Thursday 11 December 2014

10 Business Secrets for Entrepreneurs


So, you are an entrepreneur and that's super! You are providing something to the world that makes world better or somebody's life more interesting or easier. Welcome to the club! However good to know those simple and important secrets (some of them you have have come across already):

to succeed in business you should to focus on yourself
Focus on client, find your target audience and do all just for it. Manager need to focus on employees so they can do their job efficient. That's actually all true! However it's difficult to focus on your target customer or employees or etc etc if you don't have the right focus of yourself. You need to spend enough time to find yourself and find the balance inside you. If you are not well balanced in your inner world how can you try to balance the outside world? Before you start focusing on your clients and team in a proper way, try to focus on your needs and find the balance in your inner world.

you give up what you have started when the success is @"your door"
One of the main failures of entrepreneurs is to give up things. The main problem here is that they give up things without knowing that the success was knocking at their door the following day, that they were very close to their success. Majority of the problems start really when you are finishing. Think of a long run or marathon@ start is quite easy and at the end you are nearly dead however the difference between long run and business is that in long run you see where the finish and in business you should feel it and be patient to wait and be persistent (stubborn if you want) to keep on going.

not all the difficulties can be foreseen
We write business plans and try to make market analysis however not all the difficulties can be foreseen. Some of the difficulties that happen can be turned into opportunities. And you need to be ready to maneuver and think according to the circumstances instead of giving up just because things happen not according to the plan.

the worst enemy of your business is you
Majority of the entrepreneurs see their goal to knock down the rivals however they don't notice that the main rival is themselves. They keep themselves busy fighting with rivals instead of focusing on business development and innovative ideas. Be different and focus on your business and yourself and you won't have rivals and be busy with happy and devoted customers.

you can succeed in business even without reaching the final goal
You have started the business and this is your success, you have made first steps and sales and this is a success. All the way consists of small wins. Celebrate each one and keep sailing to the main goal.

real success in business comes slowly however you can always speed up the course of events
Real business values need time to grow like any plant or tree. They can become values overnight, they needs months and years. You can jump over 1 km of distance however you can choose the right way and follow your right way creating great business values. You can learn how to run the distance quicker and master skills over coming problems and yes, you will move quicker and get wiser and learn each time.

business and sales start at the same time
YES! sales starts from the moment you have an idea and try to explain ("sell") it to your friends and family, sales start with company name, website design, product development, concepts design. When we decide to start the business, sales happen to be in every single step of the journey.

motivate yourself and it will be easier to motivate others
People management is a difficult science. Having emotions, people are quite difficult to control however! you probably have noticed that some managers have no problem with it. And the reason why is that they start with themselves! They motivate themselves and this emotional intelligence helps to be a great leadership example for team members.

it's easy to make customer happy if you are happy
Put your time and efforts to create and deliver a great product and you will be happy to serve more and more happy customers instead of resolving complaints.

anyone can achieve success in business
Business is not a gamble. Success is coming after following the plan, calculating risks, responding effectively to problems and working hard. Entrepreneur is a jack of all trades. Only having knowledge in many business aspects can help him to react quickly to the situation and be creative with opportunities. Practicing and "swimming" in the business world can help to gain skills and get education where the gap occurs. No time for games. This is acting and reacting. and lots of self satisfaction for creating something new and good for the world and people!

Friday 5 December 2014

7 Signs When You Should Understand You are not a Tree


All of us want a great team and decent salary. Job we enjoy and no stress. However not always we have what we dream about. And even in those situations we say: "No, that's fine. Well, not my dream job however it's ok. I can survive still." Nothing bad about feeling comfortable at work. However even imaginable satisfaction can bring to general calming down effect which can be also imaginable.This is where the danger hidden.
Calming down is good however analyzing and taking action is better. So what are the signs when it's time to move? Several psychologists point out main signs about time for moving on. Let's have a look.
  • you retain status-quo
if you are working in one company for more than 3 years and you are showing interest in career growth however your position and salary remains stable then it's time to think. Statistics says that even in big multinationals withing 3 years should be already some signs of career progression or salary increase.
  • you don't get anything in return
your direct manager doesn't give any feedback on the work you do (which makes it fairly difficult to understand what you are doing right or wrong in your job) or doesn't help to make your career path. good manager will support you in career growth and help with constructive feedback. if you don't have one, try to find another one.
  • you don't learn
you don't come across any difficulties in your job? don't need to learn anything new to do it? this is sign for an action. the job should be challenging and you should be constantly well trained and learn something new. if your company doesn't provide you any training opportunities to do your job better this means it's not interested in your career growth.
  • someone quits from time to time
is it you or it's reality that other people making changes in Linkedin profiles? You shouldn't quit straight away however have a look on what's going on around.
  • your company is constantly doing restructuring
staff restructuring and constant management changes may be for good or may lead to instability in the company. more important it can be obstacle for your career growth because you will have to prove your professional capabilities and show potential each time for new manager.
  • headhunters are after you
if you are getting requests that only mean your position is in a demand in the market. this is a good sign and good sign for your career inside the company and outside of it.
  • you have the feeling that the game is over
your inner voice is demanding changes than maybe it's time for them? in any way you spend 40 hours a week at work this time should be useful, comfortable and joyful.


Tuesday 2 December 2014

Active Sales and How They Work on Sunday Markets


At least once in your life you should have visited a Sunday market. And you have probably noticed that from some sellers you want to buy more than from others and if you come back to the market you are more likely to look for them again. In the first sight you may think what kind of sales strategy or sales techniques can be used at ordinary Sunday market? Just get a nice place where you are well seen, show your goods and wait for customers. Sure this works however the sellers are not only in the central place or first rows and sometimes we still go and look for them.

There are some stages of a classical sales system:
  • Preparation
  • Attracting attention
  • Making contact
  • Presentation
  • Offer
  • Work with objections
  • Conditions negotiation
  • Deal support
Let's walk through this classical system of sales using an example of a Sunday market fruits selling.

Preparation
This is the presentation preparation stage. All the fruits are cleaned and polished, organized by size or color or whatever make them look better for the customer. Customer is buying with eyes and the goods should be presented in all the glory. Potential customer must be willing to buy.

Attracting attention
Everything is in use: bright uniform, big hats, funny or loud voice and greetings, funny or bright signs that attract customer attention. Customer needs to pay attention. If he doesn't come to have a closer look or seller doesn't catch his attention then there will be simply no sale.

Making contact
"Hi" and "How are you?". Small talk about nice day and some compliments for the customer. Nothing extra and all nicely framed with some advice what to buy. Here is the contact established.

Presentation
"Have a look at the great fruits I have here! Those are extremely fresh and tasty! I have apples, pears...." and yes, customer is buying with eyes however audio accompanying visual presentation is covering at least 2 types of customers (audials and visuals). As soon as the stopped his glance on one of the fruits the presentation goes even deeper and there you can touch and try the fruits. Presentation keeps on going till customer asks "How much?".

Offer
The offer is prepared in advance "The price is 5 euro/kg" however (if any hesitation noticed) 4 euro/kg just for you (individual approach!).

Working with objections
"Why so expensive?" will ask the customer. "Freshly delivered from the farm, grown by myself, 100% organic" (replies to the questions with objections are ready in advance.)

Conditions negotiation
"OK, 2 kilos for 8 euro" and if he puts a bit more then price is a bit higher. "And here are plums. Want to try?" and sale goes on.

Deal support
"Let me put it for you in a nice bag and here is my flyer and you get discount for next purchase."

So simple and straight forward however something can be learnt from this:
  1. Following all the sales stages properly makes sale more effective and increases number of transactions.
  2. Customer is buying with eyes. This opportunity should be given.
  3. Without attracting customer's attention there's no sale.
  4. Minimum of instruments (prepared in advance) should be used for making contact.
  5. In the presentation there's no need to have a deep dive in product qualities straight away. Product qualities should be uncovered layer by layer and step by step.
  6. Is customer is asking questions, customer has interest.
  7. Offer should be made only when customer shows interest.
  8. All customer questions should be answered as this increases the level of trust.
  9. Negotiate the conditions of the deals in the beginning.
  10. No need to sell everything at once. Sell one product and then move to another one.
  11. Selling to existing client is easier than to a new one.
  12. Deal support and service increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
And what have you observed at a market?

Monday 1 December 2014

62 Tools Helping to Sell

1. Website
2. Product portfolio diversification
3. Additional sales (with this product people also bought, product combinations and deals) (packages vip, normal, minimum)
4. Goods that are used for company promo
5. Google Adwords (A / B testing, keywords, budget, cleaning words through metric method prospector, 1000 hand column)
6. Target marketing
7. Sales
8. Landing page
9. Marketing in Facebook selling groups
10. Purchase ads in Facebook groups
11. Purchasing existing and well developed groups and pages in Facebook
12. Contests in FaceBook
13. Instagram
14. Cold calling
15. Newsletters (database generation, email newsletters marketing, affiliates)
16. Coupon sites
17. Client aggregators
18. Torrent sites
19. Teaser networks
20. Segmentation downstream \ sites
21. Backgrounds, headers, all elements of websites testing
22. Price testing
23. Different offers like buy 3 for the price of 2
24. Database generation from lottery
25. Affiliate program
26. Partnership for Cooperation
27. Cost reduction
28. Add wholesale \ retail options
29. Franchise
30. Open an office
31. An article/ interview in a magazine or newspaper
32. Tenders
33. Sales from the stage \ presentation \ exhibition
34. Sales via webinar
35. Dealers, agency sales, realtors.
36. Multilevel sales sale
37. Promoters
38. Scripts for sales representatives
39. SEO-optimization
40. Loyalty program: gift card for each client
41. System of employee motivation (bonuses for certain KPI iprovement, over achievement)
42. Free YouTube Channel
43. Advertising on YouTube
44. Buy now and pay later program
45. Follow up with old customers
46. Recommendations from old customers
47. Participation in exhibitions
48. Maintain and monitor sales funnel to control effect of each action
49. Start Buzzbox (viral service recommendations)
50. Advertisements in magazines or newspapers
51. TV ads
52. Advertising on radio
53. Promotion on the radio in expert format 
54. Write a book
55. Electronic bulletin boards, classifieds
56. Advertising on the screens in the shopping centers, cafes, buses
57. Testers distribution
58. Advertising banners on portals
59. Subscription on your website
60. Guest speaking at conferences
61. Use partnership flyers to combine offer and reach more of target audience
62. Make a free infoproduct