“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” – Sven Goran Eriksson

There are two major fears that commonly get in the way of most entrepreneurs: the first fear is the fear of failure. When individuals struggle with this fear, they do everything we can to avoid getting started. The second fear is the fear of success. Although understanding both fears is important, I’d like to focus on the second fear mentioned. I’m going to guess that you’ve feared success at some level. It happens to everyone. You become afraid that something is going to work, and some way along the way,  you stop doing it, you sabotage and start blaming the things that didn’t work . I have a very specific system that I followed in order to overcome this common challenge, and I want you to try using it as well.

Here are the two ways to overcome the fear of success—to not even focus on it:

1. Publicly declare what you will do with the money once you turn your annual income into a monthly income. That’s what I did. Once I publicly declared it to my colleagues, friends, and family that I wanted to turn my annual income into my monthly income, it became real, and I actually was able to do it.

2. Find out what you are going to do with the extra time you’ll have once you successfully turn your annual income into a monthly income. This is another important part of overcoming your fear of success. Once you publicly declare how you plan on spending the extra time you’ll have after you successfully accomplish the first part of this system, your fears of success will slowly evaporate as you work toward achieving your goals and sticking to your declarations.

Leap of the Week:

Being held accountable is a great motivator. Find a person or a group to be your sounding board, and to hold you to your word!

To learn more about Alex’s strategies for turning your annual income into a monthly income, go to: http://www.alexmandossian.com/teleseminarsecrets.

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When I heard Marcus Sheridan speak at BlogWorld, one thing that stood out was his statement, “Businesses are afraid to talk about pricing.” I realized he was completely right.

Think about the last time you went to a website for a product or service that you couldn’t buy outright online. Did it list prices? Or did the site encourage you to call for more information? How many times do you walk away from a purchase simply because you couldn’t get enough information on pricing to make an informed decision? I know that’s been the case for me in many instances.

Why We Don’t List Prices

I think we’re afraid to talk about pricing on our websites because we want to convince potential customers of the value our products provide. Simply giving a number doesn’t express how awesome our widgets and doohickeys are. But we, our companies’ salespeople, can expound upon the benefits our products provide! They’re magical and worth every penny!

But the truth is: Price does matter. No matter how magical your unicorn clone machine is, if it’s out of my budget, there’s nothing you can do about that.

Writing From Inspiration

I decided to write this post after I had an experience that hit home on this topic. I was looking into gyms in my area. I found one website, but it didn’t list prices, so I called.  My husband groaned in the background:

“Don’t call!”

I found out why.  I was put through to the sales guy. I asked how much a family membership was.  His response?

“Let me get your name!”

Instantly, I was put off. I explained I simply wanted to get pricing, not sign up for anything. We proceeded to get into an argument; he said I was reducing his product to a price. He wanted to talk about value. I told him I was familiar with his brand, and I just wanted information on pricing to help me make a decision. I got frustrated and got off the phone.

Guess what gym I didn‘t sign up with?

Bingo. There it is. As business owners, we hate the idea of customers reducing our product to a price. But they do. If I hadn’t considered that gym of the quality I was looking for, with the services I needed, I wouldn’t have called. If all things are equal, price is the one factor that will help us make our decision most of the time. Am I right? But the fact that the salesperson made getting this information a headache turned me off, and I walked away.

In Sheridan’s presentation, he quizzed several members of the audience on whether or not they listed pricing on their sites. One man in software development, when asked why he didn’t list pricing, said:

“Because it depends.”

And that’s the case for a lot of us. It depends on what the client wants; how big he is; how many he wants. But Sheridan shot that down and said that’s the case for everyone in the room, and it simply isn’t an excuse.

I get it now. I just listed prices (at least, starting prices) on my site as a result of this lesson learned. My goal is to at least weed out the people who can’t afford what my company offers, and to create a starting point for the pricing conversation. We’ll see if it draws more clients or makes it easier for potential clients to make a decision.

Leap of the Week – I have a challenge for you:

If you don’t list prices on your site currently, change that. Even if “it depends,” list prices “starting at” and see what happens. Direct potential clients to your site so they can understand what to expect with regards to costs. Let’s get out of the habit of pushing customers away by closely guarding pricing as a big secret! Are you with me?

In a perfect world, every person or company you contacted about buying your product, service, or solution would make a positive buying decision. However, we don’t live in a perfect world which means many prospects don’t buy.

Here are eight reasons why prospect’s don’t buy from you.

1. They already have a supplier.

It can be difficult to unseat a current supplier even though your solution may be better, faster, or more advanced. This is especially true if the current supplier has consistently met the company’s expectations.

If the prospect is a high-value opportunity, then you need to keep your name in their mind by staying in touch. That can help you get your foot in the door if the existing supplier falters and makes a mistake.

2. They are resistant to change.

This is an extension of the previous point. Many people in organizations are reluctant to make a change because of the potential pain or headache of making that change.

When I first started my sales training business I enlisted the help of a friend to create and maintain my website. Unfortunately, every update and revamp took twice as long as she quoted, there were always typos and spelling mistakes, and communication from her was very weak. However, I was hesitant to find another webmaster because of the hassle associated with the change.

3. They don’t need what you’re selling.

Unless you sell a product or service with mass appeal, not everyone needs your solution. There is no point trying to convince someone that your solution is a good fit when they don’t need what you’re selling. The best way to avoid this is to target your prospecting efforts.

4. They don’t see how your product will benefit them.

Most sales presentations (aka pitches) miss the mark and fail to clearly show the prospect how they will benefit from their particular solution. This happens because sellers focus their time and attention on discussing their product or service rather than outlining the key outcomes of implementing their solution.

5. They don’t have time.

Corporate decision makers in today’s business world are exceptionally busy. Their daily schedule consists of dashing from meeting to meeting, putting out fires, and dealing with current problems in their business. The average executive has approximately 40 hours of unfinished work on their desk at any given time which means it would take them a full, uninterrupted week to clear that work from their desk.

As a result, they simply don’t have time to listen to another sales person pitch their product or service.

6. They don’t want to undertake another project.

A good friend of mine is an executive in a large organization and he once told me, “I never return calls from salespeople because I already have too much on my plate. I can’t possibly take on another project.”

This is a common lament from many decision makers. They already have so many projects to deal with that they simply do not want to take on another one, even if it makes good business sense to consider that solution.

7. They have other priorities.

Priorities in business often change in an instant. A priority today, can be pushed to the bottom of the list tomorrow, when something else arises or another problem becomes more important.

As sellers, it is essential that we discover the level of importance of this project and what could derail it or prevent it from moving forward.

8. They don’t have the money.

Some experts claim that if you demonstrate enough value a company will always be able to find the money to pay for it, especially if you sell to senior executives. However, there are many situations when this simply does not work.

A few years ago one of my clients was tasked with reducing expenses in his division of the company by half a million dollars. However, as the year progressed, the company increased their demands and doubled the expected amount of cutbacks. That corporate mandate affected every single buying decision my contact made in the next twelve months. Many organizations still face the same scrutiny when implementing new projects or initiatives.

Leap of the Week:

As you can see, prospects face a multitude of challenges which affect their buying decisions. Some factors are within your control while other are not. Focus on the ones you can influence, and don’t get stuck on the others… Maintain momentum!

Kelley Robertson writes for Future Simple’s Growth University and is a business expert experienced in helping people master their sales conversations so they can win more business. He conducts sales training workshops and delivers keynote speeches through his company The Robertson Training Group.

Business owners have little challenge with motivating themselves to go the extra mile, but how can they get others to mirror that work ethic? This can often be a painful point for entrepreneurs because they see success related to time and energy spent on projects, when in reality there is often a disconnect between employees and ownership of the company they work at.

Often, employees do only the required amount of work rather than take the extra steps needed when growing an enterprise. Think of how powerful the company would be if you were able to clone the same drive and passion you have for making your company successful. This could be possible if you began creating a mentality that your employees were CEOs in their own right.

Throughout my journey as a startup CEO, I’ve found that empowering my employees to feel, act, and most importantly, work like CEOs has been a key factor in the success of the business, time and time again. The environment here is conducive to innovation, and employees embrace an owner’s view from all aspects. By taking ownership of creative, challenging projects, each person is able to develop into a business-savvy professional, to think outside the box and to make experience-driven, intelligent decisions.

A culture that encourages ownership also fosters a sense of employee investment; therefore our employees take pride in their work and value the footprint that they are able to leave on the company. I’ve managed to do this by creating a few key initiatives, and most importantly, by digging in and sticking to those initiatives. For example:

• Creating a competitive environment that mirrors the increasingly aggressive market landscape. Competition is an intrinsic and powerful motivator, therefore creating a work environment where employees can quantify and compare individual benchmarks will channel competitive spirit and increase performance. For example: high-stake “hack-a-thons” where developers who devise the most innovative new feature or product solution are rewarded with a hefty cash bonus.
• Empowering and rewarding creativity. Innovation is key to a business’ success and is an important quality to reinforce and reward as it motivates employees to take ownership of their ideas. At Underground Elephant, we’ve been known to reward the achievement of exceeding challenging performance benchmarks with the occasional new car — a lasting reminder of a job well done.
• Making work fun — A LOT of fun. The better the work environment, the more time employees will want to spend there. At Underground Elephant we have an in-office foosball table, a  pool table (with regular tournaments), and at the holidays we bring in a cash machine — just a few examples of how we make work fun.

Leap of the Week:

Many executives wonder who else can do the job better than they can.

I think there is a lot of truth to this. Put employees in your shoes, saddle them with a taste of your responsibility and reward them at the level of which you’d expect to be rewarded. This in turn creates a recipe for incredible overall success for the business.

Jason Kulpa is the founder and CEO of technology-based marketing company Underground Elephant. Since the company’s launch in 2008, it has become a leader in technology-based marketing and is one of the fastest-growing advertising agencies in San Diego. Kulpa was named the Most Admired CEO in 2010 by the San Diego Business Journal and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

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In the last decade plus that I have been working in the search engine optimization industry (SEO), I have been fortunate enough to come into contact with many small business owners looking to build a brand on the Web.

Since the small business owner’s first priority is to run their business and not to be an SEO “expert,” I wrote a popular primer for small business SEO to help small business owners get started with step-by-step basics that will lead them in the right direction.

While the primer covers a lot of “what to do right” with your SEO efforts, it’s always a good idea to look at some “what not to dos,” too. With that in mind, here are six common SEO mistakes many small businesses make—and that you should avoid.

1. Building a site on a free subdomain or social media site

As a website accumulates inbound links, it begins to rank better within the search engines. When you build your site on a free subdomain, you risk that if you ever choose to move your website (and there are numerous reasons that you may decide to do so), you will lose credit for all of the links aimed at your “free subdomain” website.

Why? Because most free subdomain providers don’t allow you to 301 redirect your old site on their service to your new one. A 301 redirect is the only way to “tell” a search engine your site has moved without having to start over again from square one with your search engine rankings. Same goes for using a social website, such as a Facebook page, as your only online presence.

2. Duplicate or non-descriptive title tags

The Title Tag attribute is largely agreed in the SEO community to be one of the most important “on page” aspects of SEO for each page of your website. Simply stated, the Title Tag attribute tells the search engine what your page is about. Many small business owners make the mistake of making their homepage Title Tag attribute merely contain something generic like “Home,” which does little to tell the search engines what your website is about—and therefore what words and phrases they should be ranking it for.

• Bad homepage Title Tag: “Welcome”
• Good homepage Title Tag: “Tampa FL Widget Store | ABC Widgets”

Additionally, many small business owners often use the same exact Title Tag attribute on every page of the site. Each page should have its own individual title describing the content on that specific page.

3. Building primarily flash-based websites

It used to be that search engines couldn’t index the content on Flash sites—period. Flash optimization has come a long way since then, but if you think regular SEO is tough, then Flash based SEO techniques will seem like rocket science. While having Flash based components isn’t a problem (such as a flash banner rotating images of your products), most small business owners would be better off avoiding heavy use of Flash, unless they also have the budget to bring in Flash SEO professionals to ensure the search engines can read it.

4. Using “splash” pages as homepages

We’ve all been to that website that has the very sexy graphic or Flash animation on its homepage that users need to click to enter the “real” website. Not only is this bad from a usability perspective (these pages confuse some people and they simply leave the website) but it’s also bad from an SEO perspective, for a couple of reasons.

• The splash homepage traditionally contains little or no written content. Given that the homepage is typically the strongest page of your website in terms of “ability to rank” in the search engines, you want to be sure there is content on the page that tells the search engines what your site is about.

• A splash entry page is a sure fire way to produce “split link popularity” issues. For example, when a visitor goes to yoursite.com, they see your splash page and then have to click in order to “enter,” which takes them to yoursite.com/secondhome.html. When people link to your website, some will link to yoursite.com while others will link directly to yoursite.com/secondhome.html to avoid the splash page and connect users with the “real” homepage immediately. So, if you have 100 links to your homepage, they could be split between the two pages. You’d be much better off having one homepage with all 100 links aimed at it, making it a “stronger” page that will ultimately rank better in the search engines.

Everything we’ve discussed above has been related to “on page” search engine optimization efforts. But not everything you can do for your site SEO-wise actually happens ON your website. SEO also involves “off page” factors. Below, we’ll discuss two that small business websites typically ignore.

5. Not optimizing local listing pages on popular local sites

Twenty percent of all Google searches are local in nature. And lately, Google Places is showing up at the top of the search results for more and more of those search queries. If you want to be found for locally based searches on Google, claiming and optimizing your Google Places listing is vital.

Additionally, Google pulls data from many other websites and it’s believed that they take that data (mainly reviews) into account when ranking your Places page within the Google Places results. This means that claiming and monitoring your listings (and getting good reviews) on sites like Yelp, CitySearchs and others is important to your SEO efforts.

6. Doing nothing on the “link building” front

Links are still widely believed to be the single most important “off page” SEO factor. Simply put, without links from other websites, your site won’t rank. The more competitive your niche? The more links you will need to get.

Unfortunately, many small business owners put their sites up and completely ignore the inbound link building process afterward. While link building can often be confusing to some small business owners, and it can definitely be time consuming, there is no doubt that if your goal is to improve your search engine rankings, you absolutely need inbound links.

Leap of the Week:

Luckily, many folks in the SEO industry share their link building knowledge on a regular basis. Here are 2 guides to check out: 101 Link Building Ideas and The Professional Guide to Link Building.

Rae Hoffman-Dolan aka “Sugarrae” is a serial entrepreneur and well-known SEO consultant specializing in SEO audit services and link building strategies. She is also the Co-Owner and SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation.

Most companies know that long-term customers are the lifeblood of their business, so it’s important to encourage loyalty in everyone who walks through your door or visits your website. Rather than waiting to see whether a particular customer “deserves” special treatment, try treating every patron as special right from the start. Your improved attitude is bound to drive repeat business.

Here are five tips for transforming first-time customers into lifelong fans:

1. Deliver service that exceeds expectations. Go beyond the basics (i.e., making sure orders are correct, on time, etc.). You can do a lot more, such as offering technical support and training your staff to deal with customer issues promptly and thoroughly. If a customer has an unusual request, do your best to fulfill it. Think like a customer — and ask your staff to do the same. If a customer is dissatisfied, find out why and make it easy for him to return his purchase. Apologize without making excuses and offer a solution that works.
2. Provide exceptional value. This follows closely on the heels of exceeding expectations. If you have a blog or send out a regular newsletter to customers, don’t use it to promote your business (or not primarily). Offer in-depth articles on how to get added value from a purchase or share “inside secrets” on issues related to what you sell. Convey a sense that you’re a partner in the customer experience, not an indifferent third party. Any information that improves or makes someone’s life easier will be greatly appreciated.
3. Ask for feedback and listen closely to it. Customers will tell you what it takes to keep them coming back, if you ask them. Options: (1) Include a questionnaire with each purchase; (2) conduct a casual telephone or email survey; or (3) track online purchasing behavior. However you choose to survey customers, the key questions are, “How can we serve you better? and ”What would you like to buy from us that we don’t already have?” Most people won’t be shy about answering. Use their input to improve or expand your offerings.
4. Offer something special. Bring people back by offering special gifts or exclusive discounts. For example, consider taking 5 percent off your regular prices for “premium” customers or giving a 3 percent discount to new customers who pay in advance. You can even call these “loyalty discounts” to reinforce the idea that you value customers who keep coming back. Incentives are another effective technique: When a customer makes a significant purchase, why not recognize her with a free gift or a gift card that builds points toward an exclusive discount on a future purchase?
5. Build an atmosphere of trust. Always do what you say you’re going to do. Your product or service must deliver on its promise every time. Customers will come to rely on you — and do business with you again and again. Once this rapport is established, everyone wins.

Leap of the Week:

Which step can you begin to implement right now? Start with one and build on it until you are successfully implementing all 5 in one way or another. You will undoubtedly see the results!

Look at Groupon. Retailers who use the service are on the fence. After all, yes, they did book 400 appointments for cheap facials, but what next? None of the Groupon users are coming back.

That’s because there’s a fundamental difference between marketing and promotion.

• Marketing: Ongoing efforts to establish a brand in a given market. It’s about brand recognition and trust.
• Promotion: A spike in sales, even if it’s at a discount. People flock to save money on a product or service. No guarantee they’ll be back.

And I just realized that businesses don’t get the difference here. They think marketing and promotions are the same. But they simply aren’t. They absolutely, though, can work hand in hand.

How To Market

Build your brand around what you know. Be an advocate and an expert in your industry. Share articles, write articles, tweet and post interesting tips to Facebook. Send emails. Write press releases.

How to Promote

Go where you have followers. Post a Facebook/Twitter/email subscriber only special. Make people feel like they can’t get this exclusive deal anywhere else. Lose money on it.

Leap of the Week:

During the promotion, get email addresses. Add them to your newsletter list. Ask people on Twitter to take a photo of what they bought with the promotion. Follow up to ask if the order was okay. Offer surprise incentives to people who spent X amount of money. Keep up the momentum. Stay in touch with that bargain-shopping customer and get them back.

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Findability

Like a bright yellow cab you’ve got to stand out. Thousands of businesses close every day because entrepreneurs confuse high quality control with marketing. This mistake can be fatal; focus your efforts on marketing, and branding. High quality products will only bring customers back. Be bold and make a statement with high impact marketing.

Discover the Pain

When you start your business ask yourself what pain you’re solving. Do consumers need your product or service? “Thrill” products or services are more vulnerable to economic influence. When you discover your customer’s pain and provide relief, you’ve found a gravy train. Products and services are on the market for one reason: to solve a problem.

On the Meter

Have you ever been in a cab idling? It’s painful watching the meter go up. Entrepreneurship is similar, every moment you don’t focus on your customers pain, or future opportunity is a moment idling, costing you thousands of dollars. Understand your goals, and objectives. Create To-Do lists and improve your personal discipline. Take 5 minutes each night to review your day’s achievements, and missed opportunities.

Leap of the Week:

Take a stand and be different. Drive your business like a New York City Cab. Be aggressive, and take prisoners. If something gets in between you and success don’t be afraid to run it over. Business can be messy, take a deep breath and go to battle.

Are you thinking about informing the community about a new business initiative through a press release? If so, there are a few things you need to know before you write.

Press releases are often sent to the media for consideration, but they are rarely used. There are two main reasons why this is so; your press release is not newsworthy or it is not written well.

To help you organize your thoughts and create an eye-catching press release, use the following tips:

1. Begin the press release with a headline title that summarizes the point of your press release. For example, if your candy factory will be opening its doors for public tours for the first time ever, you would want to write a headline that reads something like this; “For first time since opening in 1945, Cathy’s Candies will open doors for public tours.”
2. In the first paragraph, begin by telling what your company’s name is and what it does. For example, instead of writing something like “we are happy to announce…,” write “Black’s Coffee House is a café in Friendsville that serves coffee beans that are roasted in-house.”
3. In this same paragraph, briefly explain how your business affects the community. For example, write how many people are employed and how long the business has been operating in the community. Is it a family-owned operation that has been serving the community for 50 years? Do you regularly donate goods or volunteer time to a particular organization? These are the kinds of things that will help the media understand your business’ local impact.
4. Your second paragraph should contain the reason why you are writing the press release. This reason should be something that a news reporter can use for an interesting story. If the reporter doesn’t think it will make a great story that will both inform and entertain readers, viewers or listeners, you won’t be getting any phone calls back. Unless it is really out of the ordinary, don’t send a press release about a great deal on a product or new stock. When writing this section, try to see it from the perspective of the reporter or the public. What would make you say, “That’s newsworthy”?
5. End your press release with the name and contact information of your business’ media contact.

Additionally, if you operate a small business on your own, avoid writing “I.” You will want to refer to your business by its name and refer to the employed as “we.” This sounds more professional and keeps the focus on the business and not on you. Also, make sure you keep your press release short and sweet. Most media outlets prefer releases that are no more than a page long.

Leap of the Week:

Does your business have a new initiative to share with the community? What can you do now to be ready when you do have something to share? Typically a press release is not taken to a media outlet in person, therefore preparing by obtaining the fax numbers/email addresses for your local news outlets (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines) that you would like to submit your press release to is a good idea. Contact and press release information can usually be found on media outlet websites, and if not then let your fingers do the walking old school, and use the Yellow Pages to search for a contact phone number. Good luck!

Article written by Molly Mitchell, owner of EconomicsDegree.net.