Why Do Ambitious Women Have Flat Heads ...

Great TED Talk from Dame Stephanie Shirley ... whose two secrets for success are : 

Surround yourself with first class people, and people that you like 
Choose your partner very, very carefully !

5 Interactive Ways to Convert Website Visitors into Customers

Written by Steve Nelson - http://www.startupguys.net/author/snelson/

Website conversion is a concept that expresses the ability to make visitors do what we want, namely purchase a certain product or service. The most common misconception about increasing conversions is to increase the website traffic.

Well, I disagree to this to an extent. I believe, converting the existing visitors on priority and then working on acquiring targeted traffic only. 

This article will focus on converting the visitors into clients and to do so, all you need to to do is to build a strong relationship with the visitor.

Building a relationship with people you already know is fairly easy, but the key to building a relationship with a visitor about whom you do not know much (except some stats, i.e. the IP, location, time he spent on the website, pages he browsed and so on) and converting visitors into clients is to engage them on your website interactively, so you can know more about them!

Let’s see how we can do so:

Step 1: Offer help through related content; probably the easiest way to do this is to develop FAQs and link them to all the landing pages, so the visitors should not leave the website due to unavailability of information. Along with FAQs, attach a contact form for questions that FAQs do not answer.

Step 2: Offer a free /trial product; of course you should not offer without grabbing the visitors’ basic information, i.e. name, email, phone, company etc.

Step 3: Have Call to Action on all pages; whatever action you want your visitor to take, make sure you have a call for that action on the page. You can have multiple calls to action, depending on the page content.

Step 4: Phone contact; a great way to stay in touch with people is to offer them a phone number that can be accessed without any money. Your main goal is for visitors to call, so use large font and place your number in a visible spot.

Step 5: Live chat; a crucial tool for you is the live chat. This means that you have the possibility of talking to your clients in real time, without the need for a phone. Younger visitors are likely to use this option more. When a person gets on the chat, use your first name and be polite.

Try and build up a strong relationship because customers acquired on a 'relationship' basis are not just customers - their word of mouth can bring you more business!

http://www.startupguys.net/5-interactive-ways-to-convert-website-visitors-into-customers/

Are You Using Perfectionism As A Means Of Procrastination ?

How To Develop The Soft Skills Of The Successful Entrepreneur

Written by Lindsay Broder - The Occupreneur Coach

Can you really teach entrepreneurship? That question gets asked a lot, both in business and academia. Some claim you can learn the skills necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Others say you either have “it” or you don’t, whatever "it" is.

But I think we're asking the wrong question. It's not about whether you can teach skills to be a successful entrepreneur, but rather what skills need to be taught or learned. For instance, when it comes to the hard skills, anyone can learn them, either in a classroom or on the job. These include things like finance and accounting or branding and marketing or legal. They are the skills that lead to specific action… the “doing” of running your business.

But, more important are the soft skills. These are trickier to learn. They don't come in a textbook or a webinar. They don't even necessarily come from working hard at your job. They come from inside you.

Rather than be taught them, you need to unlock them and foster them. 

Fostering (or "learning") soft skills that don’t come naturally to you might seem challenging and even very uncomfortable. But know that you have more soft skills available to you than you’re currently using. Perhaps you’ve never considered some of them. Or maybe you’ve not had the opportunity to work with a mentor or boss to show you by example. But if you’re willing to look inside yourself and you’re open to making significant changes, you can learn to access and use the many soft skills available to you within yourself. Here are a few examples:

Drive, Ambition and Stamina.

Let’s face it -- being an entrepreneur is really hard at times. You have to push yourself every day to be better when things aren’t going your way. It’s a major effort to keep going when you feel like nothing is right. But that’s why drive, ambition and stamina are necessary. We all have it. We’re born with it. Some have more than others, but you can strengthen yours by looking for inspiration from those with a ton of it and following their lead. It’s like a muscle that if you exercise regularly, it will become stronger.

The Temperament to Manage Adversity.

It’s no secret that entrepreneurship is full of adversity. That’s why people with unbelievable ideas never take the plunge into the entrepreneurial sea. Some entrepreneurs have such trouble managing tough times that they go grey, gain weight, lose their hair and age 20 years from the experience. Then there are those who’ve never looked or felt better from it. These are the people who approach entrepreneurship with joy and who remain calm even in the worst of situations. They don’t let the worst of it get the best of them. While it looks like some people are just born with this kind of temperament, I can tell you that I’ve known many people who have learned how to be this way as they’ve grown as people and as entrepreneurs. They learned to let go and have faith that everything will be OK.

The Capacity to Embrace Change.

If you don’t evolve with the world around you, specifically with your customers’ ever-changing needs, your success will be short-lived. Most people hit a ceiling on growth and become stuck in their ways. Nothing can be more detrimental to running a business. If this is something you struggle with, consider forcing yourself to engage in one activity every day or every week that you’ve never done before that kicks you out of your comfort zone. Or perhaps try taking a new path to work, stopping at a new coffee shop or trying a new food that you’ve never had before.

A Ton of Chutzpah.

You’ve heard the term, “Fake it til you make it?" Some people are just really good at this. We usually call them bullshit artists. But even if you think you’re well prepared for your entrepreneurial journey, you’ll more than likely uncover a few holes that you’ll have to mend on the go. At some point you’ll likely find yourself pitching for business that you are pretty sure is out of your league or you might have to pull out all the stops and get in front of people to sell your business who might expect you to be much more experienced than you are. I never advocate for lying about anything but there is a way to message your business that isn’t lying but makes you sound pretty darn good! But if you aren’t willing to fake it, you’ll never make it or it will take you a much longer time to.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243059

Do You Have Entrepreneurial DNA ?

The Founder Institute, a start up training and launch program in the U.S, has developed a test to identify entrepreneurial personality traits. Take the abbreviated quiz below for a quick evaluation of your entrepreneurial prowess.

PART 1: Each puzzle has three rows and three columns of designs.
One pattern in each group on the left is missing and has been replaced by a question mark. Choose the missing pattern from the eight on the right.

PART 2: For each pair of personality statements below, select the one that describes you the best. You: 

8
a. Have a good word for everyone    
b. Carry the conversation to a higher level

9 
a. Have a vivid imagination
b. Pay attention to details

10 
a. Get excited by new ideas 
b. Are not easily bothered by things   

11 
a. Believe that others have good intentions
b. Have a rich vocabulary

12
a. Make friends easily 

b. Can say things beautifully

To take the full test, visit fi.co/dna.

TALLY YOUR SCORE:
For each of the following correct answers, give yourself one point. 

10-12 POINTS: You have very strong entrepreneurial DNA. You have the curiosity and originality necessary to challenge accepted norms, and you can quickly solve complex problems in a constantly changing playing field. 

6-9 POINTS: You have moderate entrepreneurial DNA. You have curiosity and the ability to be original, and you are a good problem solver. However, some of your interests and abilities lie outside the entrepreneurial realm.  

3-5 POINTS: You have some entrepreneurial traits, but many of your talents appear to lie outside the entrepreneurial realm. You might be interested in caring for others, or on paying careful attention and working hard at the job you already have. 

1-2 POINTS: Like more than 95 percent of people, your interests and abilities appear to lie outside the entrepreneurial realm. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243059

Is Being An Entrepreneur Like Learning To Fly While You're In The Air ?

I’ve heard it said that being an entrepreneur is like flying an aeroplane whilst learning how to do it and whilst still building it. There’s no manual in other words, so you fly by the seat of your pants making it up as you go. It’s a good analogy although unless you are literally doing that, no-one’s going to die from your mistakes !

The truth is though from man’s earliest days to now, everything we have is a result of a small percentage of the population having the balls to fly by the seat of their pants. That’s one definition of being an entrepreneur. As time goes by however we have the opportunity to study what others have done. We can learn from their mistakes and successes.

In our present era we now have a massive amount of that collected experience to refer to being an entrepreneur. We don’t always have to be the inventor. We can calculate our risks and we can find mentors – people who have trodden the path we’re about to start out on.

Being An Entrepreneur In The Modern World

There are loads of stats out there that show a huge increase in entrepreneurialism. People of all ages and backgrounds are taking their first steps into business and self-reliance. That’s been made possible by technology, in particular the internet – all of which was created by …… you guessed it – entrepreneurs.

We might tend to think of these pioneers as dreamers, scientists, engineers and inventors but in reality all of these things are based on someone being an entrepreneur. Read any of their stories and you’ll realise that along the way they were also on a voyage of self- discovery.

That’s why there’s so much personal and self-development intertwined in so much of the self-help information available about being an entrepreneur. It’s part of the process. After all if you’re moving into self-employment from employment things are going to be very different. That’s why so many people basically give up too soon.

It doesn’t take much effort to just keep turning up for a job after all and getting that guaranteed pay check at the end of every month – even if that pay packet hasn’t changed much for years. Entrepreneurs can’t afford to just turn up and usually there’s no one but themselves breathing down their necks to get things done.

Another piece of wisdom suggests that successful entrepreneurs tend to be the ones who are prepared to stay in a state of no result longest. That’s outside most people’s comfort zone but that’s where the magic happens !

Can You Buy a Manual About Being An Entrepreneur? 

With an online business the financial risks of being an entrepreneur are far less than with a traditional one. That’s why so many are doing it these days. The failure rate though is high if you decide to go it alone. So again it’s wise to benefit from the experience and mentorship of those who have gone before.

It’s still a young industry but the pioneers of digital marketing have been around for a good number of years now. Luckily some of them are prepared to share their knowledge and experience.

Not many of them however dole out that experience with the generosity of Six Figure Mentors (SFM) and Digital Experts Academy (DEA). Their set up is like a real world university for online entrepreneurs.

What they’ve done is taken apart two massively successful online marketing careers – those of co-founders Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek. They’ve looked at the mistakes they made along the way and the systems and strategies they used to overcome them.

They then reverse engineered all that and built it back into a proven system that combines nuts and bolts business systems, self-development and cutting edge education. The result is a community based platform that anyone can enter as fledgling or experienced entrepreneurs keen to take advantage of the technological world we now live in.

Anyone who is focussed on being an entrepreneur can join on whatever basis they like. They can simply be students and use the training and systems to their own ends, building online businesses in any field they like. For those looking for a business in a box, there are options to partner with SFM and DEA and earn high commissions as they learn.

Being An Entrepreneur Online 

The beauty of this is that it can all be done at a pace to suit an individual’s circumstances. There’s no need to take a massive leap of faith, give up the day job and jump in all guns blazing. Being an entrepreneur online is fairly risk free.

Those who aspire to building 6, 7 or even 8 figure online empires are catered for with a multi-level partnership programme. Those who just want to create some extra revenue or to boost an existing business through learning digital marketing are also catered for.

Whatever the ambition the benefits of leveraging this platform are huge. Yes there are costs but I can’t think of any offline business that wouldn’t cost far more to start or maintain.

SFM and DEA provide a free 7-day video workshop for anyone who wants to look at what they do. It includes a lot of downloadable in itself quite valuable, with no strings attached. So if you are ready to fly but don’t fancy building the plane yourself grab those videos by clicking on the link below.

http://davemenzies.com/starting-a-business/being-an-entrepreneur/

10 Steps To Business Growth - Steps 9 & 10