50 Life Lessons Every One Should Know By The Age Of 50

50 Life Lessons

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Written By Regina Brett | The Plain Dealer

The 6 Golden Rules Of Social Media Marketing For Business

Read The 6 Golden Rules Of Social Media Marketing For Business and take your next campaign straight to the top.

Rule 1. Be Patient

Once you have set up your accounts on different social media, don’t be too excited and overwhelm people with tons of information about your product or service all at once. It’s much better to ease your way into building strong relationships with your audience.
Initially, you won’t see a huge response, so I always advise new business owners to invite friends and family to like or follow and engage, just to get some interaction going.
Be polite, and interact with customers when prompted. Make sure you give them only the most valuable information about your product or service. A simple way of promoting without the hard-sell is to write about features or benefits of your product or service, rather than the service itself.

Rule 2. Don’t Hard Sell

Don’t use hard-selling tactics as it shows you are desperate for sales, and will eventually turn off your audience. It could also damage your reputation by showing a lack of interest in your customers.
Show a positive attitude towards your industry, share relevant and interesting news and updates and always ensure you put the customer first. No-one likes a self promoting, self indulgent speaker. Seek to become an authority in the consumer eye by becoming a valuable resource.

Rule 3. Interact With Your Customers

It is no use setting up an account on any of the social media platforms and then letting it linger there with no activity. You need to actively participate in activity on these platforms once you have established your business there. You need to interact with your customers, listen to their point of view and discuss problems and solutions with them.
Ask questions. Make sure you thank regularly, RT their interesting content and share anything you feel relevant to your business, including other clients reviews and comments.

Rule 4. Listen To Others

Listen to what others say about your product. Check regularly for reviews and respond swiftly. A good way to keep track is to set up a feed in Google alerts for your company name, and be prepared to act quickly when a review or comment is left, positive or negative. Be positive and open-minded when responding.
Don’t be bothered by criticism – take it as an opportunity to improve your product or service and increase customer loyalty by demonstrating your willingness to adapt to your audience. Focus on constantly improving your product for the benefit of your customers.

Rule 5. Test Different Social Media Platforms

Having a presence on all of the social media platforms will obviously do your business some good, but how do you know its the right social media platform? Try different platforms and measure the results for your business.
You need to remember that different platforms attract different audiences and hence your focus should be on targeting the platform that suits your business. What works for one business may not necessarily work for another. Make a plan for different social platforms and then execute it effectively. Test results and ditch under performing platforms. Your time is best spent focusing on where your customer is at.

Rule 6. Provide Regular, Relevant Content

Finally, the content you provide must be relevant to your product, and you must post on a regular basis. Whether it is a status update, a tweet, a video or a blog post it must all be relevant to your product.
This is extremely important because people are there because they are interested in your company and what you can offer them. They also want to know there will be something new for them next time they visit your profile or feed. You will lose your audience over time if you let your updates go stale. Share your point of view on recent, relevant news stories, industry news and solutions for your audience.

7 Ways To Be More Persuasive in Business

By Joel on November 12, 2011

Have you ever had trouble closing a deal or convincing someone of your worthiness? Most people have this problem or at least have had this a few times in their life. In Business, mastering the technique of persuasion is known to be the key to major success and can be the difference between a pat on the back or a slap in the face, figuratively speaking.
Read on for a little insight into the art of persuasion in the world of business.

7 Great Persuasion Techniques To Use In Business

1. Give and you shall receive
When someone does you a favour, you know instinctively that you will have to do something in return in the future. Psychologists call this the reciprocity rule, and it can be very useful in persuasion.
Try it out next time a colleague or your boss needs help with something by being the first to stand up and lend a hand. Even better, think ahead and be aware of the deadlines and meetings your boss has to reach so you know to step in if they get called away. According to the reciprocity rule, they’ll be more likely to return the favour in the future.
2. Admit your weaknesses
People will never accept an idea or proposal if it sounds too good to be true, so one of the most effective ways to be persuasive is to admit a weakness.
Next time you’re trying to convince someone into giving you that job or deal, admit a small drawback before you go on to tell them that you are the best person for the job, or why your proposal will work. For example, point out that you have only two years experience instead of the required three, but then go on to explain the relevance of your past experience and how it puts you ahead of other potential candidates.
3. Emphasise potential loss
A study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior showed potential losses count far more in a manager’s decision-making than the same things presented as gains. What this means is that to be more persuasive, you should point out what they have to lose by not accepting your idea, as well as what they can gain.
So if applying for a job, or putting forward a proposal, make sure to emphasise what the company has to lose by not taking on your skills or suggestions. Just make sure you do so respectfully, and do your research on the company or your client first.
4. Highlight similarities
It is well known that people respect and listen to those who they believe to be similar to themselves. One way to influence this is by using what psychologists call mirroring. By mirroring the body language, tone of voice and interests of the person you’re speaking to, you’ll make them more likely to accept your suggestions.
Next time you meet a potential employer or client, do a brief background check on their company or personal interests. Find any similarities between them and yourself or your individual companies and bring them up in the beginning of your meeting – they’ll be more likely to say yes if they feel like you’re on common ground.
5. Appeal to their reputation
People are more likely to behave in a way that is consistent with their past decisions or beliefs, thereby upholding their reputation. This is what psychologists call labeling.
You can use this to your advantage by pointing out that someone has demonstrated a particular trait in the past, and then suggesting that their next course of action remains consistent with that label. For example, say, “Your company is cutting edge and cutting edge companies invest products like X.” This technique is tried and true and you’ll often see it used in marketing.
6. Use Social Proof
When people are unsure of which course of action to take or how to behave, they tend to assume that others around them are better informed, and will look to them for guidance. Psychologists call this Social Proof, and it is a powerful mode of persuasion.
If you’re trying to convince someone to hire you, mention that you have had interest from other potential employers. Or if you’re trying to sell an idea or product, highlight how the idea or product has been successful with other businesses. People will trust the decisions or behaviours of others and will be more likely to do the same.
7. Take it one step at a time
This is all about getting your foot in the door. If you’re pitching a proposal that’s a bit of a risk, if you throw it all on the table at once your potential employee or client is likely to say no to the whole lot. In order to build trust, you need to convince them one step at a time.
Try breaking down what you aim to achieve into small steps, and then gradually talking them into saying yes to each one – you’ll be more likely to persuade them into giving you what you want. This process can take time but remember small steps in the beginning can lead to big leaps in the future.

5 Deadliest Marketing Sins

Sometimes your marketing messages can do more harm than good. Are you guilty of any of these mistakes?

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Marketing is a delicate art: Your goal is to influence people's thinking and choices, but it's easy to do more harm than good.
However, you can lower the odds of your marketing efforts going wrong if you avoid five deadly sins. That's the word from Jonah Sachs, founder of Free Range Studios and author of Winning the Story Wars.
Fittingly, he offers a story for each of the sins to illustrate why it's bad:
1. Vanity
The ancient Greek story of Narcissus illustrates this sin, Sachs says. Narcissus, the handsomest hunter in the land became so entranced with his own reflection in a pool that he either remained immobilized there forever or fell in and drowned, depending on the version of the story.
For modern-day marketers there may be an even bigger risk: being ignored. "It's hard to tell a story when you're the main character and everything else is a background for your character's greatness," he says. "You're going to sound largely irrelevent to audiences who hear 3,500 marketing messages a day." A better approach, he says, is to create a story where the customer (or someone just like him or her) is the hero.
2. Authority
In the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen, the emperor relies on the authority of his tailors who assure him he is clothed in cloth so fine only the wise can see it. Too embarassed to admit that he sees nothing there, the emperor eventually finds himself nude in front of all his subjects.
The problem with relying on authority, whether subject matter experts or facts and statistics is two-fold, Sachs says. First, experts have been so flamboyantly wrong about so many things (remember the doctors who swore in the 1960s that smoking was safe?) that the public is instinctively mistrustful. Worse, by relying on facts you miss the chance to make a more heartfelt connection with customers. "If you can reach people on emotion and values, that's a more powerful way of getting them marching toward you," he says.
3. Insincerity
Remember the story of the wolf in sheep's clothing, one of Aesop's fables? A wolf who comes upon a sheepskin, puts it on, and hides within a flock. But the disguise works too well and the shepherd, mistaking the wolf for a sheep, slaughters him for his own dinner.
For modern marketers, the big risk of insincerity is getting found out. With the Twitterverse, Blogosphere, and Yelp out there, it's fairly difficult to fool anyone for long. Fiji Water ran smack into that problem, Sachs says, when the company attempted to lure environmentally conscious consumers to its obviously high-carbon-footprint product by claiming it would use offsets to become carbon negative. But closer examination of Fiji Water's plan revealed that it was calling itself carbon negative by giving itself credit for future actions the company claimed it would take over the next 30 years! Not surprisingly, this resulted in a lawsuit and the kind of bad publicity that likely left Fiji Water wishing it had skipped the whole thing. "You want to reach out to a new audience but you can't deliver on that promise," Sachs says. "Better to be true to yourself and have people come to you."
4. Puffery
The down side of pretending to be bigger than you are is displayed in this unforgettable line from "The Wizard of Oz": "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
"The idea is that we can speak in the disembodied voice of God and have people listen, rather than finding our unique and human voice," Sachs says. "Finding that human voice is a step that marketers so often miss." It's an especially important step for small businesses, he adds, whose customers particularly want to see the human beings behind the products.
5. Gimmickry
Sachs illustrates this sin with the tale of King You of Zhou who repeatedly calls out his warriors on a false alarm to coax a laugh out of his hard-to-amuse trophy wife. You can guess the rest: The kingdom actually does come under attack so he lights the distress beacons but the warriors stay home, believing it to be another gag.
There's nothing wrong with being funny, Sachs says, but trying too hard to be funny can backfire--which is why, he says, most Superbowl ads aren't very effective at selling their products. "It's great to use emotion and humor to connect with your audience," he says. "But if you jump right to 'How do I make this funny?' you can wind up bending over backward to make that connection, and you can undermine your message and your brand."

Prep Your Business to Sell for Top Dollar

A little polishing up today can boost the value of your business tomorrow. Here are three places to start.

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When you shop for a home, there are two types of properties: The “showcase”--renovated and staged to bring maximum bids for maximum dollar. And the “fixer”--in need of TLC and priced at a discount because the next owner will need to pour time and money into the project.
The same goes for your business. If you step back and take a hard-eyed survey of your business, would you be able to market it as a showcase or a fixer?
Too often, I’ve seen a founder bear the birthing and growing pains of a new business, only to have the baby snatched away by new management or impatient money during the always-longer-than-you-think march to profitability and growth. As an entrepreneur that should make your skin crawl. If anyone’s going to pocket the big profit, it should be you, right? And that boils down to auditing your company to find the places where some renovation today can increase the value of your business tomorrow.
Boost your take-out multiple.
Most established businesses eventually sell at some multiple of a profitability measure, such as EBITDA (Earnings Before interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). Typically, that multiple might be in the range of 5x-10x. (Business Valuation Resources can be a helpful starting point for determining the valuation of comparable firms, and what metrics matter most for any particular business.)
A number of quantitative factors will drive your multiple: top-line growth, bottom-line profitability, financial predictability, and industry sector. But there are also less tangible factors such as the quality of your product, the quality of your team, and the “hotness” of your sector and your company.
For example, I was on the board of directors of SuccessFactors, a cloud-based HR solutions provider that is similar in some respects to Salesforce.com, except that its CEO was an energetic Dutchman rather than an outspoken San Franciscan. At the end of last year, SuccessFactors was acquired by SAP for the astounding valuation of 10.4x forward revenue­-- that’s right, not 10.4 times profits, 10.4 times revenue. That was $3.4 billion.
Success Factors was a great high-growth company, but it was also at the right place at the right time. SuccessFactors delivered a cloud-based HR enterprise solution just at the dawn of cloud-based business management--a powerful shift that means hotness and high multiples for companies like Salesforce.com and SuccessFactors. And for SAP, the largest enterprise software company in the world, it was strategically vital to make the shift to the cloud. SuccessFactors filled that need and its acquisition meant the company wouldn’t become a strategic asset for one of SAP’s competitors.
Maybe you won’t have the tailwind of being a takeover target that serves an acquirer’s long-term strategic plan. But you know that there are many places in your operational and financial plan that you can tighten up. Do it now. Both quantitative (baseline profitability) and qualitative (new paint). Make it an exciting business full of promise for you, employees, and customers--it will rub off on investors. If you can move the all-important multiplier from 5x to 6x, you just increased the value of your business by 20%.
Get a 360-degree business review.
Reach out to your support systems--accountants, lawyers, suppliers--and ask them where they see your company’s vulnerabilities. Basically you want to do your own due diligence before an acquirer does, and address any gaping holes before you put your company on the market. It’s your business equivalent of a home inspection.
Lower the acquirer’s risk.
If you are selling a personal services business you know it carries a lot more risk for the acquirer than a manufacturing or trading business. For instance, if your customers count on you to deliver the services (you’re a consultant or a psychiatrist), the revenue is at risk when you leave. A hardware store typically will sell at a higher multiple than a tax prep business simply because it is easier to maintain its future value through a change in ownership. The hardware store is an asset to sell. The tax prep business is a book of business based on providing a personal service. From the acquirer’s vantage point there’s the risk that when you cash out, your clients might leave as well.
There’s no way you can guarantee your clients will stay, but you can increase your stickiness factor. Long before you think about selling a personal service business ask your most valued customers to give you a detailed review of what they value most about your business. And what they wish you would improve. Don’t assume you know. Ask. Then devote your resources to upping the delivery on every element your clients most value. Happy and committed clients are going to be a valuable negotiating tool with a potential buyer. And stay flexible: Offering to stay on in some capacity for a year or two after you sell can boost your firm’s sale price.

Why Sandy Could Be Good For Small

Why Sandy Could Be Good For Small Business

Assuming you avoid tragedy, a major storm can help many small businesses--even mine.

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Make no mistake about it, this storm was devastating. No one wants to go through this kind of thing. Millions have been without power, billions of dollars of damages have been incurred, and dozens are dead. Some people and businesses will be recovering for months. No one can fault the forecasters or government officials for the dire warnings they made beforehand. They were right.
But I'm going to try to paint a good side to a devastating event like Hurricane Sandy: this may not be much consolation for those who have suffered (and I truly do sympathize), but considering that this huge storm hit an area where 25% of the country's population resides, it could've been even worse. Approximately 60 million people were affected by this storm and most everyone emerged from it safely.
My business is located in Philadelphia and we really dodged a bullet. The damage here was less than other parts of the country. Even so, Philadelphians are not completely new to big storms. We usually have one or two major snowstorms a year and the occasional Nor'easter (and I love calling it that because it makes me feel local and authentic, like an old-time native to the area, which I am). Depending on where you live you likely have to deal with your own set of recurring natural disasters be it hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, grunge rock, or the Cubs. But, assuming you avoid tragedy, I believe that a big storm like Sandy can actually be a good thing for many small businesses--even mine.
Everything's at a standstill.
For starters, the hurricane gave entrepreneurs a perfect catch-up time. For two full workweek days, most businesses in my area (including mine) were pretty much shut down. Or, at the very least, barely operating. Which provides a great opportunity to catch your breath and catch up with work. It's a unique opportunity too. Most of us like to spend weekends and holidays with our families or just relaxing. Working is kind of an intrusion. But when else do we have the opportunity, in the middle of the week, to do work without any intrusions whatsoever or any guilt or reservations about the work taking away from our leisure or family time? And you know all other companies are in the same boat so you're not concerned that you're missing something. Plus your customers and vendors outside of the region treat you in a special way because they don't want to bother you in the middle of a natural disaster--which can provide great cover for you when you're paying bills a little late or have fallen behind on an order. So you can use the time to clean up the office, write that marketing piece you've always been meaning to write, update those job descriptions for your employees, fix that printer that's been annoying you for months or maybe just....think.
The cloud is cool.
Your employees can be catching up from their homes too. Because in 2012 many of us are just beginning to benefit from...the cloud. Since last year, my applications and databases are hosted by a third-party provider on their server which, for all I know, is somewhere in Malaysia. But I don't care. And neither do my people. They go home and, as long as their broadband connection operates, they can keep doing their work. And they can stay at home to be with their families, clean up any mess, avoid the risk of travel too--and all the while checking in. So even as the storm approached and people hunkered down, we were able to respond to inquiries, schedule appointments and process orders. Many of us are kind of relieved that we don't have to worry about loss of data due to potential damages to our offices because all of our data is now located way out of harm's way and more likely than not being backed up and secured way better than we are. Plus, I have a few outsourced developers and contractors not located in the area and they can keep doing their thing on my cloud-based applications without any interruption because our offices are closed. During a hurricane the cloud has become mission critical.
You can talk about the hurricane.
A natural disaster, like a hurricane, is interesting. It's a story. It's something to talk about with our clients and prospective clients. It's a reason to reach out to customers in the area and just ask if they're doing OK. People appreciate that. Even if you've run out of ideas for talking to that guy who's been sitting on your proposal for the past month, you've now got a reason to call. The hurricane is a topic of discussion when chatting with prospective clients too: people want to hear how you're doing and what it was like. Natural disasters bring people together and make them feel more connected. If told the right way, it humanizes you and your business. Some clients have real-life stories to tell after going through a big weather event. They have employees who pitched in to help someone in need or got lucky when that tree almost damaged the warehouse. I've seen clients turn those stories into their own, low-key conversation pieces for when they talk to their customers. People like to hear this stuff.
Show your good side.
A hurricane is a great opportunity to demonstrate you care. No joke, I just got an email from Citibank that says: "If you have been impacted by the storm, we are ready to assist with access to cash, fee waivers, and more that you may require. Bottom line, we are here to serve you each and every day, but in particular, during this challenging time. If you need assistance, please contact customer service and we will work to help with your individual needs." Touching, isn't it? But these guys are no dummies. They see an opportunity. By offering to help, by showing their concern, by being sympathetic to their customers' needs they're building goodwill. They're showing what good guys they are. Yes, it's all marketing. And I wasn't born yesterday. I'm pretty sure that the Citibank customer service rep sitting in her cubicle near Bangalore doesn't really give two hoots about my problems. But let me wipe that tear from my eye and give them credit for the thought and the effort. And let's learn from that too. A natural disaster gives you the opportunity to show your company's good side to its customers and community.
A welcome reality check.
The hurricane also gives entrepreneurs a sense of appreciation. And gratitude. We are so busy with all the minutiae of running our businesses. We worry and stress about collecting receivables, getting that new customer, paying that big invoice coming due. We spend all day running around, chasing that dollar, fretting about cash flow, looking over our shoulders at the competition. And then a huge thing like this happens. And we're forced to stop and hunker down with our families. We see the enormity of a storm like this and we realize just how inconsequential we are. We get the opportunity to use the word "hunker" twice in one essay. We watch others face floods, loss of property--even loss of life--and it suddenly dawns on us how immaterial our problems are. We're just small business people, making a living, acting out our lives. And long after we're gone there will be generations of others doing the same things, dealing with the same problems, and facing their own natural disasters.

OK, I have to admit something because I'm feeling pretty guilty. So here goes: My Sunday night flight from a conference I'm attending was cancelled so I've been riding out the storm here...in sunny Boca Raton, Florida. It's so easy to be philosophical from a thousand miles away!

World's Youngest VC-Funded Entrepreneur?

He was just 15 when he landed his first chunk of change from VCs. Now this high-schooler counts Ashton Kutcher, Yoko Ono, and Mark Pincus as backers.

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Move over Brian Wong. You my have lost your title as the youngest-funded entrepreneur. The new contender is a 16-year-old kid who has raised $1 million for his news summary app. For the record, he was only 15 when he received his first chunk of that change.
Nick D’Alosio’s story starts like any high school kid’s might: on spring break. The London-based teenager was on vacation with his pals when he received an email from a group of investors in Hong Kong. D’Alosio admits he almost didn’t open it. “Who are these guys?,” he wondered. Turns out, “these guys” were from Li Ka Shing’s Horizons Ventures (the same Horizons Ventures that has invested in both Facebook and Spotify). Horizons wanted to know more about the news-summarizing app (then called Trimit) D'Alosio had built and released months earlier in the Apple’s UK App store.
“I had just signed on to Twitter and I was using their mobile app. The problem was, I noticed that I wasn’t clicking through to the full content--it took far too long to download and it just wasn’t optimized for mobile. I thought why not produce summaries,” D’Alosio says of the initial idea. The teen has been building applications since age 12.
With Horizon’s initial $300,000 investment a year ago--and its connections--D'Alosio was able to demo his app (now called Summly) to a small group of investors in December. That led to more funding from big names like Ashton Kutcher, Mark Pincus, Yoko Ono, and others.
“News on mobile is fundamentally broken,” D’Alosio explains. “It’s not the personalization element that needs to change--it’s the content. A lot of start-ups are trying to solve personalization, but this is a step beyond that. People are just fundamentally not interacting with the content itself, that’s the issue. We’ve tried to algorithmically come up with a solution."
D'Alosio has used the $1 million to hire "some serious scientists" to improve on his original algorithm.
The algorithm works by selecting words from a given article to build a summary that will perfectly fit onto the screen of your iPhone--no more scrolling to read or waiting to load. If you want to read the entire article after the summary, access to it is a swipe away.
Despite the fact that he now must worry about things like business plans and investors and that he's been named a digital wunderkind by some media outlets, D'Alosio says he still wants to finish high school and attend university.
“A lot of people my age are doing what I’m doing. They’re doing tech, but they’re still in school. It just so happens that the Hong Kong people got in touch with me, but otherwise I’m just like anyone else my age,” D’Alosio says. “I didn’t think I’d be able to build a company at all. I believed in the idea, but because I was so young I didn’t think that people would take it seriously.”
For now, he hopes to continue working on Summly--though he admits he has other ideas. And D’Alosio wants to fill some big shoes. He looks to Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Instagram’s Kevin Systrom for inspiration. So, does he think Summly will sell to Facebook for $1 billion?
“Yeah,” he says, and laughs. “Let’s hope.”

Where CEOs Spend Their Time (& Money) on Social Media

A new survey shows that more small business owners are not only using social media but they are willing to pay for help.

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As a marketer turned technology CEO, I'm more convinced than ever before that small businesses need to leverage the power of social media to grow their business. But they need to do it in a smart, efficient way. So are they?
That's what my online marketing company, VerticalResponse, sought to find out. We asked 462 small businesses how much time and money they invest into social media, and announced the results this week.
According to the survey results, small businesses are:

Investing More Time Into Social Media Marketing

Two-thirds said they're spending more time than last year. That's great, because it says they're seeing enough ROI to keep doing it.
Digging deeper, 37 percent of those who said they're CEOs or owners of their own companies spend six or more hours weekly on social media for their business. Wow! A third of them said they'd rather spend less time, suggesting they preferred focusing their time on other activities to grow their business. It sounds to me that they could use some strategies and tools to help them recoup some of that time.

Focusing on Facebook and Twitter

Approximately 90 percent of the folks we surveyed are active on Facebook, and 70 percent on Twitter. In comparison, only 32 percent are on Google+ and 29 percent are on Pinterest. (LinkedIn straddles the middle, at 50 percent.)
While adoption of Google+ and Pinterest seems slow, it really depends on the industry. We found that 50 percent of companies/professionals in real estate are active on Pinterest; same goes for 42 percent of retail companies. These are industries that focus on pictures and visuals, so naturally they're gravitating toward Pinterest as a marketing tool.

Seeing the Value of Sharing Content--But, Again, Time is an Issue

We also asked small businesses to rank what types of social media activities took the most time. They said finding and posting content to their social networks was the most time-consuming, followed by: learning and education; analyzing their social media efforts; and following their competitors' activities. Answering questions posted on social media is the least time-consuming.
I can easily see how surfing the Web to find things to post sucks up time. You want to share content that's interesting, encourages engagement and relates to your business. One solution could be to set up RSS feeds from sites and blogs you like, so that whenever there's something new, it'll show up in your feed. You could also use a tool (like VerticalResponse Social) to get content from industry-specific sources and schedule when you want to share them.

Finding Value in Paying for Social Media

Small businesses reported that their social media budgets are increasing at a faster rate than overall marketing budgets. So, if a small business is going to increase its budget, it will likely be for social media.
Additionally, 36 percent of those surveyed pay for a social media publishing or analytics tool; of those, 58 percent spend $26 or more every month for the tool. Small businesses are starting to put a real value on social media for growth. Good for them.

So what does this all tell me? It reminds me of the saying, "time is money." Being able to balance it all is still a bit of a challenge for some small businesses, especially the owner or solopreneur who's handling social media on top of all the other responsibilities of running a company. But small businesses definitely see that social media is a big opportunity to drive growth--and they're invested.
(BTW, go check out the full social media infographic, which has even more interesting data.)
Are you investing more time or money into your company's social media efforts? Are you seeing real business returns? Tell me in the comments.

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How small businesses can recover from Sandy and other natural disasters

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World's Simplest Management Secret

Forget what you learned in those management books. There's really only one way to ensure that everyone on your team excels.

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Management books have it all wrong. They all try to tell you how to manage "people."
It's impossible to manage "people"; it's only possible to manage individuals. And because individuals differ from one another, what works with one individual may not work with somebody else.
Some individuals thrive on public praise; others feel uncomfortable when singled out.
Some individuals are all about the money; others thrive on challenging assignments.
Some individuals need mentoring; others find advice to be grating.
The trick is to manage individuals the way that THEY want to be managed, rather than the way that YOU'd prefer to be managed.
The only way to do this is to ASK.
In your first (or next) meeting with each direct report ask:

• How do you prefer to be managed?
• What can I do to help you excel?
• What types of management annoy you?

Listen (really listen) to the response and then, as far as you are able, adapt your coaching, motivation, compensation, and so forth to match that individual's needs.
BTW, a savvy employee won't wait for you to ask; he or she will tell you outright what works. When this happens, you're crazy not to take that employee's advice!
Unfortunately, most individuals aren't that bold, which is why it's up to you to find out how to get the best out of them.
And you'll never get that out of a management book.

Do One Thing & Do It Better Than Anyone Else

Become the best darn whatever-you-are that you can be. Set aside your other good ideas. The rest will follow.

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The other day, I received a business plan from a pair of entrepreneurs who are smart, talented, and passionate--exactly the formula you want to see. I reviewed the plan they sent me (well, OK, just the PowerPoint). And they had a great idea. Interesting enough to keep reading.
But when I got to the fifth slide, they had another idea. And then later, another idea. Three good ideas in one plan. Sounds like a bargain, right? Wrong! Only a fraction of ideas actually get pulled off.
What do you think happens when you try to launch three ideas at once? Nothing. To implement even one good idea takes a mountain of work--strategic planning, product development, marketing pushes, financing, administration, human resources, and so much more. Taking one idea to profits is hard. To be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to realize the devil is in the details. Don't fall into the trap of trying--like so many entrepreneurs--to do too much.
Instead, you want to be the best at one thing your customers want or need. Focus on how that one thing you do best can deliver value to your customers. Become irreplaceable to your customers.
But that's not all. When you launch a business, you want to make a case to yourself for what makes you the best at what you plan to do. Each time I launched a new business, I took out a pencil and sheet of paper and wrote down a list of the key strengths and advantages that made me uniquely qualified to win in that particular space. Did I have special skills? Deep experience? Industry relationships? Patentable technology? If there's no set of assets that you possess that puts you ahead of everyone else in the given marketplace, then maybe you should move on and find a different idea that you are uniquely qualified to win at.
At ColorJar, my innovation consultancy, I call this finding your "golden purpose." The reason you and your company exist. The one thing you do so well that people recognize you for it. Focus only on being the leader in that product and service, and all else will follow.
Then, once people have trust and confidence in you and your abilities, they will come to you for more. Amazon sold only books when it started, but it was the best darn bookseller on the planet. Once customers became comfortable with Amazon and loved buying books on the site, they started asking Amazon for more. Today Amazon sells thousands of products. But the company started by becoming the best at one thing.
Entrepreneurs today see successful companies that sell many products or offer many services and forget that they didn't start that way. These companies gained credibility by being the best at one thing they were uniquely qualified to do. Google started out as a simple search engine. Zappos was just an online shoe seller. Richard Branson launched Virgin Records; only later did it become an airline, resort, mobile service, and even a commercial space program. These companies proved themselves in the minds of customers by winning their categories. They raised their hands high in one specific area of expertise and owned it before they launched another idea or two. That's what opened the door to the future.
So find a problem to solve, grab your pencil, and list your assets. Discover your golden purpose. Set aside all your other good ideas. And become the best darn whatever-you-are that you can be. The rest will follow.

3 Ways to Get Paid Faster

Cash-flow is key for small businesses. Improving yours could be as simple as changing a bit of wording on your invoices. Here's how.

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Company culture, cute offices, and collaborative environments are great things for small businesses to have. But healthy cash flow is absolutely essential. So whenever someone comes up with empirically-based, simple ways to get paid faster, small-business owners sit up and listen.
Which, handily, is just what FreshBooks has done. Due to the nature of its business, the cloud-accounting company is in possession of not only reams of real-world invoices, but also plenty of hard numbers on exactly how quickly they were paid. So earlier this year, FreshBooks sifted through this data, plotting certain key phrases against the quickness of payments to determine what phrasing works best to get you paid quickly.
It turns out simple changes can make a big difference. If you want to get ahold of the cash you're due more quickly, Freshbooks recommends:

Be Polite. The first thing we noticed in the data is that being polite really matters! A simple "please pay your invoice within" or "thank you for your business" can increase the percentage of invoices that are paid by more than 5 percent! That could easily equate to thousands of dollars per year. Not only that, but politeness clearly gets you paid faster.
Days to Pay. Using the word "days" as opposed to "net" gets you paid more often and faster. While the words "net 30" or similar may make sense to most business owners, perhaps that kind of wording is not as clear to less business-savvy clients.
Dump "Upon Receipt." Most people seem to interpret "upon receipt" as "whenever you feel like it." It's as if they receive an invoice with the words "payable upon receipt" and immediately dump it into the "whenever" pile. Using specific terms such as "21 days" seems to focus the client's mind around a specific timeframe and will actually get you paid faster than asking for immediate payment.

These small edits clearly caused invoices to be paid faster according to FreshBooks's analysis. One other change also affected when an invoice was paid but involved trade-offs. Declaring that interest will be charged on late payments, it seems, "gets you paid slower, but it also seems to ensure a higher percentage of invoices will get paid."
What exactly does all of this mean for your business? According to Freshbooks, the final takeaway is two possible wordings for your invoices. If getting paid quickly is most important to you, the company suggests adding this line, or something very similar, to your invoice: "Thank you; we really appreciate your business. Please send payment within 21 days of receiving this invoice."
If you're company has slim margins and getting paid every nickel you're owed trumps getting invoices paid a bit quicker, then think about adding interest to late payments with phrasing like this: "Thank you for your business. We do expect payment within 21 days, so please process this invoice within that time. There will be a 1.5% interest charge per month on late invoices."
Have small changes ever made a big difference to how quickly you get paid?