Affinity Communications Melissa Donnelly won’t be sweating the small stuff anymore. She has a business strategy and game plan she’ll stick to, and has promised herself to stay focused on the big picture and let the details work themselves out.
“I’m also going to stop procrastinating. I have some ideas that I’ll get into action next year, like my Martini Mums blog. These ideas have been sitting in the wings while I faff about trying to get them 100 per cent perfect, instead of getting them 90% right and shipping them to the market.
There are so many opportunities to use a product or service now and pay for it later, but they’re not always as good as they seem.
Business mentor and executive coach, Katrena Friel of Activated Life Long Learner has used these facilities in the past, but won’t anymore.
This will eliminate false savings from her business, she says.
“For example, it may be perceived by me that it is expensive upfront, but you get what you pay for, so I’m going to buy expert knowledge and services now, instead of paying for cheap DIY solutions and it costing me in time and money later down the track to fix it and re-do it.”
Marina Herlihy is a cosmetic manufacturer who will stop all paid advertising in 2014, saying it hasn’t led to increase sales.
“For us, paid advertising was such a waste of money, and this money could have been put to better use.
“We’ve done many different types of paid advertising in magazines, online, emags and various other places, but there was no trail of business.
“Since we started to do giveaways with product and donate products for prizes, we have found that this has worked more to our advantage.”
Offering bloggers products to trial and reporting on them has also led to a direct increase in sales, she says.
Looking at what competitors are up to and comparing your products to theirs can make you doubt yourself, says Herlihy.
She was spending up to 10 hours a week following other handmade, natural and organic cosmetic brands, which has been fruitless and time consuming, she says.
“Putting a stop on following our competitors gives us valuable time to improve our market strategies, spend more time on our newsletters and giving our customers a personal touch. We can spend our time in much better ways.”
Finn Peacock, founder of SolarQuotes.com.au says he won’t be hiring anyone to do link building or search engine optimisation for his business.
“Most CEOs are flogging a dead horse if they offer a link building service and they know it. Even the big, blue chip digital marketing agencies think they’re smarter than Google and are still talking about how they can buy links to increase client’s rankings, which directly violates Google’s terms of service,” Peacock says.
“The only way to safely get links and better rankings in 2014 is to earn links by writing killer content that people want to share and refer to.”
