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Archive

Effective Website Marketing Strategy

Patrice Barber - Wednesday, September 28, 2011
If you have a good website marketing strategy, you are moving in the right direction to succeed in your online business. Your website should attract your customers and to do this you need some effective guidelines that can help you succeed. Expert Design You can start with an attractive-looking web design of your site, which has the potential to attract customers. This includes easy navigation, user-friendly features, easy-to-read site maps, and content that is relevant. More content is better than adding flashy images, which does not help in promoting the site in the top of the search engine lists. Your website should be designed by professionals who are SEO experts and who have years of experience. This is especially important as you may be selling most of your products through the Internet. The experts will be able to guide you right on what you need to include in your website for the best website marketing strategy. The image of your business is through the website so hiring experts to design it is the best start. Attracting Your Customers Your goal is to sell your products, get potential customers, and derive income from your website. So first you need to be clear about who your customers are and what are they looking for? You have to think from their perspective to better understand their potential for being your customers. Next you need to know why they should select your product against your competitors. You should make irresistible offers, which compels them buy from you. Website marketing strategy involves planning well to get higher traffic to your site by showing up at the top of search engine results. • Content: This vital aspect cannot be underestimated as the algorithms of search engines depend a lot on text. High standard content naturally generates related back links which, generates high traffic and improves your SEO. • Exchanging Links: You can trade links with websites related to yours and form link partnerships to increase visibility and traffic. Links get you quality and targeted traffic and boosts your link popularity. • Social Bookmarking: You can optimize your website for social bookmarking easily. You can submit the quality content of your web page to these sites and benefit with high web traffic. • SEO: Search engine optimization of your website is a necessary part of website planning and marketing. Search engines will find and index your site only if this is done. • Articles Submission: If you submit original information articles about your business or products and make them available to online publications it will get you links back to your site. In addition your website marketing articles will give authority status to your business and credibility though it will take some time, it is worth using as a technique to market your website. Podcasts, webcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, and newsletters are other effective website marketing strategies to enhance your business prospects and get popularity on search engines. Study your competition and put your company's story online and improve your online presence.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5922710
Remember Taylor Made Small Biz can help http://tmsmallbiz.com/free-stuff/online-tune-up 
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Internet Marketing Makes Your Business Reach to Your Target Audience and Boost Up Your Sales

Patrice Barber - Wednesday, August 10, 2011
In the light of growing internet awareness in every part of the world and use of internet in purchasing products and services online in developed and developing countries, internet marketing has become all the more important and even overtaken traditional advertisement modes in case of many products and services. Strategy and process of internet marketing differ for different businesses and hence it needs to thoroughly analyze and apply various techniques of internet marketing that uniquely suit to your specific business needs. Internet marketing is a broad concept that encompasses various processes like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), PPC Campaign, Article Marketing, Press Releases, Link Exchange and YouTube Marketing etc. First of all, an expert internet marketing consultant decides which process will bring more business for a particular product or service in minimum possible time and then start working on that. SEO generally takes time but they bring quality business once the website comes on top ranks in different search engines through several business keywords. Similarly, SMM needs time to bear fruits. Hence, in the beginning one can run PPC campaign on search engines like Google and on social networking sites like Facebook. These will bring instant business leads. For SEO, the keywords analysis and selecting business keywords from which you wants your website to be visible on top ranks in search engines is very important. Ultimately, these keywords will bring traffic on your website and increase your sales leads. Once the website comes with different keyphrases, it is essential to constantly work on these keywords to maintain their ranks. An internet marketing company or a professional SEO service provider plays good role here. For social media marketing, it is necessary to catch the pulse of your targeted audience on different social networking sites like Facebook and accordingly attract their attention towards your Facebook Fan Page and towards your website too through the link given on the Fan Page. Similarly, appropriate work should be done on Twitter and MySpace as well. In some special cases, article marketing becomes important when the products or service needs to be described and circulated on large scale on internet. It works in two ways. First, the article gives the reader complete knowledge of products and services. Secondly, it brings traffic to your website through the links on the article. Similarly, YouTube marketing helps the customer to see the products in videos and understand the services perfectly. Recently, article and YouTube marketing has gained pace in business world. Press releases give you opportunity to highlight your business activities, products and services. It also enhances the traffic on your website. To sum up, different aspects of internet marketing that have potential to bring quality traffic and business leads must be analyzed, and finally the services discussed above need to be chosen keeping in mind the specific business requirements. Best planning and right strategy for internet marketing are pre-requisites of getting your business boost up on the internet.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5926872
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Google Plus

Patrice Barber - Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Google Plus is the newest social networking site to hit the Internet. Being as its from Google, it's no surprise that this is going to turn out pretty big. While the network is still in its infancy, anyone who has a Gmail account has access to the network. Due to the huge number of users of Gmail, the number of uses in Google Plus skyrocketed as soon as the network was made available. However, since it still has not officially launched, there are many things lacking in Google Plus that Facebook has. For example, businesses are not allowed on Google Plus yet, making the avenue inadequate for advanced marketing. There are many things that make Google Plus quite unique, and it will take some time for Facebook to catch up. Many people theorize that Facebook has been slacking on updating its features, because until now it did not have any major competitors. MySpace unofficially died long ago, and frankly I have always hated the extremely cluttered look of the site. Facebook will always have a place in the social networking world, as it will be forced to innovate, but for now Google Plus has some very interesting features. Google Plus's two most innovative features are Circles and Hangout. Circles is what all the high school and college users of Facebook are really excited about. It allows you to exclude certain categories of people from certain postings, and is much more efficient than the Facebook system of categorizing posts. You can create as many circles as you want and name it whatever you want, and your friends cannot see the name of your circles. For your work supervisor, you could friend him and put him in the circle of "Dumb boss", and he/she would not be any the wiser. It truly is an innovative system! Then there is Hangout, which is a really awesome feature. It allows you to video chat with multiple people at once. You can get all your friends together and chat in the same place, which is an unparalleled social networking feature. The future is finally here, and it is only a matter of time before we are speaking to each other using holographic representations of ourselves. It might sound crazy, but such technology already exists, and at the rate technology is changing we will probably see that in the next couple years. It is going to be pretty incredible!  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6455881 At Taylor Made Small Bizwe can help you create a online business strategy that incorporates all social media platforms to help you gain an ROI quicker.
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It's a Three Legged Stool Thing

Patrice Barber - Wednesday, July 13, 2011

How many of you started your business because you love to sell? Or because you love to do the bookkeeping and accounting for your company? Or create processes or manage employees? My guess is: not many!

But all of these "other" responsibilities are vital to a successful small business and, if you are like most small business owners, these vital tasks get back-burnered while tending to the day to day obligations of your business.

1. DOING. 2. MANAGING. 3. BUILDING.

These are the three legs of the proverbial three legged stool that must be tackled to grow and sustain a viable business.

DOING

For most of us, it is easy to address the DOING leg. Usually, this is the most enjoyable part of our businesses. It's what you would do all day long if you could. It is the day to day work of the business. It's your core skills and probably why you started your business in the first place.

If you are a cabinet maker, it is working with the wood. If you are a therapist, it is being with your client delivering the services that will benefit him or her. If you own a retail shop, it is selecting lines and interacting with shoppers. If you're a web developer, it is creating the web site. In short, whatever you started your business to do, is what you spend the most of your time actually DOING.  That makes sense. But it often comes at the expense of not addressing the other two legs which are equally important.

MANAGING

The idea of MANAGING your business is more than managing employees. It is the effort you invest to develop or improve the processes within your company to create greater efficiency. It is getting invoices sent on time. It is following up on past due invoices. It is researching and developing new products or services. It is tending to administrative issues such as your lease or verifying you have a good interest rate with your merchant service provider.  These duties are part of managing your business. They often do not require daily attention, but should be addressed on a regular basis to ensure you are running your business efficiently and profitably. Even though you have good intentions and these tasks get added to your To Do List, they often get skipped over because you need to do "more pressing things".  This can wait until tomorrow. The tomorrows to weeks and then months and you miss the opportunity to MANAGE your business for maximum profit, effective employees and efficient operations.

The penalty for not managing your business is a poorly run organization that does not improve with age. You'll have bored and weak employees, ineffectual processes and log jams, lousy cash flow and poor profit and will find yourself stuck - unable to move forward in growing your business.

BUILDING

As a business owner you must engage in BUILDING your business so it is sustainable. Building your business entails the ever-present need to expose your products and services to potential buyers. It is actively marketing your business to create a pipeline of leads. It is a vigil of listening to customer needs and reacting to them. It is staying on top of industry and business situation trends. It is seeking out people who can use your products or services. In short, it is sales and marketing.

This leg is the most elusive of all.  There are no deadlines to force you to react. Building your business is entirely up to you and you must be accountable to yourself to regularly build you business. Most entrepreneurs struggle the building leg because it's hard! How do you know how to reach your potential clients? How are you supposed to make time to build your business when all your time is spent doing your business? How do you make that first call? How can we afford to do marketing?

If you don't BUILD your business, it will fail.

So, if you're thinking that you don't spend enough time on managing and building your business, what can you do?

  1. Admit to yourself that your business will fail if you do not spend adequate time managing and building your business. Fear is a good motivator.
  2. You, as the business leader, will have to direct these activities, but you do not have to do all of them. Allow employees to take on some of the responsibilities.
  3. Outsource what you can't do or don't want to do. Hire a part time bookkeeper or a professional telesales rep to make calls.
  4. Create a comprehensive marketing plan with reasonable due dates that give you adequate time to execute the tasks you need to accomplish.  Stick to it.
  5. Find an accountability partner to challenge you to keep to your commitments.
  6. Make appointments with yourself to dedicate to managing or building tasks. Do nothing else during that time except those tasks.
  7. If having the money to build your business is an issue, choose lower cost, yet effective, strategies such as social networking, in-person networking or working the telephone to contact leads. These take time, but are relatively inexpensive.
  8. If you are reticent about an aspect that you know you must do, take a training class on the subject to give you the tools and confidence to tackle them.
  9. Set aside one day a month when you do not schedule any other business responsibilities and work on managing and building responsibilities. Don't allow for interruptions.
  10. Contact some of the many organizations that offer professional counseling such as the SBDC, SCORE, SBA, etc.

Remember, it's a three legged stool thing. If one leg is weak or broken, the whole thing will crash. And that hurts.

Thank you for letting us use this article Mo

Maureen (Mo) Kanwischer
Momentum Business Consulting

info@momentumbc.com www.momentumbc.com

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How Small Businesses Can Use Mobile Marketing To Increase Revenue

Patrice Barber - Thursday, June 09, 2011
Great article I found on ezince artiles by: YK Hu 

With the advent of mobile phones, people tend to be used to having received and sent information in just a few minutes. Having this tool on hand, people have already utilized it as a marketing strategy and it has become more common in this generation. What is really meant by mobile marketing? As others described it in a simple way, it is marketing through the use of mobile devices. One best example of that is cellphones. Almost all people all over the world have cellphones so access to it is very easy. This kind of medium is utilized as a way of marketing communication, such as informing the people about a promotion or it could be advertising a new product. Have you ever wonder why Short Message Service (SMS) marketing has been widely popular in Europe and Asia? Why do entrepreneurs prefer to use it? The main reason of this is due to the fact that it is cheap and effective since a large number of SMS can be sent to a number of recipients and in a matter of a few minutes these people can already respond to the advertisement or announcement. In this way, the company has already saved cost because they have already sent the desired message to their target market. There are a lot of ways wherein this marketing strategy is used. One example is building a relationship between the mobile users to the company since the customers can register to the advertising company so as they can be contacted and can receive regular message from the advertisers regarding any new announcements and promotions. This is a win-win relationship because both parties are benefited. However, despite the benefits it provides to many people, others still have a negative feedback on it. Although almost all people use mobile phones some of them don't like to receive promotional messages from advertising companies for they have the notion that their phone is something very personal. Also, businesses find SMS marketing non-appealing because of the problems encountered from the opt-in SMS lists. Aside from SMS Marketing, there are still other streams of mobile marketing. A multimedia message service (MMS) marketing is also used which is more advanced than SMS because its content can include images and sounds. Still, it is similar to SMS marketing. Other streams include Bluetooth marketing which sends messages through Bluetooth wireless technology. You also have what you call infrared marketing which transmit announcements and advertisements through infrared.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6272619
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21 Point Check-Up for Your Business

Patrice Barber - Thursday, June 02, 2011
Our strategies are industry best practice and they work!  We have worked with large and small business owners, just like you, for over 15 years. Our proprietary  online marketing systems for entrepreneurs , monthly education, and private consulting, gives you just the edge you need to stream line your, marketing, sales and cash management. Take your business from "offline to online"
  • Not sure about marketing on the internet?
  • Want more clients without going to lots of networking events?
  • Worried about maxxing out the credit line?
  • Struggling to manage paper invoices, checks, spreadsheets and manual work?
  The first step to rev up the income - is to request your Online Tune Up. Only 4 business owners each month are given the opportunity  to receive the complimentary Strategy Session The Tune up includes a 21 point online assessment of your website, social media and other lead generation, sales and cash management. We give you specific strategies to 1 Fill your Funnel with prospects - We show you exactly what to tweak and how to put this in place in 1-2 weeks. This will immediately enhance your value to your customers and improve your current marketing efforts. 2 Get the Cash Flowing - Using simple online money management , many of our clients increase sales revenue in just a few weeks. 3 Get your Time back -  We are entrepreneurs too! Its easy to get wrapped up in the daily management of the business, wearing most if not all the “hats” and finding more work ....than time to do it in.  Our 3-D strategy gets you back into control of your day and your business- without spending a penny. We provide this assessment valued at $175 as a complimentary gift because we believe in giving huge value right up front. The Online Tune-up is conducted as a conference call by the President of our company, Patrice Barber, who has over 15 years Business Technology & Systems consulting experience with large and small companies.  Industries include Construction Management Consulting, Marketing consultants, Home Security providers, Engineering firms, Health and Wellness providers, skin care professionals, and over 35 Fortune 500 corporations including Qwest, Applied Business Technology, and GE Capital. Please be assured that this consultation will not be a thinly disguised sales presentation; it will consist of the best intelligence Ms. Barber can supply. A small Caveat... this program is not for everyone You must already have a strong background, knowledge,and accomplishment in your business area and be ready to accelerate to an online approach quickly. Because of the nature of this community, the enrollment is limited to people already "winning" in their personal and business lives. If you're in some crisis such as a bankruptcy, divorce or some other serious domestic or personal problem, this isn't the program for you... right now.  Some participants have consumer debt, but they must demonstrate a serious intention of becoming debt-free. We will assess qualifications during the Tune Up. If you're ready for a one-of-a-kind experience that will explain  how to get more leads online and give you the knowledge and skills to quickly achieve your business success & wealth goals - This program is for you! Ready to find out more?  Fill in the form and we will be in touch or call us at 303-216-0472 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              303-216-0472      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
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QR Codes and Mobile Marketing

Patrice Barber - Thursday, May 19, 2011
QR codes are a new, mobile marketing technology that is quickly gaining in popularity and with good reason. Their potential is limitless. Today, it would be difficult to find someone who doesn’t own a cell phone. Most cell phone owners keep them close at hand, taking them with them wherever they go. Savvy companies are taking advantage of this, reaching out to both prospective and actual customers, via their mobile phones. They are one of the many methods companies are using to do so. For those unaware of what a QR (Quick Response) Code is, it is a 2-D visual code that can be read by QR scanners, cell phones with cameras and Smartphones. QR codes can be encoded with all types of information, including, text, phone numbers and URLs. When individuals come across a Quick Response code, they can scan it with their phone and instantly be taken to whatever website a company has encoded the QR code to. An increasing number of companies are utilizing these codes and with great success. They are a unique form of advertising which is cutting-edge and taking off in a big way. QR codes connect online and offline media in a way that has never been done before. Now individuals are able to go from offline to online adverts or web pages with a quick and easy scan of their phone. Quick Response codes have taken off for a variety of reasons, one of the primary being that consumers seem to be responding to them. They are a bit mysterious. The codes are black and white modules in a square pattern. There is no definite rhyme or reason to them, at least visually. It is only after scanning the code, that individual can determine what message the company is relaying. QRs are akin to a live website link or URL. Until now, the only way a person could go directly to a website with a simple click was if they were online. Now, this can be done even when the link is not online. QR codes are embedded with URL links and functionally, act as such. Individuals are automatically transferred to whatever URL the QR Code is embedded with when they use their mobile phone to scan the code. Companies committed to staying abreast of the latest technologies and then using them to maintain and grow their business should look into QR codes. They are one of the latest technological developments available to businesses interested in entering the enormous and potentially lucrative, mobile phone market. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog, or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6229457
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Discover how to Get More Customers Online

Patrice Barber - Thursday, May 12, 2011
Fellow  Entrepreneurs, Marketing Directors, & Business Owners; Maybe you have a website, a Facebook  fan page or LinkedIN profile, but are you seeing results  - people connecting and buying from you online? http://taylormadesmallbiz.isd-genesis.com/rapidachievement/rapid-achievement-vip.html I have to admit, when I started shifting our business to bringing in leads from online sources, early on in the change, I had a few successes but a lot more failures.  With the help of my team we now have more than 50% of our leads coming from online sources. More than half our clients using this system have doubled ( 100% increase) their sales within 90 days.  We have taken all those lessons we learned and developed the Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program and  the Get More Customers Online Bootcamp.
  • If you are not getting the results from your current marketing
  • If you want to expand your marketing reach to attract more customers
  • If you are tired of networking and want faster results, more clients, more money 

In this course:

  • Find out how to go from 10 steps to just 2 steps to have prospects calling you
  • Get the 3 keys to creating your online sales funnel
  • Craft  your online marketing message that gets heard and gets response
  • Discover 5 ways to get your Facebook fans to interact with you
  • How to use video marketing to drive traffic to your site
  • Learn how to structure your irresistable offer  (hint its different than your face-to-face offer)
  • Discover where to find LEADS online  at the lowest cost and highest return 
  • Learn  how mobile phones are bringing in fast cash at 10X over other marketing strategies
  • Know exactly what to do each month with our easy to use marketing calendar

Customize the system to your business and hit the "GO" button.

Get the tools we use and strategies we recommend for our private consulting clients who pay $2500- $4500 +  for their custom system. Includes: 30 day free access to GENESIS our online marketing platform

GET THE LIVE COURSE & PRIVATE CONSULTING

"Systems are the elevator to the top floor of success"  

~ Patrice Barber begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Join us and learn the system we use and how to super charge your marketing by attracting business online, converting contacts to cash online, and staying in touch    all online. Lots of online courses give you materials and then leave you without any help ...."high and dry."

This is different and here is why

Instead of just telling you what to do, we will SHOW you what to do and how to do it for the lowest costs and maximum results. Each week we provide the education you need. Our strategists review and give you feedback and recommendations. Finally, we include 3 months consulting to make sure you have your system running smoothly.

Join us from the comfort of your computer. 

  • Six weeks of LIVE interactive webinar training (similar courses priced at $1500-$2800)
  • All modules recorded for you to watch and listen to as often as you like
  • Each module comes with Guides, pre-done Templates and recommended Tools
  • Life time updates- as long as you are a member of the Rapid Achievement Program
  • Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program - Gold Level
Module 1 - Fundamentals of Online and Mobile Marketing
  • Top 5 marketing strategies to attract online visitors
  • How to find 3 Keywords that drive traffic to your site
  • The shortest path to list building 
  • Month by month marketing success plan
  • The Online and Mobile Marketing success formula
Module 2 - Crafting Your Irresistible Offer
  • When and why to have a free offer
  • Five steps from free prospect to paying customer
  • Building  your warm welcome and what to avoid at all costs
  • What makes a successful Sales Funnel 
  • When to ask for money online and when not to
Module 3 - Monetizing Social Media Channels
  • What 84 percent of people want from you online
  • Five ways Social Media brings in massive leads
  • What 3 things never to do on your social media channels
  • How to use the power of video marketing to build your brand
Module 4 - Getting Free Publicity Online
  • The number one key to FREE publicity from the media
  • What makes a press release get noticed
  • Two words never to use with the media
  • Three Parts to your  Media Kit
Module 5 - Converting Contacts to Cash
  • Ten steps to a sales page that converts to cash
  • How to have  prospects you never met call YOU
  • Online Communications plan 
  • Three ways to give your clients what they want with Mobile
  • Get started with text message campaigns
  • The Must-Haves for content on your mobile website
Module 6 - Replacing Multi-System Chaos with growth and success
  • Managing your clients contacts, email, followup,e-commerce with ease
  • Best ways to track results from social media
  • What it takes to keep loyal repeat clients
  • The fastest way to put your client follow-up on auto pilot
  • What to track to get results and grow your revenue each month

Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program - Gold Level 

 (3 months at locked in rate) 

 
  • Monthly workshops and Q&A sessions Stay on top of changing trends and technology Workshops are recorded and stored in the members area During the first 6 weeks you can start attending these technology workshops
  • VIP access to the Members area which contains
    • Get More Customers Online  - Boot camp materials
    • Power point, video and audio of step by step instructions to use the  Guides, Templates and Tools.
    • Put Your Year In Gear  - home study course materials, audio and video training,
    • Prior workshops and resources - (archived periodically) Use these resources as often as you like 24/7
  • Monthly email access Got a specific question? Get a specific answer!
  • Monthly Break Through call Feeling stuck? Use the fast paced Break Through call and stay on track
  • Monthly Private One-on-one consulting Together we review your goals, action plan, and give you the answers you need for success

During the boot camp you get everything you need to complete

  • Your Marketing Plan & Calendar by month
  • Your Sales funnel Offline and Online
  • Your Irresistible Offer ready to put on your new sales page or home page
  • Your Follow up email campaign
  • Your Social Media channels setup
  • Your Media Kit
  • Your Sales Page ready for your offer
  • Your Text Message campaign
  • Instructions on tracking contacts, emails, web visitors,e-commerce, all using your Online Dashboard

It's exactly what you need to launch your successful online marketing campaign  (use GENESIS our integrated online platform or your own tools)

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Women consider the make Mine a million challenge

Patrice Barber - Thursday, May 05, 2011
American women are launching new companies at 1.5 times the national rate, but most of these queen bees are not growing their companies beyond 100 employees and $1 million in revenues, a new survey from American Express finds. The reason behind that sluggishness is true for businesses owned by both men and women: Large, publicly traded firms, which account for just 3 percent of all U.S. businesses, now employ 53 percent of the workforce—up from 43 percent in 1997—and they generate 64 percent of business revenues, up from 55 percent just a decade ago. “Even as women-owned firms continue to grow in number at rates exceeding the national average—they are not moving along the growth continuum,” concludes the American Express OPEN State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, released late Thursday. “In terms of both revenue and employment, the share of women-owned firms at the highest levels of business accomplishment has remained essentially unchanged over the past 14 years.” The report, drawn from 2010 U.S. Census data, found that there are more than 8.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., generating nearly $1.3 trillion in revenues and employing nearly 7.7 million people. Enterprises that are at least 51 percent owned by women account for 29 percent of all U.S. companies, and they employ 6 percent of the nation’s workforce and contribute 4 percent of business revenues nationwide. In 1997, 2.5 percent of women-owned firms employed 10 or more employees, and 1.8 percent brought in $1 million or more in revenues. As of 2011, the percentage of women-owned firms employing 10 or more dropped to 1.9 percent, and the percentage that brought $1 million or more in revenues was flat at 1.8 percent. There are variations by state, of course. California, for example, is home to the greatest number of women-owned firms in the country, with more than 1 million companies that employ 979,700 workers and bring in about $193 billion, reports the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Below are some notable statistics from the state-by-state breakdowns, based upon figures from 1997 to 2011. The full report is available here.
  • Fastest growth for women-owned businesses: Nationally, the number of women-owned businesses has increased 50 percent since 1997. The states with the fastest growth in the number of women-owned firms over the past 14 years are: Georgia, 97.5 percent; Nevada, 87.6 percent; Mississippi, 76.7 percent; Florida, 73.3 percent; and North Carolina, 68.8 percent. Growth was slowest in Alaska, up 8.8 percent; followed by West Virginia, 17.8 percent; Iowa, 20.1 percent; Indiana, 23.7 percent; and Vermont, 26.2 percent.
  • Fastest-growing revenues for women-owned businesses: Nationally, business revenues for all companies increased an average of 53 percent over the last 14 years. In Wyoming, women-owned businesses saw revenues up 170 percent; District of Columbia, 146.7 percent; New Hampshire, 117.8 percent; Utah, 117.6 percent; and Louisiana, 110.3 percent.
Men did not necessarily fare much better. Men-owned firms are, on average, larger than women-owned ones, and twice as many men own companies which employ 10 or more people. In addition, three times as many male-owned businesses have reached the $1 million revenue mark. Yet, male entrepreneurs have not moved up the growth continuum either, the report says. Since 1997, the share of men-owned firms with 10 or more employees fell from 6.6 percent to 4.9 percent, and the percentage of men-owned firms making $1 million or more in revenues fell from 6.6 percent to 6.3 percent. “Reviewing the totality of small business and large corporate (publicly traded) growth trends over the past decade leads one to the conclusion that, in the battle of David/Diana versus Goliath, Goliath is winning,” the report states.
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Easy ways to stay in touch ONLINE

Patrice Barber - Wednesday, April 13, 2011
We all run short of ideas about what to talk about and how to help our sphere of influence. Keep this list handy to keep fresh ideas flowing and prevent your writers block.
  • Reuse and Repurpose: If you already created some popular content, see where you can expand it or possibly target a certain aspect of it in finer detail.
  • FAQ: Ask your followers and clients what their top questions are at several stages of working with you. Focus on Before, During, After - Before they chose you , what were their reasons for hesitation, after they got started were there areas of confusion that you need to address or change and help new clients be aware of, when complete what did they expect to happen next. There's gold in the questions and answers you hear over and over again.
  • Be the news: Set up your RSS feeds or alerts to get the specific type of news that you report out on sent directly to you. Pay attention to what's happening in your area of expertise in the news and many times you'll find something that ties in perfectly to your audience's interests. For example, if your target market is counseling teens, stories that describe successful teens or stories that warn of various online dangers is a potential subject to share and comment on. If you have a coaching business for other business owners, sharing ways to get financing, tax breaks for business owners and other related topics will be appreciated.  Even if that is not your main focus – sharing related tips is great.
  • Give Product Reviews: When you come across tools or other products that help you. Share it. People always appreciate someone else’s research and honest product reviews. Include who is best suited to use the tool or product and the features and benefits you experienced. If there were things you didn’t like or thought it should have provided, include that too. Integrity is key.
  • Share Case studies about Your Clients / Customers: Case studies are an excellent way to provide highly-informative success stories and they become amazing testimonials for your business.
  • Interview other Experts / Celebrities in your Market: Your local celebrities and you interviewing or being interviewed by the experts in your field shows that you know the right people and you know them well. Implied in the celebrity factor is that you must be a celebrity or close to it if you are connected to other celebrities. This is the beginnings of a great PR campaign for online and offline PR.
  • Have Someone Interview You: This is an excellent way to create content using the audio and transcript of your interview. Create great social media buzz by having your own followers submit questions for the interview.
  • Have fun : A top reason face book has replaced the porn sites as most viewed site and why You Tube is about to take over Face book is that people are BORED. They seek information but also entertainment. You don't always have to come up with earth-shattering information to impress your audience. Have fun, inspire them or make them laugh. Share your personal side (not too personal mind youJ)
Feeling inspired? Great! Write down your new ideas now. In fact setup a list and put it in your smart phone,  then add more.  Sometimes a little story about what happened to you at a restaurant or at your kid's soccer game can become a relevant lesson to your readers. To get more details on how to put these ideas into place in your business check out our next Get More Customers bootcamp. Apply now to get on our VIP invite list as space is limited to the first 20 and these usually sell out. To your success!
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