Trending Stories Richard Branson on Business Ideas in the Growing Health-and-Wellness Industry Richard Branson on Business Ideas in the Growing Health-and-Wellness Industry What Your Desk Says About You What Your Desk Says About You Barbara Corcoran on Projecting a Big Image and Living Up to It Barbara Corcoran on Projecting a Big Image and Living Up to It (Video) Entrepreneur Daily Dose Blog How to Tell Your Company's Story

Every startup and small business has a story to tell, something that will connect potential customers to your brand. As a business leader in the social media age, you have an opportunity to draw devoted customers by rethinking the way you express your company’s core value.
Foodily, a new online recipe database, set out to brand themselves as the largest recipe aggregator on the web. But after hiring LoveSocial, a Vancouver-based social media agency, they realized that wasn't the story to tell.
Founder Azita Ardakani redefined Foodily's core value, saying it gives you the opportunity to spend more time eating at home with family and friends. On social media, she asked consumers to share their favorite dinner table memories and what it means to them to eat at home. "We saw a natural conversation erupting," she says.
What made Ardakani’s interpretation of Foodily's core value so much more successful was that it created an opportunity for human connection. "Human connectivity is the DNA of social media," Azita says.
Related: A Quick Guide to Making Your Brand's Story More Compelling
In order to engage customers, strive to create that emotional pull. Try these three tips to articulate your core value and humanize your brand.
 1. Expand your idea of value. To stand out in today's market, define your value in human terms, not in business terms. "[Companies] often look at their core value in direct correlation with sales," Ardakani says. "That commercial carrot is very distracting to who they are and who they could become."
Your real value is about what you believe in, what you’re trying to do in the world, and how you make others’ lives better. "You need to drill down to why you matter," Ardakani says.
You might ask: How is your product being created? What is your office culture? You're looking for the thing that your organization truly cares about -- an aspect of your business that makes you unique and valuable to the world around you.
2. Establish common language. Your company's core value is a bit like your vision -- everyone at your company needs to be on the same page. "A CEO and employee might describe the company totally differently," Ardakani says. "[Common language] creates internal alignment about who you are."
Ask a handful of people in various ranks and roles to share five adjectives they'd use to describe the company and two aspects of the business that are unique or valuable. Look for themes or especially strong responses, and synthesize them into a clearly defined description.


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7 Simple Steps to Creating Systems That Get You Big Business Results

Found this post on a great blog site called 'Big Business Results' this is what I'm trying to master right now. 

 

Does the thought of creating processes and systems for your business scare the pants off of you?

Ok, maybe not complete fear BUT surely it sends you into procrastination mode!
I get that. It took me a long time to understand the challenges most people have with creating systems because for me it comes naturally.
I am that person who . . .

• has to start at one end of the grocery story and weave up and down every aisle crossing items off of my grocery list as I go.
• runs errands one day a week in a circular pattern. Yep, I look at where I need to go and I travel a route that begins at my house and logically ends at my house.
• realizes that driving across town to use a $2 off coupon is not wise. Gas alone costs more than that, not to mention the value of MY time!

So since these things come naturally to me, you can imagine why I so easily develop systems for my business and I want to help you do the same.
Sometimes we make things a LOT harder than they need to be. I like SIMPLE without sacrificing effectiveness and efficiency.
Here are my steps to creating systems. Did I mention . . . you MUST have systems if you plan to get Big Business Results?
And the teacher in me hopes using the letters in PROCESS will help you remember the steps. Oh, and use them of course!
PLAN- Systems won’t happen by hoping. You have to plan to create systems.
RECORD- A good system begins by writing down what you do to complete a task. But since this is where the overwhelm comes in, please focus on creating systems for no more than 3 tasks at a time.
OBSERVE- Once you finish recording, I want you to use your notes the next time you complete the task. It would be even better if you can give your notes to someone else to use as a guide for completing the task.
CHANGE- Following your notes will help you catch things you may have overlooked and make changes to clarify what you have recorded.
EVALUATE- How do you know if a system is good unless you evaluate? Use your revised notes to examine the steps and how long it takes to complete them.
SIMPLIFY- Remember, a good system is efficient, effective and adaptable so now it’s time to make your process a simple as possible. We all do things in our business that are unnecessary, repetitive or overlapping. Find those areas and get rid of the junk.
SYSTEMIZE- Now you have clear accurate notes. Type them up, give it a title and wahla you have a system.
The BEST part about having a system is being able to pass your formal document off the a team member for completion with the confidence that it will get done the way YOU want it to be done.
THAT is how you get Big Business Results!