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

Quote of the day.

7 ways marketers can use Reddit

There is no social media site more misunderstood and undervalued by PR pros and marketers than Reddit.

Reddit is nicknamed the “front page of the Internet” for a reason. It attracts millions—if not billions—of eyeballs every day.

It’s also a quirky place with its own etiquette and rules of conduct, and people who don’t follow those rules are quick to be called out. There are two groups of people you don’t want to anger online:mommy bloggers and Redditors. Both can wreck havoc on you and your brand.

That said, many PR pros and marketers are quick to dismiss Reddit as a viable outlet because of their own preconceived notions or due to horror stories they have heard.

That’s not always a wise move.

Here are seven steps to use this platform—a Reddit marketing guide—that won’t anger the mob:

1. Identify subreddits.

Before you can even start to think about putting your plans into action, you need to test the waters and see what’s already being said about your topic on Reddit.

There’s basically a subreddit for anything and everything. Don’t believe me? There’s a subreddit for jerky, dog shower thoughts, many not-safe-for-work examples and my personal favorite: “find a reddit,” which is a subreddit to find other subreddits.

You can find subreddits related to your topic by running a few searches on one of these websites:

http://www.reddit.com/subreddits/search?q=yourtopichere

http://www.pearltrees.com/subreddit_suggester

http://subreddits.org/

Keep a list of all subreddits on your topic in an Excel or Google Spreadsheets document for easy access.

2. Crowdsource blog and long-form content ideas.

Another great use for Reddit is to cure writer’s block (or blogger’s block) once and for all.

Spend 10-15 minutes browsing one of the subreddits you discovered in the first step. You should be able to come up with at least three blog post ideas just from conversations already happening in that subreddit.

Here are some things to look for:

“How do I do x” types of questions.

Lengthy debates.

AMAs—short for “Ask Me Anything” Q&A sessions.

3. Use Reddit for keyword research.

I’m just going to come out and say it: Reddit may be better for keyword research than Google Adwords Keyword Planner.

This is because you can see which keywords come up over and over again, and determine the context and tone in which they are used. Keywords are good, but the context for how they are used is better.

You can use this newfound knowledge to help write SEO-friendly headlines for blog posts and news releases, craft meta descriptions, write landing page copy or gain a better sense of how your target audience searches for information on this topic online.

My two favorite ways to do keyword research for your Reddit marketing are through “MetaReddit” and “SearchReddit.”

4. Gather market research.

Just like you can use Reddit to generate post ideas, it can also be used as a great sounding board to see if your ideas will stick, but careful you don’t abuse this.

Your Reddit marketing should also consist of gathering feedback, which you can get just by asking. Make sure you have thick skin; Redditors are known, to be honest, and a tough crowd to impress.

5. Find sources.

If your marketing strategy includes working with experts in your industry, you can find them on Reddit—along with influencers on a variety of topics.

Journalists are already using Reddit, and it can be a goldmine for finding possible sources to amp up your pitch.

6. Participate in “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

This is the most common use people think of when it comes to using Reddit, with good reason. AMAs are so popular even President Obama has done one .

Here are a few good starting points to consider before going all-in with an AMA:

Have a solid angle that will appeal to a broad audience.

Get a well-known person (who already has an audience) in your industry to be the spotlight feature.

Seed some initial questions in advance. This helps get the conversation going at the start, and can help ensure the AMA doesn’t go off track too much.

Be prepared to handle tough questions and negative feedback.

7. Promote content through Reddit ads

Another great, inexpensive way to promote your content is through Reddit ads Largely overshadowed by Facebook, Twitter and Google, Reddit ads can be an excellent way to promote your content to a highly targeted audience for pennies a pop.

You can drill down by country, demographics and even by subreddit. Reddit has a great resource for how to get started with ads on their Wiki.

Are you using Reddit to supplement your marketing and PR efforts? If so, what would you add to this list? 

  Source ; http://bit.ly/1q7sWYq

How to use Twitter marketing to increase your expert status

Twitter can be an incredibly effective tool for positioning you and your business as a market-leading company and expert source of information. Creating that position as an expert requires time and patience. The key methods to do so on Twitter include creating a personality, becoming involved in conversations and interacting within (and beyond) your industry. 

Have a strategy

Engaging on Twitter should be an element of your overall communications plan.You should have a Twitter strategy aimed at achieving a specific objective. For instance, it could be you want to be known as the most respected business consultant in the construction industry. Your strategy should encompass the type content you will share, your tone and the type of audience you want to connect with and influence.

Real-time auto-biographies 

Each Tweet may only be 140 characters long but your Twitter feed is a live, real-time auto-biography. Personality on Twitter really counts and simply trying to sell or promote doesn’t work effectively. Telling your own and your company’s story, in your own words creates a sense that there’s a real person behind the keyboard. The internet is a difficult place to gain trust but Twitter allows you to develop a personality which, in turn, helps to build that trust.

Learn to listen

Learn to listen Many of our conversations now occur online but the art of conversation is older than the internet. There are two sides to communication and the most important part is listening. Interact with your followers, follow them back and respond to their comments. Engagement is a two-way process in both the on and offline worlds. Be interactive and you’ll find your followers are far more engaged with your story.

Interact with influencers 

Search out others in the same, or similar, fields and follow and interact with them. Comment on relevant issues, stories or new topics. This approach helps to place you as a leader or expert in your own field and it can even create some surprising and possibly lucrative partnership opportunities.

Connect with media

Many journalists use Twitter and the platform offers a great way to connect and engage with them. You can do this by following them, commenting on and sharing their stories and also messaging them from time to time with relevant information. Not only could these interactions lead to possible media opportunities, it may also help you reach a new audience that’s relevant to your industry that’s following the journalists you’re interacting with.

Manage your reputation 

By monitoring your mentions on Twitter you can also deal with any negative issues relating to your brand. Customer complaints on Twitter can be damaging but monitoring for these (and having a strong presence on Twitter) allows you to respond quickly. Ideally, a direct message and a personal response to the issue can be the best way to get these negative conversations offline. With the problem resolved the customer may well become a great advertising tool, impressed by your response and helpfulness.

Twitter can be a powerful tool for positioning yourself as recognized expert and there are many things you can do to get noticed, convey a particular message about yourself and build strong and beneficial business relationships.

 Source : :  http://bit.ly/210Xok4

7 Simple Ways To Be Famous In One Year

There’s fame and there’s infamy. There’s long-term fame and “15 minutes of fame.” Actors and actresses have fame. Some of them have infamy. Barack Obama has fame, and he has long-term fame as a President of the United States. Osama Bin Laden had infamy, and he certainly had his 15 minutes of fame until taken out. Anyone can become famous, for good or for bad. And many can have 15 minutes of fame by getting hundreds of thousands of hits on a YouTube video.

There is another kind of fame, however. It is not global fame necessarily, such as that enjoyed by Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But it can be a local, regional, and then national fame within a niche. And that fame can result in respect, authority, and income, whether that income comes from a business venture, a very smart investment in a startup or IPO, book sales, or another source.

This is the fame that is long-lasting and that says “success.” Many people achieve this kind of fame and do so relatively easily. And here are 7 relatively simple steps on that path.

1. Begin By Making It All About Others, Not Yourself

If you are going to reach niche celebrity status, your first step is to become a truly trusted resource for others. This means that you do the following:

• Inspire, entertain and educate others without thought to making sales or promoting yourself or your business
• Be a real person behind that company, not a faceless entity
• Be accessible and transparent; have a social media presence that involves conversations; answer emails; be present wherever there are important conversations occurring, especially in groups related to your niche
• Do not be “better” than others; rather be helpful and friendly and humble
• Engage others daily, especially influencers. Hanging out with influencers makes you one too.
• If you succeed, don’t be the first one to boast, but try to share the lessons you’ve learn and inspire other people to follow your path. And if you don’t succeed from the first attempt, don’t be discreet about your failure either. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes and talking about that, rather than trying to appear as a super human.

Compare this to the traditional concept of a supposed industry leader – one who gave an occasional interview; one who had “gatekeepers;” one who knew s/he was “better” than the others; one who was inaccessible. This won’t work for you, because you don’t have any fame yet.

2.  Get Your Face and Your Personality “Out There” 

Brands are not really spread by products and services anymore. They are spread by personalities on social websites and news media.

It’s almost as if we have returned to days of old when storekeepers had personal relationships with all of their customers. Of course, these can no longer be face-to-face, but they can be strong relationships nevertheless. Today’s digital consumers of anything demand relationships.

If you have written a book, for example, you need to show online communities who you are, your sense of humor, your sense of compassion, your incredible expertise, whatever it is that makes you a bit of a “giant” in your niche. Provide excerpts from that book for free to every digital community possible. Set up book signings everywhere possible and call the local news media to cover them. Offer an additional benefit with a book purchase. Get buzz going by pushing your face and your personality, not just your book.

Inject your personality into everything you do online and on the ground. If you are in a business niche, hold events, make videos, and plaster them all over the place. Feature your customers in your blog posts, on your social media platforms. Do anything that you can to spread your brand by spreading the people factor, not by pushing the product or service. Come up with something that people will look forward to every week – things that will draw them to you and make them draw their communities to you too.

3. Provide Consistent, Public, Interesting, and Free Content

Jack Daniels is a well-known brand. It has been a well-known brand for years. And it has done this by consistently keeping itself in front of the public. Now, in years past it relied on TV advertising – expensive advertising. Advertising that those of us who would just like to become famous in our niche cannot afford.

We have to find cheap ways to become famous, and even Jack Daniels is going the cheap route now. It’s not all over TV – that’s a thing of the past. What does Jack Daniels do now? It has an amazing website and an amazing social media presence. It sponsors contests for people to submit new drink recipes. It asks customers to submit weird bar stories, which it publishes – consumers love it and they continue to love Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels will be famous for years to come because it understand how fame is now built. When you use the same strategies that Jack Daniels uses, you can build your fame too.

Get your “public” involved in everything you do. Other than the cost of maintaining your websites and social media platforms through employees or contractors, your cost of providing amazing and interest and entertaining and inspirational content is cheap. No one wants to read what looks like a textbook; and no one want to just hear about products. They want some fun and some education and they want it in engaging ways.

Even if your niche seems “boring”, there’s still a way to interact with your audience successfully and leveraging your authority status. Simply, by offering free detailed information of every aspect related to your business. For instance, Moverscorp publishes loads of amazing guides, covering pretty much any aspect of moving – from choosing the company to packing to tipping movers and things to do after the move.

You can build your fame if you are committed to giving your public the best content ever. On the Internet there are no walls and there are few rules. You build a fan base and that fan base reaches out to its communities, as long as your content is great. People share what is free and what is publicly provided. So give free and public!

4. Sponsor an Important Charity

One of the best ways to enhance your fame is to sponsor a well-known and compassionate charitable cause. You can do wonderful good while you increase your fame as well.

Why do people love Toms Shoes, and why has Toms Shoes become so famous? Because owner Blake Mycoskie, “chief shoe giver,” donates a pair of shoes to a needy child for every pair of shoes he sells. And he has branched out now into efforts for restoring eyesight and drilling water in 3rd world countries. He is a hero, especially among millennials, the biggest buying demographic, for all that he does. And he has great fame within his niche.

Jessica Erickson, owner of Headbands for Hope has gained national fame for her charitable work with children’s cancer research and her donations of headbands to young girls with cancer. If you want to make a difference in the lives of people and gain fame as well, this is a great path. Local, regional and state media love these kinds of stories, and the reach spreads. Both Mycoskie and Erickson have been featured on national television shows several times.

5. Develop Relationships with Influencers

There are famous people in related niches. Influencers are already famous within their niches. One of the “rules” for success is to hang out with successful people.

The same goes in the digital world. You can “follow” influencers, participate in their discussions, and make yourself known as an expert in your niche. Cultivate these relationships before you propose any reciprocity of promotion, but ultimately you can get to that. Being respected and liked by an influencer, even if not directly related to your niche is big. And influencers can introduce you to other influencers as well. This can ultimate get you speaking engagements, interviews, and/or promotion of your book, and so forth, depending upon the type of fame you are seeking.

6. Work on Your Fame Everyday

This means many things. It can be to join new groups. It can mean to contact local media with a press release. It can mean creating amazing content or videos. It can mean reaching out to new communities on social media. But you must consistently commit to doing something every day to promote your fame. If you do this for an entire year, you will be pretty amazed at how famous you have become with your ideal audience.

7. Cultivate your Guru Status

At first, you will give away a lot of stuff, maybe you will create free “how-to” e-guides.  Maybe you will create slide shows and videos that provide expert advice. As the demand for your stuff grows, create new “stuff” and begin to charge for it. Why? Because famous people are expected to charge for their “stuff,” and because you have the right to earn money for your hard work.

Neil Patel, the guru of content marketing, has the perfect combination. He is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and Hello Bar. These are for-profit companies with famous clients like Amazon, GM, NBC, etc. He also has a blog, called Quick Sprout. Here he provides free educational articles for content marketers and business owners. But always on that blog, he is promoting his fee-based services, one of which is to make a business owner a “guru” and famous in his/her own niche.

Becoming famous in a year is simple, but not necessarily easy. It takes concerted effort and a commitment that must be held every single day of that year. It means spending two hours working on that book; or it means an hour contacting local press to promote a charitable event; or it means writing the best content ever; or it mean networking and “rubbing elbows” with influencers. It can be tiring and it can mean that your workday just got longer.

You have to ask yourself, before you take on this “fame” goal: why you want to become famous and what it will mean for you? If you can answer these questions positively, then you are ready for the journey.

   Source : http://bit.ly/1Q6zc8g

How To Know If You Have What It Takes to Own a Business

Starting a business comes with its share of challenges. Knowing whether you can overcome those challenges is often the difference between a successful business or closed business.

Unfortunately, any business owner will tell you that it takes more than just a passion to get you to the top. Because 96% of businesses fail within 10 years, it's important to really think about not only what it takes for a business to succeed in your industry, but also what it takes out of a business owner.

So how do you know where you fall? Do you have what it takes to own a business, should you wait a few years, or is it not the right path for you at all?

Are you willing to take risks? Do you have a cap on those risks?

This will be the number one question on every list you read. When you own your own business, you have to be comfortable taking risks, mainly financial risks. Quitting your job and having to put all of your life savings into a space or hiring employees is a common practice all new entrepreneurs go through, and for some the risk is just a little bit too much. 

They try to be smart by saving a certain amount of money and only going so far. While this is a smart move, you can't think that way if you own your own business. You have to be able to plan (and essentially see the future), and give it everything you've got at any point in time.

Can you stick with what you start?

Some people are more free spirits and like to be moving around all the time. Entrepreneurs oftentimes have to have this similar attitude, however, which makes this one tricky. You may seem like you're the right fit to own your own business until this consideration trips up your plans. You have to be able to really stick with what you start, and for some this just isn't in their nature. Be honest with yourself and think about your past projects and how you did sticking with them until the end.

Can you make decisions and feel confident about them?

Plain and simple, you have to be a good decision maker. This one is fairly obvious, but it's incredibly important. When you own your own business, it's ultimately all up to you. You may have people there to help you, but you have to be able to make decisions and feel confident about them. The Wall Street Journal outlined several great decisions you'll have to make right off the bat:

·         Do you want to work from home or lease office space?

·         When are you going to start hiring employees, and what will their jobs be?

·         Do you pursue high-end clients or sell to the masses?

·         Do you want to incorporate? Do you want to advertise?

·         Are you going to borrow money from family and friends? Are you comfortable using your entire savings for the business?

Obviously these are basic questions, but if you're unable to really feel confident about these then it's important to realize the decision-making will only get harder. One wrong decision could cost you a lot of time and money, so you have to be prepared for that fact as well.

Are prepared to commit fully to your business?

Owning your own business will take up the majority of your time if you want to be successful. This means less time going out with friends (and less money to do-so), and even less time with your family (a deal-breaker for many). If you're not ready to commit fully, this may not be the right time. Again, it's all about decisions.

How much can you juggle at once? Are you willing to take on multiple responsibilities?

On that same note, a big reason owning a business will take up all of your time is the fact that you have to take on many responsibilities. At first, you may be your entire company, which means you're the IT pro, the marketing expert, the sales guru, and the boss. Even when you do start to grow your business, as the owner you still need to be familiar with all departments and have at least some expertise in all areas. 

This is also something that is hard to learn on the job, so I highly recommend getting some practice and seeing how you do juggling different things first if possible.

Do you enjoy working with and being around other people?

Another obvious one that has to be mentioned--you have to be good with people. Even if your business doesn't involve a ton of face-to-face customer interaction, you're the owner of the company. You have to manage employees and you have to work with everyone. This is something else that it's tough to learn on the job, so really be honest with yourself about where you stand on the issue currently.

Take a quiz.

When all else fails, there are also several quizzes out there to help generate an answer for you. However, I highly recommend really thinking about some of the points above and coming up with your own conclusion before jumping into a quiz. After all, you need to be able to make decisions on your own, right? Start with this one. You can then listen to others (the quizzes) and take advice and see how you do.

Your Turn

If through it all you still feel confident and ready, go for it. If you don't feel like you're ready right now, that also doesn't mean that you won't be ready in the future. 

As long as you take the time to consider some of the tips above, you should be able to come up with a pretty good idea of if business ownership is right for you. It's not right for everyone and that's OK--the sooner you can weed out ideas that do and don't work the sooner you'll be able to find the right fit for you, and that's really all that matters in the end.

Source : http://bit.ly/1WRrbsU

4 Content-Marketing Methods to Stay Above Your Competition

Promoting irrelevant content to your customer base is as useless as bringing a knife to a gunfight. The question is no longer whether targeted content is a competition worth entering, but how to bring home the gold.

With 86 percent of buyers “frequently” using mobile phones to access business-related content, it’s no wonder marketers and publishers are leaving their pay-per-click and display tactics in the closet and opting for the gold medal of all advertising methods: content marketing.

Here are some of the methods being used by winning companies:

1. Leveraging influencers

Influencer marketing is the force of nature shaking the online marketing world. There are two things to know when utilizing influencer-based marketing: it's expensive and it works. With that said, choosing the right influencer takes much more than a bit of YouTube browsing. Successful influencer marketing doesn’t end once a video goes live. It is important to follow up with comments and viewer queries across your channels, as well as the influencer’s.

2. Making it move

Digital storytelling should be as engaging and fluid as your content. Having a compelling user experience is exactly what your brand needs to draw your customer in and retain them. Content should be moving with your customer and enhancing their online customer journey. 

Interactive content is also a highly useful way for testing audiences’ online preferences, allowing for brands to elevate the content they curate. 

Recommended app: Apester allows brands to engage using personalized experiences such as quizzes and interactive content.

3. Creating for your customer

A surprising 61 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that delivers personal content that is specific to their wants and needs, according to Custom Content Council. Being that content has such an impact on conversion and retention, having an awareness of trending topics and industry keywords is a great way of understanding what your customer is searching for online.

It’s crucial to remember that content should be targeted to your customer’s needs, not your own. While self promotion and PR are huge forces in marketing, giving information to your clients with no strings attached is the best way to organically reach your customer base and keep them for good. By knowing your customers' personas and breaking down their pain points, you can adapt your content to your target customer and create deeper connections.

At the same time, if you are truly creating content for your customer, it should never be a one-way street. Instead, your content should be a catalyst for a dialogue. To make your content genuinely useful, encourage your users to add their own insights. This not only enriches the content itself, but it also empowers them to become loyal users.

Recommended app: Popular sites such as EW.com use Spot.IM’s social sidebar to make such conversations easy and simple.

4. Letting the journey drive content

The competition for outstanding content begins with a keen understanding of the customer journey, so that your brand can improve it. By creating a road map for this epic, you can position your content to tell a consistent story -- one that individually addresses each action and motivation of your customer base. Much of the content story can be boiled down to smart planning and a well-devised content calendar.

Recommended app: This one I haven't tried yet, but searching through many blogs I've found DivvyHQ to be highly recommended. With it, you are able to plan and manage your calendar on one dashboard, allowing you to be ready for your customers' journeys. Remember that the customer journey isn't necessarily linear, but is constantly in flux.

Source : http://entm.ag/1Swsy0T