Category Archives: Business

Facebook Chatbots: What Are They and Why You Need Them

Customer service is a crucial component of your business. Quality customer service can generate new sales (after all, it’s cheaper to maintain current clients than to obtain new ones). Plus, an unhappy customer can take to Yelp and other online services to destroy your reputation among your target audience.

The customer service industry was recently revolutionized with the introduction of Chatbots. More specifically, the Facebook Chatbot.

What the Facebook Chatbot Is

The Facebook Chatbot allows you to essentially outsource your customer service interaction to a personalized-to-your-business technological tool. Your company can interact with numerous customers around the world without paying a cent of a customer service representative’s salary. Save big bucks. Make lots of happy customers. It’s a great set-up.

The Facebook Chatbot allows companies to create responses with video, audio, GIFs, files, and text. This variety allows for a high amount of personalization to your company’s brand. The bot can be built by you or by Facebook’s bot creating partners. The bots are designed to learn as they go. The more they are used, the smarter they become.

The Prevalence of Chatbots

In today’s digital world, more customers are turning online to seek help. We saw this rise with Twitter and Facebook. Customers didn’t want to be put on hold when they called the customer help line.

So, instead they turned to social media, where their requests were public and companies had an increased incentive to reply quickly and effectively. Companies who dropped the ball in customer service replies were ridiculed online. Companies who excelled were praised (and often gained new followers and customers).

Customers adapted to this quick reply system, turning less and less to calling in and instead typing in their requests. This set the stage for Chatbots to take off. Customers already turn to the web for assistance. What’s changed is the company’s ability to reply with intelligent, pre-crafted responses.

The Chatbot world is growing, with over 11,500 bots developed and many more in the works. More and more big-name companies are jumping on board and using Facebook Chatbots to revolutionize their customer service. It might be time for your company to get on board too!

Using the Facebook Chatbot for Your Business

The Facebook Chatbot is pretty versatile with the right programing. Take advantage of the many features they offer.

Let customers make a purchase. Customers can place orders within the bot itself, which is especially great for highly mobile target audiences. Pizza Hut, for example, allows customers to place orders through the bot (and reminds them of current promotions).
Let customers get updated information. Send out updates on your business or your industry. The Wall Street Journal, for example, gives users live stock quotes when they text a set code.
Connect customers to your products. Some industries, like tech industries, lend themselves well to this integration. HP allows people to print through messenger to an HP printer.
Help customers make appointments. If you provide a service, the bot can handle appointment times. Sephora noticed an 11% increase in bookings through the bot compared to their other booking methods.
Provide personalized content. The bot can help customers find relevant articles and information on your site. The Whole Foods bot helps customers find a great recipe by typing in words like “lunch” and “turkey dish”
Let customers keep a record of the information. The beauty of bot conversations is they are recorded. Some customers can benefit from keeping this information handy. No more frustrating calling a company for assistance, writing down the instructions, then losing the instructions a few days later. Now customers can just pull up the app to refresh their memory.
Conduct customer analysis. These bots provide a wealth of information and insight into your customers. Go over frequently asked questions. See what customers are struggling with. Find out what they are curious about. It’s like market analysis for much, much cheaper.

The Facebook bot will take time (and, in turn, money) to create and implement. But for many businesses, it can be a valuable investment. Maybe your customer service department is overflowing with the same types of questions. Maybe you want to offer more convenient ways to order products or make appointments. Maybe your target demographic is often online. These are a few reasons to jump on board the Facebook Bot train. If you want assistance with developing a solid Facebook bot marketing strategy, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Give us a call or shoot us an email today for more information.

10 Leadership Lessons from Celebrities

Celebrities can (sometimes) do more than entertain. Occasionally, their stories and struggles can offer us insight as we work to build our own dynasties in our niche. Looking at their shortfalls and success can help us gain valuable insight on what it truly means to be a leader.

Oprah Winfrey – Leaders need patience

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful rags-to-riches stories of our time. Born into poverty, she overcame personal challenges and found her first media job at age 19. It took several years before she launched her talk show, and several more before her own network found success. When she created her network, everything was in place for immense and rather immediate success. She had the masses of fans. She had the industry experience. She was highly networked. She could afford to help finance it. But the network took years to take off. Even Oprah Winfrey, a queen in her industry, needed time to make things happen.

As you lead your organization, try not to get too discouraged over setbacks. Perseverance is important to getting your company where you need to go. Your staff looks to you for guidance and encouragement. Lead the way with a determined enthusiasm and dedication to working to get your company where it needs to go.

Bear Grylls – Leaders encourage risk taking

Bear Grylls is a well-known adventurer, writer, and TV personality. In his show “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” he takes a new celebrity on an adventure, encountering obstacles from crocodile infested waters to repelling down cliffs. As he coaches celebrities, he encourages them to take calculated risks. It’s not a throw caution to the wind and be reckless strategy, but rather a “nothing risked nothing gained” perspective. He works with the celebrity, understanding their strengths and limitations, and then encourages them to push their boundaries. He serves as their safety net, ready to step in as needed. But, his focus in on getting them to stretch their limits.

Good leaders empower their workers to grow and go beyond their limits. Along the way, they serve as a valuable resource, of course. Good leaders train their employees with all the information they need before giving them the gentle nudge to go off on their own to take calculated risks. Whether you are helping someone survive crocodiles or pitch an unconventional idea, good leaders encourage risk tasking.

Emma Watson – Leaders manage their own imposter syndrome

Emma Watson is a famous actress, model, and activist. She is wildly successful and talented, but even she is not immune to self-doubts. Watson is one of the many celebrities vocal about their own struggles with imposter syndrome, a frustrating challenge where a highly capable individual doubts their own ability. Often, people with imposter syndrome feel as if they are faking their way through their work or life, just waiting for others to realize they are incompetent. Ironically, it’s those who should be the most confident that struggle with imposter syndrome. Emma Watson speaks often about her own struggles and how she works to manage them.

As a leader, you may experience crippling self-doubt. As an entrepreneur, you get an extra helping of insecurity. So many people are counting on you and at times it can feel like you are beyond your depths. Letting these fears stop you from acting or affect how you work can be damaging to your business and your employees. Proactively managing imposter syndrome helps you be a better leader.

Vince Lombardi – Leaders show, not shout

Vince Lombardi is one of the greatest professional football coaches of all time, leading the Green Bay Packers to victory time and time again. You can get lost reading through a collection of his quotes, as each one is an inspirational landmine. When talking about coaching, he famously said “they call it coaching, but it is teaching. You do not just tell them…you show them the reasons.” Lombardi took the time to explain to his players the reasoning behind his choices and strategies, rather than simply yelling orders. This, arguably, helped improve the coach-player relationship, team cohesion, and the players’ motivation (especially when things got rough).

Lana Del Rey – If It’s Not Working, Reinvent Your Brand

Before she found fame as a 1960s-inspired sultry throwback singer, Lana Del Rey was a prep-school graduate from upstate New York named Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant. She started her career with her given name, blonde hair, no shtick and an acoustic, folksy vibe. But, that wasn’t working. So, she reinvented her career under the stage name Lana Del Rey, dyed her hair, adopted the 1960s makeup and deep voice and had a breakthrough.

If your business isn’t standing out, consider going from Lizzy to Lana — give your location, products or services a makeover and use a bold, high-styled appeal to set yourself apart in a crowded marketplace.

Miley Cyrus – Love Your Customers and They Will Love You

Miley Cyrus loves her fans so much that she has nicknamed them “Smilers” and makes sure to acknowledge them often, whether on tour or on social media. This is a great strategy for your business — it is much easier to market more products and services to your existing customers that are already raving fans than to try to find new ones.

So, make sure your customers know that they are loved and keep telling them. Doing this will create customers who will buy more from you and advocate for you — loyalty is the way to go.

Justin Bieber – Go Niche

Many of us don’t understand the appeal of Justin Bieber (make that really don’t understand the appeal…), but it doesn’t matter because we aren’t his niche. He appeals to tween and teen girls. They love him and he knows how to leverage that, without worrying what everyone else thinks of him.

Your business can borrow from the Biebs by focusing on a very distinct target market and knowing what that market cares about. I remember a very successful shoe store in Chicago that employed a similar strategy. They had only really attractive young men working there, who flattered every female customer incessantly as they tried on shoes. That store did very well. Once you are solid in knowing your target market, find a hook that has a strong appeal to them.

The Kardashians – Strike While the Iron Is Hot

To say that the Kardashians have not been shy about exploiting their brands is like saying that fire is kind of hot. The Kardashian girls endorse clothing, makeup, perfume and more. What they know is that no business cycle lasts forever, so they are not shy about maximizing their potential while they can.

The same goes for your company. Business cycles are shortening, so don’t be afraid to make the most of your opportunities while you are hot.

Lindsay Lohan (And Some Other New Celebrity Just About Every Day) – Even a Good Brand Can Become Tarnished

Even if you have something valuable to offer, if you are a jerk, eventually folks won’t want to do business with you. Alec Baldwin, Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan are just some of the celebrities that have learned this the hard way.

Geraldo Rivera – Future success cannot be built on past accomplishments.

Watching Geraldo Rivera bomb five tasks in a row was amusing and sad. Frankly, Geraldo’s ideas were good — 10 years ago, but did not resonate with company executives who were looking for forward thinking, innovative ideas that appeal to today’s consumers. Not to detract from his achievements, but Mr. Rivera thought that his past journalistic success would lead his team to winning each challenge; it did not. In fact, many younger people do not even know who he is. Geraldo is a forceful, strong-willed personality who does not take “no” for an answer. Maybe that’s the reason behind his success; however, when working with or leading a t-e-a-m, there has to be collaboration. Most of Geraldo’s contributions focused on “I am an award winning journalist,” “I’m Geraldo Rivera.” “I should be the one in front of the camera.” The recurring theme was “I,” a terrible mistake for a leader, manager, or anyone in authority to focus all the attention on himself or herself without having any regard for team members’ input.

You can’t get complacent in your business — you need to continually work to earn the trust and respect of your vendors, clients and employees. If you don’t, you may find opportunities drying up, or altogether disappearing.

Good leaders do more than order their employees around. Taking the time to explain the mindset behind your decisions can leave an impression on your employees. It shows you value their opinion and understanding enough that you would spend the time talking to them. It helps them understand the values behind your decisions (i.e. I really value this client relationship, so I want to go overboard in correcting their customer service issue). It opens up dialogue so employees can feel free to express their confusion or differing perspective. Showing your employees the reasons behind what you are asking them to do or the reasons for your choices can help strengthen your business.

Not all celebrities are good leaders. But some stand above the crowd, offering unique ways to lead that translate well into business. As you lead your organization, think about ways you can implement these tactics to be a more effective leader.

4 Reasons Why Entrepreneurship Makes You Better at Life

Being an entrepreneur is awesome. You embrace your passions every day at work. You create your own schedule, working from home whenever you feel like it. You can avoid answering to a boss or getting caught in the corporate rat race.

That isn’t to say it’s always easy. But it’s always rewarding. What most people don’t realize about entrepreneurship, though, is it can affect your life outside of the office. How we work can change the mindset of how we live. Being an entrepreneur is great for many reasons, including the many ways it makes you better at life.

You Become Better at Thinking Outside the Box

The business world often favors those who think outside the box. Good revolutionaries concoct new ways of approaching the same old problems and offer up new solutions.

A few decades ago, few people would have predicted that one of the top media companies in the US owns very little physical inventory or that one of the top taxi services owns no vehicles. But the founders of Netflix and Uber forever changed their industries with their creative thinking.

Entrepreneurs are continually challenged to think outside the box. The more you work as an entrepreneur, the more you develop the skills to think creatively. As you practice approaching problems from new perspectives at work, you get better at applying that mindset in other areas of your life. You can find new ways to solve conflict, structure your day, remodel your home, etc.

You Get More Mentally Tough

No one said entrepreneurship is easy. The ups are great, but the downs can be soul crushing. Sometimes it feels like weeks since things went right. Overwhelming stress, exhausting burn out, and never ending projects can cause you to question why you are doing this in the first place.

And then something magical happens. You toughen up. You grit your teeth and power through, finding new ways to tackle problems (such as delegating your work to a virtual assistant to free up your time). You realize you can function on less sleep than you ever thought possible (not recommended of course, but it is empowering knowing you can).

The more mentally tough you get at work, the more mentally tough you get in all areas of your life. The skills you need to survive as an entrepreneur help you manage your time more efficiently, be a more patient family member, prioritize better, and many other important skills. Entrepreneurship is tough, and it makes you tough in the process.

You Keep Yourself Young

But most entrepreneurs I see have grey hairs and stress wrinkles galore, you may think.

True. Entrepreneurs who overwork themselves and fail to regularly practice self-care end up prematurely aging. Just like people in other lines of work with those same poor habits prematurely age.

Entrepreneurs who prioritize their health can find that their line of work keeps them young. Their control over their schedule makes it easier to prioritize important health habits, such as working out, spending time outside, and maintaining a good sleep schedule.

Every day entrepreneurs work in their area of passion. Have you ever seen someone’s eyes light up as they talk about their passion? This excitement about how you spend your time keeps you youthful. It energizes you and helps fight off burnout.

Entrepreneurs are also always learning. Scientific studies remind us time and time again how important learning and using our brain is to maintaining our brain health, especially as we age. Learning new skills and methods of doing work helps entrepreneurs keep their brains young.

You Are Encouraged to Dream Big

Entrepreneurship encourages dreaming big at work. Small thinking limits the growth of your business, so you are supposed to entertain grand visions of growth and success. Even if your company never reaches that 15^th franchise, considering it as a possibility can help motivate you to work harder than you thought possible.

The more you dream big at work, the more you find yourself dreaming big at home. Each day at work you find yourself asking “why not” and quickly you ask that question in all areas of your life. Why can’t I run that marathon? Why can’t I build the family life I desire? Why can’t I travel the world? The mindset of an entrepreneur is an optimistic one, helping entrepreneurs dream bigger at home than they ever imagined.

Entrepreneurship can be a powerful force on your life, changing and affecting you in ways you never would have guessed. The longer you live the entrepreneur life, the longer you reap its rewards. If you are looking to discover ways to improve your entrepreneur life, and in turn improve your life all around, check out our many training programs.

8 Steps to Save You from Computer Hard Drive Doom

My affair with laptops has not been a smooth road. I have gone through four laptop computers in the course of a year and a few months. I wasn’t careless or doing anything really cool, it has simply been a matter of unfortunate luck. Now let me make this clear, all you Mac and PC lovers, this is not a duel of which is better because it has happened on both systems and each time it equally sucked. On the up side though, through my own trial and error, I have learned enough to feel that I have good advice to give regarding protecting yourself from a computer hard drive crash. Despite the fact, I just yesterday, had yet another hard drive crash, I feel that I have learned from each instance including the most recent mishap and have goodness to share. This time my computer hard drive failure was due to an overheating issue. I lost a full days’ worth of work, but would I have not taken certain precautions I would have lost more than that, including my sanity.

8 Steps to Save You from Computer Hard Drive Doom

1. Create a backup recovery disc. Most computers have this function and by doing a backup of your system it will save your booty if and/or when a hard drive crash happens to you or someone you love. This is not a quick process, but it is a MUST. A back up disc saves all your factory settings and system keys. If you are not sure how to do this on your computer, look it up in your computer manual or use good ol’ google to do a search on your model and follow the instructions. A back up will typically take about 3-5 DVD discs, please note that you will need to use DVD’s not CD’s. DVD’s have more storage and will take fewer discs to create the back up. Carve out about 1-2 hours of your time to do it. You will need to be attentive enough to change out DVD’s so I suggest, keeping the computer close, pop some popcorn, put in a movie and let the system do its thing.

2. Make sure you have a file box that houses all your computer manuals, warranties, as well as hard copies of your software programs. If you have downloaded software from the internet, print a copy of the software keys and credentials and place it in the box. You will need this when you reload all of your software programs.

3. YOU MUST, MUST, MUST, open a Dropbox account and use it. If not Dropbox then something similar, but I am a huge supporter of Dropbox and I think everyone should be using their service. Dropbox is free up to 2gb of storage and is super cheap for up to 50gb of storage. I cannot tell you how much Dropbox has saved my life when my computers crashed. If you are in business for yourself or are a student and you don’t have a system to load documents and images virtually this is an AWESOME and cheap solution. Check it out and take a tour. Can I just say – I love you, Dropbox.

4. Be sure to have a saved list of all your logins and passwords in a folder in your Dropbox. Trust me you will be happy you did. Don’t name the file something obvious, but rather something dry and dull, so if someone finds their way into your Dropbox or computer they won’t be drawn to it. You can also password protect the document or excel workbook, just to add an extra layer of security. If you aren’t sure how to password protect a Microsoft Word and Excel document click here.

5. Export your internet bookmarks. If you are like me you probably save your most frequented and used websites in a bookmark folder or on a toolbar in your internet browser. Now just think, what if your computer crashes? You will lose all the bookmarked pages and information and all the invested time that you might have spent bookmarking them. I bookmark all kinds of great stuff all the way from songs I like to play on my mandolin, my scrabble dictionary, my favorite recipes, work related research and of course my favorite sites like Facebook. OMG, the thought of losing all of it makes me cringe, so I highly suggest saving the headache and doing a simple bookmark export, NOW! Click here for instructions from Chrome on how to export your bookmarks. Click here for instructions from Firefox on how to export your bookmarks. Pick your pleasure.

6. If you deal with any overheating issue, which was my problem this time, I highly suggest buying a cooling unit for your laptop. When a laptop overheats it will eventually be doomsday for your regular hard drive, unless you have a Solid State Drive, which I will talk about next. If you are not sure if you have overheating issues do a temperature test. You can use a free utility like SpeedFan to let you know if you are in trouble and need a solution. If you need to cool your baby down you can get a cooling station anywhere from $10 – $60 depending on your budget. You can even get one at Walmart if you need to do it today.

7. Opt for a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD). This may be a new term that you may not of heard before, but it is truly the wave of the future in the computer hardware world. Of course I want you to do your own due diligence, but I am telling ya, if you are in the market for a new computer or you are looking to replace your hard drive a SSD is the smart direction to go.

What is a Solid State Drive you might ask? A Solid State Hard Drive doesn’t contain any moving parts and therefore does not suffer from the common hard drive problems when dropped, banged or shaken. In addition a Solid State Drive is nearly impossible to overheat unless it is being deliberately or accidentally heated through a source other than the computer itself. Bottom line is that the old traditional hard drives are MORE likely to fail and create stress than a Solid State. With no moving parts, the device has fewer opportunities to break down. The down side is they are a newer technology, are expensive and you will get less storage for more money, but I am telling you it is well worth the investment.

Guess what hard drive I have in my computer now? Yes a Solid State and it is running faster than ever. Check out this youtube video showing the comparison of a regular hard drive versus a Solid State to see what I mean about faster.

8. Find yourself some computer geek friends. They have tons of wonderful information they can share and also direct you to the best forums, software secrets and other nifty stuff on the net. Without their expertise and knowledge I would have been crawled up in the fetal position more times than I would like to admit. I want to send a special shout out to all the computer nerds in my life. Thank you for all your help, advice and patience. You rock.

8 Little Known Facebook Business Tools You Should Be Taking Advantage Of

Yes, everyone can use Facebook, which is part of the reason you should be using it for your business, but sometimes you have to up your game to make sure you are aware of all the business tools that are available to help make sure you are offering the most to your audience. Make sure you have implemented each of the following to give your users the best experience on your site.

A Call-to-Action on Your Cover Photo

A call-to-action is a crucial aspect of growing and maintaining your business, whether that’s purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter. Facebook allows you to add a call-to-action to your organization’s page.

To set up a call-to-action, go to your page’s cover photo and click “create call-to-action.” Your options for call-to-actions are book now, contact us, use app, play game, shop now, sign up, or watch video. Choose your call-to-action and enter your website URL and click “create.”

Setting a Legacy Contact.

While it’s uncomfortable to think about, it’s important to decide what you want to happen to your Facebook account when you pass away. Facebook provides two options: delete your account permanently or leave up the account and allow loved ones to share memories on it. For the latter, you’ll need to designate a legacy contact.

A legacy contact is a designated person who can write a pinned post for the profile (such as a message on your behalf or memorial service information), respond to new friend requests, and update your profile picture and cover photo. They can also download a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook. They will not be able to remove any friends, read your messages, change or remove past posts, or actually log into your account.

To add a legacy contact, log into your settings and click “security” and then “legacy contact.” Type in your designated contact’s name and click “add.” If you later decide you want to change the contact, you’ll be able to click on the contact and click “remove.” Then you can add your new legacy contact.

Click in the top right of Facebook and select Settings

In the left menu, click Security

Click Legacy Contact

Type in a friend’s name and click Add

To let your friend know they’re now your legacy contact, click Send

It’s difficult, but important, to think about what will happen when you pass on. If you run a business, be sure to check out our post on how to prepare your business for an unexpected life crisis: here.

Audience Overlap Tool

This option allows you to compare two to five audiences to find out their percentage of overlap (essentially measuring how many individuals who fall into audience one also fall into audience two).

Facebook allows you to compare audiences who are custom audiences, lookalike audiences, or saved audiences.You can compare within categories too (a custom audience compared to a saved audience for example). Audiences must contain at least 1,000 people before Facebook will allow you to select it for comparison (this restriction is meant as a privacy safety measure for Facebook users).

You can access audience overlap from either Ads Manager or Power Editor (from ads manager click “tools” and “audiences,” from “power editor” click “audiences”).

Once you are in audience overlap, pick your audiences. Then click “actions” and “show audiences overlap.” Facebook will crunch the numbers and display Venn diagrams showcasing the overlap between the audiences.

There are a number of different ways to use audience overlap. One is to compare website visitors with your email subscribes, which will show you if you need to improve efforts to get email subscribers to visit your site and will show you if you need to improve efforts to convert website visitors into email subscribers. You can play around with other comparisons, such as seeing whether your social media marketing efforts are directing enough people from your Facebook to website and visa versa.

Audience Insights

Audience Insights is an intelligent tool that allows you to discover demographic, behavioral and social data on audiences before you ever target them with your ads. It’s a great method of gathering data and insight on your audience, and is easy to use. The insight on your audience can be used to improve your advertising and your content marketing. For an introduction to audience insights, check out our posts here: link to blog post.

Follow Competitor Growth

Keeping up with your competitors’ pages is a crucial component of a social media marketing strategy. Watching their pages allows you to gain insight on how to replicate what works for them, and avoid what doesn’t work. With Facebook Insights, you can add competitors to your “pages to watch.” You’ll be able to see at a glance their total page likes, the percentage increase in page likes from the past week, total posts, and total engagement. When you click on the page from within the “pages to watch” section, a window will pop up showing their top posts of the week.

Use Stock Images that Facebook Provides When Setting Up Facebook Ads

Images are a crucial aspect of your Facebook ads, but not every small business has eye-catching photos. Thankfully, Facebook allows marketers to use stock photos from Shutterstock at no extra cost. When selecting a photo for your ad, simply click “stock images” and search for photos that fit your ad.

Facebook Business Manager

If you manage more than one Facebook business page, you should consider Facebook business manager. It’s designed for easy managing of pages and advertising accounts. Working within the tool also gives you the option of keeping your business work separate from your personal page, since you will be accessing the page from within the business manager as opposed to from within your personal page. The tool allows users to post to the page, read messages, see notifications, check out insights, schedule posts, boost posts, and more. It’s free to use and requires a simple set up. If you work with a team, business manager also provides you the option of creating objectives and see which member is working on which project.

Add Custom Tabs

Facebook offers some helpful tabs, like “about” and “photos,” but there’s so much more potential to tabs. With a few simple steps, you can add a custom tab to your Facebook page (for a great guide on how to do so, check out this link: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/26330/How-to-Create-Custom-Tabs-for-Facebook-Business-Pages.aspx#sm.00007s6law3dnda8x8c1f2gas6ea9). Custom tabs can be used in a variety of ways, such as directing followers to your blog, providing a registration form for an event, gathering case studies or content in one easy to access location, and more.

Facebook offers so many great tools, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We can help you with Facebook marketing, or any other aspect of small business building. Just give us a call or shoot us an email today.

6 Tools To Boost Your Business’s Efficiency

Entrepreneurs from all walks of life are all asking the same question, “How can we, the business (or as individuals), be more efficient at what we do?” With modern technology there is a wide variety of tools that has made previously tedious and daunting tasks a breeze! So many tools, in fact, that it’s easy to get overwhelmed figuring out which ones best suit your business. Unfortunately, not all tools are made equal so it’s important to evaluate the features of each. I have outlined a few of my personal favorites that have worked incredibly well for me and my business and I hope they do the same for you. The tools mentioned below range from free to costing a fair sum of money. As previously stated, not all tools are made equal and in the past, I have found myself getting “stuck” in that place of free, but sometimes it isn’t always the best.

1.Asana

I have tried many task/project manager tools and Asana is hands down THE BEST. They have a free basic plan that works well for small teams, but depending on the features you are after and the tasks you encounter daily, one of the upgraded plan options may work better for your team.

Asana is fast, intuitive, and easy to manipulate. Asana’s arrangement features, and user interface make it easy to navigate, prioritize, and organize. My favorite part is that it takes the form of a check list and you can mark tasks completed as you go. You can also schedule reoccurring tasks on any given interval whether that be every x amount of days, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.

Asana also makes it easy to communicate with your team on projects since there are notes and comment sections for each project.

2.WorkflowMax

How does having 626 hours of your time back sound? AMAZING? That’s what I thought. On average, that’s how much time WorkflowMax saves its clients — along with $22,000 per year. This tool is perfect for businesses and freelancers whose services are very much dependent on time. Without much effort at all, businesses can track time spent on various tasks and remain accountable for their work.

WorkflowMax allows users to create professional, instant quotes for potential clients, then invoice them later with equally professional-looking forms. Users can even build timelines for special projects and view productivity analytics within the program. You can even integrate add-ons such as Xero to completely customize it to your needs.

3.Slack

Ever come up with an idea, but everyone’s’ calendars are already packed for the day? Plus, haven’t we established how much we all hate meetings? Slack is an amazing tool to help you stay in touch with your team, it’s a simple app without a lot of pizazz, but packs a punch in the productivity timeline.

Another one of my favorite tools—Slack is the most popular and best tools for communicating with your team by giving your team members a workspace with organized and accessible conversations. Slack also includes a searchable archive of teams conversations so everyone has access to the answers they need.

3.Active Campaign

My new favorite tool is ActiveCampaign. It is a hidden gem in the marketing automation world! They’re one of the most affordable providers for small businesses and their software is exceptionally well-designed. What’s surprising is the fact very few people have heard of them! Unlike other marketing automation tools, I have used, I have yet to have an idea that ActiveCampaign won’t allow me to build. It may not be free, but the pricing is incredibly generous for the quality product you receive. Active Campaign for email marketing with its robust marketing automation and multi-dimensional segmentation, makes it super simple for building funnels—love, love, love it!

4.Leadpages

Running a special? Offering a new product or service? Whatever it may be, you can easily create targeted lead pages and track their results without redesigning your website. With over 160 plus free mobile-responsive templates, you can easily create multiple versions of pages to optimize your landing page success rate. Another great thing about Leadpages is that you can easily integrate it with over 40 tools and platforms!

5.Google Docs

If Google Docs isn’t already part of your everyday workflow then it definitely needs to be! It’s free, easy, allows for easy collaborations and file sharing and it has it’s own version of Word, Excel and Powerpoint all with cloud storage.

6.Groove

Groove is a great option to quickly and easily set up all the customer service options you’d want in one place. It focuses on helping small business grow and makes it easy for teams to work out of internally. If more extensive programs like Zendesk are too much for your business, this is a great option to keep your customer service simple and effective.

If you haven’t tried these already, I hope you give some of these a go and see what they can do for your business! Feel free to let me know what your favorite tools are!

Comfort Zone-Where Dreams Go To Die

We have seen the inspirational quotes encouraging us to get out and do something different—something we wouldn’t normally do. One of my favorites is, “Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone,” by Neale Donald Walsch.

We know it’s important to push the boundaries of our comfort zone, and that when we do, it’s kind of a big deal. But what is the “comfort zone” exactly? Why is it that we tend to get comfortable with the familiar and our routines? What benefit do we obtain from breaking out of our comfort zone?

There’s actually a lot of science that explains why it’s so hard to break out of our comfort zone, and why it’s good for us when we do it. With a little understanding and a few adjustments, we can break away from our routines and do great things. Let’s get started!

Optimal Anxiety

The idea of the comfort zone dates back to 1908, with a classic psychology experiment by Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson. They found that a state of relative comfort created a steady level of performance.

If you’re a go-getter like me, looking to make the magic happen, you are looking to maximize performance. We need a state of relative anxiety—a space where our stress levels are slightly higher than normal. This space is called “Optimal Anxiety,” and it’s just outside our comfort zone. Can you think of a time when you operated within “optimal anxiety?”

However, too much anxiety and our performance drops off sharply! Anyone who has ever pushed themselves to get to the next level, knows that when you really challenge yourself, you can turn out amazing results. More than a few studies support this idea. However, pushing too hard can actually cause a negative effect. Reinforcing our natural tendency to return to an anxiety neutral state, the “comfort zone.” This fine line between optimal anxiety and too much anxiety is why it’s so hard to kick our brains out of the comfort zone.

Breaking Free

So we learned that optimal anxiety is that place where your mental productivity and performance reach their peak. What’s the incentive to pushing ourselves to that next level? Here is what you get once you’re able to step outside of your comfort zone:

Productivity

Comfort kills productivity because without the sense of unease that comes with deadlines and expectations, we tend to do the minimum required to get by. We lose the drive and ambition to do more and learn new things. Pushing personal boundaries helps you hit your stride sooner, get more done, and find smarter ways to work.

Flexibility

You’ll have an easier time dealing with new and unexpected changes. By taking risks in a controlled fashion and challenging yourself to things you normally wouldn’t do, you experience uncertainty in a controlled, manageable environment. Choosing to live outside your comfort zone better prepares you for when life changes force you out of it.

Creativity

Seeking new experiences, learning new skills, and opening the door to new ideas inspire us and educate us in a way that nothing else can. Trying new things can make us reflect on our old ideas and where they clash with our new knowledge, and inspire us to learn more and challenge our biases, our tendency to only seek out information we already agree with. A positive, uncomfortable experience can help us brainstorm, see old problems in a new light, and tackle the challenges we face with new energy.

The benefits you get after stepping outside of your comfort zone have a domino effect throughout your personal and professional life. There’s an overall self-improvement you get through broadening your horizons: the skills you’re learning, the new foods you’re trying and the new avenues you’re exploring.

Once you begin stepping out of your comfort zone, it does get easier. You become accustomed to that state of optimal anxiety. It becomes normal to you, and you’re willing to push farther before your performance falls off. As you challenge yourself, your comfort zone adjusts so what was difficult, and anxiety-inducing becomes easier as you repeat it.

Contact Alpine Small Business Solutions to discuss what we can take off your plate to help you reach your level of optimal anxiety.

Small Steps, Big Changes -The “Magic” Formula to Success

There is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs. I love that saying by Zig Ziglar. I get questions all the time about the “shortcuts” and “magic formula” or my “secret sauce” to success.

For example: “What is the quickest way to…” or “What is the one trick that will…” Here is the thing…there is no shortcut, no secret to success. Sorry, they don’t exist…not for your business, not for your relationships, not for anything that is worthwhile.

If you want to succeed at something stop focusing on why everyone else appears to be succeeding except for you. Don’t assume everyone that is successful knows some “secret” that you don’t.

I know it’s easier to look at others and think those who achieve high levels of success are simply more intelligent, received a hand up, or are simply luckier than the people in the second group. I get it, it makes people feel better to rationalize another person’s success. But let’s be real here, it is hard work that got somebody in a position to be offered an opportunity. And even then, it is not the opportunity that makes a person, it is what you do with those opportunities that make or break you.

Are you ready to be accountable and take one step at a time? I don’t have a “one thing” answer for you but I do have the general formula.

The “Magic” Formula

Decide

Decide what you want. Consider what you want to achieve. Set S.M.A.R.T goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel tangible. By setting Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound goals you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You will be able to see the forward progress in what might otherwise feel like a long pointless grind.

Commit

Doing things carelessly is the mother of everything that can go wrong. When you want your project to succeed, you invest yourself in it fully. “The difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was ‘involved’ – the pig was ‘committed’.” You can’t afford to only be involved; being involved means you’re not committed enough, and if you’re not committed enough, that thing you’ve been working on, won’t see the light of day. Don’t chicken out.

Consistent

Be determined and most important, consistent. Fully dedicate yourself to your goal. Consistency is about building small empowering habits and rituals that you partake in every single day that keep you focused on your highest priorities and goals. It essentially comes down to your ability to hold yourself accountable for the daily choices you make, with no excuses and no complaints. You and you alone are accountable for what you do and what you fail to do. All responsibility lies solely in your hands. Do the work not for an hour, a day, a week or a month…but every day, every step, until you reach your goal.

Taking everything, we have discussed into account, it’s clear that the key to success is deciding, committing, and consistency-in-action.

When you commit yourself to performing an activity or task at the same time every day without fail, you are at that moment building an empowering habit that will over time blossom and help you get the desired outcomes you are after.

There is no elevator to success. You must take the stairs, to gain the strength and momentum to take that giant leap. Need more help finding that perfect magic formula to help you in your business? Contact me today…

Mindset Impacts Everything

Mindset impacts everything. Our thoughts, energy and most of all, the actions we take.

More than 30 years ago, Carol Dweck and her colleagues became interested in people’s attitudes about failure. After studying the behavior of thousands of students, Dr. Dweck coined the terms “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset” to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. What is a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset? Glad you asked!

Growth Mindset: Intelligence can be developed
Fixed Mindset: Intelligence is static; “fixed trait.”

Growth Mindset

Embrace challenges
Persist in the face of setbacks
See effort as the path to mastery
Learn from criticism
Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others

Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others.) As a result, they achieve more success because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning.

Fixed Mindset

Avoid challenges
Give up easily
See effort as fruitless
Ignore useful negative feedback
Feel threatened by the success of others

Those with a fixed mindset spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. Excessive concern with looking smart keeps you from making bold, visionary moves. If you’re afraid of making mistakes, you’ll never learn on the job and your whole approach becomes defensive.

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Whether you’re aware of it or not, you keep a running account of what’s happening, what it means, and what you should so. Our minds are constantly monitoring and interpreting. That’s just how we stay on track. Mindset frames the running account of what is taking place. It guides the whole interpretation process.

The fixed mindset creates an internal dialogue that is focused on judging. And people react with feelings of anxiety, depression, or anger. Or superiority. “This means I’m a loser.” “This means I’m a better person than they are.” “This means I’m a bad wife.” “This means my partner is selfish.”

An internal monologue of a growth mindset person is not about judging themselves or others. They listen for learning and constructive action: “What can I learn from this?” “How can I improve?” “How can I help my partner do this better?”

Change Your Mindset

Changing from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is not like surgery; you can’t remove a fixed mindset and replace it with a growth mindset. You must work on nurturing a positive, growth mindset. These are tips from Dr. Dweck, herself:

Learn to hear your fixed mindset, “voice.”

As you face criticism, you might feel yourself getting angry at the person giving you feedback. The other person might be giving constructive feedback, but you hear “I’m really disappointed in you. I thought you were capable but now I see you’re not.”

Recognize that you have a choice.

How you interpret challenges, setbacks, and criticism is your choice. You can choose to interpret them as signs to ramp up your strategies, stretch yourself and expand your abilities.

Take the growth mindset action.

As you approach a challenge, choose to say: “I think I can learn to with time and effort.” “If I don’t try, I automatically fail.” “If I don’t take responsibility, I can’t fix it. Let me listen and learn what I can.”

Practice hearing both voices, and practice acting on a growth mindset. Nurturing a positive, growth mindset creates profound changes in your personal life and determines your ceiling of success. Your Mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds.

Need help nurturing that mindset contact me today!

7 Reasons a Hike is Like Starting Your Own Business

I went on a little adventure with my daughter, her friend, my dog and my lover. This cool little adventure took us under roads, through the forest, over creeks, up a mountain, through the snow and into dark tunnels. During this adventure we encountered many obstacles like ice, boulders, fences and downed trees, etc…. This definitely made for some interesting moments that left us on our butts or trying to figure out a way around the hurdle. Each time we fell on the ice we picked ourselves back up, each time we hit a bump or barrier along our path, we figured out a safe way around and/or through. No matter what, we kept going because we knew whatever was around the next corner it was sure to be interesting and beautiful…and it was! It was a great day!

When I came home and reflected on my awesome day it reminded me that my nature infused adventures are similar to my business building experience. While the backdrop is very different the feelings, the emotions and mentality of it was similar.

7 reasons why a hike in nature is similar to starting your own business!

Preparing:

When starting any new adventure you always have some sort of destination in mind. Preparation is a key component to your journey. For instance, when you go on a day hike you need to be sure to have all the necessities, like water, snacks, proper attire and a fairly clear idea what your route will look like and what your time frame will be.

Building your business is quite similar. You need to have an idea, a business plan, a blueprint and the right tools to help you get to your goal in the timeframe you desire. Evaluate your goals; understand what it takes to start a business not only from a financial stand point, but also from an emotional, mental and physical stand point as well. There is so much heart and soul you will pour into your business and being as prepared as possible is truly in your best interest. Furthermore, educate yourself on the legalities of starting your own business and seek legal and financial consultation should you need it. Sometimes it is easier to work with a professional that can tell you right away the answers you seek, rather than spending weeks trying to figure it out on your own.

Getting Started:

A journey of a thousand miles (or even just 2 miles) starts with a single step. Building your business is like starting a hike. When you arrive at the trail head you know that there will be many miles between you and your destination. Excitement and sometimes fear will be an emotion you will feel as you embark on the path to your destination. A hike, depending on your level of fitness and how steep the climb is, you will stop to catch your breath or stop to rest your legs.

Your business is no different. You will meet goals, stop to catch your breath, regroup and then keep going. If you are unsure where to start with your business I suggest that you start by carving out time each and every day to work on your business. This can be as simple as doing research on the internet, reading blogs, finding a community online to bounce ideas off of, or seek mentorship and coaching. I also suggest that you invest in this journey and if you are someone that can learn online, purchase a training course that will help you get started. This is nice because it can save you time and also take a lot of guess work out of it for you. Your time is precious, so be sure to seek help where help in needed! Your family and friends will appreciate this too.

Finding Your Buddies and Support System:

Not only is it fun, but it is also super smart to never hike alone. Hiking with friends or family is an enjoyable experience and can help keep you safe. In nature there are many things that could go wrong. Wildlife encounters, inclement weather and even the risk of injury. So having a buddy can lessen the burden should something negative happen. Plus on the fun side, you will build memories together; you can share stories and most importantly someone to encourage you should you feel too tired or weak to keep going.

Here is a little secret, your support system when you are building your business is one of the secret sauces to your success. I can’t express how much you need to have your support system in place when you decide to embark on this epic entrepreneurial journey. Your support system is the people that will pick you up when you have fallen; these are the people who will cheer you on when you feel like giving up. These are the people who will gather around you to celebrate your goals when you have accomplished them. Business is hard, it can be a lonely place with lots of hurdles along the way, but with a support system by your side anything can be possible.

Being Prepared to Weather Any Storm:

In the mountains of Colorado (where I live) the weather can change in a matter of minutes. It can be sunny and beautiful, then within an hour it could be thunder snowing. You have to be prepared to weather any storm in the mountains. So, as you embark on this epic metaphorical hike of building your business you should remember that the seasons of success will change.

What does seasons of success mean? As counter intuitive as it may sound, success is temporary! But so is failure. As a veteran online business owner that has helped thousands of businesses build their online presence, I have weathered many storms along the way. Every time I feel defeated or elated, I center myself and understand that it is only a temporary feeling.

I share this not to deter you, but rather to prepare you. Success is a crazy rollercoaster and truly is not for the faint of heart. Tenacity pays off. Consistency pays off. Failure pays off. One day you may feel like giving up, another day you may feel like you’re the master of your universe. Don’t give up; remember the seasons of success will change and every great leader in all industries have experienced it. Remember the master once was the beginner… trust your journey!

Embracing and Enjoying the Journey:

Nobody said it was going to be easy…they said it would be worth it. Let it be a mountain in front of you or starting your business building journey, one thing is for certain, it will surely be an interesting adventure and journey.

In the fast paced world that we live in we tend to focus on what we lack or do not have, rather than celebrating the things we do. There will be many days you will find yourself focusing how far you have to go or what you have not accomplished yet. You may beat yourself up about the training you still need, or how your website may not operate perfectly or that you don’t have enough social media followers. It is so easy to focus your energy on what you haven’t done that you forget to embrace exactly where you are right now.

The entire journey is worth embracing, everything from the trials and errors, to the huge accomplishments along the way. Each step you take and each twist and turn or achievement that you encounter on this path is put there to either help you grow, help you learn or help you put everything into perspective. Success is by no means a straight line, but rather full of turns, bumps, sharp curves and more. Allowing yourself to embrace its every last drop, is a true gift you can give to yourself, but to say that it comes easy would be a lie, but oh so worth it!

Celebrating Along the Way:

What is all the hard work without reward? For some the hike to the summit is the reward that they feel is enough, the breathtaking views, the sense of accomplishment, the burn in their calves. Or maybe you have plans to get an amazing meal or a big tasty beer as soon as you return back to town. I remember, I did a huge and brutal 15 mile hike a few years back and I knew that my reward was going to be a gigantic class of ice water when I returned to town. When I got it I was in heaven and cherished every last cold delicious gulp.

It is no different with your business. Celebrate the big wins of course, but also celebrate the small wins too. All those small wins are just as important as that big goal that you accomplished. There is no way you can achieve a huge leap without a series of steps before it (unless you’re super(wo)man). Those steps are just as important as that moment you jump. Those steps before the leap should be celebrated just as much as the leap itself, because they were a huge reason you were able to make the leap to begin with.

With this same metaphor in mind, remember to celebrate all the steps that occur before whatever the big goal is that you plan to celebrate. I think the best advice one of my mentors ever gave me was “Until further notice celebrate everything!” So I give you the same sage advice… and to take it one step further, find something to celebrate every day. It could be you finished a blog you had been working on, or that you got 20 new likes on your Facebook business page, or you actually ate breakfast, or that you got to the gym before you started the day, whatever it might be, celebrate it in your own unique and happy way. Your mind, body, spirit and your family will thank you for it.

Sharing your Adventure:

I know when I finish a hike, just like I did at the beginning of this blog, I looked forward to sharing it on my facebook and instagram pages with my family and friends. How lucky are we that we live in a time that we can do this with a few clicks of a mouse. With the magic of social media it is so much easier to share precious and adventurous moments.

The same mindset should be applied for your business building journey too. Let it all hang out, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Honestly, when I am looking for inspiration in terms of business or my fitness goals, I never want to be shown the sweet and cute parts. I want to relate, I want to connect and have someone tell me “Yes! It is freaking hard sometimes, but keep going”. When you share your business building experience you have the ability to inspire others that maybe feel defeated or just needed a reminder. I promise your adventure will inspire someone else. There is always someone waiting to hear from you…even if they don’t know it yet.

In closing, remember business is very much like an adventure…where it leads us, we aren’t quite sure, but one thing we know it will be worth it. I highly suggest following your Entrepreneurial spirit down that rabbit hole… What you will find will be one of the best adventures of your life.

Remember, the master always started out as a beginner. One foot in front of the other…baby steps! Your story is bound to inspire someone and I hope that my story has inspired you too. Pass it on.

#Entrepreneur #OnlineBusiness