GOOD PRODUCT VS GOOD MARKETING | WHATS MORE IMPORTANT | SHOCKING PARADOX...

There is No Luck. Only Good Marketing. | Franz Schrepf | TEDxAUCollege

Good Marketing Delivers an Effective Message to the Customer

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Is your marketing in your company affective? Does your marketing deliver the message to the customer that you want to deliver? Is the message that you send to your customer simple? Do you find multiple ways to deliver this message in its simple form to your potential customers? Is your marketing efficient; that is to say are you able to deliver your marketing for a low price and achieve maximum results? Good marketing delivers an affective message to the customer; does your marketing stands up to that test?

Any campaign can spend a million dollars in a small market and to get an x-con elected to the mayors seat. Any company can spend $1 million in a small market and achieve synergy with their brand in that market. Any company can spend $1 million in a small market and get customers to buy their products or services. But that is not good marketing and that does not require delivering an affective message to the customer efficiently. Now then, can your company's marketing deliver the same results with $1000 in the same small town? If not perhaps your marketing is not good enough?

You must deliver an affective message to your customer and it needs to be simple and you need to do it efficiently so it does not bankrupt your company. Additionally you should notice a return on your investment and new customers, which transfers into profitability for your business. If you fail to achieve any of this then that is not good marketing. Oh, it may be marketing but good marketing delivers an affective message efficiently to your potential customers. I hope you will consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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How online marketplaces can help local economies, not hurt them | Amane ...

How you can help local shops impacted by the coronavirus

What to Do to Help Your Local Shop Survive in Midst of Competitors?

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Starting up a business or a local shop is not so easy. There are many Dos and Don'ts that you have to keep in mind. The rise and fall of your local shop depend on how you take it and implement your project. The level of competition is very high; there is a competition even among local shops and local sellers. So, what you should do to help your shop survive in the market world that is full of competitors? Let us just discuss the requirements needed to stay up even with the intense competition.

1. Create a customer-centric culture

If you are running a local shop, you have to make sure that your shop is customer-centered. There are many local sellers who make a huge mistake by forgetting to keep the customers first and tending to focus only on the target profit which results in the downfall of their business. In this case, the best option to do so is to create a one-of-a-kind culture at your local shop that expands upon people's expectation. Your local shop will grow only when customers love what you give them. No matter how big or small your local shop is, always stay as close to your customers as possible.

2. Never compete on price

Many small businesses make the biggest mistake when they feel that the only way to compete in the market is to undercut the competition on price. This makes them drop their prices to unsustainable levels. However, this pleases the customers, and, many customers will come in, yet, you will nearly lose money with every new order. This usually happens in a busy market where you will find your local shop running as fast as it can, but it can barely give you any money to keep your operation afloat.
So, what is the other the way that you should do?

Well, try to reposition your local shop and instead of using price as a tool to attract customers, focus on the service you provide. In a saturated market, you will always find someone or the other with a price lower than you. You will need to find a new way to stay unique; for that, try offering personal services. If your service is appealing and attractive enough, you will likely gain many customers and at the same time, you can increase your price.

3. Understand prospects' challenges of your local shop

You do not sell a product or service, you sell a solution to your prospect challenges. You need to have a clear understanding of whether the solution you have to offer is the right fit or not. No seller can say that he is free from competitions and challenges; but, how you deal with those challenges and how to bring a suitable solution can help your local shop stand out of the crowd.

4. Being distinct

To sell out in the market you have to be unique and different. Local sellers who can effectively separate themselves from the masses of other sellers will reap massive rewards. Offering unique and attractive service can help you generate more sales. It is important to study the market simultaneously and employ innovative strategies designed to regularly introduce new products, services, or processes.

5. Favorable opening hours

It does not matter whether you are up on a 24/7 basis or for a few hours, choose the timings where it is favorable to the customers. Being a local shop, you have to examine your local customers and track which timing has the highest flow of customers. Making a customer's shopping experience more convenient is a vital part of building competitive strategy.

6. Offer online ordering with quick delivery

As we are growing with technology, it is also important to stay at the same level as other big competitors or even higher if possible. Online shopping has become a trend these days. Getting your products showcased online can help you get more customers and generate more sales. Making of quick delivery is equally important to attract customers. Customers have the option to other sites or shops where delivery is made quick and convenient.

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How To Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

WHAT is Affiliate Marketing and HOW Does it Work? For Beginners!

How To Start Making Money Online As An Affiliate Marketer

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The field of affiliate marketing is probably the quickest developing way to make money online. After all, billions of ordinary people use internet every day. Affiliate marketing gives you the opportunity to target potential customers regardless of their location in the world.

For this reason, it isn't surprising that a huge number of people make a considerable amount of money through affiliate advertising and marketing. Many skilled affiliate marketers end up making more money in this field than they did in their previous job, and hence some of them even resign their normal 9-5 job and pursue affiliate marketing full-time.

A Quick Overview On Affiliate Marketing
Now that we have a little idea about the capacity of affiliate marketing, Let's dig in and discuss what it truly includes.

The easiest way to describe affiliate marketing is when you help another company sell their products online, and then you get paid a commission for each sale you bring to them.

If you are promoting a product priced at $200, and the company pays you 10 percentage commission of the sale, you would make $10 for each sale.

However how do you refer sales? You can begin promoting your seller's products on your website, which receives targeted site visitors in the same niche as the product you are advertising. For example, if you have a website that sells makeup you would not advertise health insurance, but instead you could promote makeup related products. Every time one of your website's visitors clicks on your affiliate link which was supplied to you by the seller, you will be paid a commission.

How To Choose A Good Affiliate Network
One of the largest errors new affiliate marketers make is becoming a member of nearly each affiliate network they encounter. This is without a doubt considered to be a totally incorrect technique. That is due to quite some reasons.

Firstly, being an affiliate marketer is an undertaking which calls for a lot of awareness. So, if you try and work with many affiliate networks at the same time, chances are that none of your initiatives might go as planned and consequently, none of them might end up being very successful.

Secondly, focusing on just one or a few products without a doubt will let you research them thoroughly before you start to promote them. This method also helps you refine your strategies, making the required adjustments, and thus making your marketing a whole lot more powerful. An effective approach will yield better outcomes, and reward you for your efforts and time.

Thirdly, make sure you do some research on the affiliate network as there are some networks that will only pay you once a month which might not work for you or worse they could not pay you at all. I am not telling this to discourage you from being an affiliate marketer, but instead I want you to succeed in finding the correct network and products to market and make your commission.

There are affiliate networks that resort to "shaving", a very common exercise in affiliate marketing where the networks display a discounted number of sales than what you referred, consequently paying you drastically less in commissions.

Hence, to avoid been a victim to this action I would suggest that you stick to known and trusted affiliate networks. In any case, they only way you will succeed with a network is if you are comfortable with them and the products you are promoting.

How To Start Getting Sales As An Affiliate Marketer
Getting instantly to the point, some affiliate marketers use social media web sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more, for doing associate marketing, other decide to build out their own site. Getting your own site is an exceptional approach to affiliate marketing, because it gives you control over everything.

So we will focusing on affiliate marketing using your own site moving forward. First matters first, as mentioned earlier, you will want to find an affiliate network you're comfortable with. This includes being knowledgeable about the products you are promoting, so that you don't come to be selling products you don't know anything about.

Amazon's Associate Program
That being said, many marketers look at Amazon's associate marketing program as one of the best. It's possibly the most trustworthy network, and has a large inventory of products to promote and get your commissions.

This offers you a possibility to promote nearly any product in the market, or pick a niche with low competition and you could be earning commissions in less than a week.

Finding A Good Keyword
That is considered to be one of the hardest parts of marketing. You simply cannot blindly choose any keyword and expect to start making sales quickly. One of the reasons why many affiliate marketers fail is due to using a wrong keyword.

If you are new to the affiliate marketing, you are going to want keywords that have low competition. Start your keyword research by finding long tail keywords with a low search volume, that means much less money, but not really with the ones that have large competition.

You may test the top 10 and 20 results and do a few studies to discover if you may outrank them. Review keywords being used by the competition to determine if they are using identical key phrases you are looking to target. If they are, and they have a high authority website in that niche, I would recommend that you keep away from that niche, and opt for a brand new, less competitive.

Quality Content
This is significant. If you think you will make a lot of money creating items that doesn't help the visitors in anyway, you are very wrong. Although your goal is to earn cash by means of referring visitors to the offer, you will have to offer one thing of importance to them. Merely posting your hyperlinks along with lame sales pitches like "this is a wonderful solution, purchase this product via my personal hyperlink and get a discount", and so on, you might be only heading to disaster.

If you decide to join Amazon's associate program, you could write an informative article on your homepage and include your primary keywords and some secondary keywords throughout the article. You could have the purchasing guidebook, and write your brief opinion of each product you are marketing. Remember that the greater the cost of the product you market, the greater the commission.

Backlinks
We realize it's probably the trickiest method to accomplish, unless you are an SEO guru. Contacting site with high authority and guest posting on these sites is a really well-known means of getting great backlinks. These great backlinks, along with guest posting in related sites in your niche will get you ranked on the first page of the search engines as long as the keyword you chose has really low competition.

However, even when your site doesn't reach page one, as long as you have guest posted on a number of sites in your niche, you will be bringing substantial amount of targeted traffic coming from these sites. So that it is a great tactic anyway.

Mistakes To Avoid
Now you are aware of the process to becoming a great affiliate marketer with your own website, I want you to also keep in mind some of the most common errors brand new affiliate marketers make.

Not Providing Any Good Value
Though we've got covered this item, it's certainly important to remind you if you try to be extreme with your words to pressure the visitors to click on your affiliate link, it's likely being deemed as junk or spam by many websites.

Rather, it's suggested to help these individuals select the right solution determined by their particular wants. This method makes these individuals feel more, which in return will check out the products you are marketing based on the value in your article.

Product Research
Numerous online marketers will not do proper product research to gain knowledge on the product they are promoting, instead they are only worried about the amount of commission they will earn per sale regardless whether it will provide value to their visitors. This is an oversight, and will at some point lead to your readers not relying on anything you tell them.

Tracking Your Links
When you begin advertising on Amazon or even some other affiliate network, it will be beneficial to track your affiliate links. It can help you find out which website is doing more sales and then you can make your other websites have the same kind of setup.

Final Thoughts
I would like to say that despite the fact that affiliate marketing can be very fulfilling, it has a steep learning curve to it. You might face disappointment on numerous occasions prior to making a nice amount of money online.

That said, affiliate marketing it's suited simply for individuals who are likely to deal with several failures, but will come back with a positive attitude and willing to learn from their mistakes.

My Name is Noel Cruz, and I am the owner of Make Money Onlines Club. If you would like to purchase any of my recommended products it helps me out if you purchase through the original post at [http://makemoneyonlines.club/learn-easiest-way-seo-site/] If you have a Make Money Online idea feel free to let me know in my site [http://makemoneyonlines.club]

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How To Use Google Trends! Market Research To Compare Keywords, Topics & ...

Starting a business - Market Research

7 Easy Steps to Conducting Your Marketing Research Plan!

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Marketing research is a process used by businesses to collect, analyze, and interpret information used to make sound business decisions and successfully manage the business. In other words, it links the consumer to the marketer by providing information that can be used in making marketing decisions (i.e. B2C or B2B). This can not be implemented without the use of a MIS (Marketing Research System) to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers.

Here are the steps to implementing a marketing research process.

1. Ask yourself if there is a real need for marketing research. It's not only the first step to take but a very critical one as well! Research takes a lot of time due to the overload of secondary information available on the Internet. It's ideal to think that it takes months or even a year to completely finalize a marketing research agenda. The other factor you will need to consider is the cost of doing it, especially if you hire an agency to do it for you. What you want to compare is the value of the information vs the cost of the information. If the value of the information is worth the cost and time of doing it, then by all means, go for it buddy!

If you're still unsure, here's a few quick guides to go by to determine that marketing research is not needed:

a) The information is already available

b) The timing is wrong to conduct marketing research

c) Funds are not available for marketing research

d) Costs outweigh the value of marketing research

2. Define the problem. This is the most important step (assuming you've decided to do marketing research). If the problem is incorrectly defined, all else will become wasted effort! Keep in mind that the need to make a decision requires decision alternatives. If there are no alternatives, no decision is necessary. For example, let's say your sales are down by 30%, therefore becoming a problem with your revenues. Your alternatives may be to see how well ads #2 does compared to ads #1 in terms of sales. Use secondary data sources to develop ideas further into the research.

Here's a powerful technique to use in order to pinpoint important problems and receive information all in one: create a focus group! Here's why:

a) it generates fresh ideas

b) allow clients to observe their participants

c) understand a wide variety of issues

d) allow easy access to special respondent groups

3. Establish objectives. Research objectives, when stated effectively, can provide the information needed to solve the problem you have from step 2. All of your objectives should be what you want to study in your market research and specific as possible.

Here's a quick checklist of what to include in each and every objective:

a) specify from whom information is to be gathered

b) specify what information is needed

c) specify the unit of measurement used to gather information

d) use the respondents' reference to re-word the question

4. Determine research design. There are 5 different designs you can choose from to get the information you need, such as descriptive, exploratory, causal, and diagnostic research. Descriptive research describe market variables. Exploratory research allows you to get information in an unstructured way. Causal studies is to try to reveal what factor(s) cause some event to happen. Diagnostic research focuses on the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

5. Choose method of assessing data. Secondary data is more easy to access than primary data, such as online surveys. However, if you are into the traditional way of doing data collection (i.e. telephone, mail, F-2-F), they all still have a place in marketing research. The questionnaire that you present to the respondents must be worded clearly and unbias.

Here's a few pointers you want to remember when creating the forms for your questionnaire:

a) use nominal, ordinal, interval-Likert, interval-S-D, interval-Stapel, and ratio measurements

b) questions pertaining to each research objective (step 3)

c) questions pertaining to attribute, attitude, or behavior

d) have 1 open-ended question (I would definitely keep this at a minimum, if I were you)

6. Determine sample plan and size. Your sample plan should describe how each sample element is to be drawn from the total population. The sample size tells how many elements of the population should be included in the sample. In other words, the purpose of the sample plan is to give you representativeness, while the sample size gives you accuracy!

Here's a small but important task to take to prevent or minimize nonsampling errors from occurring: validate your participants by re-contacting!

7. Analyze and report the data. It's always good to go back and run tests on the information you have to screen out errors that may occur. Once you have all that you need for the research (pie charts, bar graphs, statistics, survey, etc), you want to be sure to create a report of it. Carefully present the research report in a way that communicates the results clearly, yet accurately to the client.

Remember marketing research is all about connecting the dots. The more information you know about your consumers, the more you bridge together with your consumers. The more closer you bridge together with your consumers, the more miles you create for long-term customer relationships. Go for it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9117591

How To Use Facebook's Audience Insights Tool & Targeting To Get The Most...

Target Market vs Target Audience

Understanding Your Brand's Target Audience

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Before starting a business, you will need to think about your Brand's target audience. Who do you expect your customers to be? Once you have identified them, the next step is to try and understand them better. What do they want and are you able to satisfy their needs and preferences? What do they think about your goods and services? Understanding your Brand's Target Audience will play a major role in the success of your business.

You need a lot of patience and time, before you can fully know and understand your Brand's target audience. The foundation of your relationship should be laid on a nurturing and comfortable ground. This will make it easier for them to open up to you better. It will also improve your Brand Strategy.

Below are ways that will aid you in understanding your Brand's target audience better and faster.

1. Listen To Your Customers

After identifying your audience, it is time to listen to them. What do they think about you and what you have to offer? You can only understand your Brand's audience better by paying attention to their feelings. Get quality and consistent time to interact with them. This will give you a better understanding of the people who will soon be part and parcel of your business. Remember that they are vital to the success of your Brand Strategy.

2. Be Part Of The Conversation

To get further with your Brand's audience you should be part of the conversation. Don't just sit back and wait for things to happen because they will not. Going the social media way is a perfect method of being part of a conversation.

3. Ask A Question

Did you know that most people including your Brand's target audience, love answering questions? Such is what you need to enable you reposition your Brand Strategy. Asking your audience questions gives them an opportunity to air their views and opinions. This in turn will help you reposition your business.

4. Each Time You Post, Offer A Call To Action

The other positive Brand Strategy is to encourage your target audience to get in touch with you through a Call to Action. However, this needs to be an enticing option. This can be something that your Brand's target audience need and want. It ought to be something of value to them. It can in the form of answering questions, an invitation to purchase goods or services or a reply to a poll. Only ensure that the Call to Action compels your audience to take action.

5. Follow You Brand's Audience

It will help you learn your audience better if you follow them. It will give you an opportunity to see how they too relate with other people. With such information, you will judge fairly what type of people you have as target audience. Following them will also give you an opportunity to know what content they share, the brands that interest them more and the type of questions they answer and how they do it.

6. Know Their Target Audience

It also helps to know who your Brand's audience has as their target audience. This will most likely increase your audience base.

Understanding your Brand's Target Audience is one of those things that you cannot afford to ignore. It is vital for the growth of your business. It is a sure way of making you successful in the business world. Interact more with people; understand them well to build a strong relationship. It will also build your credibility, trust and display your expertise to both your existing and prospective audience.

Lina Wang is CEO of Atlantis Ventures, a Singapore and Hong Kong based company that specializes in Ecommerce, Gaming and Venture Funding. She is popularly known among her circle as "The Poker Princess" and juggles her ecommerce, gaming business, marketing consultancy and family life with a passion for startups. Considered among the youngest entrepreneurs in her field, she also writes on her Digital Marketing and Social Media Blog at http://www.linawang.org. Whether it is startup funding, developing cutting edge ecommerce platforms or even a friendly bit of poker strategy advice, she can be reached at lina@linawang.org

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lina_Wang/396184

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FAILURE - Best Motivational Video Speeches Compilation for Success, Stud...

Failure Is Part of Success: Eduardo Zanatta at TEDxBYU

KEEP FAILING AND YOU WILL SUCCEED - Best Motivational Video for Success,...

Demotivation - Dealing With Failure

We hear it all the time; "Fail again. Fail better." "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate" "You cannot be successful without failure" and so forth. These are the words of some of the most successful people in history and now, but what are they on about? Why must we fail in order to be successful? Where does failure fit into the picture?

This is a very good question, and one I have been asking a lot myself lately.

So why so much emphasis on failure? No businessman, newlywed couple, or university student will tell you that failure is one of their objectives in their route to success.

But it seems that highly successful people seem to think so, and boldly emphasise it, repeatedly. Is failure some sort of exotic elixir to reach success? The logic seems to counter our conventional wisdom.

But perhaps experience is a better teacher than logic and they may just be on to something:

1. So what is failure?

Failure, by definition, can be described as the opposite of success; missing the mark, not meeting a desirable goal or intended target.

As a noun, failure can be described as the "non-performance of something due, required or expected"

In speech:

• The car experienced engine failure.
• He felt like a failure when he wasn't accepted into law school.
• The business project was a complete failure.
• She had failed at her marriage

Two types of failures

1. Utter failure

2. Temporary failure

Both are one in the same, but by illustration they are quite different:

1. Utter failure

This sort is usually the hardest to deal with, It has the highest potential for depression and demotivation.

John had a great idea for a business, his family and friends greatly endorsed and supported it, It was a good idea. When the time was right he left his job, put his home as collateral and invested his life savings into the project.

He ran the business successfully for 4 years and was making good gains.

Things did not go as planned however, in year 5 the warehouse he had purchased for inventory burnt down due to acts of nature and he lost 90% of his stock and almost all his capital in assets.

The insurance company failed to cover the losses and he was left broke, and on the brink of homelessness.

2. Temporary failure

This type of failure can be used synonymously with 'setback', Its outcomes are usually not that severe and can be viewed upon as lessons:

Peter also had a great idea for a business. He invested large sums of money into it and ran it successfully for 4 years. In year 5 his business started to grow and the tasks became too much for him to handle on his own, so he hired help, and enter his lifelong friend Bob;

Bob turned out to be not the best manager; he was the cause of a lot of staff resignations that year and during his tenure the company lost a quarter of its key clientelle and the business profits slumped.

Peter had failed his business, temporarily, he could find an easy remedy to the problem and learn from his error in judgement.

John on the other hand had it harder. He experienced utter failure and defeat. He had to start over or move on to a new project. He had more work to do, more to deal with, he had to get his life back together.

Both men had failed, but on different scales, both were left demotivated and discouraged, neither were failures however.

Failure was an event that happened to them which both could learn and grow from. A fitting word of encouragement to one of them who fell into depression would be "Just because you failed once at something does not mean you will fail at everything." ~ Marilyn Monroe

2. What we learn from failure

Maya Angelou once said "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it."

Failure truly is a humbling experience, but it is an excellent tutor.

If we can learn from failure it teaches us much, things we thought we knew about ourselves but actually didn't. Through quite self-reflection and honest introspection in our lowest times we find out who we are, our passions, and what we are good at.

Failure says "You're not as good of a salesman as you think you are, so improve" or "You're a bad financial manager, get advice or learn how to budget."

Failure steers us in the right direction, it says "That's not the route you should take, take this route instead."

And slowly through a zigzag motion of several setbacks and dead ends we arrive at our destination, battered and bruised, be we arrive nonetheless; stronger, wiser, more confident and bolder than we were before.

In engineering, the greatest inventions come about after a large degree of failure, for instance Thomas Edison demonstrates this well when he says: "I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Failure can be progress.

When the engine fails, we learn that something is wrong with it, and fix it so we avoid imminent disaster. Failure teaches us to plan for failure so we minimise the risk, thereby getting toward our goal much quicker.

3. How we learn from failure

Human beings learn in many ways -- through education, the internet, people, literature, experience and so on. But primarily our brain is hardwired to learn in one of two ways; play and errors in judgement;

Childhood

If you've ever stuck your finger in an electric wall plug or touched a burning stove as a child, you learnt quickly not to do that again. The feeling of pain discouraged repeated behaviour as the experience of it was unpleasant and undesirable.

In early development toddlers learn exclusively through play; by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling and hearing the world around them they learn what the world is about. They learn to walk through trial and error and after many many falls.

When the toddler grows up they continue to learn through play and repeated failure. They fall, cry, climb, and fall some more until they can successfully and skillfully climb up that tree.

To adulthood the same process continues, we never stop playing. Games just take on new and different forms.

When we make mistakes we learn, much like in our youth. Failure is unpleasant yes, it is uncomfortable. It is undesirable and is an inconvenient hindrance in our path to our goals, but it is necessary. To fail is to learn, to learn is to grow. To grow is to progress.

4. How we deal with failure

Once upon a time there were twin boys born of an alcoholic father. In adulthood one became an alcoholic and the other a successful person. When asked why he was such the alcoholic responded "What would you expect, my father was an alcoholic." When the other was asked the same question he also responded "What would you expect, my father was an alcoholic." Both had choices and both chose a path.

Dorothy, was abused by her father throughout her childhood. Her father passed away when she was 20 but throughout her adult life she blamed him for everything that happened to her; her depression, her ill health, her poor relationships, her finances, her poor social relations etc.

Her father had passed away 25 years prior but his presence was still felt by her and he still held power over her life, or so she thought, for actually the power was in her mind. There are many stories of people who went through similar challenges and great difficulties in their early life but made a success out of themselves by turning their situation around. Our success is determined by how we deal with failure, either we can let it beat us or we can let it teach us.

5. Maximising On failure

There are certain lessons that can only be learnt from hard failure. There are countless stories in history where people used bad situations and turned it to good, people who maximised on their failure and seized the opportunity and did something great in their plight, to name just a few;

John Milton did his best writing while blind, sick and poor

Beethoven composed his greatest work after he went deaf

Daniel Dafoe, author of Robinson Crusoe wrote his book at his lowest, as a failure in prison.

Sometimes our greatest feats await us in our lowest times. It is all about how we deal with the situation that counts. Either we can be glad we went through the experience and came out bigger better and stronger, or we can dabble in self pity and depression.

So you got pregnant and you don't know what to do. Or you just failed the year in school and you feel like a failure. Or your marriage didn't work and you feel like you've failed everybody, including yourself. Or perhaps your business idea didn't work and you've just let down a lot of people and their families. Does that make you a failure? Does that mean you have failed at life? Does that mean your world is about to end? No. No. No.

This too shall pass. Girdle up your loins. Straighten your upper back. Stand fast. You were born a champion, a winner. Champions lose sometimes, this is but a minor defeat. You will get through it. As hard as it seems, you will get through it. You will come out stronger and wiser than you were before. You cannot give up, hang in there, these are your memories, your scars, your passions, your testimony of living. Memories you will keep and cherish forever.

When asked why she spoke so much on failure, J.K. Rowling responded:

"Simply because failure means a stripping away of the inessential, I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

She continued...

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."

Theodoore Roosevelt once said "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

The Mind-set

It is said that when he [Sophocles,] was told of an impending invasion by the Persians, he tucked his head down and continued to plough. We imagine that to the news bearer his conversation went something like this "Theophilus, Must I too adorn sackcloth and throw ashes in appeal to the gods? If they will war then let be, it is for us to hope and deal with it as it comes. "

Problems can happen at any moment, nothing is guaranteed.

When they come we should see them as learning experiences. We should ask ourselves what can I learn from this that I will value in the future?

Rejection and failure, frustration and setbacks - all these things are fuels to our success. If you've ever been rejected you will know that passion that burns inside.

In one of his speeches Zig ziglar once said "on occasion you've been told that you can't do this or that, or have no skills or talent for this or that. If you overcame those negative comments and did what you were told you couldn't do, you smile at the memory of the satisfaction you gained by proving them all wrong. You didn't listen to what they said and succeeded in spite of and in some cases, because of their doubts of you"

Most success stories we hear validate that most people who "make it big" experience several failures on their way up. Every day is an opportunity to start over, and every failure can be a learning experience that prepares us for success.

Success is not final and failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill

Quotes

" Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step after their greatest failure." ~ Napoleon Hill

" Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." ~ Dale Carnegie

" Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~ Henry Ford

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed to an equal or greater benefit." ~ Napoleon Hill

"If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment." ~ Henry David Thoreau

You can connect with me on twitter @PaulGwamanda

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Top 5 Entrepreneurship Lessons From Most Successful Entrepreneurs | Life...

The Life of an Entrepreneur in 90 Seconds- Best Motivational Video for E...

Startup Marketing - 10 Things to Do in Your First 90 Days

So you got yourself involved with a startup company. It may have happened by circumstance or by choice. You're either a founder of one of the first employees. You either envision your concept as a potential single to be flipped in 3-4 years, or a grand slam that will allow you to socialize with the likes of Brin, Bezos and Cuban.

Awesome. We all love a good startup story.

Unless you've got an inherently viral concept on your hands (and by the way, keep in mind that there have only been about 5 inherently viral products introduced over the past 5-7 years), you're going to need to put a significant emphasis on marketing. I wrote an earlier post about the necessity of bringing marketing expertise to your internal/external team, but this post isn't designed to belabor that point.

You're going to need to do certain things during your first 90 days to survive and show some traction from a marketing standpoint. Why 90 days? It's simple. Business plans are great for fundraising and for attracting senior-level employees, but executing on a 5-10 year grand vision usually happens in pieces. I happen to believe that this execution is best broken down into 90-day pieces.

One caveat before we get into the list. All of the items below are tactics. Tactics that do not flow from a broader strategy usually fail at some point. Build a sound marketing strategy - identify goals, build your messaging, pinpoint target audiences - before you start getting tactical.

Here are the 10 marketing items every startup should consider executing within the first 90 days of operation:

1. Build a clean, easy to navigate website.

I know. Quite an "out of the box" statement. All I can say is that people still miss on this first step, and miss in an embarrassing way. Remember this - depending on which web genius you listen to, you have between 3-10 seconds just to convince a visitor to move further on your site.

And if you're a startup that doesn't think you need a web site at all, I wish you luck. No need to read further.

2. Create a blog, post quality content, and learn how to market it.

You're still reading this post because you find the content interesting and the site doesn't look half bad. You're here because you found the content via a search engine, another website, or perhaps a social media property like Twitter or LinkedIn.

If your website is your brochure (and hopefully it doesn't look like one), then your blog is your platform to express your ideas and distribute some of your marketing content.

3. Spend the time to do the basic SEO work, or have someone do it for you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), generally speaking, rarely will impact your business in the short-term. That being said, if anyone tells you that SEO is dead and you shouldn't worry about it, toss them out the window like the guy in the Bud Light commercial. Even the most basic SEO work, if done appropriately, will pay significant dividends eventually.

4. Do some public relations, or at a bare minimum issue a press release surrounding your launch.

Not every startup can afford to spend thousands of dollars a month on retaining a public relations agency, but that's not an excuse to ignore public relations. You can get a high quality press release written, distributed and pitched for as little as $1,500 - $2,000, even less if you do some of it yourself.

Is there a good reason NOT to announce your business? Afraid of a poor first impression on the media and consumers of your product? If so, you may be facing a product problem or a problem with other elements in your marketing mix.

5. Get involved in social media.

Notice that I didn't say to rush out, join all 10,000 social media properties and start posting. As always, with social media, my advice is to join, listen, learn, then post. Most startups join and post. They don't even acknowledge the listen and learn part. Startups are typically in a rush to show some traction, and unfortunately some investors judge traction based on Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections. That's just silly, almost as silly as the valuations those investors placed on the revenue-less companies of dot-com boom times.

6. Make your first customers raving fans, and squeeze everything you can out of them.

Those who have launched startups know that you rely on your immediate network for feedback and funding during the first stages of operation. Provide exceptional service to those customers, solicit as much feedback as possible, and then use those customers in press releases, case studies, testimonials, videos, etc. Of course, I would recommend asking for permission from those customers first.

7. Send an email newsletter on a monthly basis if possible.

If you're executing on some of the items above and below, you'll have plenty of content for a basic email newsletter that updates customers, prospects, investors, media, friends and family on the company's progress.

Much like public relations, is there a good reason NOT to send a quality email newsletter to 500-2,000 people that have some level of interest in your business?

8. Install web analytics. Monitor it. Don't obsess over it.

Web analytics packages are a lot of fun. That may sound geeky, but once you've actually logged in and viewed all the cool stuff that is trackable on your website, you don't know.

Go ahead and get web analytics installed on your website. Tie it into pay-per-click advertising if you're doing any of that. Look at the results once a day or once a week, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just don't get too caught up in why your site attracts more visitors from Idaho than Florida until you have enough data to make reasonable judgments.

9. Start considering distribution partners.

This is easier said than done. Unless you are pursuing the most unique target market in the history of the world, there are likely other companies that have already climbed that mountain and can claim thousands of customers in your target market. You need to start conversations with these types early, as partnership deals rarely happen quickly.

This should start during the 90-day period, but likely won't show results during those 90 days. That being said, imagine the marketing cost savings of reaching a partner's existing 2,000 customers vs. attempting to acquire those 2,000 customers through traditional marketing means.

10. Get organized and actually create your 90-day marketing plan.

Especially in a startup, whoever is responsible for marketing ought to also be one of the more organized people in your organization. You likely don't have a lot of marketing dollars to spend, and therefore you need to be extremely efficient with the tactics you execute. Disorganized people typically aren't very efficient.

Mike Sweeney is the Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don't hesitate to drop Mike a comment on this post at the Marketing Trenches blog.

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HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK - Motivational Video

Programming your mind for success | Carrie Green | TEDxManchester

Mindset Tips To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels

So why should you consider becoming an entrepreneur?

There are many reasons why you should consider taking that giant step and creating your own business.

Here are just a few of them:

1. Autonomy - Running your own business allows you to be in charge of your own destiny. It also helps you to avoid getting stuck in the "daily grind" or the "rat race". For many people running their own business lets them have a career that is self-sustaining.

2. Opportunity - Being an entrepreneur opens up a whole new world of opportunity for you. You will have the opportunity to do anything that you want in life. This means you can choose to spend your life changing the world for the better, or you can live the type of life you want. Few other career choices can offer this kind of opportunity.

3. Impact - Many people who work for other companies truly want to work hard and help that company to succeed, but few are actually able to have such an impact. When you run your own business everything you do will directly impact the company, which can be very rewarding.

4. Freedom - This is the answer most people will give if you ask them why they want to become an entrepreneur. For many people the idea of doing what they want and how they want to do is the most compelling reason to take the risk and run their own business. It is true- having freedom in life and career does make a huge difference!

5. Responsibility - When you run your own business you have the ability to be responsible to society and operate your business the way that you feel it should be run. This is especially true if you have the desire to help others or the world in general. If you work for someone else you may not be able to improve the world the way you want to, but if you are the boss you can.

6. Being your Own Boss - This is another common answer for why many people want to become entrepreneurs. If you are your own boss you can do things your way. You can make your own decisions, take your own risks and decide your own fate.

7. Time and Family - Depending on your specific goals in life, becoming an entrepreneur could give you the freedom of time and allow you to spend more of it with your family.

8. Creating a Legacy - If the idea of forging a lasting legacy is important to you then few other careers give you the opportunity to do so like operating your own business.

9. Accomplishment - If you have specific goals that you would like to accomplish in your life running your own business could help you to do so.

10. Control - For a lot of business owners the sense of security that comes with the ability to control your own work is a major reason to become an entrepreneur.

So you may ask what does it take to become an entrepreneur?

There are plenty of benefits of being an entrepreneur, but it is certainly no easy task to start your own business.

Successful entrepreneurs, that is to say those who are able to accomplish their goals, earn a successful living through their business and enjoy the many benefits of entrepreneurship, all have specific traits.

If you are considering taking the leap and following your entrepreneurship dreams then you will want to understand what these traits are so that you can instill the same traits in yourself.

This will help ensure that you are able to achieve your dreams.

Successful Entrepreneurs:

- Have passion and a lot of it
- Are tenacious
- Able to manage their fear of the unknown
- Have a grand vision
- Believe in themselves
- Are extremely flexible

- Are able to defy conventional wisdom
- Are willing to take risks in life

If you have these traits, or if you can teach yourself how to develop these traits within yourself, then your likelihood of becoming a successful entrepreneur will increase. In addition to these personality traits, all successful entrepreneurs possess a certain amount of skills.

Some Skills That Will Help You to Become a Successful Entrepreneur Include:

Focus - running your own business requires dealing with any number of factors on any given day. Successful business owners are able to pinpoint their focus onto accomplishing specific tasks and goals at specific times.

Resilience - it is a skill to be able to weather the various ups and downs of business without allowing them to destroy your focus. Truly successful entrepreneurs are able to continue traveling down the path of success even when the future looks bleak.

Management Skills - a successful company requires the right people and successful business owners need to know how to properly manage these people.

Long Term Vision - while it is easy to focus on what the company needs to do in the next several days or weeks to be successful, truly exceptional entrepreneurs (the ones who see real success in their business ventures) are able to plan years ahead of time.

Salesmanship - regardless of what type of company you are running, you need to be able to sell your vision to others in order to become successful. Entrepreneurs need to have great salesmanship skills whether they want to or not.

Self-reliance - this is one of the most important skills any entrepreneur can possess. It is vital for a business owner to trust that they can depend on themselves.

Self-reflection - the ability to pause, reflect and learn is a very valuable skill for the business owner. Entrepreneurs must be able to learn from their mistakes and reflect upon what they have learned in life.

Learning - the skill of earning knowledge is one that every successful business owner has. It is also a skill that they never stop developing.

To be successful in your entrepreneurial dreams you have to be able to learn from others. The best way to learn the skills of a successful business owner is to study the skills of successful entrepreneurs and then to grow those skills in yourself.

Below you can find some of my TOP SECRET TIPS!!!

- Always choose something you are passionate about!

Without passion, and a lot of it, your business dreams will become lost in the day to day grind of running a business. Take a look at the top ten most successful entrepreneurs and you will see that their passion is the number one driving force behind their success. There is no way to escape this fact- you simply must be passionate in order to achieve your goals!

- Starting with a Dream!

The best way to start a business is to take what you are passionate about and find a way to turn that into a business. You need to start with a dream.

If you don't have passion for your work then you won't have the motivation and energy to keep pushing through obstacles, you won't be willing to take the necessary risks required to succeed and you won't be able to sell your dream to others.

Start with your dreams and grow your business from there.

The unfortunate reality is that once a business reaches the beginning of its third year its chances of surviving drops dramatically. Only about 44% of businesses live to see their fourth year. Without the passion you derive from living your dream you won't have what it takes to survive year after year. This means that you should start your business from the ground up using your dream as a foundation.

Whatever your dream in life may be, you need to find a way to turn that dream into a business. If the foundation of your business is based on something that you are truly passionate about, then it will be much easier to grow that dream into a hugely successful business.

- Starting Your Dream Business

Once you have determined that you have the necessary traits, skills and passion to become an entrepreneur, the next step will be to start up your dream business.

Getting Started

Getting started with your dream business may be the easiest part of the process or it may be the hardest. It really depends on your specific situation. Some would-be entrepreneurs are raring to get started, while others are bogged down with doubts and procrastination.

- Avoid coming up with excuses why you shouldn't start your own business.

Once you have made the important decision that yes you want to become an entrepreneur, skip the excuses and start the process.

Avoid the quicksand that is known as procrastination.
Putting off the process of starting your business for any reason can lead to getting stuck in the mud. Avoid the process of procrastination at all costs.

- Do whatever it takes to motivate yourself to get started.

Doubt, fear, worry and a lack of purpose can all end up preventing you from getting your dreams going. Focus on why you want to become an entrepreneur (your passion) and use that to motivate yourself into taking those first few steps. The first couple of steps are the most important ones.

- Develop core beliefs.

Now is the time to develop your business's core beliefs. This will help you to create the right kind of company, one that matches your passion and motivates you to always move forward. Your business's core beliefs will be a major building block of it, so make sure that these beliefs are worthy.

They will also determine how you proceed to make decisions in the future and which direction the business takes your life.

Making the Shift from Employee to Boss Running your own business takes leadership.

For many new entrepreneurs it can be difficult to make the switch from employee to manager or boss.

There are ways that you can prepare yourself for this transition. For people who have built-in leadership skills this transition may be easier, but anyone with the proper drive and motivation can develop leadership skills.

More tips to be continued...

Many thanks for reading and visiting my page.

Stayed blessed & make money.

L.A. Wilson

L.A. Wilson aka L.million

How would you like to be financially free???? "SOUNDS GREAT RIGHT" "Would you be interested in making $2,500 - $50,000 PER MONTH

Check out this video to find out more:

[http://www.selfmadecareers.com]

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