When you think of influential people, who comes to mind? Are they gurus in your industries? Are they icons in their respective sports? Are they highly powerful individuals running countries or organizations?
Regardless of who you consider as an influential person, the power of influence does not come easy. In this blog article, I will share the secret to massive influence.
When you think of influential people, who comes to mind? Are they gurus in your industries? Are they icons in their respective sports? Are they highly powerful individuals running countries or organizations?
Regardless of who you consider as an influential person, the power of influence does not come easy. In this blog article, I will share the secret to massive influence.
It’s Never About You
Influencers never make anything about themselves. It’s always about pleasing others and making others feel invincible.
Some of the greatest motivational speakers come into a room and suddenly make everyone in the room feel like all-stars. Give them 5 minutes and you will see a room full of people jumping in joy.
How does this happen? What does this influential person have that others do NOT have?
Bring Out The Best In Others
Influential people have this uncanny ability of bringing out the best in others. Whether you’re working at an $8/hour job or a millionaire, influential people do not care.
They will find one common trait of greatness among the both of you no matter what. Influencing people really starts with making feel people good.
There are celebrities out there that are loved by the people and others who are hated. The celebrities who are loved, live life thinking they are better than nobody. The celebrities who are hated often do things to put themselves on a higher pedestal than others.
The first step to massive influence is to know how to genuinely make people feel good. Care about people regardless of where they come from or who they are. Here are things influential people do to others:
– Remember people’s name.
– Show a genuine interest in what someone else does and how they do it.
– Listen.
– Make people feel important and useful.
– Help people.
Influence goes a long way. If you want to be influential, you have to forget about being influential. Focus on what you can do to help others.
If you can have someone smiling after having a conversation with you, they will remember you. Influential people are not individuals who do great things, they are individuals who make others feel good.
If you make someone feel good once, they will come back to you. You have created influence and a system of loyalty.
When you bring out the best in people, people tend to listen a lot more carefully to everything you have to say!
Conclusion
With great influence, comes great responsibility. For those of you interested in increasing your influence, PLEASE REMEMBER that these techniques are not to be misused. Always be honest with all your dealings.
Call to action is a word used in web design that hopes to achieve a certain response from the user on the web page. There are many ways to create call to actions, but one of the most popular ones are buttons. This blog article will show you one easy trick your website can utilize to immediately increase click-throughs on your call to action buttons.
Call to actions are used in websites hoping to garner a certain response from the user. There are many ways to create call to actions, but one of the most popular ones are buttons.
Call to action buttons can include a variety of different things. Buttons can say things like “Buy Now”, “Sign Up”, “Get Started”, or anything else.
The goal of these buttons is for a user to take action immediately by clicking the button. Often times, call to action buttons can lead users to purchase something, sign up for something, or even fill out a form (lead-generation).
Regardless of what the purpose may be, there is one easy trick your website can utilize to immediately increase click-throughs on your call to action buttons.
The Wrong
Color plays an extremely crucial factor in click-through rates for your call to action buttons. Often times, website designers do not specialize in marketing. Thus, your website looks great, but doesn’t do an effective job in converting users into sign-ups or customers.
Most people would agree that the website above looks absolutely great. It has a nice design, it’s easy to understand, and it’s clean.
However, this website has a HORRIBLE call to action button. The goal of their call to action button is to get users to take a tour of their product and hopefully sign up with them after.
This website was designed from a web designers perspective instead of a marketers perspective. The “Take the Tour” button is engulfed within the maroon background and doesn’t stand out very much.
Now we’re going to look at the simple trick this website or any other website can use to drastically increase click-throughs on their call to action buttons.
The Right
Color choice is everything when designing call to action buttons for the user. Your call to action button has to stand out (in a non pretty way).
Typically, your websites goal is to sell products, generate leads, or create sign ups. Sometimes the prettiest websites have the worst conversions rates because of this reason.
We’ll use my website as an example to show you how I increased click-throughs with my call to action bar.
On my website, my call to action bar can be found at the very top of the website. It’s got a bright orange background. Ugly? Yes.
Works? Hell Yes. My click-throughs increased by over 100% after I changed the background color from beige to orange.
As ugly as the orange looks with my blue website, it creates a dramatic contrast. Everything is blue, but suddenly there is orange at the top of my website. The users eyes automatically wander there.
Call to action buttons/bars need impressions to successfully generate leads, sales, or sign-ups. Below are a few more examples of great call to action buttons/bars that work well.
This website wants to evoke action from users by getting them to download their product for free. Their call to action is the “Free Download” button and that button stands out with the bright green color used.
MailChimp hopes to get users to sign up for free on their website and does a great job of creating a call to action button that stands out. They go with a red button that matches no part of the website.
This website utilizes a bright yellow call to action button. They want users to try their product for FREE and their call to action does a great job of directing the users eyes to the bar below the slider.
The Tip
If you haven’t been able to figure it out by now, the simplest way to increase click-throughs on your website is by changing the color or style of your call to action button.
Look at your website and create a list of colors that have not been used anywhere on your website. Then, play around with the list of unused colors to see which color stands out the most.
Typically, the ugliest combinations make the best call to action buttons. If your button is so ugly that users can’t help but look at it, you’re on the right path.
Conclusion
This is one simple tip to increase click-throughs on your call to action buttons. Share any other tips and suggestions you have to increase conversions on call to action buttons.
This blog article will teach you how to create a bestselling product by overcoming the 5 obstacles to sales. Sales is tough, but it’s a lot easier when your product sells itself. By overcoming these 5 obstacles, your product will now be ready to appeal to a mass market and the sales process will be extremely easy!
As entrepreneurs, our goal is to build the greatest product ever. However, very few products are ever created with the customers priorities in mind.
Once you build a great product, you need customers who are willing to pay you money for what you are selling. The biggest hiccup entrepreneurs face is finding a great way to sell their product to customers.
However, it takes more than a sales pitch to convince a LOT of your market that your product is great. There are 5 basic obstacles to sales. If you want to create a product that sells millions or even billions, you need to overcome all 5 of the obstacles to sales.
Here is how you can overcome the 5 obstacles to sales and create a bestselling product:
Obstacle 1: No Need
How big of a need is there for what you’re selling? The best types of products are things that people need, but cannot find. Great products also solve problems that people face and hate to live with.
I had a regular iPhone case. Suddenly, I found out that you can buy a case that stores a few of your credit cards in the back of the phone. This meant that I didn’t have to carry my wallet and phone everywhere I went.
I often made errands to the store, spent evenings hanging out with friends, or went to the gym, this product solved a HUGE problem for me. I had a need for it and I was even willing to buy another case just so that I could have this problem solved.
Great products have needs. If your product has a need and you can fulfill it, people will go out of their way (just like I did) to purchase it. Talk to your customers, ask them what problems they currently face, and see how you can pivot your product to cater to their needs.
Obstacle #2: No Money
What is the cost of your product? With the way our economy is today, the general consumer is very price conscious. They want to spend as little money as possible to get what they want/need.
Are your prices competitive with the competitors? Are your prices cheaper than the competitors? With any product, you generally have some competition. See how much they’re charging, how much money your customers usually spend on a product like this, and see if you can price yours better.
The more cost-effective your product is, the easier the sales process is. The difference between $49 and $99 may only be $50, but it has a huge impact on a customers decision to purchase.
With the wallet phone case I bought, it was priced at $16. I had paid $15 for my other iPhone case and cases usually ranged between $15-$20. It was priced very well, so I decided to buy it.
If it would have been over $20, I probably would have dealt with the pain of carrying my wallet everywhere I went. Price your product well because it has a huge impact on whether your customer purchases it or not.
Obstacle #3: No Hurry
As a customer, why should I purchase your product now? How about I go home, think about it for a few days, and then possibly make the purchase?
Great products always create a sense of urgency among your consumers. Why should your consumer buy this product NOW? The best selling products in the world are products that can create a sense of urgency and generate a purchase on the spot.
You do NOT want your customer going home or thinking about the purchase. Your conversion rates will go through the toilet as people usually become a lot more sensible when they have time to think.
Along with the startups I run, I also run a consulting business on the side. I consult startups, small businesses, and even big businesses on a variety of different topics. However, it is well known to everyone that my startups come first.
With that fact known, I have also made it clear to people that I can only work with a FEW different business owners every 3-4 months. Thus, my consulting business creates a sense of urgency among my potential customers.
They may possibly want to work with me, but they see that I don’t have many open spots left. They definitely don’t want to lose out on the opportunity to work with me, so they end up making a decision quicker than they usually would.
While this isn’t intentionally done, it’s just the way it is given my schedule. Similarly, find an honest way to create an urgency to purchase from your customers. Some good ways of doing this is showing the scarcity of your product, offering deals/discounts for immediate purchases, or throwing in free gifts for quick purchases.
Obstacle #4: No Desire
No desire and no need often get confused with one another. However, there is a big difference between the two. Products may have a need, but do they make the customer WANT the product?
Generally, great products create a desire to purchase. The greatest example of this is any product created by Apple. They are the masters of creating hype and selling out products on launch day.
The desire for apple products is tremendous! People want it even though they don’t really need it. I had an iPhone 4S but I waited at 6 AM to buy the iPhone 5. I didn’t really need an iPhone 5 because my iPhone 4S worked fine, but they created an uncanny desire to get it.
Is your product unique from everything else? Does your product have sex appeal? Is your packaging better than all other products? What makes your product so good that people want it really really bad!
Obstacle #5: No Trust
Trust is extremely important. The higher the price, the more trust is required between the customer and the business. Why should the customer believe that your product will do what it actually says?
There are a few different ways to build trust with your customer. If you sell online products, getting featured on big websites like Yahoo, Mashable, TechCrunch, Washington Post, NY Times, and others is a great way to boost your credibility.
It’s assumed that you must be a trustworthy and credible business if you have been featured on all the major publications. If people trust you, they will believe in whatever you sell them.
Creating trust for offline products takes a lot more work. One of the best ways to build trust for offline products is to find distributors or retailers featuring your items. Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and other major chains typically don’t feature “shitty” products in their store.
Building trust can be very difficult, but it is one of the easiest ways to sell your products. Find different ways to build credibility for your product and leverage that during the sales process.
Conclusion
Sales is always easier if you’re selling a product that sells itself. Before building your next product, think about what you can do to make it a bestselling product. By overcoming the 5 obstacles above, your product will be ready to sell millions and billions of copies.
As a young entrepreneur, I’ve been featured on some of the biggest publications, radio shows, and even on television. Getting into the media isn’t easy, but it’s one of the most rewarding experiences ever. This is the ultimate PR guide for entrepreneurs looking to find similar success through the media.
When many of us think of PR, we think of big agencies or publicists who go out and pitch to various outlets. However, when I started reaching out to media outlets, it was nothing close to that.
It was just me trying to figure out what I could do to leverage the media so that my businesses could reap the rewards. Turns out, the media had a big impact on my businesses such as enabling StatFuse to acquire over 12,000 users within a few weeks of launching.
In addition to that, I’ve been featured on or interviewed on some of the biggest publications out there. I’ve had segments on Yahoo, YFS Magazine, Idea Mensch, New York Times, and many others. Not only that, but I have been on numerous radio shows and even have been interviewed on a television show!
Check out my segment on television below.
Today, I will share the ultimate PR guide for startups & entrepreneurs so that you can achieve similar success.
Your Angle
Before you can be newsworthy, you need to have a story or news to share with these publications. Media outlets are pitched hundreds (if not thousands) of articles every single day.
90% of their articles usually revolve around breaking news, current happenings, or things they have to report. That leaves hundreds to thousands of people trying to fit into the 10%, which leaves very little opportunity for you.
How do you get into the news? Well, you need to be creative and find a very unique angle that you bring to the table. Media outlets constantly described me as, “The Young Entrepreneur Building A Tech Empire” or “The Teen With A Big Business Dream” or “The Young Marketing Guru.”
Regardless of what they called me, you should be noticing one thing immediately. All of the angles that the PR pushed me as were extremely unique. The press is interested in featuring you to their audience for 2 reasons:
1. Unbelievable Story
2. Expert In Some Field Or Industry
#1 is your best shot of getting into numerous media outlets. If you bring a new perspective or angle, the press will be happy to share your story with their audience.
#2 has a lot of competition. It’s tough to be featured on major outlets for being an expert because there’s usually more than just one professional pitching for the spot.
Regardless of which route you choose to take, you will have to find a unique angle or perspective that you can push through the media. The more unique the angle, the easier chance you have getting published.
Finding The Media Outlets
Now that you have a story and an angle to pitch, you’re ready to find media outlets to share this information with. Over 75% of you are probably searching for a directory with a long list of all the major PR outlets.
STOP RIGHT THERE! Pitching to every single “major” media outlet never works. I wasted months on this when I started only to realize that I was wasting my time.
When I did it, it felt too easy and I was right. I got no results, but I had wasted a ton of time and probably screwed up quite a few opportunities. In order to find the right media outlets, you need to begin by reviewing your pitch.
Based on your pitch (whether you’re an expert or someone sharing a story), what kind of readers would benefit most from this? Make a list of the audience or demographics that would get the most of your story.
Once you have figured that out, go back to your big list of media outlets and see which of those publications cater to your audience. Remember, you want to be in the media to help you or your business.
If you’re in all the wrong media outlets, you may be on the homepage of a nice website, but you won’t be getting any results. Craft a list of all the media outlets you want to be in and note down their websites.
The Pitch
Publications don’t give you much insight on what you can do to have the best chance of getting your story featured. Typically, most of us go to their contact page and fill out a submission form with our pitches.
Most of the time, the right people are not seeing your pitch and nobody picks up your story. There is a right way to get your pitch in front of the right audience, but it’s a tedious process.
Go to your media outlet and visit the section/category where your story fits in the best. For me it was entrepreneurship, business, startups, or marketing. Then, go to these sections and look through recent articles that have been posted within the last 7-10 days.
Look for articles that are similar to the story you’re pitching. If you’re pitching yourself as a digital marketing expert, look for articles that have to do with marketing. Once you find an article that is relevant to yours, click on the writers name.
Now you will get to see other articles the writer has written, how often he/she writes, and potentially get access to his contact information. If John at XYZ publishing is the perfect writer for your story, contact him.
The Contact
Now you’ve got your ideal writer at the ideal publication, you’re one step away from getting your story out there. What do you do?
Most people that get this far, but still screw up. Do NOT simply copy & paste you Media Release (stop calling it press releases, it’s too old-school) and email it over to the writer. THIS IS WRONG!
The writer now feels like he’s a robot and not a human being. Your chances of being featured have now significantly dropped, unless you have an AMAZING story. We’re going to pretend like you don’t and approach this the right way.
You will craft an email to John at XYZ publishing where you will praise him and thank him for his great work. You will introduce yourself and explain in just a few sentences the value that you bring. An example of this email would be:
Hey John,
I loved your article on “Social Media Marketing Tips” from Friday. I thought you did a great job discussing the influence Pinterest will have on businesses in the near future.
I wanted to introduce myself. I’m a 20 year old entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant, author, and public speaker. If you ever need insight on any other future articles that revolve around digital marketing, I would be happy to offer my expertise. I’m extremely passionate about digital marketing and offer a unique perspective on the topic due to my young age.
Here’s also a link to my website if you do want to learn a bit more about me, www.JeetBanerjee.com. Thanks again for a great article and I hope to talk with you more soon.
Thanks,
Jeet
That’s it! Compliment him on a recent article, share who you are and why you matter, and then leave him some basic information before ending the email.
The Close
Just like anything in business, you have to be a damn good closer to get what you want. Pitching to media outlets is also much of the same. You’ve just finished sending your email to the writer and have done everything right so far.
You still may not get the feature you’re looking for unless you close very well. The writer may just email back saying, “Thanks so much for the kind comments. I will keep you in mind for future articles.”
As nice as that may sound, it means he will forget about you and never really feature you in his future articles. To close these writers, you need to constantly remind them of your presence and build a positive relationship with them.
One email isn’t enough to get you in their radar. From here, you will want to keep a tab on this writer and email him every 2-3 articles he posts. Now instead of introducing yourself, you can continue sharing your perspective on his articles to show him how well you know your stuff.
Sometimes this process can take months! It’s all about following up and building a relationship with writers. Writers don’t want you to be their friend just for the 5 minutes they write an article on you. They’re looking for people who are looking to build positive relationships with them.
In December of 2012, I established a great connection in NBC. I was told by the reporter that he would get an article done on me sometime that month. Fast-forward to today and a ton of following up, he still wants to do the article on me but has to wait.
It’s not an easy process getting yourself in big media outlets, but the rewards are well-worth the effort.
Conclusion
Mastering the art of PR is extremely tough. It takes a lot of hard-work and practice, but the rewards are worthwhile. This is the ultimate PR guide for entrepreneurs looking to successfully place themselves in major media outlets. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them below!
Regardless of the industry you’re in, blogging is a vital part of any businesses online success. However, a blog is only valuable if it generates traffic and interest from others. Is your blog putting others to sleep? Or worst, not generating much traffic? Well, there are probably a few problems with your blog posts. Lucky for you, these issues can be easily fixed. Here are some tips and tricks on how to write blog posts that people actually want to read:
Regardless of the industry you’re in, blogging is a vital part of any businesses online success. However, a blog is only valuable if it generates traffic and interest from others.
Is your blog putting others to sleep? Or worst, not generating much traffic? Well, there are probably a few problems with your blog posts.
Lucky for you, these issues can be fixed easily. Here are some tips and tricks on how to write blog posts that people actually want to read:
People Judge Blogs By The Title
People always tell you, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Nevertheless, people still do it anyway because it’s our natural response. For blogs, people judge your blog based on the title.
Is your title doing enough to lure readers in? If I asked you to tell me what your blog article was about in 10 seconds, that is what your title would be. Blog posts and content spreads through the title.
If your title puts people to sleep or doesn’t hook readers in, you won’t get much traffic to your blog. Make titles for your blog articles that will actually make people interested in what you have to say.
The Basics
There is no quicker way to lose an audience for your blog if you have basic errors within your posts. Before you publish your post and promote it, do the following:
– Spell Check
– Grammar Check
– Check All Links
– Check Flow Of Sentences
– Make Sure Content Is Relevant To Post
These are the very basics of crafting successful blog articles. Everyone makes typos, spelling errors, and other mistakes, but your readers shouldn’t have to see them! Proofread and revise your blog article before publishing it.
Bring Immense Value
People read blog articles because they’re looking for insight on some sort of topic. Your blog articles MUST bring immense value if you don’t want your readers to fall asleep.
Many bloggers cover the same basics over and over. That’s great, but your audience is probably not interested in hearing about the same thing 10 times. Target your audience and share expertise that can help them.
Knowledge is a big part of success in life. If you can deliver knowledge through your blog articles to others, you will have an audience for life.
Use Interesting Images
One of the biggest things I have learned from blogging is the importance of image choice. Going through the comments on my blog, about 40% of them mention something about the images I have used for a blog post.
People are very visual, especially in the era we are in today. Spend some time to find images for your blog posts that may be entertain or engage your audience further. I always try to find images that compliment the content in my blog articles.
Quality Over Quantity
The great part about blogging is that you don’t have to follow any rules. You can write an article that’s a paragraph long or something that’s 10 pages long. This isn’t like college where your Professor gives you a minimum word count.
With that said, the length of your blog articles should solely be based on the quality of your content. I can probably write a book about how to write blog posts that people actually want to read, but not everything would be high quality content.
Thus, I shrink it into less than 1,000 words and craft it into a blog article. People fall asleep when you overdose them with information. Give them the best information you have so that they stay engaged from start to finish.
Organize Your Posts
Have you ever gone to a blog and it’s a cluster of words all over? The moment I see that, my brain starts to get cramps. I immediately exit the blog and never go back again.
People like to read things that organized. Take my blog as an example, I have lots of text/words but when you first land on my article, you aren’t overwhelmed.
You look at it and you see bolded titles, nice organized paragraphs, and easy to understand content. People are up for the challenge of reading my blog articles just because it looks organized.
Conclusion
Writing great blog posts doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of patience, experimentation, and persistence to be a successful blogger. These tips should set you off on the right path though!
Many people run small businesses around the world. However, everyone wants to create a big business or at the least make it look big. Regardless of how many employees you have or what your business does, there are a lot of things you can do to make your business look bigger. Making yourself look bigger helps you compete with larger companies and go after high-end clients. Here are a list of simple ways to make your small business look big:
Small businesses are run by millions of people all around the world. However, everyone wants to create a big business or at the least make it look big!
Regardless of how many employees you have or what your business does, there are a lot of things you can do to make your business look bigger. Making yourself look bigger helps you compete with larger companies and go after high-end clients.
Here are a list of simple ways to make your small business look big:
Solid Website
Design and develop a solid website. We’re in the 2000’s now and everyone uses your website to judge who you are and what you do.
The nicer the website, the better impression you make on potential customers. Spend some good money and time to create a solid website for your business.
Make sure your website outlines who you are, what you do, and conveys the vision you want others to believe in. The better the website, the easier it is to make your small business stand out.
Phone Lines
There are tools like Grasshopper that enables entrepreneurs and small business owners to create virtual phone systems for low prices.
These virtual phone systems allow you to add multiple departments, create a automated message, and do many other great things. When customers or others call your business, they automatically picture a big office with many people.
People perceive high-end phone systems like that to represent big companies. It’s a cost-effective and creative way to convince others that your business is a lot bigger than it really is.
Build Credibility
Big business are big because people know they’re trustworthy. One of the quickest ways a small business can build credibility is through the press.
The press doesn’t care how big your company is, they care about how relevant your story or business is to their readers. Websites like TechCrunch,Mashable, and thousands of other outlets feature small businesses all the time.
All you have to do is pitch your story to these outlets and see if they pick you up. If you are featured on any of these outlets, use their logos on your website and/or any promotional material. People automatically assume you’re a big business when they see things like this.
Brand, Brand, and Brand
Big businesses know the process of growing their company. They know it so well that they were able to successfully become a big business by employing some of the strategies. Here’s the 3 step process:
1. Market to your target audience
2. Brand to your target audience
3. Start focusing on sales
Big businesses have prospective customers come to them every single day. Why? The business has done a great job of marketing and branding their business to the target audience. From there, the customers come to their door and it’s easy to start selling.
As a small business, there are many affordable ways to brand your business. Social media marketing, attending local events/conferences, and creating partnerships with other businesses in your area are just a few of the many possibilities. It’s much easier to acquire customers who have already heard of you.
Office Address
Believe it or not, a lot of people will try to see if a business has an office address or not before doing business with them. Office addresses signify an established business that has a team of employees working there.
However, it’s easy to give people that impression without really doing it. Nowadays, you can purchase virtual offices (which don’t have the annoying P.O. Box # sign) for very affordable prices.
Stick the address into Google Places, Yelp, your contact page, and anywhere else. Now customers are immediately going to feel more comfortable doing business with you just because they know you exist somewhere.
Social Media
Before anything, create a social media account for your business on all the major social networking sites. From there, add the social media buttons to your website or blog.
That’s just the beginning of it though. Lots of customers snoop around the social media sites of other businesses to get a better idea of how big they are. Big businesses have big buzz on social media.
Make sure your social media accounts are filled with consistent posts, a community of people, and an appropriate profile that fits your brand.
Public Speaking
This is a great technique to make the speaker and the business seem big. Look for industry events where you can provide great expertise. Find these events, apply to be a speaker, and see if you get accepted!
If you do, you get to broadcast your ideas and expertise to a large audience of people. This automatically makes you (the speaker) and your business seem bigger.
Once the event is over, simply write a blog article or spread the news through your website about your speaking engagement. Clients will be impressed to know you spoke at a big event or that your business was represented there.
Conclusion
With technology, there’s a lot of things small businesses can do to glorify themselves. If you want to hang with the big fish and close big deals, you need to seem bigger than you really are. Share any ideas or tips you have used to make your small business look big!
Growing up, Jay-Z has always been the man! Ever since hearing his first song 99 Problems, I loved everything about him. However, Jay-Z is more than just a great rapper/musician. He’s a business mogul and probably one of the smartest businessmen in the world today. Here are 5 big business lessons you can learn from Jay-Z:
Growing up, Jay-Z has always been the man! Ever since hearing his song 99 Problems, I loved everything about him.
However, Jay-Z is more than just a great rapper/musician. He’s a business mogul and probably one of the smartest businessmen in the world today.
Here are 5 big business lessons you can learn from Jay-Z:
1. Brand YOU
“I’m not a businessman, I’m a business man!”
I’ve heard a lot of great quotes, but this is probably one of my favorite ones all time! Jay-Z understands that all his revenues and profits would falter if his name wasn’t attached to the business.
Jay-Z successfully created an enormous brand around himself. Wherever Jay-Z chooses to go, the opportunity to make money follows him.
Lesson: Branding your business is important, but it typically doesn’t last forever. By branding yourself, you take your name with you everywhere you go.
2. Get Mentored & Be A Mentor
Jay-Z didn’t become a successful business mogul overnight. He received lots of mentoring from a lot of other great minds that helped him reach where he is today. Jay-Z was mentored by Clark Kent, Damon Dash and others who helped him tremendously.
Jay-Z knew the opportunity to speak with his mentors was rare, so he used every minute of it to soak up as much information and knowledge as he could. He put that wisdom into action and instantly saw results.
Lesson: Regardless of where you are in life, always look up to people better than you. The advice, wisdom, and information you can learn from others can take you far.
3. The Art Of Negotiation
If you can’t sell, negotiate, or close deals……business will be tough. Jay-Z grew up as a drug dealer, which taught him how to hustle and negotiate with the best of them.
When he stopped dealing drugs, he took his negotiation skills with him. These highly prized set of skills that Jay-Z possessed has helped him greatly to make big leaps in the business world.
Lesson: Business is all about sales and negotiation. You can do everything right, but still be broke if you can’t sell. Learning to negotiate and close deals is VERY important and you only get better by practicing.
4. Data Rules
“Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t.”
Jay-Z is one of the all time best-selling recording artists in the world. However, he still gets challenged very often by others.
HIs response is always the same. Check the data, facts, and statistics. How many records have I sold and how many have you sold? That usually shuts everyone up.
Lesson: Nobody can argue with pure statistics, data, and facts. The strongest argument is one that is concrete. Business evolves around data and numbers so use that to your advantage.
5. Focus On The Money
Jay-Z has always had a knack for making money. You give him anything, he will find a way to make you a dollar out of it. In that way, he’s very similar to me and that skill can take you very far with many people.
Jay-Z has always focused on the things that will make him money. Whether it was dealing drugs, making music, selling clothes, or any of his other business ventures, he went after the ones that were making him money.
Lesson: You’re only a business when you start making money. Making money, revenue, and profit should be one of your primary goals. If something is making you money, stay focused on that rather than looking for other ways to expand and grow.
Conclusion
As you can see, Jay-Z has a lot of experience and skill in the world of business. It’s often easy to overlook musicians, but many of them have a lot of business-savy which has helped propel their success.
A question I often get asked is, “Why Blog?” Unfortunately, when I do get this question, I simply cannot answer it with one short sentence. This is because there are just too many benefits to mention about blogging. Thus, I’ve decided to write this blog article to explain why blogging is so beneficial to entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are 10 big benefits of blogging.
A question I often get asked is, “Why Blog?” Unfortunately, when I do get this question, I simply can’t answer it with one short sentence.
This is because there are just too many benefits to mention about blogging. Thus, I’ve decided to write this blog article to explain why blogging is so beneficial to entrepreneurs and business owners.
Here are 10 big benefits of blogging:
1. Become A Better Writer
Most entrepreneurs and business owners have been out of school and rarely ever work on their writing skills. When you blog, you are subconsciously improving your writing skills.
Becoming a great writer can come in handy for numerous purposes. It makes you far more effective when dealing with clients or customers and it enables you to write crafty responses to others.
2. People Know Your Name
One of the biggest benefits of blogging is that you’re able to build a name for yourself or your business (depending on which one you blog under). Branding is something businesses pay thousands of dollars a year for, but blogging enables you to do it for far less.
If you write great content on your blog, people will appreciate you for that. It’s an easy way to brand yourself or your business by getting your message out to a massive audience, without spending a massive amount of money.
3. Builds Credibility and Authority
It’s one thing to talk about it and a whole another to write about it. When I launched my first company, I said a lot of great things but few people believed me because I lacked credibility.
I found my weakness and made it my strength by writing an effective blog under the company name. Suddenly when people searched my name or information about my company, they were ‘WOWed’ because I backed up what I said with real information.
4. Builds A Community Around You
Blogging enables you to build a community around your business or yourself. Many people think that blogging can make you more money and it can if it’s done right. Your purpose for blogging SHOULD NOT be to increase sales in your business.
Your goal is to give out free information, help others, or do something else along those lines. When you build a community of active individuals who trust you and look upon you for advice, your sales will automatically increase without you having to push your product.
5. You Learn A Lot
Blogging has been one of my biggest educators in business. Before you can write well, you must read a lot. Whether it’s reading other successful blogs or books in the business field……you’re reading something!
Great bloggers suck up knowledge like a sponge. Whether you realize it or not, you will automatically learn more about your industry and the topics that you blog about.
6. Ability To Review and Recap
Another great aspect of blogging is that you get to spend some alone time thinking, reviewing, and recapping everything going on in your business. It takes time for me to figure out what topics I want to blog about.
I usually blog about topics or things that excite me, taught me a lesson, or can help others. Regardless of what the topic is, I always take some time to think about everything going on in my businesses, which often leads to great discoveries.
7. Keeps You Ahead of the Competition
If you’re blogging and consistently pushing out information into the web sphere, you’re probably getting ahead of your competition. Here’s how you get ahead of the competition:
– More backlinks for your website.
– Nonstop branding for your business without much money being spent.
– Makes you more credible than the competitors who don’t blog.
8. Best Way To Network Online
Blogging is one of the best ways to network online without ever getting up from your chair. We’ve all been to conferences, mixers, or other ‘networking’ events that have been extremely tedious and tiring.
Blogging is a great way to substitute all that, while still establishing very meaningful connections. Write great content, share it with the world, and see how many people you really meet.
9. PR and Media Connections
I’ve had many influential people read my blog and give me a vote of confidence. Blogging has not only enabled me to spread my messages all over the world, but it brings me a ton of great connections.
It has enabled me to meet some great journalists, reporters, entrepreneurs, and others who have drastically helped me. Quite a few of my blog articles have been featured in Radio Shows, Magazines, and other media outlets creating a lot of buzz for me. You never know how far one blog article can go!
10. Written Journal
Something many people don’t realize about a blog is that it’s a written journal or diary that’s shared with the public. Often times, I forget some of the content I’ve written about myself.
Instead of having to research from the beginning, I can simply visit my blog and find the information I need. It’s easy to refresh my memory and my blog is a platform to see how much I’m growing on a month-to-month basis.
Conclusion
As you can see, blogging has a lot of benefits. The biggest concern people have is the time that it takes to write blog articles. As an entrepreneur running numerous startups, speaking at conferences all over the world, and doing many other things – I’ve managed to find time for blogging.
Make blogging one of your top priorities and it will always find time in your life. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on it, just enough to push great content. I write 3 articles a week and use approximately 5 hours each week on my blog.
The world wide web has truly made it possible for anyone to start a business. Today, it’s easier than ever to create an online business with resources available everywhere. With all that said, 9/10 online businesses fail within the first 3 years. While it’s very easy to start an online business, sustaining it is extremely difficult. Here are some golden rules for running a successful online business:
The world wide web has truly made it possible for anyone to start a business. Today, it’s easier than ever to create an online business with resources available everywhere.
With all that said, 9/10 online businesses fail within the first 3 years. While it’s very easy to start an online business, sustaining it is far more difficult. Here are some golden rules for running a successful online business:
1. Websites With User In Mind
Every business serves a purpose. Your website needs to serve the same purpose your business does. Very few website owners ever think about the user or visitor when designing and developing their website.
I did the same thing with my first two websites before people told me how bad the user experience was. Build a website that helps users achieve their purpose. Make your website clean, simple, and well-organized for visitors.
2. Have A Business Model
30% of online businesses fail because they DO NOT have a business model. Acquiring a million users and reaching out to advertisers isn’t a strong business model. The chances of you signing up 1 million users in 3 years is very low.
Before you create an online business, find a way to make money now. Come in with a clear plan to monetize your site so that you can survive on a month-to-month basis. Facebook was a one-of-a-kind success and it’s very unlikely for another website to follow the same path they took.
3. Launching Is Just The Beginning
Before a website goes live, there is a lot of work that takes place on the backend. Many people tend to take a sigh of relief once they launch their website. Success isn’t going to come knocking on your door.
Once you launch your website, you should be working twice as hard as you were before. Your website is only going to be successful by the effort you put in to market and grow your online business.
4. Honeymooners Always Fail
Honeymooners are individuals who love creating businesses. It’s fun to build a website and launch it, but that’s not enough. If you’re creating a new online business, do it for the long haul.
Don’t just be passionate about it until launch day and then snooze your way through. Find an idea or business you are strongly passionate about and are willing to stick with for more than just a few months.
5. No Marketing, No Money
Great ideas do NOT mean shit. Excuse the language, but it’s true. You could have a billion dollar idea, but if nobody sees it……it’s worth nothing. Before you build an online business, have a clear strategy on how you plan to get your website to market.
It’s not just enough to have a marketing plan because that doesn’t always necessarily equate to revenue. Create a 3 step plan all the way from branding to marketing to generating sales.
Conclusion
Launching an online business is easy, but making it successful is extremely difficult. By following these golden rules, you will be sure to increase your rate of success with an online business!
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to forget the true value of our own brands. We are so immersed in our businesses that we can’t really find time to brand ourselves. I love to tell people that you build businesses around products, but you build careers around yourself. Here are 10 personal branding tips for entrepreneurs that you can carry with you for the rest of your life.
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to forget the true value of our own brands. We are so immersed in our businesses that we don’t really find time for ourselves.
It’s we, the entrepreneurs, who are the ones that our customers buy into. People buy into you more than your products or services. If you are good with people, you will always find success selling.
However, business owners quite often forget how important their personal brand really is. They focus on developing a razor-sharp brand for their business, which is good, but that doesn’t necessarily get the job done.
The brand of a business is only valuable as long as the business is yours. What happens to you if your business goes under, gets bought out, or even takes a big hit? You’re left in the cold streets left with nothing.
We, the individual, are the greatest investment. I choose to brand my name first and then my businesses second. Why? No matter where I go, what I do or, how I do it……my brand will carry on with me forever, whereas my businesses may not do the same.
Here are 10 personal branding tips for entrepreneurs:
1. Define Who You Are
Before we can build a personal brand, we really need to know who we are. We need to know what our goals, vision, and dreams are. When you leave a room, what do you want people to remember about you?
Whatever it is that you want them to remember about you is your personal brand. You must understand who you are and what it is that you want others to know before you can brand yourself.
2. What Makes You, You
There are millions of business owners and tons of entrepreneurs out there. What is it that separates you from the crowd? This is a very important question to answer before you can build a strong personal brand.
You have to bring something unique to the table so that people can easily identify who you are. Whether it’s a weird oddity about you, an inspirational story, or just an amazing accomplishment, find something that people will remember about you.
3. Get Big Testimonials
People want to know who you have worked with. There is no bigger boost to someones credibility than a testimonial from a hotshot.
Find influential people that you have worked with and ask them to provide insight on their working experiences with you. This is a great way to get people to remember you and your brand.
4. Get Your Own Name Out There
When you’re the brand, you’re in charge of getting your own name out there. The best way to get your name out to a large audience is through publicity/PR.
Share your accomplishments, experiences, stories, and big news with the press. Not only is it great to say you’ve been featured on numerous different high-caliber programs, but it also boosts your credibility.
5. Teach Others
Whether you hold workshops, give keynotes, or deliver great speeches……find a way to help others. There is no better way to build a personal brand than to help others for FREE.
Share your experiences, failures, mistakes, and give people an authentic learning experience. They’ll come to you with questions and you may be able to develop great relationships with other. Best of all, they’ll always remember you and thank you!
6. Develop A Website Under Your Own Name
Create a website, similar to mine (www.yourname.com) that people can easily find. Use this website to blog, talk about yourself, and brand your image even further. Personal websites are great because it really lets other people get to know the real you.
Not only that, but if you do happen to go a separate way from your business, your personal website will never go away. It’s also a great tool to have when people search your name online.
Tell everyone you are the CEO or Founder of the company and be proud of it! Everyone likes to know the face behind a company, just think of Steve Jobs and Apple or Bill Gates and Microsoft.
8. Be Involved In Your Industry
As entrepreneurs, we need to be involved in our industries and the entrepreneurial world. Whether it’s commenting on the latest happenings or sharing specific news, do something to position yourself as an expert.
When I say ‘position yourself as an expert’, I’m telling you to give your opinion on things that are going on in your industry. Provide opinion-based comments and thoughts, which others may find interesting.
9. Network Like Hell
Networking is very tiring, it’s almost like a sport. However, networking really gives you the ability to brand yourself with others.
Whether it’s establishing business contacts or spreading your name, it’s a great way to let others know about you. Networking can lead to great opportunities and it’s something I highly recommend everyone does!
10. Be Personal
It’s hard to really believe someone is always serious. Show people your fun and personal side. Whether it’s posting pictures outside of your work life or simply sharing things ‘behind the scenes’, do something to get personal with people.
People love to relate with others. Whether it’s on the business side or the personal side, people want to see the human side of you. Be personal, share stories from your life, and have some fun!
Conclusion
Branding yourself is an extremely important part of building a career. You build businesses around products, but you build careers around yourself. These 10 tips will help you develop a stronger personal brand in no time!
