Top Ten Tips for Doing Good Business: What We’ve Covered

“The path to success can feel like a labyrinth for a small business owner, but with some good direction, your choices become a lot clearer.” While the avenues, strategies, and tools will be different for every business, you can put yourself ahead of the game by making use of simple, useful methods. The following are some great topics that we have covered in the past few months, which are imminently relevant and applicable to the efforts of every entrepreneur. 1. Running an Efficient Home Business Too many new business owners stepped out a little too early, being overzealous and eager to slap their name on a new building. Don’t be a casualty. —-from, “5 Ways to Efficiently Run Your Business Out of Your Home” 2. Startup Funding and Working Capital There is one persistent question on the mind of any small business owner: Where is the money coming from? Whether …

content marketing

What is Content Marketing & Can it Grow Your Business?

“There are plenty of ways to motivate people to use your product or service, but there are few that work as powerfully or consistently as content marketing.”   Content marketing. What is this growing trend, and what does it mean for you, the business owner? The idea behind web searching is actually older than Google, itself; however, businesses can now use content marketing to adapt and utilize web searching and bring in new business through channels which would otherwise be left undiscovered.     They Are Already Looking For You Imagine, for a moment, millions of people sitting at their computers and typing a few words into that little white search box, attempting to find information about every subject under the sun. Now, imagine the staggering number of these who search for information related to business. You can tap into this massive collection of potential clients by using content marketing. …

ab testing

What Is A/B Testing and Do I Really Need It?

“This single practice could mean the difference between gaining one new client, and gaining a hundred.” The short answer is yes—A/B testing is absolutely essential if you want to gain more conversions. By calling every element of your website design into question through these tests, you can know exactly what visitors respond to positively, and which parts they do not. As we have stressed in previous articles of this series, the goal is to make informed decisions concerning every detail of your design. You cannot optimize the function of your site by guessing your way through it. The Test: Revelation Over Intuition The jargon associated with A/B testing (also called split testing) sound like sports metaphors, which is appropriate because it is basically a competition between the two or more designs to be considered for your final version; there will be 1 winner. It may sound like some complicated operation …

No Money for Advertising? Get the Word Out Anyway!

Pop quiz: What do you do when there is no money in your business’ budget for advertising? You get creative. Obviously, you would not have any customers at all if you never let the world know that your company exists, and you should not rely solely on word-of-mouth to spread the news. It’s good that your company’s name is listed in the phone book—well done—but you cannot stop there. Referrals passed from person to person is free and arguably the most effective kind of advertising, but you will also have to consider other avenues if you want to maximize your exposure to the market. Though you will have to spend some money for supplemental advertising, these are a few solutions that will help you get it done. Crowdfunding Everyone has heard of Kickstarter, and there are other sites that provide basically the same service. There have been countless success stories …

The Best Website Colors to Attract Your Target Market

“You can make your visitors feel excited, engaged, and even inspired by the visual design of your website, which is the key to turning visitors into customers.” There is one thing that everyone designing a website needs to have a firm grasp on–the use of color and the response that it provokes in the viewer. Once you know the function of each color, you can deliberately design your website around the responses you want your visitors to have. Using Color Deliberately Firstly, you have to appreciate something that artists and designers have known for a long time: The use of colors in art, as well as practical design for things such as a business website, is not based on arbitrary choices. If one does choose colors for specific functions on a website based subjectively on what seems to look best, then the result will be aesthetically pleasing (at least to …

Does My Domain Name Really Matter?

“An effective domain name must be clear, simple, directed, and intuitively applicable to your business.” Choosing a domain name for your website should take some careful consideration. To be sure, you would probably not decide to use a non-specific title for your website, even without knowing the science behind this, but it is more important than business owners realize. An effective domain name must be clear, simple, directed, and intuitively applicable to your business. .Com, and The Other Guys Of course, .com is the most recognized, and this is the extension you need. Speaking of the consumer’s instinct, you want a web address that people automatically expect to see: www.yourbusiness.com. The .net or .org extensions (and there are many more) are okay, as long as you have a good name; however, we all generally assume that a web address will have .com on the end of it. If it comes …

What’s in My Briefcase? 6 Tools Used by Successful Home Business Owners

“If you are going to work smart, and not hard, these tools are a step in the right direction.”   A wise man once said, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” You may have no trouble setting up shop in your bedroom, but effectively running a business out of your home is about more than putting in a desk and buying some pens and sticky notes. Here are some very helpful tips for those of you who are striving to improve on your home business.   Intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is one of the most indispensable tools for any business. The software includes comprehensive features that give you solutions to all of your bookkeeping needs. You can connect your bank accounts and company credit cards to track income and expenses, create professional invoices, view various reports such as balance sheets or profit and loss, sync to your PayPal …

What Type of Website is Right for Your Business?

“A great business website is one that accomplishes a primary goal.” Hopefully, you realize how important it is to have a website for your business—and if you need convincing, check out our post from last week, Why Your Business Needs a Great Website. Just like the front window in a store is used to encourage walk-in traffic, a website is your virtual window and front door. For some businesses, this is the only front door that they will ever have. The key to making your site effective is to take a look at the needs of your business, and decide which of the various types will help you meet those needs. A great business website is one that accomplishes a primary goal. This may be getting customers to sign up for your service, selling products online, or merely providing your customers with a window into who you are and what …

5 Ways to Efficiently Run Your Business Out of Your Home

“Working from a home office can be great, but it can also test your sanity, at times.” So you are pretty sure you have all your ducks in a row, and you feel ready to push out of your home and into a separate space. Though having a professional, dedicated space is usually better for business, it is not the only way to do business. Consider this move carefully. There are certainly advantages to securing a conventional, brick-and-mortar office. You can comfortably entertain and meet with clients in-house; your wife, husband, kids, and roommates are not there to take away from your focus; and you will not be distracted with household projects while at work. At the same time, office expenses can really cut into the budget. If you are a new business with high growth potential, you could end up signing a lease on a space that you outgrow …

Why Your Business Needs a Great Website

“Web sales have increased by an average of 15% for the past 5 years, and at the end of 2014, consumers in the U.S. spent $304.91 billion online.” In this article, we will introduce and define the nature of good web design and why now, at the precipice of the digital age, entering the online space is absolutely necessary to reclaiming all the customers whom you would otherwise alienate forever. Not to worry; this is merely the first in a series of following articles, in which we will walk through various essential elements of web design, such as: conversion rate optimization (CRO) and call-to-action (CTA), effective landing pages, domain names and types, color and site aesthetics, and A/B testing. Hopefully this discussion will paint for you a clearer picture of the importance of internet presence, and how to make it work for your business. The New World of Online Business …