Have you ever tried implementing SEO strategies on your own? Or maybe this is the first time hearing about this? Wherever you might be, and whatever your business might be, you have to know about SEO and why hiring an SEO specialist is the best decision you will ever make when it comes to attracting more customers into your website. In this Episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, SEO expert Brandon Loures talks about his struggles and triumphs with SEO and what business owners should do if they want to get started with implementing this strategy.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Brandon get started with SEO? How did he get his very first client? What is the most challenging thing he’s had to face earlier on and how did he deal with it? How did Brandon deal with doubt in those early days? What is the first skill every business owner needs when it comes to implementing SEO strategies? What is the secret to success with SEO? What tools does Brandon use to help him with SEO? What is the role of Social Media when it comes to SEO? Why hire an SEO consultant? Knowing what he knows now, what would Brandon do differently given the chance to start all over again?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

 Starting Out

When you’re starting a business, you need to have both the relational capital and financial capital. Relational capital may be even more powerful than financial capital. Brandon got his first clients through capitalizing on his network. Brandon found it challenging to transition from working with a team in an agency to working by himself and having to manage his time a lot more efficiently. To get around that, he had to look into his organization and started using tools such as CRMs. First thing business owner needs to understand is the search landscape. Because SEO is all about what people are searching, Brandon recommends that business owners should read books that talk about the beginner’s guide to SEO.

SEO Tools and Secrets

The secret to SEO is having a foundation of good content that covers the main topics of your services on your actual website. One of the tools that Brandon likes to use is HARO or Help A Reporter Out. SEO is not only about what your website says but also what other people say and HARO is a tool that you can use to get media queries. When you’re creating a content for your website, keep the social aspect in mind.

Must-know About SEO

If you don’t have a good understanding of SEO and your goal in your business is to get more visibility, you should go ahead and hire an experienced SEO consultant. Going back to the beginning, Brandon wishes he would have known how important search engine partners are. Given that chance to start again, business to business relationships is something that he would’ve started earlier. Another thing he wished he has done more was read business books that talk about his specific industry. Good SEO consultant would be able to look at your analytics and can help you make decisions like whether or not you should offer a certain service in your area. SEO involves a lot of research that can be valuable for decision making in business.

Are you eager to begin with digital marketing but don’t know where to start? These three basic skills and other tips from Arti Sharma will surely help you when it comes to getting started with digital marketing. Arti has been in the industry for a while and is producing great results for her clients in Canada. She’s currently helping business owners get better results with the exact strategies that she’s using in her own business.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Arti get started with digital marketing? What is the first skill every business owner must cultivate or to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? What sort of things do they need to have on their website for it to be of value to the people visiting? What us the next aspect of critical skill that business owners need to develop in order to succeed in the digital world? Where should business owners put their focus on if they want to increase their presence and get more clients? What advice would Arti give to business owners?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

First Skill: If you have a budget for a website, then it’s a good place to start, having your online branding intact and having it in a succinct manner is important. There are three things you need to understand if you’re designing your own website: First, as a business owner, your website’s your salesperson and you have to make sure that your website speaks to your audience first, so write down the purpose of your website, write down who is the targeted audience that your website will serve and what kind of information will they take away from here. Finally, you want the brief to identify what are the calls to action you need to have your audience who visits you take. Make sure that your brief is clean and crisp, use some modern buttons as well as colors that resonate with your target audience. The next skill business owners need to know once they have a website is how to focus on and make sure that people are sticking to the website. This is about ongoing content marketing and making sure your website is being found. When you build a website make sure that it is responsive, that it is set up in a way that it switches the design on every mobile device and that it creates a user experience and also ultimately will convert better for you. It is also important to optimize your site for local searches. Arti strongly believes that content is still key and relevant content is all the more important. Another step that Arti finds to be very important is the email marketing. There are so many messages out there, so integrating your marketing message is important, and touching with these techniques or strategies is all the more fruitful for you as a business owner if you can combine those two. If you’re one of those people who are starting out and want to reach more audience fairly quickly, Arti suggests for you to invest in social media and content marketing. Choose one to two that you really know how to work and then do them really well, consistency is important. It’s all about connections and contents today when it comes to digital marketing, so the more you share other people’s content, you tap into other people’s connections equally well. OPC means Other People’s Content plus Other People’s Connections – tapping into that leads to more abundance. Arti advises start-up business owners to seek for a mentor, and if your business and your working capital allow, then hire a business strategist or a business coach early on. Don’t be shy to ask for help.

How do you go from being broke to running a seven-figure business doing what you love? Amanda C. Watts is a marketing authority and has proven herself to be the right expert when it comes to turning one’s passion into a full-time job or even a successful business venture. In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Amanda answers Yeukai’s questions about the mistakes she often sees business owners do that keep them from achieving their full potential, and how to best avoid them.

Key Questions Asked:

What had to happen mentally in order for Amanda to build a seven-figure business? What advice would Amanda give to someone who wants to actually make things happen but there’s no support from family or anyone around them? What role did mentors play in Amanda’s journey, especially when she was just starting her business? How did she get her first client? What mistakes does Amanda see startup business owners do that stops them before they even get started in making money? How does she go about helping a client find out exactly what they are good at or who they should be working with? Is there anything that business owners do which they think is helping to build their company, yet in actual fact, it’s the opposite? What’s one big tip that Amanda would give to start up business owners? If she were to do it all over again, what would Amanda do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

The first thing Amanda would advice start-up business owners to do is to surround themselves with peers. As for finding her first client, Amanda did not go on to social media and post 20 updates a day. Instead, she went to LinkedIn and sent emails to people who she thinks need her expertise. Two massive problems that new entrepreneurs make: 1) They don’t niche so they don’t become a specialist in something. 2) They charge for their services by the hour. Don’t sell by the hour, package up huge value, work out exactly how much you can help someone, turn it into a package, and work with them for three months or for six months. Almost all of the client Amanda has worked with find that their niche is actually in their story. One thing that she gets her clients to do is to write out their story because there lies some clues as to who you should be helping. Another mistake business owners get stuck on is being very busy being busy. One solution Amanda suggests for this is to outsource. As soon as you can afford it, start investing back into your business and have someone take the grunt work. One big tip that Amanda would give business owners is to “fill yourself up with the information of the experts on YouTube.” And also, “don’t build a business brand, build a personal brand” because it’s the personal brand that people actually buy from. Therefore, it is important to build a personal brand. Another mistake is that a lot of people give up their day job too soon when some people can grow a business while still being in their day job. Amanda advises business owners to not rush to leave their day job, do it safely. And to find someone who has been there and done it and get support from them so you can eliminate mistakes. Amanda gets her clients to ask themselves two questions every day: “What was a win and what was a learning?” (What mistake have they made and what have they learned from that?) Because our power and our success come from our learning and our mistakes, not from where we naturally win.

What exactly is the best Social Media Platform to frequent in when you’re a business owner? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Social Media expert, Darlene Hull answers this question along with many others you may have about how and where business owners should start when it comes to Social Media Marketing. Darlene believes that the basic processes in Social media can go a long way, and is the key to a highly effective highly efficient and highly profitable social media marketing strategy.

Key Questions Asked: 

How did Darlene get started and what roadblocks did she face along the way? Where should business owners start when it comes to social media marketing? Is there a step by step process that business owners can follow? Where does Darlene see social media going in the next few years and how important it is for business owners to jump on it now? How can they use the Facebook Page effectively? How does Facebook Algorithm work? What is the best Social Media Platform for business owners? How often do Business owners need to post on their social media accounts? Are there any tools that make all these easier? Knowing what she knows now in running her business, what would Darlene do differently if she were to do it all over again?

Highlights of Lessons Learned: 

Starting Out

One major roadblock Darlene faced earlier on was suffering a disaster in the business because they tried to offer too much to too many people. That’s when she realized they had to scale everything back. Your starting point in social media depends on where your market is. It depends on who you’re trying to reach and what you’re trying to reach them with. Generally, you’ll want to create a place where your target market is going to hang out even if they’re not interested in your product, so when they finally want what you’re selling, you’re the first one to come into their minds.

Facebook Marketing

Because Facebook is the biggest market out there, it is also the most difficult platform to market with. With Facebook, it’s important to have a very clear target market. Darlene sees Social Media making a bit of a shift in the next few years. Instead of a static page, it will be more instant messaging apps as live messaging and interacting with customers one on one will be more of a thing. One thing that will never change when it comes to breaking the Social Media is authenticity and personal engagement. With Facebook, you need to have a great cover image that is not necessarily advertising your product but advertising how you want people to feel when they get there. You want to have really interesting posts, lots of visuals, you want to ask good questions as well. Facebook only shows to 2-6% of the people following you. Mastering Facebook will help you master other Social Networking Sites.

Social Media Platforms

Your business dictates which platform you should focus on. Darlene’s principle is “Be everywhere, focus on the one that really works.” If you’re a business-to-customer type of business, Facebook is the best platform for you to focus your efforts on because people are there anyway just interacting and seeing places they like to go to. If you are a business-to-business then it’s usually LinkedIn. The number of times you should post on your social media depends on how many things are already being posted in that stream and how fast do they go by. Facebook lifespan is about 2-3 hours, Twitter lifespan is about 45 minutes, LinkedIn really only needs about a post a day or three or four times a week, most of them should have something going out daily. Pinterest should be at least once a day, as well as Instagram and Snapchat. Darlene and her team use tools like Feedly, an RSS Feed Meter; Post Planner and Hootsuite to make posting easier. Given the chance to start all over again, Darlene would make sure to be clear on her line,

How do you know how to deal with the public and the media? And why are they important for your business anyway? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Christina Rowsell, a long-time media relations expert, shares a few critical tips and tricks on how to successfully launch yourself in the local, national and international media scene.

Key Questions Asked:

What criteria should business owners use in finding the right person or company to work with when it comes to PR? What area do business owners commonly make mistakes in? What is it that reporters and media are looking for from business owners? Assuming that they have done all these tings, where can business owners find major opportunities when it comes to media? If you she were to do it all over again, knowing what she knows now, what would Christina do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Media & Public Relations

A press release has to be three things: be newsworthy, evoke emotion and has to be of value to the readers, viewers and listeners. There’s a big difference between advertising and using earned media. It is important for business owners like you to know what your story is and why do you want to tell your story. When you do your PR, you have to look at your ‘RACE’ formula: Research, Action, Communication, and Evaluation. When you hire a PR Company, make sure that that they have a good rapport with the local media. Christina encourages new and small business owners to start locally because when you can increase your profile within your own community, it’s going to look better once you start to go nationally. The media is looking for something that’s going to work with the program that they’re producing.

Mistakes & Other Tips

A lot of business owners will not write a proper press release. Following up is another thing that people don’t do but they should do. A lot of people are also afraid that press releases are archaic, however, you got to find a way to tell the media that you exist one way or another. Another mistake business owners make is they write the press release like an advertisement, which makes it less interesting. Another tip: do not make your press release more than two pages, you really have to pull out what is the meat and the heart of your story, and what you think will make an impact to the audience. If you’ve never done an interview, make sure you find somebody who can do media training and will help you how to cope with nerves, how to talk to the camera in different settings, etc.

Do you know who to go to if you want a consultant to help you in your business? Nicki Morris, a business start-up expert who focuses on working with people who have the passion to start their own business, talks with Yeukai Kajidori on this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur about three business consulting mistakes as well as other tools and strategies every business owner needs to know about.

Key Questions Asked:

What is the number one mistake that business owners make when it comes to choosing who to work within their organization? What sort of tools or strategies can business owners use to help them to gain that clarity? What is the best mindset for business owners to have when they are going in to consult with a business consultant? Knowing what she knows now about running a business, if she were to do it all over again, what would she do differently? How did Nicki identify the right price for the value that she brings to an organization?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Mistakes to Avoid

The number one mistake that Nicki sees business owners often do is not having clarity around what their actual business challenge of a problem is, which is supposed to define what they need a consultant to take care of. This leads to the second mistake which is: business owners can’t budget because they don’t know the value of the solution. The third mistake is not having very clear expectations with the scope of work of the consultant.

Tools and Strategies

There’s a variety of different tools that business owners can use to assess the health of their business. Nicki usually recommends organizations to break it into internal factors and external factors. Two of the most common tools business owners can use are SWAT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat) and PEST Analysis (Political Economic Social Technology). When hiring a consultant, business owners need to be open-minded. They need to go into it with an open mind towards improvement and be able to accept constructive critiques toward their business. Business owners need to show their vulnerable side and need to be honest with their consultant. Your business’ success is based on your relationships, not only with your customers but also with your competitors and others.

Are you looking for a simple way to learn about how to get started with your PR? Look no further as Christina Daves, an expert when it comes to public relations who have been featured in over 250 media outlets, is here to share important tips and tricks to getting started with PR right now. Christina reveals key management rules in PR as well as the roadmap that will help any business owner land an interview with local and national media outlets.

Key Questions Asked:

What are the rules of engagement for any business owner who is looking to start up with PR? For people who have that relationship, where should they go? Knowing what she knows now about running a business, what would Christina do differently if she were to start all over again? What does her day look like and what does she prioritize? Where do business owners make a lot of mistakes in when it comes to PR?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Public and Media

Christina’s success stems from building relationships and says that the important thing is to find people in the industry that cover your topic and build a relationship with them. If you don’t know where to find these people, Google your subject matter and see who’s talking about your industry. The easiest way to start building that relationship is social media. Create a story that’s entertaining to their audience, do a short and sweet pitch. To get on the major televisions, you have to have a local experience. In terms of pitching, it really comes down to old-fashioned hard work, put your systems in place, doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

Installing a tennis windscreen depends upon the way that it is installed. It is contained in the Olympics and all important multi-sporting events around the planet. The Australian is regarded as the toughest courses on the Australian Open roster and will offer a true test for those competitors. Click when Australian open start to discover more information in relation to this. It is well known for its rich sports culture. Cricket Australia is accountable for the scheduling of matches and the maturation of cricket in the nation and in the Pacific region. A good deal of folks considers sales as this dog-eat-dog world.

You may see the players overthinking. Superior players will often use a combination of distinct types of serve. The game seems to have grown in some nations, particularly Australia and Europe.

Premier League betting is much more fun when you can put your bets while watching the game. Australian Rules football is easily the most popular sport in Australia and is the nation’s national sport. Football is a favorite in all the UK, Europe, Asia in addition to South America. Basketball is among those few sports that both women and men started playing around the identical time.

Tips and Tricks

In order to save you the time and effort, Christina believes that you need to invest in your business with somebody who’s done the things you wanted to do and made all the mistakes you’re likely to make. When it comes to being efficient, the most important thing is to know when you’re most effective at your work and plan your day around that. Christina warns business owners of the common mistakes in the PR, such as pitching the wrong person, pitching about themselves versus making it something that’s beneficial to the audience. The most important thing is to make your story something that can benefit the journalist’s audience.

Do you know the difference between leading a team and managing one? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, Bernadette Johnson speaks about leadership development, as well as leadership strategies that will help business owners set the stage for implementing collaborative approaches within their organization.

Key Questions Asked:

How did Bernadette get started with her business? What would be the two rules that business owners need to follow in order to succeed in developing the leadership team and the collaborative strategy that they do in their organization? How does Bernadette create that environment for collaborative approach? What has been her journey like in running her own business? How is Bernadette marketing her own business today? Knowing what she knows now if Bernadette were to do it all over again, what would she do differently? If you were to advise a new start-up, what are some of the mistakes that you have observed about running a business that they can avoid? How can people´s transition from being that worker into that leader?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Key Skills

To ensure an easy and smooth transition of her clients’ business, Bernadette says scaling the execution of the work that they do is important. Aside from that, scaling the strategy of how they do the work and then scaling the people to make sure that they have the right ones in place are important as well. Business owners must look at where they are now, where do they need to be, and then all the work will be about filling the gap, so it’s important to set up systems for people to learn. The first skill business owners must learn is to understand the difference between cooperation and collaboration. Collaboration requires a level of trust, vulnerability and requires authenticity. Business owners should act as the leader, defining what collaboration is and setting expectations as well as feedback.

Leading a Team

As a leader, it is important to keep a beginner’s mind and to always be curious in order to create an environment of a collaborative approach. One thing that helped Bernadette over the years was getting out and trying different things and trying new models and strategies. Her biggest lesson in the last five years is learning the importance of having the right balance between working in the business and working in the business. As a leader herself, Bernadette advises that we have to get to a point of being able to let go, meaning to look at what we can take off our plate and then either outsource or give to someone of which have the right skills for those things. Another thing that business owners need to understand the difference between leadership and management. Management is about maintaining, leadership is about creating a vision to follow.

Are you curious about what PR can do to your business? This episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast features PR expert Hayley Smith who graciously answers every questions start-up business owners might have regarding public relations. Hayley, who is the founder of Boxed Out PR, has been helping business owners with their public relations for ten years now, successfully achieving their goal to leverage the online world and creating online opportunities for business owners.

Key Questions Asked:

Hayley started her company during a difficult time, what happened that finally triggered her decision to start her own business? For business owners who are thinking to engage in the service of a PR agent, what criteria should they use in finding the right person to work with? What is a PR plan? What sort of changes had to take place as Hayley was transitioning from being an employee to being an employer?

Highlights of Lessons Learned:

Hayley’s advice is to not use a PR company unless you’re absolutely sure that you have all the business elements in place first. This includes having your work site ready, having your follow ins and social media set up. In terms of choosing the PR agencies, choose the one that can answer all of your questions and you feel like is good for your business. Your marketing plan should consist of social media followings and engagement strategies, campaign ideas, and calendar markings that serve as your day to day guide of the activities that you intend to implement over a certain period of time. What’s so important to being a PR person is that you need to be available when your clients need you. In terms of doing your own PR, it can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you’re a business owner, and it’s easier to outsource. It is important to maintain a really personal presence online, let people see your photos, do online video, and live Facebook video. A mentor is someone who you can go to and ask questions and guidance, someone you can invest in that will tell you if you’re doing the right thing.

How do you know where to focus your marketing efforts on? In this episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur Podcast, marketing expert Ave Peetri talks about key marketing skills every business owner needs to have and develop in order to achieve their goals on marketing. Eve helps business owners figure out who their ideal client is, what is the message that the ideal client wants to hear from them, how to come up with that message, and how to build their marketing pipeline.

Key Questions Asked:

What can Ave say about marketing and what marketing suggestions would she give to business owners who are getting started? How does Eve know who is the right person for her to work with? What are the skills that every business owner needs when it comes to business marketing? You mentioned something about networking, what do you think stops most people who had something of value to go into this networking and meeting people? What’s the perfect mindset when it comes to marketing your business? During those early days, what challenges did Eve meet that other business owner might also be facing? Knowing what she knows now, what would Eve do differently?

Highlights of Lessons Learned: 

There are a lot of misconceptions about marketing. Most often, people assume that they need to be a certain type of person to do marketing – something that Eve explained to not is true. When it comes to marketing, the first thing to do is to figure out who is your ideal client. So really figure out who you love working with, who would most appreciate your service for exactly the reason you are who you are and find out all you can about your ideal clients. Once you are really clear about who you’re talking to and what you tell them, the next thing to do is just get out there and carry out your plans. Networking is mainly about meeting people and developing relationships and people are far more interested in getting to know what you are doing when you go out there to find out more about what they’re doing. One of the challenges that Eve had to overcome was not being exactly sure who she wants to work at the beginning. Marketing from the place of who you are is the most powerful form of marketing.