3 Inspiring Small Business Advice from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is a name synonymous to turning the impossible into actuality. A great leader in every step of the way, his fight against racism, as seen from his work in the American Civil Rights movement, inspires action and courage against all odds.

With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a couple of days away, it’s time that we take some of his wisdom and use them in your uphill battle to empower your small businesses to success. Below are some of his quotes that relate to small business and marketing.

Provide something that holds value

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” [Tweet this]

The continuous Panda updates are slowly but surely eliminating bad Search Engine Optimization practices that shoot spammy sites to the top of search results.

Before, the work of white hat SEO practitioners, whose strategies take weeks and months to accomplish, can be outdone and outperformed by people who employ black hat SEO techniques using automation tools in a matter of days. The black hat SEO crowd resorted to underhanded techniques such as blasting article sites, forums, and blogs with keyword-rich but hollow content for the sake of getting a link back to their site.

The effectiveness of black hat tactics has encouraged Google to strengthen its anti-spam policy by rolling out Panda updates that devalued sites with low-quality content. Article sites like Ezinearticles.com were forced to revamp their editorial guidelines to filter out spammy content from being published on their sites. Conversely, sites that made heavy use of  article sites and other shady methods for building links dropped their rankings on search results.

This puts white-hat SEO practitioners back in the forefront, with their long-term and sustainable strategies prove to be worth the hard work in the long run. The creation of high-quality, useful, and actionable content in the form of link bait and guest posting has helped increase their SERP ranking without using quick-fix methods.

What you should do: Read our post “7 Essential Ways to Grow a Small Business with Guest Posting” to learn how you can run an effective guest posting campaign to strengthen your link building and branding strategy. For the creation of link bait, read Hubspot’s “The Marketer’s Ultimate Guide to Link Bait” to get a better understanding on how link baits work and how to create them.

Although performing these tactics can be time-consuming, implementing them correctly as part of your marketing plan help you create a steady flow of traffic and links coming to your site and reach the top of the search results.

Think of what your market wants

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.The success of a business is determined by the number of sales you make. The higher the sales, the greater the profit. People do business for this very reason – to increase their wealth. However, before any one can achieve financial success, they must learn what makes their market tick.

To increase business sales, offer products and services that fill a need in the market. You can do this by thinking like your customers. If you are your business’ customer, are you getting a great deal with the store’s offer? Do you really think your products and services are worth their price?

Business success is a two-way street – you can’t win alone. You need to give your target audience what they want from your business to grab their attention. This gives you a better chance of making a sale, thus increasing your profit one purchase at a time.

What you should do: Entrepreneur’s “The Fastest Way to Find New Customers” discusses forming “host-beneficiary” relationship with related businesses. This lets you piggyback on their database and increase your chances of gaining customers in the process.

If you have considered what your market want from your products and services but are still not getting any customers, do some promotions for your business through social media and print marketing. For tips on how to market your business using social media, read “The Ultimate Social Media Guide to Small Business Success.” For a deeper and more personal approach, use marketing tools to promote your business. Download our free e-book Direct Mail Marketing Basics to learn how to run an effective mailing campaign that bring in results. Also read our posts about using different print products for marketing purposes in “The Most Epic Print Marketing Posts for Small Businesses.”

Stick to your dream

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

The King’s “I Have a Dream” speech remains to be one  of the most pivotal moments in the American Civil Rights Movement, which calls for equality by abolishing racism. What once seemed to be a difficult task to achieve was eventually fulfilled by the hopeful King in arguably the most impassioned speech in American history.

On a business level, owners strive to achieve their dreams by setting up goals on a timely basis. The completion of these goals brings forth new goals to accomplish, and so on. It is this never-ending quest to strive for something more that makes an empire. By preparing a marketing plan to cover all the bases of your strategy, you can measure your progress, anticipate roadblocks, and carry out with the implementation.

There will be times that your dreams will seem out of reach due to insurmountable obstacles and events beyond your control that put a stop to your plans. While the weak will fold and quit while ahead, people with resolve and character will continue to find ways to keep their dreams alive. It is easy to stop and just be realistic with what you can achieve, but if you can do more with what you have, why stop now when you’ve gone so far?

What you should do? Read our post “Business 101: Turning Your Small Business into a Corporate Empire” for tips and ideas on how you can boost the marketing efforts of your business through effective branding and sound business planning.

Aside from the best practices of carrying out your small business, there is a quality that sets great leaders apart from the rest. The character and drive of business owners determine the success with their dream even when everything seems hopeless. Stand up for your business and be determined to make it through the end.

Are there any more Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes that relate to marketing and small business? Share them by commenting below!

1 Comment on "3 Inspiring Small Business Advice from Martin Luther King, Jr."

  1. Startup Aggieland | January 21, 2013 at 7:50 pm |

    Great post! Sharing on Startup Aggieland's facebook page.

Comments are closed.