As a business owner, entrepreneur, boss we often are working with very slim budgets or at least we often believe that we need to have a lavish budget to produce content and compete with the "Big Dogs" of our industries. I often here very successful people suggest that you if you want to take your success to another level you should hire a coach. I have found that it is not as easy as they make it seem, even though I have not given up hope and until my budget gets a little better I have another solution, Podcast. Yes Podcasting I have found to be an amazing (short-term, budget restricted) supplement to coaching as you can ear hustle on some of the best conversations from some of the smartest people on the planet. The only requirements are time and data and you can be easily on you way to gaining insights, suggestions, tools, stories and more from the best. Here are 5 of my favorite podcast :

• The Blog Millionaire by Brandon Gaile 
• The Social Media Examiner by Micheal Stelzner
• NPR's How I Built This with Guy Raz
• Hack the Entrepreneur by Jon Nastor 
• Social Pros by Jay Baer and Adam Brown

If you invest in 1 episode per day on the podcast of your choice (hopefully positive) and actually try the suggestions that the guest or host suggestion, do a progress check up in one year to see how your life has changed for the better, heck you might be in a position to hire a real coach. I have personally tried several strategies and tactics that I have learned from podcast, for example in the Blog Millionaire 's most recent episode titled "Every Blogger Needs These Seven to Succeed" Brandon suggested that to we purchase some tools and products that should make our videos better. The first product was a Lavalier Mic by PowerDeWise that you can plug into your phone and have better sound quality on your videos (link to products and book suggestions will be at the end of the post) for less than $25. Brandon also suggested a tripod by Acuvar that works with your smart phone for less than $15, quality looks great. I did purchase the items and tested them in the wind and more, so far so good, and that was a less than $50 investment in making better marketing material.


Book Suggestion:
I had the opportunity of watching a Facebook live with the Harvard Business Review Facebook Page and they had a speaker named Dorie Clark and she was amazing. She was speaking of gigs and the time that it takes to really get your business going as a consultant, marketer, coach, blogger and more. I am not completely finished with the book, however so far truly amazing and you will not be disappointed. (See book below).

Just remember "Your Brand" is you and you should always be investing in something towards your brand development i.e time, money, and effort. If you do not have the money then invest time,if you have money, then do both, but by all means, please do something.

 Consumer habits are shifting towards mobile consumption as smart phone technology and merchants begin to provide more opportunities for customers to purchase their products via their mobile phones.  As these trends begin to effect small business owners, many are wondering if and when they should invest in their own mobile application. According to a report by Forrester US consumers only use an average of 25 apps and 88% of that time is spent with only 5 apps; so as  small business owner you have to weigh the cost vs. reward when considering your own app or native application.
A person's mobile phone is very valuable real estate in a persons life, and even though phone providers provide unlimited data options for phone calls, text messages , apps and multimedia files, you are limited to how much data your phone can hold. I always advise my clients to think about about  3 things when you ask a customer to download your app:
 #1 Data
Is my app 'heavy" meaning does it take up memory and compromise the performance of my phone. The more bell and whistles your app comes with the heavier or more needy it is and can put a strain on your customers phone. Also people store videos and photos of family  and their favorite songs on that same phone. So make sure your app is more important than that as you might be asking them to compromise getting all of Jr.'s basketball game the favorite workout mix.

#2 Utility
How often does my customer interact with my business? Can they do this via my mobile website? These are a few questions to ask yourself to ensure that your app will not only be downloaded but also utilized.  According to Localytics 23% of all user abandon app after download which is about 1 in every 4 users. I would always advise my clients when thinking of the design and functionality of the app, think of a way to get the user to check it often or provide some "utility". For example I have a radio station that I consult with and I advised them to add some type of musical trivia game to their app as a way to not only keep the customer engaged but also keeps the customer on the app which can help with advertising. 
Optimized for Mobile.

#3 My mobile site might be good enough
Some website providers already provide mobile optimized sites or site that look and work well on mobile phones, so you might not need the extra step. If you use some of the main site builders like Word press, Wix, Weebly, etc you more than likely have a website optimized for mobile phones. The best way to make sure is to use your mobile web browser and put your url and see if you are able to function and if the experience is similar to that on a desktop.
It is true that customers are moving towards mobile everything world, however they have preferences and expectations when it comes to their mobile experience as the experience you provide with your product or service. Any inconsistencies in either experience can hurt you long term. If you are certain that a mobile application is for your business do some thorough research on cost, monthly maintenance, and updates. If you need some guidance or help you can always send us an e-mail at [email protected] Good luck.

 As marketers we sometimes feel like because we have someones information i.e., e-mail and/or a mobile number we feel like we can message them when "we" feel like it with whatever message we are pushing at that time. My inbox is important to me and I like most love receiving messages, however I don't like wasting my attention and/or time and somethings in your inbox can do both. What is an inbox? I can be:

• E-mail
  
• Text Messages
• Facebook Messenger
  
• Instagram Messenger
• Link In Mail/Messages
• Comments
  

I recently have the opportunity to read Tim Wu's "The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads" and what I found was that our attention is worth quite a bit of money so I am very careful about what I pay attention to as I understand the value. In spite of the resistance clever marketers have figured out ways to manipulate that attention similar to the way (if you have ever driven in the Fashion District in Los Angeles ) parking attendants whip (popping sound)  a flag to get your attention as you are driving by which can cause an accident, but he doesn't care as long as he has the potential to earn the $10 for parking. Lame marketers are really no different, below are a few examples of marketer not respecting the inbox:

• Misleading Subject-lines
• Friends(Undercover Marketers) sends you offers on FB Messenger
• When you go "Live" and Offer little to no Value (Not to mention wasting my time on your shout-outs)
• Download Waste (White papers, Lame e-books, etc.)
• Videos that show a rented house, helicopter, etc and no real advice besides buying your 10 week BS course
• Friends who ask really common questions in order to get responses and show up in my feed with offers
• and more

The key is to be aware of what marketers are wasting not only your attention but also your time, which both have a tremendous value. As marketers we need to be better and not do "Selfish Marketing", but rather mover towards "Considerate Marketing" which is why I have not unsubscribed from Benihana's even though I have not been in years.