Business Archives - Page 19 of 19

Business

Get More Views & Make More Sales with these 3 Tips Plus 1 Awesome Resource

When it comes to online business, everyone wants to know the secret of finding success online. For some people, that success means more views on their site and social media platforms, for others it means making more money for their business, and of course, some people really want both! The key to success online isn’t some secret, it’s truly just a simple combination of a few key actions that do require a lot of time, work and dedication. I know when it comes to online businesses it seems like a lot of people are finding a lot of success with very little effort, but the truth is, you just don’t see the effort because the online space blurs those lines. So, if you are really ready to get more eyes on your work, and make more money for your business and you are ready and willing to do the work, here are the three tips you need to know!

1. Get Clear on Your Message

The online business marketplace is so saturated that it can seem overwhelming to try to communicate what makes your business different from all the others. People, including business owners, often get distracted online by the latest and greatest trends, products and niche markets, and because of this, often times, this muddies up the water and can lead even the most seasoned online entrepreneur down multiple wrong paths. To help you keep your messaging crystal clear, I suggest formally writing out a Manifesto or Mission Statement for your business. Include in this message, the specifics of your business and try to focus on what makes you unique even in a saturated marketplace. Then, when it comes to making decisions for the direction you want to take your business or opportunities that you want to get involved with, you have something of a roadmap to help you make critical business decisions. If opportunities and developments are in line with your manifesto, jump on them! If not, this document makes it super easy for you to pass, and feel a sense of confidence that you made the right decision for your business.

2. Create Dynamic Content

A picture here and a quote there does not equal dynamic regular content. Think about the types of content that you yourself enjoy online from your favorite online business or brand, I bet it looks polished, well thought out and really adds value to your experience with that brand. Yep, a lot of work went into that content, and nope, their is no way around it, you will need to get to work too if you want your content to be on par with the best of the best! Now, if this seems overwhelming to you, don’t worry, I’m not saying you need to create this awesome dynamic content every single day. Start small with one solid piece of content per week and work up at a comfortable pace. You don’t need to become a superstar overnight, although, I will say, the more high quality content you create on a regular basis, the quicker your rise will be, but pace yourself. As long as what you put out is on point, you can set goals for yourself and your business to grow into creating more regular content.

3. Interact with Your Community

The fastest way to get more views and sales for your business is to start making friends online! Interacting regularly with the audience you have will go a long way to get you repeat customers and regular audience members. Always keep your community at the forefront of your mind, because without them, you are seriously nothing. As you grow, find ways to engage and reward your followers, giving them incentives to be active members of your community, because the more active your followers are, the more growth you will experience. Your followers aren’t just there on your site cheering you on, they are most likely talking about you all around town, so be kind, available and supportive of them and it will go a long way!

Try this helpful resource!

So, that’s simple right? Like I said, no secret’s here, just good old fashioned hard work and these 3 key tips you need to know! As promised, I also have 1 really great resource for you if you want to learn more about these tips and so much more to help your business grow through active engagement of your audience. This week the third workbook in my Empire Building Program launched on the topic of Community Building and in it, I discuss these three tips plus even more strategies for finding, growing and retaining an audience of dedicated fans and customers. So, if you want to learn more about this topic and help give your business an edge online, I would highly recommend this resource! Of course, if you want even more help and guidance from me on creating a successful online business using my strategies and techniques, feel free to check out my Empire Building Path’s as well, where you can get either one-on-one or group coaching with me, plus access to all the workbooks in the series!

I’d love to hear what you think about these tips and how you make use of them in your own business or blog! Feel free to leave me a comment or drop me a line on Twitter or Instagram! I’d love to know how your business is doing, and how I could help you achieve more of your goals!

xoxo,

Online Business

How to Build an Online Business without an Email List

I guess somewhere in Online Business Marketing 101 it must say that in order to have a successful online business you need to establish an email list and focus a good amount of time, effort and money into growing that list by any and all means possible. Of course, I skipped Online Business Marketing 101 and figured out a long time ago that much of the traditional marketing practices constantly touted as business essentials online are nothing more than mere suggestions. If you have started a business online or want to start one but get intimidated by the jargon and fancy lingo that the usual online marketers use, or get confused when you hear about SEO, Leadpages, Hooks and Facebook Ads, well, guess what? I am here today to tell you that you don’t need any of it to find success for your business online!

Why? Well, because building a successful business online doesn’t have to be about marketing, endlessly selling yourself and your products online. or even knowing some secret formula for generating leads through advertising. You can make the intentional choice to focus your business strategy on growing a community and finding that audience of like minded individuals who really need that product or service that you have. Let me ask you a question. Would you rather do business with a company online that spammed you with emails, constant product updates and click-bait sales methods or would you rather do business business with a company that took the time to get to know you, was there to answer your questions and support you first before they ever asked for a single penny? I know which I would choose! No one wants to feel like they are being sold to, and for many online entrepreneurs, it feels icky when we have to resort to basic sales tactics. Although I run a business online, I don’t consider myself a sales person, I consider myself a creator and I don’t want to waste my creative energy focusing on business principles that don’t align with my values and interests. I don’t run my business based on antiquated marketing principles, developed at the start of the dotcom era, and I’ve found more success than I could have imagined just by being myself, truly trying to connect with my customers and providing a source of helpful information for my community everyday!

So, you are probably asking yourself, “Alexis, how did you learn how to grow a community online? Where did you learn from? Which program did you take?” The truth is, I learned all this information the hard way, through trial and error. I’ve been at this for over six years at this point and it’s only been through testing and trying new things that I have slowly but surely uncovered the knowledge and information that I now know and which has led me to grow my blog, YouTube and Social Media feeds to numbers far beyond what I could have expected! In just the last year alone, I have grown my blog from just over 10k page views per month to nearly 150k, and my YouTube from 1k subscribers to over 20k! Oh and did I mention, all that and I never spent a single dollar on advertising, nor did I have an email list to communicate with my followers. Instead, I harnessed the power of social media and my own creativity to naturally attract an audience and community for my work who then turned into my customers!

Now, if you are interested in replicating my success, I will tell you, it’s completely do-able! I don’t believe that I was some one-off success story, I know that my success is repeatable for those who know and use the lessons and information that it took me years to figure out on my own. The best news is, that I am not just keeping this information to myself. Like all other great things I learn about and experience in my life, I want to share this with my community! That is why I developed the Empire Building Program, my personal e-course designed to help other creative business owners build a community of customers online using creative methods of communication instead of old-school online marketing tactics! If you want to build an online business, but you’re not interested in learning all the ins and outs of business strategy, this is the course for you!

The great thing about Empire Building is that I created a few different levels for the program to help people learn at the rate and style that works for them. You can sign up for my Empire Building Architect Path to get one-on-one coaching sessions with me as well as a Custom Content Development Action Plan that I create for your business, and of course access to the full Empire Building Program of 5 digital workbooks and a private Facebook group for members. Or, if you want to join the program, but don’t have the time for one-on-one coaching, you can join the Empire Building Blueprint Path and get group coaching through the private Facebook group as well as full access to the 5 digital workbooks so you can work at your own pace and check in with me for additional resources and guidance as needed. Finally, if you prefer to go it alone and select the digital workbooks and topics that you need specific help with, you can purchase my Empire Building Workbooks* individually! Each digital workbook is filled with all the information you need to know on the subject, as well as numerous worksheets that you can print out and use to build a custom plan for your business!

If you want to start your online business but aren’t sure where to begin, let me guide you! If you have an existing business but are having trouble gaining traction online, use my knowledge to your advantage! You don’t have to spend years testing every trick in the book just to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve done all the heavy lifting for you in Empire Building! I can’t wait to work with you!

If you have any questions about Empire Building please do not hesitate to send me an email so I can help you decide which path of the program is right for you!

xoxo,

*Currently, the first two of the five workbooks have been released and the remaining workbooks will be published once a month through July.

Business

3 Times You Need to Invest in Your Business!

Next week is Tax Day in the U.S., and although I finished my 2014 taxes back in February, I have been giving a lot of thought lately to how I intend to strategically grow my business over the next few years by reinvesting a certain percentage of my profits back into the business. As a business owner, turning a profit is obviously something of a big deal, but almost equally as important is finding legitimate tax deductions, especially within the first three years up and running. I’m certainly not someone who spends money on their business for no reason other than to get a tax deduction, I tend to be very conservative with my income, however, their is much to be said for reinvesting in your business. After all “you’ve got to spend money to make money,” as they say, and it’s certainly true! So, what exactly are the situations where you should be reinvesting your profits into your business? There are 3 times I believe you should be investing in your business if you have the money to do so, so let’s review each!

#1. When you need new tools: Running any type of business usually requires many different tools, from computers and programs, to paper and pencils! Depending on your specific business, you may have certain tools that would help you to be more productive or more successful overall. I believe it’s important to make sure your systems, hardware and software are all up to date so that you are staying current with the latest technologies, so reinvesting business profits into these areas of your business are never a bad idea. Likewise, making sure you have all the basic office supplies you need to keep your business running smoothly is a great investment into the future success of your company. You may not have started off with a high quality printer/scanner/copier, but once you have some money streaming in, it’s definitely a good idea to invest in items like this that will help your business come together professionally.

# 2. When you need additional support: As businesses grow and begin to turn a profit, it’s often a key time to think about brining on additional support for in terms of employees or contractors. Depending on the work you do, you may find that hiring an assistant to do some part time work can help you free up valuable time for you to strategize and focus on growing your business. Or, perhaps you would like to hire a professional to work on your business website and upgrade some key features you have been lacking. Investing in people resources is definitely a key step that successful businesses will find themselves contemplating and if you have the money coming in to cover the expense, it’s often a good idea to get help for your business in one form or another.

#3. When you need guidance and information: When you are starting off with a new business, no one expects you to know everything their is to know that would make your business a success. For many business owners and entrepreneurs, it’s a trial and error process to figure out which business strategies work and which don’t. Lessons like this can take years to learn, so if your business is turning a profit or you want to make a strategic investment to help your business grow without spending the time and energy getting first hand knowledge yourself, investing in courses and coaching programs can really help you get a leg up. Many business coaching courses, programs and consultants exist out in the market specifically to help small businesses learn key information and strategies for success that have been well researched and tested. Take my Empire Building Program for example, I have spent years online figuring out the best ways to market a business and grow a community of customers online, and this is information that other small business owners really need to become successful. While you could theoretically spend years learning the lessons and testing different strategies for creating your own successful business, it makes better business sense for a small business owner to purchase my program and have me deliver the information in a nicely packaged, easy to understand format. After all, I’ve not only been there and done that, but other small business owners can see how well I am doing, and although I don’t believe their is any “secret” to success, people definitely need to know the information, tips and tricks I used to take my business from a part time hobby to a full time income source that is making me more money than I ever made working in sales and marketing for a Fortune 50 company. Will my program guarantee you success in your business? Not necessarily, but learning what I know can save you so much time, effort and money in the long run that it’s worth the investment to work with me. So, if you feel like their is more you need to learn in order to build your business to a certain level of success, investing in a business coaching program or course can be a real game changer!

With many things in business, there is no magic bullet or secret formula to success. Business owners need to do what they can with what they have and if you find that you are in a situation where you can afford to invest money into your business strategically, these are the three times where that choice is a no-brainer! Your business is an investment in your future, so make sure you are regularly reinvesting in it so that it grows strong and successful! If you would like more insight from me on how I run my business, make sure to check out my Plan Like an Entrepreneur Series over on my YouTube Channel. And of course, if you are interested in working with me directly to build your online business, check out my Empire Building Program today!

xoxo,

Business

5 Apps for the Creative Business Owner

As a creative business owner, I have to wear multiple hats throughout the day. It’s not uncommon for me to work on new designs, marketing plans, spend time on photography and images, and then end the day working on expense sheets. I feel like most days I am using all of my brain power to manage details of my business from the creative side to the practical business side, but luckily for me, my one woman show is made easier through the use of some powerful tools in the form of smartphone applications that allow me to manage my workload from home or the coffee shop without missing a single beat. So here are the apps I recommend for the creative business owner.

DocScan: I have written before about my love for this workhorse of an app that basically turns your phone into a scanner. For a few years, this was the only scanner I actually used because it was easy enough for me to use the app to take a picture of a document if I needed to email it to a customer, sign it for a client or just store it for my record keeping. As a creative business owner, I use this handy app to save images of business related receipts, and to open and annotate PDF documents regularly, in order to keep my business working wherever I am.

Followers +: There is no doubt in my mind that my number one favorite social media platform is Instagram, and I consider my community on IG to be a major priority of mine. It’s not just about creating excellent images to keep my followers inspired and informed, but I also get great insights into the way my business in performing by watching in real time my communities response to my images. Followers + is a great app that helps you track your IG photos so that you can see how your customers are interacting with you on Instagram, which photos they are liking and to help you pin point gaps in your community.

Analytics: Analytics is another app that I have written about before because it is a great way for me to manage my website’s statistics on my smartphone. If you use Google Analytics to track your website or blog, you should definitely have this companion app on your phone for those moments when you want to see how well specific content is performing. And if you aren’t yet signed up for Google Analytics to track your site, you need to make that happen asap!

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a very handy little app that really helps me to batch my work and stay on top of my social media marketing campaigns by scheduling tweets and Facebook posts. Although, admittedly, I am more involved with my Instagram account, I still find Twitter and Facebook to be valuable marketing and community building resources at my disposal and for me, I do best when I am executing in those platforms through marketing campaigns that I can pre plan and preschedule through the use of Hootsuite.

Dropbox: Cloud based storage systems are a godsend for the creative entrepreneur who may need to have any number of media files, documents or images in their hands at a moments notice. Dropbox really helps me to organize important or frequently accessed business and marketing tools from not just my smartphone but also from my iPad or any other computer I have access to. It’s like having a filing system that just floats around in your system where you can refer to items or share them with clients or contacts at a moments notice without having to waste precious storage on your device.

If you are a creative entrepreneur, I highly suggest checking out these apps to help you with your workload so that you are spending less time on the business and marketing of your creative business and more time creating, which if you are anything like me, is your favorite part! Let me know down in the comments if you have ever used any of these apps or if you have any others that you consider a lifesaver for your creative business. If you are looking for more tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs, make sure to check out my new series, Plan Like an Entrepreneur on YouTube for some behind the scenes action and insight into how I plan for my business! If you are not a creative business owner, feel free to check out this article I wrote called my Must Have Apps for Working Professionals!

xoxo,

Business

{APPTASTIC} Google Analytics

As a blogger, I use Google Analytics religiously to help me keep track of my site’s metrics. Google Analytics is pretty much the industry standard for website statistics and it’s a free web application that you can set up for your own site via google. Now, as much as I love learning about my site’s traffic, my readers and their behavior on my site via the web app, I really wanted an iPhone app that would help me to keep an eye on my metrics as well. Enter the Google Analytics app! This application was made by Google and works in real-time giving you up to date information about your site, your visitors and all other key data and metrics for your site! The best part is that the app is currently available for free on the iTunes App Store. I have researched a few different analytic tracking apps that work with your Google account, however, many are not free and are obviously not made my Google, and I prefer to go to the source to ensure my information is accurate! I know an analytics tracking app may seem like a weird app to be obsessed with, and if you’re not a blogger or website owner I know this may seem a little nutty, but here are three big reasons why I love my Google Analytics app and why you should too if you are a blogger or online business owner!

1. I can get real-time visitor information: Throughout my day I love to check my Google Analytics app to see how many live visitors are on my site. I know it many not seem like an important piece of information to have, but it’s a way for me to keep an eye on how different forms of advertising and/or how my interaction with my community reflects in real-time to conversions on my site.

2. I always have up to date analytics data: Since my business as an online entrepreneur means I am on call 24/7, It’s great to have mobile access to my site stats no matter where I am. The Google Analytics app gives me access to all the important information I may need to share with important advertisers or sponsors, even when I am on the go.

3. It helps me with forward planning at all hours of the day (or night): Again, as an online entrepreneur, my schedule can sometimes be a little erratic. I often find myself waking up in the middle of the night with ideas and thoughts for my site and shop, and use my iPhone to do some light note taking so that I don’t wake up my husband (or my puppy)! Having my analytics in an app helps my late night brainstorming sessions without having to fumble around with my laptop in bed!

So, like I said, if you don’t run your own website, this application clearly doesn’t apply to you and my love for it may seem a little strange! However, if you are a blogger or do run your own shop or website, I highly recommend this app to help you get a handle on your own site and traffic! Analytics can tell you so much if you know what you are looking for, and I could probably write an entire post on that subject alone (let me know in the comments if that’s something you would like me to do)! In the meantime, definitely get yourself set up with Google Analytics for your site if you aren’t already, and make sure to download this companion app for your iPhone to get you started on the road to success with your site!