Are you a Business Owner, or Self-Employed?

Just because you have a business license and you are the boss you answer to doesn't necessarily mean you own your own business. You can even have a staff of employees and still be self-employed.

What's the difference? Well, the key difference between a business and being self-employed is that a business makes you money when you aren't there, being self-employed you have to be there to make the money.

Being a Business Owner

When you are a business owner, yes you can or cannot be very involved in your company. You may show up everyday to make sure employees are working, to ensure that processes are running smoothly, and to grow your business but if you decide to take a vacation or skip a couple of days of work, guess what; the business keeps right on making money.

A business is a process that can be taught, duplicated, and sold. This is how we get franchises and licenses. You are authorizing others to learn your business process and then duplicate it to make themselves money, and you even more money.

Being Self-Employed

When you are self-employed, you may be the boss but if you are the key component to the business and it cannot operate its day to day functions without you being there, then you are still self-employed. This can be the case of a highly skilled worker that owns their own business but hires individuals around them that are simple support staff. If that individual doesn't have other individuals that are trained in the same trade and a decision making team (that has the power to execute their decisions) in place then every decision has to go through the owner and that becomes in-efficient and destroys the whole purpose of having a business.

Remember:

A business is a process that can be taught, duplicated, and sold. If you have to show up everyday and complete the majority of the work, make all the decisions, and the business makes no money when you aren't there; then you are self-employed.

Your Employees Can be Your #1 Marketing Option

The best investment that any business can make is in its employees. Creating a team of top notch employees that share the company vision and want to see the company succeed will offer the greatest returns overtime than any other marketing campaign.

If you keep your employees involved in the business and excited, then they will promote the business in return. I personally believe that everyone that works for a company is a salesman. Remember, one of the first questions people ask when they meet someone is what do you do? Being that many professionals actually spend more time working than with their actual families, most people associate themselves with their job or profession.

Keeping your employees involved in the decision making process and allowing them to take ownership of their projects helps to establish trust between supervisors and workers. Employees should also be empowered to be able to solve everyday problems that pop up. Having to run every little decision through upper management can be time consuming and professionally insulting. Why hire individuals whom you don't trust their opinions or decision making?

The worst mistake that any manager or supervisor can make is micro-managing your team!!! Yes you have to monitor employees and make sure that the work is getting done and that everyone is staying on the same page, however, you shouldn't try to control every little task and every aspect of the things they do. This destroys your work forces creativity and can cause the company to miss out on may different new ideas.

To sum it all up, if employees are inspired then they will tell the world about the company they work for and push your message forward; if they are micro-managed and un-respected then the organization will suffer for it.

Promote Your Business Like a Rapper

Well, I was listening to some hip hop the other day riding in the car and getting my shine on. As I remember the featured artist was Rick Ross. No need to mention which song he was performing because the main concept was the same. No matter what song he rapped he continued to say "Rick Ross" throughout the entire song. The bass and hard hitting drum patterns may have overpowered the words in many of occasions, however, you could always make out the words clearly "Ross".

Referring to one's self repeatedly throughout a song is no new concept to rap. In fact, I think it would be hard to find one rapper that actually made it through a song without saying their own name at least 5 times. It would seem that rappers have broken the code to branding and put marketers to shame. Repetition, repetition, and more repetition!!!

On average, it takes at least 7 to 12 times for a person to hear a marketing message before they actually listen to it, effects of continued advertising bombardment from today's media driven society. This technique should be adopted by all business professionals. If you want someone to remember your business, then you have to continue to tell them about it. Entertainers have known for years that once you leave the public eye, you are forgotten about. The same is true with business, if people don't know about your products and services, then your business is forgotten about.

So if you want to be successful then promote your business like a rapper and get your shine on.

Good Enough Isn't Good Enough in Business

In today's economic crisis, businesses are working with very limited resources and personnel. Hourly Employees and Executives both are having to push themselves harder and harder to pick up the slack of trying to make a profit in an very financially unstable economy. I have even seen our CEO put down his golf clubs, roll up his sleeves and pitch in a helping hand.

Being that staffs are so stretched and pulled in different directions, we may sometimes feel that some things don't matter or that we can let some things slide. This can be the worst mistake a company can make during hard times. When business after business starts to go bankrupt, you have to stay on your A-game unless you want to be another statistic in the next Presidential Speech.

So many people are out of work that new companies, especially service companies, are springing up at an exponential rate. Keep in mind that whatever thing you are letting slide, your competitors are probably not letting slide. In fact, they are waiting for you to make a mistake so they can take advantage and gain a little more market share. A business owner must stay humble and remember that your business is built one customer at a time. When you don't have the money for a large marketing or advertising budget, you have to be creative and find other ways of advertising. I have always found that the best source of advertising tried and true time after time is "Word of Mouth".

I have never found any form of advertising to give me a greater return on investment. That is why customer service is such an important task of any business of any size. The happier your customer is about the products, the more they are going to talk about them and tell others. Wow, and this is all for free. No television adds, no radio spots, and no pay- per- click campaign to manage.

Take care of your clients, respect your employees and remember to be humble.

These are the ingredients to success in today's economy. An attitude of that presentation isn't quite done but it's good enough just won't cut it. You only get first impressions with most clients today because there are so many different vendors to choose from. If you are having a small complaint from a customer and it is pretty easily taken care of, then solve it as soon as possible before it grows into something big. If you promise your clients something and can not deliver on time or exactly what they want, be transparent with them. Keep your clients updated on what is going on. Don't forget those same Social Media channels that you are using to broadcast the features of your product, your customers are using them to broadcast things about you and it can be good or bad.

Personal Branding in Today's Economy

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is quite simply the future of career development. The global economy exposes us to great new products at affordable prices, but it also exposes companies and firms to great new talent. This is where personal branding comes in.

Personal branding is the process by which individuals differentiate themselves and stand out

from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it

across platforms with a consistent message and image to

achieve a specific goal. This way, individuals enhance their recognition as experts in their field, establish reputation and credibility, advance their careers, and build self-confidence.

How do I get started with Personal Branding?

Questions to answer:

Who needs to know about you?

What need are you best positioned to fill?

What differentiates you from others in your field?

The goal of a personal branding campaign is to create a strong, consistent, and specific association between the individual and the perceived value they offer.

Establish an inventory of core competencies, expertise, demonstrated abilities, and an existing level of recognition.

Personal Branding Consists of:

· Value Proposition

· Differentiation

· Marketability