Posts Tagged small business
Five Tips on Creating an Award Winning Brochure
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on March 3rd, 2010
Is it time to make a brochure for your small business? Brochures are relatively inexpensive to have printed and can let customers know a lot about your business in a small package. Typically, they will cost you about a dollar a piece to make (or less if you buy them in bulk). Here are some basics to consider when coming up with a brochure for your company. Full Story »
Five Things Every Web Site Owner Should Avoid
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on February 28th, 2010
You’ve built it, now is anyone showing up to your web site to take advantage of what you have to offer? Did you make a mistake when you built your web site? Is it the fault of your designer or is there something you are doing wrong? Let’s explore five of the aspects of web sites that you should avoid when building your web site. Full Story »
Keys To Online Business Success
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on February 13th, 2010
If you have a small business or even a business idea, have you considered doing a blog? If you are thinking a blog is something like an online diary that requires you to write reams of content and is a waste of time for your business, then you are highly mistaken. With about 6-8 hours a week, you could be getting 1000s of people to recognize your business. Is this something that might be of interest to you? Full Story »
Five Reasons To Go Green With A Web Site
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on August 11th, 2009
Living in the United States today, people are acutely aware of the need to “Go Green” in their everyday lives. We are all trying to shrink our carbon footprint. We’ve heard the news. We need to conserve if we want the planet to be inhabitable for our children. This method of thinking would have been unheard of 40 years ago. Today, it is “trendy”.
One way of going about this is to have a web site and be online. “He’s a web site designer”, you are probably saying to yourself, “of course he feels that way.” But it is true. By going online, you are shrinking your carbon footprint everyday. Technology is helping to forge a better tomorrow. Let me explain:
Five Ways To Succeed in Business in Any Economy
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on August 9th, 2009
“How is business going?”
They advertise. They advertise and they are realizing the benefit of a web site. This is obvious because I see more and more people building their own business to stave off the failing economy. I see people working on small business ideas because they are so unsure of what tomorrow is going to bring. Our presidential candidates are offering vague suggestions of what they are going to do to help us.
Five Reasons You’re Scared To Be An Entrepreneur
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on August 9th, 2009
I grew up in what is now known as the Rust Belt of America. The corpses of long-forgotten factories lie in ruins along streets that can no longer be maintained. Yet, somewhere amongst the ghosts of the Industrial Revolution, small business thrives. Time is almost reversing and people are making their livelihoods in local shops and home offices where they promote their skills rather than follow direction from big business management. Where do they get this entrepreneurial spirit? It isn’t like we were given this roadmap to look outside the box and do things on our own. Actually, it has been just the opposite. We are taught to fear thinking like an entrepreneur. Here are five reasons why I say this.
MyFiveBest Ways to Working From Home
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on August 5th, 2009
I have worked from home for probably the last 8 years. At my previous job, my employer afforded me the opportunity to work from home because I got more work done when there wasn’t the constant chatter going on around me and the incessant ring of the phones. It worked well for me because I am able to motivate myself to do the work from a home office. In 2008, I took the steps to work from home permanently. There are some tricks to doing this effectively and I am willing to share my own experiences with you now.
Five Ways To Make Your Business Fun
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on July 27th, 2009
One of the biggest fears in running a small business is losing the pleasure of running it. Your initial reason for going into business for yourself was because you enjoyed what you were doing. Somehow, after you trod through the customer relations, the taxes, and the day-to-day drudgery, you find that the fun is gone from what you once loved. Here are five ways to keep the business “fun”. Jump in with your own thoughts. Full Story »
Five Steps To Doing Your Own Market Research
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on July 13th, 2009
So you own a small business and the responsibility on doing the marketing rests on your shoulders. What can you do? What steps should you take to set up a good market research study? Many small business owners think they know what their customer needs, but a small, impromptu study can be just the edge your business needs to bring in more customers. Below are five steps to building a successful study.
5 Email Marketing Tips for Small Business
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on July 10th, 2009
One of the best methods of making sales on your web site is to contact people who have already purchased from you in the past. You could have their names and emails from purchases made through your web site, directly, or from people you have come in contact with through your brick-and-mortar store.
Email marketing is tricky, however, because there is a very fine line between emailing people that want your product and those nasty spam messages that fill our mailboxes each day. So, how do we make the determination?
The answer is simple enough: Don’t email anyone you haven’t actually made contact with. The temptation to buy a mailing list is always there, but don’t do it. That is spam and it will actually drive customers away from your web site.
So, the next step is building your list. This is an on-going problem with many companies, but I will give you some tips on overcoming this hurdle.
Get a free game, theme and ringtone for BlackBerry at Bplay.com
Five Tips For Your Startup Business
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on July 8th, 2009
It has been a little over a year since I left my Director of Marketing position and cut loose the safety net to start my own business. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about being out on your own without a steady income. Note: This wasn’t my first business. It wasn’t even my second. I’ve had a total of six businesses in my 41 years, but this has been the most successful, by far. What makes this one different? Practice. Below are five bits of wisdom I can give anyone thinking about starting a new business.
Full Story »
Five Ideas On How To Get High Potential Customers Into Your Retail Store Without Spending Money
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business, Reader Submitted on June 11th, 2009
Tomorrow retailers are going to live in a world different than they live in today. The world is hurling fireballs at them right now.
If you are a retailer you can join the folks who believe your future is completely determined and your influence is either negligible or pre-ordained. Or you can side with the people who believe you have some influence on your future, no matter how minimal it might be. I believe you have some say in your future.
I have written a book entitled 52 Ways To Get High Potential Customers Into Your Retail Store Without Spending (Much) Money. Here are the five big secrets behind tomorrow’s successful retailing. Connect these five dots in your brain and you will have a solid foundation for growth.
These five are not easy to grasp. But understanding them well could help you navigate a safer path around the forces changing your world.
The future is a big place – one in which you can achieve the future you want. Contact me at willie@peoplelution.biz and I help you figure them out!
Read on. Full Story »
my 5 Best Inexpensive Ways to Build Your Business
Posted by Jimm Fowler in Business on May 31st, 2009
I’ve been helping to build small businesses over the past 11 years. In almost every case, I have found that these business owners share one thing in common with each other: They are very compassionate about their business. Ask them to talk about their business and they can talk to you for hours about what they do. One thing they also have in common is that they usually don’t have a lot of start-up money, so here is a list of getting your business built without breaking the bank.
1. Start a Blog - Blogging is a great way of getting people to find you. Many businesses start with a blog and then build the web site later. I would suggest buying a domain and hosting policy from a reputable company and loading your WordPress Blog from there. The thing I hear from most people is, “I don’t have time to blog” or “How can a blog help my business?” The answer is simple. A blog, like this one, can help you get in touch with people that want to do business with you! You can communicate coupons and announcements to people that follow your blog. Write quality content and people will read it.
2. Write Articles – …and press releases. You can do a quick search on the internet to find dozens of places that will accept articles and press releases for free. Why do this? Because writing an article sets you up as an expert in your industry. I wrote an article about 5 years ago and it is still being published. The key to getting people to read your articles is the same with your blog – the information needs to be insightful and interesting to people that want to know about your business.
3. Branding – Put your logo and web site on everything you print offline or publish online. Why? Because the more people see your logo and/or web site the better the chance they will come to find you. Anyway, there really isn’t a need to hide it. You bought it. You want to promote it. Get it out there. When I say everything, I mean: Invoices, receipts, business cards, blog posts, the articles I mentioned above, your signature file on your email, contracts, flyers, everything….Brand that business!
4. Say Thank You – Everytime you do something for a customer, everytime you receive a payment, say “thank you.” Not only is it polite, but people enjoy being thanked. As an added bonus, give them something while your thanking them to remember you by. I will often give them a magnet with my business card on it or offer a magnetized bumper sticker with their new web site name (powered by my company’s name). A smile and a thank you go a long way in business and it is appreciated. People who are happy with you and your personality tell others about what you did for them. Keep those good feelings going!
5. Start a Newsletter – Like the blog, a newsletter can really keep your customers in tune with what is going on with your business. It can tell them of important dates coming up on your calendar, give a personal feel to your business, and make them a part of what you are trying to sell them. Include feedback you’ve had from past customers and let the customer in on feel-good stories of how your product helped someone else. Another good thing to add are unique ways of using your product. A newsletter is also a good tool that gets you to do something else important in your business – keep an updated email list.
I hope these ideas can help you in your growing business. This is not, by far, a complete list, but it can get you started on building a foundation on which to grow. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here and I will get back to you.
Join Our Facebook Group
