4Momentum | Advising Business For Business Success

7 Tips For Business Success

1. Determine who your ideal client is & get to know them REALLY, REALLY well

Until you know who your ideal client is you are going to really struggle in business.  The first step is to identify a market that has a big god-awful obvious problem OR is irrationally passionate about something.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway as so many people miss this obvious point) that your ideal client can easily afford the things you are going to sell them.

Next you need to work out the following; what age are they, what sex are they, how do they earn their living, how much do they earn, what do they do for fun, what pain do they feel, what aspirations do they have, where do they hang out online, what do they read, what do they watch, what is your name for your ideal client?

Until you get a really good handle on who your ideal clients is and what they want (rather then what they need) your marketing is going to suck (in the words of our friends across the pond!).  You need to be able to talk their language, using their words to describe their situation, as if you were sitting in a pub, sharing a pint.

2. Work out what they want rather than what they need

You need to do some key word research here because I guarantee you will be surprised!  You need to imagine your ideal customer sitting in front of their computer, on a Friday night, glass of wine in hand. Put yourself in their shoes, and imagine what you would type into Google if you were them.

They will either be typing in their problem ….Or their percieved solution to their pain.

And you need to be aware that people buy on emotion not logic, so if you have a product or service that provides a solution to a problem, your customer will be more likely to buy what they want (a great outcome) than what they need (a solution to their problem).

You also need to know what your customer is typing into Google on a Friday night, so that you can name your company (and therefore your website) something that will give you a search engine advantage over your competitors.

I’ll give you an example:

I was working with a new client recently, who had bought his domain name and started setting up his website.  He had previously chosen the domain name Executive-Post.info because he worked with high level executives who were either looking for a new position, or had been made redundant and were looking for their next position.

First up, his site was going to be a commercial site and therefore the .info domain was inappropriate for his site, he really needed a .com and the .co.uk.

We checked out the word “executive” and it turns out the actual phrase that over 27,000 of his potential future customers are typing into Google is “executive jobs”, “senior executive” and “executive search”

So it stands to reason, that in order to get in front of that ravening crowd of hungry customers, he needs a domain name that a) says what he does on his tin and b) contains the key phrase that everyone is actually using to search for him by!

Sadly “Executive post” did not appear anywhere on the list of words that people are actually typing in the search engines and so it had to go.

We went looking and my cleint was able to secure a domain name that contained not just one, but three of the actual words people are looking for.

You can use the free Google Keyword Tool to get a feel for the key phrases your customers are searching for here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

To Enjoy The Other 5 Tips For Business Success Just Add Your Name & Email Over In The Box There >>>>

Business Internet Marketing | Getting Started | Step Two

Paul says: I’ve been a bit busy this week to blog so I’ve asked a business acquaintance of mine, Business Internet Marketing Expert, Nicola Cairncross, to step into the breach.

Nicola says: Welcome back to this series of articles about how to get started taking your business online, or starting an online business.

Last time we covered how to get started and how to put yourself in danger of generating more business (or of making money immediately from other people’s products or services) immediately.

You can view that article here >>>

The next thing I would do is open my Facebook profile, and link it to my Twitter account using one of the Twitter apps……so that my Tweets appear on my Facebook profile and update it regularly.

You do have a Twitter account don’t you?  If not, you need one urgently!

Think of your business blog/website (more on this in the next article) as the hub in your marketing wheel.  Twitter is the first and most important spoke in that marketing wheel, connecting your blog/website to the outside world and back again, but also plays a key role in connecting every other spoke (Ecademy, Linked In, Facebook, YouTube etc) to your business website (let’s just call it that from now on, shall we?)

Twitter is like mini-blogging and is highly key-word searchable and much loved by the Search Engines – Google is even starting to show a rotating display of relevent Tweets on the Google front page when you do a key word search – try it!

Also, your own page or profile on Twitter will have it’s own Google Page Rank and by linking back to your website from your Twitter profile, you will raise the page rank of your own site.

Then I would start a Facebook page around the topic I am going to start my internet business around – think of your Facebook page as your second business website after your Twitter profile page.  It’s visible outside Facebook and again, it’s highly search engine friendly.  Don’t call your Facebook page the name of your business, think of something with the key phrase in, the one that your potential future customers will be using to find your product or service on the search engines.

I repeat, choose a name for your Facebook page that has a key word or two, and says what your business does on the tin.  The outcome perhaps, of your customers after they have used your product or service.

You can link your Twitter account to your Facebook page now as well as your profile.  You might just want to keep your page for business and your profile for friends and family but I believe you will be missing a trick if you do that.  Get used to your business and personal life being inextricably linked from now on.

So what next?

If you tweet regularly, and link your twitter account to your Facebook page, and you link your Facebook profile to your page, and then you Tweet on topic, you can see how you will stir the interest of your friends and family to visit your twitter account or your Facebook page, and you will stir the interest of your Twitter followers to find and “Like” your page on Facebook and by setting up this “virtuous circle” of social media marketing, you can start to generate some traffic to your new Facebook page, and hopefully some “fans” who will interact with you and get to know, like and trust you.

This is the start of the growth of your mailing list – because you can contact your Followers on Twitter, and your Fans on your Facebook Page and your friends and family who are connected to you via your Profile.

And we all know that you can only start to make money online if you have a mailing list of people who know, like and trust you.

This is, in addition to your email signature (as discussed in the previous article You can view that article here >>>) another three places you can occasionally recommend some of the products and services you sell or endorse, using your Tiny URL or Bit.ly link.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and it’s got you thiinking about using the two most powerful social media environments to expand your “circle of influence” and to get your business started making money online.

Watch out for Part 3 in this article series, coming soon.

Nicola Cairncross is one of Europe’s leading Business Internet Marketing Experts helping bright energetic people become financially free since 1999. She is also one of the “Experts In Residence” at Visa Int’l and Pampers iVillage.

Nicola can show you how to make more money, attract new sales leads, create abundance via passive income flows using business and by harnessing the power of the internet to reach the 35 million people on broadband right now!

Claim your free chapter of her acclaimed Wealth Creation book “The Money Gym” fully updated for 2010 with expanded internet marketing & property investing chapters here http://www.NicolaCairncross.com

Business Internet Marketing | Getting Started | Step One

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Co-Operatives – What Are They, Why Start One And Who Benefits?

Co-operatives are seeing resurgence in interest and offer an alternative to other business models.

Essentially a co-operative is owned by all the members. Members are both the employees and employers. Each member has a share in the business. Co-operatives will often work because each member has a greater commitment to making it work than traditional business models such as limited companies and partnerships.

Typically a co-operative would be started by members each putting in an investment to the business. Members are paid a dividend of earned income. Each member has a vote on how the business is run and in decision making.

Co-operatives are not suitable for all businesses and owners. It won’t for example work for owners seeking personal financial gain. However on the flip side co-operatives do tend to be more stable long term businesses. There is also the added bonus that it removes many of the stresses and isolation frequently felt by business owners because the responsibility is spread across the members.

Author – Paul Stanford

Small Business Start-Up Sole Trader Or Limited Company?

Setting up a new business is straightforward as a sole trader. You need to inform HMRC and complete form CWF1 to register as self employed. You also need to register for Class 2 National Insurance contributions by completing form CA5601. You must register within three months of becoming self-employed otherwise you could be fined. You also need to file an annual self-assessment form so need to keep records of all spending and income from day one. You are taxed as a sole trader which could be as high as 50% for those earning £150k or over. Interestingly you do not need to have a business bank account but it is preferable.

Starting up as a limited liability company can bring both financial and legal benefits. It gives the founders’ the protection of limited liability, some customers expect it and incorporation tax for small businesses is set to fall to 20%. To set up as a limited liability company you need to chose a name and register it at Companies House. Most founders chose to do this by buying a firm off the shelf from their accountant or formation agent for around £200. It is possible to register a company yourself for £20 by completing form IN01 and filing a memorandum and articles of association but this is more complex for the novice. Next Companies House will inform HMRC that your business has incorporated and you will be sent form CT41G to register for Corporation Tax. Company directors are responsible for keeping records and calculating their tax liability, which must be paid no later than nine months and one day after the company’s year end. Limited companies must have a business bank account

Author – Paul Stanford

Recession Spawns 1000 New Businesses Every Day

Over the past 12 months over 395,000 new businesses have been registered at Companies House: only 2006/07 saw more company births. But that was at the height of a boom, not the depths of a recession, and there are big question marks over the level of support that these new ventures will receive as the new government threatens to abolish the Business Link network.

Commentators suspect that the boom in business creation is fuelled by redundancy payments and the growth of the internet and faster broadband speeds allowing entrepreneurs to take advantage of e-commerce opportunities that require much smaller up-front investment.

But setting up a company is relatively easy; keeping it going beyond the critical three year period is less so. As the new government continues to feed speculation about the deconstruction of publicly funded business support, doubts increase about the level of support that fledgling businesses can expect from the State increase.

What scant information exists suggests that local delivery of pre-start support will be provided by the new Local Enterprise Partnerships [LEPs], but LEPs are probably between one and two years away from being established and most new companies hit problems in the first six months.

Source – http://brightonbusiness.co.uk

A Lesson on Domain Names From the Apprentice

The British TV show The Apprentice is a wonderful series, full of valuable lessons for business people. Many of these lessons are delivered by Sir Alan Sugar in his blunt and irascible style. But in May 2006 Sir Alan got a lesson about domain names that I’m sure he’ll never forget, and it was a salutary reminder for the rest of us too.

To business people in the online world, your web domain name is the most important asset. Get that right and everything follows. It’s literally the foundation that you build the business on. First, do we like his name for our new company? Is this domain name available as a .com and a .co.uk? Second, is this company name available at Companies House? If we’re in agreement then let’s register the .com, the .co.uk and the company name immediately.

And these discussions about domain names and company names should only be held privately with people you trust and not publicised until everything has been set up.

So, going back to 2006 and The Apprentice. The British public and the news media have been following the trials and tribulations of the contestants for weeks. Around six or seven million people were watching the final which was won by the pretty blonde Michelle Dewberry. A smiling Sir Alan announced that she was to be the managing director of a brand new company which rejoiced in the rather splendid name of Xenon Green. This new venture was a division of Amstrad’s existing Viglen PC business, and it would be doing some good environmental work too, recycling old computer equipment. Sir Alan proudly announced that this had never been done before.

An IT services technician who was watching did a quick check online and found to his astonishment that the domain name XenonGreen.com hadn’t been bought. Neither had the domain name XenonGreen.co.uk to his further surprise. Domain names are relatively inexpensive to buy, so he bought them, just for fun.

Pretty soon the world knew about this, as viewers started to look for the website of this interesting new company and it wasn’t there. Tech-savvy people like the fast-moving web designer were able to check whether the domain had been bought and found it belonged to an IT services firm which had no connection to Sir Alan’s businesses.

It then transpired that in addition to the domain name fiasco, Sir Alan’s people hadn’t registered the Limited Company name or a trademark either. And Sir Alan’s claim that recycling old computer equipment had never been done was met with a torrent of comments from firms who’d been doing this for years.

In the end, Xenon Green bought a hyphenated domain name, Xenon-Green.co.uk which is generally regarded as the poor cousin of the unhyphenated domain name.

So, as this story illustrates, when forming a new company, you should research the market, and when thinking of likely names you should definitely register the domain name once you’ve decided, and form a Limited Company before you publicise it. Otherwise other people may do so and cause you all kinds of problems.

Source – http://articley.com

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