5 Things You Need to Know before you Start a Business

I have been talking to so many people lately that are in the process of or thinking about starting a business. They are walking or in some cases running down a path without the planning and knowledge they need to achieve success.

In working with clients that have plateaued and want to achieve significant growth, I find that most of the time we have to move backward to put structure in place that will allow them to move forward. Wouldn't it be much easier to know what you want to build at the beginning and put the right structure and processes in place?

There are so many questions to be answered.

1. What will the business look like when it's perfect. What net profit will the company need to produce to achieve your end goal?

2. What's the exit strategy for the business?

3. Will there be partners or other equity holders?

4. What legal entity is the right one for you considering all factors?

5. How much capital will you need and where will it come from?

And there are many more questions to be answered. Kathy and I have been talking to many individuals on these matters and have decided to offer some workshops covering what you need to know to get started. So if you have an interest in this information send me your email address at info@growthmindset.com with Start up in the subject line. We will put you on the distribution list for information. We plan to offer live workshops as well as some webinars for people out of the Atlanta area.

So all you budding entrepreneurs let us hear from you.

Learned about a Great New Tool from my Friend Miles Austin

I like to share new business tools as I see them. Go to my friend Miles Austin's blog and get some really useful tools and discussion on how to fill the sales funnel.

Twittering for Business, Increase Your Popularity and Profitability

I have been asked many times about Social Media and Twitter in particular. The article below was posted on Ploked.com and gives some great insight into how to make Twitter work for your business.

Does your business use Twitter yet? Or any social media site for that matter? If not, you are potentially missing out on future clients, future sales and most importantly increased profitability. Remember when Myspace, was “the next big thing”? Well that is sort of where twitter is at right now. Over the past year, it has gained an increaed following, not only of individuals, but potential customers of yours.

Twitter is relatively a new social networking service that has really changed the meaning of communication. Well, not only in personal communication but also in business communication, Twitter has managed to gain a massive following of users. With this increase of popularity, it only makes sense that Twitter is a great way to promote your business needs.

Twitter is a social networking service that gets the message to your customers or clients at lightning speed, which makes your business promotion in a great way. This is the perfect micro-blogging service that helps in communicating to the world about your business advancements, products and services without any investment. With limited words (only messages with 140 characters can be written twitter), you can communicate in real terms with all your followers.

With the increased popularity of twitter, most of the well established companies the world over now have twitter accounts. Has your company established itself on Twitter yet? Companies already utilizing the site find Twitter a great place to promote their business. Twitter, the micro-blogging service, is the best way to reach out to the employees, customers and partners.

This social networking service is also a great place where one can come up with business announcements like the launch of a new product and other special business proposals. You can post these announcements in twitter on a regular basis, which gets you the best exposure to your followers. For example if you are an e-commerce website, then twitter helps in promoting the new products, sales, and other special offers in which you may have. You can also include reviews from the customers in your Twitter account that gives more credibility to your business.

While promoting business through Twitter, it should be noted that you have to give your followers valuable information on your products and services. The more information is added in twitter, the more you get to promote your business through twitter. One way to offer more value to your followers is to offer some sort of sale or special discounts for twitter followers only. This means that this discount will only be available for followers of your account. These followers will feel appreciated and more than likely take advantage of the deal you present them.
Twitter is also a great way to monitor your customer feedback. For example, you can see what others have to say about your company, products and services, which only helps in promoting your business. Listen to what others say in twitter helps in building good relationship and in improving your business. If a problem should arise with your business, you have the opportunity to effectively solve the dilemma at hand. Others will take note of your proactive solution and see the value you place in customer satisfaction. However, if you blow off people with problems, chances are it could be detrimental to your business since bad customer service news will spread fast.

Last but not the least; maintain professionalism in the small messages, called tweets, which you sent. Always remember that people like to follow only the professional way. Do not post up topics irrelevant to your business or products….Chances are that people are following you in order to gain insight on your business and not what you are having for lunch.