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What comes up when you Google your business name?
Are you the first result? Are you even on the first page?
One of the most important parts of running your digital marketing today is search engine optimization, or SEO. If you apply the right strategies, you can unlock the power of the internet and connect with more potential customers.
Here’s some advice I give all parents: Never pay your kids an allowance.
If you pay your kids a set amount every week, you are grooming them to have a fixed-income mentality.
I don’t want you, or anyone in your family, living with a paycheck mentality. I want you all to see the unlimited possibilities of making money, and kids are amazing at it.
My businesses and brands were built on persistence from the ground up.
In 2004, I was determined to start writing books, and saw that many business books at the time were being published by or with Jay Conrad Levinson, the guerilla marketing legend. I was able to get a two minute meeting with him … after a few dozen phone calls to his business, his daughter, and eventually Levinson himself.
Somebody has already done what you want to do, or at least something similar.
(Sorry to burst your bubble.)
So if there is a company doing what you want to do or something close, why would you spend money on old-fashioned R&D when you can replicate instead and make more money faster?
You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again: There are two money conversations in the world – the occupational and the entrepreneurial.
The occupational conversation is about getting a job, getting an MBA, maximizing your 401K, and hoping that everything works out for the best.
That’s not the conversation we’re having.
It takes many forms nowadays but network marketing, aka direct sales or multi-level marketing, has emerged as a viable money maker, giving those willing to leverage their network the training and products to build solid businesses.
When I was growing up, the thought of working in the same office with people who you weren’t actually working with was foreign.
Nowadays? Getting into a co-working space is the way to go. It could save you thousands per year in office expenses – and taxes.
One of the key attributes of the wealthy is how they are legally structured. This is most evident around this time of year: Tax Season. Here are three legal entities that give entrepreneurs the ability to keep more of their hard-earned money and protect themselves from liability.
If there’s ever been a question of the power of the consumer in today’s market, look no further than what’s been going on with Netflix over the past few months.
For those of you not familiar with Netflix, the service became synonymous with DVD rentals by mail, offering a popular alternative which reinvented the entertainment and rental industry. After essentially bankrupting its largest competitor in Blockbuster, Netflix enjoyed a sizable advantage over any of the nearest competitors.
Netflix internet streaming offerings now appear on many “smart” televisions, gaming systems and other television accessories as a complement to their DVD service. Before the change, Netflix bundled both the DVD and internet streaming services together in unified pricing packages as low as $9.99 per month for the best of both worlds. As a result, subscribers continued to increase and Netflix became a competitive alternative to traditional cable and television providers.
In July, Netflix announced an overhaul of their pricing structure, raising prices for the joint DVD and streaming package 60 percent to $15.98. Not only did angry customers use their voice across comments and social spaces, but investors reacted as well. This has resulted in a large number of user cancellations, as well as decreased third-quarter forecast and shares of Netflix going down 40% since the July announcement.
Obviously, the voices of angry customers have been heard loud and clear.
So clear in fact, that Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, released a stunning announcement that divided Netflix DVD rental and streaming business into two separate companies. The DVD branch of the business will now be known as Qwikster, while streaming lives on under the Netflix brand. In his blog, Hastings cites how “companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”
As entrepreneurs, what specific lesson can we take from such a dramatic story?
The voice of your customer matters more than ever. As a small business, situations like what Netflix just experienced on a large scale can literally be crushing to an entrepreneur.
In fact, with partner-based marketing becoming the predominant source of traffic in online business today, maintaining brand integrity is vital. Many business owners have made the bad decision of avoiding social interaction with their audience, either on their own websites or on social networks, out of concern for dealing with objections or complaints.
The opposite is actually true in most cases: managing your brand reputation and customer service in a public forum can actually be beneficial for your long-term success.
By giving both current and future customers a glimpse of your responsiveness, you are providing a road map for future interactions. Creating transparency in business interactions is not only becoming normal, increasingly savvy audiences are demanding it more and more. As the world grows more “on-demand,” your audience will expect both content and customer service to be delivered how, where and when they want.
Although it’s on a large scale, Netflix has painted a glowing example of what NOT to do in this situation. The voice of the customer MUST be heard and understood regardless of your size, delivery method or strategy. There simply is no alternative.
