Mathea, Author at Mathea Ford

September 26, 2016 by Mathea

Types of Fraud That Target Business Owners – And How To Avoid Getting Caught In Their Trap

Phishing is at an all-time high. This is where scammers try to get any type of sensitive information in many different ways to use to steal from a business or a person. They will use means such as breaking into email by stealing passwords in hopes to find information in the email, or to use the email for more phishing scams by pretending to be you when they’re not. You can protect yourself if you understand the various types of fraud that is targeting your business. As an owner, you will be a great target for these scammers and you need to be on the lookout for the ways that they try to steal from you.

* Overpayment Trick – This scam requires that the scammer buy expensive items and overpay by check. When the business gets the overpayment, they are then asked to just send the overpayment back to them via wire transfer. Of course, the first check is cancelled, no order is made and now the business is out the money they transferred to the thief. Plus all the fees and charges for the bounced check.

* Phishing Scams – Usually these are messages that look to be sent by a real company but aren’t. They will download a virus onto your computer that will get the details of your bank and other private information that you don’t want them to have. Then they will steal your information and money and leave you with nothing. Keep a virus scanning program on your computer and have it alert you to infections. I use AVG.com (free) and malwarebytes.com (free). Each one covers different types of malware.

* Award Scams – Someone informs you that your business has won an award. But of course you have to pay a membership fee to get the award and you’ll be charged this membership fee, usually every single year. There is no real organization and it’s just a way to get your money. Be careful of this oneas it will also lead to other theft.

* False Orders – This happens to a lot of online businesses, whether they sell information products or physical products. Someone uses someone else’s credit card to buy a lot of merchandise which they then either return or sell to someone else. Make sure you are using a merchant account that detects fraud. You can be protected if the orders turn out to be from a stolen card.

* False Bills – Often scammers send business owners fake bills to trick them into thinking they owe the money. This happens with domain renewals and other issues that look real when you get them but aren’t real. I receive a “domain renewal” notice yearly that acts like it will renew my domains, but I actually do that through another company so I know it’s fake. Make sure your bookkeeper and accountant (or whoever pays the bills) knows you don’t pay a bill in the mail for a domain renewal. Below is a picture of a fake bill I got for a domain renewal that inspired me to write this post! I could have them do it and pay 5 -10 times more than necessary, right?

* IRS Scams – If you get a phone call from the “IRS” telling you that you owe back taxes and you know that you don’t (and even if you do), this is not how they’ll contact you. The IRS sends letters, and you call them. Not the other way around. Just hang up and don’t get into it with them.

* Fake Loan Scam – You’ll get a phone call that you’ve been awarded the opportunity due to the government or the president or some other nonsense to get a special loan for your business at a very low interest rate. These people really only want your personal information; you’ll never get the loan.

* Fake Computer Virus Scam – You get a phone call from someone claiming to be Microsoft Support. They will say they are getting messages in their office from your computer and it needs to be fixed. They want to get you to log into a website and download a virus that they can then charge you to remove. Microsoft does not have a system where it gets messages from computers about viruses. Hang up and don’t even talk to them.

These scams and more are quite common, but unfortunately many people fall for them every single day. This is why they are common – they work. If you don’t want to be a victim of a scam, be sure to stay educated on the current scams, research anything that seems too good to be true, and do your due diligence to ensure that information is correct. Make sure your staff knows to let you know if they get one of these calls as well.

September 24, 2016 by Mathea

Successful Fashion Businesses Have These 10 Things in Common

Many local business owners have a lot of trouble getting off the ground or keeping their business afloat. What makes one business thrive while another flounders? What makes two people who are running the same business so vastly different? The truth is, if you have a good idea, there is no reason why you cannot be successful. You simply need to know what the traits of a successful small business owner are, and then develop them within yourself. It’s sometimes difficult to go from being an employee to an employer, so listen to these words of wisdom and your fashion boutique will be well on it’s way to being a great shop.

1. They Don’t Listen to Naysayers – There is always going to be people in your life who will tell you that your ideas suck or won’t work. They’ll put road blocks in your way. They’ll make comments like “how are you going to do that and take care of the kids?” or, “How are you going to do that and be a good mom?” You have to ignore them and move along with the knowledge that you know how to research and do your due diligence before you act. Other people aren’t like you – they don’t have the drive to make the change happen that needs to happen.

2. They Offer Something Consumers Want – It’s much easier to offer your audience what they already want than to create something that you have to convince them that they need. To do this you have to know who your audience is, what their pain points are, and how to solve at least one of those pain points. Or quite a few fashion points if you have a boutique. Look, you know your audience because they are you, right? You opened a shop because you love fashion, so find the things that people want to buy or are looking for and get started! If you need a place to find your own products instead of always looking for wholesalers, check out my guide at matheaford.com/top6.

3. They Conduct Research – Stop guessing about who your audience is and what they want. Know. You can know by conducting proper research into your audience. Then once you know what their pain points are, you can also know how to solve them. If you want to succeed, you will spend time talking to your customers and going to sites or places where they hang out. Find out what the latest fashion trends are and be knowledgeable about them. Do webcasts (https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/10-reasons-why-webcasts-can-huge-success-make-you-popular-mathea-ford) on them.

4. They Use Technology – There is a lot of online technology that you need to implement to ensure success. Autoresponders, automated bookkeeping, project management and more all exist now at reasonable prices to help your small business work just like a big business with numerous employees. You can do this online or in your store with staff, but there are ways to make it easier and give you more information. Using google analytics to the best of your ability to understand your audience will help too!

5. They Build Their Lists – To be successful in business for the long term, the best thing you can do is focus on list building. When you build a list full of your targeted audience, you don’t have to worry as much about social networks going under, websites crashing, or algorithms changing. Instead, you can market directly to your audience whenever you want to. You get people to sign up for your store’s specials or give them an extra discount for getting your emails then you can send them a message directly whenever you are having a sale or get in new products. Don’t delay in getting your email list started.

6. They Use Mixed Media Marketing – You need to use a mixture of types and forms of content. Use video, podcasts, articles, white papers, blog posts, infographics, memes, webinars, teleseminars and so forth to inform, engage, and teach your audience about your niche and your offerings. You can bring more people into your realm and into your store by offering more information online to your audience. Let them into your life and your knowledge will draw them to you.

7. They Provide Value – One of the things you must do for your audience, customers and even the public in general is to provide value to them. A lot of what you provide may be free to everyone who can access it. But, then you will also have a call to action to ensure that they get more of what you’re offering. It’s easy to find information to share and relate to your audience to get them to interact and learn from you. Then you offer them ways to get more information and education from you. That is what your autoresponder is for.

8. They Keep Learning – Because technology changes so quickly, it’s imperative that if you want a successful fashion business then you need to keep learning about the things that may change everything. There is killer technology right on the horizon that could help or hurt your business. By learning about it and using what you learn you can make it work to your advantage.

9. They Get Help – No one is truly successful on their own. Everyone who is truly successful has surrounded themselves with smart business people who can help them with the things they are weak on or simply do not want to do. You can find contractors and even employees who will work virtually or in your shop and make your work successful. If you need help with getting your products online, you can contact me directly at mathea@matheaford.com and I can assist you in selling and being successful with your products on Amazon.

10. They Work Every Day – Well, maybe not every single day, but every work day, and during the time they’ve set aside to work on their business they do actions that make money. You have to do money-making actions every work day to ensure that you make money. Set aside time to do each action that you know you need to do – reorder, find new products, stock the shelves, check out customers, do your social media, and perform weekly webcasts in addition to whatever else comes up.

If you want to be successful in running a business, you need to learn to develop these skills. Identify what you’re missing and focus on making that one of your good features. If you’re a procrastinator, learn why and do something to stop it. If you have a good idea, conduct research before you launch and you won’t regret it. You can have a presence in social media and drive your customers to the shop to keep people coming in the front doors.

September 23, 2016 by Mathea

8 Ways to Easily Turn Your Ideas into Weekly Webcasts That Draw Attention

Webcasts are very popular right now with the advent of the easy to use video-centric software that is available today. Webcasts can be live or on demand. You can do webcasts using software like Facebook Live, YouTube, Periscope.com and more. All you have to do is have an idea, a camcorder/smartphone, and then perform that idea. Here are some tips on how to make your webcasts the best they can be on those platforms. Easily make your webcasts entertaining and engaging for your audience.

1. Keep Them Short – No one wants to watch a two-hour live webcast, even weekly. More than 30 minutes may be too long. Get to the point, make the time you spend with your audience valuable to them, while focusing on the message and keeping it short and sweet. You still have a shop to run and customers to work with. A 10-15 minute weekly update and information session is more than enough. Keep them action packed and entertaining.

2. Show the Insider’s View – If you have a live event coming up, it’s great to show them some of the preparation and behind-the-scenes stuff you have to do. Whether it’s getting the lighting right or working on the sound, this is valuable information for your audience. They will love getting to know what your set up looks like or how your back room looks before a season launch!

3. Have a Point – Before creating any type of video, you need to have a point. Know what message, lesson, call to action etc. you’re going to give prior to starting your live event. People don’t want to waste their time; give them a reason to tune in every day. Write your notes on a 3×5 index card and have your key points ready. It’s ok to look at your notes, just keep the session moving and don’t hem and haw.

4. Look into the Camera – When you do your live events, there will be times that you don’t look at the camera. That’s okay; if you’re talking to someone else, you’ll want to look at that person. But, when you’re addressing your audience, look at them. And look into the lens, not the video display that shows you are in the picture.

5. Ensure Lighting and Sound Are Good – It’s hard to enjoy watching any live event when the sound and lighting are bad. Ensure that you have some sort of sound and lighting to make the event more enjoyable to watch. It’s easy to buy a lighting kit to set up and leave up that can make your lighting great – or choose a window with a sunny day if you don’t want to set up.

6. Invite a Live Audience – A really exciting way to do a live event is to also invite people to watch you perform the event in person. The energy the people will bring will make the event even more fun for people to watch. Doing them at a consistent day/time every week makes sure that if your customers want to be a part of the show they can be there.

7. Offer an Incentive – If you’re going to do a weekly event there should be something in it for the viewer. You can give away prizes; you can have an ongoing drawing where you randomly choose a winner who watched last week who must be watching this week to get the prize. Ensure you read the terms of service so that you do this by law. Or you can give a quick and free guide to the week’s topic and have people opt in to your email list – win/win.

8. Teach Them Something Useful – It can be valuable to tune in to your live event just because what you teach each week is something they can put to use right now. Don’t be stingy with information. Even if you are selling information, give it away on your weekly events. You are selling a product – tell people how to use it. You will become the go to expert and often it helps you get better wholesale accounts and free samples to show your audience. Just love what you do and show it.

Anything you normally do in your business can be fodder for a weekly webcast. You can show your audience a “day in the life,” a sneak peek behind the scenes and more. If you have a blog post about it, it can become a webcast idea. Have fun most of all, because it’s something you are going to do every week and you need to be upbeat and interesting while you are doing it.

September 22, 2016 by Mathea

Ten Webcast Ideas for Your Niche Store

If you want to start performing a webcast every week, you’ll need to come up with ideas that keep your audience engaged. It’s not as hard as you think to come up with ideas. You can repeat these ideas on a regular basis so that your audience is always dialed in and interested. Sometimes having a content plan or editorial calendar makes it easy to distribute the work and have your set up be easier. Plus you can let your customers/fans know what is coming soon!

1. Behind the Scenes – Everyone likes to know what you’re doing when you’re not doing your business. If you’re a food blogger, you could do a behind the scenes of how long it takes you to set up a shot, or about the mistakes you’ve made, or how you come up with an idea or shop for food. If you want to show off a bit of boxes coming in or show how to steam your clothes before you put them out in the shop, have at it!

2. A Day in the Life – If you’re a life coach you might want to show your audiences how you live and do a webcast from a vacation point, or while you’re on the road instead of from your well-decorated office. Show up in jammies, a swim suit, or other attire based on where you happen to be at the moment. Show off where you are. For your fashion shop, you might want to have an employee go through what they do in a typical day – organizing, unpacking, setting up for a webcast, helping customers, etc.

3. How I Do That – Most people love to know how to do things, and even if you’re afraid that they’ll then do it all themselves rather than shop from you, don’t worry. That won’t happen. Show them how you do things, and they’ll trust you even more to do it for them if that’s your service. But, more people will watch because it’s valuable and useful to learn how to do things. Ask them what they want to learn about and try to remember what it felt like when you learned the same things. Also, look to your vendors and see what they are teaching on youtube or Facebook Live videos.

4. Interviews – People also love learning about other people who are in the niche themselves. Whether they’re movers or shakers or newbies starting out, interviewing them for your webcast will be interesting for your viewers and for you. Interview other shop owners or vendors at the shows and have a break from a week of webcasts by publishing that on a scheduled week. Or when you have a vendor come by for a show and tell, do a quick interview with them. (tell them what you are doing before hand and they might have some great ideas for you)

5. Q & A Session – You likely get asked a lot of questions, so you can have a whole hour of Q & A where you answer questions off the cuff. You can collect the questions in advance or you can let them ask during the event if you have someone to help capture the questions for you. This one never gets old and it makes you very personable.

6. Live Events – If you have a cool life event happening that you think your audience will be interested in, why not stream it live for your audience? A graduation, an award, a speaking engagement… are all good fodder for a webcast. With fashion blogs and shops it is always good to do a live Q&A or a live fashion show for each season – or monthly!

7. Rants – Did something happen in your niche that you really need to discuss and rant about? If you have the right audience in the right niche, this may be one of your most watched webcasts, especially on replay. Talk about something that really gets you going – do you find one of the latest trends to be silly or is there something that you just love that you can’t wait to chat about? Either one or more will do.

8. Case Study – Did you or your solution help someone with something important? You can bring them on to discuss their situation and case. Go over it as you would a written case study so you don’t miss an aspect that made them successful. Maybe you do a lot of prom dresses and you can go through a case study talking about different body types and how to choose a dress for your style.

9. Get a Co-Host – You can ask different people to co-host based on your topic for the week. Usually it’s good to bring in an expert on the topic to help you present the facts for that webinar. It makes the webcast more fun to have more people, and the discussion will be interesting to the audience members.

10. Hot Seat Day – If you’re a coach, web designer, someone who helps writers, or other teaching/helping niche, you can put someone on the hot seat and analyze and advise them live during the webcast. This is a great way to show what you know, but you need to choose your subjects carefully because not everyone can handle this type of event. Or do this with a fashion styling day – show how you would style someone for an event – it shows your expertise and engages the audience.

Hopefully these ideas work for you. You can do so many different things with a webcast. The fact that you can share slides, share what’s around you and look at your audience live is a very powerful thing that can make a huge difference. You just need your phone or video camera (I use this one: Canon Vixia) to start and a good tripod to hold it while you talk. You can also use a webcam and your computer in your office.

September 21, 2016 by Mathea

10 Reasons Why Webcasts Can Be A Huge Success And Make You Popular with Fashion Audiences

It may seem crazy, but not only should you love webcasts and do them as often as you can – audiences love them too. Even if they don’t watch live, they love watching them afterwards on sites like YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope and others. Imagine growing your audience for your store (and your website) just by doing a virtual fashion talk every week. It’s a great way to connect with your audience, show off (for free) new items you got in that week or what’s happening in fashion that you can help your buyers with.

Here are the main reasons why they are so popular for your fashion forward customers.

1. They Feel Connected with the Host (That’s You or Your Channel) – When people become your fan, they want to see you in every way that they can, be it on a webcast or in person. And it doesn’t have to be just you – have your staff participate and be part of the fun. Take advantage of that and be where your fans want you to be, so that you can build better relationships and make more sales. Have some “live” audience sessions where you do a fashion show and broadcast it on Facebook live!

2. It’s Easier to Understand Difficult Topics – Many people learn better with visuals, and video can help with that. If you’re teaching a difficult concept, being able to show examples, really talk to your audience, and answer questions on the spot makes the topic a lot easier to understand. Imagine a webcast on how to wear the new “skinny scarf” 20 ways and show off your inventory while you have them captive.

3. They Find It Interesting – Audiences overwhelmingly find webcasts more interesting than blog posts, articles, and other forms of content. They are more likely to interact with a webcast, make comments, and participate than they are a blog post. They love to watch just to be part of the community, especially younger audiences and that makes it a great way to draw them in. Of course, they will want to buy online as well, so having an optimized website will make it easy to add sales to your store.

4. They Feel Included – When you invite people to weekly webcasts, they feel included in your inner circle. Whether your webcasts are public or for members only doesn’t matter. Your audience will feel included and part of your VIP circle. They get to know you and what you are like, and you can even find yourself with “inside jokes” with your audience.

5. It Feels Like a Real Event – It feels real because it is. If you’re hosting live webcasts, they’re real events that people can and will get excited about. Your audience will be happy, and that happiness will rub off on you and make you happy to perform the webcast each week. You can let your staff do them as well – just come up with a script or plan for the week and let them go, that way it becomes about the store and not just you.

6. They Can Build Relationships – When your audience is watching you live, in their mind you’re building a relationship with them. They’re looking into your eyes; they feel as if you’re talking only to them. They like to get to know people before they spend money, and webcasts are the best way to do that. When they walk in the store, it will feel like they already know all the people and that makes them welcome and more likely to buy.

7. It Feels Separate from the Sales Cycle – While webinars and webcasts today are certainly part of the sales cycle, to the audience it feels separate from the sales cycle. As long as your webcasts are informative, they’re not going to feel sold to or talked down to. They’re going to enjoy it. And you are not selling all the time, most of the time these are informational webinars to show what’s going on in the world you live in. If you just went to market, tell them all about what you saw – build anticipation for what you are going to bring into the store.

8. They Like to Follow Thought Leaders – If you’re an expert in your niche (and your audience certainly thinks you are), then any time you do a webinar your people are going to want to participate and learn from you. You can also see which shows are watched more and learn what your audience is looking for so you can give them more of that.

9. Audiences Love Demos – When you teach your audience to do something, even things you think are easy and boring, they just love it. Host a webinar teaching your audience to do one small thing that you do on a regular basis, and it’ll be a well-attended webinar – especially if you let them ask questions. Teaching is fun and will draw people to you because you will be more personable and not salesy.

10. They Like a Sure Thing – It’s like an email newsletter or a magazine; people like being able to count on something. If it’s a weekly live event, they’re going to be excited to view it and tell others about it too. If they know for sure that this event will continue happening, they’re going to be even more likely to tell others. Especially if you give your best information – remember you are selling a physical product so give them the information on how to use it and they will flock to you.

Hosting weekly webinars will pay off in a big way if you keep doing it and keep going. Ensure that your subject matter fits with your target audience and you’ll be surprised at how successful they’ll become. It make take a while for them to become high quality because you are not the greatest when you start, but starting is what you need to do. You can’t do episode 10 until you have done episodes 1 – 9. Brainstorm some ideas and get started.

September 20, 2016 by Mathea

Is Your Fashion Business Not Profiting Like It Should? Check These 8 Things Now

As a business owner, you sometimes discover that even though you think you’re doing everything you should, you’re just not making the kind of profit you thought you would. This is not that uncommon and there are things you can check to improve your profit with just a few tweaks. The key is to keep up with them and do them on a regular basis to help you business stay on track.

1. Know Your Gross Profit Margin – The first thing you should always know at the drop of a hat is what your basic gross profit margin is and then how that compares to the industry average. The formula to figure out your profit margin is calculated as follows: Profit Margin = Net Income / Net Sales. Once you figure that out, you can check it with industry standards. Check with a national organization that covers your industry to find the benchmark for your type of business. Or your local chamber of commerce might have the same type of resources.

2. Dig Deeper and Review All Your Prices – It’s also important to look at the prices of your products or services together and individually. Look at whether you’re making a profit off every single product or service you offer. If the profit is lower on certain items than others, or even at a loss, note that so that you can fix this problem. Make sure that you have a standard markup that covers your overhead and cost – maybe 100 – 120% over the wholesale cost so you can cover your product cost and your store costs. Do this calculation when you are buying so you can determine if items seem to need to be priced too high to cover your costs. That will keep you from making too many buying mistakes.

3. Have A Plan When You Give Discounts – It’s very important as a small business owner that you learn that you should not compete on price. You can compete on service and satisfied customers, but you can’t always have the lowest price. It’s also important that you stop offering discounts without a strategic means to increase profit. For example, it’s okay to offer two or three items for sale in a groupon type app, with a means to get those customers on an email list or otherwise keep in contact with them. Don’t just blindly give someone a discount without a plan to market to them later.

4. Analyze Your Expenses – Sometimes expenses can get out of control in any type of business. Take a look at each expense and determine whether or not you really need it. For example, are you paying for a special solution for your business but you’re not using it? Even five or ten dollars can add up over time and really cut into profits. These expenses should be reviewed on a regular basis to keep them in check. While you won’t notice them because they are just small amounts, they do add a significant amount over time.

5. Test Your Advertising and Marketing – Often, the biggest problem with profits is poor (or lack of) advertising and marketing. Remember that advertising is paid, such as running a Facebook advertisement; marketing is something you do organically, such as content marketing. Make sure you know how much return you are getting for the different types of advertising and marketing that you do. Use special coupon codes in your advertising so you can track them, and ask your customers when they come into the store how they found out about you. Stop doing the ones with no return and add more to the ones that are giving you the best outcomes.

6. Push Sales Harder – Once you realize what’s going wrong, you can push sales harder by making better sales ads, running more advertisements, focusing on content marketing more and so forth. If you’re not asking for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. Focus on better customer service in your store and be more active in your community to bring in more customers. Try new ways to advertise but make sure you are doing #5.

7. Redesign Your Website – If it’s been a while since you looked at your website objectively, you may want to check it out. Sometimes changing just one thing such as a drop-down menu or pop-under or slide can make a huge difference in sales. Add your name, face, address, and customer service number to the top of the main page if it’s not there. If you need an in-depth no-cost review of your website analytics, contact me at mathea@matheaford.com to hear about where you can improve your tracking and marketing.

8. Rein in Time Suckers – This is something that can get in the way of profits for many types of businesses. If you’re spending a lot of time on social media without a plan, you are eating into your profits. Set a time limit and only use social media when you’re done with your managerial work. Other things that take up your time are meetings that do not have a purpose. Or going to meet-ups or networking meetings that you don’t learn or meet any prospects at. Make sure you know the reason you are going.

If your business isn’t profiting as it should, even though you have good sales and are working hard, checking these things and tweaking them can make a big difference. It will just take a little extra effort to ensure that everything is working well together. Doing what you need to keep your business finances and profit in order keeps your store in the black.

September 16, 2016 by Mathea

8 Common Analytics Mistakes Store Owners Make – And How To Avoid Doing Them Yourself

When you first start out building a business, everything is so overwhelming that the last thing you want to think about is data, metrics and numbers. In fact it probably scares you to even consider that type of work needing to be done so you can have a successful business. But, in reality, analyzing what is working and what’s not working helps you move forward – faster. These common mistakes can be avoided so that you don’t waste any more time than you have to.

1. Not Knowing What Data to Track – Before you even get started looking at the data, you need to know what you want to track. Remember that just because there is data doesn’t mean you need to track it. Some of the data that Google Analytics collects just isn’t going to help you. You have to figure out what will help you and what won’t. Focus only on the data that will help you improve. Does your business need to know how many people came to a certain page? Or what your average sale is? Do you want to know what sites are referring people to you? Knowing your questions helps you find the right data to give you the answer.

2. Not Knowing When to Track Data – When you look at the data is very important, because you have to look at it at the right time in order to know what the data affects. For example, if you have a big seasonal launch on the 1st of July, you probably want to look at some data you’ve identified before the launch and then after the launch. Looking at things like how much traffic came to your pre-launch page from different sources (like social media) and how your email marketing is working (yes, you can track it) helps you know which sources to give more attention to because they are producing results.

3. Not Understanding Your Objectives and Goals – It’s very important to know how to turn all your business objectives into workable goals. Remember a goal needs to be SMART. That means: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. If you want to drive 3000 people to a page through social media, you can work backwards from that goal based on how much time you have to complete your goal. If you want 3000 people over 30 days, you need to send about 100 people a day – which means you need to post to social channels enough that you will get that kind of traffic. And you need to encourage shares so that you benefit more than once from the posting that you do.

4. Not Realizing What Problems You Want to Solve – Tracking data should be for a reason, such as fixing a problem. For example, let’s say you have a sales page that is getting a lot of traffic but there are no or low conversions. Do you know what data to look at so that you can fix the problem? This goes back to knowing what questions you are trying to answer.

5. Not Understanding the Business You’re Analyzing – If you are looking at data for a business you’re unfamiliar with, you can run into problems. You will need to do some research to understand industry averages so that you know where the business you’re looking at stands. If you can join a facebook group or find forums where people in that industry hang out, you can ask about benchmarks. Sometimes industry groups track that information and by being a member you can get a good idea what you should aim for. Find the industry group for your area and start researching.

6. Not Testing Different Methods – Whenever you are checking data up against the industry standards, it’s important that you test different methods to find out what works best. For example, you might test two or three different sales pages for one product or service at the same time. This is easy to do with google analytics – and you only need to make a slight change to the document like a different headline or a different picture. You want to try to see if you can improve your results, and the only way you can is by testing.

7. Not Setting Up Analytics Correctly – If you’ve never set up Google Analytics, it would be a good idea to get some help with that from an expert. Once it’s set up it’s going to be a lot easier to track your work, because it’s set up right. It’s a waste of time to do it wrong. If you don’t set it up at all, it’s hard to make important decisions about what’s working and what’s not working because you don’t know for sure. Analytics dashboards are easy to read and give you only the data you need to make a decision. You can also get them emailed to you automatically every week or every day. Data at your fingertips.

8. Not Choosing the Right Software and Tools – There is a lot of software out there that isn’t worth anything, but that people try to use. Remember that sometimes free is good, and sometimes free is not so good. If you hire an expert, they’ll help you ensure that you start out right. You can add to your information without going overboard and make better decisions and improve your bottom line with analytics.

Don’t let analytics scare you away from doing business. As they say, nothing is done until the paperwork is done, and that includes online business or in your brick and mortar store. You need these numbers to make good choices about what to do next in your business. Knowing the numbers will help you avoid other types of mistakes that can be very costly. Analytics provides a resource that is free to you and can show you where you need to improve and where you are doing things right.

Mathea Ford is an online e-commerce expert and understands both websites and local business. She helps business owners get the most out of their time and for their money to improve their results. Contact her at her website – www.matheaford.com for more information.