What are the tools and programs that you truly believe in? Find those, create affiliate partnerships that are strategic and share those with your audience.

5. Sell A Physical Product

All you need to be successful is really a brand. Whether your company has a strong brand or you do, you can find a way to monetize your audience. Another great way that some of my business friends have monetized their brands has been through physical products. I’ve sold physical and digital books in the past that have netted me some nice revenue and I’ve had some friends who’ve actually sold physical products that went along with their personal brand.

Let me give you an example. My friend Shirley has a really awesome yoga brand built around her social media. As her popularity began rising, she asked me for help and I suggested that she create her own yoga brand around her name selling different products. She began sourcing products from Alibaba (popular yoga products) and then she began selling it to her audience. Last I heard from her, she was doing $100,000 a month in revenue from this brand.

Conclusion 

If you’ve got a personal brand with a strong following, the next step is to monetize it. Many people are skeptical or fail trying to monetize their personal brands, but it’s all about consistency, persistence and experimentation. In this post, I shared how to use your personal brand to generate revenue.

5 Steps For Creating A Marketing Strategy That Will Produce Killer Results

Success with marketing is all about having the right plan of action. In this post, I share 5 steps for creating a marketing strategy that will produce killer results.

Being that I’m very active on social media and blog quite a bit, I often get emails from complete strangers. While some people may consider it ‘spam’ or dislike that, I truly enjoy hearing what others in the world have to say.

One of the biggest questions that come my way has to do with marketing. Everyone has a company, product, service or idea but they don’t know how to market it. The typical email will be something like this:

‘Hey Jeet, my name is So & So. I run a company that does This & That. Our product and business is absolutely phenomenal but we are having a tough time getting customers. What marketing tips or strategies can you give us?’ 

If I could look at a company in 30 seconds and give them an answer on how they can acquire 100x more customers, I’d be some kind of supernatural genius. Be weary of anyone who can make you a promise like that because it’s truly impossible.

My answer to these individuals is always the same. While I can’t give you the precise marketing plan that’ll give you success, I can give you a strategy that you can implement to reach your goals. In this post, I’m going to share 5 steps for creating a marketing strategy that will produce killer results:

1. Find A Market & Focus On It 

Nobody sells to the entire world. While it might seem like a glorious idea to sell your product or service to everyone in the world, it’s actually the biggest mistake you can make early on. You need to identify what segment or audience ABSOLUTELY needs your product.

Find that market and focus all your time, attention and efforts on them. To figure this out, you should start talking to potential groups of people that you think would be ideal for this product. From there, break them down by age, gender, income and any other categorizations that might help you focus your marketing efforts.

2. Understand The Best Medium To Reach Your Market 

If your target market is a 13 year old female, you’re probably going to approach them very differently than if your target market is a 35 year old businessman. Once you know who your target market is, you need to know where your target market spends their time.

By figuring out where your target market is, it’ll make it easy for you to advertise or reach them. Not only can you save money by hitting them in the right spots, but marketing is all about conversions. For every dollar you spend, you want your reach to go as far as it possibly can.

3. Know Your Competition 

Anytime I do consulting and help businesses find success, I always ask them for a list of their competitors. Having competition is a phenomenal thing because you can use them for a lot of valuable information. Not only can you find out how successful you can be in the industry, but you can try to figure out what worked and didn’t work for them from a marketing standpoint.

Try to snoop around to figure out the marketing that nets them the best results, which offerings are the most profitable for them and who they target. Understand their branding and ask your potential customers that you survey what they think about your competitors to better reach your audience.

4. Make Everything Customer Friendly 

One of the biggest mistakes innovators often make is that they innovate for themselves instead of their customers. While something might be more functional or genius to you might not receive the same appreciation from a potential customer. Just remember, who’s the one actually buying your product? It’s your customers.

People in the world love things that are simple. The less education necessary and the simpler things are, the better your business is positioned to be successful. Constantly talk to your customers and hear their concerns so that you can constantly improve your product.

5. Always Be Evolving 

When you do find the perfect marketing strategy, don’t get too comfortable. The world changes every day and it’s not the strongest or smartest that survive, it’s the ones that can adapt to change the quickest. Even if you are successful with your current marketing strategy, constantly be testing other concepts as well.

You don’t ever want to get complacent because you can always do better. If you get comfortable, you can be sure that another new competitor will come in and jump ahead of you. With marketing, trends come and go quick. Ride the wave, but jump ship just as quick.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared my 5 steps for creating a marketing strategy that will produce killer results. What are some strategies that have worked for you when it came to create a plan of attack for marketing your business?