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Eliminate Business Failure and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Do you want to eliminate business failure? Of course, you do! Don’t we all?

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Eliminate Business Failure and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! It’s the Holy Grail to eliminate business failure.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business starts to fulfill its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Yes, We Really Want You to Get Paid

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about invoicing best practices. Kabbage says creating invoices means you need to be consistent and organized. This means itemizing and it means basics like dates and numbers and project names.

And don’t send an invoice late! You are only harming your own cash flow when you do so. Our favorite tip concerned following up.

There’s a reason why companies send friendly payment reminders just before a bill is due. They want to be at the top of your mind. And, of course, they want to be paid. You should do the same. After all, you want the same thing.

Following up also allows you to have a touch point to the customer. Maybe they need more time to pay. Or maybe they’re ready for an upsell. Don’t just sit in the dark, hoping they’ll pay you eventually.

And, you can always try accounts receivable financing if you need it.

#9. Put it on Video

The next awesome tip is about creating a video sales letter. Foundr notes you can’t just brain dump the first 30 seconds of whatever you think of. Rather, you need to be intentional when it comes to a video sales letter. Because a bad video or script is a lot harder for prospects to forget.

We highly recommend reading the entire article. So, we’ll just concentrate on one tip here.

It’s All in the Script

You are not writing Shakespeare here. It’s not meant to be dramatic. Rather, your script exists so you don’t forget any detail. And it also exists so you can have a good, well-crafted call to action in your video. The article recommends cribbing from sales copy, and we agree!

After all, your sales copy was written by your marketing people. And it must be working – so repeat the process. It’s a lot better than reinventing the wheel.

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

#8. Grow, Little Business, Grow!

Our following life-changing tip concerns measuring and achieving business growth. Fundera lays it all out for us. There are a half a dozen growth strategies you can try. And it doesn’t matter what kind of a business you’re in.

The strategies are:

  1. Increase demand through strategic partnerships.
  2. Improve your profit by removing unprofitable products and services.
  3. Boost revenue by improving your conversion rate.
  4. Increase sales by creating a sales funnel.
  5. Fortify your workforce with new recruiting tactics.
  6. Shore up market share with a customer relationship management system.

Consider each of these in turn. They are all ways to get more cash or lose less money. It makes sense to look at them all systematically. We recommend you check out the article in its entirety. So, we’ll showcase one of these strategies.

Remove Unprofitable Products and Services

It can sometimes feel a bit counterintuitive, eh? But recognize that you may be unnecessarily attached to, say, the first type of widget you ever sold. 

With your sales figures in hand, take a good, long look at your underperforming products and services. But also consider the costs of creating them. If you make $5 from a $1,000 product, but it takes you only a minute to get that product out on the shelf, then it costs $300 to make that product every hour. If you only make two of these products per quarter, and they both sell, they might be worth it. But also consider the costs of shelf space. Plus, there can be a cost of ‘shelf space’ even if your business is solely online. Maintaining one more selling or landing page isn’t free. 

The corollary is also true. If your $1,000 product costs $900 to make, and you make $950 on the product, then it might also be a candidate for weeding.

They’re products or services, not a marriage. You can change them up if they stop working out for you.

#7. Crush It on Instagram

For our next sensational tip, we looked at Instagram marketing (very, very hot these days). Business Knowhow says that Instagram has over a billion active users each month. Yes, that’s billion, with a ‘B’. 

Over a third of all US adults use it. So, shouldn’t your business be there, if it isn’t already?

Now, the tips are mainly the kinds which we see for social media of any flavor. That is, be sure to have a business profile, engage with your readers, and track the right metrics. So, we’d like to zero in on the one tip which is more specifically Instagram-centric.

Tell Me an Instagram Story

Stories are a kind of fast-moving, almost disposable content. They don’t last for very long. Still, they get decent engagement – a good 20% get a direct response from users.

The best tip we can tell you is not just to use Instagram stories. It’s also to not take your business quite so seriously when you’re creating them. Hence while, yes, you want them to be brand-correct and accurate, maybe take the sales talk down a notch. How?

Let’s say you’ve got a long-haul trucking company. Your story might be about your favorite stop in Texas. “Hey, Instagram, I’m in San Antonio! Love this town – be sure to check out the Alamo. And if you need anything delivered here, I’m your guy.”

And then, whoosh, it’s gone.

Short, sweet, and to the point.

#6. Sales + Marketing = Best Practices

This tip is so cool, and it works! Heinz Marketing tells us all about the handshake between marketing and sales. Their article outlines seven best practices. We’ll home in on just one of those here. 

Practice Empathy and Assume the Best of Intentions

Have you ever worked at a company where there was perhaps a little too much competition between departments? At times, these departments can even turn hostile toward each other. After all, even unintentionally, there’s competition for resources.

Still, you’re all supposed to be on the same page.

When the sales department assumes marketing is hiding all the good prospects, there’s a problem. And when marketing assumes sales isn’t following their directions deliberately, then there’s also a problem.

What to do?

Assume the best of intentions. The first time, every time. This can also get you to contact the other department if everything isn’t running smoothly. Maybe there was a breakdown in communications? These things happen.

Get the problem fixed before it gets bigger. And the start is to assume good intentions and work from there.

#5. Everyone Wants to Eliminate Business Failure

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Look at a new way to eliminate business failure right here.

Success Harbor says business failures tend to come down to five issues:

  1. Misguided intentions
  2. Poor management
  3. Lack of funds
  4. Poor location (obviously, if your business is purely online, this is less of an issue. But you still need to have your goods available in places like Amazon or eBay, and you need to be positioned well on Google)
  5. Unclear plans

Today, we’ll focus on all of these, but from my own perspective. See, I’m a writer. Have I mentioned that before? Well, I am. Published and everything.

A True Story

I hang around with other independent writers all the time. I see people who want to get rich, or who think this will be the perfect job due to their anxiety. Or they feel they will become famous. Or they will be treated well by reviewers and commenters. 

Folks overspend and underdeliver. Or they have little to nothing to put into their projects, and it shows. Another issue is when they do very little marketing, or don’t do it well. Or they’re just plain vague about not only what their work is about, but how they’re planning on taking it to the next level.

They also have no idea that they’re not just writing. They’re also starting a small business, like it or not.

In short, they suffer from every single issue in the article. 

Sometimes, dear readers, there just plain aren’t enough facepalms.

Let’s Turn Things Around

Eliminate Business Failure Credit SuiteMaybe we can’t completely eliminate business failure for these folks. But we can make them a lot more likely to succeed, in some capacity.

How?

Manage your expectations. Even overnight successes had to start somewhere. And they’re often nowhere near as overnight as you might have been led to believe. 

Also, as they say, don’t quit your day job. A surprisingly small number of books have to be sold for you to have a New York Times bestselling novel. No, seriously. So, that means, while being a bestseller isn’t stratospheric, it also doesn’t make the writer a mint.

And, treat a business like, well, a business. This means budgets and planning. And if you’re up for neither, then you hire someone who is.

Oh, and speaking of locations…

#4. Be a Motivator, Even When Things are Tough

Check out this spectacular tip, all about motivating employees during stressful times. Talk about eliminating business failure right there! Entrepreneur notes that it’s impossible to get rid of all stress. Much the same as it’s impossible to truly eliminate business failure, of course. The basic idea is to lower both, yes?

Beyond being an empathetic manager and encouraging clear communication, we wanted to highlight one rather specific tip.

Encourage Vacations

Does that feel counterintuitive? 

It shouldn’t.

Do you remember when you were a worker bee? You probably wanted your vacation time to come sooner. And you probably hoped it was longer than it truly was. Furthermore, you likely dreaded coming back to backlog.

Your employees have those exact same feelings and desires.

If you can’t afford to offer more than 2 weeks of vacation per year, then so be it. You can still make that a better time for your employees. You can be cheerful and encouraging when they want to take time off. And you can assign someone to help alleviate the backlog so they don’t come back to a huge tsunami of work and get stressed out all over again.

Besides, cross training is good for teams!

#3. Put Together Your Business’s Own Personal Think Tank

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you build a high performance team. Logic 2020 tells us this isn’t exactly the same as the people you hire for a work group. A work group solves basic, quantifiable problems. Such as, you need to expand into New Mexico. Or maybe you need to raise production by 20% this year.

A high performance team, on the other hand, is for abstract, creative problems. They might still be tackling a problem like raising production. But instead, they would be approaching it from an angle like adding AI or buying new software. In contrast, the work group would be looking at hiring more workers or coaxing faster delivery times from suppliers.

Here’s our fave tip of the bunch.

Pay Attention to Recruitment and Hire Specialists, Not Generalists

This is a favorite tip because it has a personal angle to your intrepid blog writer.

Because I have been hired to work on problems which were existing for the first time. Case in point: one job was to create a legal vocabulary for a voice recognition product. The team already had medical vocabularies. But they had no idea how to start with legal.

Rather than being good at voice recognition, the truth is, I had never worked on it before. But I knew legal and I knew (still do!) writing. This meant thinking about use cases which I had personally experienced. Those included dictation with spelling and creating legal citations. A lawyer or police officer would have to add new names and street names just about every single day. Contrast this with a doctor who could add the names of diseases and treatments maybe once and then be done.

It’s this kind of lateral, off the wall thinking that you want in your high performance team. It’s one way to eliminate business failure.

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

#2. Come on Board, New Employees!

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on your onboarding process. Manta reveals all about what to do with that awesome, high performance team once you’ve hired them. 

One way to help eliminate business failure is to treat your employees right. And you need to do so from the very start. This goes beyond education and training and providing regular feedback. Although we’re not knocking those.

Being in a remote work location, we wanted to focus on one aspect of the article.

Employee Social Connections

When I’m in Boston, you’re in Boise, and our coworker is in Biloxi, we aren’t going to go out for drinks after work. Maybe ever.

So, what can we do? 

Work toward connections. Part of this is programmatic. That is, you spend time on virtual meetings, and maybe more of those than you would have if you were in the same office. Make it a regular habit to check in and check in regularly.

Another thing you can do is to keep teams from being isolated from each other. We at Credit Suite do this via collaboration using a tool called Slack. You may find other ways to do so.

And here’s a tip, straight from me to you: organize some sort of an employee gathering, once a year. You probably can’t invite everyone, but at least get the team leaders in. Give them the opportunity to get in some face time. Add in some teamwork – and that can be bowling or a trivia competition or whatever. It doesn’t all have to be about work, 24/7.

Your employees don’t have to be close pals and love each other. But they should be at least collegial to each other.

#1. Save Your Startup $

We saved the best for last. One way to eliminate business failure is, of course, to save money. Here’s how.

For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on trimming startup operating expenses. Young Upstarts says there are a few areas where you can cut expenses which you may not have thought of.

One is to negotiate with your suppliers. We agree with this and also see it as a prelude to getting vendor credit with them. Perhaps you could get a trade reference if your supplier likes your business that much (and you have a good payment record with them). 

Another option is outsourcing. Could you work with freelancers, or even people overseas? The beauty of this approach is, you can try people out with less risk than a full-blown hiring process. Like them? Then hire them full-time when you can. Don’t like them? Then cut your ties.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

The post Eliminate Business Failure and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Support Work Place Mental Health and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Are you supporting work place mental health at your business? We show you how to make your workplace friendlier for mental health. Plus, nine more awesome tips to close the deals while treating your employees right.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Support Work Place Mental Health and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Starting better supporting work place mental health for your employees and more.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Be Real!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about building an authentic Instagram audience. Entrepreneur says your aim should be to create a community, and not just a bunch of followers. But the tip we loved was the first one – and it leads directly into the one about a community.

Follow Hashtags to Instagram Glory

Now, the truth is, you can do this on Twitter and Facebook as well. Although, note that on Facebook there’s less of a culture of using hashtags on posts, replies, notes, etc. People use hashtags to cull the tsunami of information they get every day on social media. It’s easier to read enough content to fill, say, an hour, versus 24 hours. Heck, it’s not possible to keep up with everything anyway.

This takes advantage of a truth for everyone. We all curate our social media feeds, or we let algorithms do that work for us. Because none of see everything. It’s physically impossible.

This means your ideal audience is doing so as well. The posts they click on and react to are fueling the algorithm. They’re essentially telling the algorithm what interests them. So, let’s say you have a dry cleaning establishment. People might not be taking about it too much on Instagram. But for those who are, they’re probably using hashtags like #drycleaning and #drycleaner. They may even be using hashtags like #laundry and #delicatefabric or #lookinggood.

As you find these people, engage with them. This means commenting on photos and maybe sending a personal message. But be mindful of the fact that not everyone likes personal messages. And, you probably shouldn’t lead with one. ‘Cause that’s just creepy.

#9. Soften Your Sales for Success

The next awesome tip is about how to use soft selling in your sales efforts. Mail Shake notes that soft selling doesn’t mean passive selling. You are still trying to sell, after all. 

Personalization

We have been beating this drum for quite a while, and so have many of the articles we’ve been reading lately. Because of technology, personalization is possible on a grander scale than ever before.

As a result, we loved their comparison between hard and soft selling. For hard sales, you get the prospect’s contact information. But there’s no specifics on that. Whereas for soft sales, it comes from personal contact, such as networking, social media engagement, or inbound marketing. 

We are all on the lookout for scams. What sounds more like a scam to you? Is it someone calling you out of the blue with a sales offer, or someone you know, at least a little, making that same offer?

In the next tip, we’ll cover building trust.

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

#8. Build Trust Brick by Brick in Current Relationships

Our following life-changing tip concerns building trust in extant relationships. LinkedIn lays it all out for us. Of course, we are talking about this in the context of sales. But this could work for your not-so-commercial relationships, too.

Don’t believe us? Then try this tip on for size.

Treat Your Customers as if They Were Prospects

Essentially, as in life, don’t take people for granted!

Kind of a good idea no matter what, eh? 

Checking in on existing customers is a great way to build trust and to set the stage for, perhaps, renewals or even upsells. And, let’s face it, you’ve spent a ton of time courting a prospect and converting them to a customer. Abandoning them once the check is cashed is the very antithesis of that. 

And how should your customers feel if the only times you contact them are when it comes to getting your hands on some more of their cold, hard cash?

How would you feel?

#7. Perfect That Elevator Pitch for Investors

For our next sensational tip, we looked at avoiding errors in your first meeting with investors. Startup Professionals says that there are eight errors which you should be doing your best to avoid.

Actually, this is good advice for any sort of an elevator pitch, such as when you’re bucking for a new job. We encourage you to read the article and see for yourself. Hence, we’ll concentrate on one tip.

Stop. Talking. So. Fast.

Did you know that the attention span for elevator pitches is just 30 – 60 seconds? And that means about 150 – 250 words.

Any more than that, and you’re just overloading your potential investor. This means two things are in order. One, practice, practice, practice so you don’t lose words to um, uh, and er. And two, consult a thesaurus and find better, more descriptive words if you need them.  This doesn’t mean $100 words. Rather, it means being succinct, so long as you can be understood.

That means instead of saying “our product is between blue and green”, you say, “our product is teal”. It’s not just faster and more succinct. It’s also more confident-sounding.

https://creditsuite.wistia.com/medias/94z8msbn94 

#6. Empower Your Employees with Productivity Software

This tip is so cool, and it works! The SBA tells us all about productivity software to empower your employees. That’s a great way to support work place mental health, eh?

Our favorite tip had to do with showing big goals to your entire team. We loved that because it gathers all of the trees into a forest. That means it’s time for a true story.

Your Work Matters

Way back when – as in, the 90s – your intrepid blog writer worked as a data analyst for the Legal Department of a large insurance company. This company routinely spent millions of dollars every year on outside counsel. Their list of law firms topped 3,000 firms.

And so, I was asked to do two things – figure out if a firm is being paid fairly and determine if we can let a firm go and get another to pick up the slack.

This meant gathering a ton of supporting information from local offices. It also meant putting together a system for deciding ‘fairness’. Now, this is before much of the internet (we didn’t have access, anyway) existed, so there was no looking up salaries online. 

With no information on the big picture, I never learned just how much money the company saved because they ended up with a workable system to decide how much to pay their outside counsel.  With no information on the overarching reason for my task, I felt purposeless.

And, you guessed it, I finished the project and left shortly thereafter.

Employees want to have a sense of purpose. Showing them what their work is leading to can do that.

#5. Take the Time to Support Work Place Mental Health at Your Business

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Support work place mental health – it’s the right thing to do.

Entrepreneurs’ Organization says work place mental health is not a subject everyone is comfortable with. But they should be.

Now, keep in mind that the article does not suggest that managers or entrepreneurs need to become therapists. In fact, one of their tips is to bring in a work place mental health counselor. This can be someone accessed remotely.

But here’s the tip we really liked and think should be explored in some depth.

Give Your Managers TrainingWorkplace Office Mental Health Credit Suite

 This is not necessarily to be able to tell if someone has a mental health issue. It’s more to train your management to be more sensitive to the employees who report to them. This means praising people publicly when they do well. And it also means kindly addressing problems early, and in private.

If your employees feel comfortable talking to you about their work performance, then they just might feel comfortable talking to you about their work place mental health. And if you are a sensitive manager who pays attention to your employees, then you may notice when they are feeling off.

Depression Isn’t Just Feeling Down

We would be remiss if we didn’t touch upon this. And it wasn’t covered in the article, but it’s still vital. There are a number of memes flying around which claim that depression in particular is just an instance of temporary sadness or even inattention. As if counting your blessings could cure a serotonin imbalance!

So, keep in mind that an employee suffering from depression might not, to you, look ill. They may be holding it together as well as they can during business hours. But then at home, it all comes out. 

And, the corollary to this is also true. An employee who’s down – particularly if there’s a readily identifiable cause – isn’t necessarily a person with mental health issues. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer counseling services, of course. Divorce, death, miscarriage, estrangement from family – these can all make people feel bad, of course. 

Supporting workplace mental health means accounting for that, too.

In short, be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

#4. Hello, My Name is Email

Check out this spectacular tip, all about how to successfully introduce yourself over email. HubSpot notes that there’s an actual formula to writing an email to someone you don’t know – at all.

This is an excellent article, and we strongly encourage you to read it through to the end. It truly is that good.

So, instead we’re going to concentrate on one of their steps.

Make Your First Line About Them

How many times have you received an unsolicited email that started with – my name is ___? Or it started with – I’m writing to you because ___. You may have sent emails like that. Your intrepid blog writer sure has (oops, sorry).

But it’s an email. The sender’s name is already on there. And it isn’t, then the sender can add their name in their signature line, and they should. 

Rather, try opening with a line like – I see that you won the __ prize recently. Or, I just saw your post about __ on ___. Here’s another: I’ve never learned so much from one piece of content.

Then, segue into why you’re writing – and it should be related to your opener. By definition, that means it needs to be related to the recipient. Here’s an idea:

I’ve never learned so much from one piece of content. To that end, I would love to get your quote for a similar article I’m writing.

By the way, this approach could work for anything from sending a resume to contacting someone’s dating profile… 

#3. Where Do You Want to Go Today?

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you create a vision board. Score tells us that vision boards are a way to see where you want your life to go. And that can be for either your personal or professional life. 

This article concentrates more on vision boards for a personal life. But there’s no reason why it can’t be adapted for professional use.

Consider the Future

For a personal vision board, it might be representations of a place you’d like to live or visit. Or it may be images of fitness or other goals. For professional goals, it could be visuals of success – for you or the business.

What does this spell, in terms of images? It could be a corner office or a picture of a second location. Or it could be an image of a lot of employees.

So, Where Do You Want Your Business to Go?

What are your business’s goals? If you own a trucking company, maybe you want to be the premier provider in Utah. Or maybe you want to hire more drivers or get more trucks. It could be that you have a company you’d like to snag as a client.

Having a visual representation of success can be inspiring to a lot of people. Why not decorate your workplace with a vision board? Talk about supporting workplace mental health, too. Because when you take others’ ideas into consideration, then they can feel a lot less isolated. That might make a difference for someone.

#2. Are You Meeting 401(k) Standards in Your Business?

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on making sure you meet 401(k) standards in your business. Effortless HR reveals all about this essential part of benefits handling.

Our fave tip was about having what is essentially a form of insurance. It’s actually an ERISA fidelity bond. The bond has to be equal to the lesser of $500,000 or 10% of the total investment accounts that you hold. This insurance bond protects your business if errors are found in your management of the 401(k) plan. 

Did you know you needed that in order to offer a 401(k) to your employees? 

#1. Master the Clock

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on improving time management. Under 30 CEO says better managing your time means you’re that much more likely to achieve your goals. 

We’ve seen some of these tips before, to spend your leisure time on leisure, and to stop multitasking. Another tip we’ve already seen is to leverage your commute for minor work tasks (which is technically multitasking).

And while this tip is also something we’ve seen before; we’d like to showcase it anyway because we think everyone should do.

Banish Distractions

Quartz says the average smartphone user gets 63.5 notifications per day. We think this figure is grossly understated.

Of course, this isn’t the only source of distractions out there. But it’s one over which we all have some control. Do you honestly need to know every time someone has commented on a topic you answered in a forum? Or can you wait for a daily digest? Maybe you can skip the notification 100% and just visit that forum whenever you feel like it.

Yes, we all want to know when our appointments are. And we need to know if family are ill or otherwise need us. But do we really need to immediately know how many people liked a tweet?

Go into your apps and any sites you visit, and fiddle with the notification settings. See what works for you. You’ll probably find you don’t need to know everything, all the time, ASAP.

Take back your life.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

The post Support Work Place Mental Health and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Great Generation Z Marketing and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Looking for Generation Z marketing tips? We’ve got those and more this week for our ten brilliant business tips of the week. Find out how to reach the generation after the millennials.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Grab Some Great Generation Z Marketing Tips and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Take your Generation Z marketing to the next level – and more!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Better Bonuses? Yes, Please!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about building an effective bonus plan. Because who doesn’t love bonuses? Great Game says bonuses need to have a connection to the goals of the business. And the time for being secretive and mysterious about them is over.

Here’s our fave tip.

Rally Everyone Around a Common Goal

So, how many times have you worked for (or heard of) a company where the only bonuses went out to people who made sales? Or who could prove their contributions cost less than what they brought in?

Good golly, that’s unfair. But why?

Because there are plenty of disciplines which are fully important to business operations. But they are cost rather than profit centers. After all, where can human resources show a profit? What about loss prevention? 

And the clerical staff or the front-line factory workers? Fuggeddabout it. They will never see a bonus under these circumstances. By definition, they can’t.

So, where’s the incentive for them?

Communications Are Key

Now, this is true under most circumstances, anyway. But if a person who did really well for the company can’t get a little public recognition, then who can? Or should?

And in particular, if your employees need to meet some sort of quota or goal, let them know how they’re doing. How close are they? And how much further do they have to go? Is it possible for them to meet their goal, or not? Knowing they’re close might help some workers work just that much harder to meet their goal. And if you keep them informed early and often, some might not get discouraged if they are a little behind.

So, don’t just leave the feedback to the last minute. 

#9. Grab Your Advantage and Become a Market Leader

The next awesome tip is about lower risk innovation which can help you become a market leader. Entrepreneurs’ Organization notes you should get started with ‘jobs to do’. That is, understand what your product actually does for your customers. 

This gets into a bigger theme we’ve noticed for a while.

Let Your Customers Take the Reins

The biggest thing we have learned while writing these marketing posts is to listen to your customers.

Listen to your customers.

Let’s repeat that.

Listen to your customers. They know what they want. And it may not be what you think they should want.

It’s time for a true story. And it’s a new one. As in, this just happened this morning.

Please Don’t Treat Me Like Everyone Else

So, I am not in Generation Z. Heck, there are plenty of places which say I’m not even Gen X, although I tend to act and consume like that cohort. For the record, I’m ‘officially’ a late boomer. Birth date in 1962, yo’.

But I digress. I am on Twitter, and I tend to follow fellow writers. This morning, a profile I recently filed sent me a generic DM with their links and all. At least they had the foresight to call me by name. But it was my full name on Twitter. 

Anyone who thinks their program scraped my name from the appropriate Twitter field, give yourself a cookie.

That was the sole attempt at personalization. 

So, I sent them a return PM. And I told them in no uncertain terms that their DM was tone-deaf, generic, and clearly mass-produced. I also told them that if they didn’t have the time to get more personal with their intended audience, then they either need an assistant or they’re trying to be all things to all people.

And, let’s face it. I am most likely not in their target audience. The writing community reads, yes. But our Holy Grail is to find readers.

The person who DM’d me was savvy and gracious enough to thank me for my thoughts. And so, in return, I apologized for being harsh.

Smart Move on the Part of the Marketer

The kicker is that the writer, in this case, absolutely salvaged the situation. Will this person change their ways? Maybe. I have no idea. But they were wise enough to acknowledge my opinion and, dare I say, treat me like an individual.

By listening to your audience, your customers and your prospects, you are treating them like people and not a monolith. And that’s not just good for marketing to the post-millennial generation.

Generation Z Marketing Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Start Generation Z marketing today, and more!

#8. Up with Productivity; Down with Stress!

Our following life-changing tip concerns lowering your stress levels. Score lays it all out for us. And be sure to check tip #7, which is also about combatting stress.

But first, let’s tackle productivity. After all, it can be extremely stressful when you don’t seem to be able to get everything done on time. And beyond that, if you’re constantly getting everything done after hours, that will take a lot out of you physically. Not to mention, it could interfere with parenting or even threaten your marriage.

There were some great tips here, but we’ll just focus on one.

Om Shanti – Meditate Your Way to Less Stress

You don’t need to climb a mountain and meet a yogi. Rather, you can just download a meditation app onto your phone or computer. The main point of meditation is to train your mind to essentially go to a ‘happy place’, even if everything else around you is going to hell in a handbasket.

This doesn’t mean you ignore your problems. It’s more that you are able to approach them more dispassionately. That can make it easier to solve them.

Consider this. It’s a lot like listening to your friend’s problems with their love life, and you have the solution on the spot. But when it comes to your own issues, you’re stumped. Well, sure, because you’re too close to those problems. 

Stepping back could be the key to seeing solutions all the more clearly – and faster. What better way to increase productivity than to lessen the amount of time you spend fixing stuff?

#7. Banish Your Financial Stress in 2020

For our next sensational tip, we looked at financial stress in your business, and how to minimize if not outright omit it. Small Biz Club says that over half of all entrepreneurs say debt is a problem.

But you may be asking, don’t you advocate carrying debt here at Credit Suite?

Not exactly.

In reality, we advocate building and leveraging credit. But we also feel you should never bite off more credit you can ‘chew’. Being incapable of paying your business debts is hardly the definition of success.

While this article is mainly about personal finances, we suggest checking it out anyway. Many issues with personal financial stressors are similar to business finance stressors.

In particular, if there’s more than one owner of your company, be open and honest with each other about money. Your business’s survival will depend on your open communications in this area, so don’t clam up about business cash.

#6. Soothe Those Ruffled Feathers

This tip is so helpful, and it works! Inc tells us all about dealing with difficult customers.

Talk about your stressors!

We highly recommend reading the entire article, as it offers a good framework for this inevitable issue. Hence, let’s talk about one tip which really stands you in good stead with difficult customers. Heck, it should help you in your relationships.

Seriously.

Own Up, Apologize, Address, and Resolve

These are actually two separate tips, but we feel they’re related closely enough to talk about them together. 

For any issue in life, you can cover it up and deny it. Or you can own up to it. So, if you did it – whatever it is – say you did. Of course, we all have egos. And we don’t necessarily enjoy or want to confess to our mistakes. But they are going to come out, sooner or later.

Admit to them and you’ll be able to control at least a small part of the narrative. 

And then apologize.

“I took the last cookie. I’m sorry.”

Then address the issue. It’s not just an admission of guilt that’s necessary. You should also be working to prevent a recurrence. 

“I took the last cookie. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure we keep cookies permanently on our shopping list, so we don’t run low again.”

Finally, resolve the issue, as soon as you can.

“I took the last cookie. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure we keep cookies permanently on our shopping list, so we don’t run low again. This afternoon, I’ll go to the store and get more.”

There, now, that wasn’t so bad, now.

#5. Learn All About Generation Z Marketing

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Go beyond the millennial generation and get into Generation Z marketing!

Manta says this generation is going to become 40% of all consumers by year 2020.

Wait a second – that’s this year.

Now, you may be saying to yourself – Generation Snowflake is still a bunch of kids. They aren’t interested in my widgets. Not so fast. Per Wikipedia, the post-millennial generation was born between the mid- to late-90s to, well, they’re not sure when. 2010 seems to come up a lot as the endpoint. But so do 2012 and 2014. 

And no, we don’t know what the post-Generation Z cohort is going to be called, either. 

That means the eldest among them are turning 25 this year. So, these are people who can drive, vote, drink, join the armed forces, and marry. They’re already done with their bachelor’s degrees (if they have them). They may even be past a master’s degree by now. And they may be parents by now – more than once.

For Generation Z Marketing, Find Out What They’re All AboutPost-Millennial Marketing Credit Suite

Generation Z was born into the internet – and it was already a place where a lot of non-technical people were hanging out. Their celebrity heroes are folks like Pewdie Pie, Kylie Jenner, and Millie Bobby Brown. 

How Do You Get Started with Generation Z Marketing?

Start with shareworthy content. That’s easier said than done, though.

Catchy information with a high level of expertise is a great place to start. 

Another tip we really liked was to share your content in bits. For one thing, this cohort has an average attention span of – gulp – 8 seconds. Perfect for Twitter, eh?

So, instead of sharing the entire article (like this one), a better tactic for Generation Z marketing is to just refer to tip #5 in one tweet. And then tip #10 in another tweet. Then, feature tip #3 in an Instagram post. You get the idea.

Oh, and share user-generated content. And if you can convert your content to video, do so.

Is this perfect for Generation Z marketing? Maybe not. But it’s a dang fine start.

Generation Z Marketing Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Start Generation Z marketing today, and more!

#4. Up Your Business Growth with Terrific Online Listings

Check out this spectacular tip, all about leveraging your online listings to help your business grows. Succeed as Your Own Boss notes that how you list products and services online can make a difference when it comes to sales.

And, we might add, when it comes to search.

As is often the case, we highly recommend reading this article in its entirety. But one tip really stood out to us.

Tell Your Product’s (or Service’s) Backstory

What does that mean? 

In fiction, it’s the history of your character, before the book or series started. In fiction writing and presentation on TV and film, the backstory is generally better told in pieces. Otherwise, it rightfully feels like an information dump.

But in your online sales listings, you kind of have to. So, our suggestion is to do this, but also to edit the heck out of it. Consider your Generation Z customers and, really, all of us. After all, everyone is busy, and we are all bombarded with information all day long. 

Hence, you probably shouldn’t be writing about how your widgets are locally sourced, unless you can spread that story out across several pages. Maybe the first bit of the production process can be a part of the online listing for one product, and then the second step can end up on the online listing for another.

Experiment!

#3. You Can Lead a Prospect to Your Business…

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you with lead generation. United Capital Source tells us that generating low-quality leads is a surefire way to basically just waste money and time. And, probably, the goodwill and energy of your sales staff.

Hence the article is devoted to various forms of lead generation. We recommend reading it in its entirety as one or the other of their strategies may work for you. Hence, we’re only going to zero in on one of their tactics.

Swap Leads with a Partner

This makes so much sense, and we are kind of surprised we haven’t seen anything like this before!

That is, get to know noncompeting businesses which serve the same demographic niche(s) you do. Their leads could work as your leads, and vice versa.

So, let’s say you have a nail salon, but you don’t do hair. There’s nothing wrong – and a lot right – with talking with nearby hair salon owners and seeing if you can do a lead trade. It will probably be beneficial to both of you.

And you’re not left out if you offer services! If you have a long-haul trucking company, there may be freight companies with a similar lead profile. After all, if a business knows it needs shipping of some form, it may start with air or rail. But then they would quickly realize that there also has to be good, reliable, and fast ground transportation to complement those methods.

So, look for the jam to your peanut butter. And you might just create a partnership in other areas, like sponsoring a local Little League team or running a conference together or – whatever! 

#2. Go and Get More Done

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on multitasking while on the go. Addicted to Success reveals all about stretching the hour, almost like some people stretch a dollar.

Now, multitasking gets a bad rap at times, because it’s sometimes a not so efficient way to get things done. So, we’d like to concentrate on one tip which just might help save the planet.

Rethink Your Commute

Unfortunately, not every area allows for this. But for those that do, why not use public transportation to get to the office? Yes, the bus is probably not as fast as your car – and you’re beholden to their schedule.

But if you can make it work, having someone else do the driving means your time can be spent on something else. And, it just may be less stressful. Commuting time will never come back to you, so you may as well make the most of it.

Plus, we think there are a few things you can do which the article didn’t go into.

First, could you carpool? Maybe just one day per week to start. Save gas and spend time with someone, maybe someone on your team. You can meet, after a fashion. Or just spend time together quietly sitting or even having some fun. Getting to know your colleagues better is probably not a bad thing.

And another idea is, if it’s safe and feasible, how about bicycling to work? We all know that more aerobic exercise is good for us. You may even live longer. Bring a change of clothes – don’t wear your good clothes to bike. No good bike paths or bus routes by you? Then talk to your local government. 

Because you may not be the only person who wants to change their commute.

#1. Hire the Right People, the First Time – and Keep Them

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on developing and keeping top talent. HBR says keeping top talent is an ongoing process. You don’t just offer (for example) a company gym. You give your best people a chance to better develop themselves.

This kind of individual treatment is what we’ve been advocating for customers and prospects, too.

Treat people like they were the only person in the world. What a concept.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Generation Z Marketing Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Start Generation Z marketing today, and more!

The post Great Generation Z Marketing and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Start Smarter Hiring Practices in 2020 and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

It’s 2020, time for smarter hiring practices. Hiring is costly, but bad hiring can be devastating to a business. Learn how to perfect this essential business skill. Plus, nine other ways to take your small business to the next level this year.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Bring Smarter Hiring Practices to Your Business and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Start with smarter hiring practices and more and watch your business grow and thrive.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. How to Excel in Your Business

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about working with our old friend, Excel. HubSpot says this old workhorse program is on many if not most resumes. That is, for people looking for office jobs. There are any number of traditional uses for Excel. The article provides instructions for how to create a business model. That’s worth the price of admission all by itself.

So, instead, we want to concentrate on one specific use in the article.

Time Tracking

There are any number of time tracking apps and software out there. But before you go and plunk down serious money for one or learn a new system (even if it’s free), our old friend Excel can also do the job.

All you really need is a spreadsheet with the following:

Dates Covered 1/17/2020 to 1/23/2020
Date Time In Lunch Start Lunch End Time Out Hours Worked
1/17/2020 8:45:00 AM 1:00:00 PM 1:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:45
1/18/2020 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 1:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:30
1/19/2020 8:15 AM 12:15 PM 1:00 PM 6:00 PM 9:00
1/20/2020 8:30 AM 11:30 AM 12:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:30
1/21/2020 9:00 AM 11:45 AM 12:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:15
1/22/2020 9:00 AM 12:00 PM 12:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:30
1/23/2020 9:15 AM 12:30 PM 12:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:15
Total Hours Worked 54:45:00

 

Formulas

Here’s how the formulas work. Let’s start with cell A1 (that’s where you type Dates Covered). In cell A3, put the first date of the time period you’re covering. Obviously, if your time period is longer or shorter, add cells accordingly. In our example, you put the last date of the time period in cell A9.

For cell B1, type =A3. This gets you the first date of the time period. In cell A4, type to. And in cell A5, type =A9 (if you’re adding or subtracting dates, then you want the cell including the last date after the equals sign).

Format cells B3 through E9 under Custom. Add h:mm AM/PM as the format. For cells F3 through F9, format under Time, 13:30. In cell F10, format it under Time, 37:30:55.

The F3 formula is: =(C3-B3)+(E3-D3). Place your cursor in the right lower corner of cell F3 until you see a black cross. Pull down until cell F9 and you’ll get the right formula for all of the cells where you need it.

The F10 formula is: =SUM(F3:F9). Everything else is just formatting and depends on how pretty you want the spreadsheet to be.

To calculate salary, add a column where you convert the hours to regular format (it’s probably easiest to do this manually). Hence, 8:30 should be written as 8.5. Add one more column and type in =(cell name*salary), where cell name is the designation of the cell with the converted format and salary of course is what you pay on an hourly basis.

Excel Rocks, and It Works

When your company gets larger, Excel might no longer be a feasible way to handle your time tracking. But until it is, this hardworking program can be your best friend.

#9. Get in the Ring with Business Heavyweight, Amazon

The next awesome tip is about competing with the 700-pound gorilla in the room: Amazon. Small Business Bonfire notes smaller enterprises can successfully compete. They are often nimbler and can be quicker to react to new information or business conditions. Those are huge advantages. Here are a few more.

Personalized Service

There are only a few areas where Amazon can truly offer a personalized sales experience. For example, when installation is offered. And even then, installation isn’t offered everywhere. It’s a lot more likely to be available if you live in a major urban center (like I do).

So, you, as a small business owner, have got something that Amazon doesn’t. 

In your shop, you can greet customers by name if you know them. And you can use data to give them personalized recommendations. While Amazon tries to do so with offering related products, they don’t always hit their marks.

You’re smarter than Amazon’s suggestion database. 

I guarantee it.

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

#8. Improve Your Website Rankings

Our following life-changing tip concerns upping your website rankings in search. Success Harbor lays it all out for us. 

Now, we’ve blogged about a lot of their suggestions already. Here, they’re in a convenient format. But I will caution you: some of the information is out of date. For example, they suggest getting backlinks from StumbleUpon. Well, they shut their doors in June of 2018.

So, take their suggestions with a grain of salt.

We suggest, of course, to create as good a website as you can. That means speed, links that work, user security, and relevance. Because what helps you succeed in search will also help you succeed in business.

#7. Google, Let Me Talk to You About Search

For our next sensational tip, we looked at improving and optimizing your website for voice search. Doers Empire says that voice search is getting big – which is exactly what our SEO people are telling us. Current reports say a good 3.5 billion voice searches go on every day. Yeah, that’s billion with a B.

We recommend reading the entire article as there are details which you shouldn’t miss. So, instead, we’ll concentrate on one area only.

Long-Tail Keywords Rule

You may have heard the term before (at least, I hope you have). If you haven’t, no sweat. Here’s what they are.

Let’s say you go shopping for a birthday present for the six-year-old daughter of a friend. And you know this little girl loves animals. The more exotic, the better.

Instead of searching for just gifts, your search might look something like this.

Show me zebra-striped barrettes for a little girl. The seller must offer free shipping.

You’ll get a lot fewer results this way. But the chances of them being on point are extremely high. 

By being specific in your prose on blogs and product and landing pages, you’ll get prospects who are a lot closer to buying. They know what they want. And once search serves them with choices, they’ll decide.

You may pick the first return you get. Or the one with the best prices, or a seller you know and trust. Maybe you’ll select a local retailer or made in the USA or even a seller where you have an account and can get loyalty points.

To make your search even faster, you might even specify those particulars from the start. If you only get one search result, then so what? If it’s precisely what you want and need, you have no need for a second search result.

Specify. You’ll never regret it.

#6. Save Bucks on Search

This tip is so cost-effective, and it works! Word Stream tells us all about improving your pay per click (PPC) budget. Paid search can be a godsend. It can get your product or service in front of so many more people! So, don’t spend an arm and a leg on it.

A lot of this article is about budgeting and forecasting, so please check it out for the details.

Our biggest takeaway from it was to keep in mind that results in search aren’t immediate. So, be patient! And recognize that any budgeting will need to take multiple month payments into consideration.

You won’t be an overnight success. But with smart paid search planning, your not-so fast success won’t come at the expense of too much of your company’s budget.

#5. Smarter Hiring Practices Can Be Yours

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

It’s 2020, time to bring smarter hiring practices to your business. 

Small Business Bonfire says there are some understandable legal pitfalls when it comes to hiring and firing.

The article provides valuable advice for both hiring and firing. It really should be read in its entirety – we highly recommend it. This includes doing a business background check, of course.

But first, here are some personal stories/observations on both.

Hire Better in 2020 Credit SuiteHiring – a Personal Story

Of course, your intrepid blog writer has been hired in places. And I have also done hiring in some places.

My first tip is to make candidates feel comfortable. Remember, you were in the exact same situation before. Being kind costs your company nothing (whereas the hiring process for just one new employee can run about $4,000). And being kind can help more introverted candidates shine. 

Not all of your employees have to be live wires, unless you’re hiring for the Sales Department. Hiring some of the quieter people out there can help better balance your workforce. Going out of your way to make them comfortable can help some people who otherwise may not interview well most of the time. More perspectives are good for any business.

Firing – a Personal Story

Yeah, I have been through this as well. And I have had to fire people. It’s never easy. It shouldn’t be.

My suggestion is to, assuming the person wasn’t actively stealing from the company or harassing your other employees, make it easy for them to collect unemployment. There are states where there are a lot of restrictions on who can collect. You may be disappointed in a hire who didn’t work out and didn’t really do much. But keep your personal feelings out of it if you can.

You may be less than thrilled with your ex-employee. But your okay could be all that’s standing between them getting an unemployment check and being able to feed their family – or not. You’re angry at them, maybe. But you’re probably not angry at their spouse or significant other. And for God’s sake, you’re not angry at their children. Right?

So, don’t begrudge them the ability to collect on insurance that you and they have paid into. You won’t get that money back by being nasty. 

Do this, and you’ll be able to sleep at night.

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

#4. Use Your Smarter Hiring Practices and Put Together a High-Performing Team Through Leadership

Check out this spectacular tip, all about building higher-performing teams through leadership. Talk about your smarter hiring practices! Proof Hub notes that their first suggestion is to do just that – to engage in smarter hiring practices and bring in people who you feel can excel. And, they need to be people who you feel will work well together.

We wanted to focus on one particular tip.

Address the Team, Not Individuals

We found this to be a fascinating idea. Now, of course teams are composed of individuals. Their roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined. Underperformers should be shored up and helped, so they can succeed.

But this particular tip is about when things go a little, shall we say, ca-ca.

When one person is continually blamed for problems, it doesn’t just hurt them. It doesn’t just make their work life miserable. It can also make others’ work lives miserable. If you have put together a good team who like to work together, then blaming X for really anything is going to be felt by the entire team.

We would like to add not just addressing the entire team when things go haywire. We also strongly suggest any personal issues for one employee in particular be handled in private. 

Because dressing down an employee in front of others, no matter how well-deserved, makes people uncomfortable.

Do the right thing and wait for a time when you’re not in front of the rest of the team. HR may need to be involved, of course. It can’t always be one on one. Just, eliminate the audience.

Treat that employee like you would want to be treated.

#3. Huddle Up and Get Your Business Going

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you more effectively handle your short huddle-style meetings. Great Game tells us a company huddle should be handled more or less like an actual sports huddle. 

That is, check your current game conditions. What works, and what doesn’t?

Check the score. That is, what are your numbers?

And plan the next play. As in, what are your upcoming plans?

But our fave tip was to get all fired up. Being psyched about who you are, and what you do, is a great way to lead your business into future success. Dare we say? It helps make your smarter hiring practices really pay off.

#2. Polish the Shine on a Dull Industry 

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on creating compelling content, even when your company and your industry aren’t exactly excitement fests. Noobpreneur reveals all about garnering attention even when you’re industry is kind of, for lack of a better word, dull.

Sorry.

So, how do you do it? We really liked the examples and ideas this article had, so we recommend reading it in its entirety. Hence, we’ll zero in on just one of their ideas.

Focus Your Blog Topics

We firmly believe in this! Consider these Friday posts. While they aren’t about business credit, per se, they are about running a small business. Marketing is a huge part of business, and it can lead directly to success. Furthermore, the better you can market yourself and your business, the better you’ll handle important business moments such as meeting with investors or talking to a lender about a loan.

Going utterly off-topic is a poor idea pretty much 100% of the time. Why?

Because your readers aren’t coming to your blog for your movie reviews if your company is all about baking cookies. With no connection to your main topic, your readers will see the off-topic post for what it is – a waste of their time.

Ouch.

There’s nothing wrong with branching out a bit. But you need a connection to the main topic at hand. Without that connection, you just look like you’re trying to be all things to all people. And that never works out.

#1. Become an Investor Magnet

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on attracting investor attention with your personal attributes. Startup Professionals says a personal connection between you and angel investors and venture capitalists can be the difference between success and failure.

They cited a few examples of how you can become catnip to investors. Here are a few that we especially loved.

Integrity, Humility, and Stability

Yeah, we know. There are a lot of wacko geniuses out there. But stability goes a lot further with investors. You could be brilliant.  But if the investors think there’s a chance you’ll crash and burn, they’ll lose interest. And if they think you’ll skip town with their funds, then they’ll be happy to have the law on you.

Effective Communication

You don’t have to be a salesperson. The two suggestions in the article were to personalize communications and to listen as well speak. And let’s face it, that’s good life advice anyway.

Already Set and Achieved Fundamental Milestones

Many investors want to see you’re already on you’re way. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to already be profitable. It’s more that you have set goals and have met some of them. This doesn’t just show you’re operating well. It also shows that you’re capable of making SMART goals and follow through. 

Expert in Your Chosen Field

This, we felt, is key. This doesn’t just show that you know your stuff. It also means that you keep up with your industry. And it means that you are willing and able to continue your education. You don’t rest on your laurels. You read, you network with people in your field, and even return to school if necessary. And you care about being right.

Pro tip: it’s not just investors who love that.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Smarter Hiring Practices Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Make smarter hiring practices a part of your business’s DNA in 2020, and more.

The post Start Smarter Hiring Practices in 2020 and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Improve Your Business and Avoid Workplace Drama and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Office interpersonal relationships got you down? Watching your employees snipe at each other? Is the gossip train speeding through your company? Then it’s time to avoid workplace drama. Plus, nine other excellent tips to get you going in this new year.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Avoid Workplace Drama and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! It’s time to avoid workplace drama and take your business to the next level.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Take Your Customers on a Journey

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about a new process to close sales. G2 says your sales process is a kind of roadmap. It pulls your salespeople along from prospect to consideration to sale to after-sale nurturing. But your sales methodology is the ‘how’. Your sales methodology shows you several ways to go through the steps in your sales process. It is your company’s philosophy of how a sale should be carried out.

We really liked this article because it carefully lays out the various steps in a standard sales process. As a result, we highly recommend reading the article in its entirety.

In particular, we draw your attention to the section on after-sales nurturing. The word ‘yes’ isn’t the end. It is just the beginning.

#9. I Pledge Allegiance to the One, Unique Product – Yours

The next awesome tip is about making your product stand out. The Self Employed notes there are a number of ways to showcase your uniqueness. And, yes, you can do this even if your product is toothpaste or your service (yes, services can benefit from this article) is dog walking.

We truly loved the concept of, essentially, being human. Seriously, how many times have you read a company blog or About Us page which was just so much jargon?

So, be human and be approachable. It’s perhaps a little concerning that being human is a unique sales proposition. But there you have it.

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#8. Kick Your Sales into High Gear

Our following life-changing tip concerns creating the ultimate sales kickoff. LinkedIn lays it all out for us.

Did you know that a good 29% of attendees rate their company’s sales kickoffs at a C or below?

Ouch.

A smart way to get your sales kickoffs out of the doldrums is to consider the ultimate goal. It’s to inspire people, right? And it’s also about getting everyone on the same page.

So, does that have to happen via a PowerPoint presentation where the presenter drones on and on while everyone checks their phone, or wishes they were?

Our favorite tip was to continue with learning after the kickoff is done. And that makes a lot of sense to us – reinforce what was said so it sticks!

#7. Time to Focus Like a Laser on Your Customers

For our next sensational tip, we looked at focusing on your customers. Startup Professionals says that customer expectations have changed radically in the past few years.

Some of this may be generationally driven, as Generation Z (born after 1996) is now outnumbering the millennials. Millennials are born after 1981.

But it’s also just a function of how markets have been changing. As customers demand more and more personalization and attention, they get it. And then, because they like it, they want more.

It is, without a doubt, a self-perpetuating cycle.

Analytics FTW

Oh, we do so love analysis. For the bottom line is, without measurements, we have no idea how anything is doing. Analytics are also great because they push us to create goals and attempt to achieve them. If the goal is for 5% more sales during the quarter, and we know how many sales were closed in the past quarter, then we know what’s expected for the current quarter. We know what success looks like. And that is very powerful.

There’s another aspect of this article we really liked.

Ask What Your Customers Want

What is the easiest way to find out what people want?

C’mon, this is not rocket science.

You ask.

So, ask.

#6. Save Your Money on Ads (for the most part)

This tip is so cool, and it works! Succeed as Your Own Boss tells us all about attracting customers without having to pay for advertising.

This is a great article and it really should be read in its entirety. Here’s our fave takeaway.

Don’t Just Throw Jell-O Against the Wall, Hoping It’ll Stick

Well, that’s not exactly how Melinda Emerson put it. This is actually a combo of two tips. One is to know your audience. And the other is to measure (our fave!).

Reading between the lines, this advice is virtually identical to what you should be doing with paid advertising.

The conclusion we draw from this is, treat free advertising like paid. That is, be intentional about it. And be organized so you’re not just playing around. Make every move count.

#5. It’s Time to Get Out of Middle School and Avoid Workplace Drama

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

It’s time to avoid workplace drama and get down to business.

Young Upstarts says there are a number of ways to derail the gossip train and avoid workplace drama.

We are so listening.

Model the Behavior You Wish to See

Also known as – be the change you wish to see in the world. Or, at least, at the office. You can avoid workplace drama by not encouraging it. And you can also avoid workplace drama by not spreading rumors.

We really loved this tip because it’s all about leadership. And, the truth is, anyone can do it. From the CEO to the cleaning crew, everyone can avoid workplace drama simply by stopping it and cutting it off at its knees.

Transparency Looks Good on You

This tip also really spoke directly to us, and it’s all because of something your intrepid blog writer remembers from, egad, a good 30+ years ago. So, it’s story time.

True Story

Drama, drama, drama.

Find Your Target Audience Credit SuiteThere never seemed to be so much of it in my life until I worked for a certain firm. This was the 1980s, so it was back when there was a clerical pool.

The firm did something which, in my opinion, was a disaster.

While hiring a clerical office manager is often a great idea, the person who was hired was just plain awful. They were, among other things, overly and unnecessarily secretive. Compounding problems was the fact that things were allowed to deteriorate for a long time.

As a result, secretaries left. In droves. It was hard to keep anyone on staff who could actually type.

Don’t laugh – this was a big, big deal back in the day.

So, this office manager once asked me – what do you hear about me? And yes, I heard stuff on occasion. But I said nothing. Why? It wasn’t because I disliked this person, although I did. It was more because the request was an improper one. I wasn’t in charge of anything. So, asking me about what the rumor mill said was just plain nuts.

It would have perpetuated the problem instead of being a way to avoid workplace drama.

I don’t recall anyone telling this person, although it’s been over three decades, so my memory may not be perfect. Perhaps someone else did. But either way, the inquiry didn’t help this person. Instead of trying to avoid workplace drama, they were fueling it. And instead of being open and transparent, they hid.

They were let go not too long after that. And so much of it had to do with not being transparent. Which leads me to ….

Encourage People to Carry Their Own Messages

This one also really resonated. Some of this relates to the above story. Essentially, instead of asking me what others were saying, this office manager should have asked people directly. Now, it’s entirely possible they wouldn’t have been truthful. But they should have asked. Having me carry water for her was an absurd notion. She was the boss and should have been confident enough to speak directly to the clerical staff.

Instead, by trying to use a go-between, she perpetuated the problem.

Talk directly to people. Even if it’s unpleasant or uncomfortable. You’re the boss if not the owner. This is why they pay you the big bucks.

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#4. Overworking is no Good for You or Your Business

Check out this spectacular tip, all about avoiding becoming overworked. Work It Daily notes that overworking makes you a less effective worker.

But it can be easier to say you’ll stop overworking than to do it.

And the article smartly acknowledges there are people with financial goals who take on a side gig because they need cash in the short term. Plus, they may be trying to start a business. You may be one of those people or have been.

But then there’s another reason for overworking.

Time Management Matters

Quick true story here.

In the 90s, your intrepid blog writer worked for a person who. Could. Not. Stop. Yapping.

All the livelong day, they would talk to this one or that one. And it turned out to be fortunate that this boss didn’t like me. I was left alone!

As a result, I got my work done on time and left at 5, 5:30 most nights.

This person and their coterie did not.

They also complained (as a part of their constant gabfest) about being overworked.

Whatever this person wanted to do with their life, whatever goals they had for themselves outside of work – those were all sacrificed at the almighty altar of incessantly chattering.

Don’t be that person – and you won’t be overworked.

#3. Throw Some Water on Your Burnout

To go along with tip #4, it’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you avoid burning out. Acorns tells us it’s all about four D’s.

Delete

Is the task really worth the time and money you’re putting into it? Not?

Then why the hell are you doing it?

Delay

You probably don’t have to do everything at once, the very moment you’re asked to. If so, then you have got to ask about priorities. Once you have the priorities down, guess what? You know what you can put off. And keep that in mind for the future. If that task comes up again, you just may be able to defer is again.

Diminish

You can diminish tasks by finding a shortcut to get them done. Even if it just saves you a keystroke, that will pay off if you have to perform a similar task over and over again.

Your intrepid blog writer firmly believes laziness is an evolutionary advantage. The basics of it are not to sit around and do absolutely nothing, though. Rather, the idea is to find faster and easier ways to do nearly anything.

After all, many of us have dishwashers. Are we lazy for not washing and drying our dishes by hand? Of course not! And by having a machine perform this task, that frees us up for all sorts of things. Those things can be everything from a task which cannot be performed by a machine (yet) to working on our relationships. Or binge-watching Netflix.

So, when you have a moment, consider what you do at work which takes a lot of time or feels repetitive. You just may be able to find a faster way of doing it.

Delegate

This one, we hope, is self-explanatory. You do not have to do everything. That way lies madness.

#2. Ready, Aim, Customer!

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on how to reach your target audience. Noobpreneur reveals all about determining your target audience and how to best and most effectively reach them.

Target audience? Say what? But won’t everyone love, love, love my product or service?

Get real.

Sorry, that was harsh.

But consider this. Even water isn’t sold to everyone. And it’s branded, anyway. Some waters are flavored to appeal to dieters or to fitness enthusiasts. Others have snob appeal. And then there are folks (me, I’m guilty) who just open the tap and wonder why the heck anyone would want to pay for H2O if they didn’t have to, beyond paying for utilities.

But I digress.

Reaching an audience means defining that audience.

#1. Start Mastering Digital Marketing

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on digital marketing tips for you to win social, email, and search. Nextiva says the most underrated digital marketing is email. Yeah, good old email!

But let’s look at something kind of disturbing.

Google, Thy Name is Legion – and Maybe a Monopoly?

Let’s think about Google search for just a moment. And I mean Google, not search in general.

Google’s basic mission is to serve seekers what they are looking for. The first time, every time. And with the enormous number of webpages (that figure is in the trillions if not the quadrillions by now, folks) and the exceptional competition out there, Google has to make decisions every picosecond about what’s better and what’s best. Because it’s impossible for human beings to do this, it’s all done via algorithms.

Ya with me so far?

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Google says they don’t suppress results. And maybe they don’t. Let’s operate under the assumption that they don’t. After all, for Google, what does it matter if Coke or Pepsi gets the top search spot when someone searches for best cola?

But What If Google Gets into a Side Business?

Google could enter a market like hospitality or music or food service, let’s say.

What’s to stop Google from giving more credence to their own ridesharing service, or music streaming platform, or string of restaurants? Or whatever they decide to try their hand at?

Let’s even say everyone is 100% ethical and above-board.

What’s to stop Google’s search division from sharing inside information to another division of the company? Maybe even inadvertently? How many times do you get misdirected internal mail? I do, every single month.

Or what’s to stop Google from bending their algorithms to better serve how their side gigs have their webpages set up?

One thing the article doesn’t mention, but should, is that this is bound to draw the attention of the fine people at the Federal Trade Commission. And they won’t take so kindly to allowing this.

Before you say the government would never want or need to break up Google, think again. People said that about AT&T, over 35 years ago.

It’ll be fascinating to watch as this unfolds in the future.

And do check out the article for some more insights into digital marketing.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

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Achieve Business Rapport and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Attain Business Rapport and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Build the ultimate in business rapport and connect with your clientele – and more.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. What? Where? Taming Your Work Distractions

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about avoiding distractions at work. Also known as – watch out for that squirrel! HBR says everyone gets something like 46 push notifications per day – and most of them are useless and completely unnecessary. Since these are a big portion of the 50 – 60 interruptions many of us get on a daily basis, turning off push notifications is one way to injure the distraction beast. But not quite slay it.

One great thing about email is that it doesn’t have to be answered immediately. So, why do we do that? Cut that stuff out yesterday. Another great idea was to set aside blocks of time to check email or anything else which is basically a distraction.

Yet another good idea was to stop hitting ‘reply all’. If not everyone has to know about XYZ, then they probably don’t want to hear you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing. Certainly, they don’t need to follow every excruciating little step.

Tame Your Calendar

One idea they had was to not let people change your calendar without permission. Or to use Calendly which allows you to only offer meeting times during prescribed hours. That’s all well and good.

Allow us to add another idea.

Make a daily appointment with yourself to get stuff done. Whatever your thing is to do, and whatever is your most productive time – take that time back. Stuff it into a calendar block and mark yourself busy if not away.

Don’t breach your commitment to yourself. Don’t be late to your personal meeting with yourself. And don’t cancel.

If you absolutely must reschedule, do so for a big deal and an important reason. Your personal time is vital. Don’t squander, abuse, or dismiss it.

#9. Going to the WELL Standard

The next awesome tip is about making sure your office space meets the WELL standard. Noobpreneur notes WELL has seven core concepts. They are: air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind.

The article has good points for upgrading your office so as to meet the WELL standard. There are benefits, like increased employee health and productivity.

But what do you do if your office is a coffee shop, or a virtual space? What if you work from home? Or you just can’t change your space that readily.

We recommend reading the article, but we have some ideas for handling WELL in these other circumstances.

Almost WELL

Kinda. You can improve air by reducing clutter and adding plants. Get in more water by having it delivered. Enhance nourishment by bringing in healthy snacks and getting together a group to head to a healthy restaurant once a week. Bring in more light with a lamp – and make it better with a full-spectrum bulb.

It’s kind of obvious how to add more fitness – join a gym! But if that’s not feasible, how about walking to work, or taking public transportation – and using a stop farther away from your home or office than the closest one? If that can’t work, can you park in the farthest away parking spot. No matter which spots are open, use the one that’s farthest away from your office door. It’s highly likely it’ll be open.

And your healthy restaurant group? Maybe they’d like a different day where you bring in lunch and everyone goes for a walk during lunch?

Enhance comfort with seats and desks which are the right height. Bring in a small pillow if you need it. Slap on headphones and block out extraneous noise. And enhance mind with collaborating. Even people alone in their respective offices can collaborate using a tool like Asana or Slack.

Use your imagination.

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#8. Own YouTube With Your Next Video

Our following life-changing tip concerns YouTube SEO. Opt In Monster lays it all out for us.

Keep in mind, there is some overlap with #7, but these are not identical articles. They have some different tips.

Keywords

Much like in traditional SEO, it’s all about the keywords. That is, the main subject of your video. Can’t decide on synonyms, like film vs. movie vs. cinema? Then use YouTube’s autosuggest. It comes from searches, so you’ll see what people are actually looking for. This is the essence of business rapport.

And for gosh sakes, don’t forget to put your keyword in your video title and description!

We recommend checking out the entire article but keep in mind at least their information on Google Trends appears to be out of date.

#7. Video, Meet Google

For our next sensational tip, we looked at how to rank your newly optimized YouTube videos on Google. This is not the exact same thing as #8. AHRefs concentrates on using its product. This is typical for their articles. But the principles are good.

So, without further ado, here’s what they suggest.

Best Practices

  • Locate topics with ‘traffic potential’. This means checking keywords and doing research to find out what your customers and prospects are looking for. A wonderful video which no one is looking for may as well not exist at all. Ouch.
  • Create an optimized video. The best way to do this is to think about cooking shows (yes, really!). The best cooking videos have clear images and sound. They have clear instructions with no digressions. And the chef describes what they’re doing while they are doing it. This kind of clarity is what Google’s algorithm loves.
  • Fix your closed captions. Amen! In particular, if the captions get your company or product name wrong, or they don’t get your keywords right, fix that, stat!
  • Upload an attractive and enticing thumbnail. Don’t settle for what YouTube gives you. The software often doesn’t pick the best imagery. Make your image clear and high quality, no matter what’s in it.
  • Add timestamps! And keep them in your video description, with a new one on each line. The algorithm will pick these up. And your viewers will appreciate it. Consider a video with Xmas songs. For listeners playing the Whamageddon game, don’t you think they’d appreciate knowing when Last Christmas comes on, so they can avoid it? Same thing for your customers and prospects. Some of them want to cut to the chase. So make that possible.

This tip is so festive, and it works! Manta tells us how to get more customers into your business before Xmas.  There are any number of ways to leverage the holidays and bring in more customers. Of course decorating, either in person or virtually, is at the top of the list. Plus, the holidays are a great excuse for a party or a giveaway – or both.

But what’s below the surface and less obvious?

Take Advantage of Scheduling

The holidays are everyone’s crazy season. Even if you don’t have any holidays in December, you actually do – New Year’s Eve and Day. You might not want to be working on those days. And your employees may not want to be working, either.

So use the scheduling functions for software such as HootSuite and Buffer.

This also includes setting tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts, and blog posts for the last minute. Because we all know someone who buys for Xmas on the morning of.

Maybe that’s you. Hey, we’re not judging.

Free up your time to do just that and wield scheduling like a weapon.

#5. Achieve the Nirvana of Business Rapport

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

‘Tis the season for togetherness – so why not build a better business rapport with your employees?

Effortless HR says holiday parties and other events are the perfect time to build and reinforce team bonds.

We really loved the part about decorating the office.

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Go Beyond Office Decorations

Of course, it’s easy to just put up some garlands and then call it a day. Er, a holiday.

But the great suggestion from this article was to also ask your decorating committee to check for anything which might need minor repairs while they’re putting stuff up. This isn’t meant to be a structural engineering inspection. Rather, it’s to see if the paint is chipping in one corner, or there’s a fluorescent bulb that needs replacing. Maybe the company fridge could stand to be cleaned out. Or perhaps there’s a chair in the conference room which is no longer adjustable.

Whatever it may be, the committee should tell maintenance. And the article went onto suggest getting the fixes in before the holidays, if that’s at all possible. It goes beyond just plying your employees with alcohol and baked goods. These may not be big structural changes. Instead, they eliminate certain small annoyances. And they fix certain tiny cosmetic imperfections.

All of that can help your workers feel better, beyond the season.

Go Inclusive or Go Home

This was another point made in the same section. And boy oh boy, does that ever sing our holiday song! Go beyond the tree. How about a kinara (that’s the candelabra) for Kwanzaa and a menorah for Chanukah? You can get an electronic version of both, or battery-powered individual candles.

Your employees who aren’t Christian will appreciate your including them. I sure as heck would, and will. 😊

Volunteer Support

Now, this wasn’t in the article, but we feel the need to point it out. A decorating committee is virtually always a volunteer group. Do they need to stay late to get their work and the decorating done? Then pay those people overtime – and get them a cab or an Uber if they need to go home alone in the dark. And if they miss any work or are pulled away, get them some coverage!

Decorating the office shouldn’t be an occasion for anyone to get behind in their work, lose out on pay, or personally endanger themselves.

Not just sayin’.

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#4. Pull The Trigger On Emotional Words In Your Copy

Check out this spectacular tip, all about upping your business engagement with trigger words. Talk about building business rapport! Lead Pages notes that emotions lead to actions. So, which emotions do you want to evoke in you customers and prospects? And how do you evoke them?

We recommend reading the article although we suggest that you not overuse emotional words, particularly in your titles. Otherwise, you just sound like clickbait. And that is no way to build business rapport.

#3. Once Upon a Time, There Was a Sale…

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you tell better stories in your business presentations. What better way to attain business rapport? HubSpot tells us that sales stories are a lot like any other type of story. That means, they have characters and conflict. And they have a change at the end. They have a coherent narrative.

We recommend reading the entire article as it’s helpful for building business rapport with better storytelling. But let’s first talk about fiction.

The World of Fiction

Yeah, I’m an actual fiction writer (fer realz, yo’).

Here’s how I learned to write fiction, and how it applies to your sales stories.

Characters

Who’s in the story? Where is it set – your setting is a type of character. When you match your character to your buyer persona, your prospect or customer will be more interested. If I’m a middle-aged woman, then telling me a story about a teenaged boy might not go over so well. The match should be close. It doesn’t have to be 100% on the nose. But if you try to fit one size to all, your story will fall flat.

Conflict

In the sales context, this is the identification of the problem. Say your character has a problem that only your widget can solve. They need your service. Whatever it is, this is the driving force behind your tale. It’s the heart and soul of your story.

Crisis

In standard storytelling, this is also called the climax. For sales storytelling, you’re looking to show an inciting incident which turns the problem into a critical issue that must be solved ASAP.

Think about, say, flood insurance. A lot of us realize, intellectually, that it’s probably a good idea to buy it. Yet we put it off and put it off and put it off.

The crisis is when the waters are pooling around your ankles. So, what’s pooling around your prospect’s ankles?

Change

Here’s where you show the solution in action. By having flood insurance, your character gets the full value of her possession back when they’re damaged or lost. She’s still been through a flood. But she’s much better off than her neighbors who didn’t have flood insurance. She can make a new start much more easily.

Tell. Your. Story.

#2. Come on Back

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on winning back customers with ‘back in stock’ emails. Sumo reveals all about building your mailing list and using it to bring back customers. Consider this: it’s the holidays, eh? As if you didn’t know. And stuff goes out of stock. All. The. Time.

Acknowledge it. Embrace it. Benefit from it.

The article is great and we recommend reading it in its entirety. Here’s one takeaway we really loved.

Personalization FTW

With current technology, there’s no excuse not to know what your customer or prospect was browsing and what you’re out of. That is, if you sell sweatshirts and the black is in stock, but navy isn’t, your prospect will appreciate it if you showcase the navy in your email to them. While it’s possible to offer a substitute (and you can), not shoehorning your customers in the same place is a good thing. All of those square pegs don’t fit into round holes.

Nor should they.

#1. Uniqueness Matters

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on making your product uniquely memorable. Startup Professionals says 80% of businesses believe their offerings are unique. But only 8% of customers feel the same.

That’s … not good.

One great way to differentiate you from your competition – and in your customers’ eyes – is to customize. But do so efficiently. Your customers may want an experience specifically tailored to them. So give them one, as well as you can.

This means concentrating on which customers get such special treatment. Not everyone should. Not only will it help you differentiate yourself, it will also give off an exclusivity vibe. People like to pay for that. So make it exclusive.

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

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Become a Brilliant Boss and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Become the World’s Most Brilliant Boss and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Become a brilliant boss to your employees today!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Holiday Etiquette to Attract Customers

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about the best etiquette for holiday postings. Manta says this time of year can be terrific for bringing in more customers. But how?

Decorations!

You’ve (maybe) already decorated your store. But what about your website? Go beyond the clichés – but avoid overly religious imagery unless it fits. After all, if your store sells bibles, then go for it.

But if you’re a realtor, a creche is probably not going to be the best of ideas. Still, there are plenty of other ideas. Consider this idea – when your intrepid blog writer was growing up, there was a very boxy older home in town. The house was probably built at the start of the last century or so. It was white, with black shutters and a gray roof. It was a realtor’s office.

Just your standard house, right?

But they had the best holiday decoration, bar none.

It was a huge red ribbon, with a bow in the front, diagonally hung from the second floor down to the ground.

The house looked like a big holiday present. It was likely an inexpensive decoration. There were no specific lights for it. It probably just had to be folded up and stuffed into some big box to be stored.

And … that was it.

Simple. Elegant. Timeless.

People loved it.

There have been others since. But this one was spot-on perfect. And at the time, it was original.

Get a Second Opinion

We cannot stress this one enough. There are, unfortunately, so many ways to mess holiday communications up. Egad, there are more of them than there are ways to get it right, eh?

A look at Hallmark Movies tells the tale.

They’re adding two Chanukah films this year! Yay?

Except one is about how a Jewish actor goes to a Christmas celebration and doesn’t know how to act. And the other is about a Jewish woman and her Christian coworker decorating their office for the holidays.

Oy vey.

No one ever asked for special attention. These films could have been presented as your standard Hallmark Christmas movies and no one would have batted an eye. Instead, they come out as what, to many folks (your blog post writer included), feels like Chanukah isn’t good or interesting enough so we need to wrap it up in pine trees and elves.

Hallmark, I have a lot of trouble believing you couldn’t find anyone Jewish in the entertainment business to bounce this idea off.

Srsly.

So please, I beg of you – run an idea like this past the people it affects the most. What you think might be a warm, inclusive idea just might turn out to be a good gesture sheen over second-class treatment to the very people you’re trying to attract.

Don’t be like Hallmark Movies when it comes to this.

#9. Better Cold Calling Can Be Yours

The next awesome tip is about better and more effective cold calling. Sales Hacker notes a lot of people ask silly questions or stick too closely to a script. Neither will help you.

But we really loved their other tip.

Learn Something From Every Call

Truthfully, this should be what you do with pretty much everything. But let’s just look at cold calling right now.

It can be tempting, in particular if you experience a bunch of these at once. But rejections, no doubt, are a great place to learn. Did you talk too fast? Or waste time? Did you sound unprepared? Were there objections unexpected?

Whatever it was, learn something! Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

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If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Be the brilliant boss your employees need – and more!

#8. Have Your Salespeople Meet Your Sales Quota More Easily

Our following life-changing tip concerns making your sales quota. LinkedIn lays it all out for us. A simple sales strategy was one of our favorite ideas. An easy process is going to be more likely to be followed, yes?

And one of the best ways to simplify all of it is to help your salespeople better communicate value to their prospects. If it’s easy to enumerate what’s so great about your product, then your sales team is going to be far, far more likely to do that on the first call, the last call, and every call.

#7. Smash Those Content Marketing Myths

For our next sensational tip, we looked at banishing content marketing myths. G2 says that some of the least common practices seem to get the best results.

We recommend you read the entire article to get the benefit of all of their insights. Here’s the one that really jumped out at us.

Don’t Be All Things to All People

Well, they didn’t exactly put it that way. Rather, they said that publishing daily, everywhere, isn’t doing you any favors.

Egad, please shout this one from the rooftops. Tattoo it on the inside of your eyelids.

We ain’t kiddin’.

Being everywhere isn’t just silly and nonscalable. It’s also a lousy use of your resources. And it doesn’t target your audience. At. All.

If there is one marketing drumbeat we have been hearing throughout 2019, it’s this: specify, specialize, and get personal. Trying to target everyone with a firehose is a terrible way to market.

So don’t do it.

#6. Bring Back the Passion

This tip is so different, but it works! Addicted 2 Success tells us all about refueling your passion.

What made you want to start your business in the first place? Is it feeling just a little bit stale? Are you maybe burned out a little? Then this article is for you. We highly recommend reading the whole article.

So we’ll just concentrate on one thing here: joining a community.

It’s hard to sustain your passion when you feel like the Lone Ranger. So why not join a community of like-minded individuals? They may have ideas to help you become even more successful. Or they might just commiserate. There’s nothing like talking to someone else who’s been there, done that, got the tee shirt.

In fact, that’s kind of what your Chamber of Commerce, SCORE, and a number of other local organizations are all about. You don’t have to go it alone.

#5. You Can Become a Brilliant Boss

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

If you’ve ever wanted to become a brilliant boss, then here’s your chance.

Noobpreneur provides a baker’s dozen worth of  advice from the best bosses their contributors ever had.

We especially loved two of their tips.

Don’t Go it Alone

Wellll, they didn’t actually put it that way. Rather, they said a brilliant boss knows how to delegate. And a brilliant boss also knows how to encourage and elicit feedback.

We think those two go together. Consider this: the hardest, most stressful way you can work is to take the weight of the world on your shoulders and never, ever give it up to anyone else.

Don’t do this.

You have employees for a reason. Work with them! And let them in on the struggle. Their ideas just might make everyone’s life easier.

Get Your Hands Dirty

Awesome Supervisor Credit Suite

In a way, this is a corollary to not going it alone.

Raise your hand if you ever had a boss who left you work to do on a deadline, told you it was imperative to get it out, and then grabbed their coat and left. Bonus points if they never bothered to forward the finished product, or didn’t return in time to get it out on time. And more bonus points if they sat on it, or claimed it wasn’t what they wanted – but they never told you what they wanted in the first place.

That’s passive-aggressive nonsense (there’s a nice, sanitized word for it). Don’t be that kind of a supervisor.

A brilliant boss gets in the trenches and works with their employees. They help out when the team is shorthanded. And they respect their employees’ hard work and don’t undermine it by sitting on time-sensitive work.

Let me tell you about my own experiences.

A Few True Stories

Your intrepid blog writer has had several bosses. But three tie for the title of Most Brilliant Boss. Here they are presented, in chronological order.

Amy was 100% organized. Her meetings were run like a steel trap. You always knew exactly what she wanted and needed. You knew her expectations. She was (still is!) an extraordinary communicator.

Maureen was informal and funny. The first time I ever met her, she was swearing about a report which wasn’t working for her. It was my first day on the job! And so I asked – how can I fix this for you? A few months later, I had the solution. To show her appreciation, she nominated me for a company award, which I won.

Alex is smart and is a great facilitator. He has a wonderful talent for getting in the middle of an issue between an employee and anyone else. He serves as a human shield, a buffer, if you will, between his charges and other departments. These other departments aren’t hostile – it’s more that he can interpret between them and make things better for all.

Back to You

Be organized like Amy. Know what you want and need, and ask for it clearly. Your employees will appreciate the directness, and not having to play let’s read the boss’s mind. You know, where they spin a big wheel and try to figure out just what the heck you meant by what you just said.

Communicate like Amy.

Be relaxed and appreciative like Maureen. Thank the people who work for you for what they do – and not just during the holidays! You never know how your documented appreciation can help someone out. My little company award story has gotten me jobs!

Thank like Maureen.

Be protective like Alex. Cherish your employees and treat them fairly. Don’t let others undermine them. You’re the one making the big (er, maybe just the ‘biggish’) bucks. So start acting like it, and get in the middle so your employees don’t have to bear the brunt.

Protect like Alex.

Thank you, Amy. I appreciate it, Maureen. And thank you, Alex.

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If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Be the brilliant boss your employees need – and more!

#4. Appreciate Your Employees Before They Find Someone Else Who Will

Check out this spectacular tip, all about showing employee appreciation. Entrepreneur notes that there are a number of creative ways to show appreciation to the people who work for you.

We really loved the idea of being public about it – as public as possible. You know all those company-wide emails you sometimes get because someone messed up? Why not turn them into a force for good?

Chris did an amazing job on the XYZ report and helped us keep this vital client. Thank you, Chris!

Sending that to everyone in the company means Chris can get accolades from everyone.

Point out errors and correct mistakes in private, praise in public.

#3. Manage All Around the World and In Cyberspace

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you better manage virtual teams. Proof Hub tells us there are differing cultures everywhere, and they can sometimes come into conflict when it comes to how teams are structured. In particular, this has to do with how the boss is treated. Are they an elite in an ivory tower? Or is even the most brilliant boss considered to be just another member of the team?

None of these are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, of course. They’re just a bit different.

Another area where things differ is in the area of holidays and days off.

A Fer Instance

Your intrepid blog writer has had jobs in four separate states: Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Even though all of these places are in the United States, they don’t have the same holidays.

Rhode Island has Victory Day in August (confidentially, we used to call it “Rhode Island Saves The World Day”). Massachusetts has Patriots Day in April. Lincoln’s Birthday in February is celebrated as a government holiday in Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, and New York. And poor little Delaware doesn’t have a holiday of its own. So sad, Blue Hens.

If there are so many differences in the same country and even in the same time zone, then how can anyone expect the holidays will be the same in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Ireland, and Zaire?

A little sensitivity and imagination, as in a lot of places, can go a long way.

#2. Git ‘Er Done

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on getting more done in your business. Success Harbor reveals all about improving efficiency in your business.

Truth is, this can work outside of your business.

Our fave tip was to prioritize.

Does anyone read the report you spend four hours preparing every month? If so, and they get actionable insights from it, then keep prepping that report. Although you may want to explore as many ways as possible to streamline that activity.

But if they don’t, then why are you doing? If there’s a value to the report, then can it come out semi-annually or even annually? And if there is no value whatsoever, then ditch it. Don’t waste your time on it.

#1. Get Organized!

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on the benefits of getting organized in your business. Young Upstarts says there are essential benefits to being organized in your business. That is, beyond saving your sanity!

We’d like to combine two – one is that you’ll be more focused, and the other is that you will have more time. We think these go hand in hand.

Picture it: you can find every single report you need, in seconds. The sales figures are right where you expect them to be. And you have your taxes organized.

The few seconds you spend filing, either in the real world or virtually, will save you hours later.

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

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If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Be the brilliant boss your employees need – and more!

The post Become a Brilliant Boss and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Interesting Marketing Tips for You – 10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Write More Interesting Marketing Copy and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! You’ll have more interesting copy!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Be True to Your Customers and They Will Reward You With Loyalty

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about getting more members for your membership program. If you have one, of course. Noobpreneur says a customer loyalty program is a great way to encourage repeated purchases. But that can only work if it’s a customer loyalty which actually appeals to your customers.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

Members Means Members Only – Or At Least it Should

There were two tips which we loved. One was to provide exclusive content via email. Your membership list is essentially your email list, or at least it should be. The other was to create and host members only events.

Need some inspiration when it comes to events?

The holidays are coming (eek, faster than I’m ready for, truth be told), so why not attach your event to them? Or express your gratitude to your members. Another idea is to offer exclusive training or goods or services to your loyalty customers during these events.

You can never, ever go wrong with gratitude.

#9. Keep Your Customers With Great Retention Emails

The next awesome tip is about the most necessary customer retention emails you need to send. Sleek Note notes it’s far easier to sell to your preexisting customers than hunt for new customers. And a great way to do this is to target your current customers with pertinent retention emails.

These emails can cover topics as varied as reminders and special occasions to birthday and anniversary celebrations.

One of the clearest trends we have been seeing all along is the personalization of marketing.

And these sorts of emails can help you do just that.

Interesting Marketing

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! More interesting marketing copy will help your business make more money.

#8. Control Your Business Spending, Or It Will Control YouInteresting Marketing Credit Suite

Our following life-changing tip concerns creating a brilliant business budget. Small Biz Trends lays it all out for us. We are big fans of business budgeting. After all, it can lead rather directly to better chances for funding. There’s nothing that screams fundability quite so well or so loudly as having your business finances in order.

And having your future expenses in order? So much the better.

Understand The Terms

It can sometimes feel as if finance and accounting terms are in a foreign language. This terrific article breaks them down smartly and makes them more accessible.

The way to calculate fixed costs was particularly helpful.

And the best tip of them all? It’s to keep an emergency fund. Because you never know. And when you need that money, you will be so glad you remembered to set it aside.

So do your future self a favor, and sock away some of your profits for the proverbial rainy day. If you put them in your budget, then you’ll know how much you can afford to set aside. And you’ll know just how far that cash will go, if you need to tap into it.

#7. What Does Your Brand Look Like?

For our next sensational tip, we looked at bringing your brand to life. Score says that it’s a lot more involved than, perhaps, closing your eyes and pointing.

Er, don’t do that.

The article is intriguing and really should be read in its entirety, as it compares everything from the three primary colors (plus green) to basic shapes. It also discusses the merits of photography versus illustrations. And it even gets into candid shots versus posed ones.

A Fer-Instance

So let’s say you own an over the road trucking company. Square images tend to relay an air of security and professionalism. But you may want to go with a rectangle instead, in order to evoke a truck. As for colors, you probably don’t want red, with its connotations of danger and stopping. So you might do better with blue, which is associated with calm.

And when it comes to a font, you might want to go with sans serif (the letters don’t have those little extra bits – those are called serifs). Sans serif fonts have a clean and simple look. Serif fonts, on the other hand are more classic. You’d need to choose which makes more sense with your brand.

But don’t just take our word for it – make your own brand and it’ll truly be yours.

#6. Learn From Your Setbacks and Become a Better Leader

This tip is so smart, and it works! Startup Professionals tells us how leaders can best handle their inevitable setbacks. Because they are going to happen, like it or not.

Two tips we really loved were to control how you react and to ask for help if you need it. There is no shame in asking for assistance. You aren’t less of a leader if you get someone else to pitch in. Heck, delegating is a good idea no matter what.

And controlling your reaction is often the only thing you can control. You can let your setbacks defeat you. Or you can learn from them and use them to make you a better manager. And maybe even a better person.

Failure is a part of life. Embrace it, know it, and understand it. Because it’s going to happen anyway.

#5. Write More Interesting Marketing Copy Today

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot!

Don’t we all want to create more interesting marketing?

Women on Business says interesting marketing means making boring topics more fascinating. Their suggestions are all good ones. And they dovetail rather well with advice we’ve seen before. That is, know your customer buyer persona. Address their concerns. Write directly to them, as if they were the only people in the world.

And you may have noticed some of that more interesting marketing in these Friday blog posts. Oops, you caught us! But that’s okay.

So now that you know what can make for more interesting marketing, allow your intrepid blog writer to exercise those interesting marketing muscles. In short, it’s time for a story.

What Do You Do When Interesting Marketing Just Can’t Happen?

Eek!

It happens.

So, back in the day, I was a freelance writer. And I ran my own little business. This involved writing about, well, every single little thing that needed to be written about.

This included such fascinating topics such as:

  • Parking lot striping (that’s the painted lines between parking spots)
  • The psychology of male suicide (a tragic topic which isn’t boring, just hard to write about)
  • Pest control
  • Auto emissions testing
  • Lawn care
  • Choosing the right bailout kit (for rock climbing)
  • Federal employment law

Anyway, you get the idea.

So, how the heck do you write hundreds if not thousands of words on parking lot striping?

Interesting Marketing Techniques to the Rescue!

It really made me happy to see that a number of the tricks I used were endorsed in the article. Which, by the way, you really should read in its entirety. Yes, it’s that good.

But back to my story.

Interesting Marketing Credit SuiteResearch is key for truly esoteric topics. And so is breaking up the copy. Because even the more ardent parking lot striping fans (Are there such people? If so, I’m feeling kinda sorry for them) will probably suffer from MEGO if you don’t break up the text somehow.

Oh, and MEGO means ‘my eyes glaze over’.

Another great tip is to add relevance. Why are you writing about what you’re writing about? And why should your readers care in the first place? Without relating your copy to their needs, they won’t read it.

Ouch.

And the tip about adding humor? I like to think I do that, too. At least, I hope you’re pleased. I don’t expect you to fall off your chair, or anything.

So the other part of interesting marketing is it’s necessary even when the topic is fascinating. After all, and trust me on this one, folks – this is all too easy to do. When it comes to writing marketing copy, if you don’t watch it, you can make anything boring.

Interesting Marketing

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! More interesting marketing copy will help your business make more money.

#4. Use Brainstorming More Effectively

Check out this spectacular tip, all about bettering and perfecting your brainstorming process. Under 30 CEO notes that one fantastic way to spur creativity is – get this – boredom.

So walk away from the problem or issue for a while. The solution may come to you when you least expect it. There’s an awfully good reason why a lot of us get our best ideas in the shower.

A related tip was to change your scenery and thereby change your perspective. Take a new route to work. Move the furniture in your office. Bring in a plant. Head out to the coffee shop to get some work done. Your creativity will be all the better for it.

#3. Build Interest in Your Products and Services

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can get prospects more interested in your product. We figure this can also apply to services. Talk about your interesting marketing! HubSpot tells us that engaging the prospect is vital. And they gave a fascinating method for doing just that.

Picture this.

A sales person calls you and you’re interested enough to not just hang up. And then after a while, they say to you, “There’s one more thing I want to talk about before our conversation ends. Would you be so kind to remind me of it before we hang up?”

That’s a brilliant bit of marketing.

Why?

Because it does two things. One, it gauges if someone is truly paying attention and interested. If you’re not, then you won’t remind the caller. You’ll just end the call as soon as you politely can. But if you are interested, then you may be intrigued by whatever that extra thing is. Is it a discount? A slightly different offering which would suit you better? A free gift?”

And the other thing it does is, it gives the caller a reason to extend the conversation. Which just so happens to be another of the terrific tips in that article.

#2. Creativity is Awesome – But Ranking in Search is Equally Awesome

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on SEO copywriting. Because along with all of that interesting marketing language, you do still need to rank in search. Word Stream reveals all about ranking on Google. And while there are other search engines, the bottom line is Google is the big, 900 pound gorilla. And that’s not even including Google Images search, which is technically separate.

So if there’s a choice between what Bing wants and what Google wants, the answer is clear. Sorry, Bing.

This is another article to read in its entirety. So we’ll just cherry pick a few points here.

Keyword Intention

Why are people searching for … whatever it is they’re searching for? There’s a marked difference between a search for the history of Christmas and one for how to throw a great Christmas party.

Google loves it when you match intent to content. So if you’re selling, for example, Christmas ornaments, you need to lay off the history of them or just mention it in passing before getting to the goods.

And for people looking for the history of Christmas trees, you’re not matching their intent if you associate that keyword phrase with a page where you’re selling wreaths. Not only do you have the product wrong, but you’re also not matching searcher intention.

Target Ancillary Keywords

Just what does that mean? It means that if you’re selling Christmas tree ornaments, you might want to add phrases like Christmas angel, holiday ornament, and Xmas decorations to your content. Often a great piece of content can rank for more than one key phrase. Related keyword phrases bolster your case for ranking on any of those phrases.

One great place where you see this is the related searches section. Your related keyword phrases are, if you select them well, going to answer those related search queries as well. And that means they’ll be on the first page of related search results.

#1. How Do You Use Your Organizational Chart? Wait, You Don’t Use Yours? Here’s How You Can

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on making your organizational chart more useful. A bit different from interesting marketing, but still helpful for running a business, eh? E One Network says there are better uses for an org chart than just as something pinned to the bulletin in the break room and then forgotten and covered by a flyer asking for a car pooling buddy.

Our fave tip was to ditch the names. It’s a great idea. Consider this. People may move around or come and go. So instead of continuously changing it, why not just show that the Content Manager (er, that’s me) has a writer under her? If there’s another writer hired, or 50 hired, then the relationship is already in place.  A new employee hired a year from now can use the exact same chart as one hired 20 years ago.

Not bad for a simple file, eh?

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now?

Interesting Marketing

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! More interesting marketing copy will help your business make more money.

The post Interesting Marketing Tips for You – 10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Embrace Business Delegating and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Get Ahead With Smart Business Delegating and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Business delegating is going to save you time, money, and mental bandwidth.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Up Go Your Sales and Revenues – Here’s How

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about boosting sales and revenues. Young Upstarts says there is an actual difference between sales and revenue. The difference is as follows. Sales is the numerical total of the products sold, while revenue is the total amount of cash which was taken in because of the sales. 

One tip we really loved was all about prices.

Rethink Your Pricing Strategy

Prices should not be written in stone tablets, never to be changed. 

So check out what your competitors are doing. It may be better to lower your prices rather than raise them, by the way. A lower price can keep your products, and thereby your company, competitive. And raising your prices can help your business make more money with fewer sales or at least without having to increase your sales.

Whichever way works, be intentional about it. We are big, big fans of metrics and data here. So don’t change your prices without concrete support from unshakeable numbers.

#9. Banish the Churn

The next awesome tip is about avoiding buyer churn. LinkedIn notes that technology, unsurprisingly, can come to your rescue.

Churn is when you lose customers for some reason or another. A subscription service might see people cancel. A local shop could see people move out of the area. And an online business might find their customers are surfing elsewhere.

So, why are customers leaving?

Understanding why customers jump ship is key to preventing more defections. And it all comes from – surprise! – data. Many customers leave because they perceive a disorganization in a business, or a lack of service – or both. Better technology can help with both. Make your business decisions with objective data, not subjective anecdotes.

Business Delegating Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Business delegating will transform your business.

#8. Put the Customer First. Always.

Our following life-changing tip concerns customer-centric selling. Help Scout lays it all out for us. 

Our favorite tip from this article was the part about leading with curiosity. But what, precisely, does that mean?

Imagine you’re selling television sets. You can just sell the TV and be done with it. Or you can engage the customer in some conversation where you ask curious-style questions:

  • Looking to watch the big game? Who do you favor?
  • Do you like to game? Let me show you how to use the TV with your gaming system
  • Oh, what a cute baby! Need to watch TV while the little one is asleep? Let me show you how to put on the captions
  • I see your kids are loving the set! Do you want to learn how to get a handle on what they’re watching, and block some content?

You get the idea. 

Your mission in sales is to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. This means wanting to know what they know. And it means trying to learn the things they need to know but don’t know yet. 

#7. Save Your Health From the Effects of Sitting at a Desk All Day

For our next sensational tip, we looked at overcoming the harmful health effects of an office job. Effortless HR says that there are ways to incorporate some exercise into your day – and that will help to preserve your health.

We kind of liked the idea of making office calls. But we want to take it one step further. 

So it’s time for a true story.

The Mentor and the Walking Meetings

Back in the day (early in this century), your intrepid blog writer worked for a major publishing company right in the city. This was a job I used to get to via public transportation. I would also add more exercise to my day by getting off at a bus stop before the one I was supposed to get off at.

Then there was mentoring.

I signed up for this (I was the oldest person who did, by far!) because I knew so little about the publishing industry when I was hired. This woman turned out to be within 10 years of my age, and we got along famously. But the best part was suggesting to her that, weather permitting, we walk for our meetings.

And so we did! We saw a lot more of the city than most people do, while still getting done what we needed to do.

Will a walking meeting work for you? Maybe for a short meeting where it’s not expected a lot of notes will be taken. Try it. What have you got to lose?

#6. Stop Overworking – Here’s How

This tip is so smart, and it works! Indeed tells us all about bringing back work-life balance and getting off the overworking train. 

Here’s our favorite tip from the article – although we highly recommend reading the whole thing.

Set an Example

You’re the boss. You set the tone. And if you work late every night, guess what happens? A lot of your employees will feel the need to do the same. And if you call or text them at all hours, then they will feel the need to be available to you, 24/7.

True story – your intrepid blog writer has been friends for years with a woman who had a boss who would do both. And this boss would also call at 2 AM, screaming for my friend to do this or that. It was a marketing job. The vast, vast majority of marketing activities are not emergencies. And this was before the internet, so it wasn’t a social media crisis.

That’s nasty. It’s unfair. And it’s borderline abusive.

And my own job several years ago was a place where we were all expected to work late. But I wasn’t getting a lot of work! Rather than sitting around, I took the train home. And that was apparently the 100% wrong thing to do.

I was out of there, fast.

Don’t do that to your employees, or to yourself. Unless you’re curing cancer, working as an air traffic controller, or taking care of the people on the International Space Station, your business is important, yes. But it’s not so important that you can’t take time off and live life outside of it.

#5. Embrace the Power of Business Delegating

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

You don’t have to go it alone. Business delegating is where it’s at.

The Self-Employed says it’s possible to delegate tasks even if they are tasks requiring a lot of skill. It’s all about maintaining relationships.

It’s possible to delegate tasks even if you’re a sole proprietor. Just keep a list of skilled, competent, reliable professionals.

Consider this.

Your Value is More Than Zero

In fact, your value is far more than nothing! Of course, you know this intellectually. But the bottom line is that adding yet another task onto your plate is probably going to cost you money.

Still, what, precisely, is your time worth?

Business Delegating Credit SuiteIf you’ve been recently employed, consider that figure. And think about what you pay yourself (you do pay yourself, right?) and the kind of time you put in. But there’s more, particularly if you haven’t recently been employed anywhere but in your own business. Here are the details.

Think about what was the last big sale you made or account you landed? Got that in your mind? Good!

How much was it worth? And how long did it take to get it? This is everything from research to calls to perhaps visits, advertising, you name it.

Divide the amount of that big sale or account by the number of hours and set that figure aside. Do this again for a few more so you have a few numbers. Now average those numbers. More or less, that’s your hourly value.

So if it took you 100 hours to land a $10,000 sale, then your time is worth $100 per hour.

See why doing the filing is an expensive proposition which you should delegate to someone else?

Let the Professionals Lead the Charge

Do you do your business’s taxes? Payroll? Hiring? There comes a time in every successful business’s life when you stop doing that and you do some business delegating. You send the first two tasks to accountants. You send the last one to an HR professional. You get out of doing those things and you go back to what you do best – landing deals to buy widgets or whatever.

And don’t forget this. Your value should rise, commensurate with your experience, your time in business, and the size of the deals and sales you land. That $100 per hour might turn into $500 or even $5,000 per hour. 

Engage in business delegating and save money – and your own time.

Business Delegating Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Business delegating will transform your business.

#4. Get to the Point

Check out this spectacular tip, all about better focusing your content. Copy Blogger notes that meandering content doesn’t do you any favors.

Preach.

Their best tip was to let first drafts sit and then edit the hell out of them. But what if you can’t? You might have a certain minimum word count and you just made it, so cutting even one word is too many. Or maybe there’s very little time.

C’mere, and I’ll tell you a secret.

Everyone’s on a deadline. 

But here’s how to do the editing dance when there’s very little time or wiggle room with words.

Editing for Fun and Clarity

Is there more than one writer in your company? Then have them switch off and edit each other’s work. This will get the editing done, and in less time. It’s a lot easier to spot errors – and let them go – when they aren’t your errors. 

Only got one writer? Then pair the writer with the employee with the second best writing skills. Not a perfect solution, but not a bad one. 

It’s just you? Then do yourself a favor and take a day to start as many blog posts as you can. This is basically just the bare bones outline and no more. How to Paint a Wall. Where to Find the Best Sushi. Whatever your topic is, just write outlines. And then when you do blog, stick with them as if they were gospel. Your article on the best sushi shouldn’t include where to find great barbecue. Keep two questions in mind:

  1. What are your goals for this piece of content?
  2. What one thing should your audience take away?

Your outline should address both of these points. 

Outlines help to focus your writing, especially if you have no other way to edit. And by getting back to these outlines later, you have let them sit, our favorite tip from this article – to let things sit for at least a day.

#3. Start the 20s With New Marketing Techniques and Tools

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can improve your marketing in 2020. Buzz Sumo tells us that we can start the year off right with a few changes.

We highly recommend reading the entire article, as there are some great, detailed ideas in there. But we want to showcase one in particular. Stories.

Tell Me a Story

This isn’t necessary a story in the sense of a beginning, middle, and end with a protagonist and a story arc. Rather, it is an ephemeral form of content. On Instagram and Facebook, for example, the content is just plain gone pretty quickly. But on both places, people love it.

Why?

There’s something fun and a little mysterious about getting in on a bit of content that others don’t. We might not have backstage passes and maybe we can’t get past the velvet rope at the club. But we can be on Instagram at the right time to experience a story.

Facebook does this to great effect in a thoroughly noncommercial sense. It does it with birthday stories.

And it’s a brilliant piece of advertising.

Say what?

By getting people used to stories and giving them a reason to check them out, Facebook is showing consumers that they just might want to check out stories from marketers. And the beauty of it is that Facebook has been Birthday Central for years. Sometimes a birthday greeting is the only communication between two connections in a year. By associating this seemingly necessary thing (remembering a birthday) with stories, Facebook has even created a demand.

And that’s the story!

#2. Ready, Set, Holidays!

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on readying your business for the holidays. Because they are coming faster than you might think! Score reveals all about getting set for the inevitable.

And we so loved the fact that they led with business delegating! 

We loved two of their ideas which can both be done by someone else. Talk about your business delegating.

It’s Website Facelift Time!

We’re not talking so much about updating the design. It’s more to make sure that you can handle orders and inquiries. If your website goes slow or stops altogether, you’re going to lose sales. And you might even lose future sales.

Dang. 

It’s a great area where you can practice business delegating, too. You can even hire a professional for a look-see to make sure you’re not overlooking anything big.

After all, most people haven’t started holiday shopping yet. There are probably going to be a lot of folks out there who are more than happy to deal with your website for a few hours or days and get a few bucks in anticipation of holiday bills.

It’s Also Office and Store Facelift Time

Now we’re talking about something more artistic. 

How into the holidays are your workers? Do they watch It’s a Wonderful Life once and then call it a season? Or do they have brackets whereby they pit film and TV Santas against each other to see who comes out on top?

I’m partial to Art Carney myself. Fight me.

Either way, a lot of people are into decorating this time of year. This is a great time and place for business delegating, because it’s more fun that way. 

Do your customers, prospects, and non-celebrating employees a favor and don’t make the decorations too religious unless you’re a religious book store or the like. Then have at it! But for most other establishments, snowflakes, bows, and boughs can be festive without excluding anyone.

Same with holiday music. And please don’t make it all Xmas music even if it’s fairly secular! There are plenty of winter tunes which don’t mention the specific holiday at all. Here are a bunch – but they don’t have my personal favorite!

And don’t forget to have fun. You work hard all year. You deserve this.

#1. Leverage Small Business Saturday

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on succeeding on Small Business Saturday. It’ll be here a week from this Saturday! The SBA says Small Business Saturday is a terrific way to usher in the holiday season and make some profit. But you need to be ready.

We really loved two specific ideas. One was to leverage local events. That is, if your town is having a tree lighting ceremony, and are a salon, why not hand out little cards with basic skin care tips for the cold weather to the people outside watching the ceremony?  

The other idea we loved should be no surprise – keeping track of what works, and what doesn’t. Otherwise, how will you know what to do next year?

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Business Delegating Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Business delegating will transform your business.

The post Embrace Business Delegating and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.