Author name: Steven Imke

Selling a dream

Powerful Words To Inspire Prospects to Buy

Small Business Sales /

When It Comes to Making Sales, There Is a Fine Line between Coming Across as Too Pushy and Being Assertive Enough to Get a Prospect to Make a Purchase. The Following Are A Few Phrases That Every Salesperson Should Use During the Sales Process to Get a Prospect to Consider Their Offering “I’m Not Sure If It’s for You But…”, “How Open-Minded Are You About…”, “How Would You Feel If…” And “Just Imagine…”

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Man handing out cash

What You Need to Know About a Merchant Cash Advance (MCA)

Small Business Finances, Debt Funding (Loans) /

Traditional Term Loans for Small Businesses Involve Fixed Monthly Payments of Principal and Interest in Exchange for Upfront Cash and Rewards a Company to Pay Off the Debt Early. A Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) Provides A Cash Advance in Exchange for Variable Payments Based on A Percentage of Every Credit Card Purchase Received by The Business and A Fixed Predetermined Payback Amount.

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Buyer Persona

What is a Buyer Persona, and Why is it Important?

Small Business Marketing /

A Buyer Persona Is a Fictional Representation of a Company’s Ideal Customer, Based on Market Research and Real Data About the Customer. It Is Used to Understand the Customer’s Needs, Behaviors, And Motivations. It Can Help a Business Align Its Marketing and Sales Efforts with The Needs and Behaviors of Its Target Customers. The Goal of Creating a Buyer Persona Is to Gain Insight and Understanding About Why Buyers Choose Products and Services.

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Ancient Hunter

What You Need to Know About How Dyslexia and ADHD Can Drive Small Business Success

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

What Are Often Considered Human Flaws in Today’s Society Such as Dyslexia and ADHD Can Actually Create More Effective Small Business Founders. For Millions of Years, Natural Selection Favored Hunters. Then The World Adopted Farming, and Genetically Well Adapted Hunters Were Marginalized in Favor of Farmers.

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The Gen Z Effect

6 Powerful Forces Shaping the Future – The Gen Z Effect

Learn to Think Like a Customer /

Gen Z Is Not Simply a Generation Such as Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, And Gen Y. Gen Z Has Experienced a Series of Forces During Their Formative Years That Not Only Define This Generational Cohort but Has Redefined All the Previous Generations by Blurring the Traditional Generational Boundaries in What Is Known As “The Gen Z Effect.”

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VIDEO: Why You Need To Be Better At Responding To Change

Small Business Operations / , , ,

One of the advantages of a small business is their ability to change direction quicker than larger corporations.  Moreover, the rate of business change continues to accelerate which has given small business a leg up on larger corporations.  However far too many small businesses continue to rely on business principles defined long ago when the rate of change was much slower.   In this video discover that has changed and what you can do as a small business to be more responsive to change.

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PetPal Minimum Marketable Product

How to Reduce Startup Risk with an MVP, Minimum Marketable Product, and Minimum Lovable Product

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

Before Investing Time and Energy in Engineering a Final Product, Founders Need to Begin by Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to Validate Their Overall Idea and Concept, Progress to a Minimum Marketable Product to See If Others Will Exchange Money for It and Get Genuine User Feedback, and Finally Scale the Solution to Create a Minimum Lovable Product That Appeals to The Mainstream Users.

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Sales Discovery Meeting

How to Use Sales Discovery Questions to Close More Deals

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know, Small Business Sales /

When It Comes to Sales, Too Many Small Businesses Spend Too Much Time Pitching Their Solution and Not Enough Time Listening to the Prospect. Small Businesses Need to Use Sales Discovery Questions to Control the Buyer’s Journey and Uncover Their Needs, Challenges, and Goals Before They Offer Their Solution.

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Debt collection

Five Things You Need to Know Before Hiring a Debt Collection Agency

Small Business Operations / ,

Many businesses these days have a lot of invoices that their clients have left unpaid. According to Entrepreneur, the estimated amount of outstanding invoices across the US is somewhere around $825 billion. This puts every small business’s average amount of unpaid invoices at $84,000. It is not uncommon that some of these debts are paid

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Direct to consumer purchase

8 Challenges to Direct to Consumer Business and How to Overcome Them

Small Business Marketing / , , ,

Small Direct to consumer Companies Are Finding It Harder to Maintain Margins and Profitability Given Rising Customer Expectations and Customer Acquisition Costs, Along with a Worsening Ability to Measure Ad Effectiveness, Ad Fraud, and Ad Blindness. Coupled with Soaring Shipping Costs and Supply Chain Issues, Direct to Consumer Companies are Feeling the Squeeze.

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Buy Four Green Houses Before You Buy a Red Hotel

Successful Business – Buy Four Green Houses Before You Buy a Red Hotel

Before Starting a Small Business / , , , ,

Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, discussed the value the game Monopoly had in his education when he wrote that “You buy four green houses and trade them in for a red hotel.” The message here is that to have a successful business you don’t buy the red hotel right out of the gate. You build up your tacit business knowledge so that when you can afford the red hotel you are more likely to be successful.

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Business Valuation - value of a company

How To Compute the Value of a Company – Everything You Need to Know About Business Valuation

Concepts Entrepreneurs Need to Know /

As A Business Owner, You Will Need to Know How to Compute the Value of a Company Be It Your Own Business or One That You Hope to Acquire. Discover The 5 Reason to Conduct a Business Valuation, Things That Affect a Valuations Outcome, How to Value a Lifestyle or Micro-Business and 6 Other Methods to Establish the Value of a Company.

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The 5 Stages of a Funding Plan

The 5 Stages of a Funding Plan

Debt Funding (Loans), Equity Funding (Ownership/Stock), Crowdfunding / , , , , , , ,

Most Businesses Require Some Form of Funding to Get Started. However, Based on What Business Stage the Business Is At, The Sources of Funding Will Be Different. This Is Where Your Funding Plan Comes in To Identify How the Business Will Secure Financing for Each Stage.

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Digital Marketing Meltdown

You Need to Prepare for A Digital Marketing Meltdown

Risk Factors for Small Business / ,

There is a very disturbing historical correlation between the causes that contributed to the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis and the current state of digital advertising. If your business is monetized by ad revenue, or your business uses digital ads to drive traffic to it, you should take into account the unstable nature of advertising and not get blindsided when the bubble bursts.

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Freelancer Contractor

VIDEO: Know Your Hiring Options – Contractor Vs. Employee – What Is Better

Small Business Operations / , , ,

Enjoy the following excerpt from my FREE What You Need to Know About Starting a Business course where I talk about the difference between a 1099 subcontractor and an employee. Video Transcript (Lightly edited for clearity) If you have independent contractors and if you tell them when to show up, you provide tools for them, and you

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Making your Message Stick

How To Make Your Marketing Message Stick

Small Business Marketing /

Making your marketing message stick in a consumer’s mind is not about being charismatic pitchman, having lots of resources behind you, or even being a creative genius. To communicate a marketing message successfully the message must have a simple and relatable core message (Simple). It must make people stop and pay attention (Unexpected). It must make people understand and remember it (Concrete). They also need to agree or believe it (Credible), care about it (Emotional), and be able to visualize it (Story).

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