Giving Up vs Walking Away from Beth Andrus on Vimeo.
Archive for December, 2009
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Don’t Give Up
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Why You Should Get To Know Your Competition
Identifying and researching your competitors is an important step in building your marketing strategy. You can see what customers of your industry expect, and determine in what areas you are unique, or can become unique.
Below are some questions to keep in mind when doing your research. The list is by no means comprehensive, and some may not pertain to your business.
*Are your competitors using social media? If so, how are they using it? And which sites are they on? Twitter? Facebook? Both?
*What is the focus of their website? What’s on their “about us” page? Are they selling online? If so, do they offer free shipping or other benefits? If they don’t have a website, that says a lot about them, and you can definitely beat them in that area. (Yes, there are companies with no online presence - unbelievable!)
*What are their price points? Their sales pitch? Their inventory/service selection?
*Do they switch up their inventory a lot? Do you see a lot of items featured on the sale rack/page?
*Do any press reviews come up when you Google the names of your competition?
*What are their customers saying about them? What are they complaining about? What are they raving about?
*What equipment or processes do they use? Is it better than what you use? How important is it to the customer’s overall experience?
*Are your competitors considered experts in the industry? Can you get up to speed and compete with this expertise?
When going through these questions, evaluate the information honestly. If they offer a great product or service, give them the credit they deserve. And then figure out if you need to improve your product, or excel in another area (price? efficiency?) in order to stand out.
The more information you gather, the better your marketing plan will be. Embrace your competition. The fact that they exist is proof that people want what you’re selling. You just have to make them want your product more.
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Get Some Attention With Yak About It and Daily Grommet
No matter how fantastic your product is, getting noticed is frequently an uphill climb. Here are two free sites that can help put a spotlight your product.
The first is Daily Grommet. The people at Daily Grommet are looking for products that have great utility, style, or invention, from companies that are passionate about what they’re doing. If this is you, and you have yet to be discovered, get ready to tell your story, because they love a good story. FYI… you may not submit your own product, but I’m sure you have many loyal customers that love your product enough to help you out. Read more about them here: Daily Grommet
The second site is Yak About It. They spotlight products that are creations of inventors and independent entrepreneurs. Products from larger companies are never carried on the site. Yak About It provides a central online location that showcases exciting new products, giving a leg up to those companies that aren’t yet established in the marketplace. Customers can purchase from the site, and leave comments, thus increasing the product’s recognition.
Yak About It also has a competition. Every week two featured products compete for the title of Most Yakable. The winner is featured for an extra day and the Most Yakable trophy remains on the product image. This makes a huge difference if people search by “most yakable”. If you are interested, and have product in stock, check out Yak About It. And yes, you can submit your own product. Check them out here: Yak About It
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Pause And You’ll Change Everything
I recently read an article about Pema Chodron. The 73 year old former school teacher is the first woman to be ordained in the Tibetan tradition. The main focus of her work is integrating Buddhist practice into daily life. We could all use a bit of spiritual wisdom from time to time – especially new business owners. One thing she advises is to pause.
That’s it. Just pause. Before responding to an unpleasant email. Before defining someone’s actions. Before clicking “buy”. Before giving up. Before hiring someone. Before firing someone. Before committing your time. Before pretty much anything, especially if it elicits an emotional response.
She explains that when we pause, we interrupt our usual chain reaction. We go from being self-absorbed to completely awake. Chodron refers to this moment of pause as “the gap”. When you stop to take a breath, and enter the gap, your head will clear. Your next move (if you decide to make one) will come from a place of calm. Interrupting our habits (and that’s what many of our responses are) can be tough, but the reward is that we'll create a sense of peace. Also, we’ll have the knowledge that our decision has been dutifully considered, if just for a few seconds.
I’m pretty sure none of us has to look too far into the past for an example where, if we had just paused, we would have done things differently. In the “hurry up, because I’ve got tons more to do” world of new business owners, we should all take a lesson from the former school teacher, and pause.
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Intuit “Love A Local Business” Grants
Intuit is offering small businesses a chance to win “Love A Local Business” grants during the month of December. This is an amazing opportunity for five small businesses. Of the five selected businesses, four will receive $1,000 and the fifth will receive $5,000.
Here’s how it works:
-The deadline for submitting a nomination is 11:59pm PT 12/31/09.
-You may nominate yourself. Just describe why you love serving your customers and community
-The businesses are chosen randomly from all qualifying nominations. The more unique nominations received for a business, the better their chance of winning.
-A guest judge will review the nominating comments of the five selections. Based on your words, they will choose the company that best represents a business that is loved by its customers, vendors, and employees as the Grand Prize winner.
I already love Intuit because of their flexible merchant banking options, and now I love them even more. Please take a look at the FAQ page and the official contest rules, and then nominate a business that you love, even if it’s your own. And make sure you spread the word of your nomination(s) via Facebook and Twitter, and let me know so I can help out. Love A local Business
