The 10 Minute Marketer

What’s Behind the Open Door “When one door closes, another door opens.” We’ve all heard this saying so many times that it’s practically a cliche. Still, the concept remains true in all aspects of life. Most of the time, when someone tells us to take advantage of an opportunity, they’re talking about a potential relationship, applying for university enrollment, and things like that. Many people don’t realize that the same principle applies to starting a business. Business owners are no different from any other person who took a risk: they recognized an opportunity and capitalized on it. A lot of us haven’t taken business opportunities because we didn’t realize that the benefits outweighed the risk. It’s all about learning to identify a strong business opportunity and seizing it when the time is right. How to Spot a Good Business Opportunity Special guest Michael Farca, businessman, and entrepreneur shares with us his personal experiences with learning how to determine useful business opportunities. In his own words, you don’t even have to be a “go-getter” to build this skill. Knowing how to identify a profitable business venture only requires you to know what to look for. Michael will give us a few pointers on how we’ll be able to know if we’ve stumbled upon a good business opportunity. Follow Michael on Twitter @mfarca for more tips on how to get your business started.

Summary: When starting a business, it’s important to understand the legal framework you’re working within because not every industry has the same rules. Our guest and owner of three businesses, Michael Farca, has a couple tips for up-and-coming entrepreneurs about how different businesses are structured. What Are the Types of Business Structures? Before you can officially set up a business, you’re required to send some information about your new business with the IRS for tax purposes. One of the things you have to establish with the IRS is what type of business you own. The IRS recognizes five types of businesses: Corporations: Has several shareholders accumulating and trading money and property for capital stock. Corporations are legally viewed as an entity separate from its shareholders. S Corporations: A corporation that passes corporate tax responsibility on to its shareholders for tax purposes. Partnerships: Owned by two or more people who share the profits and expenses. Sole proprietorships: Unincorporated and owned by only one person. Limited Liability Company (LLC): A business with tax liability protection. Depending on state law, the business may be owned by any number of people. Not every type of business is allowed to be an LLC. Liability Protection & Tax Laws It’s essential to know what type of business you’re interested in running because it will affect how the business is run. Most importantly, the business structure you choose dictates how much you’ll be paying in taxes and how liable you are as a business owner. Each structure has its own set of pros and cons. Sole proprietorships and partnerships tend to have high liability risks, but both of them may be eligible to be reclassified as LLCs. Both C and S Corporations have built-in liability protection but will usually require extensive tax services as compared to a partnership or sole proprietorship.   Starting your own business can seem like a colossal task, but it doesn’t have to be. Follow Michael Farca on Twitter @mfarca to stay updated on how to manage your business.

Overcoming Obstacles with Guest Michael Farca

On the Job Training and Dressing the Part with Guest Michael Farca

Experiences With Social Media Plus Tips & Advice With Guest Michael Farca

My “Aha Progression” with Guest Michael Farca

Personal Financial Management for New Entrepreneurs With Guest Michael Farca

Happiness is something we all strive for – at work and in our personal lives; however, a recent Gallup Poll said that about a third of us just aren’t happy and we spend about a third of our lives doing something that we hate. Our guest is a career life coach – Jody B. Miller – and she is known as the Work Happiness Expert she also has a new book – From Drift to Shift. Why are so many people unhappy and unfulfilled? The reasons are many, but most of the time it’s because people don’t take the opportunity to follow their heart – they just go along with expectations which may have started as early as childhood.  A lot of times people have deep desires but they don’t follow their hearts and they end up doing something they don’t like - which makes them unhappy.  This generation of millennials is starting to break that mold – they don’t care much about money, they are following their hearts.   When do you know what you want to do? If we all really think about it – it is deep within us and we already know what we want to do.  As one motivational speaker once said “you’re exactly where you want to be” – you have to get up and change your life.  We’re all afraid, but we have to embrace change, go with the flow, work at it and embrace every new opportunity; happiness is the end goal. You also need to know that you matter. Stay in touch... Visit Jody’s website at www.jodybmiller.com and also buy her new book “From Drift to Shift.  

We all have a fear of speaking in front of groups of people or making a presentation – Dr. Joyce Knudsen, Impression Management Counselor is back to give some tips on how to keep an audience’s attention when speaking – no matter what the topic is.   Simple things to help hold someone’s attention The key thing is to talk about something the other person is interested in – especially those in the new generation; millennials and baby boomers have two different listening styles so it’s important to know your audience and speak on topics of their interest.   Make your audience is actively listening by asking them to provide feedback. At the beginning, tell them what you’re going to tell them – let them know why you’re you to tell them whatever it is; tell them and at the end tell them what you’ve told them.   Humor, short stories, short videos are also good but make sure you know your audience and that they can relate or connect to it.   How to make a speech or give a presentation?   Everyone in the audience is there to learn something – they’re not there to judge or attack you. Studies show that everyone – even celebrities- get nervous before getting in front of an audience but using humor or short stories to break the ice can make yourself and your audiences feel more comfortable.  It’s also great to break the presentation up so it’s not long and boring; it also helps to put your audience in groups to solve a problem. We all at some point have to present a speech, take part in an event and it’s great to be able to hold your audience’s attention and win them over. Stay in touch with Dr. Joyce by following the link to her website.  http://drjoyceknudsen.com/

We’re always trying to make good first impressions as we try to grow our businesses by gaining new clients and meeting new people all the time. Today’s guest is a regular on the show - Dr. Joyce Knudsen – an Impression Management Counselor; she helps people with creating lasting impressions not only in social media but also in one on one.   Key things to making a great impression Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a you’re in the corporate world, these days it’s really hard to make a great impression because people are so caught with doing so many things but the key thing is to be present in the moment, you have to give all of your attention – good eye contact, standing up straight, being ready to listen – and know the accepted personal space in the culture in which you are operating.   It also helps to exercise proper etiquette – that helps to make other people comfortable – it’s not about you but rather it’s about the other person and making them feel comfortable to talk to or deal with you.     Although it’s hard to be present in the moment – that’s hard, but it’s very important for the person you’re meeting to feel that you are giving undivided attention – so put away your phone.   Make a lasting impression and be successful... Another important thing is to be on time because wasting people’s time is disrespectful and will not create a great lasting impression.  Once an impression is formed, it’s very difficult change that.  You have to engage the person so that they will be willing to give you another opportunity to deal with them again.  There are those persons who know how to be successful and those who don’t; successful persons will display proper etiquette – respect people’s time, be present in the moment. Simple rules to live by...to make a great impression. Be present in the moment – turn that cell phone off. Be on time. Be careful of your body language – do not cross your arms, make eye contact and make other people comfortable. Recognize the person you’re with and make them the center of attention.     

We all have a passion for something and the question is how does that affect our lives. Today’s guest has a passion for architecture and her name is Karen Otis, and with this passion, she made an amazing discovery -- she created methods for designing and building the perfect life. So in a nutshell, what she does for homes and buildings is what she does for life. Karen will explain the full connection to us in the next ten minutes! When do we know when to rebuild our lives? Karen talks about how she helps change and rebuild people’s lives using these techniques. When we talk about rebuilding -- when do we know when to rebuild our life? To start off Karen says there is a huge epidemic in this country -- only 1 in 3 Americans think they’re ‘happy’ and in terms of the workforce, 52% feel they’re unhappy at work. Those are huge numbers, and you know it’s time to make a change or “rebuild” when one or two things happen: either there’s a social or outside trigger, let’s say a divorce, or you get laid off, or the other one being  when you finally get to a point where you think to yourself, “Is this it?” Even David in relation to this point says that he has made some changes in his life in the last couple years to make sure he was following his passion. Life changing experiences There are a lot of people Karen has worked within the ‘life building’ workshop that have somewhat stumbled upon their jobs just by chance or maybe they went into a field that they studied in school. As an example, Karen has a client that was a contractor salesman who lost his job. He instantly thought that he needed to replace it but through some of Karen’s work, he had realized that he always hated the job. So instead of jumping in and replacing it, he did the first step of Karen’s method -- looking at your life and deciding what is fixed, what is stable, and what isn’t working. Karen adds most people get stuck thinking that everything we have now is how it should be -- but sometimes we need to demolish something or move it so that we can make room for a change. David builds on Karen’s point by mentioning how after getting married to his wife from the Philippines and looking at their lives -- they now want to spend part of the year over there His life took a change at this point and he realized the difference between slowing down and focusing on what’s fun for him and enjoy his life versus what he thinks he was told by his parents to do. Karen claims what we do is create a wishlist for our lives that maybe isn’t even our own. Create, don't react For her when it all came to her was during her divorce -- she didn’t know how she was going to pursue anything especially raising her two little kids. Nothing worked for her, therapy sessions, self-help books, etc. But what she realized as an architect is that she doesn’t ‘react’ to anything, she ‘creates’. This means that you need to be the one to get in the lead and create, not just react to what is thrown your way and that’s how you build your ‘perfect’ life -- your life inspired. Other Techniques as an Architect that you brought over Karen goes through some of the steps she uses to design any home or building - Sight-Study: Evaluate what you ‘see’. - History: Everything in your life does affect you. It’s a matter o of looking at the history where you come from. You need to look to your personal history and see what ‘patterns’ are getting in your way - Envision your vision: Keep your logical practical analytical part of the brain aside. Get into what your ‘soul’ is saying -- because once your soul is involved that’s when something magical happens.   We can’t let fear get in the way. We need to envision it. Karen has a new book and a website: otisarchitecture.com

Today’s show will look at how customers, clients see you – how your brand is perceived.  The guest today is an expert on the subject and a regular on the show – Dr. Joyce Knudsen - she’s a great impression maker.  She has worked with entrepreneurs and larger businesses on how to establish and improve on the things that create a good impression. Why is it important to create a good impression? It’s important because once you’ve made an impression it’s very difficult to change it; it sticks in your mind – there are ways to improve the impression but that first impression is always there and you have to have a lot of good impressions after that in order to change it.  There’s only one chance to make a good first impression. How do you make a good impression? There are some quick and easy ways that you make and improve on a first impression - the way you answer your phone, can your clients reach you, what does you website look like and what you’re doing on social media.   Nowadays, even employers look at what persons are doing on social media before calling them for a first interview and unfortunately, many have already ruined that impression by what they have displayed on social media. How important are web pages or social media? Some entrepreneurs think websites are not important or they don’t have the time but Dr. Joyce suggests that websites are very important – they are like business cards. If you are doing your website yourself and it’s not being professionally done – that’s a bad first impression.  Similarly, on social sites – care should be taken to ensure the profile is properly presented and there are no negatives attached to your profile. Other ways to make a good impression You want to be able to control the way people see and perceive you, you want to project trustworthiness and you want to inspire confidence in your abilities; speaking clearly, not joking too much and presenting yourself professionally will also help to make a good first impression. Stay in touch... You may reach Dr. Joyce at www.drjoyceknudsen.com  

Acquiring a customer takes a lot of work but many entrepreneurs just focus on acquiring the customers but they overlook retaining these customers as they consider customer service a great cost – today’s guest is Dr. Joyce Knudsen and she will be talking about the impressions that customer service makes and how they can help to build our business. Customer Acquisition VS Customer Retention Although it costs as much seven times more, many entrepreneurs focus on new customer acquisition than customer retention but while it’s there’s nothing wrong with working hard to grow your customer base, it’s important to know and remember the value of the customers you already have and their brand loyalty.  If you have customers who haven’t been active, the cost to reach out to such a customer is zero but this would result in increased sale; Dr. Joyce suggests that a significant portion of the revenue of a stable business comes from returning customers and even mores steady customers help businesses through tough economic times. Retaining customers through Reward Programs A lot of companies offer their customers some kind of rewards for shopping – and customers love this – they love getting something in the mail.  Outside of formalized reward programs which offer points or special benefits – find out what your customers like and send it to them – it could be even a box of candy. How do we build or improve our customer service department? You want to sell your customers something that they didn’t think they wanted – find out what it is they like and give it to them.  Also, it’s great to feature your fans in your content – there is a computerized tool called Snippet which is really easy to use but it is a good way of including your fans – fans want to be called by their names, they want to feel involved.  You want to ensure that you engage your customers and provide a service besides just the initial purchase, so even if your customer service department is just one person – take the time out of your day or your week to reach out to your customers, go the extra mile and follow up.

Today’s topic is “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of getting started” and today’s guest has an agency called The McGuire Content Marketing Agency; Robert McGuire is an expert in content marketing and he wrote a post which was all about today’s topic of discussion. Why do we feel the need to be perfect? We feel a need for perfection because we are worried, we fear that we will make a mistake or that we will fail and a lot of time we fear investing time and resources into something because we lack the confidence up-front  as to how a plan is going to work.  If you think about digital content marketing - it is really about experimenting, testing theories, optimizing and moving on; if you don’t have a move fast attitude you will send a very long time just digging through data that is already accessible. How to develop a plan that isn’t so overwhelming? David talks about his original plan for his podcast – two shows a week, a  hundred and four shows a year, all the topics he would cover, his guests – his plan became so overwhelming he had to just put it aside and say  let’s just do it.  It all starts with knowing who your audience is, develop a template which cover the basic elements of what you offer, and assign yourself deliverables. Robert’s Logic Model Template... Is that available on his website? Not yet – but very soon Practical steps to keep up with the content Robert’s agency is known for high quality content and, his advice to everyone is to have a niche – don’t try to be all things to all people, don’t worry about leaving money on the table and try to add value to your clients and their business. When do entrepreneurs need an agency like Robert’s? The short answer to that would be when they have a little bit more money than they have time.  Oftentimes entrepreneurs know they need to grow and if they have someone focusing on A to Z – content marketing sometimes fall through the cracks and that’s when they end up with an agency.  Most of Robert’s clients are typically those with revenues under five million dollars. Stay in touch...a link to Robert’s logic model template will be posted soon.

I’m sure you’re all like me -- going to websites, whether it be to compliment, get an issue solved, or even just for more product info  -- and then they never get back to you. As entrepreneurs, we need to learn how and when to respond to things. Bringing on a regular to the show, Dr. Joyce, David calls her an image maker, but she’s more about impressions, and we’re going to ask her how fast we should respond to inquiries. How long should we wait before responding to people? As chance would have it, right away (if you can) is the ideal answer. Dr. Joyce makes a 24 hours rule for herself for emails, but for social sites, you should get back to people right away -- at least check three times a day -- so that the morning, afternoon, and evening people get their answers. If not, you risk being unfollowed. Even at the chance that someone goes out of their way to compliment you, then you should reply. There are even times when people don’t ask you a question directly you should still reply to them because you may or may not get a follow out of it. Lisa brings up a past experience where one time a follower even asked if she was okay when she didn’t tweet one day. You should strive to build those relationships. Dealing with pests On the other hand, when someone constantly messages or tags you in posts, they become what Dr. Joyce calls a ‘pest’, meaning you don’t need to reply to these people 100% of the time or even instantly. Sometimes Dr. Joyce even mutes their posts -- the best part about this is that they don’t even know you’ve done it! Automation and outsourcing tweets If you’re really busy, is it okay to outsource or even automate some of your Tweets? Dr. Joyce says if you don’t have time to tweet yourself then you shouldn’t be on Twitter, but ideally, you should always get someone that sounds like you to help and if you do automate things then the campaigns should be as genuine and as interactive as possible. If it sounds authentic and legitimate then there shouldn’t be an issue with it. Using an auto-responder for emails We all know about the 24-hour rule when it comes to emails -- especially when we’re flooded with them but a suggestion if you can’t necessarily make it within that time are autoresponders. Regardless of if you’re away for three days or even a week it lets people know how busy you are or that you aren’t dead, essentially telling them that yes, you’ll eventually get to them. You should never build false expectations. Dealing with negativity If someone leaves a negative comment, review, or even just gossip, how do you reply? Dr. Joyce and David both just mute the person (in regards to social media). It’s better to not deal with it at all than potentially lose a follower.