How to Define Your Niche for Your New Business

Dr. Susan L. Reid helps entrepreneurial women worldwide become successful small business owners. And yes, she shared an important rule for business owners to work out and that is – How to Define Your Niche for Your New Business.

So what does this niche is all about? And what it can do to business? Well, a good niche statement highlights what’s special about your business. It expresses your unique selling position to the world and lets your target niche know what you can deliver. She effectively presented also a formula for a successful and well written niche.

Niche Statement Formula for Success

There are just four things you need to include in your niche statement:

• Your niche
• Their problem
• Your solution
• Your promise

Stated simply, the niche statement formula: niche + problem + solution + promise = success.

How much we would love this word – SUCCESS – in our business. Well, read more and learn more from Susan’s expertise and continue reading How to Define Your Niche for Your New Business!

How do you manage CHANGE?

Surviving in today’s fast-paced, global economy requires flexibility and agility. Being able to change can mean the difference between leading a vibrant, growing enterprise or presiding over a decaying, failing company.

Change can take many forms. Concepts, programs, products, services, facilities, technologies, processes, systems, attitudes, behaviors, relationships, and image are just some of the things that may need changing in your organization. You really do not have a choice about whether you will change these things or not. The market will force you to change.

So how do you manage change? I would love to hear your views on this.  You are very welcome to share it in the comment section. Thanks!

Cynical politicians could take branding lessons from business

Imagine if all Canadians signed up for their cellphone contracts on the same day every three or four years. Until it was getting close to national Selection Day, the Telecoms giants might not do a lot of marketing. What would be the point? In the intervening years, they might slack off a bit on service, even break a few promises, knowing they had time to burnish their images before you made your next decision.

The above are quoted from an article on branding lessons for our business. Mark Sutcliffe wrote Cynical politicians could take branding lessons from business. He presented a comparison on how these cynical politician market, advertise their names in just a matter of few weeks for election while on the other hand, business branding isn’t that easy and might take long than what we expect to be. Truly rang the bell. Well, you’ve got to read the whole story from the link above and I’m pretty sure you’ll learn a lot from it.

Street Vendors and Business Lessons

Of course, the truth is over time they will end up paying as much as they may for a single good pair … but that doesn’t matter. Instead of asking if your marketing is selling the right messages, you really need to ask if you are targeting the right customers.

Rohit Bhargava wrote a short yet interesting article about street vendors and the lessons he got from his obervation.  The story is really true and even I, as a consumer, can spare few bucks more often without even realizing it may cost me more later on. Well, this is very true to almost all of consumers out there.

Read the whole story on Street Vendors and Business Lessons.

Why Don’t They Teach Failure In School?

Failures tend to disappear from business education curriculum? Information about business failures is often scarce or ignored completely, yet it is inevitable. On the other hand, information on successful companies and their success strategies is in generous supply.

Companies that pursue unsuccessful strategies either change their business strategies or they go out of business. A successful company is described as having used visionary management and innovative marketing strategies while a failing business is accused of poor business management and overall bad business skills. So why don’t we teach future entrepreneurs more about failure? Wouldn’t that save us a ton of money from mistakes that could have been avoided in the first place? What do you think?

10 Simple Steps To Social Media Success In 2008

Below is excerpt from the 10 Simple Steps To Social Media Success article which is in fact a lesson for us to take note of.  This article is written by Chris Winfield.

It’s no secret that social media should be an integral part of your online marketing strategy. Creating viral content and promoting it is only a fraction of the equation. You must also strengthen your online footprint and become part of the network. Trying to figure out where to start can be daunting.

Follow these ten simple steps and you will be well on your way to being more connected, more plugged in, and more efficient in 2008.

So, what are those 10 steps worth noting for? Read it more on 10 Simple Steps To Social Media Success In 2008.

Reminder for today but a lesson for a lifetime: Manage Time Wisely!

Reminder for today but a lesson for a lifetime: Manage Time Wisely!

Time management skills will allow you to establish priorities for your home business that focus on the most important goals you want to accomplish. You will be able to base your decisions on what is important to your home business and what is not.

Realistically scheduling your time will help you identify and eliminate low priority tasks. To establish a schedule for your business you’ll need to first determine how much time you are currently spending to accomplish each task. A good way to establish a time management baseline is to track how you are currently spending your time. You can use a day-planner, calendar, software program, digital recorder, a paper notebook or whatever you are comfortable with to record your daily activities. Keep track of each activity you perform throughout the day and how much time it takes you to complete the activity.

A Teacher’s Lesson for Business Leaders

One of the most inspiring leaders I’ve met in the last several years does not run a Fortune 500 company, did not launch a startup in his garage, and has not led an army. He’s a schoolteacher. But his persuasion skills are so effective they should be adopted by anyone who manages anyone.

The above is quoted from Business Week article written by Carmine Gallo. I believe Carmine must have really been inspired by the persuasion skills of this professor. The professor I am referring to is Ron Clark. He has given a lot of helpful insights for business enthusiasts.

• Raise expectations
• Explain why before how
• Encourage celebration and praise
• Show genuine interest beyond business
• Be positive and enjoy life

Ron Clark mentioned these things but oh, what do these ideas are really pointing out? Well, you’ve got to read it more on Business Week article – A Teacher’s Lesson for Business Leaders.

Ten Small Business Start up Lessons by Steve Woodruff

The below information is quoted from the article written by Steve Woodruff, the author of Small Business Branding.  He wrote 10 Small Business Lessons he personally have learned. Below is the fifth lesson he listed that I believe there are still a lot of entrepreneurs have not realized to maximized the Web.

Take full advantage of cheap and free communications. One of my first acts was to launch a blog (using WordPress), and write articles of interest (granted, not everyone is a writer – I happen to thoroughly enjoy working with words). Then, very inexpensively, I began a weekly e-newsletter using Constant Contact (the “Friday Collection”) which goes out to my target audience with news, resources, and links – and, with continual repetition of my business identity. I invested the grand sum of $50.00 to have a “caricature” made of my face, which now appears on the newsletter and on all my e-mails. Each of these initiatives has been a tremendous success, with very little invested except some time and creativity. Free press releases, announcements in trade magazines, posts on other blogs – the methods for gaining exposure are legion, and increasingly, free. It doesn’t cost much anymore to effectively brand yourself and your business – esp. important for small companies, start-ups, and consultants.

To read more on this article, visit the complete list of Ten Small Business Start up Lessons by Steve Woodruff.

A Story of Successful Mompreneur

Mompreneur comes from the two words: Mom and Entrepreneur. Momprenuer is derived to refer to mothers who are also entrepreneurs at the same time. Having those two roles is not easy and so it’s time to give them the space here to be recognized and for us to be inspired. One clear indication of success is overcoming failures and limitations. Hope everyone will be inspired with this successful mompreneur story.

Lisa Druxman, Founder of Stroller Strides, is one lucky mom. But her success didn’t come easy and a lot of hard work was involved. After having her daughter, Lisa began to seek ways to get herself back into shape but also wanted to spend as much time as possible with her daughter. It was this that sprang life into the concept that eventually developed her successful business, Stroller Strides.

Stroller Strides is a fitness program that incorporates your children and their strollers into your workout routine. Lisa started the business out of her home and at one time she had 8 women – with children in tow – coming in and out of her house, each with their own set of keys.

It’s amazing to think, but from those early days eventually grew the successful Stroller Strides franchise and Lisa is now helping moms everywhere stay in shape – and she’s got the luxury of still being able to be a work at home mom while running her franchise.

The story above is from the article written by Paula at SMBCEO. To read more on Lisa’s story, please do so by visiting this post titled: How A Mompreneur Created A Franchise From Home. Inspiring indeed!