Category: Uncategorized

At the beginning of every school year, students from kindergarten through college spend the first few weeks of school getting adjusted and finding the right classes. Key in that process is the placement test. Teachers evaluate their pupils for reading, math level, and overall socialization. These tests not only ensure that students end up in a class that's paced properly and is challenging enough; they also provide an important benchmark to measure progress over the ensuing year.

Businesses could do well by taking the same approach. Figuring out where you are now not only lets you appreciate how far you've come, it also helps identify areas where you may be lagging behind your aspirations. Here are few of the metrics you can look at to evaluate your business:

Web statistics. If you own an online business, web stats are the backbone of your check-up. How many people visit your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit, and whether they return will all help you figure out what you need to do to keep them around longer. Other things to explore: How they arrived at your site, and how you show up in search engine results for your keywords. Google Analytics or your cpanel statistics are great places to start.

Revenue. I'll assume you're in business to make money. So how much are you making? Where is your money coming from? What products are services are most popular? This information will help you make more informed decisions going forward.

Expenses. Money coming in is only half the equation: How much money is going out? Where is it going, and why? Are there easy places to eliminate expenses? Remember, cutting your expenses is an even more effective way to put more money in your pocket than increasing your revenue.

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Hours worked. Exactly how hard are you having to work for the money in #2? It's great to make $50,000 a year – unless you're working 100-hour weeks to create that income. Figure out where the time is going and you'll be on the track to increasing your efficacy and your per-hour wage.

Customer satisfaction. It's more cost-effective to sell to a repeat customer than to bring new customers into your business, so how happy are those who purchase from you? Check out your return rate, and your repeat customer rate to see.

Employee turnover. Can't keep a virtual assistant longer than a month or two? It may be them... but if it happens over and over again, it just might be YOU. If your customer turnover seems excessive, dig into why your help is leaving faster than rats off a sinking ship.

Taking an honest look at where you are now is the only way to create a workable path towards a brighter tomorrow. If you see areas where you could use a little extra help or “tutoring,” work with your business coach or mentor to figure out how to bring your skills up to grade level.

At the beginning of every school year, students from kindergarten through college spend the first few weeks of school getting adjusted and finding the right classes. Key in that process is the placement test. Teachers evaluate their pupils for reading, math level, and overall socialization. These tests not only ensure that students end up in a class that's paced properly and is challenging enough; they also provide an important benchmark to measure progress over the ensuing year.

Businesses could do well by taking the same approach. Figuring out where you are now not only lets you appreciate how far you've come, it also helps identify areas where you may be lagging behind your aspirations. Here are few of the metrics you can look at to evaluate your business:

Web statistics. If you own an online business, web stats are the backbone of your check-up. How many people visit your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit, and whether they return will all help you figure out what you need to do to keep them around longer. Other things to explore: How they arrived at your site, and how you show up in search engine results for your keywords. Google Analytics or your cpanel statistics are great places to start.
Revenue. I'll assume you're in business to make money. So how much are you making? Where is your money coming from? What products are services are most popular? This information will help you make more informed decisions going forward.

Expenses. Money coming in is only half the equation: How much money is going out? Where is it going, and why? Are there easy places to eliminate expenses? Remember, cutting your expenses is an even more effective way to put more money in your pocket than increasing your revenue.
Hours worked. Exactly how hard are you having to work for the money in #2? It's great to make $50,000 a year – unless you're working 100-hour weeks to create that income. Figure out where the time is going and you'll be on the track to increasing your efficacy and your per-hour wage.

Customer satisfaction. It's more cost-effective to sell to a repeat customer than to bring new customers into your business, so how happy are those who purchase from you? Check out your return rate, and your repeat customer rate to see.
Employee turnover. Can't keep a virtual assistant longer than a month or two? It may be them... but if it happens over and over again, it just might be YOU. If your customer turnover seems excessive, dig into why your help is leaving faster than rats off a sinking ship.

Taking an honest look at where you are now is the only way to create a workable path towards a brighter tomorrow. If you see areas where you could use a little extra help or “tutoring,” work with your business coach or mentor to figure out how to bring your skills up to grade level.

That title is horrible. I know. However I think it describes a phenomenon I have noticed on many blogs and social networks, mine included. What is content diarrhea? Well let me tell this story and you will begin to understand.  Recently I went through my blog and for the first time I noticed the dates on my blog posts --

Here is what I discovered. My blog posts seemed to come in spurts. In other words no consistency. I would have 5 days of posts -- then 15 days of no posts - then 3 days of posts -- then 10 days of no posts.

What I realize is that I write in spurts - I will get an idea and I can write 6 or 7 posts all in one sitting. I then start posting willy nilly --

1. Because I am excited about what I just wrote.

2. I want to see the engagement right away. and

3. I think everything I write in time sensitive.

All of that is hogwash.

To counteract this deluge of articles and posts then nothing, I have found a few tools and strategies to use.

The Strategy-  Write when you feel it -- But then schedule -- I know you were looking for something deep.

Tools to use - Hootsuite, Buffer ,and SocialOOMph all do the same thing. they allow you to schedule you social networks posts days and even weeks in advance.

I also use the scheduling feature in WordPress to schedule my posts throughout the month. 

The newest piece of my arsenal has been to add the editorial plugin -- This plugin allows me to move posts once they have been scheduled in case something does come up.  There you go . This is how I handle content diarrhea. The hidden secret in this method is that is allows me to plan the marketing of each article much better than before. I can now a complete campaign for each article - versus just tweeting once and letting it go. Let me know if this system works for you or what system you use.