What is your Major Selling Advantage?
What makes you better and of greater value to your target market than your competitors? Identify your ideal and potential customers and what are the their needs and requirements that you can find a solution to. Network to build your prospect base, go to meetings and join clubs, groups or associations that have members who are in your client target group.

Create an Identity.
Invest is creating a memorable and professionally designed logo. Your business logo needs to stand out and stick in people memory and you need to repeat your message over and over again. Stay in the public eye, this can sometimes be done through the media at no cost to you. Make something that you do news worthy. Are you making something unusual? Are you using state of the art technology? Have you had someone famous visit or use your product or do you employ or know someone who you can associate with your business to get the media to write a news article on your business, employee or products?

Develop a Web Site.
In todays modern era you will need to develop or have developed for you a web site. My opinion is the best type of web site is where your clients can purchase your product immediately on line, therefore it is best to spend the money and develop a shopping cart. Many people will remember and visit your site, so make sure your web address is on every printed piece of literature that comes out of your business. The key here is to make it easy for your clients to find you and your services and if you can get them to make that buying decision immediately online then the sale is yours and they will stop searching for other suppliers.

Get Referrals or Testimonials.
Ok you are in business, so for some reason that doesn't seem to make what you say believable. So how do you overcome that? Mmmm get testimonials from your happy and satisfied clients and tell everyone else about them. Funny but your testimonials could also come from business people, but because it is not your business other potential customer of yours will believe what they say about your product and service.

What is your Major Selling Advantage?
What makes you better and of greater value to your target market than your competitors? Identify your ideal and potential customers and what are the their needs and requirements that you can find a solution to. Network to build your prospect base, go to meetings and join clubs, groups or associations that have members who are in your client target group.

Create an Identity.
Invest is creating a memorable and professionally designed logo. Your business logo needs to stand out and stick in people memory and you need to repeat your message over and over again. Stay in the public eye, this can sometimes be done through the media at no cost to you. Make something that you do news worthy. Are you making something unusual? Are you using state of the art technology? Have you had someone famous visit or use your product or do you employ or know someone who you can associate with your business to get the media to write a news article on your business, employee or products?

Develop a Web Site.
In todays modern era you will need to develop or have developed for you a web site. My opinion is the best type of web site is where your clients can purchase your product immediately on line, therefore it is best to spend the money and develop a shopping cart. Many people will remember and visit your site, so make sure your web address is on every printed piece of literature that comes out of your business. The key here is to make it easy for your clients to find you and your services and if you can get them to make that buying decision immediately online then the sale is yours and they will stop searching for other suppliers.

Get Referrals or Testimonials.
Ok you are in business, so for some reason that doesn't seem to make what you say believable. So how do you overcome that? Mmmm get testimonials from your happy and satisfied clients and tell everyone else about them. Funny but your testimonials could also come from business people, but because it is not your business other potential customer of yours will believe what they say about your product and service.

If you have an online business and you utilise the Google Adwords Advertising Campaign then you will probably like the latest changes that Google have made to this system. 

- Your keywords will no longer be marked as "Inactive" (yeh) I used to hate that. All keywords are now active because they are evaluated for every query that is relevant.

- No longer is there a "minimum bid" that has now been replaced with "First Page Bid Estimates" providing the advertiser with a choice and that choice will be whether you wish to be on the first page or risk being found on later pages.

- The "Quality Score" column (if you don't know where this is, activate it in your column preferences under the Keywords Tab) is now more accurate as it is now calculated at the time of each search query.  

So what this means is pretty much more accuracy and with all words now active, this should translate into more clicks and therefore more traffic. 

Cool hey! 

Google also announced that they are de-emphasizing the importance of a landing page, that will be interesting, I will follow that statement closely.

Now I have saved the best until last! This is so cool! Google have announced that they are starting to index audio files. What this means is they will index the audio file and which will allow you to search text in the audio message and then when you click play, it takes you directly to that place in the audio message. Isn't that cool, technology is just so amazing.

Go Here to the announcement by Google

And here are some sample of the Audio Indexing.

It helps to know who you are talking to and what sort of conversation is appropriate for the situation. If you are speaking to a new associate you should ask questions which cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. Encourage longer answers that will allow you to get to know the person better and offer a bit of background information about yourself in the process. If the relationship is business-related be friendly, but do not venture into personal subjects or topics that can be controversial (like politics, unless of course your business is politics).

However, if you have developed a good business relationship with someone, it may not be inappropriate to acknowledge personal interests that you may share. For example, if you are visiting the office of a long-term business associate and notice golf clubs, you may bring up the topic and ask them about that particular brand or where they play, to let them know it is a common interest between you. Whether or not you invite them to golf with you or wait for them to invite you should also depend on the nature and time period of your association.

The most important thing to remember about being a good communicator is actually the opposite – you must listen! This applies to all aspects of your business, whether you are talking to a client, an employee, or a sponsor and it is equally important in casual, social situations because you never know when you might meet someone who can become a valuable connection for your social-business network. Making a positive impression is paramount, because you are the face and voice of your business.

No matter who it is you are talking to and regardless of the nature of your relationship, listening is essential because you are better able to formulate a relevant response when you listen to whomever you are speaking with. Isn’t it annoying when you are having a conversation with someone and they look at you blankly and say “what”? Or when you are saying something that you feel is important and the person you are talking to continues typing, or reading, or (aargh!) even watching the television?

 “Do unto others as you’d have done to you” is just as meaningful when it comes to communication as it is in everything else. If you are too busy to listen when an employee or associate comes to you with an issue or idea, does that really encourage them to listen to your concerns or suggestions in the future?

Chances are you understand very well how limiting your breadth of vision can be a detriment to your business. You may be able to remember a time or two (or several) when learning something new was the deciding factor between success and possible failure. Or you may be able to think of a situation in which you missed the opportunity to do something new to raise the bar of your business and a competitor got the glory for an idea that could have been yours.

Opportunities, and personal sudden realizations, can come in all shapes and sizes. One common way that many people have become inspired is through communication with other people! All it takes is one simple statement to create a new idea and understanding, even a new outlook.

However, this requires that we listen when we are communicating with others and that we try to understand what they are saying, a basic rule of polite conversation that can actually benefit your business as well!

It's something that everyone can see and no one can easily fake. Honest enthusiasm about your business is a sure sign of success, even if your business isn't as profitable and prestigious now as you would like it to be, you have already won since you have found something that you can be passionate about!

When you show your real enthusiasm to business associates, they can see that you believe in your business and they in turn may be more likely to believe in you. Your passion shows that you are personally invested in your company and that you will work energetically to make it a success. Do not be afraid to show people how excited you are.

In general, showing enthusiasm when communicating with others is engaging and entertaining, they may listen more closely to learn what it is you are so enthusiastic about. Unfortunately, not everyone has a job that they can be passionate about, but almost everyone will admit to desiring that feeling of purpose.

Keep working at your job with as much enthusiasm as you can, but in the meantime, in your spare time work at your hobby that you are really keen and enthusiastic about, keep at it with a view of making it your business, eventually your honest enthusiasm will shine on through and you will be rewarded for your consistent efforts.