May 24, 2012

Using Twitter for Your Small Business

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Social Media Marketing Tips

Following the post “20 Tips on How to Use Twitter for Your Small Business” I’ve prepared a PowerPoint presentation that expands and illustrates the tips I’ve made in the article. This presentation includes examples of how some users are setting up their Twitter IDs and names to increase their visibility on Twitter and more easily gain followers.  [...]

Prepare Your Mind for New Challenges Ahead

This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Prepare your mind for new challenges ahead. You have already taken stock of where you are. You have thought about where you want to go. The next step is to ensure that you are in the right mindset for your entrepreneurial journey, and committing yourself to staying with it.  Pat yourself in the back for [...]

Think of a Backup Plan for Your Business

This entry is part 4 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Think of a Plan B. It is always smart to have a backup plan in place in the event that things do not work out as planned. It is great to be optimistic about things and hope that running the business will go as smoothly as possible. However, things don’t always work accordingly. The strategies [...]

Develop Your Goals and Strategies for Next Year

This entry is part 10 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Develop your goals and strategies for next year. As a small business or home-based entrepreneur, it is easy to get so caught with the day-to-day running of the business that you fail to think about your ultimate objectives for the business. Who has time to sit down and think about what to do next year, [...]

Check Your Competition

This entry is part 9 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Check out your competitors. You don’t operate in a vacuum. Hence, it is important that you take time to see what your competitors are up to. Big businesses have departments dedicated solely to understanding the competitive landscape. Just because you don’t have dedicated manpower to find out what others are doing doesn’t mean that you [...]

Make a List of Strategies that Worked

This entry is part 8 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Make a list of what worked – and what did not work.  As the business owner, you will find it exceedingly difficult to develop a future strategy for your business if you do not know how successful your current strategies are to date.  Hence, it is essential that you look at how you perform this [...]

Assess Your Marketing Strategies

This entry is part 7 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Marketing is a huge chunk of your daily efforts, both in time and in expense. It is important that you periodically monitor what worked for you in terms of bringing in the most sales, increasing awareness to your brand, and engaging with your customers. How do you market your business? Do you think you’ve used [...]

Analyze Your Web Analytics

This entry is part 5 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Whether you are operating a Web business, or just using the Web as an online brochure for your brick and mortar business, it is important to look at the numbers behind your web site. The Web has become an integral medium for any business today that it is important to understand how your web site [...]

Analyze the Financial Numbers of Your Business

This entry is part 3 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

The only way you can really know how well your business is doing is by knowing the bottom-line. This assumes, however, that you are able to do regular bookkeeping, generate financial statements based on your bookkeeping journals, and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business. Do you know your margin [...]

Review your Customer Acquisition and Retention Strategies

This entry is part 2 of 11 in the series Home Business End of the Year Review

Your business is only as good as the number and quality of customers you bring to it. Customers are the lifeblood of your business, and you need to always review how you are getting customers, and more importantly, how you are keeping them as customers. Some questions you need to think about: How well are [...]

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