There are so many business owners who get in business for love of what they do.  They get excited about what they can do, and they love the idea of owning their own business.

I've run into this problem too many times, that when it's time to dig deep into the answer of one simple question, too many business owners stumble over the answer.  They get caught up in all the wonderful thing their business does, or why they're passionate about what they do.  And sure, your customer may like these things, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter.

So what does matter?

Well, it's one answer to one very simple question.  When you know the answer to this, business life becomes a lot easier.

What's the question?

You must be able to answer what problem your business solves.  That's all that matters.  It's what your business should do.  It must solve a problem, and if you're not sure exactly what problem it solves, you need to sit back and become...

It's that time of year when it's a clean slate, and goals are ready to get set.  However, lurking around that corner are some nice, bright, shiny objects that are just waiting to tempt you as a business owner.

What I've discovered after several years of doing this, is that the gross part of business is inevitable.  The part that's hard.  The part where you feel momentum will never come.  The part where you question what in the world you're doing, and why you even began on this journey.  What happens so many times is that the shiny objects become very tempting to follow.  After all, shiny doesn't usually equal hard.  However, what we don't realize is that after the shiny comes the hard stuff behind it.

So to get yourself straight for 2017, I have two simple questions to ask yourself before you make any decision.  First, you need to really focus on the why of what you're doing in the first place.   How does this align with your life?...

If there’s one thing I would encourage you to master as an entrepreneur, it’s networking, but selecting an event can be overwhelming!  

I preach a lot about networking, and how important it is to get out of your business to meet and connect with others.  If you don’t have live events on your yearly calendar, you could be missing out on a lot of potential business.  As entrenched as we are in social media that allows us an ‘easy’ connection to others all over the world, ignoring that face-to-face time with other entrepreneurs can be detrimental to your business.

As entrepreneurs, we also don't have a ton of free time.  If you’re in the trenches of your business (like most), finding that time away can be difficult.  For me, deciding on events to attend comes down to a few important factors. 

First, as much as I love inspiration, the most important thing I look for is the ‘how’.  I want to walk out with...

Most people struggle to come up with content, which is a huge mistake because content can give you some amazing exposure, most of the time for free.  Plus providing amazing content can help position yourself as an expert and build the know, like, and trust factor that people look for when buying a product or service.

I’m on the opposite end as I have way too much content, and literally, have hundreds of videos that need to be put out. 

1. Give your opinion on someone else’s content.  It could be a blog post or quote. It’s not about copying or criticizing, it’s about linking back to the content and adding something, or spinning your opinion on it.  Giving credit to someone can be a great thing.  If you’re reading a great article, you can not only share it with your audience but talk about why you think is great.
2. Make sure you're following people who are slightly ahead of you and see what questions others are asking them. ...

I've been spending a lot of time consulting, and Facebook Ads are what I get asked about the most.  Almost everyone has a love/hate relationship with them, and there really isn't much gray area.

I see a lot of people doing some things wrong, then wondering why they can't get it right.  Here are three tips to get you on the right track, and how to get your very first campaign actually making you some money.

1. Know how you’re going to measure your results.  The Facebook ad is only the beginning.  You must know what you’re going to do with that lead, and how you’re going to measure success.  Hard rules of conversion rates really don’t apply because it’s really going to depend on your business.
2. All audiences are not created equal.  First, use Audience Insights to gain a greater knowledge of your audience.  Second, understand the difference between warm and cold leads and market to them differently.  Go further...

Warning: I'm going to make some enemies on this one, but it needs to be said....
Tonight I sat on a panel of investors, listening to a company pitch their business.  They were basically a content creating business, wanting to get discovered by a national audience.  When asked what they would do with their money, their first response was 'hire an SEO person'.  This was after spending thousands of dollars already on an SEO company, along with $20,000 on a social media company that they didn't see any results from.

My first bit of advice to them was based on the content they were putting out, popping $3-$5K a month on SEO wasn't going to solve their problem.  There are too many other outlets that would do what they needed for their business.

I also want to say that this makes my blood boil!  I was the person who spent $10,000 during my second business for someone to run my PR.  My gut told me not to do it, but I thought it was where I needed to be, so my...

I talk to a lot of small business owners, and I can promise you the #1 question I'm asked is:

How do I get more customers?

Finding customers is a complete catch-22.  Without customers you have no money, but without money you can't find customers.

The bad news is that's mostly true.

The good news is that we live in a time where starting a business and marketing your business is easier than ever.  When I started my first business just 11 years ago, I struggled with how I was going to get my name out there.  I did old school marketing tactics like putting up fliers in a neighborhood.  It worked.  However, one of my biggest strategies was getting listed in the phone book.  True story.  I was devastated when just days after LLC'ing, the newly published phone book showed up at our doorstep, which meant I had to wait an entire year before getting it out there again.

Long gone are phone books, the need for expensive tv and radio ads, and...

There are two important lessons I want to get across here.

1. Just because you can put out content, doesn't mean you should.
2. Just because you have the ability to be on social media that doesn't mean you should.

I know this goes against what everyone tells you in that you should jump on all social media channels and try to be all things everywhere.  And Content is King, right?  We hear that over and over again.

Content shouldn't be created just for the sake of creating content.  When you're building a business, you're getting pulled in a ton of directions.  And yes, content is crucial.  It's a great way not only to get your business found, but for people to get to know you better.  However, strategy is everything for connecting with the right clients and for keeping your sanity.

It's tempting, between blog posts, videos, and podcasting, you could create content until you're blue in the face.  However, it's crucial you figure out your point of...

While at an event last night this simple, yet life changing question was brought up.

A woman who now has a very high position at a Fortune 100 company was asked one of her tips for making hard decisions and pushing herself.  Her answer was simple, whenever she gets to a pretty difficult decision, she asks herself:

Why Not?

It's so simple, yet so profound because it's the opposite of what I see most people doing.  We usually talk ourselves out of it, thinking we're not good enough or not qualified enough.  We run all the bad things that could possibly happen through our head.  We could look foolish. We could lose money.  We might leave that great job and then may not get a chance to ever go back to it.

But what would happen that if every time you really wanted to take on something you switched the self-talk from thinking of all that could go wrong, to just saying why not?

Could you fail?  Absolutely, in fact, there's a good chance you might.

But...

Facebook Ads are an incredible way to build your business, and they've been a great resource to build my list, along with my clients and students.  However, if not done right, you can spend a lot of money very, very quickly and have nothing in return.

Here are a few tips and tricks in getting Facebook Ads to generate the results that can completely transform your business.

1. Never run ads for popularity sake.  This can mean a page like, website click, or boosted post that leads to nothing.  You always want to drive the ad to something that you can own.  That would be either a purchase of something or an opt-in to your list.  The problem with things like page likes is that sure, it can make you look really popular, but then you'll have to pay extra money to have those people even see your posts.

When you run conversion ads, your page will start to grow as an added bonus.  So don't waste your money on vanity campaigns.

2. Test, test, and just when...