Business Tips to Help Grow Your Business

In order for business owners to be easily recognizable, one must make sure that clients and potential clients can tell who we are, what we do and how we can help them reach their goals. This means that a common look must resonate from our website, to our media packages and also our online presence outside of our website. This is termed as your branding and according to Wikipedia.org,

A brand is a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the descriptive verbal attributes and concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme that convey the essence of a company, product or service. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary.

During my business makeover, I have been reviewing how my brand is perceived and I realized that it wasn’t consistent. So I began to compile how I am currently communicating my products and services so that I can rebrand or recreate my branding plan (which is termed as brand management). In going through this process, I have identified key areas that are important to keep in mind while conducting brand management.

• Refine brand so that it will appeal to your ideal client base
• Be prepare to make drastic changes if you have to so that you can reach your clients
• Prepare a plan of implementation that will create a consistent brand (logos, banners, website, etc.)
• Be wise when recreating your brand and research what appeals to your ideal client base (colors, images, content, etc.)
• Make you test it on a few people before releasing to the masses
• Have fun recreating your brand

I am having fun with my brand management because I feel that I will continue to streamline my business and move closer to my goal of having a successful business makeover. Have you branded your business yet? Do you have additional ideas that would be helpful to someone who is in the process of rebranding their business? Please feel free to share or ask questions.

As a business owner have you thought about creating an Affiliate Marketing Plan? This would include a two-part approach. The first would be where you setup an affiliate program for you business. The second is where you join affiliate programs of other business owners so you can earn passive income. Either way helps you increase your finances.

A few years ago I embarked into the affiliate marketing realm by joining different affiliate programs. I have been able to find ones which pay me on a monthly basis as I tell others about their services. Some have big payout while others have smaller payouts. I have a simple test that I use when deciding to join an affiliate program…

• I ask myself if this is a product that I can stand behind with assurance that it is a good product.
• If the answer to the first question is yes then I ask myself if the product is something that others would want to use.
• If the answer to both questions is yes then I have a winner and I join the affiliate program.

I have come to realize that joining a lot of affiliate programs is not necessarily the best answer for me because I want to be able to target affiliate programs for my clients and those who are potential visitors to my websites. If my focus is not about cars, then I’m not going to join an affiliate program about cars.

Do you have an affiliate marketing plan which incorporates you participating in an affiliate program or having your own affiliate program? If not, what are some of your reasons for not participating? If you do, why do you participate in affiliate programs. Inquiring minds want to know so please feel free to share your thoughts.

On a day when I am discussing “Me” time, I actually started my day off with “me” time. It is a Saturday morning and I decided to sleep in an extra couple of hours. I enjoyed the extra rest and being able to take my time on a day where I might busily run around doing errands.

“Me” time should be very important to business owners because it allows you to rejuvenate and refresh. Although I spoken about “me” time briefly in this series, I decided that it would be a good idea to expand on it today.

If you are constantly going and not breaking for “me” time you can stress yourself and maybe have a negative impact on your business. I say this from personal experience because I learned the hard way when I crashed and burned during an important time with my business a few years ago.

It was growing tremedously fast and I was trying to be super woman by taking on too many projects. I was burning the candle at both ends of the candle (going to bed late and rising early to work on projects). After doing this for an extended time, I literally started making mistakes and getting fuzzy about project details which wasn’t good at all. I ended up having to take a break from my business so that I could recuperate thoroughly.

If I had been working smart, I would have spaced out my projects better and allowed myself more “me” time. Some of the things I learned from this experience are the following:

• “Me” time is not only important for me personally but for my business also.
• Space out projects so that I don’t get overwhelmed.
• Outsource to contractors those tasks that someone else can handle so that I can manage my projects better.
• Plan my project on a schedule so that I’m not overwhelmed.

I encourage all business owners to remember to take “me” time so that you and your business can stay healthy. Do you have special things that you do during your “me” time so that you don’t become overwhelmed? Please feel free to share.

I’m excited to talk about business processes because I have over 15 years of experience as a technical project manager while working in Corporate America. The importance of having business processes in place is vital because they help create an organized environment. Having an organized environment can help you be more successful.

So what can be considered a business process? Good Question! According to Wikipedia.org, a business process is “a collection of interrelated tasks, which accomplish a particular goal”. In other words, it’s when you pre-determine which tasks work well together to create a seamless way to achieve what you want to do in your business.

In my business, I have many business processes in place that help me to create a seamless environment. During my business makeover, I have been able to refine my processes and become more efficient. Below is an example of a refined business process.

• Old way (calendar): receive appointment request, then open calendar & review to see open slots, determine where the appointment could be placed then notify the appointee about the time and date
• New way (calendar): receive appointment request, forward to my Business Coordinator, who schedules on my Google calendar (which automatically updates my Outlook calendar) & notifies appointee about upcoming appointment
• Advantage: by allowing my Business Coordinator to manage my calendar it frees me from worrying about how to arrange things and also it allows me to dedicate more time to my clients

By me implementing this simple business process improvement, it put time back onto my calendar that I could invest in other areas of my business. One practice that is also good for business owners is to set aside time occasionally to review your processes to see if they can be improved.

Do you have business processes that you need to refine? Have you recently refined your business processes and have a success story? Please feel free to share.

First, if you don’t know who Michael Phelps is, you can read more about him by clicking here. But if you do know who he is then you know that he has been very focused on winning Olympic Gold medals for swimming. His goal has been to beat World records too and so far he is doing a great job of it.

I haven’t been watching the sporting events of the Olympics as intently as others but one thing for sure is that hearing Michael’s name mentioned almost everywhere has become a norm. As business owners, wouldn’t it be great to have positive brand recognition like Michael?

Well I’ve been giving this some thoughts over the past few days and during my business makeover I have realized that I’ve become very focused on what’s best for me and my business. Having targeted goals in mind has helped me to define specific areas of my business and cause it to grow quickly. Below are some of the areas that I have been focusing on and have obtained success:

• Developed a strategic business plan
• Streamlined services that are offered through my business
• Streamlined pricing for the services
• Developed a new product line
• Hired Virtual Team to handle outsourced tasks

In thinking about your own business, have you been as focused as Michael? Do you know the direction that you are taking with your business? Do you have goals that you want to accomplished with targeted dates? Please share about your experience.

If you need help in going through your own business makeover, watch for more details about an upcoming opportunity. Or you can complete the contact form on this website and make sure to state that you are interested in going through your own business makeover.