Managing Your Employees And Forming Business Alliances

Since you're reading this article, I know for a fact that you would like to make more money in your business. And there's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to feel guilty about making more money - it's just a natural thing that goes on in a business owner's mind. So if you're in business looking for money, you should know that there is money all around you.

Quite easily, the fastest way to earn more money in your business is by selling to your repeat customers. If you have a large customer database, you want to make sure that you're selling to these people on a monthly basis. These are the people who know you and like you, so it's important that you focus on creating a relationship with this group of people.

In this article, we're going to take a look at some ways that you can have success in your business right away. I personally use these tips, and they have made me a lot of money. So I'm passing these strategies here for you so that you can implement them in your business. Here's the first marketing tip:

1) Manage your employees

Assuming that you have a franchise or a business with employees, you will want to make sure that your employees respect you, and are willing to do a good job for you on a daily basis. There are a lot of ways to make your employees like you and make them want to go above and beyond for you. One of those things is the employee of the month award.

Analyze each of your employees progress and see which one of them made the most effort this month to make customers feel happy, and that is making you a lot of money each and everyday. Another way to do this is with free gifts. You can purchase a gift card from a popular retail store, and hand it out every month to the employee who gave you the best effort this month. All of these are great ways to make more money in your business, all while making your employees feel special also. Let's take a look at another tip:

2) Create new alliances

Get out there and start mingling with similar business owners in your city. The first place you will want to start your search at is your local chamber of commerce. There are a lot of business owners there who are successful, and there are some people there who aren't as successful. It's your job to link up with these people to form new alliances in your business.

Even if you're shy, you can still benefit from using the chamber of commerce to connect up with fellow business owners. The first thing that you will want to do is to hand out your business card. Make sure your business card is designed to get new people to call you, and to make yourself look like an expert of some sort. This way if a fellow business owner comes across someone who could use your services, they can just hand them one of your business cards.

Top Reasons To Form A Strategic Business Alliance

A strategic alliance is when two or more businesses join together for a set period of time. The businesses, usually, are not in direct competition, but have similar products or services that are directed toward the same target audience. Below are ten reasons to create a strategic alliance.

1. You could offer your customers a larger variety of products or services. This will allow you to spend less time and money developing new products to sell.

2. Your number of sales people will increase because you're combining with other business. You won't have spend to time and money hiring new employees.

3. Your marketing and advertising budget will increase. When you form a strategic alliance with other businesses you both will share the advertising and marketing costs.

4. You can now offer your existing customers more back-end and upsell products. This will increase your sales and profits.

5. Your business will gain a larger number of skilled people working on the same project. You will gain the knowledge of the other businesses employees.

6. You will be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger target audience. You will also increase the total number of existing customers you can sell your products and services to.

7. You can exchange endorsements with your alliance partners. You'll add more credibility to your business and gain your potential customers trust to buy.

8. You can expand your business more rapidly. You can develop new products and services faster with a larger work force.

9. You'll be able to solve your customer's problems faster with a larger base of customer service people. You'll also learn new ways to improve your customer service from your alliance partners.

10. You'll have a larger number of "strategic thinking" people. This will allow both businesses to come up with profitable business ideas quicker than before.

Power and Profit in Strategic Partnerships and Business Alliances

You cannot build a successful business alone. In order to build a strong profitable business, you must rely on and be of service to others. Building strategic partnerships and alliances is a powerful way to do this quickly. There are three main reasons to partner strategically.

1) Build a stronger selling proposition When you align with another business, you expand your ability to be creative. For example, Stephanie, a financial planner that targets women who desire to create financial independence, aligned with a nail salon to offer manicures while attending a seminar on investing. This created a stronger selling proposition and created more value because she was able to offer more than just the seminar. The participants could relax and get pampered while they learned to take control of their finances.

2) Boost Customer Referrals Naturally, when you align with another business, you increase your visibility to your ideal customers. With both companies promoting to their own target, each business is exposed to a larger audience. Using Stephanie's example, the salon advertised the seminar to their clientele and Stephanie advertised the pampering nail service to her list. The result...MORE people attended than if they were to promote two separate events.

3) Increase Revenue with Less Effort The BEST part of building strategic alliances and partnerships is the increase credibility you receive. This is important because it is a fact that people buy from those they know and trust. When you align with another respected business, you are endorsed as "The Person" to buy from. If you can get someone else to promote your service or product, it is incredibly valuable. Again, because the nail customers had an existing relationship with the salon, they trusted that Stephanie was "the one" for their financial needs.

So, begin to think about who you can build strategic partnerships with to boost your business while creating value, as well, for your partner. Be creative!

Jo Della Penna is an entrepreneur, coach, national speaker, author Her company, The Business of YOU, is a company devoted to empower, motivate and educate entrepreneurs to be courageously authentic in their business and take it from a challenging "j.o.b." and turn it into a well run, enjoyable and profitable company.

Strategic Business Alliance - Ten Reasons Why

1. More Variety - You will be able to offer your customers a larger variety of of products and services.

2. A bigger Sales Force - The number of sales people will increase when you form this alliance. You will spend less time on hiring new employees and still increase your sales force.

3. More Marketing Dollars - Your marketing and advertising budget will increase and both businesses will share the marketing and advertising costs. You will add products and services to your existing customer base.

4. Batch Products - You can increase your sales and profits by combining products with your strategic partners. Adding new products and services will help you increase your profits.

5. A bigger Work Force - Your business will gain a larger number of skilled professionals. This will help you grow your business faster.

6. Beat your Competition - You will be selling to a larger target
audience, thus beat your competition by selling more products and services. You will increase your existing customer base.

7. Add Credibility - You will exchange endorsements with your alliance partners thus adding credibility with your existing customers and potential new customers.

8. Faster Growth Path - You can expand your business at a faster pace. You will develop new products and services because of the larger sales force.

9. Problem Solving Partner - You will solve your customer's problems faster with the larger base of customer service people. You will learn from your alliance partner how to improve your customer service.

10. A Think Tank - You will have a larger number of people to bounce ideas off of and have a sounding board to solve problems and gain new ideas to grow your business.

How to Build Better Business Alliances

Judging by the popularity of instant message programs, chat
rooms, and discussion forums, it would seem logical to
conclude that people enjoy interacting with one another in
an almost anonymous, virtual environment. Although people
enjoy the anonymity they still crave attention and
relationships with other people. Sometimes, the internet is
so impersonal, and cold that getting a nice email from an
actual person that doesn't want your money is almost
exciting.

People especially enjoy interacting with those of similar
interests. Why not use this to the advantage of your
business? Internet marketers don't usually have anybody in
their lives that shares the same passion. And, as a whole,
Internet marketers are very passionate about what they do
and love discussing it with others who share that same
passion. By creating friendships with other online
marketers in your niche you open yourself up to a world of
possibilities.

The ability to build an alliance with someone powerful and
successful in your field is literally priceless. A lot of
businesses survive on their contacts alone. With a good
contact you open up to joint ventures, exchange of
information and ideas. Affiliate partnerships, market
research, years of experience, links to your site These
friendly contacts, all which are call "alliances," can
provide you with the leverage that you need, not only to
learn quickly, but to market your product to large
audiences of people fast.

Having an alliance is many times better than just proposing
a joint venture to someone for several reasons. First, a
joint venture proposal to someone you don't know will be
treated with so much skepticism that your chances are slim
to none. Whereas getting a JV proposal from a trusted
contact whom you have been exchanging emails with regularly
for a couple weeks will get much more consideration.
Building up a friendly alliance with someone online is a
lot like making friends in the real world. People don't
like to be badgered, they don't like know it alls, they
don't like back-stabbers, they don't like needy people, and
they don't like it if you follow them around and use up
their time.

It is recommended contacting someone for the first time via
a short email. Compliment their site, explain who you are,
and then ask them a simple question that wouldn't
compromise their business. This way, you won't use up too
much of their time but your inquiry demands a response.
When they email you back, follow a similar format but offer
more information about yourself. Write a longer email. Try
to keep a volley going back and forth and after a while see
if they have an IM name. Infuse your emails with your
personality and become curious about them, their
motivations, and their life. Before long, you will have a
friendly business contact with someone that could pay off
in infinite ways.

Getting business alliances to promote your product Before
seeking to ask a business alliance for any favors, such as
blasting your ad their list. You must already have a
powerful, proven sales process in place before you seek
their counsel and/or assistance. Do not become overzealous
and assume that someone has the same belief and passion for
your product as you do. All too often we become prideful
and think that our product is the best when, in fact,
others do not share the same appreciation. If you are
seeking to have someone with a big list send out an
advertisement for you product you would have to be careful
in how you went about it.

Someone with a big list and a successful business is, most
likely, busy. They probably get hundreds of emails a day.
Unless your proposal is credible and attractive to them it
will not get consideration. The majority of people and
especially entrepreneurs are cautious by nature. They will
not undertake a joint venture unless you can prove that you
can make them money, that you are reliable, and that your
product will not tarnish their reputation. Make sure that
you don't waste their time. Don't insult them with a hyped
up sales pitch about how much money they can make if they
sell your product. If you are trying to get them to mail
something to their list about your product include
statistics, documentation, and, if possible, your actual
product.

Find an ad that pulls extremely well, through testing. Know
the conversion ratio and have everything documented. Let
them know that you are legitimate and that you are selling
a high quality product. Nobody wants to get involved with
someone who is going to tarnish their reputation. Give them
specific, documented conversion statistics from similar
advertising campaigns Make sure and state what is in it for
them. Are they going to get a share of your backend
profits? Are you going to sell their product to your list?
Tell them that promotions for your product have been going
well.

Tell them that your particular ad converts at a specific
ratio. Tell them that you think they should give it a shot.
You do, of course, want to be sure that what you are
recommending will turn out to be profitable for them.
Otherwise, they won't ever work with you again. And don't
just pop this sales pitch out of no where or the person
will feel used. It might be a good idea only to mention the
idea and then if they sound interested fill them in with
the details.

Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?

by Brian Clark founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter and Google+.

"...At least once a year, various pundits declare ponderously that blogs are dead … usually killed by some platform that we label as “social media.” One year it’s Facebook, another it’s Twitter, then it’s Google+. The platforms seem to change a lot more quickly than the arguments. 

Those declarations are built, at least in part, on the mistaken notion that blogging and social media are different and distinct things...."  Read Brian's blog here

Which Social Sharing Button is Right for Your Brand

Originally posted on The Search Agents by Heather Sundell

There are just so many darn social sharing buttons these days, and content marketing is more important than ever. As a user, it has created a moment of decision of choosing which channel  to share a particular news story, or cute video. The goal is to have as many network peers see the content, enjoy it, and re-share. There’s no shame in admitting gratification in people liking something you share.

As a marketer, its important to help users make this decision easily, and also ensure that your content is shared with the appropriate audience on the right channels. The best way to help users along the content sharing path is social sharing buttons. There are so many buttons to choose from, but highlighting them all can cause confusion the open the possibility of sharing to the wrong demographic.

Next time you want to share a piece of content, whether it be an article, blog post, video, or image, think about who you’d like to see it. Take a look at our infographic to learn about which buttons play well with girls, boys, nerds, jocks, and class clowns alike.