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10 things that will make you a better entrepreneur

10 Things That Will Help You Become a Better Entrepreneur

We all want to become more engaged, more productive, and more successful in our endeavors, but what are the ingredients that will propel us to the results we want to achieve? Follow these tips to achieve your dreams in whatever endeavor you choose.

1. Find your passion – Find something that you really love to do, and make it your mission as well as your business.

Ideally, it should be something that you have found a talent for, but it may be something that because of your drive, will allow you to develop that talent. If you love what you do, you will not give up on it, even when others might get stressed-out or tired of it. You will always have fuel in your tank for something that inspires you. This has also been called finding your "why".

2. Get gritty and persevere

There will always be obstacles and difficulties in your way. If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it, right? Determine that you will not give up and have the guts to work through problems until you find the solution. You will be among the top 5% and completely separate yourself from the pack in your field if you have this kind of persistence

3. Think and pray deeply about major decisions and trust yourself to make the right choices.

Pray first before you make any important decision. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a religious person prayer can mean the difference between success and failure. Trust me on this. Whether or not you believe in God, you have literally hundreds and even thousands of ancestors in the spiritual world that are aware of your life on earth, because your life is connected to theirs. They are concerned about your happiness and your success. Most of all they want you to become a good and righteous person, but that doesn't mean they are unconcerned about your financial well-being. They care about everything in your life.

Like most people living on earth, you may never have thought of this before, but it is a spiritual reality and a fact of our existence here on earth and the afterlife. In Japan, at baseball games, the spectators bring pictures of their ancestors to assist in their prayers for their favorite team to win. It seems a little "nuts" to us in the West, and indeed it may be an example of something trivial, but your ancestors have been watching you since your birth. They have seen your actions and they understand your way of thinking. They know you almost as well as you know yourself. They are uniquely qualified to give you advice if you pray to God and ask for help from them, as well as from God. This may be the most important piece of advice I have to give in this post.

4. Overcome the fear of failure.

This can stop entrepreneurs dead in their tracks. Calculate risk carefully, but don't be afraid of taking risks. Sometimes the greatest reward comes from taking big risks. Just don't take foolish risks. Consult with friends, but don't be discouraged if they do not support you. If they are not successful entrepreneurs themselves they probably will not see the world the way you do.

5. Set concrete goals and work hard to achieve them.

I think most entrepreneurs do not set goals, and just try to deal with the day-to-day. Of course, it is important to adjust goals from time to time, but without short-term and long term goal, you are kind of adrift to whatever circumstance deals you. It is much better to set concrete achievable goals.

6. Invest substantial time and effort

Don't dream about a lifestyle of working 4 hours and sitting on a beach somewhere sipping Margheritas. This is a myth. No one who is really successful really lives like that. Living like that will make you lazy and self-satisfied. It is just a ploy to trick you into thinking that a product will make you easy money. Any successful entrepreneur has put in the time and the hard work it takes be successful.

7. Listen to your customers.

It is important to ask your customers if they are satisfied with your product or service. It is important to get a good read of how you are doing in meeting their needs. They may even suggest modifications or additional products or services that you might offer.

8. Promote – Learn the most cost-effective and efficient time-saving methods of promotion.

Don't get stuck in any outmoded promotion method that is not effective. This is a continuous path of learning and adjusting. What works well today, will probably not work a few years from now. Always be open to learning new methods and techniques from more experienced and more successful entrepreneurs.

9. Ask for advice and Network

You can network with anyone, anytime, under any circumstance. Don't get stuck in isolation in your life where you never reach out to anyone you don't know. Ask other successful entrepreneurs what they have found to be the keys to their success. You can learn incredibly valuable information in this way.

10. Pay it forward by helping others to achieve.

This is very important. Remember the Indian folktale that speaks about the restaurant in the village which was the only place where people were allowed to eat. There was no menu there. You just sat down and were served whatever food you deserved. Good people were served good food, but bad people could only eat bad food., and there was nowhere else to eat.

Not only will you be helping others, but you will actually learn to identify attitudes and actions in others that are counter-productive to success. By teaching, you also reinforce what you have learned.

Best success in all of your endeavors.

John Lombaerde

https://markethive.com/jonlomb/page/ standard

David

What does it take to be an entrepreneur?

What does it really take to be an Entrepreneur?

I think that most people do not fit into the category of Entrepreneur because of their mindset. A typical person with a typical job is not looking for anything different from what they currently have, so they certainly do not fit into the category of entrepreneur.

If you think along most or even any of the following lines, you may have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

1) I am looking for something more than what I am doing every day.

2) I am looking for something different than I am currently doing.

3) I would like a new challenge that is more than what I am currently doing.

4) I would like more control over my work life than I currently have.

5) I don't mind working harder than I am currently working, but I would like more freedom to work according to my own schedule.

6) I would like to become more of an owner than I currently am.

7) I would like to profit directly from my efforts instead of sharing my efforts with others in a higher position than myself.

8) I am kind of tired of being just an employee.

9) I don't really see many opportunities for growth in my current job.

10) I want to build something that I could sell for a profit or pass on to a family member when I retire.

If any of these types of thoughts have passed through your mind, you may be someone who would like to become an entrepreneur.

Do I have the skills to become an entrepreneur? If you think you have or are capable of developing these kinds of skills you may have what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. Don't worry if you think you may not have all these skills right now. Some of them are acquired skills that entrepreneurs discover along the way.

1. Ability to solve problems by using critical thinking.

2. I can lead when necessary and delegate when it is appropriate to do so.

3. I can think creatively when necessary.

4. I have the ability to manage people or groups of people.

5. I can coordinate with people within as well as outside my company.

6. I can manage my own emotions and help others to control theirs when necessary.

7. I can exercise good judgment and make good decisions on both a short term and long term basis.

8. I realize that in order to succeed, I will have to put the needs of customers first, and set up mechanisms within my company to make sure that this culture is instilled in all employees.

9. I am able to negotiate. This means I have to be willing to compromise when necessary.

10. In dealing with critical issues, I will be able to show flexibility and show empathy within and without my company, rather than insist on my way or the highway every time.

If you can see yourself in the top or bottom ten points listed here, then entrepreneurship may be for you.

Best of success in all your endeavors.

John Lombaerde

https://markethive.com/jonlomb/page/standard

David

How easy is it to make friends here in Markethive?

Fact or fiction, most members in Markethive do not post to the newsfeed? I think we can agree that most members join Markethive and aside from loading a picture and adding brief information to their profile page, may rarely if ever post to the Newsfeed.

What does this mean for the Marekthive members who are active? It means when an announcement appears in the Newsfeed, it may be your one unique chance to request a friend from that person, and you may not get another chance.

Of course, you get paid a small amount of Markethive coin for each friend that you invite. You need to login to Markethive every day in order to make friends on a regular basis. This activity alone will probably keep you at least as a DO BEE. If you add commenting on a regular basis, you my easily achive the level of WORKER BEE. If you write posts on a regular basis, you may achieve the BUSINESS BEE level. Depending on the frequency of all of these activities you may actually propel yourself into the ROYAL BEE catagory where there will likely be some substantial rewards.

I know well the value of the size of any social network. With effort over a 3 year period, I have managed to accumulate over 13,000 1st level connections on LinkedIn. Most of the members I have brought to Markethive have come from my LinkedIn connections. These new members in Markethive has brought me several hundred thousand Markethive coins. Remember, every new member you bring into Markethive rewards you with 500 Markethive coins as an entrepreneur.

I am not very active on LinkedIn anymore. My activities have taken me in another direction, but I am still gaining 1st level connections on a daily basis due to the size of my LinkedIn netowork alone. I state the number of connections I have on my profile title, and many people want to connect to me for that reason. My LinkedIn network is expanding now on it's own. I only have to accept connection requests with a click of the mouse on a weekly basis which only takes minutes.

LinkedIn limits the size of your network to 30,000 1st level connections, so I am less than halfway to maxing out my number of connections on LinkedIn.

Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends. I am close to that limit now.

Twitter limits your followers depending on number of people who follow you. There is a certain ratio there. I do not know exactly what that ratio is.

Instagram will not allow any account to follow more than 7500 users. Once you reach that limit, you will not be able to follow anyone else.

Tumblr will not let you follow more than 5,000 blogs. After that you will have to delete a blog if you want to follow another.

Most social networks impose restrictions on the number of people you can connect with. I do not understand this at all.

How about Markethive? There are no system restrictions to the number of friends or associates you can have. That fact alone should be enough to make you want to participate here in Markethive

This is one more example of how Markethive is the social network for entrepreneurs.

I hope this fact inspires you to be active here on Markethive. Remember, in addition, Markethive is the only social network that pays you for every one of your efforts on the network. In time, these small accumulated efforts alone will be worth a small fortune.

Best of success to you in all your endeavors!

John Lombaerde

Founding member of Markethive

http://markethive.com/jonlomb/page/jonlomb

David

Google’s Year in Review – in terms of search

I don't think it is healthy to dwell on the past and spend time lost in nostalgia, but it is good at the start of a new year to reflect on the passing year, and determine to make sure that the coming year will be much better in terms of every measure that can be used. In that spirit, I encourage everyone to do their best to make 2017 their best year ever, in whatever terms you feel are important to you.

Here is a Google review of 2016 in terms of search that may inspire you to do your best in 2017.

Year in Search 2016 – from Google

Have a fantastic New Year! Celebrate wisely!

John Lombaerde – VP-NJ for Markethive

David

Markethive Vision Statement

Markethive is Inbound Marketing combined with a dynamic vertical social network funded by advertising. Not only makes the entire Inbound Marketing system cost free, it also allows you to leverage huge results when you build groups to facilitate the platforms via the social network.

Markethive is next generation technology from a 20 year old Inbound Marketing platform called Veretekk. Built by the same entrepreneurs, innovation is our DNA.

We invented Inbound Marketing back in 1996.

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Members Only Root Domain

David

I’ll say it: the days of outbound marketing are over.

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The "Wolf of Wall Street" mentality of harassing customers over the phone, sending spamy emails, and going door-to-door to close deals has become much less effective in recent years. Customers have access to so much information every day, they’ve become increasingly resentful of marketing intrusions. The rise of blocking tools such as caller id, spam folders and ad blockers is not coincidence.

Inbound marketing is the new normal. That’s the idea that if you provide value to customers first, they will respond by returning that value back and doing business with you.

To get a peak under the hood inbound marketing, and get tips on how others can use it, I had a chance to chat with A.J. Agrawal – an entrepreneur who built his business, Alumnify, around it. A.J. is a fellow contributor at Entrepreneur as well as at Forbes, Huffington Post, and others.

Here’s an edited version of our e-mail interview:

Why begin with universities?

We started there because we saw a strong decrease year after year in alumni engagement. Right now, alumni engagement is at an all time low – under 10 percent. It was obvious that institutions were struggling to adjust to the new ways their alumni were communicating and engaging. So we saw the opportunity.

For about 85 years, alumni engagement was pretty steady. Then all of a sudden, in the 90’s it began to fall drastically. In panic mode, many schools chose to double down on the outbound marketing tactics that worked in the past: cold calls, snail mail, and increased email addresses. They also deployed better data tacking and software to help optimize open email rates as well as make the giving process easier for graduates.

But these strategies had no effect (or even a negative effect on engagement) because they were built on an overall strategy that was broken. So we decided we would build inbound marketing solutions to provide value to alumni first.

How do you begin inbound practices?

First, make sure you know what inbound marketing is. At its core, inbound is anything that provides a tremendous amount of value to your target customer without asking anything from them in return. There are tons of ways to do this and the best part is that most of the major strategies can be done for minimal cost.

One thing we recommend to companies we work with us is to start by getting a blog set up and to have someone be responsible for publishing regular content. One of the nice things about inbound marketing is that it requires companies to build major assets for their business. Your content library is a huge asset and will eventually help your SEO, and pull in more customers to your website.

Other popular inbound strategies include webinars, eBooks, infographics, mobile apps built to help your customers, and optimizing your social media.

Each business is different, so the strategy depends on factors including audience, industry, and expertise. Like most things, the hardest part is just getting started. Once you find an inbound strategy that starts to work, it becomes much easier to fine tune and expand on your traction.

Do you avoid outbound strategies?

Not at all. While inbound is definitely the future, some customers still respond well to outbound strategies. Even as an inbound company, we still cold call customers and send promotional emails once in a while — but as part of a complete plan.

When thinking about the brand I want for Alumnify, I don’t want prospects and customers avoiding our phone calls. The image of a customer seeing an Alumnify Team Member calling them and saying “Not these people again” is my worst nightmare. And it should be any entrepreneur’s nightmare too.

Instead, I believe that the key to getting customers to love us is to provide value without asking for anything in return. For example, we have a free inbound marketing email list we just launched yesterday with weekly tips and webinars. And I’m always happy to help any fellow entrepreneur hammer out an inbound strategy. That type of approach may take more work in the short run, but it’ll also help build a much better brand to our customers in the long run.

Article writen by:
Derek Newton
Inbound Marketing solution

David

What does the Future of Marketing Automation look like?

According to one marketing automation expert David Raab, nearly 70 percent of marketers are not happy with their marketing automation software. Clearly, there is much room for improvement in this industry, despite the enormous potential benefits that can be achieved.

One area of particular promise is "predictive intelligence". Marketing automation software that embraces this type of model will provide better results for customers and those results will improve over time due to the machine learning aspect of this type of software model.

True AI or artificial intelligence really exists only in the world of science fiction, but we can already see how technology like Google's "rank brain" are being implemented at a very high level into their search algorithms.

This post is not intended as a treatise on the subject, but only to highlight the development that will inevitably take place in marketing automation to a more predictive and machine learning type model that incorporates elements of artificial intelligence.

So, what would this type of marketing automation software look like, how would it work, and what could it do for clients using the software?

As an example, it is a common marketing strategy to ask the client to start with an avatar of what their ideal customer looks like. A software with AI elements would be able to examine a company's current database of customers, and analyze all demographic data as well as social media profiles of all current customers. It would then perform a detailed and sophisticated search across various websites and social media, and recommend an exhaustive list of potential prospects.

This analysis would be based on similarities with current customers, and would also recommend the best way to connect with them which would most likely yield the best results.

This is a highly sophisticated method of marketing automation that does not currently exist. The ability of this type of software to target potential prospects with laser-like accuracy will likely turn the marketing automation market on its head.

The company that comes out with this kind of predictive analysis model may dominate the industry for years to come, and prove to be a highly sought after commodity, even at a fairly high price. It is also equally likely that the downward price pressure of open sourcing may prove to significantly lower costs for the consumer.

It is clear that forward thinking companies such as Google are investing in the future by relying heavily on automation in a wide variety of markets. Look at the investment Google has made in self-driving cars, for example. Uber drivers may become a thing of the past in the not too distant future.

Consider what Perry Marshall a well-known marketing expert had to say about automation in a recent email.

"2003-2009 was the age of PPC.

2010-2016 has been the age of Social Media.

2017 and beyond will be the age of Artificial Intelligence

Now mind you, this “Artificial Intelligence” is not self-aware. It’s not HAL 9000 reading your lips as you talk outside the spaceship like in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Not yet anyway.

But don’t underestimate this AI.

I have clients who are taking AI to deep levels, re-inventing the future as we speak. You won’t fully see the results of what they’re doing for another year or two.

But let’s just say that talking to machines like Alexa and Siri is only the tip of the iceberg.

The key to success in 2017-2020…especially in AdWords…is OWNING some of that Automation.

Automation is a rack-the-shotgun, 95/5, winners and losers phenomenon. "

Prophetic words of wisdom, no doubt, from the marketing and AdWords expert.

Watch for those technologies that claim this type of predictive AI model to emerge and lead the industry by wide margins in the years to come.

Take a look at these three leading-edge marketing automation technologies you can use today.

Markethive – (free) – dramatically increases your reach on the Internet by using cooperative blog syndication technology, and much more

Social Lead Generator – auto-join and auto-post to open and closed Facebook groups, dramatically expand your Twitter followers, and more.

Linked Group Messenger – Increase your LinkedIn invitation rate and grow a very large group of 1st level connections on LinkedIn. Especially helpful to avoid the LinkedIn "idk" limit.

Of course, I will keep you informed of these trends, and help you to stay on top of these significant technologies.

John Lombaerde – Goldfinch Digital Publishing LLC

David

4 Inbound Marketing Tools You Should Know About

For most small businesses marketing is either a huge expense or a huge burden. If you are trying to run a small business, or if you are an entrepreneur trying to navigate your way online, the word marketing is kind of a scary one.

You envision yourself or your team spending hours and hours blogging, or creating content on social networks with no guarantee that your time investment will pay off. Or you pay someone through the nose to handle your marketing, not really sure if that investment will work out any better than doing it in-house.

This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but unfortunately, it is the reality that far too many start-ups and existing small businesses face. Here are some excellent tools that you probably have not heard of, that can help ease your burden. Do not worry, relief is on the way.

Markethive – this is a totally free social network for entrepreneurs and small businesses. This network can help you, even if you don't have your own website. If you do have your own website, it can work hand in hand for even better results.

It would take an entire blog post to describe everything that Markethive can do for you, but let's just start with their blogging platform. Simply put I get 10X the post views on Markethive compared to the views I get on LinkedIn Pulse.

Markethive is an engaged social network. This is quite a surprising comparison, despite the fact that I have 10k 1st level connections on LinkedIn, and only 500 friends in Markethive. As they say, go figure!

LeadOutcome – you may or may not be aware that LinkedIn is one of the few social networks that allows the export of names and email addresses. Your entire database of 1st level connections on LinkedIn whether you have 500, 2500, or 25,000 1st level connections, can be exported and sent email using automated marketing methods. This is obviously extremely significant for marketers.

I am not a big fan of autoresponders, or email blasters, as I like to call them. Aside from telling you the open rates and clickthrough rates of email, they really do little else.

No autoresponder I know of can tell you who is "hot", and who is not. There are a number of specialized features that CRM software systems like LeadOutcome offer, but the fact that each action a lead takes is "scored" makes a huge difference.

You now know who is "hot", and who is not. There are a number of additional features of LeadOutcome that make it highly desirable, but given that it's monthly cost is less than most autoresponders makes it a relative no-brainer.

Simple Lead Generator for Facebook and Twitter. Without listing all of the features and benefits, (see the video link for details), this powerful software lets you search for and find groups automatically by keyword search.

You can post automatically to groups, and also to your friends on Facebook. You can also auto-follow on Twitter and auto-like tweets in order to encourage people to follow you back. This can save hours and hours of your time if you are active on either Facebook or Twitter.

Group Messenger for LinkedIn. (see the video link for details) This software allows you to market automatically on LinkedIn. No need for manual messages one by one anymore.

You can auto-invite based on keyword searches and auto-invite group members for groups of which you are a member. You can email open networkers over and above the LinkedIn limits for invitations.

Of course, you will find quite a large number of rather expensive systems for inbound marketing that will schedule and organize your content, etc. etc. Despite the advantages of these systems, you will find most of what they do in Markethive at no charge.

An essential component of any inbound marketing strategy, or what I like to call automated marketing is about how to gain access to prospects. There are always restrictions on the manual methods social networks offer to contact, message, and connect with friends and potential prospects.

The above-mentioned automated software systems allow you the access that you need in order to market effectively on these major social networking platforms. You can save yourself hours and hours of manual labor using these systems.

You will not find a more powerful or lower-cost suite of tools for inbound marketing on any other list on the Internet that is current for 2016 than this one.

Please connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadsonline or call 973-259-6055 for more information.

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David

2 Inbound Marketing Tools You Should Know About

Please connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadsonline or call 973-259-6055 for more information.

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David

How to Post on my Facebook Profile and my Facebook Groups

Sponsored by Markethive – THE social network for entrepreneurs

What are the rules of etiquette on Facebook and how should I observe them on my Facebook profile and in my Facebook groups? No matter what we do in life, or where we go, there are standards that apply, right? In the workplace, at school, in church, even at a baseball game.

No matter where we are, there are expectations of how we should behave in order to not just get along, but to harmonize with others. The same is true online, but the rules of the game are a little different. Somehow the rules online have changed, and people say things online that they would never dream of saying in front of people they know.

There is widespread political bashing from the left and the right online now, of which you are probably very well aware, but it by no means is it limited to politics. In perhaps a vain attempt to bring a little civility to the online world, and especially to Facebook where the rules of the “Old Wild, Wild West” seem to reign supreme, I would like to talk about Facebook etiquette from the online marketers point of view.

I know, to use a crude analogy, I may be merely spitting into the wind here, but it seems to me someone has to point this out, and I guess I might as well be the one to do it. What does political bashing inside a Facebook group of pro-Trump, or pro-Hillary supporters actually accomplish? This is a real enigma for me.

Who are they going to influence in a group where everyone shares the same political view? If they wanted to try and change someone’ viewpoint, maybe they should all go together and post all over one of the pro-Hillary sites until the owner of the site would just give up in frustration, (or vice versa).

I really don’t want to go here, but it also seems like there is an awful lot of Muslim bashing on Facebook. Where did this come from? I fully understand the frustration with the wars in the Middle East, but especially at the time of the 4th of July when we celebrate the Constitution, isn’t freedom of religion one of the fundamental principles of the pilgrims, to the Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary patriots? Jeesh, give the complaints against Muslims, especially Muslim-Americans a rest already.

OK, now here is the practical side to this post for those who want to promote on Facebook. You may ask “How should I post on my Facebook profile and my Facebook groups”?

One thing that should be said upfront, you should probably develop a thick skin if you don’t have one already, since there is someone, somewhere who will want to beat up on you, (verbally), for one reason or another. If you can’t take the heat, I suggest you get out of the fire and leave Facebook.

There is no rush whatsoever to join any group on Facebook. I have heard that there 8 million groups on Facebook, so there are plenty of groups to join, and they will be waiting for you, so do a little research before you click that join button.

There are a very large number of groups that are nothing but classified ads sites. If you post to these groups, your p ost is just one of thousands of other ads that no one is really paying attention to, so do not waste your time with these groups.

On these groups, there is no interaction, almost no comments, and no intelligent life as far as I can tell. Why would you want to waste a post on this kind of site?

A good sign of a healthy group is the number of new members, as well as your first reaction in viewing the most recent posts. Are there just ads, or are they promoting a discussion of any kind? Is there any discussion at all? If so, then maybe this group is worthwhile. If not, no problem, just move on to another one of the 8 million groups on Facebook. No harm, no foul.

Also do not waste your time posting out the same message to all of your groups. Change it up a little. Obviously there some of the people you want to add as friends and want to connect with that are members of many of the same groups you are. You look like a spammer if you post the same information everywhere.

The one exception to this rule would be a Holiday greeting. I used this method in a non-promotional way to wish my friends and people in my groups Happy Memorial Day, and I did it again, for The 4th of July. I received hundreds of likes,
and comments and they were still coming in several weeks after the Holiday.

This is when I realized that promotional methods on Facebook have a potential to reach tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.

So my advice is as follows:

1) Be polite, don’t push your own agenda all the time.

2) Inspire people with your message and they will follow you and want to be your friend.

3) Join groups with growing membership, and make sure you check the rules of
group and act accordingly.

4) Interact as much as possible on groups, especially with the moderators, influencers, or people active on the group.

5) Reply to messages in a timely manner. (same day if possible)

6) Have something inspiring to say with short test messages and images. Ideally do not promote directly through your text message, but you can link to another page with useful information and links to your offers. This indirect method of promotion will be more effective in the long run than just splashing your ad everywhere like most people do.

7) Have fun and keep your sense of humor. Don’t forget that Facebook started as a fun place for people to connect. In growing so big, Facebook has lost quite a bit of that “fun” spirit, but use your creativity to keep trying new things, and experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. By following these guidelines your experience on Facebook will be more enjoyable, AND more profitable.

Sponsored by Markethive – – THE social network for entrepreneurs

John Lombaerde – Goldfinch Digital Publishing

David