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Tag: networking

How To Break Into A Male-Dominated Industry As A Female Entrepreneur

December 12, 2023

By Celeste Black-Harr, NPI, Inc.’s Recruitment Coordinator The glass ceiling is a concept that describes an invisible barrier that limits advancement in the workplace for certain groups. For women who look to find a foothold in male-dominated industries, working to overcome stereotypes can make glass ceilings feel very real. The great thing about the glass ceiling metaphor, though, is that glass begs to be shattered. Breaking into a male-dominated industry as a female entrepreneur can feel daunting, but underrepresented voices who build a platform in their industry have an opportunity. They will not only benefit those that follow in their footsteps, creating a more accessible pathway in the future, their unique background and perspectives will also benefit the entire industry. Of course, if finding success in a male-dominated industry was easy then everyone would do it. While every industry has their own unique quirks and obstacles, there are a few considerations that are particularly worth taking into account for female entrepreneurs getting ready to break through. Find A Functional Support SystemReliable contacts are important to establish for anyone entering into any industry, but identifying these people are even more important for women who are looking to establish themselves in a

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How Celebrating Holidays on Social Media Can Benefit Your Business

October 17, 2023

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Marketing Communications Strategist As your business grows, building an audience online can quickly become a strong stream for new leads and an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition. In our previous article discussing how to use pictures to boost engagement on social media, we talked about how varied content is important for businesses that want to improve their performance online. While this is a great goal in theory, coming up with a consistent stream of unique content is tough. That’s why if you haven’t jumped onto the holiday post train yet, now is the time to start! Holiday posts are a great way to capitalize on current events in a way that breaks up your regular social media schedule. For some extra inspiration before the holiday season really kicks into gear, here are some things to consider when it comes to posting during the holidays! Choose Which Holidays to HighlightCapitalizing on a holiday on social media isn’t as simple as looking at the next one on the calendar and making a graphic to accompany it. Ideally, owners and social media managers should take some time to think about why their business has

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Getting the Most Out of Networking Events

October 3, 2023

By Kimberly Stevens, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing & Business Coach There’s a lot that goes into growing a small business, between learning the industry, making smart connections, and keeping up with the newest innovations. Naturally, this means that networking events can be a valuable opportunity for entrepreneurs to get their foot in the door and truly elevate their business. Any time a business owner can get themselves into a room where they are surrounded by other like-minded industry professionals, they have a chance to learn new strategies and techniques that can take their business plan to the next level. Unfortunately, many find networking events to be lacking as they struggle to make meaningful connections. Whether spending time at a convention, giving a presentation, or attending some other industry event, sometimes it can be tough to see immediate returns on your time and energy. If you’re looking for some strategies on how to capitalize best on networking events, give this process a try! In so many ways, successful businesses are built on relationships. Here’s how you can more reliably make a good first impression. Take Some Time to PrepareAs with most things, good preparation is the best way to set yourself up

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Level Up Your Digital Marketing with LinkedIn

May 9, 2023

By Zach Vesper, Senior SEO and Marketing Strategist We’ve previously discussed best practices for getting set up on LinkedIn as a small business, but as new features and opportunities become available, it can be difficult to know how to navigate through LinkedIn’s tools effectively. LinkedIn stands out from the crowd due to its focus as a business-oriented digital networking platform. As such, LinkedIn should not always be treated the same as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. If you are looking to expand the use of your LinkedIn Business Page, it’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of LinkedIn as a platform. To optimize our efforts, let’s take a minute to explore LinkedIn’s unique features and how you can use them to strengthen your business’ presence online. Reviewing the Strengths of LinkedInIn many ways, LinkedIn is set up similarly to other social media platforms. LinkedIn allows users to post content and build an audience over time, it promotes engagement, and it invites users to interact with relevant content based on what their interests are as determined by LinkedIn’s own algorithm. The main distinguisher of LinkedIn is its intended function as a social platform for businesses and business owners

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Diversification In Small Business: Why It’s Important To Try New Things

May 2, 2023

By Chris Bates, Vice President of Sales & Development When entering into a new industry or starting a small business, sometimes it can take time to find your footing. It’s important to learn the business, establish relationships in your area, and refine your service quality, but sometimes breaking through can still be difficult. With that said, one of the most frequent mistakes business owners make when they’re slow is avoiding trying new things. Opportunities frequently come knocking at the door, but a fear of losing what little market share they have, or concerns related to their ability to recoup from an unsuccessful investment too often lead to inaction. One of the biggest benefits of owning a franchise is access to a network of industry professionals who are plugged into the latest trends, technology, and business strategies that can help you pull ahead of your competition. Additional add-on services and opportunities to access new leads come up every day. The only way to guarantee that things stay slow in your business is to refuse these new opportunities. If you find yourself stagnating in your business, then the time is right to take action. Whether you’re busy and looking to expand or

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Giving A Memorable Presentation As A Small Business Owner

April 4, 2023

By Kimberly Stevens, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Coach Small business owners need to learn how to advocate on their own behalf and demonstrate their knowledge in many different venues. With success and expertise comes opportunities to share specialized knowledge with peers in their industry and related fields. Although public speaking may not come naturally to many business owners, presentations are fantastic opportunities to network and present themselves as masters of their craft. We’ve already covered some tips on how to improve public speaking as a small business owner, but there are many more strategies presenters should employ to make their speeches, classes, or demos more memorable. In most settings, business owners have a lot that they are trying to accomplish during their presentations. Not only are they trying to provide value to their audience by educating on their chosen topic, but their overall goal is also to leave a lasting impression that will convert their audience members into paying customers. Whether you’re a seasoned speaker or a newbie, here are a few things to consider to help take your presentation to the next level. Reduce Distractions (Through Preparation)The most effective presentations are done by passionate experts in their field. New technologies,

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Should You Call Your Clients By Their First Name?

February 28, 2023

Running a successful business is all about relationships. This notion shouldn’t be a new revelation, but it holds particularly true for the home inspection industry. Strong relationships built with real estate professionals can grow your inspection business. So, how do you strengthen these relationships? And when you’re meeting new people, how do you make a strong first impression? Saying someone’s name is powerful. However, knowing when to use a first name versus when to use a title can be difficult. It’s tough to know the “rules” when different people swear by different social strategies when conducting their own business. To know how to build relationships while portraying yourself with professionalism, here are a few points to consider when you’re deciding how to refer to your clients and other individuals in your business network. A Matter of RespectTo some it may seem old-fashioned or overly formal, but many people prefer to be referenced with their surname and title in professional settings. In particular, surnames might be preferred when there is an age discrepancy or said individual has earned a specific title (Dr., Sgt., etc.). In these situations, using surnames is a great way to show respect. Perhaps even more importantly, repeatedly

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Email Etiquette: How to Present Your Business Through Email

January 10, 2023

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Communications Strategist Running a successful small business is all about relationships. In the past, relationships could thrive solely over dinner and phone calls, but the way that professionals communicate is rapidly evolving. Today, business owners must learn how to communicate over email in order to grow and maintain relationships, but sometimes the way to do that isn’t clear. Let’s review some of the latest standards of email etiquette, including how to conduct oneself to reinforce professionalism. Dress Yourself Well In person, it is important to maintain a professional appearance. In some industries that could mean a suit and tie, whereas in others that might mean wearing a well-groomed uniform. In the same way, business owners need to have a good email appearance that conveys that same sense of professionalism. Especially when emailing a prospective client or an unfamiliar potential partner for the first time, the email address is the first impression. Use an address that contains your business name, and ideally one that does not use public-use domains. For example, every National Property Inspections franchisee receives their own npiinspect.com email. An email that conveys a direct association with a business rather than something too

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How To Invest In Marketing When Things Get Slow

December 6, 2022

By Sydney Bailey, NPI, Inc.’s Director of Marketing Across industries, entrepreneurs will find times in their business when things seem to be going great. There is no shortage in clients or work, and operating their business dominates their attention to the point where marketing can fall down on their list of priorities. This becomes an issue when business, inevitably, slows down. That constant train of phone calls and appointments begins to clear up, and as an ambitious business person, you don’t want to lose out on that hard-earned momentum. So, what do you do? Especially in seasonal industries that are particularly influenced by the ever-changing real estate market, slowing business marks a perfect time to invest your time (and money) in marketing. Make Networking a Priority The best thing you can do when things get slow is get out and meet new people! With each new introduction, you’ll meet a new potential client. With each office you visit, you could start a new long-standing relationship. If you haven’t already, join your local BNI group or any local hotspot for REALTORS® and industry specialists for potential referrals. In short, look for any opportunity to build your business’s contact list. Get connected

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How to Stand Out in a Competitive Market

May 31, 2022

It’s easy to feel intimidated by the competition—maybe they’ve been around for 20 years and you just started last month. You know everyone has to start somewhere, but while you’re building your business, how can you make sure that you stand out from the rest? This question has several answers—there may not be one simple solution, but it turns out there’s a lot you can do! A Job Well Done There’s much to be said about job performance. A job well done can create a good relationship between you and your consumers and keep people coming back to your business. It can also help you build a referral system based on good word-of-mouth. That being said, bad news travels fast, as is the same with negative reviews. In these cases, being an amazing inspector is not enough to offset a disparaging review or to generate the business you want. This requires the usage and management of social media accounts. Social Media One of the easiest ways to see an uptick in business and to encourage customer engagement is to create social media channels for your business. To market your franchise, the three most important social media outlets are Facebook, LinkedIn,

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Inspection Insights: How to Stand Out with Sample Reports

August 13, 2024

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Technical & Training Director In any industry, success often comes from separating yourself from the pack. Some businesses have exceptional communication skills, prioritizing customer service above all else. Other business owners invest in a diverse array of add-ons, making them a convenient one-stop shop for their clients. Then, of course, veteran business owners might trust that the quality of their products and services will naturally trump all in the end. Dedicating your attention to becoming the best among your competition is an excellent goal, but proving yourself to clients takes work, too! We’ve talked about how to get more reviews by prioritizing Google business listings for better online searchability, but there is another powerful tool that too few home and property inspectors utilize: sample reports. Home inspectors who host a sample of their inspection report on their website can display the quality of their product for any prospective clients and answer many of their burning questions before they even pick up their phone. If you’d like to start using sample reports on your website but you’re not entirely sold on the concept yet, let’s review a few of the benefits and discuss some of the

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Expanding Your Audience by Becoming a Bilingual Business

July 30, 2024

New business owners often feel that they are racing to find a client base and develop trust with their local community. Finding leads, converting them into sales, and creating advocates to spread the word of all the good work that they do – the fight to gain credibility in a market takes plenty of guts and hard work. But after that growth slows, it can be difficult to find a new client base to tap into. Language barriers in diverse populations can limit a business’s market reach, posing a significant challenge. There’s certainly an opportunity to expand by becoming a bilingual business, but making this change involves more than simply translating a flyer into Spanish and calling it a day. Owners who learn a second language or hire employees with language skills may be able to grow their business, but that’s only the start of the story. If you’re wondering what it would look like to start marketing in a second language as a small business, here are a few of the considerations to take into account first. Learning a Second LanguageOne strategy that business owners may consider if they’d like to start marketing in multiple languages is to learn

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Keeping Up to Date as an Entrepreneur

July 2, 2024

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Technical Supervisor & Training Administrator When running a business, owners work extremely hard to find their unique strategy for consistent success. Winning over a share of the market takes time and plenty of energy, but one common pitfall that entrepreneurs frequently encounter is losing that initial fire to learn and experiment. Too often, professionals find a comfortable place in their industry and then fall further and further behind while competition follows trends and implements what works into their businesses. So, what’s the solution? How do small business owners stay up to date in their industry? In the home inspection industry, some may point towards licensing requirements in each state as a solution, but this doesn’t resolve the problem for a couple of reasons: Ultimately, keeping up to date with your industry has to start with an internal desire to improve your services and elevate your business. Required courses will not cut it! So, for any property inspectors out there who want to keep their business practices and their personal knowledge on the cutting edge, let’s discuss a few of the top strategies. 5 Ways to Stay Up to Date in the Home Inspection Industry 1.

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Ranking Up: Debunking the Service Area Myth on Google

June 18, 2024

By Zach Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior SEO and Marketing Strategist As a multi-national property inspection franchisor, our marketing team gets a lot of questions about how to increase ranking on Google. Of course every small business’ marketing efforts should be multi-faceted, with a mixture of in-person relationship-building efforts and digital campaigns. With that said, there is no question that Google is king for digital marketing, and that all starts with optimizing your Google Business Profile. There are many features on a Google Business page that can be utilized to improve visibility and ranking, but we commonly see people turn to their service areas for answers. Many business owners seem to think that slight changes to the service area field could create the presence bump they need in certain areas. But we’re here to say that this probably won’t be the solution to any Google ranking frustrations. To better understand why this is the case, let’s discuss what service areas actually are, how they should be properly set up, and which strategies are the real secret for ranking up on Google. Defining Service Area BusinessesGoogle Business Profiles can be created for free and are broadly set up in one of two

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Game Plan for Growth: Stop Selling & Start Making Connections

June 4, 2024

By Kimberly Stevens, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing & Business Coach People become entrepreneurs for many different reasons, whether it’s the freedom to control their schedule, the direct impact they have on their business growth, or the prospect for financial independence. For many, “being your own boss” can be a career goal all by itself. However, despite the benefits, there are aspects of business ownership that can be intimidating as well. One challenging aspect that comes up again and again? Sales. Despite your skillset or previous experience, the need to sell yourself, your products, and your services can stop you in your tracks. Maybe you don’t think you’re charismatic enough, or the thought of selling things feels deceptive, selfish, or “slimy.”. The truth is, though, that “sales” has a worse reputation than it deserves (maybe thanks to one or two too many pushy telemarketers or sales clerks). Whether you’re extroverted or introverted, everyone has a unique way to relate to people so that they can become effective “salespeople” and set their business goals in the right trajectory, in a way that’s actually enjoyable. So, to all future entrepreneurs out there: stop selling. Instead, let’s discuss how important it is to invest in

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Is Social Media the Right Platform for Political Commentary by Your Small Business?

May 21, 2024

By Michael Trimble, NPI, Inc.’s Content Marketing Coordinator You probably haven’t noticed, but 2024 is an election year! Okay, so maybe you have noticed. In the midst of heavy polarization, heated disagreements, and the general anxiety that comes with national elections, it’s understandable if you want to distance yourself from the political dialogue sometimes. Navigating political discussions in your personal life can be tough, but small business veterans understand how much trickier it can be in the professional sector. Despite this, many feel compelled to jump on social media and add their two cents, either on their personal profiles or through their business pages. The temptation is clear. As a small business owner, you’ve worked hard to build your social media following. Now that you have a platform with people interested in what you have to say, it can seem natural to use it for everything. Some business owners may feel it’s their social responsibility to speak about a particular topic, while others argue they’re exercising their rights. Some may even argue that staying silent is a statement in itself. Before you hit send on your next political post using your small business as a platform, here are a few

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