7 Tips on Personal Branding and Motivation from Gary Vaynerchuk
I ran across an older video from 2008’s Blogworld Expo featuring Gary Vaynerchuk. It was a short interview, only about 6 minutes, but in it he summed up what it takes to build your personal brand, stay motivated, and ultimately succeed.
Gary Vaynerchuk is known for his popular videos on Wine Library TV. Regardless of what you think of Gary, you can’t debate his success and he will be the first to tell you it didn’t happen overnight.
Tips on Personal Brand and Motivation
1) Content
It all starts here, with what you are producing or what service you are providing. You have to be good – Your content has to be good.
2) Community
Building your community is what will take you to the next level. Interact with those around you, bring them in to what you are doing and go to where they are to interact.
3) Hard work for Big Goals
You need to be willing to work hard enough to achieve big goals. Putting out one video, or blog post, or one comment is not going to get you to where you want to be. As Gary puts it a lot of people are “half pregnant”. Not willing to do the big work to achieve the big things.
4) Only as Good as You
We’ve talked about this here many times. Most of the time in business people are buying you, not necessarily your product or service. If you believe in yourself you can sell anything. Customers will recognize your conviction, and that translates into trust.
5) Think Legacy
Think about your legacy. It’s not all about the money. Think about your great grandchildren watching what it is you are doing. What are they going to think of what you are doing?
6) Have Pride in What You Do
With legacy in mind - do something you are proud of, you will believe in it and you’ll be able to monetize it. Being proud of yourself, what you are doing, and what you are leaving behind will be a key motivator in achieving your goals and becoming successful.
7) Do the Hustle
The hustle is the whole game, you have to be willing to work your A$$ off in order to win.
Photo Credit:melanie_hughes
Does Your Business Risk Being Netflixed?
Netflix Inc., the largest U.S. mail- order movie-rental service, reported they added 1 million subscribers last quarter.
Add that to the ~13 million subscribers they already have and you’re talking real numbers.
Only a few short years ago everyone went to the video store to get their movies. Blockbuster recently annouced their plans to close up to 960 stores nationwide by the end of 2010.
Yep, the game has changed. But what does that have to do with your business?
Does Your Business Risk Being Netflixed?
Back in Blockbuster’s heyday they were a video force to be reckoned with.
Not so long ago if you lived in or around a major city, chances were you went to a Blockbuster to get your rentals.
Then the Internet got a little quicker, and doing stuff online became easier, and then Netflix came along and said “order online – larger selection – we ship free both ways – you don’t pay late fees” and people said “hmm, for the price of two rentals at Blockbuster I can get a month subscription to Netflix and get more movies for less – I’m in”.
And so, becuase of this Blockbuster is left scrambling to catch up to the forward thinking Netflix, and is slowly going the way of the Dinosaur.
Today is Tomorrow’s Not So Long Ago
Not so long ago if you wanted shoes you went to a big box retailer, tried to find something you liked, hoped they had your size and purchased.
Then Zappos.com came along, and destroyed every barrier to buying shoes online.
“It takes to long to get something you order online” – Enter next day shipping
“Getting it quick cost to much” – Make that next day shipping free
“Well if it doesn’t fit what do I do?” – How bout you send it back to us for free too?
“Okay, but what if something goes wrong, those online places don’t give much customer support?” – Zappos is now the customer service standard by which all online retailers are held.
Not so long ago phone had cords and you kept them in your house.
Not so long ago you went inside the bank to make a withdrawal.
Not so long ago I didn’t see the need for a laptop computer.
Not so long ago…
What’s Our Point Here?
Every small business owner should be asking themselves if they are at risk of being Netflixed, or Zappo’ed.
Is the product or service you’re selling – or the way in which you’re selling it – going to be tomorrow’s “not so long ago”?
It doesn’t have to be. But you’ll need to start thinking about what the next curve is for your business. Don’t let somebody else see where your business is heading before you do.
That’s what Blockbuster did and now they’re playing catch up.
That’s what the shoe stores did and now they’re playing catch up.
That’s what the phone companies did and now they’re playing catch up.
Ketchup is a condiment, not a business model.
Photo Credit: jcestnik
30 Minutes a Day Online Marketing Tips
Don’t think you have enough time in the day to effectively market your business? Think again! This is a guest post by Stacey Cavanagh of Tecmark: SEO Liverpool and Manchester, shows that with as little as 30 minutes a day you can be on your way to attracting more customers.
30 Minutes a Day Online Marketing Tips
For the small business operating in a particularly tricky financial period, the bulk of your marketing budget may come in the form of time.
While it’s true to say that online marketing, SEO, social media marketing etc is a worthwhile investment, we’re not just talking in terms of money.
Putting some time into online marketing can pay dividends for a small business and you can even make a difference in just half an hour a day by implementing some of the following:
It takes just a few minutes to make a contribution to Twitter and making this a part of your daily business routine is a steady way to build up a network of followers interested in your area of industry. Share a link to an interesting news story relating to your industry or details of a special offer on your own website. Just make it a post that offers the reader something (information or a great deal) and your followers will gradually build up. Start to search for people in a similar area and follow them. Begin networking within your niche to meet contacts.
Blog
The same sort of concept applies with blogging as with Twitter, except the posts are much longer! This needn’t be an everyday thing but posting to a blog a couple of times a week is a way to keep in touch with your customers and to convey more about your business and the market in which you operate to your potential clients. This is an excellent means of marketing. It takes a while for a blog to take off, so have patience. 20 minutes or so twice a week can really get this going for your business.
Blog commenting
Contribute to the conversations on blogs by bloggers in the same niche in which you operate. This, again, is a form of networking and it also keeps you abreast of everything else happening in your industry. You also get back links when commenting, which potentially has SEO benefits for your website. A few minutes a day to read and comment on blogs in a similar niche will make a big difference in the long term.
Forum Discussions
Find and sign up to forums on a related topic to your business. Actively take part and get to know your fellow posters. Yes, more virtual networking but once again, the importance of this cannot be overlooked. It contributes to building an online presence for your brand and can begin to establish you, the business owner, as something of an authority in the specific area in which you operate. This can eventually lead to people getting in touch with you about the products and services you supply, as well as encouraging more links from the sites of others back to yours (more SEO benefit)!
Checking your content
Make it a goal to read one page of your website through each day to check the content. You’re looking for grammatical and spelling errors, typos etc. But you should also be keeping an eye on how frequently your keyword is mentioned. By keyword, we mean the word relating to what the page is about. It’s surprising when reading back over content how infrequently your keyword might be mentioned. When you think about it, the only way in which Google can recognise the topic of your page is by the words on it. So ensuring you mention the keyword in the content is critical. However, this should not come at the detriment of the meaning of your content and if you struggle to write keyword rich content that reads naturally, you should consider investing in a professional copywriter through an online marketing company. But it’s certainly worth investing a few minutes a day to read through your own existing content.
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These are quick tips that will, over time, increase your web presence which will, in turn generate more traffic and thus more leads to your small business website.
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Photo Credit: mao_lini
The Tale of a Marketing Dictum, Mantra, and Yo-Yo
Here’s an old (old as in I’m not making it up) marketing dictum that I believe should be a mantra for all small business marketing efforts.
It was as true yesterday as it will be tomorrow when it comes to explaining consumer behavior.
We’ll look at each of these individually, but I think you’ll see that by approaching your marketing with all of these in mind will lead you to the results you’re after.
People Don’t Believe What You Tell Them
How many of you are selling your products or services by telling your customers what it can do for them or why they need it?
This Yo-Yo is the best Yo-Yo money can buy! I think you’re going to be so happy with this Yo-Yo you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
They Rarely Believe What You Show Them
So if telling them doesn’t work – maybe show them?
Watch the Yo-Yo go up and down, see it’s fun. Up, down, up, down. Walk the dog. Want to buy it now?
They Often Believe What Their Friends Tell Them
Ah, here we are finally getting to the meat of what good marketing should be doing – creating word of mouth. If my buddy is using your product, and likes it, that means something to me!
Dude, check out this sweet Yo-Yo I bought – I don’t know how I ever lived without it! WHAT? You haven’t got one yet? Are you living in a cave?
They Always Believe What They Tell Themselves
The crux of all effective marketing lies right here. If through your campaign you can get individuals to believe themselves that they need your product or service, it’s sold.
That is a pretty sweet Yo-Yo, and I hear the chicks really dig a guy that knows how to Yo – why am I living without one of these? I’ll take two.
Make this Your Mantra
What the above says to me is that you need to position what you’re selling in front of your potential customer in such a way that they sell themselves on it.
That’s right – starting selling to your customers in such a way they sell themselves, and you’ll start to see the results you want from your marketing. Whether you’re selling Yo-Yo’s or not.
Photo Credit: Sarah_Jones
The Recipe for Success in Business from Glen W. Bell Jr Founder of Taco Bell
Sadly Glen Bell Jr, the founder of Taco Bell, passed away January 16, 2010 at the age of 86. For those of you unfamiliar with Bell, and his business successes – consider this.
Bell first sold tacos for 19 cents in San Bernardino in 1951, and he built Taco Bell from one stand in 1962 to a $125-million business when he sold it in 1978.
In reading about Bell’s life, and his outlook on doing business, I ran across his Three Rules for Success – or as he called it “”recipes for success”. Growing a business from one taco stand to a $125 million dollar company – I want the recipe, and thought you would too!
Glen Bell Jr’s Recipe for Success in Business
Here are Glen’s top three rules for growing a successful business, with my thoughts on how we can use them to grow our businesses.
You Build a Business One Customer at a Time
Every customer counts. Too often we get caught up in the idea of growth, or scaling our business and forget that it really happens one person at a time.
Considering the velocity of word of mouth these days as opposed to Bells time has the ability to grow or destroy a business much quicker than when Bell was selling his first tacos.
Satisfy the individuals and eventually your business will satisfy the masses.
Find the Right Product, Then Find a Way to Mass-Produce It
The right product for any business is one that there is a need or perceived need for. The greater the need, the larger your business can become. Don’t confuse a need with a necessity. A $4 cup of coffee isn’t a necessity, but Starbucks has me believing I need it.
Once you confirmed the need within your market, your only obstacle to growth is finding a way to scale up – effectively, and efficiently.
This is probably the toughest point in a young businesses life – scaling too fast or two slow can lead to at best sub par results, and at worst disaster.
An Innovative Product Will Set You Apart.
This could be a product or service, the important piece is differentiation. Why should customers buy from you, what sets up apart from the competition?. And what will keep your competitive advantage into the future?
Conclusion
There is no debating the success of Glen Bell Jr, or the continued success of the Taco Bell brand.
The “recipe” is simple when put down on paper, and while few businesses may never reach the level of success of Taco Bell they can become better and more successful by remembering Glen’s rules.
Your Turn
Would you add anything to Glen’s rules? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo Credit: KayVee.INC
New HR Management Tool for Small Businesses
As our small businesses grow we need tools to help us manage that growth. I know first hand from my days as an HR consultant that many small businesses are woefully underprepared when it comes to managing the human resources side of their businesses.
That’s why when Vincent Chan, developer of Backbone HRM 2.0, contacted me about a beta test of his new software I agreed to pass along the information to you all.
Below is an overview of what Backbone is, and how it may help your business from an HR perspective. Vincent is offering to let our readers beta test this application for him, and is donating $1 to Kiva.org for every beta tester he gets.
How to Sign Up
Simply go to: http://backbonehr.com and click on “Join the Beta”
Enter your invite code: smallbizbee2010
Try it Out – Give Your Feedback
If you are looking for an HR solution give this one a try and then give Vincent your honest feedback. I’m not making an endorsement one way or the other of the product yet, just that it looks interesting and I’ll be trying it out with you all. And it’s free to try – you know we like that.
Here’s what Vincent had to say about his new product…
What’s Backbone HRM All About?
Backbone is a simple but powerful human resource management tool for small business. Unlike other complicated enterprise HR systems, Backbone is built for small business from day one. It was created to make solving simple HR issues simple. We look at the needs of small business, include the best features, and take away everything else.
Traditional enterprise HR management systems are too expensive and difficult to use, especially for small business. Because of these reasons, many small businesses hack together solutions for many of their HR problems with Microsoft Excel, pen and paper, or nothing at all. We want to reduce the technology gap between large enterprise and small business.
Backbone enables workers to take care of their own HR operational tasks. It streamlines the processes for submitting and approving employee leave. Employees use it to view their absence balances, record their time off requests, and track the approval status. Managers can look at employees’ current, planned, and historical absence events; monitor absence trends as a predictor for employee engagement.
Besides traditional HR features like Attendance Tracking, Expense Reporting and Goal Management, we also integrate numerous Web 2.0 features into this application. For example, Backbone allows users to securely post updates of their activities, follow others’ updates, and share great resources to co-workers. This is similar to what people are already doing in social networks. However, we take it one step further. In the Backbone’s Dashboard, users not only can see group and personal updates but also other business activities happening inside the application. In this way, managers can monitor all activity in one single place. In short: Backbone will completely transform the way you collaborate with people in your company.
Backbone also provides important HR metrics and charts in different Analytic dashboards, which help small businesses better understanding their HR’s overall performance and employee productivity. With Backbone, small business will stay on top of everything that’s happening in the company with updates on people, groups, documents, and application data. Managers will find experts and discover new information in the activity feed. Together with a clean and intuitive interface, Backbone simplifies HR management so small business can focus on developing their talented workforce.
Benefits of Backbone HRM
- Make information about company activities more visible, accessible and measurable
- Help small businesses gain control over and do more with their workforce
- Give managers rich insights into their workforce
- Save time, improving HR operational efficiency
- Identify employees’ hidden talents
- Foster a more inclusive and collaborative culture
- Better retention and higher productivity
5 Budget Online Marketing Ideas for Your New Business
Below is a guest post from Michelle Strassburg, a small business owner who shares her ideas for budget online marketing.
Marketing your new business has its fare share of challenges. Your marketing is supposed to generate leads and sales on a competitive budget, but you’re also expect to keep running the business on a day to day basis.
This means dealing with everything from cash flow issues to finding suppliers, therefore getting your marketing right is crucial.
Here are a selection of budget online marketing ideas for your new business which are easy to action and proven to deliver results. Let’s get to it.
1. Register Your Business with Google Local
Google has been offering local businesses a chance to register their business address and phone number in its local listings for some time. When the search giant started to display local listing in its search results, the service become a must service for many businesses. When a user searches for a keyword together with a location, for example ‘DC plumber’, the search results will include listings from Google Local displayed on a map. The service is free to register.
2. Register Your Products or Services with Google Merchant
Another helpful and free service from the search giant, Google Merchant is a place for businesses to upload a data feed which includes products or services. Under some types of user searches, Google will include feeds from this service in its search results. Creating a data feed is easy and quick. You will need to build a simple product feed based on the type of products or services which the business is offering and upload them. It’s that easy.
3. Promote Your Business Elsewhere
If you’ve reached the stage of been able to manage your own business, clearly you know a thing or two about your industry or occupation. To get your business out there in the public eye consider contributing your time and knowledge. Offer to write a guest post on quality sites and participate in the conversation across Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers and Linkedin Answers.
4. Consider Paid Search
Google AdWords is the largest sponsored search result program. While this marketing channel isn’t free, it does fall under budget marketing ideas for new businesses simply because you are able to manage it yourself within a small budget. The idea behind any type of sponsored search result is simple. You bid on a keyword which best describes your product or service and pay a certain price for each click. While the price for each click depends on many variables the beauty of this channel is that you can set a daily budget to limit your investment. If you’re new to AdWords and think your business might benefit from this channel, Google has a fantastic online how-to resource.
5. Build a Basic Reward Scheme
Offer an exclusive incentive to your regular customers which will help the business retain customers and win new ones. The incentive could take the form of a discount on future orders, discount on bulk purchase, upgraded delivery method, end of stock offers, priority customer support and much more. A reward scheme could also be based on customers referring new customers which has the added benefit of helping to grow your business.What are your budget online marketing tips?
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Photo Credit: Jeff Keen
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10 New Year Revolutions
Below is a guest post from author, speaker, and business coach Andy Hanselman, who says forget New Year resolutions and start thinking New Year revolutions in 2010.
January is the time for New Year Resolutions. Well here are 10 ideas for ‘New Year Revolutions’.
Not a list of ‘do’s and don’ts, but some simple and practical things to consider that can help ‘Revolutionise’ your approach in 2010, which the evidence suggests is going to be a tough one for many of us. See it as a menu, not a recipe. Pick the stuff (or variations of it) that appeals and could work for you.
Here they are, in no particular order…
10 ‘Revolutions’ for 2010
1. Get That ‘Vision Thing’
The evidence suggests that in tougher times your people may well be looking to you for focus and drive. As well as the traditional 12 month ‘Vision Thing’, you may also need a short term one too. What are your key business priorities for the coming months? Does everyone know what they are and what they need to do to achieve them? Your job is to let them know, and get them on board.
2. Work On ‘Dialogue’, not Diatribes
Focus on creating ‘conversations’ with your people in 2010. Ask for their opinions, views and ideas. This is not just about memo’s and emails and meetings. Aim to ‘engage’ your people more this year. People are often looking for security and reassurance in tougher times. That means listening, and reacting and having ‘ongoing’ discussions on things they say are important.
3. Stand In Your Own Queues
Regularly spend time in 2010 ‘at the sharp end’. What are you like to do business with? Find out what’s stopping your people delivering what customers want. How can you make it easier?
4. Don’t Just ‘Think’ Out Of The Box – GET Out Of It
It’s easy to get drawn down into the ‘nitty gritty’ of daily business. Try to create time to make visits to companies, conferences, events and seminars (even some that have nothing to do with your industry). Read a magazine or journal, surf websites from sectors you know nothing about. The point? To get a different view and perspective. Who knows what you’ll learn?
5. Think In ‘3D’
That means being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’. What makes your business stand out? How do you demonstrate it? Remember, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. Explore ways in 2010 to demonstrate your competitive edge in everything that you do, particularly to your existing customers who will no doubt be getting mailshots, calls and visits from your competitors desperately looking for business.
6. Value Your Values
Evidence suggests that customers are engaging more with businesses they believe in, they trust and respect. What does your business really ‘stand for’? Work on establishing, communicating and demonstrating your values. Not a list of weasly words and phrases, but a set of principles you believe in and that differentiate your business. Why not create a ‘manifesto’ that outlines what your business really is about?
7. Stand Out And Deliver
Actions speak louder than words. Concentrate on consistency. In 2010 focus everyone on creating a ‘great experience’. ‘Champion’ those in your team who ‘go the extra mile’ and deliver the goods. ‘Challenge’ those who don’t. There’s no room for ‘passengers’ in times like these.
8. Maximise Your Customer Relationships
When things slow down, it’s tempting to get out there knocking on doors and chasing ‘new’ business. Obviously, this can be very important, but I see too many businesses doing it at the expense of their existing customer relationships. Now is the time to get closer and focussed. Who are the key people you need to be getting closer to?
9. Be Visible
What are you like as role model when it comes to your key priorities? In 2010, ensure that you live your values, demonstrate your commitment to those key priorities and make sure that your actions reinforce this. That might mean taking ‘symbolic’ actions for emphasis. Not PR stunts, but genuine activities that ensure that your people know what’s high on the agenda. Ensure that in these tougher conditions no one is under any doubt about what you see as important.
10. ‘Just Do It’
When it comes to thriving or surviving, don’t just talk about it, just do it. It’s as simple as that. Commit to making 2010 your year for action, and…..’Do Something’!
Best wishes for this New Year and have a great and successful 2010!
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Andy has developed a reputation for his innovative, inspirational and stimulating approach. This is reflected in his training and motivational seminars, and is in demand as a speaker at team building events, seminars and conferences up and down the country. Having presented to over twenty thousand business leaders and decision makers Andy is recognised for his engaging, humorous, and down to earth approach. He has been recognised by Enterprise Magazine as a Future Top 100 Entrepreneur. You can reach him at AndyHanselman.com
Photo Credit: Sukanto Debnath
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The Importance of Brand Identity and Logo Design for Small Businesses
Below is a guest post from Jeremy Schafer of MyCorporateLogo, who reminds us of the impact a good logo can have on our business and brand identity.
A logo represents a company – it defines its identity – its purpose. It is an integral part of a company’s brand strategy.
Without a logo or brand identity it would be impossible for a consumer to identify one product or service from the next.
Brand Connection
Most consumers have very strong opinions regarding their favorite brand. These opinions are more emotional than rational. Some brands (e.g. Nike, Coca-Cola etc.) resonate with customers more than others. They form an emotional attachment to these brands, often disregarding better products and services for ones with higher visibility and brand recognition.
Some brands even become synonymous with the product and the consumer starts recognizing the product by its brand name (e.g. Xerox).
It is therefore of the utmost importance that every company – especially the small business, has a sound brand strategy and a strong brand identity with a unique identifiable logo.
Logo Design & Brand Identity
Brand Identity and Small Business Logo Design helps small businesses in many ways. A few of the more important ones are listed below.
- It helps give the company an established and professional feel. This increases the customers trust in the products or services the company offers.
- A powerful brand identity is important as in general, people find it easier to recall images than text. There is an old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The logo represents that picture and can be remembered and identified with greater ease than a thousand words describing the company.
- Logo graphics can bring about awareness of the products or services that you offer in cases where the company name is not self-explanatory.
- As the company grows, the consumer base stays loyal to the brand.
- The brand value generated can also be leveraged when selling stock in the company or the company itself for a higher perceived value than the actual value.
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Since 2005, MyCorporateLogo.com has been offering affordable logo design and corporate identity design services to start ups, small and mid-sized organizations. Our creative team can effectively deliver any message across a wide variety of media. We have successfully designed thousands of logos catering to the needs of almost every industry imaginable. Additionally, we have designed hundreds of websites, brochures, letterhead, business cards, and stationary.
Photo Credit: kyz
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New Comments Policy at Smallbizbee.com
As our blog has grown, and rankings increased, I am seeing more and more questionable comments being submitted as the incentive to drop a comment here for a link has increased.
Why The Change to a Policy?
I love the comments we get on this blog, the conversations they start, and the interaction I can get with our readers through the comments. Interacting in the comments section with our readers is one of the most satisfying things I do around here.
I want to maintain that aspect of Smallbizbee, and ensure the comments section is still a great place to hang out while your looking over our articles and content.
By putting some parameters around what kinds of comments will be accepted I feel we will continue to foster the type of environment where people feel comfortable leaving their thoughts or comments on a post.
Commenting Policy
1. Only comments relevant to the post being discussed will be accepted. “Nice post”, “Great job”, “This site rocks” type of comments will be deleted.
2. Use your name when adding a comment to the site. No more comments from “widgets are us”, or “Russian nesting dolls online” will be accepted. Making a comment for the sole purpose of getting some link juice back to your “pink flamingo shop” is just spammy.
3. Relevant links in your comments are encouraged.
4. Irrelevant links in your comments will cause your comment to be deleted.
5. I will never delete a legitimate comment just because I don’t agree with the point of view of the commenter. I will delete comments that push the envelope of common human decency (luckily we’ve had none of that so far).
I don’t want to seem like I’m coming down on commenters, quite the opposite. I hope the new comment policy will make Smallbizbee a great place to drop your comments and converse on topics related to small business and entrepreneurship.
We currently have over 2900 comments on this blog, and very few would have been filtered out due to the new policy - I’m just making sure it stays that way.
Your Turn
Thank you for being part of this community, if you have something to say about the new policy drop a line in the comments section below.