Finding the Right Business Partner

Working with within a business partnership, as with anything, has both its advantages and disadvantages. The decision to go into business with another person isn’t something that should be taken lightly, and a fair amount of time must be taken so that you can carefully consider every implication that a partnership entails, and to be sure that you are making the right decision.

Working with a business partner may or may not benefit your business. Caution, coupled with strategic thinking and understanding that impact that introducing another key figure will have on your business, needs to be thoroughly understood before you make your final decision. Because it is so important, we’ve compiled a list of pro’s and con’s, together with reasons as to why you should and should not opt for a business partner.

Advantages

A business partner can help to develop your business, whilst giving you a strong teammate. Here are some advantages to opting for a business partner:

Double the manpower
Working with a business partner allows you to get more work done. When starting something new, resources can be limited, so a business partner that you can trust can be of great assistance and give you a much needed helping hand.

A difference perspective
Outside perspective is a marvellous tool to have. Objectively evaluating a new idea can save both time and money and help you to avoid costly mistakes with runaway ideas, which at the time may seem fantastic. When two or more people are involved in making a decision, the entire process becomes much easier, plans become more realistic, and concerns can be aired.

More skills to contribute
Having a business partner on board means that you’ll have use of an entirely new skill set; skills that you may possible not possess. Tasks can be divided according to the strengths that you both have, which means less time doing the things that you’re not so hot at, and more time concentrating on what you’re good at.

Double checker

Having a business partner means that there’s a barrier between a new idea forming, and that new idea becoming a reality. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Discussing ideas with a business partner can help you to realistically evaluate the idea, and help put it thoroughly through its paces.

No hiding from your mistakes
Business partners hold you accountable for the decisions that you make and can help you to stay motivated. Going it alone is tough; a business partner is there to keep you moving.

Disadvantages

Choosing the wrong business partner can lead to stress, frustration, and even bankruptcy. Here are a few disadvantages when working with a business partner:

Profit sharing
Splitting the profits is another factor that must be taken into consideration. The idea of a business partner is that they help you to grow the business whilst making more profits. Failure to do this could leave you asking why they are even there.

You’ll work differently
Working with someone who doesn’t share the same work ethic as you may cause problems. Not being fully committed and not following through on responsibilities can end up bankrupting a business. Make sure that you absolutely know the person that you are going into business with or it could be your reputation on the line.

Disagreements
Disputing about long-term goals may cause serious problems; if you’re not working together for the greater good, you may end up causing each other stress and wasting time. Make sure that your goals are the same and that you are both striving for the same results.

Lack of Experience
When working with a business partner, you need to be able to rely on your partner to deliver the results that your business needs. Failing to do this right could lead to disaster.

Your reputation at stake
Dishonesty and shady practices could leave your reputation in shatters. Your reputation is worth more than you may realise, and having a business partner that could negatively impact this, is not worth the trouble. Before deciding to take on a business partner, be certain that they add value to both you and the business.

Consider this Before Working with a Partner

Analyse the reasons why you want a business partner before making a decision. Below is a list of both good and bad reasons for selecting to work with a business partner. Make sure that you answer yes to the good list, and rethink your motives if you answer yes to any from the bad list.

The good

Create a business partnership for the right reasons. Good reasons for entering into a business partnership include:

1.      You need someone that possesses a different skill set to what you have

2.      There is more work for just one person

3.      You know of someone that can add value to your business and help it grow

4.      You work well within a team and will work much better in a team environment

The bad

Entering into a partnership for the wrong reasons can harm your business. Bad reasons for entering into a business partnership include:

1.      You want someone to agree with everything that you say

2.      You want to offload all of the responsibility

3.      This person is your friend

4.      You want someone just like you, who wants the same as you

What do you really want from a business partner?

How Do I Write a Blog Post That People Will Want to Read?

Writing the perfect blog post isn’t necessarily about just one or two things, it’s a combination of many points that come together to form a well-written and informative piece of writing, with the aim to answer a question that your target audience has.

Three key points that you blog post must include are:

• A focus point that is obvious with a clear conclusion
• Easily readable text, containing images, headings, and is roughly 400-600 words long
• Good grammar and spelling

Sounds straightforward enough. So how do you get started?

Who are you writing to?

Who is your audience? Knowing who your target audience is will shape what you’re writing, plus it will decide the tone that you type in, and language that you use.

How do you know who your audience is?
Research. Look at other blog posts covering the same topic. Visit forums that the people in your industry are visiting; how do they speak, what language do the use? Write down everything that you find so that you can start to build a profile. Over time, writing for your audience will get easier the more that you know, so continually doing this means that you’ll always be on top of what’s going on.

What are you saying?

What point do you want to get across, i.e. what’s your takeaway? What do you want your reader to know once they have finished reading? For example, after you have read this post, I want you to know that:

• You should know who you are talking to before you begin writing
• You should have a main focus and an end result for your reader
• You should take the time to make sure that all spelling is correct and that there are no grammar errors

These are the three points that I want to leave you with at the end of this post. I have clearly outlined them in an easily readable format, and haven’t left anything up to chance. Those are your takeaways, and if these are unclear, then this blog post hasn’t done its job.

How do I know what I’m saying?
Bullet point the main points that you would like you reader to leave your post knowing. Make sure that these are covered within the post, and if you find that what you have written is too long, create a separate post so that you can go into more detail.

How well is your blog post written?

You may not be a writer by profession, but in the digital world that we now live in, we all need to know our ‘there’ from our ‘their.’ A well-written and grammatically correct blog post makes all the difference, and if a reader finds your post difficult to read because of poor grammar or frequent spelling mistakes, they’ll most likely click off and find another that is better written and easier to read.

How do I make sure that everything’s correct?
Write your blog post in Word first; that’ll spot any obvious errors and let you know with a squiggly line. Don’t rely on this though. Word isn’t necessarily always right, and it won’t always spot when you’ve used an incorrect word, but have spelt it correctly. If you are unsure, double check. It may take longer to write, but you’ll have a much better post at the end of it.

Leave your post for a day or two before publishing so that you can proof it with fresh eyes, or alternatively, get someone else to proof it. That way you can make sure that it makes sense, as well as check for any errors in the text.

Were you pecked by the Penguin?

I actually wrote this piece for Yahoo! about a month ago, so although they have only now published it, it still remains relevant.

For those of you that know your Google stuff, you'll probably already know about the Penguin updates and you'll know about them because it's either improved or worsened your page ranking result.

Bottom line is, Google is trying to make it extremely difficult for all those naughty black hat SEO's out there, using naughty tactics in order to boost either their, or their clients page ranking.  In the long run, this isn't going to work out well for either.  You may be able to fool Google once and possibly even for quite some time, but when you get caught, and yes when you get caught, you'll get fined and penalised etc. and all of your hard work will be for nothing.

I have to say that although these updates have kicked up quite a bit of fuss from businesses who have seen their google page rank decrease for what they say to be no apparent reason, and I do feel for these people, as years of hard and honest work has quite literately gone down the pan, I also understand that this update is a move in the right direction for users in general.

Change is good and we should embrace it.

Here's the article;

USA article for those who would like to +1 ;)

UK Article

Has your websites page ranking changed since the updates?  And now that you've had some time to re-coup, have you clawed it back?  I welcome your comments :)

Where has Google Places Gone?

I wrote a blog post for wiselittleninja yesterday about the transition of Google Places over to Google+ Local.  Basically, Google places is no more and all of the information stored in Places has been transferred over to Google+ local, which you can find as a new tab to the left hand side of the home page in your google account, if you have one.

As a social media advocate, I really welcome the changeover from a static, stagnant and quite ordinary business page, to an evolving and collective advertisement which encourages both customers and business to become more social and listen to wants and needs of the community.

I appreciate that it seems to be yet another hoop that the local business has to jump through in order to to stay ahead of the game, but look at it in a positive way;  you have another platform to interact with your clients and customers, another platform to listen to them and another platform to receive feedback in order to improve your product or service.  It's a winner.


New Key features

• Uses new zagat scoring system
• Encourages businesses to interact with cusomers
• Allows business to become more social

Overall, offering a better customer experience in the long run and hopefully making local businesses a part of the community again. 

Read the post here

Food Porn

ALERT! POST CONTAINS FOOD PORN!

* Are you surrounded by people who complain that they're too fat and need to loose weight, even though they look like a twelve year old?

* Are you puzzled by the the C listers post baby workout regime, which feature in the numerous thoughtless glossy mags, and think to yourself; "Who the fudge is looking after the baby?"

* Do you experience an inner rage, liken only to the feeling of stubbing your toe as you get out of bed, at the sheer mention of the phrase 'no carbs before marbs', 1) because you actually enjoy eating carbs and could really do with NOT feeling insanely guilty about eating a sodding chip, and 2) because you are not even going to 'marbs', but thanks....for the constant reminder.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need to, and quite immediately, stuff your face with this!

Even better idea!  Print off a dozen pocket size pics of this image, and whenever you come across another human being who looks like they are deliberately depriving themselves of adequate nourishment and quite openly and annoyingly will declare this to the world around them, subtly place it within their view (or pocket) when they're not looking, just to remind them that there's more to life than salad.

That's right, today I am sharing with you some explicit food porn; a glorious sausage sandwich.  I wouldn't like to speculate it's calorific content, but if I were to take a wild guess, I'd have go with; high.  Meh.  With the never ending rain, swollen glands and depressing lack of sunshine, I think we could all do with some cheering up and indulge in a dish that will nourish our souls; a high in fat, high in salt, soul nourishing, burger and bun.  Yum!

Hey, and if you ever come across anyone who doesn't actually know what a sausage sandwich is, because, let's face it, the title could do with being a tad more self explanatory; then just recite this definition which I have copied and pasted from Wikipedia's very own page, dedicated entirely to sausage sandwiches -

A sausage sandwich, is a sandwich containing cooked sausage.

Got it?


Ingredients - Tesco's finest pork & caramelised red onion sausages, Warburtons stonebaked wholemeal (soft as you like) rolls & a whole brown onion.

Facebook Fun

When launching my two blogs and my brand spanking new company wiselittleninja  (scary stuff by the way) I wrote on my facebook wall a little plea to my facebook friends, asking them to like my two new facebook pages. 

I wanted to take a different approach to the 'please like my page', so decided to keep it light and humorous so that I didn't sound like a complete desperado.

So I opened with...

'I'm just a girl...standing in front of my facebook friends...asking you to like me...'

...and it sparked quite a humorous response, I hope you find it as funny as I did!

It could have gone on and on...but I do need to sleep at some point...

CIM Digital Marketing Bootcamp

Wednesday the 18th was an exciting day as I attended the CIM digital marketing bootcamp.  Yay.  I enjoy going to workshops and bootcamps, as it makes a nice change actually speaking to people in person, rather than sitting in front of my computer talking to other people, who quite possibly, are sitting in front of their computer.

Four topics were covered in quite a bit of detail, so here's a brief summery of each...

Email Marketing 

Rechenda Smith of little green plane, bestowed upon us the 10 email marketing commandments, the fundamental 'do's and don'ts' of running a successful marketing campaign and the key elements that could more than double your email open rates and increase revenues.  Exciting right? 

I learned some great little nuggets of information regarding just how mahusive email marketing is and how effective it can be.  Did you know for every £1 spent, on average, your return on investment would be £42?  That's enticing.

Rechenda shared few key design tips, such as making sure that you always use one prominent call to action and maintain an equal text to image ratio.  Make it clear what you want your reader to do, whether it be sign up for a newsletter or book a course, make sure that you use an obvious button that links exactly to the page where they can sign up or book.

Rechenda also pointed out some of the most common email marketing mistakes; such as using poor data and not testing a campaign first.  No spamming, of course, and always listen whilst adding value to your customers; don't just constantly email with how great you are, you may very well be great, but no one like a show off. 

Download the Big Guide to Email Marketing for some really great email marketing basics and the full list of the 10 email marketing commandments.
twitter:@RechendaSmith

Top 5 Email Marketing Tips

• Use the opt-in approach
• Listen to your database; don't just talk at them
• Continually test and evaluate
• No spamming!
• Always aim to give value to your customer

Social Media

Yep, facebook, twitter, You tube and all that jazz.  Warren Knight, co-founder of gloople, gave a really insightful talk on how to retain customers whilst building loyalty and engaging and listening with your client base, via various social media platforms.    

Warren listed his 7 simple steps to building a B2B social media strategy and the benefits of using social media platforms to participate in conversations with your customers, and potential customers, online and in real time.

One of the main benefits that Warren spoke of, is the fact that social media can help you to define what your customers wants and needs are and receive honest feedback in immediately.  Social media is instant, its there and it's in your face, the good the bad and the sometimes quite strange.


Social media can expand our reach to so many people on a relatively low budget nowadays, something that only mass marketing through TV or radio could have achieved not so long ago, and it's crazy that so many businesses do not have an online marketing strategy, ay ay ay.   


Here's Warrens Slide Share presentation    twitter:@wvrknight

Top 5 Social Media Tips

• Know your your target audience
• Listen, listen, listen
• Experiment
• Make everything digital
• Always aim to add value to your customers
  

SEO

Moving on to the wonderful world of SEO with search director at Craft media, Ian Miller.  Wanting to know a bit more on the workings of SEO I was really looking forward to this talk, and it didn't disappoint. 

So where do you even start with SEO?  Google of course!  Over 90% of online searches are made using Google, so making friends with the online giant is vital for achieving organic online growth.  

After a slight hiccup with the projector, Ian hulked out and smashed it into the ground (only joking, just seen Avengers Assemble) He remained very composed and gave the room an excellent presentation on SEO's various aspects and the importance of using white hat SEO practices verses black hat (of course).  His motto; would you tell your mum? Great motto.  Would you be proud telling your mum what you've done, and if the answer's no, step away from the computer and take off the black hat and don't go there , it's wrong.

Ian shared with us some great sources for getting quality links for your link building strategies and some excellent tools to help make it a little easier to SEO the shizzle out of yours or your customers website, in a good way.

And here's his Presentation     twitter: @millerian

Top 5 SEO tips

• SEO is ongoing, it should be part of your marketing strategy
• Get quality links by asking others
• Update sites with good content regularly
• Use webmaster tools and Google analytics
• Find errors with your website and fix them

Paid Search (PPC)

Well, this is where is it all got a bit technical for me!  James Fairweather of coast digital, was very in depth, and it was clear that he was extremely passionate about what he does.  I'm not going to pretend that I understand the maths behind PPC, because I haven't the foggiest, but from what I understood, PPC is a complex and in depth undertaking if you really want to get it right.  I definitely wouldn't just 'give it a go' if I had the money, I'd invest in a specailised company who know exactly what they're doing!  I would have way more to say about PPC, but my brain actually melted due to the sheer overload of information on the day; and I couldn't find my pen.

Get your head around it here      twitter @J_Fairweather

Top PPC Tips

• Ask a Pro!

Little bit at the end...

At the end of the day, digital marketing is all about giving the customer the best online experience that you can give them with the hopes that they will, at some point, or regularly, buy your product or service.  No one really likes a hard sell, it does still work on occasions and in some industries, but no one really likes it, in the same way that no one really likes it when someone constantly tweets about how fantastic their life is or that you should buy from them, it's boring.

If you want to promote your business the right way, find out what your customers want to hear about, not what you think they want to hear, and always aim to add value.  Always.