8 Crazy Ways to Give Your Online Business a Boost

#1. Use your friends. Rather than spending a lot of time breaking the ice with people you don’t know, start off by using your friends. Make a list of at least 10 people who think highly of you. People who have either spoken well of you to others or to your face. You then call each one of them personally, ask how they are going, if they need any help in any way but whatever you do don’t try and sell anything, just chat away naturally. By doing this all you will be aiming to do is to stay in their radar and keeping yourself in their memory. By all means tell them what you are doing and what your expectations are but go no further than that. Simply the act of making contact could lead to some future prospects.

#2. Complimentary businesses. It is now time to get to know the opposition. Not in a confrontationist way but more in a cooperative fashion. Start by making a list of at least five other businesses that are much like your own. Businesses that target the same type of customer that you do. Choose two from your list and make contact with them. Be friendly and offer to write guest posts on their blog, ask them to do the same in return. In these blogs review each other’s products or services and even offer to create packages by combining your products or services with theirs. By doing this you will increase your supporter base and help solve problems for other people’s customers who could become yours as well. In this cross promotion of your businesses you will achieve results that benefit both of you but you will have got business that you otherwise would not have.

#3. Seek a mentor. Make another list. This time compile the names of five business people you admire for some reason. It could be because of the way they run their businesses or because they come across as an expert in the particular niche they have carved out for themselves. Send an email to one of them. In the email tell them why you admire what they are doing, tell them how much you have learned from their example. Make your email sincere and genuine but most of all be specific. In doing this you will be building a relationship with other business owners and with a bit of luck you may have found a willing mentor. The more people you make contact with the more you will learn and by learning from people who have had more experience than yourself you will avoid many business pitfalls.

#4. Help a newbie. Even though you might be starting out yourself there is always a ‘new kid on the block.’ Don’t look on this as further competition that has the potential to take money from you. That is the nature of the game and we are all part of it. Take the other tack. Befriend this new opposition. Send off an email to introduce yourself and tell them you like what they are offering. Be sincere, and if they are in a close locality invite them for a cup of coffee, or make a phone call if they are located further away. Offer them some information about something that might be new to them. In this way you will be setting yourself up as a mentor which is a great way to grow your own business and a beginner might be willing to send some business your way if they find that can’t fill the need themselves.

#5. Think outside the box. Don’t let your online business become stale. Always be searching for a new approach. Read as many blogs as you can that are posted by other online business people. Read magazines, books, newspapers, in fact anything that you can get your hands on that might widen your outlook. If you run across something interesting, write it down and see if it can be applied to your way of doing things. After a while you will find that you won’t be doing the same things as your competition, you will become the trend setter, and your online business will stand out as being in its own niche.

#6. Slow down. This might sound really crazy but it’s true. If you’re not one yourself you will know of business people who are continuously running around all the time and being late getting where they’re going half of the time. There are conferences to get to, meetings, engagements, it never stops. You don’t get enough sleep and you miss family get-togethers. Slow down – most of these things you are rushing to won’t make any difference anyway. Learn to work smarter, not harder. It’s all an illusion, this running around stuff. Slow down a bit, take a deep breath, review what you have to do, prioritise it and make a fresh start. Stop after a couple of hours work, take a break for a while and then get back to it again and whatever you do, stay in control. Never let your work control you.

#7. Make your achievements real. We are all aware of social media. It is the new way of telling the world what you and your business is all about. Use it by all means but don’t become obsessed by it. Don’t waste too much time on Twitter getting followers, on Facebook getting friends, or even on LinkedIn making connections. What you need is balance. If you become too obsessed with getting followers, friends or connections you won’t be doing something else that needs your attention. Friends, followers and connections have to become customers if your online business is going to get the boost it needs.

#8. Always be ready. Don’t wait until it is too late in whatever it is you have to do. Once you decide something has to be done do it and don’t procrastinate. Never let an opportunity slip by because you don’t think you are ready. Hop to it and get it done now as though there is no tomorrow.

The Author : Kristy Ramirez is an aspiring Internet entrepreneur and freelance personal finance writer for Life Insurance Finder Australia, where she writes about everything from how to get a quote for life insurance to What Happens Online When You Die.