Businesses are always looking for ways to justify the existence of their digital marketing. One way companies do this is with eCommerce products. Depending upon the level of customizations you want you to have choices such as Etsy, Shopify, WooCommerce, and of course nopCommerce which is what we're writing about here. We love nopCommerce from the standpoint of its acceptance of internet standards, being open source, and the allowance to tie and integrate with many backend systems within growing small businesses.

We've heard of Facebook removing our organic reach for small and growing businesses. A key takeaway we've already taken is the importance of your own website. Facebook cannot control your business outside of Facebook. Your website is your voice, your products, and your brand messages all the time. Your website will use your sales funnel, marketing techniques, and lead generation to improve your bottom line. Facebook going back to its roots and it has upset many people that manage social media sites. We find this as a new opportunity to not only double down on the true marketing aspects of the business but grow it. This is where Facebook started and has grown from. Businesses, such as ourselves, have overtaken and enjoyed the ride of free promotion. That time has changed and it is now time we business owners have to "pay to play". Let's take a look at the core items that are happening with this change and how the business owner can take advantage of them.

When businesses ask individuals to talk to their organization, their customers, or a group of unknown individuals for an event they are looking for what is called an influencer. An influencer is someone that is considered, in part, an expert in their field. This past week I was asked to talk to two groups (note: I don't consider myself an influencer [yet] but I am definitely pushing to be one). One group is to a select twenty people in a very large company (who isn't our client – and we know never will be as they are not in our core market size). The group I will be talking to is their entire marketing department to change and improve their digital marketing foot print from locally to nationally. Of course, I accepted as just talking to a group of such great people is something that makes us truly proud. The other group is to over fifty people of their current and potential clients (and is one of our clients) related to helping learn the art of search engine optimization or SEO.

In the land of business there is always a need to have meetings. Many consider meetings a complete waste of time but when handled correctly can push a business to the next level of success. The key is when you have a meeting to have a plan, make it effective, and not waste people's time so that they can continue to be effective. Over the years I have been in more meetings than I care to count. Many have been good but more often than not they were a waste of everyone's time as not everything was properly prepared beforehand. After each meeting whether I held it or someone else did I took some personal notes and thought I would share as many of the items have been shared but I have never run across a blog post that covered all in a single post that was short, sweet, concise, and didn't waste my time. So, let's take a look at the list

We often want change in our lives and continue to live in our comfort zone. In the past four months I have pushed myself harder to be outside of my comfort zone and it's taught me some very valuable lessons that many would've said "duh" to. We all learn and grow at our own pace. A pace that we set for ourselves and one that allows us to become better at a pace that works for us.

We pride ourselves when it comes to educating, informing, and teaching our clients in all aspects of social media and websites. We believe every client is more than capable of doing the work themselves and that we are their tool so they can focus on their business rather than the marketing aspects. A client should have knowledge in doing even if they don't want to do it. They should be made aware of the latest terminology so that they comprehend any information they hear in an effective manner.

As I wait for the next festivities of the day to begin I scroll through my Twitter and Facebook feeds in anticipating of inspiration and education. As I continue to scroll endlessly I come into a realization that in the past few years we have killed off the "space" (bar) in our postings (a take on Radio Killed the Radio Star -- Buggles - Video killed the radio star 1979). No longer do you see "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", or even "Happy Birthday". All we see is #MerryChristmas, #HappyHolidays, and #HappyBirthday. We have ultimately in our desire to become hash tag relevant have ultimately killed space (bar) itself.

We have won the second-best Information Technology company within Northwest Indiana multiple times. One might think being second place isn't something to talk about but for us it's a very unique item. Yes, we didn't win and we are thankful for it. It's not our core business. In fact, it's not our business at all. That's right we do not do Information Technology at all. It isn't because we aren't capable of doing it and our owner has over fifteen years of being an Information Technology administrator. So, we are extremely thankful that we have been voted second best as that shows we are truly rocking our client's websites, security, and infrastructure for them. Beyond our web servers, database servers, and mail servers we don't do Information Technology.

We see marketing content all day long but how making content that sticks are the key to content marketing success. If you are like me your phone is across the room to force you to get out of bed to turn it off so that you don't wake the rest of the family sleeping. This not only forces me to get going at 4am but also gives me my first dose of content; my daily calendar. Content is around us and that content needs to engage us so that we want more of it. Today we added our first full-time content writer with the second already set to start early next year. To get her started in writing stories not only for our clients but those that aren't our clients I started writing at 5am seven core aspects that will help our clients or any business grow with their art of storytelling. Let's delve in and see what the first seven items are and in no particular order of importance as they are all important.

There is no decision that I ever make without sleeping on it. In the past two months I’ve slept a lot more than normal which has allowed me to do a lot more thinking than normal. I wake up more refreshed, crazier ideas (I like crazy), and a renewed effort to be myself. I have gone from four-hour nights to six-hour nights. That increase has made some interesting changes in our company, telling the overall story for our clients, and who I am as a person. Having been in big business with companies that have 3,000 or more employees for so many years I went into what I am calling culture shock. You had to play a role, you had to fit a specific mold, and if you tried to step out of that mold you were squashed like a bug. Your individuality, creativity, and personal growth were limited to the projects you were working on. You were no longer allowed to grow. This is the nature of big business and what made me realize my love, passion, and desire for small businesses.