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Posts Tagged ‘ethos 360’

How To Get The Most Bang For Your Marketing Buck

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Every business owner wants to use time-proven, effective marketing tactics that build strong brand awareness and increase its clientele.   Small business owners today may not necessarily have the tools to spend an insane amount of money on television advertising, radio spots, or other costly advertising avenues such as billboards emblazoned with state-of-the-art graphics.  Other advertising methods exist that are cost-effective and have the ability to get the company’s branding message across.   We have looked at some of the most efficient and least expensive advertising measures from websites such as www.BusinessKnowledgeSource.com for small business owners that we believe will fit in with your budget while helping to create a profitable business.  These include:  

  1. Postcard marketing
  2. E-mail blasts
  3. Social networking sites (i.e. Twitter or Facebook)
  4. Podcasting
  5. Creating a website 

It is no surprise that 163.3 million Americans use the Internet whether it is to find out new information, shop online, or learn about a business.  For this reason, it is crucial for start-up and small businesses to leverage the power of the Internet instead of focusing on traditional advertising maneuvers such as print media and television advertising.  

Postcard marketing may seem slightly outdated, but it is important to highlight the massive effect of postcards.  Postcards printed on 4” by 6” index cards are highly noticeable in the mail because they can be flipped over and read in a matter of seconds.  Immediately, the message is sent across to the end-user without them having to peruse through a pamphlet or packet that usually instills a lack of interest or frustration.  

E-mail blasts are excellent for small business owners to send out to their network of contacts.  Even better, they’re excellent for building a database on a website.  E-mail blasts should be kept simple, to-the-point, and underscore promotional offers to gain the reader’s attention.  Moreover, they can be sent out to multiple parties from the recipient, increasing word of mouth buzz.  

Social networking sites have become a marketing phenomenon that is helpful for businesses in spreading their brand, mission, and services and/or products in the form of a user-profile.  Also, sites such as www.Twitter.com and www.Facebook.com have changed the face of Internet marketing by establishing the online sphere as a word of mouth metropolis.  Now is the time to take advantage of social networking sites.  

Another helpful marketing suggestion is to create a simple podcast.  Not sure how or where to start?  Make sure your computer has a web cam.  If it doesn’t, these gadgets can be bought at inexpensive price at large computer and electronic retailers.  Introduce your business concept through the podcast that is less than 30 seconds.  Podcasts are an excellent marketing tool because they can be posted on a website, sent through e-mail, and posted on sites such as www.YouTube.com. According to www.Quantcast.com, www.YouTube.com averages 72.5 million users per month.  

With the implementation of these media, businesses are likely to see an increase in interest.  The next step would be to create an intuitive, user-friendly website that summarizes the concept of the business without too many graphics or distractions.  For example Ethos 360 (www.Ethos360.com) offers affordable branding solutions for entrepreneurs. Following these steps can help an entrepreneur bolster their brand and reach their selected demographic.

How A Business Mentor Works With An Entrepreneur

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

My mother used to remind me that all relationships take time.  Friendships, marriages, and even business relationships all require a little TLC and room to grow so that they can find their way to success.  This is especially true for a business mentor relationship.

If you’re smart in your selection, the right business mentor will not only gain you an advisor but also a confidant and friend.  The best type of mentor relationship is one grounded in the personal connection that the entrepreneur and the mentor can forge.  My favorite anonymous quote happens to be, “Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight” and I can’t begin to tell you how perfect a philosophy this is for the relationship.

It doesn’t just have to pertain to business, though.  The mentor needs to build personal interest as well as trust.  While they’re not going to be your therapist or your significant other, the type of dynamic that you want to maintain with them should enjoy commitment and consistency as well as communication.  This is sometimes done best through finding common interests so that the dialogue can flow freely and that a strong rapport can be built.  Qualified mentors should be interested in you as a person as well as a business person.  By having a dialogue that allows them to know you as an individual they’ll be able to make the working relationship less intense.  The right business mentor knows that the client is human and makes them feel human. This is one of the underlying philosophies ingrained into the mentors at Ethos 360. (www.Ethos360.com).

An established rapport can contribute to building a solid mentoring relationship that a business mentor will need to set to develop a consistent pattern of communication early on. This is because frequency of contact is highly important.  Communication breakdowns occur when a tone or consistency that one side is used to is suddenly changed with no explanation.  Ask anyone in a relationship what it’s like to suddenly be unable to get in touch with your girlfriend on the usual date night or when your husband is suddenly distant and uninterested in your thoughts.  Your business mentor should discuss updates on the items they recommended in previous talks and always maintain at least the minimum of interest and enthusiasm established.

Remember that the right mentor strives for three C’s: Commitment, consistency, and communication and that these three C’s are reciprocal.  The entrepreneur will also need to maintain these points so that the relationship can be mutually rewarding.

I’ll leave you with another of my favorite quotes about being a mentor from an unlikely, but worthy source.

“People ask what gives me the authority to give advice. I say, first of all, I don’t give advice. Dr. Phil gives advice. Mr. T helps people. I motivate them, I inspire them, I give them hope, and I plant the seed so they can feel good about themselves.”

-Mr. T

Truer words have never been spoken.

The Importance Of A Business Mentor For An Entrepreneur

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

When you first start your business everything can be quite confusing. Having an experienced mentor guide you can make the difference between a successful venture and a failed endeavor. There are many pitfalls and problems that are difficult to work out on your own.

At first you’ll have many questions, such as, choosing the right business for you. How to get started? How to get the edge on your competitors? How to really make money and escape that 9-5 job? These are just a few of the confusing questions that face the beginner. If you try to begin without help, you are setting yourself up for failure. Very few can succeed in business without someone to help you and steer you in the right direction along with providing proper motivation. You are indeed like a ship without a captain when you try to start a business alone.

Here are a few common mistakes made by first time entrepreneurs when they first start a business.

1. Starting a business without knowing who you should be marketing to and how to do it effectively. Without knowing how to target your market you can spend hours of wasted time and a lot of wasted dollars.

2. Getting into the wrong business, with too much competition and not enough demand. If you do not get into a specialized market with high demand and less supply you are setting yourself up for failure and you will never make a decent living. Investigate your industry segment very carefully.

3. Believing that a free program will make you money, these are some of the biggest scams on the Internet. There is nothing “free” in this world. Hard work is going to be required to make your business successful.

4. Joining one business opportunity failing after a month and then joining another and another. This is how many beginners loose tons of money and valuable time. Create your own business opportunity and corner your own market.

5. Thinking that money can be made in a short time with no work, this is another pitfall too many first time entrepreneurs fall into when trying to start a business.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some personal guidance, somebody who can work with you one on one? Show you how to start right and save you all that time and money. Somebody who can help you “cut a pathway through the trees.” This is where a mentor will help you.

There are very few true mentoring courses or programs, where you can really get one on one help. Usually, most people purchase an online course or e-book and then have to work out the rest. However a good one on one mentoring program is different. When you decide to purchase a membership in a mentorship program you will get one on one help for your questions and any problems you may have. As you progress through the program your mentor will coach you on any problems you may have and show you how to overcome them. One of the main reasons for new small businesses failing is lack of guidance and knowledge. There is just too much to know and do without someone to help you.

You can see how a mentoring program works and the obvious advantages, compared to trying to work out everything yourself. I speak from experience. When I first started my business, I had no idea what to do and where to go, until I finally stumbled upon a mentor program that was right for me. After that there was no looking back, I cannot say that I did not make mistakes or come up with problems, but they were nothing that my mentor could not guide me through.

A one on one mentor program is your gateway to success. Unlock the business potential within you, and see how you can achieve what you never thought possible, with the help of individual business coaching. For more information about mentoring programs visit www.Ethos360.com. Experience the satisfaction of starting and building a truly successful business with help and guidance from a mentor.

Ten Tips For Entrepreneurs To Maximize Your Mentor Relationship

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Finding a great mentor is one of the best ways to learn, to get feedback, and to take your start-up or small business to the next level. Here are ten tips for making the most of your mentoring relationships.

Tip #1

Self-assess. Ask yourself, “What skills do I need to get where I want to go?” Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We all need help and can’t be the best at everything.

Tip #2

Identify your learning goals. Put them in writing and execute.

Tip #3

Decide together how the mentoring relationship will work – frequency and type of contact. Create time and space for the relationship to blossom.

Tip #4

Commit the time. Don’t give up if the chemistry doesn’t feel right at the first meeting. Meet a minimum of once per month. Touch base regularly – by e-mail, phone, in person. Make regular contact a priority.

Tip #5

Take time to build trust and communication. Get to know each other on a personal level. Discuss your backgrounds, interests, career histories, and perspectives of your organizations.

Tip #6

Keep confidences. Nothing kills trust in a mentoring relationship faster than a breach of confidence. Both parties need to openness that only a trusting relationship can provide.

Tip #7

Be sensitive to cultural and gender differences. Do a little homework. And listen. You learn a lot more by not talking and truly listening to what someone has to say.

Tip #8

Understand and plan for the phases of a mentoring relationship. Build in time for evaluation and closure. Accomplish your goals. Do not quit.

Tip #9

This is about learning, whether you’re a protégé or a mentor. Keep a journal or document progression of the relationship.

Tip #10

You don’t need a single mentor who you keep throughout your career. What you need is a mind-set that allows you to learn from those around you, no matter who they are.

In summary, to get ahead, create your own multitalented “board of advisors.” Surround yourself with people who are better and smarter than you at specific tasks. Learn to listen and most importantly be humble by checking your ego at the door. For more information about working with a mentor visit www.Ethos360.com.

The Entrepreneur’s Ultimate One Stop Shop for How to Start and Grow a Business

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Ethos 360 has released the cutting edge killer solution to the entrepreneur’s biggest problems; from getting started to getting funded. From Point A, to Point B and so on. Nobody has ever put such a complete set of services and funding solutions under one umbrella along with the personalized attention of a handpicked Mentor to work one on one with each Member. You gain from their experiences and learn from their mistakes. Furthermore this is done at a price that can’t be beat.

Ethos 360 provides entrepreneurs with affordable one on one mentoring, business coaching and capital raising services so they can launch and grow their businesses. They help business owners at every stage, from how to start a business, start-up and growth stage, to established firms seeking large capital funding and expansion. Most importantly, Ethos 360’s decades of experience helps entrepreneurs avoid making costly mistakes and their affordable services assist them navigating through the often treacherous waters of on-line and off-line service providers who (sometimes not so nicely) target entrepreneurs.

The Total Package

The key ingredients of our service our: 1. Every Member gets their own Mentor to work one on one with, 2. Business coaching, document preparation and strategy development i.e. “laying the groundwork”, 3. We raise capital for you, 4. Business credit building program, 5. Unlimited angel/private investor leads, 6. Advice on corporate structure and formation, 7. Pitch Coaching, 8. Investor relations. There’s even more, visit the “Services” page here- www.ethos360.com/solutions/.

Ethos 360 takes you step by step from start to finish whether you have a new concept and don’t know what to do next or you’re looking for your third round of financing from a venture capital or private equity firm. Do you want to sell shares of your company in a private offering or get introduced to the right investment banker to underwrite your IPO they’ll open up their rolodex to help you with that also.

They’ll analyze your unique situation to find you the perfect financing solution. For example: 1. Bank loans/SBA, 2. Angel/private investor leads, 3. Venture capital, 4. Angel groups, 5. Private equity, 6. Private lenders, 7. Lines of credit, 8. Bridge and construction loans, 9. Commercial financing including factoring, accounts receivables, purchase order financing, equipment leasing, 10. Build business credit.

We have more sources of capital in one spot than anyone else, visit the “Solutions” page here- http://www.ethos360.com/solutions/#funding.

Putting Their Money and Credibility Where Their Mouth Is.

All Members receive a Lifetime Membership so if your first business doesn’t work out, you’re a serial entrepreneur or you discover a better venture they’re there to help. They stand behind their services offering a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or a full refund if you’re not happy for any reason. Perfect “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau. Too good to be true, not really, YOU have to be motivated and realistic; willing to take the necessary steps to get to where you want to be. There’s no magic to what they do; just good old fashioned hard work, experience, creativity and the ability to put together a workable strategy custom tailored for your situation. Lazy unmotivated people do not apply.

What follows are the personal experiences of the owner of Ethos 360 derived from years of pursuing her own entrepreneurial dreams. She’s sharing her mistakes so you don’t have to live them yourself. She’s walked the walk not just talked the talk.

A New Concept Born Out of Necessity.

“While starting and growing my own businesses I found myself in many situations where I needed objective third party advice and found that there wasn’t a company that could take me through the process of starting and growing my business from point A to point B to point C and so on,” stated Ellisa Brenneman president of Ethos 360, “I found out that something even as supposedly simple as traditional bank or Small Business Administration (SBA) financing can be confusing since I had never applied for a business loan before. Who IS the SBA anyway? Where are they located?  Are they a lender? In addition I find a lot of “too good to be true” websites full of big promises but bad reputations.”

“I felt confused, frustrated and lost. What began as an exciting adventure was rapidly turning into an expensive nightmare. Instead of focusing on what I was good at and bringing my vision to fruition,” shares Ellisa Brenneman, “I was burning the midnight oil trying to learn about every aspect of how to start a business and being an entrepreneur. More often than not the information I received was contradictory and came from someone trying to sell me something making me skeptical and more confused than ever.”

The People and Companies That Prey on Entrepreneurs.

Small business entrepreneurs desperate for help and in need of financing will soon discover there’s no shortage of predators to be victimized by. For example, as soon as you post online on a capital raising site the feeding frenzy starts. You’ll be electronically attacked by swarms of unlicensed middlemen willing to find you money for a “small” monthly stipend ranging from $500 to a whopping $10,000! “When I mentioned that it would seem more fair to pay them a commission (even twice the amount they wanted initially) once money was actually raised I never heard from them again,” Ellisa Brenneman explained, “Just the day before they were so excited about my deal and supposedly already had the investors all lined up. I was born at night, just not last night. The first red flag came when I could never get a straight answer to a simple question; please show me proof that you’ve raised capital for someone directly because of your efforts. I asked to speak to a couple of clients who they raised money for in the past. You think they’d be motivated to promote their successes publically, like real funding groups, to capture new business.”

Another favorite is business credit building services guaranteeing huge sums of money if you just spend $4250 to learn their “secrets”. They are so accommodating that they even have monthly payment programs. “I called one such company”, said Ellisa Brenneman, “for the second time to ask the sales representative a few more questions only to find that their phone was disconnected. Wow. This recession must be real tough since their website said they’ve been in business ten years. Then the thought occurred to me, their own tried and true “secret” techniques must not have been very effective or they would still be in business!”

Many entrepreneurs sign up for business plan posting websites supposedly full of anxious investors ready to write them a check, from 2000 miles away none the less, and to their initial surprise they’re contacted right away, not by just one but several investors, extremely pumped up about their business concept and clamoring to invest. The money’s in sight, almost in your hands, they promise, just as soon as you send them $8500 for a “commitment fee”.  And to think you only have to pay $99 a month for a “Premium Listing” on a business plan posting website, for several other “quality” offers just like it!

Traps Set to Snare the Uninformed.

From attorneys charging $1500 to incorporate a business, investment banking advisors who state that you also need a $15,000 Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) before any financier will even seriously look at your project. Executive business coaching that is available for a paltry $1000 a day (with a 3 day minimum), loan brokers who want $850 upfront to “package” a loan request, and we saved the best for last…. the grant finding services. For a hefty fee they’ll search the same databases that you could for free except they’ll do it for you. And within a matter of days they’ll find you a “special grant program” that supposedly only they have access to. All you had to do is pay up to a $6,000 fee upfront and the grant money is yours for the taking! Free money! You don’t have to pay it back either!

You’re already daydreaming thinking about the beautiful office you’re going to rent and luxuriously furnish with all that free government money. Bad news, at the last minute they forgot to mention the 120 page 40 section business plan and written grant proposal you were supposed to already have prepared and the cutoff date was 3 days away. But wait, good news, they have just found a better grant program but you have to pay another $1,000 for “processing”. Wash, rinse, repeat. There are more stories, first hand, of entrepreneurs who kept falling for this over and over to the tune of $20,000 or more lost, down the drain.

More Scared and Confused than Ever?

You’re not alone. A great number of entrepreneurs end up mislead, abused and broke. They end up giving up on their dreams before they even “get into the game” because of these types of tactics. Everything described above has happened to almost all entrepreneurs at one time or another. Some entrepreneurs quit before they ever get started; they were never entrepreneurs to begin with. Others try their whole lives, never make it big but had a blast going for it and would do it all over again. Others get lucky and hit a home run during their first or second time at bat. You simply never know till you try, and luck and timing play a larger role than you can ever imagine. Most entrepreneurs are burdened with too many questions and often given only expensive and ineffective answers. More often than not, each answer is tied to a price tag that few can afford during the beginning stages of their business when every dollar counts the most.

From the Ashes a Solution Blooms.

The idea for Ethos 360 was born from the altruistic desire of Ellisa Brenneman to make sure entrepreneurs don’t repeat the same mistakes she did. Those mistakes are outlined above. There’s a lot more but this press release would have morphed into a short story. Ellisa Brenneman created Ethos 360 not to get rich (she doesn’t charge enough for the Lifetime Membership to do that) but to help other entrepreneurs benefit from her lessons learned and, fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams at a price point anyone can afford.

Ethos 360- Gain knowledge, Gain capital. Attain your dream.

Ethos 360, located in Portland, Oregon, offers a very unique value proposition for aspiring entrepreneurs as well as successful business owners. To their knowledge there hasn’t been any organization, group or business that provided one on one mentoring, business coaching and raising capital services, at an affordable flat fee, until now. The team at Ethos 360 helps business owners regardless of what industry or stage of growth they are at, including concept and seed stage businesses along with complete start-ups.

The owner of Ethos 360, Ellisa Brenneman, recognized that what entrepreneurs needed was a one stop shop that offered all the services an entrepreneur needs under one roof. The core of the concept is that each Lifetime Member is paired with their own personal Mentor to coach, motivate and guide them through the entrepreneurial process.

Everything You Need to be Successful in One Easy to Follow Program

Many companies offer ad hoc services but no company tied them altogether into a cohesive affordable program.  Ethos 360 can help the first time entrepreneur by holding their hand through the start-up process from laying the ground work all the way to funding. The grizzled, battle hardened serial entrepreneur can benefit from objective advice from a Mentor that’s stood in their shoes many times before, offering unlimited angel/private investor leads, warm venture capital introductions and even direct public offerings of the shares of their company. Visit www.Ethos360.com or call 503-501-2444 to get started fulfilling your dream today.

Ethos 360 charges a flat fee of $499 for their mentoring service plus Lifetime Membership including a 100% satisfaction guarantee. No more being nickel and dimed to death. No more sales people pushing unnecessary services at you. No more empty promises. Your Mentor is always there to help you step by step, sharing their knowledge and offering real world guidance in a motivational manner.