3 Tips For Busy Entrepreneurs: Grow Your Business in Less Time

There is just not enough time in the day. In fact the term “free time” is downright laughable. As an Entrepreneur every second of every day can be consumed by keeping your business growing and spending time with family. There is the long road to success, but who has time for that? In the interest of saving time, let’s get right down to it.  

 Grow Your Business in Less Time

 1. Become a Follow-Up Ninja

Might be a shock to some that this is our #1 – not automation, or outsourcing, etc. Here’s why: 95% of people are horrible at following up with people. What happens is opportunities fall through the cracks, the growth of the business can be slowed and profitability can be stagnant. Every new contact - whether it be an online visitor, someone you meet at a networking event, tradeshow or at the grocery - is an opportunity to grow. See that stack of business cards sitting on your desk, that could have been thousands (or millions?) of dollars in your pocket. Ouch. So here’s what to do: Automate your follow-up, referral generation, and more. Imagine meeting someone who would like more info about you. You take their card and enter their first name and email address into a program. An email is sent to them within 20 minutes following up with an email that simply states “how nice it was to meet them.” A little about your company, and a desire to do a call with them to learn more about them and possibly brainstorm some ideas to help each other. 7 days later another email goes out with a helpful educational fact. 21 days another email and so on… The follow up continues to happen – without your intervention – while you are out selling, meeting more people, or out playing with your children. It makes your life simple, and creates more business by not letting any opportunity fall through the cracks. Lots of ways to do this from: AWeber Mailchimp Convertkit Get Response InfusionSoft A couple of notes: What you send is VERY important. No sales fliers. No canned sales speeches. Send great educational (and short) emails – and people will respond! If you haven't started a newsletter yet, here's everything you need to know to get going, fast.  

2. Stop denying the power of Video Marketing– it WILL help you

Using short educational videos will help your business. There are over 1 Billion individuals watching videos on YouTube EVERY MONTH. A stat every Entrepreneur should take advantage of is that 40% of all the videos watched are “How To” videos – people learning to fix or do something. This is your gold mine. Here are some stats:

•  80% of people watch multiple marketing videos on websites every month
  • Almost HALF of them take a 2nd step - requesting more info or purchasing
• 64% of website visitors are MORE LIKELY to buy a product after they have seen a video on it
• You can get 96% more click-throughs to your website by adding a video link in your emails
• 51% increase in subscriber to lead conversion rates by adding video links to emails
• A one minute video is has the value of 1.8 Million marketing words!
  • Video simply gets your message across better than any other media

 Video marketing is about showing people your ideas, knowledge, solutions, etc… Getting information out of your brain and out for the world to see…because (luckily) no one can read your mind! It is a true separator. There are a lot of fakers out there – and more coming daily. Showing your knowledge to people is the only true separator. People can put whatever they want in text and graphics on websites. But when you step in front of the camera and SHOW people what you know – and your passion- that can’t be faked. My favorite part about using video is to SHOW what you know. People buy people. Always have, always will. I have gotten dozens of contracts where I was not the cheapest, but people bought me. They liked my energy, my drive, my sincerity and oh yeah, my knowledge – usually in that order. You can only SHOW that in video – no text will ever be able to relay these feelings.So here’s what to do: Grab a camera and start talking to it.Start making some 30 – 90 second EDUCATIONAL videos. Show people what you know - things that can help them to solve a pain – or cause some more pleasure in their lives. • Talk to your target audience – what hurdles are they facing in their industries – how can you help them get past them?• Keep it short and sweet. Take one simple piece of advice – say it with energy and passion and deliver it to your people.• Don’t ramble. People will not invest their time in a 5-minute video by you. Give them a shot of knowledge and get out. Don’t try to solve the world’s problems in one video. Make it a series of short 30 – 90 second videos sent out over time. Remember – you eat an elephant one bite at a time.• Be yourself. You are not perfect (maybe shocking to some of you..lol). Dress like you would when you meet with a client – whether that be a suit, jeans or scrubs. Showcase your knowledge AND personality. After all, that’s what people buy isn’t it?The great thing about today’s digital video is that you can screw up as much as you want, and simply delete it and start over. Practice will make better. For help, check out WebinarAlly to get a webinar up and running on your Wordpress site in no time. 

3. Acceptance.

This is a biggie so I will just say it.  If your business is not where you want it to be, and you are the boss, then you have to accept that there are two reasons for the lack of success: 1. You are either doing things you shouldn’t be doingor2. You aren’t doing the things you SHOULD be doing What other choices are there? It’s not the government's fault or your neighbors' fault. Stop the pity party and accept that Y-O-U need to make a change and move forward. Ego has kept people broke since the dawn of time. You can't make positive changes until you accept responsibility for your outcomes. The great news: Change is doable. Accept that YOU CAN evoke change, and start moving forward.  These are the top 3 things that you can be doing right now to help grow your business in less time. These solutions are working for retail, B2B and B2C companies right now. They are growing and making millions…Is it your turn? Start with #3 – if you accept that – move on to #1 and #2. Get moving and Rock On! 

Have you been stagnating in one of the 3 areas listed above? In which area are you going to evoke change in your business this week? Tell us in the comments!