Small Business Start Up – Real life experiences – the hours

Are you thinking of starting a small business? Start up takes time, effort, blood, sweat & tears, don’t believe me? Do you think it’s easy? That it will be a great ‘Lifestyle’ to be the boss? You’ll have time for family & friends, coffee and long lunches? Here is an article by Rachel Strella on her small business start up and how of her time is taken up with it starting up and running her business.

small business start up requires a huge time committment

Huge time committment in starting a small business

A year ago, I remember someone asking me, “What do you do all day?”  The question caught me by surprise. It was not easy to define.  Currently, my business is 18 months old and I admit to putting in over 60 hours a week, if not more.

So what is an entrepreneur doing when we’re working all of those hours? [Read more…]

Small Business – Marketing Benchmarks for social media and websites

Marketing benchmarks for small businesses are hard to find. Benchmarks for marketing, in this instance, is to compare what you are doing with others to find out what is considered ‘best practice’. So firstly consider where you are planing to spend your time, energy and money in marketing your business. Are you going to use Social Media and your website to bring in new customers in 2012? Then find out what others are doing in order to asses your strategy. Be mindful though, following others may not be the best thing for your business.

 

The following infographic looks at what other small businesses are doing in regards to marketing, social media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on the net. See if what other businesses are doing aligns with your plans. Do you think that they are on the right track, do you need to adjust your strategy? These marketing benchmarks are easily to understand and follow due to the graphical format.

 

Small Business and Marketing - Infographic

While blindly following the pack is not a suggested strategy, knowing what they are up to can give you tips of how to effectively use for marketing dollar. I hope these marketing benchmarks have provoked you into at least thinking about what your next step is.

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