How to Become the Expert in Your Niche

May 14, 2012 | lynb | Access Florida Finance Corporation, Business Tips, Newsletter | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What does it mean to be an expert in a particular niche? What are people looking for in an ‘expert’? When people start looking for an expert in a particular field, they are looking for valuable information. Information that is valuable to them. They want to be taught something that they do not know.

Why do you want to be viewed as an expert within your niche? Expert status is a tool to increase the number of people who patronize your business. Creating expert status may be the missing step in taking your business to the next level.

So how do you become an expert within your niche?

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Business Networking Rules of Engagement

May 14, 2012 | lynb | Business Tips, Newsletter, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

No matter what business workshop you attend, social media article or book you read, one thing is for sure – the age of engagement is upon us. Gurus and experts in the online field talk about the act of engaging with customers in order to build trusting relationships to build connections, and ultimately clients.

As for many things in life, it’s easier said than done, so with this article, I’d like to kick-start off with three key things that you can start doing right now, to engage your audience and customers.

Startup Founders: Don’t Freak Out

May 7, 2012 | lynb | Access Florida Finance Corporation, AFFC Events, Business Tips, Newsletter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
by: Dharmesh Shah
When I was working on building my first start-up, Really Bad Things(TM) happened on an alarmingly regular basis. I was in my early 20s and living in Birmingham, Alabama (where there was no start-up ecosystem at the time). So, when something happened that we thought would quite possibly kill the company, one of us (I had a co-founder) would freak out. Sometimes, both of us would freak out. Sometimes, we would freak each other out. Then, we would ultimately decide to take the Scarlett O’Hara (Gone With The Wind) approach — “I’ll think about that tomorrow” and get back to work. After all was said and done, things worked out quite well. But, there were so many “near fatal” events, that we lost count.
I’ve since done two more startups and spent time with many, many entrepreneurs — often in some of their darkest days. I have one piece of advice that’s going to sound trite (because it is):

Don’t Freak Out. 

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