Archives for May 2015
The Most Common Hiring Mistakes Made by Businesses
The hiring processes that you use are absolutely vital to the health and future of your company. After all, itâs the people that really create the character of a company, especially when youâre running a small business.
However, there are so many business owners that make poor hiring decisions over and over again. In most cases, those business owners tend to be guilty of at least one of these common hiring mistakes:
⢠Not clearly identifying your ideal hire. You need to take the time to write down the key characteristics of employees that you are looking to hire. What responsibilities will they be
We get real and we stay that way. We know that no amount of great marketing, sales techniques, software as a service (Saas) or operational consulting will fix a bad entrepreneur. We are prepared to deliver our best, to enable you to raise your anchor through the one set of activities that sets the best apart from the rest.
handling? What should their skill-sets be? What should their educational or practical experience be? What types of personality traits would mesh well within your existing team? All of these are important questions to ask, and you should write down the answers and make sure everyone involved in the hiring process is on the same page.
⢠Not focusing on actual experiences. Too many times, interviewers focus on the kinds of answers that candidates give to hypothetical situations. Anyone can make up what theyâd do in a given situation. What you should be focused on is what your candidates actually did in past situations. The way that they conducted themselves will say a lot about what you can expect from them on the job.
⢠Not being firm with your âmust-traitsâ traits. Every position that you are looking to fill should have around three or four must-have traits of potential applicants. You should never be willing to compromise on these traits, and they should dominate your hiring decision.
⢠Not being clear about what you want out of potential hires. Anyone that you hire should have a clear understanding of your expectations for them from the get-go. If you are looking for a long-term fit, for example, your new hire shouldnât be operating under the idea that this is a job that they can leverage into a new position somewhere else. They should understand your companyâs vision, their responsibilities and their role in helping your company to meet its goals.
Are you guilty of any of these hiring mistakes? How have you seen it affect your company?
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Do You Have a Social Media Calendar?
Check out Neil Patel's Infographic on the Why and the How
The Art of Self-Care for Solo-Entrepreneurs: 3 Things You Can Do Today
Give yourself 15 minutes for an easy self-care exercise.
One of my favorite self-help authors, Cheryl Richardson, wrote The Art of Extreme Self-Care. The purpose of her book is to help individuals practice self-care and eliminate toxic situations, actions, and so on.
Self-care is one of the most overlooked, yet, profound necessities for solo-entrepreneurs. For many, they have mastered the art of it. For others, they may have no clue that an art of self-care even existed. Then, there are the others that know it, but choose to do nothing with it and continue to live an unbalanced life. The purpose of this post is to provide you with three things that you can do today to practice the art of self-care as a solo-entrepreneur.
1. Stop doing whatever it is that you are doing. Give yourself 15 minutes to review this post and how the suggestions come into play within your life. If you cannot give yourself 15 minutes, you have bigger fish to fry. However, 15 minutes could be a good start to helping you identify those issues. In addition to 15 minutes, if you have a pen and paper snag that too.
What feelings did you identify from this exercise? We get real and we stay that way. We know that no amount of great marketing, sales techniques, software as a service (Saas) or operational consulting will fix a bad entrepreneur. We are prepared to deliver our best, to enable you to raise your anchor through the one set of activities that sets the best apart from the rest.
2. Measure how you feel right now. Take a moment to conduct a self-inventory of your emotions. How do you feel? Why do you feel the way you do? What factors lead up to you feeling the way you do? What actions do you do to switch gears and work in more effective manner? Are they healthy? These are just a few questions to ask yourself about your current emotional state. You may be wondering why I am even asking about your emotional state. Well, it is the foundation of practicing self-care. Our emotions impact our lives daily in a positive or negative way. The ability to identify and measure how your feelings make you feel is not only essential from a personally, but also professionally.
3. Identify your “musts” and “must not(s)”. The “musts” and “must not(s)” lists are the first self-care exercises that changed my world. The purpose of this activity is for you to identify the things that you must have and must not have in your life. , this is yet another self-inventory exercise that helps you to identify what outcomes, activities, people, and emotions you want in your life. It also helps to serve as a personal gap analysis. You may be surprised to view how many of your “must not(s)” happen. The identification of such issues serves as an opportunity to evaluate how, why, and when such things occur within your life. It also serves as an identified need for an intervention. The ability to stop whatever inputs or outputs that allow the “must not have” areas to show up in your life is essential to extreme self-care. Not doing anything would simply the definition of “insanity – doing the same thing again and expecting different results,”. Likewise, this also serves as a stellar moment to evaluate your “must have(s)” and to track your performance of making those things a reality – daily. Yes, daily. The problem that many individuals, especially, solo-entrepreneurs know what they want, but have a hard time making it a must. The ability to shift from desire to having is key. Making the time for “must have(s)” is an essential element of self-care.
Today, Viral Solutionsâ mission is to provide its clients with the assistance needed to experience bursts of growth in their operations, and a big part of that is through the use of technology. When business owners feel overwhelmed, burnt out or unmotivated, Viral Solutions steps in to give them the tools they need to achieve new levels of success. At Viral Solutions, we help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves â so business can be fun again!
In conclusion, these are three straightforward, simple, and easy to use approaches to practicing the art of self-care. Whether you're a solo-entrepreneur or not, these actions make a difference. The small steps of getting started are just the beginning. The bigger steps come from action. Once the “must have” actions become a regular part of your daily routine, the happier, healthier, and more balanced you'll be. You may even find yourself reflecting on why you did not make such “must haves” a priority in the first place. The kicker is the more you take care of you, the more you be able to be better at everything that you do. When people feel overwhelmed or drained, every other aspect of their life feels it too. So, start today with these three simple steps to getting back to the basics of taking care of you.
by Katie Doseck, PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Copyright 2015 by Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
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Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Research to Perform Before Beginning Your Content Marketing Campaign
Itâs important for any company that is serious about digital marketing to include a content marketing plan in its online endeavors. However, before you jump right into the world of content marketing, thereâs some important background research that you need to do first.
Here are some of the areas that you should research before beginning your content marketing campaign:
- Your audience. Put together a comprehensive audience assessment that will help you to understand exactly who your audience is and what theyâre looking for. Some of the research tactics youâll use for this process
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Beyond our regular sales and marketing services, we also offer full-scale copy-writing services to develop content for your website, blog, featured articles, emails or any other types of written content that you need. All you need to do is let us know your content needs and we will provide you with a quote. Our copywriters take care of the rest, delivering professional, high-quality content straight to you.include keyword research, an analysis of user-generated content, expert interviews, analytics assessments, customer interviews and surveys and more. All of these tactics will help you to identify your customersâ pain points and understand their purchase considerations.
- Content trends. By researching some of the more engaging content in your industry, you can determine patterns that show exactly what gets people engaged. Keep an eye on commonly cited resources, experts that tend to be quoted and more. Other research tactics include sentiment analysis, sub topic identification and angle identification.
- Media influencers. What sources drive the most traffic in your market? Determine who or what are the biggest social influencers in your industry, what industry publications get a lot of respect, which social media networks yield the most engagement and more.
- Your competition. If youâre using content marketing to help give yourself an edge on the competition (which you areâthatâs at the heart of all marketing efforts), then you need to familiarize yourself with exactly what kinds of content marketing those competitors are performing. What works or does not work for them? What kind of tone do they use in their content? What types of content are they creating? What specific demographics are they targeting? All of this information will help you to create a campaign that works for your company.
If you need assistance in creating a content marketing campaign for your small business, reach out to our team at Viral Solutions today and weâll be happy to work with you.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.
Common Small Business Financial Mistakes That Can Be Easily Avoided
Youâve probably heard the statistic before that approximately a third of all small businesses will go out of business within their first five years. Many times, thatâs because theyâve poorly managed their finances. There are some financial issues that are beyond a business ownerâs control, but youâd be surprised at how many times businesses fail because of completely avoidable financial mistakes.
Here are some of the most common examples:
- Poor pricing. The way you price your products or services can either set you up for success or failure. Overpricing will likely lead to a lack of sales, but underpricing could really hurt your margins and cause you to lose
Teach, Train, Mentor, Lead, Develop, Implement and bring Results. | Our small business experts can consult or coach on a wide variety of important business topics, including sales optimization and management, sales training, automated relationship marketing, eMarketing, strategic planning and much more. Our thought process is very simple. First we seek to understand, before we seek to be understood. When the team at Viral Solutions brings their minds to your business, you are getting all of our collective experiences. We will not sugar coat the reasons behind our input. We will not withhold our best solutions. We will not limit our implementation strategies. We will tell you exactly how we see it. The results you experience will be the sum of your strategy, your defined target audience, your commitment to serve your customer and our process of delivery. That means we are an integral part of your team!
money, even if you get a fair amount of sales. You need to do a lot of research about your industry, what your competitors can charge, what you can afford to charge to turn a profit and more. You also need to differentiate your product and educate your customers about why your product is worth the price you set it at.
- Lack of savings. So many small businesses fail to keep a proper amount of cash in their reserves. Even when you have low operating costs, there are times where youâre going to have slow or negative cash flow in the early going. You should have plenty of reserve cash for emergency situations and unplanned expenses.
- Putting too much on credit. If you plan out your finances carefully, you can rely on credit to an extent. But you still need to stay on top of your finances and make sure that your debt is manageable. If you just keep charging without regard to the health of your businessâs finances, then youâre going to pile yourself under inescapable debt that will cripple your young company.
- Bad bookkeeping. If you donât keep good records, you wonât be able to gauge the success of your business and you wonât have the numbers you need to properly monitor just how well your business is performing in individual areas. You could also make costly mistakes in invoicing, payroll and more.
All of these mistakes are very easily avoidable, so be sure to do your due diligence in making sure you are always on top of your financial game.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Viral Solutions LLC is a Digital Marketer Certified Partner, Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and a Mobit Certified Partner. We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves – so business can be fun again.