Have you given up and are you going to coast toward 2021? We get it. 2020 has kicked our butts! Coronavirus and the pandemic shut down of the country has put many businesses in a precarious position on not knowing whether they will survive for the long term. If you want to know how to end the year profitable, stick with us.
You don’t have to go all out for this last couple of weeks, but with a few tweaks and some changes you may end the year on a higher note than you were originally anticipating and can’e we all use some wins right about now?
Take a look at these and see what fits for you and your business and do what you can to end on an up note.
How To End The Year Profitable
Are you renting an office? Do you need to continue renting it? Have you found that you’re able to work effectively from home? If so, you may not be able to cancel your lease right now, but consider it for the new year and start out with a savings.
Do you have space in your home that you can rent out as a conference room? You may need to do quite a bit to make it a safe workspace because of COVID-19 and having a separate entrance for the renter makes sense, but there may be local entrepreneurs who simply need a space in which to do a Zoom call or a client call and they can’t get the quiet they need at home.
Are there expenses you can cut? Are you paying for magazine or newspaper subscriptions that you don’t read? Are you involved in online groups or mastermind or other affiliate or membership groups that you don’t interact in or with? Are you paying for items you’ve forgotten about? Do an audit of your bank account and see if there are subscriptions you can cancel to save money.
Are there upsells you can offer to current clients? “Hey if you sign up for three months of my service in 2021 I’ll throw in a month for free if you pay upfront?” or “I am selling this new book/course along with my membership service… are you interested?”
Are you going to raise your prices before the new year? If so, reach out to current clients and let them know. Offer them the service at the current price if they sign up for X number of months. Let them know what the new price will be and let them make up their own minds.
Now is the time to ask for referrals. Fill the first few weeks of your 2021 calendar with potential new client calls. Don’t start the new year with a blank calendar. Offer a referral bonus or gift for those who do provide you a referral that pans out.
Are you buying ads in local papers or media or online? Are they working? If not and if it’s not measurable, why are you doing it? If you don’t have a good answer, don’t continue with that marketing practice.
If you’re not sure what worked last year. If you don’t know how to pivot into 2021 to stay viable or turn a profit set up a time to talk with Rex Richard about your business goals and marketing strategy. Start the year strong!
There is so much that goes into branding your business. You need to think about colors, fonts, logo design, the words you use and you also need to know how to make your brand personality shine through video. Let’s face it – Zoom is now our life and looks like it will continue to be so for many months to come.
If you represent your brand when you’re on Zoom calls with current clients, potential clients or on a networking event with people you don’t know but want to get to know better you need to think about how you’re representing your business.
How To Make Your Brand Personality Shine
We have put together this list of ways in which to put your best brand forward when on a video chat.
What is in your background? Are you in a bathroom and viewers can see the tub? Do you share your office workspace with a child’s bedroom? Are you in your own bedroom? Please, we urge you – look around and make your background as branded or as “invisible” as possible. If you have a banner with your logo, hang it. If you need to add a virtual background for Zooms, make sure it is representative of your business. Be professional at all times. We know that people are working from home and clients are willing to put up with a dog barking or a child chatting but do they need to see your pile of dirty clothes in the corner of your bedroom? No.
Practice on the camera. If you’re uncomfortable or don’t know where to look or speak, set up your phone or turn on your video camera and practice. Record yourself and play it back. Listen to how you sound, what the background noises might be and if you’re looking at the camera and what your lighting is.
What works best for you? Do you want to be on camera with someone and talk interview style or are you able to talk to the camera and interact when you’re a solo act.
Set up your YouTube channel and brand it with your colors, keywords and logo to establish your expertise and online brand.
Do a few Facebook Lives as “test” videos. You can check your lighting with an audience with whom you can interact. Ask a few friends to watch your Live and give you feedback.
If you’re kicking off a YouTube channel or a weekly live event, share that news with your followers on social media, through your website and on your email list.
Pick a niche for your videos. Chances are, if you’re an entrepreneur you know your niche. Work that through your video platform and stay in your lane… until you’re established enough to move out of it and have your followers… follow you!
LinkedIn is the social site on which many professionals interact. It is more about networking, sharing professional information and tips and talking business than is Facebook. When you’re on Facebook, chances are you’re showing photos of your cat, sharing recipes, venting about local goings-on and sharing memes. Ever wonder how to get found on LinkedIn and whether it can help grow your business, we have tips.
If you’re looking for a job, looking to stand out, seeking new clients and opportunities, LinkedIn is the platform on which you want to share your skills and comments and insight.
How To Get Found On LinkedIn
If you’re looking for clients and are on LinkedIn, here are ways to make the best impression:
Have a professional profile photo. Don’t share a photo of you on the beach on your last vacation. Keep that photo on your Facebook page. Your LinkedIn page photo should be warm, professional and approachable. Smile. Wear professional clothing – ditch the hoodie and bedhead. Do not leave your photo blank.
Add relevant skills (think keywords and headline) in your bio.
Summarize your experience with bullet-point type sentences in mind. Highlight your contribution to a project. Let a potential client know what you bring to the table.
Ask for recommendations and referrals for your profile.
If you’re reaching out to a potential contact, know who they are and what they do. Don’t do a blanket, “Hey, I saw your profile and thought we should connect.” Be persona, “Hey, John I saw your profile and notice we share a few contacts and that we are both in the XYZ field. I’d love to connect!”
Build relationships before you start to “sell.” Speaking of this, if you automatically send out email messages in LinkedIn when someone connects with you – stop. It’s annoying and it’s automated. You’re not fooling anyone.
Video rules. We have written about that before and it seems to be even more true today than ever before. Why? Because that is how many people consume information. They are watching videos on their phones and tablets more than they re watching television. Should you be vlogging? Maybe… if you have it as a part of your overall marketing strategy.
If you want to become a video blogger aka vlogger, here are some tips to start yours and to help you stand out.
Should You Be Vlogging?
Make the first 15-seconds count. It’s like needing to capture a reader’s attention in the first couple of sentences. If you don’t capture the attention of the person viewing your video in the beginning, they will move on. Don’t give away all your best information in that first 15-seconds, but tease it enough that they need to stick around.
Prepare an intro to your video. An intro will enhance the professionalism of your vlog.
Choose your thumbnail wisely. If you use the same thumbnail every time, a new viewer may not give your video a second look. A different thumbnail is intriguing and also lets your viewer know you have new content.
Tell a story. Regardless of the length of your vlog, make sure you’re telling a story. The art of content creation needs to carry over into your vlog. Have a script. Have bullet points. Tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end.
Edit the vlog. Hire a video editor. Invest in video editing software and edit your own. Edit out the ums and ahs and the dog barking in the background.
Be consistent in your vlogging schedule. You want your viewers to know they can expect a new video blog from you on X day of the week at X o’clock.
Talk about trends. If your vlog lends itself to current topics and trends, work that in. Be timely.
Share your vlog on your YouTube channel, your website and your other social media platforms.
Use hashtags and titles wisely to help your vlog get found in a search.
Are you using video in your marketing plan? Do you need a strategy for blogging and video blogging? If you’re just starting out or if you’re a long-time entrepreneur looking
If you’re writing blog posts and website content simply to rank in a Google search, you are likely hurting your chances. People who write just for SEO seem to write content that is so laden with SEO terms that the content itself is unreadable (keyword stuffing). Conversely, you don’t want to kick SEO to the curb, right? We have 4 ways to up your SEO game without lowering content readability.
Did you know that consumers who are doing a Google search, won’t usually go beyond page 1? They type in the search terms, scan the first page and typically choose their service provider or the product they’re going to buy based on page 1. In fact, they may not even look below the first five organic (not ad-based) businesses on that first page. Mind-boggling, right?
4 Ways To Up Your SEO Game
You can certainly rank and up your SEO game and we have tips.
Know what keywords fit your business. If you find the keyword, “swimming pool” is trending, but you’re a service provider for business consultants you certainly don’t want to try and use “swimming pools” in your content – readers and search engines are savvy to keyword stuffing and business owners and bloggers writing to trendy keywords. Instead, perform keyword research and plug that into your content in a way that makes sense and highlights who you are and what you do.
Use title tags, headline tags and meta descriptions. You can use plug ins on your site to help you determine whether you’re writing content that is SEO relevant. Yoast is one of those plug ins to consider. Your “title tag” is what shows up in a search result and is just that – the title of your blog article. Your meta description is the tag that comes under the title in a search. Create your meta descriptions wisely. The H2 and H3 headlines in your article should support the title. If you don’t know what these are, reach out to Rex Richard and he can explain what they are and how to effectively use them.
Make the content readable by adding in bullet points or numbered lists and subheadings. Images in the content also make the content readable for those individuals who skim – and that is most readers.
Don’t forget to use internal links and external links. An internal link can take a reader to another of your blog posts or your services page to keep them on the site longer. An external link is just that – something that will take the reader off your site. You can use external links to your advantage by linking to relevant sites and to your social media pages.
If you’re taking time to craft content, craft it with an eye toward eyes on the page. If you are struggling to get readers to your site, or keep them at your site, reach out to Rex Richard and he can offer insight into how to make it happen.
A business plan doesn’t have to be so daunting that you decide you might not want to go into business for yourself if you have to craft one. Even if people aren’t talking about business plans – and it seems entrepreneurs are popping up across the country during this pandemic – but they’re not saying what’s in their business plan. They may not even have written a business plan but we’ll bet they have some sort of a roadmap aka business plan, but we have 5 reasons to write a business plan you may not have considered.
5 Reasons To Write A Business Plan
Here are some of the very good reasons the most savvy entrepreneurs – new and established – put together a business plan.
As mentioned – it’s your roadmap. How will you know you have “arrived” if you don’t know what the final destination is? What is success? How will you measure it? This is something your business plan will help you determine.
What will you make and sell or deliver? Knowing that and knowing what your profit margins may be will help determine whether you’re over- or underpricing your services and products. Remember, you need to set a value for your time and that may seem harder to do than setting a value to a product.
If you’re seeking financing or if you’re building a team or working with a team, your business plan will keep everyone on the same path. When you take the time to write it down, you will be more productive and will truly understand the intentions of your business.
When you are in the process of writing down your business plan you may have that “lightbulb” moment and find a way to open the door to more opportunities. When you are doing a deep dive into your customer base and the industry you may find new options you hadn’t identified previously.
Your business plan is your origin story – your business story. The business plan can highlight and help you share the story of your brand and that counts for a lot when connecting with potential customers.
We work with new and existing entrepreneurs and when we are talking with them, we find that having a business plan makes them feel more hopeful for the future of the business and that’s why we are proponents.
