Some of the biggest, most impressive and remarkably visionary companies in our world can teach a lot more to a small business owner like you than you’d might expect.
Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras masterfully articulates this set of proven lessons and smart habits that businesses of any size can learn and implement.
Most of the concepts that Collins and Porras argue actually seem backwards at first glance. They say that founding a company based upon “one great idea” is a bad idea; that beating the competition is secondary to internal competition that allows your team’s best ideas to surge forth; and that the world’s most visionary companies prioritize core values — an internal culture, a unique ideology that emphasizes purpose and meaning — beyond profits.
Clearly defining and articulating a set of core values is perhaps the most important aspect of establishing a strong basis for a small business’ identity. Not only is it vital for the members of your small business to understand core values, they become far more important, in my opinion, than your brand name or a recognizable logo.
Businesses change. It’s not unrealistic to expect the name of your company (and even the names of your products) to come and go. Logos are also a dime a dozen today, and as unique as you think yours is, it probably won’t do much to affect your company’s bottom line.
What matters far more than those “sexy” elements of starting a new business — which really turn out to be major time-wasters in the long run — is to develop a set of core values that you and your employees operate off of.
What are your values?
What is your purpose, beyond profit?
What will be the meaningful drive behind you and your employees every day, beyond sales?
Small biz values not only shape your public image far more than Facebook Page giveaways, but become the “constant” that sustains your business’ identity during good times and functions as a “safety net” upon which the business can fall during difficult times.
Even as a blogger like me, I’ve learned the hard way how values ought to supersede priority in whatever you’re attempting to build — whether in business, or in life. Gitchy names, logos and marketing strategies come and go, and so will your own business ideas change and evolve, succeed and fail.
What matters most is the constant that will continue to breathe life into your organization in spite of shortcomings — and keep you grounded and aligned with your priorities during growth and periods of success.
Even for me as an individual writer making his way in this world, remaining grounded and aligned with my values has sustained my sense of purpose through thick and thin. Meanwhile, some of the most remarkable and highly-visionary companies over the last 150 years have placed priority on values, too, and succeeded wildly as a result.
Building a solid mailing list is a lot easier said than done, to which many budding entrepreneurs can attest. Coming up with ideas to implement might make you feel like a monkey trying to operate as a brain surgeon. I mean, where do you even start?
You’ll have to peel the banana yourself, but here are 25 ideas for your Big Banana – that one free giveaway capturing the loyalty and imagination of your audience and keeps them coming back for more.
1. The Checklist
A checklist is a convenient and quick way to evaluate a prospective provider of services, stay organized or as a reminder of what your customer needs to do to achieve their goals.
The Ultimate 10-Day Trip Packing List – and It All Fits In Your Carry On
2. Take This Quiz!
Great for life coaches and career advisors, a quiz is not only a fun way to determine certain personality traits, but you can follow up with details and an explanation of their type. People love to take quizzes, especially when it’s all about them.
Test Your Career Personality IQ! Discover the Career Path that Leads to a Job You Love.
3. Teach A Video Course/Series
Even a short instructional video can have a big impact. Show your potential customer how to accomplish a task, solve a problem or learn a new skill.
7 Easy, Self-Defense Techniques Every Woman Should Know
4. Everyone Loves To Be A Winner
Contests are very popular and they are a good way for your brand to go viral. Be sure to follow all legal requirements.
Enter To Win Your Choice of Earrings from my New “Elegant Is The Night” Collection!
5. Templates
If you have a template you use often and find useful in your area of expertise, why not package it up as a valuable tool for your customers as a Big Banana?
7 Professional Resume Templates that Will Make Employers Beg to Interview You
6. Taking A Swipe At It
Swipe files are an invaluable resource for customers and can really take a lot of pressure off of coming up with new ideas constantly.
15 Copy & Paste Emails To Resolve Any Customer Service Issue and Still Have Them Love You
7. Write an E-book
The possibilities are endless, and you can write a short e-book about any subject under the sun.
Dating After Divorce – Avoiding The Pitfalls of Dating Hell
8. A Blueprint To Take Action
Give them a detailed plan of action they can start using right away.
The Super Happy, Healthy Baby Blueprint: The Secrets to Surviving the First 6 Months without Wrecking your Kid.
9. Educational Webinar Series
This is a great idea for a short training series on a single subject for inquiring minds who want to know.
10. Assess and Evaluate
A free assessment is especially effective for any type of coaching or can work with a variety of service industries such as lawn care, cleaning or consultant work.
Is Your Home Killing You? Get Free Assessment of the Health Risks in your Home
11. Thieving My Rolodex
Sharing is caring, and chances are your Rolodex is full of juicy contacts.
My Top 25 To-Die-For Vintage Clothing Stores (with Private Contact List)
12. A Host With The Most – Teleseminar
Why not host a teleseminar about a topic with which you have a lot of experience?
Speaking Without Fear: How to Win Over a Room and Have Blast Doing It.
13. Guides Through The Jungle
Life is a jungle. A step-by-step guide can provide a place to start for your customers no matter the subject.
Marie Forleo’s Free Guide for Women: 8 Big Mistakes Most Women Make in Business and How to Avoid Them
14. How About A Discount?
Who doesn’t like a discount on a product or services?
25% Off our “Uniquely You Two” Engagement Photo Session.
15. A Podcast Is Not A Spaceship
The audio media is becoming more and more popular every day. Give your customers an audio experience they can listen to anywhere.
Million Dollar Launch – 5 Interviews with Online Entrepreneurs Who Have Had Million+ Product Launches This Year
16. Of Course, There’s an App For That
Offer a free version of your game, app or entry-level software.
Is that a Cloud in Your Pocket? Try the POKTCloud App for All Your Mobile Device Storage Needs.
17. What The Hell Does That Mean?
Industry related terms in any business may be clear to you, but not to your customer. Help them out.
25 Terms You Need To Know in Real Estate Contracts Before Signing Your Life Away
18. A Worksheet To Ease The Workload
A workbook or worksheet takes your customers through the questions they need to answer in order to achieve clarity.
Danielle LaPorte’s The Authentic Dreaming Worksheet – designed to find out why you want what you want.
19. The Handy Dandy Toolkit
Your customers are always hungry for the tools you use to succeed. Package an e-book, report, video series, app or any Big Banana to create your own free kit.
Detox Toolkit: The Not-So-Crazy Cleanse to Lose Weight, Increase Energy and Feed Your Soul.
20. Get the Conversation Started
Lists of questions are sure-fire ways to feel smarter and spark conversations.
15 Must-Ask Questions Before You Hand Your Money Over to a Financial Planner
21. Come on Down
A free event (or group coaching) where you can give several potential clients a chance to get to know you and what you offer -all at once. This saves tons of time over offering individual trial sessions.
OHM My – Free Yoga in the Park Day (Register Now)
22. Free Designs or Graphics
This Big Banana works well for designers and illustrators.
15 Free Awesome Social Media Icons
23. Testing, Testing 1-2-3
Provide a test case or case study to help your customer target their own markets.
PR is Not The Same as it Was 5 Years Ago! How I Tripled My Business Almost Overnight by Using The Modern PR System
24. Help Me, Please!
Write a white paper or report to solve a specific problem.
Best Practices: Social Media Time Management for the Solopreneur
25. Making Big Plans With A Mind Map
A mind map is very useful for those who are more visual learners.
The Meditation Mind Map – Your Visual Guide to Learning & Embracing Meditation In Your Daily Life
Jill Shearer has spent the better part of 15 years making crazy-money for huge companies like Apple, Adobe and 3Com. Now, she is putting all that experience to good use teaching new and established entrepreneurs on how to make the most of their online and offline business. She has created SimplyLaunch to supply others with the tools they need to achieve the next level of success.
Lots of online business owners are doing great offering information and inspiration to their customers. But perhaps you’re hankerin’ to take it to the next level? Maybe you’re hungry for something more in your business? If so, consider strengthening your transmission – also known as upping your vibe – to your readers and customers.
Whoa, transmission?? Transmission of what? Are we getting all airy-fairy? What the heck does vibe have to do with business?
Only everything. The Internet is about connection. As we’ve become more plugged in, we’ve also gotten better at detecting bullshit and we’ve gotten hungrier for truth, authenticity, and real connection. It’s paradoxical: the more time we spend plugged in to the virtual world, the more we crave what’s real.
That’s where transmission comes in – transmission is, at its heart, about love. Something larger than gets communicated through you to your peeps. A higher vibe. A bigger energy. That transmission will nourish and energize you better than a double Americano, and help attract your best customers with more ease and profit.
Think about the people you are drawn to again and again – you read their blogs, watch their videos, hire them – is it purely for the information you receive or is there something else, a something you can’t quite put your finger on? That’s transmission.
Sounds good, yes? It is – it’s the best! But it’s not a tidy plug-and-play process. If you are still reading, you are ready for this level of teaching, and it requires courage, self-love, and humility.
Ready?
Ask yourself:
Where am I in deepest alignment with what I offer? In what part of my business do I feel the most “rightness?”
Where do I feel the least aligned, the least lit up? (This takes courage to ask!)
When do I feel more connected to myself and my customers? (Name some specific instances – small is beautiful.)
When do I experience love for my peeps? (Love is the heart of transmission.)
Where am I walking my talk? (Practicing what you preach, using what you teach, doing what’s hard or expensive to stay in alignment.)
Where am I not? (This one may take a coach or mastermind group to help you see.)
Time out: these questions are not an invitation to completely revamp your business, quit, or beat yourself up. Transmission of a higher vibe means you let being in business work you. You let it teach you about how you do you – and then you use that learning to be of greater, true service to the people you love – also known as your customers.
Transmission helps your people change at a deep level; it fortifies them in a lasting way. They are elevated by what they receive from you. The form of what you offer might not change, but the intention, the energy, does. Radically.
It’s using business as a spiritual practice. Pretty cool, huh?
Here are three additional ways to up your vibe and transmit the love:
Be a steward of your customer’s deeper learning, healing, and evolution. How can you serve that through the work you do – for instance, social media marketing or website design? You might not come up with a concrete answer but consider the question will increase the possibility for transmission to happen.
Turn your own deepest learning into content. Jen has written 6 books with almost a million copies in print doing just that. Share what moves and transforms you but only once you know the point, the takeaways of your learning. If you are still in the midst of it, take notes, let the learning work you, and when you have perspective – which can sometimes takes months or even years- then share.
Do your work wholeheartedly and sustainably. Turn on all your charm, brilliance, love, and expertise when you’re serving your peeps and be sure and give yourself an equal amount of recovery, play, and “filler-up” time. (Laura models this so well!)
Transmission isn’t about you – it’s a mysterious process where by something larger than you comes through you – but that larger something can’t get through if you are a dried-up freaked out mess. Build in what you need to replenish so that giving to your customers is like inhaling and exhaling – it’s a sustainable process of putting out and taking back in, never leaving you breathless or panting.
Bottom line: to evolve your business, you must up your vibe. The Internet offers a profound way for you to evolve, to become more authentic, loving and to truly serve – while taking great care of yourself. The more in alignment you are with your values, the more you walk your talk, and the higher your vision for what’s possible through your business, the clearer the transmission of energy will be.
Go to it!
Jennifer Louden and Michele Lisenbury Christensen have taught since their 20’s, everything from yoga to writing, and they’ve created a transformational program called Teach Now that delivers information, insight and Master Teacher interviews with Natalie Goldberg, Mark Nepo, Elizabeth Lesser, Parker Palmer and many more. Get a taste of the program via the first class for free. Grab it here!
If you have a blog or a website, I’m willing to bet that you’ve seen your fair share of bad affiliate programs. I certainly have.
It’s such a simple concept: reward the people who spread the word about your product or service.
Easy right? Apparently not so much.
Just yesterday I received an email about promoting a product that said this:
“Includes an incredible affiliate offer where you can make nearly 25% off every single sale!”
The product was $47 with a 20% commission and no other incentives. I’m sorry but $9.40 just doesn’t excite me that much.
The reason most affiliate programs suck is because most owners of these programs care only about themselves. They don’t want to devote the time and money to doing it right, which results in very few sales for you, and even less money for your affiliates – which let’s face it, is the whole point.
So how do we fix this?
Step 1: Consider What Motivates You
Would a $9.40 commission motivate you? Probably not.
What would get you to spend a few hours crafting a blog post or email series that would do a really good job of promoting a particular product and providing value to your audience?
Do that.
Generally this means a 50% commission on information products. Remember, these are sales you wouldn’t have otherwise, so 50% is better than 0. Most people choose to forget this.
You should be as generous and creative as possible with your offer. Bump up commissions when your affiliates reach a certain threshold. Give prize bonuses for particularly good months. Offer to let them give copies away to their readers.
Not only will this make them extremely excited to promote for you, but it’s more money in your pocket!
Step 2: Give Copies Away
If you want your affiliates to do the best job possible, give them a copy of your product. Not only will this build goodwill, but it will allow them to do a better job of reviewing and promoting.
Will there be people who try and take advantage of your generosity to get free stuff? Absolutely. That said, it will be a very a small minority, and it shouldn’t be a primary concern.
Step 3: Make Sure Your Product Converts
Last week I was talking with a well-known blogger who was disappointed with their product launch. “I should have brought affiliates on board for the initial launch,” they said.
If you can’t convert your own audience that’s been pre-sold, then an affiliate program isn’t going to help you. Sure you might make a couple more sales, but more likely you’re going to waste everyone’s time, when you should be working to improve your product.
Conversions are everything. No one wants to promote something that only converts .02% of all traffic. Do a beta launch to get a sense of your conversion rate, and use the feedback of the initial group to improve your product.
Then when you finally approach others to help you market, you not only know how it’s going to convert, but you’ve got a better product, and testimonials to go along with it.
Step 4: Give Them What They Need
The worst affiliate programs are the ones where the owner (or manager) won’t respond to simple emails. I know you’re busy, but your affiliates are doing you a favor, not the other way around.
Treat them well.
If they need a banner of a different size – make it for them. If they want to do an interview with you about your product, schedule it. If they have technical questions, spend the time to walk them through it.
Not only will they be more successful in selling, but they’ll be much more likely to promote future products.
A good relationship with an affiliate is just like finding a good customer, it’s much easier to keep them around and make them happy than to build a relationship with a new one.
It’s Not About You, It’s About Them
If you haven’t realized it yet, the key to a successful affiliate program is to put their success ahead of your own. Make it your goal to make them as much money as possible, and I promise they’ll return the favor over the long run.
Sean Ogle writes about travel and entrepreneurship at Location 180 and helps others build small businesses they can run from anywhere on earth at Location Rebel.
More and more books are coming out just on the kindle platform – but can you still read them if you don’t have a kindle? The answer is YES! Kindle offers free applications for reading kindle books for the mac, pc, iphone, ipad, and android. Here are the links:
I first encountered this incorrect spelling of “utter” in a student essay on the “udder destruction” of a character. For days, I was clutching my breasts and feeling pity for cows.
Some student typos are really amusing, and—unless you’ve got a dominatrix for an English professor—it’s unlikely that one of them will lead to an F.
But mistakes in your corporate communications—even just one or two of them—are an altogether different story. They’re no laughing matter. Mistakes destroy consumer confidence and cause you to lose sales.
Think you’re immune from such errors? Think again.
Lately, I’ve been exploring a lot of websites. I’m branching out beyond the ivory towers of academia in order to launch a series of online programs for college and high school students, and I want to see how other entrepreneurs are presenting themselves. So after reading posts on Laura’s blog and watching Marie Forleo’s Q & A Tuesday videos, I often check out people’s comments and their sites.
Guess what? Even though I’m not in official editing mode, I find a lot of mistakes.
3 Glaring Mistakes
“Start woking with an expert.”
“We promote heath and wellness.”
“I create professionally-written cover letters.”
No, the solopreneur in the first example isn’t selling innovative wok services. She’s presenting herself as an experienced administrative assistant. The company referenced in the second example offers diagnostic screening services—not a Heath bar fortified with blue-green algae. Now, the last mistake might not seem as obvious as the others, but it’s still a common blooper. Let me explain, so you don’t make the same kind of error.
Rule: Use a hyphen when joining 2 or more words that serve as an adjective before a noun, but don’t use one when joining –ly adverbs.
Examples: Laura Roeder is a well-respected expert on social media marketing. Michelle Vargas is the woman behind Marie’s professionally shot videos.
#1 Reason Mistakes Cost You Clients
Quite simply, they destroy the “Know, Like, and Trust” factor you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. . .even if your service or product seems to have nothing to do with writing.
Consider this. The authors of the mistakes are from diverse fields: corporate administration, medicine, and communications. Nevertheless, their clients are all looking for someone who’s capable of ensuring that nothing—not even the smallest detail—is overlooked. They need an assistant they can trust to correctly enter information into their systems, want to know the practice can properly label and screen the vials of blood they’ve drawn, and must feel confident that the writer can get rid of the mistakes they can’t catch themselves.
Underneath it all, the same thing is true of your clients. If they notice you don’t catch (or don’t hire someone to catch) seemingly small things like typos, how are they going to be able to trust you with bigger, more significant tasks?
4 Ways to Avoid Looking Utterly Ridiculous
1. Create a checklist. If you’re like most of my clients, you already know that you tend to mess up in certain areas, so create a separate document where you can jot down your trouble zones, write out the rule, and include both correct and incorrect examples from your own writing. Print out your checklist and refer back to it every time you write something.
2. Proofread! Print out your copy and get some distance from it. When proofreading, it’s vital to be in an alert state, so you might need several short sessions. Put the point of your pencil beneath each word and read your copy very s-l-o-w-l-y. If you read at your normal speed, your mind is apt to do things like insert words that aren’t actually on the page. Go the extra mile by double-checking words in the dictionary. (My favorite is www.merriam-webster.com.) Enter the necessary changes, print out the document, and read it once more.
3. Use the best free online resources. There’s no shortage of free online advice, but some of it is wrong! If you want trustworthy, easy-to-understand information about things like grammar and punctuation, I recommend The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): http://owl.english.purdue.edu.
4. Invest in an online reference work. Right now, I’m loving the AP Stylebook Online, which I use when editing and writing for the BB&T Charleston Wine + Food Festival®. For $25 a year, you get this amazing resource, which is easy to search and includes comprehensive information on punctuation, grammar, and spelling as well as social media guidelines and more. Check it out at www.apstylebook.com.
Have any great tips or resources? Post them in the comments. I’m always curious!
Need some FREE advice? See below for details.
Jennifer B. Bernstein is a professional editor and writer, an award-winning literary scholar, and the creator of Get Yourself Into College™ and Create Your Amazingly Successful Life!™–a series of live and online programs for high school and college students as well as recent graduates. To book your FREE 10-minute review of one of your pages, sign up at http://jenniferbbernstein.com/editing-writing.
Are you a talented student looking for an internship that will give you REAL ownership and responsibilities? If you like to fetch coffee, please don’t respond!
We’re a small start-up growing quickly and need more hands on deck to let even more small businesses know about our amazing products!This internship is perfect for you if you want a hands-on, fast-paced learning experience that provides you with real work experience instead of just occasional grunt work that no one else wants to do.
You’ll be assisting our team in creating and marketing and educational content. You will have the opportunity to take the helm, come up with your own ideas, and write your own articles, reports, and presentations. (With our guidance and assistance to make you an even better writer.)
YOU are positive, responsible, organized, creative, forward-thinking, and easy going. You’re a creative person who loves to write (you’ll be doing a lot of writing). You’re extremely web-savvy and popping up a blog is no big deal to you. You’re a quick learner and thrive in a great community of people.
Some of your responsibilities will include:
Marketing Communications Intern
- Assisting in creating and updating our editorial calendar
- Writing content to be published on the web
- Optimizing content for search (we’ll train you on how to do this)
- Editing articles, blog posts and presentations
- Repurposing content
- Online research
Logistics:
- You MUST have your own mac computer. Non-negotiable.
- You’ll be working from your own home (or coffee shop or beach), so you need to be good at directing yourself and managing your own time.
- 20 hour/week position
My name is Kyra Williams, The Get in Shape Girl. In April of 2010, I was laid off from my job as an admin. I received a severance and had a few months to ponder my next move. I was and am in love with fitness and being healthy.
Back as a college student? Not so much. I was out of shape, unhealthy, and most importantly unhappy. I did what most girls did and counted calories, burned more than I consumed and waited. After moving to Boston, I found a gym called CATZ and it introduced me to new heights in my personal fitness. Off I was, spending more time working out, eating right, and learning all I could about being healthy.
That’s when I decided to become a personal trainer. I obtained my NASM certification and went to work for a gym and started a blog, I also started a Facebook Like Page, YouTube Channel and Twitter account. I was unsure about what to do with all of them but with some studying and watching of others, I just started writing and recording videos and I let the chips fall where they may.
It turns out, I wasn’t the only girl who ran into difficulties with getting healthier and I quickly started to get fans and viewers of my blog — 10 a day, 20 a day, 100 a day, 500 a day, 1000 a day and so on. Same with my Facebook Page and I am now approaching 3000 Likes!
Here are the 12 Steps I followed and how you can do it too.
Who are you? What are you writing about? This is your niche. You should be writing to your niche and also be a part of your niche to prove your passion for the topic.
Who is your audience? I was writing to people who wanted to live a healthier lifestyle and wanted to share ideas and success stories.
HAVE Patience – This is not going to happen overnight. It is going to take time to get a following. Be comfortable with the having approx 50 or so fans after the first month. Treat followers and fans with great respect and get to know THEM.
Provide Valuable Content – Only re-posting recipes or others content is not going to get a following. Write from the heart, write posts that will help, inspire, heal and motivate.
It is not about YOU – Being a blogger is about serving the community in which you occupy, not promoting yourself (that will come organically). Do as much as you can for others with no expectations besides knowing you may have helped someone.
Have a free item to give away. Having consistent viewership is great but it is a one way street. (They come to you) Creating a free report or a newsletter will get people to sign up to your email list and you now can reach them with your content, programs, or services. Mine was www.thegetinshapebooty.com
Do some Pro-Bono work – Not only good for your karma, this will help you build social currency. I have a personal training site. Before we launched it, we gave away free memberships to get the community engaged. Those people were also required to provide photos, testimonials, and leave positive feedback on their social media pages.
Show you CARE – When I was getting started I would write a thank you email to everyone who signed up for my free give-a-way just introducing myself and asking how I could help.
Follow up –People need reminders that you can help them; Also be consistent with your blog, failing to write a post for a couple weeks will kill your viewership before it gets going.
Do Free Challenges to get community involvement – I have created a free challenge for people on my Facebook page and people I am involved with on many different forums.
Ask your audience what they want, don’t assume you know – You are probably at a level of knowledge for your niche that is ahead of your viewers. Don’t assume they are there with you. If they are asking for the basic of basic steps, make sure to show them how!
Find people you want to be like and follow them! Get involved on their page, provide great content and posts and let them know you are also an authority figure in that space. Doing it once won’t cut it. Be a regular on their page helping THEIR viewers remain engaged. I bet you they will make their way over to your site in time!
I hope you will take the time to read this a few times and implement these steps as they have worked for me. April of 2010, I had no fans, viewers, a fan page, a blog, or a direction on where I was going to take this. Here is your blueprint.
Kyra is a certified personal trainer and nutritional specialist helping people across their world become healthier versions of themselves. To find out more about her and get some free tips go to www.thegetinshapeworkoutplan.com.
Want to write a rockin’ guest post about running a small business, entrepreneurship, personal branding or online marketing? Review our requirements and submit your proposed article along with your details and we’ll get back to you on whether it’s a fit!
Products and services that I mention or link to on this blog may be products that I have a financial interest in promoting or have received some other non-financial compensation for.
Dave Ursillo is a former “politico” insider turned alternative leadership author and speaker. His new book, Lead Without Followers: How to Save the World by Radically Redefining the Meaning of Leadership, is an alternative leadership philosophy that espouses “everyday” principles of quiet, personal leadership over social qualifiers of success like money, power and popularity.
Jill Shearer has spent the better part of 15 years making crazy-money for huge companies like Apple, Adobe and 3Com. Now, she is putting all that experience to good use teaching new and established entrepreneurs on how to make the most of their online and offline business. She has created 
Jennifer Louden and Michele Lisenbury Christensen have taught since their 20’s, everything from yoga to writing, and they’ve created a transformational program called 
Kyra is a certified personal trainer and nutritional specialist helping people across their world become healthier versions of themselves. To find out more about her and get some free tips go to 
