This evening I will be speaking for a WordPress meetup on Connecting WordPress with the Business Community.

You can find the Meetup information here:

http://www.meetup.com/wordpress-atlanta/calendar/13854311/

We will be discussion the following:

What is WordPress?

WP is a Content Management System.

Other similar CMS solutions

• Moveable Type
• Drupal
• Joomla

WP is more user friendly than Drupal and Joomla, Movable Type is close.

WP has a huge online support community.

WP is NOT your website, WP gives you easy access to edit and add to your website.

How Can WordPress Help My Business

Cheap to set up and maintain. Anyone can have a website online fast using WP.

A custom designed WP theme is recommended for businesses.

Your website is the Main Hub of your web presence.

WP allows direct access to your websites content via an administration area.

Multiple users can have access to your website(you, developer, marketing, etc).

Easy to create new Pages and BLOG Posts.

Easy search engine optimization(SEO) options.

WordPress Business Blogging

Content is King – WP allows for easy content creation and online publishing.

Helpful blog posts relevant to your market are a great way to generate leads.

Easy to build a market resource to drive people to.

New blog posts = instant traffic when using Social Networks.

You can write and schedule blog posts in advance.

FYI: On July 21st I will be presenting, not just speaking, on Rocking Optimized WordPress Posts: How to Write Them and Plugins that Help.

RSVP here: http://www.meetup.com/wordpress-atlanta/calendar/13854311/

While I have been building up my own business I’ve seen quite a few others come and go.

The more and more I work towards my own goals, the less I really care about trying to fend off my ‘competition’ and here is why.

First, many of them give up. For any number of reasons, maybe they get overwhelmed, run out of money, lose their passion from being over involved, etc. Being an entrepreneur lends itself to a certain level of hardships.

Secondly, I do my best to offer quality. Regardless of what my product or service is, I try to work and learn hard so that I know what I am offering is something worthwhile. I am dedicated to being great at what I do and keeping that quality level high.

How does this tie into Drive and Dedication?

Drive allows me to keep stomping through the muck on my way to reaching my goals. Without this drive, I would be like many of those that end up giving up.

Some hardship would come up and instead of trying to figure out how to work through the problem, I might just say “Screw this, I’m out”.

Instead, and what I feel is a characteristic of many of the people that inspire me, I push through, and in pushing through I learn.

My dedication to learning and training to master my crafts turns right back around and gives me that drive that I need to continue building.

For example, let’s say I am a web developer(I am), and let’s say I have all these skill sets for building websites and driving traffic to them(I do), then in order to monetize those skill sets, I need to find clients.  “Oh no….I’ve never done that, I’ve always had a boss tell me what I am supposed to be doing.”

No Clients = No Money

No Money = Failing Business

Time to start marketing myself…

This alone could scare most people into updating their resume and sending it out to every job they may or may not qualify for.

“Marketing myself means talking to people and selling them stuff(my skillset). No one likes to be sold stuff.  How will I ever figure that out?”

Instead of just giving up and trying to ‘market’ my skill set to an employer so that I can make a capped salary, I embrace having to obtain this new knowledge. Gaining this new knowledge is going to mean getting new mentors in a field I’ve never been in. Hours and hours of research on case studies and split tests. Meeting and interacting with high level people that already have this knowledge.

Making more contacts! This will come in handy down the road.

Knowing how to find and get in touch with people that actually need my product or service  would not only make getting clients easier, it also adds one more skill to my skill set. This increases my value which in turn will increase my own  confidence in selling said skill set to those that need it.

This example is a true story and shows you how embracing the unknown can build you up to become better at what you do.  As well, while embracing these unknowns, I am carving out a path that will set me above my competition and keep any clients that I obtain, wanting to work with me time and time again.

Without being dedicated to your goals you will lose the drive that got you started on them in the first place.  Don’t stop, keep pushing through. If you do this, you will work it out and you will be better because of it.