I find the "I deleted Facebook" meme incredibly odd. It's a website, you don't have to visit. You don't have to check/install the app. Do you really have no free will of your own?
Yes, the feed can be annoying, so just fill it up with things you like. Unfollow annoying people, like pages and groups that interest you, and suddenly your feed changes entirely.
If you have to delete Facebook to stop checking it, the issue is with you, not with Facebook. Facebook rapidly gets pretty bland and monotonous. It's useful, but not that interesting. Facebook wish it had as much power over you as some people seem to think it has.
Yes, I'm sure I'll be downvoted into oblivion, but honestly I've given up with this site. If you're not anti Facebook, pro libertarian, anti Microsoft, anti advertising...etc. you're not part of the 20 something know-it-all SV echo chamber and so get downvoted.
Yes, I know it's redundant but I think this is the last time I'll log in here. The echo chamber and shocking lack of pragmatism and common sense displayed on this website makes me think I'm living in a different world to the opinions displayed here.
I'm not entirely clear why the author felt it was a productive use of his time to write several thousand words on this. HSBC aren't likely to be swayed by such an article. They've been fined billions, they're probably not worried about being "called out".
First of all:
Why are you depending on only one bank account to run your business? It's very easy to set up two or more business bank accounts and use them both. Just like you have back-ups for your data (right?), it makes a lot of sense to also have financial back-ups for your business.
Same with the debit/credit card - is that all you've got for business payments? Why don't you have more than one card? Why don't you move things over to a personal card while you open a second business card?
It's too late for that now as the author didn't set that all up ahead of time, but instead of complaining on the internet, why don't they start moving things ASAP. I've found Santander incredibly easy to get up and running with (same day almost), compared to Barclays...etc.
Look, you're running a business, and your job running a business is to keep it running. If you haven't thought ahead to such possible events, you're doing your business a disservice.
So my advice - call Santander, start switching things over, stop broadcasting things online, and focus on keeping your business running. You can always do a recap later once things have died down.
And I agree, HSBC are a complete PITA. It's far too much trouble even getting a personal account with them, so a business account would be far more effort than I would be looking for.
Even Barclays wanted an in-person meeting (even though I've banked with them for decades) to open a business bank account. And the only date they had available was a month in the future. Yup, I cancelled that appointment.
So, build redundancy into your business. At the very least a second bank account. It's easy, but as you can see, so very important. Just IMHO.
This is a bit of a strange article. I see where they're coming from, but a number of things that come to mind as I read through this:
- Competing against Yell, Yelp, Google...etc. for local reviews and listings isn't exactly going to be easy. I'm not sure how prevalent all those local services were in 2010, but even if it had gained traction, it likely wouldn't have lasted long (or perhaps if they're lucky, been bought out).
- Did they only try cold calling? If so, that's ridiculous. Did they attempt multiple marketing methods? Did they try to educate the market before trying to get a meeting/sale? Did they run group sales events? They really didn't seem to know what they were doing at all, so how is this enlightening to people reading? Maybe learn sales and marketing before trying to actually build a business...
- Local businesses often aren't very good at running a business. It's that simple. Some survive through luck (and referrals). They're often disorganized, and so busy dealing with clients they can't even think about sales and marketing. And often even if you can outline a very clear ROI, they won't go for it since small businesses are often more of the consumer mindset (emotion driven) rather than bigger business mindset (ROI driven).
- And also, as another comment mentions, a lot of small businesses don't want to really grow. If they're earning enough to cover their bills, they're happy. The stress of managing employees is often more of a deterrent than the benefit of earning more.
- A $50k solution to a local business? That's a ridiculous price and expectation. At least have multiple service levels, and a free version is a great starting point too.
- At least they understand that there's often massive resistance to changing how they do things, especially if some members of staff aren't comfortable with technology (as many people aren't).
I'm just slightly shocked that they had to learn such fundamental truths about business, in such a hard way.
Did they consider hiring a sales/marketing consultant?
Did they test other selling approaches?
With great sales and marketing, you can sell a poor quality product. Not recommended of course, so if your product's good you have happy customers and also referrals.
They had the product-part right, but didn't seem to have a clear product-market fit, and certainly hadn't found a dependable sales/marketing approach that allowed them to grow.
I would be surprised if this makes much of a difference. Even with Travis gone, the culture is part of the organization, and it would be incredibly difficult to change at this stage, without Uber effectively becoming a completely different company.
I know many people see long-term growth and potential in Uber, but I don't. They shook up the market which is a good thing, but at this point it feels like they're rearranging chairs on the titanic.
It might be years while this all plays out, but I see the absolute best case scenario for Uber is a Groupon type of situation - making lots of revenue, but kind of struggling. Without a drastic change to the business model, I can't see them ever having Facebook/Google/Microsoft like margins.
And as much as some in the tech community see self-driving cars as just around the corner, I would be very surprised if it's a common sight in 10 years. Maybe 20 years. It's not just the technology, but also the political and societal resistance to such a big change.
And if self-driving cabs is what's going to make Uber actually work for the long-term, well... I personally wouldn't bet on it. But they have, so let's see how that works out for them.
Was going to mention this. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of the submission was:
Lots and lots of advertising
I almost can't go a day on YouTube without seeing a Grammarly ad. And yes, certainly coming across it a lot on the content network too.
Good luck to them if it works. The premium version is relatively inexpensive, so it would be interesting to know (not as if we ever would!) how much on average they spend to get a premium customer.
It may take them far more than the $29.95 they charge a month, so they could be out of pocket for months on that customer. But then, the customers who pay up front for a year, plus all the other less expensive lead sources, more than likely make up the difference and then some.
I haven't been through their funnel so I don't know if they have any upsells, cross sells...etc. On the surface it appears that they basically only have one single product (even though they also have business and education versions of that product).
I do worry about businesses that don't really diversify their offerings, since it's more of a funnel than an actual business. But for many companies, I guess the goal is to make as much money as quickly as possible then cash out, rather than create something that will really be around for the long-term.
Anyway, good luck to them (again). But they're probably desperately hoping Google doesn't add similar functionality to Gmail/Chrome, and that Microsoft doesn't expand their grammar checking functionality in Word!
Getting recommendations is very helpful. Endorsements too of course. Building up a network. And being visible -- either publishing posts regularly, or even just sharing other people's relevant content.
There's some simple changes you can apply that make a positive difference quickly, but to build a fantastic profile takes time, and can be quite a bit of work. But since LinkedIn isn't going anywhere, it's an investment in your future. Building up your own site/blog compliments this, along with other relevant social properties - Github...etc.
Having a fully fleshed out profile would certainly be helpful for getting jobs in future, but particularly if you want to contract, since credibility and visibility (and ideally a network too) are vital for that.
My education and first seven or so years of working life were all in IT, and in particular in software development related fields.
However as the internet was starting to really take off (1997 or around that time) I got interested in internet marketing. I think the idea of making a good living from home really appealed, and everyone seemed to be making money online, so why not me!
So while keeping my job, I studied online marketing in the evenings. In particular, I found the mental transition from IT to marketing quite difficult.
It's a huge subject, and a completely different way of thinking about things. I think you can often see that in comments here, when people focus more on the technical aspects of a marketing challenge/problem, rather than the marketing and sales aspect that actually generates the business growth.
(For example - if you're getting leads from Facebook at a cost that makes sense to you, and you're converting those leads into valuable clients, obsessing over click fraud is a waste of time and energy. IMO. Focusing on optimising your marketing, rather than the technical challenge of trying to track down click bots, is a far more productive use of your time, and your business will thank you for it.)
There's a lot more information available on marketing now of course, and there's a lot of overlap between the marketing and technical aspects (AdTech for example). But it's still two very different ways of thinking about things, and if you're too technology or data driven in marketing you can often miss the wood for the trees, and you may be ignoring people's "feelings" as abstract as that sounds, and feelings are what actually drive sales. So taking a step back from the data, and really understanding your market and how they make buying decisions, can be hugely beneficial.
So the transition took a long time, and after a few years (a lot of dabbling, only really getting serious the last year or two) I made the move into online marketing full time (running my own sites...etc.) and slowly over time my income grew. Then moved into consulting with clients, and then into starting and running an agency.
Now I have found having a technical background has been very helpful in many aspects of online marketing, but now my attention is fully focused on marketing and my business, and if a technical challenge would require a significant investment of my time, it generally makes the most sense to my business to outsource that. So being specialised and focused on business results, rather than trying to be good at everything.
So to answer your question - yes, I made the transition. It took a long time, and a new way of thinking. But it certainly paid off.
Can you offer international numbers for this, or is your main market the US?
You don't specify on your site where the postcard is being sent from. I assume the US?
It may be an idea to ask specifically for a country to send to, unless perhaps it's in the US. You don't seem to mention this in the text instructions but have Surrey as an example, which is in the United Kingdom. Perhaps a bit confusing? :)
Photo examples of how the finished postcard looks (particularly the back - font, size...etc.) would be helpful I feel.
I find the "I deleted Facebook" meme incredibly odd. It's a website, you don't have to visit. You don't have to check/install the app. Do you really have no free will of your own?
Yes, the feed can be annoying, so just fill it up with things you like. Unfollow annoying people, like pages and groups that interest you, and suddenly your feed changes entirely.
If you have to delete Facebook to stop checking it, the issue is with you, not with Facebook. Facebook rapidly gets pretty bland and monotonous. It's useful, but not that interesting. Facebook wish it had as much power over you as some people seem to think it has.
Yes, I'm sure I'll be downvoted into oblivion, but honestly I've given up with this site. If you're not anti Facebook, pro libertarian, anti Microsoft, anti advertising...etc. you're not part of the 20 something know-it-all SV echo chamber and so get downvoted.
Yes, I know it's redundant but I think this is the last time I'll log in here. The echo chamber and shocking lack of pragmatism and common sense displayed on this website makes me think I'm living in a different world to the opinions displayed here.