Small Business Advice: Build A Winning Business Model

Whether your company is a start-up or several decades old, the business model is the hub around which all activities revolve. The business model is the blueprint that shows company leaders how to create value and build a money-making enterprise. It is the engine that drives revenue and generates profits.

Fail to devise a winning business model and you will not build a business that succeeds over the long-term. Creation of a profitable business model is a multi-disciplinary exercise that encompasses marketing, sales, strategy, operations and finance.

Identify the primary customers (Marketing)

10 Best Small Biz Tips Sites To Follow

Do you need help on how to run your small business? Are you looking to bring in more clients or customers? Or do you need advice on how to start a business because that has been a desire of yours for years? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this small biz tips article is for you.

I have put together a list in no special order for you of the best 10 business sites to follow in 2016. As I am writing this article it is almost the end of 2016 so I would say that these 10 biz sites also apply to 2017 too.

1. Succeed As Your Own Boss - by Melinda Emerson. This small business site is all about starting a business and becoming your own boss. Melinda talks about how to start a business, how to grow a business, leveraging social media. Marketing your business, finance and accounting and small biz chat. This site is geared towards anyone just starting a business to anyone who is already in business and needs help.

Small Business Sales: Using Content Marketing to Sell Online

Blog content (as a matter of fact, all content) has a very specific purpose. That purpose is to educate and inform your readers/target audience) about your products/services and to put them in a position of knowing a little more after they read your content than before they read it.

Using content marketing to help you sell online 

First of all, when it comes to your content, you need to consistently deliver top-quality, valuable content to your readers. It is your content that enables you to build a relationship with the other person, which means that eventually, that person will trust you enough to want to buy what you are selling. This is where content marketing comes into it.

Content marketing is an amazing tool to help you sell your product(s) online. If you do it correctly, your content marketing materials will reach the other person in such a way that he or she will only consider you and your business to be the one from whom to buy.

The truth is that your ability to sell anything online stems from the content that you share with other people. If not for your content, you would not have any way of letting your online connections know about what you are selling and why it stands above the products and/or services of your competitors. 

Of course, as far as selling is concerned, it is much more difficult to sell a service than to sell a product.

7 Creative Ways To Inject New Life Into Your Marketing Plan

All companies will find themselves at odds with their marketing strategy. This isn't to say that they are not getting the results they want from the plan. It just seems as though the plan in, and of itself, grows a bit stale and worn. What's more, all successful companies find that in order to stay on the cutting edge and attract new customers, they need to tweak their marketing approach to appeal to new audiences.

It’s a risk that has tremendous rewards, and even more key is the idea that you don't have to go too crazy with new approaches. With these seven slight, creative tweaks, you can breathe new life into your marketing:

1. Use Social Media a Little Differently

Tony Robbins's Top 10 Rules For Success (@TonyRobbins)

Check out this video on Tony Robbins 10 rules of success. Lots to learn here!

Tips and Tricks to Promote Any Small Business

According to leading marketing experts, there are few key things that companies need to keep in mind to make sure that their efforts are well rewarded with more customers. These tips and tricks will help the smallest business see an increase in sales.

Street promoters 

These promotions are one of the oldest ways to promote a new product. Simply hire some staff from another company that specialises in street promoters, and then pick a new product to promote.

As street promoters hand out free samples, coupons and other great things, more and more people will want to spend their money in the business, especially if they get a mouth-watering free sample. 

Guarantee that street promoters draw a crowd by giving out one of two things: the newest addition to the menu or the most popular item on the menu.

Social Media 

7 Marketing Mistakes You Don't Want To Make

Mistake #1: Relying on referrals or word-of-mouth. When you depend on word-of-mouth, you allow middlemen to control your flow of prospective new customers. You may have delivered a superior product at a phenomenal price but if no is talking about it, the cash register quickly stops ringing.

The solution? Make sure you have a marketing program targeted at reaching your most desired customer. Then craft a message that is relevant and meaningful and deliver it consistently.

Mistake #2: