The Right Experience in the Right Business
Published November 17, 2011 | 
Common Business Mistakes You Want to Avoid
Let me start by stating what should the obvious, and that is starting a business in an industry you know has obvious advantages. The major advantage is that you’ll be starting out in an industry where you have prior experience and expertise, which saves an enormous amount of time by achieving significant results and success sometimes much quicker. A major reason is that your personal network and business contacts can be extremely invaluable when it comes to getting your new business off the ground including finding employees, securing important capital financing, locating suppliers and distributors, and don’t forget finding customers.
You can use your knowledge about the industry, your training and skill-set, and your network of contacts to begin to quickly establish and grow the business to the critical break-even point and even more important, positive cash flow.
If you think there is something you know and love that can be turned into a business, then talk to friends and people you’ve worked with about what it may take to start, operate and manage that kind of business. You will also need to learn all you can about initial start-up costs, what overhead is along with operating expenses, and just how much revenue you can expect to make selling potential products and services.
Now, if you have several interests, and aren’t sure which would make the best business, consider how easy it might be for you to translate your personal strengths, applicable education, and skill-sets into feasible business opportunities. An important part of this process is to thoroughly research the marketplace to determine which types of business are presently needed in your market.
Starting a Business in an Unfamiliar Industry
Unfortunately for many people, the unsubstantiated promise and temptation of quick profits convinces many people to take the great risk of starting businesses in areas they know little or nothing about. This is an amazingly sure and almost guaranteed recipe for disastrous failure.
But if you are dead-set on starting a business you don’t know much about, you have to be prepared and make it a point to spend enough time learning it before you begin.
Whatever you decide to do, don’t fall into the trap of starting a particular business just because someone tells you, “It’s a sure thing.” If you hear that, immediately run the other way and don’t look back. Remember, any potential customers will decide to part with their hard-earned money only if you can persuade them that they’re receiving their money’s worth in return, so you’ll need to know exactly what you’re doing, no matter what you decide to do.
New Media (R)evolution – How to Measure Success
Published September 8, 2011 | 
Naturally, the steps you will take to define just what your success looks like, how to measure it, report the information, and how to use it requires an adequate amount of time and evaluation, but when you’ve defined and accomplished them, you’ll be able to understand and envision your target much more clearly, significantly increasing your probability of hitting it.
Bring concerned Groups Together and Establish How Success will be Measured
Everyone with an interest in the process should meet together to share each of their viewpoints, increase awareness of business goals and responsibilities, discuss how target market niche engagement can bear out and corroborate the goals. By tradition, public relations groups focus on outputs, for example: Releases distributed, total column inches, number of journalists pitched? Luckily, the industry as a whole is quickly progressing in the direction of a more ideal model on which outcomes is the new focus, rather than just outputs.
As recent as 2010 principles have been identified that make it clear the key to the future of the new media industry is accountability for driving toward business objectives. No matter its building your brand, presenting a better customer service or simply attempting to sell more nuts and bolts, you need to define and understand exactly what goals you’re efforts are reaching to achieve, and just as importantly, your efficiencies in their achievement.
Measurement Principles
- Goal setting and measurement are fundamental to any public relations program
- Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs
- The effect on business results can and should be measured where possible
- Media measurement requires quantity and quality
- Advertising value equivalents do not measure the value of public relations
- Social media can and should be measured
- Transparency and ease of replication are paramount to sound measurement
One final thought to take away is “Accountability” is the key that determines the high-level of reliability and collaboration needed to measure the achieved outcome, “return on investment” or ROI, and ultimate success.
Small Business Success – Fewer Customers Excellent Experience
Published August 2, 2011 | 
When it comes to serving fewer customer or clients, here is a simple multi-step plan that can be used to achieve more success with any new business or product/service by successfully focusing on fewer customers.
First identify a narrower market. You have to be sure to clearly define your target market or niche. Understand that it really is better and easier to achieve a 20% share of a smaller, more clearly defined market, than a tiny 0.1% share of a huge undefined market.
Leverage the tried and true 80/20 rule. If you are unfamiliar with the 80/20 rule, it states that 20% of your customers will result in 80% of your sales. You should of course figure out who the 20% of your customers are, and then focus on attracting them with your targeted marketing efforts.
Create an avatar or profile based on the 20%, and speak to that avatar. An avatar in this case is a person or customer profile that embodies the characteristics of what you identify as your ideal 20% of customers.
Once you have developed and identified this avatar (ideal customer profile), market your company as if you were speaking directly to the avatar. By doing so, you will better speak to the needs of your customers.
Let’s look at an example of what an avatar might be. The customer avatar could be a man named Steve. He might be a 30 year old entrepreneur who is looking to either start a new business or grow an existing company. He would also typically have a wife and a couple of younger kids and enjoys sport activities to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
So, when you are thinking about marketing strategies, you have Steve’s needs, thoughts and desires in mind. Because of that, you are better able to attract and ready to serve him or your real customer.
Okay, so now you might be thinking, Steve actually represents only one customer type you have. The reason is it would be fairly rare for another customer to personify the exact same attributes you have labeled Steve with (e.g., 30 years old, likes sports activities, etc.).
But you know that’s ok, because the message you give to Steve will also find pretty good traction with Jennifer, a 48 year old entrepreneur with three college-aged kids, and of course Tony, a 26 year-old single entrepreneur Etc.
Most likely your message to Steve doesn’t find traction with non-entrepreneurs who could also buy and benefit from your products and services, but who you have deemed not worthy enough for exclusive and specific targeting from either a “return on investment” or focus perspective.
When you market to a faceless group of target customers, it’s difficult to really speak to their needs. When you give your customers a face by creating an avatar, you can almost always serve them better. You can better contemplate any issues that are concerning them, and what their hopeful for, and then can provide them effective solutions.
Finally, serious consideration of the principles of thinking small is important to achieve your big dreams. Remember to begin by defining and better serving a smaller group of customers. Develop the processes and efficiencies of providing high-quality and excellent service to parlay that into more customers and more target market segments or niches, and just by doing so, you will achieve much greater success!
How to Accomplish and Succeed at Anything!
Published May 30, 2011 | 
After years of working with thousands of people to develop businesses in every industry, the one common thread that’s the biggest barrier facing each one of them, can be summed up with one single word…”Overwhelm.”
And when you take into consideration what they face, is it any wonder? When we examine the field of businesses on the Web, the reality is there are about a thousand different options for business development. New ones come online every minute of every day, with hundreds hard-selling one of those so called “systems” claiming theirs is the best new thing, the latest “secret” to success…but in reality are far from any real success.
In addition, it seems like there are oodles of must-know things. To become a successful blogger, you are faced with writing skills, social media and web marketing, copywriting, programming, blog design, information product creation, working with advertising networks, video editing… and the list goes on… and on.
So then… paralysis sets in as they become “overwhelmed” spectators without the motivation they started with. But believe it or not, there is a way out of this.
The important thing to know… is simple to the point of disbelief. And although “simplicity is the greatest complexity” we ever face, NEVER underestimate the real power of simple. It really is the key to achieving anything you want.
And the secret is…small steps. Taking one detail and breaking it up into smaller more reasonable steps. And if the steps are too big, continue breaking them up even smaller.
There is literally nothing you cannot achieve applying this ingeniously-simple, common sense advice.
Think back to times when you started a new job, with all the excitement of new surroundings and new faces, and the new tasks you had to learn in order to reach the required skill-level for your brand new position. Didn’t you feel like the most unskilled and least intelligent person in the world? Maybe a little confused, but a lot of overwhelmed!
To state the obvious problem, sometimes we bite off too much. We take WAY too big a step at once without mastering the details that came before it. Many of us want to jump the small steps to get to the big finish, and the fun parts.
We fail to realize the critical nature of becoming masters of the small steps…in order to become masters of the entire catalog of processes needed to achieve the accomplishments and reach the ultimate successes for which we strive so hard.
Anything you want to achieve can be broken up into smaller steps – each of which are much easier to bite off. 
And, if that sub-step is itself a little too overwhelming, break it up further, and focus on only one step at a time.
Finally, don’t concern yourself with the BIG seemingly infinite detail. Remember to break it up, and break it up again if needed. Until each detailed step you’re accomplishing is finite, has an obvious end to it and you’ve proven you can get it done. And simply…do one thing at a time.
Great Web Entrepreneurs – Micro-Enterprises Rising
Published May 23, 2011 | Are You a Micro-Enterprise Entrepreneur?
You simply may be (a micro-enterprise entrepreneur), but if you are like most people when asked, you may not know exactly what a micro-enterprise is or even heard of one. What most people say is, “It sounds small.” Officially, the term “micro-enterprise” is used as a classification for a business that is both started with less than $35,000 capital, and employs less than five people.
Believe it or not, just under approximately 90 percent of all businesses in the United States are deemed micro-enterprises, and with 24 million micro-enterprises in the country, there is a great chance that yours is one of them, which is a really good thing. Let’s examine some of the reasons micro-enterprises are great:
The distinctive low start-up costs begin with a $35,000 cap that is considered a micro-enterprise, although most are started with a good deal less, now and again even the change you find under the couch cushions.
- Once you get started in earnest, the critically advantageous low overhead that you usually enjoy, beginning with less than five employees or more common, being the only employee. The advantageous aspect is you don’t have to be troubled about meeting an extensive payroll each month or paying enormous health insurance premiums for your team.
- You can quickly and effortlessly take advantage of one of your skills and expertise to profit from and rapidly make it a significant source of your income. Doing this with larger businesses is much harder because you have to convince investors that your talent is worth
their funding.
- The Web makes it exponentially simpler to identify and stay in touch with your niche market. The Web brings the global market to your doorstep, meaning you no longer have to limit your focus to sell to only those in your city & community, leaving the possibilities for potential success endless.
Micros Everywhere
Take a close look around, and it becomes evident that micro-enterprises are everywhere. Some are clearly noticeable and recognized by consumers, 
while others you never actually see because they are run out of homes, cars, or in backroom offices.
The invisible micro-enterprises may be the daycare center located nearby, as well as the custom jewelry and accessories entrepreneur who sells their product each week online. Other micros include even online used bookstores that specialize in historical period books, or romance books and many other products.
Individually they are people just like any of us, who are actively fulfilling their dream of owning their own business by doing what they love. Collectively, they make up the largest segment of business in the country. Plus for the reason that they rock, their popularity, recognition and high-regard will continue to strengthen and increase.
Of course, if you are a micro-enterprise entrepreneur, you should feel very good about it because of the fact that you are part of the backbone of both the U.S. and global economy. 
Although it’s natural that you may feel like the tiniest “piece of the pie,” upon closer examination, by being a micro-enterprise entrepreneur, you virtually make up the whole economic pie.
For those among us that have yet to start their own micro-enterprise now is the time. Understand that setting your sight on a micro-enterprise is an intelligent move. They are an extremely important part of the economy in your city, region, state and country, as well as around the world. Take advantage of your skills, expertise and passion for what you do, and start planning to run your own micro-enterprise!