MOBE Training - 12 Traits That Separate Entrepreneurs from Everyone Else

Building a company from the ground up requires a tremendous amount of confidence, creativity, innovation, motivation, self-awareness, persistence and focus. It’s the reason why everyone can’t make it as an entrepreneur.

Here are some of the ways entrepreneurs see the world differently from theaverage person:

1. They See Money as a Way to Make More Money

When most people get money, whether it’s by winning the lottery or receiving a bonus, their first impulse is to utilize it by buying something like a new car. When entrepreneurs receive an influx of money, they search for a smart way to invest it in a business opportunity that can yield an even higher return. They consider money as a source of their future investments. They make plans and never think of wasting the money somewhere else. This self-restraint becomes a habit.

2. They Have an Ability to Become Intensely Focused

Time and attention are the only truly finite constraints. Successful entrepreneurs are absurdly conscious of that fact and tend to become highly organized and intolerant of inefficiencies. They’re laser focused and try to maximize their time in the best way possible.

3. They Manage to Be Positive Realists

To make smart gambles—and that’s what becoming rich entails—you need an honest appreciation of odds that few possess. Successful entrepreneurs tend not to be too pessimistic or too optimistic. They know that ups and downs are a part of their journey to success and, hence, always proceed with a backup plan.

They’re able to understand that, for a large number of reasons, their venture can collapse entirely. They adequately prepare for difficulties, but have enough idealism to take on big risks.
Must see: Matt Lloyd On Positive Mindset During Business Hardships

4. They See Obstacles as Opportunities

Average people see difficulty as a chance to give up, but entrepreneurs see unexpected challenges as a way to make their companies even stronger.

Thomas Edison perfectly illustrated this when he used the accidental destruction of his production plant in 1914 as a way to rebuild his business in a streamlined way and get his team to work harder and more efficiently. Within a year, his company had not only recovered, but was bringing in more revenue than ever before.

5. They Focus on Opportunity Cost

Entrepreneurs make every decision by comparing options and seeing which one will yield the most value. Whatever they do, they make sure the value created is larger than the cost of resources used. Regular people tend to focus on expenses. Remember those driving around parking lots for 30 minutes just to save 5 minutes of walking?

6. They Understand the Business World and Current Scenario Better

This quality, if not understood better, can prove fatal for a young entrepreneur and the startup world. It hurts to see bright engineers, who have an amazing product but have no idea how a business model works, how they will raise money, or how to market and position themselves in the competitive landscape to succeed.

7. They Think of Ideas beyond Their Capabilities

True entrepreneurs are always thinking about growth opportunities. Rather than act practically and work within their comfort zones, they push themselves into situations that will require them to stretch their skills or force them to recruit more talent to turn their aspirations into reality.

8. They Have Vision

Entrepreneurs are driven by the idea that they have the solution to a certain problem, and they need to implement it. And they do it without fear of being mocked or rejected for trying things differently.

Entrepreneurs see something that needs to get done; a product that must be offered, a problem that must be solved, and they feel so deeply about these things that they can face the opposition when starting a business.

9. They Have Something to Prove

They have high levels of self-confidence, a sense of inner self-belief that drives them and keeps them motivated; it’s extremely important for them to believe they are special. They work hard to prove it and realize their dreams.

10. They Are Self-Aware and Optimistic

A young entrepreneur needs to have a bulletproof mindset and be able to influence others even during the worst times. There are ups and downs in business, and that has to be tackled with confidence. Also, they need to be well aware of their weaknesses and strengths and constantly build up areas where they are lacking.

11. They Are Paranoid, but with Perfect Vision

I believe the best entrepreneurs develop a healthy balance of paranoia and confidence. They’re vigilant and realistic while, at the same time, never lacking the gumption to believe their vision is right.

12. They Are Intuitive, Creative, Productive, Persistent, Innovative and Patient

To sum up all the above points, I think the above traits listed are enough for someone to become a good and successful entrepreneur and these traits do make them stand way ahead of other people.
Vikash Jha

Read Vikash Jha’s comment on, “12 Traits That Separate Entrepreneurs from Everyone Else” on Quora.

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Matt Lloyd Guidelines: How to Define a Strong Customer Avatar

A customer avatar is an imaginary person that describes the ideal demographic for your business. This avatar is a composite of many characteristics that describe your target market—the customers your business desires the most. The characteristics will vary depending on what your company is selling, but will comprise of someone who will buy from you over and over again.

Businesses create customer avatars instead of just using preferred demographic statistics because these avatars can ultimately help you make better decisions. Imagining an individual that has his or her own backstory that buys from your company can give executives a more complete picture.

Define but Don’t Limit

Where does a company begin in determining their own avatars? Think of video game avatars. When those are created, you have to do much more than just name them. They are constructed with specifics, in a number of categories. When specifying your customer avatar, it will be no different. Establish categories that must be filled out, such as, their name, a photo, age, interests, family information, psychological traits, etc. There are websites that provide avatar builders like Mad Men Yourself and Face Your Manga.

Defining your customer avatar is crucial so your business can focus its marketing and new offerings appropriately. Companies can then tailor a message that will resonate with customers most likely to buy from them. Just be certain not to limit your target audience too much. After years in this business, I’ve discovered that casting a wide net is more productive. Then, within that big net, people from your avatar’s main demographic will buy from you. There will also be others that don’t fall into your targeted demographic that will also buy from you. This wouldn’t happen if your marketing didn’t encompass this broader strategy. The last thing you want is to limit anyone from buying from you, even though they might not fall into your originally identified avatar.

Marketing

Once you have defined your customer avatar, it’s now time to market. Keeping in mind that you want to broaden your marketing efforts to a scope further beyond your ideal demographic, it’s time to place some ads.

Where to begin? This is where your avatar can be used as a key advantage. It can force you to brainstorm actual marketing channels that you would use to advertise and other methods to reach those customers. It helps answer key questions like the types of ads that would be effective or the vocabulary and tone that should be used. Just remember to broaden the scope beyond the rules of your avatar to cast a wide net.

Capture Leads

The leads that resonate the most with you, will buy from you. You’ll get these leads with your funnel and lead capture page. These potential customers will subscribe to your list. They’ll start getting your emails, your videos and all of your marketing efforts. Introduce yourself within that messaging, explaining what you’re doing and why.

Final Thought

One last thing that is very important when communicating to your avatar’s key demographic: be authentic. Adding personal details, when appropriate, can help show your authenticity. This will help your business stand out in a crowded market.

Creating your company’s own customer avatar is beneficial. It provides focus for marketing and new products. It helps answer key questions, is a great point of reference, and adds a little imagination when trying to define your ideal customer.

-Matt Lloyd 

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MOBE Training - 3 Steps to Developing a Winning Content Marketing Strategy

A content marketing road map can and should be a nice blend between strategy and execution. To get started, think about your content marketing road map as a document with the following table of contents

1. What do you want to achieve? (Content marketing strategy)
2. How will you achieve it? (Content marketing tactics)
3. Who will do what to help you make those tactics a reality? (A content calendar, for example)

Now all you have to do is fill out your TOC. Here’s how:

What Do You Want to Achieve? (Content Marketing Strategy)

Or in other words, what are your goals? If you’re having trouble formulating an actionable goal, pick a version of one of the following:

1. Drive more new unique users to my site.
2. Get visitors, leads, and/or existing customers to increase how much they engage with my content or product (trial downloads, shares, likes, tweets, etc.).
3. Convert visitors into leads or leads into sales or both.

These sample goals are a good start, but I encourage you to get as specific as possible. Make your goals easy to measure by specifying quantities and time frames wherever possible. Also, don’t forget to make sure that each goal is well-researched to contribute to your overall business strategy. After all, content marketing should only be one component of your total marketing mix.

How Will You Achieve Your Goals? (Content Marketing Tactics)

Next, you have to align content marketing tactics to each goal that you want to achieve. How many goals and how many tactics you choose will depend on the amount of people, money, and technology you have at your disposable. I personally recommend focusing on a few goals and tactics at a time. By staggering your goals, you can build a long-term road map where each phase can be informed by what you learned prior.

Examples of content marketing tactics are:

1. Rewrite site content to target high volume or long-tail keywords.
2. Write a whitepaper or eBook that can be distributed via social media or other paid channels.
3. Build a blog section targeted to leads who are considering a purchase (e.g., more in-depth product walk-throughs, implementation best practices, etc.).
4. Create gated content to collect email addresses.
5. Recruit influencers to write syndicated content for your blog and to share each blog post with their countless followers.

The important thing is to map each specific tactic to one, and only one, goal from section 1 above. Of course, you can have different tactics support a single goal. This will help keep your content road map focused and easy to execute.

Be thoughtful about which tactics you choose to support each goal. Make sure that you understand what tactics are most effective for what types of goals.

Who Will Do What to Help Make Your Tactics a Reality? (A Content Calendar, for Example)

A content calendar may sound cumbersome to create, but it’s not, and it can be a great tool to keep everyone organized and on schedule. A content calendar outlines a number of basic needs:

1. What content pieces will be created for each content tactic you choose to pursue—For example, ‘Write a whitepaper explaining how to calculate build vs. buy for enterprise analytics software.’
2. When each content piece will go live—For example, ‘Whitepaper will be published by mm/dd/yy.’ Time each content piece in a way that makes sense for your overall marketing strategy. If you plan to run a traffic campaign, make sure you’ve got all your best lead generating content pieces live by then.
3. Who is assigned to write or work with a vendor to create each content piece -For example, ‘The CEO will write a blog post announcing XYZ product launch. The content manager will recruit influencers to try the new product and write syndicated content.’

I used bullet form to explain my point, but it’s best to use a spreadsheet for planning purposes, where each content piece is tied to a tactic and each tactic is tied to a strategic goal.

These days, content is being created faster and in more volume than people know what to do with. Instead of creating content volume, focus on building content for the right time, at the right point in the sales funnel, and for the right audience.

Jehan Lalkaka

Read Jehan Lalkaka’s comments on, “Influencer Marketing—How to Get the Most Out of It” on Quora.

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How to Manage Your Time: Lessons from the Cat

As the founder of MOBE, I find myself juggling an awful lot of tasks and projects from day to day. I am full of ideas and always motivated to grow the company. I also love getting out there and meeting people that have joined the business. The problem is, there are only so many hours in the day to accomplish all these things—and I didn’t decide to start my own business so that I would have to work 24 hours a day. You probably didn’t either.

 

Be like the Cat

So I’ve come up with a model for the ideal time management of a person that has their own small business: Be like the cat. Okay, I know that might surprise you. After all, a cat doesn’t seem very productive at first glance, but bear with me.

Look at your average housecat. It spends half the day and half the night doing something it’s famous for: relaxing. Let’s say on average your cat spends 16 hours just chilling out or sleeping. It spends the rest of its time eating, washing, hunting, playing, and checking out its territory.

If we take into consideration that sleeping and relaxing are the cat’s favorite activities, then this is a very effective use of time! In total, that’s about eight hours of wakefulness and productivity during every 24-hour period. That’s about the same amount of time you probably spent working as an employee.

Essentially, the cat spends the same amount of time working as most of us do, but arguably a lot more time enjoying itself than the rest of us.

Time management is all about deciding what you really want to be doing with your time and then getting your necessary tasks done so that you can spend more hours doing the things you enjoy. After all, that’s part of the reason all of us become entrepreneurs—to get the maximum benefit out of our working hours. Ideally, we needn’t work any more hours in a day than our cats!

The Business Owner’s Time Trap

In an article discussing how to work smarter, not longer when running your own business, Robert Craven of The Directors’ Centre says, “Whether unintentionally or not, many of us don’t work as efficiently as possible some or even most of the time.” He’s specifically addressing business owners, since we have a tendency to overwork ourselves and forget about things like food, breaks, and sometimes even other human beings.

I’m a numbers guy, and a lot of you probably are too. So how does better time management affect your bottom line? According to the Happy Planet Index, feeling non-stressed and happy during work results in 31 percent high productivity levels, and 37 percent more sales. The lesson I take from this is that we all need to work smarter and more effectively, not necessarily longer.

Final Thought

Try to dedicate a specific amount of time to your business each and every day, and keep a clear list of goals to work on so you don’t waste time. When you limit your working hours, you’ll discover that you stop fiddling with unprofitable activities and focus on the money-making activities instead. That’s the best way to work! If you need help with administrative tasks, look into hiring an assistant or part-time worker to help you maximize those working hours.

When work is finished, remember to relax and focus your attention on the things that make you relaxed and happy. Conversely, use your time at work effectively.

So is your cat awake? Don’t let him think he’s the most efficient creature in the house. Go be productive!

Matt Lloyd

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MOBE Training: How to Get You Emails Opened

It is important that you create well crafted, killer content that leads to closed deals. But, as good as your email body should be, it serves no purpose if it does not get opened. Your email needs to be able to cut through the clutter and capture a prospect’s interest enough to get opened. Below are three tips that will help you increase your email open rate.

 1)      Maximize Your Email Subject Line

The subject of your email plays a great part in the email getting opened. Create a specific, direct subject that tells the customer what to expect in the email, while raising their curiosity enough for them to want to open it.

Research caution against emails with 60-70 characters. Marketers refers to this as the ‘dead zone’ of subject length, and emails with that may characters in their subject line hardly ever get opened. Subject lines with 49 characters and below proved to get opened more often.

      2)      Create a Catchy Hook

The first sentence of an email is critical in consumer decisions to keep reading. After looking at the subject of the email, customers will actively read the first sentence to decipher the email’s worth. If you don’t say anything that interests them within those first few seconds, you lose them.  They just move on to the next email out of the masses in their inbox.

This first sentence becomes even more important in nowadays settings because more people are reading emails from their smartphones. Most smartphones display the subject of the email and a preview of the first few words of the message. Because of this display layout, it’s important that your first sentence must really be something personalized to the recipient’s needs.

      3)      Reduce Spam Triggers

Most email providers will let you know if your email has red flag content that’s likely to get it marked as spam. Excessive use of sales prompt words like ‘buy’, ‘order’, and ‘clearance’ are likely to send your email straight to the spam folder.

Some of the words with the most selling power are also among the ones to trigger spam filters most, e.g. ‘click here’. Words such as this one will get you clickthroughs; people will continue to click your link and go to your page. Minimize the use of all other spam trigger words, and only use the ones that will serve you a purpose. See also The importance of an Email list

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Where Should You Target Your MOBE Products Promotions?

The MOBE affiliate program has consultants all over the world, and this can get confusing for people on international markets when it comes to promotion. Should they promote MOBE products in their own localities or abroad, or do both?

Language

MOBE products are only in English, which is not to say it will always be that way. But currently, they are in English, and the majority customer base is in English speaking countries. Most MOBE consultants are based in the United States, and that is a good market to target. The audience is more receptive to business training, so they are already a step closer to accepting and purchasing when you promote MOBE products to them. The market is open even to international MOBE consultants; you are not only limited to your own country.

The digital age has made it easy to target your ads to specific locations. You can select the region, country, state, even city you want your ads to be viewed, and currently you should focus more on the US, because that’s where the majority of buying customers are.

Non-English Speaking Markets

MOBE endeavors to bring MOBE products and business training to the rest of the world. We are currently looking at translating our materials into other languages—first Spanish, then Chinese and others. This is a big step that will require a lot of work to be done to come to realization. Live communication is a big part of MOBE, so the company will have to find and hire qualified customer support, telephone coaches and live presenters who speak those languages. It will have to find staff who are skilled in affiliate marketing and can sell MOBE products in those languages. In short, MOBE will to need to create entire teams to support the language.

Conclusion

The US is the most fruitful market for MOBE products, but that in no way means you cannot promote MOBE products to other English speaking countries like Canada, Australia and the UK.If you believe you can make sales in those countries, by all means, put some of your efforts towards thosemarkets.

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MOBE Training: How to Solve Employee Disputes

As an entrepreneur, you are bound to find yourself facing personality clashes at one point, be it something as small as someone playing music too loudly to really big issues like rumors and accusations. Generally, people will be civil and work together despite their differences, but sometimes issues are such that they cannot find a common ground and you will need to intercede.

Below are a few MOBE training tips that will help you prevent conflict, and tackle it in a manner that will satisfy both parties and resolve the situation.

      1)      Define Acceptable Behavior

Defining what is acceptable and unacceptable in the company is a positive step towards preventing conflict. Create a framework for decision making that will outline behaviors in line with the company’s rules and regulations. Also outline a delegation of authority statement, encourage sound business practices and collaborations, and reward excellent teamwork.

Clearly define job descriptions so that people know what is expected of them, and state clearly the chain of command to allow for effective communication. Make sure all employees are well aware of what will and will not be tolerated. This will clear up any confusion and misinterpretations that may lead to conflict.

      2)      Approach the Situation with an Open Mind

Be neutral and consider both points of view. If an employee reports an issue with another, call them both and listen to each side of the story without taking preference. Take an objective look and try to understand how each of the parties feel. Pay attention to each party’s queries and ask questions. Acknowledge the emotions both parties feel, but focus on the issue needing resolution.

      3)      Deal with Facts, not Emotions

Acknowledging emotions does not mean focusing on them. It means accepting that people are angry, unhappy, etc., and realizing that the emotions are just a byproduct of the problem. Address the problem, not emotions. Avoid the tendency to attack personalities or pass judgement on characters. Attacking someone’s character will only cause defensiveness and have people take offense, and that will only escalate the conflict. Approach the issue with a rational, goal oriented frame of mind, which will depersonalize the conflict and separate the issue from the people involved.

Conclusion

Conflict is a normal part of any organizational setting; the challenge of conflict lies in how it is handled. If it’s concealed or ignored, conflict is only likely to fester and grow into hostile working environments where employees can’t perform at their best potential. You should take conflict as an opportunity to grow. Provide a platform to reflect and readjust after one occurs. Doing this trains employees to face future difficulties with ease and effectiveness.

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Matt Lloyd On Positive Mindset During Business Hardships

When you are starting your business from the ground, you will probably face a lot of dark times. Things might not be going the way you intended, you’ll be short of fund, and have your hands full keeping everything together. It can be demotivating, and it one of the major reasons most entrepreneurs quit within their first year.

It is part and parcel of the business world, and the only way to deal with it is through a positive mindset and a will to move forward.

MOBE founder, Matt Lloyd, like any other entrepreneur, is no stranger to those dark times. When he started his online marketing business back in 2008, he didn’t make any commission for months. Even after investing heavily and putting in 10 to 12 hours a day of work. 

Protect Your Investment

One of Matt Lloyd’s most motivating factor during those days was the investment he had made into the business. He says because he’d put in not only a lot of money, but also a lot of time into it, he was resolute to see it through to success.

When you are facing difficulties with your business, think of the money and time you have already invested in. You have come as far as starting your business, a step many people never reach. Now it’s the time to buckle up and protect your investment. 

Take Courage from Others

Because he could see other people who had become successful in the business he had invested in, Matt Lloyd said he knew success was possible, and that motivated him. As a MOBE consultant, you know there are a lot of other MOBE consultants who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars with the MOBE affiliate program. Research and evaluate your strategies to find out what they are doing to succeed, and reinvent your approach.

Be Deaf to Outside Negativity

Matt Lloyd says one of the things that helped him develop a resolute mindset was the people around him that told him he couldn’t succeed. There will be people around you who don’t understand or believe in what you are doing, or they are just trying to look out for you, so they might try to steer you towards another path they think would be more fruitful for you. Focus on your business and goal for success, and ignore all the outside noise. 

Conclusion

A positive mindset will get you through the hardest of times in business. Be clear of what you want to achieve and go for it. It might take a little longer, or be a little harder to get, but resolve to get it. If your first attempt doesn’t work, go back to the drawing board and evaluate what you can improve to achieve your goal.

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MOBE Review: The Importance of an Email List

The money is in the list. That’s probably one of the most important internet marketing proverbs out there. What it basically means is that your lists will determine the kind of profit you will make. Build a strong email list, you can get very high conversion rates and make more profit, but a weak list can stagnant your business.

Why Email?

Email is still a very valuable method of communication online. Granted, social media is the new shiny toy in the internet marketing spectrum, but it is on borrowed land. The social media platform algorithms controls what your audience see,it’s out of your control. When you send email, it is up to you to make sure you optimize your emails for your audience to open it. You also build deeper relationships with prospects through emails than with social media

Is Bigger Always Better?

It’s good to have a large email list, as long as the list is relevant to your product. But there is no use in having a list of hundreds of thousands of people that does not convert, and an audience that has no interest in your products wont convert. If you are promoting MOBE products and your emailing list is made up of teenagers, you are likely to get very low conversion. You should be focusing on finding people who are in business and are looking to improve.

Content Is Everything

Your content is what will get people to open your emails, and what will keep them reading. Optimize your content to offer information of value to your audience.Set yourself to be a trusted advisor by giving proven, expert information that helps them solve a problem, especially related to the products you are promoting. Structure the content to help your audience see how your products can help solve their problems.

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Matt Lloyd’s Financial Tips for Affiliate Marketing Newbies

Finance is a very important issue for every business. This is true especially to small businesses because money is usually tight. You have to find a way to cut cost in one area to be able to cover the next. You also have to carefully plan how you use the money to make sure everything is covered while the business keeps growing

Like the rest of small businesses, as an affiliate marketer, you need to manage your money creatively to be able to reinvest in your business. You have to plan how much to invest in web hosting, traffic, marketing, etc.

Using Credit Cards

Matt Lloyd’s number one financial tip for affiliate marketers is to put all your business expenses on a credit card. He advises finding one really good credit card and making it your business credit card.

Matt Lloyd says he started using a credit card for business after he learn about the lucrative rewards programs a credit card can offer as you spend more. You are going to be making a lot of expenses for your business, especially as it grows. This expenses all add up, and can get you wonderful rewards that will benefit your business. A good credit card will give you points each time you spend, and the rewards you redeem from your points could be something as significant as free international flights.

Matt Lloyd also talks about the advantages that credit cards offer for bookkeeping.Keeping all your expenses in one credit card will help you track your expenses easily. You get periodic, itemized statements that eliminates having to keep every single receipt. This will also come in handy during tax time, you can just extract that information and pass it to your accountant, which saves you time and money.

Conclusion

Having all your business expenses in one place, separate from your personal expenses is the best financial decision you can make. Choosing a credit card gives you a lot of perks that will be beneficial to your business, and it also provides easy paper trail, so getting a business credit card is a necessity for every growing entrepreneur.

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