Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Still Waiting For Success?

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Happy Monday! We are already in 2011 – are you in it full swing yet? Or are you still waiting to commit to your plans, strategies and success? Wait no longer!

The later you start on your plans, the higher the slope you’ll have to climb as you’ll be racing against time, success stories of other people and greater ideals. Why not create your own success story for a change? This image I found really says it all:

wait no longer

What is YOUR Success Plan?

May it be taking up courses, setting goals, attending conferences – the secret is really to just go out there and make it happen!

“Don’t wait for success, go make it happen!“

The 2011 Challenge

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BLESSED NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

How did you spend your new year’s day? Have you got all your resolutions on paper yet?

I don’t know about you but it would seem that humans in general, are procrastinators. We tend to leave everything to the very last minute and will only work when we are forced to do so. Such is seen in education – at school, we were forced to study whether we liked it or not but after we graduate, we no longer are forced to study, no longer forced to improve ourselves.

What does this have to do with 2011?

The keyword here is to CHALLENGE yourself. You only stop moving forward when you stop challenging yourself. Set higher goals and do not get stuck in the comfort zone. CHALLENGE to remain motivated. CHALLENGE to achieve greater success. CHALLENGE to stay ahead of the game.

Let 2011 begin by saying “I choose to challenge myself”.

If you’re wondering how the new year celebration was like in Malaysia, here’s a video I found on YouTube:

Have an awesome 2011 ahead! CHALLENGE – that’s my theme of the year. Will that be yours, too?

How to: Change Your Habit before 2011

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goodbye 2010!

It’s the last Monday of 2010! How are you feeling today?

I’m sure tons have happened in your life throughout the entire year and you may have come across habits that you wanted to get rid of but failed to do so. Whether it is spending too much time playing Facebook games, struggling to spend some time daily to invest in yourself or even to read a single book, 2011 is definitely a good year to get those behind you!

Habits

If you’re a driver, you should be able to relate to this occurrence at one point or another. Many times I’ve noted in amazement that even when I’m distracted (on the phone / listening to the radio / etc), I’ve always arrived at my destination while driving on a frequented route without realizing it.

It’s interesting to see how the brain takes complete control of where you are going without any conscious effort, provided it’s a regular route and interestingly, if you can truly understand the how this works, you will end up having the answer to creating a new habit for 2011.

The reason why it happens is because your mind follows instructions, without any conscious effort, that have been repeated over and over to it. This phenomenon can be summed up in one word – Habit. It’s the power of a habit that is at work here.

How Does Knowing This Help?

We know that repetition does the trick to form habits. The first step is to always acknowledge the habit. Identify it’s patterns and then try to break the routine. Taking the same example, imagine if I would to have placed a piece of paper in front of my dashboard daily with the writings: “Use Road B”, chances are, I’ll be able to make a conscious effort to take Road B instead of the usual A and in time to come, Road B will become the new habit.

Having that said, it applies to every other habits in life. All you need to do is to break that habit by changing it’s course. You need to constantly ‘remind’ yourself of that course you wish to take. Use something to remind you – a desktop wallpaper, a wristband, anything that you can look at it and remember your course.

Are you missing 2010 already? 2011 is going to be a new year, a new course, and new victories!

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 3)

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So you now have a blog up and running and you’re working on your posts consistently, great! The common question I face during meetups with clients is: “Is that enough?”.

Is it?

It depends. It depends on how far you want to take your company / brand. If you’re comfortable having that limited number of readers or if you have no problem with a slow and steady organic growth of readership, then yes, it is enough.

However in most cases, companies and businesses would want to see results fast. They want to build a huge readership base within the shortest amount of time possible. Some make it, some don’t. Why? It takes a little more than just commitment and consistency to make it happen.

Here are 3 tips on how businesses can build readership:

#1: Guest Posting

guest posting for extended exposureThis is pretty straight forward. Just like how your business is looking for opportunities to be featured on newspaper / magazine columns, you can write guest posts on other people’s blogs! All you need to do is to be on a lookout for opportunities to guest post – contact the site / blog owner to see if you can do so.

Remember to offer something in return such as an offer for them to write a guest post on your site, or to do a special feature about them or by linking them up. After all, it is a mutual benefit. Look for sites / blogs that relates to your industry so that your brand image is consistent. You may also want to wait till you have  a healthy amount of posts on your site before approaching others as they too, will want to know of your expertise :)

#2: Commenting

contribute through comments. do not spam!Just like guest posting, commenting on other writer’s posts can bring about great exposure to your business. How so? When you leave constructive comments and / or share ideas, you’re actually engaging with the author and fellow peers. This means that you will be recognized and when that happens, chances are, they too will drop by and visit your site as you leave your link.

Now be careful to not go on a commenting spree and leave links all over the blogosphere as that is equivalent to spam and that will work in reverse for you. Instead, look for sites that you can contribute ideas and learn from and get started on a healthy discussion – that will work much better as you position yourself in the industry on blogs.

#3: Submit / Syndicate Your Posts

building your network on social media

One good way of getting more readers is to leave as many trails of your post as possible on the web. It can be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg and the list never ends! Fortunately with the abundance of tools out there, you can get your posts in multiple places in one go such as Google’s Feedburner or if you’re using the Chrome browser, the Shareaholic extension makes things really simple, too!

Suggested read: I found this timely article here that suggests some of today’s growing tools you can submit your posts to to grow your readership network.

Is there more?

There sure is but the above 3 should be able to get things going pretty well for a start especially if you’re new to the blogging scene. Focus on growing your networks through engagement and do not worry about other techniques for now, you’ll definitely get there soon enough!

Do you have tips to share? I would love to hear what works / doesn’t work for you, too! :)

Should Companies Ban Social Media Among Employees?

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should companies ban social media?

Recently I’ve been noticing more and more companies here in Malaysia putting a barrier around their employees, preventing them from accessing social media tools within the premise. While some go about a complete ban, some left room for the marketing department to roam about freely.

Is that a good move?

It is fully understandable that social media tools especially Facebook, Twitter and blogging can be a huge time waster at work. Employees may be playing games, chatting away or busy updating their personal blogs instead of being ‘productive’ at the workplace. It’s no wonder why companies have to resort to a complete ban.

However, it is also interesting to note that some of these companies are supposedly customer centric, saying that they listen to their customers and etc but at the same time, staying out of social media. Strange indeed.

Blogs (social media) doesn’t get people fired, people get people fired. – Deb Schultz, Altimeter Group

To me, social media should not be banned in a company at all. Instead, companies should establish clear guidelines on how social media can be used. Companies such as Dell takes social media very seriously and goes to the extend of training their employees in this area and they have been utmost successful.

IBM takes a different approach by allowing their employees to write their social media policy for them. Sounds absurd? Not really, considering the fact that since the employees will be the ones using social media, they should be the ones setting the guidelines. In fact, they are more likely to keep to it if they formed it themselves. Plus giving your employees this liberty may cultivate an innovative culture in your company.

Some companies don’t even have rules to regulate social media usage. They simply let their employees do what they like, as long they perform in the end.

So.. What’s the Conclusion?

There is really no hard and fast rule in implementing / regulating social media in a company. I really do prefer both Dell and IBM’s way of doing it but it also depends on your comfort level as a business owner in the industry. Remember, social media can act as both an asset and a liability to your brand. Experiment with techniques and find out what’s best for your environment – social media only works when you try.

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 2)

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Now that you’ve understood why blogs are vital to your business instead of having a traditional website, you may have in mind to make full use of them to sell your products and services, perhaps even going to the extend of writing 1-page sales pitches that may have worked for you in the past.

Unfortunately, sales pitches does not work on blogs – especially when you’re just getting started.

Why Don’t Sales Pitches Work?

Blogging, or rather, social media is not about sales. It’s about customer engagement, it’s about relating and listening to your target audience and to have a human presence. Customers today do not want to be sold to – they want to be heard. Writing a full fledge sales pitch will only drive people away than to convert them.

Err.. But Isn’t It All About Making Sales?

That may be true for your business but on social media, I personally believe that sales is secondary. Yes, you would ultimately want to convert customers and make sales but upright sales pitches would do more harm than good. There are, after all, various ways and techniques of conversions on social media.

leading the pack with your blog

How to Make Sales With My Blog? Here are 3 Steps to Get You Started!

#1: Give and you shall receive

“What? I thought we’re talking about making sales!?”

Yes, we are – the long term yet effective way and blogs are just the right medium to do it. Provide value to your readers consistently to establish your own presence first. Write about what you do best, industry updates and share your experiences with past clients.

During this stage, you’re actually creating a platform for your business to reach out in the future – take time in doing this as it is your biggest asset!

#2: Create exposure

“Oh come on, get on with the sales already!”

Blogs can give your business an exposure beyond traditional means. With the amount of blog syndication tools out there and with search engine optimization (SEO), the amount of exposure is massive. Now, all you need to do is to create opportunities (or window opportunities) for sales to happen.

Some use exclusive offers, contests, VIP passes, weekend giveaways and more to gain more exposure AND create an opportunity for your audience to get to know you better through your products. In other words, you’re creating leads for sales!

#3: Promotion

“Are we there yet?”

There are various ways of promoting your products / services through your blog and one of the common ways of doing so is by producing an e-book. An e-book allows you to pack more of your expertise to your audience, benefiting them and at the same time, creates an opportunity for you to upsell your products. It can be a seminar, workshop, demo sessions, trials and more.

So, What About Sales?

As you can see, social media is an excellent tool to drive sales and increase conversions, especially with blogs. If you’re STILL looking to make plain sales out of thin air for your business, then perhaps you may want to consider other alternatives :)

Are You Watching or Participating?

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Are you someone who watches or someone who participates? Someone who observes or someone who gets their hands dirty?

Why not BOTH?

There are too many people living on extreme ends of this world – some observing, busy over analyzing and criticizing things; while some too indulged in the execution of things, neither of which is better than the other.

Perhaps today is a good time to ask yourself, what have you been in 2010? And what do you want to become in 2011?

If you’ve been looking from the sidelines, it is time for you to put your analytical skills to good use and execute your plans.

If you’ve been getting your hands dirty all day long, it is time for you to start strategizing and formulating plans to increase productivity or the effectiveness of what you’re doing.

2011 is going to be an exciting and challenging year for many and you definitely do not want to just LOOK at passing opportunities or just JUMP into every passing one without a strategy.

It’s time to take on the new year with a bang!

Don’t Criticize – You Don’t Learn from Someone You Criticize

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Criticism is a funny thing. We can joke about things, people and situations but when we criticize, it tends to affect your being more than you actually know.

When we criticize a person, we are subconsciously labeling that person as unimportant or not-worth-my-time and when that happens, chances are even when he / she comes up with a good idea in the future, you won’t take it in.

Now bear in mind that constructive criticism is valid as it is but many find it difficult to really be constructive in their criticism to others, especially in an competitive environment.

What to do in situations such as these? Don’t criticize – as much as you want to, don’t. Give some time for yourself to look from different angles before passing a comment. If you absolutely have to say something, be objective and do not draw a conclusion on that person.

Easier said than done, but remember: if you go about criticizing everyone that comes into your way, you’ll end up with no one on your side – and you definitely do not want that to happen.

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 1)

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If I had to pick which social media tool is the most beneficial for businesses, I would say BLOGS will come first. Nevermind whether it is Blogger, WordPress or the likes – blogs, in general is perhaps one of the most important social media tool for businesses today.

Why Should Your Business Blog

Your business may have an active Facebook or Twitter page going but like it or not, Facebook and Twitter are great engagement tools and not necessarily the best tool in disseminating information and content, especially chunky ones to your customers.

3 Reasons on Why Your Business Should Blog:

1. It is your HOME BASE

Traditional websites are slowly moving into a blog environment because businesses see the value in providing consistent updates and additional value to their customers instead of having a well designed, static information website.

Having a blog (or in this case, the centre of content) can act as the primary place of information for your business where you can share what’s happening behind the scenes, updates on upcoming plans, interesting news and even insights in the industry your business is in – basically content that adds value to your prospects and customers.

Are you driving your customers home?

Combine this with your engagement tools such as Facebook and Twitter, now your fans and followers will be able to find out and benefit more from you. This can easily be done by including a link to your blog on tweets and status updates.

Find out more about having a home base here!

2. Expert in the field

Now you may think that you can also establish a home base with a traditional website. True, but one thing blogs triumphs is that through your sharing of content, you are able to change the perception of your prospects and customers towards your business.

How so? A traditional website focuses on designs to create an impression. A blog focuses on content to create an impression. Which lasts longer? Blogs. The more valuable content you put out, the more your target audience will be able to know you and that builds a relationship that your competitor may not have with them.

Everyone is an expert - all you need to do is shareIf you are in business, chances are, you have tons of knowledge and experience in you. If you’re able to share them, that alone will make you an expert in the field – especially in the eyes of your customers. Customers value valuable content and transparency as it also influences buying decisions.

For consumers that are new to your business, a blog will be able to reflect your knowledge and experience in a particular field and in some cases, how active your business is by looking at when was your last update.

3. Low Cost

Guess what, you may already have been blogging and you just do not know about it. You may have been ‘blogging’ on advertorials, press releases, media write ups, newspaper columns, magazine columns and etc to position yourself in the market.

If you’ve been there, you should know that chances like that do not come by very often and sometimes it may cost you. If you’ve haven’t been there, you should also know that such opportunities may not be easy to find and that it will also cost you.

By having a blog, you have these opportunities every single day, at no cost! The only evident cost is your time. Your time to put together your thoughts, research, pen it down and to publish it online. Other than that, it’s literally free!

So, Why Blog?

Given the benefits, why NOT blog? I strongly believe that every industry will be able to benefit from having their very own blog. After all, wherever there is knowledge to something, there is definitely something to share from it, and blogs are the place to share them.

Have blogging been beneficial to you or your business? Do share them by commenting below! :)

Strategy is Everything

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A strategy determines which path you'll take

Proper planning is essential to success. Strategic planning is vital to success. One can plan for everything but without a STRATEGY, the plans are nothing.

You see, once you have clearly identified what your goals are it is important to carefully plan how you will achieve them – that’s planning, by putting down what you need to do. Strategy on the other hand, adds an edge and the “how-to” to your plans. For example, your plan may be to “move my blog to a .com by end 2010”. But how can you achieve it? That’s the strategy!

Many people skip this step in their excitement to pursue their goals and sad to say, failure to strategize will lead to failure and disappointment… leading to the abandonment of goals. What’s the problem over here? You did not have a success strategy.

It is true that no matter how carefully we lay out our plans, reality will require us to change and adapt through various circumstances. This is where your strategy shines – the adaptation of plans and the last minute improvisations that will push you towards your goal.

“The process of planning prepares you to take the steps necessary to realize your goals and aspirations.“

THIS is strategy

Take for example the picture above. The fish may have planned to join the other side but it takes strategy for that to happen – how much air to hold, how much strength to jump, how high to jump, how much momentum to build, how should it land – that’s STRATEGY!

Planning alone is not a success factor. You plan your game but it takes strategy to manage resources, coordinate and manage factors, changes and the environment. Planning is important, but strategy is crucial. A solid plan also makes room for a winning strategy.

Do you have a plan for 2011? Do you have a strategy for 2011? We’re only about 20+ days away from 2011. Take some time off today to plan and strategize!

Strategy is everything.