Archive for the ‘business’ Category
Why Do the Most Successful People Fail the Most?
**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.
Something that many people do not realize about history’s iconic success stories is that many of these people failed over and over before achieving greatness. There is no shortage of people throughout history who have set out to do something and initially failed, but continued striving until they succeeded.
One such figure was Henry Ford. Most people know him as the founder of the Ford Motor Company and for his work developing the modern assembly line concept, but he was also an early failure. Ford had several businesses before his car company; he actually went broke five times before founding Ford Motor Company. He continued trying, and his car company is still an industry leader today.
Another former failure eventually became one of the most famous U.S. presidents in history. Abraham Lincoln served in the military as a captain, but was demoted to a private before his term of service ended. He also failed in several businesses, and even ran for several public offices without winning. His life was filled with early failures, but he kept trying and ended up saving the nation from tearing itself apart.
Unfortunately, not everyone gets to see their successes during their lifetime. Vincent Van Gogh completed over 800 paintings, but only sold one during his lifetime. He was often broke, but continued creating paintings because it was something he loved to do. Years after his death, Van Gogh is considered one of the greatest painters of all time.
A more modern success that experienced initial failure was Elvis Presley. In 1954, the manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired him after only one show, telling him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” Elvis pressed on, and is now considered the King of Rock.
All of these great successes had one thing in common: their drive and refusal to give up. It is no coincidence that many people who failed but kept striving for greatness eventually achieved that greatness. These are not run-of-the-mill success stories; they are the greatest successes in each of their respective fields. Everyone fails at some point. The only difference between a failure and a success is the determination to keep trying.
[image by Thomas Hawk on flickr]
About the author:
Taylor Hodge contributed this article on behalf of Zintro.com – an Industry & Technical Experts Directory where you can find experts by geographic focus.
4 Tips to Increase Profits and Reduce Costs In Your Business!
**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.
In every business, it is important to keep a balance between what you want and how much you spend. In an independent business, in particular it is relatively easy to boost the profits and reduce the costs incurred. However, there is a way of going about it. Given below are some important pointers that can help in achieving it.
4 Quick Tips to Improve Your Business:
- Monitor your business: Keep an eye on how your business operations. You must understand that you should not wait until you hit an iceberg to think of preventive measures. By monitoring your business, you will know what measure you need to take to boost your profit. This approach will also help you in deciding which new product or service you need to start selling or which product needs more exposure.
- Online promotion: The traditional way of promoting services is no longer profitable. To be visible to your target audience you should approach them through a medium that is used often by them. The online promotion will not only give serve as a platform but also garner enough attention to get your profit pouring in.
- Keep a check on your expenses: when you think of cutting down on your costs, you should keep track on the source of your costs, what do you spend the most on. Bring out all your invoices, balance sheets and expenditure lists and analyse what expenditure is necessary and what can be reduced. If you do this on an on-going basis, it would be much easier to plan your future expenses.
- Spot the bad apple: If a particular product is garnering more costs than profits, you must think about replacing or doing away with altogether. Products such as these merely sap all your money and make no effort to incur any profits. The more they stay with you the more it would be difficult to dispose it.
You can successfully achieve your cost reduction and profit boosting initiatives by following the above-mentioned suggestions. Remember, every cent counts and you must treat earning and spending it equally important. In the end, you will be set with a sound, well-functioning business.
[photo by Janelle Vadnais]
Author Bio:
Al Kraus is the Marketing Lead at Procurement Management & Solutions. Procurex plays a key role in ensuring manufacturing companies with overall profitability and growth. Take hold of cost management consulting that will deliver sustainable operational efficiencies and secure a competitive advantage for your company.
The Weekly 10-Second Marketing Challenge: Update Your E-mail Signature
**Note: This is a guest post written by one of our readers. For more information on how to submit a guest post, please read our guest posting guidelines.
When was the last time you checked to make sure your e-mail signature was serving your needs? If you haven’t done so lately, now’s the time to take 10 seconds to freshen it up.
Consider these questions as you evaluate your e-mail signature:
- Is all your information current?
- Is any critical information missing (accent on critical)?
- Is your signature neat, un-crowded, and attractive?
- Does your phrasing sound intelligent and businesslike?
- Does your signature evoke enthusiasm about your product or service or create curiosity about your company?
These are a few important issues to address when you create – or update – your business e-mail signature.
[image by Sean MacEntee on flickr]
The following eight e-mail signature best-practices can help you whip your e-mail signature into shape:
- Keep it simple. Don’t write a book! Four to seven lines seem to be about average. Provide only enough contact information to facilitate a connection. Too many choices create indecision, which leads to inaction. Choose a single phone number, e-mail address, and/or instant messaging ID, and skip your mailing address. Most people won’t need it, and those who do can find it on your website.
- Keep it up to date. Outdated information will be counterproductive to your business.
- Format for easy reading. Stay away from unusually large, fancy, or colored fonts, and don’t crowd everything together. Use pipes (|) to separate unrelated information you place on a single line.
- Skip the images. The only exception? Your company logo – but make it small. Trying too hard to be “artsy” can distract readers and will make you appear less professional.
- Link to your business website and main business social media pages. Resist the temptation to list every online address you’ve ever had. Instead of linking to your home page, try using your most effective landing page, with a simple call to action as anchor text. This could increase conversions.
- Leave out your favorite quotation. Not everyone will appreciate it as much as you do. If you must add something, try using your company’s tagline instead.
- Use a shorter signature for replies and forwards. It’s kinder to your recipient.Always view your e-mail signature through the eyes of your prospect. This can alert you when something just isn’t working. If it doesn’t work for you, chances are good that it won’t work for your prospect either.
- Your e-mail signature says a lot about your business. The overall impression it creates is crucial to your brand. Never underestimate the effect these few simple lines of text can have on your sales.
Study the above tips. Then, take 10 seconds to make a few changes to your e-mail signature. When you’re finished, stop by and let us how it went. We’d love to hear what worked for you and what didn’t. Every company is different. And that’s why every e-mail signature strategy will vary slightly from the “norm.”
About the author:
This article was contributed for Injury-lawyers.net.au by Sarah Carling. Sarah is a freelance writer and lawyer. She enjoys writing business related articles about social media and marketing.
