“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.” -Abraham Lincoln
We are currently entering into the holiday season, and there is a major problem on the horizon. It’s a general lack of confidence in leadership. The leadership I’m talking about is governmental leadership. The financial community is insecure. The business community is uncertain about the future. As a byproduct of that consumers are not spending money. The consumer is saving his money for the rainy day that he sees on the horizon. The end result is that the economy has stagnated and needs a good kick in the butt.
There are several things that you can do that will place you in a prime position once the economic ball starts to roll again.
1. Create an online presence for yourself through Facebook, Twitter, starting a blog or starting a webpage.
We have received a lot of requests about starting a Facebook fan page for businesses. This is a great place to start. Facebook allows interaction with potential customers and current customers through the use of articles, videos and events that will be held in the future. Facebook also allows businesses to have opt in forms on their Facebook fan page.
If you use Facebook properly, you will be able to attract customers to your business. They will see that you are a real person doing real business. And that will make all the difference.
Twitter is designed to keep people informed about what you are doing and thinking now! This is a very useful tool to also stay in the forefront of potential customers thinking. Twitter has added a few new features, which includes and picture sharing. And of course you can always link back to your Facebook fan page, your blog or website. Yes I know hundred and 140 characters is not that much but Dell in 2010 made over $1 million through Twitter.
Creating your own blog can be very rewarding for your business. It allows you many of the same features as a Facebook fan page without the restrictions of Facebook. You can post articles, links, videos, opt in pages, and actually conduct sales through your blog. It is much more versatile, because there are no restrictions. You are the owner of your blog.
2. Create a marketing plan that will funnel people into your marketing process.
A business without a plan has planned for failure. Make sure you know where you’re going with your marketing every step of the way. Have it fully mapped out. So everybody understands the process.
3. Develop a contact management system to which future customers will be added. The purpose of this is to deliver relevant information periodically to keep your products and services fresh in their minds.
Recommended management systems are Aweber and Icontact. They allow you to send out newsletters to your contact lists as often as you like. They also supply forms for you to use to gather your customers information.
It is our hope that this information will encourage you and strengthen you, so that you in turn can help others. It is our desire to assist small business owners with an economical plan to grow their business. This will result in increased growth and the ability to hire employees. We need to show the leadership that is lacking in government and release our greatest asset, our creativity.
Live life to the fullest and share your passion,
Mark Sinclair
