Business Tips Blog
Enjoy Evan’s easy-to-use advice for your business.
Five Tips for Successful Delegation
Successful delegation is critical to maintaining your sanity as a business owner. Whether you’re working with a vendor, a personal assistant, or a 500-person staff, you have got to depend on others to get stuff done for you. The biggest challenge for most of us is satisfying our inner Control Freak. If you use a systematic process for delegation, you will find you are suddenly getting much better results. And your inner Control Freak can breathe a sigh of relief! Here’s how. [margin30] [div style=”float:left;margin-right:20px”] 1 [/div] [div style=”overflow:hidden”] Define the Task & Result If you can’t clearly describe what the result will look like, and exactly how you will know whether it was done right, STOP and clarify the task definition. Otherwise you risk being unpleasantly surprised by where the employee ends up. [/div] [margin30] [div style=”float:left;margin-right:20px”] 2 [/div] [div style=”overflow:hidden”] Document a Process You need to develop a …
How to Find Time for Strategic Planning
The New York Enterprise Report published a list of 25 founders talking about how they find time for Strategic Planning. It’s a challenge that all of us face, with all of the day to day details and fire drills! Looking through the different responses, it’s clear that there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. What is clear, is that it’s not about “finding time”; it’s about MAKING TIME. Whether it’s once a week, once a month, or once a quarter, it won’t happen unless you: [fancy_list style=”arrow_list” variation=”blue”] Block off the time in advance Stick to your plan and get away from the distractions [/fancy_list] Click here to read what these 25 founders and CEO’s said, and post your tricks for making time below.
How to Use Video & YouTube to Promote Your Business
[margin30] Want people to get to know your business better? Wish it were easier to explain your business to potential customers? You can do this in a place and format that they love: YouTube videos. Video is the fastest-growing thing on the internet. Did you know that: [fancy_list style=”arrow_list” variation=”blue”] Every day, over 4 billion videos are viewed on YouTube. Every day, 500 YEARS of video are watched on Facebook. [/fancy_list] Source: YouTube And it’s not all cat videos! Innovative small businesses realize that they can create and strengthen relationships with customers with video. My clients have had success using videos on their homepage, blogs, product info, and social media pages. The best place to start is a simple homepage video to introduce yourself and your business. For example, check out my homepage video. Don’t Worry. It Can Be Easy. It can be easy to create videos for your business. …
Five Keys to a Strong Brand
Branding might seem like a luxury, but it is an engine for sustainable revenue growth. When you have a powerful brand, your customers have a deep, gut sense of what your business stands for. And they will think of you whenever they (or their friend) needs your type of product or service. A strong brand is a key ingredient to converting first-time customers into repeat customers, and converting repeat customers into eager referral sources. Here are 5 keys to creating a strong brand (and related traps to watch out for!). How does your business stack up on each of these dimensions, and what can you do to strengthen your brand?
Harvard Research: How to Brand a Next-Generation Product
One of my professors at Harvard Business School just published some new research about naming your next-generation product (or service!). These findings are just as useful for small companies as they are for big ones! When you revamp your product or service, is it better to keep the same name and call it “new and improved”–or should you come up with a new name or version number? Should you offer “the new iPad” or “the iPad 3”? Key findings: [fancy_list style=”star_list” variation=”blue”] Experimental research showed that each naming approach affects customer expectations. With a name change, research participants expected features that were distinctly different or new. With a name continuation, they just expected improved performance on existing features. Companies must assess risk versus reward when branding a product upgrade, weighing the excitement generated by a new name against the danger of scaring away customers who worry that new features pose …