Categories
Entrepreneurship

Clerical Clarity: Admin Work In the First Month of Entrepreneurship #entrepreneurfail

Clerical-Clarity-

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

“Days of filling out forms and reading about tax implications of small businesses and figuring out the best computer for my business – I realized how I was just delaying the actual work that had to be done.”

You thought you could just dive right into your new venture? The first month of entrepreneurship is punctuated with administrative overheads like paperwork, forms, writing checks, balancing projects and accounts, with a little bit of actual work sprinkled on top. To make things worse, these administrative tasks create an #entrepreneurfail: a perfect storm of procrastination. In contrast, in a new corporate job, there are a few clerical details to take care of… benefits & tax forms, and then you are off and running!

Of course you cannot skip these administrative overheads. However, be mindful of how they may take over as you embark on your journey.   If you can delegate to a virtual assistant or find a vendor, this could help you make some quicker progress.  We used ODesk and Elance to scope out helpful and experienced talent so that we can actually work on our business.  Our only mistake is that we didn’t do it sooner!

Key Startup Lesson: Focus on your end goal: sales and building a sustainable business and don’t get bogged down by the administrative details.

How was your first month starting a new business? Let us know in the comments below.

Enjoyed this comic? You’ll find this one and many more in the book Cheating on your Corporate Job: A Comic Look at the Startup Dream available on Amazon for download.

Categories
People & Relationships

3 Positive Ways to Cure Customer Rage

How can I help you?

According to a survey conducted by Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, about half of all American households experience customer service-related problems. Over two-thirds of those customers were “very” or “extremely upset” about the company response when they complained. Over one-third reacted by yelling at the rep while the number of consumers cursing nearly doubled to 13%.

If we surveyed your customers, how would they rate their experience with your business?

Our team recently had the opportunity to experience customer care after new purchases. We discovered three positive ways to cure customer rage and create exceptional experiences.

Ask Great Questions

While it’s easy to just “get started” with what you know, the companies our team liked best first asked great questions. They began at 30,000 feet, i.e., big questions about our business goals, hopes, dreams, frustrations, and fears.

Then they drilled down to specific ways to accomplish our goals with the least amount of frustration in implementation. They helped us put it in place and taught us how to do it independently.

What great question will you ask a customer today as you give exceptional customer care? Such questions show interest and a willingness to listen.

Listen and Then Answer

After asking great questions, these companies listened to our team’s response.

Really listened.

What a gift! No FAQ list. No anticipation or presupposition.

They employed the active listening technique of accurate empathy. They let us know they were listening by using some of our words in their response. Such empathy lowered the learning curve for us, eliminated accompanying hesitations, and made it all more manageable.

How will you listen first and then answer today as you give exceptional customer care?

Give Respect

Our team had the sense that the reps were walking up the steep learning curve with us. That they could see from our perspective. They wanted to help us understand. They desired to serve us without making us feel ignorant at best and stupid at worst.

They respected us.

Every phone call and email was their “pleasure,” “why we’re here,” and “please let me know what I can do for you.”

One even asked for an update to see how she could help without our asking!

How will your customers know you respect them today? Respect lessens rage every time.

Sure, it’s a busy season for everyone. What a wonderful opportunity for you to create an outstanding customer experience in a crowded, hurried-up market that expects to get angry.

Give exceptional customer care today as you ask great questions, listen and then answer, and give respect. As you do, you 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 helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they can leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

3 Steps to IMPLEMENTING Your 2014 Marketing Plan

implementmarketing-plan

You just put the finishing touches on your kick-butt marketing plan that’s going to skyrocket your business. Hooray!

Only problem is that kick-butt marketing plan isn’t going to do a thing for your business unless you actually put it into action. And that, alas, is where most marketing plans end up — a really good idea that never got implemented.

So, how do you stop that from happening? Here are 3 steps to help you move from thinking to doing.

1. Figure out what you need to be doing versus what you can get someone else to do. Look, there’s no reason why YOU have to do all the implementation. Get some help!

If you already have a team, fantastic! Now you just have to start delegating. If you don’t have a team or you don’t have the right person on your team to do a specific job (for instance, a technical person to fix your shopping cart) then you need to put finding that person to your to-do list. In the short-term, yes it does add to your workload, but in the long-term, it will save you a lot of time.

2. Block off time in your calendar to work on your plan. The only way these things are going to get done is if you actually take the time to work on them. So start by actually setting aside the time.

You may be someone who works better in shorter, more frequent bursts of time (15 or 20 minutes every day) versus a longer time less frequently (2 hours or half a day once a week). Only you know what appeals to you, and I would suggest scheduling your time accordingly. (Look, it’s tough enough to get things done; you might as well make it easier for yourself by working with your natural tendencies than against them.)

3. Set yourself up for success. Just because you set the time aside doesn’t mean you’ll actually get anything done on your plan during that time. So you need to keep yourself focused and motivated and don’t allow yourself to get sidetracked.

Now there’s no question that’s much easier said than done. So how do you do that? Here are a few tips to try:

• Remind yourself WHY you’re doing this. Is it so you’ll be able to take care of your family better? Is it because you want to sell a million copies of your book? Is it because you’re so tired of the way things are you’re ready for a change? Whatever it is, remind yourself of the bigger WHY before you sit down to work. That will keep your motivation up.

• Make it a special time just for you. Maybe light a candle, put on some favorite music or pour yourself a fave cup of tea. Or maybe you head out to a local Starbucks to hang out. Whatever it is, make it special — something you look forward to.

• Create a “squirrel file.” If you ever watched the movie “Up,” there’s a talking dog in it that keeps getting distracted by squirrels. So he’ll be talking and in the middle he’ll shout “squirrel!” and completely lose his train of thought.

As entrepreneurs, we are surrounded by squirrels. And there’s no better time for the squirrels to come and play then during this time we’ve set aside to implement our marketing plan. “Oh, I’ll get to my plan as soon as I get this email out…as soon as I return this phone call…as soon as I clean up my desk.”

You get the idea.

So the way to keep the squirrels away is to create a “squirrel file” (or call it something fun like “squirrel nest”). Any of those squirrels come running out, capture it and stick it in the file to work on “later.” If you want, you can even designate a time to work on all those squirrels.

But the most important thing to do is DECIDE you really ARE going to implement your plan. Once you do that, the rest will fall into place.

Categories
Success Attitude

3 Positive Ways to Deal with Disappointing Results

disappointed-

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

Disappointing results happen…to all of us.

It did to me recently. After hours and hours spent on a proposal, after being told, “It’s yours,” and after projecting it into our cash flow, the response came back, “We’re not going to do it.”

Hero to zero in 1.3 seconds.

Focusing on the positive and filtering out the negative is tougher sometimes than at others. How do you deal with it?

Here are 3 Positive Ways to Deal with Disappointing Results:

Take a Breath

Once you get the news, get up and do something different, preferably physical. If you just sit there, the stench grows worse. If you simply get in your car and drive away, the vehicle fills with funk really fast.

I get up from my desk and walk. My office is at home and our driveway is a quarter of a mile long, up a hill.

You can do the same around a parking lot. Or stop the car and meander through a park.

Take a breath. Give yourself at least a few moments to vent, purge, and exhaust the negative emotions assaulting you.

Take a Look Back

Next, take a look back. Glance in two directions with these questions:

1.     “When did I receive similar disappointing results and recover well?”

Remembering an experience like this one and looking at the reality of, “Hey! I’m still here and trying again” strengthens your courage and helps you gain heart to persevere.

I actually recalled some larger disappointments than this one. I recovered from that one and determined that I would this one, too.

2.     “What could I have done differently?”

There’s a lesson to be learned from every experience, positive and negative. You can control only yourself.

I decided to avoid projecting cash flow until I have the contract and a deposit. What lesson will you discern and Work Positive moving forward?

Take a Boost

Finally, take a boost. Put on a favorite, positively feel good song and dance around. Or, read an inspiring blog. Or, call an ideal client who loves you, just to say “Hey! How’s it going?” Or, write down three positive experiences you’ve had lately that you’re grateful for. Or, go get a coffee and pay for the person behind you.

A boost removes you mentally and emotionally from the address of disappointment to an entirely new zip code of positive belief.

Disappointing results last a season. Positive success endures for a lifetime so take a breath, a look back, and a boost to 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), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

3 Keys to Writing Copy that Attracts and Invites (and Doesn’t Feel Sales-y and Slime-y)

If you’re like so many conscious/heart-centered entrepreneurs, a lot of traditional copywriting probably makes you pretty uncomfortable. (Copywriting is writing promotional materials, nothing to do with protecting your intellectual property.)

 

But everyone tells you that you need that “type of copy” if you want to make money.

 

So what do you do? Make money and feel slime-y and sales-y with the copy you’re using — or don’t make money, but feel like your copy is at least aligned with your core values?

 

Well, I’m here today to say it IS possible to do both — write copy that attracts, inspires and invites so you make money AND feel good doing it.

 

And I’m going to share 3 keys to get you started.

 

1. Know your ideal clients. I’m a big fan of ideal clients. Because unlike target markets or niche markets, your ideal clients are the heart and soul of who you’re meant to serve.

 

You see, target markets and niches are more about the external — their demographics. Ideal clients are about the internal — what drives them, what gets them up in the morning, what keeps them awake at night… what their core values are.

 

And if you base your business and your marketing around that, you’re going to attract the perfect clients into your business — the ones who you love to work with and who love working with you. (Doesn’t that feel fabulous?)

 

Now if you haven’t done this before, I really encourage you to do this exercise — I want you to create your ideal client avatar. Spend some time getting to know your ideal client. It doesn’t matter if he/she is real or in your head; either way it’s a big help to do this.

 

Start by writing out a detailed description of that person. Be as complete as possible. Then I want you to post it, so every time you sit down to write copy, you see your ideal client.

 

You may want to add a picture as well so you can really “see” your ideal client as you write.

 

Now once you have your ideal client set, then you can move to the second key.

 

2. Pretend you’re writing a letter to a friend, NOT writing marketing copy. If your friend came to you and told you about a problem she had, and you KNEW you had the perfect solution and wanted to help, how would you craft that letter? You would be passionate, right? And you would probably also be very comfortable asking her to take action, because you know in your heart if she does, her life will change.

 

Well I want you to bring that same passion into writing your marketing copy. You care about your ideal client, right? So you ARE writing to a friend — a friend who has a problem you can solve. And you know how wonderful your friend’s life will be once she’s solved the problem.

 

That’s the place to come from when you write. And when you do, all the hype-y and sales-y stuff melts away.

 

3. Focus on their transformation. Now you’ve probably heard “write benefits and not features,” and that’s true — I want you to do that. But even more than that, I want you to focus on the transformation: how much your ideal clients’ lives will be transformed once they’ve bought your products and services.

 

If you focus your copy on that — writing “you” instead of “I” (in fact, you should have a 2:1 or even a 3:1 ratio of “you” to “I”) and how your product or service will transform your ideal client, they’ll be that much more excited to work with you.