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AI Answering Service for Small Businesses

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:30:15 GMT

Intelligent Call Handling That Converts

Missed calls quietly drain revenue from small businesses every day. When Jamieson Lee Hill, founder of Blam Digital, interviewed CRM Developer and AI Automation Specialist Livingstone Kariuki at Blam HQ in Birmingham, the conversation focused on a simple but critical question: how do small businesses stop losing opportunities simply because they cannot answer the phone?

Blam’s AI answering service for small businesses has been built to solve that exact problem. Designed in Birmingham, UK, and delivered through a network of 300 partner agencies across 10 countries , the system is engineered to move inbound calls toward meaningful outcomes rather than trapping callers in frustrating loops or dead ends.

For businesses searching for a reliable AI phone answering service UK solution with international scalability, the model combines structured automation with human oversight.

This is not a replacement for human service. It is a structured, intelligent call progression that protects revenue and improves operational efficiency.

What Is an AI Answering Service for Small Businesses?

An AI answering service for small businesses is an intelligent phone system powered by artificial intelligence that answers inbound calls, captures structured caller information, books appointments, routes enquiries, and notifies internal teams in real time.

Some businesses refer to this as an AI receptionist for small businesses , but the distinction lies in execution. This is not just a virtual greeter. It is a workflow-driven system designed to capture and route actionable data.

Instead of missing leads during peak hours or outside office hours, businesses gain consistent 24/7 coverage that connects every inbound call to a defined next step.

How Blam’s AI Answering Service for Small Businesses Works

Livingstone explained that the system is built around structured prompting and clearly defined scenarios. Rather than allowing the AI to operate freely, each interaction is mapped against predefined outcomes.

“In terms of the AI receptionist, you write a prompt outlining what you want it to say and the different scenarios that could occur during that call.”

Those scenarios typically include appointment booking, FAQ handling, issue logging, and structured lead capture. The AI is configured with a brand-aligned persona so that tone and language reflect the identity of each business within the Blam franchise network.

At its core, the platform functions as an advanced automated call answering system , but with far greater flexibility and intelligence than traditional IVR menus.

Front-End Experience and Back-End Execution

One of the most important distinctions Livingstone highlighted is the separation between conversational design and operational logic.

Front-End Layer

The front end defines tone, brand voice, conversation sequencing, and the structured flow of questions. This ensures that callers experience a coherent and professional interaction aligned with the company’s positioning.

Back-End Layer

The back end is where the AI answering service for small businesses becomes a practical operational system.

“The back end is action-based. It asks for the caller’s name, email, and phone number, then sends that information to the team via email or WhatsApp, or books an appointment using a Google Calendar integration.”

Structured backend logic reduces randomness and ensures predictable outcomes that integrate seamlessly with Blam’s wider automation ecosystem.

Intelligent Triggers and Call Routing

The platform uses trigger recognition to route callers into predefined workflows. If a caller mentions a website issue, the system activates a troubleshooting path that captures the necessary information and alerts the relevant team member.

At a high level, routing categories typically include:

Booking appointments
Cancelling appointments
Rescheduling appointments
General enquiries
Product or website support

This structured routing framework ensures that every call reaches the correct destination without confusion.

Why This Matters for Small Business Owners

Small business owners rarely miss calls because they do not care. They miss them because they are already serving customers, managing operations, or handling urgent tasks.

The system addresses this by providing:

Continuous 24/7 call coverage
Reduced missed leads
Automated appointment booking
Structured CRM-ready data
WhatsApp and email notifications
Multi-language support
Brand-aligned voice customisation

The platform can also manage concurrent calls without performance degradation, ensuring that growth does not create communication bottlenecks.

Addressing AI Accuracy and Oversight

Livingstone was transparent about the challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges was hallucinations.”

AI systems can occasionally generate incorrect outputs if they are not tightly structured. Blam mitigates this risk by combining detailed prompting with deterministic backend coding, ensuring that responses remain aligned with predefined outcomes.

Capturing email addresses accurately from speech can present challenges, particularly when numbers or punctuation are involved. Validation layers and human oversight reduce the risk of error.

Blam Digital’s approach remains AI-led but human-supervised.

Future Development

The roadmap for the AI answering service for small businesses focuses on simplifying setup while increasing autonomy. Planned enhancements include faster configuration, reduced error handling complexity, more advanced AI agents, and expanded language capability.

Blam Digital works with advanced voice libraries such as ElevenLabs to offer regional accents and optional voice cloning, enabling businesses to maintain brand consistency across markets.

With headquarters in Birmingham, UK, and an international franchise network spanning 10 countries, the system is positioned to support both domestic and global operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does an AI answering service differ from voicemail?

Voicemail records messages for later review. An AI answering service for small businesses captures structured information, books appointments, and routes enquiries immediately, reducing response time and improving lead conversion.

Can the system integrate with existing tools?

Yes. It integrates with Google Calendar, CRM platforms, email notifications, and WhatsApp workflows.

Is it suitable for scaling businesses?

Yes. It is specifically designed for small and growing businesses that require reliable call handling without expanding payroll costs.

Does it replace staff?

No. It supports staff by handling repetitive inbound calls while ensuring that important conversations reach the appropriate team members.

Is the service only available in the UK?

No. While Blam HQ is based in Birmingham, UK, the franchise network operates internationally through 300 partner agencies across 10 countries.

About Livingstone Kariuki

Livingstone Kariuki is Blam Digital’s CRM Developer and AI Automation Specialist. He leads the technical architecture and deployment of automation systems across the Blam franchise network, focusing on structured prompting, deterministic backend logic, and operational reliability.

His work bridges conversational AI design with practical business workflows, ensuring that automation produces measurable outcomes rather than theoretical capability.

Turn Inbound Calls Into Revenue. Call Blam Digital Today to Find About Getting an AI Answering Service for Your Business.

Grant Stain and Sustainable Agency Growth

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:21:00 GMT

Systems-Led Leadership at Blam Digital

Grant Stain is the Founder and CEO of Blam Digital, established in 2015. His leadership approach is defined by long-term thinking, structured systems, and a deliberate focus on building agencies that remain stable through market shifts, technology change, and economic cycles. Rather than chasing fast growth or short-term tactics, Grant built Blam Digital as an infrastructure-first business. The intention was clear from the beginning: give agency owners a repeatable framework they can rely on, instead of forcing them to constantly reinvent services, pricing, and delivery. That approach now supports more than 300 partner agencies operating across 10 countries.

A process built for longevity

Blam Digital was not designed as a traditional fast-growth agency. It was built as a scalable operating model. Systems, training, and delivery standards were prioritised before scale. This allows partners to focus on outcomes for clients, rather than technical complexity or operational guesswork.

Grant has consistently positioned structure as the foundation of growth. Documented processes, repeatable workflows, and clear accountability reduce risk and create resilience. As AI has entered marketing and operations, this foundation has become more important, not less. AI performs best inside stable systems, where strategy, judgement, and leadership remain human-led.

Why Blam was built this way

Grant identified a recurring failure pattern across the digital agency sector. Many agencies rely on individual effort, improvised systems, and short-term wins. When demand changes or tools evolve, those businesses struggle to adapt.

Blam Digital was designed to remove that fragility. By putting systems, training, and delivery standards first, partners are protected from dependency on individuals or trends. This approach allows agencies to grow steadily without burning out owners or teams.

One fundamental business principle

Systems outperform individual effort over time.

Talent can produce short-term results. Systems create consistency. This principle underpins how Grant Stain approaches agency growth, partner development, and long-term sustainability across the Blam Digital network.

One core value

Build for longevity, not speed.

Blam Digital does not promote shortcuts or hype-driven narratives. Partners are encouraged to set realistic expectations, build strong foundations, and improve steadily over time.

Social proof in practice

Grant Stain’s long-term vision for Blam Digital is reflected directly in partner experience across the network.

“The training from Blam is very comprehensive, with the DigitalMarketer courses alone amounting to several thousands of pounds of training resources.

Blam also invest a lot of time in Facebook Lives and webinars detailing product developments or highlighting aspects of the products or services you may not be aware of.

Additionally, whenever I need help on an issue, I know I can contact the team at Blam and ask for help.”Richardson, J. (Blam Digital Certified Partner)

Leadership that creates stability

The Blam Digital network supports over 300 agencies serving thousands of small and medium-sized businesses. Partners operate across multiple regions using shared websites, marketing systems, and automation tools. Many entered the model without technical backgrounds and built viable agencies through structured support rather than trial and error.

Grant Stain’s leadership offers a steady alternative to an industry often driven by noise and short-term thinking. His focus on systems, accountability, and long-term infrastructure gives partners clarity and confidence to build agencies that continue to function as markets and technologies evolve.

About Grant Stain

Grant Stain is a British entrepreneur and marketing executive with over 15 years’ experience building and running creative, digital, and marketing businesses. He is the Founder and CEO of Blam Digital, which supports a global network of partner agencies serving small and medium-sized businesses across multiple sectors.

Grant’s background spans creative design, print, branding, web development, and digital services, alongside ventures in hospitality and technology-led businesses.

His leadership is defined by a systems-led approach to growth, focusing on long-term sustainability, structured delivery, and the responsible use of technology, including AI, to support independent business owners.

AI Websites That Convert for Schools and Local Authorities

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:10:00 GMT

Serving SMEs, Schools, Councils, Sports Clubs

If you run a school, local authority, SME, sports club, or charity, you do not need a clever website. You need a website that produces action. Enquiries, applications, bookings, donations, registrations, or the correct contact route. That is what AI websites that convert are built to deliver.Blam Digital delivers AI websites that convert through a certified partner network. AI is used to improve speed and insight, while human specialists handle strategy, structure, SEO, accessibility, and quality control. This ensures performance improves without increasing risk.

What AI websites that convert actually do

An AI website is not a robot replacing people. It is a modern website designed to guide users clearly to the next step. For schools, the problem often appears as a school website not getting enquiries or weak school website admissions enquiries. For councils, it shows up as council website usability problems or pressure to reduce misdirected contact council website teams are dealing with daily. In both cases, AI websites that convert focus on clarity, structure, and outcomes, not features.

Accessibility, usability, and public-sector requirements

Schools and local authorities often begin with compliance-driven searches such as school website accessibility requirements, local authority website accessibility, or government website accessibility standards. Accessibility is not optional, but it is not enough on its own.

AI websites that convert combine accessibility, usability, and performance. This is why they are suitable for schools comparing the best website provider for schools and councils assessing a public sector website supplier who understands governance as well as conversion.

Where Blam Digital delivery matters most

AI can surface insights and automate tasks, but it cannot understand governance, safeguarding, or reputational risk. Humans do. Blam Digital websites are delivered with defined processes and human oversight at every stage. This is why AI websites that convert continue to perform after launch, not just during the build. Strategy, SEO targeting, accessibility checks, automation, and review are owned, not delegated to tools.

Proven product quality and delivery

Independent partner feedback shows how this approach performs in real conditions.
Product quality and delivery.

The websites that Blam produce are of a very high quality, I would say market leading when compared to other small business websites I see on a daily basis. In a recent audit I did when I looked at the all of the websites Blam have built for my customers the average amount of leads generated by each website was 46. Many of the websites generate over 100 each month.

The speed of delivery is also extremely good, I can often have a website live within 4 weeks, substantially quicker than the rest of the market.

What conversion means for schools and councils

Conversion does not only mean sales. For schools, AI websites that convert support admissions enquiries, applications, and clear parent communication.

For local authorities, they reduce confusion, improve self-service, and cut misdirected contact.
For SMEs, they generate enquiries and reduce wasted calls.
For charities and sports clubs, they increase donations, memberships, and registrations.

A common mistake organisations make

Many organisations invest in redesigns but never improve performance. They launch a new site, then stop. This is why problems like council website usability issues or poor admissions journeys return.

AI websites that convert only work when there is responsibility, reporting, and ongoing improvement. Delivery matters as much as technology.

Why working with a Blam Certified Partner reduces risk

Blam Digital has operated since 2015 with defined systems, standards, and human oversight. A Blam Certified Partner does not hand over a website and disappear. They remain responsible for performance and improvement. If you need AI websites that convert for schools, councils, or other organisations, you need delivery that blends AI speed with human accountability.

Key takeaways

AI websites that convert focus on outcomes, not features
Schools and councils search by problems, not buzzwords
Accessibility and usability must work together
Ongoing improvement matters more than redesigns
Certified delivery reduces risk and wasted spend

FAQs

Why is our school website not getting enquiries?
Because users are not guided clearly from information to action.

How do councils reduce misdirected contact through their website?
By improving structure, navigation, and clarity, not by adding more pages.

Are AI websites that convert suitable for public-sector organisations?
Yes, when accessibility, compliance, and human oversight are built in.

Do we need internal technical skills?
No. Your Blam Certified Partner handles setup, updates, and optimisation.

Why not choose the cheapest website provider?
Because tools alone do not deliver strategy, accountability, or continuous improvement.

Website Not Generating Enquiries? Fix It

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

How Broken Digital Systems Kill Enquiries

If your website is not generating enquiries, you are not imagining it. Many owners and decision-makers sense something is wrong long before they can explain why. The site looks fine. Traffic exists. Marketing activity is happening. But enquiries, orders, or meaningful actions remain weak or inconsistent.

This article explains why websites fail to convert visitors into enquiries, what is usually broken underneath, and how organisations fix it without rebuilding everything.

Blam Digital works with SMEs and organisations, including schools, sports clubs, charities, and local authorities, and sees the same structural problems repeatedly.

Why your website is not generating enquiries

When people ask, “Why is my website not generating leads?” the answer is rarely design. The issue is almost always structural.Common symptoms include:

Visitors arrive but take no action
Enquiries are sporadic or unclear
No one can explain what is working

A website not generating enquiries is usually failing to guide users clearly from problem to action.

Website not generating enquiries even with traffic

A common question is “Why is my website getting traffic but no enquiries?”

Traffic alone does not create results. When a site attracts visitors but produces no leads, it is often because:

Pages are not built around real search intent
Calls to action are weak or missing
Trust signals are unclear or inconsistent

This is why many organisations believe SEO is not working, when the real issue is conversion structure.

The real reason websites fail to convert

The root cause is rarely “not enough content” or “not enough posts”. Sites that look professional but fail to generate enquiries typically suffer from:
No ownership of ongoing improvement
Disconnected tools and systems
No meaningful tracking or reporting

Fixing this means improving structure, not adding more activity.

How organisations fix low website enquiries properly

If you are asking “How do you get more enquiries from your website?” the fix is simpler than most expect, but it must be done consistently.Effective improvements include:

Clear enquiry paths on key pages
Content built around real user behaviour and search intent
Tracking that shows what converts and what does not
Ongoing optimisation instead of one-off builds

When these foundations are in place, a website not generating enquiries can start producing predictable results without increasing spend.

Why Blam Digital delivery makes the difference

Tools alone do not fix broken systems. Standards, experience, and accountability do.

Blam Digital has operated since 2015, supporting hundreds of organisations through a certified partner network. Delivery is based on defined processes, human oversight, and continuous improvement, not build-and-leave projects.

This approach is especially important for:

SMEs relying on enquiries for growth
Schools managing admissions
Sports clubs handling memberships
Charities collecting donations
Local authorities reducing misdirected contact

Blam Certified Partners take responsibility after launch, ensuring digital systems continue to improve rather than quietly decay.

What changes when the structure is fixed

Once structure improves:

Visitors act more often
Staff spend less time chasing messages
Decision-makers see clear, reliable data

Websites that previously failed to convert do not need trends or gimmicks. They need clarity, ownership, and accountability.

Key takeaways

Low enquiries are usually a structural issue
Traffic without clarity does not convert
Clear paths outperform clever features
Ongoing improvement beats rebuilds
Certified delivery reduces risk

FAQs

Why is my website not generating leads?
Because users are not guided clearly from intent to action.

Why is my website getting traffic but no enquiries?
Traffic without conversion structure rarely produces results.

How do I get more enquiries from my website?
Improve structure, clarity, and tracking before adding more activity.

Is this relevant to schools, clubs, or councils?
Yes. Clear structure and joined-up systems matter even more at scale.

Battling Imposter Syndrome as a Budding Entrepreneur: Why You Are More Capable Than You Think

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 22:52:00 GMT

One topic that often comes up in my coaching sessions with budding entrepreneurs is imposter syndrome. It’s that feeling of not being “credible” enough or worrying that we might not truly deserve the roles we’ve claimed in our businesses. Often, this isn’t something people willingly share; rather, it’s a subject that usually needs to be coaxed out of them.

Imposter syndrome is essentially the fear that we don’t know enough, aren’t authoritative, or simply aren’t “good enough” to do what we say we’re doing. I see this challenge all the time within the Blam Partnership Programme. For many people, joining Blam means diving into a whole new world of digital marketing. They become certified marketers within a few weeks, learning new knowledge and skills at a rapid pace. But because they’re just starting out, they lack the hands-on experience behind that knowledge, and that’s often when the imposter syndrome kicks in.

Facing Imposter Syndrome Head-On

When new Blam partners step out to meet potential clients, they might feel like they’re on shaky ground. Speaking to established business owners and advising them on their digital marketing is no small feat, especially if you’re just starting your own entrepreneurial journey. But here’s the key insight I always share: the process, the training, and the systems we use at Blam give them knowledge that, while fresh to them, is immensely valuable to the businesses they’re serving.

The beauty of the Blam model is that once a Partner makes a sale, they can rely on a whole team of experts to deliver what’s been promised. This support system is there to back them up, and it allows Blam Partners to lean on their new knowledge with confidence, knowing there’s a skilled team to fulfill their commitments.

Imposter Syndrome Never Truly Disappears

The truth is, imposter syndrome doesn’t just vanish after the initial stages of business. It can resurface at any time, often when you’re about to tackle something new. I know this from experience because I still face it, even after years of building and coaching businesses. In fact, right now, I’m about to launch a YouTube channel to reach even more budding entrepreneurs, providing case studies, interviews, and entrepreneurial advice. And, yes, despite everything, there’s still that nagging question:

Why would people want to listen to me?

If I’m honest, it took me years to feel comfortable in front of the camera, and even longer to recognise that being the face of a brand can help you connect with the audience you’re aiming to support. Putting yourself out there can be challenging, especially when you’re committed to providing real value.

Reframing Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome doesn’t mean you lack knowledge or expertise. For my part, when I look back at my journey, I’ve coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, built seven-figure businesses, and, yes, had some failures. But those experiences form the foundation of my expertise, even if I sometimes feel like “little old me” isn’t the obvious choice to give advice.

The takeaway is this: If you experience imposter syndrome, you’re in good company. I’d even argue that if we didn’t experience it, we might become arrogant, and that’s certainly not an endearing or effective way to connect with others. Embrace that inner doubt, but don’t let it hold you back. Instead, lean on the facts. Recognise the tools, training, and knowledge at your fingertips. In most instances, if you’re genuine and straightforward with your clients, you’ve got everything you need to deliver.

Moving Forward with Confidence

If you’re an entrepreneur dealing with imposter syndrome, remember that feeling unsure is part of the journey. Everyone feels it, it’s not a sign that you’re incapable, but rather that you’re pushing yourself to grow. Embrace that vulnerability, lean on the support systems you have in place, and trust in the value you bring to your clients.

If you’d like to know more about the Blam Partnership Programme, check out the links below. And keep an eye out for my upcoming podcast, where I’ll dive deeper into topics like this and share more insights for those of you taking your first steps into the entrepreneurial world.

Navigating the Entrepreneurial Journey: Chi Le’s Path to Building Marble Mountains Media

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 20:37:00 GMT

In the world of Blam, Chi Le’s story stands out as a perfect example of blending passion with purpose. As the founder of Marble Mountains Media, based in Vancouver, Canada, Chi has taken the leap from corporate life to entrepreneurship, a journey that is as inspiring as it is educational under Blam’s wing as a Partner. I had the pleasure of chatting with Chi about her agency’s growth, her decision to join the Blam Partnership Programme, and the lessons she has learned along the way.
From Digital Product Manager to Entrepreneur
Chi’s journey into the world of digital marketing was not a straight line to success. Before founding Marble Mountains Media in December last year, she worked as a digital product manager for Herschel Supply, managing the e-commerce presence across Canada, the US, and Europe. Chi loved her role in using technology to solve business problems, but she felt a growing urge to carve out her own path as an entrepreneur.
“I enjoyed what I was doing at Herschel, and I had great relationships with my co-workers,” Chi said. “But I wanted to expand my values and impact other businesses by doing something for myself.” This realisation, along with the steady stream of clients she gained after launching her agency in February, pushed her to take the leap and go full-time on her business in May.
The Challenge of Transitioning
Shifting from corporate to entrepreneurial life is no small feat, and Chi admits that her transition came with challenges. “I was used to being on the side of the brand, picking out tech vendors and working with digital agencies. Suddenly, I found myself on the other side, trying to sell solutions to businesses. It was daunting at first.”
Rather than seeing this as a setback, Chi leaned into her experience. Her background in IT and product management meant she had a deep understanding of the challenges business owners face when it comes to using technology effectively. This empathy has been one of her key strengths as she shifted from managing teams to being the one offering solutions.
Building Marble Mountains Media: Finding a Niche
One of the things that stood out in our conversation was how intentional Chi has been about finding the right niches for her agency. Marble Mountains Media focuses on two distinct sectors: interior design and construction, and medical clinics. This focus was not immediate, but rather the result of careful exploration.
“At the start, I thought I would focus on real estate agents, but I quickly realised that they didn’t need the larger marketing solutions I was offering,” Chi explained. From there, she pivoted to working with interior design firms, architects, and construction project managers, industries she found intriguing because of their collaborative nature and the balance they strike between creativity and functionality. “With marketing, it’s also a mix of art and science, much like interior design,” she said, a phrase I really liked (and will definitely steal!).
Her second niche, medical clinics, grew out of her previous experience working as an IT manager for Texas Health Resources. Her network in the healthcare industry proved invaluable, and she quickly began securing clients in this space. “I love working with medical businesses because they’re helping people improve their health, and it feels meaningful to be part of that,” Chi added.
Joining the Blam Partnership Programme
While Chi brought a wealth of technical expertise to her business, she acknowledged that sales was a new skill for her. That is where the Blam Partnership Programme played a crucial role. “Sales is a completely new muscle for me,” she said. “But the training Blam provided, everything from how to speak with potential clients to dealing with rejections, has been incredibly helpful.”
Blam’s support was instrumental in helping Chi gain confidence and structure in her sales approach. The programme gave her the tools to approach clients from a problem-solving perspective, which aligns with her values. “The training helped me see that sales is not about pushing products. It is about understanding the client’s pain points and finding a solution that genuinely helps them. With that mindset, the sales part happens naturally.”
Beyond sales, the Blam team’s mentorship and guidance provided Chi with a strong support system as she navigated the challenges of scaling her business. “Blam has been an absolute pleasure to work with. The team has helped me a tons with sales and as I mentioned earlier, it’s is completely a new muscle for me to practice.”
Looking Ahead: Scaling for Success
When asked about her vision for Marble Mountains Media, Chi did not hesitate. “I want to build an international agency,” she said confidently. While the full picture of what that looks like is still forming, Chi is clear that she wants to keep expanding her reach. “Right now, we’re based in Vancouver, and I have clients in the US and Canada, but I’m also working on a mentorship programme for businesses in Tanzania.”
For Chi, scaling is not just about growth, it is about having the right team in place. “I have always had a scalability mindset,” she said. She is already thinking about hiring account managers and a sales team to help take her agency to the next level. “It is not just a lifestyle business for me. I want to grow, and I want the right processes and structures in place to make that happen.”
Final Thoughts
Chi’s journey from working in corporate Canada to running her own digital marketing agency is a testament to the power of taking risks, trusting your instincts, and building strong partnerships. Whether it is through her intentional focus on her niches, her empathetic approach to solving client problems, or her plans for scaling globally, Chi Le and Marble Mountains Media are on a path of steady and meaningful growth. The Blam Partnership Programme has been a key part of her journey, giving her the support and training she needed to thrive in her new role. As Chi continues to build her agency, it is clear that her values of problem-solving, empathy, and resilience will continue to guide her success.
To watch the full interview click here .
To your success,
Grant

How Mastermind Groups Can Transform Your Business | The Power of Networking & Growth

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 16:03:00 GMT

This past week, I’ve been in New York City with my mastermind group. Now, if you’ve never heard of a mastermind, let me break it down for you. A mastermind is where you meet up with a group of like-minded individuals. For me, that means entrepreneurs and business owners, people who are all focused on one thing: the success of their business and making a real difference in their markets. We come together, share knowledge, brainstorm ideas, and hear from experts across various industries. It’s three full days of immersing ourselves completely in our businesses.
And here’s the thing, this isn’t just about trading business cards and listening to a few motivational speeches. No, it’s way more than that. It’s a space where we dissect our businesses, look at best practices, and dive deep into the challenges we all face. It’s an environment where everyone’s committed to growth, and you know what? That’s what makes the magic happen.
Every week, our group also meets online for an hour to share updates. We talk about what’s working, what’s not, our wins, and even our toughest losses. It’s a space where we share our hopes and dreams, and then, as a group, we help each other push forward. The value of this consistency and support is hard to put into words. It keeps me grounded and focused on my goals, and every week I come away inspired.
Twice a year, we all meet up in person at different venues across the U.S. to really dig in and, let me tell you, those three days are intense. It’s a solid block of time dedicated to nothing but our businesses—no distractions, no excuses. Because let's face it, in the day-to-day hustle, it’s easy to let things slip. Maybe there’s not enough time, not enough resources, or maybe it’s just not the right moment. But when you set aside three full days to focus, things shift. Priorities become clear, and you’re forced to confront what needs to be done.
The way we structure these events is simple: the first two days are all about learning and sharing ideas. We brainstorm, challenge each other’s thinking, and soak up insights from industry leaders. Then, on the third day, it’s implementation time. It’s not enough to just talk about great ideas; you have to put them into action. That’s why having a dedicated day to take what we’ve learned and start applying it right away is so powerful.
Being part of a mastermind has been one of the most inspiring, motivating, and productive experiences of my entrepreneurial journey. When you’re in a room with people who are pushing themselves to be better, it pushes you to do the same. There’s a phrase I love (if you read my emails you’ll know this, lol), “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” And at these masterminds, my average gets elevated every single time.
And let’s be honest, the locations don’t hurt either! Right now, I’m writing from a rooftop in Soho, Manhattan, surrounded by the energy of the city, and it’s incredible, in February I was in Venice beach, California, a different vibe but a great vibe none-the-less. When you’re in a place that’s dynamic and inspiring, it shifts your mindset. It’s like the setting amplifies the experience. We get to mix business with pleasure because when you love what you do, they blend together. Business becomes your passion, and helping people with your products and services isn’t just work, it’s what drives you.
So, I’m diving back in, with another day and a half to go. I’m fired up and can’t wait to put into practice what I’ve learned so far. And you know what? We’ve only just started! If you’re not part of a mastermind group yet, and you’re someone who’s serious about growth, I highly recommend finding the right people to connect with.
Even if a formal mastermind isn’t an option for you right now, start by surrounding yourself with people who challenge and inspire you. Build a network that lifts you up, not one that sows seeds of doubt. Keep the naysayers at bay because when you’re in the right room with the right people, anything is possible. The sky really is the limit.
**Your environment matters. Your network matters. And your success? That’s just a reflection of the people you choose to spend time with.**
To your success,
Grant

Work Like a Maniac: The Entrepreneur's Path to Success

Sun, 22 Sep 2024 21:45:00 GMT

I’m taking a quick breather from a long weekend that was a blend of both work and relaxation. As I reflect on this balance, one core principle comes to mind, something we live by at Blam. You’ve probably seen it on our merch, like the pens or t-shirts we’ve got around:
"Work Like a Maniac."
Now, let me explain why this isn’t just a catchy slogan, but a way of life if you're serious about success in business.
Why Working Like a Maniac Matters
If you’re an entrepreneur, or hoping to become one, you’ll often hear people say how hard they work. But when you’re truly driven, genuinely focused on achieving your goals, working like a maniac becomes your new normal. It’s not about burning out (though I’ll get to that later), but about creating habits that allow you to get more done, faster, and more effectively.
For some people in traditional 9-5 jobs, the amount of effort you put into your business might seem excessive. But here’s the reality: compared to ultra-successful people, those who have reached the highest levels of productivity, even I sometimes feel like I’m barely scratching the surface. That’s because there’s always room to become more efficient, more focused, and yes, to work even harder.
What Does "Working Like a Maniac" Really Mean?
It’s not about staying busy for the sake of being busy. It’s about getting into a rhythm where hard work becomes second nature. And when you’re running a startup, especially in those early days, you’re going to have to push yourself harder than you ever have before. I guarantee it.
When I first started my business, I worked like a maniac because I had no choice. I had limited cash flow and six months to make it work, or else I’d have to find a job. That pressure fueled me. Add to that, my wife was pregnant with our first child, so failure wasn’t an option. I was driven by desperation and determination.
The Inevitable Burnout
Here’s something you might not expect: when you’re working this hard, there’s a good chance you’ll reach burnout. It happened to me. My body gave in, and I learned the hard way that even when you’re super motivated, there are limits. I hit mine, and it wasn’t pretty.
But here's the thing: most of the successful people I know have gone through a similar experience. Pushing yourself to the limit is part of the journey. It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but if you don’t learn how to work like a maniac, your chances of making it are slim.
Building the Habit of Hard Work
Over time, working like a maniac becomes easier. What once felt impossible becomes your new baseline. You’ll be able to juggle multiple businesses and tackle challenges with a focus and energy that will surprise even you. But first, you have to train yourself to operate at that level. And once you do, trust me, you’ll see the results.
Running a business is tough, there’s no sugar-coating it. But when you put in the work, and you make working like a maniac your default setting, the rewards are incredible.
Let’s be clear: working like a maniac doesn’t mean working yourself into the ground forever. It’s about developing the habits and mindset that will carry you through the toughest stages of your entrepreneurial journey. When you push through those barriers, the other side is worth every ounce of effort.
So, to all the budding entrepreneurs out there, ask yourself: Are you ready to work like a maniac? Because if you are, the sky’s the limit.
For more tips and advice on how to hustle your way to success, check out Blam TV or visit blampartners.com. Remember, if you want it bad enough, you've got to work like a maniac.
To your success! �55356;�57119;
Grant

The Power of Measurement: A Key to Success for Entrepreneurs

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 16:01:00 GMT

When you step into the world of entrepreneurship, especially in the early stages, there are countless new skills to master. These skills often run counter to the habits you’ve developed working for someone else. It’s no longer about doing just one specific job well, it’s about managing every aspect of the business, and trust me, that’s a huge shift. This is where measurement becomes your lifeline.
Why? Because without it, you risk letting key actions slide without even realising it.
As an entrepreneur, you’re constantly learning about the critical actions and traits that contribute to your business's growth. But here's the tricky part: remembering to do them consistently. It’s way too easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of tasks and forget the very things that drive your success.
Does this sound strange? It happens more often than you’d think.
Take my recent experience as an example. I was away for a ten-day business trip and completely missed recording my weekly video, blog and email. Now, because I track my actions closely, I didn’t just brush this off. It’s on my radar, and my action plan is clear, I’ve got to double up on my videos and writing this week to stay on track. Today, I’m recording this one (link here), but I’ll be shooting another before the week’s out to make sure my output stays consistent.
See? Measurement ensures nothing falls through the cracks.
I take this same approach across all aspects of my life, especially when it comes to prioritising my health. Before I went on that ten-day trip, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get in my regular workouts. Sure, I could squeeze in some walking or quick hotel-room exercises, but it wasn’t going to be the same.
So, what did I do?
I front-loaded my workouts. I crammed ten workouts into the days leading up to my trip, and I’m planning to keep that intensity going now that I’m back. This way, my overall workout average for the month remains consistent, even if there was a gap in the middle. It’s all about balancing things out.
And here’s the thing, you can apply this same methodology to your business.
Maybe your schedule involves setting appointments, making cold calls, or driving sales. If you’ve got a holiday coming up, don’t just let everything slide for a week or two.
My advice? Keep your action quota steady.
Do the extra work before and after the holiday, so your overall performance doesn’t dip. It’s easy to fall out of habit, and if you’re not tracking your actions, you might not even realise it until it’s too late.
The bottom line is this: measurement is everything.
When you first start a business, you’re the CEO, you’re the Chief Everything Officer. You’re doing it all, and that can be overwhelming. But it also means the things that matter most to your business are the easiest to overlook. Don’t let that happen. Put measurement tools in place, record everything, and make sure that even when you take a break, your numbers stay on track.
Hope that helps, and remember, measure, measure, measure. It’s the key to keeping your business growing, even when life gets in the way.
To your success! �55356;�57119; Grant

An audit on where your attention is

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:50:00 GMT

Detox Your Mind and Maximise Your Focus: My Journey to Cutting Out the Noise

Over a decade ago, I stumbled upon an idea that completely shifted the way I approach my daily life and work: “don’t let the news dictate your mindset”. I came across this concept while diving into some research, from the late great Bob Proctor and John Assaraf, if memory serves me right, who both advocated for limiting our exposure to news. Their reasoning was simple but powerful: the news is overwhelmingly negative, and what you consume inevitably shapes your outlook on life. If you’re constantly feeding your mind negativity, guess what? That negativity seeps into your thoughts, your actions, and your overall attitude.
So, I decided to put this theory to the test. I stopped letting the news flood my mind every day, and the results were almost immediate. I felt lighter, more positive, almost like a weight had been lifted (once I got over the FOMO, lol). My mindset shifted dramatically simply because I wasn’t being bombarded by the constant stream of negativity that tends to dominate news feeds.
But I didn’t stop there. I started to wonder, “What other distractions are silently sabotaging my focus and productivity?” You see, distractions come in many forms, and they can subtly derail you from working with purpose or getting meaningful work done. Think about it: the constant notifications on your phone, the pings from various software on your computer or tablet, even the positioning of your TV remote, these are all distractions begging for your attention. And by keeping them just out of reach, you create a space where focus thrives.
Now, I’ll be honest, detoxing from distractions is no easy feat. It’s a slippery slope. Even when you think you’ve got a handle on things, it’s easy to fall back into old habits. Just this morning, I did a little self-assessment and realised, despite my best efforts, that distractions had started to creep back in. My phone had too many notifications turned on. My desktop was cluttered with way too many open tabs.
So, I did a mini reset. I turned off all the unnecessary notifications on my phone. And if you interact with me regularly, you already know I don’t check emails obsessively, I get over 100 emails a day! If I got a notification for each one, my productivity would be shot. Instead, I choose to limit these distractions, only checking emails when I’m ready, not when my phone decides for me.
I urge you to take stock of your own life. “How much time and energy are you giving to distractions that don't serve your entrepreneurial journey?” Evaluate how you engage with the world, particularly when it comes to news consumption and unnecessary notifications. Go through your phone and turn off any alerts that don’t need your immediate attention. For me, I’ve kept WhatsApp notifications on because it’s crucial for my communication. But even then, my phone stays on silent, and I check it on my terms.
At night, my phone isn’t by my bedside. I don’t have a mess of open tabs on my laptop. I’ve made a conscious effort to maintain a clean digital workspace, free from unnecessary interruptions. And guess what? I’ve never missed anything important happening in the world. The truly significant events find their way to you, people talk, things come up. You don’t need to be plugged into the 24-hour news cycle to stay informed.
So, here’s my challenge to you: “Audit your notifications. Look at your distractions. Get clear and get focused.” Your entrepreneurial journey is too important to let meaningless noise get in the way. Take control of your environment, and watch how your productivity, and your mindset transform.
Remember, clarity and focus aren’t just nice to have; they’re essential for success. So take that first step today. Detox your mind and reclaim your focus. Your future self will thank you.
To your success,
Grant

Find Your WHY: The Life-Changing Exercise You Need to Try!

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 22:36:00 GMT

This weekend, I had the pleasure of exploring the breathtaking coastline of the northeast of England. It was an absolute treat to spend quality time with my wife Abby, soaking up the beauty of the beaches and charming little towns that are dotted around this part of the world. Moments like these remind me why I work so hard and how crucial it is to align my daily efforts with my goals.
One of my major goals is exactly this, creating meaningful experiences with my loved ones. But it's more than just a goal on a list; it's deeply rooted in what truly drives me. Recently, I've been reflecting on the importance of understanding our deeper motivations, our "why." Knowing your why is like having a compass that keeps you on course, especially when life gets busy or challenging.
A while back, I came across a tool that really helped me get to the core of my "why," and I'd like to share it with you. It's a simple exercise, but it can be incredibly powerful in helping you understand what truly motivates you.
Start by writing down the amount of money you want to earn each month to feel successful in your goals. Now, this shouldn't be some out-of-reach, pie-in-the-sky number. Instead, it should be a figure you believe is achievable and will bring you happiness and fulfilment.
Once you've written down that number, write the word "why" beneath it. Why do you want to achieve that number? What's driving you? Write down that reason. Then, under that reason, write another "why." Keep going, ask yourself why again and again, digging deeper with each answer.
It gets challenging after about the third or fourth "why." You might feel like you're running in circles, but that's the point where you need to push through. Keep digging until you reach the true, underlying reason that motivates you. When you finally get there, you'll find clarity and a renewed focus that will help you stay committed to your goals.
So, give this little exercise a try. It's a fantastic way to reconnect with what truly matters to you. As for me, I'm off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful weekend at our cozy B&B, and tomorrow, we'll continue living with purpose in accordance with our WHY.
To your success,
Grant

The Real Reason You’re Not Achieving Your Goals: Time Management and Success

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 19:48:00 GMT

One of the most common “reasons” I hear from people I coach for why they haven’t hit their action targets is that they simply don't have the time. It's the reason they give for not achieving their goals, not applying themselves as they promised, and not getting things done that they know they should be doing.
"I didn’t have the time," they say.
Coming to terms with the fact, that in nearly all cases this is a state of mind can be extremely challenging, I have empathy, I’ve been there!
It’s their perception. And more often than not, it’s the excuse they use to justify why something didn’t get done, whether it's that task, job, call, appointment, or whatever else was on their to-do list.
Let’s break this down rationally. Every single one of us has 24 hours in a day. Unless you’re incarcerated or live in a part of the world where your freedoms are significantly restricted, you are in control of your time. You decide what you do with those 24 hours.
Now, you might argue, “But I have to work, I have family commitments, I need to sleep.” Yes, these are real obligations, but they are also reasons that you might use to give yourself permission to not get things done. The word "time" becomes the blanket excuse for why something didn’t happen.
But let’s not forget, we all have the same amount of time each day. The difference lies in how we choose to spend it. If your perception is that you don’t control your time, the first step is to change that perception. Accepting that you are in control of your time and that you made a conscious decision to use it in a way that wasn’t aligned with your goals is crucial. Once you accept this, you’re on your way to managing your time more effectively.
So, what does this mean in practice? It means taking responsibility for how you spend your time. It means understanding that it’s okay if you didn’t use your time as planned because you chose to do something else instead. The key is not to beat yourself up over it, but to accept it and then look for ways to manage your time better.
Let me give you some real-world examples. In my line of work, I coach a lot of people who are involved in sales and prospecting. They might commit to actions like attending networking events, sending out emails or text messages, making phone calls, or attending meetings. If they have full-time jobs and other commitments, and they don’t meet their targets, the go-to excuse is often that they didn’t have time.
But here’s the truth: they did have the time. They could have found a way. As entrepreneurs, that’s what we do, we find a way to get things done. But it all starts with accepting that we had the time and made a different choice. It’s about taking responsibility for that choice and then working on ways to manage our time more effectively.
When we look at highly successful people, one of the traits they all share is the ability to control their time effectively. But here’s the thing: they didn’t become successful and then learn to manage their time. They became successful because they learned to control their time first. It’s a cause-and-effect relationship, not the other way around.
So, if you want to start climbing the ladder of success, one of the first steps is to take control of your time. Stop making excuses, take responsibility for how you spend your time, and watch how this simple shift can make a huge difference in your life.
I hope this resonates with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts, do you agree, or do you have a different perspective? If you’d like me to delve deeper into this topic, let me know.
To your success
Grant

Celebrating My 52nd Birthday: The Power of Routine, Goals, and Affirmations

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 22:23:00 GMT

Today marks my 52nd birthday, and as I reflect on my morning, it struck me how the routine I follow daily continues to shape my life. I started my day by opening presents and cards, enjoyed a nice cup of coffee, and then delved into my daily ritual, writing down my goals and affirmations in my journal. This practice remains unchanged regardless of the day, be it my birthday, Christmas, or any other day of the year. The only exceptions are when I am traveling or on a plane, which requires slight adjustments.
When I first encountered the concept of having a routine for entrepreneurial success, I was skeptical. My initial exposure was through the book “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, which delves into the law of attraction. For those unfamiliar, “The Secret” suggests that through the power of your mind, you can attract what you desire. This idea fascinated me when I first read it in my early thirties. It seemed like a straightforward path to achieving my dreams. However, I soon realised that merely thinking about what I wanted was not enough.
This realisation led me to another pivotal book in my journey: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Unlike “The Secret”, Hill's approach is more scientific and entrepreneurial. He combines the law of attraction with practical, actionable steps. This blend of mindset and method resonated with me and began to make more sense.
In my daily routine, I write down my goals using a specific formula. I’ll share a link below to a goals poster I use, which I sent out in an email earlier this year. This process involves affirming my goals and maintaining a clear vision of what I aim to achieve. For instance, I create a vision board each year and keep it in my wallet and on my desk. This constant visual reminder helps me stay focused.
One of the best birthday gifts I received today was a new journal from my daughter. It’s a perfect gift as it means I can continue my practice in a fresh, new book. But how does this routine translate into real achievements? Here are two examples from my life.
First, I had a fun goal this year to go on a road trip around Europe in a particular car, a bucket list item. Writing this goal down every morning helped me plan meticulously and ultimately take this fantastic trip a couple of weeks ago. It happened because I paid daily attention to it and turned my goal into reality through consistent effort.
Another example is my relationship goal for this year. I aimed to have six trips away with my wife. Given my frequent travels, fitting these trips into our schedules is challenging. However, by focusing on this goal every day, I am making progress. These trips are crucial for our relationship, and my daily habit of writing down this goal keeps it top of mind, ensuring we make time for each other.
The essence of this practice is creating habits that pre-program our unconscious mind. As Napoleon Hill suggests, our unconscious mind drives 95% of our thinking. When we constantly focus on our goals, we are more likely to take the necessary actions to achieve them. Action is the key, a point that “The Secret” misses by not emphasising the importance of taking tangible steps towards our dreams.
Whatever you aspire to achieve in life, consider incorporating these tools into your routine. They may seem a bit "woo woo" initially, but they are grounded in common sense and science. Reflecting on my career and life, the times I neglected this practice were the times I fell short of my aspirations. It’s not magic; it’s a systematic approach to success.
Set your goals, make it a habit to write them down daily, and your brain will naturally steer you towards taking the necessary actions. And remember, if your goals are ambitious, even if you don't fully achieve them, you’ll get much closer than if you had set modest ones.
For more insights on goal setting and personal development, check out Blam.TV on YouTube and follow me on Instagram @grandstaincom. Here’s to achieving your dreams!
https://www.blam.online/download-goals-poster See you on the next one!
To your success,
Grant

Budding Entrepreneurs: Don't make this mistake like I did!

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 17:33:00 GMT

I vividly remember it—22 or 23 years ago. It feels like just yesterday when I decided to take the leap and start my own business. At the time, I had a full-time job, and it was a great one. I had some really cool coworkers, a great company car (loved that car), and a decent salary. Everything seemed perfect on the surface. I was in my late twenties, and despite these perks, I had this burning desire to set up my own business, a dream I'd harboured for years. Yet, every attempt felt like a false start. Something always held me back.
Some people call it "golden handcuffs," others "corporate apathy." For me, it was this invisible barrier, a paralysing fear of the unknown. I found it incredibly difficult to pull the trigger. But eventually, I did. At the age of nearly 29, I finally took the plunge. I remortgaged my house, handed in the keys to my beloved company car, rented an office, and bought the necessary equipment. It felt like a monumental step, but it was just the first of many.
One of the biggest obstacles was the belief that successful entrepreneurs possessed some elusive, special skills—traits I thought I lacked. The people I admired, including my bosses, seemed to have a certain aura, an untouchable genius. However, I soon realised that success in business doesn't require superpowers. You don't need to be exceptionally intelligent or extraordinarily creative. What you do need is focus, dedication, speed, discipline, and an unyielding commitment to never give up.
These qualities, which I had to develop rapidly, were the true keys to success. The most crucial lesson I learned early on was that I was more than capable of running a business. I could get clients, complete tasks, and grow my enterprise. This newfound confidence fuelled my journey. And so, over the years, I've started numerous businesses across various sectors, experiencing both success and failure, collaborating with partners, and going solo.
Throughout this journey, I've helped over 300 people start their own businesses. A recurring theme I've observed is the paralysing effect of corporate apathy. Many aspiring entrepreneurs, much like I was, are stuck in well-paying jobs that leave them dissatisfied. They dream of being their own boss but are held back by the comfort and security of their current roles.
Corporate apathy causes endless planning and delays. People take months, sometimes years, to pull the trigger, often realising too late that they should have acted sooner. If you have that entrepreneurial itch, the first step is to take action. While planning is essential, it's crucial not to get trapped in perpetual preparation. The corporate world teaches us to delay, another meeting next week, another few weeks to think things over. As entrepreneurs, we must break free from this mindset.
When you join the Blam Partnership program, for instance, the information needed to make a decision is readily available. Yet, many spend weeks, months, or even years contemplating. The fear of the unknown is a significant psychological hurdle, but overcoming it is vital. Once you do, you can continuously take swift, decisive actions. This is the hallmark of successful entrepreneurs:
Money loves speed.
Remember this, money really does love speed and perfection I the enemy of speed. In the entrepreneurial world, a week is often too long to make a decision. The information you need to move forward is usually at your fingertips. Assimilate it, decide, and act. Success favours those who take swift, informed actions.
So, if you're feeling the pull towards entrepreneurship, don't let corporate apathy hold you back. Take control, embrace speed, and make your dreams transform into reality. Then, keep moving forward in your decisions from then on.
To your success,
Grant

Prioritising Health, Family, and Business: A Sunday Morning Walk Reflection

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:15:00 GMT

Sunday Morning Walk It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, and we’re out for a walk in our local rural area, soaking in the tranquility of nature. Every day, I start my morning routine by writing down my affirmations in a little book. One affirmation that I hold dear is: "I spend quality time with Abby every week." This affirmation ensures that I always think about how I can spend meaningful time with Abby, whether it’s through simple walks like this or planning a holiday getaway.
The Power of Affirmations By writing down my affirmations daily, I program my mind to prioritise these commitments. This practice helps me ensure that I consistently make time for Abby, enhancing our relationship and creating cherished memories together. Whether it’s a weekend away or just a stroll in the countryside, it’s a conscious effort to strengthen our bond.
Setting Priorities: Health, Family, and Business Recently, I shared on Instagram my approach to prioritising different aspects of life, which I believe helps me make better decisions. My priority list is straightforward:

Health
Family
Business

Health First For me, health is the foundation. By prioritising my health, everything else becomes more manageable. This morning walk ticks the health box, giving me physical activity and mental clarity. When I’m healthy, I can better care for my family and be more effective in my business endeavours.
Family Comes Next Next on my list is family. Throughout my career, I’ve had numerous opportunities to put business first, but I’ve learned that family must come before business. Family experiences and the love we share are far more valuable to me than any business success. While compromises are sometimes necessary, I always strive to ensure that family remains a priority. I’d rather be a loving family member than a rich businessperson without a supportive family.
Balancing Business Business is essential, but it comes after health and family. The success of my business is crucial as it supports my family, but it should never overshadow the importance of spending quality time with loved ones. Balancing these priorities can be challenging, but it’s a conscious effort that pays off in the long run.
Your Thoughts?
I’d love to hear your opinion on this. My affirmations focus on spending quality time with Abby, prioritising health, family, and then business. Do you think this is the right order? Let me know in the comments. Now, let’s tackle that hill!
Grant
PS: To watch the video on Blam TV, click here .

Should you update your website?

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 16:14:00 GMT

From 2001 to Now: Why Small Business Websites Need an Update

In the bustling world of online business, it's easy to look at your one-page website and think, 'It’s good enough, it works.' But in a time where user experience is key, your website is more than just an online page with text. It's the face of your brand, the first interaction most customers will have with your business. So with that said, let's dive into the should's and why's of website updates.

Credibility in a Click

Did you know it only takes a blink to decide whether a website is credible or not? That judgment might even be subconscious, but the modern user is discerning, and appearance matters. A professional, well-designed website doesn’t just signal that you're up to date—it communicates trust. For a potential customer, a website that screams 2001 is a red flag. It's a subtle but powerful part of the sales pitch you might be neglecting.

User-Friendly or User-Frustrating?

Picture yourself as a visitor to your own website. Can you easily navigate to find what you need? Are the buttons where you expect them to be, and do they do what you think they should? Updating your website isn't just about aesthetics; it's a usability upgrade. When it’s easier for your visitors to find information and make a purchase, everyone wins. You win by retaining visitors who would have clicked off in frustration, and they win by having a straightforward, positive experience.

Conversion, Not Just a Catchphrase

Imagine spending time crafting the ultimate call-to-action button, only to have it go unnoticed due to poor design or placement. An updated website optimizes these essential conversion points. Every element on your site—from the layout to the colour scheme—affects the viewer. A modern design has the power to lead your customer through a clear path, nudging them towards taking action rather than wandering around aimlessly.

The Mark of Maintenance

A website is like a garden; left untended, it will still grow, but not necessarily in the right direction. Technologies evolve, and so do customer expectations. Regular updates ensure your virtual storefront remains fresh and functional. This shows you're actively tending to your online presence, which can vouch for your persistence and professionalism.

The Cost Dilemma: Spend or Save?

The reluctance to invest in a new website is understandable. It’s a financial consideration, and it’s not always clear what the return on investment will be. But think of it this way: for every customer potentially lost due to an outdated website, the cost accumulates. An updated website can provide a tangible and measurable increase in customer retention and sales. It's less about the expense and more about the opportunity cost.

The Final Word

Your website is more than just a dashboard of business information. It's your brand distilled into pixels and text. Like a handshake, it forms the first impression of your business. As such, it deserves thoughtful attention. Don’t let perceived cost or a busy schedule put your brand's online reputation at stake. Assess the potential benefits of updating your website and consider them a part of your business’s continuous improvement and growth.
So, whether your website needs a full-blown makeover or just a touch-up, take the plunge. You might be surprised at the transformation that a few design tweaks or content updates can bring. After all, in the digital age, sometimes the biggest changes come from the smallest clicks. But, it’s not just about changing for change's sake. It’s about remaining relevant, resourceful, and ready to welcome your customers with a site that truly reflects the heart of your business.

Do You NEED a digital detox?

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 10:18:00 GMT

Unplug and Recharge: Time for a Digital Detox

This story begins with me and my CFO eating lunch talking about the business like we do a couple of times a week. My CFO is a very experienced business owner and has been buying and selling businesses since he was in his 20’s (decades!). He told me that years ago he used to take time out to travel the world, both after selling a business but also during owning a business that was pretty much on auto-pilot. He could tell that I was under pressure at the time (which is unlike me) and advised I take some time out
Time out of the business?
What he meant was a complete switch off from the day to day of managing of a modern business. No phone, laptop, TV or connection to the internet. He was talking about a digital detox. He has some super successful entrepreneur friends that do this regularly and recommended I try it, I may be surprised at the results.
My immediate reaction was “No way, why would I need to do that?” Firstly what if I miss something important, like an urgent message regarding the business! Then I started to do a bit of research and think about what the advantages could be…
The thought of it made me feel very uncomfortable, but I could see some opportunities to learn and grow in doing it.
Here’s what Google thinks a digital detox could accomplish: • Reduce Stress. Tech overload causes anxiety, stress, and generally isn't very good for your mental health. • Increase productivity and creativity. • Recharge your brain. • Improved sleep quality. • Better physical health. • Improve relationships. • Reduce depression and anxiety. • Feel happier.
I had a holiday coming up in the next couple of weeks, so I decided putting myself outside of my comfort zone was an opportunity to undertake some entrepreneurial self-development and then share my results with you guys, fellow entrepreneurial thinkers.
So, a couple of weeks later, I arrived at a beautiful Spa Hotel in Fuerteventura in the Canaries (one of my favourite places in the world), turned my phone onto airplane mode, took off my Apple Watch and put them in a drawer.
What followed was 4.5 days of virtually no tech or connection to the internet (hence you didn’t get my email last week). I say virtually as I did make a small exception and checked my messages on my phone first thing every morning just in case there was something that just couldn’t wait.
So, what happened?
Well, I have to say, it wasn’t what I expected! I actually didn’t feel any anxiety or detox, no feeling of loss or that I was missing something in my pocket. In fact, it was at first more of a mild inconvenience of not being able to communicate with the family whilst on holiday. But with some quick minor adjustments, I was more than comfortable pretty much straight away!
The first thing I did was buy a small pocket notepad, a larger one too, and some pens. I carried them around with me so when the inspiration took hold I could write down my thoughts the old-fashioned way. And it felt great. By the time I hit day two, it felt perfectly normal to not have my phone on me.
Here’s what I missed: • Taking photos with my phone whilst on holiday • Messaging people with me on holiday to co-ordinate where we were meeting etc • Maps for directions • Looking up websites for reference and information
Here’s what I didn’t miss: • Constantly checking notifications • Being tech support • Carrying my laptop round • Unscheduled phone calls
It soon became standard practice to get my family to take photographs, be more communicative about when and where to meet each other and use a paper map if directions were required (there are still loads of these around whilst in a holiday resort). I used my notepads a fair bit, actually read a fictional book and used the gym a lot!
Having been back a couple of days now, I’ve had time to reflect on what I’ve learned and digest what the pros and cons are of doing a digital detox. I actually got a lot out of it but didn’t experience any kind of epiphany, which I’d secretly hoped I might do, lol! I think that as I spent most of my life without a smartphone, going back to not having one wasn’t too much of a chore. If you are in your 20s it may come as more of a shock!
My conclusions are that it’s done me a lot of good in many subtle ways. Mostly it created headspace for me to do some very clear thinking on the direction my business is taking. My notepads are sat with me now and they are key to actioning the five key strategies I want to implement immediately in the business as a result of the clarity I gained.
So do I recommend you give it a go? Definitely, but plan ahead: • Make sure everyone important to you and your business knows what yo are doing. • Set up an autoresponder “I’m on a digital detox” on your email. • If you are doing more than a couple of days make sure it spans the weekend if you are in a business where less happens during that time. • Get a pocket notepad. • Try and do it whilst you are away from your usual environment.
If you give it a go, I’d love to hear if you had a good or bad experience or any extra tips you can provide me with for my next digital detox!
To your success
Grant

GA4 Migration : The FAQs

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 14:02:00 GMT

What did you need to know about Google's latest tool?

From July 1st 2023, Google Analytics will change forever. The immensely popular Google Analytics 3 or Universal Analytics platform is set to be replaced with Google Analytics 4 and UA will no longer be tracking data from July 1st of this year. This has led to many businesses switching over to GA4 and then getting lost in what is quite a new and confusing system, especially for those quite familiar with the layout of Universal. Amongst our partners, the same FAQs around Universal Analytics and GA4 migration keep coming up so we thought it would be useful to look at some of the most prevalent today from the main differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics as well as the new GDPR implications imposed by GA4 that you will need to be aware of.As with anything new, GA4 is a platform that has caused a lot of panic in the digital marketing world but if you approach it with the right mindset and you know what to expect, you will be able to manage the GA4 migration process a lot better as well as make faster use of the new features GA4 offers.

What are the main differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics?

Quite a lot of the differences between GA4 and Universal are things that we previously didn’t use or were things we barely used, which is good.
Bounce rate is gone and replaced with ‘engagement’ which feels more accurate and useful.
Most of the reports feel neater and tidier.
The general overviews feel easier to understand and use.

The best way I can sum it up is that UA feels like a professional version while GA4 feels a bit more entry level, with a lot of the data simplified and put into easy reports.

What is dual tagging? Will it save my historical data?

Dual tagging is a part of the GA4 migration process where you tag your site with both Universal and GA4 tracking codes. This is designed to provide your site with the best of both worlds and allow you to familiarise yourself with the new GA4 before Universal is shut down. It is important to note that dual tagging is not a long term solution and it will not save your historical data. The only way to permanently save your historical data is to export it from the platform and this makes year-on-year reporting more difficult.

What are the benefits of GA4 for my clients?

In terms of the benefits for clients, GA4 does appear to make reporting clearer and easier. You can export reports straight from google analytics and the setup appears to be a lot more suited around the Google Data Studio reports you can create. GA4 feels tailored more for convenience in that regard. This mostly benefits Package 3s and our own clients as it allows for more in-depth reporting while keeping it low on time consumption. You can even pull in graphs and tables which will be good for adding extra value and clarity to the reports.

What are the benefits of GA4 for suppliers (e.g. agencies/consultancies/freelancers)?

It’s far more streamlined than Universal. Conversion tracking seems easier to set up and google does a lot of it automatically. As mentioned above, pulling reports out of GA4 could be highly beneficial and save time while providing a more accurate service. Google can also recommend tracking and conversion events based on industry which will be useful as we get more familiar with the product. This mostly feels a bit more easy to use and it feels more active, Google offers a lot of recommendations.

What do I need to be mindful of when carrying out migrations?

Tagging seems to be easier than I thought with a similar system to that of UA. However, I tried this with an old client and it doesn’t seem to have worked. It’s something to look into further and it may take longer to start sending through data.

How do I stay in line with GDPR/ How does GA4 change GA and GDPR?

Technically, GA in any of its guises is not strictly gdpr compliant, mainly due to Article 14* and this was one of the main reasons for GA4’s development. GA4 was revised to ‘tick GDPR boxes’ by introducing the following functionality;

Data deletion mechanism. Users can now request to surgically extract certain data from the Analytics servers via a new interface.
Shorter data retention period. Webmasters can now reduce the default data retention period to 2 months by default (instead of 14 months) or configure a custom limit.
IP Anonymisation. GA4 doesn’t log or store IP addresses by default.

*Article 14:“The controller (the company) that intends to carry out a transfer of personal data to a recipient (Analytics solution) in a third country or an international organisation must provide its users with information on the place of processing and storage of its data”
However, GA4 is still not strictly GDPR compliant and while GA4 is still relatively new, the EU is constantly cracking down on data protection associated with Google Analytics so you need to be cautious of your responsibilities when it comes to data and know what you can and can’t do in terms of using that data. Most websites manage their obligations to GDPR by;

Having a privacy policy clearly displayed and accessible on the website that explains if/how/where data is collected and used including data relating to browser behaviour and cookies (which can lead to the browser being retargeted with similar content from other sites, platforms and indeed Ads!)
There is also a requirement for websites to request permission to save/use data in the event they should ever return to the website (i.e. a cookie / cached data) so it loads faster and the user can find/access info more easily). This is typically served by the pop up banner that you usually see on a website relating to cookies/data.

Now is a good time to start the GA4 migration process for you and your clients to GA4 as the new system is quite different from what you might be used to and it allows you to familiarise yourself with the new reports and the new conversion tracking as well as collect some historical data so that you can at least have some data before the big switch.

Artificial Intelligence and the Creative Industry

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 20:48:00 GMT

How AI Technology Is Affecting The Creative Industry

The creative industry is undergoing a major transformation, with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) playing a big role. AI technology is now being used to automate processes, increase efficiency, and improve customer experience in the creative industry. But what exactly is AI and how will it impact the creative industry? Let’s take a look.
What Is Artificial Intelligence? AI is a branch of computer science that focuses on developing machines that can perform tasks traditionally requiring human intelligence. This includes tasks such as problem solving, decision making, and language processing. AI technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and is being used across many different industries to automate processes, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experience.
The creative industry has always been driven by creativity - something that machines can't replicate. However, they are able to provide assistance in many aspects of the creative process. For example, AI-powered design software can make it easier for graphic designers to create stunning visuals quickly and easily. Additionally, AI-driven automation tools enable marketers to analyse data more accurately, identify trends faster and respond more effectively to customer needs. These tools are not only making life easier for creatives but are also helping them produce better work faster than ever before.
AI technology is also being used to create content for websites and other digital platforms. By using natural language processing algorithms and machine learning technologies, computers can generate unique content based on user input or existing material such as articles or videos without the need for human intervention. This could be particularly useful for businesses who need a lot of content created quickly without compromising on quality or accuracy.
As you can see from this article, AI technology is transforming the creative industry in many ways - from automating mundane processes to creating unique content at lightning speed! As advances in AI continue to be made, we will likely see an even greater shift towards automation in the future - one that could revolutionise how we think about creativity and productivity! Whether you’re running your own business or working as part of a team within a larger company or organisation, understanding how AI technology works will ensure you stay ahead of the curve!
------------------------------------- The above content was generated entirely by an AI content generator. To find out more about how Blam is embracing the power of AI and how we can help you benefit too, get in touch here .

What should I DO in business?

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 09:33:00 GMT

How to keep productive in your business

Recently I had great feedback from a couple of presentations that I’ve given all about productivity in business. It seems that in this new world scenario, where we are working from home a lot more than we used to and are surrounded by even more distractions than usual, tips on how to get the right “stuff” done strikes a cord with many of us in business. When we are working from home, even if you do have your own space, distractions are everywhere and the temptation to go down the social media rabbit hole or a Netflix marathon “time trap” can be irresistible. Combine that with home schooling, other family members interactions or even that tempting bottle of wine, with less accountability we can become much less efficient than when we are at work. The general problem isn’t a new one, it has just been magnified by the pandemic and the environment it has put us in. Some call it laziness, some call it distraction, others call it procrastination but whatever you label it it seems we all suffer from “it” one way or another! I use a phrase that I repeat to myself throughout the day to check that I haven’t fallen into any “time traps” that helps me reassess if I’m on track: “Am I being effective and efficient?” These two words summarise the goal of achieving results and by using this question almost hourly you can catch yourself from falling into time traps without noticing you are in there! In business, to be successful we have to look at the tools that the super successful employ and find the tools that work for us. There is no one size fits all but let’s take a look at a couple of examples that can help us get some ideas.
Super successful British entrepreneur, Jojar Dhinsa, is one of the most productive and pro-active people I have ever met. His work ethic and time management is off the charts! He has a technique he uses to keep him accountable to his goals as follows. He sets an alarm on his phones (he works with three phones) every hour that pings up to prompt him to ask himself “Am I on track?”. He does this because like everyone else he can get distracted too, and the reminder steers him back on track if he’s been pulled off in another direction. Elon Musk is another example of someone who uses every second of the day to get the maximum out of each minute. He uses a system he refers to as aligning vectors. It means Elon ensures that the entire company is aligned with the same goal at the same speed (a vector) so that no-one is pulling in different directions. By regularly assessing the vectors of each person and department in the company and making the destination crystal clear, a more effective and efficient workflow is achieved. In other words, a social media rabbit hole would not be an aligned vector! As I said earlier, to help entrepreneurs contemplate and experiment with ways of being more effective and efficient, I’ve put together a presentation showing a few ways that may help. I’ve also developed an online tool called Blam-Ability that helps organise the weekly repeatable tasks in a system that sets reminders and keeps you accountable. It’s completely free to use and comes with the Blam Academy membership which is also free. We’re in beta testing mode at the moment, so feel free to sign up here to get onboard early. If you’d like to see the presentation I gave earlier this week about helping you become more effective and efficient watch it here.
This is a fascinating subject for any of us in business that want to achieve more, and be more affective with our time. I'd live to hear ways you keep yourself accountable to your time so feel free to comment below.

In the Clubhouse? We look at why everyone is talking about this brand new social media app

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 16:27:00 GMT

CEO connections, industry chatter or even new business opportunities....

What is Clubhouse? This month we have been learning all about the new kid on the social media block: Clubhouse. An audio-based social media app, Clubhouse’s creators believe that it will become the conduit through which people connect, develop ideas; engender friendships and enjoy worldwide communication. How does it work?

Firstly, register your name. Sooner rather than later, if possible. If Clubhouse is as successful as its owners claim, then reserving your preferred handle would be a prudent move.
Next, gain an invite. These are only available through people already registered on the platform. This process is necessary as Clubhouse’s infrastructure could not currently support millions of users flooding the app.
Once invited, set up your bio and select your favourite subjects of interest such as marketing or entrepreneur. Sit back and listen in to room topics such as “The Daily Habits of High Performers” or “Winning Secrets for Instagram”. When a club or individual is followed, phone screen notifications will periodically appear so that you can then jump in and out of discussion rooms.

W hy would I want to join? If you love audiobooks, podcasts or talk radio, then this could be the platform for you. As the app expands, there will be more and more rooms available to join and ideally plenty of relevant choices for the user. Clubhouse has drawn its fair share of celebrity drop-ins including the likes of Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk, Drake, Kevin Hart and even Oprah! Basically, you can segue in and out of different chats, on a wide range of subjects, rather like a free-flowing podcast. You can simply listen or choose to add in your own thoughts, advice or opinions. Clubhouse Rules There’s no recording of any room discussions as the entire premise of the platform is that it’s live. There’s also zero tolerance for hate speech, bullying etc. Pros ▶️It’s potentially a great way to network, gain insight into expert experiences, enjoy panel discussions and choose from those areas which really interest you. ▶️Clubhouse serves up content based on who’s following you rather than who you are following which turns other social media platforms on their head. ▶️ Users are rewarded with more invites according to the time they spend on the platform and who is engaging with them. ▶️ It’s highly business-centric so there’s plenty of value available and potential to speak or connect 1:1 with CEOs of big companies/organizations in your industry. Cons ⏸ You have to be invited to join ⏸ Use your invites wisely and think about who you are inviting as once they are on the platform, your name is then associated with their bio ⏸ It’s only available on iOS i.e. Apple iPhone users ⏸ It still appears to be in its clunky Beta stages at times with no opportunity to ‘like’ a speaker, only ‘follow’ ⏸ Clubhouse is transient in nature as conversations are not saved. If you miss a room discussion, then it’s gone. Used Clubhouse yet? We would be delighted to hear about your experiences or if you have any comments or observations on this brand new social media platform.

Is Social Media a Problem?

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 19:59:00 GMT

Are you a social media addict?

Do you find yourself on Facebook, YouTube or TikTok or any other social platform wondering where the last hour has gone? Worse than that, when using social media, are you telling yourself that you are actually busy “researching” or “working on social media”, or any other of the many things we say to ourselves, but really we know we should be taking action instead?
I know the answer is probably YES , because most of us are guilty of this to a certain extent when we have a social media account of some sort. Don’t get me wrong, social media has real merit, especially for digital marketers like Blam Partners, but one of the most difficult things about social media is noticing when it becomes a “problem” stopping you from getting stuff done.
Social media algorithms are designed to engage you and keep you locked into their platform. It’s becoming a serious problem for a lot of people and will seriously hinder how much they get done if they don’t control it, or admit it’s a problem.
So in the spirit of the theme of this message, I’m going to give you three tips you can implement immediately, “right now”, instead of spending time reading a long blog when you could be taking action! This is recommended by many top entrepreneurs, so don’t dismiss it, just do it!

Firstly turn off the notifications on your social media. Control your social media instead of it controlling you. The constant pinging of your phone is like crack, sucking you into the screen with the fear of missing that next piece of viral content. Turn them off!
Commit to becoming a contributor not consumer on social. Posting to your target audience regularly, both in terms of actual posts and stories, reels etc. There’s plenty of advice out there for this to make it easy, just don’t get sucked into watching too many YouTube videos before taking action when “researching”!
Then, diarise when you will be posting and responding to messages with a reminder that notifies you saying “social media posting/research/replies” (I have this twice a day, once in the morning , once in the evening). If you want to consume, set time aside and set an alarm to prompt you when time is up.

These may appear extreme to you, but if they do, remember for most addicts, denial is the first stage! If you want to find out more about how to implement this or any other strategy, book on a call with me or Ed through the link on the homepage. If becoming a super successful entrepreneur is your dream, diary management like this is vital. These three steps could be the tips that help you get much more done towards your goals. Let’s start working on that business or making a decision as to what business you are going to start, instead of falling down the rabbit hole that is a real social problem. So what are you waiting for?

Should I Be Confident About My Future?

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 11:07:00 GMT

Let's make 2021 awesome!

As I write this we are about to undergo the rollout of the long awaited Covid 19 vaccine. When it was first announced that we had a vaccine that was 90% effective, the stock market took a huge leap up and there was palpable sigh of relief the world over. 2020 has been an extraordinary year , and regardless of your personal opinion on vaccines or Covid in general, the fact remains that this is an enormous step in the right direction of bringing our economies back on track. "And so, we find ourselves in a unique position,
and one we all need to be aware of."
Never before has there been a situation quite like this and the only comparison I can think of that’s anywhere near similar is the end of the Second World War. The entrepreneurial boom that happened after the Second World War, despite the fact that most economies in the world were effectively bankrupt, was driven by the confidence of building something sustainable after the years of wartime misery. I see a similar boom on the horizon as the frustrations of 2020 are unleashed on the economic landscape and entrepreneurs leverage their newfound understanding that digital technology can save them time and money and supercharge their business success too.
So as I sit here planning our Blam strategy to help as many small business owners around the globe as we can achieve these ambitions, I am excited and confident that 2021 will be an incredible year for digital marketers that are willing to look forward with optimism. I also can’t wait to help those entrepreneur start ups that will change the world with their innovation, enthusiasm and determination to succeed, one of the great pleasures of the industry I work in. However, the world’s confidence is a fragile thing , and I for one feel a responsibility to pass on this message of hope and reassurance for the future. Let’s help each other see the opportunities ahead and embrace them now! People spend money when they are confident, they take risks when they feel this way and that’s what makes the wheels of business turn. We all know, there are plenty of doomsayers who are willing to let fear rule and spout out the negative stats and facts. I hope, like me, you can see that negativity can be a self fulfilling prophecy if we let it dominate, so let’s take this news of the vaccine and use it to supercharge our confidence and let’s make success happen!

How to Book Sales Appointments

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:19:00 GMT

Do you know our 7 step rule?

In our modern world where we are increasingly being asked for our attention from every different angle, attending appointments in a timely fashion can seem to loose its importance. This certainly can be the case when it comes to the appointments that we book with prospects and clients.
"So how can you improve the attendance rate for the appointments you book in business, particularly if you are in sales?"
At Blam we book and attend a lot of appointments for either a presentation or an intro call (obviously nearly all online or by phone these days). Often these can be arranged well in advance and therefore we use multiple tools to ensure the best possible attendance rate.
To help you consolidate more of your booked appointments, here’s what we do :

Always try and book the appointment as soon as possible - the longer the gap the more likely a no-show.
When arranging the appointment - book a calendar appointment using your online diary setting up the email reminder function and inviting the attendees. Set reminders the day before, an hour before and 5 mins before.
Confirm straight away after booking using either WhatsApp or text - WhatsApp is great as you can see if they’ve read it.
Reminder by email the day before , directly from you with a personalised message (as well as the automated one) - “looking forward to our meeting tomorrow…”.
Reminder by text and automated email an hour before - automated email reminders can be set up within your calendar (see point 2) plus use manual WhatsApp reminder or text message “just checking you are good for our appointment shortly”.
5 mins before , the automated email from your calendar will send - as point 2.
Attend the appointment on time! - If they don’t answer the call or attend the screen-share - call twice, text/WhatsApp “Just checking you’re still okay for our call or do you need to rearrange?”.

This process should significantly increase your show up rate as well create good habits. It may seem overkill to some, but consolidating a sales appointment with someone who may be busy or not consider a sales appointment an important thing in their lives is not always easy!
Finally, remember, don’t take no-shows personally . Try to have empathy when people don’t attend and never hold a grudge or point out their mistake when you finally get hold of them. It is of course a gauge of where they are with their enthusiasm for your product or service and sometimes it’s not until we get a chance to talk to them that we can get the enthusiasm moving, so we must keep trying!
To find out more about the sales techniques and processes we use at Blam visit Blam Academy Facebook group.
If you are interested in helping small businesses with their marketing, branding and websites, join me on one of my webinars www.blampartners.com and see if Blam could help you find your passion for business.

Is Design Dead?

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 13:07:00 GMT

Should I design my own logo and website?

With the onset of so many online tools to enable business owners to create and manage their own brands, has the golden age of quality design now died?
As a trained “old school” graphic designer my heart sinks when I see websites, logos and literature that have clearly been designed without any understanding of design theory or creative subtlety. This is largely due to the accessibility of software that allows a relatively non-techie business owner to design a logo, build their own website and create their own brochure without any formal training.
"Is this a good or bad thing?"
Well, it works both ways depending on the business owners circumstances. For a "one man band" start-up or side gig, where money may be very tight and something is better than nothing, these free/cheap design options can help get the ball rolling. In this instance taking action is much more important than waiting until they can afford to employ a qualified designer or agency. Tools such as Canva and Wix are available to these entrepreneurs who’re willing to invest the time and energy into their marketing materials. The question any of these entrepreneurs need to ask themselves is "what is the cost of not using a designer", both in time and money. Is a poorly designed brand (often an unqualified business owner doesn’t notice the difference!) worth the time investment, and at what cost to the credibility of the business?
However, if a business is more established or the start-up has a budget for marketing (and why wouldn’t they!), getting the branding, look and feel and strategy behind it right, can be the difference between mediocrity and super success.
"So how can good design influence success?"
Here’s an apparent fact (according to Ryan Deiss, CEO of our extremely knowledgable partners Digital Marketer), design is pretty far down the list when it comes to making money on the internet. In other words, there are loads of examples of apparently poorly “designed” websites that have created millions in revenue. These websites however, have still had tonnes of testing, tweaking and strategy applied, a luxury that many small business owners don’t have.
What small business owners do have the opportunity to do, is create a brand and look and feel that represents their business appropriately and creates the opportunity to engage with the target audience from the initial awareness stage all the way through to nurturing their valued repeat customers. This means, having a great brand will get you more customers and increase engagement because it will build trust and credibility right from the beginning.
Simple examples of this you will have experienced yourself I’m sure. How many times have you landed on a website but found it to be poorly designed, difficult to navigate and frustrating to use and simply looked elsewhere and at what cost to the business?
In conclusion…
Getting the foundations of branding and design for a small business nailed down with the help of a professional designer should more than pay for itself, even in the short term. Focussing on building the business with the marketing messages, deals and solutions is a far more important than trying to be a designer yourself. To be successful, there is a lot to do when running any small business. Unless absolutely necessary, learning to be a designer shouldn’t be one of them!
Here at Blam, our goal is to provide cost effective branding, across websites, social media and literature that is beautifully designed, talks to the appropriate target audience and makes the business owner proud of their companies image. If we can deliver the best of both worlds, ie. fantastic design at an affordable price, entrepreneurs that work with us can focus on growing their business instead of wasting days trying to design a website or logo with no formal training. After all, when done properly a well designed website can be one of the biggest assets in the business, why leave that to an amateur?

Ten Tips You Need to Know Before You Redesign Your Website

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 10:22:00 GMT

TEN REASONS TO REDESIGN YOUR WEBSITE

Technology is developing at lightning speed, and along with it, the worldwide web. Customer behaviour online is changing the fabric of business faster than ever before. At the same time, your company’s website must also evolve. To make sure your website is working in the best possible way, you need to be updating your site regularly with fresh new content and it requires constant development to optimise it for your customers’ needs. Sometimes a company’s needs or branding has changed so drastically it’s really more sensible to make a brand new site.
A website redesign is not only about the new design. A few years in web technology can bring important changes that can today offer a better user experience, easier content management, better functionality, automation and much more. If you feel like your business website no longer meets your primary business goals, here are 10 points that help you decide whether it’s time for a website redesign.

1. Your website is from 2012

When was the last time your business website had a revamp? The best practice in web mastery recommends that you need to redesign or re-platform your website entirely every 2-3 years. By this time, important developments will have happened in technology and design trends. Although the web develops extremely fast, you don’t need to worry about every little thing. Smartphones and mobile browsing on the internet have been mainstream for a decade, but only a few businesses have set their digital strategy to mobile-first.
If you can’t remember the last time you considered editing or adding new content to your website, it’s a good idea to make a new one. Even worse, does your website include out of Flash elements, automatic music/video player, shiny banners or drop shadows? It’s time to make a redesign for sure!

2. The website has no automation

Growth is a natural part of every business. This, in turn, means that your website needs to change. How else will your customers know that your business is doing great? The problem emerges when the originally created website doesn’t support the acceleration needed. For example, your website has only product descriptions, but you want to add an e-commerce shopping cart or chat facility. If you cannot develop your pages the way that you want them, your online business will stand by to watch others win. Oftentimes it’s a lot easier to re-platform entirely and build a new website to a new system with built in automation and features to help your business move smarter, better and faster, rather than improving the old one.

3. Your company staff page doesn’t meet reality

Company growth comes often with a change in staff. You now need to urgently show the changes on your website if you hire new staff or your employees have changed roles substantially. Lack of fresh information will out-date your website. Also, you will get a negative image if you show employees that may have moved on. Without adding news about your products and people, your business potentially loses customers – they cannot get fresh information about your business activities. The most frustrating thing is when you cannot make the changes by yourself, it’s too complicated, or you don’t have the access needed. It's quite common that you just don't have the skills in-house. It’s difficult to keep an up to date online presence if your team doesn’t have the know-how for making simple amendments to your site.

4. The website platform doesn’t meet your business growth

Business goals are changing and the changing needs transfer to the business website. A website that was created a few years ago may not support it. Many old websites were created in HTML format where you need to change the code to make any changes on the site. This kind of content management is very complicated. If you want easy editor access and easy to use add-ons to automate some of the most common tasks like customer management or lead generation, you should take the leap and definitely develop a new website.

5. Your competitors’ websites are more beautiful than yours

Your competitors changed their website and suddenly risen from the ashes only to steal your clients with their stunning new website? When you can admit that a competitor’s website is prettier than yours, it’s definitely time to decide to make major changes. Their site could be more functional, easier to use, better organised, modern, have pop ups to facilitate visitor engagement and automated follow up campaigns.
Did you know that 7 out of 10 website visitors make their purchasing decision based on the look and feel of the business website? When your website is worse than your competitors’, you can say “goodbye” to your clients.

6. The content is outdated

Does your website still have broken links like 404 error pages? Although fixing broken links may be easy, it could refer to a bigger problem: your website is unorganised and poorly maintained.
If your website has many broken links, errors, missing images and other elements that are not working properly, you should opt for a redesign. When creating a new site make sure to choose a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy for you to update information and add new pages. This helps you to avoid outdated content.
You may want to consider a do it for you service at this point. So you can focus on the business in hand and leave managing the website up to professional. Get in touch here

7. Target audience expectations/needs have changed

Have your website visits dropped? Are your hard-earned and paid for by advertising website visitors left the page without any further scrutiny causing high bounce rates? Maybe your target audience expectations have changed? Your website is not serving consumers’ needs. Check your website statistics to determine your visitors’ common path on your site. How do they arrive on your site? When and where do they leave your site? If your pages have a high exit rate it’s a sign that you need to consider a tweak of your marketing strategy and consider a platform that supports your strategy for getting more new customers and to get customers to spend more and come back more often. Did you know that websites that have Artificial Intelligence enabled see a 19% increase in visitor engagement?

8. You’re missing out on Social Media

No one doubts social media’s importance in a modern marketing plan. If you don’t share your social channels on your main marketing channel - your website - how can visitors find you in the social sphere? Often, people are too lazy or fickle to start looking for themselves. Social media is an excellent tool for developing customer relations and promoting your brand. If your website is missing social buttons, be sure to add them. Also, it’s a good idea to check out your blog and add sharing buttons to each blog post.

9. Your website is not mobile-friendly

This is a biggie. Over the last five years, you will have seen a massive increase in visits from mobile devices but are your visitors leaving your site before converting? The problem is that a regular website doesn’t meet mobile user needs. The trends in mobile technology will only bring more and more visitors to your site while they browse the internet on their smartphones.
That’s why it’s important to offer them a dedicated mobile-friendly user experience. If your site editor does not offer responsive design, it’s not going to be mobile-friendly and you'll be irrelevant very quickly, missing out on a huge slice of the internet pie. Check this Google mobile-friendly test.

10. Your website is not appearing on search engines

Your website appearance on a search engine results page (SERP) requires constant technical adjustment and content updates. To adjust the technical elements include activities like choosing keywords and optimising pages for relevant keywords. A new CMS system will make it easy to set metadata by yourself without having to change the code. If you currently don’t have a CMS, you probably need help from professional web developers or Search engine optimisation (SEO) specialists. This can become expensive.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo! Bing, Yandex etc. consider fresh and relevant content as a ranking factor. To meet their criteria and stay on top of search results you need to be adding fresh content regularly. Consider a daily, weekly and monthly schedule. So it’s really important that you can update your own site content and add new pages independently. The easiest way to keep your site regularly updated is by facilitating a weekly blog!

Conclusion

If some of the situations sounded all too familiar, it’s an indication that your website may be out of date and needs refreshing. Maybe you don’t have to start from the ground and build a brand new site. But it’s important to remove the errors and keep your website at the top level. You can be sure that your potential clients are looking for service providers with prettier, more user-friendly and trustful websites. So make sure you are the one who stands out!

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What Every Business Owner Should Know

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 20:19:00 GMT

Five ways to be a great sales person

Form a picture in your head, of what you think a salesperson looks like. What clothes do they wear, what look do they have on their face and what feeling do you get from them? Chances are a lot of what you are thinking of is pretty negative (if it isn’t I bet you are already a great salesperson!). When I perform this exercise with one of my training groups the answers I get back are generally things like pushy, slimy, false and not genuine. This generally negative perception of salespeople means a lot of us are reluctant to become, or be perceived as, “a salesperson” making it harder for them to actually sell anything!

10 years ago, I felt this way too. I’d already been running my design agency for 10 years at that point and the last thing I wanted to be thought of was a sales person! Surely I was a Managing Director and would never lower myself to being in sales? As I found out, I couldn’t have been further from the truth, and it wasn’t until I accepted my role as a salesperson that I started to truly build a business I was proud of.

It started when I realised that all of my business hero’s of the time like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs were at heart awesome salespeople. From one of the marketing stunts that Richard Branson undertook through to the way Steve Jobs launched a new Apple product, the most powerful elements were designed to sell, and sell to the masses. This realisation started me on a journey of readjusting my way of thinking and embracing sales as a profession. This epiphany is embodied by the phrase:

“If you are in business, you are in sales”

The route I then followed was to study a sales system (I studied Sandler Sales), and dive into as many books as I could get my hands on about sales and then applied it to my business. This was a game changer for me and my business and I became fascinated in the art of selling and how I could help others sell too. Since then I have applied these techniques to selling everything from a pint of beer to a seven figure business and so much in between. From all of that experience the last ten years has taught me, here are the five key lessons I have learnt and now teach to the Blam Partners that join the Blam Family running their own Digital marketing agency.

1. Don’t look, smell, feel, sound or taste like salesperson. 

To become a professional salesperson you need to avoid appearing like the stereotypical salesperson. This is more about your demeanour than your appearance hence the use of all four senses.

2. Don’t be needy.

 This is so common when you begin to sell because you desperately want the sale. Jumping through hoops and being subservient to the prospect can come across as desperate and nobody likes a desperate salesperson. Think of the relationship with the prospect as doctor and patient. You are the professional in your field asking the right questions to find out if you have the cure for their pain.

3. Stick to the process. 

No matter what process you subscribe to or learn, stick to it and don’t deviate. There are many selling systems, but the most important rule is that you have one and use it!

4. Practice. 

To become great at any task you need to practice, practice, practice. People seem to think that selling is something you are born with or not, this is absolutely not true. Anyone can sell with time, effort, perseverance and practice. And just like learning an instrument, if you give up before you’ve be come competent you won’t get results.

5. Love your product or service. 

Finally, and probably most important of all, you have to believe without a shadow of a doubt that when you sell, you are doing a good thing. This is the rocket fuel that helps you persevere and learn your craft. If you honestly don’t love your product or service, I would start by addressing that first and make some changes fast!

So finally I would say to any budding entrepreneur or seasoned business owner who has hit a wall, see your job as sales. Nobody else will ever be more passionate about your business than you, so it’s your obligation to embrace the salesperson within and become a professional. Get a system, practice and get results, then you can teach others within the business and scale this up!

If you’d like to find out more about Blam and how we help budding entrepreneurs grow a digital marketing agency using our sales secrets to sell market leading A.I. websites and marketing products (that we are totally in love with!), join us on one of our live webinars to find out more.

To your success,

Grant Stain

CEO - Blam Websites

Are You a Closet Entrepreneur?

Sun, 19 Jul 2020 15:22:00 GMT

How to develop the entrepreneurial mindset to take the plunge

Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place at times . We are a special breed and there aren’t that many of us. Most of your friends and family just don’t “get it” and will often try and rein you in, hold you back or discourage you incase you fail! In fact this is one of the main reasons “closet” entrepreneurs never take the plunge.

To help you figure out if you are a closet entrepreneur, ask yourself if any of these phrases sound familiar?

You say:

“I think I want to start my own business”

They say:

“What if you don’t make enough money?”

“You are safer sticking with a proper job”

“It’s far too risky, what if you fail?”

“You’ll never make it in business on your own”

“What about the mortgage”

"Blah, Blah, Blah!!!!"

Boooooooooooooo!

As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of being discouraged by non-entrepreneurs!

Although your friends and family telling you these things mean well, they have no idea what they are talking about! How could they possible understand what drives you as an entrepreneur if they are not an entrepreneur themselves? It’s true, taking the road less travelled is risky, it’s full of pitfalls and potential failure. And that is exactly why entrepreneurs are a rare breed, because they are the one’s willing to ignore the nae-sayers and take the plunge into the risky “unknown”!

Of course the truth is there is a large amount of risk in having a “proper job” too. Especially as we go into the largest recession the world has ever known. Right now, the people that are willing to take risks are just about the only people making decent money.

The pandemic is great example of this and the evidence is all around us. I know several people who have made their fortune selling PPE because they took a leap of faith at the beginning of lockdown and bought tonnes of stock in the hope they cold sell it. It could have been a waste of money, but we all know how that one ended up!

Once you’ve taken the plunge, maintaining the enthusiasm and focus takes a lot of energy. This is something I pay a lot of attention to with our Blam Partners (all entrepreneurs) as they are mostly solo-preneurs and rely on Blam HQ and on each other to keep motivated and focussed. This principal is never more obvious than in our mastermind groups, or “Blam Multi-mind groups” as we call them. The idea that was articulated so well in “Think and Grow Rich” (if you haven’t read it you are missing out on a HUGE education) of using a group of like minded entrepreneurs to help each other succeed and solve problems in a monthly round table meeting, is sooo powerful.

Being with other people just like you is a powerful, motivating, enlightening experience and the power of the group multiplies the results. If you’ve ever heard of the phrase “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, you’ll see why a mastermind can up your average significantly.

If you haven’t started a business yet, but want to start getting the entrepreneurial mindset that will help you get there, there’s plenty you can be doing prior to joining a mastermind group.

Listen: Listen to the guru’s in business and learn what they teach. YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are great places to start with this. 

Read: All top entrepreneurs read A LOT of business books. I like highlighting sections and copying paragraphs. Start with Think and Grow Rich.

Learn: We are always learning, but to be successful in business you must be coachable. Applying what you learn is key, knowledge is useless without action. Finding a mentor to help with this can be gold!

Whatever your situation, if you truly are an entrepreneur you will take the plunge at some point. That’s because by definition, if you don’t take the plunge, you are not an entrepreneur!

So if you answered “yes” to the question are you a “closet entrepreneur”, the chances are it’s because of the people you are surrounding yourself with. If you change the company you keep, you can much more easy keep a company!

To your success

Grant

CEO - Blam

PS: I'm not suggesting you dump your friends and family but spend more time with entrepreneurs of a like mind. As my mentor always says. "Birds of a feather, flock together!"

What Has Changed in Business After Covid-19?

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 11:52:00 GMT

A New Remote World

Last week, I wrote about how the current climate has forced all companies, no matter how small, to prioritise their digital systems and offer the consumer easy access to online goods and services through AI website and mobile app platforms. Today, I would like to take this further and suggest that we have now reached a point of no return, with the world recovering, consumer behaviours have changed forever.

No Going Back For Customers

Consumers, rapidly growing accustomed to engaging in digital technologies, appear to be happy to shop from the comfort of their own homes, and look set to continue to develop and embrace this habit further. Older generations who previously shunned shopping via a screen have had to become more familiar with their devices in tracking down supermarket slots, figuring out online banking and ordering their beloved gardening resources. This way of interfacing shows no signs of diminishing and businesses across all industries will need to revisit every aspect of their digital presence in order to ensure that they are providing a highly effective experience for the customer.

Healthy Digital Trends

Higher demand for digital interfacing is emerging not only in the product sector but also in services where digital interfacing is becoming more commonplace. Telehealth, for example, has seen an explosion in its use as people seek health-related services such as therapy, patient care, advice and interventions via electronic information and telecommunication technologies rather than face-to-face. Companies such as Peloton have seen an unprecedented surge in demand with its interactive at-home workout bikes and streaming service growing ever popular as gyms across the globe closed. Selling 400,000 bikes back in Feb 2020, Peloton has seen an exponential rise in demand for its fitness equipment and monthly subscription rates and has now doubled its sales to over 886,100.

Bring Your Own Device

World responses to the pandemic saw many employees begin working from home in March 2020. Having the freedom to utilise their own technology, with no work restrictions brought a whole new meaning to Bring Your Own Device. Even where workers had a business laptop, they were able to depend more heavily on their own personal devices to access work resources. Pre-lockdown, 87% of businesses relied on employees to use BOYD and these figures are only bound to have increased. Productivity rates already increased by 34% where employees were allowed to use their own devices so we can only wonder if this rate has grown significantly since workers have shifted to home environments with limitless access to their own hardware to stay organised and remain on task.

App, App and Away

At one time, apps were seen as something that much larger businesses invested in but now we are reaching a point where nearly every business will need to provide an app. Social distancing has forced the need to leverage the power of apps to provide contactless experiences for ordering, loyalty schemes and booking systems.

Flexible Working

Working from home had already grown 159% since 2005 but with corporations now considering if they need their large office spaces, our city centre landscapes are due for a wholesale change. Flexible working has proven to generally improve productivity, stress levels and overall wellbeing and all of this will be increased post pandemic now we've had a taste of it enforced upon us. Much like our own head office space at Blam which is being converted into a recording studio, companies are now reinventing how they use their space as remote working becomes the norm. Property in both commercial and residential will now evolve as people and companies crave more creative use of office space both in the home and at the corporate headquarters. And let's not forget, other benefits include less pollution, reduced costs and more time with family and friends.

So What Does All This Mean?

The global pandemic has accelerated us roughly five years into the future in terms of how consumers make business decisions and purchases. We were already starting to see signs that online retail and mobile apps were the future, but now it's here, all in the space of three months! The re will be short term winners and losers in all of this, but when the dust settles and people and businesses readjust, I can see the upsides far outweighing any negatives. People will be happier, the world will be less polluted, businesses will be more efficient and technology will be leading the way.

Why EVERY Business Now NEEDS a Cool Website

Sun, 21 Jun 2020 09:48:00 GMT

Five website features to future-proof any business

Unprecedented times! How many times have you heard that phrase since the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the world and closed us down for business? It feels like a cliche saying it, but REALLY, things are never going to be the same again!

There are thousands of aspects of business owners lives that have changed since the outbreak. Entrepreneurs will need to adapt in all sectors, from the travel industry to leisure business, from sport to transport and so many more, all of which will have the Covid-19 hangover to deal with from now on.

From a marketing perspective we’ve seen a wholesale transition to a world where EVERY business now knows they need a website, and preferable a cool one. If we go into another lockdown it will be the only way to trade and nobody wants to risk that again.

So now every business knows they need to be on the web, what do they need their site to do? More importantly, how do they ensure they can still trade and rise above the competition, no matter what the world throws at us next?

"Here are the five key features to future-proof any business

and ensure they don’t fall foul of the next global pandemic!"

1. Future-proof your website. Updating a website can be time consuming and costly. Ensuring hackers are kept at bay and the technology stays up to date is key. Therefore, businesses will need to have a pro-active web designer or system that either automatically updates or uses AI technology to ensure the key messages are being delivered.  

2. Brick and mortar ONLY businesses a thing of the past. Every shop will need way of selling online using e-commerce technology. This may include delivery services too, but at the very least a click and collect function. This includes food, retail and even service based industries that will now deliver their products using website technology, like Zoom or Google Meet.  

3. Quick and easy to update. As so much more commerce will now be done online, reacting to the market quickly will be essential. Gone are the days that “Billy back bedroom” part-time web designer updates your website when he get’s around to it. Having a simple interface to do it yourself or reactive low-cost agency team to do it for you will be the norm.  

4. Artificial Intelligence. It may sound Sci-fi but cutting edge web designers have been using this tech for years to help deliver the right messages to the right customers, intelligently. Making this affordable and effective will ensure businesses gain more customers and browsers will receive messages that are of interest to them, a win, win!  

5. Social media integrates with websites. Since the lockdown some figures are telling us that social media usage is up over 25%. Gaining this engaged audience and pointing them to your website is the perfect way of reaching the right prospects and then converting them into customers on the website. Also, showing a feed of relevant social posts on a website will now be the norm in any modern business.

Websites are now recognised, even by the most traditional of businesses, as an essential part of running a company. There has never been more demand for quality, affordable websites and here at Blam Websites, we’ve never been busier and that doesn't look like it will change anytime soon.

Grant Stain, Blam CEO.

Embrace the Beauty of Technology

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 09:54:00 GMT

The way apps are helping us in the new normal

As I write this the world is starting to slowly emerge from lockdown, and as we do I can see we are witnessing and evolutionary change. There are so many things we’ve had to adapt to during the last few months that we never really believed would be necessary. For regular people like us, total lockdown in most countries of the world was something only reserved for sci-fi movies in 2019, and judging by the last few weeks it seems that most nations governments never really expected it either!

"So as we emerge into the new world of post lockdown,

one where we are still fighting the virus that threatened to set us back decades,

what has changed?"

In my line of work we “embrace the beauty of technology” (one of our core values) to help business owners become successful online. We’ve been doing this long before anyone had heard of Covid-19, but since the lockdown started our services have become a really big deal! In most cases the only opportunity businesses had to trade was to trade online, so our website and apps have gone from something people would get around to setting up “someday”, to something they had to have, and quickly!

Our team at Blam, far from being furloughed, has had to scale up and expand due to the increased demand. A.I Websites, mobile ordering apps, Google G-Suite with screen share, Zoom integration with websites and of course all of the marketing support that goes with these tools have been in high demand.

With retail, hairdressers, pubs, bars and restaurants now planning their social distancing strategy, we’re seeing another wave of business come our way. Apps that take bookings, manage orders and deal with customers questions are now flooding in to us to help maximise our clients profits within the restrictions that now apply for enclosed areas of these spaces.

Here’s my prediction…

We’re being accelerated into a way of doing business that we would have arrived at anyway, regardless of the pandemic. I’ve singled out just three industries that I believe won’t look back once they embrace the beauty of technology. There are loads more of course but we’ll start here.

Barbers

Booking your slot at the barbers using an app so you don’t have to sit and wait just makes more sense. But many barbers didn’t embrace this route prior to lockdown as, if they were busy, the incentive wasn’t there for them, or their customers, to take the initiative. Now they are being forced to use a solution like this, both customers and business owners will embrace the tech and realise it’s so much better, social distancing or not.

Pubs and bars

Ordering your round of drinks from the table using a smartphone app is a much more efficient way of doing things. No more being overlooked by the server at the bar or leaving your friends behind for ages whilst you wait for your turn. From the owners perspective, collating orders as they come in from the app is much more effective and efficient and they will be able to serve more people quicker and easier.

Gyms

Booking classes and managing personal training sessions is another obvious win for mobile app features. Managing the flow of people in and out of the gym can be easily managed through these basic functions as well as being able to notify and communicate with customers quickly and efficiently.

So businesses are starting to embrace the idea that far from being a hassle, using the tech to make more money and keep their customers loyal is a huge advantage in the post lockdown world and beyond. As customers ourselves, we will see that this new way of doing things is more convenient and saves us time, something we all need more of.

Here at Blam we originally defined our core value “Embrace the beauty of technology” over five years ago when we wrote our heart felt beliefs in the form of these values. We use this core value and the other six to guide our business, remind us what we believe in and help us make decisions. This core value has NEVER been more relevant than right now as we help small businesses around the globe find a way of trading and prospering by embracing this beautiful technology.

To find out what are other core values are take a look at them here .

What to expect next and how to prosper from it

Sun, 31 May 2020 10:33:00 GMT

Eight ways to bounce back from the coming recession

We are now officially in a “downturn in the economy”. It’s not a huge surprise to seasoned business people and economists, but how we got here so quickly is. I wrote an article last year warning and discussing the coming recession but at the time I had no idea it would be accelerated by a global pandemic, I’m not that good, lol! Lots of “experts” are predicting a global “depression” which is a more prolonged version of a recession, like the world experienced back in the 1930’s.

So now we have arrived in the “downturn” what should you expect and what can you do to protect yourself against the inevitable recession that follows the downturn that the global economy is experiencing?

Having lived through the last “big” recession of 2008, the ramifications of which carried on for years afterwards, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect as the similarities are striking, if somewhat accelerated and exaggerated. So I’m putting a few of my predictions down here to help you, based on my experience, and to watch as we navigate through the hysteria about the economy that is about to unfold.

Firstly lets get the terminology sorted out. Right now (31st May 2020) we are in an official downturn. That means we’ve had one quarter of a dip in the economy, a recession is when that happens for at least six months and a depression is a year or more. It’s pretty obvious we will see a recession, a depression will depend on how we and the governments of the world react.

The weird thing about any downturn or recession is that there is no less money in the world (sometimes there is more!) it’s the exchange or flow of money that is slowed down. This is usually caused by uncertainty in the financial markets, a big “issue” in one of the big industries like the banking or housing market (as in 2008) or something like a war. This downturn however has been caused by a global pandemic where the entire world has effectively closed for business. This is unprecedented, so we are all guessing as to what happens next. What I know is that the way in which we recover, and the speed at which we recover from this will depend largely on the zeitgeist of the world.

Confidence, creativity and positivity is the formula to success in this new economy. In the last recession, I got heavily burned and lost one business and had to make redundancies and huge cuts in another. I was ill prepared and didn’t have an immediate strategy to overcome the inevitable recession. I vowed I wouldn’t let that happen again. I studied the businesses that prospered during the recession and build my new business model around that premiss.

The new model is what has kept me busy for the last ten years and now we are in the downturn, my business has actually expanded. I fully expect this to accelerate and continue throughout the downturn, even if we do hit a depression.

Why and how?

In any given economic trading environment there is always opportunity. I saw it in the last recession. Businesses that thrived despite the doom and gloom the media kept throwing at us. Knowing that even in the worst of times there is the ability to thrive is what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wantreprenuers. That’s why when the lockdown was announced, the team at Blam went into “full on” maniac mode - the inevitable was coming and that meant opportunity. It was a massively exciting time and fuelled by adrenaline and a desperate need to help all of the businesses that were scared and unable to trade.

I instinctively new that in the period to come “most people” would hunker down and retreat. That meant there was a huge opportunity to get out there and seize the moment. We put together a campaign that allowed our Blam Partners to speak to SME’s and help them trade using our online tools, despite the turmoil around us. Remember, the money is still out there it just needs to flow and that’s what we looked at doing.

April 2020 was our best month ever!

We had lots of new partners joining us at Blam, and more than triple the number of website and app sales than in the same month in 2019. Our business is now set to exceed all targets and prosper through the coming months of uncertainty with a positive, laser focussed message.

“Businesses must Bounce Back”

And they can. Here’s some points that we know and my view on where the opportunity lies in each one.

There will be a huge economic downturn that has arrived faster than any other in history. 
That means that, like a coiled spring, there is also the opportunity to bounce back and some industries most definitely will. Make sure you are in or serving one of these industries.
There will be mass redundancies in the coming few weeks. 
Redundancies means people will get payouts and that means they will have money to spend on setting up a new businesses or spending on things to help them get back to work. How can you take advantage of this?
Most of the world’s governments will be in huge debt so taxes will go up .
When taxes go up governments begin to recover and that means they incentive new business creation with Grants and think tanks etc. Can you leverage this opportunity? 
The media will be hugely negative and cause a mass retraction .
This is always the case, however this is the first recession where we have social media influencers affecting the mood and lots of influencers are positive entrepreneurs. This could help fuel the bounce back and get things moving quickly. Is social media something you can leverage? 
Millions of businesses word wide will go bankrupt .
That means lots of debt will be written off, meaning they will have a clean sheet to start again. New business start ups from people who have been burnt in a downturn means, experienced business owners who are unlikely to make the same mistakes again. How can you help them? 
Millions of people will go bankrupt .
As above, a lot of these will be entrepreneurs. From adversity they will find opportunity. As all of this will be compressed into a very short time space, new businesses will spring up everywhere, ultimately turning the tide. How can you help them? 
Digital commerce will overtake traditional retail .
The lockdown will have taught us all how we can use online tools to buy and sell, that means for the digital space there is HUGE opportunity to prosper NOW and for the foreseeable future. 
Lots of people will talk negatively about the economy .
Meaning lots of people will let fear stop them from prospering. That means there’s opportunity for the with the courage to find the business that WILL be out there.

My overriding message to you now, if you are scared and wondering what the future holds is to seize the moment. There will never be another time like this. We have just been through and are still in the biggest transformation of the economic environment the world’s has ever seen. THERE IS HUGE OPPORTUNITY RIGHT NOW, for people with the courage and the conviction to make it happen for themselves, their families and the people they serve.

Will you look back at this moment and say, I wish I had taken action?

I know I won’t :)

To your success,

Grant, CEO, Blam

PS: I guess I have to add that all of the above is only my humble opinion and not qualified financial advice. We are all grown ups here and any actions you take are your responsibility and yours alone, so own your actions and the results that you get.

How to run your own webinar

Sun, 17 May 2020 16:59:00 GMT

Five steps to webinar success

Now more than ever, webinars are great way to show an interested audience exactly what you do and how you do it. Ever since we had a worldwide lockdown, webinar attendance and engagement has gone up as more people use online technology to showcase their business.

Here at Blam, we have upped our webinar game considerably in the last couple of months and we now run multiple webinars a week for our own new Blam Partner sales and Blam Partner education services. As this works so well for us (although we are always improving), I wanted to share what we’ve found and how you can run a webinar yourself for your business or side hustle.

1. Define what you are selling . It may sound obvious but thinking of the end result that you want to achieve for the webinar is essential to begin with. Eg. Do you want to actually make a sale at the end of the webinar, or do you want to book an appointment for the next stage of the funnel?

"Typically, for lower priced products (below $2k),

i t is possible to sell during the webinar but for higher priced offerings

the next stage would be an appointment with a specialist to close the deal."

2. Choose your platform . If you are a beginner there are plenty of options that are free such as Google Meet or Zoom. As soon as you start getting serious about webinars though, you’ll need a pro software solution that can help automate, moderate and manage your webinars more professionally. Over the years we’ve tried a few with mixed results but as someone transitioning from one of the free platforms our recommendation would be Easywebinar or Webinarjam. Both of these offer great support, relatively simple interfaces and an expandable feature set as you grow our attendee and conversion rates.

3. Content delivery . Choosing the correct way to deliver your content and how that looks can be an important element to your branding. So switching between your office/home environment and a screen share should be a consideration. What’s your home/office set up look like, and have you done a good job with your presentation slides? All of these aesthetic things go to add to the look and feel of the webinar and helps the audience see the kind of organisation or individual they are buying from.

4. Content schedule . Having the correct flow to your webinar will improve your results no end and following a basic system as follows will help:

i. Introduction: meet and greet, webinar rules, agenda with outcomes and value gained, incentivise to share.

ii. Show the problem you faced and how you overcame it. Show the common situation and your common solution.

iii. Demo or show the features of your product or service. Emphasise the value and and the problem that is overcome by using it.

vi. Show the deal/pitch/price. “Stack” the offer by showing everything that is included and why it’s such a good deal. Include exclusive “webinar only” deal - make this genuine. Offer a guarantee I you have one at this stage.

v. Q&A: Take questions and deal with them live for all the viewers. Congratulate purchasers live on air (or those that have booked an appointment.

5. Practice and record . Practice, practice and practice again then when you are ready, record a live session so you can use it for reruns or automated webinars through your chosen pro webinar system. The slicker you get, the more conversions you will make and the more success you will see.

Of course these tips are great but they are no use to you if you can't get people to attend! This would be a whole other subject to write about in itself, and there are of course a lot of variables dependent on where you are with your business and your database. However, social media, Eventbrite and Google ads are a great place to start to build an audience to begin with, coupled with a robust booking and conformation process to get more attendees to turn up.

All of this should help set you up to start hosting webinars that will grow your business and build a sustainable income. However, if you are wondering what business that will be for, why not join us on one of our webinars where we show you how you can run your now Digital Marketing agency as a Certified Blam Partner. It is of course free to attend, and we'll demonstrate how selling websites and apps to SME's from anywhere in the world can be a fantastic way of earning a sustainable recurring revenue business.

Book here: https://www.blampartners.com/partner-live-webinar

Grant Stain

CEO - Blam Websites

Important: Bounce Back Business Message

Sun, 10 May 2020 12:20:00 GMT

Now is the time for entrepreneurs to step up

Today I’m delighted to be able to launch our Business Bounce Back Bundle, Blam's response to the announcements the world over that we are relaxing some of the lockdown’s restrictions.

I for one feel passionately about building a sense of optimism, enthusiasm and a fight-back spirit within the business community. Faced with the lockdown, I know many people have felt lethargic, apathetic and scared during these unprecedented times. We’ve been faced with a situation we never imagined would happen and we should all forgive ourselves if we haven’t been as productive as we could have been during this time.

However, NOW is the time to step up. NOW is the time to take action and really get things moving.

We’ve been forced into the biggest economic slump in history in the space of six weeks! The world is in turmoil, but the business community has the power to reverse it almost as quickly as it happened. If as a community we come together with a positive BOUNCE BACK message and not let the media talk us down a spiral of negativity, we CAN get things moving again for our businesses.

We know that some businesses will not be able to survive. We know that despite the best efforts of the world governments and industries, some sectors will never be the same again. Yet, there will be many who come out of this storm with a stronger business and more rounded systems and processes than they went in with.

So today, I want to rally all of you true entrepreneurs out there.

"NO MORE APATHY, NO MORE BEING SCARED, NO MORE NEGATIVITY"

We MUST bounce back, we CAN bounce back and it’s in our hands to do so.

At Blam we’re doing everything we can to lead the way and help businesses access the tools they need to bounce back. Last month we GAVE AWAY websites and apps to any business that needed it. This month we’re selling our powerful online tools at cost to ensure the businesses that are willing to invest a small amount will get results that far exceed their investment. That means, AI websites, mobile apps and Google remarketing ads, the tools a business needs right now, at over 70% discount!

All of our army of Blam Partners are onboard to ensure we run this deal and spread this message across the globe. Press releases are primed, the team are ready, the bounce back is nigh!

So, what can you do to help with the cause? If you are already a business owner, what can your business do to push this powerful bounce back message out there, and what can you do to help others in your community? A positive message of strength, solidarity and a willingness to “do business” whatever it takes is vital. No more excuses - find a way, your livelihood depends on it.

If you are a budding entrepreneur looking to take the plunge, stop procrastinating and just do it! It will be really, really hard, but setting up a business in a recession is the best way of learning (I did), as it teaches so much more, so much quicker! The business community always benefits from the enthusiasm that new entrepreneurs bring, and we need positivity now more than ever.

Our Blam Bounce Back Business Bundle webpage is below. I would like to urge you to share the message with as many business owners as you can. True entrepreneurs must use these tools to expand not contract, use digital as a sound investment for generating new business and getting the wheels of the world economy turning.

So let’s not talk ourselves into a dark place, let’s look to a brighter future, one where we can look back and say, we stepped up, made difference and helped put the world back on its feet.

To your success and I look forward to speaking or meeting either online or offline and doing business together!

Grant Stain

CEO

Blam Websites

Seven Routine Remedies

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 12:40:00 GMT

Habits of the successful in or out of lockdown

As business owners or budding entrepreneurs problem solving is part of our DNA, so coming up with ways to stay healthy and positive when our options are limited is imperative.

As I write this article we are five weeks into the lockdown, during the Covid-19 outbreak of 2020 and we are all feeling the pressure. The uncertainty around our future is something that weighs heavily on our minds and there has never been a more important time to look after our mental and physical health.

Finding ways to keep mentally and physically fit with no imposed routine is a lot more of an effort than usual, so I’ve put together some ideas to help motivate you. These activities are just as important when you are out of lockdown too, so there’s no reason not to form these habits now that will help you for the rest of your life.

"Finding ways to keep mentally and physically fit

w ith no imposed routine is a lot more

of an effort than usual"

1. Morning Routine: I’m a big fan of the Miracle Morning*, a great series of books that advocates and teaches how you can manage a routine that sets you up for the day ahead. The “Life Savers” are the six actions to take as you awake every day and are apparently the habits of most successful entrepreneurs that they studied.

• S ilence - Meditation, prayer or focussed breathing, even for only 60 seconds will make a difference.

• A ffirmations - Define your goals and repeat them out-loud, I use an app called “Think Up” for this.

• V isualisation - Imagine yourself already having achieved this goals (vision board helps with this)

• E xercise - Get the blood following and heart rate up every day.

• R eading - Find inspiration through reading great books (like the Miracle Morning!).

• S cribing - Write in your journal, note pad your goals and important “to do’s”.

2. Find your space: I’ve written about this before but in a lockdown environment it may be challenging for you to find a space to call your own. Even if it’s temporary and makeshift, can you organise your space to feel motivating and comfortable. This can be as simple post-it notes of your goals and affirmations in your line of sight (I know Ed our Sales Director has them stuck at the bottom of his laptop screen) or even your screen saver showing your vision board. If you do have your own space, is it set up just how you like it with inspiring images, quotes, messages etc in your field of view?

3. Strength training: For the exercise part of your routine, find a way of adding resistance training to your programme. If you don’t have weights or resistance bands, press ups, squats, sit ups etc have served humanity well for centuries. In many recent studies weight training benefits us in so many ways other than just improving our strength and has proven links to longevity and increasing brain power!

4. Be focussed: It’s easy to loose focus when you are trying to work with kids playing next to you or household activities going on all around you. Wearing a pair of headphones playing relaxing, or inspiring music (I like classical guitar music for this) can have the brilliant effect of helping you focus on the important tasks as well as letting everyone around you know that you are working and are not to be disturbed. This is a trick I learnt many years ago when working on a busy office, it signals that you are busy and people around you become more considerate about interrupting you as they know it will take longer to get your attention.

5. Organise your day: Having a fixed diarised set of “success activities” in your calendar that are treated as important as an appointment with your best client. As entrepreneurs it’s so easy get distracted and pulled off course, so we need anchors in the day to help “get stuff done”. As we are our own bosses, we need to let our calendars be our boss and strictly adhere to the appointments within it. I am particularly easily distracted so have to work really hard to be accountable to my diary and form the habits that lead to success. Writing this article right now is a great example of that. Every Sunday morning my diary says 8.30am-10.30am “write blog/email”, and here it is!

6. Inspiration & learning: Finding time every day to be inspired by a motivational guru I believe is one of the most important things we can do to keep a brains healthy. Find your favourite author and spend time EVERY DAY listening to them and feeding from their wisdom. A popular app called Audible is great for listening to, meaning you can multitask or alternatively try podcast apps for tonnes of material. I listen to Grant Cardone, Dan Pena and Zig Ziggler whilst I’m working out every day, but maybe you prefer to read or do both at the same time.

7. Eat healthily: Diet has a huge impact on our mindset, especially when we see great results from an effort to improve the way we look and feel. It’s basic science and common sense that if you follow an exercise plan, eat a balanced calorie neutral diet that suits your taste and moral preference you will get results. Those results become inspiring and mentally you improve. Apps like My Fitness Pal can help you find the specifics of this and set reminders each day to track your progress.

A lot of these may seem obvious, but getting a routine that works for you is not easy. Once achieved, managing your time will be much, much easier and a clear path to success will be yours!

Here at Blam, we help our Partners and Customers every day with help, tips and advice on how to be successful entrepreneurs. Being part of community is another way of staying focussed, accountable and engaged whether it's during lockdown or not. If you'd like to find out more about us, and where we may be able to help you on your entrepreneurial journey, reach to us here to find out more.

*Miracle Morining by Hal Elrod - recommended reading or listening on audio book.

Should you make money during lockdown?

Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:38:00 GMT

Is selling now unethical?

Recently I received an email questioning "should Blam be selling so pro-actively during this lockdown period". Is this a good question? My immediate reaction was one of shock that anyone with even an ounce of entrepreneurial intent would even ask! Then, I took a step back and looked at the question from a few different angles.

Should any of us be selling pro-actively to people during the crisis? Well this all comes down to what we are selling. The truth is that if you have faith that your product or service will truly help the people that buy from you, then surely it’s your obligation to make that exchange. Meaning, providing a beneficial product or service in exchange for a fair price.

"should Blam be selling so pro-actively

during this lockdown period".

The problem comes when you don’t believe in your business model wholeheartedly. If you have a product or service that doesn’t work or isn’t great value, then you have an ethical problem. More specifically you have a fundamental business problem! It is absolutely essential that YOU believe in your business enough to want to make that fair exchange knowing both parties benefit from the trade, ie you get the money and they get the product or service.

Here in lies the problem.

How many people, work for a business

where they don’t truly believe in their product or service?

I think it’s a lot…

If you approach selling with a mindset that you are taking people’s money from them for little benefit to them then your attitude towards selling in this crisis will be even more challenged. How you justify your sales process in a the “normal” environment may now be a major problem when prospects are faced with such uncertainty.

The solution to all this is pretty obvious isn’t it?

Make sure you are in love with your product and service because you know how much benefit your prospects once they purchase from you. If you can't say that, then I'd reconsider your business model and fast!

So the reason I felt so shocked by the question is because I KNOW that every time I sell one of my products, be it a partnership programme, an app or a AI website, the prospect is getting a great deal. I am confident that they will happy with the exchange even after they have handed over their money which encourages me to be extremely pro-active during the sales process. This gives me comfort.

I can understand though, how people who don’t believe in their product being a valued investment would retract in this environment as their conscious gets the better of them.

So, when I unashamedly say to you, book a call with Ed our awesome Int. Sales Director who is sooooo passionate about our products and services he will bend over backwards to help our prospects make the right decision for them, I am totally okay with it!

Because, whether our prospects want a Blam Partnership Programme reselling Blam websites and apps, or want to work with us to help their business become successful online, we WILL try hard to sell to them.

It's our moral obligation and we KNOW they’ll be glad we did!

Thoughts for the New World

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 15:27:00 GMT

My snap-shot of suburban lockdown life

Running a business like Blam this last few weeks has been an extraordinary experience , as it has for so many other business owners all over the world. Never in human history has there been such a huge upheaval experienced unilaterally across the globe.

Right now as I write this, 9.30am 12th April 2020, we’ve been in Lockdown for 3 weeks 3 days and there is still no deadline for when we are going to be let out. The latest news tells us that the UK could be the worst effected country in Europe, a sobering thought and one that tells us we are no where near the end of this situation.

So this morning I would ask for your indulgence so I can write for the record what’s happened so far and what this experience has been like. Some of it may seem superficial, but it's how I'm seeing it as a business owner, entrepreneur and family man. More importantly I’d like to record where my thoughts are right now, and maybe engage some debate and opinion. I feel acknowledging where we are in this now, remembering it and learning from it is important, as when the lockdown is lifted things will go crazy very quickly!

What is absolutely certain is, what comes after this will be different to the way it was before, things will never be the same again…

Working from home

Before: Prior to the pandemic (it still sounds strange saying that) Blam had a policy of home working for some of the week. My feeling was that for at least two days, the team needed to be together in the office when possible to help build team spirit. I was even contemplating leasing another office nearly doubling the overhead. We’ve always done a lot of meetings online and most of our training provided to Blam Partners is via our online learning centre but we did travel to a lot to different parts of the world to meet and train Partners.

Now: We’ve used Google Meet extensively to meet online as a team daily and maintained excellent communication using our WhatsApp group. I did a survey of the team on Thursday this week asking them to score how they liked working from home and I had consistent 8’s and 9’s! Prior to this team members actively preferred to work in the offices. I am now questioning if we need an office at all? Is the new way of working remotely going to become more standard practice and accepted as the norm?

Shopping

Before: Food shopping duties were mainly taken care of by my wife and consisted of big shop once a week and the a few bits and bobs shopping throughout the week. I generally bought my own breakfast and lunch, had a lot of take-out coffee and ate out a fair bit. For clothing, most of my shopping is already bought online with the exception of shoes, my shopping vice!

Now: We have to think carefully about when, and how often we shop due to infection potential, the shops having stock on the shelves and the huge queues. It’s made me realise that eating everything in the house is nearly as expensive as eating out! Our food bill has increased a lot and we’re still getting the hang of knowing exactly what we actually really need in the fridge. Clothes shopping has now taken a back seat as not going out means there is a lot less need to buy new clothes (for now). I can now be sat in my pants on a screen share and as long as I wear a shirt no-one will no, lol!

My house

Before: This year was supposed to be the year we moved to our “forever” house. Nothing too grand, just enough to see a minor upgrade in the area we love and want to retire in. My perception of our home of the last 15 years was that it was not quiet big enough and long past an upgrade for the family.

Now: Living in the house for the last three weeks has renewed my affection for it immensely. Utilising the space effectively and appreciating the room that we have has made me acknowledge that moving house is maybe not the necessity the “rat-race” made me think it was! We’ve used the garden loads more, had BBQ’s more often, eaten together regularly, set up a gym in the conservatory, improved our office spaces for me and my wife and set up great spaces for our two children to work in. I now feel somewhat guilty that I would have complained that our house was too small when I see what some people have had to deal with in the lockdown!

Haircut

Before: My monthly trip to the barbers was always a bit of an afterthought for me, I haven’t got a lot of hair and taking time out to go to the barbers wasn’t high on my priority.

Now: I had my first lockdown haircut this morning and loved it! My wife applied the clippers all over on a number 2 setting and I am now getting into the full spirit of easter with an egg head! Best of all I’ve saved twenty quid!

Driving

Before: Driving pretty much anywhere in a city was no fun at all, sucking in fumes, sitting in traffic and playing roulette with the speed cameras,

Now: I don’t drive! Once a week, on deserted roads to drop off the shop to my quarantined parents is no hardship and other than that the cars sit on the drive. Even if I did need to add fuel to my car (electric hybrid so only uses fuel on longer trips) it’s at its lowest price for years! I saw a petrol station selling unleaded at 95p per litre yesterday!

Cycling

Before: I’m a keen cyclist but haven’t ridden on the roads for years due to the traffic and inconsiderate drivers. My cycling endeavours were all offroad and I've loved travelling far and wide to experience mountains from the top down.

Now: Cycling on the roads is an absolute pleasure. We’ve been allocated 1hr of out of house exercise a day and I have been using mine on my bike getting plenty of road miles in on deserted roads. Alas, I am no longer allowed to jump in the car and travel the 1hr drive to Cannock Chase to hammer around the woods on purpose built trails. The trip to the French Alps is now postponed and the mountain bike relegated to the garage for the foreseeable future.

The gym

Before: Although me and my family were regular gym goers and have been for years, the cost does add up. The facilities are amazing our local Virgin gym but at over £100 per month for all of us the cost is now making me consider my options.

Now: No gym fees and some creative workouts in our makeshift gym in the conservatory. All of the family are training daily and with only basic tools we are really enjoying the different workout styles we’ve concocted up. Even though my dumbbells and bench were resigned to the scrap heap a number of years ago we’ve made do with only two kettle bells and some dyno bands and don’t feel any worse off for it!

Friends and extended family

Before: We’re not the most sociable as a couple, but we have some close friends who we meet for drinks and dinner a few times a month and I meet up with mates at least once a week for a beer and a curry. We see our parents and siblings regularly and they are a big part of our lives and the children’s lives.

Now: We are Zooming our friends tonight to have a virtual night together. It’s going to be weird and I’m not sure how it will work! The socialising aspect of the lockdown is by far the most obvious hole in our lives, be it family or friends, let’s see how Zoom/Meet can make up for it! We’ve kept in touch with our parents every day via WhatsApp video, meaning that we feel like we’re staying. close even if we’re not actually with them. I’m definitely missing a beer with my dad and a cup of tea with my mom, screen shares are also a poor substitute for a hug!

Environment

Before: On a personal level, I have tried to do my bit by buying electric cars, supporting Green Peace and dipping my toe in the vegan waters. However, I’m no eco warrior and a consumer as much as the next man.

Now: Our emissions must be at an all time low from the household. The birds are singing in the garden again, there is no noise pollution outside, the air is clean and the world seems to be repairing itself. Who could have possibly thought that a microscopic organism could have inadvertently had such a positive impact on the environment. It makes you wonder which virus is worse, Covid-19 or Homo sapiens.

Stress

Before: Having a stressful job is something I am used to and for me I’ve always just accepted that that’s how it is. Rushing around, balancing work and home (usually badly) and making compromises is very stressful. I wouldn’t have questioned changing it before now though and wouldn’t have thought creatively about how I could change it.

Now: Working from home, having my family around me and getting more hours into the day due to no commuting and interruptions has reduced my stress level. I feel more relaxed than I have done for years, despite there being so many uncertainties hanging over us. I don’t know if I’m alone on this, but I’ve felt a renewed sense of purpose and focus in the last few weeks which is something I will always remember when I look back on this strange time in history.

This list could go on for ages but I'll leave it there for now. I'll have plenty more opportunities to navel gaze no doubt over the coming weeks!

In conclusion , when examining all of these aspects of our lives that have been disrupted, I believe and hope that we will all be making some wholesale changes for the better as a result of this experience. I hope our gratitude to our freedoms, families and people who serve us will all be a lot greater and the decisions that we make going forward will be shaped by this humbling experience that we never could have imagined only a couple months ago.

Lockdown lifestyle - Pros and cons

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 10:12:00 GMT

The Pros and Cons for a Small Business Owner

This has been my second full week of lockdown (three weeks for my staff) and although I feel I’m in the minority and it’s not a popular opinion, I’m actually enjoying it!*

Why do you think this is?

Here’s my take on it. I’m naturally pretty anti-social (some of you may have seen my presentation the anti-social media guide to Instagram), so in principle, working on my own is not something that fills me with anxiety, I actually don’t mind my own company. However, the most important part of working in isolation is the ability to be effective and efficient.

No commute - saving time and money
No distractions - periods of focus are increased
More time with my family - we’re all in this together

No commute: I’m getting so much done in my little “man cave” home office, I’m feeling super productive and highly motivated. This is how many small business owners work already, and in fact for many of our Blam Partners it’s business as usual for them. Saving the time of the commute and using it for planning, a workout or simply having breakfast with the family is adding over an hour of productivity to my day.

No distractions: I’m lucky enough to have a small office kitted out with a desk, my laptop, and a TV for presenting which combined with a decent WIFI signal is all I need to conduct business anywhere in the world. Even if you haven't got an office I'm sure by now you've found a space you can call your own, where you can get "stuff" done!

Anyone that wants to see this first hand how I do it, book on one of my webinars or training courses here: https://www.blampartners.com/lockdown-live-webinar

More time with my family: As a confirmed “workaholic” my family has become used to not having me around much. A sacrifice that we have all lived with knowing the alternative would mean an average business, an average lifestyle and a very grumpy and frustrated Grant! The new lockdown lifestyle however, has meant that times in-between working, breakfast, lunch and dinner for example, for a lot of us our families are “around”. That comfort of knowing they are “safe and healthy” as well as having a chat a few times a day is really nice, an unexpected pleasure for me.

So lockdown isn’t ALL bad.

  Don’t get me wrong, there are of course huge disadvantages not least of which the reason we are having to do it - a deadly virus! However there his one overwhelming factor that has made this lockdown one of the busiest periods of my working life to date. I have NEVER felt more motivated and determined in my work in all of my career. And for someone like me that is a BIG statement, I’m a very motivated person generally!  

RIGHT NOW, I know that Blam Partners have the tools that can literally save businesses and get people’s families through this chaos. Digital Lifelines, our campaign to help SME’s around the globe, is starting to get real traction. In our small way, I know Blam can help fight this deadly disease and its consequences, by scaling up the digital tools that we’ve been using for years.  

Digital technology is all a lot of businesses have to engage with during this period and having the right website, app or communication tools is vital for survival.  

I know we are already making a difference to small business owners lives and the people in lockdown that they are able to serve. Be it a food ordering app for a pub that is now closed to the public, or the ability to order your zoom party outfit online from the local fashion store, we are helping to keep business moving, and that really is a reason to be grateful.  

If you are a small business, find out more about the Digital Lifelines campaign here , or book on to one of our discovery webinars if you want to help small businesses by becoming a Blam Partner.

 To your success and I look forward to speaking or meeting when this is over!

Grant Stain

CEO

PS: *Please don’t misinterpret this as me saying the lockdown is a good thing generally, like everyone else this has taken a huge toll on my friends, family and colleagues. However, my belief is you have to work with the hand you are given, positivity is the only way.

PPS: We now have access to funding options for any UK Partners that are looking to fund their joining fee. It's part of a government backed loan scheme especially for business start ups. To find out if you qualify, reply to this email and we'll get you in touch with our agent straight away.

Small business Coronavirus survival guide

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 14:01:00 GMT

10 tools you need to grow your business in 2020

Covid-19 (Coronavirus) is causing mayhem amongst the business community worldwide and I feel desperately for all of us that are effected by it both from a health and a wealth perspective.

With face to face contact now becoming more and more limited, it seems clear that we will now see an accelerated migration to more people communicating and doing business online . Businesses that can embrace their online communication skills NOW will reach a much wider audience and find their ability to sell more online could save their business.

As someone who is a huge advocate of helping small retailers, leisure businesses and SME’s in general, access our websites, e-commerce, CRM and app systems, I think for some, there could be a silver lining to this huge cloud we are currently sat under .

All kinds of businesses will now be forced to think about how they can trade using tools that limit human contact. This presents a great opportunity for them to catch up with the competition that have already put a digital strategy in place and present their businesses to a much broader audience.

So as we look at even more reasons to become technology savvy and change the way we do business, what tools can you use to help mitigate the carnage the Coronavirus is causing small businesses?

1. Google Meet. As a Google Partner we use Google tools to help improve our efficiency and effectiveness. Google meet is really, REALLY easy to use due to not needing to download any software and working easily through the browser. Online meetings have never been easier!

2. Loom: Record video of you, your staff, your products or your desktop screen really easily and for free so you can engage easily with your customers without sitting face to face.

3. Google drive: This online suite of digital tools is ideal for small businesses as they can all be shared with anyone with an email address. Presentations, documents, images, spreadsheets and more can all be stored and managed easily with your clients and colleagues.

4. AI Website: With more business likely to be conducted online having AI built into your website is now even more important. Generating engagement with visitors with offers, location based messages, number of visits and seasonal messages means your website is working hard for you 24/7/365.

5. Mobile App: With a mobile app keeping your customers engaged and buying repeatedly due to loyalty offers and app specific content, can be done from home. This works for delivery, memberships, app specific videos and information all without the need to be face to face.

6. E-commerce: Following on from an AI Website is the ability to sell your products and services remotely and then deliver them either by carrier or via Google meetings if it’s consultancy or training. Having an easy to use and update intuitive e-commerce solution is key as small businesses can’t afford the time and effort to learn a complicated system in these challenging times.

7. WhatsApp: Nearly all of us use WhatsApp for personal conversations but using it effectively for business can be extremely powerful. WhatsApp is available in many countries around the world and can be used for text, voice or video and with the useful group functionality it means communication for general back and forth messages is instant.

8. CRM and Marketing System: Collecting data for prospects and nurturing them through an email marketing strategy has long been a way for businesses to build trust and authority with an audience. And yet there are still millions of small businesses that don’t leverage these systems to great effect.

9. Social Media Strategy: Finding an audience that engages with your business and sector has never been easier through social media posting and advertising. Combined with the variety of messaging services that accompany these platforms, communication online is easier than it has ever been, if you know how!

10. Google PPC: Driving traffic to your AI website through Google is an ideal way of getting prospects to see your stuff! Managing the campaign though takes expertise, so make sure you are partnering with a team that understands your business and your budget.

To help as much as we can we've put together a short audit to help small businesses review their digital tools and advise the best next steps. It's completely free and takes around 20 minutes via screen share.

You can book on here:

How to choose the right business opportunity

Sun, 17 Nov 2019 11:08:00 GMT

Advice for the big decision

I’ve been in the entrepreneurial learning space for a while now, helping over 300 people start their own business and advise them through the early stages. Taking that first step of STARTING A BUSINESS is the biggest decision some of us will ever make. It feels like (and usually is) a life changing moment and often people will think it over and over, analysing every aspect.

If it’s a business opportunity, like BLAM! Websites or maybe a franchise you are looking at, it’s a different process than if you are starting from scratch on your own (like I did 18 years ago!).

Analysing your business opportunity is extremely important, making sure its right for you but, if you know you want to take the plunge for sure, my advice is don’t over think it.

Let me explain.

First step is to get a short list of businesses that appeal to you. Due diligence is key prior to the final decision (not afterwards) and any reputable organisation should have a wealth of information to help you achieve this quickly. Each one of these business should have the following traits:

- A proven business model
- A long term future
- Excellent training and support

Once you have your shortlist, ask yourself these questions, and if the answer is yes to them all what are you waiting for?

1. Can your see yourself being successful, and loving running this business?

2. Do you have the funds to invest to make it happen?

3. Do you feel comfortable with the team you are looking to invest with?

This may sound like a simplified process, but in my experience these are the most important questions. If you answer yes and you still can’t pull the trigger, then being in business probably isn’t right for you right now. There are plenty of “wantrepreneurs” out there and I’ve seen hundreds who just aren’t cut out for the high levels of work, stress and resilience that are required to be super successful in business.

It all starts with taking action, making a decision and just doing it! After that, you have to get into the habit of making decisions like this often and keep pushing on and moving forward. As the old saying goes, "every journey starts with the first step" and for most of us that fist step is the most difficult.

Our aim is to help people make the right decision for them, and if you think the BLAM! Partnership is that "right decision" click here .

Grant Stain - Co-Founder, BLAM Websites Ltd

Recession is coming

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 17:40:00 GMT

How to prosper during the next recession

It’s been a great few years for the economy and business, mostly, has been booming. However, we know from history that we are due a recession and the chances are it will hit us in the next couple of years.

This will be my third , having started work in 1992, when finding a job straight out of Uni as a graphic designer was tough. I resorted to offering my services for free, along with my then state of the art Apple Mac LCII and worked my way up from there.

My second recession was the famous “Dot Com Crash” of the early 2000’s which started with the scaremongering of the “Millennium Bug”, and then continued when the economic consequences of 9-11 hit, combined with the bubble bursting on all of the big internet investments that failed.

A few more years of growth and then we saw the “biggie”, the biggest recession of all, starting in 2008 and continuing for some years there after. In some respects we are still seeing the consequences of this terrible time and for me, it was when I changed the way I ran my businesses.

I will remember 2008 for two REALLY BIG reasons!!

1. The iPhone was launched
2. The economic crash began

The iPhone launch was momentous, especially for me as the smartphone revolution has been fundamental to my business career since then. Founding one of the first UK companies that specialised in developing smart phone apps meant the iPhone has been integral to my business ever since.

The economic crash was another game changer for me. At the time I had four big brand clients that made up 90% of my business, supplying marketing services such as website, creative and branding consultancy. In 2009, when the recession really took hold, these big brands thought it was a good idea to massively cut their marketing spend! Which meant, I had to replace a large proportion of my business, and quick!

In truth, I had become disenchanted working with large corporate businesses who had little loyalty or gratitude for their suppliers, and I was looking for an excuse to change my business model. I did this by focussing my attention on small businesses . I found that they were in desperate need of our help, they were busy running their companies and had little chance keeping up with the fast moving pace of the digital marketing landscape.

The knock on effect for my business was that now I had lots of smaller clients that all relied on my business. They were grateful, less high maintenance and because I had so many, if I lost a few, it didn’t really matter that much to the business.

This is now, one of the key benefits to becoming a BLAM Partner . Our business model is based on this principle, the principle that I was forced to adopt as part of the last recession. This means, a BLAM Partner’s business is recession proof. Spreading the turnover across multiple businesses and business sectors and helping them continue to be successful.

So as we look at the coming recession, I have to admit I’m feeling optimistic. I know small businesses will need our services and products more than ever, and the more entrepreneurs we can help, the easier the recession will be for us all.

Find out more about the BLAM Partnership Programme here , supply websites, apps and digital marketing services to small businesses around the globe.

Why Your Website Needs a Lead Magnet

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 19:19:00 GMT

How to gain more leads from your on-site visitors

I’ll bet you’ve done more than a dozen times? You know, been on a website and filled out a form in exchange for that “important” PDF that will solve all of your problems quickly. These “lead magnets” are designed to build trust and are so much more effective than the conventional “join our mailing list” style messages. If the business is doing a good job, you’ll then be given the opportunity to purchase from them with their follow up email campaign. We call this next step the "trip wire offer".

All of these tools are part of what we call the “Customer Value Journey” (CVJ), the process we use in marketing to map out the journey a prospect goes on when they become aware of a business for the first time. This journey always goes through the same stages and, when understood, can be the foundation of all of your marketing activity. It's fascinating to learn that the CVJ mirrors closely the journey we go on with any human relationship, from awareness to advocate or first eye contact to marriage.

The CVJ starts with the awareness stage, and often, this means the prospect sees some form of advertising, Google search or social post that sparks their interest. This then leads to the engagement stage where the prospect begins to assess whether they want find out more and start a conversation or undertake further information gathering on the business.

Then we get to the lead magnet. If the prospect is engaged with the website, they are likely to want to have a problem solved that is relevant to them, right there and then. It’s likely the main reason the prospect landed on the website in the first place. Therefore, a great lead magnet would offer to solve that problem quickly and easily, in exchange for an email address (and sometimes a few more details such as name and telephone number).

Effective lead magnets are marketing gold and the internet is full of examples that prove that when we get this right, the results can be amazing.

There are few things to consider before embarking on creating lead magnet, most important of which is knowing exactly who the customer is . We do this by creating a customer avatar. This process helps us understand our ideal customer intimately and allows us to put ourselves in their shoes in order to determine the problem that they need to solve with the core offer we are selling.

To help you produce a lead magnet yourself, we’ve put together a quick guide that talks you through the process step by step. This means you can produce a lead magnet from start to finish in less than an hour! It is accompanied by a “Lead Magnet Ideas Cheat Sheet” to help you build effective lead magnets to help you get loads ore leads.

The cheat sheet can be downloaded here , if you need further help just reach out through the website to have a chat .

Caught you looking! 👀

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 12:56:00 GMT

For all the day dreamers...

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It's okay...I caught you daydreaming this morning, when you stared out of the office window, watching people go about their business on the streets below.

Why do people go for a run at 10 am in the morning? Don't they have jobs to go to? Maybe not, maybe...wait, what? �55357;�56876; Oh sh**, better look like I'm busy in case someone notices.

Recognise this? If that's you, maybe running a business is not for you. Maybe you think it is, you may have explored some ideas, looked at some franchise opportunities. But your confidence is low because the mediocre environment of your current workplace is dragging you down. Your boss is making you feel anxious and you just want to go back home and go to bed to watch homes under the hammer.

"Being in business for your self and by yourself is one of the biggest but most rewarding decisions you'll ever make"

Starting your own business. �55358;�56596; Hmm..Is this really something for you? It might be, but then it might not. You see, just about turning up on time in the morning isn't an option and leaving the office at 5:30 pm is certainly not...

Being in business for your self and by yourself is one of the biggest but most rewarding decisions you'll ever make. Sure, it requires extraordinary effort to achieve the extraordinary. (Sorry, the cliche is intended)

But what if it is for you. At least you can stop dreaming and say you’ve had a go. You can always go back to that sh** job… From now on, you’ll be a part of that special club of people that get to decide what to do and when to do it. On their OWN terms. Your outlook on life will dramatically change when you decide to do what YOU want to do, not because what anyone else may think you should do, or what your boss wants you to do. Your happiness is a choice.

Invest in you

Do it! Just do it...Because it's your decision. Invest in you. Your BEST you, All of you, All IN.

Click the link below to enquire about starting your own business with the fastest growing digital marketing business opportunity in the world.

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How to Achieve Business Success

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 13:29:00 GMT

I want to talk to you about a really, really important subject - it's about taking action it's a subject really close to my heart because I know that taking action is at the absolute core of what helps us all be successful. In our businesses, the actions that we take is what will lead us on to gain success, so I want to give you some tips today that you can use to make sure that first of all, you're taking enough action and secondly that it's the right kind of action.
Make Sacrifices and Take Action Let's look at taking action in terms of the quantity, every single successful entrepreneur and successful business owner that I've met takes a massive amount of action. I would go as far to say they're all pretty much maniacs because they're on it 24/7.
My observation is that if you want to be successful in business you have to work like a maniac and that means that you've got to make sacrifices. That means that you have to sacrifice go to the pub maybe playing that round of golf for the weekend or watching Netflix, whatever it is, more time needs to be dedicated to growing your business than to your leisure. There's all sorts of stuff out there you know like the 4-hour work week mentality and you know “work-life balance” and all of that nonsense - I've never met a super successful entrepreneur that thinks that they need a work-life balance because work to them is fun, it's exciting, it's what they love doing and a work-life balance really work his life and that's what makes them so super successful. Consider this - how much work are you really doing? Is it enough to get you to where you need to be?
Be Efficient The second tip that is that the way in which you undertake that work must be in an efficient way. It will elevate the results that you get from those actions so be effective, and efficient in the way that you put your actions down so in other words the work that you do needs to be done in an effective way. Now, a typical example of this would be using social media - when you’re working on social media for your business, how often do you find that you get sucked into the feed and you end up swiping or scrolling looking at all the different posts when you started with the intention of using it for some form of business activity like doing a post or researching? Before you know it minutes if not hours have been sucked into that social media feed. You've got to be really, really aware of being efficient and effective with your time because it is going to lead you to super success and the results that you want; you’ve got to be really strict with the way that you use your time. Social media is a key example but there's plenty of others time-wasters; Being on the phone, having meetings that aren't really necessary, spending an unnecessary amount of time with friends and family. I don’t mean that you should cut it all out completely but you will need to make choices for your business and those choices are going to help you get to that super success. If your friends and family love you, they'll understand that every now and again you’re going to have to make sacrifices in order for you to get to where you want to be.
Learn From the Best One trait that I have noticed with all super successful people is if I send them a text message or I give them a call, they either respond within the first few minutes of me sending a text message or I can be absolutely guaranteed whatever it is that they're doing, they'll get back to me as quickly as they can. It's not just me that they do that with, they do that to all the people in their network because they're taking massive amounts action all of the time - they're being effective and efficient with their time, so that ensures they get lots of important things done quickly, which means they can respond to me and all the other people that they've got in their lives. They tie it down to the finer details. I once had a meeting booked, a telephone call, with a super successful off-the-charts entrepreneur, and the time was booked for the telephone call at four twenty-two in the afternoon and that demonstrates how valuable his time is because he breaks it down to the minute and he was waiting there, immediately after I dialled the number at exactly four twenty-two in the afternoon he picked up the phone straight away and said “Hey Grant”.
Super successful people operate super efficiently.
We need to look at this, observe it and emulate it because super success is what we're after, so think about your actions, think about how much action you are taking, and think about the efficiency of that action. What can you change in your routine to make it more efficient?

7 Tips for Business Networking

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:50:00 GMT

There is an etiquette behind business networking, but with this advice you will be able to make the most out of your networking, and benefit your business.

Tip 1 - Choose the Right Networking Event

The networking events that you have to pay for to go and attend their meetings are the ones that have the best quality of people because the people there that have all invested money in order to attend.
Decision makers as well as people that are higher up in the organizations are generally the ones in attendance, which is ideal because they can help you get referrals from with other decision-makers within their personal network.
I would say as a general rule, the more money that you invest to attend the networking event or group the better chance you're going to get a getting top quality business from it.
Tip 2 - Dress to Impress
First impressions are really important because when you go networking because people are going to judge you based on the way that you look.
Try to think about what your dress and grooming says about you and how you would like to be perceived.
If you turn up scruffy or inappropriately dressed for the occasion (especially if you are under-dressed), the people at the event may not take you seriously because you don’t look like you are there to do business.
On the other hand, if you dress nicely, you can be endearing and build trust within people without even having to speak!
Tip 3 - Ask Questions
Your objective whilst you’re in there to get referrals that is the purpose of going networking it's not to try and get business directly whilst you're at the networking events.
To do this you can ask questions, it’s a great way of finding out about people's business and then they'll ask you questions in return and you can both see how you can help each other get referrals and get more business and who you might know that can help them and vice versa.
You are both there to help each other with your businesses, so if you initiate the conversation by listening to them and asking questions, the other person will be really appreciative and will want to help you out.
Tip 4 - Do Not Pitch
Do not pitch at a networking event!
Trying to sell is such a rookie mistake and we see it happen all the time. They get carried away when talking about their business and go into a sales pitch - this is not good networking practice.
Your objective is to get referrals and build your network, like it was mentioned in tip 3.
It may be a beginner’s mistake but it is super vital you practice talking about your business without trying to make a sale, because if you go into a sales pitch with the people at the networking event, you might not get invited back!
Tip 5 - Work the Room
When you walk into a room full of people you don’t know, you can tend to cling to the first person you get to know, or perhaps you know somebody in the room and chatting to them the whole night feels safe.
It’s difficult to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but it is the best thing to do is to try and meet as many people as possible.
This will give you the opportunity to make the most out of the event by building as many relationships as possible, getting referrals and lots of contacts.
This also works vise-versa, people might try to cling to you so developing the skill of politely excusing yourself from conversations will definitely be useful!
Tip 6 - Practice Your Story
When you meet somebody at a networking event the first thing that they're going to ask you is what you do and the way you answer is really important.
A lot of networking events that you go to will give you the opportunity to do a 30-second pitch. This pitch is all about your story; remember WHY, WHO, HOW - WHY do you do what you do, WHO you help, and HOW you help them.
Rehearsing what you want to say beforehand will really help, because when the time arrives, you will be calm, collected, and most importantly, professional.
Tip 7 - Follow Up
When you go to a networking event quite often you'll get given the details of all the people in the room or you will come back with a load of business cards in your pocket.
Whilst you are at the event try to get some one-to-one meetings with the like-minded people who are also there to see whether they can help you or you can help them.
If you're if you're savvy on LinkedIn you can actually do a search for people that are in your area using the LinkedIn app and that means that everybody at the networking event who's got on LinkedIn will be able to connect with you.
After the event follow up with the people you’ve connected with, preferably as soon as possible.
We’re all human, and sometimes we can be forgetful, so following up with people will remind them of the conversation you had at the event, and then you can both hand over the referrals and build your relationship with them.
What you're looking for is if you can offer them referrals and if they can offer you referrals because a referral is a warm lead and we want as many warm leads as we can get.
Watch the video here Join BLAM! Academy for FREE to receive useful, relevant business resources which will make you into a better business person!

Cyber threats to the Manufacturing Industry

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 09:30:00 GMT

After the healthcare sector, manufacturing is the second most vulnerable industry for cyber attacks.
The main reason for this position being given to these particular sectors is because of their refusal to invest in better and stronger technology to prevent cyber threats.
A look at the past year confirms the fact that cyber threats have become a menace to the manufacturing industry. According to recent studies, these threats are causing huge losses in this sector.
Cyber threats have always been a cause of concern for computers, smartphones, and networks. Today their targets even include power grids, humans, cars and sometimes even railways and planes.
The technological advancement in the industrial sector is unprecedented. Along with this advancement comes the use of various software. While these applications are definitely helpful, they can also open up a huge trunk of information for the cyber thieves.
A slow realisation is creeping into the manufacturing sector. A recent study revealed that they have started to increase their spending on defensive software against cyber attacks. So, what are the threats the manufacturing industry is facing today?
IoT
A fresh weapon - Mirai botnet - made its way into TV reports in 2016 because it successfully conducted the largest cyber attack. Many well-known giants including Reddit, Netflix, and Twitter were at risk.
Mirai botnet achieved a distinction from others by making use of the IoT devices. Since many of the IoT devices have easily hackable passwords and are used by a large number of people, the Mirai botnet had an easy time in getting access to the information.
IoT’s have a very open system and the cost of a cyber attack can be huge. Manufacturers must make sure that the product design has all the necessary security measures.
IP theft
There have been more and more cases of IP theft being reported in the past few years. Techniques of social engineering are used by the cyber attackers. The using these techniques means that the employees of a company are the most vulnerable victims.
Cyber attackers can easily find a way around the old network security defences by using social media or by sending mail from personal addresses.
Admin position can be obtained by posing as a superior or even blackmailing the particular employee.
To tackle this, they need to start from the corporate network and then spread to other areas. The employees should also be provided with adequate training about the kinds of threats they are exposed to.
Lack of skilled labour
When you see the increasing amount of cyber attacks and the number of professionals able to tackle the situation, there is an imbalance. The manufacturing industry has a severe shortage of skilled cyber professionals.
With these threats looming over their heads, the manufacturing industry is not in a position to handle this shortage. The aim is to hire those who have good qualifications, like the CISSP (gold standard).
If you have all the security measures ready but you do not have a professional to help, then, sorry to say it, you are doomed.
Keeping in mind everything we’ve said, it is clearly necessary that the manufacturing industry invests some time and money into cyber security issues.

What Does 5G Mean for Our Future?

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 09:16:00 GMT

5G and marketing
In June 2018, the association which overlooks the standards for wireless networks approved the global technology specifications for 5G.
This had a domino effect of making the largest telecom providers, as well as wireless service providers, begin their initial deployments
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have all begun rolling out their own “5G networks” in 2019.
What this means is that 5G has become a reality in 2019. Nationwide coverage should be complete within the first half of 2019.
What does this mean for marketing?
Before we look at marketing, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of 5G.
Benefits of 5G
The most exciting promise that 5G offers to consumers and businesses is it’s blazing fast speeds.
5G is expected to push mobile speeds from 100 Mbps all the way up to 10Gps and beyond.
This will give fibre-optic wired networks a run for their money.
The upgrade from 3G to 4G LTE facilitated the rise of many apps which are video-heavy such as Snapchat, Instagram and so on.
Similarly, the rise of 5G will bring with it new opportunities in digital media and consumer technology.
Streaming 4K and maybe even 8K is a no-brainer.
However, what’s even more exciting is the high-quality AR and VR content that will be possible with the new network. There are plenty of other benefits to 5G. However, let’s stick to these right now and move onto 5G and marketing.

Here’s how 5G will affect marketing While nationwide coverage will be complete within the first half of 2019, that doesn’t mean that adoption will be quick. As a result of this, marketing implications will only be able to be felt in a couple of years.
5G will result in more cable subscribers saying goodbye to cable companies.
As more people switch to 5G services, there will be a shift in TV viewership as well as ad spend.
5G will also bring about new media channels as well as ad formats. This is because 5G is perfect for AR/VR devices.
There are limitless possibilities for AR services, VR experiences and enhanced 360 videos when it comes to 5G. In addition to this, a 5G powered future could, in theory, give brand marketers insight to optimize campaigns in real-time. However, data privacy will need to be taken into account before that happens.
5G will also give brands different ways to reach out to their customers through new IoT services.
For example, autonomous cars will be able to give users new media as well as service opportunities which other non-car brands will be able to analyze and crunch in order to innovate their marketing campaigns.
This could be anything from turning self-driving cars into dining rooms to retail stores in autonomous cars. The possibilities are endless.
However, one thing that is needed for all of these opportunities to materialize is a stable 5G network. 5G promises big things for everyone involved and that’s what makes it an exciting prospect.

What to do when life throws you a curveball

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 09:22:00 GMT

In business, and the same applies in life in general, we are always going to get things that will throw us a curveball. We are always going to get things that are unexpected and that force us to get creative and to work hard if we want to get over those obstacles.
The important thing to know is that if you persevere and you keep pushing forward, you will get past the curveballs, but if you make excuses as to why you can’t get stuff done and you complain and you moan, you’re going to end up giving up.
Your attitude has a direct impact on how you deal with curveballs
You need to know that these obstacles are going to happen, life is going to throw these things at you and it’s how you deal with them, and how you can take a positive spin on them that can make all the difference. Having that positive attitude knowing that they’re going to happen, and being creative in ways of getting around them is what it’s all about, which is exactly what I talk about in this video .
Sometimes it can feel almost impossible to stay positive. By preparing in advance, using tools to help influence your mindset, you can keep pushing forward. Perseverance. Motivation. You can do it.
The most successful people deal with curve balls
In the words of Richard Branson , “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again” - Branson has had many curve balls thrown his way, Virgin Atlantic Airlines almost didn’t launch because a flock of birds destroyed an engine on the plane during a test flight, which cost Branson major bucks to fix.
Steve Jobs famously said “I think the things you regret most in life are the things you didn’t do.” - if you give up at the first obstacle, you will never know what you could have become. You could have been the next Steve Jobs!
“Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.” - Gary Vaynerchuk is very well aware of the need to “hustle”, ie to work hard through difficulties, and puts his success down to his hard work.
How to deal with curveballs, step-by-step

Identify the problem - This might sound stupid, but if you don’t clearly identify the problem, it is more likely to overwhelm you.

Assess what you can do about the problem - Is it something you can deal with straight-away? Or is it a problem that is a little more long-term?

Plan how you will deal with the problem - The bigger the curve ball, the more time you need to spend on this. Create a mind map of things you can do to solve the problem, then write out your plan of action.

Remember to be positive - If you are negative, you will reduce your own chances of success. Staying positive can take a lot of motivation , but it will improve your work and make your life happier.

Now deal with the problem! Whatever you put in your action plan, you need to carry it through! You can do it, so be confident in your abilities.

How can you avoid problems, and face problems more efficiently
Problems will always crop up throughout life, but you can avoid certain problems by having knowledge and foresight. Knowledge will also help you to deal with problems more efficiently, because you will know what to do in each situation.
How do you improve your business knowledge?
Join BLAM! Academy for FREE to receive useful, relevant business resources which will make you into a better business person!

Entrepreneurs Need To Be Held Accountable For 5 Business Necessities

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 11:25:00 GMT

Accountability partnerships fail over a lack of strategy.

Holding each other accountable sounds like a great idea, but if you don’t know what you’re holding each other accountable for the partnership doesn’t work. To create an accountability partnership that grows your business, you need to:

Identify the direction you’re taking your business
Remove “overwhelmed” from your list of commonly felt emotions
Stop procrastinating and start scheduling
Keep learning new personal and business growth strategies
Find the person who believes in hard work and persistence just as much as you do

Your accountability partner needs to hold you accountable for these five business necessities. Your business needs direction. What are your three main goals right now? Do you want to:

Acquire five new leads per week through cold calls
Build a referral network
Use Instagram to increase your lead generation
Etc.

To be held accountable, you need to know what you are accountable for. In this case, you are accountable for:

Calling X amount of people so you can acquire 5 new leads per week
Increasing the amount of people in your network who can refer you to new customers
Interact with X Instagram accounts a day to increase lead generation

Set your goals and have your accountability partner hold you to them. Then, reverse engineer the daily action that lets you achieve them.
Your business needs you not to feel overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed is looking at the big picture and thinking, “How am I ever going to climb this mountain?”. In business, this is the wrong perspective. Instead, look for the path that helps you climb the mountain the fastest. Taking a page from Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, you want to reverse engineer your big business goals into every day actions.
To be held accountable, you need to know what you’re accountable for spending your time on. Climbing a mountain is putting one foot in front of the other and the same applies to business. How can you get one step closer to your metaphorical summit? For example, reverse engineering the goal of using Instagram for lead generation looks like this:

Choose the call-to-action that you want your Instagram leads to take
Define your avatar’s pain points
Choose how you’re going to showcase your credibility to solve the pain point
Write a DM that has this pain point, credibility, and call-to-action
Find the top ten hashtags in your industry
Search each hashtag and save the top nine posts from each hashtag in a “Collection” (total of 90 posts)
Go into your Collection and send this message to each of the accounts that posted the relevant hashtag
Repeat daily or have a VA do this

Have your accountability partner hold you to the daily tasks that bring you closer to your summit. Then, make sure you’re prepared to get them done on time by using Jack Dorsey’s prioritization strategy.
Your business needs you to stop procrastinating. Jack Dorsey , founder of Twitter, ends each day by writing down the most important tasks he needs to accomplish the next day. This is a similar strategy to the Ivy Lee Method , where you write down the six most important tasks that need to be accomplished and work on them in order of priority. Your tasks are going to be the reverse engineered steps of your big picture goal. Let’s say your goal is to message ninety people on Instagram a day and you have a week to get this done in addition to your other work. This means that your week looks like this:

Monday: Define your avatar’s pain point, how you want to showcase your credibility, and what the call-to-action of your Instagram message will be
Tuesday: Write a DM template that you’ll copy and paste as a direct message to Instagram users that fit your avatar
Wednesday: Find the top ten hashtags in your industry and then save the top nine posts from each hashtag in a “Collection”, then copy and paste your DM to each of the accounts that published this photo
Thursday: Repeat the step above daily, or hire a VA, or sign up for a bot service. Answer all DM’s that reply.

Give your accountability partner access to your list of prioritized tasks and when they need to be completed by for you to hit your targets. Then, hold each other accountable to these lists in a way that both of you can see if the other is on track or not. Now that your business goals are defined, prioritized, and scheduled, we’re going to put your business to the side and have you be held accountable to your own growth.
Your business needs you to keep learning. If you’re not learning, you’re not innovating. Just like your business goals, you can reverse engineer your learning goals down to daily action that helps you stay on top of your industry. For example, let’s say your learning goals are to read more personal development and business books. Choose five books that you’d like to read and start reading one chapter a day, every day. If each book has an average of ten chapters, you’ll have read five books in a little over six weeks. Have your accountability partner read the same books on the same schedule as you. At the end of each chapter, send each other your biggest takeaway, holding each other accountable for keeping up the pace of a chapter a day.
Your business needs you to stay persistent. The romance of entrepreneurship can wear off quickly. if it was easy, everyone would do it. Entrepreneurship isn’t an easy journey and it’s designed for one type of person, individuals who are relentlessly persistent.

The entrepreneur who keeps picking up the phone after being rejected ten times in a row is the one who lands clients.
The entrepreneur who goes to networking events every week, even if it means pulling a ten hour day, is the one who scales.
The entrepreneur who spends their time on social media engaging with other accounts in their niche is the one who gets 100,000+ followers.

The relentlessly persistent entrepreneur is the one who breaks out of the system and changes their life. They’re the one who hits six-figures, celebrates their victory, and then gets back to work so they can hit seven-figures. Your accountability partner shouldn’t just hold you to working hard, they should be there with you, grinding next to you as you pick up the phone for a cold call for the fifteenth time that day. They can’t accept, “I was tired.” or “I need a break.” as an excuse. Persistence is the line between the businesses that make it and the businesses that call it quits. The accountability partner that pushes you to keep going during the long days is the one that will change your business and your life. If you can’t secure an accountability partner, the BLAM!-Ability app will be the force you need to make business magic happen. List your daily tasks, targets, and systems and the app will tell you if you’re going to hit your targets or not. If you don’t hit your targets and don’t open the app, you’ll be locked out of it. It sounds harsh, but this is how accountability succeeds, and we want you to succeed. This app is only for business owners who want to make money, achieve their goals and run a successful business. How do we ensure you pull that off? By creating habits that make business magic through a (strong) push in the right direction. You can start your free trial as a BLAM! Academy ELITE member here

Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 10:11:00 GMT

The Key Takeaways

Here at BLAM!, we are strong advocates for lifelong learning. We believe that in today’s digital era, continuous learning is a necessity for growth. One great way to achieve that is by attending events and conferences like the Traffic & Conversion Summit organised by our partners, DigitalMarketer.

This year’s T&C Summit has been incredible as my team and I have not only learned a lot, but also made meaningful connections with other participants and speakers.

Today I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite takeaways from the T&C Summit 2019 which I believe can help you and your business become more successful.

Frank Kern delivered a wonderful presentation talking about Facebook and how we can leverage it to grow our business by making sales and building customers. The key takeaway from Frank’s speech, in my opinion, is not to expect immediate results such as direct sales when we run a Facebook campaign, but rather think about the long-term benefits that occur from a set of promotions. According to him, the majority of your audience will not take immediate action as a result of a single Facebook campaign - instead, you will need to start building trust with these people by giving them value on an ongoing basis. Doing so will start leading to long-term benefits, just as I explain in my recent video .
Dean Graziosi gave another simple yet powerful message which absolutely resonates with me, not to be scared to try and sell to somebody! According to Dean, it is our total mission as entrepreneurs to use our passion and enthusiasm to try and get people to buy from us if we think that people will get real value from our products. I couldn’t agree more with this statement, as I feel exactly the same about our BLAM! websites. I know that small businesses are going to benefit greatly from owning our products and therefore I feel it is my obligation to try and sell to as many small businesses as possible in order to help them compete in today’s competitive environment.

These were my two main takeaways from T&C Summit that I wanted to talk to you about. I hope you feel that passion for what you do, know that you are doing good, and start employing these tactics consistently in your business.

One Simple Way to Generate Leads

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 17:30:00 GMT

Today I’m going to talk about a simple yet effective way to generate thousands of leads within your business, ongoing.

Personally, I’ve been using this method in my business for the last 8 or 9 years and I still stand by it to this day. I honestly believe this simple formula is the foundation of my success.

The formula suggests to simply talk to as many people as possible . Seems pretty basic, right? In reality, though, you’d be surprised to know how many of us neglect the power of talking . I’m sure you’ve done it too!

The logic behind this is pretty straightforward. Talking to as many people as possible allows you to build meaningful relationships . Relationships, in turn, create opportunities and finally, opportunities lead to sales .

Here at BLAM!, we have a saying that “ if you’re at arm’s length away from somebody, you strike a conversation ”. I explain that in more detail in my recent video .

When you start communicating with someone, it is very likely to discover that they actually want to do business with you or that they know someone who might be interested in your products and services. You never know unless you try!

I urge you to start talking to as many people as possible at every opportunity you get, follow them up and build those relationships. Eventually, you’ll see that they’re going to start leading to more and more sales for your business!

Develop Discipline & Achieve Your Goals!

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 10:26:00 GMT

“ Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. ” -- Jim Rohn

Being self-disciplined is one of the most important traits of being an entrepreneur. Especially for those of you who are just starting out in business, discipline really is the key to accomplishing your goals and bringing results to your new endeavour.

I’m sure that since you’ve taken the decision to start a business, you are working hard for it, but just think for a moment -- are you choosing to do the things that are most productive?

Blame our human nature, but most of us tend to avoid doing things that seem hard or are out of our comfort zone.

One great example of that is cold calling. Most people avoid cold calling because of their fear of rejection, even though they know that it is one of the best proven methods to generate leads for a startup business.

If there are things in your business you think you should be doing but instead, you end up putting on the back burner, just know that it is never too late to start practising self-discipline. Simply start by making small commitments to yourself and sticking to them, just like I explain in this video.

Promise yourself that you are going to do it and keep your word . Personally, I prefer adding each commitment to my calendar along with a designated time slot so that they become part of my daily schedule. This way, I am much more likely to stay on track.

I’m sure that if you follow my advice, you are more than likely to succeed!

P.S. If you have any questions about how I maintain my discipline, don’t hesitate to get in touch on our social media.

Creating an Inspiring Workspace

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:35:00 GMT

Let’s talk about something really important for our day to day work life which we often forget about; space.

As you probably know, surroundings can have a big impact on your mood, emotions, and ultimately your productivity. As entrepreneurs, it is important that we surround ourselves with a space that inspires and motivates us to go to work every day and give our best.

Other than our own emotions, however, our workspace can influence the way others perceive us, our business and brand. Therefore, a work environment should represent the image that we want to portray and at the same time communicate our main brand values.

Things like your desk, the way that you’re positioned, decorations, lighting, the kind of music that you’ve got playing or even the scents can affect us in different ways. Personally, I have chosen to decorate my own office with things that motivate me, just as I show you in this video .

If you find yourself dreading going to work, some simple alterations to make your space feel “yours” can affect your frame of mind. Especially if they include things that have meaning and touch you in a positive way. Look for vision boards, inspiring quotes, images of dream holiday destinations, etc.

Give some thought to the environment that you work in and ask yourself the question “Is this the kind of environment that’s going to make me feel inspired and enable me to take my business to the next level?”.

I’d love to hear your comments on how you’ve designed your own workspace, what kind of things you’ve got on the walls and what motivates you in your daily work life!

Goal Setting - 3 THINGS You Can Do to ACHIEVE Your Goals!

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 09:00:00 GMT

I know that in January all you read about is goal setting. However, everyone tends to focus on yearly goals and resolutions, which are definitely important, and end up forgetting all about weekly micro goals and targets.

Weekly goals and targets are simply your long-term goals broken down into everyday mini-goals or mini-milestones. They are the actual action plan that you need to follow if you want to achieve your bigger objectives.

Having weekly goals and targets in place is important for any kind of business as they provide a clear direction for everyone in the business and help teams work together more effectively.

Nevertheless, there are cases of businesses with clearly set out weekly goals and targets that still end up failing to hit them. That can be down to a number of different reasons.

In my experience, there are three main steps to follow if you want to achieve your goals without fail, just as I explain in this video.

Set out your weekly goals and targets . Break down your yearly objectives into smaller parts and create a weekly plan. Make sure you communicate that with your team and anyone else you work with, such as freelancers and contractors, as it is important that you all work towards the same targets.
Work like a maniac . The reason most start-up businesses end up failing usually revolves around work ethic. If you are a new business owner, make sure you are working around the clock. Flexibility and money will come later, but only if you put the hours in!
Make your business your number 1 priority . Don’t procrastinate by doing other things that are not as important. Focus on hitting your weekly goals and don’t give up until they are hit every week. The first couple of years of running a business are absolutely crucial for its future so make sure that your business remains your top priority.

I’m sure that if you follow my advice, you are more than likely to succeed!

P.S. If you have any questions about the goal-setting process, don’t hesitate to drop me a line or DM me on instagram .

Master the cold call in 5 minutes

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 09:52:00 GMT

Are you one of those people who hate cold calling? Don’t worry if the answer is ‘yes’ - in fact, about 90% of us hate it also.

The reason most commonly being the fear of rejection, fear of failure, and worrying about the outcome. What happens next, in most cases, is that we end up procrastinating by putting cold calling off indefinitely.

However, I’ve been doing this for years and I know for a fact that cold calling is one of the most successful and efficient ways to generate sales within your business.

So today I thought I’d share with you my own proven method of making cold calls. Hopefully, this will help you feel more confident and allow you to generate appointments for your business with ease.

The hook point . Our number one priority when starting a cold call is to grab the prospect’s attention. This needs to happen within the first couple of seconds. Starting to pitch right away is wrong as the prospect will see that as another sales call. There are many ways in which you can grab their attention, just as I explain in this video .
Create Value . After you’ve grabbed the prospect’s attention, prepare to give them something of real value. Offer them something that is a complete no-brainer. In my business, for example, we offer free marketing audits which works perfectly by getting us the desired appointments.
Create Scarcity . Make the prospect understand that your time is limited and that you only have a few spaces available for an appointment. It is very important that they perceive you as a busy professional because then they are less likely to waste your time by not showing up to a scheduled appointment.

If you’d like to hear the exact pitch I use for cold calling, just click here to watch my latest video .

Hope that helps!

Do You Have A Promotional Strategy?

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 09:22:00 GMT

Black Friday was only a few days ago and it’s got me thinking about promotional strategies and the fact that so many businesses actually haven’t got one in place...

I know that when we first get started in business we get caught up with so many different things that we often neglect to put a proper promotional strategy in place. Instead, we end up running campaigns on an ad-hoc basis which, in most cases, doesn’t get us the expected results.

Having a strategy in place for at least 6 months in advance is very important. A pre-planned strategy provides a clear direction for your whole business. All your marketing efforts, both digital and traditional, can focus on the same goals and your whole team can be on the same page.

If you’re uncertain of the kind of campaigns you could pre-schedule, just think of all the events and seasonal activities that are around us. Take advantage of holidays such as Christmas, Easter, New Year’s, Valentines, and so on, and build promotional campaigns around those events.

Being noisy during key occasions throughout the year is what’s going to spark your prospects’ interest and really make them notice you. For us, Black Friday is our top promotional activity of the year, just as I explain in this video .

As a matter of fact, now is the perfect time of year to start planning your promotional strategy for 2019. Give it a try and I’m sure you’ll see some amazing results!

Small Business Superpowers

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 18:06:00 GMT

New York Blog

Every day I come across small business owners who are struggling with the immeasurable speed that digital marketing is growing at the moment. This is an immensely frustrating situation for businesses owners to be in. Digital marketing should make our lives easier, not harder, and new entrepreneurs, in particular, should use it as an advantage to be able to grow quickly and compete with the larger brands.

Therefore, my team and I decided to tackle this problem and make it our mission to double the size of 10,000 businesses across the world. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to complete that mission. For this reason, we have recently started travelling the world, giving BLAM! Academy Live training sessions, in an attempt to educate small businesses on how to best utilise all the latest digital marketing tools available.

Our first stop has been New York which, I can safely say, has been a total blast! The result was better than expected as you can see by watching our New York vlog here . Having the opportunity to meet so many of you and share my experience has been truly inspiring. I just want to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of the incredible entrepreneurs who joined us in New York - I cannot wait to see the magic you each create in your business!

If you are a small business owner feeling that digital marketing is moving faster than you can handle, don’t be left behind! Follow our journey around the world to learn all the latest proven marketing strategies and get small business superpowers.

I look forward to our next stop, South Africa, in December and hope to meet you there!

Startup Basics: Do You Have A Business Forecast?

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 12:28:00 GMT

As you probably know already, in my line of work I get to meet a lot of new entrepreneurs and train them on how to grow a successful business. Today I thought I’d talk about one of their most common concerns, the business forecast .

Unfortunately, the majority of us don’t put a business plan or a forecast in place when we first get started in business. That is mainly because we are so eager to get results quickly that we completely neglect proper business planning . And I’m not going to lie - that initial enthusiasm actually does get us results in the early days in most cases, but those results are not sustainable without a forecast that’s able to give us a clear direction.

As a result, we end up getting demotivated and our business ends up failing!

To avoid that, I recommend setting up a 3-year business plan . Try and calculate what your monthly, quarterly, and annual earnings could be and save all that on a spreadsheet. After that, you can start registering your actual results next to the projections so that you can have a clear comparison and see where you’re at with hitting your goals.

To make all this work, it all comes down to being organised and working hard. Personally, the method I use to make sure I hit my goals is by following a ‘cookbook’, just as I explain in this video .

Firstly, create a forecast. Secondly, get your cookbook right. Finally, stick to the cookbook no matter what. Try this and I can assure you that, that forecast you have planned will happen!

How To Overcome The Fear of Cold Calling

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 11:23:00 GMT

3 SIMPLE Techniques

Lead generation is something that concerns the majority of new entrepreneurs I come across as they are usually very eager to discover new ways to attract prospective customers . Whenever I suggest cold calling, however, most of them tend to avoid it as they find it quite uncomfortable.

Even though in our day and age there are multiple digital methods to contact people, good old cold calling remains one of the most valuable tools. Nevertheless, since I know it doesn’t come naturally to the most of us, I am going to share with you a couple of proven techniques that have helped me over the years .

The upfront contract . As soon as you are certain that you are speaking with the decision maker, tell them in a friendly manner than you only need 30 seconds of their time to talk about something very important that can help them. As I thoroughly explain in this video , the usual answer to that is yes. Then take that little window of opportunity to briefly explain your offering while making sure you throw in all the hooks that are going to make them excited to know more.
Use tonality to engage the listener . Another great technique based in psychology is to make an assumption with your tone that the prospect you are speaking to on the phone already knows you. If people think they know you, they are much less likely to cut you off and be rude to you and more likely to engage in conversation.

Most importantly, when you find a system that works for you, make sure that you stick to it . I can guarantee that with perseverance, dedication, and persistence in following a certain pattern every single time you cold call someone, you will eventually start getting better at it by being able to spot your own errors and refine your technique. That’s when the results will start coming and you will feel much better doing it!

3 THINGS TO KNOW Before Starting Your Own Business

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 15:29:00 GMT

The number one question I get asked from people is ‘How do I get started in business?’. I know it seems like the hardest thing you’ve ever done and you probably think that taking the first steps in business is incredibly complicated, but guess what… it’s not.

Today I’m going to talk about the three simple steps you need to take in order to get kick-started with a business. It really is no rocket science, so pay attention and I’m more than certain that you will do great!

Potential entrepreneurs usually fall into three main categories. If you want to find out which category you belong to, just click here to quickly watch my video where I explain the difference between each category .

Now that you know which category you fall into, and if you still think that starting a business is your passion, then keep reading to discover the three key steps you need to follow next!

Don’t do it for the money . All successful entrepreneurs believe in the product or service that they are selling. Before starting your own business, ask yourself this: ‘Am I truly passionate about my product or service?’. And if the answer is yes, then go ahead and carry on with the next step!
Take action . That is actually the hardest part. Be warned that most people will be against your decision, but don’t let them discourage you. Each person’s journey is unique and the people around you won’t always understand yours. That’s fine; as long as you believe in yourself, you will be able to take the risk and make it happen!
Never ever give up . I’m not going to lie to you, the early days are not going to be easy. What I can say with certainty, though, is that if you put the work in, you will get the results out of it. Having the right mindset early on is paramount for your future success. Try to adopt a ‘never die’ attitude which will get you through the hard times.

I really hope that helps! Don’t hesitate to get in touch in case you need any help with getting started in business.

3 MOST IMPORTANT Characteristics of a New Entrepreneur

Thu, 27 Sep 2018 16:21:00 GMT

Business Start Up Advice

No two entrepreneurs have the same personality. Everyone is unique and has a different skill set that makes them stand out and be successful. However, there are some key characteristics that, in my view, any new entrepreneur should master.

As you probably know, my team and I have created hundreds of tech entrepreneurs over the last years. The ones who manage to grow and excel right from the first month always possess three main traits:

They are hardworking and dedicated . This might seem obvious, but do you know how many people mistakenly think that becoming an entrepreneur means you get to be lazy and work only whenever you want? Any successful business owner works harder than anyone else in their business and is dedicated to succeed no matter what. This is the number one characteristic I look for in all potential BLAM! Partners.
They are persistent . Starting a business is hard and risky. If you are one of those people who are afraid to fail, then chances are you won’t cope well with becoming an entrepreneur. Success is not achieved overnight, it takes time. Being hardworking over a period of time requires persistence and patience; both key entrepreneurial traits.
They follow a plan of action . Starting a business without a plan is a recipe for failure. All our partners who manage to hit big numbers right from the start always follow a specific plan of action, just as I explain in this video .

Therefore, if you are new in business, make sure to work hard, be persistent, learn from your mistakes, and don’t waste your precious time on things that don’t matter. Make your business your number one priority and I can guarantee you will get the results you want in no time!

Increase Your Sales By Using These 5 Upsell Techniques

Fri, 14 Sep 2018 07:50:00 GMT

As business owners, we tend to focus all of our energy on constantly finding new leads. While this makes sense, new customers are not the only potential source of income in most cases. In fact, there is a much easier and smarter way to make money.

Taking advantage of upsell opportunities can make a big difference to your bottom line. Upselling can set you apart from the competition, boosting your overall brand image, while generating more money for your business from existing customers. Not to mention that people who have already bought from you, are far more likely to do it again. Therefore, less effort is required altogether to land an upsell than a new sale.

There is a number of different upsell strategies to choose from depending on your business model, as I explain in this video .

The immediate upsell . This one is probably the easiest upsell technique as it takes place at the time of the initial purchase. Always remember to encourage your customers to buy additional products or services to complement their purchase. Major brands such as McDonald’s use this strategy at every opportunity.
Cross-selling . This is slightly more complex, but still pretty straightforward. Simply think about which products or services is the buyer likely to need after their initial buy and recommend those. For best results, focus on products that share some common ground with what the customer’s already bought. Cross-selling is commonly used by all the large online retailers such as Amazon and eBay.
Bundles & Packaging . Offering bundles of your products or services in nice enticing packages is a great way to sell more to each person. Buying in bulk offers higher value at a lower cost to the end user, therefore customers are more likely to purchase.
Downselling . This is the one we forget about the most. When a customer is looking to decrease a package or even leave, instead of letting them go, the best strategy is to offer them a more affordable alternative as a final attempt to win them over. It is important here that we still offer them enough value to ensure they remain willing to buy again in the future.
Memberships & Subscriptions . If your product or service allows it, a great upsell technique is to try and tie the customer up into a subscription service. This is a great way to secure a recurring income from your regular shoppers.

As you can see, there are lots of different upsell strategies which you can use to grow your business quickly and easily without requiring too much effort on your behalf. So have a think about which strategy is the most appropriate for your own business, and happy upselling!

Entrepreneur MOTIVATION Tips

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 07:56:00 GMT

How To Stay Motivated

Most people would argue that being an entrepreneur is a fascinating journey which never gets old. And that is true, however, not every day is full of excitement and new ideas to conquer the world. As with most creative jobs, entrepreneurship has its ups and downs, and thus the majority of entrepreneurs, myself included, lose focus sometimes.

Remaining motivated throughout the year is not an easy task and it certainly requires some effort. I use many methods to keep my motivation high, including reading business and motivational books, listening to business podcasts and refining my morning routine. However, I can safely say that the one activity which I find extremely effective and highly recommend is attending conferences and events .

I find that spending time with peers and surrounding yourself with people you admire and want to be like, is one of the best things you can do to feel inspired, get new ideas, and boost your morale . Watch this video to see how attending the DigitalMarketer Conference in San Diego earlier this year helped me and my business grow.

If you are not in the habit of attending conferences and events, I urge you to try it at least once and I guarantee that if you choose wisely, you’ll receive exceptional value for your business in return. In fact, we will be running our own one-day event in New York on the 2nd of October ; an event which is going to be ideal for budding entrepreneurs looking to leverage the most from all the modern digital tools that are available today.

To attend our upcoming event, get in touch with us as soon as possible so that you can benefit from our early bird offer.

5 SIMPLE STEPS For Setting Up an INSTAGRAM Business Account

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:02:00 GMT

Instagram is the fastest growing social network at the moment. This means that businesses worldwide should be on there taking advantage of the growing platform and all its recent additions!

Despite Instagram’s tremendous growth, many marketers are still largely unaware of how to use it for best results. Therefore, I decided to share with you some of my best tips that I have used to build up my own following over the past months, as I explain in this video .

Get focused with your title . Your identity should be clear from your title. If you believe users are going to invest time scrolling through your Instagram profile in an attempt to find out who you are and what you do, well… they won’t. Most users will leave your profile seconds after they quickly glance through your bio and the first few images which appear on top.
Target the correct audience . If you are in business, then chances are you already have an idea of the kind of audience you are targeting with your products and services. Think about their demographics, interests, time schedules, and focus your content around them. What would they like to see?
List the benefits for your followers . You might think the benefits of someone following you are obvious, but, in reality, they are not to everyone. Therefore, you still need to list them in your bio. Tell people exactly what they can expect from you and how often you will be posting. Those benefits should be something of value to your target audience, so think carefully before you decide! This way each and every one of your profile visitors will know why they should follow you.
Provide updated contact information . This should honestly be a no-brainer, but you will be surprised by how many people actually fail to provide contact information on their profile that is up to date. Your followers should ideally have a number of different options to contact you, such as email, address, and phone number.
Add a lead magnet . Building an Instagram following is great without a doubt, but the real value lies in being able to remarket to those people whenever you want. To be able to do that, you need to start building a database. Now, your followers are unlikely to voluntarily hand you their email address unless they receive something of value in return. Add to your bio a valuable resource that they can download for free by becoming a subscriber.

If you enjoyed my tips, then go ahead and follow me on Instagram at @gareth_blam and watch my recent video for more details on how I have implemented these 5 steps on my personal profile: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjYQhCZ2B4M ]

How to Increase Website CONVERSIONS

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:55:00 GMT

One SIMPLE Rule for You to Use Today!

Today I want to talk about website conversions. We tend to focus a lot on website aesthetics nowadays, but a website is useless if it does not convert ! A website conversion could be any desired action on your website such as a phone call, a form completion, a purchase of a product, etc.

To drive action, a website needs to be able to persuade visitors and that is what most small business owners find hard to accomplish. My mentees often ask me for smart and efficient ways to boost their online presence and increase their website conversions . There are, of course, many ways to achieve that, but most of them are quite expensive!

In my experience, to increase website conversions, there is one simple rule to follow which is both effective and cost-efficient. Focus on your customers - what is it that they will get out of consuming your products and services? Think about the transformation that they will go through, just as I explain in this video.

Now, focus on the ‘after’ state of the transformation and the emotional state your customers are in after consuming your products. Try to imagine their feelings and emotions during that stage - is it excitement, self-esteem, sociability? Jot down all of those feelings and then use that emotional language on your website when describing your products .

Marketing copy can be very powerful when used right and human emotions are the foundation on which all decisions are made. Therefore, the use of emotional language on your website will work wonders in improving your visitors’ overall experience and will definitely impact your conversions . Try it today and I guarantee you will see some startling results!

Selling During Holiday

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:49:00 GMT

The August Myth

Today I want to address one of the most common misconceptions in business which I hear a lot during the summer. A lot of the entrepreneurs I work with seem to think that August is one of the most difficult months of the year to do business due to the fact that their customers go on holiday during that time.

There is no doubt that a lot of people go on holiday during the month of August, however, not everyone is away at the same time in any given company ! Surely, it feels a bit more quiet than usual due to fewer phone calls, emails, etc., but there are still people working on their business in the month of August, just like I explain in this video .

Do not use the ‘August Myth’, as I call it, as an excuse not to work hard on your business. In fact, you can treat this big misconception as an opportunity to grow . When everyone else thinks of August as a ‘dead period’ and stops trying to win new business, that automatically creates a competitive advantage for those who are still trying . When no one else but you pursue your potential buyers, they are naturally much more likely to buy from you!

There is plenty of work to do in August, you just have to be smart about it. For example, if you work in B2B, think of businesses whose work peaks around the summertime , such as wedding professionals, tourism, and summer resorts. All you have to do is shift your focus towards the right target.

Lastly, if work still turns out to be slower than usual, just treat August as a period to prepare for the rest of the year and do those lengthy tasks and projects you have likely been postponing since the start of the year. Quiet periods are also ideal for taking a step back to see where we are at and plan accordingly for the rest of the year.

While it is perfectly normal for the workflow to fluctuate within the year, my advice is to treat every month as a great month . If anything, work harder in August and I promise you are going to get the same results or even better.

Site Security

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 09:39:00 GMT

Website Architecture & SSL

What is SSL?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and puts the ‘ S (which stands for secure )’ in ‘ HTTPS .’ SSL encrypts data being transferred over a server so that it will be protected, particularly as it travels from sender to recipient. Any time you send information through an HTTPS site, its server will issue a certificate and use it to verify that the recipient is legit (authentication), encode your information so that it’s readable only to the recipient (encryption), and send it to the recipient, who will have to use a key to ‘unlock’ and read your information. Any information you send is viewable on every computer that passes it along to the recipient. Encryption prevents your information from being compromised or stolen along the way.

How do we use SSL?

Our system was the first web design platform for small businesses and agencies to sponsor and integrate with Let’s Encrypt (an automated and open certificate authority) to offer free SSL encryption to every paid responsive website on our platform. We simply believe that your customers have the right to have their data protected –– without any added expenses or hassles. We’ve proudly partnered with Let’s Encrypt since 2016 and will continue to provide our customers with quick, easy one-click SSL installation and auto-renewing certificates.

Secure Reliable Hosting

All BLAM! websites are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) , one of the industry’s most trusted and secure cloud-based solutions. There is no limit to bandwidth or storage.

Are we GDPR compliant?

Everything you need to make your sites GDPR compliant is already in the platform. This includes a privacy policy template, customizable cookie notification, form response page and more.

Every website comes with a privacy page template that can be used as a guide for explaining to site visitors how collected information is being used. Simply activate the template and customize

THE MOST Important Thing in Business

Fri, 03 Aug 2018 09:09:00 GMT

Today I want to talk about a common mistake most of us entrepreneurs tend to do. When being asked about our work, most of us start talking about ‘what’ it is that we do . While describing what you do makes total sense in answering the question, in reality, it will not make much of an impact .

A much more powerful approach in describing your business is to talk about why you do what you do, why you want to become an entrepreneur, why you have decided to offer a particular product or service, etc.

The reason that makes the ‘why’ so much more impactful than the ‘what’ lies in our human nature. At our essence, we draw motivation by knowing why we do things . The ‘why’ is our purpose and people need a purpose to do great things. Just as entrepreneurs need to know their ‘why’ in order to be able to motivate themselves to work hard, but also make an impression and sell it to others .

Selling is all about relationship building . If you are able to convince others that what you do has a great purpose, then people are much more likely to buy. Nowadays, having a great product is not enough any more as consumers favour those companies that communicate their ‘whys’ effectively .

I always encourage my mentees to practice their ‘why statement’ and build that into a story so that they can share it with the rest of the world too. My own ‘why’ is based on my personal passion to help budding entrepreneurs as I explain in this video .

What is your why?

Top 9 Mobile Apps for Business That I Use Every Day

Sat, 28 Jul 2018 09:09:00 GMT

Truecaller - Helps me to speed up �55357;�56542; calling . It automatically recognises known phone numbers and copies them into the dialler so I don't have to type the number. When you make a 100 �55357;�56495; �55357;�56860; plus calls a day you need all the help you can get. Use the camera to scan a number to dial it! Accept my invite for the Truecaller app & get 1 week Premium for free! Get it here .

Google Calendar - THE Number 1 calendar app. Just brilliant at scheduling �55357;�56787;️ and sending out reminders and alerts. You will be super organised as you share your calendar with colleagues and friends and set up dedicated calendars to mark specific events for dedicated groups. Download it now from Google Play here to replace the native calendar app on your phone. For the business version get 14 days free by clicking this link here .

Vcita - Amazing scheduling and appointment setting app to support the already life-changing desktop application. Place the widget in your website or blog to allow visitors to book an appointment with you. Get paid for appointments �55357;�56518;, share documents and add additional reminders, documents and automated follow up messages. Improved synchronisation for availability with your calendar and contact synchronisation with your phone. To sign up for vCita use this link here . It’s totally FREE! Once you’ve created your free account, download the mobile app from Google Play.

Gmail - Now even better with suggested replies and deeper integration with Google Calendar. Essential email client just brilliant in every way. Try to use the dedicated Gmail app rather than your stock email client �55357;�56460; from your phone for increased synchronisation with your contacts, calendar and the desktop applications. Your messages and contacts are secure and backed up so you’ll never lose them again. Trust me you won’t go back to Outlook after this. I know, it’s scary but although Outlook has improved this new version of Gmail is just miles better. Download from Google Play here . For the business version get 14 days free by clicking this link here .

Tawk.to - Respond to website visitors on the go. The mobile is to support the amazing FREE desktop app and website widget. Get alerted when website visitors comment on your chat window and respond on the fly. Program instant replies and harvest emails from visitors. Tutorial to come. Download it now right here

Google Keep - There are many note taking apps, some free and some paid for but if you use Android there are very few that beat this amazing ✏️ note taking app. I use it everyday to copy pre-written message templates and paste them to send out via Gmail and WhatsApp. Also great for adding mood boards and recording voice memos and inspiration in the moment. Add collaborators to manage projects. Download it here

WhatsApp - Full tutorial and features blog on it's way. Just brilliant �55357;�56495; for messaging, sharing photos and documents, international and local calling. Add it to your desktop by clicking web.whatsapp.com and synchronise it with your computer. Truecaller will also recognise shared contact details, quite amazing really and totally FREE. Download it here

Zoom/RingCentral - This video conferencing app changes the game. If you thought this was a crowded market, think again. This one will stick with you. I haven’t used Skype for over 8 years now and since I started using Zoom (Now integrated with our Voip calling system RingCentral) having online video chats with friends and clients all over the world is a breeze. No more awkward delays or freezing, �55357;�56395; schedule meetings with your own dedicated meeting link and integrated it with with Chrome to fire up instant video calls on your desktop and smartphone. Download from Google Play here

Finally, LinkedIn, as the list could go on but I will stop after this with this one otherwise I wouldn't have any to share in the next newsletter.

LinkedIn - When synchronised with your contacts and calendar, it actually pulls out the contact you're about to meet direct from LinkedIn and suggest you �55357;�56384; check them out before the business meeting, and suggests to add follow up comments after the meeting. Crazy good at connecting with prospects and messaging people. Watch out for a comprehensive LinkedIn webinar coming up exclusive for partners soon. How to maximise LinkedIn to grow your business. Practical tips to increase your network of contacts, and warm up potential customers in your network. Download from Google Play here and make sure to synchronise it with your calendar and contacts.

Start a Business for the Right Reasons

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 11:57:00 GMT

In my line of business, I get to meet a great number of people whose main career, or even life, goal is to start their own business . Having a goal like this one is actually amazing! It gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It helps you focus your energy on one thing and organise your time around your goal.

But let’s take a step back and start thinking of all the reasons why people decide to start a business in the first place. I often hear people mention they just want to control their own time or work their own hours, have more free time or achieve a new lifestyle. If you are in business yourself or thinking about starting one, chances are you have thought about these things too - I know I have before starting my first business!

The truth is that these are all great reasons and will (eventually) occur after establishing your own business. However, in my opinion, there is only one right reason. The only reason that has the power to provide sustainability to your business and can guarantee success now and in the future is passion as I explain in this video .

Being a business owner is not as easy as you might think, hence without passion you are likely to get bored and even want to quit. Having a passion for the product or service that you want to sell is the only way you can convince other people to buy from you, support you, and believe in your brand.

Therefore, before taking the next step, take a moment to ask yourself that: ‘ Am I passionate about the product or service that I plan to start selling? ’. If the answer is ‘yes’, that means you are on the right path to success!

The Cable Car to Success

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 11:09:00 GMT

Are you following the hard way?

Building a new business from scratch is undeniably a hard, hard task. There are so many decisions to make and opportunities for failure, it’s daunting! What I wouldn’t have given to have had someone guide me in the right direction when I was taking my first steps in business...

For this reason, when my business partner and I were building BLAM!, one of the key goals was: ‘ How can we make life easier for budding entrepreneurs and encourage more people to start a business? ’. What we did to achieve that goal was design a process that guides all of our partners towards success in the quickest possible way - just like the cable car that took me at the top of the mountain in this video .

Based on the lessons we have learnt from many years of running a variety of businesses, we compiled a resource of our best insights, tips, and advice and built the BLAM! Partners Resource Centre . This is our online library of valuable tools that support our partners in their journey towards business success.

Being our partner means that you get to learn from our mistakes and reach your goals way faster than you would if you were on your own. By following our specific instructions, entrepreneurs manage to avoid all the big hurdles that would keep them from achieving their targets on time. It’s up to you whether you are going to choose the direct route or take the long way up the mountain. What is it going to be?

How Augmented Reality is Changing Marketing

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 13:25:00 GMT

Changing The Marketing Game Through Ar (Augmented Reality)

Augmented Reality (AR) is an exciting technology which has been around since the early 1990s. The technology isn't new, in fact we first started experimenting with it in apps as early as 2012 but now it’s really starting to pick up steam.
So what its it? AR can be explained as an enhanced version of reality with a computer image superimposed over a users' view of the real world. Augmented Reality is not the same as Virtual Reality (VR), VR requires you to enter and inhabit a virtual environment, AR layers a computer image over the real world, blending the two environments. AR enables users to experience an improved world where virtual information is used to assist various activities.The smartphones of today contain the sensors and technology required for AR and so, it makes sense for marketers like us who are always looking to be innovative, to target their marketing efforts towards this platform that is expected to grow to 2.5 billion users in 2019 .The companies in this list have used AR innovatively to market their applications in exciting ways.

Snapchat

Snapchat has seen the most success incorporating AR into their IOS and Android apps. Lenses are Snapchats most popular feature and are also a massive revenue generator. To illustrate this point, Taco Bell partnered with Snapchat in 2016 to launch a Cinco de Mayo lens which was viewed 224 million times in a single day. Now adapted by Facebook and Instagram the mind boggles as to how far this tech can evolve!

IKEA

IKEA launched an app called “IKEA Place” which uses AR to let customers virtually place furniture inside their home. This lets their users see how their products will look inside their homes without the users leaving their homes.

L'Oreal

L'Oreal developed their own AR apps called Makeup Genius and Style My Hair to let their users virtually try on makeup. Applications like these allow L'Oreal to advertise their product lines to more customers than all of their stores can accommodate.

AMC Theatres

AMC Theatres have made an innovative AR app that keys off movie posters. Pointing your phone at a poster will bring up details like cast information and trailers while also serving as a means of booking tickets for movies that look interesting.

The Simmons Simulator

The Simmons Bedding Company creators of the popular Comforpedic and Beautyrest orthopedic mattresses use AR in a similar fashion to the AMC Theatres to sell mattresses. Shoppers point their phones at mattresses in their store which then show them various details like materials used to make the mattress and the advantages of one mattress over another.

Pokémon Go

This list would be incomplete without Pokémon Go, widely recognised as the app that started the AR craze. Its marketing potential was limitless at its peak. Niantic Labs, creators of the game announced sponsored PokeStops which had them partner with businesses to spawn monsters in specific locations to attract potential customers hunting for that elusive Kyogre or Rayquaza. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together to realize that this was a brilliant move to target certain demographics.As ever at BLAM, we love the embrace the beauty of technology and looking for ways to use AR effectively in our own business as well as our clients and BLAM! Partners is high in the agenda!

Instagram Algorithm Update

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 14:12:00 GMT

This is what we know so far...

It’s what everyone has been waiting for… Instagram’s new algorithm . Instagram are finally letting us know how the algorithm works and debunking all the recent myths . So lets dive straight in and talk about what we know so far: Your Instagram feed is quite complex to say the least! However, what we know is, your feed isn’t based on who you follow but it’s actually based on what you like and who you engage with on a regular basis. Tech Crunch recently announced: “Instagram relies on machine learning based on you your behaviour to create a unique feed for everyone. Even if you follow the exact same accounts as someone else, you’ll get a personalised feed based on how you interact with those accounts.” You’re probably thinking “What the hell does that mean!?” It’s quite simple. I constantly see entrepreneurial quotes and posts because I always like them. However, as an example, I also follow my football club Swansea City FC (Unfortunately) but don’t often receive these posts often because I don’t regularly engage with them and they show up lower down in my feed. So lets dive in further and see how it works: Instagram is clever and will do its best to understand what photos and videos are important to you. Instagram looks at 3 core factors ;

Interest - Instagram predicts the posts that you're interested in and will push them higher up in your feed. This is determined on past behaviour of similar content.
Timeliness - Instagram now prioritises recent posts so don’t expect to see posts from days ago.
Relationship - If you are continuously engaging, for example commenting or tagging friends in posts, then you are more likely to see these posts often

These are the top 3 core factors, however there are other factors that influence the new Instagram algorithm.

Frequency - The less time you spend on Instagram, the more relevant posts you’ll see at the top of the feed. If you spend hours of your time on Instagram, your feed will look more chronological
Following - The more people you follow, the more options Instagram has to choose from to understand what it is you like.
Usage - If you only spend a few minutes in the app each day, then you’re going to just get the highlights from the algorithm.

They also debunked many myths and rumours . Lets go through some of these myths one by one;

Switching to a business profile is worse and have less reach? This is not true. Instagram doesn’t prioritise personal accounts over business accounts so there’s really no need to switch!
Will a video post perform better? Again...No! Its all about the content. If the audience likes videos, they’ll engage. If your audience likes quotes, then post quotes. If you post a picture of an animal to the same followers, don't expect them same engagement right? The only way to find out is by testing.
Stories and Instagram Live help posts perform better? Nope! Instagram doesn’t prioritise people who are taking advantage of different tools within the app. However, you can encourage people to engage with your posts which will help.
Does posting frequently have a negative impact? Instagram claims it won’t penalise people for posting too frequently but if you’re posting a couple of times in a row, there will probably be other people’s content between those posts.
Too many hashtags is bad news? It doesn't look great but Instagram doesn’t hide peoples content for posting too many hashtags .

So there you have it, Instagram's new algorithm! I'm sure it will change again soon! If you're looking to build an ultra specific Instagram following, check out our amazing Instagram strategy tool Instablam www.instablam.online
Dont forget to follow me www.instagram.com/gareth_blam If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!

Never give up!

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:51:00 GMT

Failure is not an option

This weekend, I've been chilling out with my family after an eventful trip to the Isle of Man last Thursday and Friday. I paid a visit to John, our AMAZING Isle of Man Partner . John is a great guy who's been with BLAM! for over 18 months. He's the type of guy who isn't technically minded but he's successful because of the way he builds a client database, and he has an incredible work ethic (more on John in future email). John hosts business and sporting dining events on the island every other month, and has had many successful entrepreneurs and sporting legends attend as speakers. His most recent speaker was a huge hero of mine, Warren Gatland, Wales, British & Irish Lions rugby coach . As a proud Welshman, rugby is in my blood and it was an event I didn't want to miss. However, getting to the Isle of Man wasn't as straight forward as I would have expected! In fact we nearly missed the flight! This is what actually happened... My colleague Ed (our International Partner Manager and all round top guy) and I, planned to visit John and attend this latest awesome event. John had promised me a seat on the top table, next to Warren Gatland and to say I was excited doesn't really cover it! I set off at 9:30am from Cardiff on Thursday, heading towards Worcester to pick up Ed. We were aiming for Liverpool Airport and our flight was at 4:30pm. So that meant we had plenty of time... The weather was horrendous, it just wouldn't stop raining, but I eventually arrived at Ed's at around 12:15pm, a little later than expected. But, we still had plenty of time, as the Sat Nav stated we'd arrive at 2.30pm, no problem. We set off up the M5 and within 15 mins of driving, Ed realised he'd forgotten his Passport. I immediately called him a WALLY and managed to come off at the next exit to head back to Worcester, picked up his Passport and left his house again at 12:50pm. The Sat Nav said we'd arrive at 3.05pm which still gave us time to get there, fine. But then something bad happened... Within 30 minutes of getting back on the motorway, a road sign appeared "INCIDENT LONG DELAYS 30-45 minutes" and the Sat Nav jumped up to 3:30pm! This was the first time we started to become anxious. I made an executive decision to come off at the next junction and by-pass the incident on the motorway detouring through Dudley in the midlands. It wasn't plain sailing driving through Dudley, as we made a wrong turn, the traffic was bad and had further poor driving conditions. We finally managed to get on to the M6 but due to poor weather conditions and heavy traffic our speed didn't exceed 60mph for miles. The Sat Nav was showing 3:45pm, aaaarrgggh!!! We knew the gate closure was 4pm and this was going to be close! If we had one more traffic jam, we wouldn't be making the flight. Then, what we had feared, happened! Another traffic jam by Stoke. We felt sure we'd been defeated as the Sat Nav was showing 4:00pm. This was the moment when we could have given up , but we still believed we could make the flight. I made the decision to come off the motorway again and head though country lanes, dodging sheep, hitting big puddles and overtaking tractors. Ed contacted Liverpool Airport Customer Service to see if there was anything they could do for us. Deep down we knew they couldn't delay the flight, but we were running out of options. We managed to get on to the M56 and the Sat Nav was showing 4:05pm, the road was clear and Ed and I were shouting to each other, "WE ARE MAKING THIS FLIGHT! NO WAY ARE WE GOING TO MISS IT" Clearly our determination was all we had left, and we knew that we would be arriving after the gate closure time. Then something incredible happened . We were approaching Runcorn and out of what seemed like nowhere appeared a new bridge called the Mersey Gateway. We couldn't believe it, this bridge had only been opened a few days and didn't show up on our maps. Ed and I were confused and so was the Sat Nav. After crossing the fantastic Mersey Gateway bridge we joined the A533 and the Sat Nav came back to life and was showing 3:55pm!!!!! We'd taken a vital 10 minutes off our time. This was a defining moment . Ed and I were shouting with joy but we still only had 5 minutes to park the car, get through security and then get to the gate! This wasn't going to be easy and the odds were still against us. We arrived at Liverpool Airport at 3:56pm and headed straight for the long stay car park which wasn't too far from the terminal, or so we thought. All we had to do was park the car and get to the airport as quickly as possible, sounds easy right? This is when the worst happened. Zone A... Full, Zone B... Full, Zone C... Full!!!! We entered Zone D and it turned into a single road. There were no spaces available and it turned into a dead end, grrrrrr! There was no way we were coming this far only to be being defeated by the car park. I reversed all the way out of Zone D and headed for the furthest Zones. Again, Zone E... Full, then eventually arriving at Zone F we found a space, phew. It looked like we were at least a 5 minutes walk/run to the terminal and the time was now 4:05pm! We knew the gate would be closed but we grabbed our bags and ran as fast as we could to the terminal believing we would still get on the plane. Being younger and fitter than Ed (probably doesn't appreciate me saying that) I ran ahead and entered the terminal building. I saw the Easy Jet customer service booth and shouted " HOLD THE ISLE OF MAN FLIGHT ". The lady radioed through and said "run as fast as you can" . We got to security and I pushed my way to the front, asking all the passengers to let us through as we had an imminent flight to catch! Every passenger complied and let us through. We could hear over the tannoy "FINAL CALL ISLE OF MAN" . Rushing through security we ran as fast as we could towards Gate 10, the furthest gate away (of course it was). We were like the McAllister family running for their flight in the Home Alone movie! Again, I ran ahead of Ed until a gentleman shouted in a Liverpool accent "HEY MATE, ARE YOU THE GUYS FOR THE ISLE OF MAN FLIGHT" .... "YES" I shouted being almost gassed out. We made it!!! I could not describe the elation! The impossible became possible and we boarded the flight high five-ing all the passengers on the plane as we walked to our seats. "WE MADE IT" we shouted, it was a great moment, as if we'd secured the best deal of the year. I had no idea where I'd parked my car but at that moment I didn't even care! The most important part of this story is that we never gave up! We could have given up in Stoke, but we still believed and kept going! Despite all the odds, and despite the Sat Nav telling us you're not going to make it on time, we both believed we would make the flight! Having a never give up attitude is the best formula to ensure business success . If you are persistent and consistent with your work ethic and determination, you will succeed . Hard work will always beat talent and add that to following a consistent business plan with defined goals and it is impossible to fail!

My First Ever Sale

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 14:29:00 GMT

It was a thrilling moment, I felt like I had conquered the world

I wanted to take a couple of minutes out of my day to talk about my first ever sale for my own business.

The value was only £599+Vat but it was a thrilling moment, I felt like I had conquered the world! The reason I had this amazing feeling, was because up to that point I had convinced myself that I was a failure, and that it was the moment that I realised "I can actually do this!"

My first ever business was a franchise opportunity providing mobile apps to small businesses back in 2011. I had taken action and purchased the business opportunity because I was fed up in my 9 - 5 job. I took the brave decision of going ahead with it despite their protests from friends and family.

I was so excited to get started, but it was a shock to the system and a real eye opener when I first started out as an entrepreneur.

As soon as I bought into the franchise, I just wanted to get out there and talk to people about my fantastic product! At first I had no problems speaking to people, despite my nerves and inexperience. I started by cold calling small businesses on the local high street during my lunch hour (I was still in full time employment), as well as trying to book appointments over the phone.

It took a while but eventually I managed to secure my first few meetings with small business owners. Despite my excitement and enthusiasm my first couple of appointments turned out to be a disaster! I worked myself up so much I completely crumbled. I couldn't get my words out, I didn't know what I was talking about and felt every anxiety symptom known all in one moment! It was horrible and I started to feel like I couldn't do this, I wasn’t a salesman or a businessperson and I wanted out.

After a lot of soul searching I decided to stick with the franchise, but I knew I had to do something different. I created something called a hot prospects list . A list complied together of every single person I’d ever been in contact with and started using this as the basis of my business sales strategy . I also decided that if people were going to take me seriously, then I had to be an expert in my industry.

So I started learning and educating myself about mobile apps and digital marketing every single night. I watched business motivational videos on youtube and began following successful entrepreneurs such as Tony Robbins, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg on social media.

Slowly but surely my confidence began to build. I had an appointment booked with Ten Pin bowling in Swansea, and this time I felt more confident and prepared. I was so much more knowledgable about the product, I had a constructive pitch and I felt completely relaxed, as if all my other meetings had never happened. The meeting went well, I was relaxed, answered all the questions and without any hesitation the gentleman agreed to go ahead and said “I’m happy to go ahead and give this a go. Do you accept a cheque?” I couldn't believe this was happening, but I said “of course” in a very calm way. He wrote the cheque out in front of my eyes for £718.80 and asked me If I’d send an invoice as soon as possible. I walked out of there as if I’d scored a goal from 30 yards in the Champions league final! I actually did it, I had my first sale.

My Customer said that he gets pitched on products all the time but said that I was different. He believed that I was genuine, constructive and could see I was offering an awesome service for him.

Six years later, I am now very good friends with my customer who bought off me that day, he even still attends our works parties! We always talk about that day, that sale made me into a Businessperson, and gave me the confidence to continue.

After that, I didn't look back. I became the Top Franchisee which ultimately allowed me to build another business, offering further digital marketing solutions.

What I learned was, that if I can do it, anybody can do it. But... you have to build a winners mindset or you’ll be like "most people", and most people give up. You have to believe in what you’re doing and you have to work your ass off to get the results!

I found out that in the early days you have work and learn, work and learn! Become an expert by learning your product and business inside out. Have a plan and strategy and put it into action even if you fail at first. And finally, associate yourself with successful people and DO NOT listen to the naysayers.

If you want to find out more about how you can change your life and become a BLAM! Partner. Click here now http://www.blam.online/webinar

CRM - do you need one?

Sun, 04 Jun 2017 20:08:00 GMT

Here's three reasons why you might

If you’re in a business where you are aiming at generating multiple leads a week, you’ll need a system to manage those leads. In the most basic form that means you’ve got a spreadsheet where you list your prospects name and contact details and have a notes field for each time you make contact with them. This simple form of contact management does the trick to begin with but is only good for a basic sales process and soon becomes tiresome when your list starts to build. You now need a Customer Relationship Manager or as we say in the trade, a CRM. There are plenty of CRM’s out there that will allow you to import this list when you are ready, so you can start managing your data more efficiently. We’ve tried a few of them at BLAM and find that they tend to fall into two categories, those that have marketing tools and those that stick to contact management. At BLAM Partners we’ve been using our own CRM for a few years now, which is a white label product based on an American platform. We’ve found this system to be extremely useful in our business due to it’s powerful marketing integration tools that not many CRM’s offer at this price point. Pretty much all CRM’s these days offer great contact management tools, that’s almost always a given. A lot of them also offer a deals tracker tool which is a great way of managing a sales pipeline for forecasting, follow ups and general sales best practice. What we like about the BLAM CRM falls into three categories: 1. Ease of use: All elements of the BLAM CRM come with a video tutorial that simply shows you how to make the most of the system. All too often these days it can take a long time to get used to a new CRM system and can often require expensive training from a qualified specialist. We have found that even the most adamant technophobes can get to grips with our CRM within a few hours. 2. Landing pages: These easy to design pages can be built with a form to capture information that will go directly into the CRM with the appropriate tags attached. This means if you run a Facebook campaign to capture leads from a specific industry for example, each time the lead is filled in it will be tagged with that industry. Further email campaigns directed at that industry can then be managed and sent easily. 3. Autoresponders: All contacts can be added to an autoresponder campaign that is pre-defined by you and can run for months there after. This powerful tool allows you the sophistication of some much more complicated and expensive CRM’s and means contacts can be communicated with automatically without any further action. These campaigns can also overlap, meaning if a prospect on the fifth email in the autoresponder campaign turns into a customer they can be added to a different autoresponder campaign for new customers. Some of these functions can be gained through using email campaign software such as Mail Chimp (which is great) but the ease of having everything work seamlessly in one place is really convenient. To find out more about the BLAM CRM or any of our other partnership programmes get in touch here .

Salesperson

Wed, 31 May 2017 07:20:00 GMT

Do you think you are in sales?

If you’re a businessperson, you are a salesperson whether you think you are or not. In fact, I would go as far as to say that everybody in a business, from the bottom to the top is in sales. After all, the sum of every single part of the business contributes to the whole, and that’s what people are buying when they make a purchase. When I’m dealing with BLAM Partners, they are nearly all engaged in direct selling, but often say “I don’t want to come across as a salesperson” as there are lots of negative connotations to the word and the role. The truth is, because when we’re in business we are all salespeople so lets get over it and learn how we can sell best! There are many ways to improve our competence at selling but first and most important is changing the mindset and embracing that we are all salespeople on some level. We are currently running a course for BLAM Partners called our Super Sales Training Day and on it we begin by helping people understand that being a salesperson doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Once that has been accepted, the real leaning can begin and from there leads success. In order to help you embrace the inner salesperson a friend of mine Phil Jones, wrote a book called Toolbox. This useful guide to sales is full of great information that will help any salesperson develop their skills at this ancient art. You can get a free copy on Amazon here if you are quick, the offer ends tonight (Wednesday 31st May 2017, midnight UK time). One of the great parts at the beginning of the book is a list of people who are awesome salespeople. The list includes Nelson Mandela, Katie Price and Jamie Oliver among others, all experts at getting us to buy from them in their own way. These people are not typically the kinds of people that spring to mind when we think of "salespeople" but without the skills of a true professional salesperson they'd be far less effective. So the next time you hear the word salesperson, give a thought to the job and what it entails. After all one way or another we are all in sales!

Busy?

Sun, 14 May 2017 18:40:00 GMT

Did you really not have enough time?

"Sorry Grant, but I've been too busy, so there wasn't enough time to do that task you set me." grrrrrrr! Anyone that's been mentored by me or attended one of our BLAM courses will know how annoyed I get when I'm told that someone didn't have enough time to complete an important task. "Being too busy" is a bloody epidemic that is infecting a huge amount of people and in most cases it's just an excuse. Don't get me wrong, a lot of us have very busy lives and it can be challenging getting all of our tasks completed. The order in which we undertake those tasks though, is completely under our control, we decide which tasks we prioritise. In nearly all cases, when we hear these kind of "too busy" excuses, there definitely was enough time, it's just that we chose to do something else instead. If you fall into this trap, you may have been prioritising family time, relaxing in front of the tv or having a night out with friends. It's not that you were too busy or didn't have enough time, it's just you chose to do something else instead, which is fine. What's not fine is kidding yourself that you didn't have enough time, because I'll bet you did! Acknowledging that there was enough time and that in fact you weren't "too" busy but you decided to prioritise something else instead is a huge step change in your thinking that can help you make decisions about how you spend your time most productively. So next time you catch yourself saying, "I've been too busy" or "I didn't have the time to do that", remember you weren't too busy and there was enough time, it's just you chose to do something else instead. Have a great week.

Focus

Sun, 07 May 2017 20:20:00 GMT

6 hacks to help you achieve laser beam focus on your business

My mentor often has to remind me, "focus, focus, focus" when he thinks I'm taking on too much. As a typical entrepreneur I am easily distracted by a new "shiny" business idea and can find myself being stretched too thin.

This is a common issue in business and one I often here about from our BLAM Partners too. I've compiled this list of suggestions to help you find laser beam focus, some of which I use regularly. The key is to find the tools that work for you and diligently stick to them, it's really easy to loose focus on what helps you focus!!!

1. Prioritise your tasks daily , making the fastest way to the money your first task. There are a thousand ways to organise your to do list but by focusing on the fastest way to the money first, if you do loose focus, at least the money will still be flowing in.

2. Work at the right time of day for you. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Studies show that most people focus best at either first thing in the morning or late in the evening, allocating important tasks to the time that suits you, gets "stuff" done.

3. Train your brain. Your brain works like a muscle and will learn by repetition. If you are constantly multitasking and being distracted by numerous devices and communication tools, your brain will learn to focus only in short bursts. Train your brain to focus by allocating time every day without any interruptions. Turn off the phone, email and TV and work totally undistracted-try and build up to 90 minutes a day working in this way.

4. Shut your door. It may seem rude or against the "my door is always open" mentality but shutting your office door to avoid unnecessary interruptions can help when you need to get in the zone. I know of people who like a witty message like "only knock if the office is in fire", it may remind you of a teenagers bedroom but it does the trick!

5. Keep a tidy desk. A desk full of clutter and paperwork not only kills your feng shui but also distracts you from your focus. By getting into the habit of tidying your desk last thing before you leave it or first thing when you arrive at it you'll ensure the least amount of distraction right from the start of the day.

6. Diarise your tasks like they're an appointment. Studies show a large number if successful people diarise their to do's as appointments in their calendar. If tasks are treated this way, they are given an allocation of time with a deadline and therefore more focus can be given as the are treated more like goals that need to be finished within a given period. This is s personal favorite of mine and I've definitely found my productivity increase since I began employing this tactic.

I'd love to hear of any other hacks to help keep focus in business, in world full of more and more distractions we all need to focus more on our focus.

Have a great week.

Sales

Mon, 01 May 2017 20:04:00 GMT

Go for the no - lol

I couldn’t help but laugh last week. Gareth (co-founder at BLAM Partners) told me that a potential partner who had been on one of our screen share demo’s didn’t want to go ahead because he thought he was being sold to! He then took umbrage when Gareth found that funny and used “lol” in his email message. I’m relieved it wasn’t me that replied as I would have used “LMAO", as I found the statement hilarious, maybe I’m a bit jaded?

As businesses owners, we are always selling our businesses whether people like it or not. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t sell hardly anything and then there would be no business to sell in the first place. In our BLAM world of helping people take the first steps into business we have heard every reason in the book as to why people don’t want to take the plunge. It really was a shock to me when I first started dealing with wannabe business owners, how much procrastination there is in the world.

This could be construed as "hard selling”

So, here at BLAM, we have a philosophy that we use called “go for the no”. It means we are pretty direct when it comes “helping” people make a decision. This could be construed as "hard selling” but for us it means that when we sign a partner up (a big step for most of them) they get given a choice, and a "maybe" is not one of those choices. In our business, statistically a “maybe" is very often a no, but with lots of extra time involved chasing up the prospect before they finally admit it’s not for them. Lots of people just genuinely find it hard to just say no!

So when Gareth gets “pushy” he’s pushing people to go for the no. Our view is that they are absolutely right to say no if they don’t like that style of selling. If they are so put off that they need to make an excuse like “I don’t like to feel like I’m being sold to” then running their own business probably just isn’t for them. An honest, "your business just isn't for me" is fair enough.

Some would argue that a great sales pitch should not feel like a sales pitch, and I do agree with this to a certain extent. Tactics such as telling people that it’s not for them can often have the reverse effect, but most sales people are not brave enough to try it. Sales people that pussy foot around and are afraid to ask for the money never get the kind of results a dynamic “closer” gets, this is just a fact.

In our world of BLAM, we have a products and service package that we are totally confident in. We believe it is by the far the easiest and most cost effective way of getting into the business of selling websites and apps that there is. If we come across as pushy, or “salesy” we don’t have a problem with that. We’re selling something we believe in passionately and it’s hard not to be enthusiastic and pushy when that’s the case. Our most successful partners have also found this to be the case and they too go for the no, a "no" is no problem, lol.

Apps

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 06:29:00 GMT

5 mobile apps for entrepreneurs

Having been in the app development business since the start, I try my best to practice what I preach by using a variety of apps for my business. The technology is ever evolving as we rely more and more on these amazing devices called smart phones to improve our work and home lives. I’ve listed below the top five apps that I use daily and find to be the most useful, inspiring and helpful when managing a full on entrepreneurial lifestyle!

1. Reminders. The reminders app is included on the iPhone as standard and there are several similar apps available on Android. It sincs seamlessly with iCal as you would expect. The great feature that I love on this app is the ability to set reminders that are triggered by location. This means you can organise your to-do list and trigger a notification when you arrive or leave a specified destination. I therefore get a notification for my tasks for the day as I pull to up to the office which I find invaluable.

2. Think Up. Daily affirmations have been used by pretty much every top entrepreneur I’ve ever read about. Programming your subconscious for success has never been easier now the smart phone is in our lives. Think Up is available on Android and iPhone allows you to record your own voice and then set reminders to play your affirmations back to you twice a day, accompanied by music.

3. My Gratitude Journal (Mojo). This is an app I’ve been using for years and it really is a great tool for keeping your positivity focussed on the important things. It also builds up a nice diary of events as when I look back the images and notes really are windows back to how I was feeling at that time. In essence each day you can use a picture and as many gratitude “moments” as you like, the theory being that being grateful is a key ingredient to keeping your mindset positive.

4. Gekoboard. This app links up with Google sheets spreadsheet to build beautifully designed graphs to track all of the KPI’s in your business. At a glance you can keep an eye on all of the important stats and quickly see that things are going on the right direction (or not).

5. Audible. A firm favourite with many people I know, but this list wouldn’t be complete without it. I listen to books daily on this app and it is the source of much entertainment, inspiration and relaxation. My library is filled with all manner of business books and entrepreneurial autobiographies as well as the odd novel for when I need to switch off (not often, lol).

This list was tough to compile as there are so many great apps out there, I’d genuinely love to hear from you with your favourite apps that have made you live a more successful and productive life.

Have a great week!

Unconventional

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 14:22:00 GMT

5 tips for start ups you won't find anywhere else on the web!

Running BLAM Partners gives me the privilege of meeting lots of people starting a business for the first time. This can be a daunting prospect for them and, let's face it, it's not for the faint hearted! We provide plenty of resources to help these first timers, but with this article I wanted to reveal some of the less conventional tips that I've seen used to great effect for start ups. They may not be for you, but that's what makes life interesting, it takes all sorts! 1. Develop morning routines - This may seem a fairly ordinary tip, but that does very much depend on the routine! Having a sequence of practices that are geared around your businesses performance from the moment you wake up, puts you in the right mindset as the day begins. I know of some entrepreneurs that get up at 4am to get their work done whilst there are no distractions at all, so after their first stint of work they can fit in a gym session at 6.30am then a family fix around 8am, then they finally go into work. 2. Affirmations - Writing down a statement of intent and then repeating it out loud several times a day may sound a bit crazy, but thousands of successful millionaires do this, as described by Napoleon Hill in "Think and Grow Rich". There are numerous variations on this practice and it’s not for those that feel self conscious when caught doing it. I’ve had many a weird stare from other drivers when they catch me talking to myself on my morning commute in the car! 3. Meditation - Meditation can help you focus on your goals, define your purpose and relax your mind when the stress of running a business gets to you. It is becoming a more conventional tool these days and there are plenty of apps that will help you begin your journey to reaching mindfulness nirvana. How much meditation you undertake though is down to you, but it's all too easy to say "I'm too busy to meditate”. I’ve even gone as far as getting a meditation teacher in to the office to educate the my team on how to get the most out of their meditation. 4. Talk to your pet - I recently read an interesting article from a fantastically wealthy entrepreneur who gauged his motivational talks by how long he could keep his pet Great Dane sat paying attention to him. If the dog lay down whilst he was practising he would assume it wasn’t good enough and adjust it until he held his attention for the full speech. So, I am now suggesting that we all practice our pitches on our pets, if we can’t hold their attention, what chance do we have with prospects? 5. Dress to impress - Think about what you wear and the way you look every single day because like it or not you are judged by the way you look. Unless you are a Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg (who are on another level entirely) looking as good as you can, appropriate to the business you are in, can give you the edge. If you are the best dressed person in the business meeting you are already making a good impression and for the right reasons. If you find these tips interesting and want to find out more about how we help our BLAM Partners achieve success check out one of our webinars that we run every week, available to all here . Have a great week!

Staff

Sun, 09 Apr 2017 20:39:00 GMT

5 tips to help manage staff more effectively

One of the hardest parts of growing a small business is managing staff. Dealing with the day to day issues that come up preventing you getting on with growing your business is one of the most frustrating parts of running your own company. I've listed five tips here that have helped me manage my staff over the years that you may find useful. 1. Build systems: If your internal business systems are designed around the roles of your staff it can save a lot of problems along the way. If each time you have a staff issue you amend your system to accommodate the situation, your systems should evolve and avoid similar problems in the future. An example of this would be a member of staff consistently forgetting to undertake a particular task. By applying a flagging system, a reminder, alert or trigger, you will then either solve the problem or have the evidence to discipline accordingly. My motto is, always be improving the systems, always keep learning from mistakes. 2. Communication: One of my personal weaknesses this one! Quite often I have found that I have neglected to communicate new initiatives in my businesses appropriately to all of the organisation. This sometimes causes me to verge on paranoia and end up repeating myself a lot to my team! By keeping all of the staff informed on the business goals, objectives and general on-going issues, you can build a fantastic team atmosphere. Regular team meetings, social events and a communication system that fits appropriately with your business are key. In my various businesses I have used a variety of different tools for doing this and they change depending on the level of staff I'm communicating with. For example, I often use a What's App group for management teams and then email communication, triggered from our CRM for more general staff matters. 3. Set goals with rewards: I use a staff review system that includes goals and targets set on a quarterly and annual basis. Each quarter the previous goals are reviewed and marked by achievement. My managers also use this system with their staff and it works consistently down the managerial line. When goals are achieved rewards are based on the achievement. There are several rewards systems available to employers now such as Perk Box but I've used a variety, from a good old fashioned bonus through to a holiday. 4. Work with strengths: I few years ago an extremely successful entrepreneur showed me how he managed his staff from the very beginning of their employment by assessing their strengths. I found this to be completely in line with my core values and love the positive approach of focussing on strengths rather than weaknesses. There are various strength finder tests that are available along with books that help you best understand the way to utilise the strengths and manage accordingly. Each member of staff takes the test and then you can see what their strengths are and what job roles will suit them best. I have now taken this to the next level by employing team members based primarily on their core values fitting with the business and then fitting their strengths with the appropriate role there after. 5. Know the law: On more than one occasion I have found myself in need of an employment solicitor when dealing with a tricky staffing situation. Employment law can be a minefield and when faced with a situation you need to know you’re getting the right advice. For many years I have been a member of the Chamber of Commerce who offer a free employment support line. They gave me invaluable advice and support and I highly recommend their membership for that service on its own. There are other organisations that provide similar services and for the business owner with only a small team this is a great first step in resolving issues or making sure you are operating correctly and in accordance with employment law. Of course, for more serious instances, a employment law solicitor may not be avoided! Despite this article having elements relating to staffing problems, I would like to end it by saying that despite having my fair share of issues over the years, my team have been awesome. When you find the right people, they are the greatest asset your business has and are the foundation of the organisation.

Lies

Sun, 02 Apr 2017 19:15:00 GMT

Would you tell a lie to close the deal?

From a young age my parents drummed into me that honesty is the best policy. When I was at junior school I recall accidentally throwing a hardball through a high window, showering the entire assembly hall with glass. To my mates amazement I went and told the teacher immediately and was sent to the head master. He actually praised me for my honesty and then when in the next assembly (after the glass had been cleared) he made me stand up and used me as an example for my honesty, pointing out that it was because of my confession that I wasn’t punished. What a great head he was, as this had a lasting effect on my attitude, which I've carried through to my business career too. When it comes to selling in business there is a temptation to tell lies to further enhance your product or service. You may prefer to use the term exaggeration or stretching the truth but the principle is the same, it's lying. Historically this is one of the main reasons why sales people have got a bad reputation. Whether it's the stereotypical slimy car sales person or the boiler room commission based telesales executive, we often have a perception that their morals are less than saintly and sometimes for good reason.
"But where do we draw the line, and how do we know when we're stretching the truth too far?"

Lying is a fact of life, we all do it to a certain extent. Whether it's making an excuse for why we're running late or telling our partner that their bum doesn't look big in that outfit, it's a fact of life that we are all aware of. But where do we draw the line, and how do we know when we're stretching the truth too far? I often find with business owners I coach who are new to selling or are less experienced in their product range (e.g. some of our BLAM Partners), they are tempted to appear more expert or experienced in their subject than they truly are. In this instance my advice is always honesty is the best policy. If you are found out to be less experienced than you have said, your credibility is completely blown and the chances of a sale are less than zero! "Disarming honesty" is contrary to how traditional sales people are used to acting. Admitting that you don’t know the answer to a question can be a pleasant surprise to your prospect and can build trust and rapport. As long as the question is answered at some point (usually after the appointment) in an efficient and professional manner, it can actually help your pitch rather than damage it. This has often worked for me and my sales people over the years. In the cases where the prospect has reacted badly to not being given the answer immediately, then they would never have been a good fit for our business anyway, if that’s the way they choose to behave. So, I say to people who are new to selling, be truthful with your prospects and be disarmingly honest, after all it’s much more difficult to remember a lie than it is to recall the truth!

Value

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 18:39:00 GMT

What are you really worth?

There seems to be an unlimited number of business gurus out there at the moment vying for the role of coaching entrepreneurs in all aspects of the business world. “Coaching" seems to be the new buzz word that we keep hearing, and as ever there are a variety of different interpretations of what essentially is what we used to call consulting. Don’t get me wrong, I am of course a big fan of coaching, and have two that I use myself, I just tend to be wary when a new spin on an old idea starts taking hold! Recently I attended an invigorating all day seminar where the familiar mantra of "be coachable" was pronounced at every opportunity (check out Les Brown for more being coachable inspiration). If you are being syndical, the reason for this seemed pretty transparent, as coaching is effectively what was being sold, at what on first appearance, seemed like extremely high prices. The value of the coaching, we were told, was in the potential of what could be achieved once given the knowledge and then applying it. However, I found myself asking the question, "how valuable is this coaching and what is it really worth?" During the seminar the speaker explained how he was charged hundreds of thousands of dollars by his own coach, based on how much he was likely to earn as a result of the learning. This seemed like a totally unreasonable amount of money on the surface, however the speaker was happy to pay it due to the high return on the investment he received. To him, it was actually amazingly good value. So, the speaker took a decision to pay an extremely large amount of cash in exchange for the coaching sessions. He then went on to adjust his business in accordance with his coach's advice and went on to earn millions as a result.
“people don’t value what they don’t pay for”

The whole thing would have been a huge waste of money however, if the speaker had not applied what he had learnt and followed through with huge commitment and effort. It's a fascinating piece of phycology that having paid thousands for being coached, the incentive to make it work was enormous, and therefore more likely to work. We often value that which we pay more for and in the world of coaching if we only pay a small amount of money, we're much less likely to take action with the learning. An example of this principle in reverse occurs within our BLAM partnership programme. As part of the programme, all partners receive a full resource centre of all the knowledge that we have built up over years from selling hundreds of websites and apps. The value of this knowledge when added up, based on what it has earned all of our partners past and present is millions of pounds. Yet, what we find is that the resource centre is generally not exploited to the full despite it being freely available to all members. We have a record of how it is accessed and by whom and it's fascinating to see it's usage. A great saying from Oren Klaff springs to mind, “people don’t value what they don’t pay for”. It's interesting to speculate what the usage would have been in our resource centre if we had made it an optional extra that partners had to pay for. How much more I wonder would it be used (we're not doing this btw!), and how much more successful would our network of partners be? My point being that what ever product or service you are selling, be mindful of selling the value not the price. Often I see small business owners underselling themselves as they have an idea about their price being too expensive. We have some BLAM Partners that will sell a product for three times as much as another without any difficulty, and it’s essentially the same product. These are the partners that are selling the value not the price. If you equate your product or service to its value rather than its price, it's an excellent opportunity to help the buyer take action and improve your businesses perception whilst doing so. So I urge you to take a long look at your business and think, what are my products and services really worth to my customers? And even if you don’t charge your prices, you need to let your customers know your real value.

Motivation

Sat, 18 Mar 2017 20:20:00 GMT

7 ways to help motivate small business owners

One of the hardest parts of running a small business is staying motivated. This is particularly true if you work on your own or spend a lot of time locked in your office away from the other staff.

You may not like to admit it but how often do you find yourself feeling distracted, lack lustre or just plain lazy, despite there being a "to do" list as long as your arm?

Generating the motivational energy to get the job done when you have these unproductive days is tough. When you don't have a boss to be accountable to, who holds the threat of dismissal over you if you don't perform as expected, means that it's easy to become unproductive.

"Often, good people, who have had successful careers in employment,
struggle to find motivation when they go it alone"

Over the years I've seen this symptom many, many times, particularly with people who start their own business for the first time. Often, good people, who have had successful careers in employment, struggle to find motivation when they go it alone. Without the routine and the structure of employment, and the threat of not being paid if tasks aren't completed, performance can be well below what they are capable of achieving.

So how can we find the motivation that will help us achieve success, even when our mojo is low? I've put together this list which has helped me stay motivated over the years, and has helped many business owners who I've mentored.

1. Goals. Defining financial goals for the business year, then three years in advance that are achievable and within reach is a great way of staying motivated (if your goals are too ambitious they can have a demotivating effect).

2. Vision board. Keep a vision board close to your work space and other prominent places (I keep mine as a screen saver on my phone). Seeing your dreams help remind you why you need to work so hard.

3. Weekly targets. Diarise and record weekly targets for all of your work behaviour that you know will get results-we call this a cook-book. All BLAM Partners have access to a cook-book in our resource centre.

4. Reward yourself. Give yourself a reward when you achieve certain targeted tasks. This could be as simple as a night out, family time or or maybe a short break if it's an important achievement.

5. Accountability partner. Find a person who will check that you are undertaking your weekly tasks. The fact that somebody is going to check that you are doing what you committed to is a big motivation. Sending your cook-book to them at the end of each week motivates us to make sure our tasks are completed.

6. Join a mastermind group. A group of like minded business people who meet at least once a month to discuss their business issues. They motivate, inspire and help each other stick to their goals. You can organise this yourself or join an existing group.

7. Get a mentor. Finding another business person who you respect and has a history of business experience can help you navigate the road to success by learning from their experience. Be bold and ask, you'll find that other business owners are keen to share their experience.

Most importantly, remember that we all have moments of self doubt when we struggle to find motivation. In these moments I always remind myself that being in business is the road less travelled and if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Hobby

Sun, 12 Mar 2017 19:21:00 GMT

Would you like your hobby as a job?

Ever since I was a boy I have been fascinated with cars. When driving along in the back of the family car I would challenge myself to call out every single make and model of car that drove past, and paid particular attention to the fast ones!

My main goal in life as a teenager was to buy my first car, pass my test and the world would then be my oyster. And so my first car, a customised VW Beetle, was my pride and joy and went through a series of incarnations as every penny I had went into customising it from top to bottom.

The real dream however was to have another rear engined, German engineered, piece of art, a Porsche 911. So in my early career as a graphic designer my main motivation to earn money was to fund my obsession with cars, in particular, Porsches.

I’ve now been lucky enough to own many fast cars over the years, and the number of Porsches has got into double figures such has been my obsession. I’ve joined the Porsche clubs, attended loads of Porsche rallies and sponsored a Porsche in a race series for a couple of seasons. And so when a friend and client of mine asked me to join him and his business partner in a venture founding a supercar experience business, it seemed like the perfect fit.

My role would be marketing and strategy, whilst the other two partners would run the day to day business and manage the cars. We all chipped in, donated cars and set about raising the funds to put together a fantastic fleet of vehicles and all of the infrastructure that goes with it.

"The first year was an exciting one,
but as new ventures always are, very, very hard work."

The first year was an exciting one, but as new ventures always are, very, very hard work. As I had other businesses to run as my “day” jobs, I would end up spending my weekends at race tracks all over the UK, presenting safety briefings and managing customer service issues. My family life suffered, and the amount of time that I actually spent driving the cars was minimal. It soon became clear that living the supercar dream wasn’t as flash as it seemed!

The biggest learning curve from founding and running that business for me was the effect that it had on my love for fast cars. Once you’ve driven a McLaren and a Ferrari back to back on a racetrack before you start work for the day, driving any sports car on the road feels mundane. By the time that I exited the business my love of fast cars had pretty much gone, something I would never have imagined possible only a couple of years previous.

"I found that turning my hobby into my
work actually took away some of the joy"

So, in my experience, I found that turning my hobby into my work actually took away some of the joy I found from having fun in my cars at the weekend. Driving a car that you’ve saved hard for, spent a long time searching for and then fastidiously maintained and cherished, is a far cry from running a fleet of supercars that need to earn their keep.

What I take away from this is not to confuse my hobbies with my work, as it can take the fun out of your weekend escapes, something that is vital when you push yourself hard during the week. I love my day job but I wouldn’t want it as a hobby, I now appreciate my hobbies more, but I don’t want them to be my job!

However, I didn’t learn my lesson, I sold my shares in the supercar business and bought a pub and brewery, but that’s another story!

Read

Sun, 05 Mar 2017 15:55:00 GMT

Do you read or listen?

It was World Book Day this week, and it was great to see so much fun being had, particularly from the kids, dressing up as their favourite literary characters. It prompted me to think about the collection of books in my library and the authors that have influenced me along the journey.

However, I don’t “read” much! I am an avid “listener” of books, preferring to consume my literature using my Audible app on my phone. This works for me as it means that the time spent every day in the car or on the train, is maximised by listening to a combination of my go-to business books, entrepreneur autobiographies and new business titles that take my fancy.

I don’t “read” much! I am an avid “listener”

I approach this time as my personal development time, and I really look forward to it. I commit to at least 4 hrs a week (usually quite a bit more) and at the moment I make sure that at least an hour of that is “Think and Grow Rich”, my number one, all time favourite personal development book.

I have over 80 titles in my Audible account that I add to each month and another large batch in my iTunes account. So if you fancy giving it a go, to help you save a bit of trial and error I have listed below my top ten favourite books that inspire me on my way to and from work.

1. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill. This extraordinary book was written over a period of 25 years and then published in 1937, and it still stands out as the best template to leading a successful life. It defines the “mastermind group” model and effectively describes the law of attraction in a very grounded and accessible way.

2. Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh. This powerful book has influenced me in almost everything I do in business. Tony Hsieh's unique approach to customer service is awe inspiring, a must read for anyone with a business that has customers!

3. Start with Why, Simon Sinek. This relatively short book speaks directly to me in particular as it so closely describes the way I like to approach branding within business. It’s all about the “Why" not necessarily the “What" and full of lots of other really useful marketing theory.

4. Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff. Oren Klaff is now starting to get the recognition he deserves as one of the worlds leading authorities on how to present to an audience that isn’t that bothered about what you have to say. Using his techniques gives you the power to raise your authority in the room, helping you close the deal.

5. The Greatness is Within You, Les Brown. Another regular player on my phone, you cannot fail to feel uplifted after listening to presentations from this super-inspiring motivational speaker. 10 minutes a day is like medicine for the mind!

6. 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World, Rhymer Rigby. I love this book because it condenses 28 examples of amazing business stories, allowing me to draw from them in my day to day life without having had to read/listened a full book on each (although I have on a few of them!).

7. The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber. This is the “go-to" book for any aspiring entrepreneur, it eloquently explains why most new businesses fail and how to build a business that won’t send you to an early grave!

8. The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss. Trust me, with only a few exceptions, any work week that is hugely profitable after only four hours will have been developed after years of tirelessly working 12hrs+ a day. However,the lessons described in this book are famous for short cutting some common business processes, particularly in the on-line arena.

9. How to Get Rich, Felix Dennis. This story is told with a twinkle in the eye, from a man who had lived life to the absolute full and had the scars to prove it. He sadly died in 2014 which make this read all the more poignant.

10. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. I listened to this after seeing it recommended by Will Smith. It is an endearing tale that is full of metaphors about life, I’ve made both of my children listen to this one too, highly recommended listening or reading but you need to read it more than once for full effect.

This list could have gone on a while, and it was tough choosing just 10!

It would be great to hear feedback from you if there are books that have helped you in life, I’m always looking for another good listen!

Have a great reading week!

Smile

Sat, 25 Feb 2017 15:23:00 GMT

Your Most Underrated Sales Tool

Working with a mentoring client recently, I was delighted to find that one of their personal goals was to smile more. It may sound like the simplest of things but just the thought of having "smile more" as a personal goal made me feel very happy, I smiled a lot!

"smile it does make you feel happier, even if it's a fake smile"

Smiling is what you do when you are happy, but does it work the other way around, can we smile and then feel happier as a result? I believe we can. And I’m not the only one who thinks this, there's been plenty of research that shows that when you smile it does make you feel happier, even if it's a fake smile.

I once interviewed a potential developer for one of my companies who had on her CV an award that she had won whilst working in Tesco’s on the checkouts (whilst at Uni). To Tesco's great credit they recognised their staff by awarding an accolade for being the smiliest person in the store and Jini (who worked for me for some years after this) had won it. She had a great CV and turned out to be a great developer, but the thing that stands out in my memory about my decision making process for taking her on was the smiling award. It says so much about someone’s personality to have won an award like that and it proved to be absolutely true, I just new she’d fit in.

"I always ask my sales staff to smile when they are on the phone"

I am therefore a huge advocate of smiling at work, it has many so benefits. I always ask my sales staff to smile when they are on the phone. I’ve had some odd looks over the years and conversations along the lines of “but it’s the phone, they can’t see me!” but they can hear your smile. Just think about it next time you get a cold call from the ambulance chasers or the PPI call centre. If they were smiling (they usually aren’t) you could tell, it uplifts their whole demeanour, and I guarantee the ones that are smiling are the sales people that have the most success.

So give some thought to your smiling when working on your business. Practice smiling on the phone, in the car, on the train and watch the positive results, I guarantee it will make a difference :-)

Here is a list of some other benefits to smiling more:

• It’s contagious - you’ll get lots of smiles back, guaranteed
• Smiling boosts your immune system - it reduces cortisol
• Smiling is our 1st facial expression
• Forcing a smile will elevate your mood - try it, it really works
• Smiling makes you more attractive - 70% of people prefer a smiling face
• Smiling reduces blood pressure - yes, smiling saves lives
• Smiling is exercise for the face - 26 muscles are used in a smile
• Employers tend to promote people who smile often - unless you work at a funeral directors!
• There are 19 different types of smiles - can you name them?
• It’s easier to smile than frown - smile muscles are stronger
• Smiles can be detected from 300ft away - the friend or foe reflex

Escape

Sun, 19 Feb 2017 18:23:00 GMT

Scheduling your disconnected time can be inspiring

This weekend my wife and I have left the kids with nana and grandpa and we've travelled to Buxton in the Peak District, apparently England's leading Spa Town, nice. The weekend escape in February is an annual event that we commit to every year, visiting a different destination each time, we love it. I do all of the planning. The research usually starts in November, and the challenge for me is to find an interesting town or city where Abby and I can spend a whole weekend not tied to the usual demands of a busy family and work life.
"I'm thinking about my businesses all of the time, it’s in my blood."

The break away from it all, is a very important event in our calendar and one that plays a significant role in my business life too. Don't worry, I don't spend the whole weekend working, quite the opposite in fact (except for this blog). But, as a certified, got the t-shirt entrepreneur, I'm thinking about my businesses all of the time, it’s in my blood. When I'm away from the businesses (my staff and business partners know this) the constant contact that we get so used to is intentionally policed. That combined with the removal of family commitments (my weekend role is usually taxi driver, tutor and punchbag) my brain unwinds very quickly and I often have some inspired ideas that are implemented on my return with much enthusiasm. The idea of taking a break away from it all to unwind is nothing new, but these days how much of a break do we really take when we have our phones in our pocket? Part of the ethos of our annual break is being disconnected from texts, LinkedIn, Facebook, What's app, phone calls and all the other distractions in our connected world. Here in Buxton for example, I have no data reception, no wifi, just, me, my wife and my thoughts. It was following one of my “thoughts", I felt compelled to write this blog as testimony to the power of the disconnected weekend break in Feb!
'I have no data reception, no wifi, just, me, my wife and my thoughts."

However, "embrace the beauty of technology" is one of BLAM's, and therefore my, core values and detaching myself from that technology in order to think creatively is something of an irony. The key thing for me is having the discipline to connect and disconnect to get the best results, something that doesn't always come easy to me. I am writing this blog on my disconnected mobile, with relaxing music playing, in a clothes shop that has given me free coffee whilst Abby tries on several outfits. There's no signal so no interruptions, heaven :) It's a well documented subject, the idea of intentionally unplugging and getting away from it all. My advice to our BLAM Partners is to make sure you diarise the breaks the same way you do with the work behaviours and consider the amount of connected time you allow yourself whilst you are there. Like me, I'm sure you will find hidden inspiration in your unconnected escape. Next week, I will be refreshed and technology will be fully embraced once more and I'll be loving it! Now, where's that awesome little bar with craft beer on tap I spotted earlier, that looked really inspiring...

Lists

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 08:12:00 GMT

Your most important business tool?

Over the years I've tried all sorts of different ways of organising my “to-do" list. It's one of the most important tools that we use every day to get stuff done. And lets be honest, there's something really satisfying about looking at a to-do list with all of the items crossed out, heaven!

When I was a boy, my dad had his own business, and I was fascinated by his to-do list method. Even though he's retired, I still see him using it to this today for his daily tasks. Way back before laptops and mobiles, my old man had a lined notepad with a list of to-do’s that he wrote up early every morning at his desk. At the end of the day, all of the items that he hadn’t crossed out were carried over to the new page the next morning, to start all over again. He went through loads of these pads over the years and the habit stayed with him his whole working life.

Similarly I’ve always used a writing book for my to-do list, and I now keep three on the go at any one time. One is a lined A5 pad for staff related notes and mentoring clients, the next is an A4 plain paper pad for drawing my mind maps and ideas that I have (my favourite book) and finally a quality A4 lined pad for the daily notes and briefs etc, including a lot of my to do lists.

Now that the technology we have at our disposal keeps us all so well connected to our cloud of data, my main to-do list is now kept in the Apple App “reminders”. I love this app, as it integrates with my calendar and can trigger reminder alerts based on time, date and location in the form of push notifications which I find brilliant. This has lessened the need for me to make a hand written to-do list every day and helps me keep more accurate deadlines of my goals and objectives each week. However, I still can’t get out of the habit of writing them in my book, it gives me the chance to enjoy crossing things out :)

The debate about which is the best way to organise a busy “to-do” list is an old one, and I love the story from 1918, about Charles M. Schwab, who was one of the richest men in the world at the time. A notoriously creative businessman he would try all sorts of things to give his steel business the edge over the competition.

So, he hired a well known productivity consultant called Ivy Lee, to see if he could get more out of his executive staff. Lee, a very successful guy in his own right, offered to spend 15 minutes with each one of Schwab’s team and that the fee would be decided by Schwab after three months, based on what he thought it was worth!

Here’s what he told them to do:

• At the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.

• Prioritise those six items in order of their true importance.

• When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.

• Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

• Repeat this process every working day.

Sound familiar?

This made me smile when I first heard the story a few years ago, as it is very similar to the method my dad used for so many years. And guess what? It really works well!

Remember, the way we prioritise our time is one of THE most important systems in our working lives, but I have found that one system does not fit all people. The Ivy Lee method may be your cup of tea, but if not what is? Whatever your method ( Tips here ) the points that are important are:

Prioritise, always have a deadline and try not to add other people’s to-do's to your list, especially if you’re really busy!

So, how much did Schwab pay Lee for the method? Well, after three months, Schwab was so pleased with the progress his business had made that he paid $25k, which is $400k in today's money. In reality, generous as it was, that was only a fraction of the value of that particular to-do list method!

Grant's Weekly Word

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 19:27:00 GMT

Reps

I must be a really annoying dad. My teenage son in particular cops for my long winded lectures nearly every day. Much huffing and eye rolling is involved on his part but I persevere, it's all part of my plan.

I've always taken being a dad very seriously and was amazed when 15 years ago when I had my 1st child that he didn't come with an instruction manual! This is madness I thought, surely there must be some common, universal strategies that are provided by the midwife, doctors etc, it's seems like quite an important thing! Up until the birth there had been loads of advice, after that, you're on your own.

Baffled by this, my wife and I set to reading every book we could to ensure we were doing our best (I can highly recommend, The Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg and Raising Boys/Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph) and so our education began and we found the strategies that seemed to fit with our values and ideas.

Moving on 15 years, my eldest is now receiving the full dad treatment from me and I try my best to educate him about life in the hope he can make mistakes quickly and learn from them each time. Hence the lectures, mostly along the lines of "So what did you learn from that experience and how will you change it next time?"

Which brings me on to my main point - REPS. In the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger "it's all about the reps".

My son and I are listening to the audio book "Total Recall" (following in from the hugely inspiring Bear Grylls autobiography, Mud, Sweat and Tears), Arnie's autobiography as it is full of brilliant lessons in life. He learnt very early on that if you want to grow big muscles you have to repeat the exercises over and over again to slowly build them up. He took this philosophy and applied it to many other parts of his life and has achieved incredible things as s result. Here's a few:
• The greatest body builder ever, winning Mr Olympia 7 times, responsible for taking the underground obscure cult and turning into an internationally recognised sport.
• Before he ever became a film star he built up a multimillion dollar portfolio of property, whilst competing as Mr Universe and running a mail order publishing company.
• Despite not speaking very good English he became the one of the highest paid Hollywood actors of his time and now has a net worth of over $300 million dollars.
• He became the Governor of California (if it was a country it would be the 4th wealthiest in the world) in 2003 serving until 2011 making huge progress with climate change and physical fitness legislation.

This impressive list (very brief, he's achieved so much more) has been achieved by implementing the philosophy of repetition. Each time the reps have been completed the next time you have to complete them a little bit better, always growing always improving. I love this idea as I can see it work in so many instances in life, especially in business.

When in the gym exercising with weights, doing the reps actually breaks down your muscles. If you push your muscles past their comfort zone into the part when they're struggling, when they rebuild, they will build a little bit bigger each time. If however, you don't push past the pain barrier, they won't grow bigger, they'll stay the same.

It's only when we push ourselves past the point we thought we couldn't reach, that we achieve greatness, and the "reps" are the route to getting us there.

When applied to all aspects of life, this idea can't help but deliver results. Constant repetition, each time tweaking to get better, at the activities that we need to improve and excel in equals success.

My favourite example of this is the time Arnold delivered his most important speech on climate change to the United Nations. It was a 40 minute speech that he had to write and he practiced it 50 times - 50 times! When he went on stage, he didn't need any notes, the reps had embedded the entire speech into his head, he new it off by heart, awesome!

So I would ask you to consider what it is that you need to apply the "reps" to. Your sales pitch, your cold calling, your cook book or like me, is it lecturing your kids over and over knowing eventually it should stick?

How to Grow your Start-up Using PPC

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:33:00 GMT

Pay-Per-Click advertising is one of the quickest ways to attract traffic to your website. Everyone knows that building your following organically can take quite a while - and for start-ups in particular time is gold! Most people who attempt to set up a PPC campaign, however, tend to feel overwhelmed and often give up. There is such a wealth of possibilities when it comes to PPC advertising and so many different factors that need to be taken into consideration – not to mention the industry jargon which confuses people – that most beginners feel lost before even starting. Despite these difficulties, we have identified a few simple steps that can lead any start-up to create a successful PPC campaign quickly and easily.

Always start by defining your goals. Like everything in marketing, PPC starts by identifying your goals and objectives. Think about the results you want to achieve through PPC, the areas you are looking to target, the type of user who is most likely to engage with your ads and the product categories you would like to promote through that channel. Having your goals clearly defined makes you understand which of the available tools apply to you and which data to focus on going forward.
Identify the best keywords. Selecting which keywords to target is everything in PPC. When it comes to keyword costs, certain industries can be quite expensive. However, broader terms which are used more often are usually more expensive, whereas narrower, highly targeted terms often cost less. Narrow terms are great if you are in a niche market. Tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner which is available for free through AdWords can be a great help in this area as it can develop keyword ideas but also produce a budget forecast. Brainstorming with your team is also a great way to generate keyword ideas that you could have missed if you were planning to do this all by yourself.
Set a budget you are comfortable with. One of the greatest benefits of PPC advertising is the fact that it allows complete flexibility in terms of selecting and adjusting your daily budget. Taking Keyword Planner’s budget forecast into consideration, choose a daily budget you are comfortable with investing. After your campaign has been live for a certain period, the daily budget can be adjusted according to performance.
Keep a close eye on your campaign. Be prepared to invest time on a daily basis gauging your data and adjusting your ads. PPC advertising won’t work if you ignore it and that is because the factors affecting it keep changing constantly – remember, it is a live auction after all.
Don’t be afraid to seek help. Not everything will make sense at first, undoubtedly. Fear not, as you are not alone. Google support is getting more and more user-friendly every day. You can now contact an AdWords Expert with the click of a button, via phone or online chat – personally, I prefer the latter as it is easy to use even when in the office without having to annoy my co-workers with lengthy phone calls.
Keep educating yourself. Make sure you keep yourself informed of any changes or new trends in the area of PPC. As a dynamic sector, PPC keeps evolving constantly. That requires a lot of reading on your behalf, so make sure you always stay on top of things. If you ever feel left behind, there are companies and experts who can conduct an audit of your ads and recommend the best practices to improve your visibility.

I would love to know what your thoughts are with regards to PPC. Are you planning to use PPC as part of your marketing?

Why Now Is The Best Time To Start A Business

Thu, 18 Aug 2016 14:54:00 GMT

Perhaps you’ve just had this crazy idea. Or maybe you’ve been thinking about it for ages. Whatever your situation, this article aims to help you realise why now is the best time for you to start your own business.

After all, sometimes all we need is a little push.

Your current job makes you miserable . We often make the mistake of excluding our job from the list of things that are supposed to make us happy in our everyday lives. The reality is that we spend about a third of our lives working. So if your job makes you unhappy, consider changing it as soon as possible. Starting your own business means you get to be your own boss, create your own schedule and devote as much time and energy as you wish in your own firm. Sometimes, however, even when you love your job and make a decent income, you still feel like something is missing . If you are one of those people who want to make a difference in this world, chances are that being an employee won’t cut it for you. Wanting to make an impact is actually a very common characteristic among successful entrepreneurs. It is now easier than ever . Most people think that starting a business requires a large capital. Modern technology is so affordable and easily accessible nowadays, which makes covering the needs of a new business much simpler than it used to be. Quality software is available online either for free or for a small monthly subscription, saving you that large upfront investment. The internet is your friend . Often people are afraid to take the risk of losing all their money or worry about not making enough during the first months of starting up. The good thing about being part of the digital era is being able to start something on the side while keeping your regular job. The Internet provides countless opportunities for starting a business from the comfort of your own home. That way you can grow your business online until you feel confident enough to commit yourself fully to it. Globalisation can help you grow much faster . The great thing about today’s global economy is that your new business can have access to worldwide markets and resources from day one. Creating a global brand is now a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is a solid product, a strategy and good – affordable - online marketing. You feel ready . Your personal timing is undoubtedly the most important factor to consider. A lot of people make the mistake of confusing the ‘right timing’ with the economic situation of their country, but any successful entrepreneur will tell you that if you have a vision and the motivation to make something happen, then it is the right time for you. The fact that you are reading this article means that you are most likely considering starting your own business. What is keeping you back? Please, share your thoughts below.

Does your start-up need a social media strategist?

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 14:03:00 GMT

First, let’s define the term social media ‘strategist’, ‘expert’, ‘specialist’ or whichever title you prefer to use to describe that particular marketing specialisation because I understand it often causes confusion. I have picked the term ‘social media strategist’ for this post’s title as for me it is the most accurate to describe the role. A professional in this industry will never proceed to manage anyone’s social media platforms without properly planning a detailed strategy first, and that is usually the main difference between those who are qualified to do the job and those who aren't.
A social media strategist, therefore, is the professional behind any successful social media business page. That person is responsible for aligning a company’s social media activities with the overall marketing direction of the business. For some, this might still seem generic and difficult to understand, but hopefully, the rest of this post will shed some light into this role’s specifics while answering some common queries I often hear from clients.

Do you think you can do it yourself? The main problem with small business owners and their view of social media nowadays is that they believe they can run it themselves. People often think that because they know how to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to connect with friends, they can do the same for their business. However, it is one thing to use social platforms for personal purposes and a whole different story to run a successful business page. If you honestly think you can understand the rules of engagement, what creates value for your target audience, the different dynamics in each platform, and how to translate all that to business growth, then, by all means, go ahead and do it yourself. If not, you should probably think twice before endangering your firm’s image.
Do you think social media are not a good fit for your industry? While it is true that not all types of businesses should expand their presence on the same level all social networks, some social media presence is still required. Think of it this way. Chances are your customers – and competitors! - are already on social media. Don’t you want to be where your customers are? A social media strategist will research the market and tell you exactly which platforms would benefit your particular type of business.
Do you think it is still too early to invest in social media? New business owners often think that hiring a social media specialist is something only large businesses can afford. Others might choose to postpone social media altogether until the brand grows in popularity. Both these views are wrong. Do some market research and you will discover plenty of affordable solutions available depending on the level of management or the number of platforms you are looking to have managed. The right social media manager for your firm will tell you it is much easier and cost-effective for a new brand to gain awareness through social media, than any other channel. Therefore, social media are an essential tool for the future success of any start-up.
Do you know what exactly you are trying to achieve? On the other hand, I often meet clients who are more than excited to create a strong social media presence for their start-up. And that is great! However, when I ask them what their social media objectives are and what exactly they are trying to achieve through that, they don’t know the answer. Most people would reply something like ‘getting followers’ or ‘likes’ or whatever. If you are not able to tie each social media activity to at least one business objective, though, you will be wasting your time without a doubt. That is where a specialist will come in handy once again.

Having said all that, and even though social media are a powerful tool, people should never make the mistake of thinking that a solid social presence is all it takes to ensure a good level of sales. The purpose of your social media strategy is to complement and augment your overall marketing and sales strategy. One cannot do well without the other, and anyone who tells you otherwise shouldn’t be trusted.

Hiring A Marketing Agency vs An In-house Marketer

Thu, 23 Jun 2016 10:57:00 GMT

Most business owners tend to start up on their own as solopreneurs or even with a business partner. That often happens due to the initial lack of capital to recruit a team or simply because people are dedicated to succeed on their own. Whatever the reasons are, in most cases starting solo works fine at first. After a while, though, and especially if the business starts growing, you’ll probably start feeling you need more sales leads to capitalise on, higher website traffic or more professional communication methods to switch to. So then the question that needs to be answered is whether to bring a marketer in-house or hire a marketing agency to do the work instead. As an in-house marketer who works for a marketing agency, I believe it’s safe to say I am suitable to analyse the pros and cons of the two without any bias.

When to hire a Marketing Agency

Unless you go for one of the fancier agencies in the market, hiring a marketing agency is obviously the cheaper option. That is most appealing to the smaller businesses out there who cannot afford full-time staff. In addition to cost, hiring an agency saves you plenty of valuable time. That is the time you would spend training new employees or worrying about which software tools to invest in for your marketing. Hiring an agency means that you get the knowledge and expertise of a team of professionals at your disposal. Marketers who work for an agency usually have a wider experience than those working in-house as they get to deal with all sorts of different businesses and tap into several industries. Chances are they have worked for a company like yours before, and even if they haven’t, they will know exactly the type of research to do in order to get the best possible understanding of each client’s unique market and business situation. This is why a lot of brands feel safer with an agency. That being said, picking the right agency that is willing to devote the time to understand where you’re coming from and where you want to be in the near future is crucial. Make sure you do proper research and check for client reviews and feedback where possible. If you are looking for a specialist to not only sort out your marketing but give you their knowledge and market insight as well, you might want to search for a niche agency. That might cost you a bit extra, but it is definitely worth it if your brand is lacking experience.

When to hire an in-house Marketer

In most cases, it’s best to bring someone in-house if you own a medium or large business or you need to develop an elaborate marketing strategy and feel you would benefit from someone who could work closely with yourself and your management team. There are also many cases of businesses who simply rely a lot on their communications or have a large number of customers they need to formally communicate with on a regular basis. These businesses tend to prefer having full-time staff to deal with anything marketing related that may come up. My advice is if you can afford an in-house marketer, hire one. Make sure, though, that you have enough hours of marketing work that needs to be done on a daily basis, otherwise, you will end up with a waste of money and an unhappy employee. Another thing you definitely want to consider before recruiting someone is finding the right person. A common mistake among small businesses is hiring staff with no marketing background or any prior experience and assuming they can deliver. Compromising on the quality of your staff is a big no and will only end up costing you more money to train and manage that person in the long run. If you cannot afford to hire the right personnel to handle your marketing, like I said before, hire the right agency!

As I always say, every business is unique and I truly believe that each entrepreneur has the instinct to make the right decision for their business. I hope these tips based on my experience within those two roles gave you a few things to consider with regards to making the right hire. Please share your opinion below!

Top Things To Consider Before Giving Up On Your Business

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 09:13:00 GMT

So it’s been a few months, maybe a year, since you invested in a new business opportunity and you don’t seem to be getting the anticipated results. Consequently, you are getting discouraged thinking you have made the wrong decision. The only logical thing to do now would be to accept you have wasted all your savings and go back to your day job. Sounds familiar? You are not alone. More than 80% of new entrepreneurs give up on their business within the first 18 months. This is just heart-breaking. I’m not going to argue that nobody should ever give up on their business. Clearly there are cases when one needs to have the courage to admit defeat and move on as most successful entrepreneurs have done at some point in their careers and rightly so. What I am going to talk about today, however, is a few key things to consider before making the decision to pull the plug on your business. Let’s dive right in! 1. Why are you giving up? Is your business really failing and if so, why? Are you giving up because you are not enjoying this as much as you thought you would? Is it because you are not making enough money? Is there anything you can do to change things? Taking some time to really think these questions through is essential. Next, I recommend discussing your decision with friends, family and other entrepreneurs who are able to give you honest advice. Make sure you listen to what people have to say and critically evaluate everyone’s opinion before you make an impulsive decision. 2. Have you really been in touch with the business? Do you genuinely believe you have done everything that you should and could have done to make your business successful? It is not uncommon for young entrepreneurs, especially those who enter a partnership or buy into a franchise, to sit back and relax after investing their money in a business opportunity. If this is you, it is time to step out of your bubble and realise that even though you are not alone in this, and yes there are people who support you, as a business owner you are the number one person responsible for the success of your company, so start acting like it! Waiting for a new business to magically start generating money, even if it’s a proven model that works for other people, is reckless at best. 3. Have you communicated your unique selling proposition clearly? You will be surprised how many people have started a business having an incredible idea or the most innovative product, yet failed to communicate their usp to their audience. In reality, using proper business communication can be harder than you think and inexperienced individuals tend to overcomplicate things and confuse the audience. It’s never too late to hire a marketing professional to get the job done properly for you, though. 4. Have you realised it is your baby? You’re the owner, the leader, the boss! Whichever title you prefer; one thing is clear – you’re the one responsible for that business. As most things in life, success is also a matter of perception. The sooner you start seeing the company as your own little creation, the sooner you will commit to it in terms of time and effort. 5. Have you ever thought that it still might be too early? Entrepreneurship is by default an unpredictable route. Give it some time. Every business is unique, but in most cases I’d allow at least a year for things to start stabilising and for you to realise what exactly you are up against. 6. What if this is all just too much for you? I’m sure when you first started your own business, you loved the idea of being your own boss. However, with what seems to be total independence comes great commitment. Being an entrepreneur means you need to be ready to accept pressing calls and emails at all times or run to the office whenever you are needed, even if you have planned to take the day off, simply because you’re the boss. The reality is that you can never be completely ‘off’ as work will always be on your mind whether you want it or not. If you feel that all this responsibility is too much for you to handle, just know that this will soon change. I know that this sense of responsibility can be intimidating at first, but I can guarantee that as soon as you make your first real sale or hit your first target you will want to be in the office and work will soon stop feeling like work – and let’s be honest, isn’t that what everybody wants?
I hope these points give you some food for thought and ultimately help you reach a conclusion. Whatever your decision might be, I’m confident it will be the right one. After all, nobody knows your business better than you do.
I would love to hear your thoughts on giving up on a business, so please feel free to comment below and share your experiences!

Time Management Tips

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:42:00 GMT

We all know that person who does three jobs, runs a family, and appears to do a million other things, yet they are always available for a drink whenever someone asks. It seems impossible, right? There are just not enough hours in the day!
Well, that's not true. The best thing to do is to stop hating that person and try to be more organised like them. So today we are going to explore the best ways to manage your time more effectively. A lot of our readers are entrepreneurs and small business owners. The first thing an entrepreneur needs to learn how to manage is time. If you are a new business owner, chances are your financial and human resources are still quite scarce, yet the one resource you have in abundance is time. Therefore, time is your power and the number one thing to master.

The first thing I want to make clear is that you create your own time . That means you should schedule each day according to your personal ‘productive hours’, instead of the generally accepted 9-5. If you are unsure when you are the most efficient, it is best to experiment for a few days until you figure it out than just assume.
Match your most productive hours with your most demanding tasks . For example, a morning person like myself would choose to complete any creative activities that require a clear mind and a lot of energy, like my blog writing, in the morning hours. Whereas later in the afternoon when you are likely feeling more drained, you can choose to complete more passive or routine tasks like reading, replying to emails, catching up with co-workers, etc.
Instead of keeping lengthy to-do lists, mark each activity on your calendar and assign a time and a duration . This way you are much more likely to stick to your plan as each task has its own time slot. Assigning a specific duration means you are able to tell whether the activity is dragging or not thus modifying your pace accordingly.
Be realistic with task duration . Assigning an hour slot to a job that usually takes you three quarters of a day will only make you disappointed and discouraged at the end of the day - and that is counterproductive!
Plan time for breaks in advance . As an extension to the previous point, not scheduling break time is completely unrealistic and you don’t want that. You are the best one to judge when you need to rest during the day, but I would generally recommend either short ten-minute breaks every hour or a long one halfway through your day.
This one is up to preference, but personally, I find that keeping a digital calendar is more effective especially because I can sync it with all the different devices I am using and stay on top of everything. Alerts and reminders are also great for keeping me on track. I find good old Google Calendar perfect for planning, but if you’re not a fan, there are plenty of apps available for both phone and desktop that you can try instead. Just make sure you stick with one app - there is nothing more confusing than having to dig between different calendars to find what job you need to crack on with next.
As far as disruption goes, social media is the enemy – unless it is your job. It is almost certain that even if you only log in for a minute, you will get carried away and end up wasting valuable time. Emails can also be very disruptive , so every now and then make sure you unsubscribe from useless mailing lists to avoid unnecessary clutter. With regards to work related emails, you will save time if you deal with them on the spot rather than leaving them for later.

I know that time management is quite personal and varies from person to person, but hopefully, these tips were useful. Please share your own below!

Do Small Businesses Need CRM Systems?

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 14:44:00 GMT

Let's find out.

Being in the business of helping small businesses grow, we get to deal with hundreds of small business owners on a daily basis. Talking to those entrepreneurs often reveals insight or even patterns with regards to the way they are thinking which we can then use to better tailor our support services towards them.
One of the emerging perceptions among small business owners seems to be the thought that CRM systems are either too expensive for them to use or simply targeted to the large and established brands, rather than small upcoming companies. So, I thought we should look into that in a bit more depth and try to establish an opinion based on facts.

The advantage of a small business is the ability to establish actual relationships with their customers and prospects, as opposed to the more formal communication type that larger brands adopt – I think we all agree to that. What a CRM does is help businesses achieve that intimacy much more easily by storing data about your customers’ preferences, demographics, purchase history, etc. so that nothing gets missed or forgotten. Therefore, a CRM system makes it simple for a small business to leverage its fundamental advantage, and be able to compete with the largest players in the industry.
Now, I know that there are people who question the importance of being able to establish intimate relationships with clients. The reality is, though, that if you lack the advertising budget of a large organisation – and I’m assuming you do – positive word-of-mouth is all you can rely on in terms of promotion and that is exactly where a CRM system can come in handy. A consistent communication tool like that is able to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty or in other words build a good reputation for your business.
What I usually find when dealing with small business owners is that they are often too busy running their company to find the time to handle administrative tasks such as sending courtesy emails to customers or asking for feedback. You might think that is not necessary, but it actually makes all the difference for a small firm who is trying to build a loyal clientele. Having a CRM system means you don’t need to worry about administrative duties anymore as these can be set up once and then run automatically.
As we all know, not all customers are equally important to a business. I am sure that if you are a business owner you can appreciate how important it is to be able to identify your most profitable customers so that you can treat them better to ensure their retention. A CRM system tracks all customer activity, as well as the time you’ve spent dealing with them, therefore allowing you to detect profitable and unprofitable clients.
It’s been years since modern marketing first discovered the importance of being customer-centric. Providing a personalised experience to each client is a win-win situation for both parties, as satisfied customers end up converting more often. A trusty CRM system allows the small business owner to tailor all marketing communications to fit the right audience. It is essentially one of the main tools for customer-centricity.
With regards to pricing, as with most products out there, CRM systems range from really expensive to very low-cost solutions. Before you make your decision, make sure you do a thorough research to find which one is best tailored to your needs . My advice is to go for a system that was made to work for small to medium enterprises as you are definitely going to get much more use out of it, rather than simply choosing one of the big brand names which emphasize on a large number of users and would often be much more expensive.
And if you are still thinking ‘All these are great, but I still haven’t actually got any customers to manage’, that means you could benefit even more from using a CRM system. Lead generation is one of the many perks these systems offer. A quality system will allow you to easily create carefully targeted landing pages which can then be shared online to thousands of potential customers. People will sign up in return for something you've offered thus filling your database with prospects you can then re-market to. Try it, it works!

I would love to hear your opinions on the matter. Have you ever used a CRM system for your business? Why/Why not? Please comment below and share your thoughts.

6 Reasons Why You Need a Digital Media Strategy

Tue, 24 May 2016 12:12:00 GMT

Everyone needs a digital media strategy, and not for the reasons you may expect. In fact, if you think digital strategies are just promotional, think again.

#1 Most Important Part of Your Campaign

Tue, 24 May 2016 12:10:00 GMT

If you think money is the only thing that matters in your campaign, think again. There are many more things to think about.

Notes from the Other Side

Tue, 24 May 2016 12:09:00 GMT

Always wondered what happens on the other side of your campaign. Well, now you’re going to find out.

Why Technology Isn't Enough for Your Digital Campaign

Tue, 24 May 2016 11:33:00 GMT

Just because you have a snazzy Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat campaign doesn’t mean you’re covered.

10 Reasons You Should Love Blogging

Mon, 23 May 2016 14:02:00 GMT

Blog posts are a great way to get recognized within your community and share your voice. Here are the top 10 reasons you should love writing blog posts.

Anyone can make one:
For better or worse, anyone can write a blog post about anything they want. Everyone has a voice and the best voices will rise to the top.

The writer can show their personality:
In blog posts, the writer has more leeway to add in their voice and personality than other types of writing.

Blogs are a great form of mass communication:
You can help people, learn new things, entertain your audience—the possibilities are endless and amazing. Blogging opens up all of these to a very wide audience.

You can make money:
Get the right blog going and you can make a lot of money through advertising and sponsored posts.

It allows people to craft better thoughts:
Instead of reading haphazard, uneducated Facebook statuses, it’s much better to see people’s thought process in a well-written blog post.

You can establish a community:
Blogging allows you to connect with other individuals who share the same interests. Sharing ideas and opinions within your community helps establish yourself as a thought leader.

Good for SEO:
Keeping content on your site fresh and relevant, you can use your blog to boost the search engine ranking (SEO) of your site and your business.

It brings people back to your site:
If your blog is strong enough and updated regularly, people will come back looking for more and bring traffic back to your site as well.

It’s free:
It costs you a grand total of zero dollars to post to the blog, so if you have something to say, there’s nothing to stop you.

You can establish yourself as a thought leader:
A blog is a great place for your original thoughts, and it can be a wonderful way to show off your individuality. If people like your ideas, you can become a thought leader in your industry!

What else do you love about blogs? Let me know!

Do You Need A Business Mentor?

Wed, 18 May 2016 20:18:00 GMT

A lot of people are eager to do something different with their lives, something entrepreneurial, but often don’t know where to start. Others have managed to start a business, but at some point later on might end up feeling stuck and unable to take it to the next level. In reality, one of the two scenarios happens with the majority of new entrepreneurs out there, because let’s face it – starting a business is not an easy task, let alone for people without any prior experience. So what happens when you suddenly find yourself struggling in these situations? Do you give up? Do you let your dream become one of the 9 ouf 10 start-ups in the UK that end up failing? The answer is no. No, giving up is never the right option, especially when there are people out there who can help you get through those rough patches. I’m sure you’ve heard of business mentors before. But, what is a mentor? A mentor is essentially someone with plenty of business knowledge who is willing to provide you with advice and guidance on how to cope and develop your company. It could either be someone you know and admire such as a friend or a family member, or even a professional whom you can hire to do the job. Richard Branson, Larry Page and Steve Jobs have all received advice and guidance from business mentors at some point in the beginning of their careers. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs have benefited in one way or the other by trusting other more experienced individuals. Even experienced tycoons can reap the benefits of hiring a mentor. One of the most common obstacles businesspersons need to overcome is their lack of motivation and self-confidence at times. That is where a mentor can come in most handy. Having someone who believes in you can make a real difference in running a business. I often find that people who have everything it takes to succeed have no idea how great they really are – not only will your mentor know that, they will also make sure you fully understand it. If you’ve recently started a new business, chances are you are under the impression that nobody else would ever be able to appreciate the problems your own start-up is facing. Each business is unique, right? So how on earth would a complete stranger walk in one day and tell you how to run things? While that is a typical perception, it is entirely wrong. Trust me when I say you would be surprised to find out how many people have been exactly through the same issues you are going through at the moment no matter how different the type of their business or product might seem. The main business principles are always going to be the same, despite all the emerging business models or distribution channels that deceive people into believing they are all alone out there. Recognising and accepting the need for a mentor is actually one of the wisest and most courageous decisions you’ll have to make as a recent entrepreneur. Having the right guidance at the initial planning stage of a start-up is crucial and will definitely help you dodge a lot of the mistakes you would have undoubtedly make otherwise. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can judge whether you could use a business mentor or not. One point I would like to make clear with this article is that accepting to hire a mentor is not a sign of weakness or incompetence to run your business. It is a sign of strength, wisdom and resourcefulness.

How To Build A Marketing Mentality

Wed, 11 May 2016 09:12:00 GMT

It is very common for new business owners to think that marketing is too expensive to even be considered during the first stages of a start-up. People often think that only large and successful companies can afford to implement a marketing strategy. Nevertheless, our BLAM partners are well aware that this perspective is a recipe for failure.
In reality, marketing is even more crucial during the start of a business. Even if your product is the best in the market, nobody will know anything about it without effective marketing. Today, I am going to talk about ways to build that marketing mentality which is going to get you to start thinking like a marketer. Getting into the right mindset early on is key for the success of a start-up. 1. Think about your value proposition. Instead of focusing on how your product differentiates from others in the market, think about the problems it solves instead. People are looking for solutions to their problems, not innovative products they don’t know how to use. Make sure that the solutions you offer are relevant to your target audience – if not, redefine your audience. 2. Defining your audience. To extend the previous point, after you’ve established your value proposition, it is time to start targeting the right people. Discussing with friends, family and business partners can help you shape a better understanding of the type of person who would be willing to become a customer. Think about demographics, lifestyle, hobbies, personality, attitudes, products they are likely to be using, brands they are expected to follow, etc. The more you define your audience the better. Having a clear image of who you are talking to, can lead to more effective communication and better-tailored messages. 3. Build a great brand. Your brand is your identity. Creating a strong brand from the beginning can act as a great guide for your communications, product lines and everything else as it gives personality to your new business. Your brand’s personality should be aligned with that of your target audience as people are more likely to buy from brands to whom they associate with. 4. Leverage PR early. Even if you don’t think your product is pioneering enough to be featured anywhere, it is worth the try. It is possible that your local media will respond to a nicely worded press release. PR can provide you with local brand awareness and save you a lot of money since it is free. Even if you don’t get published right away, it is always a good idea to start building relationships with your local media. You will probably need those in the future. 5. Monitor your competition. Often start-up owners are tricked into believing there are no direct competitors to their unique offering, but that is usually wrong. Think about the general product category and how people usually choose to satisfy those needs that you are offering to fulfil. Now that you’ve found your competitors, research them. Read their websites, social media platforms, engage in active listening by reading customers’ comments and reviews and gain valuable insight that will help you reshape your offering and brand image. After you have successfully completed all the following, it is time to start investing in marketing. The truth is that waiting too long without marketing your business actually causes more damage than good. The sooner you start implementing your strategy, the quicker the ROI. There are plenty of budget-friendly marketing solutions for small businesses that do not require a massive investment. We have talked about inbound marketing techniques for small businesses before that are effective and won't cost you a fortune. The one thing you need to be prepared to devote in abundance, however, is your time and undivided attention to your new venture. I would love to hear your personal thoughts with regards to marketing your own business. Please comment below and share your experience.

How To Avoid The Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Wed, 04 May 2016 17:28:00 GMT

The fear of failure is extremely common among entrepreneurs. Unfortunately for most of us, starting a business does not come with a user handbook. As you can imagine, a new entrepreneur is bound to make mistakes. And that is absolutely fine. The difference between successful and unsuccessful business owners is that the former have the ability to turn each mistake into a useful learning experience. As much as I want to encourage everybody to embrace their missteps, there are cases in which one can easily be dodged. Here I have compiled a few tips on how to avoid a few of the most typical mistakes the newly self-employed tend to make. 1. Leave your day job when you feel ready . Keeping your old job at first to ensure a viable income from your new firm is the wise thing to do. However, once you start earning enough money to keep you going, it is time to quit your 9-5 and start focusing all your energy on your new business. If you want that venture to become a real business, instead of a side gig or a hobby, it needs to become your sole focus. 2. Find out what you are good at and stick to it . It is typical for business owners to become confused as to what exactly their role within their new company should entail. I often find that new owners feel like they should be handling everything and be competent in a number of different things. While it is true that you would need a basic understanding of everything your business deals with, the only way this is going to work is if you find an area or two you have the most confidence in and stick to that. Gathering all sorts of different skills can only disorientate you and is really unnecessary. 3. Be visible . Grasp every single opportunity to talk to people about what it is you are launching. They might not be directly interested in your offering, but you cannot know who this person might refer you to or what they might need in the future. Simply having people who know you and your business can be instrumental in the long term. No matter how busy you might be, never miss the chance to network. 4. Be customer-centric . When launching a new product, it is tempting to go for the most innovative idea you can think of or the latest technological achievement. However, smart product development suggests thinking about what the customers want first. In other words, unless your product adds value to your potential clients, it is guaranteed to fail no matter how cutting edge it is. 5. Spend money wisely . Spending too much or too little is one of the most common problems entrepreneurs come across. You already know you are supposed to spend money during the first few months to get the business going. How much is enough, however? Knowing where to invest is key. My suggestion is to focus your initial investment on good people and product quality. Whether it is staff you employ or third-party contractors you have chosen to do business with, dealing with knowledgeable people can and will determine the future of your company. Ensuring a certain level of quality on your products can also guarantee returning customers. 6. Invest in marketing . Over the years, I have come across countless new business owners who are dedicated that marketing is a luxury solely large corporations can afford to enjoy. That mentality is one of the main reasons why nine out of ten start-ups will fail. The reality is that marketing is crucial during the first steps of any business and under no circumstances should you skip it or rely on word-of-mouth. 7. Seek feedback . Chances are you love your product, website, customer service policy, etc. Ever wondered what other people might think though? Asking friends, family, old colleagues and customers for feedback is essential when you are running a new business. Other people are able to see things from a different perspective and their opinion can be invaluable, thus, I would definitely recommend asking for feedback with every chance that you get.
I hope these tips will save you some time whilst guiding you in the right direction with regards to all those fundamental decisions that lie ahead of you. If you are already an entrepreneur, I would love to hear all about your experience, any mistakes you might have made and how you handled them, so please feel free to comment below.

Lead Generation for Small Businesses

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 12:15:00 GMT

I know that most people tend to believe that starting a business requires money and expertise. That can be true in many cases, after all every type of business has different requirements, but it is definitely not always a prerequisite. When I first started my own business about a decade ago, I had limited money and absolutely no idea on how to generate leads. I soon realised I had to start thinking outside the box in order to come up with the right techniques that would fit my business model and gain me some income.
After a period of trial and error, I managed to create what we now call ‘the cookbook’ here at BLAM. The cookbook is a document that combines both offline and online marketing techniques for B2B lead generation that are proven to deliver great results for most small businesses out there. Since lead generation is a topic that very often comes up whenever I speak with new business owners and BLAM partners, I decided to write this blog post to share some of my best tips on the matter.

Offline Lead Generation

Business walk-ins. Visiting local companies that are part of your target audience may seem like a time-consuming activity, but is actually one of the most efficient techniques as long as you know who you are targeting. Taking the time to clearly define your target audience beforehand is essential to avoid wasting everyone’s time. During your visit make sure you introduce yourself, get to know the other business owner and understand their problems. It is not imperative to close a sale at this stage, but having a nice chat and scheduling a future appointment to follow up would be wise.
Cold calling. As an extension to the previous point, calling businesses could speed up the process a little bit and is still a good way to get to know people. At the early stages of your business it is actually essential that you talk to as many prospects as possible to start building some useful insight that will help you redesign and better target your product in the future. Remember that the better you get to understand your audience the more likely you are to sell.
Networking. As we’ve discussed before , networking events are regularly held in most areas and a great way to meet other business owners who would be willing to spread the word about you. Other than simply attending, I would definitely recommend securing a speaker slot to introduce your work to as many people as possible. Practicing your sales pitch in front of a large crowd can definitely win you extra confidence points.
Business shows. Another great event to attend are business shows. What is great about them is that they allow you to meet people from different locations and expand to other areas. A great way to secure leads in business shows is to offer special offers on the day. Make sure to bring business cards and all the necessary marketing materials to ensure you look professional.
Referral pipeline . All those people you can easily meet through networking and business shows, even if not directly part of your audience, they still might know someone who would be interested in buying from you. A good idea would be to offer them referral incentives. This way you can build a strong network of referral sources which can provide you with residual income.

Online Lead Generation

Social Media . We’ve talked about the benefits of creating remarkable content as part of your inbound marketing before, but social media can be leveraged for outbound marketing as well. LinkedIn is a great tool to reach out to people to simply introduce yourself and your business, see if they are interested and follow up with a new message a few days later. Facebook ads, on the other hand, can help you run successful targeted campaigns for your product without the need for a great investment. I encourage you to explore the different uses of social media as they are constantly expanding, new platforms arise and different kinds of audience go online as we speak.
Email Marketing . After you make your initial contacts and secure a few prospects, email marketing is a great way to re-market to those people in order to keep them interested and remind them of your offering. Investing in a functional CRM system would be a clever choice during that phase. Remember that an email database is always a powerful thing to have and the sooner you start building yours, the better.
PPC. Pay-per-click advertising is an easy way to gain brand awareness and new leads in a relatively risk-free way since it allows full control over your budget. Depending on your industry, however, it can be quite expensive at times so make sure you do a proper research before deciding to invest.

Based on all those online and offline lead generation methods, I recommend making at least ten meaningful connections with prospects every day. My experience suggests that unless you follow a clearly structured daily schedule, procrastination is inevitable for any new business owner. Start building your own cookbook and make it your goal to follow it every day – I can guarantee you will succeed. If you are interested in finding out more about my cookbook, click here to download it in the form on an eBook for free.

Inbound Marketing For Your Small Business

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 11:47:00 GMT

I am sure that most small business owners nowadays are aware of the importance of implementing a successful marketing strategy. With so many different tactics out there, however, it can be hard to decide where to focus your marketing efforts given that the available resources are often quite scarce. Since we’ve already talked about sales before, today I decided to write about inbound marketing instead. Inbound marketing includes all the activities that attract consumers’ attention and draw them in, rather than going out to reach them. Assuming you have already defined your target audience as clearly as possible, identified what they are looking for in products similar to yours, as well as their motives and aspirations, below you can find some of the most common inbound techniques marketers recommend to small businesses: 1. Create valuable content. Effective inbound marketing is all about creating remarkable content. Reading various company blogs, however, I often find the shared content extremely business-centric whereas sometimes it even takes the form of a large advertisement. So, one thing to keep in mind is that when marketers talk about creating remarkable content online, we definitely don’t mean using fancier words, elaborate copy, and fake case studies to disguise an ad. When planning your content strategy, the first thing to figure out is what’s in it for the reader. Great content is able to add value to consumers by teaching them something new, giving them stats and industry-related information or by simply entertaining them. Define your objective, identify your niche and start writing! 2. Thought leadership. Those of you who operate in the B2B industry, I am sure you have heard about thought leadership. As an extension to the previous point, thought leadership refers to building content that aims to establish your firm as an industry expert. When people view you as more knowledgeable they are more likely to trust you and when your audience is particularly hard to persuade, thought leadership is often the only way to overcome that. You might want to do some research to find out what are the real problems your potential customers are facing in your industry and focus your content on tackling those. 3. Use social media. What’s a great piece of writing without social publishing? Probably a great piece of writing no one will ever read! Social media allow you to share that valuable content on the social web, engage people and showcase your brand personality. Another way to leverage social media is to approach the online communities where your audience is making conversation, try to fit in seamlessly and engage in social listening. That will give your small company great insight on people's tastes, needs and wants. You are free to enter consumers’ conversations as long as you make sure you follow the rules of the community, stick to the topic and avoid being intrusive or else you will risk jeopardising your brand. 4. Search Engine Optimisation. SEO attempts to make content easier to find and is therefore suited to inbound campaigns. By making a few simple changes to your website you can improve your webpage’s organic search listing. As most people nowadays begin their search for products and services online, it is important for your company to appear on search engines when somebody enters keywords related to what you are selling. To achieve that, you need a quality website which offers a good user experience and is relevant to what each user is searching for. So, start publishing relevant content regularly, making sure to include more of those popular keywords, build links around the same terms within your text and try to increase inbound links. 5. Tell your story. If you find it hard to create quality content, it is always a good idea to start thinking about your personal experiences and how they link to what you are trying to convey. Telling your story is always much catchier than listing facts, as people are far more likely to remember a story. Even if you find it completely unremarkable, it is always best to include your personal perspective in everything you write about as it adds credibility and usually makes the content much less boring. 6. Invest in a dynamic website. Combining inbound marketing techniques with dynamic website personalisation is a great recipe for success. Personalisation can take your content to the next level by tailoring it to each visitor’s situation. This way you are much more likely to provide a relevant user experience that will make them come back for more. Have you ever used inbound marketing techniques to promote your small business? I would love to know more about your experience, so please do not hesitate to comment below!

10 Steps To Build Your Sales Confidence

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 14:29:00 GMT

What many solopreneurs or recent business owners often fail to realise is that having – at least basic – sales skills is vital. Unless you can afford to employ staff or have experienced family members who can help out, chances are that you are going to be the sales person for your small business in the early stages.
As you can imagine, getting into sales for the first time can be quite nerve-wracking as it can push you out of your comfort zone. Thus, allowing yourself time to build your sales confidence in advance is important.
Here, I have shared with you a few tips our BLAM team swears by that can help strengthen your sales confidence: 1. Build your knowledge. Knowing what you are selling is essential in terms of both your success as well as self-confidence. Studying your product in depth until you become unconsciously competent in selling it is the first and most important step in boosting your self-assurance. A successful salesperson is nothing less than an expert in their respective field and that is what you need to accomplish. 2. Define what a quality lead looks like. Until you sit down to specify the characteristics of your target audience, expect to waste a lot of time on unfit contacts. Trying to sell to people who are by default not likely to buy will not do any good for your sales confidence. Therefore, defining what a quality lead looks like should take place very early in the process as it is a critical step in getting you started with your sales. 3. Understand your role. It is important that you perceive yourself as a problem solver, trying to help others with your products. Focusing on the money a client is required to invest for your solution is a bad idea. In fact, try not to think about money at all and instead concentrate on how your product can make someone’s life better. 4. Believe in your power of influence. Getting to know the other person, their values and establishing common ground can increase your power of influence when talking to someone. Engaging them in the conversation by asking questions and involving them in the solution can also be very effective. Feel free to experiment with different techniques until you determine which works best for you and you will find yourself becoming more confident as you discover your very own power of influence. 5. Have a structured pitch. When building your pitch, make sure you follow an effective structure which guarantees you talk about everything important in the correct sequence. For instance, rather than beginning by describing the product, it would be better to identify the problem first and set the scene so that your client can understand the need to buy it. As previously mentioned, taking the first few minutes to get to know the other person’s background is important. Even more so when you are in B2B – understanding your client’s business and industry will definitely win you points of confidence when dealing with them as they are far more likely to appreciate your insight and accept your solution. 6. Focus on the benefits of your product . As important as having a varied pitch is, concentrating on the benefits your product can offer is without a doubt the most important part. Highlighting all the positive aspects of your solution can motivate you to feel more confident in selling. 7. Be prepared for a no. The sooner you realise how unlikely it is to sell to every single person you have contacted, the better for your sales confidence. Be realistic here – not everyone is going to be interested and that is absolutely fine! Knowing when to let go is an important trait of every salesperson. There is always the next time. 8. Practice, practice, practice. Cliché, but practice makes perfect and with sales that is definitely the case. There is nothing wrong with rehearsing your pitch in front of the mirror or with friends and family who can offer their honest feedback. In fact, it can save you and your client from a lot of awkwardness later on. 9. Don’t be one of those people that are afraid to fail. A lot of people – often myself included – become devastated in the mere thought of failure. In many cases, these are successful people who are simply too scared to ruin their track record of excellence. Let’s get one thing straight though – in sales there is no excellent track record. Failing to close a sale is in most industries much more common than closing one, so you better get used to the idea and embrace the failure. Once you do that, you will stop feeling so self-conscious every time you are about to make a sale. 10. Review all your past sales and client touches. You might want to start taking notes every time you finish contacting a prospect as reviewing your past sales, whether successful or not, can be a great lesson moving forward. Having a record of which technique has worked on each different type of client can prove invaluable for confidence building.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. If you have any sales tips, I would love to hear them so don't hesitate to comment below!

8 Quick Blog Writing Tips

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 13:23:00 GMT

Today I decided to write about one of the most highly requested topics among our BLAM partners, and that is advice on blog writing. Hopefully, this post will be helpful to people who consider starting a blog. Just to clarify that I am by no means an expert in blog writing. I am simply going to share with you a few tips which I find useful for my weekly blog writing and tend to work well for me. It is worth noting that blogs have changed dramatically since I first started blogging as a hobby during my teens. Back then most blogs acted as personal journals and bloggers would not expect an audience other than a few friends. The Web 2.0 and the social media revolution caused the emergence of content-based websites, user engagement increased tremendously and blogs naturally became an essential traffic generation tool for any business. So my advice to new bloggers can be summed up in the following points: 1. Consider your objectives. Before you start writing, it is best to consider a few things with regards to your business’s overall objectives. Why do you want to start a blog? What do you want your blog to convey? How is your blog going to help you grow your business? These are essential questions you might want to ask yourself before you start planning your first post as the answers are going to dictate the general topic, approach, tone of voice or any key areas you want to emphasise within your posts. 2. Find a topic that interests you and your audience. It is a no-brainer that your blog should be of interest to your audience. However, equally important is that the topic appeals to you as well. As far as I'm aware, nobody has ever written a great piece about a subject they considered boring. Combining topics and adding your personal touch will definitely make your writing more enjoyable, so feel free to expand on your main subject to tailor the post around your personality. 3. Write about what you know at first. If you are a new blogger, I would recommend that you start writing about familiar subjects at first. Drawing examples from your work, background, and personal experience is much easier and pleasant to talk about and it can definitely increase your word count quite effortlessly. 4. Research to back up your theories. If you are writing a blog on your company’s website, then you probably already have a good knowledge on the topics you are planning to write about. Quite often, however, bloggers deal with entirely unfamiliar subjects. Recently I had to write an industry related piece for a cocktail bar, something completely out of my area of expertise. In that case, knowing how to properly research the topic is vital. I would recommend reading academic journals and interviewing industry experts if possible. Always make sure that your sources are reliable to avoid humiliation. 5. Start by outlining your ideas. Now on to the actual writing. I always start my posts by outlining the core structure first and then moving on to adding the main point in each section. That will help you start visualising the outcome whilst organising the pieces of information in separate sections for easier writing. 6. Expand your initial points. Having the key points in place means your work is halfway done. Now all you need to do is start elaborating on each idea until you have a paragraph or so. Explaining one point at a time is much simpler than trying to come up with a whole piece at once. 7. Check cohesion. Once you are done writing, try reading your article out loud. This will help you edit your paragraphs to make the piece sound more coherent and make sense as a whole. If you like the way it sounds, you are good to publish! Chances are your first post is not going to be perfect, so try to avoid wasting too much time editing, be brave and hit publish – a blog doesn’t have to be perfect; it’s more about what you say than how you are saying it. 8. Be prepared to invest time. I am sure it is not the first time someone tells you that blog writing requires time. Different people have a different perception of time, however. So just to give you a rough idea, a blog article can usually take anywhere between a day up to a whole week to write in most cases. Exceptions apply depending on a number of factors, such as post length, blogging experience, the amount of research you are willing to do, the topic itself, etc. In any case, I would advise against rushing it. Choose a quiet and motivating environment with minimal disruptions, relax and let those creative juices flowing! Once you get used to the process, it does certainly get a lot easier. My advice is to not be discouraged if your first attempt disappoints you. With time and practice, you might even discover that you actually appreciate writing and find yourself a new interest – I certainly did!

Overcoming The Fear Of Starting A Business

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 12:41:00 GMT

The nature of my job is such that I get to deal with people of all ages and backgrounds who are considering starting their own business. Unsurprisingly, a considerable part of my everyday conversations with these people has to do with their fear of starting a new venture and how to overcome that.
I want to be clear here and say that not having any worries about starting a new business is completely unnatural and if you find yourself overconfident from the first step, it is probably worth giving things a second thought - a proper business plan would help. Today I thought I’d share with you some of the most common fears that most entrepreneurs need to face and conquer in order to move forward:

Don't listen to the naysayers. Probably the best piece of advice is to stay away from people who haven’t got any entrepreneurial experience, yet still try to scare you away from starting a business. Trying to convince them is usually a waste of time. For the most part, the best strategy is to ignore them and try to focus your energy on what is important. Empowering yourself with having positive people around, instead, is vital. Try to find a mentor, someone experienced who can guide you through everything and who you can rely upon for advice. I would like to point out here that when I first decided to run my own business with absolutely zero capital, all my family and friends thought I was crazy. When the naysayers are part of your family, then it is a different story altogether - which brings us to my next point...
Afraid of letting your family down. Instead of being afraid of disappointing your family, try getting them on board. Similar to my case, most of the times your family will think your decision is risky - and risk is a big fear. What I would suggest is, instead of dropping the bomb on them one day, try involving them in everything you do from the very beginning and in a way that they understand your passion and the reasons why you believe you will be successful. Collaborating with your family can actually get you much better results than going through all of it alone, plus it gives you confidence knowing you are in it together.
Unsure how to handle success. Silly as it sounds, there are actually plenty of new entrepreneurs who worry about what will happen if everything actually goes well. I hear questions such as 'What if I need to expand?' or 'What if I need to hire staff and manage a team?' Well, chances are that even if you don't need to hire staff immediately, things will change. You hear a lot of business managers out there talking about the flexibility of a small business as one of its main advantages - and that is because small businesses change. A lot. But that should definitely not scare you - on the contrary, it means that you have the chance to try new things very easily if something does not go as planned. The important thing about becoming an entrepreneur is to be open to learning and take action along the process.
Not earning enough. Income is one of the most common worries among prospective entrepreneurs. Taking the time to create a proper business plan and financial forecast will give you a good idea of what to expect. A thought out strategy is a great way to see where your business is going. If what you are doing is quite new and you are not able to carry out reliable forecasts yet, it might be worth starting it on the side whilst keeping your day job - remember that one of the many benefits of being your own boss is that you get to decide your working hours. Fundamentally, you need to have faith in your endeavour which could take a while to build.
Fear of failing and doing wrong. One thing you need to be prepared for early on is to fail. Making mistakes is integral. You will make mistakes and you will learn from them and that is what is going to make you successful. There is not a single successful person out there who has not failed in one way or more. The only real difference between accomplished entrepreneurs and quitters is their mindset. Having a positive mindset is essential. Realising that mistakes are only temporary and that failure is the only way forward is what gives me and most entrepreneurs the courage to keep going. Something that helps keep me confident is my vision board where I visualise where I am going to be in a couple of years time. That gives me a clear goal and an identity to try and push towards.

Most of these fears I have faced myself, as well as most entrepreneurs out there. I personally do not believe that entrepreneurs are born - most people can do it provided they want to. For some it might appear like a natural extension of their personality, for others it might come as a bit of a surprise to the rest of the world - one thing that is certain in my area of work, though, is that I have been pleasantly surprised by new entrepreneurs countless times so far.
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."
― Paulo Coelho

How To Boost Productivity At Work

Wed, 23 Mar 2016 10:57:00 GMT

Enhancing productivity at work has always been a key objective for most businesses. From a business owner’s perspective, making the most of your time seems like a perfect way to maximise the end result without the need to invest in more resources. From an employee’s point of view, working less and delivering more also seems like a seamless deal. So let’s examine a few simple, but often ignored, steps towards productivity boosting.

Plan, plan, plan…

Recent studies

Be realistic with timing.

meaningful connections

Look after yourself.

Believe it to achieve it.

Do not be afraid to innovate.

Cut out distraction.

Do one thing at a time.

multitasking

Keep your work space uncluttered.

I would love to hear your tips on increasing productivity at work. Please comment below and share your ideas.

Why Marketers Are Learning To Love Popups

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 11:28:00 GMT

I am sure you all remember the times when popupnotifications were the most annoying thing on the web, often correlated withlow-quality content web pages. Back then it was by no means considered a smart marketingmove for a business to include popups on their website as it quite often irritatedvisitors and drove them to bounce immediately – a potentially damagingadvertising method that did more harm than good to any brand. Thus, it comes as no surprise that a lot of marketersnowadays are still hesitant to use that type of communication. Without a doubt, everyone must have noticed that some of thelargest brands have recently started to use popups again as their mainsubscription tool on their website. Smaller businesses, however, still appearto be afraid to adopt the controversial feature as they still perceive it as anegative interruption to the user experience. Are they missing out? The reality is that, despite the debate, popups do driveconversions by prompting users to opt-in to your mailing list. And we all knowthe importance of a well-structured email database for a firm. Seth Godin has been talking about permission marketing for decades now and modern popupsare a great way to turn what was once perceived as interruption marketing to itseffective counterpart. So what changed? The most obvious change is undoubtedly the appearance. Popupdesign has developed tremendously making current popups sleek, sophisticatedand pleasant to the eye, able to engage the user in many different ways oftenwith quirky messages.

That being said, irrelevant popups will still infuriate the visitor despite how pretty they might look, so be aware that considerate implementation is key to popup conversions. Which brings us to the second – and perhaps most important – change which is the strategy. Today’s marketers go the extra mile to actually include popups as part of the overall online strategy instead of thoughtlessly having popups flying around every single page driving people away. So here are a few tips on how to successfully implement popups to your website:

1. Align them with your overall marketing plan. Take some time to think why you need popups and what you are trying to achieve. That should help you decide the exact content of the message as well as the follow-up communication with the subscribers.

2. Make them clever and funny whilst maintaining the same tone of voice as the rest of your communications. Consistency will ensure a seamless user experience and won’t cause the popup to negatively stand out from the rest of your website.

3. Good timing is essential. Give the readers some time to extract useful information from your website so that they are more likely to want to sign up. Popups that appear the second someone enters a site for the first time are just pointless and will increase your bounce rate.

4. If you are smart enough to have a dynamic website, then a great move would be to include targeted promotions. Dynamic Website Personalisation is a brilliant technology that can be used to show specific promotions based on each user’s unique situation. Needless to say, personalised popups convert much better.

5. Offer something in exchange. Many companies choose to offer useful content for download to increase conversions even further. The choice is yours. One thing that is certain is that the popup is a great way to effectively communicate special promotions that would otherwise fade into the background.

The new popups are a powerful tool – don’t be afraid to try them out. I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Would you add popups to your website?

6 Ways To Kick-Start Your Small Business

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:58:00 GMT

Being a small business owner can feel overwhelming at times and the reality is that there is not a single recipe for success. In most cases you will find that new entrepreneurs tend to act on intuition rather than proper research and planning - which makes sense to a certain extent.
It’s true, some people are born audacious and their instincts are likely to guide them to the right direction. For the rest of us, however, walking blindly into a new venture might not sound so appealing. As someone who grew up in an entrepreneurial family and worked closely with various small businesses over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about successful first steps when it comes to starting a business – the things that fancy universities won’t teach you. Today, I thought I’d share with you 6 ways to effectively kick-start your small business: 1. Have a business plan If you don’ know how to type a formal ‘business school’ plan with detailed financial forecasts and an executive summary at the top, that’s absolutely fine. You should still have a rough idea about how to turn your vision into reality, though. As a first attempt to an informal business strategy, I would suggest considering your goals and objectives, your target audience and marketing mix. What I find useful when planning BLAM’s marketing strategy is keeping a calendar where I mark promotions or special events on key dates of the year. Remaining organised is essential for every new business where daily tasks can easily pile up and seem chaotic; a good to-do list app can always help keep you on top of your responsibilities. 2. Focus on results Oh, so you’ve created a new Instagram page and managed to acquire 2,000 followers. Well, unless building a following is part of your social media strategy and linked to a specific objective that will make you more money, it doesn’t mean much. So, instead of having goals such as ‘build a Facebook page’ or ‘gather the x amount of likes on a blog post’ try thinking about the end result of these actions and focus on that. A common mistake among small businesses is failing to associate their social media activities with their overall business strategy, be it lead generation, building brand awareness, creating positive word-of-mouth or any other end-goal. 3. Ask yourself questions Entrepreneurs are busy people; we all know that. More often than not, being an entrepreneur can be hectic and before you know it you lose track of your goals. I know from experience that taking the time to reflect on your business activity can be particularly useful and even save you from wasting money on the wrong efforts. Make a list of relevant questions and plan the time and day each month to sit down and answer things like ‘What can I do to maximise my sales?’ or ‘What are my competitors doing that I am not?’. You will be surprised how creative you can be when you have planned that time in advance instead of rushing those decisions within your busy daily schedule. Involving your team, if you have one, would be an added bonus to the process. 4. Network As our BLAM partners are well aware, going out there and talking to people is crucial for new business owners. We always advise people to start talking to everyone they know including family, friends and old colleagues. These individuals already trust you and would be likely to recommend you when there is a chance. Meeting other entrepreneurs can also be beneficial. Don’t be intimidated to attend networking events or simply hand a few business cards over to your local store owners – these are people exactly like you and they will benefit just as much from knowing you. Our co-founder, Gareth, recommends making 10 meaningful connections per day – you can adjust this number to fit your particular needs, but try not to postpone making contacts. LinkedIn communities are another great way to reach people in your industry on busier days. Just remember to be a useful contributor instead of spamming people with promotions. 5. Get to know your audience If you are a new business owner, you might think that actually ‘knowing’ your audience is not feasible at this early stage. Use your imagination and create an avatar to represent the person who is most likely to become your customer. My father always says that his company predominantly markets to middle and upper-middle-class citizens – that is not meant to be pretentious, it simply represents the demographic segment which can afford his product and helps him define the quality as well as his pricing strategy. Do you know how much your audience earns and, therefore, is willing to spend on your offering? What about their age, profession, education and family status? These are things that need to be determined early on in the process, otherwise, you risk sending the wrong message to the wrong people, therefore, endangering your firm’s reputation. 6. Know your stuff One thing our team keeps stressing to our partners is to invest time in learning everything there is to learn about their product. Appearing knowledgeable – and actually being – is vital to any new entrepreneur. How do you expect people to trust you with their money if you are unsure of the value your product can add to them? One of the main reasons my parents’ small business has remained successful for more than 40 years in the market is that their expertise in their industry is second to none. Were they experts when they first started out? Definitely not. Were they afraid they were going to fail? Absolutely. Research your product, discover what exists out there, follow your industry’s news and events, stay close to your customers and listen to what they have to say. And if you are one of the few new business owners who can afford to employ staff, don’t rely on them to know more about how your product works than you do!
I hope these have given you some food for thought. I would love to hear your advice on how to kick-start a small business, so please comment below and join the conversation.

10 Signs You Need To Start Your Own Business

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:10:00 GMT

As entrepreneurship has always been a strong interest of mine and one of the key motivators of all my actions, it often comes up as a topic of discussion with friends and acquaintances. Speaking with people about starting a business made me realise that a common worry is that the whole process seems quite intimidating and terrifying to people who have not done it before. That is absolutely normal as I doubt there has ever been a single person who felt certain about starting their own business.
My team and I strongly believe that anyone can start their own business. This belief is one of our core values and one of the reasons that made us start our company in the first place. Our experience of working with people from all sorts of different backgrounds who managed to become some of the most successful entrepreneurs has confirmed that so far. Entrepreneurship is not only for the brave – if you are here reading this article thinking what it would be like to start your own business, then you are already there.
Here are 10 signs that you probably need to start your own business: 1. You are not too happy at work If you are sick of that 9-5 job stuck in the office, or you’ve become fed up and are looking for a new challenge, or you simply cannot find a job that is fulfilling enough, then you have to try something new. Most people would just apply for another job in a similar field (and likely end up feeling the same). My suggestion is to truly explore all your options and always keep in mind that there is an extra one, often overlooked – that of becoming your own boss. 2. You want to be more flexible Do you dislike your office environment? Would you prefer working from the comfort of your own home? Are you in full-time employment or a parent and are looking for an additional income? Being an entrepreneur is all about being in control, making your own decisions and being flexible to work on your terms. 3. You enjoy learning Starting your own business requires quite a diverse skill set. Not everything will be about the product you are trying to sell anymore – you also need to be a good leader, a strong communicator, a networker, a decision maker and so on. No need to panic if you are not a natural talent in all these areas, most people aren’t – I definitely wasn’t. What you do need to have, however, is the willingness to learn new things. Becoming a business owner can be one of the few professions that require you to constantly acquire new skills and knowledge - which is quite the exciting journey! 4. You are passionate One thing that is common among all business owners is that they are visionary people with a passion for making their dreams come true and sharing them with other people. If you find there is a particular product or idea that you find inspiring or a vision you would love to pursue, then it is worth considering taking it to the next level. 5. You like helping people Once again, I can speak from experience here and say that when I first decided to start my own business I had a strong desire to help other business owners – and still do. If you are genuinely interested in helping other people and believe you can find a creative way to do so, perhaps it is time to launch that business. 6. You are creative Creative people often feel restricted working for someone else. Setting up your own business is one of the best ways to share your original ideas and express your thoughts. Don’t let your creativity be filtered – be yourself! 7. You want to set your own schedule Not everyone is made to work from 9 to 5 (not everyone is made to work in general, but that’s another story!). Different people can have different ‘productive hours’. If you are one of these people who wish they had a different schedule, perhaps it is worth considering starting your own company. Being an entrepreneur means you get to decide which days and times you work, and when you get to have a break or a holiday. 8. You are looking for an additional income Are you perfectly happy with your current job, but feel like you’ve still got a lot of free time in your hands? Have you always wanted to start your own thing on the side? Starting a business can be a lot of work, but not always. The good thing about being your own boss is that you decide how much time you are going to invest and when you are going to invest it. If you like the idea of having your own business, but want to take it slow then by all means do – there are numerous examples of successful businesses which did not grow overnight. 9. You are motivated People who are naturally self-motivated to get things done tend to be successful entrepreneurs. If you are one of those people, I would definitely recommend you consider entrepreneurship. If not, don’t be discouraged – it just means that you could use a mentor. Find someone that can push you to do the right thing and keep you motivated throughout the journey. That could be a friend, a family member or a business partner. 10. You want something more from life Do you ever wonder if what you do for a living is actually meaningful or if your actions have a positive impact to those around you? If you are interested in creating something meaningful and making a change in this world, then chances are you are ready to become a business owner. Building something of your own is a significant achievement – plus you will always have an interesting story to tell people!
Be aware that entrepreneurship can be a tough but rewarding road. Ultimately, the most important piece of advice is to simply follow your heart and start trusting yourself. At some point, undoubtedly, you will get discouraged. Remember not to give up. Enjoy the journey, and good luck!

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