How to Work Smarter, Not Harder on Your Business

Is all your hard work paying off? Maybe not. According to Boston University's Questrom School of Business, managers can't tell the difference between employees working 80 hours a week - and those who just pretend to. They couldn't see if their overworked employees actually accomplished more than those just pretending to work hard.

But the research doesn't give us a free pass to just slash our work hours and expect to see success. Instead, we should be working smarter, not harder, on our businesses to see results.

So instead of logging upwards of 80 hours of work a week simply for the sake of hard work, turn those 80 hours into a smart and savvy business hustle to skyrocket your success. Here are six ways to get started.

1. Get Clear On Your Goals

Serious focus and clear goal setting is crucial to your business success. Start by writing down your goals to give your hard work a boost. According to a study by Dr. Gail Matthews at the Dominican University, more than 70% of those who wrote down their goals and sent weekly updates to a friend were successful in achieving those goals. Meanwhile, only 35% of those who kept the goals to themselves were actually successful.

2. Offer Incredible Value

Creating unbelievable value in your business isn't a new concept. But how you do it should extend past the services you bill for. I exceeded last year's goal to connect or help one person a day and expected nothing in return. When I meet to help others or get to know them better, I don't ask for the sale or a return favor during that conversation. By simply focusing on helping others and creating value, I automatically generate leads and acquire new customers to the tune of six figures.

You can offer incredible value in your own business by focusing on what you do best. Give away a valuable ebook on your expertise if you're amazing at breaking down complex theories and jargon into easy-to-understand language. Create a LinkedIn group or a premium membership site if you excel at being a cheerleader for your clients and holding them accountable through their own business-building process.

3. Make It Passive

Earning a healthy income is relatively easy if you're working hard and putting in long hours. But there are only so many hours in the day that you can actually work. Spend too many hours on your actual services, and you sacrifice the time needed to develop new products and services and scale your business.

Instead, make part of your business a completely passive pursuit. Start by selling an ebook or self-paced video course. You can also look into how to diversify your wealth-building portfolio to earn passive income. That income can then be reinvested into your business to continue growing it.

4. Automate Your Systems

Earning money isn't the only thing that can be a passive pursuit in your business. Borrow from that passive concept and start automating your systems. Start by pre-qualifying leads with a survey or follow-up form to learn more about their business. This can dramatically reduce time on the phone going through the same questions you ask every lead, only to find out they're not your ideal client.

Use a system like KissFlow to determine processes, build forms, design the workflow, and set permissions for your team. SalesForce can also help automate processes like your project management systems, quality control, and managing advertising campaigns. Focus on completely automating your most common processes to create more margin and free up your time to build your business.

5. Eliminate Decision Fatigue

There are only so many decisions you can make in a single day before suffering burnout and decision fatigue. Research has shown that judges are more likely to offer parole and favorable terms during the morning hours - as decision fatigue sets in during the afternoon, similar offenders are more likely to be denied parole.

Make the majority of your decisions in the morning when your mind is the most alert and rested. Stack your afternoon with less-intensive tasks like meeting for coffee with a business prospect, answering emails, or getting in a workout at the gym.

And remember to take time to decompress and reflect. I reboot my brain by traveling, writing, and skydiving. In a survey of the daily routines of hundreds of Fortune 500 Executives, VPs and CEOs consistently use their evenings to unwind with a short walk, reading, pursuing a hobby, and shutting down electronics to relax before bed. When it's time to make more decisions in your business, you'll feel energized and more focused.

6. Outsource Strategically

Common sense should tell us we can't do everything ourselves. But in reality, entrepreneurs get stuck in the startup or bootstrapping mentality and keep doing everything themselves. Get more done in your business by outsourcing menial tasks, and anything that isn't within your range of expertise.

Start by outsourcing your bookkeeping to a monthly service like Bench, or your payroll to the experts at Wagepoint. Meanwhile, a service like Zirtual can provide you with virtual assistants to help with everything from travel planning to online research.

And don't just stop at delegating professional tasks. Remember, you can also outsource things like cleaning your office or home, cooking meals, and errand running to free up more time in your personal life and create more of a time margin in your business.

Are you ready to give up some control to work smarter, not harder? It's easy to keep wearing 'working hard' like a badge of honor. But working smart, automating processes, and giving up control can help your business soar and dramatically impact your bottom line.

What's your favorite way to work smarter, not harder, on your business? 

Let me know in the comments below.

Source : http://on.inc.com/2dvPxYB

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7 worthwhile ways to automate social media

Social media is an essential part of 21st century life. And, that’s especially true for business owners who are looking to connect with customers, influencers and even potential investors.

While having a social media marketing strategy is a necessity, it can become extremely time consuming. Between updating your profile, responding to customers, coming up with content and sharing content, managing your social media accounts can become a full-time job.

Over the past six months I've really been dialing in my social media efforts for minimal time effort and maximum output. Thankfully, there are a few tools and strategies I've found that help automate social media so I can focus on growing my business. If that sounds like a plan, then give these seven techniques a try.

1. Social media automation software and apps

The easiest way to automate social media is by using automation software and apps. These include Hootsuite, Buffer, SproutSocial, HubSpot, Social Oomph and Social Flow. Each tool may have unique features of their own, but essentially they all allow you to schedule social media posts in advance and monitor your accounts when someone mentions your brand or leaves a comment.

If you’re just starting out, select just one tool and experiment with it by scheduling a couple of updates. I personally use Buffer and really like it. Most of the tools above have apps so that you can stay up-to-date with your social media accounts while on the go.

I also like using Brand24 to find out who is talking about my company online. This is a social listening tool that shows me every person that mentions my brand both on social media or a blog post. They don't do any social posting but the social listening feature is amazing. You can then acknowledge these mentions and thank people publicly.

2. Fill in the gaps

Automation tools like Hootsuite can be a real timesaver. But, you can take that automation to the next level by using tools like Zapier and IFTTT. Basically, these resources make it possible for apps, systems and websites to talk to each other. For example, you could create a "zap" that automatically posts new WordPress posts into your Facebook page.

IFTTT gives you the ability to create "recipes" so that you can sync your online profiles or Google Calendar with social media so that you never forget a birthday. The possibilities are endless. Check out this Buffer post to help you get started with IFTTT.

3. Sync your blog

You’ve worked pretty hard on that blog post or creating that infographic. Why not ensure that it’s going to be seen by your friends and followers on social media? If you use WordPress, this is pretty easy to do since there are more than enough plugins that allow you to add social share buttons onto your page or automatically post on social media whenever you publish a new article.

However, you can also sync your blog content and social media updates in advance with a tool like CoSchedule. This handy service lets you plan out your editorial calendar in conjunction with the social media channel that you want the content to be shared on. Remember not all types of content will work on all social media channels. Share content on the channels where you know your fans will see it. I find that the content that does super well on Twitter doesn't do as well on Facebook for my audience. My Google+ audience likes more in depth articles while my Twitter likes short nuggets of advice. Test out and see what your audience likes and then automate it as much as possible.

4. Recycle evergreen content

Unless you literally started a blog last week, there’s a very good chance that you have some old blog posts in your archives. While it wouldn’t make much sense to share an article that discussed the hottest marketing trends of 2010, you could share evergreen content.

Evergreen content is timeless content that is still relevant. You could go through your archives, or you could also use a WordPress plugin like Revive Old Posts to simplify the process. There is also a killer tool that I use called MeetEdgar that allows you to publish a post and then automatically recycle your top posts several times on a schedule.

5. Tweet multiple times

While you don’t want to be the person who is flooding your fans' feeds with the same link to a recently published article, there’s also no rule saying that you can’t post that multiple times. In fact, the most effective Twitter users tweet 3 times per day. Even if you only send out the same content, you’re increasing your chances of it getting noticed by a different audience.

If you look at your audience and get to know them you'll find that they are from all over the world. This means that whenever you tweet, you'll have followers online. I like to setup a schedule for tweeting several times a day at specific times. I then go online and find the best content (mainly motivational quotes as they do super well as you can and schedule them out over the coming months. This allows me to spend two to three hours once every three months finding good quotes. Keep in mind that you can always post something important to social media whenever you want. This is just scheduling out so when you get busy, you don't look inactive.

6. Curate content

Social media isn’t just about sharing content that you’ve created. It’s also about sharing other people’s content. Thankfully, curating is easier than ever with the help of those automation tools that you’ve been using. For example, Hootsuite gives you the option to discover suggested content that you’re interested in based on keywords. Buffer allows you to create a posting schedule based on updates from within your network.

Newsfeeds like Feedly, dlvr.it and Scoop.it can also be used to curate and share relevant content. But, if you need a more robust content curation tool, there’s no better option than Curata.

7. Focus on one task when you have down time

Finally, you have to realize that you can’t automate 100% of your social media activity and have it be exactly what a dream account would look like. If you want to have a huge strong following, automation won't ensure this. There needs to be moments when you have an actual interaction with customers, fans or followers. And, trust me, people can easily notice when an account is basically a robot. Instead of getting overwhelmed, focus on accomplishing one task whenever you have some down time.

This could be anything from responding to or leaving comments, personally sharing updates or refreshing your profile. You don’t necessarily have to do this every 30 minutes, but try finding a little bit of time each day or each week to give your account a human touch. I find that the more personal touch I give my account the more real I am to my followers. This gains their trust and with their trust you can make a more powerful impact online.

Source : http://on.mash.to/1PqKt3x

4 Web Design Trends for Ecommerce in 2016

Web design  is constantly evolving, especially in the ecommerce arena where most retail companies heavily rely on online sales as their major revenue source.

The need to constantly innovate, adapt and stay on top of the most recent web design and online marketing trends is what makes the ecommerce space so fierce and competitive. The top preforming ecommerce sites for 2016 will be the ones that take advantage of the latest online trends, including the rapidly growing mobile sales market (mCommerce).

Here are a 4 emerging web design trends that will become more and more popular among eCommerce websites for the 2016 year.

1. Simple & Standard Site Designs

When it comes to ecommerce web design, simpler is always better. Just take a look at some of the most successful online retail giants Amazon and Walmart. Both retail sites are nearly identical in design. A simple site frame with a basic header, search bar, featured web banner, and popular product listing is all that’s really needed in a homepage.

The reason for this isn’t a lack of creativity, but rather a strong focus onconversion rate optimization (CRO). Successful ecommerce sites know what works and doesn’t when it comes to generating more sales online, and will most likely continue to stick with their same winning formula with a few design tweaks here and there.

2. A Focus on Mobile Commerce

With mobile commerce (mcommerce) sales continually on the rise, more online retailers will continue to come up with new innovative ways to create more mobile friendly sales experiences online.

With mobile sales conversions still relatively low, there exists a huge potential to tap into this still young and growing mobile commerce market. Expect to see many innovative web design trends focusing on improving and further integrating mobile friendliness and user phone experience.

3. More Pop-ups

Although pop-up ads are extremely annoying for many online users (myself included), they are still highly effective in converting sales. Otherwise, why would so many eCommerce companies still be using it?

Pop-ups are a highly underrated web marketing and design tool for converting customers in all steps of the online sales process. Adding in a quick coupon pop-up might entice a potential online customer to buy your product or at the very least sign up to your newsletter and return to your website at a later time.

4. Images Sell, Not Text

Ever heard of the saying “A picture speaks a thousand words”? Well it couldn’t be truer for eCommerce, and online in general. Think of Instagram. In a social media-dominated Internet, images rule – and ecommerce is definitely no expectation.

By incorporating high quality images that promote your product effectively, you can quickly grab a customer’s attention, and hopefully their checkout too.

Source : http://bit.ly/1S5zz9j

Social media key tool for B2B firms

Social media marketing offers business-to-business marketers many benefits

Many business-to-business chief executives still believe that social media isn’t right for them. And it’s no surprise.

The attention being paid to social media today mostly focuses on reaching out to consumers. But social media marketing can offer business-to-business (B2B) marketers a range of benefits if they take advantage of it, from increasing engagement and influencing decision making before the sales call to customising sales messages and enhancing their company’s reputation.

The Content Marketing Institute reports that social media marketing can help business-to-business brands build awareness and showcase their expertise. McKinsey points out that social media is a great place for business-to-business marketers to uncover early intelligence on competitor developments and on customer problems, needs and beliefs. They can also respond to questions and influence the emotional reaction to their brand.

In addition, the number of people likely to seek and share a business-to-business experience is increasing. In a Demand Gen Reports survey, almost all respondents (97 per cent) gave more credence to content that included peer reviews and user-generated content during the business-to-business purchasing decision process – higher than what was found for business-to-consumer products.

Most importantly, business-to-business companies are proving that social media builds sales and profits for brands. For example, Maersk Line, one of the world’s biggest container and bulk shipping companies, has made social media an integral part of its marketing mix by leveraging more than 30 local and global social media accounts. The company uses everything fromFacebook and LinkedIn to Twitter and Instagram, where, interestingly, it got a sales lead from a Russian company off one of its posts.

Business-to-business companies need to take this to heart. Instead of ignoring social efforts, they need to engage. Here are a few steps to get started:

1 Sell in by connecting the benefits of social media marketing to the concerns and objectives of your organisation. Since senior management tends to discount the value of social media marketing, stay away from using terms like “followers” and “engagement”. Rather, show how social media will help the organisation achieve objectives such as generating leads and facilitating conversions.

2 Identify your key audience and goals to achieve. What do you want your social media programme to do? Identify who you should reach and what your aims are. It’s important to note that the social media channels and the content that’s consumed and shared will be very different in the business-to-business world, so assumptions should not be drawn from business-to-consumer case studies.

To ensure success, find out where current and potential customers are talking and what subjects they are discussing before creating strategies to influence brand perceptions and identify sales leads.

3 Don’t rush out with a sales pitch. Business-to-business brands need to concentrate on engaging core audiences and providing valuable information. When the time is right, and with enough cultivation, the sales will happen.

4 Determine analytics and how best to track them. Rather than merely adopting the typical key performance indicators and tracking tools for business-to-consumer brands, business-to-business marketers need to find the most appropriate metrics for the unique category. In developing metrics, remember that influencing a business-to-business purchase with social content is much more valuable than a business-to-consumer purchase, since a single purchase could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Source : http://bit.ly/23c5KqS

11 Things You Can Do to Promote Your Business for Free

In my last article, I wrote about how I was a novice in the online business area several years ago. And I'm no expert today either, but I wanted to continue this topic and talk about some of the things I've learned about how to promote your business ... for free.

As we all know, starting a business can be quite costly. And besides the start-up costs, the ongoing expense for marketing and advertising can be quite daunting. It's like a double-edged sword: if you don't have the money to advertise, then the customers don't know you exist. But until you get customers and some money flowing in, how do you afford advertising?

In my almost four-year journey as an online entrepreneur, I have learned that there are a lot of actions you can take to promote your business that don't cost much money - and in most cases, none at all. Here are 11 ideas you can start using in your business today:

1. Youtube videos

If you don't have a Youtube account yet, get one. As a self-proclaimed "technological idiot" (as I've also written about before), it doesn't take much to learn how to shoot and edit videos. A good quality web cam and some editing software such as Windows Movie Maker are all you need to get up and running. Creating informational videos and posting them social media will lead to people sharing them, and thus, get you free "advertising."

2. Get on radio or TV shows

Most radio or TV shows don't charge you to be a guest (although some do). But if you get a show with a big enough audience, think about all the people you can reach for free! You will want to make sure that the topic of the radio show is appropriate for your business. That way, you are reaching your target audience.

3. Wear your logo on a t-shirt - as often as you can

I have a friend in a network marketing company, and she never leaves the house without wearing something with the logo of the company on it. Why? Because it starts conversations with strangers. Many people say, "Hey, I've heard of that company!" Or "What does that logo mean?" and BOOM! It starts the process of recruiting them into the business.

4. Get affiliates

Affiliate programs are great. If you're not familiar with them, it's when someone partners with you to sell your products/services/programs, etc. For instance, I am an affiliate for a self-development program, and I make 50% out of every sale. And since the sale is a monthly membership, it results in passive income for me. So getting affiliates to sell for you is a brilliant strategy.

5. Run a contest

People love contests! Who doesn't want to win something, right? So running a contest for a free prize(s) is a great way to get people to pay attention to you. Social media is the primary way some businesses do their promotion, so running a contest is a great fit for these outlets. Ask your friends and loyal customers to share the contest with their friends/followers, and again, your brand is shared with a lot more people.

6. Create an app

I have a friend who created a self-help app, and it went on to be #1 for its category on iTunes. As a result, what do you think happened? You're right - he greatly increased his audience. So if you don't know how to make an app, you can either learn how to make an app yourself or find someone to do it for you.

7. Host a summit

This is another brilliant strategy. An online summit is when you (as the host) do video or audio interviews with other people in your field of expertise. The goal is to have all of the people you interview share it with their audience on social media. And then you and your business are suddenly in front of a huge audience. Most summits interview around 20 experts. Think about the possibilities!

8. Cross-promote with others

This strategy is similar to the summit, although perhaps on a smaller scale. Again, find people whose message/business is similar to yours. Then you make an agreement to share each other's materials on social media. It can be in the form of blogs, videos, special offers, contests, or pretty much anything you think is appropriate. The goal, once again, is to expand your audience.

9. Give away free stuff/samples/trials/consultations

Most of your competition is probably giving away free stuff in the beginning. It's a way to "lure" the customer in without them having to make any financial commitment. Let's face it - we all like free trials! And it's much more likely that they will turn into a long-term customer once they get a feel for who you are and what you do.

10. Write a blog

Okay, maybe you aren't a writer, but having a blog is another great way to create sharable content that can go viral on social media. If you don't think you can write them, there are freelancer websites out there where you can hire a writer at a reasonable rate to do it for you. Regardless, it's almost a "must" in the business world these days.

11. Write for other websites

If you are a good writer, consider writing for other websites. Just as with all of these other tips I've given, it exposes you to a different audience. Almost every website will give the author a bio and photo with a link back to their website. The more websites you write for, the more you will expand your reach.

Source : http://huff.to/1O2gI7t

10 TIPS FOR SETTING UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS

It can be hard to take the leap and start out on your own. Whether you’re in finance, catering, or shoe design, many women get stuck before they start because they get bogged down in the small details and complications and fail to focus on the bigger picture. If you need a push, check out these 10 tips for setting up your own business successfully:

1. Visualize success – Visualize what your future looks like and set manageable targets and goals that you can actually reach. Try to picture your products on shelves or yourself in your office. Think about the color of your chair and the feeling of accomplishment. When you have a strong view in mind you can obtain anything.
2. Know your environment – Make sure that you research as thoroughly as possible the kind of environment that your business will be operating in. Implement a PEST analysis (political, economic, social, technological) to see how a change in legislation, inflation, public opinion, or new technology could affect you. Conduct aSWOT analysis as well, to assess your potential business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Make sure you study your customers and competition and know who you’re selling to and who you’ll be competing against.
3. Know your promotional channels – With so many marketing and promotional channels at your disposal these days, you need to establish the right ones for you. Although some of them are free, you might find that they don’t work for you. Once you know your target market and the kinds of things they like, it will be easier to select your promotional channels to appeal to them.
4. Plan to reduce counterfeit losses – Fraudulent and damaged bills can cause your business a huge loss over time, so make sure that you increase efficiency and accuracy by buying a currency counter. Any business that has a POS system and receives cash should definitely have this in place.
5. Learn to delegate – It’s hard but it’s important. Learning to delegate will make getting your business off the ground far easier and make it more efficient when you’re up and running.
6. Keep track of your finances – Make sure that you know what you will need to spend and how much you calculate earning. Hire an accountant to ensure compliance with taxation requirements. And pay attention when counting money to avoid costly mistakes.
7. Keep looking for new clients – Once you establish a potential customer base, don’t stop there. Keep thinking of new markets and people to sell your product or service to. Plan for long term growth.
8. Think about your business’s safety – If you can’t afford an extensive security system and you know you’ll be dealing with cash, make sure you purchase a secure cash box to keep your hard-earned money safe.
9. Test and analyze –Test and analyze any measure or change that you implement to make sure that your customers are responding well to your products.
10. Set Limits for yourself – Finally, remember that you need to have a life too and set limits for yourself so that your business doesn’t take over. Try to turn the computer off at the same time each day and make sure you designate times for family or friends.

Source : http://bit.ly/1jYjVNB

Behind The Scenes Of Wonderful Instagram Photos To Make You Rethink Social Media

Instagram has played an enormous role in the social media world since the beginning of the decade. Users capture square-shaped snapshots of their lives to share with the rest of the world, simply with the click of a button.

This social media platform has opened up a whole new realm for individuals to take a photograph, apply copious edits and filters to it, and pinpoint exactly how to design the post to appeal to their audience. Although witnessing a beautifully crafted photo can leave a long-lasting impression on a viewer, the behind-the-scenes work can leave the entire concept looking quite deceiving.

Let’s face it, photo editing has allowed us to drastically modify the appearance of both ourselves as well as objects around us — creating a false sense of perfection and beauty to the untrained eye. Thailand-based photographer Chompoo Baritone studied what goes on behind the scenes of the Instagram world, showcasing these awe-inspiring insights within the not-so-perfect world of Instagram.

Let’s take a closer look into what is really going on!

Capturing a breath of (not so) fresh air…

Filters are not the only thing lending a helping hand…

Baritone captures the true essence of winning…

How to stand out in a crowd…

The truth behind an ocean-side getaway…

Take a step back every once in a while…

Is the grass really always greener on the other side?

We want to extend an enormous “thank you!” to Ms. Baritone for gifting us this peek into real life, allowing us to understand that there is beauty in everything. Even ourselves.

Source : http://bit.ly/1RcQZ2F