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Spanish Small Business Owners are Confident

The other day I heard that Spanish small business owners are growing at an incredible rate. Bank of America recently conducted a survey of Hispanic Business Owners... 394 of them to be exact. These were from all over the country. It showed some remarkable and eye-opening statistics. And we all love statistics. Take a look at their confidence numbers: Confidence Statistics 88% think that the Hispanic small business environment will get stronger over the next 10 years. 77% have plans to grow their businesses over the next 5 years. 71% have expectations of increased revenue this year. Almost 40% of them plan to hire and close to 30% plan to apply for expansion loans. 65% of them think that Hispanic small business owners have challenges that others don't. However, most of them feel their culture has been an advantage. 60% see local economic growth over the next year or two and most of them think the national economy is moving in the right direction. Pretty en…

Old School Business Promotion Ideas

Business Promotion includes Flyers, Coupons, Chamber of Commerce, Door to door, oh my! Do I really Need All of That for Business Promotion? Yes. So, I get it. We're firmly in a digital age of business promotion, but that doesn't mean the old marketing methods don't work. On the contrary, they work even better than ever because most people are too lazy to use them. Either most business owners won't do the work required or they think new methods actually work better. Don't get me wrong, new digital marketing works if done right. But most people don't know how or don't think it takes as much work as it really does. Old-school marketing methods have worked for centuries. And because many people are using email, social media, and web advertising, the old methods are hardly used anymore. However, let me ask you a question. Do you get tired of all the email in your inbox? You probably delete things just because you have too much to go through. And you also probably automatically ha…

Juggling Family With Business

Juggling family with business is really tough for some people. They constantly argue about how much time is being spent at work, or talking about work. The kids and other topics seem to be placed down the list and not given the importance they deserve. Juggling family with business requires one thing...Boundaries! Boundaries When Juggling Family With Business Yes, boundaries are necessary. You must set up a division between work and home, while making sure the family understands that your business is part of your life. They shouldn't be too hard on you about wanting to discuss it. They real key is to understand that your spouse and children are more important than your business. If your business fails, what do you have? Your spouse and kids. And, even if you need to work for someone else in the future, you will still have them on your side. So, always put them first. Juggling family with business is easier than you think, if you learn that simple rule. You will hear me say th…

Create The Best Blog Post for SEO

Create the Best Blog Post for SEO So, you want to create the best blog post for SEO. There are many ways to write a blog post. But if you want a blog post that's best for search engines, there's a pretty distinct answer and pattern to follow. From a fundamental view, the best blog post for search engines is ANY BLOG POST on a regular basis. But it get's deeper than that. Added video To create the best blog post for SEO, you need to add video as much as possible. Google loves video and any post with video will hold more weight than one without it. The most important post is a daily one. Nothing else is this important. But video will provide a huge boost. At least 400 words long There's not much to say about this except that it needs to be at least 400 words. This is from experience and not based on any known facts about the Google algorithm, because nobody knows for sure what's in it. 400 words has shown to be about the minimum for effective results. Keyword Optimized …

Tips for Appropriate Workplace Relationships

Ok, this post is not going to be a happy one. But, it needs to be written. I've owned businesses, and been self-employed, for a long time. I always got too close to my employees, make friends too quickly, and craved the kind of comradery that coworkers had. I almost always worked out badly. As a boss or manager, you can't have friends at work. You can be friendly, but you can never truly open up and be friends. This really also goes for coworkers, even if you're not the boss. Why? Lawyers and opportunistic people! It's that simple. The only reason you can't truly make friends at work is the unfortunate part of human nature that makes people try to get ahead by pulling other people down. So, you open up and tell an employee or coworker about your life. It will come back and bite you. They will either use it against you or tell someone else who will. This is truly unfortunate because of the countless hours you spend with the people at work. Most of your life is …

Does Stupid Advertising Really Work?

As I drive to work, an hour each way, I listen to stupid advertising whether I like it or not. It makes me wonder if stupid advertising works or not. My wife says that it's memorable but doesn't make her want to buy anything. So let's take a deeper look at the psychology of stupid advertising. The first thing I wondered about was, "Do these businesses know their ads are annoying, or do they really think they are actually good"? The former would be smart and the latter just makes me sad. I saw a story about a really stupid lawyer ad on YouTube and read the story. The recent graduate set out to make a stupid video, making fun of the current stupid lawyer ads we see on TV. So, he did it and, to his amazement, it worked! His video went viral and he got tons of business from it. Now, this guy did it right. He went above and beyond the usual annoying antics on purpose. In fact, many of the stupid advertising I see is for accident lawyers, used cars, guns & ammo, carpe…

What Can I Do To Market My Business?

"What can I do to market my business?" This is the top question I get when meeting a business owner, or independent salesperson. As soon as I mention what I do for a living, inevitably people want free advice. So, I decided to put together some guidelines that helped me market my business. Make a List You must know who your potential customers are. So, make a list of everyone you know, everyone you've done business with, buy things from, family, friends, past clients, etc. Use a spreadsheet and capture all the basic details. (name, address, city, state, zip, phone, email, relationship, and notes). Add to this list every time you meet someone new, or make a new sale. Get into the habit and never stop doing this. Communicate with your List This is where most people scratch their heads. Communicating with your list is easy, but must be done effectively. This depends on what kind of business you are in. First, you want to get an email system like Outstand. I've loved t…

How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website

How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website So you want to know How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website. You've come to the right place. And, I'll make it easy for you. As I wrote in a previous article, blogging regularly is important to your website rankings. You need to make writing posts as easy as possible. When a good friend of mine shared his blogging method with me, I was intrigued. I love using Siri but I didn't know how to use Siri to dictate blog posts from my phone. Initially, it was easy to find how to use Siri to dictate blog posts to a Mac computer, and even directly on the screen inside the New Posts area of WordPress. But, how to use Siri to do it from my phone took a bit more creativity, which is where my friend Jeff really shines. He's the most creative person I know... next to me of course. So, here's basically how it works. How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website: Log in t…

What a Business Website Is and Isn’t

What a Business Website Is and Isn't Today we will discuss what a business website is and isn't. Many business owners and salespeople think that, "If I build it, they will come". That simply isn't true. If you build a business website, you should be very clear about what you want from it. Among the many purposes of a website, they can be: A digital calling card A means of facilitating consumer inquiries or quote requests A catalog of your items for sale A way for consumers to buy items directly from your website A means of distributing your thoughts on a particular subject A way for people to find you when they search the internet However, a business website will not bring you business without significant, consistent, effort to promote it and to write daily content. The search engines don't recommend your website just because it exists. They recommend websites that feature content pertaining to the inquirer's search terms. But, they only recommend th…

Marketing 101: Build a Local Referral Network

Build a Local Referral Network Why build a local referral network? Every salesperson and business owner dreams of a simple way to generate a steady flow of potential customers. Many turn to advertising, spending thousands of dollars, in hopes of making the phone ring or the customers coming in. There are many available options offered to business owners, some effective and some ineffective. Many expensive options are largely ineffective, which seams counter-intuitive. You'd think spending a bunch of money on advertising would bring in lots of business. However, often times it will simply drain your budget. Much like building a local referral network, the most effective business generation strategies actually take some planning and work to implement. In fact, there may be a correlation between the effort required and the effectiveness because most people won't do it. Have you ever heard the saying, "To have what others don't have, you must do what others are unwilling to do" ? …