The 5 Primary Stages of Business Every Entrepreneur Goes Through

As an entrepreneur, coach, and mentor I work with a lot of people in all different stages of their businesses. Over the past few years I’ve started to document a pattern: entrepreneurs go through phases. Shonda Rhimes, television producer and writer known for her hit series "Grey’s Anatomy" confirmed my belief in an interview about running her own business. She talked about how in the beginning we are always trying to get somewhere, then we reach that place but we worry we will lose it. Things seem almost to good to be true.

I experienced this in my own business when my last book, "Adventures for Your Soul", came out. It was my third book, so from the outside one might assume I’d be sitting pretty comfortable with the aspects of releasing a book. But I found myself falling back into the beginning stages, which brought up all these new emotions. Every project of our business represents a new phase, which requires we show up in new ways.

Every next level of your business will demand a new, different you. So assuming you won’t have challenges after you’ve reached a certain level of success is assuming you won’t be growing. As you grow and learn new life lessons, so will your business.

I’ve identified the five stages of all entrepreneur-based businesses. It's a good idea to know the stages so you can navigate them with more grace and ease. But recognize there are many facets to your business. You might have products, clients, income streams, etc., so each part of your business may be in a different phase. It’s not a cookie cutter approach, but it can definitely save you some sweat and tears when you respect the phases of your business.

Here are the five phases every business owner will go through:

Phase 1: I'm trying to get “there.”

The first one to three years of business are usually dedicated to trying to get there. You want more followers, more clients, more sales, more recognition—the hustle is very real and most often fueled by an optimistic desperation. What I learned in my own journey and what I tell my young entrepreneurs is to add more love into the hustle. It’s great to work hard, but make sure you are having fun along the way. If you are resenting your work because it isn’t bringing in the results you want, your business can’t flourish. Instead of trying to get there, recognize you’ve already arrived. You are already your own boss, and it takes time to build trust and get momentum. Don’t give up—just keep plugging away with joy and more love.

Phase 2: I got “there,” and I am worried it will go away.

The next phase we all experience is that fleeting sense of euphoric “OMG, I made it!” Whether you landed the sweet contract, the giant book deal, or the national TV segment, you think, “I did it. I’ve arrived! I got where I have been trying for so long to get to.” Then almost immediately fear sets in and we worry  “Will it go away?” Things seem to good to be true. You wonder if people will take you seriously, or will it all go away? This is a fear-based reaction to living life at a new level. You aren't use to the success, so naturally it could feel a little uncomfortable at first. The best thing to do is prepare yourself for this stage by owning your worth and valuing yourself sooner. When you believe in your work and what you have to offer, this stage is minimal.

Phase 3: I got “there,” but it's not what I expected.

You get to that elusive place. You may surpass your mentors or coaches with sales, followers, or even industry recognition. Industry leaders may seek you out for advice now. You’re no longer stressed about how to get there because you are there. You no longer worry about income because it flows in steadily. This is what you've worked so hard for, but you can't help but wonder why living your dreams feels so different than what you expected. The key word is expected. Our expectations are what doom us in business. Expectations rob us from feeling good in the moment. It's good to have goals, but having expectations looks like phase one or two thinking: “When I have 'X' amount of clients I will be happy,” or “When I am on national TV I will be making tons of money,” or “When I release my book, I will be an instant best seller,” etc. When these expectations don’t happen we feel let down. Even when and if they do happen, it usually feels different than what we hoped for.  Instead, focus on all of the good things that have happened and release your expectations.

Phase 4: I am proud of how far I've come.

The next phase is a glorious time when you recognize how far you have come. You’ve worked really hard and have made a great difference for your clients, customers, or team members. You may take a vacation and decide not to work the entire time; you might celebrate by scheduling more playtimes with family and friends. This is a happy time in your life and something you’ve worked very hard for. But you don’t have to wait until your business is self-sufficient and you are “successful” to be proud of yourself. No matter what phase you are in, be proud of yourself each day you show up and do the best you can. That in itself is enough.

Phase 5: Relax and enjoy

The fifth stage all entrepreneurs work toward is the “I did it” phase. This is the time you can relax and truly enjoy what you’ve created. But this phase doesn’t last long, because as entrepreneurs we are always thinking about our next launch, idea, or best practice to stay relevant to our core customers. So take some time to relax, enjoy your beautiful business, but roll up your sleeves and get back to work. After all, the journey is the reward.

by Shannon Kaiser

Author, Happiness Expert

3 Common Mistakes in Mobile Marketing

More than half of consumers now rely on mobile devices to stay connected to friends, work, email, social media and the Internet, for an average of three hours a day. By contrast, fewer than half of consumers still rely on their desktop computers to perform the same functions, according to data reported by media expert Mary Meeker and Smart Insights.

Not surprisingly, Smart Insights also reports that marketers invested nearly $30 billion into mobile marketing during 2015. 

Though small businesses should leverage mobile as part of their marketing campaigns, they can maximize their investment by taking a moment to understand the unique demands that success in the channel requires.

Here are three typical mobile marketing mistakes -- and how to avoid them:

1. Limiting the tactics a mobile marketing campaign includes. 

Mobile marketing may seem limited to short message service (SMS)/text messages, or display advertising within a mobile app -- but the tactics a mobile marketing campaign can and should include are far more robust. In fact, data reported by Eleventy Group reveals that 75 percent of Gmail’s 900 million users check their messages on a mobile device; 25 percent of mobile app use is dedicated to social media (particularly Facebook). The data also indicates that 70 percent of consumers prefer to receive mobile marketing messages via email, compared to less than 2 percent who say they want to receive text or SMS marketing messages.

Choose a variety of mobile media mediums and tactics to engage mobile users in a “surround sound” approach. Focus on building mobile lists before deploying mobile campaigns (which may use mobile ad networks) buying email lists and printing mediums to support your campaigns. 

For example, retail brand The North Face expanded the reach of its mobile marketing campaign with printed media. Posters and signs directed prospects to elect to receive mobile marketing messages to get special offers when they were near one of the brand’s retail locations in the future -- using mobile’s geolocation capability. Replicate the same kind of promotion for your local customers, to develop your mobile user list, and drive traffic and sales when they’re in close proximity to your store. 

2. Not making the transition between channels seamless.  

Whether your end goal is to increase engagement with your social media page, drive traffic to your website, or convert prospects into paying e-commerce customers, the mobile user’s experience must be seamless and aligned throughout. 

Customers who receive an email message that they check on their mobile device should be taken to an appropriate m-commerce platform that makes it easy for them to browse and pay -- all from their mobile device.

To accomplish such usability, you may need to:

• Adjust mobile site layout, text, images and user flow accordingly.
• Incorporate mobile-specific site features like the ability to log in to an existing account using social media credentials, to contact your business directly, apply a promotion code with the touch of a button, and pay using drop down features that are conducive on a mobile device.

3. Not using creative tactics that attract a mobile audience. 

Mobile device screens are small, and mobile users are often distracted and impatient when using them. Though don’t mistake those challenges to mean you should limit creativity of your mobile marketing campaign.

Video, for example, now accounts for more than 55 percent of user engagement on mobile devices, according to technology company Cisco. Mobile marketers can use the medium to deliver succinct but memorable messages that mobile users can see, hear and engage with -- just as they do with non-promotional videos.

You can also take a creative cue from larger advertisers’ successful campaigns. The Brooklyn Nets basketball team executed a successful mobile marketing campaign with a scavenger hunt for free tickets. Using mobile messages and social media, it kept users engaged by consistently releasing clues about where tickets where hidden. Small-business marketers can create the same kind of enthusiasm by giving mobile users similar opportunities to win free services or products.  

Mobile marketing is a newer tactic to businesses of all sizes, and it may take some trial and error to master. Keep these common mistakes in mind when developing your mobile marketing program to develop a deeper understanding of the mobile tactics that resonate with your audience.

Written by Kristen Gramigna, BluePay

The Differences Between Contracting a Freelancer and Working with a Creative Agency

You may be trying to decide between going with a freelancer and hiring a creative agency for design work. There’s often an assumption that the two are very similar and many think it’s a better decision to go with a freelancer due to lower costs. But this is far from reality as you need to hire depending on your situation. Here are some key differences between the two, so you can make the right decision for your company. 

Freelancers are great at what they do 

If you need minor graphic design work done, it’s a smart idea to go with a freelancer because of the simplicity of the project. However, you have to remember that freelancers usually specialize in one or two areas. Very few have all the skills necessary to deliver cross platform results for a complex project like a web design project or company branding. We often as a interactive agency hire freelancers for their protocol expertise to help on project. If hired wisely and not only based on initial cost or savings factors, freelancers can be great add-on to the in-house team. 

The advantages of an agency 

In comparison, a creative agency will have a team to work on your project. Different parts of your project will be assigned to team members that specialize in their respective roles. For example, in a web design project, one person may handle all the graphics, somebody else may focus on the visual branding, and a few experts may work on the site’s user experience. Because each individual part of the project is being worked on by a specialist, projects often come together faster and require fewer revisions. 

In branding and marketing, collaborative efforts typically have far better results than projects handled by only one person. 

Resources and expertise needed to complete the project 

Freelancers usually don’t have the expertise required to handle all aspects of the project equally well. They may understand the importance of creating a visually appealing website design and can create a clean layout, but they may not understand things like SEO compatibility, user experience, usability, and accessibility or things like site architecture. Even if they do, it is unlikely that they’ll have the time and resources to implement the best practices for all areas of design. 

An agency, design firm, or web design company that has experience and expertise will understand the importance of these areas of website design. They’ll also have the capability to implement the best practices for all areas of web design. For example, an agency will go the extra mile in creating the best possible user experience by approaching it from the user end perspective and testing it for optimal performance. Because of its complex and time intensive nature, very few professionals will go through that process. 

Staying on budget

Going with freelancers can end up costing more in the long run. In many cases, you’ll have to hire a separate freelancer to work on multiple aspects of your project. This process can be complicated and time consuming because you’ll end up having to be the project manager. Hiring multiple freelancers can also cost you more in the long run due to delays and revision costs. There’s nothing wrong with going with a freelancer if you have a small project. But when it comes to more important projects, going with an agency is always the better decision. 

By going with a design agency, you know that there is a project manager on board to make sure every aspect of your project is making progress, or Creative Director to make sure that all parts of your visual branding are consistent and presented correctly. The best part is that you only pay for the quote rather than paying multiple service providers. And because you’re relying on a team that’s communicating with each other, you can expect to get the project completed quickly and with very few errors. This is economical because it reduces revision fees and increases your speed to market. 

Large vs. small agencies 

Some businesses and brands think that by going to large agencies, they’re guaranteed high quality work. However, that is far from the case. Many large agencies outsource their work to smaller agencies or design firms, because of the volume of work they get or simply to make a bigger profit margin. It’s cheaper for them to outsource than hire full time employees, so they’ll have a core staff to work on the most important projects and use partner firms, subcontractors or freelancers to handle the rest. 

Small creative agencies, like us, focus on teamwork & creativity to compete with bigger agencies

In our case, our team is carefully crafted and consists of talented individuals that excel in their area of expertise that work together to achieve the same goal. For this reason, we’re able to deliver outstanding results in a shorter amount of time. We’re also able to offer competitive pricing as we have lower overhead. 

Opposite to a large creative agency, where everything needs to pass by bureaucracy lineup, we are able to be more effective for a client’s bottom-line, able to have close control over the brand cohesiveness, stay more open-minded, and creative and this way we have more fun with the projects.

The 6 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Brand

Q: What are the most common mistakes we should avoid when building a brand?

A: Being an entrepreneur and launching a brand isn’t easy. It takes a lot of skill, hard work and usually a little luck. When it comes to branding decisions, sometimes one bad mistake can derail even the best idea. To be sure this doesn’t happen to you, make sure you avoid making any of these six most common branding mistakes:

1. Being customer oriented and not competitor oriented.

You can assume that most of your competitors are going to be customer oriented. So what happens in the marketplace? Everyone winds up with a similar product.

Back in 2009, we began working for Great Wall Motor in China. The research we received from the client told us that Chinese buyers preferred sedans rather than SUVs because sedans were more prestigious and SUVs were practical vehicles with no social status. So we recommend that Great Wall focus on SUVs because the other 28 Chinese auto companies were likely to focus on sedans. As a result, Great Wall became the largest, most-profitable Chinese automobile company.

Entrepreneurs should do the same. Start by analyzing your competitors and try to find a way to be different. You can't win by being better; you can only win by being different.

2. Not defining your focus.

Every successful brand has a focus. If your brand is the market leader like Pizza Hut, your focus is "leadership." Domino's narrowed its focus to "home delivery" and became the second-largest pizza chain. Papa John’s narrowed its focus to "better ingredients, better pizza." Little Caesars narrowed its focus to "two pizzas for the price of one." There are hundreds of pizza chains, but these four chains dominate the category. For entrepreneurs, you need to make sure your company has a strong angle and all your actions and goals are in line with it. Ask yourself, What category am I competing in? And how do I verbalize my difference in two or three words.

3. Thinking names don’t matter.

Hansen Natural Company had a great idea. Launch a 16-oz. energy drink to compete with 8.3-oz. Red Bull and the other energy-drink brands. The brand name: "Hansen's Natural Energy Pro." The brand went nowhere. Then Hansen launched Monster energy drink, also in a 16-oz. can. Today, Monster is a strong No.2 brand to Red Bull. Names come last. Entrepreneurs should first develop a marketing strategy. And then name their products or services to reflect that strategy.

4. Not using a strong visual.

Many powerful brands have been built by using a visual that communicates something about the brand. Coca-Cola's contour bottle. Marlboro's cowboy. Corona's lime. Stella Artois' chalice. Blue Moon's orange slice. Geico's gecko. Aflac's duck. Before launching a product or service, entrepreneurs should try to find a visual that reinforces the marketing strategy. Quite often, that requires either a change in strategy or a different brand name, or both.

5. Assuming your new brand will take off rapidly.

That leads to many bad decisions, such as spending heavily on advertising to launch the brand.
Today, the best way to launch a new brand is with PR. You should only use advertising after your brand has become established. PR first, advertising second is our mantra. Keep in mind, Entrepreneurs should be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time doing PR. Hiring a PR firm is an option only for those companies that have already built a substantial business, otherwise it is a waste of time and money.

6. Expanding your brand.

Once your brand starts to take off, you need to resist the urge to expand. Look at McDonald's. In spite of adding dozens and dozens of items to its menus, the chain today is in trouble. On the other hand, look at In-N-Out Burger, a West Coast chain that still has just four things to eat on its menus: hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double (a double hamburger) and French fries. Per-unit sales last year. McDonald's: $2,476,000. In-N-Out Burger: $2,546,000. (If In-N-Out Burger were a national chain, its sales would probably be much greater.) Provide link to data point.

Look at Yahoo, a company that once dominated the "search" market on the Internet and was worth $140 billion on the stock market. But Yahoo rapidly diversified into a portal and also made many acquisitions and turned them into Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Games, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Pager, etc. Today, Yahoo is worth just $30 billion on the stock market and perhaps $25 billion of that is due to its holdings in Alibaba.

Meanwhile Google remained a pure search engine and is now worth $498 billion on the stock market. But even Google is falling into the trap of expanding its brand. That's the mantra of corporate American, keep expanding the brand until it falls off the cliff. 

Except for geographic expansion, entrepreneurs should almost never expand their brands. Quite often, however, they should do the opposite: narrow the focus.

by Laura Ries

3 SEO Techniques Even SEOs Forget

Keyword research, link building, on-page optimization - these are all SEO strategies that get a lot of attention. For anyone who knows the first thing about SEO, these front-line strategies are hard to forget.

But there are other techniques that aren't quite as sexy, and that tend to get forgotten in favor of more obvious, first-order ranking influencers. And there's a very good reason for this: it's possible to achieve decent rankings without using any of these strategies.

That said, the three strategies below have the potential to take your SEO to the next level. Beyond basic keyword research and on-page optimization, these techniques will help you attract highly-relevant traffic that actually converts. And because you'll be working smart, you'll find it take a lot less time and effort to achieve even better results.

1. Writing content based on user intent.

SEO and content marketing work together beautifully, when done right. Unfortunately, sometimes your SEO strategies can inadvertently sabotage your content marketing efforts.

To ensure this doesn't happen, focus on creating content that matches user intent. While you may have certain keywords on your 'must-have' list, keep in mind that people who are searching for that word or phrase may have a very different intent than what you're presuming.

As a refresher, there are three main types of searches:

• Informational: Searches where people are looking for general information (e.g., "How do I cook a turkey?")
• Transactional: Searches where people are looking to perform some specific online action or activity (e.g., purchase a product)
• Navigational: Where people are looking for a specific company or website (e.g., "Ford Motor Co.")

Failing to consider these 3 search types can mean all your optimization efforts are in vain. For instance, trying to rank  for informational phrases may be a waste of time and money for an e-commerce site that is looking for purchases (conversions).

So, how can you avoid this? When determining which keyword phrases you're going to target, do some due diligence. I recommend plugging your keywords into Google, and examining the SERPs to see what comes up. Because Google has gotten pretty good at determining search intent, you can use the top ranking pages to give you an idea of what people are actually looking for.

2. Networking.

Because many of the tasks related to SEO can be done in isolation, it's easy to get stuck in your own little SEO 'bubble'. But networking - particularly online networking - is absolutely critical for establishing mutually-beneficial relationships and opportunities.

There are a number of ways networking is imperative for SEO, but here are three of the most important.

Establishing guest blogging relationships: Cultivating relationships with other site owners and publications is A LOT of work. Big sites will often want to work with you on a piecemeal basis until you've proven that you can provide excellent content...and that you aren't just churning out content to boost your own rankings.

Connecting with influencers: There's no substitute for authenticity and trust when it comes to building your brand online. With so much content being produced and pushed every single day, anything you can do to stand out from the crowd is important. Having a key player in your field endorse, mention or promote your content can be HUGE; because even if you have zero credibility on your own, you are essentially 'borrowing' theirs. For more on this, check out my post 6 Critical Ways Social Media Influencers Can Expand Your Brand.

Increased reach and potential for external links: We can't forget social networking. While we know that social sharing and engagement doesn't have a direct impact on search rankings, the indirect benefits are undeniable. As your content gets liked, shared, retweeted, etc., it gets in front of more people. And as more people see it, it has more potential to accumulate links - which we know does directly impact rankings.

3. Optimizing for user experience.

A good user experience essentially means visitors can easily find and consume what they need on your page. There are many factors that go into creating a positive user experience, but most come down to one thing: giving visitors exactly what they want.

According to Moz, while user experience may be a second order influencer on rankings, it's impact 'downstream' can be significant:  "Crafting a thoughtful, empathetic user experience helps ensure that visitors to your site perceive it positively, encouraging sharing, bookmarking, return visits, and inbound links—all signals that trickle down to the search engines and contribute to high rankings."

So, what elements should you incorporate in order to optimize user experience? According to Searchmetrics' 2015 Search Ranking Factors report, there are a number of user experience (UX) elements that are correlated with high rankings. Some of the most significant are:

• A well-optimized internal link structure to guide users and the search engines through your content
• Relevant images and videos within content
• Responsive design so the site is accessible on all devices
• Readable font size (average of 14 pts above the fold, 12 points below)
• Use of unordered lists to break up content into scannable chunks

There's no question that Google tracks and weighs user signals like click-through rates and time on site to use as ranking factors. The elements above will all help ensure users who click through to your site find what they need and stay on your site longer.

The three strategies above should be part of any SEO strategy. While you can potentially achieve decent rankings without doing any of them, I guarantee they'll make your job easier and help you achieve optimal rankings and conversions.

By John Rampton