Category Archives: Entrepreneur

Soft vs. Hard Launch

When you want to market a new product, there are two approaches you can take: a soft launch or a hard launch. Each one offers unique benefits, and each one can be a great approach depending on the product, organization, and marketing goals. Understanding the differences between the marketing approaches allows you to be informed to choose the best fit for you given marketing strategy.

Soft Launch

A soft launch is a marketing effort that intentionally limits its scope to a smaller percentage of the target audience. The goal is to test the product among the small audience and tweak it as necessary before the product is available to everyone. The audience can be a small group within your target audience or a small group whose demographics are similar to your target audience (such as product testing in Canada, New Zealand, or Australia).

Hard Launch

A hard launch is a full force marketing effort that aims to reach your entire target audience. The goal is to persuade as many people as possible to try (and, if relevant, purchase) your product.

Differences Between a Soft Launch and a Hard Launch

1. The main focus: The purpose of a soft launch is to gather data to improve the product before it’s released to everyone. Staff members can really focus on finding changes that need to be made because they won’t be spending as much time focused on various marketing efforts. This is really still a testing phase. It allows you to work out some of the kinks before you go big!

The purpose of a hard launch is to spread awareness of the product to as many people as possible, ideally resulting in their trying and purchasing the product. While sales conversions are great benefits to reap during a soft launch, they are not the main focus.

2. Amount of time Since a soft launch is primarily focused on testing the product on a smaller scale, in the short term, it will take less time to complete than a hard launch targeting a larger audience. Usually a few weeks is all it takes to gather the data necessary from a soft launch.

An effective campaign for a hard launch, in contrast, could take several weeks or even months. On the flip side, the amount of time it takes to see results comes in much quicker with a hard launch due to the expanded marketing efforts. Of course, in the long run, a soft launch does take longer because it’s followed by a hard launch. But when comparing a soft launch to a hard launch, a soft launch is much shorter.

3. Amount of money: The amount of marketing funds needed for a soft launch is naturally less than the marketing funds needed for a hard launch due to the smaller audience. On the flip side, the amount of money gained is naturally higher in a hard launch due to the expanded marketing efforts. The effectiveness of money spent can be high in either marketing strategy. With a soft launch you may gain valuable insight on necessary changes, making the product more appealing once you do a hard launch which can translate into more sales. With a hard launch, you are maximizing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign by promoting across various strategies and various geographic areas.

4. Ease of making changes: While you can make changes to your product with either launch, changes are easier to make in a soft launch for two reasons. First, your primary focus during a soft launch is to find changes that need to be made (in contrast to the primary focus during a hard launch, which is to effectively reach as many people in your target audience as possible). Second, with a soft launch you can make changes before the majority of your target audience sees the product. You won’t need to spend marketing resources informing audiences of the changes like you would if you made the changes after a hard launch.

Which one should you use?

Different marketing needs will call for different strategies. For newer products, you will likely want to do a soft launch. This will allow you to gather valuable information on your target audience to better tailor the marketing efforts when you introduce the product. For products you are less confident in, a soft launch also works well. You’ll gain confidence after seeing how the product performed in the smaller audience and know you made the changes needed for it to be ready for a full audience launch. For a product that will be launched in a more competitive market, a hard launch will be better since it allows for a wide marketing effort.

If you want to utilize either a hard launch or a soft launch, Alpine Small Business Solutions can help! We are ready to help you with any aspect of business building, simply call or email us and we will help you implement a marketing strategy.

Start Now! 9 Holiday Marketing Tactics

With barely a fall crisp in the air, it may seem odd to be thinking about winter holidays months away. But with up to 30% of sales occurring in the holiday season, it’s not an opportunity to take lightly. Effective holiday marketing requires months of planning, and you can begin now with these tactics.

Check the speed of your website. Slow loading pages frustrate customers, and can result in a loss of a sale. Plug your url into https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ to see your speed, and how you can improve it.
Ensure your website is mobile friendly. Busy shoppers purchase on their phone. A difficult to use app will lose you customers faster than people lose their diet resolutions at the company holiday party. Plug your url into https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ to gauge its mobile friendliness.
See what worked previously. Go over marketing and sales data from previous holiday campaigns. Identify what resonated with your audience, what marketing channels saw the highest ROI, etc. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; you can build on your previous success and learn from previous mistakes.
Make a creative holiday campaign. You want your company to be remembered by frazzled shoppers as they dart around the city searching for gifts. A memorable campaign can keep you on their minds, and get you on their shopping destinations list. Check out these holiday marketing campaigns (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/holiday-marketing-campaign-examples#sm.00007s6law3dnda8x8c1f2gas6ea9 ) for creative inspiration.
Pick a season’s greetings. Some audiences are offended with the use of “Merry Christmas” while others are equally offended by the lack of “Merry Christmas.” Know which greetings best suit your brand and your target audience. “Happy Holidays” is a safe bet since it recognizes the numerous celebrations.
Create holiday specific designs. Your holiday marketing strategy is different than your typical sales strategy, and your images should reflect that. Canva is a great free site allowing you to design stunning holiday themed graphics.
Clearly communicate shipping and order-by dates. No one buys a present thinking “I sure hope this comes after Christmas!” Clearly communicate on your site when customers need to order by for guaranteed arrival by Christmas.
Host a holiday event. A bookstore can host a holiday children’s book reading with Santa. An art supply store can organize a holiday card decorating workshop. Any store can throw a holiday party with a tree lighting and carol singing. Make a fun event, ideally connected to your business, to draw people to your store. They’ll be reminded of your great selection, which hopefully will get them thinking about crossing items off their shopping list with your products.
Design a gift catalogue. Suggest products/services for everyone on your customers list (grandma will love…what kid wouldn’t love…and so on). Sometimes a tailored suggestion is the simple push a customer needs to make the purchase. It’s an effective email marketing tactic that appears less promotional to customers.

Holiday marketing is a crucial sales strategy for small businesses. If you’d like help creating or managing a marketing campaign, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’re ready to assist with this or any aspect of business building. Reach out with an email or phone call today.

And better yet, if you have some great ideas, make sure you comment on what has worked and hasn’t worked to share with others.

How Do I Give Someone Access to my Facebook Ads Manager Account

There may come a time when you will want help with your Facebook advertising. Instead of handing over the keys to your entire Facebook account you can give someone access to your Facebook Ads Manager account in less than 10 steps.

Log in to your Facebook account as your personal Profile.
Click the Ads Manager link on the left sidebar.
Click Account Settings at the top (next to billing)
It may prompt you to enter your password, if Facebook does, enter your password
Scroll down to Ad Account Roles
Click Add a Person
When you start typing the name of the user you want to add, a list of your Facebook Friends appears; select the name of person you want to add from the drop-down list. Note: If you are not friends with them on Facebook they will not appear, but you can enter their email and invite them to access your Facebook ads manager account that way too.
Select the access level. You can change this at anytime. I suggest Ad Account Advertiser.
Click Submit – The person you add will immediately have access to your ad account according to the role you chose for them

It really is as simple as that. You can get help, guidance and feedback on your facebook ads that you are running. In my opinion, having a few awesome and educated collaborators who know Facebook Ads and to give them access to your Facebook Ads Manager is something so very important to your social exposure and growth is PRICELESS!

And as always, if this stuff makes you dizzy and you just don’t want to take the time to learn all the ins and out Facebook ads, remember that Alpine Small Business Solutions, is your one stop shop for all your social media management and business building needs. We got your back, so give us a jingle or shoot over an email anytime we’re here to help.

Thank you for visiting our blog. We hope you enjoyed it. As a friendly reminder don’t forget to share this blog on your social networks and please comment, we love hearing from you!

This blog is brought to you by Alpine Small Business Solutions, Your Virtual Assistant and Online Business Manager Solution.

The Best Practices to Ace Your Pinterest Marketing

In the world of social media marketing, Pinterest is an odd duck. Sure, it’s a social platform. Sure, it’s a marketing tool. But Pinterest works differently than the platforms we’ve come to know and love (or, at the very least, begrudgingly use because we know it’s important).

The algorithm is different. The way audiences use the tool is different. The approach you need to take as a marketer needs to be different. Follow these best practices for a stellar Pinterest marketing strategy.

Do Optimize Your Pins.

Strategic keyword integration helps optimize your pins. Scatter keywords throughout the image file names, pin descriptions, board names, and board descriptions.

Do Conduct Regular Analysis.

Pinterest offers a great amount of data within its site for free. Every month or so look over to see your numbers. Pinpoint top performing pins, underperforming pins, and site traffic. Use this to tweak your strategy for the next month.

Do Integrate With Your Other Social Tools.

Let your social tools play off each other. Help your current followers find your account more easily by cross linking them. Every so often, tweet about one of your Pinterest boards to direct traffic to your page. Leverage the audience of one platform to build the audience on another.

Do Showcase Your Products.

Skip the highly promotional “buy this item” pins. These won’t perform well since using sales-y words like buy and sale anger the algorithm.

Take an indirect approach instead. Show ways customers can use your products in their lives. If you sell organic cage free eggs, make a board of all types of recipes using eggs. If you operate a microbrewery, make a board of DIY projects that recycle beer bottles.

Provide knowledge and value like you do with other pins, just integrate your product subtly into the mix.

Don’t Forget to Engage.

Remember the “social” part of “social media!” Make sure you pin posts from other accounts rather than only uploading your own links. It gives your boards the crucial variety and helps you get on the radar of other pages. Who knows, they may return the favor and follow you back.

Don’t Neglect It.

Pinterest requires you to “feed the beast.” The algorithm rewards consistency. It’s better to regularly pin rather than go on a one hour straight pinning spree. Aim for between 5-30 pins a day.

Don’t Use Hashtags.

These not only offer no search engine benefit, they can actually hurt your pin ranking.

Don’t Neglect the Images.

Pinterest is a highly visual platform. Paying attention to your images helps make the difference between a viral pin and an ignore pin.

For an optimized pin, focus on

Making a tall image with a 2:3 or 4:5 ratio
Using red/orange colors over blue ones
Using medium light
Using more than one dominant color

Don’t Pin Just to Pin.

It’s great to pin often and curate large boards bursting with pins. But it’s only great if these pins are worth pinning by your target audience. It’s easy to pin everything in sight in hopes of building up a Pinterest presence. But this sacrifices quality for quantity, which is not what your business is about.

Pinterest is a valuable asset to your marketing strategy. Using these best practices can help make your Pinterest presence stellar and improve your company’s marketing. If you lack the time to implement these strategies, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We are happy to offer social media management services for Pinterest (or any other platform). Give us a call or sign up for a free consultation today.

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.

6 Ways to Stop Wasting Your Summer Slump!

The summer slump is this bizarre time of the year for entrepreneurs. Out of nowhere, business becomes slow. Maybe it’s the sunshine beckoning people to spend less time in fluorescently lit office cubicles drumming up new business and more time on the water. Maybe it’s the association from childhood that summer equates vacation and not work. Maybe it’s just the nature of your business that proceedings slowdown in the summer.

Whatever the reason, you sit smack dab in the middle of the summer slump. When business is slow, you can sit back and catch your breath right?

Wrong!

Now is the time to attack strategic projects. Gain an edge on your competition and decrease your workload in future months when work picks back up. Think of this time as the calm before the storm. Do what you can to get your ship in shape and make your business better suited to weather the upcoming chaos. After all, a peaceful slump can only last so long. Before you know it, the madness will descend again. And you’ll be glad you tackled the following projects.

Update Your Brand’s Digital Presence

Your online presence is often the first impression for potential new customers. Your website, blog, and social media pages can always use some freshening up. Tighten up your website copy to make the text as engaging as possible. Add new testimonials. Upload more engaging product photos. Make sure all your hyperlinks work and each blog post is SEO optimized. These little tweaks help mold a solid impression in the mind of your target audience.

Tackle Your Unorganized Filing System

Organization is a business owner’s best friend. It’s all too easy to stockpile a mishmash of files and documents scattered all over your computer and desk. Find a system that works for you and, once and for all, implement it. The few hours or days it takes to really organize everything will save you so much time down the road.

As you organize, you can also use this time for simple in-house upkeep. Update all your contact information records, get your finances in order for tax season, and so on.

Cultivate Customer Loyalty

In today’s world of mass emails and impersonalized shipping, a little customer love goes a long way. Surprise your current customers to strengthen your relationship and build loyalty. Send a simple free gift, like a coffee gift card or a box of chocolates. Bonus points if you can tie it to your brand (like a bag of dog treats sent by a veterinarian’s office).

Another way to foster customer loyalty is with a customer survey. People love sharing their opinion and really love feeling like their opinion matters. Send a short (five minutes or less) survey to your clients. Show you value their voice (and gain valuable insight on your target audience along the way).

Test Out New Tools

The advantage of new tools is they can save you time and revolutionize how you do business. The disadvantage of new tools is they often take time to research, test out, and make a decision to implement or not. When your business is busy, you struggle justifying the time it takes to try out different options.

A summer slump is the perfect time to explore tools, like free ones for building your virtual assistant team.

Find Areas to Work Smarter, Not Harder

Efficiency is the name of the game! Take a good hard look at how you manage your employees. Maybe you are not fully taking advantage of your virtual assistant. Maybe your employees could perform significantly better with some new training. Maybe you can shake up how you approach delegation. Pinpoint some areas to evaluate and see if you can implement a shift to work smarter and not harder.

Consider Expansion Options

During a lull is a great time to dream big. Can your company handle some more clients? Can you forge new partnerships? Can you bring on a new staff member, like a virtual assistant, to help you expand? Take some time to reflect on the status quo and where your company is headed. Steer your ship onto a new path of conquering new worlds. Set a new goal and create an action plan to achieve it.

The summer slump is a perfect opportunity for entrepreneur’s bold enough to take advantage of it. At Alpine Small Business Solution, we know the ins and outs of business management. Reach out for a free consultation to see if our strategy and implementation program is right for you!

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!