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[Sean Parker Contribution Level: 1]

To get the best outcome from a business, the better option is to consider deploying good business strategies. Here, i would recommend going through the business training before you start the business procedure. There are a lot of business training programs that can tell you how to start a business and if you are running the business, you will get training on how to make the management better.

[Jared Brown Company: Melaleuca, Inc. The Wellness Company Contribution Level: 2]

I def agree with you. Doing your homework first is very important. You don't want to just blindly rush into anything especiall when you are investing your money. I think it is just as important to get started on what you learn and not just reading training information all day everyday. You learn way more through experience.

[Hayley McKeever Contribution Level: 2]

My top 5 tips on how to grow your small business online are :-

1) If you haven't already, get yourself a good mentor
2) Take their advice - they know, they've been there!
3) Follow your chosen training program bit by bit, step by step
4) Take some time to set out your goals - short term, medium term & long term
5) Take action!

I hope this helps. Good luck!

[Pio Villacorta Contribution Level: 1]

My top 5 tips on how to grow your small business online are :-

1) If you haven't already, get yourself a good mentor
2) Take their advice - they know, they've been there!
3) Follow your chosen training program bit by bit, step by step
4) Take some time to set out your goals - short term, medium term & long term
5) Take action!

I hope this helps. Good luck!

I definitely agree with you Hayley, having a mentor is really helpful. However, choosing the right mentor is another story. Obviously, choose the mentor that has learned a lot through experience. Know his/her achievements. It is also worth mentioning the attitude of a good mentor. A good mentor accepts crticisms and willingly discusses any disagreements on the way. Finally, a good mentor is also willing to learn from what you experience as you learn from his/her experiences.

Thanks

[Jacob Sikais Contribution Level: 2]

Use social media as a key ingredient in your marketing strategy to grow your small business. It’s all about content and delivery...

Social media is a power tool because it can be low cost yet high ROI. This will hopefully provide you with a very high-level overview of what you can do right now to get your social campaign started.

Claim Your Facebook Vanity URL - make sure that your facebook page link is branded. Once you have your vanity url claimed, get started and build that brand equity! This means gaining thousands upon thousands of followers and publishing quality content that your fans will interact with.

Wordsmith your Twitter Account - There are a lot of spam bots out there and you don’t want your company to appear to be one of them. Be sure to utilize your Twitter profile bio by keeping it relevant and to the point ;however, don’t hesitate to be fun. Whether you use Twitter for business or personal, take a good look at your bio and ask yourself “Will someone reading my bio want to follow me?” and if yes, then ask “Will that follower be the kind of person I wish to attract?” No one relevant will follow you if they don’t know who you are. And no one will know who you are if you don’t tell them succinctly. Enter your Twitter bio. Remember a couple things: Define your purpose. Adding your location can help make your brand more credible. Always include a link to your website if you have one. Now that you’ve got your Twitter biography optimized and ready to go, it’s time to learn how to manage your account! Be sure to mind some Twitter best practices: Be careful using automated Direct Messages upon follow. Often times individuals will see this as spam and might end up de-personalizing the brand experience. Connect with your followers. Be sure to respond to your followers and let them know you’re listening to them. It’s ok to be fun and engaging! Re-tweet (RT)! A good way to engage and gain new followers is to re-tweet good content. It’s a reciprocal feature that is sometimes forgotten. Good Social Media strategy is about promoting conversation, not one-way conversation.

Start Blogging - Although this form of marketing could be considered the most time consuming, it is important to utilize this medium because it allows your business to generate more link traffic to your site, create credibility for your brand and allow you to have a more personal voice. Still not convinced? Blogs Build relationships: A company blog offers opportunities to dialogue with your customers unique way through the comment area in each post. While marketing programs can generally only send one-way messages, a blog keeps the lines of communication open both ways. Blogs Build customer loyalty: The more customers know you, the more loyal they become. As you feature different solutions you offer, they are encouraged to do even more business with you. Most blogs will offer a subscription option through RSS and email, which means you will have opportunities to interact with subscribers every time a post is published. Blogs Build traffic – Blogs are perfect for search engine optimization. Search engine spiders like fresh content to feed on, and while a company website might be rather static with little need for content changes, a regularly updated blog provides fresh, keyword-rich content that search engines love. This will cause your site to rank higher when potential customers search for your products and services and drive more traffic to your entire site.

Get Personal - The most common blunder seen in social media today is the lack of personality. Ok, we can focus on maintaining a professional brand tone on the main website, but in social media it’s about personality and connecting with your audience! I’m not saying to go completely off the beat and path in terms of your tone, but have fun with it!

Be Creative and Visual - We are visual creatures after all. The use of video can really help your brand become more personal and approachable. It’s no doubt the Internet is becoming more and more personalized. We can see this proof in the fact that google is using +1 to bring relevant information to the top. Facebook connect is being utilized on many major sites to make signing up a simple and quick process. Twitter feeds and real-time search is being incorporated into our search engines. It’s time to get personal with our brands. By simply adding video, a small business can: Increases number of business profile views more than 100%, Increases number of profile clicks more than 30%, Increases number of calls generated by more than 18%. Video also drives a wide range of customer actions: Increases number of visits to advertiser web site by 55%, Increases physical store visits by 30%, Increases incidence of purchase by 24%.

Social media is relatively a new game for marketers and brands. There are 2.5 billion photos uploaded to Facebook every month, YouTube serves 1 billion videos per day, The average person watched 182 online videos per month and there are 200 billion spam emails sent every day!

Although it has been around for awhile, we are only just scratching the surface of what we can do! Keep up to date with upcoming trends and find out how you can utilize upcoming social technology.

[Cheryl Hess Contribution Level: 1]

Many people start their own small business and haven't taken the time to do their research ahead of time. Before you roll out your business you'll want to have a marketing plan in place. Determine who you are targeting as your audience. Plan on how you'll be reaching them. Many have stated that social networking is key and I agree with them. Social networking platforms are exploding. You want to be a part of that trend. Blogging is one of my favorite means to share my outlook on business as well as sharing my products, etc. Absolutely recommend blogging. I also agree with the suggestion of having a mentor. I would definitely take the time to find a mentor that you really connect with. If you don't enjoy your time together you won't get the full benefits of their experience. Finally, don't give up! That is key!!

[Mario Sanders Company: Life Force International Contribution Level: 6]

I agree Cheryl.
The best way to grow your small business is to know your product that you are promoting. You can't express yourself online or offline without knowing about your product. Finding your 'why' is also key in growing your business. It reminds you of why you are doing it for and never quit your goals of reaching and helping others to reach theirs.

[Jireh Manzano Contribution Level: 2]

Making sure that you can offer an impressive product is essential in flourishing any small business that you have right now. It is true that you can utilize all the effective strategies to be successful in your online business but this will not exactly be a complete success without a product that can make you turn these online popularity into monetary figures. I once encountered a post about a weight loss product on one forum. The seller has absolutely utilized a good means in promoting his product but as I evaluate the product itself, I didn't last a minute to give it my attention.

Promotions is just one piece of the puzzle. It will be noteworthy to ensure that we constantly strive to create better products to gain a good reputation in online business and basically turn all this admiration into income and profit.

[Mario Sanders Company: Life Force International Contribution Level: 6]

The affliate company I am with offers all the training needed to be successful in this business. The training is now online instead of meeting in the local area. All the training materials and tools are free. Just access your virtual back office and get all the information needed to start your business.

[Sabrina Gage Contribution Level: 2]

I think internet offers a great chance to small business,because you almost can get your business promoted without cost any money!For example,you can promote sales by sending emails to your existing clients.Or,building a blog to introduce your products to attract more attention.
Hope there will be helpful.