Today I explore why I do somethings and not others? Can you figure out what will motivate you to take action to start your business?
What will motivate you to take some action today?
If you do things for rewards then think about the rewards of owning your own business. The freedom, free time, independence is huge for me.
Start picturing the success you can have.
What time can you redirect toward you business?
What motivation will you find to own you own business?
Are you spending your time when you could be spending some money to free up your time for what is more important or more fun?
We talk about the trade off in your business from Marketing to Accounting.
Are there times when you try to save money by doing it yourself and you end up not getting it done at all? That becomes a lost opportunity.
What kind of business would you have fun running?
Why do you do what you do?
Can you find a way to work with your passion or free up time for your passion?
Why do you enjoy certain things?
Can you create a business you would enjoy?
Can you find partners or employees who can handle the tasks you don’t enjoy so you can focus on what you like?
What are you good at that is also a passion of yours?
What is the next step you can take to start your own business?
A tip is to keep trying different types of marketing. For example internet radio ads didn’t produce results for us and neither did impression advertising.
Sponsoring different groups has produced results and more than just new customers.
Maybe you should try offering an affilate marketing program. How much would you pay someone for a successful lead? Can you help another company who in turn can help you?
Can you get free products to review for companies?
Advertise on other web sites, try PPC (pay per click advertising) your ads can show up today.
Craigs list is free so that is something to try!
Have you setup a retargeting campaign to show ads to people who have visited your site? Want to learn how to setup a retargeting campaign then watch this video:
Try something new!
Maybe you can buy a business to get a jump start here is one site that lists businesses for sale. You might also buy a business to grow your business.
Can you turn your hobby into a side business? Custom buildings? Tax returns?
Do you have a passion you can turn into a business?
Are you someone who posts a lot on social sites? Maybe you should start a blog or website of your own. Example maybe you are into documenting your race car work. Start posting all your photos and how to information on your own site or blog. Then you can advertise on the site with something like google’s adsense or affilate links etc.
You can offer your services on craigslist.com today for free!
Action is key so take some action!
If you know someone who owns their own business and you think they would make a good interview let me know.
This is our first interview and I’m honored that it is with my dad. I’ve been wanting to add interviews to this podcast to get insight into others who work for themselves. My dad is an work from home accountant. He spent 27 years in other fields before he decided to work for himself. Having a dad who worked for himself made me realize that I to could work for myself. So if you don’t have a parent who did that accept my dad as proof that you can work for yourself.
We explore what he does for companies, what it takes to work for yourself as well as what he sees in successful businesses along with a bit of history of his journey.
If you have thought about wanting to be a self employed person check it out. If you are an accountant or know one who might enjoy working for themselves share this interview.
My dad continues to get new clients without a website!
Trada.com Review, Pay Per Click Advertising, Remarketing and Retargeting Campaigns Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadLearning these skills will make you valuable to other companies as well as help you get your business more business via search engines.
Don’t have a business, maybe you have a hobby you could start blogging about! Try something new and stick with it!
Questions? Thoughts please share them!
This episode covers the importance of small business customer service. I believe it has been a key to retaining customers. Do you provide your customers a way to contact you or someone else in case of an emergency? I was up at 3:30 the other morning when a client called because their website was down. I like to sleep but I also like my clients to be sleep so I’m willing to help them.
Are you giving your clients your contact information in every email you send? How about on every invoice you send?
Should you use a call center to ensure a person will always answer the phone and route the emergency calls to your or a team member?
Search Engine Optimization – On Page Items
What are on page SEO items? The content on your webpages which you or your web designer controls which includes the text that shows up as well as the text that makes the page that you only see when you view source. Text you see includes the title of the page as well as the ‘alt’ tags you see (in some browsers) when you place your mouse over an image. How do you think google knows how to show you images of barns or apples? Probably from the meta tags on those images.
Not discussed here are links to your site. Quality links are helpful beware of buying ‘junk’ links to your site. As of early in 2012 the search engines no longer count those links and may punish you for them.
See more below
Overview
Search engines read text, so focusing your text on each page to the keywords or phrases you care about is key. Search engines do not read text on pictures/images so make as much of your text on your site actual text.
How to view the competition and your own site
How to View the Source Code of a web page
- Firefox: Right Click on text on the webpage and select “View Page Source”
- Internet Explorer: Right Click on text on the webpage and select “View Source”
Now that you are looking at the source code look for search for the following items.
- How to view the metatags – Look for <meta….
- View Meta Keywords – Look for <meta name=”keywords” …. Your site should have this
- View Meta Description – Look for <meta name=”description” … Your site should have this
- View indexed pages – for Google.com enter site:RiptideHosting.com
Another handy plugin for Firefox is: Quirk SearchStatus Thanks JackSpirko.com for the tip to install the Quirk SearchStatus. Visit Jack’s site for great podcasts on business.
The items I mention below should be on all of your pages.
Each of your pages should be focused on a group of keywords/key phrases.
Metatags
- Keywords
- Description
Page Content
Page Title (The text that shows at the top of your site)
<H1>, <H2> or <H3> Tags for your main sections
Image “alt” tags example <img src=”/img/one.jpg” alt=”Description of image”
You want to add relevant content on your site that visitors will like or find helpful. Search engines like content so the more content you can add the better. Adding content on a regular basis will keep the search engines coming back to look for the new content. The better the content the more likely other sites will link to your site.