8 Web Design Hacks for Entrepreneurs

That Want to Attract More Traffic, Conversions and Revenue

Having a website in today’s market is no longer an option, but different businesses utilize their websites differently. Some use their website for instant revenue generation e.g. ecommerce sites, while others simply rely on their website for lead generation through phone calls or email subscriptions. However, one thing is common for all website owners: you want to use your site to grow your business.

There are a number of strategies business owners can leverage to attract more traffic and build that traffic into leads and eventually conversions through sales. This article provides eight seemingly simple but critical web design strategies that have the potential to improve your traffic, leads and conversions.

#1. Find out what elements visitors are clicking and scrolling to

Knowing which areas of the site visitors are clicking and scrolling to will help you to position your offers and CTAs in places where they are likely to attract the highest number of clicks. You can use heat map tools such as CrazyEgg which will show you not only which areas are being clicked on, but also the origins/sources of those clicks. CrazyEgg can also show you how far down your webpages visitors scroll.

Using this tool, you can carry out split testing to identify which locations are most lucrative for your CTA buttons i.e. areas where conversions are most likely to happen. Conversions don’t just come by having CTAs somewhere on the page, gaining insight into what places actually attracts your visitors and leveraging that is what brings conversions.

#2. Site conversion audits

Is your current web design structure optimized for traffic conversion? In reality, many web designers know how to create great-looking sites, but few understand what elements are required to maximize conversions. As a site owner, engaging a user experience (UX) expert to perform a comprehensive conversion audit is worth the investment.

Such experts will help you pinpoint conversion hurdles and recommend design changes that will maximize conversions prior to launching your marketing campaigns. In turn, you can deliver optimized targeted messages and minimize the amounts wasted on ineffective strategies and elements. You can learn how to split test different elements of your campaign to determine which are more effective for campaigns. With a strong foundation on your website, all future campaigns will be more effective.

#3. Trust signals and testimonials

Visitors are more likely to make purchase or submit opt-in information to businesses that they trust. You can contribute to development of trust by including real testimonials from previous customers and/or noteworthy industry partners. Showcase any accreditations, recognition and awards prominently, communicating to consumers that you can be trusted. Stay away from giving fake testimonials, which can be spotted easily and will immediately cause customers to distrust your brand.

#4. Split testing

The importance of split testing cannot be overemphasized. Very often in website design, small changes, like tweaking the color or wording of CTA buttons can lead to significant changes in conversion. There are a number of simple tools which allow you to create multiple versions of your landing pages with slight variations to determine which ones lead to better conversions. You can do this even if you don’t have advanced coding or development skills.

#5. Call tracking

Where you rely on multiple sources for lead generation especially relating to phone calls, it’s advisable to have unique phone numbers and dedicated landing pages for the different sources, this will enable you to track which source was most effective in phone call generation. However, given that the call track numbers are all routed back to the main lines, there will be no disruption to the handling of your phone leads.

Almost all call traffic service providers can give you a record of calls made, and you can then use this information to determine which aspects of your campaign are effective in lead generation and which need improvement.

#6. Google Analytics metrics and data

Google analytics provides valuable information on which sources of traffic are effective in giving conversions and what your traffic engages in prior to conversion. This insight can help you to make significant changes to your layout and strategy e.g. you would know which of your social media traffic is converting and hence be able to direct more resources towards the channels that are leading to more conversions.

Suppose for instance you could tell that most of your successful converts interacted with you on the blog before converting. You would know to focus on generating more high quality content and utilize available distribution outlets like Taboola and Outbrain to lead even more traffic to the blog.

Your Google Analytics data is a gold mine that can help you get rid of traffic sources that convert poorly and scale up efforts on those sources which have higher conversion percentages.

#7. Exit popup offers

Getting traffic from any source to your site is no small investment, even if you’re not running pay-per-click campaigns. The time, resources and effort directed towards social media marketing and SEO essentially means that there’s a monetary value attached to each website visitor.

Most of the time, visitors who leave are unlikely to return; it makes sense to try and convert them through any way possible. Setting up a popup exit offer can actually improve conversion rates, which over time contributes to a significant boost in your ROI.

#8. Live chat

Live chats are not the preserve of e-commerce websites. True, they’re important for providing clarifications that can save sales as well as opening up another avenue for your employees to guide consumers to make a purchase and perhaps cap it with related purchases. However, live chat facilities is useful for other sites as well.

For instance, a restaurant site can use their live chat to iron out details of reservations as well as provide directions on locations for customers. Ensure that your live chat is accessible on mobile devices, given most of such customers may need this information while on-the-go. Cheap to implement, live chat can significantly improve conversions for businesses across the board.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PUVaxi

7 Marketing Trends You Need to Know for 2016

Here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

Mobile, video, and other marketing tactics that have been on the rise for years aren't really "trends" anymore. So, how many more trend articles do marketers have to read through that really just tell us what we already know?

Now, just because they're not current trends doesn't make them unimportant. Optimizing for mobile and including high-quality visual content and video in your strategy are still good practices. But to keep yourself and your company ahead of the competition, you need to analyze what's happening now, review your strategy from different perspectives, and prepare for what's to come.

To help, here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

1. Writing skills and experience will be critical.

When the industry started shifting from print to digital, there was fear among English and journalism students that their craft was dying and no one with a degree in those fields would have jobs. And now with the rise in content, these research, writing, and editing skills are becoming increasingly important, especially when high-quality content is becoming the new SEO.

However, in its 2016 B2B Content Marketing report, the Content Marketing Institute found that only 19 percent of marketers would prioritize becoming stronger writers in the coming year. To keep up with other top content creators and publishers in your industry, encourage your HR team to recruit employees with these game-changing skill sets to build a successful content team, or start investing in education to help your existing team strengthen its writing.

2. Content marketing will enhance other areas of business.

Many people view marketing as the department that works solely to promote your company to your external audience, and while this is one of its key functions, it's not the only one. Content the marketing team produces will become an increasingly necessary asset to many other departments at modern companies, because those resources the team creates for external audiences are just as helpful for internal audiences.

For example, marketing team publishes a piece of content, our entire team is alerted. Because the content is created for your audience, including clients and prospective customers, your client-facing and production team members can use it to fuel their efforts, our sales team can send it to address common objections or questions, and your HR team can use it to train new team members about your processes. 

3. Personalization will prevail.

One of my favorite keynote speakers at this year's BOLO digital marketing conference was my friend and marketing trend expert Rohit Bhargava. During his speech, he talked about the growing importance of personalization and providing opportunities for clients and customers to feel like VIPs, and he used Disney's MagicBands as an example.

Instead of every visitor receiving the same band, each Disney MagicBand is personalized to that visitor's vacation experience. These simple gestures of personalization show that your brand cares about individual customers, and they're effective. In fact, my daughter didn't want to take off her band when we left Disney because it made her feel so special. Avoid generic templates and find ways-from simply targeting your messaging to sending personalized emails and gifts-to make each individual customer feel that special.

4. Industry authority positioning will become a must.

 Companies without thought leaders who provide voices and contribute to industry conversations are taking harder hits to their credibility than ever before. Executive branding and leadership positioning are no longer just nice to execute-they're becoming increasingly necessary. People want a connection to your brand, and they want to trust your leadership. The best way to establish this connection and trust is to create content that showcases your authority.

To effectively position your company, start taking advantage of your team's unique insights and expertise, and craft your messages into thought leadership content that establishes your company as the industry leader.

5. Add value for your audience and stop selling to them all the time.

Stop focusing only on making the sale, and start focusing also on delivering true value to your customers and potential clients. Whether this value is found in the quality of your content or in the experiences you provide, it's becoming more and more important for marketers to ensure that value is delivered to those who interact with their brands.

For example, on a recent call with Mura Experience Platform, a member of its team mentioned to me that a custom Cards Against Humanity deck designed for attendees of the Content Marketing World event with the Mura Experience Platform brand was one of their most successful marketing campaigns. This campaign was successful because it was original and delivered direct value to Mura Experience Platform's target audience. To keep up with competition, it will be important for marketers to take advantage of the rise in content to create and deliver value to customers.

6. Thought leadership is a new SEO driver.

Traditional SEO-using link building and keyword optimization to increase your pages' search results-is no longer your ticket to high rankings on Google. After Google's continued algorithm updates throughout the year, the search giant has begun rewarding higher-quality content with higher search rankings. Despite efforts by some companies and content creators to cheat their ways to the top of results pages, high-quality content prevails over the old keyword-stuffing tactics of the past.

For example, in my own writing during the past year or so, I've seen a dramatic difference in traffic to my own articles because my team and I have continued to perfect our content-creation processes to align with exactly what our target audience is searching for. Now when you search terms like "thought leadership speakers," you can easily find the article I published to my Forbes column. Because Google's updated algorithm recognizes that this piece of content was created to provide specific value to my individual readership, it rewards the article with a higher ranking to make it easier for readers to find.

As a marketer moving into 2016, your priority should be to provide the best possible content to your audience, not to publish junk content in hopes that it'll land you on page one. Trust me, when you create truly engaging, valuable, and relevant content crafted to serve members of your audience and what they're looking for, you'll earn that sweet spot at the top of the results page.

7. Full-service won't solve all your problems.

The best thing you can say to make someone lose faith in your company's credibility is "My company is great at everything." No single company is great at everything, and that's why full-service firms are becoming a thing of the past.

As the industry becomes more specialized, we'll see fewer full-service, best-at-everything marketing companies in 2016. Instead, focus your efforts on the one thing your company is truly great at and what your customers need and want most from you, and become the absolute best at whatever that is. You'll need to live and breathe that area, develop technology to support your efforts, and consistently innovate your products and services, but you'll ultimately serve your team and your customers better if you focus your efforts on the one thing that separates you from your competitors.

As this year draws to a close and your marketing team starts determining what initiatives will be valuable investments in 2016, a variety of content resources,marketing speakers, and other thought leadership resources will help point you in the right direction. Take the time over the holiday season to do the research and plan where your focus should be in 2016.

Source : http://bit.ly/21olt5h

Why You Will Never Be Successful If You Cannot Name Your Passion

"Without passion, success doesn’t exist."

Can you win without trying? Can you come out on top with minimal effort and focus? Can you take the trophy without having that need pushing you to become better, stronger, faster, smarter?

Yes, you can. But you cannot — I repeat, cannot — become successful in an area about which you are not passionate. It is impossible. In fact, it’s a logical contradiction that can’t be overcome.

If you are never passionate about anything, then you will never be successful in anything. Think about that for a minute.

To be successful is to achieve a desired aim.

That’s one of the more common definitions of success: achieving a goal or desired aim. I, for one, believe that this is an insufficient definition, or at the very least, a deceiving one. It makes it seem that as long as it is wanted, any goal or aim, can result in success.

This simply isn’t true. Achieving that which you desire is a success, but that does not make you successful. You may be successful in achieving that aim, but you won’t necessarily be successful as a person.

It is important to differentiate between what it means to succeed and what it means to be successful.

I succeeded in waking up this morning and getting out of bed. However, I didn’t go celebrate afterwards – it’s a success unworthy of praise. 

To be a successful individual, you must succeed in something that you and others will deem as something worthy of mention.

In other words, you have to succeed in something that most others cannot accomplish.

It’s winning a competition and beating others to the finish line. Many may argue that this sort of competitive approach can do more harm than good, which in part is true, but you can’t change the true definition of success to make yourself feel better.

The pursuit of success itself isn’t harmful; what is harmful is pursuing the wrong purpose.

Most people fail because they are pursuing the wrong goal. Growing up I was, apparently, a very talented dancer. On a national level, I was one of the top two dancers in America. However, dancing was a hobby and not a passion.

Whatever passion I did have at first faded away over time, and that’s okay. Thankfully, I was brave enough to drop it and move on to something more worthy of my diligence and intellect. Countless people pursue things that they don’t particularly want to pursue.

Parents or friends are the influencers pushing many people. Others push themselves because they believe in an idea that holds little validity. Many of us create a dream that cannot exist in our reality, but pursue it blindly because we either don’t know all the information or refuse to accept that information as truth.

It may take time to find the right cause, the right pursuit, but that’s simply the way these things work.

As human beings, we don’t enjoy experiencing uncertainty. We try to avoid it as much as possible and hide from it whenever we can. Life itself is nothing more than an array of uncertainties arising from and followed by more uncertainty.

We don’t like leaving things open-ended; we prefer to have a direct path of travel mapped out ahead of us. Unfortunately, finding what you ought to pursue, finding that passion, takes time. It takes research, experience and many mistakes and detours.

In fact, one of the most difficult, and most important, parts of life is finding something to devote yourself to; finding that passion that will give your life both meaning and happiness.

One of our saddest moments is the moment we realize we spent too much time doing something we shouldn’t have been doing; we spent our most precious currency on things unworthy.

Mistakes and poor decisions are only that if you don’t learn from them and bounce back. The mistakes we make in our lives are the bricks that pave the road to our success.

It’s what we learn from those mistakes and what they teach us about ourselves and the world that allow us to become the successful and passionate people we are meant to be.

If you don’t screw up, then you can never succeed. If you never make mistakes, then you simply aren’t trying hard enough to do anything worth doing.

Without passion, you will never feel successful, not because you didn’t succeed in achieving an aim, but because that aim wasn’t worthy of your effort.

Success is entirely and completely subjective. What I consider a success you may consider as nothing deserving of praise – the same goes vice versa. What really matters is what you believe.

Are you proud of yourself? 

Did you push yourself to go beyond your limits or did you just coast? Were you hungry to do more, to learn more, to create greater creations?

Did you change yourself in order to be capable of achieving the things you wished to achieve?

Most importantly, what is challenging and did you love it?

The best definition for passion is “a challenge that you look forward to conquering.”

Passions aren’t passions because they are easy to accomplish. That would make your passion short-lived, as well as unsatisfying. People are passionate about things because they see questions that remain unanswered.

People are endlessly curious creatures, as long as they find something they are curious enough about. Finding this curiosity is the goal of our lives because, without it, there is no passion. Without passion, success doesn’t exist.

Source : http://bit.ly/1OSJeOT

7 Ways to Use Images to Boost Conversion Rates

The fact that images can help boost your content marketing is old news. Still, it’s impressive that blogs with images receive 94 percent more views than those without.

High quality images can be an excellent way to increase conversions if used to their fullest capacity. All it takes is a little knowledge of how images and customer psychology go hand-in-hand. Here are just a few ways you can use images to boost conversions on your website:

1. Use High Quality Images

Pixilated images, clipart, cheesy stock photos, and irrelevant pictures all detract from your brand’s reputation. It’s hard to convince customers to purchase a product if it doesn’t look stunning in photos.

For example, consider real estate. Without high quality images, online listings would be irrelevant. People would be much more hesitant to buy properties without seeing them first in person. Great photos are vital and serve to drive conversions in a real estate setting, just as they would in any retail setting.

2. Replace Copy With Graphics

“A picture speaks a thousand words.” There’s a lot of truth to that saying when it comes to conversions, especially if you’re trying to explain a great deal of information or describe a complex concept. It’s better to replace text with a helpful graphic that can explain things more clearly.

For example, you could use an infographic with intricate charts and graphs to explain how a certain type of software could increase collaborative efficiencies. This information display makes it significantly easier for customers to get on board with your products and services.

3. Showcase Your Product

High quality product photos that show the product from multiple angles are a must. The images should also be highly detailed with no background distractions. Furthermore, avoid using confusing images that make it difficult to immediately pick out the product in question.

For example, if you’re selling a pair of jeans, but you show the full body of the model, it can be difficult for the consumer to determine if you’re selling the top, accessories, or bottoms. In addition, photos with plain backgrounds always convert better because they show the image in the best possible light.

4. Show the Product in Action

Provide the customer context for how they would use the product. If you’re selling a pair of sunglasses, show what they would look like with someone wearing them on the beach. If you’re selling a sofa, show how it would look in a well-designed room. It’s amazing how many more sofas you’ll sell when customers can see a product in action.

5. Allow a Zoom Feature

Let customers see every detail of your product up close, particularly if there are small, intricate details. Being able to zoom in to see the stitching on a pair of boots can mean the difference between customers making the purchase and abandoning their cart.

6. Include Images in Site Search

Good search features within a website are very important to customers, and adding images to the drop-down menu within the site search windows can boost conversions.

This concept was put to the test by BrickHouse Security. “With the product images in the site search drop-down window, we get a 100 percent lift in conversion rate among shoppers who use site search,” explained Ryan Urban, BrickHouse manager of customer acquisition and analytics, to Internet Retailer.

7. Let Images Guide the Customer

Finally, make sure that the images you use to enhance your website serve to guide the customer’s eye. For example, if you’re trying to make a bottle of shampoo stand out, show a picture of a woman with luscious locks splayed around her head, looking at the bottle. This will direct the customers’ focus and make the product look more enticing.

Internet retailers make mistakes that impact their conversions all the time, but poor images shouldn’t be one of them. With the right placement and context, significantly higher conversions can be a reality for any company. Images in every aspect of your marketing strategy can be exactly what your blog and website need to bring in more customers and exchanges.

Sourdce : http://bit.ly/1OOjDGM

Play with social media !

Entrepreneurs: 10 Things to Do When You Feel Like Quiting

1) Go ahead and quit! It's only for a day or two. Sometimes you have to just surrender what you think should be happening today. Let go... There is is so much freedom to be found in the releasing of all your "shoulds."

2) Reach out for support from like-minded people. These people can be your spouse, best friend, religious groups, or Facebook groups. You'll be surprised how strangers can sometimes understand and encourage you better than people you've known all your life. The point is, reach out for encouragement from people who get where you are, but have the right words to push you forward, because they have been there themselves, 1,000 times.

3) Go to bed. Your body needs to heal from the stress life is applying. Plus everything looks better in the morning.

4) Keep your rituals. Exercise, gratitude, affirmations, visualizations are what got you this far. They will carry you to the finish line. Examine how these rituals are working for you: see number five.

5) Recount your victories. When David (in the Bible) got ready to fight Goliath, he reminded himself that he had already slain a lion and a bear. This gave him the reassurance he could defeat the giant at hand. What life or business giants have you already defeated? You are well able.

6) Clean your physical space. When I get stressed or overwhelmed, I clean. I used to close the shades and go to bed for days (before I had a baby). So this is an improvement. Cleaning gives you back control over your environment. Clear work space clutter. Wash up those few nagging dishes, etc. Clean till you feel free again. That's a good time to talk on the phone to a buddy too. Helps with the crazy need for multitasking.

7) Tell yourself the truth. What false beliefs made you quit? Were you telling yourself, "You can't, you'll never get there, there's too much to do, if other people only knew what a failure I am, I should be able to contribute financially to my family, no money means I'm a failure, or I can never learn it all." Wow! We are so rough on ourselves. Lighten up! Feel your feelings. But tell yourself the truth for every lie. Review number five.

8) Revisit your teaching or business philosophies. Make sure they are still true for you. Do you believe in Magic or is it just all hard work? Good question. The goal is to become more and more authentic every day.

9 )Set some goals that you can accomplish tomorrow without much effort. This restores the feeling of success.

10) Laugh. Dance. Grab a raft and ride the wave. This too will pass.

Source : http://huff.to/1N1q57h

6 New Rules of Business for the Next Industrial Revolution

The world is in the midst of a new industrial revolution.

This morning, we release several important stories from the November issue ofFortune magazine, which provides an in-depth look at The 21st Century Corporation. It is our belief that the world is in the midst of a new industrial revolution, driven by technology that is connecting everyone and everything, everywhere and all the time, in a vast and intelligent network of interactive data that is creating an economic dynamic increasingly characterized by low or zero marginal costs, massive returns to scale and platform economics.

Fortune's Geoff Colvin has a fascinating piece here that lays out what this means for modern companies. I strongly recommend it. But for the time-pressed, here are my six big takeaways:

1. You don't need a lot of physical capital. You've probably heard it before, but it's true: Alibaba BABA -2.10% is the world's most valuable retailer and holds no inventory; Airbnb is the largest provider of accommodations but owns no real estate; Uber is the world's largest car service but owns no cars.

2. Human capital will matter more than ever. With less physical capital, employees become more important. You need to identify the ones critical to the company, and recognize that increasingly, they are the company.

3. The nature of employment will change. For the rest of your employees, gig work will grow. Former Cisco CSCO -0.11% CEO John Chambers predicts: "soon you'll see huge companies with just two employees -- the CEO and the CIO." An exaggeration, perhaps, but not by much.

4. Winners will win bigger, and the rest will fight harder for the remains.New business models often make fortunes for their creators, but destroy whole industries in the process. Or as the McKinsey Global Institute puts it: "tech and tech-enabled firms destroy more value for incumbents than they create for themselves."

5. Corporations will have shorter lives. The average life span of companies in the S&P 500 has already fallen from 61 years in 1958 to 20 years today. It will fall further.

6. Intellectual property knows no natural boundaries. A must-read this morning is a fascinating story by Brian O'Keefe and Marty Jones about Uber's "double dutch" corporate tax structure, which you can read here. As more of the value of modern corporations comes from intellectual property, income can easily be shifted to tax havens (...at least until authorities wise up and fix the global tax system).

Source : http://huff.to/1P7l9lD

Socializing Your Brand is Not an Option but a Must

With the increasing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, almost every single company that has a website is on social media. For some people, social media marketing is just a fad that can provide advantage while it lasts. And then there are others who think it’s a lot of hype around something that holds no advantage. However, socializing your brand has become more important than ever before. 

Is Social Really Important?

Almost a decade ago, marketers were pondering over the same question, thinking that it’s just a fad and will fade away in a few months or a couple of years. It didn’t. Social media is here to stay and has become even more powerful as more and more people network on it. If you’re looking for one good reason to get social media services for your website, we have a reference list for you.

1. Two-way Immediate Communication

If your customers are upset over something, they don’t want to wait for 30 minutes while their call is put on hold. And they don’t want a 24 hour waiting period for your email. They want a quick response. Your social media service should be active on the network and reply to complaints as soon as possible. This lets other people see how helpful you are, and thus it increases your sales.

2. Transparent Communication

When a customer brings up a complaint regarding your products or services, others can read that. And when your team replies to their concerns, your fans can see how you replied to the comment. This builds a positive brand image. When communication is transparent, it helps both sides. While you build a positive image, customers get their complaints resolved quickly – so it’s a win-win situation.

3. More Conversions

You can’t make new customers with each new post, but when you solve a customer’s complaint, other people will start liking your brand. Also, your posts and replies will reflect your brand essence. Make sure that no matter what the customers say, you have to reply with a positive tone. This will build a positive aura around your brand that will encourage conversions.

4. More Followers

When a fan experiences positive communication with your brand, they will share this experience with their friends on social media. This is the main reason this platform is called social – people discuss their good and bad experiences. If a person had a bad experience with your company, they will discuss it with their friends, and this will not be good for your brand image. When you get social media marketing services from a good company, you can turn all customer communications into positive experiences and gain more followers.

Remember, being on social media isn’t just about posting content, but also about resolving customer issues. As you answer their questions and resolve their issues, your business will be a bit more vulnerable, but if you have the right social media services, this risk is certainly worth taking.

Source : http://bit.ly/1KFfL33

The 4 attributes of a great marketing hire.

When I’m looking for the next great marketing mind or business development genius, I’m not looking for just an employee. I’m looking for a partner. Being smart and having a great college pedigree is carrying less and less weight these days. Bottom line: Your education is not going to make my clients ecstatic about the work we do or put my company on the front end of innovation. What companies need in today’s world is talent with the ability to think, do, and execute in any circumstance – without anyone holding their hand.

Here’s what I look for when I hire people. It’s not exactly traditional HR wisdom. But I’m not looking for traditional. I’m looking for great.

1. I want someone who has failed. If you’ve failed, it means you got out there and did something big. Maybe this job candidate tried to start a company and went down in a blaze of glory. Maybe they tried to build a product or launch a marketing plan with no idea what they were doing, and it failed. That’s actually good. That I can work with — way more than someone who swallowed the business school textbook. Because if the candidate has been through failure, it means they tried something big. It means they had the wherewithal to get some power, the curiosity to go somewhere with that power, the leadership to get people invested in the project, and the chutzpah to try something crazy.

When you hire a candidate with at least one big, messy failure behind them, you know that person has at least one use case for what didn’t work. It’s much more productive to learn from a project that failed than get narcissistic about one that succeeded. To borrow from Thomas Edison, I want a candidate who can tell me about the 10,000 ways you can’t make a light bulb. That’s much more interesting than if a candidate just shows me a perfectly-made candle.

2. I hire people who got out of the classroom. Full disclosure: I was a marketing major myself. And, yes, it was helpful to learn the basics of the field, but that was far from the most valuable experience I had in college. My best learning experience was when I came in, totally green, and ran a marketing department for a company that had absolutely no budget. They didn’t have anything to lose, so I had free rein to try whatever I wanted – with the catch that I also had no resources. Everything I wanted to implement was on me to make happen. I had to go door-to-door with fliers, stay up all night to make the photocopies myself, and scrounge for anything I could do free, cheap, or stolen.

Was it dignified? No. Was it great experience that’s still informing my business today? You better believe it. There’s no better lesson in cost per lead than when it has to be zero. I want people on my team who have actually gone out there and done things.

3. I need to see references that aren’t professors. Here’s the thing: Textbook learning is at best third-hand. The visionaries who had the idea to pull off the impressive campaigns almost never become professors themselves. They’re out there, having bigger and better ideas. I want to hire someone who has learned from the visionary directly – or is one herself.

There’s no right answer in business. That lesson is different if you read about it in a book than if you’re on the team that actually failed. Brilliant people make terrible investments, successful companies make bad calls, and Windows Vista is somehow a thing someone thought was a good idea. I don’t want to work with people who think they hold all the cards. That’s why I hire people who have mentors from outside the schoolyard.

4. I’m going to hire someone who doesn’t need me to tell them how great they are. There may have been a time when validation from your company or your boss was healthy and productive. But those days are over. A great professional is not going to work at your company for 20 years – and frankly, you shouldn’t hire someone you think is going to do that. That’s what makes people stagnant, stuck in old methods, and unwilling to innovate.

I’m looking to hire someone who’s good enough to leave any minute to go solo or even found their own company. A good performance review is nice for them, but approval from me isn’t their be-all end-all. This person is building something bigger than the company they work for or the person leading the team.

Today’s truly successful professional is a brand all their own. They’re a thought leader, an innovator, a creator that has big ideas and isn’t afraid to share their opinions. They have a network and social properties that stand alone from their title within a business. When I look to hire someone, I don’t spend much time mulling over their resume. I look at their LinkedIn and Twitter, what they’ve been sharing and writing. Who are they connecting with? Do they have any influence?

I don’t want to hire someone who can make a perfect candle. I want someone who’s going to help me invent the light bulb, even if it takes 10,000 tries.

Source : http://bit.ly/1O3iJGb