September, 2019 | BlogZynergy

How To Focus On Your Business – And Succeed Massively

Why do so many beginners fail at their online businesses? And what can you do to avoid it happening to you? In this article, we’ll address this problem directly – and with a good dose of common sense!
Having your own online business seems like a great idea, doesn’t it?

You sit down at your computer, come up with a product or service idea, and start marketing it all over the world… without even getting up from your chair. Everything happens virtually on your website.

And some of the people you reach through your site will buy your product, sign up to your mailing list, get to know you and your business better, and stay on as loyal customers and repeat buyers.

Over time you will build a mutually beneficial relationship in a friendly, low-key, inexpensive way. By playing your cards right, you can even steadily build it into a big business that serves large crowds of clients, and pulls in huge profits.

Wouldn’t it be great if that was how things actually worked?

Well, if you’ve actually tried to build an online business, then you know it’s not like that at all. In fact, if you’ve tried it out, then you know that it can actually be more challenging than building a brick-and-mortar business in the “real world”.

Why is this?

Well, for starters, it’s this way because almost everybody else is dreaming about this ‘ideal fantasy’ of running an online business from their bedrooms in their pyjamas – and growing rich automatically. And the group of ‘shovel sellers’ who equip these ‘pioneers’ and cheer them on the way to their ‘Gold Rush’ aren’t exactly being honest about how difficult it is to really make sales online.

But there’s another reason, one that’s much more important. And it has to do with the important point about how to focus better.

Answer this question: Have you ever visited the average business website? You know the kind I’m talking about. It’s fairly decent, with a long one-page sales letter making the same, tired, predictable pitch for a range of products that are all pretty dull and boring.

But every once in a while, there’s an exciting new one.

It is catchy, snazzy, even bizarre, and so it grabs you by the eyeball, sucks you in, and makes you eager to buy whatever it is they’re selling. That’s the kind of business and product that everyone wants to build and own.

And guess what? All the people try to blindly duplicate it. But they’re doing it wrong, and so they don’t gain any value from their attempt.

They pretend to study and derive from the winning model, but end up copying and cloning only the least important things. Worse, by trying them out at the same time, they are creating a shoddy version of the winning website – and don’t get even a fraction of the selling power of the ‘original’ website.

It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

Once you decide to get this part of your business organized and streamlined, you must learn how to focus better.

One day, a new friend was explaining his ‘system’ for building an auto-pilot web-based income stream. At his house, he demonstrated the model and it was among the most simple, elegant things ever. Everything hummed along like a machine.

He described how he looked at different niche markets, how he identified potential hot-selling products in each, and how he built simple processes that made dozens of sales every day.

It was hard to not admire his genius. But the real miracle of his system wasn’t the ‘machine’… it was the simplicity of his process. Anyone seeing it would realize that online selling could work if this simplicity could be modeled and adopted.

Like any online business, some things worked well – while others fell flat. Slowly, steadily, this entrepreneur had developed systematic approaches to getting all the components integrated into a reproducible and sustainable sequence of steps.

A new world was open – and taking advantage of it gave this business owner a headstart over anybody else. Following the same principles can boost your chances of success at business, or indeed anything else.

To be successful, you need to understand two KEY things:

You must not do what everyone else is doing
You must find a system that works, and stick with it

And that’s the key. Especially the second part. Because that what creates such a massive difference in your level of success as compared with anyone else. When you work with more focus on your business, you’ll win.

Also, you must find the right things to focus on. But that’s easier. The difficult part is to discipline yourself to focus better on whatever you are doing.

Without it, none of this would have worked. And anyone can do it, if only you maintain your focus! Far too many people expect to throw up a website, do nothing much else, and sit back and reap profits immediately. That won’t happen.

On the other hand, if you carry out many small, inexpensive tests, and follow through on your action plan based on your results that expand what works (and drops what doesn’t), you’ll soon experience massive success in what you do.

Why then do we so lack focus? Why do we reach out eagerly for the latest, newest, flashiest stuff – and then not put it to good use? Why do we not work on a system that works, but instead prefer to waste time and effort trying to reinvent the wheel?

This is what Steve Jobs had to say about the importance of learning how to focus. The CEO of Apple Inc. was giving members of an indie record label a private presentation about the iTunes Music Store. People kept raising their hand to ask, “Does it do [x]?”, “Do you plan to add [y]?”.

Why companies increasingly use marketing via the letterbox

Nowadays you don’t seem to be able to reach customers without a proper social media strategy. Young people in particular can only be addressed via Instagram, YouTube or other channels, it seems. Companies invest a lot of time and money in their social media strategy, while forgetting that you can also reach customers offline.

Despite the growth of social media, there is a growing group who are cancelling their social media account . The abundance of information is for many people a reason to become more selective with what they want to follow and do online. And thus freeing up more time for themselves. These are not just young people, older generations have also become more critical in their social media use. Older people, if they can already be found online, are mainly found on a platform such as Facebook.

Confidence in this platform has decreased considerably since the privacy scandals of recent years. Many users have since left Facebook or are considering doing so. And those who have stayed in would prefer personal contact rather than being contacted via their Facebook page. If you want to reach these groups well, it is high time to think about a more traditional way. For example through offline marketing.

Offline marketing

Offline marketing means nothing more than: reaching your target group via traditional media, outside the internet. Think of a billboard along the highway or abri posters in bus shelters. Or a booth at an event or trade show, distribute door-to-door leaflets or promotional gifts Or send discount promotions by mail. The possibilities are endless. If your target group is very local, offline marketing is even the way. These are the most important benefits of offline marketing:

1. Increase your brand awareness

Seeing your name on TV or in the newspaper, or hearing on the radio is a way to reach a large audience and to quickly create brand awareness. Who does not remember: “I am not crazy anyway” campaign by Mediamarkt or “Kruidvat; still surprisingly always beneficial’? Repeat your message and brand name, and brand awareness increases enormously.

2. You show that you are making an effort

A letter on the doormat with stamp and name of the person on it, there will be few people who will not open it. Such a mail item radiates that someone has made an effort to reach you. Read more about marketing by mail. In addition: you stand out and stimulate the curiosity of your target group. Which ensures that your name recognition increases again.

4. You get interaction through the personal approach

A personal approach and offline contact gives (potential) customers the feeling that they are important. You literally look each other in the eye and interact. On the street, at a trade show or during an event. A handshake and a conversation make more impression than likes on Facebook or Instagram.

5. You create an experience

Now that we are talking about it: at an event or during a trade show you have the opportunity to really get your audience acquainted with your company. A kitchen producer can hire a cook who will prepare delicious dishes on the spot, an app developer can immediately show his app and explain it to visitors. Of course you never get that online.

6. You stand out easier

It is difficult to attract or hold attention online. But nobody can miss a large billboard along the highway. A big campaign via letterbox and billboards either. Do you not have such a large budget at your disposal? Think smaller. You can also start a fun campaign to get more brand awareness, also known as guerilla marketing. As a small company with few resources you can have a large reach with this.

Creating a good customer profile: these are the most important buyer personas

Every marketing strategy starts with drawing up a few buyer personas, to visualize who your customers are, how they behave and what their motivations are. In this way you give those target groups their own message.

American research shows that companies that support marketing with buyer personas achieve 124 percent more returns. Nowadays there are roughly four buyer personas , which are particularly enlightening for entrepreneurs: competitive, spontaneous, methodical and human.

1. Competitive:
– logical thinker who acts purposefully
– responds well to offers
– requires little information

2. Spontaneous:
– quick thinker based on emotion / feeling
– responds to offers, with sufficient certainty
– does not read long texts, but scans information

3. Methodically:
– takes time for decision
– well informed, bases decision on facts
– also conducts external investigation

4. Human:
– takes time for decision
– chooses an ’emotional’ perspective and good relationship
– wants to know what others think of you

Meat and blood

Make sure that you see your customer as a person of flesh and blood. Prevent your thinking about him only in values such as education, income and gender. A good customer profile also states how your buyer persona looks at life, what his motives and motives are, but also his fears and doubts.

There are different ways of mapping out motives and motives. Many companies use a value and driver scheme with a vertical and horizontal axis. At the top of the vertical axis is, for example, freedom and at the bottom control. For example, to the left of the horizontal axis is “I” driven and to the right “we” driven. From the diagram you can determine within which quadrants most of your customers fall.

Domino’s Pizza

A good example of different direct mails to different customer profiles is Domino’s Pizza. Domino’s works with franchisees who all have their own marketing budget for direct marketing (DM) and door-to-door advertising. However, since sending a DM mailing franchisees took a lot of time, very few stores did anything with this. And that had to change.

Domino’s went looking for a party that could help to ensure that DM was used more and better.

Together, the two companies set up the buyer people for Domino’s and the following three target groups came out for the DM campaigns:
– customers who ordered pizza from Domino’s for the first time
– ‘sleeping’ customers who hadn’t ordered anything for a long time ;
– customers for whom a pizza was delivered late.

Every Domino’s franchisee determines which target group is important to him. He then collects the contact details of the right customers himself and sends them to the printer in an excel file. He can then start printing the right cards.

Tune your tone and message

These three target groups must each receive their own message, each with their own tone. For example, customers for whom pizza is delivered too late will receive a ticket on the bus that apologizes with a discount code.

And ‘sleeping’ customers get a ticket on the mat with an attractive offer, so that they can place an order again. If you communicate in a more targeted manner and develop products based on a clear customer profile, you do not have to shoot with hail, but you can aim more effectively.

Four Ways to Reach Your Customers

As an entrepreneur you want to appeal to the right customers. But whoever your company focuses on, your target audience will be flooded with a huge flow of information. How do you ensure that your message reaches your customer?

An effective marketing campaign requires preparation. In fact, the better the preparation, the greater the chance of a return. Because who do you want to focus on, in what way and with what message? With these four ways you can reach your customers even better.

1. Banner / online advertisement

Promote an offer, increase your brand awareness or promote a new product / service; it’s all possible with a banner. The big advantage is that you can target the online advertisement at a specific location and target group. Even with small budgets, it is therefore possible to get a lot of return from your banner.

Determine in advance the location and target group you want to reach with your advertisement on the internet. For example, do you have a fitness school in Zwolle? Then you know that people up to a distance of about five kilometers are willing to come to you. Then you only want to fire the campaign at people who want to get in shape or maintain their condition. With these two filters you can reach the right people in a very targeted way.

Do you want to keep costs completely low? You can create a banner yourself with the help of websites etc.

2. Social media campaign

The choice from the range of social media channels is increasing. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest … How many messages you post on social media every day is important, although nobody knows exactly what the perfect number of messages should be. CoSchedule studied a number of studies and arrived at these averages per channel:

Facebook: 1 post per day
Twitter: 15 Tweets per day
LinkedIn: 1 post per day
Instagram: 1-2 posts per day
Pinterest: 11 Pins per day

With a social media campaign, it is also important to define specific goals for a specific target group. No social media goals, such as reaching ten thousand followers in six months. But business goals, such as increasing your brand awareness by 20 percent for people aged 18-24 within six months.

The big advantage of social media is that as a company you don’t always have to be the channel. Customers have easy ‘access’ to you as an entrepreneur or as a company, so that they can easily start a conversation with you. In this way you have already taken the biggest threshold, because the customer is coming to you.

3. Targeted mailing promotion

A targeted e-mail is a powerful means to build and strengthen a relationship with your target group. Do you know someone’s name, interests or date of birth? Put it in the text, it immediately makes it personal. And the more personal your message, the more familiar it feels and the greater the chance that a customer will take action. Use a personal salutation, mail customers an offer on their birthday and never forget to communicate clearly: make sure the name of your company and where you can be reached are always clearly stated.

Send a mailing every day? It seems like a good idea, but don’t. That way you almost certainly arouse irritation rather than interest. Make sure you really have something to say when you approach someone. However, it is a good plan to maintain a fixed rhythm to send your newsletters, for example weekly or monthly. But think of the best time in advance.

In addition, a mailing is measurable, which makes this an ideal means to test and optimize quickly and thus increase your success. See what happens with your e-mails. Are your e-mails properly opened? Well clicked? Do they deliver your leads or money?

4. Direct mail campaign

Perhaps the most effective way to reach your target group: a direct mail. No simple letter or brochure, customers want to be triggered. It is therefore essential to stand out: beautiful paper, good printed matter, beautiful photography. Also consider a different size, a surprising color or put something in the envelope. Research shows that people always open an envelope ‘with a bump’.

Always ‘give’ something to the addressee: a temporary discount, the second product for free or an offer on a limited product / service that is interesting for the target group. Or ‘offer’ your customer something: a test product, a consultation or a booklet with more information. Such a free offer – however modest – will move people much earlier to take action.

Because ultimately you want the customer to respond to your attractive offer. To increase the chance of this, not only must the offer be attractive. Also make sure that using it is as easy as possible. For example, provide a link to a website specially created for this promotion, send a preprinted reply card that recipients can return filled in free of charge or state a free telephone number where the customer can retrieve more information.

Thirty 9 Thank You Messages for Your Workers

Practically 50% of the US workforce search for organizations that worth their representatives and reward them for an occupation all around done. But beside that all over the world you can reward your employees with a nice THANK YOU message.The valuation for a solitary people activity and practices can bring down turnover rates and increment degrees of consistency of your workers. This can mean a normal 4% expansion in complete gainfulness every year. A posting of thank you messages for representatives are given beneath to urge managers to step up to the plate towards expressing gratitude toward representatives for their diligent work and devotion.

Inconceivable Is Constantly Conceivable

There are such a large number of things that once appeared to be outlandish however are ordinary today. It took individuals with confidence, diligent work, and assurance to cause these things to occur. They didn’t tune in to naysayers or surrender to the overwhelming battle. They put their heads down, pursued their fantasies, and would not acknowledge “no” for an answer. They accepted the inconceivable was conceivable — And now, the “unimaginable” is a reality!

What is your opinion about the test that lies before you? Will you take the necessary steps to win?

The sky is the limit when you accept!

Do You Accept?

If it’s not too much trouble leave a remark and reveal to us what you think or offer it with somebody who can profit by the data.

After 100 days it is goodbye 2019

Just like nature, time is ruthless.
Another 100 days and then 2019 is over.

What goals did you have for this year?
Are you happy with what you have achieved this year?

Have you made good use of your limited time on this globe and have you improved the quality of your business, your health, your state of mind and your relationships?
We're just a flash here.

Such a sin if you are mainly busy with it in the flash:
    • putting out fires
    • hunting for to-do's
    • numbing of pain
    • filling void with even more void
    • hunt for recognition
    • working hard on the wrong
    • working hard in the wrong way
    • achieving success without satisfaction
To die then.
Without ever having really lived.
2019 still has 100 days. Did you get it?
What are you going to do with that?
And do you have a concrete plan for 2020 or will it be more of the same?
Find out how you can get more out of yourself and mean more for your company / organization, so that you can get more out of your life.

Because a Lamborgini for your door is cool.
But together with the love of your life, a fit body and a big smile on your face in a Lamborgini towards the next adventure is much cooler.
There are certainly steps you can take now for a strong end to 2019, and start immediately with a lead in 2020.
You can let me know what you are going to do to get the most out of yourself.
2020 is coming.I am prepared !!

How Safety and Health Training Benefits Your Business

Workplace safety is extremely important, especially for companies where employees are exposed to dangerous environments, such as construction sites or assembly lines. Unfortunately, safety training is often overlooked by businesses, leaving employees exposed to all sorts of situations that could cause serious consequences if no one is there to offer first aid.

What business owners don’t acknowledge is that all work environments have a risk factor, even if some are smaller than others. Even the filing room in an office can possess a risk element, if the shelves are not hanged on the wall properly.

One of the first reasons why employers should provide health and safety training is to prevent the legal issues that could come from overlooking this aspect. If an employee gets injured while performing their duty, your company will be directly responsible and you could find yourself having to pay compensation and facing a lawsuit that could bring your business down. Workplace safety programs train employees to offer first aid and react in such situations where life could be at danger.

Providing safety and health training for your employees will also boost your company’s image in a positive way. They will feel protected and cared for, as they see you value their life and safety. Showing commitment towards the life of the employees demonstrates that you conduct your business in a professional way, by complying to laws and regulations and taking care of all your duties. Your company’s image will not only be improved in front of your competitors, but in front of your employees as well, as they will feel valued and cared for, which will make them less likely to want to find another job.

When it comes to cost savings, reducing the number of accidents ore health issues in the workplace will also reduce the number of absences for your employees, saving you costs and bringing more profit to the table. Besides that, everybody knows how expensive legal fees, compensations and lawsuits are, so avoiding them should be one of your top priorities. Apart from money issues, lawsuits can seriously damage the reputation of a company both in front of their clients and in front of future employees.

You might be asking yourself what training you should provide to your employees. Well, it strongly depends on the work environment. Training experts who provide safety consultation should do so after inspecting the workplace and determining what the potential hazards might be. One training program that every employee should be provided with is the emergency response training, so they know how to act as a first responder in case of an accident.

Stress inside the workplace will also be significantly reduced, when everybody knows they can count on someone to help them in case anything happens. Stress can take a toll on the well-being and productivity of employees, which will not bring any benefits to your company. Not only will the employees be more relaxed, but it will also give you, the business owner, some peace of mind, knowing your employees are as safe as possible.

Why we have to work 30 hours…Is the Caribbean Region ready for this implementation.

WORKING TREND WATCH

Although vacancies are increasingly asking for staff without a ‘9 to 5 mentality’, eight hours of work per day in the Caribbean region has been the norm for 100 years. In other countries there is already a lot of experimentation with fewer working hours. The Swedish experiments with the 30-hour working week have reached many international media.

Work five days, 6 hours a day

The Swedish experiments first compared two different (working) models. The first model focuses on the 30-hour working week (five days working six hours a day), where managers give employees more freedom. From that freedom, as more can decide for themselves, they also produce more and their motivation is higher.
The second model is just the opposite, and uses the traditional 40-hour working week. In this model, the focus is on management decisions and management. Managers motivate employees by properly indicating what happens in the process and when. In this way the company runs fully efficiently.

Experiments abroad

In a nursing home in Götenberg (Sweden) they experimented for no less than two years with this 30-hour working week from the Swedish model, after which they were thoroughly evaluated. What turned out to be? Everything had become more positive. Less fatigue, less absenteeism, less stress and higher client satisfaction. The only downside was increased costs. Logical, when employees are paid eight hours and work six hours. The revenues turned out not to be large enough to compensate for this gap. That is why the experiment at the Svartedalen nursing home was not continued, but the tests are continuing elsewhere.

For example, there is a Toyota maintenance center that works with complete satisfaction with shifts of twice six hours. A marketing agency in Scotland with highly skilled knowledge workers has also been working with the six-hour working day for two years. They start at 9:30 am and close the door at 3:45 pm. The result: the output and quality of that output are just as high as before – with the 40-hour working week. Absence and stress have decreased and there is a better work-life balance.

Experiments in the Netherlands

The Dutch are good at part-time work. A logical consequence of the one and a half earner model: man works full time, woman works part time. With the arrival of the 30-hour working week, the equal division of tasks between men and women suddenly comes much closer. To achieve that, customization is required. After all, you have to complete tasks from a 40-hour working week to a 30-hour working week. Employees must decide for themselves what the improvement should look like, and continue to hold onto this. If employees are given more room to determine the customized work themselves, then the motivation remains higher in the long term. And to achieve that, the biggest change is in the mindset – especially of the employer.

By experimenting with shorter working days or weeks, their fear can be relieved because they start to see the benefits. Offering freedom in working hours and workplaces (and thereby offering technologies such as video conferencing ) also helps to increase attractiveness as an employer.
Shorter working days also offer a solution to the debate about hard professions, longer working hours and sustainable employability. The generation pacts and deals on part-time work during the final phase of working life already show this.

Cost

And what does this mean for the costs (also a frequently heard objection from employers)? Can working shorter hours be rewarded with a full-time salary? We can conclude that at least half of the hours is earned back by the increase in productivity. Whether that is sufficient to invest by employers in sustainable employability or by the government in a distant future in which fewer people are needed to do the same work can be seen. It would be interesting and strengthen our position as a pioneering country.

Focus is the engine

To make a 30-hour working week a success, it is important to give a clear focus to your employees. The fact is that if people have less time available, they are more critical of what really needs to be done. They often achieve the same quality in less time. It is a combination of the right assignment, the right deadline, sufficient appreciation and room to excel. On that leads to motivated employees, whether you should start with that motivation is chicken and egg.

In the Caribbean region (CARICOM), Governments must come together to discuss about this.As the climate is changing very fast, we have to change systems.

Are drones a solution for the shortage of farm workers in rural communities?

AGRICULTURAL TREND WATCH

Rural farms are increasingly faced with labor shortages, especially in Japan. For the Nileworks Inc startup, the solution lies in the very latest technology – such as drones. The latest technology of this drone startup has been tested in northeastern Japan for several months.

The Nile-T18 drone is designed to analyze rice stalks and determine how much fertilizer or pesticide the crop needs. The drone can then add fertilizer in just 15 minutes, a task that involves a human worker for at least an hour. Nileworks is currently negotiating with the Japanese authorities to enable farmers to get their drones to do their work without a permit. “Now that we are facing a shortage of next generation farmers, it is our mission to come up with new ideas to increase farmers’ productivity and income.

***A Farmer with his agricultural drone in action***

Maybe it is already time for Caribbean farmers to get into this upcoming trend.