The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Weblog

Discover the Secret to Avoiding the Roller Coaster Income Syndrome

If you're like most small business owners, when you need business you run out and do lots of marketing; then you get so busy working you get have no time to seek out new clients. The money's flowing and you get complacent. However, then you finish up your projects and clients and guess what! There's no business again! And the income drops! You're riding the roller coaster income syndrome and there's only one way out: consistency. You need to create an ongoing marketing engine that runs whether you're busy or whether you're bored!

2008 Small Business Marketing and Business Planning

If you’re like other entrepreneurs, you started your business because you had a dream. A dream of bringing your passion to life…having the freedom to make your own rules and decisions…and putting money into YOUR pocket rather then making someone else rich.

But then something happened. You find yourself doing tasks you find draining rather then invigorating, you have a to-do list a mile long and it never seems to get any shorter and you don’t have any time to do anything except work in your business. And worst of all, the money doesn’t seem to be flowing in the way you thought it would be.

How did this happen? I encourage you to really think about this question: “Are You Planning to Succeed or Not To Fail?” If you are like 95% of the other small business owners out there, you probably don’t have a strategic plan that ensures you will achieve your desired outcome. If you want to come and play with the 5% of us that are getting exactly what we want out of our businesses, then it is time to put some pen to paper and create a strategic plan.

Small Business Blogging Benefits

Blogging has become quite popular for small businesses as of late. I have noticed on PR Leads that there are several story requests for experts to talk about the benefits of blogging for small businesses. So , I decided I better do my homework and see what this is all about. It turns out that there are several benefits to blogging for small businesses. Here are the most important ones:

1. Blogging Software is Super Easy to Use: Simply write your thoughts , link to resources , and publish to your blog , all at the push of a few buttons. I use the software blogger.com. It took me 2 minutes to set up my account and 3 minutes to publish my first blog.
2. Build Relationships Online: Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. You have the opportunity to share a piece of yourself with your community allowing them to get to know you better.
3. Higher Search Engine Rankings: Search engine marketing is hot. Business bloggers are achieving top search engine rankings because search engines rank based on link popularity and easy to index regular content among other factors. Learning the basic skills of search engine optimization and good content management are keys to better rankings for bloggers.
4. Easy Communication: The biggest benefit of Blogging or RSS (see definition below) for your web audience can prove to be a better solution for notification than websites themselves or email. As indicated by Bill Gates in a speech at the Microsoft CEO Summit 2004 in Redmond , Washington: “if you just put information on a Web site , then people don't know to come visit that Web site , and it's very painful to keep visiting somebody's Web site and it never changes. It's very typical that a lot of the Web sites you go to that are personal in nature just eventually go completely stale and you waste time looking at it… And so , getting away from the drawbacks of e-mail -- that it's too imposing -- and yet the drawbacks of the Web site -- that you don't know if there's something new and interesting there – this [blogs & RSS] is about solving that.’

Definitions:

RSS - RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary , an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web , also known as syndication. First started by Netscape as part of the My Netscape site , it expanded through Dave Winer and Userland.

Blog - Weblog , web log or simply a blog , is a web application which contains periodic posts on a common webpage. These posts are often but not necessarily in reverse chronological order. Such a website would typically be accessible to any Internet user.

Need a Resource:  I reccommend The Blog Squad - They handled all of my set up and development. www.buildabetterblog.com - Tell them UpLevel recommended them.

Entreprenuers: Avoid the Roller Coaster Income Syndrome!

Discover the Secret to Avoiding the Roller Coaster Income Syndrome

If you’re like most small business owners, when you need business you run out and do lots of marketing; then you get so busy working you get have no time to seek out new clients. The money’s flowing and you get complacent. However, then you finish up your projects and clients and guess what! There’s no business again! And the income drops! You’re riding the roller coaster income syndrome and there’s only one way out: consistency. You need to create an ongoing marketing engine that runs whether you’re busy or whether you’re bored!

Preparing a marketing plan is your first step. You’ll need to conduct some market research to determine who your ideal client is, what their needs are, how you can meet their needs, where you can find them, how you will reach them, and the daily activities you need to do to keep your pipeline full. Some of these activities may include networking, speaking, seminars, teleclasses, and e-zines. All of these are active forms of marketing that take your time, unless you can delegate some of the activities or automate them. You can also count on a steady stream of income when you have in place various sources of passive income, such as from products sales, affiliates, or referrals fees.