JB NOVA – A Blog for the Entrepreneur

Viral marketing is a cool term for word of mouth on the Internet.  It is where people hear about your website service or products through other people.  Sending an email with an advertisement on the bottom is a good way to spread the word.  Having a newsletter also increases your visibility online.  There are also forums that discuss products and services and rate them.  Viral marketing’s referral technique works like the snowball effect, which increases exponentially the visibility of your business.  Getting personal recommendations to try a product or service is a great way to build credibility and trust in the company.  Repeating these referrals to other people makes the customer actively engage themselves and not passively hear about the products advantages.

Viral marketing is a great way to keep advertising costs way down.  Passing along an article from an ezine keeps the message intact, is free and easy to pass along, and doesn’t cost anything, but offers a clear benefit to both parties involved.

Here are some ways to make your viral marketing message work.  You can give away a free article with a pass it on link on the bottom, or a free demo version of your product, or offer a free trial of your service on your web site and include a share it with your friend button at the bottom of the page.  You could also hold a contest and capture people’s contact information and each time their friends come to the site, they are entered into the contest again.  Starting your own affiliate program, where affiliates generate traffic to your website with banner ads, text links, letters of referrals, etc.  You pay for results only.

Viral marketing is the way to achieve high traffic cheaply and effectively on the web.  Provide your customers with a compelling reason to pass on the message and you are well on your way to big time traffic.

A personal crisis doesn’t have to spell disaster for your business if you’re prepared.  Every business occasionally endures a crisis, but what happens when your dilemma isn’t falling profits but personal.

Because we have no idea what type of personal crisis may await us – an ugly divorce, debilitating disease, or ailing parent/child/spouse, we must be prepared. Just as you plan for advertising and promotions, you must plan for life’s surprises.

Paul Krasinski, founder of Lion Strategy Advisors, New York, suggests finding somebody NOW who can take over your responsibility and carry on for at least 20 days.  He/she needs to be someone who can communicate well with staff and command respect, and may or may not be the person you feel closest to in the company.

Once a personal crisis hits, Krasinski recommends “full disclosure” to your employees. This avoids the feeling of being hit by a bomb, and that business will go on as usual.  In case you think this doesn’t work, let me give you a case history.

Dana Weidaw, 28 and president of her own PR firm had only been in business 1 year when she tested “full disclosure” with her employees.  She was diagnosed with an aneurysm which required a surgeon to drill through her skull.  She had just landed her first major client and was publicizing a major hockey arena.  If all didn’t go well with the project, this client could turn out to be her last.

Before missing 7 days of work, Weidaw prepped her full-time employee, another agency she was working with, and her client by sharing the nitty-gritty details of her crisis.  She assured them everything would run according to plans and smoothly in her absence, and found that everybody was willing to work around her crisis.  Weidaw found that, by nature, people are very sympathetic.

A word of caution though, you need to know when to talk.  During and after a crisis – full disclosure is great.  If you’re “contingency” planning though, it might be prudent not to advertise that if your personal life goes in the tanker good old Gary or Suzy will be in charge.  Your employees may needlessly dwell on why they weren’t picked to run the show instead of them.  Above all, you don’t want to cause widespread distress or distract your staff from day-to-day operation.

Just as surely as you plan for financial allocations for your business, always have a crisis plan in place.  This may need adjustments from year to year as staff leaves and are replaced, so when planning for each year’s business needs include your crisis plan.

Before a doctor diagnoses a specific disease, his patient must undergo a series of laboratory exams and assessments. He has to know the history of his patient and how lifestyle affected his present health problem. As results come in, that would be an indication of the time when a physician gives specific drugs and therapies for maintenance. This will eventually contribute to the level of optimum health for that individual. If all else fails, the process will be repeated again.

Similar to what the above mentioned situation has stated, an entrepreneur’s responsibility would be pretty much the same. It’s just that, you should see your customers as his patients and what they must have to survive a present predicament or a need.

He or she must follow certain steps before doing anything irrational that could contribute to the downfall of his business. He or she should have certain characteristics innate in his personality for if you lack one of these, their most probably doomed to fail.

Entrepreneurship is collectively defined as exhibiting one’s vision, taking action, and pursuing that vision as a goal to be achieved in life as service to reality. In the meaningless definition, it’s getting your butt out of that couch and doing something rather than fulfilling your life’s destiny of being a couch potato.

Stated below are some of the distinct attitudes an entrepreneur should positively have:

• Optimism – is foreseeing things in a positive way notwithstanding any circumstances that may hinder progress. The assertiveness of an individual depends on his knowledge of how to handle a difficult situation

• Creativity – is thinking outside the box. Expanding one’s mind of what is beyond the ordinary through fine research and collection of data.

• Stability – either physical, mental, social or emotional, a leader must possess a stable life which means you could handle tough situations during tough times

• Charismatic – intelligence of communicating with different walks of life. Who says a charming man is less than an intelligent one? A good entrepreneur must have the certain magic glistening in their eyes and could convey enchanting words to get hold of that convincing power no one dare resist.

• Risk-taker – as someone beginning his own dream, you should be stern and must have the guts and the balls to take the big leap of plunging into their own doom or success. You should not be afraid of taking chances when opportunity strikes.

• Energetic – willing to do whatever it takes to reach to the finish line. Their drive must always be at its highest level for being an entrepreneur would make you work overtime. Their enthusiasm must prevail the next best thing.

• Time bound – like a written report in a newspaper, an entrepreneur must be on the top of every innovation. By looking at our past, we could predict our future.

Small businesses, in time, would turn out big if the scope of management exceeds what is expected. So it is necessary for a beginner to be positive about their endeavors. You must be very observant of what his environment lacks and needs. You should have sturdy shoulders to put on extra weight of carrying a responsibility that could change his or her life.

One’s greatest failure is sticking with the mentality of being conventional.

This would be one of an entrepreneur’s greatest downfalls.

Think big.

Act.

Make your business dreams come true.