A lot of entrepreneurs are lonely leaders. Are you one of them? Then read on, for tips on how to assuage your loneliness and improve your business.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Advice for Lonely Leaders and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Help and advice for lonely leaders, and more!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Bring Generation Z into the Fold

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about attracting Gen Z to the workplace. You know, millennials. Effortless HR says work is changing and hiring managers need to change with it. This means, among other things, adapting to the millennial way of life. It means political correctness (you know, courtesy) and even safe spaces.

It also means multitasking and digital nativism. What sort of technology did you use in high school and college? Millennials used PCs, laptops, and smartphones. Tech is in their DNA.

Your intrepid blog writer, heh, used pen and paper. Computers were found in a lab and printed on green and white paper with sprocket holes. 

Here’s one tip we really liked.

Guided Career Choices

The truth is millennials aren’t necessarily the only people who are having issues with their career choices. Heck, I had no idea what I wanted to do for years. It’s not so easy to figure out what will make you happy for decades. It’s rather like a marriage.

For me, my ideal career hadn’t been invented when I graduated from college or even law school (1986). So, don’t be 100% shocked if Generation Z doesn’t know what will gladden their hearts forever and ever (or at least until retirement). This is also, in part, a function of our gig/specialized/personalized economy. We all want our own choices in this area. And why not? We’re getting our choices in every other aspect of our lives.

So, don’t be surprised if your interviewees aren’t certain of what they want to do with themselves. They might not know what they want to be when they ‘grow up’. And that’s okay.

How do you work with these people? Acknowledge the difficulty in knowing the future. And embrace the unknown. At the same time, don’t treat them just like a bunch of interchangeable parts. They’re people, not widgets. Giving your Gen Z (and all other) employees a measure of autonomy will empower them and give them an emotional investment in your business’s success.

It’ll also take some of the decision-making burden off you. You might even stop being lonely leaders (more on that later).

#9. Lights, Camera, Marketing!

The next awesome tip is about borrowing from the world of media for promotional ideas. Wistia notes we’re already preparing and releasing long form content. It’s a lot like a short form film. You know, the kind that gets Oscar nominations and wins while you’re getting more popcorn?

Er, sorry documentary and short subject film makers. But you know it’s true.

Getting back to the point (and I do have one), the idea is to promote your media like the big media companies do.

So, this may or may not work for your small business. You might not see this as being a viable strategy for a long haul trucking company or a nail salon.

But there was one strategy which should work for any business.

Share Your Positive Feedback, Awards, and Nominations – Everywhere 

Chances are incredibly high that you’ve seen film reviews at some point in your life. Of course you have!

Did you mind the filmmakers tooting their own horn this way? Probably not.

So why do you have trouble tooting your business’s horn? Or, if you don’t, then why are you having trouble finding this positive feedback? And why aren’t you sharing it?

Positive feedback can come in all sorts of formats. There are reviews on Google or Yelp. Maybe you’ve got Sotellus or Better Business Bureau feedback. 

There is no reason why you can’t share this positive feedback on social media. And if it’s not perfectly tailored to social (maybe it’s way over Twitter’s limits, for example), why not talk to your top customers? Ask them if you’re okay with paraphrasing. Or maybe you can ask them for something short specially for the platform.

Be nice, always. Say please and thank you like you learned as a child. And ask! 

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Help for lonely leaders, and more!

#8. Speed Out of the Starting Gate

Our following life-changing tip concerns growing your business during its first year. Entrepreneurship Life lays it all out for us. 

Starting a business is an exhilarating, fun, scary, difficult, risky, fascinating wild ride. Fast growth isn’t guaranteed from the get-go. This article has some great ideas for kickstarting growth from the very beginning.

Our favorite tip was strategic planning. It can be tempting to just take any work you can get at the start. And maybe you should, at least at times. At the same time, planning strategy means having an idea of the kind of customers you want, and how much you want to make. Maybe your first clients are, shall we say, problematic at times. Planning means working directly toward easier to work with clients. It may even, eventually, being in a position to fire the clients who are more trouble than they’re worth. 

But you still need to plan. Business is a place where you need to be intentional pretty much all the time. And that means here, too.

#7. Digital Marketing to the Max

So for our next sensational tip, we looked at squeezing the most out of your digital marketing budget. The Self-Employed says that your first moves may be a touch counterintuitive. You need to have updated content and a good website which loads quickly. Pay attention to SEO and SEM (search engine marketing – this tends to mean paid search). And connect to a well filled-out Google My Business Profile.

Consider this. A lot of these are free or close to free activities (of course, labor isn’t free). And a faster website or better SEO aren’t just good for digital marketing. They’re also good for sales, potentially pulling prospects down the sales funnel more quickly. 

And that never hurts!

Here’s the tip which really stood out for us.

Up the Customer Experience to Infinity

Okay, well, maybe not exactly infinity. But generating and promoting and continuing an excellent customer experience is a valuable form of advertising. One reason is because you can stimulate word of mouth, a very valuable form of marketing. And another is that a fantastic customer experience can give you a reason to suggest customers review your business online.

By the way, even bad reviews link back to your site and can help with SEO.

Just sayin’.

#6. A Business Proposal (Engagement Ring not Included)

This tip is so helpful, and it works! HubSpot tells us all about writing a business proposal. There is a rather specific sequence of operations for this task.  While it’s not identical to a business plan, there are some places where the two documents overlap.

The article goes into significant detail, and it adds a template for free which anyone can use. That alone is worth the price of admission.

Business proposals are terrific professional documents. They set expectations and they get deliverables in writing. Are they contracts? Not necessarily – they’re just you proposing what you’re going to do for someone else. But if there’s no contract in writing, they might be reviewed and referred to. 

Clear communications are always a good idea. And covering your company in case things go south is an even better idea.

#5. Lonely Leaders – You Are Not Alone

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

You know what they say about the top. There are a lot of lonely leaders out there. Are you one of them?

Young Upstarts says leaders can shut themselves off from others when they become leaders. This is especially the case when they are promoted from within. And that makes sense – after all, now the dynamic with coworkers has changed. If you’ve become your colleagues’ boss, then you probably can’t go out for a beer with them anymore and complain about your boss.

Ewps.

We really liked their idea to bat back questions from the people who report to you with more questions. As in, ask them what they think. And do so rather than spending your nights just looking for solutions. Talk about lonely leaders! And, let’s face it, you’re not being paid for that time. Not to be solely mercenary about it but burning the midnight oil isn’t making you a better leader much of the time. It’s not even helping your bottom line.

An Extra Tip and a True Story

So, there’s one tip which this article didn’t cover. Gather ‘round the electronic hearth, ‘cause it’s time for a true story.

I love channeling my best managers. I’ve had great managers and I’ve had horrible ones. Very rarely, they fell into the middle. But usually, they were in one camp or another. 

I also love channeling the opposite of my worst managers.

Back in the day, I had managers who sat in their little ivory tower. They rarely emerged to do anything beyond commuting or getting lunch – which they always got alone or with the other top level managers. This was a law firm and these were the partners. I was fresh out of law school, waiting to hear if I had passed the bar (I did; my coworker who was also waiting didn’t. Sorry, Joe).

The ivory tower guys didn’t know how anything was going unless it was making them money, or not. Did I feel seen? My God, no. Did I feel appreciated? Not even close. Spoiler alert – I was gone in six months.

Connection

Lonely leaders, at least in the case of that law firm, brought it all upon themselves. It would have been easy to open the office door and say hi. This is what small talk is for. Yeah, you might not care about the local sports team or the weather. But it’s a way to connect with others. We spend far too much time at work in our lives to shut ourselves off from all human contact.

And one more thing, although no one wants to think about it. Lonely leaders, you may be working yourselves into an early grave. You may love your business. And you may need the money. But please don’t do this.

It’s not worth it.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Help for lonely leaders, and more!

#4. Top Off Your Productivity Tank

So check out this spectacular tip, all about maintaining optimal productivity. Noobpreneur notes that people work in all sorts of ways. We have differing energy levels at different times of day. Your early bird colleague might conk out at five. Your night owl coworker could be awesome at 4 PM. As a result, and it’s a good bit of advice for pretty much anything in life – know your strengths and play to them.

The best tip in this article was perhaps and obvious one – to plan. How often do you stare at your wardrobe in the morning and are uninspired? Or it’s time for supper and you have no idea what you’re making? Wouldn’t it be easier to plan those sorts of activities in one block?

The same is true for work. Got a bunch of tasks to do? Then figure out priority (or ask). Determine who can help you or who might wait for something from you. Or vice versa. While you’re waiting for something on Task #1, there’s no reason you can’t start Task #2. You get the idea. Mapping this all out in advance makes it considerably easier.

#3. Convert Complainers to Brand Champions

So it’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you convert detractors into promoters. SCORE tells us a score of 6 or less (out of 10) is seen as being the rating of a detractor.

Say what?

Seriously, how often do you fill out a survey and hit 5 or 6 out of 10? How often do you feel such a rating is neutral, rather than negative? Raise your hand if that’s 100% of the time.

(raises hand)

But I digress – back to the action.

The article is great, and it goes into depth about how to find detractors online, even when they don’t tag you or your products. We highly recommend reading it in its entirety so let’s concentrate on one tip in particular.

Fix the Problem or Offer Incentives

We’ve probably all seen this in action at one point or another. You complain about, say, your stay at a hotel. And the hotel responds. They offer you a coupon for a free meal for your next stay. If you don’t want it and say you’ll never darken their door again, they may offer a minor discount instead. Or they might offer to have you join a task force or fill out a survey so as to try to improve future service.

These are great ways to pull a detractor into the promoter camp (or, at least, into neutral territory). Often the value of these incentives isn’t too high. Even if your free meal runs $1000, your detractor spreading all sorts of negatives about you online is often worth a lot more.

It’s a simple cost-benefit analysis. 

And the task force or survey idea is pure genius. Give people a say in your future operations. Will you take every suggestion to heart? Of course not. But providing a soapbox can be very empowering to people. Because even your detractors want to feel listened to.

And they might just have something valuable to say.

#2. Cool Down Your Burnout

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on getting over burnout. Entrepreneur reveals all about getting your mojo back. The slideshow is worth looking at in its entirety.

Our biggest takeaway from it was that people – surprise – find different ways to get their motivation back. One thread which ran through all of the methods was to do things for yourself and to focus inwardly. Whatever form that takes, then do that. 

So, what do I mean? 

It may take the form of getting away or getting exercise. Or it can be getting more education. Another fascinating tip was to talk to people who are different from you. The contrariness can be stimulating.

And through it all, the same message is on repeat. You do so much for others when you run a business. And that can understandably be draining.

So, do something for yourself to get your spark back.

#1. Be Intentional with SEO, Always

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on easy SEO. Copy Blogger says there are a few areas where you might forget – at times – to improve the SEO on a post or page.

Don’t.

We love the Yoast plugin, and we strongly suspect the Yoast plugin is the star of this highly informative article. We urge you to check out the article as there are subtle details and nuances which you should not miss.

So, let’s concentrate on one tip.

301 Redirects

Don’t know what they are? They’re detours for when a post or page is no longer working. But it doesn’t have to be the entire page that isn’t working. And that’s why this tip is so brilliant. 

Welcome to the land of the limited-time offer. What happens when your Valentine’s Day (for example) promotion is over? Do you take the page the offer was on down?

Nope! You redirect people.

So, where should you redirect people? The best place is probably somewhere on the site where you have a more evergreen offer. Technically, you could just point people to your next limited-time offer. But you’d be creating far more future work for yourself when the second limited-time offer expires and now you’re left with two pages to redirect, versus just one.

Redirects are also great because your older limited-time offer page might still have SEO traction and even backlinks directing to it. Unpublishing it will lose all of that. Redirecting preserves all that lovely link authority.

Keep. Your. Posts and Pages.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Help for lonely leaders, and more!