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Lyoness – Key Business Lessons Which May Help You 

If you are looking at setting up your own business then I would like to share with you some key learnings which I have made after completing 3 years in business. I opened Lyoness, a female beauty store back in 2016 and the journey has been incredible so far. Naturally there have been highs and lows during that period but we have survived, and we have just started to make actual profit, an exciting time.

Although I studied business at college, you really don’t learn about running a business until you actually do it and this experience has been very eye-opening for me. Here is what I learned from those first 3 years with Lyoness. 

Recruiting 

One of the key learnings which I have made since launching the business is that when recruiting, you have to bear the team dynamic in mind. For the first year I would hire sales staff or management based on their own profile, without considering how they may fit into the team dynamic. The consequence of this was the hiring of some people who were great at sales, but who weren’t good at working with a team or getting on with others, and this presented a number of conflicts. Now when I hire people I ensure that they are the right fit for the team. 

Marketing 

Now that I look back on the first 3 years I realize that the way in which we have spent money on marketing has not always been the smartest investments. For example when we first launched our marketing campaign we decided to use email marketing and we then spent a lot of time on social media, although we didn’t pay for social media ads. I now know that any marketing strategy should combine a number of different marketing approaches, in order to really get the most from it. Instead of investing our whole marketing budget on one method, we now spread it out to hit as many points and targets as possible. 

Small Steps

Something which I was very guilty of from the outset was trying to turn this business into a global leader after just a few weeks, well my dreams weren’t quite as grand as that but you get the point. I am not someone who is very good at being patient and this is why I was already planning for growth before we had even established ourselves. It became apparent after a couple of months that these years were about building a foundation from which to launch the business from, a key learning. 

DIY

There is a temptation as a business owner to do it all yourself in order to save money but you simply cannot do it. There just isn’t enough time in the day to complete all of the tasks yourself and you have to either outsource or delegate in order to be more effective. 

Hopefully the learnings which I have made with Lyoness can help you in your business endeavors. 

Marc Leder – How to Significantly Grow Your Instagram Following 

Are you looking to boost your company’s Instagram profile?

Looking to become an Instagram influencer? If so then we have some great tips for you on how to do just that. My good friend Marc Leder is an expert in this and I have watched him for many years as he has unlocked the power of many social media channels and helped people to achieve their goals.

Marc is someone who just understands how algorithms work and he is also a marketing expert. Through the use of his abilities he has helped many clients to grow their following, and here is how you can do it too. 

Forget the Algorithm 

Don’t get hung up on what Instagram ranks as shareable content, you should create every piece of content as though it is going to be seen by every single follower on your list. In doing this you can ensure that the content is of a very high quality and you can also keep yourself focused. As Marc always tells me, nobody can really predict what the algorithm will do, so there is no point in getting hung up on it. 

Engage

You have to be engaging with both current followers and potential followers in order to grow your list. Remember that this is a community, the clue is in the title of ‘social’. Don’t expect people to come to your page, like it and follow it, if you are not prepared to give them something back in return.  

Geo-Tagging 

A super simple tip to increase followers is geotagging, which essentially marks a piece of content with a location. This will increase the chance of people in your locality following your page, which could see it get a significant bump in followers. 

Quality and Quantity 

Sometimes the debate comes down to quality over quantity but if you want to grow your list of followers then you need both. Your content should be beautiful and you should be delivering high value to your followers. Furthermore you need to be posting heavily and consistently. We have seen that high volumes of great content has worked for so many in the past and this is always the first thing that Marc talks about when he meets with a new client. It may be time consuming but if you want more followers, this is how you should go about it. 

Niche

It can be tempting to wander away from your niche in order to bring in more followers but this rarely works as those who follow a certain niche are much more likely to show real loyalty. If you are a fashion influencer then don’t start talking about travel, unless it falls within your fashion niche. If you do this then your core base may lose interest, and you’ll be unlikely to get more followers from the travel niche. 

With these tips Marc has transformed many clients’ fortunes on social media, and if you implement them then you can grow your followers with ease. 

Investar USA – How to Make Your Home More Salable 

Last year we moved from Florida, USA to Alberta, Canada and in the year leading up to us selling the home we knew that we had to do something to help us make our home more appealing. Back in the US I used to work for Investar USA, who acted as a lender to help people renovate their homes, and improve communities.

As a result of this I knew a little about how to add value, but I’d be a fraud if I told you that I knew it all. I used my contacts from my old job to give me some advice on what people are looking for in homes, and we were able to make some small, budget touches which you can make that will increase the salability of your home. 

Gardens

House hunters want gardens which are tidy and which require minimal work on their part. This is not to say that you have to completely renovate your garden of course, there is no need for such an expense, but you will need to give it a look if it isn’t already in good shape. For the most part a good clean up and a weeding session, as well as some simple additions can really give your garden a new look at may it much more attractive to a buyer. 

Details

One of the easiest ways of giving your house a nice new look and make it far more appealing is to deal with some of the details in the home, small touches which may not seem noticeable, but can make a big difference. The details which we are talking about here are the light switches around the home, the door handles, painting the skirting boards and changing up the plug sockets. You may think that these details aren’t important but I can assure that they make a massive change once you have completed them.

Paint

Giving your home a new coat of paint will really make it stand out and it will add a bit more of a wow factor to people who are coming to visit it. Remember that you only get one chance to make a first impression and as people arrive to your house to view it, the first thing that they will notice is a clean and fresh coat of paint on the outside of the home, which will instantly make them feel positive about what they are about to see. 

Entrance 

In line with this first impression theme, it is really important that you focus on the entrance to the home, as this will be where many decisions are made, you won’t get a buyer based on this, but you could easily lose a buyer if the entrance isn’t up to scratch. Give the area a new coat of paint, add some artwork or a new rug, whatever you need to do in order to make people feel right at home.