If you are just starting a small business, one of the most important things you will decide is where your location will be. While many people tend to think location does not matter all that much, or think that a good marketing campaign or a strong online presence can easily overcome a poor location, these are not necessarily the case! Of course, with good marketing and a strong online presence, you can certainly improve your chances of success, but your success is still far likelier when you have a good location!

(You might also like The Instant Profit Multiplier For Any Small Business!)

Before you can choose your location, the first thing you need to have set in stone is exactly the sort of people who will be visiting your location. For instance, you should set up near apartments and a college if you are wanting to open a pizza parlor that sells pizzas for $5 apiece, instead of setting up in an upscale part of town. Similarly, if your desire is to make gourmet pizzas that will sell for $20 apiece, stay away from that college and set up your shop in an upscale part of town!

After you decide the part of town that is right for you, you need to pick a location that is highly visible. After all, you might have a great marketing campaign, but much of your business will still come from people who spotted your storefront while driving by. If you choose a highly visible location – and make sure that people can tell while driving by what it is you sell or do – you will greatly increase your chance at success.

Finally, you should make sure your location is easy to reach from the road; this is something many people neglect. People are all about convenience; this means that they will probably end up going elsewhere if they are always having to pull a u-turn or cross four lanes of traffic just to get to your place!

It is really very easy to choose a good location for your small business; all you have to do is know where you should be in order for your business to thrive, and then you need the patience to wait for it to open up!

By starting to take on some writing jobs, you can “live the dream” of working from home - and while you should have no problem finding some writing jobs as long as you have the tools to write well, you will need to have a writer’s resume before you can land these jobs.

A writer’s resume will list your qualifications and education (as well as anything else that might be pertinent to the job for which you are applying), just as a regular resume would do, but with a writer’s resume – instead of listing your work history – you will also need to list the writing jobs you have done.

Of course, this makes things difficult if you are just starting out your career as a freelance writer, as you will need to list some writing jobs in order to land other jobs, but you will need some writing jobs before you can list writing jobs! Of course, you will be at an advantage if you studied writing or English in college, if you have published any books or stories, or if you did writing as part of your last desk job (as all these things can make up for empty spaces in “past writing jobs”), but if none of these are the case for you, you can start adding to your work history by taking on some jobs for less pay – or even for no pay at all.

Check out the Beginners Guide to Freelance Writing!

Even though no one wants to work for free (or for close to free), recognize that this time put in doing jobs for little to no pay will pay off in the long run, when you can add a long list to the “work history” on your resume.

The more you add to your writer’s resume, the more you will be able to start charging for jobs - and the more experience you continue to get under your belt, the easier it will be for you to land the writing jobs you want!

]]> http://www.jensoft.co.uk/post/tips-for-building-a-writers-resume/feed/ 0 http://www.jensoft.co.uk/post/learn-how-to-keep-the-customers-you-have/ http://www.jensoft.co.uk/post/learn-how-to-keep-the-customers-you-have/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:23:09 +0000 marketing http://www.jensoft.co.uk/post/learn-how-to-keep-the-customers-you-have/

If you are in business, you have surely learned the importance of keeping the customers you have already. After all, 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers – and no matter how many times you have heard that, it is always worth hearing again! This means that it is extremely important to keep this “20%” happy enough that they keep coming back for more, and it is important to convert new customers into repeat users!

One area where a lot of businesses fail is by focusing too much on the new trying to get them in and trying to get them to come back. New customers should not be your first priority, because – although new customers are important – they are not your main source of profit.

Out of all the various ways by which you can keep your repeat customers happy, the best way is by finding out what they have to say. If you get to know your customers, you will be able to find out their opinions on different things you are doing with your business. This is a great benefit, as you can find out what they like, and you can also find out what they dislike! Although large businesses are unable to get to know their customers as individuals, there are still a lot of ways for them to “get to know” their customers; of course, good customer service is one way, but also consider having customer surveys and online response forms.

Once you have built a good foundation for keeping your current customers happy and loyal, you can begin to go after new customers. This is where advertising comes in handy, but the best way to keep these customers once they come to you is by creating loyalty! This is easy for small companies, as – again – you can get to know your customers as individuals, and your business will continue to grow! And for large companies, by creating a sense of community and familiarity with new customers, you will ensure that they will keep coming back.

Failure and success in business are both easy; but success just takes learning how to keep your customers coming back, and it is a lot more profitable than failure!

As far as things go with the work you put in at your job, it is probably extremely important to you that you do a good job – but at the same time, you must realize that no matter how hard you try, there will still be times when you will make a mistake at work. There are, of course, lots of bosses who make an effort to be very understanding of the mistakes their employees make, tending to see the mistake in the light of all the good things these employees do – but if you are not so fortunate as to have a boss like this, here are a few things for you to make sure you keep in mind when it comes to mistakes in the workplace.

Admit it: Refusing to own up to the mistakes they make at work is a big mistake a lot of employees make, but for yourself, realize that the worst thing you can do when you make a mistake is to ignore it, or to try and cover it up, while the best thing you can do is admit to the mistake and move on.

Listen: If your boss is one of those who tries to be relatively hard on their employees, there is a good chance that this boss will want to give you “a stern talking-to” after you have made a mistake, and while this can be frustrating if you have already admitted to the mistake, the best thing you can do is to listen to them, and to not talk back or try to justify the mistake.

Work hard: And you will often find that some hard work will make up for mistakes made at your job; when you have made a mistake at work, you will go a long way toward rectifying the mistake if you are willing to work hard until the ramifications of the mistake are all cleared up.

Even though you will certainly approach your job with your best effort, and will do all that you can in order to ensure you do not make any big mistakes, realize that there are times when mistakes are inevitable – and when you encounter such an instance, these tips will help you get back on the right track.

Those who are in marketing today are taking part in a wide spread change. Audiences of consumers no longer want to be marketed through interruptions in their different forms of entertainment. The old methods of advertising are very cost ineffective in today’s world and magazine ads or tv commercials are starting to go away. Defenses for this type of advertisement are being developed by consumers. If they can recognize that they are being sold to they will tune out the media trying to do it.

Marketing now involves a process that is lengthier but also more efficient. Advertising to people is now best done once you have their permission to do so. Many different methods can be used to accomplish this. You can offer a valuable coupon for an item that interests them or directly discount this item straight up. The customer will spend time interacting with you when they partake in any of these ways. Accomplishing a long lasting relationship with them is something you can then do.

The permission to use a customer’s valuable time is extremely valuable to a business. This is actually best done with the use of the internet. If you wanted to physically offer a discount or coupon, there would be many costs involved. You would need envelopes, stamps, and physical copies of the coupons. You can market this way much cheaper through the use of the internet since it can help to eliminate all of these costs.

People pay attention to what you are trying to sell them if you market in this way according to statistics. Their attention span will also be longer than in other times. Any form of marketing today is rather transparent and this one is really no different. But the main aspect that differentiates it is that the consumer is ok with it since they are getting something. They will still be getting something they want to compensate for this time even though they may not want to purchase the main item you are marketing.

Retaining a competitive edge is the main objective of almost every business. Many of the things you do are able to be duplicated by your competition. Competitors can open more locations, duplicate the products that you offer, and use the same marketing techniques as you. If you want to stay ahead of them in your line of business the only true way to do so is by social marketing.

In order to develop a consistent marketing method, social marketing involves the combination of a few aspects. Most people hear social marketing and think that it directly correlates with marketing done through social media. This misconception is prevalent. The type of marketing they are thinking of is really named social media marketing; something different. Social marketing is done both on and off of computers.

Social marketing starts with the important relationship that you and your business has with its customers. Every way you can possibly nurture this relationship needs to be used. Visits and meetings on a personal, face to face basis is one option. Keeping in touch can also be done online with social media sites and e-mail. Take is on a case by case basis so you can determine which of these methods is best.

As long as you continue to nurture the customer relationship, the rest almost takes care of itself. Your customers will take care of the second half of social marketing by touting your corporation to others they know. If they are happy with your business, then they will tell others in their life about you. A direct result of this dialogue will be sales through referrals. Converting this referrals to sales falls solely on you.

The greatest benefit of social marketing is that it doesn’t involve using capital. Throughout history many ancient cultures have employed this type of marketing in their business. It has been given its name just recently however. Social marketing should be at the center of your business marketing plan since the only cost involved is some extra effort on your part.

It can be easy to get in a rut with your advertising, assuming that what you are doing is the best thing you could do. Just because a marketing campaign has been bringing in good results is no guarantee that it will continue to bring in good results. As a manager or as a small business owner, you need to always be ready to adjust your marketing approach, based on results.

Of course, in order to know the results of your current marketing approach, you need to know how to track and judge your results. One of the best ways to get a feel for how each of your marketing approaches is working is by using your company’s website.

If you have a website for your company, you need to be able to track where your traffic comes from, using some sort of analytics system. In this way, you will be able to gain an understanding of all the places that are sending traffic your way. If you have a twitter or facebook for your company and you see that you are getting very little traffic from those, adjust your approach until this changes! If you have placed ads around the internet that are intended to filter people toward your website, you should also keep an eye on these. As soon as an ad begins to send significantly less traffic your way than it was sending before, it is time to scrap the ad in favor of something else.

For any company that runs commercials, add these commercials to YouTube, and use this as a way to gauge viewer reaction. You can even use the internet to judge the success of your radio ads; Google key words from your ad, and find what people are saying about it.

When it comes to marketing – as is the case with business in general – the customer is always right; and in this case, the success of your marketing campaign is a reflection of the customers’ opinion. Begin to pay close attention to the manner in which your marketing campaign is received, and to the success of the campaign itself, and always be ready to adjust until you receive optimal results!

Magnetic Marketing System!

As such websites as eTrade and ScotTrade have become more popular, it has become quite normal for people to invest on their own, making their own decisions. The good thing about this is that an investor can make money without sharing it with a broker; the bad thing about this is that these investors often go broke. Too many people make the mistake of jumping into new investments without doing adequate research (or without doing any research at all!). As is the case with anything you plan to take seriously, you have to research seriously before you can be successful; in fact, the research for investing is of the utmost importance, as you are playing with your financial future!

One of the first things for you to recognize is that investing is not as easy as picking a stock that is doing well and investing. After all, anyone could make money in the stock market if it were that easy, as this would not require the least amount of skill. People are reactionary, which is the main reason why the stock market fluctuates as much as it does; when you engage in systematic, thorough research, you can predict these fluctuations more accurately. Because of the tendency of people to be reactionary, most solo investors tend to invest in a stock when it is near its peak, and they sell a stock when it is at its bottom!

There are many resources that can help you to be a wise investor instead of reacting to everything the market does. Of course, the premier daily periodical for investing is the “Wall Street Journal,” but this is not the only place you should turn to. A subscription to such magazines as “Money” and “Fortune” will be extremely beneficial for your research and understanding of the markets; you can also check out any number of books, ranging from longtime gems such as Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor” to newer classics such as Warren Buffett’s “The Essays of Warren Buffett.”

You can also take the opportunity to wear The Glasses of Warren Buffett and see the world of investing the way he sees it!

Take the time to find a few resources that will be good for your research; make sure these resources are highly regarded, and then study as much as you can!

As your business continues to grow larger, it will become more and more difficult for you to personally manage and account for every employee in your organization – which is why it is so important for you to establish an ethics management program in your business. But even though you might know that you need to institute such a program, you might not know exactly how you should go about doing this; if this is the case, read on for some tips on how to establish an ethics management program in your own business.

Some people try to do an orientation that deals with business ethics on the day they hire a new employee, and then they never do anything to refresh the employee on all the things they were told so long ago! One of the best ways to avoid this happening is to have set intervals during which you will enter them into a business ethics management program; these intervals should typically be something along the lines of “any time an employee is promoted” or “any time an employe is transferred to a new department.”

Another mistake a lot of businesses make is trying to do ethics management programs on their own; instead, you should always hire a third party mediator or an independent auditor to give your employees everything they will need to know in the way of business ethics.

Finally, you should incorporate basic ethics management training into the everyday aspects of your business practices – and not only among your employees, but also with the managers in your company, and with you yourself! When you take the steps to make sure these things are a part of your everyday procedures and routines, you will be able to ensure that everyone within your business understands their responsibilities as far as business ethics are concerned.

Having employees who have ethical business practices is important if you want to have a business that is successful, and that can remain successful for a long time. By following these tips, you will be that much closer to making sure the employees in your business are comporting themselves in the manner you would expect.

If you work at a job where you sometimes have to deal with excess noise from your co-workers (or if you work from home and have to deal with excess noise from your neighbors or the people with whom you live), it can be difficult to get your work done in a successful manner. While optimal efficiency in your work will usually be difficult to achieve when all this noise is rattling around in your ears, there are a few steps you can take to minimize the negative effect this noise has on you, and to maximize your efforts toward work.

The first thing you can try doing is listening to music while you work; while some people find that listening to music does nothing but distract them, others find – especially when they play music that they already know (which keeps their mind from focusing on the music closely) and that they enjoy (which also keeps the mind less focused on the music – that music can be a great way to drown out unwanted noise.

You can also consider getting a package of ear plugs that are effective and highly rated, as these can block out the noise that has been making work so difficult to come by, and can make work much more likely to be successful.

The most amazing product of all for drowning out unwanted noise is a white noise machine; the Sound Conditioner Sound Screen SleepMate Electro Mechanical White Noise Machine is the best product on the market when it comes to white noise machines, and with a $50 price tag, you will not be able to find anything else that does a better job for such great value!

While the best solution of all would be for this noise to simply disappear, this is not always a viable solution, and so it can be hugely beneficial to find another way to solve the problem – and you should have no problem doing exactly that with any of the above suggestions!