Success

To be successful in life, you must always exhibit perseverance. This means that you have to continue to do something, even if it is difficult or taking longer than expected. If you don’t persevere, you will never reach your goals or show yourself what you can do.

Everyone experiences times when they would rather give up than keep trying for something. At the moment, it may be easy to decide not to keep trying. When you give in to this feeling, however, you are only holding yourself back.

These quotes about perseverance to motivate success will help you through those times. They will remind you why you can’t give up. You never know how close you are to success, so remember these quotes when you’re having a hard time.

Fifteen Quotes About Perseverance

1. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” – Vince Lombardi

Anyone can be strong and knowledgeable, but it doesn’t always lead to success. The one thing that does always lead to success is will power. You must keep trying and keep working toward your goal, and only then will you find it.

2. “It’s good to remember that success may be just beyond the next failure, and you’ll get there, not because you’re destined to, but because you’re determined to.” – Steve Goodier

Everyone fails sometimes. Failure is inevitable and often happens many times. If you give up when you fail, you’ll never know how close you were to success.

No destiny alone can lead to success, because perseverance is the only sure path. You have to keep trying, no matter how many times you fail. This could be the time you reach your goal, so giving up could cause you to miss your big break.

3. “True winners remain winners because they truly believe that challenges, struggles, and obstacles can all lead to big blessings through persistence and perseverance.” – Edmond Mbiaka

When you view your obstacles and challenges as things leading you to your goal, you’ll experience more success. Each time you struggle or fail, it means you are learning and growing. When these obstacles are met with persistence, they will lead you to great things.

4. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

To achieve your goals, you have to keep moving and stay active. Even the most prospering men make mistakes and fail sometimes. The important thing is that they don’t quit, which is what leads them to achieve their goals.

5. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou

No matter how many obstacles or failures you encounter, you cannot let them defeat you. All of the challenges are there to help you get to know yourself. Then, you’ll know that you can rise again and reach your goals despite the hardships.

6. “If his decision is correct, he will win the battle, even if it lasts longer than expected. If his decision is wrong, he will be defeated and he will have to start all over again–only this time with more wisdom. But once he has started, a warrior of the light perseveres until the end.” – Paulo Coelho

Even if the decision you made didn’t work and you have to begin again, you will have learned something. Through this gained knowledge, you will be able to do it differently next time. Each time you make a different decision, you will be learning what works and what doesn’t.

By eliminating the ideas that don’t work, you will be one step closer to success. Keep trying and eventually, you will succeed. Even if it takes longer than you had planned, you will have won.

7. “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The more you try, the closer you will get to success. As Wadsworth Longfellow explains, if you keep working at it, you will eventually achieve your goal.

The amount of time it takes for you to do something isn’t important. What is important is that you persevered and found success.

8. “I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed: and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.” – Tom Hopkins

Your successes are what people will ultimately remember, not your failures. Oftentimes, as Hopkins explains, success follows failure. So, if you give up every time something didn’t work out, you are missing out on many opportunities.

9. “Adversity, and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless.” – Scott Hamilton

Working through challenging times can help you understand how valuable you are. It’ll give you self-esteem because you know that you can do anything.

The only way you can achieve this place in life, however, is by continuing to persevere. Show yourself what you are worth and that you can rise above any challenge that comes your way.

10. “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

Talent, being a genius, and education will not lead you to success. Even people with the best of those qualities are unsuccessful if they gave up after a failure. Since the failure happens to everyone, only those who persevere and try again will end up reaching their goals.

11. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

Even when it seems like you’ll never succeed, you have to keep going. Only then can you do all of the great things you set out to do. Don’t give in to challenges and defeat, instead choose to persevere and keep trying.

12. “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” – Marie Curie

As explained before, everyone struggles when they are trying to reach success. Believe in yourself and keep trying, and then you can achieve all your goals. You have to remind yourself that you need to keep going until you succeed, no matter how long it takes.

13. “You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.” – Lou Holtz

Every achieving person has had to make sacrifices, and you are no different. That sacrifice might mean you have to change your plan after a failed attempt. Or, it could mean you have to give something up, like sleeping in or staying out late.

By sacrificing and persevering, you’ll be sure to reach your goals. It shows that you are passionate about your goals, and your will to persevere will ensure your achievement.

14. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Winning doesn’t teach you anything. Only struggling and failing will teach you what doesn’t work.

Likewise, winning doesn’t develop your strength. Facing obstacles and choosing not to give up is what will develop your strength.

15. “In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” – Tony Robbins

If you want to control the direction your life is going in, you have to control your actions. The things that you consistently do are the things that determine your path.

If you want to reach your goals, start consistently doing things that will lead you to them. Persevere and decide to do these things even when you aren’t feeling up to it. Only then will you begin to see your life take the path you were desiring.

Final Thoughts on Quotes About Perseverance to Motivate Success

Being successful can only come after you’ve shown consistent perseverance. The harder you try, and the more you start over again, the more you will learn. Then, you will be able to find the success that you were dreaming of.

Remember these quotes when you are feeling like giving up. They will remind you of why you must keep trying.

The ultimate goal of adults is to reach their goals, and there are many quotes on success to help motivate you. When faced with challenges, it may be easy to quit or lose momentum. That is when it’s most important to keep moving, however.

By listening to advice and encouragement from those who have been through it, you’ll find comfort and motivation. The main piece of advice, though, is to never quit trying and to keep persevering.

You are the only one who can set the level of your successes. Go after what you want and work hard to reach your goals.

15 Quotes on Success Never to Forget

These quotes on success will help you stay motivated as you strive to achieve your dreams.

1. “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it.” – Kim Garst

Once you make it clear that your talents and time are worthwhile, others will treat it that way. You can’t do things for free just because someone is your family member or friend. To be successful, you must know what you are worth and expect others to pay you for what you do.

2. “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” – Fred Rogers

All of the money in the world won’t make you successful if you aren’t kind. You have to have people on your side, and you have to treat people with kindness to get them there. Even if you feel like you don’t need anyone on your side, you have to be kind to bring in business.

No matter which way you look at it, kindness is required. You may start to build an empire without kindness, but it won’t reach its full potential.

3. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi

Even with strength and knowledge, a person can fail. Everyone fails at some point, and the determining factor to success is having the will power to try again. Only then will you be able to reach your ultimate goals.

4. “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.” – Zig Ziglar

You may not have all the tools to make a job easy right away, but keep trying with what you do have. When you keep trying, you’ll find yourself succeeding with what you already have. Plus, true success is about the process, not what the outcome is.

You set your standards for success, not anyone else. If you accomplished what you set out to do, you have succeeded. Likewise, if you are proud of yourself for the work along the way, you’ve also succeeded.

5. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” – Mark Caine

You can’t blame your surroundings for your failures or your lack of progress. Leave the environment that you are in if it is that toxic. Otherwise, get started on your goals and remind yourself that you are the only one holding you back.

6. “Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge

All the talent, genius, and education in the world can’t ensure that you reach your goals. The only thing that can ensure you get there is perseverance and determination. With perseverance and determination, you are sure to reach the ultimate goal.

You have to remain motivated and keep trying even after failures. Keep pushing yourself to learn more and do more, and to keep trying even when faced with adversity.

7. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie

Everyone fails at some point in their life. Most people fail more than once. Successful people are the ones who get back up and try again, though.

You can’t give up when faced with mistakes or when things didn’t go as planned. These are opportunities to grow and learn. Then, you’ll be able to get it right the next time, or the time after that.

8. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering

Just when you want to give up, you may get your big break. Keep going, learning, and trying, and eventually, you’ll stumble upon your dreams.

9. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

Other people may want to see you fail, and they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that it happens. Don’t let them succeed at knocking you down or hurting you. Instead, take all of the negativity they throw your way and use it as your stepping stones.

10. “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth

When you are faced with a negative person as Goforth describes, ignore them. Better yet, listen to them and then do everything they said you couldn’t.

11. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

You have to decide what you want your life to look like. Figure out the goals that you want to reach, and then determine how to reach them. Otherwise, you’ll have to work towards someone else’s goal, and that won’t do much for you.

12. “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.” – David M. Burns

You’ll never be perfect, but you will be successful. If you were never wrong and things always worked out perfectly, you would never learn from them. Learning is essential to being successful because you have to keep working toward a higher goal.

As Burns explains, perfectionism is only a sign of fear. Don’t hold yourself back by being afraid. Keep moving forward, even when the plan didn’t work out how you intended.

13. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – From an Apple Computer Ad, 1997

Those who are most successful weren’t afraid of being different or being the first to do something. They knew what they wanted and they did what they had to do to get it. Most often, they seemed like they didn’t fit in just right.

If this is you, then you completely understand how different it was to be that person. Those are successful people. They are the ones who are willing to speak up, make a change, and better the world. Despite those who disagree with them, they continue going until they are successful.

14. “After every difficulty, ask yourself two questions: “What did I do right?” and “What would I do differently?” –  Brian Tracy

You can learn from every moment in your life, whether it was good or bad. Reflecting is one key to success because it enables you to make changes and do better next time. Always find at least one thing you did right, and then determine what could have been done differently.

15. “Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” – Mark Victor Hansen

Things will never be perfect, and there will never be the perfect time to get started. Obstacles and challenges are everywhere, but you have to push through it all. You’ll become stronger and more able to handle what is coming next.

Final Thoughts on Quotes on Success Never to Forget

These quotes on success should never be forgotten, as they can motivate you when you need it the most. When things get hard and don’t seem to be working out, remember these quotes and reference them for advice.

You are responsible for your success, and the comments and actions of others should play no part. Focus on your determination and perseverance and never give up. Tuck away these quotes on success for continued motivation. And, keep working towards your goals and you will find yourself successful.

Recipe for Success: How to Improve Time Management Skills

At least 89% of people waste time every day. 

With only 24 hours in each day, we don’t have time to waste. In fact, wasting too much time could lead to missed deadlines and impact your professional and personal life.

Keep reading to find out how to improve time management skills.

Create a Plan

We waste the majority of our time because of a lack of planning.

To avoid this, use a schedule maker to organize your day-to-day tasks. With this simple tool, you can be at ease knowing that your tasks will be efficient and structured.

It will help you prioritize your work, personal life, and appointments. You’ll know what is urgent and shape your other to-dos around those tasks.

Start by creating a list of everything you need to accomplish in a week. From there, write down deadlines and important dates that you can’t miss.

Keeping the end goals in mind, break down each task into small steps. For example, if you have to turn in a report next Tuesday, you can segment your schedule into researching, writing, and editing throughout the previous week.

That way, you don’t have to tackle the entire task at once and you won’t procrastinate. 

Set Healthy Goals

Setting goals helps build your motivation. Plus, it allows you to allocate a reasonable amount of time to get a job done.

It doesn’t have to be daunting. Start with setting small goals for your day. For example, you can set a goal of waking up 10 minutes earlier to enjoy your morning coffee without feeling rushed out of the door.

For work-related goals, create small steps rather than expecting yourself to accomplish something big. This keeps you from getting burnt out on what you’re working on, allowing you to tackle each part as you feel energized and focused.

Give yourself a small reward each time you’re successful. This can be as simple as taking a break and going outside.

By getting in the habit of setting small, healthy goals for ourselves, it becomes easier to accomplish what we’re setting out to do. As the old saying goes “if you wish to climb the mountain, you must do it one step at a time”.

Manage Stress

Another reason we waste time is that we’re stressed about everything we need to accomplish.

To overcome stress, focus on one task at a time rather than trying to do several at once. Studies show that 98% of people don’t multitask well, meaning that we aren’t able to focus on and complete anything we’re working on. 

Another way to prevent the daunting feeling of stress is by getting a head start on projects. This gives you a buffer in case of unforeseen circumstances. By starting ahead of time, you can take charge of your day and feel more self-empowered. 

Managing your stress helps you manage your time better. As a result, you’ll end up having more energy to focus on what’s important on your to-do list, since you’ll complete tasks quicker and more efficiently.

That’s How to Improve Time Management Skills

With these tips on how to improve time management skills, you can make the most of every day.

Create and stick to a plan, set healthy goals, and manage your stress so that you can be a master of time.

Keep reading our blog for more ways to improve your life.

Starting a Publishing Business? Here Are 7 Tips for Success

In 2017, it was estimated that the revenue in the U.S. for the publishing industry was $26.2 billion. 

The publishing industry just keeps growing, so if you wanted to get into the industry, now is the time. 

However, starting a publishing company has never been so easy. Discover the best tips for starting a publishing company.

1. Know Why You Want to Publish

First off, you should decide why you even want to get into publishing in the first place. 

It takes a lot of work to start a publishing company, so you need to make sure you really want to commit all that time and money into it. 

You may have gotten into publishing by writing and self-publishing some of your own work. It could be a great way to offer the same opportunities to others who may want to publish and share their work. 

You should also figure out what types of books you want to publish. Do you want to publish nonfiction? Poetry? Self-help books? Young adult? Narrowing down the type of books you want to publish will help you sell books to your audience and also get submissions from authors. 

2. Set a Budget

Once you’ve really decided on starting your own publishing company, you should set a budget.

As we said, it can be really expensive to be an independent publisher. 

You will have to pay for things like designing, editing, and printing books. You will also have to pay for shipping and marketing. Another cost added to that is having to buy ISBNs for all the books you plan to publish. 

However, while you are spending money on all of this, you should also be figuring out how you can sell books so that you can earn all your money back. 

Before you can start selling all these books, you may need to put some of the money upfront. That is why it’s important to make a budget; you don’t want to overspend and be bankrupt before you can sell your first set of books. 

3. Consider Printing on Demand

Once you’ve set a budget, you should also figure out how you are going to distribute the books that you do publish. Publishers normally print several hundred copies of a book and hope that all of them sell.

However, with printing on demand, you can order the number of copies that you know will sell. That way you don’t have to store unsold copies anywhere and you save money by printing exactly how many books you need.

4. Put Quality Ahead of Quantity

When it comes to publishing books, you want to make sure that you’re publishing ones that have quality. It is better to have high-quality books rather than a lot of bad books. 

With digital publishing, poorly written content is even more available. 

When publishing books, you want to make sure that you are giving your audience the very best that is out there. This will really help your publishing company succeed because your audience will appreciate the quality. 

5. Start Marketing Your Books

Once you have printed a few copies of a book, you should make sure that you have a plan to market them. If no one knows about the books that you’re about to sell, chances are that they won’t end up buying them. 

Regardless of whether they’re books that you wrote or someone else wrote, you need to make sure that you do some marketing. If your company is small, you could do this on your own, but in the long run, you probably want to hire a marketing expert.

A marketing specialist will know just how to create ads and how to get them to your target audience. 

Marketing doesn’t have to cost that much though. Many readers are active on social media, so you can start by publishing your book on there.

There are all different types of advertising options that you could use to help promote your books. 

6. Network

Another tip that will help your publishing company is to make sure that you network.

Having connections and contact is never a bad thing, and you never know when you might need someone to help. 

You should have all kinds of contacts in your back pocket. This could be someone who specializes in marketing, authors, editors, and even people who work at competing publishing companies.

Seeing how other publishing companies run and operate can be a really helpful way to expand your company. For example, you could check out this printing service. 

7. Follow Your Passion

The last piece of advice is to follow your passion.

If you really love the world of publishing, just go for it. If owning and running a publishing company is a passion of yours, the rest of the logistics will work out. As long as you have a passion for it, then it may not feel so much like a chore. 

In fact, you may even be excited about it.

You could have a passion for finding good books from authors and connecting them with readers around the world. You could want an outlet to publish your own books as well. 

This enthusiasm will help you get over a lot of obstacles in the process of starting the company. 

Learn More About Starting a Publishing Company 

Starting a publishing company can have its challenges, but as we said, if you’re passionate about it, it will work out in the end.

If this is your dream, make sure that you don’t give up.

To help you with any challenges that might arise, make sure that you check out some of our other articles about publishing!

Secrets to Success: 5 Essential Business Services for Startups

Do you currently run a business or startup, or are you about ready to launch one? There a few things more satisfying than being at the helm of a new enterprise, guiding its growth as it scales upwards.

Running a business comes with many challenges. Client acquisition and brand building a chief among them. Success often depends on establishing your company’s credentials.

However, just as challenging is the minutia of administrative tasks required. Fortunately, many of your business services can be outsourced, freeing you to focus on your strengths.  

Keep reading for 5 business services that will benefit your startup.

1. Payroll Services

Building a team means finding people with the right skills and attitude to help you accomplish your goals. It’s important to find people that share your vision and will push to get things done.

However, no matter how dedicated they may be, errors in payroll can have a devastating impact on your corporate culture. Getting your team paid properly and on time allows them to focus on what matters most.

Payroll service providers like www.payrollserviceaustralia.com.au will expertly manage your payroll services. 

2. Customer Service

Every successful business has an established way that allows customers to speak with a service representative. Whether it’s for information, to manage a complaint, or address any other concern, customer service has a major impact on business-customer relations.

Outsourcing your customer service saves you the overhead of acquiring the necessary equipment and space. It saves you from establishing protocols and training staff.

Instead, you can lay out your expectations and then leave it to the professionals.

3. Marketing

Marketing is as much an art as it is a science. A marketing agency will have the strategies and experience to best target your audience. They have the know-how to make an impact and get results.

4. IT Support

Businesses have never been more dependent on technology. Regardless of the sector, tech plays a major role in any business.

Outsourcing your IT support means that you have a team with the know-how on-call to manage your network. This means that all your IT needs are expertly managed and supported.

5. Legal Services

Having legal support on retainer means that you have the advice and guidance you need at hand at all times. The value expert legal advice can offer is immeasurable when you consider all the potential liability that a business is exposed to.

Final Thoughts on Business Services

Running a startup is an exciting and demanding time. It’s an opportunity to build something fresh and new. But it’s also a time when the finer details of running a business are addressed.

Outsourcing business services allows you peace of mind, knowing that you have a dedicated team looking after each role. It lets you direct your energies where they’re most needed while ensuring that your company runs smoothly.

For more articles on managing a startup, visit the Starting Up section of our site.

10 Signs of Long-Term Work Team Success

As the owner of a company, you can put together a collection of the most talented employees in your area. But if you aren’t able to get them to work together as a team, it’ll all be for naught.

You can encourage your employees to work together by appointing a strong manager to guide them along the way. You can also do it by posting inspiring quotes about teamwork all over your office.

But it’s ultimately going to be up to your employees to decide whether or not team success is something that’s important to them. Working together as a team requires each and every employee within a company to sacrifice a little bit of themselves for the greater good.

Are your employees working well as a team right now? Here are ten signs that’ll let you know your team is operating at a high level.

1. Your Team Understands Their Purpose

When you bring a group of employees together and turn them into a team, it’s important for you to let them know what their specific purpose will be. Their purpose might be to:

• Help increase your company’s sales
• Generate ideas for new products
• Launch a service in a new area

Regardless of what your team’s purpose is, they should understand it and, to a larger degree, understand the importance of them working together to serve their purpose. As long as they’re able to do this, team success should follow.

2. They Set Goals and Work to Achieve Them

In addition to understanding their purpose, your team of employees should also come together to set goals for themselves. They should work hard — and work together! — to achieve them, too.

You can provide your team with some general goals that you want them to achieve. But they should be able to come up with more specific goals that will allow them to reach their end goal sooner than later.

3. They Assume Clearly Identified Roles

LeBron James is an amazing basketball player. He could very well go down as the best basketball player of all time.

But can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if someone were to clone him and put five LeBron Jameses on one basketball team? A team with five LeBrons just wouldn’t work!

Likewise, your team isn’t going to work if everyone on it is trying to be the business equivalent of LeBron. You need to find employees who are able to slide into different roles on your team and play their position without getting upset about it.

4. They Know How to Make Collective Decisions

It doesn’t matter if your team consists of five employees, 15 employees, or 50 employees. Anytime you ask more than one person to make a decision together, things tend to get messy.

The best teams know how to come together and make decisive decisions quickly without arguing over them too much. That doesn’t mean that everyone on a team is going to agree with every decision that gets made. But a good team will find ways to come to agreements as a whole.

5. They Employ Winning Strategies to Deal With Conflict

You don’t want the employees on your team to spend all day bickering with one another. That’s not going to lead to team success.

But a little bit of conflict within a team is healthy. Your employees will gel better as a unit when they face conflicts and figure out how to deal with them accordingly.

6. They Celebrate One Another’s Individual Successes

Even though your goal is going to be to have your employees work together as a team as opposed to working as individuals, there will be times when certain individuals stand out.

You’ll have an employee who comes up with an idea that’s so good that you can’t help but recognize them for it. Or you’ll have an employee that closes a huge sale on their own and gets a well-deserved bonus for doing it.

Good teams will celebrate one another’s individual successes without showing the slightest bit of jealousy. They’ll understand that there are going to be times when one team member does something that deserves individual accolades.

7. They Motivate Each Other During Stressful Times

When your team is placed under a great deal of stress, how do they react?

Do they turn to one another for support and figure out a way to deal with a stressful situation collectively — or do they freak out and worry only about themselves during the tough times?

Great teams work to motivate each other during challenging moments. They continue to push one another forward, no matter how hard things might get.

8. They Ask for Feedback and Adjust Their Approach to Doing Business

No team is perfect. There is always room for improvement as far as teamwork is concerned.

Your team should ask you for feedback on a regular basis and take any suggestions you provide for them to heart. They should also be more than open to taking part in online team assessments to evaluate their overall performance as a team.

9. They Genuinely Enjoy Working Together

Does your team enjoy working together so much that they spend time together outside of the office? This is one of the true measures of team success!

That’s not to say that your employees have to spend every waking hour together to be a successful unit. But it does mean that teams that enjoy spending time together both inside and outside of the workplace often function better as a team.

10. They Welcome New Team Members With Open Arms

In a perfect world, you would create a team within your business, turn the team into a success, and then keep the team together for decades to come. But of course, that’s not how business works!

Your team might stay together for a few years. But most people only stay at a job for about four or five years before moving on. As a result, your team is likely going to have team members coming and going all the time.

A truly special team will welcome new team members into the mix with open arms and help them find the role that suits them best.

Make Team Success a Top Priority at Your Company

At this point, sayings like “There’s no ‘I’ in team” and “teamwork makes the dream work” have turned into cliches. But they’re true!

Your company needs to achieve team success if you’re going to be successful. Spend time putting together the perfect team and then keep tabs on them to make sure they’re working well together. It’ll be beneficial for your business in so many ways.

Read through some of our other articles to find out more things you can do to make your business a success.

Trading Up: 10 Tips for Success in Your Trade Show Booth Presentation

Is your trade show technique working for your business?

If you’re struggling to make it a success you may wonder if trade shows are worth the hype. Well, according to statistics, they are.

About 80% of visitors buy a product or service they interacted with at a trade show. Why? Because the samples or demonstration motivated them to do so.

Some businesses seem to have a secret recipe to success when it comes to their exhibition booth. But what’s the secret?

Read on for ten trade show tips that will expose all the secrets of a successful presentation.

1. The 30 Second Window

Did you know that we only have a 30-second window to make a good first impression? Whether it’s the beginning of your presentation or how you set up your exhibition booth, you’ve got to catch the attention of your audience.

Your exhibition booth should be unique but matching your brand. You should design your booth to catch the eyes of passersby.

For example, Polaroid created a summer camp-style exhibition booth. It had a treehouse with chimpanzee figures hanging around. It certainly drew in the crowds.

Your actual presentation should also draw the crowds in. Start with a video, music or a bold statement to grab attention. You’ve got to stand out, or you’ll get lost in the crowds.

2. Trade Show Presentation Ready

To make your presentation great, you need to set up your presenting area in a professional way. Here are some of the things you will need:

• A small stage area
• A podium for your iPad or notes
• A large screen or projector and high-quality speakers
• A preplanned slideshow or digital presentation
• Spotlight (the oldest trick in the book)

If you’ve got the right set-up, your presentation will come across as professional. Customers will be more likely to take you seriously.

3. An Experience to Remember

Instead of taking the stage and lecturing your audience, create an experience instead.

For example, Charity Water is an organization that helps remote communities around the world to have a clean water supply. As part of their presentation, they invite their audience to carry two 40lb buckets of water across a 50-yard platform. This helps the audience to understand the struggles some go through to have clean water.

Can you offer some kind of experience to make your brand seem engaging? This will create a buzz of excitement around your trade booth.

4. Mix It Up

To hold the attention of your audience, you need to mix up your presentation. It should include a variety of techniques. For example:

• Lecture (up to 5 minutes)
• Slideshows
• Charts (facts and figures)
• Animations and videos
• Audience participation
• Q&A

This will keep your presentation entertaining. Potential customers will feel motivated to stay throughout the performance. Instead of getting bored and leaving halfway.

5. Practice Makes Perfect

One of the most important trade show tips for your presentation is to practice. But don’t over practice as you don’t want to sound rigid or scripted. A natural, relaxed style will be appealing to your audience.

You can practice by writing out a script (but not word for word). Rehearse your presentation out loud, and make adjustments to the script accordingly.

Don’t forget to add humor! Adding humor to your presentation can create a relaxed vibe that will put the audience at ease.

6. Repeat Your Presentation

Remember to repeat your presentation throughout the day. Give it at set times during the trade show and have a schedule posted in your exhibition booth so that potential customers know when to come back.

This will help you to get your message out to a wider audience.

7. Be Generous

Give your guests a warm welcome. Not only in your manner, but also in how you set up your exhibition booth. Make it your aim to help your guests feel comfy and relaxed.

For example, have comfy chairs or beanbags. Give out free coffee and tea or try luring them with freshly baked cookies. Some businesses have created a zen den in their trade show booth (which is a place to meditate but also connects with the brand).

And don’t forget the freebies!

Promotional giveaways are like walking advertisements. Hand out wearables, stickers or anything that draws attention to your brand.

But make sure to give them their swag bags at the end of the presentation. Or they may be more interested with what’s in the bag than what you’re saying.

8. Don’t Forget Your VIP’s

It’s always easier to get a previous customer to buy again than it is to find a new customer. If your best clients aren’t going to the trade show, why not encourage them to do so?

You could even buy them a ticket as your VIP. Or hold a social media competition beforehand where the winner gets a free ticket to the event.

It might sound expensive, but you have a big chance of getting a return on investment.

9. Get Social

Don’t limit your audience to who are in attendance. Add an online avenue to your trade show presentation. This may extend your audience across oceans.

Assign someone to keep social media updates running throughout the day. You should post some portions live, such as one of your presentations.

Interact with online visitors to keep the connection. For example, during your presentation, you may hold a Q&A. Let online visitors ask questions too.

10. Reach Out

You may have stolen the show at the exhibition. But what’s next?

You must follow up with leads ASAP! The longer you hang around, the more likely they will forget about you. You weren’t the only business they interacted with after all.

Don’t be afraid to reach out quickly. Try to get in touch within a few days. This will keep the fire burning, and you’ll be more likely to make a sale.

Do Your Homework

Of course, these ten trade show tips only scratching the surface. If you want to make your next trade show a marketing goldmine, you need a killer strategy.

Do your homework and read more about these strategies. Trade shows are a huge investment, after all. You’ve got to make it worth your while, and you can only do that if you prepare thoroughly.

Steal the Show

As you can see, the key to trade show success is to prepare. Make it engaging, draw people in, and be unique to your brand. Give it everything you’ve got; you might just steal the show!

Are you trying to make a success of your business? Check out these amazing marketing ideas that will put your business on the map.

Tips for Success: How to Create a B2B Content Strategy that Attracts New Clients

89% of B2B marketers report that content marketing is their most effective way of bringing in new leads and sales. Which is why a strong B2B content strategy should be the backbone of any marketing campaign.

Not sure where to start? Read out tips below on setting up a successful content plan. 

What Is B2B content strategy?

Chances are, by now you’ve heard about how important a strong content strategy is. However, unless you’ve spent some time focusing on marketing efforts in the past you may not know what B2B content is.

Basically, B2B content is offering valuable information through various mediums to other businesses to mark yourself as an authority in the industry. Not only does this lead to increased traffic and higher Google rankings, but it also increases the number leads your business will bring in.

Know Who You’re Creating Content For

There’s an old marketing adage that states “if you’re talking to no one everyone you’re talking to no one”. The saying still rings true today, which is why it’s so important to know exactly who your content will be geared to.

While target market research is very helpful, we suggest creating an ideal target avatar. This means crafting a fictional character that matches someone that would fall into your demographic.

Give your avatar a name and get detailed. What do they do for a living? How many children do they have? How far did they get in their education?

Then go even deeper. Think about what keeps your avatar up at night. What parts of their day can be made better? Who do they admire? This information should be at the center of all of your content.

What Problem Will You be Solving?

Out of the questions listed above, the most important is what problem will you be solving? Is it a problem that your avatar even knows they have? Do you need to let them know that it’s a problem? Most importantly, how will you educate them on how your product or service fixes the problem?

Another valuable asset in marketing is letting your audience know just how affected they are by this problem. For example, everyone knows that a lack of sleep leaves you with low energy throughout the day, but do they know that not sleeping also increases your risk of heart attack? This is educating your audience on the realities of the problem you’re helping to solve.

Highlighting What Makes You Unique

Unless you’ve landed on an entirely original product, you’re going to have some competitors. Even if your idea is entirely unique, it won’t be long until the copied ideas start popping up. So it’s important to learn how to highlight what sets you apart from similar products and services.

Even subtle differences can give you an advantage over the competition. For example, your product may be more eco-friendly, safer for children, or perhaps a portion of your proceeds goes to a cause your avatar is passionate about. Highlight these differences and incorporate them into your content.

Know Content Type

Not all B2B content lands the same. It’s important to know what type of content your audience is most responsive too. Often these media choices will depend on the industry, for example, fast pace industries may respond better to a short infographic than an in-depth blog.

You may find that your audience responds to a blend of content, like a short blog paired with a video that gives more information on the subject. See where the engagement lies and follow that.

And Where to Publish It

Today there are countless social media platforms and media outlets where you can meet your audience, and trying to get your content on all of them will quickly dry up your marketing budget.

Instead, focus on 2-3 platforms that have been known to attract your type of audience. Don’t just limit yourself to social media either. White label blogging through other sites and media sources is also a great way to get your content in front of the right audience.

Set Clear Goals

And by clear goals, we mean realistic goals. Many businesses expect to start producing content and have the traffic rolling in within weeks. The truth is between audience research, content production, and engagement you’re looking at 4-6 months before you start seeing real results.

Which is why consistency is key in any content marketing campaign. Set a clear and realistic goal on where you would like to be in terms of traffic and engagement in the next 6 months, then an additional marker for a year from now.

Stay on Top of Management

Many businesses start off with a strong content campaign that tends to taper off as time goes on. We get it, your business takes enough time and energy without having to come up with fresh content on a regular basis.

This is where you have a couple of options. You can use a content platform that allows you to create your content in bulk and then slowly leak it out to the public. While this will ensure your content is consistent, it also requires you to invest a high number of hours up front.

Your other option is to hire a content agency that both creates and distributes the content on your behalf. This offers a higher ROI as getting the right kind of content engagement is what these businesses are all about.

Track and Regroup

While we would love to say that most businesses hit their content campaign out the park on the first try, this often isn’t the case. Fortunately, there are a number of analytics tools available to offer insight on which content is performing well and which isn’t.

Once a month take a look at your analytics and try to spot trends. Is your audience responding more to a specific type of content? Is one platform bringing in more leads than another?

Take this information and use it to restructure your content. Remember, your audience will change and it’s up to you to change with them.

Taking the Right Steps Today

The more you know about creating a B2B content strategy, the more successful your content campaign will be.

If you’re ready to start putting some action behind your content, we suggest starting with our article on 4 Actionable Content Marketing Tips.

How to Measure the Success of Your Blog Strategy

These days it seems the only marketing advice anyone gets is ‘start a blog!’

And yes, we agree content marketing is effective. But deciding to have a blog for your business is only the first step.

To be truly successful with your content, you need to measure results. Measuring tells you when your strategy is spot-on. It lets you know when it’s time to find a new one.

If you want effective content, learn how to measure blog strategy in our guide below!

Is Content Marketing Still a Thing?

All your marketing friends have been hailing content as king for a while now.

And yes, content is still a big deal. Almost 70% of people would rather hear about your business from an article than an ad.

If you’re selling a service, a product, or even an information campaign, content is still the best way to connect with your consumer. Connecting with your consumer is still the best way to sell to them. So, if you want sales; you’ll need a blog strategy.

Perhaps you’re a marketing manager wanting to modernize. You might be part of a one or two-person operation, who needs to be on top of everything from accounts and logistics to marketing.

Whatever the case, we’ve got your content marketing strategy covered. Read on to learn just what you’ll need to do to ensure success.

Plan for Success

A prize-winning cake only comes from a tried-and-tested recipe, and a successful shopping trip relies on a grocery list.

Similarly, if you want success in your marketing efforts, you’ll need to plan ahead.

There are three basic elements here:

1. Marketing Strategy – to plan your overall sales goals, with your target customer(s) in mind
2. Content Strategy – mapping what information your target customer(s) want, need and actively seek out
3. Content Plan – almost like a to-do list, listing topic ideas, style notes, and specifying which employee or team is responsible for what, with dates for submission, editing, publication, promotion and results analysis

Of the three elements, you should focus most of your attention on the Content Plan.

A successful blog strategy relies on getting content out there and adjusting the program according to results. That’s why our advice is to get your first iteration of topics to the market quickly, so you can measure results and improve future content more quickly.

But before you jump to writing, make sure you pass through the marketing and content strategies.

Blog Strategy 101

Blogs have come a long way since the 1990s. Then, they were often online journals or travelogues.

Today’s blogs are closer to newspaper opinion pieces or magazine content.

Word-of-mouth has always been one of the most reliable lead generators for businesses. That’s because people like to buy from those they trust.

Content marketing relies on the same psychology. By giving you helpful information on subjects of interest, the company becomes a ‘trusted advisor’, and the customer feels more comfortable loosening those purse strings.

The other important factor to creating valuable content is that it increases your ranking on search engines. The more effective content on the subject you have, the more likely customers are to see your website when they type a question about that product on Google.

Platform Makes Perfect

There are many types of blogs, each with their own individual flavor. They all serve a different purpose. Your strategy will need to consider what is the most effective for your brand and desired outcome.

Fashion pages or interior design business find great success with visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. An effective cross-marketing strategy links winning visuals with interesting, value-add content.

If you are promoting a management consultancy or legal advice, then engaging and informative content that answers questions, or solves problems, for your audience is a smart way to go.

Increasingly, businesses include video-logs embedded in their written content as a way to boost SEO. It adds a personal connection for consumers. A video can help people connect with you and your brand.

Some time-poor businesses take the route of buying Content Marketing Packages to make the job easier. There’s really no one right way to go.

What’s the Point?

You know your target customer(s) and you know what sort of questions they want you to answer. Great! Your content will practically write itself.

But wait – you need to decide what the point of it is first!

Do you want readers to buy, or sign up for a newsletter, sign a petition, or repost a sales promotion on their social media?

Knowing what the desired end-point of your content marketing strategy is, is the key to success.

You need to know the destination if you’re gonna get there, right?!

Most blog strategies have more than one goal, in fact. Your primary goal could be to sell, by becoming a trusted advisor. The secondary goal might be to improve SEO, get more traffic to your website, or boost the number of email addresses on your contact list.

Be Data Driven

There is any number of tools online that can help you measure the success (or not) of your content campaign. Use them. We’ll look at some ideas below.

The internet gives us the sort of sales data marketers could only dream of thirty years ago! It can tell you the demographic breakdown of who visits your site, who buys things, how long people spend on each page before they buy, and so on.

Using that data wisely means calibrating your marketing efforts into a lean, agile machine. No energy wasted. Imagine that!

Metrics Matter

You want to be data-driven to be agile. That means checking metrics and analyzing Return on Investment (ROI). But what metrics should you track?

There is so much data available that it can be overwhelming. Tracking all of it is an excellent way to fall into a rabbit hole.

Here’s a quick break-down of the-what-and-the-why of some key marketing metrics you might want to analyze for ads you embed in your content.

We strongly encourage you to have your marketing and content strategy in mind when you select the metrics you will track, be they:

1. Ad Click Through – the rate at which those that saw your ad clicked on it
2. Ad Conversion – the rate those that saw the ad bought r signed-up
3. Engagement Rate – the rate those that saw your post/ad reacted or shared it on their own social media
4. Measure Success

Once you have measured content-specific metrics, such as page views or page shares, it’s time to analyze ROI.

How much has it cost you to maintain the website, and get your content written, edited, published and promoted? How much of this has resulted in sales for the business?

From these figures, you can crunch some ROI figures for your business. Some good ones to use are cost-per-visit, cost-per-click, and cost-per-lead.

Work out which ones are the best for your particular blog strategy, and track all your content with the same metrics. That way, you can compare apples with apples, as they say.

Consider the conversion rates, gross profit per month, average qualified leads per month, and the average number of new customers per month.

Record them and analyze them against results from your content to see what sorts of content get you the best sales results.

Tools You Can Use

There is any number of free tools available online which will track the results of your content. One of the most popular is Google Analytics.

Google Analytics can show month-by-month data on conversion rates, demographics, and almost any other metric you’d want to consider.

Other free online tools can help you to publish your posts across platforms. You can even schedule these in advance. That way, on Marketing Monday you plan out the full week’s marketing drip-feed. This frees you to focus on other aspects of the business the rest of the week.

Analyze and Re-strategize

A pitfall for many businesses is that they collect so much data, they get overwhelmed and do nothing with it.

This is known as paralysis by analysis.

You can avoid it by sticking only to the data that is relevant to your strategy. Then, strategize your analysis. What do we mean by that?

You should build marketing analysis points into your content plan. Each month you write and publish content. Then, on a set date each month you measure the results and use them to re-calibrate your strategy.

Maybe your content is attracting lots of people to your website, but they’re not staying long, and they’re not buying anything. This might suggest you’re attracting the wrong people, and need to change the tone or subject of your content.

Perhaps you’re putting in back-links to competitors, inadvertently sending your customers to buy elsewhere.

As you can see, this whole blogging concept takes a bit of experimenting. It’s often best to work as part of a team so you can throw fresh ideas around in those early, at times frustrating, days while you’re figuring it all out.

Hang in There!

We promise that it will be frustrating at first. But like any other business success, it comes with trial-and-error. Stick with it.

Get some diverse, quality content out there, measure results, and see what it’s telling you.

What do your top performing blogs have in common? Is it the same author, subject, or tone? Are the calls to action at the end of these pieces similar, or somehow more effective?

Prioritize Your Efforts

You’ve written content, got it published, measured and analyzed the results.

Now you know what content performs the best for your brand, your market, your area.

So, rinse and repeat!

Keep writing winning content. Keep measuring results. If the metrics tell you it is getting less effective over time, then – and only then – do you change.

That’s what we mean by being data-driven to save wasting energy.

Content Is King; Be King of Content!

If you follow our guide to strategize and plan your marketing and content, you can have success.

But to truly be a king or queen of content, you need to measure blog success. That’s the only way to achieve a water-tight, idiot-proof, Teflon-coated content marketing campaign.

It’s time to get the team together and get that blog strategy in place.

Want more expert business advice? Visit our marketing blog!