by Elle Ray | Sep 12, 2017 | Small Business Advice
In the Swirling Marketplace, Remain Committed
As wordsmiths and purveyors of articles, stories and descriptions, we enjoy both the way you can play with words and the sometimes varied meanings that can be attributed to a single word. For this purpose, because it’s the word on everyone’s mind these days — from the fires in the West to the floods in the East — we’ve chosen the word “storm” to play with.
While so many batten down their hatches to ride out the various storms that may be hitting home — or close to it, we know just as many people who are enduring stormy relationships, riding out emotional storms and braving the storms that usually follow a small business as it matures and grows.
Setbacks and Storm Surges
Most small business owners don’t head into their chosen fields thinking that they’ll have to weather big hurricane-force winds of change. Others, on the other hand, go in with eyes wide open and — just like those sea-loving creatures (aka beach bums) who like to make their homes on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean — they prepare for the storms they know come with the territory.
It takes a truly optimistic and positive-thinking entrepreneur to quit a day job. You forgo a steady paycheck and eschew paid benefits to start a small business. But those of us who do wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re prepared for some of the storms that hit, while others blindside us, but just like the city of Houston, hit unawares by Hurricane Harvey, we find a way to keep on going.
A few of the storms a small business should be prepared to meet might include:
- A push to diversify. Your one big passion may not be enough, or your lenders and colleagues may try to get you to add more lines. For example, at Ray Access, we try very hard to stick to what we do best — writing and editing. But we’re constantly being asked and pushed to do SEO or to create websites. So far, we’ve resisted, sticking to our core values, our core disciplines and our core strengths.
- Bad hires. While you’re growing, the last thing you need is to make bad hires that not only threaten your current business model, but waste enough of your time so you can’t put your effort into sustaining your growth. Been there, done that! Keep tabs on your new hires and look for the early-warning signs.
- Being broke. The perpetual optimist knows that when he’s broke, it’s only temporary. The optimistic entrepreneur puts a smile on his face and braves the next networking function with enthusiasm. But when you face the need for cash flow or shut down, that’s a storm you’ve got to weather. We’ve walked that line, for sure, but we’re still here, still determined and still confident in our product.
- Losing a big client. Any small business owner who’s survived past storms knows that you can’t put all your sandbags along one wall. As soon as you do, the water inevitably comes crashing over the opposite wall. Never rely on one customer. Fortunately, at Ray Access, we’ve known this one from the start. The search for new clients never ends.
- Needing more exposure. To advertise or not to advertise; that’s a big question — especially for internet-based companies like Ray Access. After two years, we finally started writing weekly blog posts, just like we were doing for clients. As we grew a little, we knew we were going to have to do more. It took us more than three years before we finally started spending money on advertising. It’s a gamble for a small business, but maybe the only way to gain exposure.
Survive and Grow
A hurricane or wildfire can take out the infrastructure that houses your small business. You may lose equipment and power for a short time. But the entrepreneurial spirit can’t be extinguished by a little — or even a big — storm surge. With the cloud safely away from land-based designs and with your mind and body intact, you can and will survive this and any other storm that comes your way.
Every defeat, the saying goes, is only a defeat if you don’t learn from it. What can you learn from the devastation of a hurricane that washes away clients like so many cars on a flooded highway? There are many lessons:
- Expand your customer base from just one area to national or even international.
- Stay true to your goals, and you will survive and prosper after the waters recede.
- Deliver a product or a service that people actually need and want, and they’ll keep coming back.
- Make the planet a better place, every day, in large and small ways.
- Look back to understand how you could have prepared better; then look ahead and implement your changes.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Aug 29, 2017 | Content Marketing
Marketing Trends & Fashion Go Through Cycles
I never threw away my suede fringe jacket or my bellbottoms because I love them and they bring back so many good memories. And then, behold, just last year, I wore them again and no one batted an eye. It was time; it was their time to re-emerge. What’s old is new again. It works for clothing, music, furniture and most everything you can think of — including marketing.
High-tech online marketing trends have dominated the conversation for so long now that they’ve become mainstream. And usually when a concept, product or any marketable item becomes ubiquitous, someone’s going to go retro until the next big breakthrough appears.
Hello? Anybody Home?
Most surveys and number-crunchers estimate that about 85 percent of American adults use email. They may not all use it every day, but they’ve got an account and access to the internet. That makes email pretty much ubiquitous — and like the meaning of ubiquitous: it’s everywhere, it’s everywhere!
Let’s keep it on the low side and say that most people with an email account receive an average of 25 messages a day (the actual average was approaching 90 in 2015). So 25 a day is certainly on the low, low side. But consider that number for the sake of argument — that’s still a lot of messages to sludge through on a daily basis.
If you’re like most people, you can’t go a day without checking your email. Miss a day, and your inbox gets so clogged up that it takes an entire day just to trudge through it all. Meanwhile, email has been one of the top marketing trends for so long now that even older, staid brands (think AARP) rely on it. After a while, the Delete button becomes your best asset.
For the Price of a Stamp
Never mind the cost of actually using email for marketing purposes. You can pay hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars for email lists, only to experience many unsubscribes and wasted effort. You can pay a marketing trends company hundreds or thousands of dollars a month to generate ads in social media — the long arm of the inbox that has replaced email for younger adults and teens.
But for just 49 cents, the price of a stamp, you can reach a very special place in the home, business, office or private box of your target market. And odds are that your mailbox competition is pretty low these days. If you think it’s just not cool to use “snail mail” for marketing, check out the music industry blog music 3.0. They refer to hot new snail mail campaigns by the likes of Taylor Swift and lesser-knowns like King Krule and Animal Collective, who are returning to stamped mail for exposure.
Novel, Yet Not a Bad Read
All your customers have a home and an address. Getting mail delivered in a hard copy is just novel enough to stand out from the avalanche of marketing trends people get everywhere else, from their TVs to their email inboxes. The U.S. Postal Service can get pricey if you don’t have a targeted mailing list, but then again, so can random Facebook ads.
With so many barriers to break to actually reach an inbox — think spam filters, ad blockers, algorithms and unsubscribe boxes — it may be time to tap into the old, tried-and-true turf of snail mail. Stand out while you still can, before the post office undergoes a retro resurgence. Jump on this marketing trends bandwagon early. And just as newsletters are making a huge comeback, pull out your headbands and leggings — or your fringe and bellbottoms — and join the march from yesterday to tomorrow.
Need help writing your newsletter or promo material that you’re going to put in a letter or on the back of a postcard? Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Aug 15, 2017 | Content Provider
Email Newsletters Still Deliver the Goods
Everyone wants to be cool, on the cutting edge. It’s in our techie DNA now — no one wants to be seen as old-fashioned, out-of-date or clueless. This is especially true of electronic messaging, whether you use blogs, website content, texts, tweets or shares. Whatever you do, you’ve got to stay one step ahead.
For a number of years in the recent past, the newsletter seemed about as old school as you could get. Newsletters were the big bang of the old school. Before the advent of newspapers, cultures relied on short news blasts to get their information. If you trace their history, you’ll find them all the way back in ancient Rome: Julius Caesar kept his literate loyals abreast of his doctrines through short, one-page newsletters.
From B2B to C2C
Throughout the history of the world, businesses, governments, families and even like-minded friends kept in touch through monthly, quarterly or annual newsletters. People used newsletters to send messages to businesses, employees and customers.
Maybe you haven’t heard much about the staid newsletter of late because of the overpowering presence of social media and its reach. Then again, maybe you’ve noticed your email inbox filling up lately with more and more newsletters. And you’re seeing them from old and new lines of business.
Steady and True
In fact, newsletters have never really gone away. They’ve just taken a back seat to the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The company newsletter remains a consistent form of communication in large organizations. Newsletters to current clients continue to rank as a top way to keep in touch, as nearly 60 percent of marketers use them, according to one Mail Munch blog post.
There even are some who say that the social media trend may be seeing itself waning. In the February 2017 issue of digital current, writer Michael Brenner reports that, “the honeymoon with social media may be over.” And while your social media accounts may be bustling as usual, they may no longer offer the be-all, end-all for Internet marketing. That may be a good thing — unless you’re a business.
Overwhelming Algorithms
As giants like Facebook and Google continually tweak and alter their algorithms to provide better user experiences and to boost their own profits, it becomes increasingly more difficult for marketers to use the platforms as practical sales techniques without paying for top billing. There is no “beat the system” anymore with SEO, unless you’re willing to pay for it.
And all along, email has been quietly humming along as the truly primary mode of communicating information. When you’re on an email list, no algorithm is going to kick you out; only you can do that. And email is as accessible as your cell phone. A catchy newsletter that comes to you can be a welcomed diversion, while filling you in on recent deals or news that affects you. All you need to do is subscribe to:
- One of your main vendors
- A product you’re interested in
- A company or competitor you want to monitor
- A thought leader you admire
Newsletters Are Here to Stay
So if history is any kind of teacher — as it usually is — marketers and communicators of every ilk will turn back to what’s always worked: the newsletter. It doesn’t have to be long; in fact, shorter emails are better received. To work, newsletters should be between 350 and 750 words, broken up into sections, with headers, graphics, photos and videos embedded to improve their attractiveness.
So stick to your Facebook boosts for recognition and brand identity, but turn to the old-school, reliable newsletter to keep in touch with those important contacts you’ve made on LinkedIn and Snap. Just because it’s old school, doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Jump on the bandwagon — or dare we say retro bandwagon? Turn to newsletters as they make a big comeback in 2017 and beyond. And turn to Ray Access for the quality content you need to engage your audience.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Aug 1, 2017 | Agency Advice
Website Developers Who Do It All Are History
The field of website development has evolved dramatically over the last 20 years. Most businesses now require their website developer to wear many hats — and often, a cape as well. They want their developer to be everything from a problem solver to a poet, from a graphic designer to a guru. Your web developer has to know not only how to build your website, but also where everything should go, what your website should do, who it’s for and why visitors will be drawn to the site.
Now add therapist, marketing expert, artist, photographer, structural designer, information architect and project manager into the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for a superhuman — someone more at home in a Marvel comic book than in the real world. That’s what website developers are up against, when really, they’re just human beings who are most comfortable working at a computer all day.
The Origin Story
It used to be — in the long-forgotten stone age of the internet, the 1990s — that all you needed was a nerd with a knack for writing code to become your website developer. There was little more to a website than lines of text created from Hypertext Markup Language (aka HTML). Just being able to share this text with other web users around the globe was amazing enough.
When Mosaic hit the scene in the late 1990s, the web developer world went crazy. Everyone realized they were sitting on the cutting edge of, well, everything. Graphics, movies, games, online shopping: as fast as web developers could dream up new ideas for what was then called the “world wide web,” they could quickly make it become a reality. Creative website developers were creating their own obsolescence in a way, everyday.
Until… Kaboom!
Bigger bandwidth, broader networks and multimedia gave website developers more toys — and challenges — than ever before. To stand out among a growing crowd, they had to use every trick in the book. And when mobile devices hit the scene hard after the tech bubble crash in 2001, all bets were off.
Web developers were starting to get savvy; no longer was it cool just to be a nerd with an idea to code. Nerds had to learn to talk to corporate types, sell their ideas and get funding for their new apps if they were going to survive. Video streaming, ecommerce applications and a slew of new multimedia options exploded online. Only the smartest, nimblest and sometimes luckiest nerds could keep up.
But the few who made it — and you know their names — made a big splash; now they count their assets by the million. They set a shiny bar really high, and with so much promise, so much potential in the internet still to come, no developer worth his weight in sim cards wants to quit, especially in the age of IoT — the Internet of Things era — when everything from your TV to your toilet is getting connected and upgraded.
It Takes a Village
Yes, that’s a cliché, but guess what — phrases like “it takes a village” become clichés when they’ve been true for so long and have been repeated so often that they’ve become kind of folk legends. But today, only a very few small-town website developers, those who service mainly the micro-business community consisting mainly of solopreneurs, can do it all. They’ve got to have a good eye for aesthetics, the knack for coding, an idea of what content to plug in and the customer service talent to manage clients who often expect excellent everything for as little as a couple hundred dollars.
That breed of superhuman is dying out, just as successful door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen before them. Today, the most proficient website developers work with a team. Any website professional who claims he can do it all likely can’t do any of it well. It’s too much to know and be really good at. Specialization makes website developers more efficient; they can focus on what they love to do: sit in front of a computer all day and code.
A Team Approach
Being part of a team allows for a greater depth and variety of projects. It makes life more interesting when you can bounce ideas and opinions off of other professionals whose expertise lies in other areas. Large website development firms employ more specialists, while smaller, more nimble development companies use third-party contractors — including Ray Access.
Every website development team relies heavily on project managers who keep it all together and keep the client happy. The other skills inherent in every website developer’s process include:
- Envisioning the total project
- Developing a navigational structure
- Writing compelling content
- Designing the look and feel
- Coding to build the website
- Drawing graphical elements
- Shooting professional photographs
- Making engaging videos
- Editing the content
- Marketing the website
The lone web developer — one who envisions, develops, writes, designs, codes, draws, shoots, makes, edits and markets his own website is one of those rare birds who soon will appear on Wikipedia as an endangered species. While everyone loves superheroes, being one takes a lot of dedication and diversification. If you need help with a certain specialty, find it.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Jul 25, 2017 | Writing
A Good Editor Can Help You Be a Better Writer
I’ve always wanted to be a better writer. I’ll never forget the first time I turned in a story as a full-time newspaper reporter on the city desk of a daily paper. I had labored over the opening line. I wanted it to “sing,” as my journalism professor used to say. And I found the perfect words in a line that was both clever and informative. I was thrilled.
I watched my editor read my article, excited and eager to hear the praise that was sure to follow. But I was stupefied when he took a red pen to that line I loved and said, “Start the story here.” To him, the second line was the best way to open the story. I felt crushed. “But I love those words,” I wailed.
“If you want to be a better writer,” he cautioned. “Don’t fall in love with your words. And learn how to let them go to tell the story better.” It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
Write for the Reader, Not for Yourself
That valuable lesson has served me well over 30+ years of writing. And it taught me the ultimate value of editors. While many harsh words have been said about editors — by almost everyone who has ever communicated with written words — there are just as many manuscripts, stories, novels, webpages and screenplays that would not have been published were it not for exceptional editing.
Writers like to hear themselves speak. It’s editors who sit in as the listeners. Editors strive for:
- Clarity
- Polish
- Ease of reading
- Comprehension
- Conciseness
As we wrote last week in the 7 Secrets of Effective Editing, good editing streamlines the copy, tightens it up and ensures that the message you’re delivering is clear and targeted.
It’s Not Personal
Though it may feel like it sometimes, editing is not criticism. The only goal of a competent editor is to help you be a better writer. Making you a better writer also ensures that your readers are happy and informed. For example, when your editor has to read a sentence more than once to figure out its meaning, something needs to change.
The sentence either needs to be broken into more concise statements, rearranged for clarity or completely reconstructed. Extra words bog down meaning; editors cut them out. Grammar rules are in place for good reasons — not to punish or control writers, but to clarify sentences for your readers. Editors invoke the English rules of grammar and punctuation to make the reading experience delightful and easy.
Consider the Medium
When you write a script for a video, you can take liberties with clarity because you have the actors or graphics to explain your message. When you author a novel, critics and readers alike expect a certain amount of long, endearing, fantastic descriptions. When you write a letter or an email, though, you don’t need to explain personal references or phrases that you know your one reader understands.
When you write for the web, however, different rules apply:
- Sentences must be scannable.
- Paragraphs should be short with plenty of white space surrounding them.
- Headers must explain what follows.
- Punctuation must move the story forward, not bog it down.
- The inverted pyramid style used in news reporting is strongly preferred. In other words, tell the reader what to expect on the page right from the beginning.
Leave It to the Beaver
You can be a better writer and still enjoy your work, your play on words and your witty banter, even when you rely on an editor. Your editor may take out the superfluous, the non sequiturs and the errors. Your editor doesn’t want to change your writing style; only make it stronger. If you edit your own writing, you’re taking the chance that your assumptions about your readers weren’t wrong.
But the best writers allow an editor to chew away at their copy like busy beavers. The best writers wouldn’t dare publish a sentence without an editor first giving it a read. The best writers know that the best completed communiqués come from a heavy-handed editor with the best intentions. A good editor can make you a better writer.
As Truman Capote famously said:
I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
The Ray Access team won’t publish anything until it gets at least one thorough, professional edit. Mark and Linda often give pages two or three edits to ensure their clients receive their best work. If you enjoy writing on a variety of topics and appreciate a good editor, contact us about a part-time writing gig.
by Elle Ray | Jul 7, 2017 | Blog Writing
10 Tips for Writing Blogs for Fun and Profit
Whether you’re writing blogs, your company newsletter or a message to a new client, you may find, like most people do, that you’re having trouble getting started. If you’re like the millions of people who break out in a sweat just at the thought of writing blogs — or anything someone might actually read — chill out. You’re not alone.
The number one phobia among adults, according to most psychological research studies, is the fear of public speaking, technically called glossophobia. This seems to always head the list, ranking even higher than the fear of death, which often comes in at number two. Paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld, this means the average person at a funeral would prefer to be in the casket rather than doing the eulogy.
Anxiety Prevails
When it’s severe enough, the fear of writing is called scriptophobia or graphophobia. And it can be debilitating. Although it may not rank among the top 10 fears with public speaking, dying and snakes, it’s still rated pretty high, especially for business people who must write for their jobs.
So, if you clam up or get nauseous every time your boss asks you when you’re going to get around to writing blogs for the company website — you can contact Ray Access to do it for you. Or you can take action yourself, which is one of the top tips we can share with you about writing blogs and other business communications.
Writing Blogs Is Profitable
Writing blogs elicits profits either through the ads you sell for your personal blogs or more often, through the brand awareness and name recognition you receive from customers and potential clients. And to get you started, the team at Ray Access join the marketing team of Nike to bring you the most important, number one tip for writing blogs: “Just do it!”
Write now. Open a new document and just start tapping away. Go with free-flow, unedited thoughts. Write like you talk. Write down your thoughts about the topic. Since getting started seems to be the hardest part about writing blogs, you can conquer that part just by following this advice.
Blog Writing Tips
So here are 10 more tips to get you going and keep you flowing. Stay on track and on schedule while delivering quality communications on a steady, profitable basis:
- Read. Good writers read … and they read a lot. One trick is to read a bunch of articles about your topic, but don’t copy them — you don’t want to get charged with plagiarism. Reading about a topic trips your thought processes and gives you fodder for content.
- Face the fear. Throughout your life, you’ve undoubtedly overcome a multitude of fears. You went on job interviews, applied to college, rode a two-wheeled bicycle and maybe even gave a presentation to a group. Understanding that you’re just facing another one of those illogical fears is no different.
- Grow up. Not meant to be harsh, this tip refers to the small voices that still follow you through your life. Maybe you were criticized as kids for something you wrote. Worrying about being criticized really is the main source of glossophobia. But you’re not a kid anymore. Your skin is much tougher, and you have a lot more confidence and a proven track record of previous successes.
- Visualize success. Visualization techniques work just as well for winning the Super Bowl as they do for writing blogs. See fingers racing across the keyboard as they write with clarity and intention. Visualize the finished piece. Seeing is believing.
- Stop thinking. Thinking has its place in the writing process, but it’s usually not during the actual writing. Overthinking the content of your communication dooms you to deadlock. Go with your gut when writing. You can always revise later (see tip #10).
- Make mistakes. The need to be perfect falls right in line with worrying about what others think about you. It’s all based on fear of failure. Drop the perfectionism; you’re a human being; making mistakes comes with the territory. Making mistakes is also one of the ways you learn how to be a better writer.
- Focus on the prize. That’s what worked for Tom Brady. Keep your eyes on the new customers your blog writing produces, on the kudos you’ll get from your boss for turning in an assignment on time and the inner peace you’ll enjoy once you’ve completed your task.
- Research. As you’re writing about a topic, especially something that’s new or inviting to you, stop when you think of a question. Google that question and reinvigorate your creativity with more information. Learning while you write is one of the greatest gifts of writing blogs. In this way, writing makes you a better, more interesting person!
- Practice. The more you write, the better you get and the less time it takes to complete a project. Writing is, after all, a skill you can learn. Whether you keep a daily journal or spend time writing blogs a couple days a week, the process gets easier when it’s habitual.
- Edit and revise. This part of the process lets your inner perfectionist shine. And it’s OK to let her out! This step saves you from making egregious spelling errors or from simply sounding foolish, which is one of the major fear-inducing situations. If you don’t have a second set of eyes willing to be brutally honest and you must edit your own writing, sleep on it and reread your work the next day. You’ll be amazed what a fresh perspective can do to your writing!
Editors are to writers like a good sharp knife is to a top chef. They are the means to a perfected end. As Truman Capote once said: “I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Jun 22, 2017 | Writing
Write in a Language Your Readers Understand
Just because you know the “parameters of team competency assessment support” as it relates to your business, remember whom you’re writing for. Just because management talks about “maximized systems of strategic environmental processes,” don’t assume your readers know what the heck you’re talking about. Buzzwords confuse and annoy your audience.
Politicians and marketing professionals alike make good use of “gobbledygook communication” — words that sound like they should convey meaning, but really don’t. Most of the time, the discerning public knows to dismiss gobbledygook as useless verbiage designed to sell or deflect blame. As a side effect, though, it makes people think they’re dumb or less-than-informed.
Don’t fall for it. What makes you think your customers will buy into the mish-mash of buzzwords, trendy slogans and industry jargon? If you try to pass them off as your “message,” it doesn’t make you look smarter, it makes you look dishonest (or at very least — a poor communicator).
Say What You Mean
Nothing is more frustrating for your customers when they’re trying to find a vendor or service provider online. If they continue to come up against the buzzword salads that marketers are trying to push on them, you’ll find some push-back. To put it simply: If a visitor to your website can’t figure out what you do after reading your home page, they’re not going to call or buy from you.
Instead of telling readers that you invented a new “multi-tined tool to process a starch resource,” like Dilbert might try to pass off as revolutionary, just tell us that you built a better “fork for eating rice.” Don’t try to make yourself look smarter at the expense of clarity. Don’t say that your company can “leverage analytics to drive prediction.” Tell prospects that you’re really good at helping them “learn from the past to predict future sales.”
You Live It, We Don’t
Many blog writers and website content writers also get so wrapped up in their work that they forget that the average readers — including many prospective clients — don’t speak the same language. Salespeople and marketing professionals get caught up in their language when they’re going at full tilt, anxious to “ABC” (always be closing) and get their “CRM” (customer relationship management) up to date. To the rest of us, they’re just buzzwords.
Bankers forget that their customers don’t understand “AWE” (average weekly earnings) as well as they do. And tech marketers are infamous for using lingo when they talk about progress and their “sticky products” — those are products with high retention rates — and how their new programs create “zombie mode” — when users don’t look away from the app on their phones — for you.
The Bottom Line: Avoid Buzzwords
Write like you talk and consider who you’re talking to. If you’re writing for moms, let your mother read your latest article to see if she gets it. If you’re writing for homebuyers, ask find a new homebuyer to review it. If you’re writing for a medical practice, ask a doctor to read your writing. It’s only fair.
Success comes to your business when you break out of your stereotype and write so that everyone can understand you. If you have a relevant service or product, you want to reach as many potential customers as possible, right? So don’t use buzzwords in your writing.
Don’t alienate potential customers by trying to “effectuate improvement of your manuals to better elucidate your customer goals and empowering your interactive competency team processes.” Instead, try to “improve your manuals to clarify your offerings.” When you avoid buzzwords, you gain trust. And that leads directly to more sales. If you need the help of expert writers, you know whom to contact.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | May 22, 2017 | Small Business Advice
Don’t Get Sick or Plan for It — It’s Your Choice
Sick Leave? What’s that? As the boss, you probably read tips for entrepreneurs every day. And every day, you learn something new. While running your own company is hard work, you get tons of perks:
- You can’t be fired
- You can work when you want to work
- You can change the rules any time you want
- And you can take a vacation whenever you get an itch to
But you can’t get sick. Sickness means laying up, feeling helpless. At least when you’re on vacation or playing hooky, you can draw on those years of reading tips for entrepreneurs — and quietly check your email, place orders, close sales and take care of behind-the-scenes business with little effort.
But when you’re sick, not only do you not even feel well enough to touch a keypad, but there’s a good chance you’re in no mental state to make sound decisions. And forget about trying to pass it off like there’s nothing wrong. You know it; your team knows it and your customers probably wonder what that frowny-face emoji means at the end of your email. (Perhaps something you added in a medicated fog?)
When the Tsunami Hits
When the big one hits — something like cancer or a car wreck — you do what you have to do to make it through to the other side. If that means working your contacts on a laptop in a hospital room or running your partners and staff through every possible scenario while you’re out healing, do it. The best tips for entrepreneurs who get sick, however, involve keeping stress to a minimum.
Ills of the flesh heal in time. How fast and how well you heal depends on keeping your ills of the mind at bay. Research proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that physical health and psychological health are intricately intertwined. So much so that stress has a direct impact on poor outcomes following surgery and leads to less-than-stellar immune systems.
Prevent What You Can and Deal with the Rest
Stress not only impedes healing when you experience a big health crisis, it also can lead to lesser illnesses that can just as easily disrupt your business. For while you certainly can take a day off to get over a bug, it’s far more productive to play on those days off. To that end, here are 10 tips for entrepreneurs to live by — to stay healthy and free to enjoy all the perks of being the boss:
- Build in time each day for a stress-busting practice — whether that’s 20 minutes on a treadmill or in deep mediation. Do it regularly to reduce stress so that even if a crisis hits, you’ll be in a better state of mind to heal.
- Boss, know thyself. You may or may not be able to heal yourself, but when you’re honest with yourself, you know how much sleep you need to stay sharp; you know better than anyone what relaxes you and you know when you need a break. Listen to your body; it will tell you everything you need to know.
- Understand and follow the guidelines for healthy eating. The standard drill involves: 35 percent from lean protein (think skinless chicken and tofu), 25 percent from healthy fat (like avocadoes and olive oil), leaving close to 60 percent for good carbs (whole grains and raw veggies).
- Stay hydrated. Your body and your mind stay sharp and on-point when you take in the standard 64 fluid ounces of water a day. Keep a glass of water at arm’s reach.
- Keep your energy level high by breaking up your daily food intake into many small bites instead of big sit-down meals.
- Sleep deeply. Sleep is vital for peak performance. Even when you burn the midnight oil on a big project, take power naps to keep the edge off until you can bunker down for a solid eight or nine hours.
- Stand up and move. If you, like the partners at Ray Access, often are tied to the computer to meet deadlines, then you need to consciously make the effort to get up and move at least once an hour for about 10 minutes.
- Fight germs as fastidiously as if you were the charge nurse in the ICU. Wash your hands thoroughly after every human encounter. When you come in from a lunch away from your desk, a meeting or even just a trip to the office supply store, wash your hands. (Secret tip for entrepreneurs: nursing students have to sing the alphabet while they wash their hands to ensure they wash long enough.)
- Take advantage of slow times and breaks in the business rush when they happen. Use the time to get ahead of your work so that when you need to slow down because of a tickle in your throat, you’ll be ahead and can afford the break.
- Surround yourself with smart people on whom you can rely to take over when necessary. Don’t hoard your knowledge. One of the benefits of sharing — besides increasing your own prosperity — is that you have people ready and trained to step in when you need them.
S**t’s going to happen. No doubt. That’s why lists like these tips for entrepreneurs to stay healthy were invented. That’s why, just for today, I like to think that the measure of an entrepreneurial success is not how well you plan ahead, but as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook puts it:
“The seeds of resilience are planted in the way we process the negative events in our lives.”
Or if you prefer to listen to Hippocrates:
“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”
Stay well. But if you can’t, then heal quickly.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | May 8, 2017 | Small Business Advice
A Clear Vision Statement Gives You Direction
Perfect eyesight is measured by how clearly you can see at 20 feet. If you have 20/20 vision, according to your optometrist, your visual acuity is sharp and clear for 20 feet. If only the future of your business was so distinct and easy to measure.
A mission statement is supposed to embody your passion, your raison d’être. In other words, it reveals who you are and what you do. Your vision statement, on the other hand, answers the how and why of your company. And it involves a little fortune-telling and gazing into the future. Your vision explains where you see your business going.
Why Bother?
Just as a clear mission defines your daily work, your vision forms the basis of the roadmap to your future. You’ve undoubtedly heard the saying: “You’ll never know when you get there if you don’t have a destination in mind.” Wandering willy-nilly through the business world is no way to build something of value, something that lasts and something that you can be proud of.
A vision statement also helps you attract talent, people who want what you want and align with your mission. Sure, every business owner wants to make money, and that should clearly be part of your vision. But it has to be inspirational, too. Making money for money’s sake is cold, even in a capitalist society like America.
So what if you make a lot of money? That accomplishment doesn’t always equate to happiness or fulfillment. For proof, just look at the hundreds of millionaire athletes and entertainers who use drugs or other numbing behaviors to mask their feelings. Do you think they’re really happy or fulfilled?
Gotta See Clearly Now
Like sight, a company’s vision statement needs to encompass reality in all its technicolor. Truly satisfying work makes you feel good; it makes your team feel good; and ultimately it allows your customers and associated partners and vendors to feel good. Tapping into a goal with altruistic intentions makes for a satisfying life, something worth all the hours you put into it.
A vision statement doesn’t necessarily have to be attainable, either. Some might complain that vision statements often are too pie-in-the-sky and unreachable, if not outright misleading. But if you can contribute in even a small way to a future that comes closer to your vision, then you’ve been true to your values and maybe helped someone in the process. Take, for example, a few visions statements that are nice in their sentiment, but tough to really imagine:
- Microsoft’s written vision statement: “To help individuals and businesses realize their full potential.”
- Alzheimer’s Association goes big: “A world without Alzheimer’s disease.”
- Walmart really cares about all of us with its vision statement: “To be the best retailer in the hearts and minds of consumers and employees.”
- And who better to guide a vision statement than the American Optometric Association: To be “the acknowledged leader and recognized authority for eye and vision care in the world.”
Big Vision Statements Mean Big Returns
The bigger your vision, the greater impact you just may make on the world. Of course, as with all global visions, you’ve got to start at home. For example, the partners at Ray Access have a mission to “get everyone to appreciate and evaluate the media in their lives,” and to make communication understandable and valuable.
As a vision statement, we strive “to strengthen the written word to give every company in the world words that empower their business.” If we did that, we’d definitely make money, but more importantly, we’d play a huge role in maintaining the English language and reminding consumers that they can get a clear message.
We believe we do that for our clients and their customers. We also strive to help business leaders show respect for their customers by presenting their messages clearly and consistently — every time. Nothing less than 20/20. We invite you along, too. What’s your big vision?
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
