Saturday, April 29, 2017

GoogleAdWords vs. Bing Ads: Is Advertising on Secondary Search Engines Worth It?

There’s no question that advertising on Google is well worth your while. With the right keywords and a strong ad, you can generate traffic, leads, or achieve whatever conversion goals you’ve determined make sense for your business.

Of course, some advertising verticals are more competitive than others, with some keywords costing $30, $50, or even $80 per click! Sometimes the profitability of a lead is so great the costs are worth it; however, there are business owners and digital marketers who will ask whether there is a more cost-effective way to generate leads.

One idea is to use secondary search engines. Before you scoff at the thought of putting an advertisement on Bing, Yahoo!, or AOL (after all, who would see it?), consider this: Google, while certainly the undisputed leader in search market share, actually only controls about 64% of the market.

So, who controls the rest?

Bing is by far the largest competitor to Google, holding about 21% of the market, with Yahoo! holding 12% and rounding out the real players in the industry. It’s worth nothing that Google lost the deal for AOL searches to Bing, but with AOL accounting for only 1% of the market, this isn’t that big of a deal.

Bing offers better prices

One of the most compelling reasons to use a secondary search engine like Bing to advertise is that the cost per click (CPC) tends to be lower than it would be on Google AdWords. While this is not always the case, more often than not you can get more “bang for your buck” with Bing than you can with Google—and often significantly more.

Here is an example of a CPC query for a search term on Google, and then another on Bing.

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

As you can see, a Google ad for this particular term costs between three and four times what it would cost on Bing. Of course, Google also gets three times the traffic for this keyword—something that’s important to keep in mind.

Better prices mean a lower customer acquisition cost, which also means you have more room to play around with different strategies within otherwise equal budget constraints. Of course, there’s a reason for Bing’s better prices.

Bing has way less traffic

It is worth reiterating that Bing has significantly less traffic than Google. This means that you will be limited by what can be accomplished in a short period of time, due to the constraints of Bing’s traffic, and if you are targeting a specific demographic or geographic location (as you should be). In fact, in certain areas like Dubai, Google AdWords is mostly used for pay-for-clicks (PPC).

It’s also worth noting that Google users tend to be more tech-savvy, which means they’ll be more receptive to internet-based pitches. This isn’t a slight against Bing users, but the fact is Bing is frequently used as a search engine because it is the default search engine on Microsoft products, which dominate the PC world. This means that Bing users sometimes don’t even realize which search engine they are using.

Bing has more advertising real estate—a mixed blessing

Finally, it’s important to note that Bing tends to have significantly more of its search results taken up by advertisements. This is partially the reason why ads are less expensive on Bing—there are so many more places to put them!

Having lots of ads is a mixed blessing. On one hand, having a page that is almost completely filled with ads (before scrolling down) increases the likelihood that a user will select one of the ads. On the other hand, a page full of ads can negatively impact the user experience, particularly if it means that search results are less relevant on average overall for users.

Notice the difference between a Google SERP and a Bing SERP:

View post on imgur.com

The Google SERP certainly has some ads. The first result is an ad, as well as the top slideshow, and all the results after the first ad are organic results. Beyond that, most of the ads (the slider) are high-quality images that someone searching this term would likely be interested in clicking; visuals add to the page.

View post on imgur.com

In contrast, the Bing SERP is nearly all ads. The sidebar, which takes up more space than a Google sidebar, is full of ads—though the images have the same value that they have on Google. Beyond that, however, the first four results are advertisements, and you can only see a few organic results at the end. While Bing users might not mind this too much, it does make it much more difficult to get a click on your ad.

Ultimately, a mixed approach is best when using search engine ads. Google is indisputably the leader, and so it makes sense to go where the traffic is. On the other hand, secondary search engines like Bing can offer unique opportunities and value that would otherwise be missed. Try both out to determine what’s best for you.

The post GoogleAdWords vs. Bing Ads: Is Advertising on Secondary Search Engines Worth It? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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Designing Effective PPC Landing Pages for Mobile Devices: Advice From Real Experts

As Google Support explains, “Landing page experience is AdWords’ measure of how well your website gives people who click your ads exactly what they’re looking for—quickly and effortlessly. Your landing page is the URL people arrive at after they click your ad, and the experience you offer affects your Ad Rank and therefore your CPC and position in the ad auction. Your ads may show less often (or not at all) if they point to websites that offer a poor user experience.”

This is true whether people are searching via desktop or mobile, but mobile searching is becoming increasingly common. In fact, Google has officially stated that more than 50% of searches globally are now from mobile devices, and in 2016 a Hitwise study reported on by Search Engine Land puts that figure in the United States closer to 60%.

So, how do you handle the unique challenges associated with mobile landing pages? Step one, of course, is to test your site and then follow through on any recommendations. For more strategies, we asked several digital marketing experts for their best tips.

Business value proposition

Your landing page will not be effective without the right value proposition. Bryan Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, shared how his company originally thought their lawn care bidding app would be of value because users could get the best price from local professionals. Instead, the most compelling value proposition, as determined through testing, ended up being speedy service, including same-day service, and the convenience of the app. Are you sure your business value proposition is the right one? Does it need to be updated?

Google quality score

If your score is low, then you probably won’t win the bid. If you do, people who click on your ad will likely be disappointed and, even if you win the bid next time, it’s a waste of time because clicks aren’t leading to conversions.

That statement is from Brock Murray, the co-founder and COO of seoplus+. The remedy? Brock says that “your page has to be hyper relevant, blazing fast, sleek and clean in UX design, and get my attention with an enticing CTA.”

Here’s more advice from Brock: “With Google’s search algorithm updates, the mobile first indexing shift, and the rise of AMP, condensed content is your golden ticket to a mobile audience in 2017. The volume and depth of content that visitors want to see when exploring on desktop is very different than what they can absorb when they’re on their smartphone or tablet. Think of condensed content like your ‘elevator pitch’ that cuts directly to the chase, your core advantages and key messaging. Know what your customer wants and needs to hear and eliminate anything that confuses or distracts from that.”

Cross-device testing

Ahmed Khalifa, founder and director of IgniteRock, a digital consultancy firm, emphasizes the importance of testing your landing page across multiple mobile devices. “Just because,” he says, “you can see it fine on your iPhone does not mean that those on Samsung S7 will be able to see just as clearly.”

He suggests that you first determine the most popular devices being used to access your site, found in Google Analytics under Audience > Mobile > Devices. Once you have this information, you can prioritize your efforts. But, there’s another related issue.

“To make it even more complicated,” Ahmed says, “you should consider the browser that the visitors are using on each mobile device. For example, those using Safari on iPhone might behave differently from those using Chrome on iPhone.”

So, he offers this additional tip: “Within the same section in Google Analytics, if you open a ‘Secondary Dimension,’ then search for ‘Browser’ and click on it, you will have an idea of the mobile devices and browsers used at the same time.”

Relevance, speed, and functionality

My colleague Joe Hunt, director of PPC at DAGMAR Marketing, focuses on relevance, speed, and functionality as key factors critical to mobile landing page success. Specifically, working within the small view port is one of the biggest challenges.

Regardless of the device type, landing page content needs to be perfectly aligned with search intent and totally relevant to ad copy and targeted keywords. Without this continuity, there will be a disconnect upon visitors’ arrival to the page and they will bounce and go elsewhere.

In the mobile space, the page content must be brief and to the point, and contain a strong call-to-action or next step. In other words, present your value proposition and tell the visitor what you want them to do.

Long page load times are a recipe for disaster in the mobile space. You have only seconds to deliver your page, convey a message, and solicit an action. Streamlined pages that use only the essential elements, light coding overhead, and heavily compressed graphics will keep the bandwidth or total file size small.

Design your mobile pages with your users in mind; they are using their fingers, not a mouse. Place CTAs and conversion devices above the fold and visible in the view port when the page first loads. Use larger fonts for CTAs and links so they are easily read or clicked. Cross-check browser compatibility to be sure that your phone numbers initiate calls when clicked. If forms are used, they must be short and easy to complete. Less is more with form completion, so collect the minimum amount of information required to complete the transaction.

Additional tips

Pratik Shah, the director of marketing at Grin, a social shoutout platform, emphasizes the use of anchor tags to direct site visitors to the section of the website where you want their attention. This is especially important if the text above the fold doesn’t share all of the most important information.

Steve Pritchard, SEO consultant for Dreambooth, provides these tips:

  • Ensure the call to action (CTA) is still above the fold; sometimes a responsive design can hide CTAs when they are placed in the sidebar or footer.
  • Try to position CTAs to the left-hand side as this will ensure they are above any text when viewed on mobile.
  • Minimize text through expandable divs, ensuring only the most important points, benefits, or features are prominent.
  • If phone numbers are shown, ensure they include the <a href=”tel:.. variable to ensure the number can be directly called with one click.
  • The size of images should be minimized and the page cached wherever possible to improve landing page load times; this also helps to improve AdWords Quality Score, so can help reduce average CPCs.

The post Designing Effective PPC Landing Pages for Mobile Devices: Advice From Real Experts appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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Friday, April 28, 2017

VA Loan Funding Fee: What You’ll Pay and Why in 2017

When you hear all of the amazing benefits of a VA loan, it’s natural to get a bit excited. You get a lower interest rate and more lenient credit standards than with a conventional loan, there’s no mortgage insurance required, and you don’t even have to make a down payment. You’re bound to think, “What’s the...



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Need Multiple Savings Accounts? Here’s Where to Bank

People typically don’t set aside money for just one big savings goal, and that’s what makes multiple savings accounts so practical. You can use multiple accounts to save for a variety of short-term wants and needs, from going on a tropical vacation to replacing that wonky dishwasher. Separating your savings into different accounts provides a...



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NerdWallet’s Best Credit Card Tips for May 2017

After a long winter, May is a welcome month. Spring is in the air, and summer travel is on the horizon. These tips will set you up for the coming months. Get your first credit card As graduation from high school or college rolls around this month, you may be considering applying for your first...



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Will Stocks Sputter in Spring? 4 Things to Watch

“Sell in May and go away.” It’s a Wall Street cliche. The advice, which purportedly dates back to old England, suggests investors sell stocks in May and return after September. Why? To avoid a period of potentially higher volatility when traders focus on getting to the beach rather than placing trades. The market’s late-April jump,...



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Start a New Habit: Check Your Financial Health

You stop and take your pulse after a vigorous workout — but how often do you stop and take the pulse of your finances? “It’s important for everyone to do, whether they’re just starting out or they’re nearing retirement,” says David Kring, a certified financial planner and owner of Conestoga Wealth Management in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Knowing...



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3 Online Business Ideas for Couch Potatoes

Maybe you like eating ice cream in your underwear — no judgement, live your truth — but if you also aspire to achieve entrepreneurial greatness, consider the infinite possibilities of the world wide web. Truth bomb: Success will likely rely on at least some time spent outside your home (sorry). To help you start a...



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Contract Brewing: A Low-Cost Alternative for Brewery Startups

You’ve run the numbers for starting a craft brewery — and you’re absolutely shocked at the costs. Or maybe you’re lucky enough to already be operating, but you can’t keep up with demand. In either case, one lower-cost alternative is contract brewing. Here’s what you need to know. What is contract brewing? With contract brewing, you...



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How to Choose a Business Idea in About 250 Words

A solid business idea requires creativity, planning and soul-searching. Use these three tips to choose the right business idea. 1. Focus on your skills, experience and passion Go with what you already know or don’t mind learning fast. You don’t need to be an expert right away, but leveraging skills and experience you’ve gained can...



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Mortgage Rates Friday, April 28: Hovering Near 2017 Lows

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans ticked slightly lower, while 15-year fixed-rate loans and 5/1 ARMs were unchanged, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage interest rates published by national lenders Friday morning. Mortgage rates have completed their third week in a row of moving within a very narrow range, less than one-eighth (0.125) of a...



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5 Customer Service Lessons Every Business Needs to Learn

Your small business’s customer service could be driving customers away. How can you know if you’re delivering the level of service customers expect?

Microsoft’s 2016 State of Global Customer Service Report surveyed consumers to see what they want, what they get, and what they don’t get from customer service. Here’s what they said—and five takeaways for your business.

What makes a good customer service experience?

Customers want to get their problems resolved easily and to deal with representatives who know what they’re doing. Specifically, when asked what is the most important element of a satisfying customer service experience, they say:

  • Not having to repeat myself/not being passed to another agent—32%
  • Friendly, knowledgeable customer service agent—28%
  • Resolving a problem on the first contact—24%

What makes customers unhappy with a customer service experience?

When asked what is the most frustrating aspect of a poor customer service experience, respondents say:

  • Not being able to reach a live person for support—36%
  • A customer service agent not having the knowledge or ability to resolve my issue—25%
  • Not being able to resolve my issue or find information I need online—20%
  • Having to repeat or provide my information to the agent(s) – 18%

The older consumers are, the more frustrated they find it when they can’t reach a live person to help them. Thirty-eight percent of those over age 55 say this is frustrating, compared to just 23% of those aged 18 to 34. Younger consumers, in contrast, are more interested in finding information and answers online; 35% say the most frustrating aspect of a poor customer service experience is not being able to resolve the issue or find info they need online.

What channels do people prefer to use to get help?

Most people use a variety of channels depending on their needs. In general, the phone is the preferred way to get help, followed by email and then live chat. However, there are some important age differences. For example, email is the most popular way to get customer service assistance for those aged 18 to 34, while phone is the second most popular channel. For those aged 35 to 55, it’s reversed: They use the phone most often and email is the second most popular channel. However, don’t assume that older consumers don’t use digital channels to get help. Even among those aged 55 and up, almost half (46%) go online for customer service.

What lessons can you learn?

Here are five:

1. Provide a variety of options for getting assistance.

Customers want to “have it their way,” whether that means calling you, emailing you or using live chat. The more alternatives you provide, the more people you’re going to make happy.

2. Give customers the option to help themselves.

Many people like to go online, either on the company’s website or on a general Internet search, to get answers to their questions. Enable this self-service approach by maintaining answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on your site. Keep them updated and current. If your product or service is complex, consider adding how-to videos or online tutorials to help customers learn to use it.

3. Implement live online chat.

Lots of people would prefer to interact with a customer service agent quickly via chat instead of waiting on hold. Investigate chat widgets that you can add to your site or see if your existing customer service solution offers this option.

4. Don’t make customers wait.

Speaking of waiting on hold, the Microsoft survey reports that the majority of customers in all age groups are not willing to wait more than 5 minutes on hold. Choose a communications system that enables you to queue callers based on their issues and quickly get them to an available customer service rep.

5. Listen when customers tell you how they feel.

Plenty of customer service issues could be avoided if business owners paid more attention to customer opinions in the first place. Nearly half of survey respondents aged 18 to 54 and more than half of those aged 55+ don’t believe that brands take action on customer feedback. If you don’t listen to what customers say with their mouths, they’ll start speaking with their wallets as they head over to your competitors.

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What to Buy (and Skip) in May

While you’re stopping to smell the flowers this May, you might want to admire some sweet sales, too. From furniture to Star Wars memorabilia, here’s everything you should buy (and skip) during the month of May. Buy: Furniture and appliances May will be a prime time for making major purchases. That’s because Memorial Day is a...



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6 Daily Life Hacks Entrepreneurs Can Try to Overcome Stress

It’s no secret that life as an entrepreneur is stressful, but you might actually be hindering your success by letting those stressful demands get the best of you.

That’s why we asked six entrepreneurs from FounderSociety the following question:

Q. What’s one daily life hack you use every day to deal with the stressful demands of being an entrepreneur?

1. Connect With Others

Find the best people you can to help and to collaborate with on new ideas to overcome challenges and stressful situations. At Aligned Signs, we are all about connecting with others and this generates trust and effectiveness with your team. —Jessica BakerAligned Signs

2. Breathe

One of the most common meditative practices is known as mindful breathing. Whenever I feel like things are getting overwhelming, I stop and take some deep breaths. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Focusing on breathing lets me take my mind off whatever happens to be freaking me out at the time. —Steven BuchwaldBuchwald & Associates

3. Don’t Focus on Email So Much

Avoid the black hole we call email. Unless you need to fire a message off really quickly, avoid checking your inbox each and every minute. Set aside two to three times per day to check in and get through your inbox, then use the rest of your day to truly focus on the work you need to get done. —Joshua MoeOdigia

4. Force Yourself to Take a Break

A common misconception is that breaks take away time. When I am stressed out and struggling to complete tasks, I take a forced break in order to clear my mind. This typically allows me to overcome mental barriers. —Ajmal SaleemSuprex Learning

 

5. Use a Calendar

Something as simple as a calendar can make all the difference. I have multiple things popping up daily that need to be addressed. I started using an online calendar to prioritize the tasks that needed to get done today, and the ones that need to get done on a later day. When something pops up that is not urgent, I just toss it in the calendar for a different day and focus on the things that need to get done now. —Bryan Driscoll, Driscoll Insurance Services, LLC

6. Meditate

Ever since I started meditating every morning, I’ve seen a drastic improvement in my mental focus throughout the day. I view meditation as a mental workout that makes my mind stronger, the same way lifting weights makes your muscles stronger. —Todd GiannattasioTresnic Media

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Online Reputation Management: Take Control of the First Page of Google

By Michael Klazema

You are about to walk into one of the first interviews of your professional life. Perhaps you are seeking a summer internship, or maybe you are going after your first post-college job. Either way, you are justifiably wondering what to expect.

How will your prospective employers react to you? What questions will they ask you? And perhaps most importantly, what will your hiring managers do after the interview to decide whether they want to extend a job offer?

I’ll answer the last of those questions with a question: If you were working on a school assignment and needed to find more information about someone or something, what would you do? If you answered, “Look it up online,” then you have a pretty good idea of what any prospective employer is going to do.

Employers will begin in different places when they start searching for you on the internet. Some will hit LinkedIn first since it is the “professional hub” of social media. Others will head straight to Facebook or Twitter to dig up more colorful findings. Plenty will start by typing your name into Google, just to see what happens.

How Visible Are You?

How relevant your Google search results are will depend, in part, on how common your name is. If you have a common name, there might not even be a mention of you in the first few pages of a Google search, let alone content that you don’t want employers to see.

Still, Google searches are easy to hone with details about your college or other location parameters, which means that a common name won’t shield your internet skeletons forever. If you have a less common name, employers won’t have to work as hard to find mentions of you.

The bottom line is this: What comes up in your Google search could impact your job chances. Doing what you can to control what ends up on those first two or three pages of Google search results is essential to helping you land that key internship or dream job.

Don’t think you’re in the clear if your name isn’t showing up near the top of the Google results, either. You want to be visible on Google. Visibility is linked with notability, and you want to be notable—whether you are trying to grow your online following or land your first job. You want to be on the first page of Google search results and you want any mentions of your name to be positive. This balancing act isn’t easy to achieve and it certainly can’t be developed overnight, but it can be done.

What Do People See When They Google You?

So how can you take control of the first page of Google? The obvious first step is just to Google yourself and see what comes up. Here are a few “Good” and “Bad” signs to look for in the results that you see:

The Good:

  • You have a personal website and it is near the top of the rankings.
  • Your Twitter or LinkedIn account is near the top of the rankings.
  • Blogs or articles you’ve written rank highly.
  • There are mentions of awards or other recognition you’ve recently received.
  • Most of the top results are about you.
  • Most of the top results are recent and relevant.

The Bad:

  • Many of the top-ranking results are about other people who share your name.
  • Top results include old information about you that is no longer relevant or accurate.
  • Results include offensive or immature blogs, photos, YouTube videos, social media posts, or forum comments that you posted years ago.
  • Your name comes up in association with negative things—including criminal investigations, alcohol and drugs, lawsuits or other court proceedings, and more.
  • Your name does not come up at all.

Obviously, this encompasses just a few of the types of content that might come up in your Google search. However, it should give you a basic idea of what constitutes good and bad personal branding on Google.

A quick hint before we move on: Now might be a good time to take a screenshot and make a quick copy of your top 20 results or so. By knowing which results ranked where on your first search, you can track the impact of changes you might make later on.

Conquering Google: What You Need to Do

Once you’ve self-Googled, you can start building a strategy for how you are going to brand yourself more effectively online. The optimal strategy for “conquering Google” will vary from person to person. If your Google results are great, you might not have to do much. If they are exceedingly poor, you might have to do a fair amount of damage control (deleting old posts, cleaning up social accounts, etc.) before you get started on other steps.

In most cases, the following steps will be effective to improve your Google search results and boost your personal online branding.

Start producing content about yourself

If you can write, start a blog. Cover various topics related to your interests and the field in which you are hoping to work. If you aren’t a writer, you might consider hiring a branding company to pen articles that frame you as an authority or source about a topic related to your industry. In any case, content marketing that portrays you in a positive light can never hurt.

Build a website

If you don’t have a website yet, build one. The information and features of the site will vary depending on who you are, what you do, and what you want to achieve in the professional world, but having an official site with your first and last name in the domain will do wonders for your Google results.

Claim your domain

Speaking of your website, claim that domain name with your own name right now. Even if the most obvious incarnation of the domain is taken, consider variations—including using middle names. Having a unique domain name associated with your name is an essential strategy to dominating the top Google search results with positive content.

Use SEO

Smart use of keywords, keyword phrases, and high quality content can all help the pages you have rank higher on Google. We’re not just talking about blogs, either. You can optimize your LinkedIn, your other social accounts, and your online resumes on sites like Monster and CareerBuilder so that they are more easily searchable.

Don’t forget video

Written content is a great way to share your expertise, but video content is just as important. People today are more likely to watch or share videos than they are to engage with written content. YouTube is also a Google-owned company, so it gets a healthy boost in Google search results. Start a “vlog” (a video blog) where you share expertise, tips, tutorials, or even “about me” tidbits.

Be more social

A big part of personal branding online is being everywhere. There are more social networks than just Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Consider joining other sites like Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, About.me, SlideShare, and more. The more places where your name occurs online, the better chance you have of wiping out outdated or negative results and replacing them with more current and relevant links.

Google is a competitive arena, which means there is no foolproof way to rule the first page of Google results for your name. If you share a name with a famous character or celebrity, you will find it even more difficult to climb onto that first page. However, by using these tips, you should be able to start climbing the ranks of Google while displacing the search results that you don’t want future employees, clients, or partners to see.

About the Author

Post by: Michael Klazema

Michael Klazema has been developing products for preemployment screening and improving online customer experiences in the background screening industry since 2009. He is the lead author and editor for Backgroundchecks.com. Michael lives in Dallas with his family and enjoys the rich culinary histories of various old and new world countries.

Company: BackgroundChecks.com
Website: http://ift.tt/LM2crC
Connect with me Twitter and LinkedIn.

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5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Food Truck Business

When aspiring food-truck proprietors call him for advice, Keith Hill asks a few questions, among them, “Do you watch Food Network?” “Those lines [of customers outside food trucks] are TV lines,” says Hill, a barbecue restaurateur and food-truck owner in San Antonio. “In real life, you could do 50 or 60 for lunch or sometimes...



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Thursday, April 27, 2017

How I Ditched Debt: Active Budgeting Pays Off

In this series, NerdWallet interviews people who have triumphed over debt using a combination of commitment, budgeting and smart financial choices. Their stories may even inspire you to pay off your debt. These newlyweds paid off $20,000 in NEARLY 18 months Like many students, Joanna and Johnny Galbraith relied on loans to help finance their...



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Save When Moving Without a Little Help From Your Friends

Moving is a real pain — which is why it usually takes some amount of enticement for your friends and family to schlep your worldly possessions from one place to another. Eventually, though, you might find that the proverbial beer-and-pizza bribe isn’t enough, and you’re stuck moving on your own. Hiring a moving company is...



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Allowances Don’t Teach Kids About Money — You Do

Many parents tell me they feel guilty about allowances. They aren’t consistent about when and how they give their kids money. They wonder if allowances should be tied to chores. Even how they dole out money can be a problem. Cash is easiest, but much of what kids want to buy — downloads of a...



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3 Negative Messages You Send Your Boss When You Don’t Disconnect While on Vacation

More and more managers today stay connected to the office and even do work while on vacation. This behavior cheats you, your family, and your company in the end.

Vacation time is meant as a reward—a time to relax, unwind, and refresh yourself and spend time with loved ones. It isn’t meant to be another form of “working from home.”

Have you ever wondered what it means if you stay connected even during your time off? Here are three negative things it says about you, and why it is bad for you and your company:

1. You haven’t managed very well.

A good manager has things under control and processes in place to handle anything that comes up, even when he or she is not present. Even if you are the only one who can handle certain things, you should have planned for them either by changes in scheduling or working with your clients or colleagues to ensure it can wait until you get back.

If your involvement is so critical, then there is a risk that things will fall apart if you get distracted or become unavailable, which is a problem that you and your company must address.

If things go wrong, your company’s leadership won’t think it is because you are indispensable; rather, they will think you are the problem.

RELATED: Time Out! How Taking a Vacation Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur

2. You haven’t hired or developed capable staff.

In most cases, management involves overseeing others who do some or all of the work activities. If you constantly need to give them direction, answer questions, or monitor them, then your employees have been poorly selected or poorly developed. As a manager, you should either hire new employees or develop the ones you have.

If you don’t have capable staff, then your company will suffer from poor performance and you will be involved in details you don’t need to be involved in, likely neglecting higher-value activities that are of greater benefit to your company. And your inability to have capable staff to take over when you are on vacation prevents you from testing your staff for promotion, development, and succession planning.

If you don’t fix this problem, your company won’t congratulate you for carrying the load, they will see you as the roadblock.

3. You are too controlling.

Even if you feel you are smarter and more experienced than your staff, you’ll be surprised to learn that it doesn’t mean others can’t make the right decisions and successfully get things done. Leaving for vacation and letting go while one of your direct reports takes over isn’t a sign of weakness or putting your success at risk.

And if you won’t let go because you want to keep your power, or you don’t want to be seen as weak or unnecessary by allowing your staff to succeed and be in the spotlight while you are away, your company’s leadership won’t see you as critical to them, they will see you as an impediment to a well-functioning group with a deep pool of resources and abilities.

RELATED: How Much Vacation Do Your Employees Need to Be More Productive?

 

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How Salespeople Can Get the Most Out of Their Next Trade Show

What do you think is the most important factor that goes into having a successful trade show? The location of your booth? No. It’s the preparation you do before a show that will help you achieve the best results.

Here’s what you should be doing to prepare so you get the best sales results at a trade show.

Plan your time.

You will have a limited amount of productive sales time at a trade show, so you will want to maximize your time with meetings with key prospects or alliance partners. The best way to maximize your time is to plan your schedule before you go.

Some trade shows provide lists of attendees before the show. Use the list to determine which prospects you want to meet. Contact them a few weeks before the show since it’s more likely they’ll have time open on their calendar. Your prospects’ time might be limited if they’re also manning a trade show booth, and you might have to meet early or late in the day. Be flexible and open to scheduling meetings during breaks during the day.

Prepare expectations.

You have work to do if your product or company is not a well-known brand. When you set up your appointment, be sure you are ready with a reason from your prospect’s point of view about why it’s important that he or she should meet with you. Then prepare your prospect with the right expectations.

You want to communicate that your company is trustworthy and competent. You want to demonstrate that your product or service is superior. Tell your prospect that you will be sending him information to review so he can get the most out of the meeting. Sending the information before you meet will also demonstrate that you have attention to detail. You don’t want to use your limited and valuable time to demonstrate your competence and credibility.

The information you send should demonstrate your proof of performance and credibility. You can include customer testimonial letters that highlight company performance and results. You also can create a timeline that shows company recognition and milestones.

Be sure to explain the significance of milestones that might not be understood by a prospect. For example, there is no need to explain a “Best Builder” award if you are in the construction industry, or if you received a well-recognized award from your industry trade association. However, you should explain the significance of the number of qualifiers for an award as well as what an award signifies if your prospects are unfamiliar with it.

Set objectives that you can control.

Every sales meeting should move you forward in your sales process, and you need to set objectives that accomplish that. The only way for you to know if a meeting is successful is if you achieved an objective. This means that you should set a sales objective for every meeting that you schedule.

Setting sales objectives beforehand forces you to consider the information you want to learn at the meeting and what you want to get that you don’t already have. Consider setting objectives that you can control. For example, you can’t control whether someone gives you a referral or not; however, you can ask for a referral which is in your control.

Set minimum and maximum objectives so you are certain to stay motivated during the entire sales process. You might not achieve the maximum objective of making a sale, but you certainly can achieve the minimum objective of asking for a contact’s name at a particular company. Once you have achieved an objective, you can feel positive knowing that you are moving forward, even if it’s slowly, in your sales process.

With so many qualified buyers gathered in one place, trade shows offer the perfect forum for making a sale. Next time you’re at a trade show, you can save some of your valuable selling time with a little strategic preparation.

The post How Salespeople Can Get the Most Out of Their Next Trade Show appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Growing a Business Too Quickly

By Brandon Vallorani

In my early days as an entrepreneur, I repeated phrases like “Expand or Die” and “Go Big or Go Home” around the office. It worked. Since 2012, we’ve made the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies five years in a row!

To achieve this award for five years is challenging because the bigger you grow your revenue one year, the more revenue you must generate the following year. Thanks to an excellent team, we’ve succeeded in doing so. It’s exciting to focus on growth—especially for a startup.

But while you are admiring the bigger and bigger numbers each quarter, tiny cracks can appear in your foundation that threaten to bring your empire down. There are most certainly growing pains as well—pitfalls that have brought us to the brink of disaster.

Here are five pitfalls to avoid:

1. Hiring blunders

It’s easy when a business is young to hire people you know and trust like friends and family. Sometimes as you’re growing, you’ll find yourself hiring anyone and everyone just to keep the work going forward, even if their performance is subpar on entry. After all, recruiting can be time-consuming and expensive.

For many startups, early team members are often handed big titles. Will they be able to live up to the responsibilities their title demands as your business grows? Do they have the experience and/or education necessary to lead when you move from your garage to a corporate office? Did you hire two people for a position that one more qualified person might have been able to handle?

You don’t need the pain and drama of firing people you hired at the beginning. So, be careful what promises you make and seek to recruit qualified people at the start. Also avoid bloating your payroll costs with extra personnel.

2. Cash crunch

A business that is growing quickly can consume its profits for breakfast, and leave nothing for lunch and dinner as it experiences explosive growth. Before you know it, you’ve created a hungry monster that needs cash to make payroll, pay for advertising, and buy more inventory just to keep moving forward. Your amazing business could literally starve to death.

As revenue flows in, it’s tempting to put all of it into achieving the next level. While this is necessary to continue growing your business, make sure you are also keeping cash in reserve to get you through lean seasons.

3. Mission creep

When a business grows too quickly, many founders lose sight of their original vision. They broaden out so far that their team members forget what the product or service was that built the company in the first place. It’s good to diversify into new areas as long as the core business stays financially healthy and on track. Simultaneously, one can also wade too deep into a particular department that is of more personal interest.

As the company’s chief leader, seek to remain at the thirty-thousand-foot level rather than focus on minute details that can drain your time and energy, keeping you from driving the company’s overall mission forward.

4. Bad credit

Many startups struggle to find investors and capital, so entrepreneurs often leverage themselves personally to build their businesses. That’s exactly what I did, and I spent the first few years with a mediocre credit score that limited my financial options. I borrowed money to buy inventory and advertising, and then paid it back before any interest was charged. I thought it was smart until I realized that the credit bureaus showed my ratio of debt to available credit as 1 to 1.

To maintain a great credit score, you should only utilize 30% or less of your available credit at any given time. If you don’t separate your personal credit from your business credit, your future ability to borrow money will come to a screeching halt.

5. Boss burnout

Don’t forget why you started your business in the first place. For me, I wanted to earn more money than I could earn working for someone else. But it wasn’t just about the money. Rather, it’s what money could buy: time to travel and enjoy my family.

When a business grows too quickly, it can consume every minute of your day, making you reactive rather than proactive. Even if you do take a vacation, you’ll spend it answering emails and taking phone calls.

Don’t let your business become a runaway train while you race down the tracks trying to catch it. Be the engineer. Maintain a safe and steady speed so that you can stop and refuel when needed. What’s the point if you don’t take some time to reap the rewards of your hard work? Remember to take time for yourself and your family, and remember why you started your business.

About the Author

Post by: Brandon Vallorani

Brandon Vallorani is a practiced entrepreneur and accomplished CEO. He founded an Inc. 5000 media conglomerate, which has been recognized by the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies every year since 2012. Brandon has now has shifted his focus to Vallorani Estates, a luxury brand of fresh-roasted coffee, wine, cigars, and olive oil.

Company: Vallorani Estates
Website: http://ift.tt/2p8ti17
Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post 5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Growing a Business Too Quickly appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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Mortgage Rates Thursday, April 27: Lower After Trump Tax Plan Preview

Mortgage rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate loans, as well as 5/1 ARMs, all eased a bit lower today, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage rates published by national lenders Thursday morning. The preview of the Trump tax plan on Wednesday didn’t compel the bond market to make a major move. But after a week of...



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A Hardware Renaissance Grows in Brooklyn — and Elsewhere

Technology, investors and entrepreneurs are behind a groundswell of innovation in hardware. A Brooklyn center dedicated to commercializing hardware start-ups shows the trend.

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Trump’s Tax Plan: Big Changes, Big Unknowns

President Donald Trump proposed big changes to the U.S. tax system on the campaign trail, but Wednesday’s announcement of the White House’s new tax plan may mark the start of where the rubber meets the road for many Americans and their tax bills. What does it mean for you? Here’s a guide to what is (and isn’t)...



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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

6 Daily Life Hacks Entrepreneurs Can Try to Overcome Stress

It’s no secret that life as an entrepreneur is stressful, but you might actually be hindering your success by letting those stressful demands get the best of you.

That’s why we asked six entrepreneurs from FounderSociety the following question:

Q. What’s one daily life hack you use every day to deal with the stressful demands of being an entrepreneur?

1. Connect With Others

Find the best people you can to help and to collaborate with on new ideas to overcome challenges and stressful situations. At Aligned Signs, we are all about connecting with others and this generates trust and effectiveness with your team. —Jessica BakerAligned Signs

2. Breathe

One of the most common meditative practices is known as mindful breathing. Whenever I feel like things are getting overwhelming, I stop and take some deep breaths. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Focusing on breathing lets me take my mind off whatever happens to be freaking me out at the time. —Steven BuchwaldBuchwald & Associates

3. Don’t Focus on Email So Much

Avoid the black hole we call email. Unless you need to fire a message off really quickly, avoid checking your inbox each and every minute. Set aside two to three times per day to check in and get through your inbox, then use the rest of your day to truly focus on the work you need to get done. —Joshua MoeOdigia

4. Force Yourself to Take a Break

A common misconception is that breaks take away time. When I am stressed out and struggling to complete tasks, I take a forced break in order to clear my mind. This typically allows me to overcome mental barriers. —Ajmal SaleemSuprex Learning

 

5. Use a Calendar

Something as simple as a calendar can make all the difference. I have multiple things popping up daily that need to be addressed. I started using an online calendar to prioritize the tasks that needed to get done today, and the ones that need to get done on a later day. When something pops up that is not urgent, I just toss it in the calendar for a different day and focus on the things that need to get done now. —Bryan Driscoll, Driscoll Insurance Services, LLC

6. Meditate

Ever since I started meditating every morning, I’ve seen a drastic improvement in my mental focus throughout the day. I view meditation as a mental workout that makes my mind stronger, the same way lifting weights makes your muscles stronger. —Todd GiannattasioTresnic Media

The post 6 Daily Life Hacks Entrepreneurs Can Try to Overcome Stress appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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Online Reputation Management: Take Control of the First Page of Google

By Michael Klazema

You are about to walk into one of the first interviews of your professional life. Perhaps you are seeking a summer internship, or maybe you are going after your first post-college job. Either way, you are justifiably wondering what to expect.

How will your prospective employers react to you? What questions will they ask you? And perhaps most importantly, what will your hiring managers do after the interview to decide whether they want to extend a job offer?

I’ll answer the last of those questions with a question: If you were working on a school assignment and needed to find more information about someone or something, what would you do? If you answered, “Look it up online,” then you have a pretty good idea of what any prospective employer is going to do.

Employers will begin in different places when they start searching for you on the internet. Some will hit LinkedIn first since it is the “professional hub” of social media. Others will head straight to Facebook or Twitter to dig up more colorful findings. Plenty will start by typing your name into Google, just to see what happens.

How Visible Are You?

How relevant your Google search results are will depend, in part, on how common your name is. If you have a common name, there might not even be a mention of you in the first few pages of a Google search, let alone content that you don’t want employers to see.

Still, Google searches are easy to hone with details about your college or other location parameters, which means that a common name won’t shield your internet skeletons forever. If you have a less common name, employers won’t have to work as hard to find mentions of you.

The bottom line is this: What comes up in your Google search could impact your job chances. Doing what you can to control what ends up on those first two or three pages of Google search results is essential to helping you land that key internship or dream job.

Don’t think you’re in the clear if your name isn’t showing up near the top of the Google results, either. You want to be visible on Google. Visibility is linked with notability, and you want to be notable—whether you are trying to grow your online following or land your first job. You want to be on the first page of Google search results and you want any mentions of your name to be positive. This balancing act isn’t easy to achieve and it certainly can’t be developed overnight, but it can be done.

What Do People See When They Google You?

So how can you take control of the first page of Google? The obvious first step is just to Google yourself and see what comes up. Here are a few “Good” and “Bad” signs to look for in the results that you see:

The Good:

  • You have a personal website and it is near the top of the rankings.
  • Your Twitter or LinkedIn account is near the top of the rankings.
  • Blogs or articles you’ve written rank highly.
  • There are mentions of awards or other recognition you’ve recently received.
  • Most of the top results are about you.
  • Most of the top results are recent and relevant.

The Bad:

  • Many of the top-ranking results are about other people who share your name.
  • Top results include old information about you that is no longer relevant or accurate.
  • Results include offensive or immature blogs, photos, YouTube videos, social media posts, or forum comments that you posted years ago.
  • Your name comes up in association with negative things—including criminal investigations, alcohol and drugs, lawsuits or other court proceedings, and more.
  • Your name does not come up at all.

Obviously, this encompasses just a few of the types of content that might come up in your Google search. However, it should give you a basic idea of what constitutes good and bad personal branding on Google.

A quick hint before we move on: Now might be a good time to take a screenshot and make a quick copy of your top 20 results or so. By knowing which results ranked where on your first search, you can track the impact of changes you might make later on.

Conquering Google: What You Need to Do

Once you’ve self-Googled, you can start building a strategy for how you are going to brand yourself more effectively online. The optimal strategy for “conquering Google” will vary from person to person. If your Google results are great, you might not have to do much. If they are exceedingly poor, you might have to do a fair amount of damage control (deleting old posts, cleaning up social accounts, etc.) before you get started on other steps.

In most cases, the following steps will be effective to improve your Google search results and boost your personal online branding.

Start producing content about yourself

If you can write, start a blog. Cover various topics related to your interests and the field in which you are hoping to work. If you aren’t a writer, you might consider hiring a branding company to pen articles that frame you as an authority or source about a topic related to your industry. In any case, content marketing that portrays you in a positive light can never hurt.

Build a website

If you don’t have a website yet, build one. The information and features of the site will vary depending on who you are, what you do, and what you want to achieve in the professional world, but having an official site with your first and last name in the domain will do wonders for your Google results.

Claim your domain

Speaking of your website, claim that domain name with your own name right now. Even if the most obvious incarnation of the domain is taken, consider variations—including using middle names. Having a unique domain name associated with your name is an essential strategy to dominating the top Google search results with positive content.

Use SEO

Smart use of keywords, keyword phrases, and high quality content can all help the pages you have rank higher on Google. We’re not just talking about blogs, either. You can optimize your LinkedIn, your other social accounts, and your online resumes on sites like Monster and CareerBuilder so that they are more easily searchable.

Don’t forget video

Written content is a great way to share your expertise, but video content is just as important. People today are more likely to watch or share videos than they are to engage with written content. YouTube is also a Google-owned company, so it gets a healthy boost in Google search results. Start a “vlog” (a video blog) where you share expertise, tips, tutorials, or even “about me” tidbits.

Be more social

A big part of personal branding online is being everywhere. There are more social networks than just Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Consider joining other sites like Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, About.me, SlideShare, and more. The more places where your name occurs online, the better chance you have of wiping out outdated or negative results and replacing them with more current and relevant links.

Google is a competitive arena, which means there is no foolproof way to rule the first page of Google results for your name. If you share a name with a famous character or celebrity, you will find it even more difficult to climb onto that first page. However, by using these tips, you should be able to start climbing the ranks of Google while displacing the search results that you don’t want future employees, clients, or partners to see.

About the Author

Post by: Michael Klazema

Michael Klazema has been developing products for preemployment screening and improving online customer experiences in the background screening industry since 2009. He is the lead author and editor for Backgroundchecks.com. Michael lives in Dallas with his family and enjoys the rich culinary histories of various old and new world countries.

Company: BackgroundChecks.com
Website: http://ift.tt/LM2crC
Connect with me Twitter and LinkedIn.

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5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Growing a Business Too Quickly

By Brandon Vallorani

In my early days as an entrepreneur, I repeated phrases like “Expand or Die” and “Go Big or Go Home” around the office. It worked. Since 2012, we’ve made the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies five years in a row!

To achieve this award for five years is challenging because the bigger you grow your revenue one year, the more revenue you must generate the following year. Thanks to an excellent team, we’ve succeeded in doing so. It’s exciting to focus on growth—especially for a startup.

But while you are admiring the bigger and bigger numbers each quarter, tiny cracks can appear in your foundation that threaten to bring your empire down. There are most certainly growing pains as well—pitfalls that have brought us to the brink of disaster.

Here are five pitfalls to avoid:

1. Hiring blunders

It’s easy when a business is young to hire people you know and trust like friends and family. Sometimes as you’re growing, you’ll find yourself hiring anyone and everyone just to keep the work going forward, even if their performance is subpar on entry. After all, recruiting can be time-consuming and expensive.

For many startups, early team members are often handed big titles. Will they be able to live up to the responsibilities their title demands as your business grows? Do they have the experience and/or education necessary to lead when you move from your garage to a corporate office? Did you hire two people for a position that one more qualified person might have been able to handle?

You don’t need the pain and drama of firing people you hired at the beginning. So, be careful what promises you make and seek to recruit qualified people at the start. Also avoid bloating your payroll costs with extra personnel.

2. Cash crunch

A business that is growing quickly can consume its profits for breakfast, and leave nothing for lunch and dinner as it experiences explosive growth. Before you know it, you’ve created a hungry monster that needs cash to make payroll, pay for advertising, and buy more inventory just to keep moving forward. Your amazing business could literally starve to death.

As revenue flows in, it’s tempting to put all of it into achieving the next level. While this is necessary to continue growing your business, make sure you are also keeping cash in reserve to get you through lean seasons.

3. Mission creep

When a business grows too quickly, many founders lose sight of their original vision. They broaden out so far that their team members forget what the product or service was that built the company in the first place. It’s good to diversify into new areas as long as the core business stays financially healthy and on track. Simultaneously, one can also wade too deep into a particular department that is of more personal interest.

As the company’s chief leader, seek to remain at the thirty-thousand-foot level rather than focus on minute details that can drain your time and energy, keeping you from driving the company’s overall mission forward.

4. Bad credit

Many startups struggle to find investors and capital, so entrepreneurs often leverage themselves personally to build their businesses. That’s exactly what I did, and I spent the first few years with a mediocre credit score that limited my financial options. I borrowed money to buy inventory and advertising, and then paid it back before any interest was charged. I thought it was smart until I realized that the credit bureaus showed my ratio of debt to available credit as 1 to 1.

To maintain a great credit score, you should only utilize 30% or less of your available credit at any given time. If you don’t separate your personal credit from your business credit, your future ability to borrow money will come to a screeching halt.

5. Boss burnout

Don’t forget why you started your business in the first place. For me, I wanted to earn more money than I could earn working for someone else. But it wasn’t just about the money. Rather, it’s what money could buy: time to travel and enjoy my family.

When a business grows too quickly, it can consume every minute of your day, making you reactive rather than proactive. Even if you do take a vacation, you’ll spend it answering emails and taking phone calls.

Don’t let your business become a runaway train while you race down the tracks trying to catch it. Be the engineer. Maintain a safe and steady speed so that you can stop and refuel when needed. What’s the point if you don’t take some time to reap the rewards of your hard work? Remember to take time for yourself and your family, and remember why you started your business.

About the Author

Post by: Brandon Vallorani

Brandon Vallorani is a practiced entrepreneur and accomplished CEO. He founded an Inc. 5000 media conglomerate, which has been recognized by the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies every year since 2012. Brandon has now has shifted his focus to Vallorani Estates, a luxury brand of fresh-roasted coffee, wine, cigars, and olive oil.

Company: Vallorani Estates
Website: http://ift.tt/2p8ti17
Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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How Salespeople Can Get the Most Out of Their Next Trade Show

What do you think is the most important factor that goes into having a successful trade show? The location of your booth? No. It’s the preparation you do before a show that will help you achieve the best results.

Here’s what you should be doing to prepare so you get the best sales results at a trade show.

Plan your time.

You will have a limited amount of productive sales time at a trade show, so you will want to maximize your time with meetings with key prospects or alliance partners. The best way to maximize your time is to plan your schedule before you go.

Some trade shows provide lists of attendees before the show. Use the list to determine which prospects you want to meet. Contact them a few weeks before the show since it’s more likely they’ll have time open on their calendar. Your prospects’ time might be limited if they’re also manning a trade show booth, and you might have to meet early or late in the day. Be flexible and open to scheduling meetings during breaks during the day.

Prepare expectations.

You have work to do if your product or company is not a well-known brand. When you set up your appointment, be sure you are ready with a reason from your prospect’s point of view about why it’s important that he or she should meet with you. Then prepare your prospect with the right expectations.

You want to communicate that your company is trustworthy and competent. You want to demonstrate that your product or service is superior. Tell your prospect that you will be sending him information to review so he can get the most out of the meeting. Sending the information before you meet will also demonstrate that you have attention to detail. You don’t want to use your limited and valuable time to demonstrate your competence and credibility.

The information you send should demonstrate your proof of performance and credibility. You can include customer testimonial letters that highlight company performance and results. You also can create a timeline that shows company recognition and milestones.

Be sure to explain the significance of milestones that might not be understood by a prospect. For example, there is no need to explain a “Best Builder” award if you are in the construction industry, or if you received a well-recognized award from your industry trade association. However, you should explain the significance of the number of qualifiers for an award as well as what an award signifies if your prospects are unfamiliar with it.

Set objectives that you can control.

Every sales meeting should move you forward in your sales process, and you need to set objectives that accomplish that. The only way for you to know if a meeting is successful is if you achieved an objective. This means that you should set a sales objective for every meeting that you schedule.

Setting sales objectives beforehand forces you to consider the information you want to learn at the meeting and what you want to get that you don’t already have. Consider setting objectives that you can control. For example, you can’t control whether someone gives you a referral or not; however, you can ask for a referral which is in your control.

Set minimum and maximum objectives so you are certain to stay motivated during the entire sales process. You might not achieve the maximum objective of making a sale, but you certainly can achieve the minimum objective of asking for a contact’s name at a particular company. Once you have achieved an objective, you can feel positive knowing that you are moving forward, even if it’s slowly, in your sales process.

With so many qualified buyers gathered in one place, trade shows offer the perfect forum for making a sale. Next time you’re at a trade show, you can save some of your valuable selling time with a little strategic preparation.

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Feature: Rei Kawakubo, Interpreter of Dreams

The 74-year-old force behind the avant-garde label Comme des Garçons makes otherworldly clothes that express hidden desires and fears.

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Feature: The C.E.O. of H.I.V.

Michael Weinstein’s AIDS Healthcare Foundation treats an enormous number of patients — and makes an enormous amount of money. Is that why so many activists distrust him?

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Entrepreneurship: Travel Agents for Youth Sports Teams? Not All See It as a Perk

A specialized type of travel agent coordinates travel arrangements for youth sports teams. But not all parents and coaches are thrilled.

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Mortgage Rates Wednesday, April 26: Stepping Higher

Mortgage rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed, as well as 5/1 ARMs, all stepped higher today, according to a NerdWallet survey of current mortgage rates published by national lenders Wednesday morning. Overall home loan applications completed during the week ending April 21 rose 2.7% and refinance volume gained 7% week-over-week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Low rates fueled...



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3 Negative Messages You Send Your Boss When You Don’t Disconnect While on Vacation

More and more managers today stay connected to the office and even do work while on vacation. This behavior cheats you, your family, and your company in the end.

Vacation time is meant as a reward—a time to relax, unwind, and refresh yourself and spend time with loved ones. It isn’t meant to be another form of “working from home.”

Have you ever wondered what it means if you stay connected even during your time off? Here are three negative things it says about you, and why it is bad for you and your company:

1. You haven’t managed very well.

A good manager has things under control and processes in place to handle anything that comes up, even when he or she is not present. Even if you are the only one who can handle certain things, you should have planned for them either by changes in scheduling or working with your clients or colleagues to ensure it can wait until you get back.

If your involvement is so critical, then there is a risk that things will fall apart if you get distracted or become unavailable, which is a problem that you and your company must address.

If things go wrong, your company’s leadership won’t think it is because you are indispensable; rather, they will think you are the problem.

RELATED: Time Out! How Taking a Vacation Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur

2. You haven’t hired or developed capable staff.

In most cases, management involves overseeing others who do some or all of the work activities. If you constantly need to give them direction, answer questions, or monitor them, then your employees have been poorly selected or poorly developed. As a manager, you should either hire new employees or develop the ones you have.

If you don’t have capable staff, then your company will suffer from poor performance and you will be involved in details you don’t need to be involved in, likely neglecting higher-value activities that are of greater benefit to your company. And your inability to have capable staff to take over when you are on vacation prevents you from testing your staff for promotion, development, and succession planning.

If you don’t fix this problem, your company won’t congratulate you for carrying the load, they will see you as the roadblock.

3. You are too controlling.

Even if you feel you are smarter and more experienced than your staff, you’ll be surprised to learn that it doesn’t mean others can’t make the right decisions and successfully get things done. Leaving for vacation and letting go while one of your direct reports takes over isn’t a sign of weakness or putting your success at risk.

And if you won’t let go because you want to keep your power, or you don’t want to be seen as weak or unnecessary by allowing your staff to succeed and be in the spotlight while you are away, your company’s leadership won’t see you as critical to them, they will see you as an impediment to a well-functioning group with a deep pool of resources and abilities.

RELATED: How Much Vacation Do Your Employees Need to Be More Productive?

 

The post 3 Negative Messages You Send Your Boss When You Don’t Disconnect While on Vacation appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post 3 Negative Messages You Send Your Boss When You Don’t Disconnect While on Vacation appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Michel Theriault.



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Student Loan Holders Catch a Home-Buying Break

For many of the 44 million Americans with student loan debt looking to buy a home, qualifying for a mortgage just got a bit easier. Housing giant Fannie Mae this week issued new guidelines about how lenders should evaluate mortgage applicants who have student loans — particularly borrowers on income-driven repayment plans. The changes are...



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How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days

No matter how passionate you are about your small business, every entrepreneur inevitably faces one (or more) of those days where they’re running low on inspiration.

Maybe the creative well has run dry and you’re struggling to get the momentum back. Or maybe it is a little overcast outside, the kind of day where hustling 24/7 has got nothing on daydreaming about taking the day off to relax.

As an entrepreneur, you are your own boss, which can be both a blessing and a curse on days like these. While employees in an office environment have to push themselves to power through the “meh” days, entrepreneurs have the ability to take days off or work half-days if they really need to.

The only caveat here is that you still need to hold yourself accountable to keep up with your work. Too many lazy days off and suddenly you’re faced with a to-do list of what you missed on top of what you still need to do on a regular basis.

When you’re not feeling motivated, what can you do to perk yourself up and get productive? Hint: The answer is not found in a bottomless cup of coffee. Here is how to quickly conquer the blah blues:

Embark on a new walking route

Don’t force yourself to stare at your laptop screen and will your to-do list to get done on its own. If you’re really stuck, one of the best things you can do is get away from your desk and take a quick walk. Physically, walking increases the circulation of blood and oxygen to the brain allowing us to sharpen our memories and help us improve our focus.

When you get outside, walk the road less traveled than your typical one. Don’t walk anywhere where you might get lost, but take different streets in your neighborhood. Stroll through a small park instead of going around it. And use the time to line up in your head three things you’re going to accomplish, and then get them done when you return so you can cross them off your list.

Chew gum

Feeling sleepy? Pop a stick of gum in your mouth and start chewing. Believe it or not, chewing gum has been proven to increase alertness and the ability to pay attention to what’s going on in our environment. Other benefits are it improves reaction time, it fights the urge to consume caffeinated drinks or nicotine, and it can help with multitasking. If you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you can likely do the same while working.

Watch what you’re munching on

Breakfast sandwiches and lattes for breakfast, and takeout for lunch might sound (and taste) delicious, but consuming sugary, heavy food can cause you to suffer a mid-afternoon slump. Keep the 2:30 pm feeling at bay by keeping a supply of berries and almonds handy to curb hunger cravings. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and snack on string cheese and hard-boiled eggs for protein, veggies and hummus, or apples with peanut butter for an added boost of energy.

Do some stream of consciousness writing

Got a deadline coming up and feeling a little bit panicked about getting started? Throw yourself into a bit of stream of consciousness writing first. Don’t feel pressured to do be perfect the first time around—jot down or type anything that falls into your head to get the creative flow going.

Put on a podcast to start and close the day

Before you begin working, look up a new episode of a podcast that you’re currently into and put it on to kick off your day. Allow yourself to get caught up and focused on the narrative while you’re prepping to get ready for work, making breakfast, and getting organized with your to-do list. Once it wraps up (generally most podcasts last between 30 minutes to an hour), switch gears to some music or peace and quiet while you concentrate on getting your work done. At the end of the day, return to your podcast and put on a new episode while you’re tying up loose ends to ensure you stay engaged all day long.

The post How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Deborah Sweeney.



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How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days

No matter how passionate you are about your small business, every entrepreneur inevitably faces one (or more) of those days where they’re running low on inspiration.

Maybe the creative well has run dry and you’re struggling to get the momentum back. Or maybe it is a little overcast outside, the kind of day where hustling 24/7 has got nothing on daydreaming about taking the day off to relax.

As an entrepreneur, you are your own boss, which can be both a blessing and a curse on days like these. While employees in an office environment have to push themselves to power through the “meh” days, entrepreneurs have the ability to take days off or work half-days if they really need to.

The only caveat here is that you still need to hold yourself accountable to keep up with your work. Too many lazy days off and suddenly you’re faced with a to-do list of what you missed on top of what you still need to do on a regular basis.

When you’re not feeling motivated, what can you do to perk yourself up and get productive? Hint: The answer is not found in a bottomless cup of coffee. Here is how to quickly conquer the blah blues:

Embark on a new walking route

Don’t force yourself to stare at your laptop screen and will your to-do list to get done on its own. If you’re really stuck, one of the best things you can do is get away from your desk and take a quick walk. Physically, walking increases the circulation of blood and oxygen to the brain allowing us to sharpen our memories and help us improve our focus.

When you get outside, walk the road less traveled than your typical one. Don’t walk anywhere where you might get lost, but take different streets in your neighborhood. Stroll through a small park instead of going around it. And use the time to line up in your head three things you’re going to accomplish, and then get them done when you return so you can cross them off your list.

Chew gum

Feeling sleepy? Pop a stick of gum in your mouth and start chewing. Believe it or not, chewing gum has been proven to increase alertness and the ability to pay attention to what’s going on in our environment. Other benefits are it improves reaction time, it fights the urge to consume caffeinated drinks or nicotine, and it can help with multitasking. If you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you can likely do the same while working.

Watch what you’re munching on

Breakfast sandwiches and lattes for breakfast, and takeout for lunch might sound (and taste) delicious, but consuming sugary, heavy food can cause you to suffer a mid-afternoon slump. Keep the 2:30 pm feeling at bay by keeping a supply of berries and almonds handy to curb hunger cravings. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and snack on string cheese and hard-boiled eggs for protein, veggies and hummus, or apples with peanut butter for an added boost of energy.

Do some stream of consciousness writing

Got a deadline coming up and feeling a little bit panicked about getting started? Throw yourself into a bit of stream of consciousness writing first. Don’t feel pressured to do be perfect the first time around—jot down or type anything that falls into your head to get the creative flow going.

Put on a podcast to start and close the day

Before you begin working, look up a new episode of a podcast that you’re currently into and put it on to kick off your day. Allow yourself to get caught up and focused on the narrative while you’re prepping to get ready for work, making breakfast, and getting organized with your to-do list. Once it wraps up (generally most podcasts last between 30 minutes to an hour), switch gears to some music or peace and quiet while you concentrate on getting your work done. At the end of the day, return to your podcast and put on a new episode while you’re tying up loose ends to ensure you stay engaged all day long.

The post How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post How Entrepreneurs Can Stay Productive on Sluggish Days appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Deborah Sweeney.



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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

American Brandy Is Surging, Even in Whiskey Country

Copper & Kings, in Kentucky, is just one of many distillers, large and small, betting that brandy will be the next big brown liquor.

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How to Manage Money in Your 30s

Your 30s can be an exciting but challenging decade. While you may be advancing your career and earning more money, you’re also likely juggling more financial responsibilities. Many in this age group are married, given the median age at first marriage is in the late 20s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Parenthood may also...



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Millennials, Take This Savings Lesson From Retirees

Many have mulled this question; few have been lucky enough to answer it: Take lottery winnings as a lump sum or annuity? As with any financial decision, there are pros and cons to both sides. But the pro to a lump sum is often the same as the con: You get to take that money...



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American Brandy Is Surging, Even in Whiskey Country

Copper & Kings, in Kentucky, is just one of many distillers, large and small, betting that brandy will be the next big brown liquor.

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Get to Work on Building Your Unemployment Fund

As if being laid off weren’t stressful enough, most Americans don’t have enough money saved to pay monthly bills if they’re jobless for more than a few weeks. But you can you avoid that added stress: Create an emergency fund now for potential unemployment. A recent NerdWallet study found that Americans don’t save enough to...



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IVF: How to Pay for an Expensive and Emotional Process

After struggling to get pregnant, Nikki and Mike McDermott of Lake Worth, Florida, were determined to do whatever it took to have a family. She took the fertility medication Clomid, underwent $500 in diagnostic tests and tried intrauterine insemination, all without success. McDermott is far from alone. According to data from the Centers for Disease...



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