What's your business plan?

In 1845, a British expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin boldly set out in search of the Northwest Passage, a fabled sea route around the top of North America. The expedition was plagued by logistical problems from the very start.

The crew had little experience with the arctic. Other than Franklin, few among the officers were arctic veterans. Disregarding the advice of the native Inuit, crewmen were outfitted in uniforms far better suited to winters in Southern England. 

In May, the expedition set sail from England never to return. Studies over the years have concluded that hypothermia, starvation and lead poisoning, along with inadequate clothing and supplies, lead to its demise.

While few of us have our hearts set on being arctic explorers, the fate of the Franklin Expedition serves of a poignant example of the importance of proper planning. It has been said that if you don’t know how to get there, it doesn’t matter what road you take.

Are you as crazy busy, day in, day out, as we are? Work, spending time with family, getting the yard ready for winter, hobbies, exercise, household chores, travel… shouldn’t there be more than 24 hours in a day?? Focus, organization, and productivity have a huge impact on our lives and even our peace of mind. Take a look at these 8 amazing apps and tools.

Entrepreneurs start businesses for a variety of reasons. They want to be their own boss, control their own schedule, and create the ideal workspace. They want to pursue a passion and feel more alive. They want to make more money and create job security.

Successful entrepreneurs start out with their own ideas for how things should be, but it usually doesn’t take long before they realize they’ll need input from others. Business has always been a partnership between the company and the customer. Not only do you want sales from your customers, but you also want their loyalty and referrals. The best way to achieve this is to acquire and analyze data pertaining to your customers’ interactions with your company and its products and services.

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“Location, location, location!”

        ~ attributed to Harold Samuel

No one is 100 percent certain that Samuel, an early twentieth–century real estate mogul, actually said these words, but they hold true nonetheless. If you’re going to be successful in business, you need to be where your customers are. In the old days that meant putting up a store in a convenient spot and making sure your signage led would-be buyers right to your door. You might think the digital age has changed things, but it really hasn’t. Now the best real estate is made up of electronic ones and zeroes.

Many businesses experience a slump between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Summer can be a slow time, and some may not see a sales rebound until Black Friday. In many cases, there are explanations: customers are on vacation, parents are busy with their kids’ activities, and so on. Sometimes that’s just the nature of your industry.

This doesn’t mean you should lock your doors for the summer. You may just need to rethink how and what you are communicating to your customers. The following steps can help you change your approach during rough times.

Have you ever noticed how many of our work-related clichés are OLD? “Put your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel.” “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Even the relatively new saying, “work smarter, not harder” has been around since the 1930s. It can make you wonder if these old platitudes have anything to do with the modern world today. 

I was speechless. That doesn’t happen often, but it happened the other day when I was talking with a JoomFuse client.

He told me about how he was excited to launch his new Joomla website…that he had searched and searched until he found a developer who could redesign his old website and keep it in Joomla because he wanted to keep JoomFuse to interface with his Keap app.

Yep, that’s when I was so dumbfounded I didn’t know what to say for a minute.

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Keeping your customers engaged is a priority, one you may spend an inordinate time obsessing over. Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re on the right track when no one seems to be commenting on your blogs, subscribing to your video channel or signing up to get newsletters. 

Enter the e-book.

You may have seen an offer at one time or another on a website: “Order our free e-book now! Enter email address to receive free download!” Look how much those two sentences accomplish—something free! Exclamation marks make you feel like you should do it NOW! And they’ve instantly gotten your permission to sign you up for their catalog or newsletter. 

One of the best things about being an entrepreneur is that freedom to do your own thing. But when you find that you have to do everything yourself, it no longer feels enjoyable—just exhausting. 

When you find that your days are being consumed with administrative tasks rather than the venture you began, it might be time to consider hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA).

"No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit."

        ~ Andrew Carnegie 

As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. In the span of a typical day, you may be a designer, an artist, a fabricator, a project manager, and a salesperson. That’s just Monday. Who knows what the rest of the week might bring. It can be easy to get overwhelmed, leading to disillusionment and burnout.

When Walt Disney set out to create Disneyland, his goal was simple. All he wanted was to make a magical place where families’ dreams would come true. It didn’t happen overnight, of course. It took a year and a day of construction and over $17 million just to get it opened. 

Can you imagine tackling that “simple” task? Disney might have been a visionary, but even he knew that goal was huge. When we make our business goals broad and overreaching, we can easily become overwhelmed. That’s why we need to break them down into quarterly goals that are far more achievable. This is where SMART goals come in. To be most effective, your goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Among other things, being ‘Smart’ about your goals helps keep you on track and gives you a way to measure your progress

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could leave work at the office? Imagine getting home, kicking your shoes off and never giving work another thought until clocking in the next day? For many self-employed persons, it’s almost impossible to separate work life from home life, and yet that’s one of the reasons so many people decide to go to work for themselves. 

Is it possible to obtain that perfect work-life balance? 

The holiday season is upon us, and you may already be feeling overwhelmed and ready for a break. We totally get it! 2021 was another doozy of a year.

But we’re here to urge you not to let this season go to waste—keep up with your marketing strategy, even if your sales are great.