Month: May 2012

5 Neat Business Moves You Can Make In the Next Month

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date May 31, 2012

Article Contributed by Samantha Peters

Your business can instantly boost its profitability and network with just a few steps. The key to improving your business is taking intentional action in furtherance of a goal. Make a goal, and then get the employees of your company to support that same goal. When a company’s employees are unified in pursuing a goal, they will be able to accomplish much more. Here are 5 other moves your business can make to maintain customer loyalty and become more profitable:

1. Get a Facebook Fan Page

Having a Facebook fan page is a must. You may get 100 new customers within a week by creating a Facebook fan page. By having a free Facebook fan page, your business can market itself to a younger generation and instantly sell more products or services.

2. Invest in Promotional Gifts

Promotional gifts are a great way to not only get your company’s name out there, but also a good way to reward loyal customers and high selling employees.

Customized calendars can be a great promo gift for your top customers. They will improve the relationships that you have with your top customers. They can also be great gifts for employees and will help employees make the most of their time. Employees can also stay organized by using promo calendars.

3. Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business networking tool and can help your top business people leverage their network contacts. Make sure all of your top managers have a LinkedIn account and are connecting with other business leaders. Your business will gain popularity as it becomes recognized by other business leaders in the community.

Using LinkedIn is also a great way to entice talent in terms of prospective employees. When it comes to networking, don’t just focus on other business executives. Also be sure to keep in contact with other professionals that could make your company a better place should you have positions open in the future.

4. Host Promotional Events

Hosting promotional events in the community is a must for gaining a better reputation. Your company can make a lasting impression on local community members by hosting events that support the local school district. Picnics, dances, barbeque events, and charity auctions all are great ideas for events to host, and can generally be hosted without having to pay extensive prices.

5. Show Employees Appreciation

Show your best employees some appreciation every once in a while. Give the employee with the top sales for the month a gift certificate or boost in pay. Your employees will become more motivated to sell more products in the next month. The morale of your company will also improve if you show employees some appreciation.

These are the top 5 moves that your business can make in the next month to increase its profitability and improve its relations with customers. Handing out promo calendars is a great way to show appreciation for your customers and for all of your employees.

When it comes to improving your business practices, you are never done. There is always room for improvement, and constantly striving to improve your practices will only make your business more sound, profitable, and an enjoyable place to be for both your customers and employees. So if you are looking for creative ways to improve around the office, consider giving a few of the aforementioned a try. You have little to lose, in terms of revenue, and much more to gain, in terms of culture and profit.

About the Author:

This Guest Post is written by Samantha Peters, an active blogger who enjoys writing about anything of interest to entrepreneurs and business start-ups.

Work Life

Common Sense – Do You Have It?

Post author By
Post date May 27, 2012

We were in the coffee shop discussing a self-development book we had both read sometime over the last few years.

“It’s all about cause and effect,” she said. “Yes, not exactly rocket science, right?” I replied.

“It’s common sense really isn’t it,” she said. “Exactly, just common sense, so why does everyone make such a big fuss of the book?,” I asked. “Well, people don’t really get it do they?” She added. “So why is it called common sense,” I asked, “it doesn’t seem to be very common.” “Your right,” she said, “not common at all actually. So, how did you learn cause and effect, your common sense” she asked.

“At home”, I said, “at home during my childhood, from my mother and father”

We began talking about values and practices, raising kids and ethical work issues; all mixed up of course!

You were very lucky, she said, very fortunate that your parents taught you all that stuff.

And she’s right. My parents were always very sensible and they taught us common sense. Then they let us go and make major mistakes, again and again…just standing by to pick up the pieces.

Today is my mother’s 75th birthday, I’m so grateful that she taught me common sense.

It is such a crucial business skill. Don’t rely just on statistics and trends. Don’t trust anyone who tells you they understand your business (at least until you check them out). Use your common sense and if you don’t have any, find someone who does and ask them to teach you!

So, thanks Mum for teaching me common sense. It has helped me understand cause and effect – when I lose balance, my health and happiness suffer, when I eat unhealthy foods, I feel terribly, when I am grateful, I have all the more to be grateful for.

Thanks Mum for helping me believe that anything is possible.

Thanks for teaching me to value family and relationships above all.

Thanks Mum for telling me your stories.

Do you have common sense?

Who taught it to you?

Planning & Management

The Importance of Planning Before You Begin

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date May 26, 2012

Contributed by Katleen Richardson

As an entrepreneur, just like anyone else, you only have 24 hours in a day. This means that in order to get the most bang for your marketing buck, you need to have some idea of where you’re headed. It’s shocking how many startups and small businesses work on the assumption that more marketing of any kind will automatically be better, and they just use a time-consuming (and often expensive) shotgun approach to marketing, focusing on quantity rather than quality.

Aside from the fact that you just don’t have time to keep up that sort of everything-all-the-time marketing, it may not even be the best thing for your business. Have you ever unsubscribed from a company’s social media accounts simply because you kept hearing the same message several times over on every account, and it was too much like spam? Sending basically the same information out over many different channels is not good marketing – it’s just annoying, and it will result in a lot of wasted time and effort on your part.

It’s not just social media marketing that suffers from lack of planning, though. Any marketing you do without a plan can potentially end up being a waste of your time and resources. Are you aware of exactly what demographic your ads are reaching, or did you just go for the ad space that seemed to be the best value in terms of keeping initial costs down, allowing you to place more ads in more places?

If you feel like your marketing strategy is less of a marathon and more of a wild sprint in all directions, it may be time to take a step back and reassess. If you have yet to launch your business and are still in the organizational stages, then you can get started the right way before falling into the “more is more” trap.
Proper planning before you begin is essential if you, like most business owners, have limited time and resources at your disposal. Understanding who your audience is – and, more importantly, where they hang out – can be the key factor in having a successful marketing campaign. Your efforts would be better spent on narrowing your focus in the correct direction and then sending your message out in that direction, rather than just trying a lot of things at once and hoping for the best, or trying things one at a time in a random way.

Does this mean that you need to hire a marketing professional to help you? While that’s not strictly necessary in all cases, it may be worthwhile to spend at least some of your marketing budget making sure you get some sound advice. A lot depends on how much knowledge you have about how online marketing works, but either way, you’d be better off spending a small percentage of your available funds making sure things get planned correctly, than a much larger percentage randomly purchasing ad space that may not perform up to your expectations.

About the Author:

Katleen Richardson (http://www.marketing-advantedge.com) is an experienced leader who builds integrated strategies combining research, data analysis and creative thinking. She has delivered successful solutions for the publishing, financial and telecommunications industries, as well as for conference and training companies, and professional associations. Her approach is to design customer focused, cost-effective solutions based on cross functional collaboration and results-based metrics.

Work Life

3 Ways to Productively Work Positive

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date May 25, 2012

The truck in the next lane weaved toward me. I looked over. He was texting.

The car ahead of me at the now-green traffic light didn’t move. “She’s on Facebook on her phone,” my wife said.

The SUV zoomed ahead of me, and then slowed down. And again further down the interstate. Each time, the driver was on a call when I went around, and off the phone when he sped up.

And the thought popped in my head, “If these people are ‘always on’ when driving, how are they at work?”

Numerous studies indicate that our work productivity diminishes by at least 25% when we bounce from one task to another, allowing ourselves to be chronically interrupted. Technology breeds an expectation of instant responsiveness that we human beings just aren’t wired for.

Want to increase your work productivity and decrease your paralyzing overwhelm?

Slow down in these three ways to positively speed up your productivity:

Turn off email

Automatic email updates are an intrusion on your thought process.

Be honest now: you read email while on a phone call, right?

Think your caller doesn’t know

Think again. You’re failing to be 100% present. Too many “Umm’s” give you away.

Turn off the automatic email updates on your office computer, tablet, and phone. Whatever it is will wait until your prescribed time to download and answer email.

“Do not disturb”

Your desk and mobile phones have a “do not disturb” button, or “airplane mode” that blocks calls. Use them as you do problem-solving or creating. It takes your brain a little time to focus on a situation, consider a wide range of options, and discover the best one. Every time the phone rings, your mind chases the call whether you answer or not.

Give yourself a designated time to answer voice mail. Prioritize the calls and respond appropriately.

Limit social media

I’m convinced half of the bazillion Facebookers wake up posting a status while in the bathroom while the other half post with one eye closed, going to sleep. Talk about overwhelm…major corporations lose tons of bandwidth to social media daily.

Yes, have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and whatever else you want. Focus on content creation and hire someone else to manage it using incredible tools like TweetDeck or Hootsuite. Choose a specific time to be available online. Announce it and go live.

Otherwise, leave it alone.

Now what?

Slow down to speed up.

You’ve done it. You’ve increased your work productivity 25%.

Now what?

Positively become even more productive:

Walk outdoors in a green space. Sit on a park bench and listen to the birds. They’re not angry, and happy to sing for free.

Eat lunch with your spouse, your child in preschool, or a friend from Rotary Club or church. Just because…

Hand-write a thank you note to a teacher or college professor who changed your life. He probably works for next-to-nothing or she’s wondering if anybody noticed her sacrifices…especially at this time of year.

And remember—what goes around, comes around.

Slow down to speed up.

Productively Work Positive in this negative world.

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.