Stores and restaurants hire companies to send secret shoppers into their establishments so they can see their operation through the eyes of their customers. You can earn some extra income as one of these shoppers, or you can start your own mystery shopping service, and make lots of money.

Why is mystery shopping important? Especially in today’s economic climate, it’s absolutely vital to the health of a business to have loyal customers. Customers who continually shop or dine at a store or restaurant are the “bread and butter” that keeps a business thriving.

Through use of mystery shopper reports, a store operator can see how their customers are being treated. They can see what is preventing someone from becoming a repeat customer. Then they can take action on the findings of a report to improve their operation and bottom line.

A business can additionally hire a mystery shopping company to send shoppers into their competitors. This tells them how they stack up against the competition.

So, how do you get in on the action as either a shopper or mystery shopping company owner?

To become a shopper, you can apply for jobs at jobslinger or shadowshopper. Both services are job boards where mystery shopping companies post their available jobs. Shadowshopper has a free and a reasonable fee service to hook shoppers up with jobs. Jobslinger is free, though an upgraded service for shoppers is now available called Jobslinger Plus.

As a company owner, you can do well financially. I have for the last 25 years. To start your own company, it’s best to start as a shopper. This will give you needed experience and knowledge. From there it’s a matter opening your mystery shopping company and mingling with your local business community to get clients. The good news is a mystery shopping business ultimately has no geographical limits on where it can service clients. This business can start by serving businesses in your local area, and build up from there to service national chains.

You might be asking how much money can be made. There are two possible avenues for sales, as mentioned, local and national. Let’s just take local. I’ll give you an exercise. Get out your phone book’s yellow pages. Look through them to get an idea of the number of businesses that deal with the public. All of these are potential clients for your business. And usually businesses that contract for this type of service want ongoing monthly reports. The numbers can add up nicely. Going for national accounts, you’ll probably find yourself in a competitive bidding situation, but just one of these chains would set you up nicely.

I hope this gives you a sense of the possibilities that exist in the mystery shopping industry.

Author:

For more information starting this business, please visit http://www.mystery-shopper-business.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

new thrifted pyrex for my little collection.

Source: .elsie*cake.

An example of this integration is Facebook and Twitter. Facebook contains an app that allows businesses and individuals to automatically link Twitter accounts. This means that your Facebook fans and friends can turn into your followers on Twitter. Of course, linking each of your social media accounts should be the first step you take in setting everything up, anyway.

Creating the Content

Aside from the viral nature of social media, the issue at stake–which you can control every aspect–is the content you create and post to your social media accounts. You can control how much content you create, the quality of the content and how often you post and update regular followers. In essence, your reputation and authority hang in the balance with each and every post you make or status you update on your social networking accounts.

If social media marketing is going to be your primary lead generation method, your content needs to stand on its own legs. In other words, the videos you share on Facebook should be short, to the point and well-designed. You should design a YouTube channel that shows your business specifically, answers frequently asked questions and gives real value to potential leads and customers. Blogs need to be updated daily and content that involves important issues to your target market should be discussed.

Relationship Marketing

For lead generation, social media accounts can be used for relationship marketing and connecting with the prospect or customer. Not only is it important to update your accounts on a regular basis to maintain activity and continuity with leads, but it’s also important to listen to what people are saying. Pay attention to your leads’ comments on your Facebook or Twitter accounts about your business or product. Create polls and surveys that ask customers and leads for insight on what to improve or what they want. Making the customer your focus of your social media efforts can only help your long-term goals and strategies; social media marketing makes this pretty easy to do.

Promoting your Content

In addition to creating the content for your social media accounts and websites, you also need to share the content. Promoting your content is as crucial as creating it in the first place. For example, you need to submit your blog posts to Digg, StumbleUpon and BlogCatalog. You need to create RSS feeds so that other people can follow and read what you write or blog about on a regular basis.

All in all, social media marketing can be huge lead generation tools if you take the time to develop the content, set up your accounts and maintain them on a regular basis. Whether you need to outsource some of the work to freelancers or do it all yourself, it’s important to concentrate not only on developing your following through social media promotions as well as authority in your niche, but also on maintaining the relationships you have with leads and customers.

Author:

Chris Patterson
http://www.marketingsuccess4you.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

#153/365 This is my first attempt at Siebe’s brilliant cookie splash. It was kind of a rushed setup. I found that it is pretty much a one shot deal, because it’s a big mess after the splash. My coffee cups were not as colorfull so I picked this one up at the salvation army…it was the best out of all my choices there (It was cracked so I got it for 50 cents..score!). I learned several things this time around which will make my next attempt better (I hope).

Source: isayx3

The Dalai Lama based his statement on the following research and studies.

? The Center for Women’s Business Research reported, “If U.S.-based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 5th largest GDP in the world, trailing closely behind Germany, and ahead of countries including France, United Kingdom and Italy.”

? The Center for Women’s business Research conducted a study that showed that there are approximately 8 million women-owned enterprises in the U.S. alone, and that those enterprises generate approximately $3 trillion and create or maintain more than 23 million jobs representing 16% of all U.S. employment. Accordingly, the study revealed women entrepreneurs have economic clout. The more women entrepreneurs participate in the labor force, the higher the Gross Domestic Product.

? The World Bank reported that on a global level, women own or operate 25 to 33% of all private businesses. Statistics show that women-owned enterprises grow faster than those owned by men and faster than businesses overall.

The Dalai Lama’s fortuitous statement in September 2009 was preceded by the December, 2009 report by The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. “Women small business owners will ultimately create more opportunities for employees to grow in their jobs and inspire others to start their own small business - all while providing customers with superior service.”

Forbes.com reported that women are fast becoming the job-creation engine for the U.S. Women start businesses and are responsible for an increase in new jobs at rates well beyond men and in a way that disproportionately exceeds the current contribution to U.S. employment

U.S. women will need to step into greater leadership roles in order to fully meet the demands of creating global change. Heretofore, a handful of women have become the CEO of a major corporation, filling Senatorial and Gubernatorial positions, some from a second in command position. These opportunities are not enough to carry the clout needed to create global change.

It has long been known that unlike masculine power, which is the power to create those things that can be controlled, feminine power is the power to create those things that are far beyond our control, but which our hearts most deeply long to have.

Feminine power brings with it the qualities of love, intimacy, spiritual connection, self-expression, creativity, right livelihood, meaningful contributions to the world and brighter expectations for future generations. All this will require the awakening of a co-creative feminine power to bring it forth.

The world needs your natural capabilities. Are you willing to step up to this unique and worthy endeavor? If you feel overwhelmed or inadequate to the task, there are many opportunities to make meaningful contributions with the skills you have.

Furthermore, there are retreats, workshops and discussion groups to discover the keys to awaken your co-creative feminine powers that are critically important to your personal and planetary evolution. I wish you well on your journey.

Author:

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach - Certified Hypnosis Practitioner, Author and Speaker. Dr. Dorothy facilitates clearing the blocks, fears and limiting beliefs, then, you can live the life you deisre. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one’s daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net

Article Source: EzineArticles.com