Grassroots Movement For My Small Businesses

It has officially been 2014 for four days now. Many of us, have probably already had a hard time keeping our new year resolution and in our small business. Myself and my goal for my writing, my small business, and spending more time with my family is actually coming along pretty good for the moment. Really trying to go after the entrepreneurial spirit that i feel will dominate 2014. Trying to get more of a grassroots movement started for Growth In Recovery. I have come to realize that one of the reasons that I have not had much success thus far in its promotion is because I neglected the most important part of any CrowdFunding Campaign, small business, or marketing development project. I had been focusing on the big picture of promoting my business and purpose on the very large internet, instead of the small more focused picture in the area right around me.

Are you focusing on the grassroots movement that is involved in promoting and building your small business?

One of the main reasons that this topic came to mind was a recent post that I made on Open Forum, a great platform for businesses big and small to communicate, discuss, and critique fellow entrepreneurs/ owners. The post was talking about elements of a great crowdfunding campaign, one of which is to start with friends and family. At the time that I first read that response, I could not think of any way to promote, sell, or even tell a lot of my friends and family about my goal of creating, crafting, and building a small business. I figured they would all think that I was crazy, considering that I live in such a small place that reaction wouldn't have surprised me at all.

So what EXACTLY are you doing to get people at a local level interested, motivated, and donating to your small business and crowd funding project? Here are a couple of things that I am either already doing or am going to do in the near future to help so the seeds of an effective grassroots movement for my small business.

• Facebook Is Your Friend- When it comes to establishing an effective grassroots movement for your small business, crowd funding campaign, or product you may have more friends interested on Facebook than what you realize. If you have people that sound really stoked and ready to help with your cause that are also Friends, Family, or Acquaintances here consider getting them to like and participate at least in your Facebook Fan Page/ Info page for your purpose. Some may even be willing to contribute a little more time and admin. Either way, it never hurts to attempt to talk to those close to you on here about your idea, it may end up being beneficial in other ways for your small business.
• Don't Let Twitter Fly By-  Twitter is useful in a different way than Facebook for establishing roots for your cause. Twitter has more users in some areas than others. For example, in my area, I know very few people who actively use Twitter, but are on Facebook all the time. Try to convince the people that you have the best shot with into signing up for Twitter, getting active, and sharing your small business. Or, if they do not feel like doing this, at least see if they will provide a shout out of your Twitter name on pages they admin or in some of their posts.
• Local Newspapers Are Alive And Well- With the advent of the Internet and all of the social media outlets on it, many people have forgotten that small local newspapers can still be very effective at getting your message across. If you live in an area where the local paper is huge, then your message may get lost, don't worry though because some people were sure to see it. In this case, you may purposely want to find a less popular paper. When you live in a small town with a small newspaper like me though, there are additional uses besides advertising that a newspaper can be used for. For example, our local paper I can pay to advertise and use the advertisements to gather analytics about my project. Run one advertisment for a period of 2-3 weeks and pay attention to the SoundOff (that is a section where local readers call and anonymously voice their opinions) and see what people are saying or if they are curious. Take that info I gather and then apply it to my overall strategy.

Keep in mind, there are a lot more aspects to creating a grassroots movement for your small business than just these three. It is without debate though, if you do not have a good ground game for your business and healthy seeds sewn, then you will not be successful.

What Have You Done So Far Locally With Your Business?

What Do You Plan To Do In The Near Future?

Any Tips To Help Myself or Others Create an Effective Grassroots Movement For Their Small Business?

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2014: The Year of The Entrepreneurial Spirit

2014 Is the year of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

As 2013 is almost over I cannot help but wonder what kind of spirit will motivate the small business, marketing, crowd funding, and the social media machine in the coming year. I predict an unprecedented renewal in the entrepreneurial spirit and the start up of a new era where dreams become possible at your finger tips. It is truly a great time to be an entrepreneur. Dreams will no longer be limited by money. Instead dreams will only be limited by how deeply you desire success and how hard you are willing to achieve your passion.

Its funny, I am getting to live in an age where people are weary of a mundane, repetitive, and unfulfilled life. More than ever people are becoming more likely to take the risk involved in going after their dreams. To the older generation we seem reckless and many in our own generation of the Millennials do not understand. To those that do understand the motivation of an entrepreneur, each person pursuing the entrepreneurial spirit and chasing toward there dreams are an inspiration.

Since the creation of the internet the momentum has been building up to this point in time, 2014: The Year Of The Entrepreneur. With a small business start up now easier than ever, prevalence of social media, and the rise of Crowd Funding as a means to gather monetary support, the road to being a successful entrepreneur has become even easier. In 2014 the entrepreneurial spirit  will shake up and wake up society to a new way of thinking.

The Start Up Of A New Era

As the Year of the Entrepreneurial Spirit creeps up on us and slowly begins to advance it is going to become apparent that we are on the cusp of the start up of a new era. Society is minutes away from a miracle but will we follow through with it or quit seconds before it happens?

Small business start ups are going to play a huge role in this revolution. I am proud to say that Growth In Recovery is honored and looks forward to the rebirth of a market where the entrepreneur is king.

My Relationship Status As A Freelancer: Strong Client Relationships And Foundation

 My Relationship Status As a Freelancer

Strong Client Relationships And Foundations

This week marks the start of my journey as a full time freelance writer. One thing that I knew before traveling on this road was that if I were to be successful that I needed to build strong client relationships with each person that desired to hire me. If I did not do this, I would be doomed to fail. It is unwise to bite the hand that feeds you, and not building a strong relationship with your client is doing exactly that. However, here are 3 steps that I have found to have worked for me to create strong client relationships.

1. Proper Schedule Planning- Before you take the dive into full time freelancing it is essential to take the time to create a rough draft schedule of the days and time that you wish to give each client each week. I first sat down and figured how many hours a week I wanted to write, which was about 40-46 hrs. Next, I took each project that I had and estimated the amount of time that I would need to spend on each one to split my time up as wisely as possible. Finally, I took all of this info and put it into a spread sheet and also posted it on my Elance profile to give potential clients an idea of my availability. When planning your first week to two weeks of work you should keep in mind that it is likely to change many times. To avoid any changes that are not essential, I recommend lining up consistent jobs that you know will provide work on a weekly basis.

2. Communication- Anytime you are providing a service for someone communication is key. However, in the first two weeks of full time freelance writing it can make or break some contracts. Let your clients know that this will be a time of growing pains for you, that you appreciate their willingness to hire you in the first place, and reassure them that they can trust things will get better. I have already almost screwed up here a few times myself. Thankfully, I have some very understanding clients. To succeed though, communication is a top priority in building strong client relationships.

3. Keeping An Eye For Details- Having a keen eye for detail is something that is needing during any freelancing project. If you are sloppy in the beginning on client projects then many clients may decide not to continue with you as a freelancer. A strong client relationship and eye for detail extended beyond just your projects. Are you keeping an eye on the details of your own promotion on social media as a freelancer? What about the treasure trove of information available on the web about the freelancing trade? This may seem like you would have to have eyes in the back of your head, palm of your hands, and god knows how many more where else to be as detail oriented as possible. It is possible though to keep an eye for detail if you take the time to organize the details.

 On What Terrain Are Your Client Relationships Built?

The idea for this post originally came to me when I was talking to my friend +Naias Kabir  . We were discussing the aspects of being patient, hardworking, and consistent in our freelance writing work. One thing in specific that I would like to mention from my conversation with him is about the ground that we build the foundation of a relationship with a client on. If we build the foundation on a fault line, then we will surely experience earthquakes that could potentially rip a strong client relationship apart. If we build it on sand, then our relationship with our client will slowly sink away and be swallowed back into the Earth. However, if we build a freelancing relationship with our client on stone then it is sure to be a sturdy, stable, and a strong client relationship. This is My Relationship Status As A Freelance Writer

Did Snap Chat Screw Up?

 Did Snap Chat Screw Up?

Declining Facebook

There was much talk about SnapChat when they made a rejection of Facebook and their 3 Billion dollar buy out offer. Did Snap Chat screw up big time? With the talk comes many questions as to why their business would so quickly turn down such a large amount, especially during a time when other social media platforms such as Vine or Instagram were so eager to sell. However, a look at some of the facts we know and a bit of logical speculation may yield a feasible answer and shed some light on SnapChat and their marketing tactics. This is actually a subject that +George Forbes  and I were discussing.

First, lets take a look at the current state of Facebook and their stocks. It is no secret that when the company initially went public that things were a little bit rocky. It did not take them long to balance everything back out and begin throwing around their muscle again with their 1 Billion dollar purchase of Instagram. However, any benefits that they might have gained from this purchase were quickly overshadowed in the fact the Facebook released data revealing that they were losing some of their most loyal and active users, teens and Millenial's. Where were all of these people migrating too? The answer, Snap Chat.

Second, lets look at where Facebook falls with its purpose of being a bridge for businesses to provide information and also a directory for them to post their contact information. Out of all major social media outlets, Facebook sits between websites (the largest social media & blogging platform) and Twitter ( a steadily growing platform with the added benefit of functioning as a micro-blogging tool). It is essentially the middle man in the whole concept, but you have to wonder if Twitter is capable of taking out the middle man and providing most of its services. I personally think that they are because the micro-blogging aspect of Twitter allows users to post short posts that would get the user to wherever they need to go. This is something that I feel the owners of Snap Chat recognize as well, not to mention they see that Twitter would compliment their platform more than Facebook. If my predictions on at least this aspect of Snap Chat are true then the question of "Did Snap Chat Screw Up?" may appear to be leaning more to an answer of no. That is until you take a look at a the recent changes that they have decided to create.


 Snap Chat And Their Newest Feature

Recently Snap Chat added a couple of features to their service. The first, a feature to add filters to your photos is the less significant of the features added. The one that may very well break or make Snap Chat a bigger (or smaller) name than it is already is their replay feature. What this feature allows a user to do is to view a message a second time, but only once a day.

What made Snap Chat unique was how it handled the pictures. No other photo sharing app permanently deleted (well at least as close to permanent as you can get) photos six seconds after they were opened. For whatever reason, this provided a wow and entertainment factor for individuals and they flocked to the service. How will a feature that may allow for less privacy to Snap Chat users effect those that enjoyed the service just for that purpose? Did Snap Chat Screw Up with this decision? I feel like they may have as people greatly value their privacy.