On Failure and Learning from Mistakes - Ryan Allis

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

– Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

Most people are afraid to fail. They worry constantly about not meeting expectations, making a mistake, or trying something new. Because of this, many never get started on the path toward reaching their goals.. and thus assure themselves of the very thing they are afraid of.. failure. In order to become a successful entrepreneur you will likely have to ‘pay your dues.' You'll likely have to fail a few times, learn from your lessons, and only then be able to come through a winner. While you don't have to take wild chances, you do have to take calculated and educated risks.

In the world of academics, mistakes are perceived as bad and to be avoided. For the first twenty-two years of your life, you are taught that mistakes are bad and embarrassing.. when in fact mistakes are simply opportunities to learn something new. The more mistakes a person makes, the more they will have learned and the greater chance they will have of succeeding on their next try. The key, however, is to learn from your mistakes and never make the same mistake twice.

Thomas Edison would have never invented the light bulb if he did not take this principle to heart. Edison failed more than 10,000 times before he found the filament that would create light for a sustained period of time. He did not view these as failures, however. On the 6,635th try to find a proper filament for the light bulb, Edison did not see himself has having failed 6634 times. He reframed the situation so that to him he had successfully eliminated 6,643 possibilities, refining and narrowing his search as he proceeded, drawing him closer and closer to his goal.

Two other failures you may have heard of are Levi Strauss and Christopher Columbus. Strauss headed for the gold mines of California in hopes of gold and glory. But he found none. Instead, this failure gave him new knowledge of a gap in the marketplace. He began selling pants out of canvas for the miners that were succeeding. Today, we've all heard of Levi Strauss jeans. Columbus failed miserably on his goal to find a route to India . However, in failing he ran into a new opportunity.. that of the new world. By taking action and learning from your mistakes and failures, you'll gain new knowledge and become aware of many new opportunities. When you come to the edge of what you know, it's time to make some mistakes.

Business Growth - Article by Michael Dylan

Once your business is up and running and things are going fine, you will start to look at how to grow. There are many ways to expand a good business, but first make sure you have your current circumstances under control. It makes no sense to start opening new stores if you are still struggling with customer service or accounting issues.. it would simply increase your worries.

Besides the usual marketing plan and good customer service that we already have installed for the organic growth of our business, here's a few more ways to kick start business growth.

Increase Products and Services
Look for opportunities to introduce new products and/or services that our current customers could use. Ask customers how you could help them or see if there are other products that they would be interested in purchasing from you. Improving or updating current products and services can also encourage growth.

Open New Stores or Buy Existing Businesses
Depending on how much risk you are willing to take, purchasing existing businesses or opening new stores can be a fast track to massive business growth. It's important to digest new acquisitions before you end up biting off more than you can chew though. Too much growth can sometimes be just as stressful as a lack of growth, so be sure to consolidate after each purchase.

Going Online
Very few businesses cannot benefit from going online. The benefits will vary quite a bit, depending on your industry and the products or services you provide. If it is done properly, you may start to see your Internet profits catching up to and surpassing your bricks and mortar business!. The Internet is open 24 hours a day with millions of potential customers worldwide.

Franchise
Not every business is suitable to franchise, but if your business systems are in place and you are willing to put the work in to getting started as a franchiser it can be an excellent source of growth.

Look for New Types of Customers
Is your target market too specialized? If you cater to a niche market, look for ways of reaching out to a more diverse customer base. If your products cater to just women, look at ways to reach men also. If you have mostly young people using your services, look for opportunities to reach elderly customers. Some businesses cater to a very niche market and that's the reason for their success, but often with a little imagination you can increase your possible market.

The surest way to successful business growth is to know your business, know your products, and to know your customers. With confidence in these three aspects of business you will be more confident in making decisions when it comes to pursuing growth.

Take a Job or Make a Job- Ryan Allis

Are you considering being an entrepreneur? Are you considering starting a career? If so, it is good to know the pros and cons of each. The table below will help you learn the difference in roles and mindset between an entrepreneur and an employee.

Entrepreneurs Value wealth over job security Can go months or years without payment Long hours, especially during start-up Potential for very large payoff Build their own assets Have a higer tolerance for risk Own the company. Can only be fired by Board of Directors. Sit behind the desk when interviewing Are willing to take calculated and educated risks Build systems for benefit of themselves Pay taxes only on NET income Build assets and then use them to purchase other assets Build passive and portfolio income, taxed lowest Invests from the inside Can start other similar companies Adapt quickly to change Often have to dedicate yourself fully during start-up stages. Hard to raise a family and start a high-potential venture. Have access through their businesses to much larger credit limits Financial security once venture succeeds Can become wealthy at young age Have a bias toward action Create the systems Decides who to hire and who they work with Have freedom to control direction of their company Are able to use all of their skill sets Rarely do the same thing two days in a row Work on building assets so they’ll never need a 401(k) or pension Make money when they sleep

Jobs Value job security over wealth Receive consistent paycheck Regular, consistent hours Constant but relatively low payment Work to build someone else’s asset Do not like risk Could be fired at any time Sit in front of the desk when interviewing Adverse to risk Build systems for benefit of employers Pay taxes on total income Do not build assets. Build active income, taxed the highest Invests from the outside Restricted by non-disclosure and non-compete agreements Often resist change Have time to do other things besides work—such as raise a family or take up hobbies. Much harder to obtain significant credit Will have to follow strict saving and investment plan to reach financial security by retirement Will not become financially secure while still young Often have a bias toward passing the bill Have to deal with the bureaucracies created by intricate systems of the companies they work for Have little say over who they work with Have little say over the direction of their company Use only a small portion of their abilities Often have repetitive jobs Work on building 401(k) or pension Make money only when they are working

Hopefully the table above has given you some insight into the different characteristics of entrepreneurs and employees. It is a difficult choice to make for many. Many aspiring entrepreneurs choose to work for someone else for a few years to gain knowledge, contacts, and capital. Others feel that the best way is to start out as an entrepreneur and have the advantage of quite a few years of learning over their peers. Whichever you decide, just make sure that the choice is the one that is right for you, not just the one that everyone wants you to make.

Internet Advertising Agency and Web Solutions

June 28th, 2009 by admin

With audience specific advertising, online advertisers are playing the major league in the advertising and marketing industry. The growth and sustenance as observed during the last few years have been impressive. Advertising on the web sites and search engines is obviously the biggest catch people in the industry has ever had.

Internet advertising agency provides advertising solutions on the web. This form of advertising, which has a history of about a decade only, has become the most suitable for its cost cutting and effective advertising campaigns. By using web as its channel, Internet advertising offers many advantages over our conventional advertising methods.

The growth of Internet advertising can be credited to the development of interactive online media tools and formats. Advertisements that appear on the web are more interactive, cost less and can effectively deliver the message of the advertiser to the audience. Some popular online advertisement formats include banner advertisements, pop ups and pop unders, video ads, widgets, etc.

The consumption of online media and user behaviour has also been found to be supporting the growth of this industry. Amid all these developments, Internet advertising agency has to play the central role of delivering target oriented messages to the users and evoke intended response.

The cost cutting in Internet advertising campaign is due to lesser production cost than offline advertising and also due to inexpensive space available on the web. Typically an online advertising campaign cost many times lesser than mainstream advertising. Online advertising agency also provides a number of services that are used to monitor the impact of advertising campaigns. The results can be concretely put forth as various actions and responses can be tracked. Offline advertising often suffers from this lacunae.

Online advertising agencies are the next generation advertising leaders and we have a lot of evidence coming up. Google’s launch of advertising programs and services, those 16 billion dollars they make in a year from online advertising, Microsoft’s desperation to acquire an online advertising platform, etc. These are some of the examples that support the view that Internet advertising is pulling the crowd.

Deepak Kamboj is an expert writer, he is currently writing associated with Rupiz Media Ad Network, a leading online media buying agency. He has been efficient in providing useful information about banner advertising , online advertising, online ad agencies internet advertising agency, web banners.
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Customer Service Tips for Online Businesses - Article by Michael Dylan

In 'real world' shopping you can look your customers right in the eye, chat with them and thus understand what they want, or guide them to a certain item. And if they come back again and again, it's partly because they like you or your staff, as much as liking your product (unless you're in a specialized field).

But with so much online business, we need to establish good customer relations in cyber-space, including ways to find out what the customer needs and what they really value in your business. Is it just the product? Or is there some sort of 'online rapport' that also helps? As well, 'real world' customers can't hop around from store to store as easily as they can on the web. So it's imperative that you NOT ONLY know how to give your customers what they need, but also how to keep them on your site.

Good, consistent customer service can increase your customer loyalty rate, leading to greater profitability. Studies show that it takes six times as much money to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.

One important aspect of customer service is your employee's attitude toward customers. If you have employees who answer your e-mail or phone your customers you should consider:

1) how they treat customers all day long,
2) how they want to feel about themselves at the end of the day,
3) how they want their customers to feel about themselves and about the company at the end of each interaction,
4) how they see the purpose of their job,
5) how they work together with others on the team for their customers benefit.

Beyond employee attitude, we see that shopping online should be quick and easy, much as it should be in a real world store. If a main street customer has a question, or wants a product that s/he doesn't see, it should only be a moment before they can find an employee to ask. And if the question or answer is unclear, it can be clarified in a moment.

A single unanswered question online can make customers reluctant to complete a purchase; who can blame them?

One poll notes that almost 62 percent of Internet consumers would purchase more products online if live customer support were available.

So, whether or not you can provide live support, here are some hints to help you:

1. Be accessible
Show very clearly on your site all the ways that your customer can contact you - including e-mail, phone and fax numbers, and your office hours.
And, if it's practical give your visitors a real person to call who has a name, as opposed to sales@mycompany.com
Of course, if you're really upscale, you can include a "Call-me" button on your site.

2. Return every e-mail or phone call in the same day, as far as possible
An experiment with the top Fortune 100 companies showed that nearly a third failed to respond to e-mail sent through their website within one month! Some of these companies still don't provide a usable e-mail address on their sites.

3. Acknowledge all orders
Send e-mail confirmations (this can be done very effectively with autoresponders), and if you're shipping actual products, give tracking numbers and expected delivery dates.

4. Provide a clear return policy, honor it and learn from it
This may give you more information about what's working and what's not. If a product is returned with no explanation, call the customer and see how you can satisfy them.

5. Expect more phone calls
If your website traffic and response rates grow (which is, of course, what you want), so will the volume of phone calls, whatever your business or industry.

So regardless of modern technology and the efficiency of the Internet, customers still require human interaction. If you treat your customers well, it greatly increases the chances of your business growing.