Business Strategy - Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

How to Effectively Manage Business Debt [Infographic]

February 15, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

If you have developed a good relationship with creditors, now is the time to call in a few favors. It’s worth making some inquiries to see if you can refinance to get a loan with lesser repayments, or perhaps renegotiate terms with established suppliers. If you have an unnecessarily large office space, there could be an opportunity to hire out a portion of this to interested parties and reduce your rental costs in the process.

It could also be worth marketing yourself more actively to existing and prospective customers. A lot of businesses now pursue the opinions of customers by asking them to leave online reviews, as a swarm of positive feedback could persuade a prospective customer to do business with them. If you don’t have an active social media presence, it’s a good idea to form one, as these avenues can be very lucrative to businesses nowadays.

Eazy Cash (http://www.eazycash.ca/car-title-loans/) created this infographic guide to managing business debt, advising on where money can be saved or extra revenue generated. Once your company’s debt is continually decreasing, you stand a very good chance of maintaining the business long-term. How to Effectively Manage Business Debt

How did you land your first paid Side Hustle? [Answered]

February 11, 2018 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

Side Hustle | Land that first paid gig — Photo via Foter.com

Photo via Foter.com

How did you land your first paid gig?

I asked this question in several freelance and side hustle related Facebook groups.

This is a common stumbling block for many first time side hustlers and entrepreneurs.

Great on ideas but often struggle to make that first sale… Or even get off the bench and implement.

The biggest suggestion from experienced entrepreneurs and side hustlers is…

“Just start!”

But with that sage advice the newbie often gets stuck on the…

“How?”

So here’s some answers to your question,

“How do I land my first paid gig?”

The item in parentheses is the Facebook Group name the person responded from. If you’re looking to get your side hustle off the ground, I’d recommend checking some of these out.

Enjoy!

George Krahn (80/20 Entrepreneurs)

About 10 years ago, I helped my massage therapist sell nutrition supplements online using Google AdWords.

It didn’t pay a lot, but the great results I was able to get and use as proof of success, allowed me to land my first big client.

That led to me eventually quitting my part-time job and going all in on freelance AdWords management.

From there, our agency grew to a team of 4 employees and 2 subcontractors: https://ProvenResultsAgency.com

Lee Hills (SH Nation)

Happy to share mine! Mine was through a freelance website PPH. I had the idea for an explainer video service. Back before explainer was a word or thing.

The service was based on explainer videos I had created for myself. I put it together as an offering and someone bought it. This confirmed that there was demand so I kept going! Began to develop the offering and my brand as things grew. Let me know if you want more of the story or more info 😉

http://www.leelaunches.com/ditchthejob

Tiffany Dawn (SH Nation)

I do graphic design and sent an email to a number of my closest business contacts. Told them what I was doing, where I was hoping to taken it, and to please keep me in mind if I could help. One person responded and hired me to do the graphics for her campaign for Board of Directors for a national association. Word of mouth picked up from there! She continues to be one of my biggest cheerleaders and advocates, and has become a mentor.

Al Clunnie (Side Hustle Success Lab)

Way back I was chatting to an old friend and telling him I was learning about web development. He said he knew a guy that needed a website and put us in touch. That was it! I’m still working with this client on retainer even though I would never take the same type of client now.

CherylAnn Crego (Side Hustle Success Lab)

Right after my marriage ended, before the divorce, an acquaintance asked me to lead sing in his gypsy jazz band, for pay. I know it was motivated by compassion. It was a kindness and it gave me the confidence I needed to become a voice teacher. That was 6 years ago. I started teaching 4.5 years ago. I think our rural area really needed a voice teacher and I filled a void I hadn’t recognized existed. I was used to traveling 6 hours to see my teachers. I said I was doing it and a year later I had a full studio of voice and piano students via word of mouth. When I think back, it makes me emotional. There is a lot more to that story…like it never could have happened if I’d still been in that marriage, I’d forgotten/not listened to the people who said I should do it for years before I did, when I decided to do it I did not believe I was ready or qualified but showed up, transparently, anyway. This work doesn’t pay all the bills but it is consistent and brings me joy.

2. We started teaching cooking classes out of our home. Then someone who knew we were doing that asked us to be private chefs for a vacationing family. Since then, private Chef work is making a bigger percentage of our income every month. We’ve done a lot of FB ads, have a very active FB page, and stay in front of our email list.

Really, long story short, we take risks and show up, giving all of ourselves to each person/family we work with. And we have a couple angels who helped us launch in both music and cooking. I hope to do that for someone someday…be an angel that launches them into their fulfilling future.

Tracey Minutolo (Side Hustle Success Lab)

When I made the decision to offer virtual services for podcasters, I reached out to a few podcasters I’d been following for awhile and asked them a few questions (which looking back now, amounted to some solid target market research) about what types of tasks they outsourced to virtual assistants, what they liked/disliked about their experiences with VA’s so far, etc. Two of those three podcasters became paying clients. 🙂

Jo-Elle Byrne (Serious Bloggers Only)

I’m lucky, my friend works as an SEO specialist and decided to set up his own business. He landed a gig for a shed company of all things and asked me to do the content marketing for it. Believe it or not it was a great gig and I learnt a lot from doing it. Plus, being paid to write was the dream right? ☺

Becky Gallion (SH Nation)

Threw up a post on craigslist.

Matthew Miele (Hobby Hustler Community)

Hey Mike, for me it was reaching out to local businesses and offering help for free.

I know some people who went straight to Facebook ads to an offer and that worked well too.

Dharmesh Barot (Hobby Hustler Community)

I got my first photography client when I offered free photos as part of a dog trainer’s classes.

My first freelance design client was one of the acquaintances I met during social events. Told them what I do and what I can offer to their part time business. They were so happy I got my 2nd project with them soon after.

I learned this technique from a book I read “Getting The Money” by Susan Lassiter. She said tell everyone you meet what you do and soon people will start recognizing you.

It took me 2-3 events and coffees to show my value.

Brian Seim (SH Nation)

I just started selling my services to non-profits I was involved with.

Kelly Boyles (Hobby Hustler)

Back in 1985, can’t recall how I found this guy. But I wrote five holiday-themed poems for a funeral home for $100. You can’t make this stuff up!

Jonathan Wilson (80/20 Entrepreneurs)

I circled back around to people I’d formerly worked with in other places.

Donna Regen (Serious Bloggers Only)

Mike McRitchie I am now getting some paid gigs after a few unpaid gigs, but the unpaid gigs served as published work samples, and that is what helped in securing the paid gigs. So I would would say they are worth doing.

Beverly Boerner-Reynolds (Hobby Hustler Community)

Hey there Mike. My shortened story goes something like this…9 years ago, my son was born to us through adoption. Shortly before that, I was contracted to created an animated training course, much like Cardone University, for the 10xers in this group. I have 20 plus years of training and instructional design experience and that was the first assignment that caused me to get a DBA, buy my own software versions and learn how to do all pieces of the project.

So, not only did I have to learn some of the software, but I knew that at anytime during the project – our son could be born and make us new parents. I was under a time crunch, but finished it without the audio – they contracted that piece separately and paid me accordingly. That was the first major project that taught me on the fly that I could do all aspects from the writing, development and animation!

Before that project, I didn’t think I could do it, but the project sponsors loved my corporate work and trusted my services, so I had to trust in me!!! This was not my first gig, but my first LARGE-SCALED gig!

Heston Glenn (80/20 Entrepreneurs)

Desperation. I was trying to pitch a family member a pyramid scheme, and failed. I needed money, so I asked them if I could coach them in their current business for free for a month. They agreed, and we’re still going 5 years later.

Brandon Traynor (Hobby Hustler Community)

Not a huge break, and not my main business, but a while ago I actually got a job delivering pizza 2 days a week just to get to know the owner. Now I run the social media for all his stores for a good bit of money a month. Obviously no longer deliver pizzas 🤣

Brian P. Hower (80/20 Entrepreneurs)

I learned something of great value, applied it first for myself. It proved to be a fantastic system and concept. At that point I knew that just about every existing small business and/or business minded individual/entrepreneur should also be doing it. I had no trouble gaining my first paying client because I am supremely confident that my offer is great, that they need it and that I am the best one to help them.

Employee engagement takes more than a foosball table

January 18, 2018 by Mark Cop 3 Comments

Foosball in the office Today it is common to have an eccentric office which is loaded with things not all that identified with the work environment. I am certain you are all familiar with the Google offices. The best way to describe it is a major open space, loaded with tables for working hours, yet additionally amusement tables and other fun things for lunch breaks. That office design is interesting, but is it good for your work environment? Will that improve our employee’s engagement?

To improve your employee’s engagement, you have to have to be the different boss, a boss that is not so strict or needy. you need to give them reason and be totally genuine with them. Demonstrate to them that they are imperative to you and the organization. Be exact in what you are anticipating from them and what they can anticipate from the activity. Discuss working hours, compensation, rewards and issues they have. In the event that you demonstrate to them that they are a piece of the organization, they will feel like they have a place and they will show you that by engaging more than before.

Tech and Foosball You have to be the leader, not just some supervisor who is never there. Offer your vision and objectives with your group so they can feel a similar way you feel about your organization. When they comprehend the objective you need to accomplish, they will effectively battle for it since they know it is their objective as much as it is yours. You are a team.

Keep in mind that everyone has great and awful days in their life. On the off chance that a representative seems to have one of those days, don’t yell at him because he committed an error. Attempt to discover the answer to the issue with him and offer him support. He most likely feels sufficiently terrible as it seems to be, you don’t need to aggravate it.

At the point when the working climate is great and individuals are getting a charge out of spending their work hours there, their engagement will be great. When you accomplish that level of duty, you can introduce foosball tables, popcorn makers and other fun things in your office. Having a foosball table in the workplace ought to be a reward for your representatives, not the motivation to come to work for you.

That way, you all can develop the best office together and it will mean more since your team will know they got it going. By providing then what they want as a reward, you will awaken the proud feeling in them and you will all become more than just co-workers.

Author Bio: Mark Cop is a foosball player who has the best hobby ever – foosball. Also, he made a blog about it, called the Foosball Zone and on that blog; he acquaints other people with foosball. He has written legit reviews about a wide range of foosball tables, from the competition foosball tables to the interesting models like a coffee table with foosball for any living room or man cave.

Why Women Build The Best Businesses

December 21, 2017 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

Photo credit: Fortune Live Media on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Not some of my returns, all of my returns were coming from companies either owned or run by women. – Kevin O’Leary (Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank)

Investments in companies with at least one female founder performed 63% better than their investments in all-male teams. – VC Firm Report

Shark Tank Mr. Wonderful Women Run Companies Outperform Men — Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful to men: Run your companies more like women

So the other day I was listening to a podcast with Kevin O ‘Leary on it and he was talking about how all his profits came from his women owned businesses (after they completed an audit of all his businesses).

That was a curious finding.

But what I found even more interesting and fascinating, as he dove in below the surface, was that the WAY women ran their businesses, in terms of how they set goals, was radically different from the way men did.

So what was the difference?

Before I go into that let’s discuss the current political climate.

Just prior to, and now continuing after, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, there has been a resurgence in the focus on the empowerment of women. An almost second women’s liberation and women’s rights movement.

Whether it was addressing the pay gap between men and women in comparable jobs.

Or continuing to hammer against the glass ceiling in management, executive roles or business founder funding.

Or pulling back the shades that hide the well-known sexual harassment, casting couches, and even worse treatment that women dealt with in order to progress in their industries (whether media, politics, or business).

This transitioned into a full-fledged and viral response that led to the “Me Too!” sharing that started to take down media moguls, political leaders and the dominoes are continuing to fall.

Now what does this have to do with women and business?

A recent podcast by my sister, Annie Rogaski, had an interesting interview with Unraveling Pink Mona Sabet, Managing Director of Tribal Ventures. They discussed the challenge of the #MeToo movement and acknowledging how men have helped them progress in their careers but also how to address the wrongdoing aspects that often are tied into the good in a single man. Is it wrong to celebrate the man if they have the negative aspects.

As a man looking in, I can’t claim to have a full comprehension of the challenges these women face.

From my perspective being a man, it is hard when there is a lot of push against men these days. Particularly the straight-white-male. Where it isn’t politically correct to be one. So as one, where does that put me? How can I take the realities women face, particularly in business, and help drive solutions – or awareness of how to progress to a better future where everyone wins?

So my feeling is at this point in our world, we’re still dealing with the “cleanse”. Getting the negatives out. And cleaning house. It is kind of like the “tell me about your childhood” question when you go into the therapist’s office. You can’t build until you uncover the issues at the core.

I believe that is happening now.

So where do things go as we emerge from the pain, hurt, and real challenges that go with being a woman in what has often been a man’s world?

It has already started.

First is to recognize that the base level groundwork has already been laid. Women already dominate men in academia – more degrees are going to women than men.

According to data from the Department of Education on college degrees by gender, the US college degree gap favoring women started back in 1978, when for the first time ever, more women than men earned Associate’s degrees. Five years later in 1982, women earned more bachelor’s degrees than men for the first time, and women have increased their share of bachelor’s degrees in every year since then. In another five years by 1987, women earned the majority of master’s degrees for the first time. Finally, within another decade, more women than men earned doctor’s degrees by 2006, and female domination of college degrees at every level was complete. For the current graduating class of 2013, the Department of Education estimates that women will earn 61.6% of all associate’s degrees this year, 56.7% of all bachelor’s degrees, 59.9% of all master’s degrees, and 51.6% of all doctor’s degrees. Overall, 140 women will graduate with a college degree at some level this year for every 100 men. The article is from AEI Ideas and is summarized by Carnegie Foundation..

Its a new work world.

Secondly it is the change in the work environment.

No longer do people work at a company for life. So the need to put up with shit as you climb the ladder takes the pressure off. You have options to address it or go to another company where you are treated better.

There is the gig economy. You can have a side hustle or be a freelancer or startup a company. And then you set the rules. Technology has made much of that possible.

Sexual harassment laws and a public attitude that now supports women who come out of the shadows, are giving more protection to women that previously existed.

Women are different…and in this case better.

And finally, it will be the recognition of what women bring to the workplace…a skillset, mindset, and way of doing things that is different from me. And that can be the base to grow a truly empowered women’s movement in business. One that is based on true competitive advantage rather than coming from a place of being a victim (even when that victim label is often accurate).

So back to the Kevin O’Leary story. What is it that women business owners and managers were doing that was driving profits that Mr. Wonderful was not finding in him men-run businesses?

Goal Setting.

He found his women leaders were doing goal setting differently than men.

Men set aggressive goals but often miss the target.

Women set more achievable goals and nearly always hit their target.

Now you might say that setting achievable goals doesn’t drive the company forward enough. That it accepts “good enough” and that complacency might set in.

What achievable goals are better goals.

And like when I’ve trained my kids or dogs (no, I’m not equating them) I’ve had a similar quandary. Should I reinforce “close”? With dog training when you’re trying to train them to do something you can use “click training” where when they move toward achieving the correct result, you click the clicker and give them a treat. And over time you move the bar so that you reward them only as they move in the right direction. And eventually they achieve the correct action fully and you reward them for it.

With goal setting by setting achievable goals, you develop a success mentality. This is different from just giving everyone a trophy that they haven’t earned. They are earning it. And you will move the bar so they achieve progressively more and more toward the company’s shared vision.

Morale boost.

The unintended consequences of taking this approach is people don’t feel defeated. Often the case when goals (or bonuses or commission structures) aren’t achievable. And because they are more positive, morale is better. And turnover of staff is significantly reduced.

And anyone in business knows that turnover is a killer of productivity, profitability, and the long term viability of a company.

Where we go from here.

So what can you do as a man? Find go-getter women who want to achieve, and put them in positions of power so they can drive results. Or invest in women founders and women-managed businesses. Or just help them by clearing roadblocks. Sow that good Karma.

What if you’re a woman? As I always tell my daughter, you can achieve anything you put your mind to and are willing to put in the work towards. At 10 years old she recently passed the million word level in school in her book reading and is #1 in reading in 5th grade in her school. She is a fast and voracious reader. And as I tell her, “Readers are Leaders”. So as a woman, don’t let anyone hold you back. You do have options. Whether that is by leveraging women’s organizations (like The Club) or developing your own women support group. Or accepting the help and guidance of men who want to see you succeed, or connecting with investors who just want a better return on their investments. You have what it takes.

If you benefited from my rant, please share this with your friends, coworkers, or someone you think would get something from this (or on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter).

Want to learn more about career, business or life topics? Check out my free reports and subscribe to my weekly e-newsletter.

Thank you.

10 Ways You Can Market Like Apple [Infographic]

December 7, 2017 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Photo credit: telepathicparanoia via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

It was a small white boxy thing with a little black and white screen. Hardly bigger than a lunchbox. But it saved me.

Up until that time I’d hammered away at a top speed of 30 words a minute on the electric typewriter. Keeping the correction tape and fluid handy to fix the mistakes I often made. Doing a college paper was a nightmare. I had to draw a line an inch from the bottom of each piece of paper so I didn’t type too far and end up with a mess on the last line of the page.

For many who didn’t grow up with manual typewriters, carbon paper, and lots of painful redo’s, you probably won’t recognize the joy that came in that little white box.

My roommate got it. And it turned things around for me.

I was a computer major at U. C. Davis. It was my first time on my own. Away from family. And school was difficult. And help wasn’t around. Typing papers was slow. Until…

…that little white box.

Yes. It was the first Macintosh Computer.

And it was a Godsend.

What it did for me was help me type of a college paper and even if I made mistakes I could correct them and print out a clean report. No messy mistake-riddled or painstakingly slow redo’s. Just pure word processor joy.

That was the Apply promise. Make it simple, easy and fun. Yes, not having to be at the typewriter for hours on end retyping pages, was fun.

Over the years Apple has evolved. Steve Jobs when from a crazy dictator, to being run out of his own company, to coming back as an evangelist leading an Apple resurgence and a mission that would not be stopped.

Now Apple may seem unique. And it was in many ways. But the marketing approach that Steve made into a juggernaut is available to you.

This graphic (from The Website Group) brings out 10 lessons from Apple. 10 ways you can revamp your marketing approach and get more traction.

And like moving from a typewriter to a computer’s word processor, you too can put your marketing on rocket fuel.

Courtesy of: The Website Group