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10 Ways for Small Businesses to Dominate Local Markets

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There are several ways small businesses can better position themselves to compete in the local market. Most small businesses need more consistency throughout the year to survive in the increasingly competitive marketplace. Fortunately, there are several ways small businesses can better position themselves to compete in the local market.

1. Small business tips online.

According to a study from Bazaarvoice, roughly 39 percent of in-store shoppers research a product online before buying at a physical location. This means that your small business must have an online presence in order to compete locally. How can your small business improve its online presence?

2. Improve your local SEO.

Focusing on improving your small business’ local SEO will help generate more traffic to your website and ultimately, more leads and sales for your business. With roughly 97 percent of consumers going online to search for local businesses, why wouldn’t you make SEO a priority? Additionally, Google is placing more emphasis on local search with prominent local results floating at the top of targeted search queries. With that said, Google has altered their local results to focus on the top three businesses for a specific search. This means, while difficult, getting your small business inside the top three results can result in tremendous return on investment. To get started, make sure you register your business with Google and Bing Places. Other considerations to improve local SEO include, hyper-local content creation onsite and offsite, outreach and publisher partnerships with local websites, optimizing your website (NAP, keywords, etc.) and strategic social media management among others.

3. Increase online reviews.

Online reviews are a critical part of your local search rankings, not just on Google and Bing, but also sites like Yelp and Facebook. Additionally, online reviews are the modern version of word-of-mouth advertising and can persuade new customers to use your small business, or to not use your small business. In fact, roughly 67 percent of consumers reported that their purchasing decisions were influenced by online reviews. Thus, it’s important to perpetuate reviews from your customers, especially if you know they had a positive experience. Consider adding calls-to-action on your receipts or training your employees to ask for reviews on your Google+, Facebook and Yelp page.

4. Use email marketing.

Email marketing is an undervalued resource for small businesses. It gives you a scalable tool to communicate with current, previous and potential clients. In fact, it seems like most small businesses put more energy into social media than email, even though email marketing is estimated to yield three times higher results and a 17 percent higher value in conversion. Consider using a free email marketing resource like Constant Contact.

5. Target paid local results.

With local search getting increasingly difficult, it might make sense for your small business to consider pay-per-click (PPC) options like AdWords. PPC is when you pay for each individual customer that visits your website after clicking a specific advertisement. The best part is, you can optimize PPC campaigns to target affordable, yet actionable keywords in specific geographical areas. PPC lets you get your advertisement in front of highly targeted keywords in your local market, which will increase your conversions.

6. Small business tips offline.

Brick-and-mortar locations are the staple of small businesses. Even in the increasingly digital world, there are several offline tactics that can help small businesses excel.

7. Become active in the community.

Small businesses are often considered to be “backbones” of their respective communities. As a result, local companies can differentiate themselves by staying active in local affairs. In fact, 82 percent of consumers consider corporate social responsibility as an important factor when making purchasing decisions. As a start, you can join your local Chamber of Commerce to find relevant events in your target market. If you really want to make a splash, consider sponsoring a local event or charity. Social activism in your local community is an excellent marketing tool and a great way to gain positive PR.

8. Target local government contracts.

The government sets aside specific contracts for companies that are designated as small businesses. If your business qualifies, you should consider going after local opportunities. Winning a government contract can provide a stable and consistent revenue stream to supplement other clients. The SBA states that the law requires the government to award 23 percent of their contracts to local businesses, which amounts to roughly $115 billion annually. Winning these contracts are not a given, and you’ll need to devote time and energy into understanding and finding opportunities, as well as creating compelling proposals. However, the risk vs. reward is substantial if you’re able to win a government contract.

9. Focus on the customer experience.

If small businesses are the backbone of a community, then customers are the heart of small businesses. As such, it is vital that your small business focus its efforts on providing the best customer experience possible. Cox reports that 90 percent of U.S. consumers frequent small businesses at least once a week. Furthermore, 63 percent of the respondents said that they feel a strong need to support local entrepreneurs. This is mostly in part to the convenience, customer service and social equity of local businesses compared to corporations. As a result, small businesses can dominate their local market by providing incredible customer service, convenient operating hours, a friendly atmosphere and the inclusion of customer opinions and feedback into strategic decisions.

10. Don’t be afraid of change.

Change is one of the hardest things for small business owners to accept. However, an inability to adapt to changing trends can kill your small business quicker than any competition can. In fact, autonomy and flexibility are two benefits that small businesses have over corporate competitors. The bureaucracy of larger companies can make it difficult for pivots or strategic changes, but as a small business with a typically flat management style, you are able to adapt on the fly. CRM and other integrated data systems can provide small businesses the insight needed to see trends in their operations. This will help you capitalize on opportunities and prepare for imminent threats.

Life as a small business owner can be difficult. With the saturation of local markets and the increasingly globalized economy, the external pressures forced down on small businesses can seem insurmountable. However, there are several strategies that small businesses can focus on to improve their competitive position. Remember to market yourself online, continue to improve your relationship with customers and never be afraid to change.

Original Article written: Derek Miller

Culled from: Enterpreneur.com

5 Daily Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs

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The entrepreneurial spirit lights a flame of hope in the hearts and minds of people near and far. For most, it's a symbolic journey, one that delves deep into the far-reaches of their minds, revealing their deepest hopes and dreams, illuminating the pathway to self-discovery and eventual financial freedom. 

Yet, as enticing as it sounds to launch a new business, it's also fraught with challenges that run to the core of who we are inside. It's a journey with long and windy roads, twisting and turning their way through a sea of despair and struggle, battling against our darkest and most salient fears, forcing us to furiously fight our way towards the shores of hope and prosperity. 

Clearly, it's not easy running a business. But don't tell that to the wild-eyed innovators who have their sights set on achieving monumental success. Don't tell that to the entrepreneurs who've endured doubt and questions as to their abilities, their entire lives. That won't dismay or dissuade them at the outset. No, it most certainly won't. 

However, as exciting as the start of any entrepreneurial journey is, we also know how mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and of course, financially taxing it can be to run and manage a business in the long term. 

The question that beckons most has very much to do with just how a business can succeed in the long term. While it's easy enough to start a business, it's obvious that longevity is what eludes us most. 

There's a reason why investors invest in the people behind the business rather than the business or the idea itself. You can have a groundbreaking idea for an innovation or a revolutionary new product and launch a business with it, but that doesn't mean you'll succeed. 

If the person running the business lacks the fundamental building-blocks of a successful entrepreneur, no matter how much money is pumped into that business, nor what strategy is employed, it will eventually fail. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But eventually. And 10 years from now, that business will be all but a distant memory. 

So what is this magic recipe for long-term success in business? What's the formula that some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs employ to see things through? Clearly, you need to be agile, innovative, productive and an effective with your actions to succeed, but you also need to instill a set of good daily habits so that you can automate your success. 

Habits hold the gateway to success in any endeavor. Not only do the habits we hold dictate the quality of our lives, but they also reflect our potential for success. Bad habits will always hold us back, especially when it comes to running a business with any staying power. Yet, it's not just about eliminating the bad habits, you need to instill the right habits for entrepreneurial success. 

The world's most successful entrepreneurs have endured some of the most trying times. They've endured countless failures along the way to business success, with endless headaches and restless nights. But they didn't give up. If you look at some of the most famous people who've failed in the world, there are, in fact, five core habits that stand out. 

1. Waking up early.

The reason why the world's most successful individuals wake up that early, is because, It's in the early-morning hours, when the world is still and silent, that we can focus and concentrate best on our efforts, to see things through and push towards our long-term goals. 

Even for those people that don't consider themselves as morning persons, simply wake up 15 minutes earlier the first week, then another 15 minutes earlier the following week, and so on. Do it until you reach your wake-up-hour goal. 

2. Effective time management.

Time is life's greatest equalizer. We all have the same amount of time in the day. It doesn't matter who we are, where we're from, the color of our skin, religion, and so on, we all still just get 24 hours in a day. That's 86,400 seconds. That's it. Not more and not less. 

What does make a difference, however, is just how we use the precious time we do have. Do we squander it? Or do we use it effectively, masterfully managing our time to achieve our goals? The world's most successful people are also some of the world's best managers of their time. If you're serious about long-term success, then you need to instill this daily habit into your life. 

The main difference between the few who get ahead and the many treading water is how well they spend their time.

3. Daily goal setting.

Not only do successful entrepreneurs set long-term goals, but they also engage in daily goal setting. They set goals every single day based on what they want to achieve in the long term. The daily goals help to provide clarity at a smaller scale, rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of those monumental goals we want to achieve years down the line. 

4. Meticulous planning.

It's great to set goals, but harder to achieve them when we fail to plan. The world's most successful entrepreneurs are meticulous planners. You need to determine how you're going to get from Point A to Point B to give yourself direction and to better understand how you'll approach the finish line in the future. 

Think about a plane for a moment. Every airplane has a goal. Its goal is to fly from one city to the next, leave at a certain date and time, and arrive at another date and time. Yet, there is tremendous amounts of planning that go into that goal. The plane has to plan its projected direction of travel, air speed, elevation and so on. 

Similar to the plane, you need to plan your route to your goals. Creating a massive action plan, and tracking your progress on a daily basis, will also allow you to overcome any difficulties or change your approach if you see that something isn't working. When a plane hits turbulence or air-traffic congestion, it changes direction, elevation or speed so that it can eventually reach its intended target. 

5. Persistent action.

The cliché of taking action has been hammered home in the self-help genre for ages. Everyone speaks about taking action, but not everyone can follow through and do it. We get sidetracked and veer off track. Things come up and we lose our focus or we end up procrastinating towards our goals. 

However, this is by far one of the most important daily habits you can have to reach eventual success. Still, the problem is overcoming the silent killer known as procrastination. However, there is a so-called hack for this. It's called the 15-minute rule. Take the one thing that you've been putting off for the longest, set a timer on your phone, and do it for just 15 minutes. 

All it takes is 15 minutes. Don't promise yourself more than that. Just 15 minutes. What you'll come to find is that after those 15 minutes are up, you'll have built some momentum and you might keep going. And even if you don't continue, you'll have broken the stifling pattern of procrastination.

Original article written by: Robert Adams

Culled from: entrepreneur.com

3 Simple Strategies to Help You Become a Self-Made Millionaire!

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It's certainly possible that your company could become a resounding success and net you several million in a sale. But that's not likely to be the case, even if your business is a consistent earner. So if your dream is to become a self-made millionaire, how do you go about doing it?

1. Follow the money.
This may seem like a basic suggestion, but when it comes to growing a nest egg, the fact of the matter is that many people don't put in the time and thought necessary to monitor where their money is going. From the start, Godfrey says it is important to understand the full nature of your financial position and obligations.

"You need to ask what assets you own vs. what debt you have, such as a mortgage," and "What incomes do you generate vs. what are your outgoings."

Gunderson agrees, noting that especially for entrepreneurs, even though they can be incredibly savvy, they do run the risk of falling into a mindset of always believing that they can make more money and not making the long-term plans needed to not only remain solvent but increase their wealth. "They get on the proverbial treadmill, always trying to sprint," he says. "[But] they could just keep more of what they make by stopping the leaks in the hull, and dealing with some of their personal finances."

2. Set Achievable Goals.
Another old chestnut that really works. Don't spend more than you make or, perhaps more realistically, don't live beyond your means. Thakor says that self-made millionaires start saving as much money as they can as early as they can. That manifests itself as buying a smaller house or waiting a bit longer to trade in your car for a new one. And it means that "you spend only when you think it makes good sense, not to keep up with everyone else," Thakor says.

Godfrey and Thakor both say that setting an investment timeline and plan, while figuring out how comfortable you are taking calculated risks, is key to later financial success. What if you have no idea where to start?

Thakor has a simple approach that you can use as a baseline. "You keep investments highly diversified and your costs low."

3. Stay informed.
Gunderson says that there are many small things that entrepreneurs may not know about when it comes to optimizing cash flow, such as money they could be losing to taxes. "There are thousands of dollars a month that business owners are losing out on, simply because they are overpaying interest, or they haven't structured the loans properly," he says. "They don't know how to improve their credit score to negotiate better interest rates. That's money that [they could put] towards building that wealth, without taking risks and without burning themselves out."

While this may seem like a lot, you don't have to go it alone. But when you do look for financial help -- and not only during tax season -- Thakor says that it's imperative that "you seek financial guidance only from advisors who practice under the fiduciary standard -- which legally requires that they put your interest first," she says, "vs. those who operate under the suitability standard -- which simply says investment recommendations must be in your interest but could benefit the advisor more than you."

Written by Nina Zipkin

Culled from www.entrepreneur.com

10 Important Email Etiquette

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When the use of email became common in the early 90s, the business world changed. Email now takes up a significant portion of our workday.

While we try to work faster and more efficiently, we must not forget the social rules that accompany any form of communication. Here are some of the dos and don’ts of email etiquette.

Do have a clear subject line.

Most of us have to compete with the hundreds of emails clogging our inbox every day, so the clearer your subject line, the more likely your message will be read. For example, if you’re sending a proposal to someone, be specific and write, “The Fitch Proposal Is Attached.”

Don't forget your signature.

Every email should include a signature that tells the recipient who you are and how to contact you. Set it up to automatically appear at the end of each email. Include all of your contact details so the recipient doesn’t have to look up your address, email or phone number.

Do use a professional salutation.

Using “Hey,” “Yo,” or “Hiya” isn’t professional, no matter how well you know the recipient. Use “Hi” or “Hello” instead. To be more formal, use “Dear (insert name).” Using the person’s name in the salutation -- “Hello Robert” -- is quite appropriate, but remember not to shorten a person's name unless you're given permission to do so.

Don't use humor.

Humor does not translate well via email. What you think is funny has a good chance of being misinterpreted by the other party, or taken as sarcasm, without the accompanying vocal tone and facial expressions. When in doubt, leave humor out of business communications.

Do proofread your message.

Don't be surprised if you're judged by the way you compose an email. For example, if your email is littered with misspelled words and grammatical errors, you may be perceived as sloppy, careless, or even uneducated. Check your spelling, grammar and message before hitting “send.”

Don't assume the recipient knows what you are talking about.

Create your message as a stand-alone note, even if it is in response to a chain of emails. This means no “one-liners.” Include the subject and any references to previous emails, research or conversations. It can be frustrating and time consuming to look back at the chain to brush up on the context. Your recipient may have hundreds of emails coming in each day and likely won’t remember the chain of events leading up to your email.

Do reply to all emails.

Give a timely and polite reply to each legitimate email addressed to you. Even if you do not have an answer at the moment, take a second to write a response letting the sender know you received their email. Inform the sender if their email was sent to the wrong recipient, too.

Don't shoot from the lip.

Never send an angry email, or give a quick, flip response. Give your message some thoughtful consideration before sending it. If you feel angry, put your message into the “drafts” folder, and review it again later when you are calmer and have time to formulate an appropriate response.

Do keep private material confidential.

It is far too easy to share emails, even inadvertently. If you have to share highly personal or confidential information, do so in person or over the phone. Ask permission before posting sensitive material either in the body of the email or in an attachment.

Don't! overuse exclamation points.

Exclamation points and other indications of excitement such as emoticons, abbreviations like LOL, and all CAPITALS do not translate well in business communications. Leave them off unless you know the recipient extremely well. It’s also not professional to use a string of exclamation points!!!!!

It may take some practice to keep your emails professional and to the point, but you will look more polished and organized in the long run.

Article written by Jacqueline Whitmore

Originally culled from entrepreneur.com