10 Business Terms Every New Entrepreneur Needs To Know

So, you started your business.  You’re all in.  You’ve looked at websites and products and all the other stuff you may need to get your business going.  You’ve been watching the videos and reading the blogs.

You are walking the walk and pretending like you know what you are doing.  Fake it til you make it, right? 

Hey, I’m not knocking it – I’ve done that plenty of times. 

But it really is helpful if you know what some of these people are talking about.

As you explore Google and YouTube to learn what you gotta learn, those smart people might be using words you have never heard in your life.  And they are using them like you should totally know what they are talking about.  So, you just nod your head and pretend you understand. 

But you don’t. 

Good news. 

I have put together ten words that all new entrepreneurs should know.  It’s a quick list. 

Now when you hear these words and phrases, you can be like, yeah dude, totally.  And since you understand what they are saying, you will be able to use their lesson or advice better. 

It’s a start, anyway.

1. ABOVE THE FOLD

“Above the fold” is a term used in web design.  It is the part of your website that shows up on the screen when someone types in your URL.  Basically, it’s what they see if they do not scroll down the page. 

The idea is to put compelling info “above the fold” so that the viewer will decide to click on your page or eventually scroll down.  What you want to put “above the fold” is all the good stuff. Here is an example:

2. EVERGREEN

Evergreen is a term used a lot with online courses, but it can apply to regular product sales too! 

When you launch your product or course, you will usually do it live and run it for a certain range of time (like 5-7 days). When the cart is closed, your customer will have to wait until you launch again and open the cart.  If your course or product is “evergreen,” it is always available and not limited by launches or by carts that open or close.  

Your customer can buy whenever they want. 

Business owners usually start with the launch system, but after the product has been out there a while they switch to evergreen so that it is consistently bringing in income without having to promote it. Genius.

3. SCALE

The ultimate goal is be able to get to a point where you can “scale” your business. This is when the freaking exciting stuff happens.  If you have started your business and have found a successful product, you can scale that product by advertising and promoting it as much as possible. 

In order to scale your business, you take the money made from your promotions and put it all back in to more advertising and marketing.  When you do this right, you can grow your business exponentially and it can make a ton of money.

Example:

You have a product that people love.  You make $10 on every sale.

You create an ad that your customers respond positively to.

For every $100 of ads, you make 40 sales.

1st ad run:  $200 for advertising.  You have 80 sales.  $800-$200 = $600.

Now you use that $600 profit to “scale.”

2nd ad run:  $600 for advertising. You have 240 sales. $2,400-$600 = $1,800.

3rd ad run:  $1,800 for advertising.  You have 720 sales. $7,200-$1,800 = $5,400

4th ad run: $5,400 for advertising. You have 2,160 sales.  $21,600-$5,400 = $16,200

5th ad run: $16,200 for advertising.  You have 6,480 sales. $64,800-$16,200 = $48,600

See how fast that grew? That’s scaling, baby.  The more money you can put into advertising, the more money you will make.

4. E-COMMERCE

Don’t let this term throw you.  E-commerce is just a fancy way of saying that you sell something “online” as in “with your computer,” using the “internet.” 

When you shop on Amazon, you are using e-commerce.  Easy.

5. BRICK AND MORTAR

This is the opposite of e-commerce.  A “brick and mortar” store is one you actually walk into. 

People have been saying for years that “brick and mortar” stores are dying, and e-commerce will completely take over eventually.  Sure, some large malls have died off, but this will only be true when we stop enjoying walking around and physically going into beautiful places. Don’t think that will happen any time soon IRL. 

Many businesses are starting e-commerce stores, but they are also keeping their brick and mortar because lots of us still want to see or try things on in person before we buy them.

6. CTA - CALL TO ACTION

All of the lessons and videos you watch will encourage you to put a CTA or “call to action” on your website, blog, podcast, video, etc.  This is critical. 

The call to action is how you will be able to connect with your potential customer.  The CTA asks your reader to click on a link to take them to a new page, sign up for your newsletter, or grab a freebie.  When you get them to click, you can capture their email.  This is golden.  Here is what a CTA looks like:

7. LEAD MAGNET

A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to your potential customer in exchange for their email.  It can be a helpful pdf, a book, or some other gift.  If you happened to click on the sample CTA above, you saw my offer for a lead magnet.

The lead magnet is your good faith offer to provide value. It helps your customers get to know you and the services you can provide to them.

And then you have a warm “lead” for whatever you may want to promote next! 

8. FUNNEL

Everyone is talking funnels these days, but what the heck are they? 

They are actually pretty simple. 

A funnel is a series of steps to move a customer from the initial contact into a sale.  The most basic type of funnel is a “squeeze page,” and it is just a way to capture the customer email.  It looks something like this:

• Offer your “LEAD MAGNET”

• Get the customer’s email

• Put their email into your list so you can send them stuff

 Yep! That’s it!  That was a funnel, people.  Here is another type of funnel. It is called The Webinar Funnel.  It looks like this:

• Webinar Registration Page

• Webinar Confirmation Page and email

• Webinar Broadcast

• Webinar Order Form

• Order Confirmation

There are tons of different kinds of funnels, but they all do the same thing. The goal is to turn a lead into a customer. 

And the best part is you don’t even have to figure these out on your own! There are some great programs that can design awesome funnels for you.  

9. NICHE

Your niche is your specialized area or customer.  The marketing gurus all agree that in order to have a successful business you have to narrow down your focus to a particular niche or customer. 

An example of a specialized niche is: Marketing for Female Dentists that Work With Children.

10. AVATAR

No, this is not the alien creature from the movie. (It’s okay, there has been a lot of confusion on this issue…) 

Your business avatar actually goes along with your niche.  It is your ideal customer within your niche.

You will probably even give them a name.  If you are working with the female dentist niche then your avatar may be defined like this:

Her name is Amanda.  She is a 35-year-old dentist that loves to work with children.  She is looking for better ways to reach out to parents of children that want to provide a playful/fun experience at the dentist.  She has her own practice and wants to expand into other markets.

If you can get into the mind of your avatar, you will be able to sell to them much better.

I hope this helped a bit! Now that you know these key terms you can discuss your business better, and understand some of the skills you will need to acquire as you start your entrepreneurial life.

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