Month: April 2012

Categories
Planning & Management

Help! It’s Addictive…An Obsession

Does this sound harsh or… Do you admit it? Can you see it? Do you feel that pull towards the very thing you know you shouldn’t…

Is it chocolate? Or technology? The mobile phone? Or all of them?

You think I’ll just have a quick look… I’ll just check my email… I’ll just see who’s on facebook… I’ll just eat one piece or slice…

And here’s the thing, it’s a fine line. There is no harm in the ‘just quickly’ whatever. The harm is in doing it all the time.

Suddenly hours have gone by, the chocolate bar has disappeared and you are feeling bloated and guilty with that added feeling of, ‘I don’t know where it went (time or food!)’ and the panic of,’ I have no time to finish what I need to.’

I call it the black hole and it can apply to lots of areas of life.  Here’s an example, it’s called “The Social Media Black Hole.”

I decide to send a few tweets, line up some facebook posts and tag a few colleagues and then check my linked in account for updates. I glance at my phone to see that it’s 9am and open up all three pages simultaneously, telling myself it’s quicker that way.

The next thing I realize that it’s 11.43am and I haven’t even uploaded the facebook link I was looking for. What was I thinking?  Where did the time go?  What about my deadlines?

Does this sound familiar?

Well, at first I thought that my phone wasn’t working, the clock was clearly wrong. Then I decided that it was pure avoidance; I must be resisting something so I allow myself to get distracted. But soon I realized the truth. Some things are simply addictive. Once you start it’s REALLY hard to stop.

But here’s the good news.

It’s not everything, it’s not uncontrollable, and you can DO SOMETHING!

So, it’s not everything – NO, you have your pet addictions, the specific things that pull you in. Is it a food type?  Or a type of technology?  Do you check Facebook all the time or is it your email?

I don’t like television much, so I’m never attracted by watching just one show.  It just doesn’t do it for me.  But you know what yours is.

So just face it, say it and understand it.

You can control this.  You have to create strategies and practices that allow you access, but limit the time and energy you spend there. I don’t believe in diets, I can’t deny myself chocolate or anything forever, but I can set limits and you can too!

So, set yourself a kind limit. Allow yourself a Facebook feed a few times a day…just not several times an hour. Check your email at the start of the day and the end. Or better still, use your favorite addictive activities when you have an external limit; so check Facebook 5 minutes before you have to leave to pick up the kids. Or check your email in between client meetings.

Most importantly, keep on top of your time and energy. Don’t waste it, it’s precious.

Don’t feed your mind and body with limitless junk, they are what keep you healthy, focused, creative and on track in everything that’s really important in your life and work.

So don’t be harsh or extreme. Be kind. And see how you will treasure your time and energy and you will thank yourself for it.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Four Tips for Successful Email Marketing

Email newsletters are becoming more and more prevalent these days, and their popularity can be both a plus and a negative. On the positive side, newsletters are easier to create than they were just six months ago. Drag and drop formats, pre-designed templates; it’s so easy to make and distribute them that more and more companies are using newsletters to keep in touch with their customer base – and that’s also the down side. In a sea of newsletters popping up in inboxes, how do you instantly hook your readers’ attention and avoid the dreaded “delete” button?

A good newsletter is ultimately based on four tried and true principles: be interesting and engaging, keep it simple, don’t overwhelm yourself or your readers, and keep your deadlines.

1. Engage and interest

Even though I’m not in the market for a new home, I still look forward to a weekly newsletter from a local real estate company. Several of the homes they have for sale are listed at the bottom of the letter and I usually wind up flipping through them, but the reason I read their publication is because of the headlining story. These features might be about a celebrity home for sale or a house with a storied history, with titles such as “Fired bullets found in Billy the Kid’s ranch home, on the market since 2007” or “Famous bootlegger’s home for sale in Chicago.” Of course, the homes for sale aren’t in their portfolio, but the stories are relevant to their industry and they instantly grab their readers’ interest. And if I ever consider putting my own home up for sale, I’ll definitely be in touch with them because I know their newsletter is being read.

How can you think outside of the box with your company newsletter? Your stories don’t have to be about your specific company or even your immediate industry – how can you hook your readers with an interesting story that builds them up to learn more about your business?

Even if you have a bunch of interesting articles, however, your audience may quickly lose interest if you’re not engaging them in the stories. If the articles are poorly written, uncomfortable to read, or full of loud, obnoxious marketing language, your newsletter is almost as good as deleted – and it’s hard for readers to come back from a bad reading experience.

2. Be engaging

“Being engaging” means drawing your readers in to the story by making them feel like they’re a part of it.Write as though you are holding a conversation. For example, instead of bragging about a new award your company received, tell a little bit about the ceremony itself. Maybe the stuffed peppers were just terrific — include a picture! Think about how you can make your readers feel more involved with your company through both your stories and your tone.

1. Simplify, simplify

This phrase should be old hat if you’re a business owner, but it always bears repeating: keep it simple! Readers don’t want to slog through paragraphs of rambling rhetoric before they get to the point of your story. Keep it concise and keep it simple. A good idea for a section in your newsletter might be a “news bites” section, with little facts about some aspect of your business that readers might think are interesting. For example, if you own a stationary store, you could have a section called “from the blotter” with tips on how to learn simple calligraphy. Or if you have a landscaping company, a section called “dirty business” could advise readers on the best types of fertilizer for popular plants currently in season. Be creative! What interesting information can you share about your business? Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

2. Don’t overwhelm yourself

As an entrepreneur, you already know that you’re a strong and ambitious person, but think about setting some of those strong ambitions aside as you build your very first newsletter. While you may want to have sections for anything and everything, remember that these are all sections that you’ll need to keep up with in the future. Additionally, readers don’t want pages and pages of information. Rather, a couple relevant articles, some fun facts, and some interesting information about your company is more than enough to draw in your readers, engage them, and leave them feeling like they not only learned something, but that your company is a good source for that type of information. Remember that you will need to put this together on a regular basis, too, so make sure your newsletter is a comfortable size that you can keep up with. Which leads us to the last point…

3. Keep your deadlines

Even if you have the best stories in the world, readers will lose confidence with you and your company if you can’t keep deadlines. If you schedule your newsletter for release at 5 p.m. every Thursday, make sure you keep it! Regardless of how busy it is at work, always set aside the time to ensure your newsletter will be ready for distribution by a set deadline. This will not only grow the readers’ confidence in you and your reliability, it will grow their confidence in your company.

So the next time you’re working on your newsletter, or building your first one, think about these five basic principles: be interesting, be engaging, keep it simple, don’t overwhelm yourself, and keep your deadlines. If you do, you’ll begin gathering a loyal and expanding readership in no time.

About the Author:

Industry veteran Anita Brady is the President of 123Print.com, a leading provider of high quality customizable items like customizable business cards, letterhead and other materials for small businesses and solo practitioners.

Categories
Success Attitude

Learn How to Celebrate You!

Why do so many people go through life feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, and unfulfilled? I believe that, in many cases, it’s because they’ve been taught to suppress their core being – the unique traits that combine to make them who they really are. This is one of the reasons why people often experience a sense of wonder after they take the Perceptual Style Assessment (PSA); they begin to understand and embrace their unique talents and skills.

I never get tired of watching the magic that happens when someone reads the description of their own Perceptual Style!

It’s profound; there’s a sense of wonder about how the description could fit them so well, followed closely by a sense of deep validation of something they have long known about themselves but couldn’t quite put into words.

When you read your own Perceptual Style description, you feel more than just delight in the accuracy of the description: there is also a great sense of relief when you realize that the differences you experience between yourself and others is not because there is something wrong with you. There’s real joy in understanding that these differences are normal, and that it is OK – great, actually – to be exactly who you are.

As powerful as I know the experience to be, I was still deeply moved by a story a client shared with me recently, after getting his PSA results: 

“I was angry as a teenager, and as an adult I have been unhappy and depressed much of my life. I have been through eight years of therapy, but it wasn’t until after contemplating my PSA results that I finally figured out what I was angry and unhappy about.”

These words were not uttered by someone who was struggling to make a living or who was a marginal member of society. He is a successful business owner who grew up in a loving home in an upper middle class neighborhood in the late 60s and early 70s. He is happily married, has successfully raised three children, and appears happy and content with life. So his declaration came as a surprise to me. Once I heard what he had to say, I realized his story was far from unusual and needed to be retold in a public forum. I asked his permission and he agreed. Here’s his story:

At first, he said, the results of his PSA results of Activity surprised and concerned him. Everything he read about Activity exactly described behavior that he had been taught to suppress and control. Reading the Activity PS description made him worry that he had been unsuccessful in learning how to hold those ‘bad’ behaviors in check. His great revelation: the reason he had been unsuccessful in ridding himself of those behaviors was because, at core, they were who he was. His great joy was that PST and Celebrate You were telling him that it was OK to be himself.

His anger as a teen arose from having his natural skills thwarted, undervalued, and/or ignored. His unhappiness and depression as an adult was due to his inability to stop suppressing his natural buoyancy and high energy level. He realized that he had kept who he really was deeply hidden from the world, and to a great extent, even from himself.

From a psychological perspective, his insight made perfect sense. In essence, the message he had received from his parents was, “Don’t be you.” As humans, we are able to adapt our behavior to whatever is required of us, but the core of who one is, as expressed by their PS, cannot be changed. The inevitable conclusion most humans will come to when faced with such a dilemma is that there is something wrong with them, and that who they are is not OK.  More simply stated, “I am not loveable”. The anger that an adolescent experiences from having his core being denied transforms into sadness and depression as he resigns himself to being a “responsible adult”.

My client’s PSA results and Celebrate You gave him the permission he needed to celebrate who he really is.

His story made me wonder how many of us received similar messages in the service of molding us into “successful” adults. How many of the 65+% of people who hate their jobs feel that way because their work allows them no expression of their natural skill set? How many people live their lives vaguely dissatisfied or unhappy for no apparent reason simply because their core being has been repressed? The answer to all three questions, I believe, is a much higher percentage than we know or suspect. Don’t be part of that percentage. Celebrate You!

About the Author:

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com.

 

Categories
Online Business

Why Upsells and Downsells Could be the Ticket to Your Business’ Online Success

First, some context. What exactly is an upsell and a downsell and why is it so important to your business?

An upsell is when your prospect has already said “yes” to buying something from you, and then they decide at the same time to buy something else. The classic example of this is the MacDonald’s “Would you like fries with that?’ The customer has already bought a hamburger and now the employee has nudged them into buying something else.

A downsell is when your prospect has said “no” to your initial offer so you present a second offer. Typically the downsell is less expensive than the original offer.  So, for instance, the customer decides the MacDonald’s hamburger is too expensive and decides to buy just an ice cream cone.

Now clearly this can and does happen in face-to-face situations. But did you realize this can also happen online?

So for instance, someone buys a product on your web site. Your web site can immediately present them with a second offer, the upsell.

And if the prospect clicks away, because they’re not interested in buying your product, your web site can also present them with a second offer, a lower cost offer than the one they were looking at.

So you’re probably thinking, this sounds a little complicated and I haven’t a clue how to start. Why would I want to do this?

Two reasons –

1. You’ll make more money. When you start using the upsell, you’ll increase your overall purchase amount. For instance, say your product is $100 and you offer a $50 upsell. Let’s say 20% of your buyers take you up on it. Now you’ve made an additional $50 on 20% of your purchases. (This can add up after awhile.)

Now, for the downsell, you’ve saved a sale you’ve probably lost anyway. Let’s say your product is $500, when someone clicks away, you pluck a piece out of the original product, say an ebook, and offer that for $97. Now you’re giving your customers a lower cost alternative, a chance to try your product out before spending a lot more money.

2. If you offer an upsell, you’ll increase customer satisfaction and decrease returns. Yes you read that right. Upsells can actually make your customers feel more satisfied doing business with you and less likely to want to return the product. Why? Because you’re helping them “skip” over buyers’ remorse. We all have buyers’ remorse after we buy something, which is when we regret our purchase. The intensity and the length varies depending on the buying situation. But if you immediately jump into and offer a second purchase, your customers are busy figuring out if they want to make that second purchase versus feeling bad over making the first one. And if they DO buy, then they’re that much more invested in you and your business and they WANT what you sold them to be what they’re looking for.

And the best part of this whole strategy? It’s automatic. You set it once and it keeps on doing it, over and over again. What could be better?

One final note to chew on as you make up your mind if it’s worth it or not – do you know what the most read page on a web site is? It’s your thank you pages. The page your prospects go to after they sign up for something or buy something. Don’t waste this valuable real estate – put an upsell on that page and watch your bank account grow.

Categories
Business Ideas

Top Reasons To Start a Kiosk Business

Article Contributed by Ray Haiber

Are you thinking of starting a retail business but have serious concerns about the potential high costs of getting started? Have you heard horror stories about the high monthly profit eating overhead expenses of operating a traditional retail business such as rent and employees? If you fit this description you might want to consider starting a proven kiosk business opportunity or franchise instead. Most kiosk opportunities today are designed to provide the average entrepreneur a very affordable and easy path to owning a retail type business without the high startup costs and monthly overhead expenses associated with opening and running a traditional “brick and mortar” retail business.

Below are some of the top advantages in my opinion of starting a kiosk business vs. opening a traditional retail store business:

Low Start Up Costs: With a turnkey kiosk business you will not have the high costs historically associated with building out a traditional brick & mortar retail space or store. And due to the compact nature and smaller operating space requirements of most kiosk machines leasing a space or location to place your unit is generally much more affordable.

Low Overhead: Most kiosk machine businesses are designed to be operated remotely just like traditional vending machine businesses so you will not have to hire a staff or employees which will significantly reduce your operating expenses. At most you will be required to restock your unit periodically the frequency of which will depend on the nature of the product you are offering for sale. Even if you are operating a mall based kiosk that does require staffing it usually can be owner operated or can have very few employees.

Quick Start-Up: Unlike traditional retail store businesses or franchises that can take weeks or sometimes many months to open, a turnkey kiosk business can generally be up and running very quickly in comparison. Many kiosk companies’ today use professional installers and technicians to ensure that their units are fully functional and ready to go when delivered to a location for installation. In fact your biggest investment of time may actually be finding and securing the best possible location for your first unit.

Easy Life Style Business: Starting and owning any type of small business these days is going to occasionally have its challenges. But in comparison to owning and operating a typical retail store owning a kiosk business will be much easier, less stressful, and ultimately will allow you more freedom due to the nature of the kiosk business model. In most cases kiosk businesses can be operated on a part-time or semi-absentee basis with the owner’s primary function being to restock the units periodically. In fact many kiosk machines today have software installed in them which allows the owner to remotely monitor inventory levels and even sales by product saving more time and increasing profits.

About Author:

Ray Haiber has 12 years’ experience as a professional small business broker and franchise consultant. You can go here to research top and affordable vending businesses for sale here. You can research top franchises for sale across the USA here. © 2012