Author: Gary

5 Ways To Create An Irresistible Brand Using Storytelling

Posted on by Gary

If you need to create an irresistible brand, storytelling is the way to go. Storytelling causes chemical changes in the brain that make the subject compelling to the reader and create a connection between the two. There are five features your story must-have for this to work.

The Brain Science Behind Storytelling

Our brains respond to storytelling because of the chemical processes in the brain.

Cortisol is released during tense or anxious moments. Oxycontin is the same chemical that is released when you look at puppies or babies. It promotes an emotional connection. Last, dopamine makes us feel good, hopeful, and optimistic.

A good storytelling pattern will start with empathy to create oxycontin and establish a connection with the reader. Then the writer will add tension or adversity to release cortisol. The last step is simply to solve the problem, and the brain will release dopamine.

A Means to Build Trust Between the Reader and The Brand

Besides processing the story, your brain also processes the emotions behind the story. Understanding other people’s feelings build empathy. Building empathy creates emotional connections, which, in turn, builds trust.

Establish a Connection with The Reader

It is critical to connect with your audience. If your demographic is the outdoor-loving crown, you need to resonate with outdoor values. It is especially helpful to design the brand as if the consumer is buying your story when they buy your product. This is the basis of every college swag product. When you wear something with a university name or logo, you declare yourself part of that university’s story and history.

The Struggles and Successes in the Brand’s History

Do not make the mistake of glossing over all the painful parts of your company’s history. Your story must not be all roses and lollipops. It is essential to include any adversity or conflict that your company faced. Last, do not forget to show how the situation was resolved.

Explain Why the Company Exists

Use the story to explain why your company exists, which must be a deeper reason than making money. Make this reason connect with the reader. Maybe you donate profits to after school programs or invest in saving the honeybees. Do you only buy organic ingredients or handmade African crafts? Are you working to improve the healthcare or customer service experience? Maybe you are supporting education by building a new platform to increase the effectiveness of online learning.

Describe What Your Brand Stands For

Finally, the last piece is to know what you stand for. You must have a robust definable mission that will resonate with your audience. Decide your brand’s values and how they line up with your target demographic’s values.

While writing a good back story may be difficult, this is one task you only have to do once. The return on investment for this will rebound year after year. Do not miss out on this must-do brand marketing strategy.

Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The November 2020 Issue Of MoneyCentral Magazine: Dylan Ogline

Posted on by Gary

Dylan Ogline Lives the Vagabond Lifestyle of a Laptop Entrepreneur … And He Wants You to Join the Club, Fast!

Dylan Ogline is used to being underestimated. It’s laughable, considering he built Ogline Digital into a 7-figure business by offering only one service—direct response digital marketing—and doing it very well.

But among his fellow entrepreneurs, he is something of an oddity. There’s definitely an “Old Guard”—usually overweight, undertanned, and light on passport stamps—that doesn’t understand what he does.

When networking at business conferences, he sometimes describes Agency 2.0, his training program to teach aspiring entrepreneurs to do what he did—build a lean, niched-down solopreneur digital agency offering high-ticket services.

The “Old Guard” Boomers and post-Boomers at those conferences like to tell him he is a fool. How could he leave so much money on the table?

He should (they explain) offer a full suite of digital marketing services. Ogline Digital shouldn’t let its clients shop anywhere else! He should hire a team of graphic designers, and a team of coders, a team of SEO specialists, and get a shiny downtown office for them all to commute to—five hours in traffic to break their spirits good and proper.

For a mere $1,000,000 in extra expenses, he could be making $1,000,500 more in revenue! Five hundred extra dollars in profit to brag about on the ambulance ride to the cardiac ward!

Dylan doesn’t feel like a fool. He recently returned from nearly two months in Southeast Asia. Spending most of his time in Thailand, living in a highrise condo, and losing himself on the streets of Bangkok or the forest trails of Chiang Mai. It was his first “mini-retirement,” inspired by Tim Ferriss’ The Four-Hour Workweek and Ferriss’ own favorite book, Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. He followed that trip up with nearly another month in Europe with his longtime girlfriend.

During his travels, he ran Ogline Digital from his laptop. An avid hockey player, he’s in amazing shape, looking barely 21 of his 31 years. And he knows he’s onto something that touches the dreams of Millenial and Gen Z entrepreneurs, who measure success, not in the size of the bank account, but the size of the adventure.

Dylan was never going to wind up in a cubicle. A high-school dropout and self-described “unemployable entrepreneur,” he started his first business as a teenager in rural Pennsylvania. Inspired by reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he was able to arrange an importer deal with a supplier of sophisticated European cell phones, which were rare in the pre-smartphone and iPhone era. The European supplier had no idea that he was doing business with a 14-year-old.

When the shipments arrived, Dylan flipped the phones on eBay for a profit. It was all going swimmingly until his payment processor discovered his age and shut him down.

A different family might have exhorted their errant son to get his head out of the clouds and get a “real job.” But Dylan actually comes from a family of business owners.

But the youngest Ogline is still the black sheep. His father and brother belong to that Old Guard, valuing hard work instead of smart work, revenue growth instead of a lifestyle. As a result, Dylan’s father worked himself into three heart attacks. Dylan fears that his older brother, who loaned him Rich Dad, Poor Dad in the first place, is headed to a stress-induced heart attack as well.

But that doesn’t stop them from scoffing at their globe-trotting family member, as if his million-dollar agency is somehow a fluke … like he needs to “grow up” and open a business he hates, like “working men” do.

Agency 2.0, which trains first-time business founders to build a laptop lifestyle from the ground up, is Dylan’s long bet that a younger generation wants to skip the heart attacks and do it the Dylan way. “2.0” doesn’t refer to the version of his program—in fact, the current version of the training program is the third iteration.

Rather, “Agency 2.0” is meant to imply a new way of thinking about a digital marketing agency—lean, automated, bare-bones, micro-niche. Dylan teaches students to offer so much value that they can retire their day jobs and become digital nomads after closing just a few clients.

To learn more, MoneyCentral Magazine caught up with Dylan, fresh off a mountain trail in his Denver Airbnb—far from his adopted home base of Orlando, but closer to home than Bangkok. Here’s what went down:

So, your training program is called “Agency 2.0,” and not because it’s your second version, but because it outlines a new approach to agencies. With that in mind, what is “Agency 1.0?”

The “1.0” way of thinking is a bloated agency with a ton of expenses, salaried employees … you have an office, you’re doing one-off projects for your clients, these huge, massive creative projects for your clients. Reinventing the wheel all the time.

“Agency 2.0” is pretty much the exact opposite—a slim, sleek, scrappy business model. Very little expenses, no office, independent contractors-if any team members. And you’re doing retainer-type work. The beauty of it all is-if your client is spending $5,000 on ads per month and you start to get things rolling for them and they increase spend to say… $50,000/month, the amount of work actually becomes less. So the higher your income is off an individual client, the less work you’re typically putting into it.

Is there any danger of students getting into the business and finding that they’re competing with each other—too many people offering the same service?

The truth is that if you do everything for everybody, we’ve already hit market saturation on that.

Here is the key – if you’re managing ads for a plumbing and heating company, and a car dealership, and a doctor, and also building websites for restaurants, and then you’re also doing SEO, you don’t really become good at anything. It is incredibly difficult to become the best in the world at everything.

It is damn near impossible to become the best person in the world at “digital marketing.” It is relatively easy to become the best person in the world at “digital marketing for plastic surgeons in the southeast”.

There’s a million different niches, and a million different ways you can slice them up. People naturally have a scarcity mindset, and if you are an agency doing everything for everyone, you should have a scarcity mindset! Because it’s going to be really difficult.

But if you are specifically helping plastic surgeons on the east coast—or whatever, that’s a random niche I just came up with—the truth is that you probably couldn’t handle more than five clients. And if you have five clients and you get them going, you can have a six-figure agency, no problem.

I have a seven-figure agency off of less than ten clients. So the concept of scarcity is backward thinking. We could easily add another 10,000 niched-down agencies, and there’s no way we would reach market saturation. Not even close. There are over 30 million small businesses in the United States alone and growing. Sure not all of them are going to be looking to add on the services of a digital agency but they are ALL looking to grow.

What drove you to be an entrepreneur and start businesses from such a young age?

For me, when I got into business, it wasn’t because I wanted to have a Lamborghini and a few Rolexes. Those were not the things that drove me. What drove me was that I didn’t want to be poor. I didn’t want to worry about how I’m going to pay the water bill or the electric bill.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, in an older house with what felt like zero insulation. I remember freezing my ass off at night in the middle of winter because it was an old house, it was expensive to heat, and my parents, justifiably so, didn’t want to spend the money. So all I cared about was f*cking heat!

Why did you decide to offer a training program? What was the journey there?

I had a lot of teachers that influenced me, a lot of coaches, a lot of mentors. I don’t believe anybody is self-made. That is a ridiculous concept. Sure I have worked hard. Sure I have made a few smart plays. But if it weren’t for those people teaching me things, or my brother just having that book laying around, I wouldn’t be where I am. So at a younger age, I knew I wanted to do some kind of coaching or teaching.

With [Ogline Digital], if a client is doing half a million in sales a year, and we onboard them, get their marketing working, and they make a million in sales next year … that’s really cool. But that didn’t change the business owner’s life. They’re just making more money.

I had a student who joined my training program last year or the beginning of this year. She joined the program in like, December or January. At the time I charged something like $500 to get on board. A month later, I talked to her on one of the group calls. You could hear the tears in her voice, where … that was, like, her last $500. Her and her husband were struggling. But within a few weeks of joining the program, she got her first client, and with the money she got from that first client, she was able to buy her kids’ birthday presents. Then she went on to build a successful agency. That changed her life. It changed everything about her life.

So to say that I am slightly more passionate about this training program and helping people is putting it lightly. The personal fulfillment I get is just … it’s hard to put into words.

What mistakes do you think business owners make that you try to correct in Agency 2.0?

Even if you’re not building an agency—even if you have some kind of product that you’re going to dropship to people or whatever … something they get wrong is that, as fast as possible, you need to focus on getting the cash register to ring. That is, making sales.

I see people who, outside of starting a digital agency, they have some kind of product that they’re going to ship and sell … they’ll spend two years, like, a long time, getting their Facebook page started. Getting public relations going. Getting nice business cards. Getting a fancy logo. All these unnecessary things. When they actually try to get customers and try to get sales, it flops, because they don’t have product/market fit.

Getting the cash register to ring as fast as possible is what any digital entrepreneur needs to focus on. That’s the only way to prove product-market fit, by someone actually give you money for your product or service. You don’t want to waste a lot of time on unnecessary things because the truth is that you’re probably going to fail the first time.

You have to move fast and remain flexible. I probably say “move fast” about a hundred times in the first week of my program!

Is the Digital Nomad life everything you thought it would be?

This is an incredibly good question! I was mentoring this younger guy recently … probably a year or so ago. He’s, like, 19 or so, maybe an 18-year-old kid. And he works a dead-end job, fast food or Dunkin’ Donuts or something similar. This is in the small town in Pennsylvania. And he’s like “I can’t do this. I can’t spend the rest of my life in this small town. I want to ‘see the world.’”

So he basically asked me the same thing—he’s like “Is it everything I think it will be?”

And I was like, “The vision that you have of how cool it will be, wherein your head you’re imagining standing on the balcony of your condo in some random city in Asia and looking at this city that you have a month, two months to explore … an infinite amount of time to explore, and you don’t have to go to work tomorrow … you still have to work, but you can do what you want, whenever you want, as long as you keep your business going …”

“You have absolutely no idea just how awesome it is. What your expectations are, they are wrong. It’s so far beyond what you could possibly imagine. Having that freedom is beyond what money can buy. Words cannot describe how amazing it is.”

5 Ideas For Businesses You Can Launch For Cheap Or Even Free

Posted on by Gary

Are you looking for easy and cost-friendly money-making projects? Do you want to earn extra income without having to withdraw most of your savings account? Well, I might just have the answer to those questions.

Starting your own enterprise does not always require a lot of money and a degree in Business Administration. There are a number of businesses that require only your time, skills, and a little from your pocket. All you need to do is tap into your creativity, resourcefulness, and perseverance.

Moreover, ask yourself about marketable talents that others might be able to make use of, and then find ways to let them know that you offer such services. It does not have to be something elaborate and you can even just utilize your social media accounts to let people know you are an entrepreneur on the rise.

So here are a few simple and economical business ventures you can start with:

1. Pet sitting.

This business only requires one thing, your unconditional love for animals and anything furry. A lot of people these days have their own house pet, and there are situations when they cannot bring their beloved critter with them. So, why not turn that into an opportunity to earn a few dollars?
You do not need an office or a capital to start this business; however, having a lot of friends with pets would be an advantage.

2. Online Freelance Writing

If you have a knack for literature, and secretly corrects everybody else’s grammar, then this might be a good business to start with. You can create an online profile highlighting your expertise and pose sample of your work and other related projects.

Another way to market your skills is to set up a blog. The key is to choose a specific niche in order to build an online presence.

3. Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistants are like online admin assistants who are hired by professionals to do mundane admin tasks which they no longer have time to do. You will either sort through emails, write a few communications, and do research.

To make this a lucrative business venture, you will need your own laptop, stable internet connection, and flexibility in your schedule.

4. Babysitting

A lot of parents these days need to work and have a very little amount of time to relax, which is why the demand for babysitters have also increased. Though experience is not a necessity, growing up with little brothers and sisters would be a great advantage on your part.

Also, a little insight into child psychology would impress parents because as we know parents want the best for their children. Patience and tolerance are rather important when dealing with kids, but if you know magic, you are definitely a winner.

5. Homemade goodies

If you make killer homemade cookies or cupcakes, you got a gold mine right there. A lot of big bakeshops these days started out in their kitchen and had slowly taken off as soon as a lot of people had heard of their products.

Some cupcake bakers open online shops on Instagram and take orders through their page. It saves you money and time for marketing, and you can start your bakeshop even without the actual shop.

5 Daily Scheduling Methods To Bring More Productivity To Your Day

Posted on by Gary

Productivity is probably this generation’s biggest dilemma. The rising numbers of freelancers and entrepreneurs indicate that more and more people are choosing to work outside the regular 9-5. But outside any supervision or deadlines, they often end up wasting a major chunk of their time distracted with technology, calls, relationships, etc.

After some initial damage, they sense the need to be more productive if they ever want to achieve their goals. According to a study, only 50-60% of a regular workday is productive. There are numerous blogs, articles, courses, and books that claim to help you achieve the “perfect schedule.” But the reality is, there is no one-size-fits-all method when it comes to productivity. What works for one person could be a total disaster for someone else.

To give you an example, let’s compare some of the most successful leaders of our generation. Elon Musk wakes up early and spends his first 30 minutes answering “critical emails” while drinking his coffee. Zuckerberg doesn’t wake up early but maintains a morning routine where he works out or goes for a run, eats breakfast, and gets dressed before heading to the office. Richard Branson wakes up at 5 am, gets in some cardio before breakfast with the family.

As you can notice, there is no set path to productivity. It’s what works for you the best that matters. Some of the techniques with a proven track record in upping productivity are listed below. It will take some effort and consistency to figure out the right combination and stick to a schedule until it becomes a habit.

Start your day early

There is a reason why this gets featured in most of the productivity articles, courses, and recommendations by successful entrepreneurs. Starting early gives you a head start. You can use the additional 1-2 hours to accomplish tasks like your work out or mindfulness exercises along with one task that you think is important. It could be checking emails or responding to connections. Whatever it is, it will bring a sense of accomplishment and set the tone for the rest of the day.

Create a morning routine and stick to it

There is no hack to productivity. It is a matter of habit and intuition. And building a new habit takes willpower and consistency. It requires some initial motivation before the result presents itself. Some say it 21 days to build a habit while others vouch for the 90-day rule. Whatever it takes you, you should be motivated enough to put in the work.

Use Time-blocking Method

Time blocking is probably the most widely used productivity method. It requires you to break your day in 40 mins to 1-hour time slots dedicated to specific tasks. A time block method will have slots for following up with connections and scheduling calls and meetings. By blocking tasks into slots, you can achieve great productivity with the time block method.

Avoid unnecessary decision making

You must have seen the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg wearing the same type of ordinary clothes every day. It is not a coincidence but a planned strategy to avoid decision burnout throughout the day. You can choose what decisions are best avoided so you can focus on getting things done.

Avoid working late

If you are serious about productivity then don’t make the mistake of working late into the night. Take your mind off work in the evenings. If you have a hobby, this would be a good time to indulge in it. Why is it so important you ask? To be productive the next day.

Meet The Man Behind The Cover Of The September 2020 Issue Of MoneyCentral Magazine: Guruji Shrii Arnav

Posted on by Gary

Few people embrace change with ease and move effortlessly across situations that may be as varied as can be. It probably comes from an assiduously cultivated capacity to evolve and grow. And to look at different circumstances as opportunities for growth, just clad in different garb! Guruji Shrii Arnav is someone who conducts meditations in ochre robes with as much as ease with which he makes his way in a boardroom, sporting a Zegna suit.

Sought after by global tycoons, world leaders, life coaches, celebs, key decision-makers, and also the normal folks in day to day life for his guidance and wisdom, Guruji’s life is a shining example of serving with humility and wielding success with compassion.

There were some great accomplishments early on for him indicating that mediocre wasn’t for him – from being an academically brilliant student to winning the Competition Success Review Mr. Super Brain Contest in the year 1999, a prestigious competition held then at the national level in India.

Never one to shy away from breaking the mold, he let go of a conventional and logical career choice in high finance, he took on a spiritual commitment and initiated his endeavours to start an organisation that would help individuals overcome obstacles of different kinds, optimise life and experience greater joy.

He set up his web presence as early as in 1996 with a single page on Yahoo Geocities which migrated to his website astromandir.com in the year 2000, fully functioning as an e-commerce site and accepting web-enabled payments – this at a time when the internet in India was a novelty!

In 2008, when the entire world was reeling with the recession and a global financial crisis, he took a bold decision and launched www.Gemstoneuniverse.com, a web portal providing the top quality natural, treatment-free, precious gemstones.

His vision paid off and the site now has a monthly reach of 4 million unique targeted viewers including those on social media. The online retailing business of astrological gemstones has undergone a tremendous makeover and even more impressive reach and acceptance. He is widely credited with revolutionizing Gemstone e-commerce and standardizing Gem Therapy worldwide.

He is the author of the magnum opus on jyotish gemstones and planetary gem therapy – “The Secrets of Jyotish Gems: A Guide to the Fundamentals of Sacred Astro Gemology of India” which was published by Har-Anand.

It is a book that has met with great success, being well received by the gemstone and gem therapy aficionados. The book was first released by the former President of India, Hon’ble Dr. Pranab Mukherjee, and several heads of state and dignitaries worldwide.

Guruji Shrii Arnav is a beacon, a Vedic Guru who chose to illumine the path of true knowledge for all who are willing. However, his aura and acclaim are not limited to the extensive Vedic knowledge or spiritual abundance that surrounds him. He is also an entrepreneur who is at complete ease with the tide of the times and has a phenomenal grasp of a wide array of skills.

While the term Vedic may have Hindu connotations, his unique way of weaving the universal wisdom into the thread of particularistic traditions has established a deep connection between his ideas and an audience of diverse religions and nationalities. It is amazing how people relate to him with absolute ease and comfort. Guruji Shrii Arnav has found international acclaim and has followers across the globe who, have been touched deeply by his compassion and ability to positively influence and affect their lives.

He helps people of all faiths and backgrounds to seek answers to the most complex questions of their lives. He uses the knowledge and practical wisdom offered by the Vedas and other spiritual texts, complemented with the scientific detail provided by gemology, astrological charts, and his own spiritual capacity – to prove successfully the power of varied specific factors combined together that can positively affect every individual’s life.

Here are some candid answers from the man sporting many hats:

COVID has turned the world upside down. How are you and your organisation coping with it?

Forces of nature and unprecedented events have occurred time and again and history is replete with incidents. True, that it has caught the world unawares and put all of us in a bind but human beings have survived because of adaptability. We are also learning and adapting to new ways. There’s an increased use of technology and the digital medium has become the star.

The good news is that we have not had to lay off anyone, we’re taking care to ensure the well-being of the people who work in the far-flung mining areas as well. A successful entrepreneur always ensures that a fire situation doesn’t arise. And this can be done by adopting the 7R’s/ 7R Model – Rapid action, Remote functioning ability, reasonably risk-free activity/ initiative, real value delivered to clients, reputation, result orientation, readiness for any challenge. These are the values that I and my organisation believe in and follow, ensuring success.

What strategy do you adopt for marketing?

“A successful entrepreneur always ensures that a fire situation doesn’t arise. And this can be done by adopting the 7R’s/ 7R Model – Rapid action, Remote functioning ability, reasonably risk-free activity/ initiative, real value delivered to clients, reputation, result orientation, and readiness for any challenge.”I think that any company’s or individual’s performance is the best and most effective marketing. A demonstration is definitely better than instruction. Doing something and bringing tangible results rather than messaging only is a bigger validation of what an organisation is all about. It inspires more confidence and credibility. If you look at Gemstoneuniverse, we have then been awarded the top exporter of natural coloured gemstones in our state consistently for the last 10 years.

The quality of your product and service is equally important. Gemstoneuniverse ensures that only the ethically sourced, conflict-free gemstone is made available to the clients so that they enjoy their gem completely.

I also believe that the people I hire are the biggest marketing mechanism for my business. Each one is a veritable brand ambassador living the core value and principles.

What is a big challenge that you have faced professionally?

Well, the gemstone industry and quite specifically the coloured gemstone industry is quite unique in nature and as a result, its challenges are also quite different. Gemstoneuniverse is engaged in the trade of natural precious, treatment-free gemstones which effectively means that we are looking at the top two percent – that is the highest grade gemstones.

In this scenario, communicating colour on the internet across various devices and displays becomes a veritable challenge. Understand that you have an exceptional precious mineral commodity and each variety of mineral responds differently to light. A ruby will behave differently as compared to an emerald. A Chrysoberyl cat’s eye needs to be captured differently and so does a pearl. Each hue, each tone must be communicated through an exact picture/video to the client.

I am quite happy to say that despite the inherently challenging nature of the coloured gemstones, today we have the best pictures and videos on the Internet providing the viewer with the best image and videos, quite comparable to what a gemmologist may want to look at!

What is your advice to entrepreneurs or individuals interested in creating wealth or looking at sustained growth?

The one piece of advice to achieve this objective is to believe in these three words –niche, niche, niche. There is tremendous wisdom in specialising in a definite area. It is all about achieving mastery in that ONE thing and you will be able to reap great benefits. When you bring exceptional value to a client, the client might just stop putting the price ahead of value. This is when you have commanded his or her complete attention as well as loyalty. If you have entered into the mind space in such a manner, you will have cemented your position.

What are the future plans for Gemstoneuniverse?

Gemstoneuniverse already has a global footprint but we are looking for establishing physical stores in different parts of the world. We would also be interested in strategic partners who can leverage our expertise and help expand the business globally, while at the same time upholding our core values. There is an ambitious plan of starting the Indian Institute of Gem Therapy and also on cards is a foundation that will assist in making a hospital offering free service and also a meditation Centre.

What is a spiritual message that you would like to give out?

There is no one size fits all formula that can be handed out to soothe humanity. The one thing though that works universally is that Love Heals. With love, compassion, and empathy there is a lot that can be achieved.

Each individual is unique and therefore the suggestions made for the well-being and growth of every individual are unique too.

I would like the readers to check out the latest book by our Senior Director and Life Coach Abhijita Kulshrestha, Cosmic Sutra: A handbook of Healing, wherein 7 minutes of your day are required for different meditations and affirmations along with spiritual exercises for a period of 108 days.

These 108 days can be the key to powerful personal change! You can follow Gemstoneuniverse by visiting our website: gemstoneuniverse.com 

You can also follow us via social media:

Instagram: gemstoneuniverse
Facebook: gemstoneuniverse
Twitter: gemuniverse

Youtube: Gemstoneuniverse

4 Social Media Success Secrets To Grow Your Business

Posted on by Gary

Social media marketing has exploded into the online marketing industry within the last few years and has completely redefined it. With well over 3 billion active users, the figures are set only to rise, and many companies have already begun to capitalize on its valuable assets, influence, and connectivity.

We have outlined 4 secrets below to growing your business with social media and ultimately improving your revenue and audience.

1. Promote your e-commerce store

This point may sound obvious at first, but it is critical that this is executed correctly. Ensure users can easily find your store by linking to it in your profile descriptions, posts, stories, and tweets; However, you must keep in mind that consumers do not want to be ‘sold’ to. Some businesses swear by certain ‘content to hard sell’ ratios, for example, 5 posts of purely unique content and inspiration that your followers will value, then 1 post with a hard sell and direct link to your online shop or service.

2. Content is King

Little and often, an age-old saying, but one that reigns true in the world of social media. Your customers and followers do not want to be bombarded every hour, they can quickly grow tired of your content, no matter how unique or engaging it is. You have to leave them wanting more.

In terms of what your social media posts should contain. Content really is king. The videos, photos or text that you post cannot be repetitive or flat. Some of the most popular types of posts that have gone viral include humor and creativity. Ensure though that you keep your target audience in mind when creating content and keep it relevant.

3. Influencers and Bloggers

Once a very misunderstood industry. Businesses are now understanding the vast potential influencer marketing has for their business. Influencers are everyday people from all walks of life, who particularly inspire a group of individuals who idolize or respect their values and opinions. By expertly selecting influencers who match your product or service values you have the ability to reach a very niche but widespread target audience.

4. Communication

Social media is a means of communication after all. It is important to engage in conversation with not only your followers but other businesses and brands too. Being polite, witty, and friendly when interacting with others on social media is key.

However, you must ensure that any awkward or abusive comments and interactions from users are dealt with professionally and calmly. If you have an employee who controls your business account, it is of paramount importance that they understand this too. The world is watching, and social media has the power to spread rude or abusive reactions from a business very quickly. In the past it has even helped to completely destroy the reputation of brands, so count to 10 and reply with consideration and respect.

In conclusion, social media incorporates a huge number of target markets, although different platforms appeal to different types of users (for example Snapchat appeals to ages 18-25, and Facebook pre-dominantly ages 18-45), social media as a whole is used by almost every culture, age, and nationality on Earth. As long as you are providing enriching content and utilizing appropriate marketing techniques like influencers or adverts, you will begin to see positive growth in followers and engagement on your social accounts, which should transcend to sales and profit for your business.

4 Essential Characteristics Of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Gary

Millionaires, billionaires, successful entrepreneurs, and CEOs. What do they all have in common? Are there any particular characteristics that they possess that helps to define a successful entrepreneur? Below are 4 of the most common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

1. Excellent Communication and People Skills

A successful entrepreneur is highly confident in their ability to communicate with different groups of people, from all walks of life, from the factory workers who may create their product to their potential investors and peers. They are usually excellent at sparking motivation and enthusiasm in their workers and their excitement is contagious.

Their confidence in talking to people is of paramount importance to their success, as businesses develop more efficiently when the entrepreneur or owner engages in networking and communication with others who will help to advance the business. Successful conversations with manufacturers and a good rapport with their staff help them to stand apart from their competitors.

2. Self-Motivated and Determined

A successful entrepreneur does not need their motivation to come from an external source, they are determined to succeed and will always be moving forward to realize their goals. Whenever they hit a bump in the road or become discouraged their determination is the force that drives them to keep moving and seek an alternative path to solve the problems they may be facing.

3. Passion and Belief

We are not talking about passion in the romantic sense. Successful entrepreneurs are highly excited and motivated by their goals. The care and attention they provide to their business almost never switches off, they pour their heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears into their business and they love their work; The joy they receive from their daily work goes beyond the salary they seek to earn.

4. Forward-thinking and willing to take risks

Looking to the future (and sometimes the past) is an important approach for a successful entrepreneur. Planning ahead and making decisions today that affect tomorrow can be a hard weight to bear. These types of individuals will usually possess some form of schedule or timeline that maps out the success they wish to achieve, this can be in the form of a 5 year or 10-year plan. Do they plan to branch out into a new market, outsource their manufacturing or they may even wish to sell the company at some stage, these decisions must be considered well in advance of their execution.

Every successful entrepreneur has to possess the ability to make hard decisions and potentially take risks. It is hard to conduct business without the possibility of any risk, small or large, a decision must be reached, and a successful entrepreneur will not look to others for action, they must provide the action themselves.

Confidence, motivation, passion, and forward-thinking, these characteristics amalgamated together create one potent mix for an incredibly successful entrepreneur. When you possess an idea or concept that you know you must realize, these traits will come to you naturally as you strive to make your idea a reality.

3 Powerful Visualization Techniques Visualization Techniques To Manifest Your Desired Outcomes

Posted on by Gary

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What do you think is the difference between a dreamer and a doer?

One word: confidence.

Let’s face it, if you’re confident that you’ll eventually achieve your goals because you are willing to do whatever it takes to get there then you will no doubt achieve it. However, if you’re not confident about yourself and you don’t think your plans will pan out then you won’t really feel the need to take any steps to achieve your goals.

Confidence is the key to making something of yourself. It’s having the inner confidence that whatever happens around you, may it hail or shine, your confidence remains rock hard. If you believe in yourself that you will eventually achieve your goals, you’ll reach it. One of the most effective ways of achieving your goals is through Effective Visualization.

So what is Effective Visualization?

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big-time celebrity who used the power of visualization to achieve his bodybuilding goals.

Schwarzenegger didn’t just go to the gym every day and worked out, he actually visualized his success. He said “I had this fixed idea of growing a body like Reg Park’s. The model was there in my mind; I only had to grow enough to fill it… The more I focused in on this image and worked and grew, the more I saw it was real and possible for me to be like him.”

Schwarzenegger conditioned his mind and convinced himself that he was capable of achieving his goal, he firmly believed that he would be able to do it and that’s exactly what happened.

He also said, “What you do is create a vision of who you want to be — and then live that picture as if it were already true.”

This is the power of Effective Visualization.

You need to visualize your desired result over and over again as if it had already taken place. There’s no room in your head for doubting yourself and your capabilities because if you do this, you are unconsciously sabotaging your success.

Effective Visualization is a technique that’ll help you get over the barrier of self-doubt. You need to visualize and actually see yourself achieving your goals and you need to envision how you’re going to do it in the most detailed manner as possible. The more you visualize your success, the more it’ll transcend to reality because the power of the mind, if harnessed the right way can make a huge impact in your life.

What do you think is the difference between a successful person and a loser?

It’s two words: mind power.

The big reason why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because the rich people have such a powerful mindset – they are willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top and they can see themselves right at the top even though they’re not even there yet. They condition their minds over and over again to the fact that no matter what happens, they will eventually achieve the results they want.

Here are four effective Visualization techniques you might want to implement in your life:

Be in the moment

If for example, you have a meeting with some prospective sponsors, visualize yourself going to the meeting and winning that pitch. What do the potential sponsors look like?

What does the meeting place look like?

Can you picture the surroundings?

Can you hear their voices?

Imagine how calm and collected you are going to that meeting and shaking their hands.Imagine the potential sponsors intently listening to your pitch. By doing this simple practice you’ll be able to go that meeting with rock hard confidence because you’ll be able to transcend that imagery into real life since you’ve gone over the scenario in your head over and over again.

Focus on you

Besides visualizing the surroundings you need to effectively visualize yourself going into that meeting.

What clothes are you wearing during this meeting?

Is your posture on point?

Do you look confident enough to secure the deal?

How calm and collected are you?

How is your tone of voice during the pitch?

Are you injecting a sense of humor to make the sponsors feel more comfortable with you as a person?

Have a backup plan

Visualizing yourself nailing the sponsorship is definitely a must, but you need to also have a plan B just in case things don’t go according to plan – at least you have a backup plan. Having a plan B or even a plan C will be good for you in the long run because it enables you to be a bit more prepared. Think of possible ways the potential sponsors would react negatively to your pitch and then think of ways in advance that you’ll be able to address their concerns.

Practice how you would react to their negative response and then repeat that scenario in your head over and over again so that when the time finally comes and they react negatively to your pitch, you’re 100% confident that you have the answers they are looking for because you have visualized this scene a number of times.

In conclusion

Your goal here is to strongly instill the experience you want in your mind so that this will transcend into real life and you’ll be able to embody the version of yourself that you know in your heart can be.

You need to make sure you note down everything you see and hear in your head and go over it again and again. Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to nailing down that life-changing pitch.

3 Basic Financial Tips Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know Before Launching A New Business

Posted on by Gary

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Image via Shutterstock / Sofi photo

A startup without a proper plan and pre-analysis of different risks you may encounter during your business venture could lead to problems and waste of money. One of the things you need to protect when building a business is your investment. Therefore, it is critical to learning how to manage your finances to guarantee a sustainable business.

Track your finances

Make sure you track all your funds to know where your money goes. Keeping the record of your expenses up-to-date allows you to review your financial status. If you can monitor your cash flow, you can point out which part of your business areas are spending a lot so you can allocate the excessive amount to a more critical business plan you want to implement.

Proper cash flow management also enables you to limit excessive expenses for less essential business needs. Control spending at your startup since you are not yet able to generate your profit. It is still very early for you to reward yourself with fancy things without yet generating your net income.

Ensure you organize every record of expense such as marketing costs, mortgage loan or rental fee of your office, water and electric utilities, employee’s payroll, taxes, and many other aspects where money is involved. Organizing these expenses helps you do the proper computation easily.

Hiring professional help

Not all entrepreneurs possess an accurate computation skill. Hiring a professional can help you do the complex computations and get accounting done efficiently. Through his/her help, you can also allocate a specific amount specially intended for the tax contribution. Monthly reconciliation with your bank also enables you to verify if there are accounting errors done or unusual transactions without your knowledge.

Save some money for a rainy day

It is also essential to reserve some portion of your money to be used for your personal or household finances. Aside from this, you also need to allocate an amount intended for emergency use in case your business needs it. Since you are still in the start-up stage, avoid using the money from your company, so you can compare your profit versus your expenses.

Having savings will also allow you get prepared in case worse things may happen while your business is running. This will help you avoid the risk of running out of money which may be a cause of its loss or failure to operate.

Every step you have to make involves finances. Therefore, time is another thing you have to value. You do not have to rush things to achieve success. However, you still need to make sure you can appropriately schedule your day to day activities.

Once you have already mastered all these things mentioned, you can now be ready for a smart investment. This could be for your retirement, insurance, or another business expansion. These are just some of the financial goals most entrepreneurs dream to achieve. Aiming and achieving these things are the rewarding gifts you got from your effort and self-discipline.

The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship: 3 Sacrifices Every Entrepreneur Must Make to Be Successful

Posted on by Gary

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image via Shutterstock / Kaspars Grinvalds

Let’s face it; the concept of being an entrepreneur is exciting for a lot of people. The notion that you’re the boss and you run your own business sounds quite appealing to a lot of people but unfortunately, there is a downside to entrepreneurship that most people don’t see.

As an entrepreneur, you need to go through a number of sacrifices otherwise you won’t eventually get to where you want to be. Now here are the 3 most common sacrifices every entrepreneur must face when they’re just starting out:

Work/Life Blur

Once you decide to become an entrepreneur then you need to be prepared for your private life and your work life to cross over all the time. If you’re just starting a new business then say goodbye to your private time for a while because you’ll be working 24/7 even when you’re not in your place of business. You’ll be thinking of new strategies, marketing techniques and ways of improving your business wherever you are and that’s just the tip of the iceberg because you’ll have dozens of phone calls and emails to attend to. At some point, when you’re business has finally stabilised then you’ll find a healthy balance between your business and your private time.

Unstable take-home pay

It’s common knowledge for entrepreneurs that you’ll probably lose money or at best break-even on the first five years of your business before you eventually start making money. If you’re starting a new business then you need to be in it for the long haul! If you want to make a profit in about a year or two then you need to create a powerful marketing plan that can penetrate the industry in a big way and earn you some much needed profits.

Sleep deprivation

Most people need at least 6 hours sleep, but as an entrepreneur, you may need to have a lot less. There will be a number of times when you’d have to sacrifice sleep so that you can look after your business properly. There will be some days when you need to stay up all night to work on urgent projects and there will be a number of nights when you’ll be lying awake thinking about your action plan the next day. When you start a new business – expect to sleep a lot less for the next couple of years!

On the brighter side of things, even though you need to make these sacrifices don’t be discouraged though, you’ve got to start somewhere to get somewhere right? Look at these sacrifices as a form of investment. Just sacrifice for now but as long as you stay committed to the overall picture then you’ll eventually reap the rewards.