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It is no secret that Facebook is a growing community and, it is a huge part of our day to day lives (for those who use it).
In 2018, Facebook hit 1.8 billion daily users, which is massive when you think about how much potential it has for businesses and marketers alike.
So, businesses are seeking to capitalise on Facebook for Business.
However, while it certainly looks to be a great place to advertise your business, it’s not for everyone.

That’s why it’s worth taking a look at the pros and cons of the platform before deciding whether to use it or not.

Facebook Pros for Business

Large Audience

Facebook has over 2.4 billion monthly users in 2019!

The audience on Facebook is huge. In fact, no other social network comes close. Most businesses choose to make Facebook their number one priority for this reason.
Which can cost-effectively reach new customers or re-engage with existing ones. Having a business page makes it a lot easier for you to reach out to your local and global community and engage with your customer base.

Advertising

Facebook has fantastic targeting capabilities

A business can target potential clients via the Facebook advertising platform. You can target your message to users in a specific location as well as target those by demographics such as sex, age and interests to name a few. You can even target based on more advanced demographics too such as relationship status, language, education, also people in certain professions, people who enjoy certain TV shows, and even people who have recently bought a house in Mississippi.
You will definitely be impressed by how easy it is to reach your target audience that’s because of all the information that Facebook pulls from its users.
No other social network comes close to specific ad targeting.

Analytics

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Facebook page will give access to analytic reporting. These reports will give you insight into how your fans engage with you as well as important information such as the time and day your fans are most likely to be engaging online, how much they react with your posts, age and location demographics and visits to your page which also includes a breakdown by referrer.

Direct interaction with customers

Not every customer wants to visit your blog, or sign up to the newsletter in order to receive updates and offers, many would rather see these things when they log onto social media instead.
You can also directly target those who are interested in your products or services, and start up conversations with them and find out what they like and dislike about your company. You can then respond directly to feedback, which will help to strengthen your brand and build influence.

Affordable

It is surprisingly that you can use Facebook to market your business for free and grow organically by posting and engaging with your page likers.
But, you can also boost your engagement through paid posts and adverts.
Facebook Ads has flexible pricing, you can spend as little as $1 a day. When you create an ad, you can select whether you want to apply a daily or lifetime budget. Facebook advertising cost will depend on your industry, the size of your audience, and the quality of your ad.
Depending on this targeted market, a few hundred dollars a month spend could get you good exposure.
This doesn’t include the manpower to create, set up, manage and monitor the ads of course.

SEO

Facebook pages have great Search Engine Optimization ranking and Google are now incorporating both the Facebook page and Facebook reviews into your local search results. So even if you end up doing nothing with your Facebook page, it’s still a great idea just to have that presence.

Size is not important

Facebook has over 80 million active small and medium sized business pages.
Facebook allows you to create custom pages, have conversations with your customers, and easily post photos and videos. Creating a Facebook Business Page is FREE.

But that doesn’t mean that every page is a real Business Page.
So, Facebook had removed over than 500 million fake accounts in 2018. By removing the spam, fake accounts, that created more room for real, relevant brands.

“PIN”

One of the most remarkable features of Facebook is that you can PIN the important posts to your business to the top of your facebook page.
When you post new content to your Facebook Page, older posts get pushed farther down your Timeline. But you may want a specific post to stay at the top of your page longer. Facebook offers the ability to “pin” one post at a time to the top of your page. Pinned posts can be used to promote upcoming events or important announcements.

Photos & Graphics

Facebook gives a preference to photos and graphics.
And it’s great for businesses with stunning visual content. Great photos and graphics will likely increase your Facebook page’s engagement levels.

Facebook Cons for Business

Pay to Play

In the past, Facebook was a great place to gain free attention, these days it’s more of a pay to play space. High demand for ad space on the site, and users being tired of with the number of businesses on there has led to shrinking free reach. Because of this, those who want to do well on the site need to pay for ads that specifically market to their target audience.

It’s easy to go wrong

Every business faces a few disgruntled customers from time to time, but one of the main issues with Facebook is how quickly they can take over your page. From leaving negative reviews to posting negative comments on every post you make, to getting their friends involved, that things can catch on like wildfire! it can be hard to monitor and maintain a reputation on the site.
Even some large companies, have decided to delete their presence on Facebook after experiencing this first-hand. Sometimes it’s just not worth the upset.

Commitment, Time and Resources

Running a Facebook page requires commitment. This may be fine for large companies who can employ a social media manager, but small ones may not have the time or energy to keep their pages up to date and interact regularly. If you don’t have the time to keep your page updated, you may be better off using other networks for the time being.
This is one of the biggest drawbacks of having a Facebook page. As a business owner, you need to be aware that setting up and growing a Facebook page does take time, resources and energy.

Need time to grow

Remember, Facebook isn’t the answer to generaete immediate sales. It does take time. You need to be patient because it takes time to find interested fans.
It is simply a tool to grow awareness of your brand and connect with both current and potential customers. It is a long-term strategy and can be a bit of a slow burn.
Important note: Facebook Pages require regular updates with new content that feels authentic. If you neglect your Facebook Page, it will die. It will also leave a negative impression about your company.

Facebook can be a great marketing tool, but as with every business decision, it’s always wise to weigh up the pros and cons before jumping in head first.

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What was the hardest struggle you faced with Facebook?

It is very important to have ethics in marketing research because everyone involved from the clients and the public to the respondents and the researchers all have rights and obligations. When market research methods don’t involve ethics, lines are easily crossed and laws are broken.

When the importance of ethics in marketing research is overlooked, companies can face serious ethical repercussions and drastically impact the lives of consumers. Thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, market research methods have exploded and it’s now easier than ever before to conduct low-cost market research. Without ethics in market research though, companies can face major public backlash and innocent lives could be ruined.

That’s why research guidelines are designed to protect a company’s workers, its customers, and the validity of the information gathered, but the risk or reward for certain guidelines are not always clear. How can your small business get the cost-effective marketing research you need while still upholding multiple codes of ethics?

Defining Ethics

Ethics, in a broad sense of the word, is difficult to define. Personal ethics tend to differ from person to person, however, each industry has a generally accepted, even if not published, code of ethics. Infusing ethics throughout your business matters because it reflects both the beliefs your organization holds and on you personally.

Marketing research is such a ubiquitous mission that it applies to the business, charity, and academic worlds. For this reason, there are different codes of ethics for different types of marketing and research, such as social media marketing, marketing towards children, and public opinion elections.

Why Ethics is Important in Market Research

Research is a large part of a successful marketing strategy. To market effectively, you should know your target audience, what they need and want, and the best means to reach potential clients. All of these require thoughtful, informed, and ethical research.

Unfortunately, Market research is often manipulated or refuted because it holds so much power to influence. We’ve all seen the stories on the news of fake market research.
Falsified research can result in product recalls, misleading claims for investors, and threats to the safety of users.

Those are some main point why ethics is important in market research:

⦁ Privacy:

Privacy is a major concern for customers today, especially after the many impropriety of companies misusing customer information. With companies having an unmatched ability to collect and store massive amounts of customer data, the importance of ethics in marketing research has never been higher. While there are many market research methods to collect and use customer information to sell products or target advertising messages, conquering the privacy of customers is a risky business that never pays off in the end.

⦁ Rights and Obligations:

Everyone involved in the market research operation, from clients and researchers to the public and respondents, has rights and obligations they expect to be met. From biased research methods and the occupation of privacy to unqualified research methods and twisting, understanding ethics in marketing research is the best and only way to meet the rights and obligations of all parties involved in the market research. Paying attention to the ethical importance of meeting the rights and obligations of everyone involved is the best way to avoid any unethical concerns when it comes to your market research methods.

⦁ Deceptive Practices:

The importance of ethics in marketing research doesn’t just apply to the way participants are treated but market research methods as well. Companies today have more access to customer data than ever before and this amount of access can easily lead to false practices. Practices, like corrupt research results and not reveal to consumers that their data is being collected, make understanding why ethics in marketing research is more important than ever before. Lying and deceiving customers to access and gather information is ethically wrong and could backfire in a devastating way.

⦁ Confidentiality:

Understanding what a violation of confidentiality is can help your company avoid ethical issues when it comes to your market research methods. The importance of ethics in marketing research is to help companies avoid any illegal sharing of customer data, whether it’s sharing information with affiliates or selling that information to outside companies. Breaking of confidentiality are great ways to discourage market research respondents from participating in any future market research methods and receive public backlash for your unethical practices.

Here is a list of the things you can do and things you can not do to apply ethical market research.

There are important things you have to do while applying ethical market research:

⦁ You have to respect the rights of all research participants: confidentiality, transparency, and privacy. Ensure that all participants are voluntary, and that they have the right to pull out their consent at any point during the research process. Participants must also be informed if they are being filmed or recorded.
⦁ Be sure to quote the name of the firm that conducted the research, the purpose, and the dates of the study in any reports. By transparency, you’ll show your viewers that your research is trustworthy, and that the strategies you used were really effective.
⦁ Establish with the firm you have hired to conduct the research that they are conducting it in your best interest, not their interests, and that the research being run is of no benefit to their personal or firm interests. It is best to come to an agreement about the means of research and the cost of the research before anything is begun.

On the other hand, there are important things you should not do while applying ethical market research:

⦁ You should never ask the researchers for confidential information about the respondents or their responses.
⦁ Never quote any research in which the responses have been influenced or forced. This is useless research and use of it is ultimately ineffective for promoting your organization or product.
⦁ It’s not required to conduct primary research new data, when you can purchase the results of a secondary study the data you already collected with the same purpose for much cheaper. Why pay for a costly survey or focus group when someone else has already done something with the needed results?
⦁ It’s impossible to ask for quantitative analytics from a qualitative study, and vice versa. If you need a certain kind of data, make sure the study is done in a way whereas the results are useful for your organization and purposes.
⦁ Don’t dictate the methods used by the firm you’ve hired to conduct the research, leave it to the research professionals. However they should explain the ‘why’ of their recommendation.

So, What does that mean to my business?

There are a lot of different ways marketing research can go wrong. Without a clear code of ethics, a mission-driven business could sponsor a focus group or other research project that can end up seriously harming them and their customers.
Unluckily, it happens all the time: the public recognize a suspicious business, said business is immediately denounced by many previous clients, and the business loses credibility, which can be difficult or even impossible to recover from.

Ethical practices in marketing research will create effective answers for your organization’s questions and build trust and credibility with your employees, clients, and stakeholders. A mission-driven, win-win approach!

The importance of ethics in marketing research has never been greater thanks to many recent scandals of companies abusing customer data and the amount of data companies have access to.
It’s important to have ethics in marketing research, not only for the benefit of your company but for the benefit of your customers, employees, and suppliers as well. There may be many market research methods available to companies today but any method that makes you question your ethics or completely throw them out the window is not worth your time or your customer’s time.

While the definition of entrepreneurship has stayed constant for decades, the possibilities for wannabe entrepreneurs have definitely evolved. 100 years ago, what options did an entrepreneur have? If you didn’t have different unique skills to make something, and didn’t have the capital to buy something, you were out of luck.
The options available to entrepreneurs today have exploded. All thanks to technology like Shopify and the barriers to enter entrepreneurship have been removed.

The best definition of Entrepreneurship you will heard so far was by Robert Louis Stevenson, he said:
“Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”

Let that sink in. it seems to be missing certain things, the starting of companies and the inherent risk.

Nowadays we define Entrepreneurship as the act of creating a business or businesses while building and scaling it to generate a profit.
The more modern entrepreneurship definition is also about transforming the world by solving big problems. Like initiating social change, creating an innovative product or presenting a new life-changing solution.
However, as a basic entrepreneurship definition, it’s a bit shortened.
What the definitions doesn’t tell you is that entrepreneurship is what people do to take their career and dreams into their hands and lead it in the direction of their own choice. It’s about creating a life on your own terms. No bosses. No restricting schedules. And no one holding you back. Entrepreneurs are able to take the first step into making the world a better place, literally for everyone in it.

And the entrepreneur definition rarely ever talks about the enormous impact entrepreneurs have on the world.

Entrepreneurs see possibilities and solutions where the average person only sees discomfort and problems.

Understanding what is an entrepreneur can help more people recognize the value they contribute to the world.

Importance of Entrepreneurship

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What is entrepreneurship really about? And why’s it so important? An entrepreneur is the person who sees a problem in the world and immediately focuses on creating the solution. They’re the leaders that take action on their own to improve society. Whether they’re creating jobs or a new product, they permanently take action to guarantee world progress. In the process of understanding what is entrepreneurship, let’s look at why entrepreneurs are important in society.

They create jobs: Without entrepreneurs, jobs wouldn’t exist. Entrepreneurs take on the risk to employ themselves. Their aspiration to continue their business’ development which finally leads to the creation of new jobs. As their business continues to grow, more jobs are created. So, lowering unemployment rates while helping people feed their families.

They create change: Entrepreneurs dream big so surely some of their ideas will change the world for real. They might create a new product that solves a burning problem or explore something never explored before.

They add to national income: Entrepreneurship create new wealth in an economy. New ideas and improved products or services from entrepreneurs allow for the growth of new markets and new wealth to be created in an economy. Also, increased level of employment and earnings add to the national income.

They give to society: While some have these thoughts of the rich being evil and greedy, they often do more for the greater good than the average person. They make more money and therefore pay more in taxes which helps fund social services. Entrepreneurs are considered as one of the biggest donors to charities and nonprofits for various causes. Some seek to invest their money in creating solutions to help poorer society have access to things we take for granted like clean drinking water and food availability.

Why do people become Entrepreneurs?

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Changing the world: Many entrepreneurs pursue to make the world better. Whether entrepreneurs believe in space exploration, or creating a practical but game changing product, they ultimately build a brand to service others. Some entrepreneurs use their business as a way to raise capital quickly to funnel into their noble causes. To social entrepreneurs, building an empire is about creating a better world for everyone.

Flexible hours: Entrepreneurship is often common around those who need flexible hours. Many people with disabilities often enjoy entrepreneurship as it allows them to work when they’re able to. Parents with children might also prefer entrepreneurship as it allows them to raise their children at home or pick them up from school without having to feel guilty. Students may also like the flexibility of entrepreneurship as their courses might not allow them to work standard office hours.

NO BOSS: Entrepreneurs often struggle with having a boss. They often feel suffocated, restricted and held back. They feel that they have a more effective way of doing things. Others may dislike the lack of creativity freedom. eventually, they become attracted to entrepreneurship to succeed on their own terms. Being the boss can be more satisfying than having one.

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Working from anywhere: With flexibility in working hours, entrepreneurship attain that for those who don’t want to be tied down to a specific location. Entrepreneurs might not want to work from the same place every single day, it gets boring for them. So, if they are looking for the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, the entrepreneur lifestyle is the right one for them.

Risk-takers: Calculated risk taking and entrepreneurship go hand in hand. Entrepreneurs don’t apply to jobs, they create them. With that comes the risk. Whether it’s the financial risk of starting your first brand or the risk from not knowing what is coming and you can’t expect, business is risky. Entrepreneurs are often taking risks by trying things the average person won’t, to do things the average person can’t.

Can’t fit into the corporate environment: Entrepreneurs don’t often succeed in large companies’ environments. It’s often very restricting for their outgrowth. They can’t stand the lack of control they have in their role or the office politics. You can spot an entrepreneur in a corporate environment easily as they’re usually trying to learn their co-workers’ responsibilities to better understand how everything fits together.

Can’t get a job: Many stumble into entrepreneurship when they can’t get a job. Getting fired, a lack of experience or a criminal record can prevent the average person from getting a job when they’re desperate. Instead of being beaten by their situation, they create new chances for themselves. A new graduate might start an online store the summer after graduation to build up their resume.

They’re curious: Entrepreneurs love finding out the answer to the question, They’re experimental. They love learning. They regularly read business books to advance their knowledge. So of course, entrepreneurship appeals to them because it allows them to learn the most in the shortest amount of time. Their curiosity allows their continued growth.

Ambitious: Those who love accomplish difficult goals are made to be entrepreneurs. There’s no limit to how much an entrepreneur can make or reach and so they can always work to achieve higher levels of greatness. There’s no limit to what they can achieve, so entrepreneurs always find themselves growing and achieving more than they ever imagined. When obstacles get presented in front of them, they find out a way to their goal. Entrepreneurs are unstoppable.

What are Entrepreneur skills?

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There are many skills required to start a business. Especially during the early stages of starting a business, entrepreneurs usually have to juggle multiple tasks at one time. That’s how they end up learning new entrepreneurial skills.
The most popular entrepreneur skills are:
marketing, business development, customer service, leadership, execution, resilience, focus, determination, talent acquisition, continuous learner.

Entrepreneur Ideas

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A start-up entrepreneur can build almost any type of business.
Here are a few business ideas to get you started:

⦁ Freelancer (write a blog, accountant, designer)
⦁ Affiliate marketing (Amazon, Click bank, etc)
⦁ Vlogger (Start a YouTube channel, Twitch)
⦁ Photographer (product photography, sell photos)
⦁ Consultant based business (wedding planner, life coach)
⦁ Translator
⦁ Tutor
⦁ Ecommerce store owner
⦁ App creator (chatbots, social media apps)
⦁ Service based business (food delivery, cleaning, dog walking)
⦁ Marketing businesses (PR firms, influencers, SEO brands)
⦁ Blogger (Product reviews, niche blog, magazine)
⦁ Flipper (domain name, website, house)
⦁ Real estate agent (condos, houses, commercial)
⦁ Stock Broker (buying and selling stocks)
Walt Disney co-founded the Walt Disney Company one of the leading motion picture studios. He was also the dreamer of theme parks like Disneyland and Walt Disney World. His brand started with the creation of the Mickey Mouse character and eventually expanded to include characters like Snow White, Cinderella and more. As an entrepreneur, he had to overcome adversity with challenges such as people stealing his work, commercial failures and more. However, he kept pushing through staying committed to his dream and vision.

So, when will you launch your own business, Believer?

Then Merriam-Webster came and gives the definition that’s closer to what most of us would probably know:
an entrepreneur is “a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money.”