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All Business Articles found on this page are written by our Business Column writer Mrs. Corrie Petersen.
Corrie Petersen runs a successful VA and Advertising business. Check out her website at http://www.virtualfreedom4you.com. You can also sign up for her free advertising tips newsletter at http://getyoursoload.com/advertisingtips.aspx.
Have you ever read an article online at an article directory? Did you ever think of the reason why the author wrote the article? Writing articles is fun, creative, and exciting. You can write articles on just about anything you can think of as long as it’s informative and good quality.
Here are five reasons why you should write articles if you own or run a business. Just remember, it doesn’t matter what your business is or how you run it, you should write articles.
• Free Advertising
You may wonder how you can get free advertising when you write articles. When you write an article, you create an author resource that goes at the end of the article. In this author resource, you put a little about yourself and then link it to your website. You can read my author resource at the end of this article.
When you write good quality article that is informative people will visit your website. They will want to read more about you, more articles, and what you have to offer. When you continue to write articles, you will develop a following and they will look for your next article.
• Links
Links are a great way to build traffic to your site and build your website rank. That is very important when you are growing a business. One way that you can add links to websites is to write articles. You are allowed up to two links in your author resource box. The more links you have the better your website rank and traffic will be. So, the more articles you write and publish the more links you will have on the web.
• Expert
When you write articles, people will begin to trust you and they will think of you as an expert in your field. If your articles are packed with good quality content and you appear to know what you are talking about, you will build that trust. The more articles you write the easier it will be for people to consider you as an expert. Building trust will bring more traffic to your site, more purchases, and more referrals. This, all in all, is what you want in the first place.
• Promote your author page
Promoting the author page you will have at a certain article directory is a great way to increase the traffic to your articles. You can forward a domain name to your author page and use that in your signature. You can also create an ad and send it out in solo ads or create a button and link it to your author page. Whatever you can think of to build more traffic to your articles will be beneficial.
• Categories
When you submit your articles to article directories, choosing the right category will bring more traffic to the article. Choose a category that best fits the topic of your article. Don’t do a generic or other category. When you choose either of these categories, you will run the risk of not attracting the right readers or they will miss your articles because they are not in the right spot.
As you can see, articles are a great way to build traffic and increase your purchases. Writing articles is an important part of marketing your business. If you don’t think you can write them or you don’t have time, you can hire a ghostwriter to do it for you.
Do you need a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant is a person that works at home for other business owners. They help with administrative tasks as well as other tasks that a business owner may need done to help them out. A Virtual Assistant is also known as a VA.
Did you know that most business owners need a Virtual Assistant? You may not even realize that you need a VA. But, you may need a VA to help you do things that you don’t know how to do or help you do things that you have had on your to-do list that you keep putting off. As a business owner, you decide what you need your VA to do to help you out.
This article will show you some reasons why you need a VA and it will also show you just a few of the many tasks that a VA can do to help you when you are in need.
Here are two reasons why you need to hire a Virtual Assistant.
1. Your family
If you run a business and have a family, it may be difficult to do everything. When you hire a VA to do tasks like newsletter creation and submission, blog writing and posting, article writing and submissions, and social networking you will have more time to spend with your family. These are things that are important in your business, but if you can outsource them to your VA, they will get done and you won’t have to do them.
2. Grow your business
While newsletters, blog writing and posting, article writing and submissions and social networking are very important in business, they are not the main way you grow your business. To grow your business you need to make calls and do presentations if you are in direct sales, or perform the work if you are in a service business. If you hire a VA to do the newsletter, the blog, the articles, and the social networking, you can focus more time on the things that will grow your business.
Here are two tasks that a Virtual Assistant can help you with.
1. Newsletters
There are two ways you can outsource your newsletter to your VA. The first way is for you can create the content and then send it to your VA to input into your software program. Your VA will add pictures and make it look great. Then they can send it out to your list. The second way is for you to give your VA topics you want covered and your VA creates the content, inputs it into your software program, and sends it to your list.
2. Articles
Another task that your VA can do for you is write and submit articles. You give your VA a topic and a few bullet points and she can create an article for you to approve. Once the article is approved, your bio is added to it and then your VA can submit your article to article directories.
There are many reasons business owners hire a Virtual Assistant. If you don’t have enough time in the day to complete all your business tasks or you want to take your business to the next level, you will want to consider using a Virtual Assistant.
Corrie Petersen runs a successful Virtual Assistant and Advertising business. She also has a free advertising tips newsletter that she creates to help others. Check out h
Getting Your Business Noticed
Starting your own business online can be very difficult if you don't know what to do. With all the many different things that a business owner can do to get their business noticed, it may be difficult to know which ones to use immediately and which ones to use later.
Deciding what ways to use is difficult at best. The type of business you run and your target market are also important factors in that decision making process. In this article you will see several ways that you can use to get your business noticed.
* Leads
Depending on the type of business you run, you may be able to purchase leads. Lead company's have people sign up and fill out a form that shows what they are interested in as far as products and joining a business. Then the lead company takes all that information and enters it into a database. They then sell those leads to people that are looking for people to purchase products or join their business.
Purchasing leads is the best way to get people to purchase your products or join your business if you don't have anyone to call or you don't like to cold call. Leads are sold to multiple people unless you purchase packages that are only sold to one person. Price depends on the number of times they are sold.
* Link Exchanges
Text links are a great way to build traffic and increase your ratings on the search engines. When you decide to do a link exchange you need to find sites that are high in traffic and have a page rank of three or higher. You also need to look for sites that are comparable to yours. You don't want to list your website on sites that are for your direct competition. For example, if you sell makeup you could do a link exchange with sites that sell women's jewelry and women's clothing. You wouldn't want to do a link exchange with sites that sell makeup.
* Pay-Per-Click ads
Did you ever click on one of those ads on the right side when you did a Google search? Those are paid ads called Pay-Per-Click ads. When you set up a campaign for Pay-Per-Click ads you decide on the keywords that match your website and business. You want your keywords to be specific to your products or services.
The cost of a Pay-Per-Click campaign is up to you. You pay a specific price for each keyword and that price is based on the popularity of that word. You set a limit per month and you will never go over that limit. Prices can range from pennies to a few dollars. Once you set this up, your ad will appear on the right side each time someone does a search for your keyword. You pay each time someone clicks on your ad. The cost depends on the dollar amount set for that keyword. When you reach your monthly limit, your ad will not appear anymore until the month starts over again.
When you read through these types of advertising and decide to get started on one or more then, you need to make sure you stick with it for several months before you change or stop using it. Studies show you need to put your business in front of people 5-7 times before they will consider looking at what you offer. When you stick with a certain type of advertising for a few months, you will find one that works and you will see the success and traffic you want.
11/19/08
Have you ever thought of what the best way to stay is to stay in contact with your customers and clients is? People have many thoughts as to the answer to this question. My answer is e-zines.
E-zine is a magazine online. They are sent using either email or software and both are received via e-mail. E-zines are the best way to stay in contact with your customers or clients and show them what you have to offer or changes that you are making.
To get started writing e-zines, you need to have subscribers. When I first got started, I had my friends and family subscribe to it. That way you have a reason to create it and they can give you feed back and test for errors or problems. This is the easiest way to test everything before people that could be your potential customers or clients receive it.
You can use your regular email or a software program to create your e-zine. If you are going to use your regular email, there are a couple things you need to know before you get started. People don’t want their email address shared, so you need to keep it confidential. The best way to do this is to put all the email address in a distribution list and put it in the Bcc section of your email. That way if someone were to do a reply to all they will only reply to you and not the others.
There are several software programs you can use to create your e-zine. I recommend ConstantContact.com or Aweber.com. Both of these will give you a way to keep track of all your subscribers in one place. You can break them into categories if you choose based on certain things. When you create your newsletter in a software program you can add pictures, a border or theme, and many other things.
First thing you need to remember when you create your e-zine is you need to have good quality content that your readers will want to read. You don’t want to put an article in your e-zine that pertains to baby care when your e-zine is about makeup. Don’t put too much information in your e-zine because you don’t want them to be bored or stop reading. You also need to make that sure if you use content from somewhere else; you give credit where credit is due.
When you are thinking of content for your e-zine, think about what your target market and your business is about. You can use your own articles or articles from article directories like WAHM-Articles.com, but again make sure that you use an article from someone else you include the bio and make sure the link is clickable. You can also use your own products or services as content. Show a picture of the product or a picture that represents your service and then talk about it so that your readers know all about it. If you are running a special, you can also list that in your e-zine.
Once your e-zine is created, you can use it as an advertising tool to get others to subscribe to it. You can also give away an e-book or special report just for signing up. People like to get something for free, so that is a great way to get the email address.
E-zines are important for business because they put your business in front of your customers or clients on a regular basis. So, if you don’t have an e-zine, you should consider starting one today. You won’t regret the time you spend creating it because it will pay off time and time again.
9/28/08
Can you believe it’s September already? This year has gone by so fast it is
unreal. Hopefully your business has been successful so far.
In December of last year or possibly January of this year, you set business
goals for the year. Each month you should review those goals to make sure
you are still on track. You should mark off a goal when you reach it and
make any necessary changes.
When the last quarter of the year comes along, you need to sit down and
review your yearly goals in detail to make sure you are going to reach them.
To do this, you will need some paper and a pencil. You will also need some
time to yourself so you can focus. Distractions will cause you to miss
things or to stress and you don’t need that.
First think you need to do is review your goals. You need to cross off any
goal that you have reached. Put a smiley face next to it so you know you
reached it. Next, cross off any goal that you will not be working on and put
an X next to it. Now this can be a goal that changed because the direction
of your business changed or it can be a goal that was just not reachable.
Now don’t feel bad about the last one because it happens. Businesses change
and life changes and there is nothing you can do about that.
Now you need to rewrite your goal list so you are not spending time going
through the ones you have crossed off. Plus, you run the risk of missing a
goal. Once you have done this, you are ready to get started with the
details.
Take the first goal on your list and write it on the top of your paper.
Below that you need to edit it in any way. For example, if your goal was to
reach $12,000.00 in income for the year, you need to figure out what you are
at as of the end of August and adjust the number so you know what you still
need to do to reach the goal. Going with this same goal, say you need
$4000.00 to reach this goal. This means you need to make $1000 each month
for the next four months to reach it. Below your edited goal, write $1000 a
month. Now you need to look at your business and write down things you need
to do to reach that goal. If you have one product you sell and it is $100,
you will need to sell 10 to reach your goal. Now you write down ideas on how
you can get those sales. You can advertise market, network, write articles,
etc. Once you get this done, you are ready to do the same thing for your
next goal.
When you get the above step done for each goal you are ready to break your
monthly goal down to weekly goals. Weekly goals are easier to deal with and
easier to feel a sense of accomplishment. When you think about it, it’s
easier to think of making $250 a week than it is to make $1000 a month, even
though they are the same.
Setting goals is important in business. This article gave you some tips to
reach your goals towards the end of the year. You can use these same tips
when you set your goals for the New Year.
9/1/08
Did you take the summer off from your business? Were things really slow for
you during the summer months? This article will give you some idea’s to
bring back the business.
You can create new things to attract people to your website, you can change
things that you already have, or you can use what you have. No matter which
option you choose, you can make it work.
So, let’s start with the new ideas. You can create a Squidoo lens that
pertains to your business. You can create a blog for your business. You can
come up with a new ad. You can create a new button or banner. You can come
up with a new product or service to offer. You can join new network groups
or Yahoo groups. You can even start a newsletter. You can put an ad in your
local newspaper. You can post paper ads around your town or hand them out to
people. You can have an open house and share your business with others. You
can create Mom Packs and hand them out to people or daycares. The list is
just endless. Take a few minutes and brainstorm. You will be amazed at what
you will come up with.
Next, you can change things you already have in place. You can change the
wording in your ad. Make changes to your website, so that people can see the
difference. If you send out a newsletter, change your template or logo so
you have a new look. If you send out a newsletter you can add a new topic
inside the newsletter. If you have a blog you can add new things to it or
change the logo or style. If you have a flyer, add a picture to it, change
the font, or the color of paper you print it on. Change the information on
your Squidoo lens or network page and then make a post that you made a
change. Make posts that you changed your blog so that people will come and
look at it. Make a post and tell everyone that you added new info to your
newsletter and tell them they can sign up to receive it.
If you choose to use what you have, that’s great as well. If you have ads
written you can post them on Yahoo groups that you are apart of. If you are
not apart of Yahoo groups, you can sign up for some. Do a search on Yahoo
for advertising groups or groups that pertain to your business. You can also
post them on your network groups that you are apart of. If you have buttons
and/or banners, you can post them to your favorite plugboards. You can also
create paper ads (using the ad from above) and post them around your town,
hand them out to people you see, mail them out to past customers, or mail
them to potential customers. You can do link exchanges as well. You can also
submit your website to the search engines. Submit your blog to the blog
directories as well.
So, if you had a slow summer and you want to jump start your business, use
the tips above. Hopefully they will help you get started.
Corrie Petersen runs a successful Virtual Assistant and Advertising
business. She also has a free advertising tips newsletter that she creates
to help others. Check out her website at http://www.virtualfreedom4you.com.
Sometimes you have to be creative when you own a business. When you
advertise your business the “same ole same ole” can be boring, no fun, and
may not attract people to your business. When you are creative with your
advertising campaign you will get more out of it, you will have fun while
you create it, you will attract more people, and it won’t be so boring.
Summer time is the perfect time to not only try new and fun advertising
options, but it’s also the perfect time to include your family in what you
do. You can use events that are held during the summer to get your business
noticed. When the summer comes to an end, stay at home moms and dads will
look for something to do while the kids are in school. Why not put yourself
in front of them before they start looking for themselves.
In this article you will see examples of different ways to put your business
in front of people while you are out and about this summer. You will also
learn how to decide what will work for you, your business, and your family.
Some of these ideas may be ways to include your family which allows you time
to spend with them as well.
• Hand out flyers at the parade
• Hand out business cards at play dates or the park
• Hand out business cards at the swimming pool
• Hand out brochures at back to school events such as orientation
• Hang flyers on screen doors (check the laws in your community first)
• Put business cards on tables in waiting rooms
• Leave business cards on the tables at restaurants
• Leave business cards in the hotel room you stay in
You can pay your children a little bit of money to help you hand out flyers
and business cards. Make sure you watch them or go out with them when they
do it. People are more likely to take something from a child then they are
to take something from an adult.
To decide what will work for you and your business. You will want to
brainstorm for ideas. Write down anything that comes to mind. Once you do
this, make two columns on a paper. Label one column Good and label the other
column Bad. Now put each of your ideas from your brainstorm page in on of
these two columns. To decide which column they go in, think how well they
will work with your business, your family, and your community. Now you need
to mark each item with a B for business, an F for family, or a C for
community. Once you have this done to the good side, put them in order that
you would want to do them. When that step is complete you need to get to
work on your flyers. Make them bright, colorful, and fun.
Well, there you have it, the perfect way to plan your summer and your
business for the summer so you can create your advertising campaign. Good
luck!
3 advantages of using solo ads
Business owners are always looking for ways to increase traffic and
orders. Business owners have many options when it comes to advertising.
One option that has many positive points is Solo Ads. Let me define a
Solo Ad for those that are unsure of what they are and how they work.
A solo Ad is a text ad sent to a large number of people at one time via
e-mail. Business owners that have mailing lists use those to submit
Solo Ads. You also have advertising business owners that have the ability
to submit Solo Ads to a large number of Yahoo, MSN, or Google groups
at one time.
Ok now that you know what a Solo Ad is, you probably want to know why
they are better than other advertising options. Here are three
advantages of using Solo Ads verses other options.
1. You don’t have to submit the ads yourself
The great thing about Solo Ads is you don’t have to take the time to
submit them yourself. You send the necessary information to the business
owner and they take care of the rest. That saves you a lot of time.
Time that you could be spending growing your business.
2. Your ad will be seen by 100’s or 1000’s of people
When you use Solo Ads your ad will be seen by 100-200 people or it will
be seen by 100,000 to 200,000 people. It depends on who you buy the
Solo Ad from. That’s a lot of people looking at your ad and clicking
through to your site.
3. Text links help with Search Engine Rank and Page Rank
When you create a text ad, you have at least one link to your site in
that ad. Those links are great for the Search Engine Ranks and Page
Rank. The spiders that crawl the internet see the links and that is how it
helps. The spiders only see banners and buttons as pictures. When you
send out Solo Ads to Yahoo, MSN, or Google groups, not only does your ad
get submitted to the people that receive e-mail notification, it is
also placed on the group website. Being placed on that site allows your
ad to be crawled by the spiders. Which we know helps your site.
So there you have it, three reasons why Solo Ads are the best way to
advertise. So why not give it a try today!
Tax time is stressful for everyone. It’s really stressful when you own
a business. The bigger the business the worse it can be; gathering all
your receipts and everything else that your accountant will need. Wow!
When you get your taxes done for the year, you can relax a little, and
you will need to after all that.
Here are four tips that will help you throughout the year so next year
you won’t be so stressed when it comes to your taxes.
1. Starting on January 1, create a folder for each month. In these
folders you will put all business receipts. You can use a regular manila
file folder or an expandable folder. Business receipts can be for any
business related items. Items such as paper for the printer, toner for
the printer, pens and pencils, notebooks, the folders for this tip,
envelopes, postage, business cards, flyers, etc.
2. Make sure you print out all receipts for online purchases. The
easiest way to do this is print them out as you purchase. That way you
won’t have to do this all at once and you won’t forget some. Online
purchases for your business can be advertising, classes, networking groups,
business cards, flyers, Virtual Assistant services, etc.
3. Make sure you have receipts for any donations you make throughout
the year. Donations can be business related if you use your business
income to donate. You can donate to a church, a non-profit organization,
etc.
4. If possible, you should create a spreadsheet that contains your
income and all expenses. That way you can have totals for expenses,
income, etc. You can also create a spreadsheet for your personal items such
as medical, donations, etc.
Once you do this for a few weeks, you will get in the habit and it will
be second nature to you. Try adding this to your daily or weekly to-do
list or writing it on your calendar.
Now you are well on your way to having a less stressful tax season and
you can focus your time on growing your business all year long.
Whether you are just starting out in business or you have been in
business for years, advertising your business can be hard. When advertising
is hard to do or you just don’t have time to do it, you need to hire an
Advertising Assistant.
An Advertising Assistant can write ads for you, place ads for you and
network for you. When submitting ads an Advertising Assistant can place
banner and button ads on sites for you. An Advertising Assistant can
place ads on message boards and networks and an Advertising Assistant can
also do Solo Ads for you.
In this article you will learn about three reasons why you should hire
an Advertising Assistant.
1. Creating Ads
Creating ads can be a difficult thing to do. You don’t want to say to
much or not enough. When you hire an Advertising Assistant they can
write the ads for you. An Advertising Assistant will know how many words to
use, how much detail to include in the ad, and how to put it together
in a way that will be read.
2. Groups
An Advertising Assistant has a large list of groups they can submit to.
They have already joined these groups, they are familiar with the
rules and guidelines, and are very familiar with the submission process.
Using these groups is a great way to get your ad noticed by a large
number of people.
3. Time
Time is something a lot of us are in lack of. We could all use a few
more hours in the day. So if you are short on time, why not hire an
Advertising Assistant and delegate some or all of your advertising things.
That would save you time and help you make money at the same time.
As you can see hiring an Advertising Assistant is a great way to get
your business noticed. So why not save yourself some time and hire an
Advertising Assistant today!
3/19/08
Advertising is important when you are in business. Advertising is one
of the best ways to get your business noticed.
You have many options when it comes to advertising your business. You
can use offline and online ads. Offline ads can be flyers, postcards,
business cards, newspapers, and radio. Online ads can be banners,
buttons, links, and text ads.
Advertising can be difficult for some people, while it can come
naturally to others. Whatever you do, just don’t give up!
Here are 3 of the most common mistakes that people make when they are
advertising. If you avoid these then you will have better success with
your advertising campaigns.
1. Giving to much detail
When you create your ad you want to give just enough information to get
them to your site where they can get the rest. You don’t want to write
a book or copy your website word for word. People basically want an ad
that is short, sweet, and to the point.
2. Not giving enough information
When writing your ad you don’t want to not give enough information. If
you write an ad that says “We have great products, go here to see
them.” People most likely won’t click. You need to tell them what kin of
products you have and very simply how they can help them.
3. Pictures
Using pictures is a great way to show your ad readers your products.
Unfortunately they can be distracting as well. The ad can take to long to
download because of the pictures or the pictures don’t come in at all
and that can be bad as well. So your best bet is to not use them.
So there you have it. Three things you need to avoid when submitting
your ads. Whether you use text ads or flyers you need to follow these
tips and you will have better success with your advertising campaign.
What can you advertise?
3/2/08
So many people think you have to have a product to sell in order to advertise. Well, this article will show you that you don’t have to have a product to advertise to get attention to your site. There are many things you can advertise. Many of the things listed below have no charge associated with them, but they will get people to visit your website. When you get the people to your site is when the sale will potentially happen.
Advertising your business is important if you want to be successful. When it comes to advertising, some of you might say, “I don’t know what to advertise.” While others of you may say, “I don’t have anything to advertise.” Well, you do. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, you always have something you can advertise.
Below are some idea’s of things you can advertise.
Newsletters
E-zine
E-course
E-books
Blogs
Podcasts that you do
Weekly or monthly special
Sign on special
New product or service
An award you were nominated for
An award you won
Link exchanges
A radio show you will be on
An article you have written
An online party or chat
An event you are sponsoring
Places you can be found (Myspace, Squidoo)
Give something away (e-book or sample)
Affiliates that you promote
Announce an update to your site
So, as you can see from the list above, you can advertise a lot of things. You can come up with a list of your own. Just look at the things you have or the things that you could add to your site. Even if you don’t advertise things that will make you money, you should still do it. Attracting people to your site will, more than likely, bring sales to you.
Advertising and getting the word out about your website is a wonderful way to draw attention to your site. The more traffic you have, the better your page rank will be in the search engines. So, make sure that you advertise what you have and so you can benefit from those ads.
Relationships in business
To build a successful business you must build good relationships.
Building relationships can be hard to do. Some of us may be scared to do it;
some may not know how to do it the right way, while others may not
have the ability to do it. So here are some tips for you to use when
building relationships.
Building relationships is like networking. You need to build
relationships to have a better business. Building relationships can also help
when you are in need of purchasing something for personal use or business.
Networking can be done online or offline. Online networking can be done
on networking groups or message boards. Offline networking can be done
at networking events put on by the Chamber of Commerce, church groups,
or other groups. The Chamber of Commerce in your area should have a
list of these types of events.
When you network you are building relationships. Building relationships
is how you build trust. When that trust is built, people won't have a
problem referring you when they come across a person that needs your
products or services.
Most of us network for business. We network with hopes of drumming up
more business. When this happens during a networking event, we have made
it worth our while.
You also need to remember that you need to help yourself during the
trust building period. To do this you need to refer people to those you
met while you were networking. When you refer someone to one of these
people, you need to either call or e-mail this person or have the person
you referred tell them you sent them.
You will need to continue to do this on a regular basis to have
continued success with networking or relationship building.
Once you have done this, you are well on your way to building your
business with networking or relationships.
2/01/08
Running a business of any kind can be stressful. Whether you run a business online or in a shop of some sort you have stress. Being responsible for all the ins and outs of running a business is difficult to deal with.
This article shows you some useful tips for dealing with the stress associated with being a business owner. Some of these ideas will relieve your stress temporarily, while others can eliminate it permanently.
One stress-relieving luxury many women enjoy is taking a bubble bath. Light some candles, play music that relaxes you, and indulge in a favorite magazine or book. Once you get into the bathroom, lock the door to keep out any unwanted interruptions of your stress-free bath time.
Another option to temporarily relieve stress with your business is to take time away from it. As a business owner, many of us work every day of the week. However by taking weekends off, you can re-energize and eliminate some of the work stress from the week. Further, if you are married and your husband works Monday through Friday, your work hours should be the same. When your husband comes home, finishing your work day and starting your personal time with your husband and family will also relieve your stress. If you can spend some quality time away from your business, you will feel less stress. The old saying goes, “You need to leave the stress at the door.” With regard to working at home, you need to leave your stress at the computer, so to speak. You should also take a vacation from your business at least once a year. If you had a regular job, you would be entitled to vacation time, so why not do this in your own business.
Ok, ok, now I know the tip above will only temporarily relieve the stress, so let’s get to the tips that will permanently relieve your business-related stress.
A great way to relieve business stress is to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA). A VA can help you in so many ways. A VA can submit articles, take care of administrative work, create and submit your newsletters, and so much more. When you hire a VA to take on part of your work load, this will give you time to do other things. With that comes less stress.
Another way to deal with stress is to take on a business partner. The partner can help you make decisions and carry some of the work load. This again will help elevate the stress.
Having stress in your life is not good for you or your family. You need to get rid of it. Hopefully the tips above will help you or give you some ideas that will work for you and your business.
So here’s to a stress free day!
12/07/07
Gift Giving and Your Business
Businesses can give during the holiday season just like people do. You can do this whether you are in direct sales or you own your own business.
If you are in direct sales, you can give samples to all of your customers and something a little bigger to your business builders.
The neat thing about it is you can use it as a tax write off. Make sure you check with your tax advisor regarding this.
Gift giving during the holidays can be good for business as well as thanking your customers and business builders. It is also a good way to attract people to your website. You can place ads telling people you have something free just for signing up to receive your newsletter. You could also give something away if they listen to your presentation. As far as what to give away, you can give away a free e-book for signing up to receive your newsletter, you could give away a sample if they listen to your presentation, or you could give away a full size product if they enroll with you.
You could also do mom packs or holiday box swaps and give away goodies such as samples of your products or candies with a coupon.
If you are not in direct sales, but you have a service that you offer, that’s ok. You can still participate. You could offer a discount coupon or offer an hour for free. If you do the mom packs or holiday box swaps, you could take a 2 x 3 clear bag and put a tea bag in it with your business card and a discount coupon.
You can also do vendor fairs during the holidays and give away prizes while playing games. You could also offer a discount for those that order during the vendor fair.
If you run this campaign for Christmas, you will want to start early. Start advertising before Halloween telling people that you are offering a discount starting on Black Friday.
You can run these types of campaigns anytime you want, but it works really well during the Christmas season.
I hope these ideas and suggestions will help you bring your business up during the holiday season.
Advertising Made Easy!
12/07/07Ok, so you’ve started a new home business or maybe you have an
established business. One very important thing to do is advertise your
business.
First, let’s talk about what the difference is between marketing and
advertising. The definition of marketing is to make a communication
about a product or service a purpose of which is to encourage
recipients of the communication to purchase or use the product or
service. The definition of advertising is a public promotion of some
product or service.
So now that we have that cleared up, let’s look at some different ways to advertise your business.
First thing you should do is get business cards. You can get
inexpensive business cards at Vistaprint. Business cards are very
important to any business. Make sure to put your website, if you have
one, on the card as well as your name and phone number.
Now that you have business cards, you need to utilize them. You can
leave your card everywhere you go. Some ideas are bathrooms, table at a
restaurant, leave one on the shelf in the baby section at the store,
put them in your bills when you send them in for payment, give them to
people that you are networking with, and give them to your children to
give to there friends. I have also used my card to tell the teller what
change I need at the drive thru. I have also left them in books at the
library, on the tables or computer desks at the library, on the counter
at the doctor’s office, and in magazines in waiting rooms. Let your
imagination run wild with this.
Second thing you should do is to make up some flyers. You can leave
your flyers on any public bulletin board. Some examples of this would
be a bulletin board at the laundry mat, apartment complex, grocery
store, work out center, and the mall. Flyers are also good for Mom
Packs and to send out for direct mailings. Let your imagination run
wild with this one as well.
The third thing you should do is on-line marketing. Of course, you
should do on-line marketing if you have a website. But, you can do
on-line marketing if you don’t have a website. It’s better if you have
one, but that’s alright if you don’t. If you don’t have a website, you
should at least have an e-mail address and you should leave a phone
number. If you have a website, then you don’t need to leave an e-mail
or phone number. Course, all of this depends on how you want people to
contact you.
To do the advertising on-line, you can do a Google search for
advertising. You can do free advertising or paid advertising. It’s up
to you. I have found the paid advertising works better than free
advertising, but it’s up to you. If your advertising budget doesn’t
allow paid advertising right now, then you really should do the free
advertising. No matter how much money you have to spend, you need to
advertise. If you don’t advertise you don’t have people coming in. If
you don’t have people coming in, you don’t make money. Some places that
you can advertise are Ryze and message boards. Do the Google search and
you will find many more places.
The last thing you need to do is networking. Networking is very
important for any business. The definition of networking is using
contacts made in business for purposes beyond the reason for the
initial contact. For example, a sales representative may ask a customer
for names of others who may be interested in his product. You can
network through Ryze, the Chamber of Commerce mixers, and many other
places. You should always network, wherever you go.
There are many more ideas for advertising your business. Use Google and
people that you know. Success is as far as you make it out to be. Good
luck and keep up the hard work! You can do it.