Do You Have a Business or a Hobby?

Do You Have a Business or a Hobby
I see it all the time, someone has made the decision to start their own business, so they build a website, start selling their product, and jump right in! It is excellent, it is brave, it isn’t always the right thing. Online business owners can easily “open their doors for business” without a firm business plan in place. Some may test the waters to see if they attract any clients and some start out doing this online work as a side gig while working their full-time job.

If this is how you opened your business and now you are in elbows deep, are you able to tell if you have a business or if it is still just a hobby?

My first business started as a hobby, I loved taking photos of my kids. A hobby traditionally is an activity that pleases you and you do in your spare time. A business, on the other hand, provides a service or products to clients, has business hours, and strives to make a profit.

Do You Have a Business or a Hobby A woman's suitcase packed with a camera and a laptop ready to blog about her travels, and the quote " Every creative person's dream is a hobby they're lucky enough to get paid for." Do You Have a Business or a Hobby

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine if you are working a business or a hobby:

Do you have firm business hours or are you working sporadic hours as your family or full-time job allows?
Do you make the most of your business hours or work time, working as efficiently as possible, or do you get distracted by social media or other behind-the-scenes tasks?
Do you have a business plan, even for one year, which includes expected profits?
Do you make opportunities happen or do you wait for them to come to you?
Do you withdraw every penny from your account after clients pay or do you give yourself a pay structure and reinvest some of your profits into software, training, or other business expenses?

If you were unsure before, you should have an idea now about if your business is indeed a business.

Hire a Business Coach to Guide You

You don’t need a business degree to start a business; sometimes a unique product idea or a strong desire to offer services is enough to get started. Hiring a business coach or mentor will be helpful. They will assist you in setting up your company to grow and generate profits. You don’t know what you don’t know. Without a business coach, you will make a lot of trial and error mistakes, some of which could cost you substantial amounts of money. I know this from experience. Instead of closing your eyes and hoping for the best, work with a coach to create a business plan. They will help guide you through the next steps. A good coach will be able to help you and provide tried and true business advice and strategies.

Also, your business coach will also serve as your accountability partner. Someone who wants to hear from you about your progress and who will call you out when you don’t do as you promised. Often knowing someone is expecting results is enough to spur people into action because they don’t want to let down the coach.

If you’re ready to work with a business coach and ready to turn that hobby into a business, I’ve got some openings in my calendar for new clients so reach out to me to book your discovery call.

Do You Have a Business or a Hobby

Advantages of Face-to-Face Networking

With the internet making the world a smaller place, it’s easy to think that networking can be done through social media and social media alone.

However, even with those you meet on social media, you still need to find a way to have face-to-face meetings, when possible. Here are 5 reasons why there are advantages to face to face networking.

Gives that personal touch.

Having face-to-face meetings is more personal and will give you a better way to show who your true self. It’s hard to see what someone’s personality is when you can’t see or hear them. If you want your personality to shine, then you need to have those face-to-face meetings.

Builds stronger relationships

We all crave human connection and when we get it, it builds stronger relationships. You can think a person is great when you meet them online, but to see them in action and be a part of their energy creates a better and more inviting experience.

It is hard to build a strong relationship with someone if you’ve never shared physical space. In person, you get to see how they connect with other people and truly know how strong your connection is with them.

Provides Immediate feedback

If all of your meetings are done through email or on social media, then you don’t get that immediate and direct feedback that you do when you’re face to face. You also can’t tell someone’s tone or demeanour if everything is done through typing. This makes it very easy to misconstrue someone’s intent or what they were saying.

When you are discussing something in person, then the exchange you have will go differently. There’s more give and take, so to speak. It’s just faster this way.

Ability to Read Body Language

There’s a way that we communicate in person that just cannot be expressed on the internet. You can read someone’s body language; you can pick up on sarcasm better when you can hear the tone of someone’s voice or see their face. You just learn so much about a person by seeing their mannerisms.

Avoid misunderstandings

You might think you are being very clear when you communicate on the internet, but how someone else interprets can be entirely different. This is why emotions fly and things get so heated on the internet. A simple misunderstanding escalates into something out of your control.

Using social media to network is great but it is still important to get out there and make personal connections. Whether it be at local business events or you find ways to meet up with your online connections, it’s crucial to create face-to-face meetings to strengthen those connections and build your business.

Now, I want to hear from you! How often do you get out to a local networking event or see your customers face-to-face? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.

Website vs Blog – Or Do You Need Both?

Creating a website for a new business? If so, you may be wondering which is the best choice – website or blog. The answer isn’t as complicated as you may think. Here are a few things to consider when choosing for you and your business goals.

Business model and purpose

Both websites and blogs, particularly a WordPress blog, can support just about any type of business model. WordPress developers have created plug-ins that can turn any WordPress blog into an e-commerce site, a membership site and more.

However, these plug-ins and add-ons can be more of a hassle than it’s worth. And finding the right plug-in may be a trial and error process. Believe me – I have gone through a lot of trials and made a lot of errors!

If your business model relies on the publishing of timely information, then a blog is likely better. However, if your business is meant to sell a product or service, then a website may be a better choice.

Maintenance and time

How much time do you have to devote to the upkeep and maintenance of your business? A blog still relies on consistently publishing content. Despite contrary “rules” about blogging, you don’t have to blog every day or several times a day.

Just keep in mind, people who subscribe to blogs do expect regular installments of new content. You can schedule your posts. However, it does require a bit more maintenance on your end. Whereas, a website can be left alone for a month or two without any issues.

Blog versus Website

Personality and ease of use

Some of your decision will be based on your personality. What format do you prefer to use? A blog is straightforward and easy to update and utilize. You may need help to find, install and set up the right plug-ins. You may also need help customizing a theme or adding a custom header. By and large, blogs are very easy to use.

Websites can be trickier for some. That being said, many website developers and design software make the user interface quite simple. You can modify pages and add content without needing to learn or understand a design language.

Goals

Quite often a blog and a website work well together. A website sells. A blog drives traffic and brands the business. A blog can speak to a niche within your niche.

For example, General Motors has a central website. They also have a blog that is car talk. It’s for car enthusiasts and its run by a head honcho at GM. He loves cars. The blog helps brand General Motors and it connects prospects and customers to the business, it also builds a community.

Before you decide whether a blog or a website is right for you, consider the above. What’s the purpose of your site? What will offer the best customer experience? What will be most comfortable for you to use and maintain? Finally, what will best help you achieve your goals?

If you decide that blogging is in your future, check out these 52 Blog Ideas for your business to help get you started!

If it is a website you are after, check out these 30 Tips for Building Your First Business Website off of smallbiztrends.com to get you started.

To your success!

3 Surefire Ways to Create In-Demand Products and Services

If there’s one thing that holds promising entrepreneurs back from launching their business, it’s this: a lack of confidence in their products. Sure, you think that new product or workshop is a great idea, but how do you know it will sell?

Imagine spending weeks or even months of time—plus the cost of document design, video editing and all the other pieces that go along with it—only to discover it’s not what your audience wants or needs. How frustrating would that be?

You don’t have to leave it to chance, though. There are plenty of ways to test your idea before spending the time and energy on a full launch.

1. Ask

This is the simplest way to get a feel for what your market needs and wants. Simply ask them. Create a survey with Survey Monkey (or even a Google form) and send it out to your mailing list. For best results, keep it short, but do ask:

What they’re struggling with?
What problems are these struggles causing in their life?
How would their life be different if they had [insert your product or service here]?
What do they feel your product or service is worth (what would they pay)?

These four pieces will tell you everything you need to know to create a product or program that’s practically guaranteed to sell.

2. Listen

If you have a community (or are part of one) that is full of your ideal clients, pay attention to what they’re asking about the most. These are the things they need help with. For example, if you’re a business coach and your Facebook group is filled with questions about running Facebook ads, then clearly there is a need for some training in that area.

3. Know

Hopefully, you have a list of competitors and you’re reading their blogs and emails, joining in their Facebook groups and getting to know them. Network and build relationships with them, this is a great way to gain insight into what is out there—not to copy them but to discover what’s hot in your industry right now.

Creating products in a vacuum is a great way to waste a lot of time and money on programs that won’t sell. Instead, pay attention to what your market is asking for, find out what they’re willing to pay, and delve into your competition’s offers. The information you gain from these three activities alone will give you incredible insight. Not just into your market but what they want and need, making it easy to create your own hot-selling products.

Now you know what to creat, take a peek at 3 Proven ways to Market Your New Business to help promote your new product!

What kind of content tends to go viral?

If you’re trying to get your content to “spark” and go viral, it really helps to have a strong understanding of what kind of content tends to go viral. Of course, nobody can predict what will go viral, nor can they make something go viral 100% of the time. But by understanding what kind of content tends to go viral, you stand a much better chance of creating something viral yourself.

Here are a few of the main attributes of things that tend to go viral.

It’s Human

It’s rare that a factual, statistical or economical video goes viral. Instead, it’s usually the most human videos that go viral.

The singing homeless man on the street. The baby laughing at something senseless. An incredible display of guitar prowess.

Strong Emotional Content

The more emotions you can arouse in your audience, the better.

Let’s take one of the world’s most viewed videos, the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video. The video features a baby whose brother bit his finger; he sits there laughing and complaining at the same time.

This video has an astounding 863 million views at the time of this writing. That is crazy, I have to admit, I have seen it more than once…

One of the main reasons this video took off so strongly is because of how clear the emotions were in the video. The watcher can almost “follow along” with the baby’s emotions and also experience the joy of playing with your baby brother, not to mention the pain of being bitten by a baby with a fresh set of pearly whites.

Videos That Provide Unique Information

Another type of content that does really well are videos that are informational. The key here is that the videos really have to provide content that can’t be found anywhere else.

My point is, informational videos work in many different industries, but the most important thing is that there’s something truly unique to them.

Content That Appeals to Specific Groups of People

Content that tends to appeal to specific groups of people tends to do very well if they have strong emotional or informational content.

A video that recently went viral was M.J Hegar’s campaign video to become a Democratic candidate for the Congress in a Texas district. The video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. At the time she was challenging 15-year Republican incumbent, John Carter.

Hegar’s video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. I am pretty sure, she did not need half that many votes to win. Which did happen by the way, with 62.2 percent of the vote!

Consider your business niche, something can go viral within the community. Like, new food laws, something which may be seen as boring, could be very interesting to vegans if it affects the foods they’ll be able to purchase. A video about the new laws could really take off among that specific community.

These are some of the factors that go into determining whether or not a video goes viral. At the end of the day, a video going viral really means that a lot of people want to pass on your content. The key, as with many other things in business, is to just create something so amazing that people want to share it.

3 Proven Ways to Market Your New Business

The world is filled with great ideas and broke business owners with fabulous products but no sales. Trust me. So here are 3 Ways to Market Your New Business.

The fact is, ideas are not what drives most business success. Marketing does. So before you quit your day job to branch out on your own, it pays to have a solid marketing plan in place. Start with these 3 ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Free Webinars

For information product sellers, coaches, and service providers, one of the best sources of new clients is in free training webinars. No matter what your niche, the promise of in-depth training at no cost is enough to entice potential clients to part with an email address (which you’ll be able to market to later) and an hour of their time.

Not only that, but webinars are a fantastic way for those potential customers to get to know you better. And the better they know you, the more likely they are to buy.

Content Marketing

Not comfortable hosting a webinar? Hit the keyboard and start sharing your thoughts and ideas via your blog, ebooks, guest articles and other written content. For internet marketers, this gives readers a taste of what they can expect from your product. If you sell physical products, it provides the perfect opportunity to share useful tips and other important information with your buyers.

Of course, there’s another important benefit to content marketing, too: search engine optimization. Google and other search engines index the words on your website and use the information to present search results to their users. Content marketing is a tool you can use to make the most of these results and to bring more potential buyers to your website.

Paid Advertising

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google and plenty of other sites all offer paid placement, and with today’s powerful analytics tools, it’s easy to create ads and drive traffic inexpensively. Consider starting with Facebook, since the cost is low and it’s easy to target your ads to your ideal client. Once you’ve perfected your funnel, you can branch out into more costly ads with a larger reach, such as Google AdWords or another ad network.

Don’t limit yourself to these three marketing methods though. There are dozens of others you can try, including affiliate programs, JV partnerships, automated funnels, direct mail campaigns, and even television advertising. The key is to keep testing and tweaking to make the most of every marketing effort so that your business continues to grow.

Become a Studio Insider and…
Go from “Wannabe” Entrepreneur to
Rock Star Business Babe…

Become a Studio Insider, woman with blue shirt sitting at her desk

Insider emails are sent 1 x week. You can unsubscribe any time – obviously.

3 Ways to Market Your New Business

9 Principles for Successful Women

No List? No Problem! How to Build an Audience with Paid Ads

We’ve been told (and told and told) for years that “the money is in the list” and that “your mailing list is your biggest business asset.” But if your list numbers are hovering in the low four-figures—or fewer—with no sign of growth on the horizon, such advice can seem a bit unhelpful.

The fact is, building a list is a catch 22: You can’t get signups without traffic and it’s difficult to find traffic when you have no list. What’s a busy entrepreneur to do?

Paid Ads Make List-Building Easy

By strategically placing ads in front of your target audience, you can drive tons of traffic to your opt-in offers and enjoy conversion rates of two or three percent or more. Even better, with some tweaking and split testing of your offers, you can carefully refine your ads and copy so that you’re attracting your exact ideal client and filling your list with buyers who are ready to take action, rather than freebie seekers.

All you need to run paid ads to your opt-in pages is:

A compelling offer, such as a video training series or live webinar
Copy to grab the attention of your target audience

Best Ad Placements

Once you have your components in place, the only question remaining is where to run your ads. You have dozens of choices, from Twitter to Google to YouTube to solo email spots.

The key is to first determine where your market is most likely to be hanging out. If they’re on LinkedIn, then running ads on Twitter will be a waste of time. Keep in mind the cost as well. Ads on Facebook are generally less expensive and less competitive than a Google Adwords placement.

Start Small, Then Refine

Once you’ve decided where to place your ads, it’s time to set your budget and begin running a small set of ads. Consider setting a small daily budget, such as $10 or $20 at the beginning, so you can get a feel for how your ads will perform. Watch the traffic, track your conversions, and create split tests of your landing page and ad sets to determine which performs the best. You can also refine the audience you’re targeting based on the stats you receive. For example, if you find that men between the ages of 20 and 30 are clicking but not opting in, you might want to remove them from your audience.

At least at first, it’s best to avoid running ads for paid products. Conversions for a free offer will far outshine those to a paid product—especially if your program is expensive. After all, those who are clicking on an ad most likely do not know you at all, so it takes a much bigger leap of faith to offer up a credit card number than it will to provide an email address.

Ad Copy Blunders to Avoid

Have you ever clicked on an ad because you saw an adorable pair of sandals that you just had to have, only to land on a page full of sneakers, with not a sandal in sight? It’s frustrating, to say the least, and that kind of ad to landing page mismatch will kill your conversions.

Your ad copy is making a promise to the reader. If your landing page doesn’t fulfill that promise, your readers will click away, and you’ll have wasted the money you spent to get them there. Before running any ads, be sure your ad headline, image, and copy all match the message on the landing page.

Paid advertising was once a tool used only by big companies or marketers with a lot of money to spare, but today they’re more cost-effective than ever, and the technology makes them easy to create and monitor. If you haven’t yet tried your hand at this useful traffic generation method, it’s time to do some experimenting. You might just find your list numbers—and sales—growing.

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller

I just started reading The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and I am learning that it is a must read for every entrepreneur. I haven’t finished reading the book, yet, but I wanted to share something that has already changed my perspective.

In the book, it states:

“The problem is we tend to act on what we believe even when what we believe isn’t anything we should”.

We all have beliefs that just aren’t true, but we truly believe them to be. Yet; there are six very specific ones, stated in this book, that truly hold us back from our success. We tell ourselves these lies so often to make decisions, that they eventually become our truth.

Once you learn that the above “truths” are in fact lies, you can focus on the truth and start moving toward your success. Which according to Gary Keller it comes down to:

“being appropriate in the moments of your life. If you can honestly say, “This is where I’m meant to be right now, doing exactly what I’m doing,” then all the amazing possibilities for your life become possible.”

How to stop screwing yourself over | Mel Robbins | TEDxSF

“You Are One Decision Away from a Completely Different Life”
― Mel Robbins

I love Mel’s straight to the point, no-nonsense style. Decide on what you want and go get it. This TedTalk is 21 minutes of straightforward advice on changing your life!

[Tweet “”You have life-changing ideas for a reason!” Mel Robbins”]

Now, I want to hear from you!
Tell us, in the comments below or in the Facebook group, what is it you want and how do you plan on going out and getting it?