My Personal Transformation: 6 Life Lessons From 6 Years of Blogging

I launched erica.biz on December 4, 2007. This week, I’m celebrating 6 years of blogging here. Wow! It’s been just over 6 years since I sold my last company, as well, and I’m amazed at how much I’ve grown. This week, I figured I’d do something special, and share some of the deep, heartfelt lessons I’ve learned in the past 6 years. Some of these were tough for me to grok. All of them have changed me as a person. This may be a tough read for some of you…but I hope these lessons will have as…

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“What Kind of Business Should I Start?” A Surprising Answer from A Successful Entrepreneur

I often get asked what you might think is a simple question: “What kind of business should I start?” For the first time in many years, I find myself in the same boat as the folks who ask me that question. I (surprisingly) don’t have a concrete answer to this question for myself right now–but, as I’ll show you in this post, I have a way to figure it out. After I sold my software company last year, I did a ton of soul-searching. I coached other successful entrepreneurs, and ended 2014 by taking a 3-month, part-time marketing consulting gig for Help.com, a funded software startup. I’m helping them…

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Week 2: “How Do I Start A Business When I Don’t Have Any Time?”

It’s week 2 of my adventure in 2015 to start a business. I started out last week not knowing what kind of business I wanted to start. This week, I’m taking an introspective look at another common issue people have when they want to start a business–and one that plagues me as well! It’s all about the feeling of not having enough time to start a business. Technically, I work part-time right now; I’m wrapping up a 3-month consulting gig with Help.com, building their launch plan, website copy, …

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Week 5: What Do You Really Want to Do With Your Life?

I haven’t posted in a few weeks, though, as you’re about to find out, I have a really good reason for that! Also in this post, I share with you a (somewhat embarrassing) story about how I figured out what I really wanted to do most in my life. My boyfriend, John, owns a retail store called 1Up Repairs. He fixes cell phones, Xboxes, PS3s, and computers for a living. I’ve been helping him out with it for the…

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5 Ways to Outshine your Competitors

Competition is a reality in today’s tough economic climate. No matter what type of business you are in you are sure to be facing some hefty competition. How do you stand out in the pack? How do you get noticed in an overcrowded marketplace? How do you outshine your competitors? Make a Brilliant First Impression If you manage to snag a meeting with a potential client, make it count. You may only get one go at impressing them. Treat a potential new client with the care and respect required to win them over. First impressions count for a lot…

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4 Pieces of Advice to Help Your Small Business

You might have noticed a bit of a gap in posting here. Well, I have still been writing, just over at the BMO Bank’s Small Business site: I am writing about how online tools and techniques can grow your business. Check out my most recent articles and let me know what you think! 4 Key Lessons All Sales People Can Learn From Grandma What Google’s Changes Mean To Your Business (And What To Do About Them) How To Grow And Maintain Strong Business Networking Relationships – Part 1 How To Grow And Maintain Strong Business Networking Relationships – Part 2 29 Blogging Business Survival Tips5 Essential Skills for Today’s Online MarketerYour Best Foundation for a Sustainable BusinessThe Simple Route to Generating Sales Leads with Your…How to Make…

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How to Get Paid for Free

How do you convert browsers to buyers? One of the key ideas behind being an Authority Blogger, or “Content Marketing”, is that you put out lots of educational material that ordinarily people would be willing to pay for. How do you turn that free stuff into profit? The thing is, while we KNOW this works, a lot of people get stuck on the HOW. They put out tons and tons of free material and never quite reach the “getting paid” part. I was toying calling this post “Thriving…

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Your Best Foundation for a Sustainable Business

Would your business survive burning down? What would you do if your business burned to the ground? If you had to literally start over, would you be able to cope? What would your approach be? I have been falling behind with my workload lately. You just have to look at my posting frequency to see that I have been dropping as many plates as I manage to keep spinning. I’m busy. That’s a great problem to have, …

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Is it Just Business? How to be Professionally Human

Have you ever worked with someone who uses the phrase “It’s just business“? Or played a game with someone who, after cheating, back-stabbing, lying or just being a jerk, said “It’s only a game“? How did that make you feel? Did you respect the person more, or less? Did you trust them more afterwards? When someone is an aggressive, shouting, mean bully, do you say “Well, that’s just how they are. A straight-talker!“. Last night I…

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29 Blogging Business Survival Tips

What does it take to be successful in blogging as or for a business? My friend Al from Coolest Gadgets contacted me for some quotes to use in a presentation he has coming up, and as usual, I gave him way more material than he could use. Rather than let it go to waste, I have written it up here as an article. These aren’t the only lessons, but they are a start. If you like them, check out my article from 2008 that has 41 tips about the blogging side of things. Revenue generation Don’t put off the revenue side of your business…

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How to Go from Author to Successful Online Business

Since I let slip that I was a wannabe fiction writer, a few people have asked me questions about the modern author/publishing business: “Can you make a full time living as a writer, without being freelance?” “What should a modern indie author do to maximise their business?” “For successful self-publishers, what would we do differently?” I’ve answered these questions and more in various comment areas, forums, and social media. In fact, I am going to be …

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The Real Reason Why 80{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475}+ of Funded Startups Fail

A friend confessed to me the other night that his funded startup had failed. “It was growing,” he said. “We were getting customers. We just weren’t getting them fast enough to continue getting funding.” This is a familiar refrain with startup founders, and I personally know several founders whose businesses fit this bill (including my last funded company.) They have a business that works, with customers. It just doesn’t fit the ridiculous growth profile that most VC’s (venture capitalists) expect. That’s the untold story…

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