James Doan

Even small tasks benefit from efficient planning. Today, we bring you our set of productivity tips. Use these tips to be more productive in your day-to-day life. Stand Up Keep meetings short and on topic by conducting 10- to 15-minute “stand ups.” Not only do studies find that these sorts of meetings are more effective, they’re also better for your mental and physical health. Make a Decision We all have a “to-do” pile – or, more likely, piles. Cut down on clutter and stress by immediately addressing any piece of paper that is handed to you or blocking out time on your schedule each day to deal with paperwork. Go for a Walk Give yourself a mental vacation during the day by taking a 10-minute walk. You’ll feel refreshed and ready to focus. Give Yourself the Gift of Time Rushing to get a last-minute gift for birthdays or holidays can be exhausting. Save yourself time and stress by picking up thoughtful gifts year-round instead. Set it (Out) and Forget It Want a little more time to yourself in the morning? Take a little extra time the night before to prepare everything you need for the next day.

There are times when you will find yourself in competition with questionable businesses. Do not resort to denigrating or smearing them. instead, try these effective marketing tactics: You can offer a free report detailing things to look for when hiring a ____. In it, describe the unethical factors. Explain why they are misleading, shoddy, fraudulent or contrary to the reader's values. Do not name names. End by mentioning that your firm passes all the criteria, and inviting the reader to check you out. Get testimonials from customers describing the reasons for their disappointment with other businesses. Have them explain why they now deal with you. In all your marketing efforts, you should highlight your ethics front and center. Then back that up with as much evidence as you can. Don't focus on your disreputable competitor. Instead create a clear portrait for yourself of your ideal client. Then direct your marketing to him or her. When you polish your distinctiveness enough, it can make competition irrelevant. Ideal customers want you and only you.

David Sax wrote "The Revenge of Analog" describing some interesting aspects of marketing. He states that customers often discover novel advantages for products. These may seem silly and definitely were not in the minds of the creators of the products. These unexpected benefits often account for the emotional attachment users feel for products and services. Readers who prefer print magazine say they enjoy the sound of a page crinkling when they turn it. They also have a feeling of accomplishment when finishing an issue. Board games players enjoy sitting around a table and connecting with other people. There is a trend among photographers who have embraced refurbished Polaroid instant cameras. They have found value in the blurry unpredictability of the film now available for them. These odd, unexpected advantages turn up in customer testimonials, focus groups and informal user recommendations or reviews. Smart marketers don't highlight these qualities of an offering. It is not good advertising to put the designed product functions in the background. Usually that would seem bizarre. It is a better idea to sprinkle the odd benefits into testimonials, illustrations or detailed descriptions of the item.

There are some differences in merchandising theory between the neighbourhood grocery store and the sporting goods store down the street. The fact remains that both are merchandised in the same way. Both use an organized and attractive layout to maximize each item's sales potential. These merchandising principles used by major retailers are the same ideas you should follow. Why? Because they work. It's an old, often overused retail adage, but it's true: "You can't sell it if it's in the stockroom." Almost all people enjoy shopping for products in which they have an interest. Why not display products in an attractive way? Then customers can inspect, explore and, yes, even buy. Floor and wall gondolas are the best merchandising fixtures to use in a retail outlet. A gondola is a freestanding fixture used by retailers to display merchandise. Gondolas typically consist of a flat base and a vertical component featuring notches, pegboards, or slatwalls. The vertical piece can be fitted with shelves, hooks, or other displays. Your budget may not extend to purchasing new floor gondolas. There are used fixture outlets where many of the same fixturing needs can be bought for much less cost. For those stores without space for the 8- to 10-foot long gondolas, the same merchandising displays can be set up and organized on wall pegboard. Self-made wall pegboard is much less expensive. With a few basic materials and a hammer and screwdriver, you can have some decent-looking display boards. Once your store is set up with the desired amount of floor and wall gondolas or wall pegboards, you can proceed to the next step. All good merchandising begins with categorizing or segmentation of merchandise by its types. First you must determine the product categories you will stock and offer your customers. Next, you categorize for the customers' convenience. You have to make it easy for them to locate and select the specific product desired. Placing merchandise in categories is nothing new. Department stores were born on the idea. Notice the pages of mass merchants' advertising circulars are even segmented by category. Hardware items together, lingerie together, automotive accessories together, and so on. Dual merchandising, presenting the same item in two different locations, is OK. It is a good idea if the product relates to several categories. Batteries show up in department stores in as many as half a dozen departments. (Toys, cameras, sporting goods, electronics, etc.) In a security store, a combination lock may be in the padlock section but also in the chain and cable area. They relate. Without careful categorizing of merchandising, customers are guaranteed to get confused and frustrated. A scattered unorganized approach to the presentation will make them stop looking before they have a chance to get their wallets out. Assuming you have plenty of merchandise in each of your basic categories, you are now ready to place them before your customers. Remember, sound merchandise placement sells products. This practice is critical for any retail store. Your best-selling items should take up prominent locations on the gondolas. These should face either the customers' counter/register or be in plain view when visitors walk in the store. Some consider this area the "impulse item" region. You will find that these items will sell better if the customers see what you have that they don't. Finally, glass cases are great and a must in selling jewelry or cosmetics. They are attractive and effective when selling expensive gadgets, electronics and the like.

If you try to target everyone as a potential customer, you will likely sell to no one. When a website is not producing anticipated revenue, you may have improper audience targeting. Today’s business environment is so competitive. A small business' best bet is to focus on developing niche products. There is less competition from large firms. Take the online book market. Amazon.com dominates the field, so smaller start-ups are wise to focus on books in specific niches. There are niche sites for best sellers, out of print books, used books, and so on. Imagine a small company trying to compete with Amazon's huge inventory and variety. Then imagine that same company aiming for more depth in a much smaller field. Niche websites allow you to get listed in the top 100 sites on any particular search engine. By making a website based around a focused niche you reduce the number of competitors that you have. This makes it easier to rank well in the search engines (first 3 pages, or top 100 sites). Without a high website ranking it is not possible to attract free search engine traffic. That stops you from getting free visitors. If you’re an affiliate that thinks big and joins dozens of programs, you’re in for a bit of a shock. Your site is indistinguishable from a myriad others. No one knows it exists, and you’re very lonely. You need to promote what you join, and it’s impossible to have effective promotion for that many programs. You won’t succeed at any of them, you’ll lose interest, and your business will disappear. Instead, you need to focus on one thing that you love and create a lot of good content. Everyone who has a website is trying to improve their search engine rankings. They carry out optimization and get inbound links. But one of the easiest ways is to create content that no one else has - unique content. Unique content written for a focused niche market leads to promotional success. Be sure your website contains your main keywords as well as a variety of related ones. Use them in a natural way throughout your pages. You will outperform competition that has fewer, less targeted pages. This also makes your content more interesting, rational, and satisfying. The question isn’t whether you occupy a niche. You must show you know about it. Be an expert about it. Be passionate about it. Keep your site interactive and fresh. In other words "build it and they will come."

Many people think about starting a small business, often with a great ideas. Few people actually go out and do it. It takes a special type of person to be an entrepreneur. It takes a strong desire to succeed. As you build your business, you will need courage, perseverance and a great deal of will power. You will have to face many setbacks and learn to deal with them. You will need a level of technical skill. In this competitive market, you can’t just be good at what you do. You need to be excellent. A successful entrepreneur is decisive, self-disciplined and a self-starter. For many years, as your business grows, you’ll be working far more than forty hours a week. It is probable that you will have little money to show for it. You will need to be able to make decisions. You will need to have discipline enough to work at it every day, no matter how discouraged you might be. You should be self-directing too. You should be skilled at prioritizing and planning. You will need the ability to meet deadlines and also to work to complete each job. Often this means putting in eighteen hours a day. Successful entrepreneurs have to deal with stress and uncertainty. to deal with both well. Running a business is stressful at the best of times. It can be even more stressful when things aren’t going well. Things are rarely certain for the budding entrepreneur. Many times you will need to make a short term sacrifice for long term gain. You will have to delay personal rewards and use the money you earn to build your business. Your skill set will be varied and broad. Even if you build the best widget in the country. As purchasing agent, you lease space, buy tools, and source suppliers for the component parts. Don't forget, customers aren’t going to come and find you. You have to let people know who you are, where you are and what you can do for them. That means you also need to know something about marketing You’re required to keep proper records, so you’re a bookkeeper too. You're responsible for all your small business' financial decisions. That means you're going to have to know something about finance. At the start you’ll answer the phones and make appointments, making you a secretary. Are you willing to put in the hours it takes to learn these skills? You will perform them without seeing immediate results or profits. If you’re the type of person who tends to put things off, you might not be suited to owning your own business. Nobody is going to be the perfect entrepreneur. But, you should be willing to take an honest look at yourself. You should have some of these traits and know how to compensate in areas where you’re weak.

Here are three ways to strengthen your business. You can push out the competition by adding new layers to your existing business. 1. Start a cross-promotion with another business You should already be familiar with your own market. Itemize the main characteristics of your target audience. Then contact a non-competitive business also targeting that same class of customers. Team up with them to do joint promotions. Working in tandem, you can achieve dramatic end results. The goal is an effective and cost-cutting advertising campaign. This will net both of you a nice profit. 2. Dig Out New Niche Markets Niche markets can are found everywhere. Your existing customer base has groups of people who share common traits. There could be a group who speaks Spanish, a group of teens, and a group of middle class family men and women. For each sub-group discover their unique needs and desires. Then you can customize your advertising campaign to aim at them. It will be straight-forward to take your current ads, and make a few changes to adjust to the niches. Each focus group will feel that you understand THEM. The increase in your profits will be the best thanks you can get. 3. Hop On The Latest Trends Be a leader in the industry by entering a new market before your competition becomes aware of it. Businesses who take an early lead get the best proceeds. It does not make good business sense to enter a new market just to be the first in. A successful marketer will add only the "new and coming" techniques to their business. That way you keep the customers you already have, and add to your existing products and services.

In discussions with industry leaders like Seth Godin and Clay Hebert (among many others), it has become clear that we are in a Connection Economy. The connection economy rewards value created by building relationships and creating connections, rather than building assets by industrialism. This means the most valuable companies will connect buyer to seller, or consumer to content. If you don’t buy that argument, consider these facts: Uber is the largest “taxi” company – yet they own no vehicles and excel at connecting riders with drivers. AirBnB is the largest provider of accommodations – yet they own no real estate. Facebook is the largest media company – yet they create no content. Crowdfunding businesses like Kickstarter and IndiGoGo are expected to surpass venture capital for funding in 2023 – yet they have no funds to invest. Whereas it used to be sufficient to sell a product and receive revenues, customers now seek to connect with other like-minded individuals to get the most value in the long run. The most successful conferences build communities that survive much longer than the event itself. If you want to build something that stands the test of time, you’ll connect your customers to each other and to valuable resources that extend beyond the sale.

For any small business, it is important to determine precisely who you will be marketing your services or products to. An efficient business should not waste time or money trying to market to everyone. You must choose a target market that is potentially the best prospect for your business. There are many small business owners who will resist focusing on one primary group of clients. They feel that their business should be promoted to everyone. They are convinced that in order to grow their business, they need to market to more people. In fact the opposite is true. By narrowing the focus to a specific group of customers, it is possible to become an expert in solving their specific problems. Familiarity with their needs allows development of additional products and services to serve them better. You can decide who to market to by following these 5 tips: 1) Think about the type of people who can MOST benefit from what you have to offer. 2) Think about who you would most enjoy helping, or working with. 3) Think about the type of people who will be easiest to reach, AND who will be most receptive to what you are selling. These will be people who KNOW they have THE problem you can solve and are LOOKING for a solution. 4) Know that just because you select a particular group of people to focus your marketing on, does NOT mean you can't help others who may come to you. It only means you're going to focus your proactive marketing efforts on the target group you select. 5) Don't over-think it. Pick a group you feel you can really help and proceed with the development of your marketing plan. Marketing is a fluid process. The important thing is to start. You can always refine your audience and your plan later as you learn more.

A successful business person should be alert to the potential for new markets. Diversification is the the best way to stay at the forefront of a constantly changing marketplace. By diversifying, you will be able to insulate your business from the adverse effects of these changes by adapting your business and keeping ahead of your competition. There is always the potential for a brand new market sector to generate even more dollars in sales! You can often find new markets without delving into obscure sectors. It is possible for you to discover marketing niches within your current market palette. With a little thought it will be simple for you to develop subdivisions of your existing market into several more narrowly defined markets. For example, an online marketer may notice that a significant number of its prospects are stay-at-home moms and retirees. They start with a few targeted advertisements directed at the appropriate people. Then they set up a couple of additional web pages focused on stay-at-home moms and retirees linked from their home page. In next to no time they will have not only customized their markets, they are likely to see a noticeable increase in sales. You don't have to be intimidated by clever competition and new technology, when you stay on the leading edge and make changes along with it.

The first sign that you should be investigating new marketing strategies is a marked decline in the effectiveness of your current advertisment campaign. At some point your advertising dollars will cease to attract your existing target market. You should never wait until your profits are in decline before you start to consider new marketing strategies. Constantly be on the lookout for the next successful marketing strategy. The speed at which your local marketplace can change is, in fact, a terrific opportunity for you to test a range of new and distinctive advertising mediums. Don't be afraid to experiment until you discover the next one that will give you the marketing edge over your competition. An established guideline for most business' advertising is to set aside about 80 percent of your proposed advertising budget in the more traditional areas that have been proven to provide a steady flow of profit, and then allow yourself to spend the remaining 20 percent in new and innovative ways that will attract potential customers to your business.

To be successful, savvy marketers must constantly be looking for new ways to expand their business. They know their company, are sure their customers will come through for them, and understand that a financial downturn offers advantages not seen during economic booms. You will have already made your customers aware that you have great products and provide satisfactory service. During a slow economy they will trust you to continue to serve them. When you think about it you will realize that it is much easier to make sales to someone who already has a business relationship with you. You must use every opportunity to increase your sales volume within your existing customer base. If you have a product that complements one they are currently purchasing, you can offer it to them in a display at the checkout. This is a well proven and highly effective way to increase your sales. It could surprise you just how many additional sales you can generate from those who are already buying from you.

Building long lasting customer relationships is a smart move from a marketing standpoint. It also helps you to anticipate your customer needs, perform ongoing adjustment actions to improve your business and exceed their expectations.

It is reassuring to know that not all of your clients are adversely affected by a recession. Just remember that there are always businesses who are able to succeed financially, and these are potential customers for big ticket sales offers. Another point to consider, especially when money is tight, your established customers will appreciate the value of your product or service. They will be even more ready to make expenditures to ensure their personal satisfaction. To survive and even thrive in a recession, you should think about ways to develop other products similar to your existing lines, but with much higher prices. There are certain internet marketers who have set up "members-only" sites where they sell their products at much higher prices. While they will necessarily make fewer sales, they know that the clients who really value the product will buy. In each case, the sale will yield a greatly higher profit. Think about it like this... even though the sales are fewer, the actual profit may be even greater than when it was sold at a lower price.

When the economy makes a turn for the worse, it just makes sense that your advertising will give less of a return than during and economic boom. Sure there's a lot less money being spent, but you don't have to have to watch your profit margin plummet! Think about it... advertisers are feeling the recession just as much as you are, and are more desperate for clients. It's the perfect atmosphere to negotiate your way to lower costs - even if you are already getting a good price. Every advertising penny you can save, is that much more profit you'll earn on the products. Have you thought about getting free publicity? Local newspapers are always looking for something of local interest. Make the news! Publicity is free, but a wonderful way to get your business in front of potential clients. Do your advertisements really need to be as big as they are? We tend to think the big is better, but the fact is that short ads with 11 words or less often generate higher response than large ads. Give it a try, and trim some costs right off your advertising bill.