It doesn't matter that you're no longer a school child—the prospect of summer can still get you excited about the prospects of adventure: family reunions, school reunions, vacations, day trips, sports, you name it. But nothing can spoil a great time in the hot weather more than… well, the hot weather.
Here are some tips for taking care of yourself and your family this summer:
Marketing your business these days is all about the content you produce that’s valuable to your prospects and customers. Some days the content creation flows like an over-the-banks river, other days barely a trickle. I’ve got a free solution for you!
There are times when those work responsibilities seem to take over, and it appears that you have no time for anything else. Depending upon your situation you may welcome added duties—it might mean your owner-operated business is doing great. But if your health suffers, or there are ruffled feathers at home because you've missed yet another family event, it's time to reassess your work-life balance.
Having some sort of creative outlet is the perfect way to insert some of that balance back in your life. Creating something not only reduces stress and lowers blood pressure, but it allows you to access the parts of your brain which increase concentration, imagination, and inspiration.
My granddaughter and I love to read a wonderfully illustrated children’s book (more on the book later) about a little boy whose grandfather once sewed him a special blanket. Over time, the beloved blanket grew worn and well-used. The disappointed little boy went to his talented grandfather who cut the blanket down and made the child a new coat.
Time went by and the coat became worn so the little boy took it to his grandfather who cut it down into… well, you get the drift. Eventually the grandfather only had enough cloth left to make a button for the boy.
“You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR). You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free.”
– David Meerman Scott, marketing speaker
As small business owners, we're always looking for cost-effective ways to promote our business. With over 400 million members worldwide, LinkedIn can be a great resource for connecting to current clients and customers, as well as a way to bring in new prospects.
Why, you may be asking.
There are the obvious reasons - to collect money and to create a community. Ah, but it goes much deeper than that...
Depending on where you live, the summer can be brutal. It’s too hot to really do much of anything and you’re distracted by thoughts of that summer vacation just around the corner. It’s also the perfect time to market your business while your competitors are feeling like one of those melting clocks in a Salvador Dali painting.
So prep ahead and beat the summer slump with some hot summer marketing!
Here’s how...
Featured Resource this week - Digital Product Delivery
Digital Publishing for eBooks and Downloads
DPD is an easy to use digital publishing platform for selling and delivering downloadable content. Upload your products to DPD and start selling in minutes. With DPD, all sales are paid directly to you with no per-sale fees, bandwidth charges, or commissions.
Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.
Using Twitter for your small business allows you to keep up with your customers in real time, whether it's providing immediate customer service, researching the newest trends, gathering leads, or checking out your competitors. Keeping up-to-date on where Twitter is going can help you plan your marketing strategies, delivering value and providing your customers with the freshest ideas.
While the company has been making a profit, Twitter's stock has been steadily falling over the past year. Since Twitter isn't going anywhere, this means we will be seeing some changes soon. One change, for example, will be not including links and photos in the 140-character limit for tweets in an effort to engage more activity on Twitter.
Featured Resource this week - TurboDial
With turboDial you never leave Infusionsoft – place a phone call to any contact at any time right from MyDay, from a saved search or from contact and opportunity records!
Plan your calls in advance or make them spontaneously – turboDial is the only solution effective for both
Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.
Your business is your baby. Just like a newborn, you want your business to grow and thrive. Keeping track of a child's progress is easy—we can watch the child learn to walk and talk, we have to buy larger clothes when the child has outgrown the old ones, and so on.
But a business's growth can be deceiving. It can be bringing in lots of money, but just as easily, have little in the way of cash flow. Your store could be full of customers, but sales could be down. So how can you tell how well your business is doing?
Featured Resource this week - Time Fusion
Automate Your Appointments
Are you using TimeTrade or Full Slate to give your clients online access for setting appointments with you? If not, you should be!
TimeFusion integrates Infusionsoft with TimeTrade and Full Slate to automate your appointment scheduling!
Check out others who we recommend - solid vendors and products that could benefit your business today.
As of April of 2016, there are over 1.65 billion monthly Facebook users, a 15 percent increase over last year.
One in five page views in the United States occurs on Facebook.
At a billion plus, Facebook has more monthly active users than WhatsApp (500 million), Twitter (284 million) and Instagram (200 million)—combined.
After a grueling week, you finally have some downtime. How will you spend it? Running errands? Cleaning house? Squeezing in a little extra work? Maybe you’ll do absolutely nothing— recharging the batteries, so to speak. If you have kids, you may notice that neither of those options produces a very enjoyable day off, particularly when they insist on spending some time with you.
Are you as crazy busy, day in, day out, as we are? Work, spending time with family, getting the yard ready for summer, hobbies, exercise, household chores, travel… shouldn’t there be more than 24 hours in a day?? Focus, organization, and productivity have a huge impact on our lives and even our peace of mind. Take a look at these 8 amazing apps and tools.