To your business success

“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility …In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have   is the ability to take on responsibility.” – Michael Korda

Striving for Business Success

Two weeks ago, we discussed the meaning and definition of success.  This week we will continue the discussion of success along with responsibility, and what you need to do to attain success in your business.

As indicated in Michael Korda’s quote at the beginning of this post, successful people always seem to have the ability to take on responsibility.  To be successful, you have to be responsible; that once you start a business, it is your responsibility to yourself, your employees and your customers to keep that business going.  You are responsible for the proper development of a business plan, correctly marketing your products, and taking care of your customers.  If you have a product or service that your customers absolutely love (and what business doesn’t have a product or service that customers love?), it is your responsibility to continue to provide those customers with those products and services that they have come to depend on.

Ultimately, if you do not feel responsible for your customers, your business will inevitably suffer.  The old adage, “the customer is king”, still holds true even in this electronic day and age.  If you alienate your customers, they will not purchase your products however good they may be, nor will your customers utilize your services.  It is your responsibility to listen to what your customers wants and needs are and then to take that knowledge and assist those same customers.

By listening well to your customers, you will learn where and how to increase the sales of your business, and subsequently make your business more successful.  But growing sales does not necessarily guarantee business success.  You are still responsible for keeping track of the additional costs involved in increased sales.  It is your responsibility to grow your business in a manner where it becomes more profitable, not less profitable.  There are some so-called business people out there that believe just because their sales are up, their business is growing and succeeding.  That may not even be close to the truth.  As a business owner, it is your responsibility to not only understand what it is you offer to your customers, but it is your responsibility to understand what it means to be profitable.

Just because sales may increase, you need keep a close watch for extra costs not associated with the increased sales.  If you are in a business that allows customers to purchase on credit, this is a huge area that can really damage your profitability.   Great, your sales are up, and your customer credit is also up.  Now, how are you planning on paying your bills if your customers have not paid their bills to you?  It is your responsibility to both yourself, and your business to understand the dynamics of the whole business.   What may also come with an increase in sales is an increase in staffing costs.  You need to be sure that the additional costs you are bringing on do not outweigh the increased sales.  You need to act responsibly with regards to increased sales because your ultimate goal is to have more money going into your bank account than out of your bank account.

It is your business responsibility to increase your business bank account month over month.  By doing that, you are insuring your business success.

If you are looking for an additional income stream to supplement what you currently have, take a look at our website, we may have something that would compliment what you are currently working on or inspire you towards new goals.

“Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.” – John Wooden

Final Key Elements to Advertising Effectiveness

In the past few weeks we have been discussing the 7 Key Elements to Expand your Advertising Effectiveness.  We discussed 5 of the 7 key elements:  providing the main idea; admitting to your limitations; expand on the key idea and make it exclusive; show your track record and prove your credentials; and explain your motivation for making this special and exclusive offer.

This week we are going to conclude the discussion of the 7 Key Elements to Expand your Advertising Effectiveness with the last two elements:  address your competitors claims and to present your specific offer.

It is critical to be sure you are aware of the claims your competitors are making regarding their similar products or services.  Take time to discover specifically what their sales arguments are and how they present their arguments.  You may want to research their claims and identify any errors in logic they may have “glossed over”.  Be careful though, not to openly criticize or ridicule them.  Be sure that any counter-claim you use or identify can be backed with proof.  You also do not want to make your criticism of your competitor’s product seem to be criticism.  You want to present the appearance of objectivity, as if you were a customer weighing the differences between your products and services and those of your competition.

You want to be able to demonstrate how your approach to solving your customer’s problems is superior to all others.  Be sure to prove to your perspective customer that with their specific business situation, yours is the best alternative (again without obviously attacking your competition – customers will be nervous if you conduct an obvious tirade or attack against your competition).  Compare and contrast the benefits you can provide with your competition.  With that you will be helping your customers to develop a list of questions that they can then go and ask the competition.  Odds are that your competitors will not be prepared or willing to answer those questions, which will further strengthen your position with the customer.

Lastly, you want to clearly present your offer.  Outline in detail the steps that your customer needs to take in order to obtain this limited offer.  It is here that you will summarize all of the positive benefits if they opt for your solution.  You may also want to briefly re-iterate the worst case scenarios if they do not go for your offer.

Hopefully you will find these 7 Key Elements to Expanding your Advertising Effectiveness useful for your business.  If you are able to utilize even some of these elements effectively, you may find that your small business will grow faster than anticipated.

If you are looking for a second income to supplement what you are currently doing, please feel free to explore our website.  We offer several home based business opportunities and are more than willing to discuss in detail any opportunity you are considering.  We offer Pre-Paid Legal Services, Stem Cell Nutrition and can assist you in starting up your own waterless detailing business.  You only have to ask.

4 Points to Building Success

How many times have you asked yourself why you want to be an entrepreneur?  The bigger question is, how many times have you asked yourself WHY are you struggling to be a successful Entrepreneur?  So many people are striving to be their own boss, and many are not achieving the success that they expected.   This week we are going to cover 4 points to building success.  These points are designed to help you focus your ideas and differentiate yourself from all the other entrepreneurs struggling for a dollar out there.

As we have covered in several prior posts, there are many misconceptions about how to run a successful business.  Many people believe that if they find “just the right product” it will sell itself, and their work is done.  How many people have you met who have tried to sell you on an idea that will have “products flying off your shelf”?  Did you ever try any of those items?  Did they actually “fly off the shelf”?  Odds are, you have tried many business ideas and most of them have not panned out.  Even worse, as you try different strategies to build your business, sometimes your business will suffer.  There are so many people running around promoting false beliefs, mistaken points of view and just plain bad business practices.

Many businesses don’ t succeed because they are based on those erroneous facts.  As you may have always know in your heart of hearts, one key to business success is to differentiate yourself from all the other businesses trying to sell essentially the same thing you are.

In order for your business to become successful, you need to embrace the fact that you cannot purchase opportunities, you have to create them.  If someone is offering you the next best opportunity, then obviously, you will not be the first one to market with the opportunity.  If this is such a great opportunity, why are they offering it for sale to YOU?

Ask the right questions.  Making money, and creating a successful business is not as simple as picking that one hot opportunity and riding it out to success.  If you have to ask what the next best opportunity is, you are asking the wrong question.  By asking what the next hot idea is indicates that all you want to do is to grab onto one opportunity, ride it until it is no longer producing and then jump to the next best thing.  This will not build customer loyalty, and worse, it does not support any solid business plan.  If you are constantly jumping from one ‘hot’ idea to another, there is not flow to your underlying business plan.  You are just lucky if you make money.  Nine times out of ten, your business will succeed for a little while, but it will fail in the long-term.

If you want to have a successful business, you must be a visionary, not an opportunist.  How many successful people have you met who are only in business until the next big thing comes along?  Usually those successful people are the ones who created that next big thing.  They are the ones who came up with an idea that nobody else thought about, or nobody else combined to make a success.  Odds are, these successful entrepreneurs are the ones who came up with the new idea, and didn’t “borrow” or buy the idea from someone else.  These entrepreneurs saw a need and found a way to fill that customer need.  They fill the needs better than anyone else currently in the market.

Design your business to solve a bigger problem.  Even in a business segment with a lot of competition, there is always an opportunity to provide a better solution to a common problem.   Listen to your customers, listen to what your customers say about your competition.  Look for the underlying problem that is not being addressed by either your business or your competition and go about solving THAT problem.  Look for the solution to a standardized frustration.  If there is a problem out there that most everybody just assumes you “deal with” perhaps the solution to that problem will be the next “HOT” opportunity.  By providing solutions to customer frustrations, you will not only become more successful, but will have the undying gratitude of your customers.  This alone will make you the best business opportunity in town.

Reviewing these 4 points to building success will help you to continue to grow and improve your small business.  If you are in the market for starting a small home-based business, we have several business opportunities that may work well.  If you don’t see exactly what you are interested in, please feel free to contact us with any questions you have.  If we do not have the specific opportunity, we may know exactly where you can go to find what you are looking for.

Until next week…

5 Obstacles to Success – Part 3

For the prior two weeks we have been discussing various obstacles to your personal business success.  Two weeks ago we opened the discussion by introducing the first two obstacles to success; Fear and Cynicism.  Last week we continue the discussion to include Laziness and Arrogance.  This week we conclude the series with the last of 5 Obstacles to Success.

The last personal obstacle to your business success is Bad Habits.  It is your habits that could get you in trouble and it is habits that could cause your business to stagnate and ultimately fail.  Just because you have always done something one way in the past doesn’t mean it is the best way to do things.  We all naturally fall into habits of doing things, saying things and thinking things.  You can learn to break habits as you continue to educate yourself.  It is possible to relearn new habits; it just takes dedication and motivation.  Again, look at where you want to be and discover what new habits will help to bring you closer to your goals.  If you want to purchase a particular item, you do not want to get into the habit of spending every penny you earn now or worse yet, getting into debt just to acquire the item you are lusting after.  The key is to get into the habit of learning to make your money work for you instead of you working for your money.  Once you learn how to make money work for you, then you can start focusing on putting some of that money away so that you can ultimately purchase the item you were lusting after (without going into debt for it).  The key to a good habit is to be sure that the habit will help you move closer to your goals.  Take a good look at your current habits and ask yourself if those habits are helping you get closer to your goal of business success or are those habits causing you to move away from your goals?

In summary 5 obstacles to success are Fear, Cynicism, Laziness, Arrogance and Bad Habits.  Take an honest inventory of yourself, identify your Fears, any Cynicism, Laziness, or Arrogance you may have and then turn those bad habits into good habits.  As you do this you will discover that you are moving closer to your personal business success.

If you are looking for a second income to supplement what you are currently doing, please feel free to explore our website.  We offer several home based business opportunities and are more than willing to discuss in detail any opportunity you are considering.  We offer Pre-Paid Legal Services, Stem Cell Nutrition and can assist you in starting up your own waterless detailing business.  You only have to ask.

Until next week…

5 Obstacles to Success – Part 2

Last week we introduced the concept of 5 Obstacles to Success.  We discussed the first two self-imposed obstacles to your business success – Fear and Cynicism.  This week we are continuing the discussion to help eliminate 2 more Obstacles to your business success.

The third obstacle to your business success is Laziness.  How many people do you know talk about all the things they want to do, but ultimately do nothing?  We are all busy, we are all doing many things in the day and we are all trying to balance work and family.  The key here is to find out if you are busy for busy’s sake.  There are times where you may find that in order to avoid a particularly onerous task; you will find a different task to do first.  You may find all kinds of tasks that suddenly need doing just so that you can continue to put off the initial task at hand.  This is a form of laziness.  You are avoiding doing what you know has to be done by finding something else to do.  You are trying to convince yourself that since you are so “busy” you cannot have time to tackle that one very important task.  One way to overcome this version of laziness is to focus on what you really want to achieve.  Identify the things you expect to achieve once you complete the task you really don’t want to do.  If you can focus on the things you really want to achieve, and to believe in your heart and soul that these are the things you truly want, you will find a way to complete the tasks that need to be done.  Granted you may not like the tasks, but the fact of the matter is that it is most likely that the task at hand appears more difficult than it actually is.  You will most likely discover that after you have completed the task you were putting off, it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought it would be.  Identify why you might be afraid to start on the task.  Is it a fear of failing that is causing you to avoid the particular task at hand?  Or is it just a task that you THINK you are not going to like doing because you may not fully understand why you are doing what you are doing?  Once you identify some of these issues, you may find that tackling the looming task may not be nearly as difficult or uncomfortable as first imagined.

The next obstacle to success is Arrogance.  Many people think they know everything about what they are doing and choose not to bother to learn anything else.  Why should they continue learning when they know everything already?  There is always room for improvement, and as we have all seen, technology continues to grow and develop.  Just because you may have been an expert in your field yesterday does not mean you will be an expert in your field tomorrow.  New ideas arise daily, technology improves, new combinations of old ideas can also come together and improve your business also.  You should never be so arrogant to believe that there is no need to continue learning.  The more you learn, the more you are able to look at situations from different perspectives.  The phrase “there is more than one way to skin a cat” is appropriate.  What may have worked well for you in the past may no longer work well for you now.  By continuing your mental education (it does not need to be a “formal” education, attending seminars on various subjects is a great learning platform) you will continue to train your mind to always be on the lookout for new ideas.  You will be able to embrace and utilize any changes that are reasonable for your business.

Next week we will cover the fifth obstacle to success.

If you are looking for a second income to supplement what you are currently doing, please feel free to explore our website.  We offer several home based business opportunities and are more than willing to discuss in detail any opportunity you are considering.  We offer Pre-Paid Legal Services, Stem Cell Nutrition and can assist you in starting up your own waterless detailing business.  You only have to ask.

Until next week…

5 Obstacles to Success

This week is the first in a three-part series where we review 5 Obstacles to Success in growing your business.  As you are most likely aware, there are many obstacles to be overcome while growing your own home based or small business.  Many are not of your doing, but there are some that you may personally be responsible for.  We are going to review 5 obstacles that you may have personally introduced to your business.

The first obstacle that we all have to overcome is that of Fear.  When you are considering starting your own business, the biggest fear you may have is that of losing the money that you invested.  Nobody likes losing money, and it is a very legitimate fear.  The key to being successful in business is learning to manage that fear.  You do not really want to lose your fear, just learn to control your fear and to mitigate your losses.  Being afraid to lose your money is a reasonable fear, but you can’t be afraid to take chances.  If we were afraid to take chances, we would probably all still be living in caves.

The next obstacle to your personal business success is Cynicism.  If you start believing all the “nay sayers” about how they knew someone who knew someone who failed in a startup home business, you will never succeed.  The people that are always telling you that your ideas won’t work for a myriad of excuses are the truly frightened people.  They don’t want to see you try because you just might succeed. These so called friends will provide you every reason under the sun for why your idea won’t work.  When in doubt about what to do, the only people you should take advice from would be experts in the particular field that you are in.  You do not buy a house from a car salesman, nor would you got to the local auto mechanic when you need to have a medical procedure done.  All other people who do not have specific expertise or experience may not help you and they may even cause you more problems in the long run.

It is important to do your research, and to ask a lot of questions.  It is also OK to talk to people who tell you your idea may not work.  The difference is how you handle the information you receive.  If you are able to learn from the mistakes of others, or even learn from your past mistakes in order to improve your business success, then that is a good thing.  You need to learn to identify what you really want and then be able to stick to that list of things you absolutely want.  How many people do you know that will give you every excuse in the book for why things didn’t work for their business?  How many of those people took that failure as a reason to build a new business with a modified business plan?  Did they learn from the mistakes they first made?  Were they willing to try again, using a different angle of attack?  There are many experts in many fields.  Learn from them, they too most likely made many mistakes before becoming successful.  Find out how they kept on and do what you can to be successful too.

Next week we will continue this series with two more obstacles of the 5 Obstacles to Success.

If you are looking for a second income to supplement what you are currently doing, please feel free to explore our website.  We offer several home based business opportunities and are more than willing to discuss in detail any opportunity you are considering.  We offer Pre-Paid Legal Services, Stem Cell Nutrition and can assist you in starting up your own waterless detailing business.  You only have to ask.

Until next week…

More Tips on Growing your Business

How many times have you reviewed your financial statements and wondered how you were going to increase sales this month?  If you were not increasing sales, you will have to worry about what other item you are going to have to cut back next month.  This is one of the main worries of the small business owner from the beginning of time.  You may have an incredible product to offer your customers, but if you don’t have the income or more precisely, PROFITABILITY, to support your product, your business will not be around for very long. This week we have more tips on growing your business.

This week we are going to review some more tips and suggestions to help boost your small business sales.  Not all of these tips are going to work for all of you, but perhaps some of these tips, if not directly helpful, will get your creative juices flowing and generate some seriously profitable ideas for your specific business venture.

As we have discussed in earlier blogs, your product,  service or opportunity (or all three perhaps) needs to not just fill your needs, but to fill the common need of your target customer.  Can you help people learn how to survive this current real estate downturn?  Do you have a new and innovative way to help clients sell their homes?

Have you looked at the prices you are posting for your particular products?  If you lower prices a bit and sell more products, would you ultimate make more income?  The key here is to advertise that you are lower prices again to assist your customers survive this economic downturn.  You don’t want them thinking you are lowering your prices to get rid of inventory.  You want your customers to believe that your new lower prices are a direct result of you wanting to help them deal with this economic strife.

Do you have a product that is more of a discretionary income item? Have sales gone down because people are not as willing to spend on discretionary items?  Can you rethink how to market this “luxury” item so that when your customer uses this item, they are given a brief “vacation” from the day-to-day stresses.  Using your item will give them a little bit of pleasure which in turn helps bolster their energy for the next round of reality.

Or, do you have a product or service that is a necessity, no matter what the economic climate has become?  If you don’t have this type of product, is there some item out there that might complement your current product offerings?   This item could help you to grow your business and develop a sustained income month over month going forward.

Lastly, don’t forget your customer.  Customer service and honest follow-up, especially in this economic environment, is the best business.  How many stores have you gone into where the clerks were cranky or just plain mean?  Did you leave that store feeling positive about your purchase?  If you found another store where the clerks were cheerful and friendly, don’t you think you would be more willing to spend additional time wandering around?  With  internet sales exploding, and on-line marketing at every turn, it is critical to differentiate yourself from your competition with your customer service.  People will be drawn to good customer service.  They will be more willing to spend their hard-earned cash at your business too because you made them feel better either about themselves or about their purchases.  These same customers will also be more receptive to purchasing higher priced products (i.e. “do you want fries with that?”).

It is truly amazing how much more people will purchase if you spend a little quality time with them.  Keep them appraised of any new promotions, send a very brief message monthly to let them know that all is well, periodically offer a customer loyalty gift or coupon.  Even if your customers do not redeem the coupons, they will be pleased that you thought of them, and will be more inclined to spend money with you instead of going to your competitor.

Hopefully some of these tips on growing your business sales can be implemented in your business.   What would be even better is that some of these tips inspired you to think of other ideas that grow your business.  Good luck and have a great business week.

If you are looking for a second income to supplement what you are currently doing, please feel free to explore our website.  We offer several home based business opportunities and are more than willing to discuss in detail any opportunity you are considering.  We offer Pre-Paid Legal Services, Stem Cell Nutrition and can assist you in starting up your own waterless detailing business.  You only have to ask.

Until next week…

3 More Marketing Tips for Growing Your Business

Two weeks ago we covered 3 basic marketing tips to help grow your small business.  This week we are going to review 3 more marketing tips for growing your business.  Advertising is important to continue to grow your business, but there is more to advertising than just putting an advertisement in the local paper.  You need to tell your prospective customers not only that you are in business, but you need to let them know that you are uniquely available to fulfill their needs.  That is where marketing comes into play.  Just saying you have what your customers want is not an effective way to reach your target audience.  You need to market to their needs and give them good reason to visit either your store or your website.

When you are writing a marketing piece to be included in an advertisement for your business, try to avoid directly copying other marketing headlines that you have seen before.  If you sound too much like another successful ad campaign, then odds are your target audience will mistake your ad for the one you copied.  If your marketing line is not original, people will not take the time for a second look at what you are offering.  Looking at other marketing pieces is a great idea, but copying the headline and substituting your product will probably not inspire prospective customers to visit you.

A good way to check that your marketing does not sound like all the other ads out there is to spend quality time writing your advertisement, then, before you submit it anywhere, put the ad away for a few days.  After several days, then go back and re-read what you have written and see if it still inspires you to look more closely at what your company has to offer.  Does your ad meet your prospect at the point of their need?  What is your most compelling topic?  Is there a way you can make a compelling point in your first line, so that your customer will find it almost impossible to stop reading your ad?  Incorporating some of these points into your ad, will possibly drive more business your way and help you to continue to grow your small business.

Another marketing tip is to be sure to make your marketing point right up front in your advertisement.  You do not want to force your prospective customer to read through paragraphs of your ad before they find the point of your advertisement.  The key here is to make a compelling argument in the first line of your ad that will answer SOME of your market’s questions and inspire them to WANT to read the rest of your ad.  You want to pique their interest, knowing that you already may have something that will meet their needs.  They will then continue reading to see if you will have more items that continue to meet their needs.  Get to the point, do not make your customers search for the point of your ad.  Give them enough, but not too much information.  Make them curious, don’t over-burden them with superfluous information.

Lastly, don’t leave your target market out of the conversation of your ad.  This goes back to not giving your market too much information.  You may have all the latest technical specifications or information on your product, but do not include that in your advertisement.  You do not want to sound like a textbook.  If your customers are interested in all the nitty-gritty details, point them to where that can be found, do not include it in your initial marketing piece.  If you include ALL of the details in your ad, you will most likely lose more customers than you will gain.  They may use your marketing piece as a tool to go to sleep instead of sending them to you.  Don’t discuss statistics, talk as if you are talking directly to one person, the person reading your ad.  Make them feel like you are in the room with them explaining why you will meet their needs.   This will help you build a rapport with your target market and will most likely help drive more customers to your small business.

You now have 3 more marketing tips for growing your business.  Hopefully you will be able to use some or all of these marketing tips in your next sales copy to help drive more customers to your business.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

If you are looking for a second income or a home based business opportunity, perhaps we have something that would interest you.  We have several business opportunities ranging from Stem Cell nutrition, to Pre-Paid Legal Services, nutritional juice drinks to, to waterless vehicle detailing.  Please feel free to ask us about some of our business opportunities, we may have something that would work well for you.

Until next week…

3 Marketing Tips to help grow your business

This week we are going to cover 3 marketing tips to help grow your business.  If you are like many small and home based businesses, you have most likely struggled with getting your product, services or ideas out to the general public.  There are many, many different marketing techniques to get your business advertised, but for many, money is the determining factor.  This week we are beginning a brief series on some marketing tips to help grow your business and not break your bank.

1 – To begin with, you need to have the right marketing message and present it at the right time for your customers.  You do not want to advertise the latest big cars when the gas prices are going through the roof.  The key is to be sure your business offers a solution or solutions to the problems consumers are facing today, not what they faced yesterday.  Don’t spend your hard-earned money on trying to build your image…yet.  You can build your image more effectively by word of as your business grows instead of hiring an advertising agency to promote you.

2 – Test the market by trying some direct response marketing pieces.  Keep the cost of printing to a minimum, offer free reports, a free consultation, or some type of coupon to draw people to your business opportunity.  Try a few different direct response offers, and most importantly, keep track of which offers you made and how you sent them out.  Once you receive responses back, track which ones were your most successful and then work to improve upon those.  Do not spend time on ineffective direct response ideas.  If you didn’t get any response, toss that idea and move on to one that did generate interest.

3 – Once you receive responses from your marketing pieces, it is critical that you follow-up with your leads often and quickly.  Ask how they would prefer you to stay in touch with them.  Some may prefer a monthly newsletter, others may prefer a weekly e-mail or a phone call.   Tally the results with what your customers ultimately purchase.

Lastly, ask your customers how they found out about your business.  Was it through a friend, an ad they had seen in a local paper, or some other means of advertising that you have employed?  Do not jump from one advertising piece to another unless you have carefully documented the success and failures of what you have completed.  Very important – do not do major changes to your marketing pieces.  Do little changes and measure the results.  You will be amazed at how one small change can lead to large results.  If you change too many things at one time, you will have no idea which specific change generated the improved business.

Next week we will continue with additional marketing tips to help grow your business.

If you are looking for a second income or a home based business opportunity, perhaps we have something that would interest you.  We have several business opportunities ranging from Stem Cell nutrition, to Pre-Paid Legal Services, nutritional juice drinks to, to waterless vehicle detailing.  Please feel free to ask us about some of our business opportunities, we may have something that would work well for you.

Until next week…

3 Tips for Increasing Your Online Sales

Many businesses now have an on-line aspect to their sales, but you may have discovered that it is very difficult to generate online sales.  Looking around the Internet today is like walking into a library and having no idea what you are looking for.  Tonight we are going to review 3 tips for increasing your online sales.

Even if you know what you are looking for, it could take you literally days to find what you want at the price you want.  Many online businesses have to compete with other businesses that offer the same or similar products.  These other competitors may be located in your state, or may be located over seas.  The question is how to attract more customers to your particular site without spending too much money.  We are going to cover 3 tips for increasing your sales online without spending mountains of money.

The first tip is to find the questions that customers are asking and are not being answered by your competition.  This may sound daunting at first, but if you know your product and know your industry, you should also know what questions your customers have regarding your particular products and services.  If you are not sure what questions may be asked regarding your industry, try going to Yahoo Answers and type in your keywords.  Study the results carefully and see if there is a particular trend in what questions are asked.  This will tell you what is not being answered.  Another place to look for questions that don’t seem to be well answered is in forums.  Watch what is being said and how many times similar questions are being asked.  A last place to look for unanswered questions is to your customers.  Ask them if they have unanswered questions regarding your products and services.

You may (and should) have the answers to the unanswered questions you discovered above.  The case may be that others in your industry do not want to answer the particular questions.  The answers may be embarrassing, or, in your competition’s mind, may give away trade secrets.  The second key tip  is for you to accurately answer the unanswered questions and be sure that your customers and potential customers can easily find these answers.  You may want to format the answers to the questions as a blog post.  Do not post all the answers at one time, you want to have your audience come back to visit your site frequently.   As you post answers to various questions, continue looking for new questions so you can keep your blog fresh.

The third tip to increase your online sales is to be sure that you have your answers posted in more than one location.  Some customers may not like to read blogs, so perhaps you would want to have a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website that customers can conveniently access.  Also, for the blog articles you have written that answer the various questions, consider submitting those articles to as many RSS feeds as possible.  Bookmark your blog posts using Digg, Technorati and De i cious.   Submit your articles to top websites, ezines and article directories so you get a wider viewing audience.   Also be sure to include links to your articles in the various social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and Myspace.

By implementing these 3 tips (noting unanswered questions, answering those same questions and then by posting those answers all around the Internet), you will find that more people will come to your site and ultimately you will increase your online sales.  People are hungry for answers to questions, but more importantly they are hungry for accurate answers to their questions.  If you are able to position your business and website as a ‘go-to’ source of information, you will develop more trust with your online customers and ultimately increase your online sales.  Good luck and enjoy your search for the unanswered questions.

If you are looking for an additional income stream, check out our website.  We may have a home-based business opportunity that suits your needs.  The opportunities noted on our website all offer great compensation plans and have a low cost of entry.  Please feel free to e-mail us with any questions you may have.

Until next week…