If You Didn’t Measure It – You Didn’t Do It! Part 1

If you’re going to spend money doing something, the only way to know if you accomplished your goal is to measure it. Here is a tool that works well to both define the problem and provide a yardstick against which to measure results.

The analysis breaks down into three main components:

• Need – What is the problem, and what is the result we expect from the money we are about to invest?
• Content – How will we move people to the desired result?
• Measurement – Did you actually meet, or better, exceed, the goals?

Need drives the entire process. You are not going to spend the money to do something that doesn’t need to be done. You have a situation or a problem – and it usually has a measurable cost – and you need to solve that problem, to eliminate, or at least significantly reduce that cost.

We may have to invest time or money to solve the problem, but if the problem is well defined and quantified, not only can we reduce or eliminate the problem with appropriately targeted communications; we can measure how well we did it. It could be increased sales, increased signups for a new program, or broader support within a community for a new service or idea. Whatever it is, it must have the necessary yardstick for success.

Let’s use an example to illustrate how this process functions and how well it can work.

Several years ago, a company was planning to introduce a new product into a saturated marketplace. The new product represented major innovations, and would likely have been very successful by itself, but the company needed to ensure that success and overcome several other issues. We’ll start the story of the launch in this article, and follow it through two more articles.

The NEED – The situation or problem:

• Moderate existing market share for existing product, #2 in sales
• Lack of respect for the company because of “me too” parity products in the past
• Low company sales force morale from carrying unexciting products
• Lack of personal contact by company executives with dealers across the country
• An exciting new product to launch, including many firsts, under a new brand umbrella, based on a new and very unfamiliar technology

The GOALS – what were the desired measurable results?

• Capture #1 sales position in the marketplace, as measured by published industry data
• Establish the new brand with dealers and consumers
• Build new levels of respect for the company brand and their sales force in the market place
• Dealer owners pleased with personal contact with company executives
• Retail clerks educated and excited about the new product, and motivated to sell the product and the company
• A memorable event to keep the company “top of mind” for the foreseeable future.

The Obstacles:

• Low respect for company in the market place – would dealers even listen?
• Large number of outlets and clerks to be informed/trained/motivated across the market, preferably in as short a time as possible
• The introduction would be in January/February, the worst time to travel a show around the country.

You can see how all of these elements defined the measurement criteria. Sales can be plotted against the launch. Market share is a standard industry published statistic, and can be plotted against the time of the launch. Respect will be reflected in the attitudes of the retail clerks to the sales representatives calling on the stores and the how the products and the company are received after the launch. This, and how well the event was remembered, would show up in weekly sales call reporting.

Observable, accurate, and actionable. The hallmarks of good metrics.

This is the first of Three Parts of this story.

Part 2 is here: http://www.EzineArticles.com/?id=899065

Part 3 is here: http://www.EzineArticles.com/?id=886852

Copyright 2008 Dan Davenport

Dan Davenport is an award-winning business communications producer: Multimedia, video, print.

Goal: Bring excitement to business communications.

Look to http://blog.smallofficecommunicator.net to blog with us about small office communication ideas and answers – share your own experience with others and get answers to your questions.

Loan Modification Marketing Series – Ad Campaign Tracking and Analytics

Tracking your marketing and advertising campaigns is incredibly crucial to their effectiveness. You need to track who and where every lead comes from, which leads ended up paying you and how much, how much money and time went into each marketing and advertising effort, which leads were better than others in non-monetary ways, how many referrals have come from each lead source and how frequently, and more.

Build a spreadsheet that organizes everything. Compare the return on investment (ROI) for each marketing effort. Analyze and compare which marketing efforts are the most successful and profitable. Focus your future dollars and energies on these. Cut anything that doesn’t seem to be providing high returns (though, don’t be too quick to cut out the leads groups and other long-term networking efforts).

With regard to your pay per click (PPC) ad word campaigns and search engine optimization (SEO), there are really cool applications, called analytics, that collect, organize, and measure more information than you ever dreamed possible. Do not run any ad word, banner, or other online marketing campaign without using an analytics program or service. If you’re tech-savvy, then give one of the free ones a go, such as Google Analytics. If not, then pay for a service to do this for you.

A good ad campaign with solid analytics (assuming you have a competitive company, sales person, product, service, and pricing, obviously) can literally have a monthly ROI % in the 1000s, and an exponential monthly growth factor. These are very powerful tools when used correctly. If you want dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of clients every month, then you seriously need to make web 2.0, ad words, SEO, a blog, and analytics a central part of your business model and marketing plan. These kinds of results are absolutely possible, but you need to do them right to have that kind of success.

To learn more about how to build a successful loan modification business and to access all the tools and forms you need to get started, please click here: http://StartALoanModBiz.com

About the Author
Matt Sparks is a successful entrepreneur, both offline and on. He is also a licensed mortgage broker, employing real estate broker, and Realtor. He has written books, articles, and blogs about small business, real estate, finance, New Urbanism, and sustainable cities.

(c) Copyright – Matthew R. Sparks. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Offering Choices – A Good Marketing Practice

Ever notice how easy it is for someone to say “No?” Make it easier for them to say “Yes” by offering choices in your marketing.

If you’re a Realtor, rather than asking a listing prospect if they’re ready to list today, ask them if they’d like to list for 3 months, or for 6 months. If you’re trying to get an appointment with buyer prospects, ask them if they’d like to view homes on Friday or Saturday. Or ask them if they’d like to schedule time to see 3 homes or 5.

If you’re selling shoes ask if they’d like them in brown or black. If you sell furniture, ask them if they’d like the couch, or would prefer the whole set, with chair and ottoman to match.

That’s called an “assumptive close” because you go forward assuming that your prospect is going to say yes rather than fearing that they’ll say no.

It serves two purposes – the first being a change in your own attitude and the vibrations you give off. Your fear of a “no” could actually cause it to happen! We all give off vibrations all the time, and the one you want to give off is confidence. Confidence in yourself, and confidence that the product or service you offer is a good thing for your prospect.

The second reason is that as humans we all want to feel in control of our lives. We don’t want to be forced into a corner and we intensely dislike the “Now or never” ultimatum. I know, a whole lot of marketers use it, and some customers fall for it – out of fear.

But as a smart marketer, you’re in the business of creating lasting relationships with your clients – not one time orders based on fear of loss. You’ll gain their respect and their confidence when you offer them choices – even if that choice is waiting until next week to order.

If you’ve done the right things to collect your prospect’s names, you’ll be reminding them again in a few days. You can even tell them so, if you like.

You can use the same psychology in your on-line marketing and postal mailings.

Rather than offering a yes or no choice, offer 2 or 3 ways to take advantage of what you have to offer. Depending upon your product, it could be colors, styles, sizes, length of service, amount of service, or combinations of products and services.

For instance, if you have information products, why not offer individual e-books or bundles of 2 or more? Explain the difference between your books so your prospect has a clear understanding of which is best for his immediate needs – or why he needs them all.

If you’re selling a newsletter, offer choices in the length of the subscription. Of course offer discounts for longer terms, but let that be their choice, not your demand.

Whatever you’re selling – be it your services or your products, find some way to offer your buyers at least three choices – “no”, “yes this,” or “yes that.” And don’t mention the first one. They already know they can say no.

One caution – don’t overdo it. Remember that your goal is to make it easy for your prospects to say “yes” to something. When you offer too many choices you make it harder, so they’ll fall back on “no.”

A recent test showed that grocery store shoppers who were offered samples of a new jelly/jam brand chose a flavor and purchased when there were 4 or 5 choices. When they increased the number of choices to 15 or 20, they didn’t buy at all. Making the decision was simply too hard, so they walked away.

So, balance is once again the answer. Avoid only one choice, avoid too many choices. Always make it easy for your customers to say yes, based on a few good choices.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in making people feel good about buying products or services – or donating to worthy causes.

She has extensive experience in writing search engine optimized web copy, direct sales letters, postcards, space ad copy, press releases, and more. She is also available for marketing plan creation and editing services.

You can visit her at http://www.marte-cliff.com While you’re there, sign up for her marketing ezine. When you do, you’ll also get access to reports that will help you get better results from your own writing.

Blogging and Why it is a Good Business Opportunity From Home

One business opportunity from home that anyone can develop is blogging. Not everyone that has a blog is making money however! Let’s take a look at how you can make money and create a good home business by starting a blog of your own.

One thing you should know right up front is that not all blogs are created equal. For example blogger.com is owned by Google and is a very fast way to get started with a blog of your own. This is not the best way to do it however.

A better way is to use Word Press as your blogging platform and host it yourself. To do this you need to purchase a domain name, and join a hosting company to install your WordPress blog at. If this seems a little bit much there are people that you can hire who will set it all up for you and do it for less than $100.

The important thing is that Word Press offers many advantages in terms of Plug-ins that will help you make your blogging efforts more effective. And the key thing in hosting your own blog is that you will now control everything about it.

A fast way to create income from a blog is to join the Google AdSense affiliate program. It is very easy to blend Google ads into your WordPress blog posts. The benefit of doing this is the ads appear to be part of the content and you will increase your click ratio when you do it this way.

This is an easy way to create income as well because every time someone clicks on a Google ad you earn a small commission. This can really add up as you begin to develop a blog and the traffic coming to it.

Another thing you want to do is monetize your blog post with affiliate products that you earn commissions selling. You can add banners across the top, down the sidebar, or in the footer of each blog post.

You can also embed your affiliate links in the text of the posts themselves. This is a natural way for you to promote your affiliate products and again send traffic directly to an affiliate sales page.

Blogging is a good business opportunity from home because people enjoy reading a well written blog, and search engines like them too. If you have a hobby or something that interests you, then you can certainly take money starting a blog about it.

Want to make money online now?

Sign up for our FREE Internet Business Training Program and learn more about a business opportunity from home to help you become a successful work at home professional!

David Ogden is an established online marketer who specializes in practical website resources and advice

Top 10 Training Metrics

Is it time for you to measure the effectiveness of your training programs? If you’re not sure where to start, these Top Ten Training Metrics can help.

Measuring the effectiveness of training is a very difficult task, for stakeholders, training departments and end users. If you are a training manager or company stakeholder looking for ways to measure the effectiveness of your programs, these ten metrics are a great place to start.

One: Increased retention. Most Human Resources departments measure the rate of retention in all or various jobs. Many times, the front line, high turnover jobs are the ones that receive the most attention. If newly trained employees feel ill-equipped for the job, they are more likely to leave within their first 90 days. When you measure training success this way, higher retention points to a successful training program.

Two: Increased sales. Many organizations can track efficiency based on sales. If training is heavily geared toward a sales or customer service force, an effective program will eventually increase sales numbers. You can also measure product knowledge training as part of a sales number – poorly educated sales people usually do not make the sale. Dollar figures and unit sales make good metrics, but be sure to balance any metric with other factors that can influence sales numbers.

Three: Increased operational efficiency. In highly regulated or production-oriented businesses, managers look for more efficiency, which raises the bottom line. If your training programs teach skills, look to management’s efficiency metrics, as a baseline, before and after the training intervention. If you are building a new program or product, look at the efficiency numbers to obtain direction on training course content.

Four: Customer service results. Any organization can link training to customer service, which can be both internal and external. Customer service is also one of the easier place to start: one well-written survey can identify a host of customer related issues that can be addressed by training programs. Remember that training may not be the only solution to those issues. If your organization already has a customer survey in place, use those metrics to cross check your programs. When your programs impact the survey items, you can correlate an increase in customer satisfaction back to training.

Five: Company-defined scorecards. Training outsourcers tend to use client-defined criteria to determine training effectiveness. If your organization has a wide variety of possible measurements, sit down with management, and stakeholders, to create a custom scorecard based on expectations and the training programs that need to be in place.

Six: Cost of training. This is an internal training department measurement. In high turnover organizations, lowering cost per student can be used as an effectiveness measurement. Cost of training could also relate directly back to retention – if you’re spending less on new hire training, your retention may be higher. Work with your stakeholders and the HR department to determine training costs and where you want those numbers to be.

Seven: Return on Investment. ROI has long been a “catch all” metric. In some cases, it’s easy to define ROI, but in more cases it’s increasingly difficult. If you deliver soft skills training, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the return. There are numerous ROI calculations available, so if you’re thinking about using an ROI metric, look for the formulas and plug in what you can. If you are part of a numbers-driven organization, you’ll be able to make friends with the stakeholders by defining and measuring concrete ROI.

Eight: Revenue generation. This metric appears most likely as a combination of sales numbers, operational efficiency, and customer service. If an organization shows increased revenue, a solid training program can be part of that increase. If your organization is rolling out a new revenue generator, such as a product or service, that is generally the best time to use revenue generation as training metric.

Nine: Instructor performance. Instructor evaluation is an important internal measurement. The results can come from student and manager evaluations, and must take into account the instructor’s presentation skills, knowledge of the subject, projection of organizational values, and adherence to instructional guidelines. The good part about instructor performance as a metric is that it can also be used as an external measure. When training is under discussion, training managers should be the first to praise their instructors for delivering quality instruction in every course – and instructor evaluations provide the supporting evidence.

Ten: End-user satisfaction. Your audience can measure effectiveness quicker than anyone else, both immediately following training and after a given time period, such as 30 or 60 days. The immediate results, sometimes referred to as “smile sheets”, can give you a picture of what happened in the classroom. The delayed results can tell you if the material is useful or not. Plus, end-user surveys are great tools for proving effectiveness with management.

Remember that training metrics may take time to put into place and show results. It’s also important to obtain buy-in from your stakeholders while you’re determining how to measure results. Use these metrics to start with – and use them whenever you’re developing or revamping training programs. Once you can prove bottom-line effectiveness, your credibility will go a long way.

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director and National Sales Trainer – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations.Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his monthly ezine – Lengthen Your Stride! ™ – and learn the legendary secrets of top business achievers at: http://www.BryantNielson.com

Using a Business Cash Advance to Become Financially Sound

Fortune recently released a list of America’s most admired companies for 2008. That list was broken down into eight different categories, one of which was financial soundness.

Financial soundness is not just necessary for big corporations like Exxon Mobil, United Parcel Service and Berkshire Hathaway, companies that stole the numbers one, two and three spots on Fortune’s list. Financial soundness is also very important for small businesses.

Encarta dictionary defines the word sound as sensible, not damaged, healthy and/or completely acceptable. It even goes as far as to explain the word in the financial sense, defining the word as “financially secure and likely to make money.”

So how does one get his/her business to the point of financial soundness? There is no cut-out plan that works for any and every small business owner. But you can bet that it takes, planning, research, dedication and of course money. But how does a business owner get the money he/she needs to run a financially sound business when banks are barely lending? A business cash advance is one way.

The increased cash flow that can result from a business cash advance, allows small business owners to have funds for advertisement, expansion, renovations, or simply working capital, which is essential for a small business.

Nowadays, business cash advances are so important for a small business’s financial soundness because the sources that many small business owners used to turn to in the past for financing, such as banks, are no longer providing the funds needed; and many of those that are, are doing so with increased requirements. But to be eligible to receive a business cash advance, a small business owner simply must own a business that processes a minimum of $5,000 in credit card sales every month, and have been the owner of that business for at least six months.

No collateral, no restrictions on how the funds can be used, and the possibility to receive funds in as little as ten business days have made the business cash advance a great source for business owners attempting to increase the financial soundness of their businesses.

Gaston C. writes articles about Business Cash Advances for Merchant Resources International.

Insurance Marketing in a Down Economy? 3 Deadly Mistakes Insurance Agents Make in a Recession Part 2

How you can THRIVE During A Recession?

Insurance marketing is the key to any insurance agency’s survival. And in part 1 of this three part series I covered the number one biggest mistake insurance marketing mistake most insurance agents make in a down economy.

So now lets cover the number 2 Biggest mistake made by insurance agents in a down economy.

But first let me say that this BIG mistake is something that most insurance agents make even in a good economy and probably is one of the biggest leverage points I personally used when I built insurance agencies from scratch.

What is the number 2 biggest insurance marketing mistake?

The mistake is Not staying in touch with your clients on an ongoing consistent manner with several types of media and NOT always in a sales motion.

This is a HUGE insurance marketing mistake that far too many insurance agents make. Why is this so important?

Here is an analogy, think of your insurance agency as a brick building and each client represents a brick. Your ongoing, consistent insurance marketing is the communication that is the mortar that keeps the bricks together. And there are several forces trying to separate the bricks and bring your insurance agency tumbling down. I need not name all of the competition that insurance agents face, but one of the subtle constant forces blowing against your agency during a recession is the media.

That is why your insurance marketing machine must stay in touch with your clients. Because you must combat not only the on slaught of the competitions constant poaching of your insurance agency, but you MUST beat down the medias slanted view on the economy. Here is the bottom line. The media loves negative news. Period.

Always has and always will. Why? Well, you would be ignorant to think that it has anything to do with reporting the truth. Truth is way down the totem pole as far as what they are wanting in a story, but the reason they love to promote negative news is one thing and that is it sells. Period.

It is one of those perverse peculiarities of humanity. We all gawk at an accident and it is no wonder the National Enquirer is the number one selling newspaper and has been for years! (If you do not believe me then look it up. I know, shock, gasp, despair – but true).

So you must use your insurance marketing to stay in touch with you clients on an ongoing consistent manner using several types of media and the reason you must use several types of media is because your clients have a short attention span and they get bored faster than a 3 year old watching Hamlet.

Plus, some of them prefer to read, some prefer to listen, some prefer the combination so you must be sure to fill your clients heads with positive counter acting information to overcome and inoculate them from the infectious disease being spread by the negative media. And you must use your insurance marketing to touch base with your clients not only in a consistent fashion, but probably of even more importance you must NOT be trying to sell them in every communication.

So if you are one of the 97 percent of insurance agents who have clients that only hear from you when there is a bill or when you want to sell them something then this is your wake up call.

I hope you have found this information helpful, but more importantly I hope you use this information to implement an insurance marketing system to help you grow your insurance agency.

To get your FREE GIFT and discover more unique and powerful profit producing proven insurance marketing solutions including breakthrough Direct Response Marketing tips to generate Insurance Leads then please visit the Insurance Mavericks at insurancemarketingmavericks.com

Exit Strategies To Make Money In Real Estate Foreclosures

Once you have purchased your first foreclosed investment property the clock starts ticking. Every month that you have to make a payment on it is eating away at your profit. Before you buy, make sure that you have a concrete plan in place as to exactly how, when, and maybe even to whom, you will sell. Soon, you will find that you have an infrastructure in place that works like a well oiled machine. You will easily be able to buy properties that become available, and it turn you will have a knack for knowing when to sell.

Understanding contract assignments is an important part of making money with foreclosure investments. You need to know who is responsible for what aspect of the sale and what the timeline is for their portion of the deal. If not, the business of buying and selling can take much longer than necessary. Time is money and no one will be as concerned about your money as you are. It will be important for you to stay on top of what is happening and hold everyone involved in the contract accountable to their tasks. This is the only way to ensure that the transactions are completed in a timely manner.

One tool that you can use to make money by selling foreclosed properties is called wraparound mortgage. This tool allows you to create new mortgage for the buyer that includes the remaining amount on the current mortgage and the remaining purchase price amount. The new mortgage “wraps around” the current mortgage. You are still responsible for the first mortgage held by the bank. The new buyer pays both mortgages using one monthly payment.

You don’t have to sell the foreclosed properties that you buy in order to turn a profit. You can make money by holding on to the investment and utilizing the rent that your tenants pay you to pay the mortgage or use that money to invest in purchasing a new property. The properties will essentially pay for themselves. While this may not leave a lot of extra cash on the table at the present time, this is an excellent way to invest in the future, as the properties will be worth their full estimated value to you once they are paid for. One day you will be able to sell them and pocket 100% of the cash value of the property. You can’t really go wrong with this as a long term investment strategy.

Another similar option is a lease with an option to buy. This will give your tenants some incentive to stay and create a long term relationship with you. One of the most costly things that landlords face is tenant turnover. This means lost months of rent and costly renovations to meet the needs of new tenants. With an option to buy, a tenant who isn’t yet ready to buy, but hopes to be in the future, will stay long term and reduce your overhead.

If you have the cash reserves, you can also increase your profit margin by doing seller financing. Instead of the buyer going through a bank or lending institution, you as the seller allow them to pay you over time. Of course, you are charging them interest. This means that you are not only making the principle amount of the sale, but the interest that would normally be paid to the bank will now be paid to you. If you agree with your buyer to beat the bank’s current interest rate then it is a good deal for both of you, thus earning the possibility for repeat business. This is especially true in transactions involving commercial property.

It can be a bit risky for several reasons, but some investors find short sales a profitable way to buy and sell foreclosure properties. A short sale involves a property that is foreclosed and an agreement with the lender to pay back less than the full amount owed. It can be risky because there is often no guarantee that the lender won’t seek this difference at a later date. If however, you find a deal and work with an attorney that you trust, you can turn a handsome profit by scoring short sales. This is a good way to build equity quickly.

Some foreclosure investors choose to make money, not by selling, but by buying and keeping the properties. They enter into the property management field and rely on tenants to fund their future purchases. Many properties, both residential and commercial, have great long-term property management potential. If you own just a few this can give you a little extra income, since you’ll have to pay taxes and insurance on all the properties, but once you acquire more properties, this can be a very lucrative option.

http://www.homesearch4investors.com is an easy to use website that offers homes that are currently in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure or for sale by owner. Find great property deals in all 50 states instantly.

The Foundation of Every SEO Strategy – A Good Website

It is said that for a company to have a chance to have success, it needs at least one person of each of the 4 temperaments: a melancholic, a flegmatic, a sanguine and a choleric.

Or in other words: a thinker, a worker, a seller and a boss.

What the heck, psychology in an article about SEO?

Yes. Because excitingly new as it may seem, the Internet is only just taking up age old communication methods up to a next level.

People who would never write a book, never make a movie or never start a business do start websites now – and that is the reason why the Internet is simply saturated with websites that are hardly ever visited.

Because they were launched without the same careful process of thought that would have gone into all other projects.

I have gone through all the mistakes myself. I can honestly say I lost 2 years of my life, trying out all the software, reading all the SEO manuals, listen to audio courses in the car, changing websites for years on end without really getting anywhere.

It was hard to swallow to realise after all that time that it were not my SEO methods that were wrong, but simply my websites not being good enough.

Without an authentic and original personality, online visitors will go on clicking and not stop at your website. Without a very good product, you can not expect them to stay. Without the always enthused and passionate, almost charismatic touch of the good sales representative, your product will not be bought.

And without a boss, there is no unity between all those elements, and your website will either look chaotic, either incomprehensible.

On-Site SEO is in my opinion 90% preparation, and only 10% goes to the actual work during and after the website development.

If your website is good, it makes visitors stay, period. If it is very good, it turns visitors into clients.

And both these two events will make that your site will climb in the search engines.

The evolution of the Web was an amazingly quick one. We all started with websites, and more websites, and played with all the fun tools, all the fashions that came and went.

What is SEO but a great big Spring Cleaning, bringing some order in the current chaos? It is thanks to the phenomenon of SEO that we are now seeing more and more websites that actually wish to be very informative, that actually wish to contribute rather than to just snatch a client.

A search engine such as Google has an obsession with quality.

Once you realise this, your SEO strategy will not be a card house that can collapse at any time, but have a very solid foundation.

Bernardus Geurts

Independent SEO Advisor

http://www.bernardus.biz

Basic Home Improvements Help You Sell Your House Fast

In today’s sluggish real estate market, selling your home can be a nightmare. Months or even years can drag by with your house on the market. But there is hope. Despite the slow economy, there are a number of ways you can boost your home’s attractiveness to potential buyers. Your house will increase in value and sell faster, even in today’s market!

The importance of curb appeal can never be overestimated when discussing home sales. The external appearance of your home frequently makes the difference between a buyer coming in to see the rest of the house and a buyer driving on by. Small changes like cutting back overgrown shrubs, weeding, and planting seasonal flowers cost little to nothing, but can make your home more attractive.

However, major outdoor improvements can really make your house look fabulous and sell fast. For instance, did you know that landscaping frequently provides up to 200% return on investment. So if you spend $5,000 on a new stone walkway and retaining wall, you can increase the value of your home up to $10,000! Not only will your house look great, it will make a stronger impression from the street, inviting potential buyers to come in, look around, and make an offer.

Inside your home, there are also several options for sprucing things up to make the house sell fast. Many homeowners immediately turn to a kitchen remodel, but with the price of new appliances, this investment is often too large to recoup. Bathroom renovation, on the other hand, makes a big impact and costs much less. Updating an old-fashioned powder room or creating a luxurious master bath suite will give you the most bang for your buck; by concentrating on these key spaces instead of less significant areas like a kid’s bathroom, you’ll optimize your investment. Another fantastic way to enhance the interior look of your home is to install new flooring. Especially if a central part of your house, such as the entryway or kitchen, has dated, worn, or blasé flooring, you can make a huge impact by changing it out for a fresh floor. There are a number of economical flooring options on the market today to make a beautiful impression without breaking the bank. With laminates and prefinished wood flooring costing as little as $7 a square foot, you can create the glowing warmth of a hardwood floor at a fraction of the price. And, real estate research has shown that buyers heavily prefer wood floors to almost any other material.

Other external upgrades to consider include new siding or fresh paint. Especially if the old paint is chipped and peeling, a new professional paint job can make all the difference in the world. Even something as small as power washing your house or just repainting the front door can increase curb appeal.

Some of these changes may seem like an excessively large investment to make in a house you’re trying to sell, but they’re actually quite cost-effective. Because they enhance your home’s appeal, they decrease selling time exponentially: meaning, that even if you don’t recoup 100% of the investment, you’re still coming out ahead. You’ve saved yourself the time, hassle, stress, and, yes, money of having your home on the market long term.

Even if you don’t have the capital to invest in major home improvements, you can still influence how fast your home sells. Some of the tiniest changes can increase your home’s appeal and make the difference between a potential buyer making an offer or walking away. For starters, keep your home neat and tidy, so buyers aren’t assailed with dirty dishes and piles of laundry when they tour your house. Have your carpets professionally cleaned to make them look fresh and fluffy. Place fresh flowers on your table or create a seasonal decorative arrangement. Essentially, use your common sense to make your home as inviting as possible. Whether you choose to make a major home improvement investment or a minor one, you can influence how fast your home sells.

Matt Gallo is a home improvement hobbyist. He is the Internet Marketing Manager for Prospect Genius, a leading provider of local online advertising.