The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce Store

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |eCommerce Store|The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce StoreThese days, starting up your own eCommerce store is as simple as clicking a couple of buttons. With the right services, you could essentially build a working website in as little as a few hours, complete with all of your custom-made products and a fantastic website theme. Unfortunately, the ease of making an eCommerce website has created a swarm of subpar stores that are clogging the market, creating an endless sea of competition.

In that sea, there aren’t many eCommerce stores that can actually survive. Unfortunately, the small investment needed to actually create a store means that people aren’t afraid to try and fail over and over again until they hit the jackpot with a lucky idea. So to help you establish a successful eCommerce store without the trial and error, we’ve put together what we believe are the 10 golden rules of a successful eCommerce store. These tips will help you stand out, build your brand and ultimately stand out in a huge sea of competition.

1. Have your own website and email domain

Do not, under any circumstances, use some kind of subdomain for your business such as www.webhost.com/yourbusiness. This is incredibly unprofessional and will scare off all of your potential customers. Furthermore, don’t use an email service like Gmail or Yahoo. Make sure you have your own email domain as well. Both of these tips will make you seem a lot more professional and will greatly improve your chances of success as an eCommerce store.

2. Market on multiple channels and platforms

Make sure you’re not sticking to a single channel or platform when it comes to growing your business and advertising your brand. You should be on many different channels, social media platforms and advertising services to help you spread out and reach a wider audience. To give you a hand, here are some eCommerce marketing tips that you should absolutely follow. As long as you remember to advertise on multiple platforms, you’ll have an incredibly easy time getting your name out there.

3. Hire a web developer

We know that templates can look really pretty and will have loads of customization options. Unfortunately, a template is a template and most shoppers will realize that you’re using some kind of default theme that took almost no effort to make. This doesn’t reflect well on your brand as a whole, hence why it’s vital that you hire a web developer to help you make a good website for your brand. This can be costly, but it’s also a fantastic investment in your brand.

4. Support different payment methods

If your website doesn’t support PayPal then you’re going to lose a lot of business. If you don’t accept cryptocurrency then that’s another chunk of customers gone. Accepting cards should be the absolute minimum nowadays. Make sure you look at the most popular eCommerce payment methods and ensure that you support them on your website.

5. Specialize before you diversify

One of the problems that a lot of amateur eCommerce stores face is over-diversification. They try to add too many products to their website because they’re using a simple dropshipping plug-in, and they try to appeal to too many different people at once. The goal is to minimize the number of products you offer and specialize your brand before you try to spread out and diversify.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |eCommerce Store|The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce Store6. Create genuinely helpful content

A lot of eCommerce sites tend to hire general copywriters and will request some incredibly simple articles that have very little relevance to their brand. This is usually a fairly poor way of approaching eCommerce marketing because the content doesn’t provide value to your users. Instead, what you want to aim for is evergreen content that will continue to provide your customers with something helpful to read. This could be a knowledge base of information for your products or even some explanations on how to use the items you’re selling.

7. Make your services work on mobile

Luckily, most modern web hosts and design services will include a mobile-friendly version of your site, meaning you don’t have to do much to support mobile users. However, what you can do to help is optimize images for faster loading, creating larger buttons and links for mobile users to press and potentially having a mobile app for your brand or store. This will open up your business to a huge audience of mobile-only users.

8. Communicate with your audience

It’s absolutely vital that you’re always communicating with your audience. Whether it’s on social media, on your website or even in reviews on a Google Business listing, you should always be happy to speak with your audience, receive their feedback and also discuss what your audience enjoys about your product. This is all valuable information that can be used to grow your project into a successful eCommerce store.

9. Don’t underestimate the power of influencers

Influencer marketing is starting to become one of the best ways for a small brand to spread its wings. It involves contacting influential people on social media platforms and working together with them to promote your brand to their viewers. Some influencers have a couple of thousand followers, while others will have over a million. It’s your job to find out which influencer could best represent or showcase your brand.

10. Maintain a blog on your website

Blogs are fantastic for improving your brand’s search engine optimization and it can also be a place to provide your customers with useful content and informative articles. It’s a great way to improve your brand’s trustworthiness and will provide a lot of value to your customers.

We hope that these ten golden rules have given you a different perspective on how you should run an eCommerce store. We know that creating a website to sell goods is incredibly easy nowadays, which means that you’re undoubtedly going to get a lot of competition. However, setting yourself apart from these no-effort stores is simply as long as you’re willing to invest some time into it.

What Helps You Excel As A Keynote Speaker?

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Keynote Speaker|What Helps You Excel As A Keynote Speaker?If you’re someone who has plenty of experience in running a business and you bring insight or expertise that others can find useful, then there is a career that could very much use that to fuel a career that involves mostly sharing those experiences. Also known as being a professional speaker or a public speaking career, being a keynote speaker means that you are essentially paid to give talks on topics that you have an authority on, but it doesn’t just mean that alone. It’s not just a career, but a business you have to manage, and here are a few tips that can help you learn how to manage that business and excel.

Have something to talk about

A lot of people love the idea of standing up on stage and giving a rousing, inspiring speech that talks to the hearts and needs of the audience. But there’s has to be some substance, some sizzle to the steak, as well. Look back on your experience, and see what you can draw from to serve as the fuel of your talks. Find your niche, and don’t try to be too broad. If, for instance, you worked in-depth on digital marketing, then you can bring the perspective of someone who can speak with expertise on how marketing is crucial to businesses.

Be able to sell it

Even if you’re not speaking on your career as a marketer (because maybe you never had one), you are still going to need some marketing skills in order to excel. Once you find your authority, find your niche, and know what you’re going to talk about, you then need to be able to sell it to other entrepreneurs, decision-makers, or department heads. You have to be able to look at who your audience is (or will be) and figure out what their needs and perspectives are. You then have to look at how to frame your expertise to make it seem vital from their perspective, which means being able to walk a mile in their shoes.

Practice your public speaking

This might seem like it’s too obvious to cover, but a lot of people get into speaking gigs without really taking the time to work on their on-stage presence. You can have charisma coming out of over pore of your body, and be a reliable authority on the topic that you’re going to be talking on, but you don’t know how well that’s going to translate to your stage performance until you try it. As such, you want to make sure you’re sharpening your body language, your rhythm, and other public speaking skills. Public speaking groups like Toastmasters are great for helping you get that practice and working on your public speaking skills.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Keynote Speaker|What Helps You Excel As A Keynote Speaker?Good written communication is essential too

As a speaker, it should be relatively obvious that you’re going to need very good verbal communication skills. However, you’re going to have to be able to write well enough to sell your ideas in the written form, as well. Not only do you have to be able to market your speeches through text, but a lot of keynote speakers will expand into another revenue stream: writing books and ebooks. These books are a perfect opportunity to expand on what you talk about at your speeches, so your speeches can effectively act as convincing marketing material for a much more extensive look at what you work on. You may also be able to sell ebooks to those who may not be able to afford to hire you or attend one of your more public events.

Running a business on the road

The life of a keynote speaker is one that sees you traveling from place to place, often country to country. This might sound glamorous and, often, it definitely can be. There are some very nice perks to networking with decision-makers and thought leaders in your industry of choice. However, it’s also demanding. Look at the tips on running an online business while traveling the world from Northeastern University and pay attention. After all, most keynote speakers do not work entirely alone, they have an admin team that is helping them book gigs and sell books from home, and you have to be able to manage them from afar.

Be loose and be comfortable with your emotions

You might think that having a buttoned-down approach to giving a speech and being able to communicate clearly and concisely are the most important skills when it comes to a career in public speaking. However, it’s empathy and emphatic communication that will really grab the attention of your audience most of the time, and you have to be able to tap into that. Humans naturally crave an emotional connection, so if you feel like you have a swell of emotion coming while you’re making a point, be willing, able and comfortable with hopping on that wave. Gesticulate, raise your voice, and don’t be afraid to tap in humor, or even a little intensity, to help drive a point home.

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Keynote Speaker|What Helps You Excel As A Keynote Speaker?You have to stay up to date

If you want to make sure that your speeches are always relevant, you can’t just rely on the career you’ve had in the past. Your stories are going to lose relevance as time goes on. As such, you are going to want to stay up to date. You can do this by following publications and blogs that speak to your niche and applying your insight into what news and trends you learn about there. But you should also use the experience and network you continue building as a keynote speaker. Take inspiration and borrow stories from your clients and attendees. For instance, if someone comes to you with a problem, speak about that problem and how your method or skills would solve that problem.

Be a good teacher

The truth about keynote or professional speakers is that the vast majority are also in the training business. Much like selling books and ebooks, it’s another way to add a new revenue stream to your repertoire. JobHero outlines the kind of steps you need to take to become a corporate trainer, but often it means getting some sort of certification to teach specific skills that are related to the topics that you speak on. As such, your training career, speaking gigs, and book can all come together as a holistic educational experience that sees you becoming a respected authority on your chosen subject.

Be competitive and productive

In order to truly excel in a public speaking career, you have to be laser-focused on finding new work. Depending on your niche, it can be a very competitive field indeed. What’s most important is that you’re always able to find an audience. As such, you should never turn down a speaking opportunity, even if you’re not entirely sure your audience is your usual one. Learn how to be able to get people together in a room. Networking and marketing both play a huge role in this, but you also need to be able to manage your time well enough to be able to travel from place to place as your work demands it. If you can’t, your rivals will be taking the opportunities you miss.

Keynote speaking is not an easy career. It involves life on the road, a lot of introspection and insight, and being able to hold a crowd’s attention time and time again. But, hopefully, the tips above can help you with that.

6 Ways To Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset Today

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Entrepreneurial Mindset|6 Ways To Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset TodayAs the world wakes up to another day with terrifying headlines, there will be some who will inevitably be feeling the pull of despondence. We’re entering a new dawn, where everything seems to have changed. The old ways of doing things just won’t cut it anymore and the phrase ‘pivot or fail’ is being whispered in the wings of every virtual board meeting.

This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but what if it’s the first ingredient in a recipe for great success? Followers wait to be told what to do, leaders and entrepreneurs forge ahead with new ways of thinking.

Developing the Entrepreneurial Mindset

How can we change our way of thinking to really build on this idea of seeing things as an opportunity? Developing this mindset takes work, and it’s a skill that needs practicing and honing. It doesn’t come overnight, which is why now might be the best time to start.

Being an entrepreneur means doing things first, being there first, and being in the right place at the right time (or at least making the place and time you’re in the right place and time!).

Here are some ideas on how to practice your entrepreneurial mindset:

  1. Get out of your comfort zone – taking a leap of faith is the cornerstone of an entrepreneurial mind. That doesn’t mean going into things blindly though. If you want to run an event, for example, hire experts like cl-events.com to ensure it goes smoothly, and learn from them as you go.
  2. Learn. Every day – Every day is a school day, that’s the mindset of an entrepreneur. Read books, take classes, do courses. Learn and grow.
  3. Solve problems – If you’re presented with a problem, figure out if you can solve it. Did you know that Richard Branson created Virgin Atlantic because his flight was grounded? He was presented with a problem, and he solved it.
  4. Carve out a vision, and stick to it – Whether it’s Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle or Gary Vee’s enviable passion for his vision, it’s up to each of us to carve out our own why, our own goals, our own vision, and then stick to it, no matter what.
  5. Be positive, even when it’s tough – Famous entrepreneur and YouTube legend Casey Neistat once said: “Failure sucks, but the pain that is failure does not exceed the pain that is not trying at all”. Wise words from someone who has built an empire out of nothing but energy and an unwavering positive mental attitude.
  6. Learn to communicate – This one really is a tough one. Communication doesn’t come naturally to many people, especially entrepreneurs. There can be so many ideas buzzing around in our heads, and we can become so fixated on them that it can be difficult to communicate with those around us, but developing this skill is like the hidden diamond in the rocks. Being able to tell others about our great ideas in a way that gets them enthused and gets them on board means we can effectively make our ideas their passions, meaning we can work with people who have skills in areas we don’t.

First I Launched My Company And Then I Had To Start Learning About Managing A Product.

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | First I Launched My Company And Then I Had To Start Learning About Managing A Product.To some degree, I always knew I’d launch my own business. I just didn’t know which field of study the company would rest in. So after spending much of my 20s working in finance and real estate, and then going to business school, the right opportunity sat in front of me. In 2011, I formed SquareFoot, a new kind of commercial real estate company, to address growing companies and their office space needs.

We spent those early years building our website and fleshing out our marketing and messaging to reel in clients who suited our solutions. For a few years, this process worked well for us, and I took it on my own shoulders to grow in my knowledge first and then my role and leadership to include more. As I managed the real estate component of the company, and pinch-hitted adequately on the marketing front, too, I came to realize that I wouldn’t be able to carry the team in one crucial element: product.

My thinking on this was simple – There were three areas of the business that needed to be top-notch for us to succeed: 1. Real estate, 2. Marketing, and 3. Product. I could handle the top two, but not the last one. Not if I wanted the company to deliver on the vision I had. So I set out to hire a COO who could. I needed someone with complementary skills to mine, to fill in the gaps and to lead the other half of the organization. That person’s background would be, ideally, the inverse of mine, someone who was strong on product, could assist with marketing, and likely wouldn’t know the first thing (at that point) about negotiating real estate deals.

Over the past 3.5 years, I have been a stakeholder in the success of our product management, not the leader. And both the organization and our clients are better off because of it. I sit in on meetings where our COO and the rest of the team outline how and why to build out the product offering to give our clients more and better tools. This is an ongoing area of growth for me. Much of the interactions we have with clients are in-person, which falls into the real estate category of our negotiations and communications, but we must also have a high-quality website and app to match the promises and commitments we’ve made. I know we’re in good hands.

Some CEOs are product-first front their experience, skillset, and interests. They have a leg up on people like me who are catching up as they go when it comes to product, and depend on others more able than them to lead that portion of the business. But, I’d argue, nobody has done it all, or can do it all. For the product-oriented founders, they’ll need to eventually hire a business-oriented executive to help them build and grow for the future. What’s most important in these thought processes and conversations is to be honest and upfront about your own limitations and how those may be standing in the way of valuable progress or long-term success.

Since every company is different in makeup, there’s no definitive time to expand the executive team. You know it’s the right time, in my experience, when you feel in over your head again. As discussions internally began to mount among junior team members looking to me to make the ultimate decision, I was comfortable and confident in the real estate and marketing areas far more than I was when it came to product. It reached a point where I had to acknowledge and accept that I would eventually make a bad misstep if I didn’t turn to someone who was more capable of handling those situations and circumstances. That’s not a sign of weakness for a CEO, it’s a show of maturity. As SquareFoot grew in employee count and in client base, I had to grow in my leadership, too. Bringing on my counterpart then helped accelerate that growth overall across all metrics.

The advice I’d give to CEOs first starting out is to try to manage it all for as long as you can. But also be realistic and honest about when that style ceases to work. These are good problems to have, as it means you’ve tackled and conquered many layers of company growth to reach the point where you can no longer scale yourself to cover it all. Bringing on someone at that time is a smart move. Finding the person best suited to balance out your weaknesses with their strengths is the best path toward reaching what you set out to do and continue to seek. For me, that was understanding that product wasn’t something I could pinch-hit on. Once I turned to an expert, I haven’t had reason to look back.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Jonathan WasserstrumJonathan Wasserstrum is the Founder / CEO of SquareFoot a commercial real estate platform based in New York City. Founded in 2011, Squarefoot helps companies find their next (and next) office space.

10 Legal Tips that Can Save Your Business

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Whether you’re just starting out or have been operating for years, there are many legal issues confronting business owners. This article will identify tips to take that can save your business.

Tip 1: Incorporate

Legal documents must be filed in order to incorporate your business, thereby protecting your business and personal assets. If you are operating as a corporation, you need to file articles of incorporation, and if you are operating an LLC, you need to file articles of organization. Fill them out and file them.

Tip 2: Select an Appropriate Busienss Name

Ensure that your business name is different than the names of existing businesses that offer the same or similar products and services, in order to avoid litigation over use of another business’s trade name. Check state and federal name registries to see whether other businesses have the same or similar names.

Tip 3: Obtain All Necessary Licenses and Permits

Many businesses require licenses and/or permits to operate, whether they are issued a federal, state, or local government. Research the requirements for your business, and obtain them.

Tip 4: Adopt Governing Documents

The structure you choose for your business determines the type of governing documents you need to have in place, such as operating agreements, bylaws, etc. Governing documents should be adopted for every business. These documents identify and set out the company’s structure, ownership, voting rights, responsibilities of directors, day-to-day operations, how profits and losses will be treated, and more.

Tip 5: Implement Written Contracts and Agreements

Many businesses make the mistake of operating without written contracts. This is an antiquated practice. Having written contracts helps all parties understand their rights and obligations.

Tip 6: Market Properly

There are many legal issues that arise relating to the way businesses market and advertise their products and services, which are governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and also by state and local laws. The most basic rule with regard to advertising and marketing is: don’t lie.

Tip 7: Protect Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is a creation of the mind. Every business has some intellectual property, whether it is the special method for creating your product or simply your business name or logo. There are specific steps you must take in order to protect your business’s intellectual property, which can be protected through copyright (written and artistic content), trademark (logos and slogans), or patent (inventions).

Tip 8: Comply with Employment Obligations

If your business has employees, you need to ensure that your business complies with a number of federal and state employment laws. For starters, you must pay employees at least minimum wage, operate a safe workplace, and treat employees fairly. If you are not interested in having employees but need help operating your business, then independent contractors should be considered—but they come with their own legal issues.

Tip 9: Get Your Financial Metters In Order

First, open bank accounts and obtain credit in the name of your business, and keep those accounts separate from your personal accounts. Failure to do so may result in a court finding that your business is not a separate legal entity, resulting in you becoming personally liable for debts against the business. Second, ensure you pay all necessary taxes—employment taxes, income taxes, sales tax, etc. Third, get insurance. Fourth, manage your receivables. If someone doesn’t pay you and there’s no basis for the non-payment, pursue them.

Tip 10: Adopt a Recordkeeping Program

As your business grows, you will have to maintain accurate records for your business. A common issue for small businesses is failing to maintain the required records. These records may include minutes of corporate meetings, stock certificates, financial statements, payroll documentation, injury logs, etc. Adopt a record keeping program and follow it.

Regardless of the type of business you operate, you need a trusted attorney to help you wade through the many legal issues you will encounter in the operation of your business. To find the perfect attorney for you and your business, quickly post a short summary of your legal needs on www.legalserviceslink.com, and let the perfect attorney come to you. No time, no hassle, no cost.

About the Author

Matthew Horn, Esq.Matthew Horn, Esq. is the President and Co-Founder of Legal Services Link, a platform allowing those with legal needs and attorneys to quickly and easily connect via email. Matthew is a frequent speaker and author on various tech, business, and legal topics. He holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a JD from The John Marshall Law School.