Run Your Small Business Like A Rock Star

October 31, 2008

When you first run a small business it’s easy to make the mistake of running it like a faceless corporation. But you don’t need to run your small business like that, to make it look bigger and better. You’ll get far more attention if you run your small business like a rock star. And who better to learn from than Jon Bon Jovi?

Be Bold

Jon Bon Jovi is incredibly bold without being full of himself, like some rock stars, which makes him more likeable. Be daring in your small business too and be proud of your company’s virtues. Run it in a way that makes you seem human and approachable too.

Make Your Customers Feel Like Your Small Business Was The Right Choice

In 2004, Bon Jovi released a box set of CD’s entitled 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong. He said it was a tribute to Elvis’s 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong. Assuring your customers that they made the right choice in using the products or services of your small business is a smart move.

Be Passionate

“Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.” Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi is passionate about his business. And this comes across in everything he does. But you don’t need to be a rock star for your customers to know you’re passionate about what you do. Choose something you’re passionate about and it will come across in every aspect of the way you run your small business, from the technical work, to phone calls and your website, or blog.

Sole Ownership

A lot of small business partnerships fail, for too many reasons to go into here. A small business needs to be run by a clear leader and that doesn’t often happen in a partnership. Jon has owned Bon Jovi from day one. He runs the business and the rest of the band work for him. This works well. They appreciate the fact that he writes the songs, organises everything and pays them massive salaries at the same time.

Make sure your small business is run by a clear leader and if possible, try to avoid a partnership. You’d probably be far better off employing folk who will help you build your business and rewarding them well.

Speak Out For What You Believe In And Don’t Be Afraid To Offend People

Jon Bon Jovi recently spoke out about the fact that he didn’t approve of Sarah Palin using his song, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” at her rallies. Clearly Jon is not afraid of offending McCain/Palin fans. And you should not be afraid of offending people either. Not everyone is going to like you, or your small business, so don’t be scared to speak out on issues where you have strong opinions. That way, you’ll get more support and respect from customers who do like and believe in you.

Don’t Be Afraid To Try Something Different

“Don’t get too comfortable with who you are at any given time - you may miss the opportunity to become who you want to be.” Jon Bon Jovi

Once your small business begins building up a loyal customer base, don’t be afraid to try something different. Although they are a rock band, Bon Jovi also ventured into country music. This was a huge success with “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” reaching number 1 in the US country music charts. What additional product or service could you add that would not only appeal to existing customers but also enable you to reach a wider customer base?

You Can Run Your Small Business Like A Rock Star - Check Out These Great Resources

How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer: This fantastic book is the ultimate guide for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to be more than just the average freelancer, you can’t afford not to read it. You can read more about How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer here.

Be A Rock Star Blogger: The rock star of conversational bloggers, Liz Strauss shares how to do it in:
The Secret To Writing A Successful & Outstanding Blog.

Become A Rock Star Trader: The Forex Killer
shows you how to make an amazing income, trading on the Forex market.

Become An Internet Marketing Rock Star: The Micro Niche Keyword Finder shows you how to be different by dominating undiscovered niche markets. Click Here to get your five FREE videos.

Are These 4 Social Network Sites A Waste Of Time?

October 27, 2008

Being active on social network sites is going to be essential to your business in the future - according to the experts. Trouble is, social networking is time consuming. So how are you supposed to know which social network sites are worth joining and which ones suck?

I’ll be the first to admit, I haven’t yet fully immersed myself in social networks. But I’ve tested out 4 & here’s my take. Don’t expect glowing reviews. When I launched this blog, I didn’t promise to “write nice”.

Entrecard

I really wanted to like this social network site. But I wasn’t expecting too much, as a lot of folk who are members of other social network sites I use, aren’t using this one.

Pros of Entrecard: If you use a really good ad that stands out, this system will probably help you create brand awareness. Also, the people who run this social network site are really helpful. They accidentally banned me, but they had the problem sorted out in hours.

Cons of Entrecard: If your idea of fun is mindlessly clicking from site to site, to get the hundreds of points required to advertise on low traffic sites, you might like it. The traffic quality is terrible - most folk are just clicking from one site to the next. I didn’t get much traffic from it at all and the bounce rates were higher than I’d experienced with any social network.

Cath’s Opinion

I wanted to like it - but it sucked. If you’re prepared to spend all day clicking on ads and your blog is quite new, it might bring you a bit of traffic. And it might make your blog seem popular. But Internet traffic that doesn’t hang round isn’t worth having. I give this social network site 1 out of 5.

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon was the first of these four social network sites I tried. And I found it complicated at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was great.

StumbleUpon Pros: I got to network with some really nice people, we shared lots of interesting articles and photo’s. And I found stuff I’d never have managed to find using Google Search.

Also, StumbleUpon drove a nice amount of traffic to this site. The bounce rates were the lowest out of these four networks and quite a few visitors returned.

StumbleUpon Cons: StumbleUpon ban folk for voicing their opinion. Please don’t email me to ask me why I was banned - I get dozens of emails on this topic. You can read about it here: Are You Sick Of These StumbleUpon Freaks? and here: Is StumbleUpon Going Down The Tubes?

Cath’s Opinion

Had I not been banned from this social network site, I would have given it a 4 out of 5. But I spent a long time making great contacts on there and bookmarking some amazing stuff. And when I was banned that disappeared. So I give StumbleUpon 3 out of 5 and I expect the quality of the site to decline further if they continue to allow blackhat spammers to moderate the site.

Hot StumbleUpon Tip: If you want to learn how to use StumbleUpon to your advantage and drive a heap of traffic to your website or blog, without getting banned, Caroline Middlebrook runs a great StumbleUpon Traffic course.

Digg

I’ve tried to get into Digg for some time and I’m still struggling. Ok, so I might be struggling because I really haven’t bothered devoting much time to it. But to be honest, if I have the choice between cleaning the bathroom and playing on Digg, the bathroom usually wins - even though I hate cleaning.

Pros: There’s some interesting articles on Digg - there’s also a lot of garbage. But if you’re heavily involved in this social network site, you might find your articles on the front page often and get a huge amount of traffic. Apparently, Leo of Zen Habits has had a lot of success with Digg.

Cons: Digg traffic seems to have a higher bounce rate than StumbleUpon. And I also found I was getting a lot of shouts from folk who wanted me to Digg their stuff all the time.

Cath’s Opinion

I probably added a lot of the wrong types of Digg user to begin with. Eventually, I did add friends who consistently Digg high quality stuff and I would recommend this approach, if you’re joining Digg yourself.

It’s no fun, when the same people are asking you to Digg every single bit of crap they wrote on a daily basis. Who is going to take your recommendations seriously when you’re just Digging dirt?

Twitter

I’ve been a member of Twitter for quite a while. At first I just didn’t get it, so I didn’t use this social networking site much. But I’m beginning to get used to it now. I probably don’t spend enough time on there to really get involved though.

Pros: Quite good for networking. Instead of just telling folk about great things you’ve read, you actually get to talk to them about other stuff too.

Cons: It’s kind of difficult to have a meaningful conversation with the 140 characters that Twitter allows. Also, like the other social networking sites, some people abuse the system. And time differences can make it difficult to connect with some people.

Also, sometimes when I log on, everyone is talking about politics. While I can understand why the Americans are concerned about which idiot will be running their country next - surely there’s only so much that can be said about two politicians.

Cath’s Opinion

I’m going to carry on using Twitter and see how it goes. I can see the potential and I like the way it’s not all about article and photo passing. But I wouldn’t want to spend hours on end using it. I would recommend installing Twhirl, if you want to use Twitter - it makes it a whole lot easier.

Michael Martine seems to use Twitter a lot and he recommend Twhirl to me. I would recommend adding him as a friend, as he always has something interesting to say. You’re welcome to add me too - I like meeting new people to chat to.

So far, I would give Twitter a 4 out of 5. But that rating would go down if folk start spamming it too much - especially if they start charging others to promote their crap.

Which social network sites have you tried so far? Were your experiences similar to mine? Or do you think I’ve been way too harsh on some of these sites?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing | 65 Comments

Why Some Of The Best Business Ideas Suck

October 26, 2008

Some of the best business ideas suck. Or at least, some people probably thought they did at one point. You see, coming up with business ideas isn’t really all that difficult. But choosing the best business ideas from the ones you do come up with and having the courage to believe in yourself is far more challenging.

The Business Ideas That Couldn’t Remain Secret

“And the things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those that got there first.” Steven Tyler

When you’re trying to come up with business ideas - don’t forget, you’re not the only one. So, if you do think of something that seems to be the best idea since the paperclip, be prepared to act upon it quickly.

A few years ago, I thought it might be a smart idea to write a modern version of Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. I would turn it into something that was easy for the majority of the Western world to understand.

But I decided it wasn’t one of my best ideas, as I could be accused of ripping off the original book. So I scrapped it. Then a couple of years later “The Secret” was released and the author did amazingly well.

So write down all your best business ideas, no matter how stupid they seem. Then do your research and prepare to act on them quickly. If you don’t - somebody else will. We all get our business ideas from the same sources, so the first to act will almost always win.

Also, if you do what I did and don’t act on a great business idea you had, don’t cry about it. You’ll never have the time to put all your best business ideas into practise. Just take it as confirmation that your ideas can and will work

Don’t Let Other’s Put A Dampner On Your Best Business Ideas

Do your own research to test the viability of your best business ideas. And get feedback from folk you know but remember, no matter how popular and successful these people are, they’re probably not in your line of business and may know very little about it.

In an interview I read on Forbes.com a couple of years ago, they asked a billionaire businessman about the worst business idea he’d ever heard. He said some guy wanted to build a themepark for adults and children. To him the idea was ridiculous. But it went ahead and the themepark was Disneyland, which turned out to be one of the best business ideas in the world (sorry, I can’t find the original interview. Life’s too short to dig potatoes).

You Have Access To The Best Business Ideas In The World - Don’t Waste Your Time On Crap

“Men spend their whole lives
Waiting praying for their big reward
But it seems sometimes
The payoff leaves you feeling
Like a dirty whore.” Jon Bon Jovi (Dry County)

As I said, coming up with business ideas is not that difficult. You have access to some of the best business ideas ever, so why waste your time on crap? You don’t need to exploit others, or lend your talent to something meaningless to be successful. If you put your effort into something that doesn’t give value to others, or even harms other people, you might make a lot of money but I doubt whether you’ll ever feel like a success.

Choose the business ideas that mean the most to you and makes best use of your talents.

And if you find it a struggle to come up with your own great business ideas, check out the Business Discovery Group. A couple of readers have already enjoyed the benefits of this excellent brainstorming group and I’m sure you will too.

Related Resources On This Site

The Most Stupid Business Ideas Ever
Don’t Draw Your Ideas From The Big Melting Pot Of Confusion
Why Some Of The Best Business Ideas Suck
The Best Free Gift Ideas To Help Your Business Sell More
Come Up With The Best Business Ideas By Blogging
One Of The Best Business Ideas: Can You Keep A Secret?
3 Business Ideas To Die For

Related Resources On Other Sites

The Secret Of Unbridled Creativity: The Best Business Ideas of A Man Twice As Creative As Edison
Enterprise Island: Helping Young Entrepreneurs Come Up With The Best Business Ideas
The 10 Best Food & Beverage Business Ideas
Caribbean Business Toolkit: Come Up With The Best Business Ideas In The Caribbean
The Best Travel & Tourism Business Ideas

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas | 13 Comments

Small Things Can Still Eat You

October 25, 2008

Ants are pretty harmless little critters aren’t they? Ok - they bite but a little ant isn’t going to cause you many problems. Thousands of the bloody things could eat you though.

When I first moved to the place I live now, it was infested with ants. After a couple of days, I went swimming, plonked my bag on the changing room floor and a whole army of the little buggers crawled out. They had temporarily taken over my life.

Small things are like that aren’t they? At first they seem harmless, but they have the ability to drown you, if you don’t keep them under control.

Email is a bit like that. When you first get it, you just love getting those little messages - even the spam. Then you reach the point where replying to them becomes a full-time job.

Blogs are the same. I love reading what my friends have to say - but you get to the point where you just can’t keep up with reading every single post. But I read so many things on how to improve my life, that it’s become all reading and no improving. And it just isn’t do-able anymore.

So, I’ve started laying out some longer posts differently, to benefit time starved readers, beginning with this one: You Can Overcome Lack Of Self Confidence. The idea is, that if you’re in a rush - you still get the main points of the article from each headline.

More Ways You Can Stop The Little Things From Eating You

Cut down on reading blog posts and stick to the posts that benefit you most.

Set up a draft email message to acknowledge messages that you don’t need to comment on.

Time every task you do in a day, to identify the trivial time suckers.

Set up a daily “to do” list and stick to it. If you do it the night before, you’ll feel less stressed in the morning.

Switch off things like Instant Messaging and Twitter while you’re working.

If you’re struggling, get expert help, or advice. If you’re starting a business, check out the Business Discovery Group. And if you’re a new blogger, or thinking of launching a blog, I recommend the 8 Week Power Blog Launch.

What do you do to stop the small things eating you? Please share in the comments section.

Related Reading On Other Websites

At Least I Don’t Have Zits - A guest post by Rita, comparing blog commenting to High School.
Is There Such A Thing As A Commenters Burnout: Or Why I Sometimes Close Comments - Vered of MomGrind discusses commenting burnout.
Time Management For Creative People - Free e-book by Mark McGuinness
Not Productive Enough? Turn Off The Internet - Robert Scoble

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Running a Business | 20 Comments