entrepreneurship – Page 9 – 40Billion Blog for Startup Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

Feb 13: Turning Holidays Gifts Into a Marketing Tool – 6 Ideas

Hopefully you’ve already created your annual customer and client holiday gift list. Whether they’ve been naughty or nice, all clients should get recognized in this holiday ritual. But how can you make your holiday gifts do double duty-not only as a “thank you” for the past year’s business, but also as a marketing tool to encourage more business in the new year? Here are some ideas.

Remind them of you:

The simplest way to make your holiday gift a marketing tool is to choose a promotional product with your company’s name and/or logo on it. Read more…

Feb 13: 6 Ways To Promote Your Auto Parts Store Online

Auto parts is one of the fastest growing ecommerce sectors.

Clearly, there’s demand for aftermarket car parts and accessories. But how can an auto parts store increase their sales to reach more customers who want what they’ve got?

Here’s 6 steps to increase your online auto store revenue.

Feb 13: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

Feb 13: Promote Your Business on a Tight Budget

This ‘P’ is for Promotion and Publicity. Not to be confused with Marketing. Marketing deals with how you express your essence, your identity. Promotion deals with how you convey your marketing message to your target audience, and Publicity is what you get when people notice your offer and talk about it. Read more…

Feb 13: How To Keep Your Employees Motivated

Keeping your employees motivated, inspired and productive should be a top goal for any organization. Here are 5 ways to leave your staff inspired and productive:

1) Create a list of employee rights.

To amp up your work environment, this list should include the right to a comfortable work environment, managers who behave professionally, and an immediate and fair response to any grievances. Read more…

Feb 13: Why Startup Entrepreneurs Need To Be More Like Reporters

The new marketing concept of brand journalism is the practice of covering your business and industry like a reporter. In other words, you’re transforming your marketing efforts into publishing efforts.

The big guys in your industry are likely already fully entrenched. In fact, some are practicing this new style of content marketing so effectively you probably haven’t even noticed that their content is marketing driven.

Here are four tips on how you can get started:

Feb 13: To those whom much is given, much is expected. – John F. Kennedy

SAY OF THE DAY: “To those whom much is given, much is expected.” – John F. Kennedy… read more

Feb 13: Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) has always been a powerful way to influence business results.

Why should Marketers care about WOMM?

If you could master what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing-the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to drive sales for your company – would you instead choose to ignore it or leave it to chance?

Why would you simply choose to sit back and hope conversations will just happen organically about your brand? If you want to win the marketing race in 2017, you need to unleash the power of word of mouth. Read more…

Feb 13: Use Your Smartphone To Be 30% More Productive At Work

It’s easy to lose precious hours playing games and goofing around on your smartphone or tablet. Such distractions can kill your focus and productivity.

But you don’t need to turn off your phone or chuck it out a window to get more work done. From scaling back your notifications to timing your tasks, try these 4 tips for using a smartphone to boost your productivity by up to 30% and reach your business goals:

1) Turn off your notifications.

Your smartphone and many of its apps are designed to grab your attention with various types of notifications, including icons that appear in your phone’s status bar, sounds, flashing lights and vibrations.

Whenever your phone notifies you of something, you might not need to immediately respond. Read more…

Feb 12: The Unexpected Pros And Cons of Business Competitions

PRO: Free money to get your business started.

If you win, you could be awarded over $100,000 in cash and/or prizes that you can use to build, hire, and get your startup off the ground. In most cases, there are no strings attached and you don’t have to give up a percentage share of your business equity. Read more…

Feb 12: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 12: How To Be More Creative In Business

To be an innovative entrepreneur, you want to foster creativity in your daily life so that your mind is ready when opportunity arises.

Unusual combinations, sometimes called “remote associations,” are related ideas that may seem unrelated at first glance. They are the essence of creative thinking.

To cultivate creativity, you want to increase your chances of stumbling on an unexpected link. Read more…

Feb 12: 13 Marketing Tips When Using Social Networks

Social media can be a slippery slope. Stretching yourself too thin by trying to be on every site can result in disengaged users. Failing to engage users on the right platforms will only amount to yet another lost marketing opportunity.

Here are 13 best practice tips when using popular social networking sites.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is by far the biggest and most popular social media platform. Read more…

Feb 12: 4 Reasons Young People Should Become Entrepreneurs

Unemployment got you down? Just graduated with student loans, but can’t find the right job? Well, you’ll be happy to know that there are more new business startups in the United States than ever before. And, you can create your own job by starting a business, on a budget, doing what you love and what you’re good at — i.e., your passion and expertise.

Here are 4 reasons why you should start your own business as a young entrepreneur:

1) You’re not a good employee and don’t like working for anyone else. Read more…

Feb 12: Crowdfunding or P2P Lending – Which is Better for My Small Business?

When you are looking for funding, the dilemma use face is crowdfunding or peer-to-peer lending? This is the question many business owners are asking now that these alternative forms of business finance have become mainstream on the back of ineffective lending from the banks. So, the ultimate question then is, which method of finance would work best for you and your business?

Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending are two innovative ways to get money into your business. Read more…

Feb 12: 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Who Take Vacations Are More Successful

When was the last time you took a vacation? For many young entrepreneurs, the answer is probably “I can’t remember,” or “I don’t have time for vacation.” But you just might want to rethink your aversion to time off. To run a successful company, you’ll need to be there, of course. But you’ll often need to also take time to clear your head or even distance yourself from the business in order to think about how to grow more effectively. Read more…

Feb 12: Why Small Businesses Should Not Hire These 3 Types Of People

Even the most perceptive business owners can make a bad hire when they don’t pay attention to the right signs. Here are 3 personality types that can bring down your business and how you can spot them in an interview.

1) The Narcissist.

It’s easy to make the mistake of hiring a narcissist. They are often charismatic and radiate self-confidence. Read more…

Feb 12: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 12: When To Start Outsourcing Some Of Your Busy Work

When should you start thinking about outsourcing some of your tasks? As a small business entrepreneur, time is always scarce, and you find that you just can’t do everything yourself the way you would like to. Maybe you’ve thought about outsourcing, but it’s not a simple decision because you need to compare the cost and quality of the person or company that will be working for you.

A simple search for companies using the terms “virtual assistant” and “outsourcing” will reveal a plethora of firms and virtual assistants that offer outsourcing services for everyday business tasks – such as customer service, tech support, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounting, and even social media marketing. Read more…

Recommended: Leading With Perspective

Feb 12: How To Plan For An Early Retirement Now

Many of us dream of leaving the workplace while in our 40’s or 50’s instead of sticking it out until age 65. Early retirement is a tempting goal, but it can be tough to achieve.

There are four major obstacles to early retirement:

1) You have less time to earn money. If you start working at age 20 and retire at 65, you have 45 years to produce income. Read more…

Feb 12: 8 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail

Today, nearly every business is attempting to become a content marketer. The results aren’t pretty. The noise is deafening and while there’s plenty of great content, every industry is being bombarded with junk-cheap imitations of the idea of content marketing-create original, compelling, helpful content. Read more…

Feb 12: Try not to be a man of success, but rather try to become a man …

SAY OF THE DAY: “Try not to be a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein … read more

Feb 12: How to solve one marketing puzzle

Take a look at all of the marketing you’ve done over the last several months. Chances are, most – if not all – was effectively limited to product or service promotion. While offers and advertisements are important, promotions are really at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to building a strong brand. Read more…

Feb 12: 4 Affordable Ways to Market Your Business Around Town

Most entrepreneurs spend too much time and money on promotions that don’t generate new business. Whether it is local sports sponsorships, newspaper-ad buys or social media, they waste money on marketing strategies that may boost their egos by making them local celebrities, but don’t actually translate into sales.

Entrepreneurs, especially those relying on customers in their local areas, should first focus on networking with other area businesses, major employers, schools, churches and other organizations. Read more…

Feb 11: Great Digital Marketing For Bootstrapped Entrepreneur

One of the best channels for bootstrapped entrepreneurs is digital marketing. Here’s how to do it right.

I personally believe that one of the hardest roads traveled is that of the bootstrapped entrepreneur. When you’re starting out, you need to figure out a way to market your company on a shoestring budget. Read more…

Feb 11: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 11: 8 Key Steps to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding is a way of raising money for a new venture by soliciting small donations from many people online. The biggest platforms in the industry are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In the last five years, crowdfunding has grown from a tool for off-beat bands to raise money from fans for an album they can’t afford to produce to a way for some really high tech inventors to get access to capital for their new, innovative startups.

Following is the checklist of 8 steps to prepare for your campaign.

Feb 11: Is Crowdfunding Right For Your Small Business?

What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past 10 years, crowdfunding has emerged as a popular tool for individuals to raise financing for business ventures.

Entrepreneurs typically raise small amounts of money from a large number of backers, or “the crowd,” usually via the Internet. Backers receive some sort of reward or, less commonly, an equity- or royalty-based financial return. Read more…

Feb 11: 8 Social Marketing Fails to Avoid

1. Little or no social media or blogging activity.

Why start a blog and never publish? Why start a Twitter account and never tweet? In social marketing, you have to show up and be active. Yes, starting that Facebook page was a good idea, but unless you are going to be consistent in posting and using it, just forget about it.

You can save time by using sites like 40Billion.com, which specializes in broadcasting and promoting posts to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites for small businesses – including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook. Read more…

Feb 11: 6 Tips For An Effective Text Message Marketing Campaign

If you want to reach local customers and keep them coming back to your business, text-message marketing is one of the most effective strategies for doing so. While email marketing messages are opened by a small percentage of recipients, text message ads are typically viewed by almost all recipients.

SMS messaging is also an ideal way for sending coupons that will get noticed and used, at a much lower cost than printing physical coupons. Read more…

Feb 11: Benefits of Ad Retargeting (Remarketing)

Retargeting Ads. You’ve seen them. But, do you know what they are and how they benefit your business?

Unfamiliar with the difference between retargeting and remarketing? They’re the same thing. Google uses the term “remarketing” while Facebook tends to use the term “retargeting”.

Smart marketers and business owners use Ad Retargeting to:

. Bring back landing page visitors who don’t convert

. Re-engage with abandoned shopping cart prospects

. Upsell products to highly targeted, interested customers

. Increase brand awareness.

A highly optimized, targeted, conversion-centric landing page averages an 8-10% conversion rate. Read more…

Feb 11: How to Build Great Marketing Relationships for your Business

You may have heard the term “relationship marketing” being tossed around recently. Relationship marketing refers to everything you do to develop strong, lifelong relationships with your customers. From influencer programs to referral campaigns to affiliate marketing, relationship marketing builds brand awareness and positions your brand as your customers best option. Read more…

Feb 11: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 11: How To Gain Clients Trust – 5 Tips

If you are the owner of a small business looking to increase your clientele, here are some tips on how to build a trusting relationship with your client.

Tip # 1: Be Upfront

How do you put your client at ease when he first comes to your home as a total stranger? It all starts with communication. Read more…

Feb 11: The Real Reasons Why VC Investors Delete Your Emails

What should you include in an introductory email to a potential VC investor if your goal is to actually get them to open it and read it? Although every investor pitch and every investor is different, these 4 blunders are common to most of the unsuccessful ones:

1) The email has a worthless subject line.

Too often, entrepreneurs use boring, worthless subject lines in their investor pitches. Read more…

Feb 11: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things …

SAY OF THE DAY: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr… read more

Feb 11: Traditional Marketing And Content Marketing: Can They Co-Exist?

As content marketing continues to grow in popularity, a question being asked more and more is “should I replace my traditional marketing with content marketing?” The short answer is no.

It’s easy to pile onto the idea that print, radio, and even TV are on their way out as marketing platforms – but if they are effective, you shouldn’t give them up. Read more…

Feb 11: Mobile Strategies To Win Over Purchasing Preferences Of Women

It’s a fact that women are now responsible for 85 percent of all purchasing decisions in the United States and recent research shows that they overwhelmingly prefer to shop in physical retail stores.

They like to touch and feel the products they’re considering buying and they enjoy the social interactions that come from shopping with friends and family. Read more…

Feb 10: Crowdfunding vs Venture Capital

It seems like a catchy idea is all an aspiring entrepreneur needs these days in order to raise money on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe. Do crowds gravitate toward funding bad ideas? Or can crowds make rational funding decisions and, better yet, exceed venture capital investors and banks in identifying promising projects?

The crowd is often thought of as being a group of fools, but it turns out the crowd does consider the quality of projects and outcomes pretty well. Read more…

Feb 10: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 10: 3 Ways To Prevent A Mistake From Destroying Your Business

It’s easy for new entrepreneurs and even seasoned business owners to be frazzled and to panic when mistakes happen. As your business grows and employees and partners are stretched thin, the risk of mistakes, errors and accidents increases. Mistakes happen, but they can destroy your brand’s reputation – whether your company has made a billing error, sent an embarrassing email with leaked confidential information, or recalled a bad product.

When mistakes happen, what should you do? Here are 3 suggestions for how to deal with unexpected disasters and keep them from destroying your company:

1) Act quickly and fix it. Read more…

Feb 10: 6 Reasons Why Time Is The Business Owner’s Most Scarce Resource

Are you flushing your time – and money – down the toilet? Not long after you start a business on your own, you soon realize that you need to get smarter about managing time. If you feel overwhelmed, you may need to rethink how you use your time, which is an entrepreneur’s most valuable – and scarce – resource. Read more…

Feb 10: 4 Ways To Come Up With A Memorable Business Name

Does your name matter? It might, in the case of your new business, if you want people to remember it. Judging from the long list of businesses a simple Google search yields when you query “naming your company,” it matters a lot.

While there are several technical strategies that can be used when choosing a name for your new venture, you can just as easily flip through the business section of any newspaper to get an idea of how other entrepreneurs are doing it.

However, don’t take this decision lightly. Read more…

Feb 10: How To Turn Your Exit Page Into A Sales Opportunity

Here’s something that you should immediately put into action on your website. This concept is so simple, yet most of the time extremely overlooked: With every single transaction, you should be controlling where your customer goes next.

So many people miss out on this golden opportunity for additional profit. Read more…

Feb 10: 5 Ways to Start a Business Part-Time While Holding a Day Job Full-Time

You know you want to start a business, but you can’t shake those financial pressures – rent or a mortgage, a car payment and maybe you have kids. Even young people have responsibilities after all. But tack on the fact your business idea will surely take time to catch on, and starting up can seem even further out of reach.

You are a perfect candidate to become a part-time entrepreneur. Read more…

Feb 10: How To Make A Case for Facebook Marketing

Is your business on Facebook?

Do you need to convince your boss-or a client-that Facebook is a worthy marketing investment?

And speaking of social media advertising, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

Feb 10: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 10: Improve Your E-Mail Marketing – Follow These 10 Steps

Most brands have a “pretty decent” email marketing program, but could it be better? Take a look at these 11 things to try and improve your engagement.

1. Take a hard look at your preference strategy.

There are three tips on capturing preferences: ask them, observe them and group them (into categories). Read more…

Feb 10: 4 Signs That You Should Quit Your Failing Startup Business

You’ve poured your heart and soul, your time, your money and more into your business, so it simply must succeed… Right? While that’s nice to say, it’s not always true. The more you’re able to realize that success can come and go, the better positioned you’ll be to take advantage of other, more promising opportunities.

Here’s how to know when to give up:

1) Are you the only one who still believes in your business?

Sometimes the smartest people can have a blind spot when it comes to their own vision. Read more…

Feb 10: Viral Video Marketing 101

Video is rapidly growing and quickly becoming a staple of marketing strategies. If you have not yet incorporated video marketing then you are simply behind the curve. Not only that, but you are losing out on the various benefits that having a video strategy provides.

Importance of Video:

The reason video is such a powerful medium lies within its ability to engage, educate, and influence potential and existing customers. Read more…

Feb 10: You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, …

SAY OF THE DAY: “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” -Zig Ziglar … read more

Feb 10: Five Prong Approach To Creating Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy:

Creating a social media marketing strategy is a sin qua non for every social media marketing professional in order to have an effective social media campaign. Social media marketing should be merged with your traditional marketing plan. Read more…

Feb 10: 3 Social Media Tips For Business Owners

Gaffes on social networking sites can happen to the best of us. There are some very good lessons business owners can glean from common social media mistakes and apply to their own marketing efforts. Here are 3 of those lessons and tips:

1) Make it known to employees that social media is not just for fun. Read more…

Feb 9: Cheap Ways To Get Exposure, Stay Profitable.

What do smart entrepreneurs do different to ensure their business stays profitable? They do the simple things right. Simple things really, like finding cheap ways to get exposure, or hearing their customers out, or networking in the right places. Number one marketing tip is don’t just think outside the box, get rid of the box! Be creative. Read more…

Feb 9: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 9: 5 Ideas for Marketing Your Business Brand Effectively

Telling your brand story is more than just slapping dates together on an About Us page and throwing it up on the website with a stock image. Your brand story should be a major differentiator, something that sets you apart from your competition and compels your prospects to partner with you. It’s an opportunity to not talk about your products and services, but to talk about the real value of partnering with your firm.

When it comes to B2B branding and storytelling, there are a variety of ways to tell your brand story in a way that engages your target audience. Read more…

Feb 9: How to Create Buzzworthy Content That Users Share

Shareable content is your gateway to success in content marketing. If you can get your users to share your content regularly, or in high enough volume, you’ll gain access to thousands of new potential followers, earn tons of referral traffic, and you’ll gain permanent links that boost your domain authority and your website’s potential to rank higher in Google searches.

But what makes a piece of content “shareable” in the first place? Logic would dictate that there are certain qualities that shareable pieces have in common, and if they do, it should be possible to replicate those qualities in your own work.

So what makes people want to share content with others, and how can you use this to your advantage?

Technical factors

Videos, quizzes, and list-based articles tend to get more shares than other types of content, possibly because they’re relatively quick and easy to digest. Read more…

Feb 9: 3 Reasons Why You May Not Need To Write A Business Plan After All

Sure, you can lay out a proposed path to success in a business plan presentation template, but the road will be full of surprises. More important than attempting to forecast is knowing how to adapt and be flexible.

For exactly that reason, many top investors and incubators are shifting their views on written business plans. Read more…

Feb 9: Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Still Very Effective

Word-of-mouth advertising is 10 times more effective than a traditional ad. Contrary to popular belief, less than 10 percent of those sought-after personal recommendations happen online.

In addition to word of mouth marketing, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

Feb 9: How To Deal With Stress At Work

Are you stressed out at work? Do you feel like you’re reaching a breaking point? Are you having a hard time juggling business and family demands? It happens to many of us. The anxiety, negative thoughts, perspiration, and despair caused by stress are normal, but you should not let them prevent you from succeeding and being your best you.

To cope with the stress and stay focused, you’ll need to incorporate a stress relief routine in your workday. Read more…

Feb 9: Facebook And Marketing: 4 Useful Tips For Success

Let’s face it. Facebook and Marketing work very well. Are you getting so tired of reading article after article of people writing about how marketing on Facebook is a waste of time? Whether you are a B2C or B2B company it doesn’t matter. If you are not getting results from Facebook you need to change your strategy plain and simple. Read more…

Feb 9: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 9: How to Get Started with Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Most experts agree: 2017 was the year for influencer marketing. Most marketers planned to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in 2017, and more in 2018. The reasons that this particular marketing strategy is surging right now are many. The first, and probably the largest reason is social proof.

According to research firm Yankelovich, Americans are exposed to 5,000 advertisements a day. Read more…

Feb 9: 4 Ways Influencers Can Boost Your Brand

Trust, attraction, and engagement… sounds like the recipe for a deep and lasting relationship, right?

Not surprisingly, consumers can experience and feel these same attributes for a product, and as a result, they form lasting, loyal relationships with the brands that serve them.

Unfortunately for brands, connecting to a potential customer at this level is difficult and time-consuming. Read more…

Feb 9: 22 Things Advertising People Learn to live with

1. Everyone hates status meetings.

2. When it’s eerily quiet on the line, you know the other callers are talking shit on mute.

3. And as soon as you get off the phone, you do this so you can chat about all the stupid stuff said on the call.

4. You see these buzzwords in emails almost every day.

Feb 9: I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good …

SAY OF THE DAY: “I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” -Thomas Jefferson… read more

Feb 9: 6 Marketing Tips to Bootstrap Your Startup

Every day we are bombarded by brands fighting for our attention; how can you possibly make your startup stand out? Marketing your startup in today’s competitive business economy is undoubtedly difficult and expensive, but there are steps you can take to make sure your startup gets a good chance at success.

Before you start, make sure you have a firm grasp on two key things. Read more…

Feb 9: Use Your Smartphone To Be 30% More Productive At Work

It’s easy to lose precious hours playing games and goofing around on your smartphone or tablet. Such distractions can kill your focus and productivity.

1) Turn off your notifications.

Whenever your phone notifies you of something, you might not need to immediately respond. Read more…

Feb 8: Why Entrepreneurs Need to Create Their Own Brands

At some point in your career, someone has probably talked to you about how to brand yourself, how personal branding is this incredibly important thing that everyone is doing these days, how, if you’ve built a business and are trying to grow, it’s not something you can ignore.

Or is it? Personal branding, just like regular branding, is something that’s often completely out of your control. Read more…

Feb 8: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 8: Social Advertising Is Here To Stay. Learn To Live With It.

Let’s face a simple fact, boys and girls: advertising on the social channels is here to stay and, increasingly, social butterflies who want to get noticed will have to spend money on it.

This will come as a discouraging news for the legion of social media mavens who like the free nature of the social channels but reality is reality and marketers, organizations and business who really want to advance themselves will need to get serious about spending money on social advertising.

We all know the major social networks need to produce revenue to remain viable and we’ve long ago realized ad sales is really the most successful revenue generator or any mass media. Read more…

Feb 8: 3 Absurd Myths About Using Technology in Small Business

Risk taking is second nature to most entrepreneurs, but technology issues can make them turn cautious. Too often, business owners believe they don’t have the expertise or financial resources to take full advantage of technology. But, by limiting their use of tech, they also limit their growth opportunities in our always-on, always-connected world.

Turns out, many of these myths about tech may be based on misconceptions. Read more…

Feb 8: Targeting B2B Customers Effectively When Your Targets Keep Moving

Tech startup companies and business entrepreneurs don’t have a lot of room for miscalculating buyer behaviors. Here’s what you need to know to be able to anticipate, identify and satisfy changing buyer behaviors for the sake of creating an effective marketing strategy.

The buyer you engage with today won’t be the buyer you engage with tomorrow. Read more…

Feb 8: The 7 Crowdfunding Tips That Are Most Important

Crowdfunding is a collective cooperation of people who network and pool their money and resources together, usually via the Inter?net, to support efforts initiated by other organizations. Unlike angel investments, in which an investor takes a large stake in a small business, with crowdfunding, you can literally attract a “crowd” of people – each of whom takes a small stake (if any) in a business idea by contributing towards an online funding target. Read more…

Feb 8: How To Be A Better Manager – 4 Tips

You want your employees to perform at their best, but there’s a fine line between being a tough manager with high expectations and being an unreasonable asshole. Here are 3 tips to ensure that you’re on the right side of the line and don’t lose your best workers:

1) Give your employees a reason to give a crap. Read more…

Feb 8: The Real Reasons Why VC Investors Delete Your Emails

1) The email has a worthless subject line.

Too often, entrepreneurs use boring, worthless subject lines in their investor pitches. Read more…

Feb 8: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 8: Mobile Strategies To Win Over Purchasing Preferences Of Women

They like to touch and feel the products they’re considering buying and they enjoy the social interactions that come from shopping with friends and family. Read more…

Feb 8: Leading With Perspective

As a business owner or startup entrepreneur, you are responsible for building an effective team and enabling your employees to do their best work. To do that well, you need to have perspective, which is the ability to create a point-of-view based on imagining yourself in another’s shoes.

Awareness about ourselves and others is difficult to gain. Read more…

Feb 8: How To Make A Case for Facebook Marketing

Is your business on Facebook?

Do you need to convince your boss-or a client-that Facebook is a worthy marketing investment?

And speaking of social media advertising, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

Feb 8: Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand …

SAY OF THE DAY: “Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.” – Mark Twain… read more

Feb 8: 3 SEO Tips For Small Business Success

Are you stressing out about changes in search engine algorithms and new social media platforms to learn? Search engine optimization (also known as SEO) is in constant flux, which means that your business’ online marketing strategies need to be revamped frequently. Read more…

Feb 8: Are You a Micro-Manager? Here Are 3 Ways to Change

Every business owner knows how to wear a lot of hats. When first striking out on your own, you have a hand in finances, marketing, product design, and everything in-between. But as your company grows, you need to empower your employees to feel that same sense of independence.

Autonomy is one of our fundamental human needs – an essential component of a healthy workplace – our need to be driven by personal interest and enjoyment.

Employees that feel empowered are happier, more motivated, more committed to their jobs, and less stressed. Read more…

Feb 7: Turning Holidays Gifts Into a Marketing Tool – 6 Ideas

Remind them of you:

The simplest way to make your holiday gift a marketing tool is to choose a promotional product with your company’s name and/or logo on it. Read more…

Feb 7: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 7: Target Marketing – Everything You Need To Know And More

Target marketing is about attracting customers who will buy what you’re selling.

In order to target market effectively, you’ll need to know exactly who purchases your products and exactly how to reach them. And acquiring that kind of knowledge requires some research and planning on your end.

The evolution of target marketing
Target marketing is the most current method of marketing to consumers based on research into their interests, hobbies, and needs, and it didn’t spring from nothing. Read more…

Feb 7: Why The Business Plan Is Still Useful For Startup Success

Some define a business plan as a formal document that takes a long time to create and isn’t flexible, doesn’t get reviewed and doesn’t get revised. Then they say a business plan isn’t useful.

That’s sort of like saying getting regular exercise isn’t good for you because some people overdo it and end up with joint damage.

It would be better to advocate a type of business planning that could be called lean business planning. Read more…

Feb 7: 4 Mistakes That Hurt Your Crowdfunding Campaign

On some of the most popular crowdfunding platforms – such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe – less than half of the campaigns hit their funding goal. How do you make sure your crowdfunding campaign isn’t a failure? Here are four potential mistakes to avoid.

#1: Starting off too slow

If you want to hit your fundraising goal by the end of the campaign, experts recommend focusing on raising 30 percent of it in the first two or three days. Read more…

Feb 7: Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

Advertising is changing at lightning speed with the internet. When businesses started flocking online, they found amazing opportunities to reach consumers outside of traditional media like print and television. But even in the last few years, those advertising options have shifted tremendously.

Gone are the days of the pop up – well, mostly. Read more…

Feb 7: Marketing Made Easier – Follow These 10 Tricks from The Pros

Marketing is the lifeblood of any startup – without it, the company will be sure to sink.

Here is a list of the top ten marketing tricks:

Social Media
1. Boost your posts.Give your social media content a boost. Businesses are finding it more and more difficult to get their message heard. Read more…

Recommended: How To Deal With Setbacks

Feb 7: Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

Gone are the days of the pop up – well, mostly. Read more…

Feb 7: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 7: Promote Your Business on a Tight Budget

Recommended: Social Media Marketing – 6 Myths

Feb 7: How To Avoid Summer Slowdowns, And Keep Growing Your Business

If your business experiences uneven revenues during summer months or other seasonal slowdowns, you may be looking for new summer marketing ideas to grow your organization. Here are four ways you can give in order to get more customers and sales this summer.

For seasonal businesses that thrive during summer months, marketing might be a cinch. Read more…

Feb 7: What To Look For When Selecting A Good B2B Digital Marketing Agency

In the competitive and increasingly saturated B2B market, it’s never been more important for you to have outstanding marketing strategies. Finding a digital marketing agency that specializes in B2B is a great way to boost results, as long as they are right for your company and sector.

How not to do it…and what to do instead

The most dangerous move you can make is choosing the first digital marketing agency that you come across. Read more…

Feb 7: You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and …

SAY OF THE DAY: “You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance.” – Lee Iacocca… read more

Feb 7: 5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on GoFundMe

This post on how to raise money successfully using simple crowdfunding steps answers common questions for startup entrepreneurs and small businesses thinking about using crowdfunding to raise funding.

I have been in the crowdfunding space since 2008, after experiencing first-hand one of the biggest problems plaguing new businesses: There was a $40 billion gap in funding every year! That year, I founded one of the first crowdfunding platforms for U.S. Read more…

Feb 7: 6 Lies of Content Marketing That Businesses Must Avoid

Content marketing is becoming increasingly popular with each passing year. Businesses see the benefits that competitors are enjoying from publishing highly valuable content, and are looking for ways to do the same themselves. Churning out great ideas is often more difficult than anticipated, and companies that enter content marketing for the first time often have some unrealistic expectations for the type of results it will provide as well as how quickly those results will come.

There is a lot of information out there that can help businesses to set realistic expectations for themselves when they first start content marketing. Read more…

Feb 6: 3 Social Media Tips For Business Owners

1) Make it known to employees that social media is not just for fun. Read more…

Feb 6: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 6: How to Create a Great Invoice – 7 Tips

If at least a third of your receivables are 60-plus days delinquent, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re one of 40 percent of small businesses in that predicament – and your invoices may be partially to blame.

Before you issue your next invoice, be sure all the parts are complete.

1. Seller info:

The source of the invoice should be clear and include your company’s name, address and telephone number. Read more…

Feb 6: Don’t Make This Common Brainstorming Mistake That Leads to Failure

Imagine you’re leading a brainstorming session at your company. You want to come up with growth strategies for your startup, so you gather your team in a meeting room, generate lots of ideas, and choose the most promising one. Many small business owners use that approach, but unfortunately, it often doesn’t work. Read more…

Feb 6: 4 Effective Video Marketing Content Ideas

You’ve got your ideas about what you want to promote in your video content. You’ve probably even already got a video marketing strategy. But have you given real thought to what your audience wants to see in your videos?

Sure, you’ve thought about how to make your videos more successful, and that requires thinking about audience reception to a degree. Read more…

Feb 6: Does Your Marketing Strategy Work For You?

Why isn’t anyone buying your products and services? It doesn’t matter how great your products and services are or how nice your offices look if no one has heard of you. That’s where good marketing comes into play. Unfortunately, many small businesses make the mistake of focusing all of their efforts on other aspects of their company and forget to make marketing a top priority. Read more…

Feb 6: 3 Habits Of High-Performing Teams

What are some common challenges that small business and startup teams face? Long hours, conflicting personalities, not enough space, or too many mistakes?

A business team should undergo comprehensive team training in order to perform at a high level. To help your team become more efficient and effective, here are 3 team-building skills that you should focus on developing:

1) How to be great followers so that they can be great leaders

Good followers know how to listen attentively, ask questions when they don’t understand something, adapt to changing demands from different leaders, and give constructive criticism. Read more…

Feb 6: 9 Don’ts of Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding opens up a new world of opportunity to startups. Crowdfunding campaign is convenient and has the potential to reach a wider range of investors, but it’s not easy. It requires much thought and effort. Most of the crowdfunding projects fail due to inadequate planning.

Following are nine reasons as to why crowdfunding campaign fails:

Feb 6: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 6: Social Media Marketing – 6 Myths

Here’s why your company’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social media campaigns aren’t performing as well as they could be.

Over the past five years, social media has become an increasingly important part of many companies‘ marketing strategies. Read more…

Feb 6: 3 Social Media Tips For Business Owners

1) Make it known to employees that social media is not just for fun. Read more…

Feb 6: 10 Content Marketing Ideas to Promote your Small Business or Startup Company

Small business marketers who use content marketing are able to reduce the cost of leads, increase awareness and position themselves as leaders.

In recent years, marketers have been forced to think differently about how they engage with potential customers, particularly small business marketers.

Every year, customers have increasing control over what marketing messages they wish to consume. Read more…

Feb 6: What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we …

SAY OF THE DAY: “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains” ~ Albert Einstein… read more

Feb 6: How To Attract Customers Without Saying A Word

Are you the owner of a small business looking to increase your customers? How do you build a trusting relationship with your customers? Here is a proven strategy to build and maintain trust in your business, and in turn attract both customers and profits.

There are many different sources of trust, and sometimes people trust for the wrong reasons. Read more…

Recommended: Tumblr – 7 Things To Know About

Feb 6: The Unexpected Pros And Cons of Business Competitions

PRO: Free money to get your business started.

Feb 5: How To Avoid Summer Slowdowns, And Keep Growing Your Business

For seasonal businesses that thrive during summer months, marketing might be a cinch. Read more…

Feb 5: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 5: 25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

With Facebook declining in popularity among younger users, more and more businesses are turning to Instagram to reach younger demographics.If you plan to adopt a similar strategy, you’ll want to take a look at the following Instagram marketing tips and tricks for getting the most out of your presence on the site.

Fill Out Your “Bio” Section

Before you pass “Go” and collect $200, be sure to fill out the “Bio” section of your Instagram profile. Read more…

Feb 5: Make Your Small Business Email Marketing Successful – Follow These Steps

The benefits of email

Customers like email. According to research, 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications via email. So, don’t overlook the potential email can bring to your business. If done well it offers some great benefits.

. It’s cost-effective – implementing successful email campaigns doesn’t cost the earth and ROI is generally good. Read more…

Feb 5: 4 Things Entrepreneurs Must Do Before Going on Vacation

It’s that time of year again when you and a lot of other entrepreneurs may be looking at former 9-to-5 colleagues with some envy, as they plan their annual two-week vacation with family or friends.

Can you afford to take two weeks away from your business and have it run as smoothly as it does when you’re in it? If you can, that’s great. Read more…

Feb 5: Why The Business Plan Is Still Useful For Startup Success

Some define a business plan as a formal document that takes a long time to create and isn’t flexible, doesn’t get reviewed and doesn’t get revised. Then they say a business plan isn’t useful.

That’s sort of like saying getting regular exercise isn’t good for you because some people overdo it and end up with joint damage.

It would be better to advocate a type of business planning that could be called lean business planning. Read more…

Feb 5: How To Maximize The Power Of Twitter – 10 Lessons Learned.

With Twitter having more than 300 million user accounts, it has become an important network for companies to reach out to their customers. There are well-established and successful brands that have come up with best practices companies could emulate to attract a loyal following and transform customers into brand advocates.

Here are ten marketing lessons for successful utilization of Twitter:

Feb 5: How to Build a Social Website for Your Business

If you operate a website, you’re no doubt familiar with search engine optimization. Now, add “social” optimization to your to-do list.

A website that’s optimized for social media sharing typically attracts more traffic and sparks more engagement with customers. Read more…

Feb 5: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 5: 3 Reasons Why You May Not Need To Write A Business Plan After All

For exactly that reason, many top investors and incubators are shifting their views on written business plans. Read more…

Feb 5: 3 Questions Entrepreneurs Must Answer To Become Successful

As a smart entrepreneur, you probably have a business plan that states what you intend to accomplish, what competitive threats are out there, your financial projections, how much money it will take to get to profitability, and how your company is going to succeed. Wait… Did you forget to include that last part?

At 40Billion.com, we help many entrepreneurs and startup businesses every day. Read more…

Feb 5: Social Advertising Is Here To Stay. Learn To Live With It.

Let’s face a simple fact, boys and girls: advertising on the social channels is here to stay and, increasingly, social butterflies who want to get noticed will have to spend money on it.

We all know the major social networks need to produce revenue to remain viable and we’ve long ago realized ad sales is really the most successful revenue generator or any mass media. Read more…

Feb 5: While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been …

SAY OF THE DAY: “While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” Leonardo Da Vinci… read more

Feb 5: 4 Signs That You Should Quit Your Failing Startup Business

Here’s how to know when to give up:

1) Are you the only one who still believes in your business?

Sometimes the smartest people can have a blind spot when it comes to their own vision. Read more…

Feb 5: Small Businesses: How to avoid these 5 E-Marketing Mistakes

Simple mistakes are easily made when running a small business, but they can also be easily avoided or remedied if attention is paid to the proper problem areas. A few common mistakes that all small business owners can easily avoid.

1. Strong web presence is a must.
The internet provides access to a resource that works for you 24/7 virtually for free – use it to your advantage. Read more…

Feb 4: 5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on Kickstarter

Feb 4: How to Promote Your Crowdfunding Project to 2,500,000 People for Only $20

Feb 4: New to Crowdfunding? Here’s What to Expect.

With the popularity and success of crowdfunding as a new way to fund new projects, it’s easy for other aspiring entrepreneurs to believe that sites like Kickstarter are their golden ticket to launching a business. But the reality is, crowdfunding isn’t always as simple as it seems.

Whether you’re looking to raise a small amount of startup cash or acquire a larger sum through equity crowdfunding, there are a few challenges you might face during the process that you may not have expected.

Choosing the right platform

The first step is to choose the right platform. Read more…

Recommended: Viral Video Marketing 101

Feb 4: Small Business Blogging – 5 Easy Tips

Starting a blog is just the beginning. Publishing a blog post? You need to let the world know that your awesome blog exists!

So how do you do that? That department is called “marketing”. Blog marketing could sound like too much of a technical word and many small business bloggers don’t even want to hear about it.
Of course, there are advanced marketing techniques that you need to learn, and master someday. Read more…

Feb 4: How To Develop A LinkedIn Marketing Plan

Do you want to learn how to present yourself and your business on LinkedIn?

Are you looking for a resource to guide your LinkedIn marketing efforts?

Whether you’re using LinkedIn as an individual or as a brand, the following tips will help you develop a LinkedIn marketing plan and find prospects and leads.

Create a Presence for Yourself

Make sure your LinkedIn account is secure. Read more…

Feb 4: 7 Strategic Tips to Boost Your Business Content Marketing

Is your B2B content marketing strategy successful? Or do you at times feel like your strategy needs a facelift? How can you boost your content strategy to generate a greater level of success? Here are seven definitive ways that you can fire up your content strategy, and generate palpable results.

Create content around a predetermined purpose

What is your company’s purpose? This is the first and most important question you need to ask yourself before any content is created. Read more…

Feb 4: 4 Affordable Ways to Market Your Business Around Town

Feb 4: How To Be A Better Manager – 4 Tips

1) Give your employees a reason to give a crap. Read more…

Feb 4: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 4: 3 Winning Social Marketing Strategies From Top Brands

Do you follow a brand in social media? Are you glad you did? If that’s the case, they are doing either one of three things:

. Connecting with one of your passions and/or interests.
. Entertaining you with their engaging personality.
. Providing interesting and/or important information to you. Read more…

Feb 4: Think Twice Before Posting on These Social Media Sites

The Holy Grail of social media outreach is engagement, which goes beyond broadcasting to interacting with your fans. While some businesses might use 40Billion, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks to drive traffic to their own websites, the more that people are engaging with your posts and sharing your content with their own networks, the more brand loyalty you can build.

While there’s no tried-and-true formula for everyone to maximize engagement all the time, outreach on social media doesn’t have to be like blindly throwing darts at a board. Read more…

Feb 4: 5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on GoFundMe

Feb 4: When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold …

SAY OF THE DAY: “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.” – Harley Davidson… read more

Feb 4: Email Marketing Is Still Alive And Well

While some say that email isn’t an effective marketing tool anymore, research shows that it still has the highest ROI of any online marketing tactic.

One reason is that email is still a dominant avenue of communication in business. In fact, 91% check their email daily.
Email subscriptions to websites for updates and information is growing at the fastest rate ever, with 74% of consumers actually preferring to receive commercial communications by email.

Review Your Email Lists For Segmentation Opportunities

A common opportunity we uncover is email list segmentation. Read more…

Feb 4: Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) has always been a powerful way to influence business results.

Why should Marketers care about WOMM?

Feb 3: 5 Essential Business Plan Topics When Raising Venture Capital

Wondering whether or not to write a business plan? Do you really need one? Well, unless you have a spectacular track record as an entrepreneur or an exceptionally great new business idea, you cannot raise money to fund your startup without a business plan.

Furthermore, the business plans that result in successful outcomes usually contain insights into the customers who will buying your company’s products. Read more…

Feb 3: How to Advertise Your Business to 2,500,000 People on 4 Social Networks for $20

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Feb 3: Networking Events Are A Waste Of Time If You Don’t Do This

The old saying that we “treasure what we measure” – and vice versa – turns out to be highly relevant in networking.

In a world where the news media regularly reports the latest sports scores, stock market numbers and the weekend’s top-grossing films, wouldn’t you think business networkers would just naturally track how much they’re getting from their efforts?

While systems for following up, staying in touch and tracking results are key to networking success for both men and women, they’re especially vital for women. Read more…

Feb 3: Great Digital Marketing For Bootstrapped Entrepreneur

One of the best channels for bootstrapped entrepreneurs is digital marketing. Here’s how to do it right.

Feb 3: 4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Marketing Language

Do you speak English or do you speak “marketing” jargon? Online attention spans are short and competition intense, so clear language is essential to make your social media marketing perform and incite interest in your business.

As in all relationships, people connect with straightforward and honest communications. Read more…

Feb 3: 4 Effective Video Marketing Content Ideas

Sure, you’ve thought about how to make your videos more successful, and that requires thinking about audience reception to a degree. Read more…

Feb 3: 25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

Fill Out Your “Bio” Section

Before you pass “Go” and collect $200, be sure to fill out the “Bio” section of your Instagram profile. Read more…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: