social media for businesses

Learn 2 Love Social Media for Business Owners

Learn 2 Love Social Media for Business Owners will help business owners position their brand for growth. You already know how to post content, but does it fit into your digital marketing strategy? And is that strategy working to attract your ideal client? During this 3-Day Challenge, you will understand the value of social media for small businesses.

Above all, you will gain a greater understanding of your data which improves your social media strategy. Learn why businesses need social media. Then understand how to grow your business simply by telling your brand story. With some simple tips and social media management strategies, businesses of any size can grow. Plus this event provides a community to connect with other supportive business owners.

No more missed opportunities. I love social media and hope you will Learn 2 Love it too. Let’s get to work and reveal your brand’s true potential. Let’s have some creative, strategic fun. As a result, you will Learn to Love LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook Groups.

Event Highlights:

> Collect digital marketing tips, tools, resources

> Content creation templates from digital marketing experts

> Understand the types of content perfect for your social media plan

> Automate your social media tasks and increase the engaging personal touch

> Create meaningful digital business connections

> Execute your social media plan for real-time results

PLUS, all registered guests receive a Learn 2 Love eBook, Email Marketing Cheat Sheet, and a Digital Marketing Planning Tool. Most importantly, you do not have to post 12x a day to get something done. And you do not have to be on social all day to make an impact. And….. it can be tons of fun.

This is a fully interactive event. What better way to jumpstart your 2021 business goals! Learn 2 Love Social Media for Business Owners only has 20 virtual seats available. Act now! If you market your brand, your audience will find you.

Join Position 2 Profit with Allison Todd to receive event updates and exclusive content.

business startup ideas

Business Startup Ideas for Less Than $100 (Part I – Skills Based)

It is every everyone’s dream to start their own business. Who does not want to become their own boss? Sure, there are some risks to starting your business startup, but what do not have chances these days?

Starting on your own business carries both excitement and fear of the unknown. But beyond the fear of such risks, the idea of getting your hands on adequate startup capital can be terrifying.

Where can you find a business that can you can start with less than $100? Upon a closer inspection, however, we came up with a list of startups needing less than a Benjamin starting with these:

Tutorial Services

Whether online or offline, many students need help. Tap into your knowledge and skills and use that to start-off a tutorial business. Some make fair use of the growing number of video-based tutorial platforms, while others go the traditional route of tapping schools.

Handywoman

For those who love doing household repairs, be a “handywoman.” Break the rules on a seemingly “men only” skills-based door-to-door service business. All you need to do is invest in the right tools.

Menu Planner

If you are a dietitian by profession or have knowledge in the culinary arts, planning a menu for others can be a profitable business. Plan out other people’s meals can be a fascinating and good money-making experience.

House or Pet Sitting

Taking good care of other people’s homes or pets while they go on vacation somehow requires patience and a lot of knowledge about pets. Your first customers can be limited to friends, neighbors, family members, and friends of friends.

Garden Guru

For the perennial gardener, bring your green thumb to new heights with this one. All it takes is your gardening tools to start servicing neighbor’s lawns and gardens. To expand, advertising your services will cost less than $100.

Cleaning Services

You can offer specific niches like window or bathroom cleaning, for starters. To beat the growing number of such services, you may try offering “green cleaning.”; this is to provide cleaning services that only make use of environment-friendly all-natural products.

Interior Designing

This business requires creativity and a perfect circle of influence. Tap on homeowners, new property developers, business owners, and other property-based connections for referrals.

Catering

If you don’t capital for a restaurant just yet? Start by merely catering snacks to construction or office workers. Move up as you go along. All you need is your cooking skills and a kitchen.

Gadget Repair

If you are one with tech repair skills then, go for it! Fix computers, phones, modern lighting, etc. Go mobile or on-call for customers’ convenience and ease.

Pet Groomer

Have mile-long patience for taking care of pets like cats or dogs? Start your pet grooming business. You can start by taking good care of pets of neighbors, family members, and friends.

Book keeping

Though many businesses are into Quickbooks, Freshbooks, and other accounting software, some want things to be in order according to legal standards. Add tax preparation to the loop, and you now have a complete service. Use your accounting license and start fetching clients online or offline.

Painting Services

Do you have the skills to combine colors out of paint? Why not go to the business of painting homes, daycare services, and other institutions needing an artist’s touch? Not all painting services are handled by men. When it comes to meticulousness, women are fantastic to paint experts, too.

Upcycling Services

Other people’s trash can be turned into treasure. Showcase your arts and crafts prowess by buying and repairing old defective stuff then converting them into something extraordinary for re-sale.

Shutter fairy

Be an in-demand photographer. A good camera and an equal right eye can bring you places. Consider adding as an add-on service this: picture-framing or album-making.

Ultimate Reseller

Be a vendor of pre-loved items. Start with your garage sale then, slowly moving up into full-blown flea market vending. Christmas is an excellent way to start selling things at a bargain.

Conclusion

Other skills-based business startup ideas for less than $100 are home-based: daycare, exceptional kids caregiver, foreclosed property cleaning services, bartending, animal whisperer, packing services, virtual stylist, fashion designing, makeup or hairstylist, craft beer brewing, wine-making, pastry chef, and music or art instructor.

Find out what you are good at and invest time and effort in honing such skills; This helps usher passion back to business.

Watch out for the Business Startup Ideas for Less Than $100 (Part II – special skills) by subscribing to updates on AllisonTodd.com

long term customer relationship

How To Keep Your Clients Long-Term?

While it’s essential to focus your energy on generating new business, it’s also necessary to keep your existing clients long-term. But how do you do this?

One way is to keep in regular touch with them. Keep communicating with them in some way, so you stay on their radar.

Connecting with clients on social media and regularly interacting with them is a great way to stay in touch. You can also send an email now and then, even if it’s not necessary, to keep the lines of communication open.

You might want to occasionally ask if they have any feedback for you on your work. There might be something your client want or aren’t satisfied with that they’re not telling you.

When you first started working with a client, they were impressed with your services. Sometimes, it’s good to do something nice for regular clients to keep them feeling that way.

We call this the “wow” factor. “Wow” means exceeding expectations and delighting people.
Occasionally throwing a freebie or some extra help a client’s way is an excellent way to create this feeling of delight.

How To Keep Your Clients Long Term

Through your regular communication, you can also keep abreast of what’s new in their business. Follow your client online and ask them occasionally about what’s new.

You might discover a new area of their business you can help with. You also might find a significant change that will affect your relationship with your client, and you can prepare for it.

Offering educational opportunities is another great way to keep in touch with past clients. Offer webinars and other events to share your expertise and present this to ongoing and new clients.

Staying in contact with clients is essential to keeping them long-term. Make sure you’re regularly in touch.

Improve Company Value

What Is Your Company’s Position?

The stand or position of a company refers to its place concerning other firms in the industry. No company is an Island, and its activities and brand image would undoubtedly be affected by other companies in its space.

We can see a company’s position from two perspectives, brand and strategy. 

Brand Position

Refers to the way consumers view your brand compared to how they view your competitors’ brands. It is the position you hold in the hearts and minds of the consumers in your market space. Are you the high-end brand serving only the crème de la crème of the market, or are you the affordable option serving the masses with the best quality possible? 

Strategic Position

Strategic position refers to the unique role you hold in your industry as regards value creation and production. It relates to how you do things differently to optimize productivity and ensure efficiency. The process is sometimes referred to as comparative advantage, as it is usually the one thing you do or have that puts you ahead of your competition.

Positioning

How do I Position My Company to Profit?

One major mistake that entrepreneurs make is to go into an industry without figuring out which position they had like to hold. This event sometimes leaves them in the middle of the industry, which is the worst place.

The middle suffers the pressure from the top and the bottom, and if your company is stuck there, the pressure will crush you in no time.

Where does your company stand?

As an entrepreneur, you must take a step back and decide which side of the spectrum you want to serve or cater to. Furthermore, it would help if you chose which side of the spectrum you can cater to operate.

These are very tough questions to answer, and answering them entails a lot of honesty, coupled with in-depth thought and research. This process is crucial, and once you are through with it, you have made the firsts step in positioning your business or start-up for exponential growth and enormous profit.

Pinpoint Available Role

Another way to figure out which position you want to hold is to pinpoint your chosen industry’s available role. It is important to note that the choice of positioning isn’t binary.

There are a lot of factors that a company is measured by concerning others. It doesn’t always have to be class or price; there is speed, durability, taste, etc. If you can’t be the cheapest or the most luxurious, then hold the fastest and most stable position.

The key is to find a vacant place, utilize your core competencies, and easily be translated into your brand image.

However, business isn’t always straight forward, and, likely, all these three factors don’t align. You might discover a strategic position that works well with your core competency to realize that a much bigger firm already occupies the role.

Or perhaps you have a brand position in mind, but you don’t have the competence or strategic leverage to hold that position.

A good example is the fashion space. There is so much competition that every position seems filled; This is where real positioning comes in.

Process of Positioning

Positioning is the process of making constant decisions and changes to create an absolute value, depict that value, and own a dominant position in your field.

Positioning is more than a one-time decision or show of intention; it is an uphill battle that involves brand and operative strategy. 

If you want to take the right position in your industry, you must get the right help. With its industry-specific consultants, who have the right combination of skill and experience, SiMar Inc. is undoubtedly the right help.

Conclusion 

In business, it is not just enough to have a goal of becoming better. Most times, it is more profitable to streamline your plan and choose your identity. Don’t spread yourself thin. Choose a position and dig in. You can’t be the best choice for every customer, but you can be the only choice for your target market.

clarity in business

What is Clarity And Why Is It Important In Business

Clarity definition is the quality of transparency or purity. However, in business, clarity means a lot more. It ranges from: 

Clarity of Vision – the mission and goal of your company, 

to

The Clarity of communication– how sharing information within your firm and how your company relates with the world. 

Clarity is the only way to keep your business focused and running as smoothly as possible.

Business Clarity of Self

However, before clarity of communication and clarity of vision, there is one type of clarity that lays the foundation for your business. It’s called the clarity of self.

As Aristotle said, knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom; knowing yourself is also the beginning of business wisdom. The clarity in a business begins with you as the entrepreneur. 

You must know who you are and why you are in business. Knowing who you are would ensure that you play to your strength and operate at your optimum capacity without crashing and burning out. 

Knowing why you are in business would make sure that you stay focused when the going gets tough. The industry has many ups and downs, and sometimes you would need to remind yourself of why you started your business in the first place and why you need to carry on.

Business Clarity of Vision

Next is clarity of vision. Clarity of vision is essential because it helps a lot when it comes to decision making. Focusing on your company’s vision is one way to navigate your way through the toughest of decisions. 

Your vision is your north star, and it can lead you out of the thickest of mazes. When you have to choose between staying up late to fulfill an order or updating your website’s content, your vision would be the shining light to guide you. A clear vision creates a straightforward operation and makes the prioritizing of goals and objectives extremely easy. 

Business Clarity of Communication

Finally is clarity in communication. When your company’s vision and mission are clear, communicating that vision to your employees and customers would surely be a cake work. 

The beautiful thing about clarity is that it spreads out from the core of your business- you. When you are clear, not confused, or murky, your company’s vision would be concise and easy to grasp, making it easy for your employees and customers to key into it and connect. 

When a company’s vision is clear, the employees have an apparent belief to become a part of, and the brand image you create wouldn’t be ambiguous or murky. It would be clear and relatable.

Conclusion

Charity begins at home, but clarity starts with you. As a boss, if you are a chaotic mess, then your company is sure to become a chaotic roller coaster. Achieve clarity today and watch your business soar peacefully even through the darkest storms and the worst of days.

blogging benefits

How To Use Blogging To Get More Clients

Blogging is a great way to attract new clients. You can write about topics you know well and show your expertise, which will tell potential clients that you have the solutions to their problems.

The only problem is that blogging requires constant content creation and you need a never-ending supply of topics to blog about. 

The best way to manage this is to keep an ongoing ideas list. Add ideas to this list and refer to it when it’s time to start writing.

You should also create a list of great sources for ideas. When your ideas list runs low, refer to this and go where you need to get new ideas.

The internet offers a wealth of places to get ideas. 

Look at social media and see what topics people are discussing and what questions they’re asking. Answer these questions with a blog post.

Question and answer sites and online forums are also great places to find out what questions people are asking.

You can also think of things you’ve helped people with before. In what areas has your expertise helped others?

Look at emails you’ve received from clients with requests for help. 

Keyword research can also reveal good topics to blog about. Use a free keyword tool to find out what’s trending in your industry right now.

You can do similar research on social media sites like Twitter by searching for hashtags related to your niche.

Look at other content creators and news sites in your niche. Don’t steal their ideas, but see if there are any unique angles you can take on their topics. 

Sometimes you can get ideas from your old content. Go back and see if there’s anything you can update, expand on, or go deeper into. Especially look at topics that performed well in the past.

Once you start looking, your ideas list will grow faster than you can write. This is how you keep a constant stream of blog content coming.

How To Use Blogging To Get More Clients

Make Blog more Readable

Does Your Blog Website Connect To Your Readers?

Are your blogs connecting with your readers? Do you even know what draws your audience to read lengthy write-ups or that there are specific patterns online readers do in scanning websites? Some website managers even have eye-tracking tests and click measurement mechanisms to measure their websites’ effectiveness. 

A website’s blog section often gets the most hits with regards to traffic. For people to get engaged to your website, regularly posting relevant blogs or write-ups will significantly help. But what are known facts that lead them to be more attentive to what you post?

Static Website Facts

Each person has a unique way of seeing your website. The type of font and size, for instance, held more importance than pictures to others, particularly on information-based websites. Images can sometimes take time to load and this lowers launching ability of websites. 

So steer clear of fancy fonts and pictures that take a lot of time to load. Readers are also not into banners, pop-ups, and other ad placements; this comes as no surprise. The fewer distractions often deliver the best attention.

Take note also of how people scan your website. Readers often start reading from the top left corner. So make sure to place vital information on that side of the screen.

As much as possible, write in short paragraphs, bullet form, lists, or summarized arrangement; This helps readers to collect information without delay easily. 

Most importantly, headlines must be catchy and compelling for readers actually to click on them.

Does Your Blog Website Connect To Your Readers?
Social Media Best Time To Post

Mobile Blogs

Another critical aspect in blog writing for websites is mobile reception. With more than half of online users depending on their smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and laptops, designing a mobile blog site has become necessary to many website owners. Most, if not all, websites today are “mobile-friendly.”; Which means publishers can scale them to any mobile platform. 

Businesses develop apps to address this concern allowing readers to easily click on an icon that automatically draws them to the site instead of typing the whole URL into a browser. 

It may even be programmed to come up with notifications should new write-ups are posted.

The key takeaways in designing a mobile blog site are speed and accuracy. In this day and age, when people want everything fast and can easily verify facts, these two always stand out when designing blog sites. 

Still, readers, attention is often focused on the top left corner of their gadget’s screen, with most of its focus on the two-thirds portion of the screen.

When designing the page or when writing, always remember to place the main idea on top. Content must be short and concise. No ifs, no buts. Mobile users don’t want to scroll up and down tons of paragraphs. Keep your words minimal yet on the point. Avoid beating around the bush. Go direct to the point and be done with it.

Unlike static website readers, mobile audiences prefer visuals rather than text. Infomercials and infographics, for instance, are widely revered in the mobile arena.

Do make sure that visuals used are relevant to your content, and be wary of IP legalities before posting. As always, headlines must still be catchy. It must ignite a reader’s sense to read and know more about what you’re writing– making them come back for more.

Does Your Blog Website Connect To Your Readers?

Conclusion

Some of the points being discussed above may be downright elementary. However, a good reminder can jolt us back to reality. The next time you write an awe-inspiring piece for your website, consider these pointers to make your blog site count.

Why You Should Always Look For New Clients (Even When You Don’t Need Them Now)

It’s only natural that you don’t feel the need to look for new clients when you have plenty of work. 

When you’re up to your ears in work, it doesn’t seem necessary to keep searching for new clients. 

But in reality, you should always be on the lookout for new clients; This is because it takes a great deal of time to find and nurture clients.

You have to build relationships with people who might get you work. You need to connect with them online and start interacting with them.

These methods take time to implement.

Just because you’re busy with work right now doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who’s a perfect match for your business.

But most of all, what happens if you lose a large client now and you’re out of work? You’ll have a gap before you can cover what you’ve lost, and this will affect your income. 

If that gap continues for too long, you might have to take on less-than-ideal work to pay the bills. However, if you have new prospects lined up, you’ll have some choices. 

But how do you keep doing this when you’re busy? The way to do it is to be organized.

Create a strategy for finding new clients. Systematize, so you don’t have to think about it.

For example, create regular content to post on other people’s blogs. Search regularly for new people to connect with on social media.

Choose a few simple strategies for finding new clients that you can do on an ongoing basis while performing work for current clients. 

An excellent way to manage this is to spend a bit of time each day on client acquisition. Set aside a half-hour or hour each day for these activities, an amount of time that won’t take away from your working time.

It’s better to have too many leads and too much work than to be left without any.

It’s only natural that when you have plenty of work, you don’t feel the need to look for new clients. 

When you’re up to your ears in work, it doesn’t seem necessary to keep searching for new clients. 

But in reality, you should always be on the lookout for new clients. This is because it takes a great deal of time to find and nurture clients.

You have to build relationships with people who might get you work. You need to connect with them online and start interacting with them.

These methods take time to implement.

Just because you’re busy with work right now doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who’s a perfect match for your business.

But most of all, what happens if you lose a large client now and you’re out of work? You’ll have a gap before you can cover what you’ve lost, and this will affect your income. 

Why you should always look for new clients

If that gap continues for too long, you might have to take on less-than-ideal work in order to pay the bills. However, if you have new prospects lined up, you’ll have some choices. 

But how do you keep doing this when you’re busy? The way to do it is to be organized.

Create a strategy for finding new clients. Systematize so you don’t have to think about it.

For example, create regular content to post on other people’s blogs. Search regularly for new people to connect with on social media.

Choose a few simple strategies for finding new clients that you can do on an ongoing basis while you perform work for current clients. 

A good way to manage this is to spend a bit of time each day on client acquisition. Set aside a half hour or hour each day for these activities, an amount of time that won’t take away from your working time.

It’s better to have too many leads and too much work than to be left without any.

Identifying Your Edge

As micropreneurs, we are the underdogs by default. In most cases, we find ourselves in a competitive and highly fragmented market space.
Standing out and cutting out your share of the market is an uphill battle. However, it would be best if you didn’t give up.

Understanding your edge

There is always a unique space for your business to fill; you have to find it.
The key to successfully running a small business lies in understanding your edge. Your edge can be a number of things:

  • Your personality,
  • the price of your products,
  • your eye for details,
  • your distinct position in the supply chain,
  • the authenticity of your design,
  • flexibility, etc.

As much as I love KFC, it isn’t my favorite restaurant as it doesn’t meet my preferred dining experience. I love to eat at a restaurant where I feel at home, where the waiters and chefs are my friends.

Not just polite but friendly and slightly chatty. My favorite restaurant fits this profile. What’s more, my friends are like me, and this restaurant has become our go-to hang out spot.

Why you should always look for new clients

We walk in, and we feel like stars with everyone greeting us and sparking short conversations before going about their business. On slow days, it isn’t uncommon for a staff member to sit with me and chat.

Therefore, My favorite restaurant’s edge: isn’t speed, variety, or taste. However, those bases are well covered. My favorite restaurant’s advantage is the interpersonal relationship it builds with every one of its customers.

A short interview with the owner made me realize that it was an intentional strategy. His niche was to make his customers his friends and part of his community.

The good, the bad and the profit of being your own boss.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Identifying your niche isn’t going to be easy. However, once you do, you would easily carve out your market share and even expand it over time.

The best place to start identifying your edge is by understanding what extra or unique value you want to offer.

Once you have your advantage figured out, the next step is infusing it into your business and your brand. Your edge is going to keep your customers loyal and make them ambassadors of your product or service.