Bureau West

5 steps to market your business effectively

Step 1: Who is the target market?
You might want to say “everyone,” but that’s expensive!  Let’s start narrow and we can expand later.  Who would be your most profitable target?

Step 2: What problem can you solve for your target?
People aren’t really interested in what you have to sell – they’re interested in solving a problem.  What is the problem that the people in your target market have that you can solve?  What specifically bothers them about this problem and makes them want a solution?

Step 3: Create effective messaging
What does the target need to hear to really believe you can solve their problem?

Step 4: Choose your marketing methods (worksheet)
What are the best ways to deliver the message to the target?  Use the worksheet to evaluate which are best for you, and consider the resources you have available.  (Hint: you don’t have to do them all!)

Step 5: Develop your online presence
Once you’ve chosen your marketing methods, you can decide how robust of an online presence you’ll need.  Do you need an informational website or just a Facebook page?  Or a website with a blog?  A shopping cart?  How active do you need (or want or are able) to be on social media?

Then run the marketing, tweak and repeat!

If you want help with any of the above, contact us – info at bureauwest.com.  

What if I told you there was a way to be happier and more successful… and it’s something everyone can do?  And what if I told you there’s science to back up my claim?

Well, after reading the book Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson (http://a.co/d/0HyX6rL), I can tell you that’s indeed the case.  Fredrickson cites a meta-analysis of nearly 300 different scientific studies of positivity, which collectively tested more than 275,000 people, and concluded that increasing positive attitudes actually causes success.

Fredrickson also provides some dramatic examples of people who turned their lives around from being depressed and “in a rut” to being happy and successful.  Positivity was even shown to bring about improvements in blood pressure, headaches and insomnia!

I recommend reading the book, but if you want to increase your positivity right now, here are some things you can do:

• Find your positivity ratio: Go to Fredrickson’s site http://www.positivityratio.com/index.php and do the online quiz to find your ratio of positive to negative feelings.
• Dispute negative thoughts: Pay attention to your negative thoughts and dispute them, like a lawyer would. Examine the facts.  Do they support your negative feelings?  In most cases, you’ll find your negative feelings do not have a factual basis.
• Meditate: Fredrickson cites the Open Heart study, where positivity brought about really impressive results. The group of co-workers in the study increased their positive feelings by doing “loving-kindness meditation” on a regular basis.  See a description of loving-kindness meditation here: https://www.mindful.org/a-loving-kindness-meditation-to-boost-compassion/
• Make gratitude a regular part of your life: It sounds corny, but study after study have shown that focusing on what you’re grateful for produces real improvements in your life.  I’ve started doing the following to fall asleep at night: I review my day and think about the things that happened that day that I’m grateful for.  Not only will you fall asleep with a smile on your face, you’ll realize that Murphy’s Law isn’t true – it just seems to be true because people focus on negative events!

I hope these steps work as well for you as they did for me.  Let me know!

In the past few weeks, two different coaching clients told me they think they’re “lazy.”  And they both clearly felt that was a negative thing, almost a character flaw.  The thing is, neither of them seemed lazy to me.  And based on their past histories, they didn’t sound like lazy people.  As we talked further, I realized they weren’t lazy at all – they were just trying to force themselves to do something they really didn’t want to do.  Once they realized that was the case, they both decided to refocus their efforts on goals that fit their strengths and their values, and the “laziness” went away.  In fact, they both experienced an energy boost!

Feeling “lazy” or blocked or lethargic can be a sign to take a step back and examine what you’re doing.  Is it something you want to be doing?  Is it in pursuit of a goal you really want to achieve?

Of course, we don’t always get to do things we love to do.  Almost every job or pursuit includes some activities that are less appealing than others.  But we tend to do them since they’re in pursuit of a larger goal.   (Though it’s worth looking at ways to decrease those activities, too.  Is there another way to get the same result?  Is there someone else who could do the activity?)

I’m talking about when you feel blocked about bigger things.  Something you feel you need to be doing, but you’re not.  Ask yourself if the activity is in pursuit of a goal you really want to achieve.  If you’re not sure, you may want to take some time to consider what values are important to you and if the goal fits with your values.  (And if you need help defining your values, take a look at this article: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_85.htm).

Next, ask yourself if you have the right strengths to get the activity accomplished.  I recommend taking the VIA Character Strengths Survey (https://www.viacharacter.org/Survey/Account/Register (you’ll have to create an account, but it’s free) and take a look at your top five strengths.  If those aren’t the right strengths for the task at hand, is there a way to partner with someone who has the required strengths?  Or is there a way you can develop those strengths in yourself?

Are you feeling blocked?  Stepping back and seeing how the activity fits with your strengths and values may be the first step to getting unblocked.