Popular Advice
Refine by
Deborah Vella, Owner at Support Legal
You can leave instructions as to your wishes in your will. This may include a wish for another person to be assigned the intellectual property rights. This person then negotiates with the online publishers to grant your wishes.
Have you worked with a mentor?
If you have worked with a mentor, great! But I want details. Was working with a mentor a successful experience for you? Did you seek them out for general or specific questions? Did you enjoy working with them? Why or Why not?
Gill Walker, Owner Director, Principal CRM Business Consultant at Opsis
I have worked with several mentors with varying degrees of success.
For people looking for a mentor, I would advise to be clear on your goals from the engagement. Then be prepared to end the engagement if it is not delivering, and be very wary of mentors who want you to commit to a long term agreement before they have proved themselves.
My worst experience was a mentor who went bad - although it started well. He was obviously struggling financially, and came to see me as a cash cow.
HUNTER LEONARD, FOUNDER AND CEO at BLUE FROG MARKETING PTY LTD
Yes, I've worked with a mentor on a couple of occasions. Once many years ago I asked a colleague to be my presentation mentor and he would attend my seminars and presentations and then give me feedback at the end of each one. This was a fantastic experience as he was able to pinpoint some key positives and negatives about my style and delivery and I improved as a result.
More recently, I asked one of my clients to put on a different hat and mentor me on preparation of investment documents for a new business I'm working on. This was also a great experience, and one of his comments led to a focussing of our business idea to the point where I'm now far more passionate about the idea because I found a really nice social enterprise angle to the business that I hadn't expected and wouldn't have found if he had mentioned that one thing.
In summary, definitely recommend having a mentor, particularly if there is a very defined outcome you're looking for.
Steve Osborne, director at Steve Osborne / Smarthinking
Yes. The rule is: don't do it.
If you do not own the image, it is not yours to use.
See above answers for copyright-free alternatives.
Philip Brookes, Director at Aktiv Digital
Images found via a Google search or any other method are all subject to the same copyright laws. Some people will distribute their images with a Creative Commons license, of specific usage rights. If it's clear that their license terms permit you to use the image for the purpose you intend, then go ahead (you may need, for example, to include an acknowledgement of the source of the image). In some cases you may just need to email the owner and request permission. But commercial images need to be purchased - this involves finding how they're distributed and paying the required license fee. You'll find a lot of images on the web come from stock image libraries like Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, Getty Images, Dreamstime, etc... There are quite a few low cost options, so there's really no need to risk using someone's images without permission.
Is it advisable to create a poll question on Facebook page?
Hi,
I would like to ask if its advisable to use a Facebook business page to create poll questions? And can you suggest some engaging poll questions to ask :D
Thanks,
Mar
Lisa Ormenyessy, Business Coach and Marketing Specialist at Straight Talk Group
Hi Mar, First off Yes! Always ask your audience what they want; it is your ongoing market research. As far as the type of questions to ask Lynn is correct, you want to make it really easy for them.
Another alternative you may like to consider (depending on the number of followers you have) is PM your top engagers and invite them to be a part of a focus group. Facilitated well you can dig a little deeper around thier responses.
You could set up a group skype call or a google hangout to bring them all together if distance is an issue.
Good Luck!
Lynn Scott, Social Media Consultant at The Fountains Agency
Hi Mar,
The best way to ask a poll question is by making it easy for your followers to answer! Give them choices such as A, B, C or D, so they only have to type a letter to respond. If you ask an open ended question you may get less engagement. Hope that helps!
Lynn
Krishna Everson, Marketing Trainer, Consultant and Speaker and Wordpress Spec at Krishna Everson Marketing
Some good suggestions above. I would like to add - start with what you have in your hand. Do you have a background in a particular industry where you already have contacts? Are they likely to need websites? Establish your position, and let people know you are meeting their online needs. If you try and be everything to everybody, you are increasing competitors rather than clients. Ask yourself where the open doors already exist. Create a landing page that targets that industry and then promote it.
Brad Lyons, Consultant at SMS Fusion
When I first launch something new I spend big with adwords. Then once I know the most popular key words people use I buy those domain names. Adwords puts your site at the top instantly and helps you gain an understanding of what people are typing when searching for your services.
So I would recommend spending a large amount for the first week of adwords to ensure your ad is always at the top, then wide back the spend as you start to see the common keywords. Modify your current site to ensure those key words are in your content and buy up the keywords as domain names.
Do You Know How Much It Costs To Run A Sales Promotion?
If I did it mainly online, how much would I expect to pay (roughly)?
Brad Lyons, Consultant at SMS Fusion
Hi Federica,
Can you provide more information on what you are looking to do and on what scale?
There are many ways to promote online however it comes down to scale and target market. Some markets can be costly to promote to depending on the method used. You can promote for free online however without knowing what type of promotion you are looking to do it is hard to answer this one.
Adwords: Cost depends on the keyword value however you control the budget.
Facebook: You can control the cost.
Email marketing: I wouldn't send emails from your address, I would use a third party for that as bulk emails can ruin your email rep.
Those are the most common however really comes down to you and your budget vs the target market. In some cases it would be more productive to try direct marketing instead of casting a net (adwords etc). Casting is very popular and you can get good ROI however direct marketing tends to bring in much better results.
Either way you control the budget so it would be an idea to work out how much you want to spend then look at what can be done for that price.
I'm just starting my first venture, and with most startups there are financial hurdles to leap.
Jef Lippiatt, Owner at Startup Chucktown
Great question James. I still work full-time on top of my several ventures.
Ideas for part-time work:
- Freelancing - provide services you know on a freelance or contract basis. This can work great for business advice, design work, PR, social media management, copy writing, blogging
- Waiting tables, Bar Tending or Barista - these jobs typically have fairly good flexibility for hours and times if you need to work around business meetings or such.
Chris Ioannidis, CEO at Jedcart
Hello Bridgett it's not a simple answer. It would depend on the scale of the business that is requiring the software. If the business isn't big enough then the cost becomes prohibitive. There are various 3PL providers that can give you what you need with out the outlay. If you need further clarification you can contact me and we can discuss further.
How To Generate More Business For Your Web Development Agency
How do you find more business for your web development agency? Is most of your business coming through referrals?
Bridget Holland, Director at Learnings for Success
Have a great website yourselves with a solid portfolio. Any portfolio link should open a new window so your site is still there when they stop browsing the portfolio.
Don't try and be all things to all people. Be sure what your target market is. Information / lead generation sites versus e-commerce / transactional. Experienced with web versus small business just starting out. Push that strength on your website and in your portfolio.
Have a page on 'what to look for in a web development agency?' or a checklist of steps in planning a website. Pitch this to the level of expertise you expect in your target market. Run in conjunction with a blog / newsletter that people sign up to.
One newsletter I'm signed up to recently offered a 'free blog overhaul to increase conversions' for one lucky reader. In exchange, they got:
* I don't know how many enquiries from their readership who are now warm prospects with an identified need / desire.
* an excellent case study for future newsletter and web post (I think the conversion rate went up 300% or something)
* an evangelist!
Or free reviews to anyone for a limited time. (or maybe at $10 since a nominal payment may reduce tire-kickers...)
Skeeve Stevens, Chief Network Architect and Founder at eintellego Networks
All businesses are the same.
We use the KPI model (www.keypersonofinfluence.com.au)
- Pitch - How to tell people what you do
- Publish - Get your material out there
- Profile - If Google doesn't know you, you don't exist
- Products - Define what you actually do
- Partnerships - You can't do it all yourself
Every business needs these if they want to succeed.... as well as a lot more.... business doesn't just happen, you have to make it happen.... but the old days of marketing and sales are dying... and the new entrepreneur revolution is taking shape.
...Skeeve
Mitesh Modi, Principal at MM Consultancy Pty Ltd
Stock losses, I presume you are referring to loss on shares. Generally speaking the losses on shares are capital losses and as such you cannot take a deduction for that. If you have a capital gain you can set it off against that and if not you will have to carry forward the loss until you have a capital gain.
Australian residents for tax purposes need to declare their world wide income in their tax returns and therefore if you are a tax resident you can set off overseas capital losses to capital gains.
I hope this helps.
Mitesh Modi CA