Executive Coaching Myths and Facts

Article written by Herb Kimble

Executive coaches have devalued over the years, but they’ve never lost what makes them important. Some big names have tainted the profession and given coaching a bad name. Overall, the act of seeking advice from an executive coach is one of the most valuable investments you can make in yourself. Here are a few of the myths and some facts to help dispel them.

You Don’t Need Coaching

Oh, so you know everything there is to know about everything that impacts your life? You have all the answers and you never doubt yourself? If you’re one of the very small amount of people who can answer a sincere “yes” to these questions, kudos. For the rest of us, an executive coach is all about providing guidance to those answers.

Coaching is Just Motivating

Coaching does involve motivation, but not in the self-help kind of sense that is peddled in supermarket tabloids. A good coach will help you stop and reflect on your successes as well as your failures. They inform you through constructive criticism, acknowledge your doubt and help you feel validated. That goes much farther than simply saying kind and thoughtful words meant to inspire action.

Coaches Teach Tricks

This one can be true, but not in the sense that people think. Many who don’t approve of coaching will dismiss what a coach does as teaching tricks to control or manipulate people. They do teach tricks, but they’re about manipulating your own feelings and being in control of yourself and your own actions. A good coach isn’t full of cliche and ideas everyone’s heard before. They understand your situation and help you overcome your weaknesses with specific advice or insight you can build upon.

Herb Kimble at Speaking at Credit Repair Summit

Bio: Herb Kimble is both an entrepreneur and a film and television producer. His roots as an accomplished actor gave him a passion for the arts. Today, Herb Kimble is co-founder of CineFocus Productions and launching Urban Flix, an inclusive streaming company based in Los Angeles.

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5 Reasons to outsource your marketing program

Outsourcing – Business Background. Blue Arrow with “Outsourcing” Slogan on a Grey Background. 3D Render.

Outsourcing your marketing program can be a good decision as it can help you amplify your marketing campaign efforts. Here are five reasons to outsource your marketing program.

Access to a professional marketing team – If you are a small marketing team of one or two, handling a large campaign can result in a campaign that does not reach its goals. By outsourcing a specialist, you will be able to focus on your business’s strengths and get assistance when needed.

Decreased marketing overhead – Finding good marketing personnel when you need them can take some time. Therefore, if you have a campaign or project that needs to begin now, it may be a good idea to outsource your marketing program.

Build marketing infrastructure – A good outsourcing marketing firm will have programs, processes, and functions which can be used later on by your team. Other technical details like coding websites, writing and optimizing, polishing ad copy, can be handled by experts who are trained to get the best results.

Save time – If you don’t have a marketing team and need to begin a campaign, outsourcing is a sensible option and one that will reap the most benefits.

An overworked internal team – Daily marketing projects can keep your internal marketing team busy with little to no time or energy to work on new projects. Outsourced marketing teams will focus on your additional project and give it their all to make it a success.

 

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What sort of internet presence does a small business need?

One of the best things about the internet and the web is that it levels the playing field for all business large and small. Larger businesses have more resources, so they can take better advantage of the reach and exposure the internet offers. However, even a small business can take advantage of online marketing, they just need to be smart about where they put their limited resources. Here are the best ways a small business can use the web:

Facebook page

There is a good argument that you don’t need a website anymore. All you need is a Facebook page. A Facebook page allows your business to have a presence online without the costly need for hosting and website design. Also, you get a direct channel with your customers for customer service and general promotion.

Storefront

A business that deals with the sale of physical goods should set up storefronts in the most popular services like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc. There are also services like Shopify that simplify the process of setting up an online store and accepting various payment methods. You can also link the storefront to sites like Instagram if your products carry a visual edge.

Things to avoid

What you want to avoid is creating accounts at various social networks and not maintaining them. For example, everyone creates a Twitter account, but very few organizations actively use the service. If you don’t need it to interface with customers, don’t use it. Close dormant accounts or sign up only to reserve the names for future use.

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5 Essential positions you should fill when building a marketing team

If you are looking at building a high performing marketing team that is focused on growth and client acquisition, here are the five most important positions you need to fill.

The player-coach – Your marketing team will need a leader who is someone with high intellectual capacity, has an entrepreneurial spirit, and the ability to lead others. Although this position involves managing others, they will also have to learn to be hands-on and look carefully into all aspects of the business.

The researcher – Marketing correctly will require information like algorithms, bid management, and Google updates.

The Writer – Good quality content is vital to your marketing portfolio. Exceptional writers are required for blogs, social media, for PR, or advertising.

The website pro – You will need someone to design and develop your website. Managing your website in-house is an excellent way to stay current and make changes whenever required.

The analytics and operations pro – It is essential for any business to have a data-driven, operations-focused team member who can manage technology solutions and provide analytics that will help decision making. They will also be able to track your progress and help with forecasting sales and customer engagement as and when products, services or marketing tactics change.

If finding five professionals is difficult as your business is small, look at integrating the roles with individuals who have previous experience in similar positions.

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5 Money management tips for young business owners

Being a successful entrepreneur is a dream of many young professionals who aspire to become successful in the business world. Here are some simple tips that will help young business owners succeed in business.

Set a budget – Budgeting is key to managing your personal and business expenses. However, it is important that the budgets set are realistic and cover your expenses. Look at focusing on your business’s needs, instead of your wants to help you spend on what is important.

Decode financial statements – Financial statements will provide you with information about the health of your business. Therefore understanding financial data is key to making sound decisions that will help you steer your business in the right direction. Understand basic finance and mathematical concepts before you embark on any business venture.

Save receipts – When calculating your taxes, you will find that your old receipts will become highly beneficial. Look at recording your receipts and business expenses in an organized manner that can be referred by you or a staff member with ease.

File your taxes – Paying taxes is a must as not paying your taxes is a federal crime. To avoid heavy penalties, file your taxes and hire an expert to assist you if you are unable to do it on your own.

Diversify – Reduce you effects of failure by diversifying your business and placing funds in alternate investments. Diversifying is a contingency plan that will act as a cushion when your core business is not doing well.

 

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4 Digital marketing skills to master for new business owners

Digital marketing handwriting note with laptop, pencil on notebook, eyeglasses and coffee cup on desk

If you are a small business owner, you will realize that you have to wear many hats to keep your costs low and manageable. Here are some digital marketing skills that will help your business generate more buzz and reach its intended target market.

Blogging and content management – Look at what you want to achieve from your blog and how you can enhance your branding. The best way to get the most from your blog and content is to understand what motivates your audience. Your content should be based on the goals and the aspirations that motivate your target audience. Consider developing an editorial calendar that plans out the posts that will be released. Mix relevant topics to balance the site and to provide consistent content to your audience.

Web analytics – Data on how your online visitors engage with your website will help you create advertising campaigns that are effective. Look at creating a Google Analytics account and use this account to understand your audience.

Social media – Social media has become a strong platform for companies, as they look at building relationships with their audience. Look at platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to reach your audience on a personal level.

Email marketing – Email marketing will help to boost web traffic and generate leads to make your company visible. Look at always sending welcome notes, payment approvals, or shipping confirmations to keep constant contact with your audience.

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Creating effective marketing communications for a small business

Small businesses will not have large budgets to spend on marketing and communications. Therefore, it is important that small businesses have a clear plan when embarking on any form of advertising.

When you are looking at selecting advertising methods ensure that they grab your consumers’ attention, provide information and offer consumers a reason to buy your product or service. Any marketing campaign should try to create a relationship, that will build a two-way interaction between the business and the consumer. Your message to your consumer must nudge the consumer to buy your product or service by providing a clear message that is visual and one that offers the consumer a single inspiring idea.

When creating a marketing campaign, consider starting the project with clear objectives. Clear objectives will provide a single creative message that will help the team working on the project. Reaching out to any target market can be difficult, as people are busy and distracted with the large number of marketing messages they receive. Making your idea stand out is key to fuel interest and inspire action.

Gather inspiration from campaigns that used key features of their product to make a statement in the market. Look at the “got milk” ads and the “smell like a man” old spice slogan. These messages resonate in consumers’ minds as they are simple and give you an overall idea about the product and focus on the products need to the consumer.

 

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More Options: How Credit Cards and Currency are Changing

You may have heard that digital wallets are beginning to catch on as smartphone adoption rates rise. This is a good thing for consumers and businesses, because it reduces the risk of fraud and unauthorized access to sensitive account data. Due to the multiple layers of security used in such transactions. That’s why some digital wallets are accepted in over 100 countries.

Increasingly, credit card processing companies are making hardware and software compatible with these new developments. Getting all of these services to “talk” to one another, in order to exchange financial information for a customer’s account to complete the purchase, has been a challenge up till now. Today, there are more ways than ever to pay for something in line at your local department or grocery store, and several advantages to all of them.

Basic Security

When sending payments over the internet, the purchaser needs to relay his or her information to the merchant’s bank. This information includes account numbers, as well as the amount to be transferred. All of this data is first encrypted before it’s sent anonymously through a payment gateway.

On the consumer side, you sign up for an account. This account trakcs all of your data, so you can imagine that this account’s credentials are basically vouching for your bank account.

This is a good thing overall because accounts don’t really vanish. If you were to lose your wallet, you might lose your credit cards for a while, and will definitely lose the cash inside that wallet. With digital wallets, you can simply log in from another device and continue as usual. You’ll still want to report your phone lost or stolen, but your device has additional security that prevents hackers from gaining access to it.

Modern phones use NFC chips to store financially sensitive data. Even if the hacker gains root access to your phone, it would be quite difficult to gain entry into this chip to steal the data inside.

What Changed

According to Charge.com, one of the fundamental shifts that occurred was the move to digital. Today, nearly everyone has a cell phone and that cell phone contains personally identifying information like your bank account. Companies that process transactions at the register have ample experience working digitally, which translated well to brick and mortar stores. Today, you’re just as likely to swipe something on your phone as you are to swipe your card.

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How to build a high-performance marketing team?

Growing a company can be difficult in a competitive market where customers are constantly changing. Marketing has now become an important factor in strengthening customer trust and building a relationship even after a sale is complete. Therefore, building a strong high-performance marketing team can be your ticket to business success.

Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day – Your marketing team will only serve their customers if they love working for your organization. Creating a work culture that is based on teamwork, integrity, and creativity, can be a good way to instill the right mindset.

Rate individually – Look at each marketing member’s strengths, expertise, weaknesses and how they each contribute to your bottom-line objectives.

Rate your marketing – Measuring and rating your marketing efforts will give you and your marketing team a clear idea of how to continuously improve.

Document goals – When your marketing team has a clear destination, they will be able to take the necessary steps to get there. Your goals should be clear, measurable and attainable.

Transform blockers – Often a project will have blockers that stall or prevent the project from going forward or reaching its full potential. Start with prioritizing these issues and ask one team member to handle each issue as a separate project.

Identify gaps – If your issues are related to the lack of skill, expertise or experience, look at getting outside help in the form of a consultant.

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The ideal customers for an ice cream store

Summary: Even something as popular as an ice cream store should target specific markets. In this article, we look at the ice cream eating habits of families with children and adults.

The first step when starting a new business, or even marketing an existing business is to identify the target market. Ice cream shop owners assume that everyone is their target market, when in fact, with a little bit of targeting, they will save both time and money when marketing the store. Even niche stores that sell healthier options can cater to several subsets of the same market. This is why it is important to know who your target is and how to entice them. Here are the main target markets for an ice cream store:

Families with children

You can target your advertising by both age and gender. At least 34% of households with children consume at least four quarts of ice cream every month. Similarly, African American households prefer a larger range of flavors and eat more of the dessert than the typical household. Households without children consume about 20% less than those that do. Families that travel with children almost always stop for an ice cream on the way.

Teenagers

When it comes to teenagers, the statistics are slightly different. Teenage boys will always order premium ice creams when available. Teenage girls on the other hand only opt for the premium flavors after a breakup or during stressful times. The standard fare for teenage girls are healthier options like froyo or low-calorie low-sugar flavors.

Use data like this to position your store for the right demographic and make the most of your advertising dollars.

Written by Gelato Products. In the market for frozen yogurt supplies wholesale? Gelato Products will have everything you need for your store.

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