Is your business dynamic enough for your desired lifestyle?

This is something your should have seriously thought about when you were thinking about ideas for your micro business. From the start you need to have in mind that your business is and should have a lot to do with your character. Even more because one of the reasons you are starting on your own is to break free from a job or a life that felt confining. Now you are trying to make the most out of th eopportunity you gave yourself, so combine the business and the lifestyle you want.

But, what if you have already opened a micro business and then figured  out it doesn’t fit the way you thought it would, or you discovered you liked something else? It happens because people are torn between choosing a micro business idea that will make them the money they want and not believing or focusing enough on what they want to do. You could make both work for you if you only paid more attention to what you want your life to look like by not taking work into the equasion, but incorporating it later, when you see clearly how you can do that. … Continue Reading

A huge opportunity almost all local micro businesses miss out on

The first thing you associate with a “huge opportunity that almost everyone misses out on” is probably something hard, unknown to the larger audience. But, as always, the answer is staring at everyone’s faces and the worst thing about it is – they all know it.

This is something I have already talked about in the manifesto I wrote (A guide for the creative micro). A lot of local micro businesses, shops and service businesses, don’t have websites. And I would like to take this opportunity to ask them: “Why in the world don’t you have it?”

The world wide web in now our phone book and your website is your number in that phone book. Remember, everyone has one. That’s the way people find out about you these days, or where they go to learn more about your business and what you do before they choose you over everyone else.

Websites aren’t only about addresses, phone numbers and pretty pictures. They are your virtual store, your micro business presentation, an opportunity to say something to potential customers that would attract them. … Continue Reading

Primary focus of any business MUST be…

Whether you are a service based business or you are oriented more toward selling products, your focus is always the same and it’s on people.

Businesses are created to cater to people, they exist because of them; people use products and services, they support them or they don’t.

What does this mean?

This means that every micro business, no matter what it is about, revolves around people; the ones who make the company and the ones who make the company successful – their customers. You take people’s interests or problems and create a micro business around it. That’s obvious, but you have to remind yourself that although a great product or a high quality service is very important, it wouldn’t matter if no one was there to buy it. What really makes your business are your customers and they are what you should always focus on most. Build good relationships, do everything in your power to help them get the result you promised, and more. … Continue Reading

How to complete all the work you need to do even on days when you have little time and still stay on track

Consistency pays off in the long run. Maybe it’s not so motivation or obvious on the day you come to work and feel like you really don’t  want to do something right now, but small efforts over a longer period of time bring quality repeating results. Even when you love what you do, there will be days or periods when you don’t feel  so energized or happy doing the work you do. It usually has something to do with what has happened in a different area of your life. When you’re down, you don’t feel like doing anything.

If you can’t get better soon, remember to still do your tasks. It’s like exercise; you need to do it consistently to create and keep great results, but if you do it now and then, when you feel like it, you soon fall out of practice and the results you want aren’t showing.

The best way to follow through with doing all of your assignements every day is to create a  routine that will support this. … Continue Reading

Your business card is your identity card

Same as direct marketing, or direct communication with potential customers, is one of the most effective marketing techniques, your business card is your most important tool that will back up your marketing.

At the end of every conversation, or at least the business related part, depending on who you are talking to, you give away your business card. From a quick look to your business card, the interested party will be able to tell a lot about you and your company. And they will even decide whether they are going to look at your website or contact you only by the look of it, in a lot of cases.

So, lesson number one, design is important. You have to pay attention to all the details in business because they are more important then they seem to be.

Keep your business cards simple, without unnecessary elements or information. Have your name, email address, website, phone number and physical address on it. Of course, that again depends on the type of business you have, but these are the basic things that should accordingly appear on your business card. If you use social media, you will probably have your usernames on your website/blog, so I would suggest you don’t put them on your business card, too. It’s unnecessary and it becomes crowded; unless your primary communication goes through one of them. … Continue Reading

The one thing new business owners do wrong and fail every time

Starting a business is a big step and it takes a lot of effort to get there with proper planning. Often, when you start, you want to believe everything will work our more or less on its own. Because you have some sense of accomplishment, it’s easier to make yourself believe you don’t need to do something about it; at least not right away.

One of these things is marketing, the way you get your word out. It’s easier if you have clients you took with you to your new firm or, sometimes, as a brick and mortar business like a shop or a restaurant where everyone who’s from your neighbourhood will want to know what you’re like, initially. But wherever you are with your business, one thing you cannot disregard is your marketing. Having a great idea still means you need marketing, the only difference is that a great idea will be something exciting, worth remembering and sharing with others. You can’t, though, expect that people will find you if you just put an idea out there. We are not playing hide and seek; and if we were, you would be seeking. Not the idea, but the people.

The best advice I can give you regarding marketing for a self-starter is to know who your audience is. It sounds simple, and in its essence it is, but many people somehow miss this. … Continue Reading

The key secret strategy to growing your micro business fast

There are so many aspects of your business that all seem equaly important, as well as marketing strategies that are said everyone should use for their business.

The general theory goes something like this: you learn every strategy there is as fast as you can and then you implement all of them. You hope that at least some will turn out ineffective so that you can drop them and not pay attention to those who are saying you probably did something wrong, which is the reason why it didn’t work in the first place. Or, you go for the more “logical” idea; master one strategy at the time, implement it and then move on to the next. The only thing is, when you move on to the next strategy, you stop using the one from before and what’s the point of not using something you mastered?

Marketing doesn’t take care of itself over time, except word of mouth, but that’s not enough for any (micro) business. Especially if you want to grow, in size or in revenue.

There is something that all successful business owners do that is probably unknown to you. … Continue Reading