Latest Curated List of Small Business Events, Awards and Contest |  |
- Latest Curated List of Small Business Events, Awards and Contest
- Dealing with Rejection, Boosting Social Engagement and More
- Cherry Blow Dry Bar Franchise Requires No Experience
- Are You Ready for “Unlimited Sales Success”?
| Latest Curated List of Small Business Events, Awards and Contest Posted: 14 Dec 2013 05:24 PM PST Welcome to our latest curated list of events, contests and awards for small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and growing companies. This is a partial list of all we carry. If you’d like to see more events or contests or awards — or submit your own event, contest or award listing — visit the Small Business Events Calendar. Featured Events, Contests and Awards
Win $25,000 in pay-per-click advertising budget for 2014, plus marketing tools from WordStream and Constant Contact. Grade and get paid today! Hashtag: #25KforPPC
An action-packed hour of discussion with panelists from #custserv , #feedback , #socialmedia , and #smallbiz marketing disciplines. Learn the value of measuring customer feedback, how it can immediately help your business and dramatically increase profits!
AM Days is the must attend event for affiliate managers who are responsible for their company’s affiliate marketing strategy, management and operations. Whether you have an existing affiliate program or you are creating a new initiative, AMDays offers you valuable insight into how other online retailers are successfully implementing and managing their affiliate programs. Topics include: Affiliate program set up; Affiliate recruitment techniques; Affiliate marketing fraud; M-commerce; and much more.
#ICON14 is the eighth annual conference for small business, hosted by Infusionsoft (previously called Infusioncon). Over 3,000 attendees expected. Confirmed speakers include Seth Godin, JJ Ramberg and Peter Shankman. Hashtag: #ICON14 More Events
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This weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends and SmallBizTechnology. The post Latest Curated List of Small Business Events, Awards and Contest appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Dealing with Rejection, Boosting Social Engagement and More Posted: 14 Dec 2013 12:30 PM PST
Another community news and information roundup lets you take the pulse of the small business community, both here and across the Web. Want to help make these roundups even better? Email us at sbtips@gmail.com with suggestions about news, information or blog posts we should include here. Or submit your content to BizSugar. And we may include it in an upcoming roundup (as we use BizSugar as a source to discover new voices and find authentic small business content). Steps to Deal with Rejection (InPower Women) Oh, you’ll definitely have to deal with rejection as a small business person. No doubt about it. But as consultant Dana Theus explains, the thing to remember is rejection often isn’t about you. Just move on. 5 Tips for a More Engaging Social Media Presence (…is Media) You’ve got a social media presence. You’re on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…even Google Plus. But somehow you’re just not seeing the results. Isaiah Seaberry has some tips to make your social media more…social. Give Google Plus a Chance (SocialSignIn) Apparently there are a bunch of Google Plus haters out there. People who feel the site is a bit eccentric and stand-offish. People who resent how it’s been foisted on us by the search engine giant that built it. Well, Alice Tew has some advice. Make Sure Your Business Doesn’t Fit In (AllTopStartups) No seriously. This is a good thing. You want your business to stand out from the rest. Thomas Oppong shares four tips he says will help your business shine … and make your customers forget about the competition. Telling Social Media Fact From Fiction (Stuart J. Davidson) This discussion of what makes up “solid research” came up as a result of Davidson’s post (and infographic) on social media marketing heroes and villains. What facts are strong enough upon which to base your social media strategies? The Revolution that Lets Us All Work in Bunny Slippers (BizSugar Blog) There’s really know need for an office these days, depending upon the kind of small business you operate Powerful application service providers and cloud computing let up work from anywhere. Here’s what Joanie Mann has to say. Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up Google Analytics (Marylin Thompson Solutions) While talking about the tools available to small business, it’s important to mention Google Analytics. It’s free and here Marylin Thompson gives a simple guide for setup anyone can understand. How to Determine if Your Business is Scalable (Openview Leadership Lab) Your small business certainly does have to be the kind of operation that can be scaled to a massive size. However, if you’re interested in growing bigger than you are today and turning your small business into a major brand, heed this advice from Ted Hoy, CTO of AtTask. Do a STEPC Analysis for Your Business (GoForth Institute) If you want to grow your small business, one of the first things you’ll need is a STEPC Analysis. That’s a Social, Technological, Economic, Political, and Competitive analysis, and here’s what’s involved, according to this Canadian small business training organization. 5 Holiday Social Promotion Ideas (Batchbook) It’s the Holiday season. Things may be slowing down around the holiday season. But it’s important to keep your marketing momentum up. Christelle Lachapelle has these suggestions for last minute marketing. Reading Photo via Shutterstock The post Dealing with Rejection, Boosting Social Engagement and More appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Cherry Blow Dry Bar Franchise Requires No Experience Posted: 14 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST So you’ve always wanted to own and operate your own salon but have no experience with cutting or coloring hair and no cosmetology license? No worries. Cherry Blow Dry Bar, a new chain of specialty hair salons based in Australia, is now growing in the U.S. And lack of skill or experience in the haircare industry is not a problem. In fact, it may even be an asset.
The company helps operate a chain of blow dry salons which has already opened locations in New York, NY, and in Tallahassee, FL. The business is the brainchild of Founder Nathan Cuneen – and is a considerable departure from most hair salons. First, the franchise focuses on a very specific niche. Customers visit blow dry bars for a shampoo, rinse and blow dried styling, all in about 30 minutes for a flat $35. No coloring or cutting involved like at other salons.
Second, Cherry Blow Dry also offers added ambiance including an open concept where customers sit along a champagne bar and socialize with one another and all of the stylists. Here’s a conceptual glimpse at the inside layout of one of franchises for a better sense of the atmosphere: The franchise is now also expanding into Germany, the U.K, and parts of South America. While all of the stylists have cosmetology certifications, as is required under U.S. law, Cuneen requires no such experience for franchise owners. In fact, his team will even work with those owners who cannot be present at the business regularly. He has systems in place to help with things like marketing and accounting.
Cuneen said in a phone interview with Small Business Trends:
He believes business owners shouldn't need to be present at their business 12 hours per day, running all of the day-to-day operations. He calls it the owner-investor model, and he said it's one of the main reasons why his business has reached the success it has:
Cuneen and his team are currently working on securing other franchises in the U.S. and have about 30 others in the works throughout the country. But he has lofty goals of 250 to 300 new stores worldwide within the next 5 years. Interested parties can apply at the company's website. Images: Cherry Blow Dry Bar The post Cherry Blow Dry Bar Franchise Requires No Experience appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Are You Ready for “Unlimited Sales Success”? Posted: 14 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST
With around fifty best selling business books under his belt, you would think that he would relax and enjoy his success. Not Brian. His most recent book, Unlimited Sales Success: 12 Simple Steps for Selling More Than You Ever Thought Possible was co-written with his son Michael and has just been released. It is destined to become another best seller. What Makes Brian Tracy (and Son) a Legend?I started out this review by calling Brian Tracy a guru. I think it might be more appropriate to call him a legend. For more than thirty years, he has studied, researched, written and spoken in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy and psychology. He is the CEO of Brian Tracy International, an organization that is committed to helping people and organizations achieve their professional and business goals. According to company, Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 5,000,000 people in 5,000 talks and seminars throughout the U.S., Canada and 55 other countries worldwide. His son Michael Tracy, who co-authored this book is the VP of Sales and Business Development at Analog Analytics, a software as a service company. Michael has also founded an online performance marketing company and he has managed door-to-door sales teams for AT&T and Verizon. While Brian brings with him a wealth of history and experience, Michael appears to be the feet-on-the ground in today's selling landscape. How to Love the Oldest Profession in the WorldContrary to popular belief, it's sales that is the oldest profession in the world. We are all selling all the time. Yet, millions upon millions of small business owners, and even sales people run away from selling as if it were the plague. This is where Tracy's newest book Unlimited Sales Success finds its audience. If you have ever dreaded making a sales call or having a sales conversation or if you still shy away from selling activities, then this is the book for you. I have a confession to make. I have never owned a Brian Tracy book. This is important for you to know because I've read some online reviews that say that this book doesn't have anything new in it. Since I've never owned any of his other books and I received this one as a review copy – I can't compare this book to the others. I can only give you a review based on my impressions of Unlimited Sales Success. Respect Yourself as a Sales ProfessionalThe book begins by telling you that this book is a compilation of time-tested sales strategies and tactics that have been updated and synthesized to apply to today's world of selling. There is no doubt about it. If you intend to be a success, then you will have to succeed at selling and that is going to require a shift in how you look at sales. Tracy begins the book sharing his personal story of when this shift took place for him. You may be surprised to learn that Tracy didn't start out as a sales superstar. His journey only happened after a conversation with a sales superstar who told him that the secret to his success was simply seeing himself as a sales professional. This is an important point because this subtle mind shift is a necessary ingredient to every sales strategy that comes after that story. You cannot hope to succeed if you don't take sales seriously and if you don't take yourself seriously enough to consider yourself a sales professional. Sales is an honorable profession. Once you are able to integrate this into your daily life and your way of being, you will immediately start seeing results. The Seven New Realities of SalesAnother critical lesson that comes early in the book is that there are seven "new" realities that you have to incorporate into your business life if you are going to be successful:
Each succeeding chapter in the book goes on to address each and every one of these issues. Let's take a closer look at chapter seven: Influencing Customer Behavior. Tracy brings in much of Robert Cialdini's work on influence in this chapter. He discusses reciprocity, scarcity and contrast among others and gives you lots of examples and ideas about how to use those "influencing" strategies in your business. Throughout the book, you will also find blocks of personal stories that not only show you their successes, but point out their failures in selling and what they did to fix them. I really appreciate this perspective since so many experts and gurus seem like they are afraid to share their failures. Another terrific feature at the end of each chapter is the "Action Exercises" section. Here are a few examples from chapter seven:
You Never Get Enough Sales TrainingAnother character trait that comes through loud and clear is that selling is WORK. Make no mistake about it. The authors are adamant that most of the success you achieve in sales comes from doing that one more thing, making that one more call, knocking on one more door. Just when you think you want to quit – go one step further. I suppose you can say the same thing for the decision on whether or not you should get this book. Even if you, like me, already have a dozen "learn to sell" or "love to sell" books on your shelf. Even if you already have the other forty-plus Brian Tracy books on your shelf – you can't afford not to read just one more. The post Are You Ready for “Unlimited Sales Success”? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
The word "guru" is thrown around a lot these days. That's too bad because it makes it hard to distinguish those who truly deserve the title from those who don't. In the case of Brian Tracy – there is no argument about his guru status. He has earned it the old fashioned way, by proving himself in the world of successful selling.| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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