Posts tagged small business

You Can Increase Sales By Tracking Your Leads

1 year ago

by Joseph

Most sales training books and courses spend a lot of time on closing the sale, but very little time is spent on discussing the leads that, well, lead to those sales. Every sales process begins with generating leads, so the more you know about sales leads, the more profitable your small business can be.

Are you able to name the number of leads you got over the last month? Most people can answer that question with a handful of leads that have high potential or resulted in a sale, but a large number of potential leads fall out of the process, sacrificing possible sales.

So, what’s the big deal anyway? A huge amount of a company’s resources (both time and money) are spent generating leads that will hopefully result in sales, and the better you understand where and how you get those leads, the better off your business will be. Would you find it worth it to learn something more about your leads if you were able to cut the time you spend getting leads, or even better marketing costs?

Your first action plan is to create a way to track key information about the ways that you generate your leads. Here are a few areas to start analyzing:

1. What is the main venue through which you get your leads? Before you have a lead, you only have a prospect, that is a website visitor or attendee from a networking event, for example. Your job is to identify those venues you use to collect your prospects, such as trade shows, meet-up groups, advertising, or your website.

2. Then, answer the question, what specific sources do you get your actual leads from? For example, specific sources could be a particular trade show, an online blog a direct advertising campaign, an existing client referral or a pay per click advertising campaign.

3. Finally, what is the quality value for each of the leads you receive from those general sources and specific sources? An effective way to come up with this is to assign a percent value to every lead a source provides. So a lead that is just kicking the tires gets a lower percentage value assignment than one that you send a proposal to or even ultimately sell.

Once you know where your best leads originate, you will find you are able to spend your marketing dollars and your time much more efficiently.

Get more small business success strategies and claim your free white paper: “7 Ways Your Stone-Age Accounting System is Stealing Money From You Every Day … And, How to Get it Back This Year” to learn about an online accounting program that makes it simple to track your leads and conversion rates.

Stay Focused On Your Business With Simple Organization Tips

1 year ago

by Joseph

There are really essentially two kinds of people. First, there are those who have been organized since the day they were born…then there are those who have not. Are you part of the second group of people? Don’t worry! You can still keep your small business organized.

The benefits are many. A person who can organized their business will find the work gets done in much less time. They remember important events and meetings. They feel less stressed and out of control. Below are some functional tips to keep your business organized for those of us that are organizationally challenged:

Don’t Leave a Messy Workplace at Night

Don’t head out the door in the evening without taking a short amount of time to straighten your desk. Gather your office supplies up and place them together on your desktop so they are ready to go when you return. Check the trash can and empty it if necessary, and remove any empty cups or other dishes that are cluttering your desk.

The most critical part of this step is to gather your paperwork into a rough order of how you want to handle it the next day. At the same time, you can quickly prepare an action plan (also known as “to-do list”) for the next day, and rank each task in order of importance.

The ten minutes these simple tasks take each night will be rewarded by your ability to jump in and start the day running each morning.

Organize Work Product Using the Rule of 3

There will always be those people who know right where everything they need is at any time. Then, you have all the rest of us. I have found the best way to organize my working papers so that I can actually find something when I need it is to use the rule of 3.

It is a simple concept. Never have more than three piles of paperwork going at any given time. The first stack contains the most pressing items you hope to accomplish within the day. The second stack should hold those that need to be handled within the week, and finally those within the month. This may take a few minutes to create the first time, but in the long run it will save you ton of time from having to look through every paper on your desk for the one that you really need.

Don’t Wait

Ultimately, the longer you wait to find an organization system that works for you and your small business, the more opportunities you miss for your small business. When you are organized, a bigger part of your day can be spent on the success of your business. And remember, one person’s organization is another person’s nightmare. So find a system you can call your own and stick with it.

general business tips motivation organization productivity Self-Improvement small business

How To Make Your Home Business Work

2 years ago

by Joseph in Home Based Business

You think running your own home based internet business is a piece of cake. Right?

You’ve probably heard how easy it is to rake in tens of thousands of dollars practically over night, and how you can have all kinds of “free time” and extra cash for traveling and shopping at your favorite store…

Just throw up a web site, add a few affiliate links, post to some forums and presto – you’re in the money!

But the reality is this. If you want to succeed in your own home based internet business, whether it’s affiliate marketing or selling your own products, you will have to work at making it successful. You have to make it your job to succeed. You must treat it as your job, not as your hobby.

It’s great to think that with just a few easy strokes you’ll be running on auto-pilot, bringing in loads of cash and then on to the next venture. But without some simple planning and consistent effort you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Here are a few tips to help you get started.

STAY ORGANIZED

Set up folders in your email client.

You should set up a folder for each contact and keep important
correspondence while deleting what you don’t need. If you belong
to membership sites that require passwords, keep the “welcome”
letters where you can find them.
Set up folders on your desktop.

If you download a lot of software, ebooks or PDF books from
specific individuals simply name a folder on your desktop after
the author or site owner. Then when you download something you
can place it in their folder.
Make your own HTML home page.

For quick and easy access to all your important sites make up an
HTML page with hyperlinks to your most frequently used sites
along with a brief explanation of each site. Keep it on your
desktop for easy access.

STAY FOCUSED

Set aside a specific time for work.

It could be from 7pm-9pm every day or whatever time’s good for
you. During this time do not get distracted from doing only what
needs to be accomplished for your business. Try to use the same
time slot every day so you get into a routine and get used to the
working mindset. Save the surfing for another time.
Set aside a work space.

Make sure that all your friends and family know that when you’re
in your work area you’re off limits! No one’s to bother you.
Finish one task before starting another.

As the old saying goes, “Put one foot in front of the other.”
Don’t start working on something new until the first task is
completely finished.

BE CONSISTENT

Work the ideas that “work.”

When you find something that works well for you, work it hard and
get as much out of it as possible. If you’re submitting articles
to a certain site and they’re paying dividends, keep feeding the
cycle.
Learn from failure.

Don’t get discouraged. Each failure’s just a learning process.
Use any failure to your advantage by taking the lesson and
applying it to your next venture.
Test, test, and more test.

Always test headlines and ad copy. A small change can reap huge
rewards.

With these few simple steps you will stay organized, stay
focused, be consistent in your efforts and build a solid
foundation on which you can build your internet empire!

After all, you are the one who will ultimately determine the
success or failure of your business!

Some products you may need or interested in.

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