by The Boomer Gal | Jan 2, 2015 | Goal Setting
New Years Resolutions are great. I have made them for as long as I can remember and have often been able to keep them to some degree. What is it about the calendar year flipping forward that makes me want to reinvent myself? It feels like a fresh start, an opportunity to try again where I have failed in the past. You know that goals can be set anytime, anywhere and for any reason. Yet there is something about a shiny new year that makes me feel hopeful that anything I choose to accomplish is within my reach. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Sep 22, 2014 | Marketing
Black Friday 2014 – it is the most important revenue producing shopping day for large retail establishments. The day after, known as Small Business Saturday, is a potential goldmine for savvy, local, baby boomer business owners who have a digital marketing strategy in place. Small Business Saturday is a catalyst to boomer business success. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Aug 14, 2014 | On Leadership
The secret to overnight success is that it takes years. Years of practice, trial and error, and failures that only lead to success through determination and perseverance.
If there truly is a secret to success, those in the know are keeping it to themselves.
For the rest of us, there is only dedication to the big picture and a process you must invest in over time.
P.S. If short blog posts are good enough for Seth Godin, then why not follow in successful footsteps.
The Secret to Overnight Success
is diligence.
by The Boomer Gal | Aug 11, 2014 | Marketing
There is a common problem today in growing a business. It is easy to buy books or hire coaches to learn how-to build a thriving business. You read the book, listen to the coach on a webinar and it all sounds so simple.
It is simple, but not easy.
The execution of simple is difficult and therein lays the problem.
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by The Boomer Gal | Aug 7, 2014 | Social Media
Social media can be time consuming. When a new task consumes precious resources, you write it off as too much trouble.
Social media is an enormous marketing tool. It is essential you find a realistic solution to getting it done. Here are 3 social media automation tools I use to keep my profile streams flowing. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Aug 4, 2014 | Marketing
Small business ideas are the backbone of our economy. Boomer business owners have a lot of experience and information at their fingertips.
That information is not limited to the products and services you offer. The fact is, if you run a small business, at some point you are both janitor and CEO. You are uniquely qualified to mentor and know more than you are giving yourself credit for.
Bigger companies have marketing dollars to spend in ways small business can never afford. Everyone can play big on the Internet. That is the beauty of social media, blogging and content marketing. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Aug 1, 2014 | Marketing
As our economy continues to struggle, one of the first things to go in a business budget is the line item for marketing. Marketing is expensive.
Here are three low cost ways to market your business right now. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 29, 2014 | Marketing
Remember the line, “If you build it, they will come,” from the Field of Dreams movie? Sadly, too many of Boomers have that same mantra about their website. Build a website and the visitors will flow through the door. Not so much.
Building a website is step one to getting found online. Without a website, you have nowhere to send customers or prospects to learn more about your products and services. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 25, 2014 | Blogging
Pull Back The Curtain – 3 Blog Topic Generators
Writing blog posts is not always easy, even for writers. Blog ideas can be difficult to unearth when writing is not a daily habit. Keep in mind every blog post should not be about bringing in new sales, but about bringing value to your visitors.
Here are 3 ideas to jog your creativity and fill a dwindling topic list, and hopefully take the headache out of writing blog posts. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 22, 2014 | Marketing
Being different can make people cross the street when they see you coming. It can also cause people to remember you. What you want to make certain, is that they remember you for the right reason.
That is when being different is good.
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by The Boomer Gal | Jul 17, 2014 | Public Speaking
Public speaking may be a well-noted fear, but is also how smart Baby Boomers are growing their businesses.
A question I am often asked is, “Where do I find audiences?” That is a great question! It is actually far easier than you might think to find places to speak. Here are 3 simple public speaking tips to booking more speaking engagements immediately. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 14, 2014 | Marketing
Business revenue growth is hard. You try all kinds of ideas, often at once, to see what sticks. One rather counter-intuitive method to fast-track growth is niche marketing. The importance of knowing your niche: niche marketing is the practice of concentrating your marketing efforts on a small and well defined segment of a market. Many start-up businesses cringe at the thought of being narrow minded in their marketing approach. But it really can help your business revenue growth accelerate.
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by The Boomer Gal | May 8, 2014 | Social Media
We’re talking social media marketing and rather than assume you’ve heard of LinkedIn (though I just can’t imagine that you haven’t) let me remind you. LinkedIn is “the” website for professional networking. So unlike Facebook which has a more friends and family type of feel to it, or Twitter with its fast paced micro blogging atmosphere, LinkedIn is where business people network in the virtual world.
One of the many uses of LinkedIn is a job search. That’s for both people looking to become employed as well as those wanting to change jobs. You know somewhere in the vicinity of 88 out of the Fortune 100 companies use LinkedIn for recruitment. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Apr 30, 2014 | Marketing
There are so many local marketing strategies that can be put into play, but I want to hone in on three in particular.
First is word of mouth marketing. I decided to look this phrase up online and discovered there is actually a Word of Mouth Marketing Association that was founded in 2004. WOMMA as it’s called is an organization dedicated to the ethical and successful use of word of mouth marketing, which as you can imagine requires the use of social media to have a deeper impact. I was impressed with their website because they have educational components and they follow changes in current laws, regulations and compliance issues that affect communication online and help you wade through that muck. Check them out.
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by The Boomer Gal | Apr 21, 2014 | Marketing
It’s actually no longer a secret that online marketing is not an option anymore. It’s absolutely a requirement for your small business if you want to continue to grow and thrive. “If you build it, they will come” is not the approach to use in your online marketing. It may have been true in the 90s, but it’s not true today. Don’t fret, because there’s still time for you to get established and see your small business success increase with these 5 online marketing secrets. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Apr 14, 2014 | Business Networking
Networking is a common strategy to growing a small business. But small business owners do not always think of networking in relation to customer retention. Building a community of happy advocates that are willing to share your brand is an important customer retention strategy and networking helps facilitate that. My friend and colleague Christine Clifton of Client Centric Growth has an interesting analogy about bamboo that helps illustrate the networking and customer retention relationship.
How is growing bamboo like building a business? You’d be surprised. Here Christine explains exactly how this analogy applies to your business during our interview for my podcast, Act Local Marketing.
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by The Boomer Gal | Apr 8, 2014 | Sales Tips
How do you go about setting the pricing for your products or services? Setting goods prices may seem easier because you have actual labor and manufacturing costs and the associated materials purchasing required to make the product. Those numbers are easier to see and calculate. Yet a first time entrepreneur can still make mistakes like Katie Danzinger, founder of Nomie Baby in Manhattan did when she began selling removable, washable infant car seat covers.
According to this article in the NY Times in the Small Business section titled Real-Life Lessons in the Delicate Art of Setting Prices, Ms. Danzinger thought she had all her bases covered but didn’t factor in enough for printing of marketing materials, shipping, storage, packaging or liability costs. But an increase of 6% in the selling price put her back on track.
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by The Boomer Gal | Apr 1, 2014 | Sales Tips
Relationship marketing and building rapport with your prospect during the sales process is one key to good salesmanship. The relationship between you as the salesman and your prospect has to begin by building trust. You don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date, and you don’t ask for the sale before building a foundation of trust.
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by The Boomer Gal | Mar 25, 2014 | Time Management
Don’t turn a blind eye to business automation systems. It’s the equivalent of running your business with a paper bag over your head.
There is a great article on Yahoo! Finance from May of 2013 by John Aberle titled Simple Systems for Organizing Your Small Business that I encourage you to go read. What I want to share with you is the opening section of that article which the author subtitled Calculating the Impact of a Minor Problem. This kinda drives the whole idea home.
Let’s imagine there is a small problem in your business that everyone has been putting up with. It wastes approximately 20 minutes per day for each employee that has to deal with this problem.
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by The Boomer Gal | Mar 11, 2014 | Marketing
Market Research and Building a Business
How do you find a market for your business? Do you determine your products or services and then go out and beat the bushes for customers? Sitting behind a desk, cold calling potential leads all day is one method of business building. But, is there a better way?
In my continuing interview with Christine Clifton of Client Centric Growth, she shared part of her entrepreneurial journey where she discusses her experience with those confusing questions. How she started her business from scratch and discovered exactly what her clients needed from her is a story that will help you.
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New Years Resolutions are great. I have made them for as long as I can remember and have often been able to keep them to some degree. What is it about the calendar year flipping forward that makes me want to reinvent myself? It feels like a fresh start, an opportunity to try again where I have failed in the past. You know that goals can be set anytime, anywhere and for any reason. Yet there is something about a shiny new year that makes me feel hopeful that anything I choose to accomplish is within my reach. (more…)
