The trend for small businesses is not adding more staff, but hiring an industry expert partner. Managing employees takes investment in training, paying for benefits, and so on.  Even worse, what if that individual is not the right fit for you business culture, then what?

What makes more sense is to hire a partner that off-sets the business owners weaknesses. Not as an employee, but as an adviser.

Here are some key reasons entrepreneurs should consider the outsourcing route.
I know the advice is usually Always Be Closing, but I think testing your marketing not only comes first but it's a critical element in bringing people to the table so you can close them.

User testing is a best practice in marketing. No element of the plan or facet of execution is exempt from the drive to find a better way. So unless you're considering a better way to present your plan to management or a way to connect people with the right content sooner you may be overlooking a better way to better results.

I'm all for user testing.  As an agency copywriter I worked on Fortune 500 accounts.  User testing gave us precise data on what worked for them.  Commercial formats were described by the test-winning techniques, plots and actions they contained.  Another highly targeted B2B company restricted colored headlines and concept graphics for ground breaking announcements figuring if they used them for everything they would use up the high scoring magic.   My requests to test something new were put off in place of tests that combined known winning elements such as a bigger graphic plus a colored headline.
Getting the most out of LinkedIn extends beyond just making connections. Think of your LinkedIn as a true networking tool where you can participate from your laptop or mobile device. If you go to a networking event and then never follow-up, engage in any additional events or discussions, you will be forgotten after your business card lands in someone's pocket.

If you are not comfortable making connections on LinkedIn, visit my previous blog on generating leads on LinkedIn. If you are making connections and sending follow-up messages, take the next steps to engage with your contacts through LinkedIn Posts.
I met with a business owner earlier this week who operates in a saturated market where skill-sets and service delivery vary greatly. His experience is vast, he operates at the top-end of the market, and has a nice brand that just needs to be expanded and grown within his base market.  He has tried most marketing tools and is looking for a better way to educate and engage with his target audience without getting lost in the masses.  He is looking for a tool to both educate and demonstrate his capabilities visually.  What he wants is something new that is different from the same marketing channels everyone in his field is using. 

Does this sound like you?  If so, you will want to learn more about Facebook's latest product: Facebook Instant Articles.
Mar 04, 2016
 Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is equivalent to being invited to eat lunch at the popular table. You hope you will keep the spot at the table, but there is a lot of work you must do to stay there.  It takes patience to move up to the pinnacle of popularity and some may claim they don't care to be there. But, not sitting at the popular is like living in anonymity and no business owner wants that.

Like being popular, being on the first page of search results on Google has its perks.  So how do you get to page one?
Who doesn't love good cake?  It tastes great, smells wonderful, can be absolutely beautiful and is the center piece of many celebrations. All you need is a good recipe, good ingredients and a decent baker.

If you were to taste each of the cake ingredients on their own, most would  be downright awful. A poor recipe can leave you with a cake that is flat, dry, dense or in many other ways unpleasant.

So why so much talk about cake, no it's not the mid-afternoon need of a pick-me-up.  It's that marketing is very similar to that of baking a cake. Marketing components do not function as well individually as they do when implemented together under a single strategy. 

As you move forward with any marketing plan consider how outsourcing marketing to a company with full oversight differs from outsourcing each piece ad hoc. 
Every year I buy myself a new journal to keep notes from my client meetings, business ideas and new technologies I'm planning to adopt.  There is something about a blank book full of opportunities and ideas to be noted and recorded that excites me.  What does the future hold and what will the journal say in December 2016 about the past year?

As I start my journal this year, rather than starting with resolutions and goals on page one, I'm going to begin with the last page.  Writing what has been achieved, writing what the year looked like, rather than writing what the year will look like. Here is my final chapter of an amazing 2016...
I've always said I'd rather give a speech to hundreds than mingle with a small group.  I'm pretty certain I'm not the only one. I'm not a psychologist, so I'm sure there is a more complex answer for this anxiety, but my guess is that it comes down to the fear of not being liked or more plainly stated, being rejected.  This is the same fear that exists in sales.

I love sales, or should I say I like getting the sale and working with a new interesting client.  I don't always enjoy the sales process.  I like talking to people, I like helping people, but I don't enjoy being rejected. After all, it's hard not to take rejection personally especially when you're an entrepreneur and  own the business, manage the work and do the sales. But what if there was a way to remove the rejection, would it make sales and mingling more comfortable? Could removing fear and being more likeable actually make a person more successful?
Dec 09, 2015
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