These days a lot of people are considering business ownership. Whether you buy into a franchise, lease some space and start your own thing, or log onto the internet and begin building an ecommerce website, doing it on your own has never been more alluring. But just because you have an incredible skill or access to cheap goods does not mean you’re ready to open the doors to your own business. 

Starting a business without a strong foundation can hinder your sales. If you open your doors prematurely, you risk making a bad first impression or targeting the wrong audience. That can be hard to recover from. Before you hang that open sign and put out your welcome mat, ensure you know the answers to the following questions.… Read the rest

Do you want more customers? Then you need to remove the friction behind doing business with you. Even if you have great customer service, support, and sales, you may have unknown friction that exists before you see the face of your customer. Luckily, you can smooth that out with content. Here are two problems you need to solve for to take the guesswork out of doing business with you. 

Problem 1: You Don’t Know They’re Interested

There are several studies out there that will tell you anywhere from 40-76% of a buying decision is made before a potential customer visits your business in person. The average person performs virtual research on your website, review sites, social media, and a host of other places before they even consider doing business with you.… Read the rest

For a while, marketers have been telling people how to build relationships with potential customers on social media. They’ve shown them how to nurture a potential customer through the sales cycle to make a buying decision.

And that’s what businesses have been focused on.

But your social networks need to be doing double duty now.

Yes, attracting new customers is important but there’s another great need right now—employees. You need to attract people to work with you and retain those you currently have.

Social media is an incredibly strong way to do this.

Consider the following types of posts to help you be seen as an employer of choice.

Social Media for Hiring and Retention

When it comes to writing posts to get people to work with you, you want to construct a story around what it’s like to work at your business.… Read the rest

Do you watch America’s Got Talent? Or how about American Idol? The Olympics? The MLB All-star Game?

These competitions all have something in common.

They tell stories. If you watch them, none of them are solid, hours upon hours of broadcasted competition. Mixed in with commercials and the performances, the producers choose to interlace storytelling because it’s relatable. It draws people in. Storytelling can take a good performance and turn it into something we think about for the rest of the day.

You can do this for your business too. You can turn an average experience into something amazing when your audience knows where you are coming from with storytelling. 

Telling your business story is not (just) about how you started and where you came from, nor should it always be about how awesome you are (highlight how you help people and how awesome they are.… Read the rest

As a writer, I work with a whole lot of people who hate to write. Most people who contact me either don’t have the time, desire, or interest to add to their business blog. But what they do have is an appreciation of what a blog can do for their business. Even with all the changes in technology, the increase in the popularity of videos and podcasts, and the growing disinterest in reading (for some), blogs still have a place in business. 

Your business blog should be one of your hardest-working marketing tools. Let’s talk about why:

SEO

No matter how many tags you place on your video, or your image, or your podcast, search engines still love words. Your blog is the perfect way to ensure the proper keywords people would use to find your business are incorporated on your website.… Read the rest