In case you haven’t been paying attention, there are more events out there then you can shake a stick at. And every time you turn around, even more events pop up.

For the most part, I’m glad there are so many events because there are many good reasons to attend them. The networking, the learning, the “getting out of your rut and exploring new ideas” and more. But the problem is, how do you decide which events are worth you spending your hard-earned money (not to mention your time) attending and which are the ones you should skip?

Well, I’ve put together 3 keys to helping you determine the right event for you.

1. First — ask yourself why you want to attend this event (or any event for that matter) in the first place. What do you hope to get out of it? Are you looking for business? Joint venture opportunities? To learn a new skill or strategy? To brainstorm some new ideas for your business? To just get away from your office and talk to people who “get it?”

Be very clear and very specific on what you want. Don’t be vague — if you’re vague you’re not going to have enough information to actually make the right decision.

2. Now, take a look at the event. If you’re looking for clients or joint venture partners, are those the people who will be attending? Will it be too small (or too big) for you to be able to do they type of networking you enjoy? If you want brainstorming or masterminding, will the right folks be there for that?

If you’re looking for education, is the event promise a good fit? Do you think you’ll actually walk away with the information you’re looking for?

3. Okay, so if you’ve gotten this far and the event appears to be a good fit, now I want you to take one final look to make sure attending this event is absolutely the right way to go.

If you’re looking just for information and have no big interest in the networking (or you don’t much like to network) is there a simulcast option or a home study course you could get instead? (You can also do quite a bit of networking on simulcast as well.) If you are interested in the networking, is this the absolute best event you should attend or if there a better option? And if this is the best option, should you simply be an attendee or would it be worth your while to upgrade your visibility to a sponsor package?

I’m not trying to talk you out of your decision with this third step, but what I AM trying to do is make sure you’ve thought this through so you aren’t disappointed. There’s nothing worse then spending all that time and money to show up at an event and realize either it’s not what you were looking for OR you should have made a different choice (for instance — you should have chosen a sponsorship option or a simulcast option).

So take a few extra minutes and just make sure this is the right decision for you.

And lastly (but probably most importantly) once you DO decide this is the right event for you, go buy your ticket and make your travel arrangements NOW. Don’t wait — get it done and move on to your next decision.

Article Contributed by Billy

Many businesses think that the best, perhaps only way to create new revenue is to advertise. Indeeed, advertising is and will continue to be an important part of business and commerce. It has long been a way to not only attract new customers but to appeal to new niche markets and create a brand for your company.

But these days with the power of the Internet, advertising doesn’t hold the power it used to. It’s still important, of course. But increasingly web practices that protect online brands, optimize for search engines and integrate social media are producing more varied and exciting results. I can think of three web practices that are just as important, if not more, that are in many cases cheaper and more effective at evolving your brand:

Reputation management

Many companies are providing specific training for in-house reputation management now. Other companies offer this as a specific consulting service that can be purchased on a one-time or rolling basis. Reputation management involves ensuring that when your name is searched for on the Internet that negative results won’t rise quicker than positive ones. This includes generating new content, optimizing it for the web, and inundating your brand across Internet communities, like eBay, Yelp, Everything2 and Slashdot. It’s also important to be active on online wikis, like Meatball and Wikipedia.

Reputation management is a major part of online brand development and can be critical to attracting new customers. It is also critical for Public Relations efforts that require managing a bad situation. You can be certain that BP was doing some major online rep management after the 2011 oil spill.

SEO

Search engine optimization is in many ways advertising for the 21st century Internet company. SEO involves optimizing your website for search engines in such a way that more people will see your site and its content on the first page of search results. This adds value to your domain and increases your Page Rank. A powerful SEO campaign will expose your brand to millions of new web visitors.

Instead of relaying a direct message, SEO positions your existing messages and gives weight to your online content, making it more likely to be seen, clicked on, and interacted with. SEO is one of the fastest growing industries, and for a good reason—it is one of the chief power brokers on the Internet and in many cases dictates how much revenue online merchants bring in.

Social media optimization

Social media is an absolute must for all companies. I don’t know if you’ve watched TV recently, but nearly all commercials now involve some sort of social media integration. This is a testament to just how vital and all-encompassing the industry has grown in just the last few years.

Social media branding by companies can be as simple as creating a Facebook fanpage to more complex campaigns like crowdsourced photo app contests on Instagram or Pinterest, viral video placements on YouTube, or deals and discounts on Twitter and/or Foursquare. In some instances, social media facilitates advertising; but the overall social media integration goes above and beyond traditional advertising and marketing. Social media in many ways combines the greatest assets of the first two web practices.

I’ve just argued that web practices like reputation management, SEO, and social media integration are more important than advertising on the 21st century Internet medium. While this is a subjective opinion, facts bear out that companies who adhere to SEO, reputation management and social media optimization generally experience increased sales, a more robust brand image, and better consumer interaction.

While advertising is and likely always will be an integral part of all company marketing tactics, web practices that enhance a company’s search engine results and brand reputations are no longer limited to traditional ad campaigns.

About the Author

Billy writes about online management training and stuff.

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.

A while ago, I realized it was time for me to evaluate which aspects of my sales and marketing funnels were working and which weren’t. I checked my metrics (which I know sounds scary, but metrics can be easy, I promise), and I found out that there were a few points in my funnels where things weren’t going smoothly, and I noticed a few places where my follow-up wasn’t as strong as it should be. What did these shortcomings mean for me and my business? Fewer clients, and less income. So I made adjustments.

Simply being aware of the ineffective parts of your sales and marketing funnels is the first step. After that, it’s time to implement the simple changes that are needed to help get your business on a better track.

Understanding the shortcomings in your sales and marketing funnels is important, but you still have to be able to get out of your own way. This is hard for many small business owners. It’s difficult to step back and view your own business objectively, to be able to tell yourself that the funnel you’ve worked so hard on isn’t working in some areas. It’s easy to see these shortcomings as personal failures, rather than as chances to learn and get better. What you have to keep in mind is that being honest with yourself and recognizing problems is great in the long run. It enables you to take important action, which will make your business much more profitable.

In my work, I’ve noticed that there are two main reasons why business owners fail to examine and implement changes to their marketing and sales funnels:

• Fear: People fear making mistakes. They fear failure, they fear admitting miscalculations, and they fear the embarrassment that goes along with acknowledging mistakes.
• Lack of know-how: Being confronted with a difficult problem is a huge blow to one’s confidence. Pretending problems don’t exist is much easier than educating yourself (or receiving education) with regard to the tools that can help you improve your business.

Giving in to fear is dangerous for any small business owner. It prevents action, it stops you from trying new ideas, and it prevents you from making necessary changes to your marketing and sales funnels. As a result, business owners who suffer from fear never give themselves the chance to turn their disappointing results into fantastic profits. Fear prevents action, and the ability to take action is the most important character trait of successful people.

Lack of know-how, on the other hand, is relatively easy to overcome. If you can get past your fear, you’re well on your way. All you need is to solicit the aid of mentors and coaches who can help you figure out how to create and analyze your marketing metrics. Working with an expert is one of the most valuable things you can do for your business. After all, it’s important to realize that we can’t know everything. Even the most successful people hire coaches and advisers to help them deal with the difficult complexities of running a business. Investing in outside help is an investment in yourself.

Many modern small business owners have given up on the “old-school” practice of cold calling in favor of “new-school” methods of marketing such as social media outreach. While this can be effective, your company can still benefit from some good old-fashioned smiling and dialing.

There is nothing more important to an entrepreneur than generating new business, establishing contacts, and setting appointments. To effectively generate new business, you must be open to all possibilities, regardless of how uncomfortable they may be. There’s an old saying that goes, “anything worth doing is worth doing right”. You must be serious and dedicated enough to do it right.

When launching a telemarketing or appointment setting campaign, there are a few guidelines to live by:

1. Properly prepare before launching your campaign.

Start by establishing an objective for each individual phone call. Write a script detailing an umbrella view of everything you need to say. If you’re really uncomfortable with the idea of reading off of a script, you should take into consideration an outline as an alternative so the call will sound more natural. Write down what you expect the prospect to say in response to your questions. This will help frame the conversation in your mind and keep you from getting caught off guard.

2. Know that you are a nuisance…and embrace it.

This can be critical when framing your mindset when approaching a campaign. You probably know from experience that business decision makers typically try to avoid telemarketing calls. Instead of deterring you from participating, you should use this knowledge to customize your pitch. Be friendly. Let the prospect know that you are a human, face similar challenges, and are only there to help. The trick is to make your cold call feel like an important consultative experience.

3. Be studious and diligent.

There’s nothing that will turn a prospect off more quickly than an unprepared telemarketer. Take the time to learn your prospect’s business and industry as well as your own. It can be immensely deflating to finally get an interested prospect on the phone, only to be unable to answer his legitimate questions. If you fall into this trap, your prospect will quickly lose respect for you and decide that you aren’t worth speaking to. After all, you are representing your business.

4. Use knowledge to your advantage.

If you’ve taken the time to learn industry terminology and company details, don’t be afraid to share it. Casually incorporate industry lingo into your pitch, and show off the fact that you’ve studied their business! Furthermore, understanding the target company can extend the length of your call and help you establish a deeper relationship.

5. Target the right people.

Part of your research should be to determine who makes the necessary decisions for their business. If you can’t get the decision maker on the phone, let the gatekeeper know that it is a cold call, and have them forward you to the right person’s voicemail. Getting shutdown by a person who doesn’t make decisions can derail your efforts.

About the Author

Adam Shore is a former sales and marketing executive, and currently focuses on small business outsourcing services such as cold calling, telemarketing, and lead generation.

To answer that question is the holy grail of copywriting.  Understanding what motivates buyers then replicating those triggers in writing has been the goal of professional marketers for decades.  Problem is, there isn’t just one thing.

Among the many elements that contribute to positive buying behavior are:

• Price
• Stage of life
• Familiarity
• Place in the buying process
• And others

But would you believe that habits also play a major role in why we buy?  Our own mundane, semi-unconscious buying habits can be one significant bundle of clues as to how we purchase and why.  This is a primary part of major business’s marketing intelligence and you may find it worthy of adding to your own target audience analysis.

“Almost every major retailer, from grocery chains to investment banks to the U.S. Postal Service, has a ‘predictive analytics’ department devoted to understanding not just consumers’ shopping habits but also their personal habits, so as to more efficiently market to them,” reports Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.”

Why?  Because our personal and business lives leave a clue trail that marketers can follow.  What’s more, when we buy habitually, we do so with hardly a thought.  Duhigg goes on to explain:

“An M.I.T. neuroscientist named Ann Graybiel told me that she and her colleagues began putting their rats into a T-shaped maze with chocolate at one end. The maze was structured so that each animal was positioned behind a barrier that opened after a loud click. The first time a rat was placed in the maze, it would usually wander slowly up and down the center aisle after the barrier slid away, snif?ng in corners and scratching at walls. It appeared to smell the chocolate but couldn’t ?gure out how to ?nd it. There was no discernible pattern in the rat’s meanderings and no indication it was working hard to find the treat.

“While each animal wandered through the maze, its brain was working furiously. Every time a rat sniffed the air or scratched a wall, the neurosensors inside the animal’s head exploded with activity. As the scientists repeated the experiment, again and again, the rats eventually stopped snif?ng corners and making wrong turns and began to zip through the maze with more and more speed. And within their brains, something unexpected occurred: as each rat learned how to complete the maze more quickly, its mental activity decreased. As the path became more and more automatic — as it became a habit — the rats started thinking less and less.”

If your customers have ingrained buying behavior that causes them to react in specific ways without thinking, you’d be smart to (1) counteract those behaviors or (2) play to them so you could alter the results.

Can You Use the Information to Make Positives Changes?

Whether you’re a one-man-show or employed by a prominent conglomerate, what can you actually *do* with the data you collect?  If you can outline the habit loops within the behavior and identify the buying cues, you can use the information you uncover to make positive changes in your copywriting that will produce greater conversions.

Really?  Yes really.

Here are some real-life examples.

Paul O’Neill overhauled Alcoa and boosted the value of its stocks by relentlessly attacking one habit.  Once he changed a particular worker safety obstacle (got them to stop doing without thinking first), the cascade effect was a companywide transformation.

Proctor & Gamble (P&G) misread the buying cues when doing research for their Febreze product and the results were simply miserable come launch time.  However, once they went back to the drawing board and retained a better understanding of their particular customers’ buying behavior, they doubled sales within 2 months.  How?  In part, by understanding the habit loops that lead to customers feeling rewarded.

Huh?

There are 3 parts to habitual behavior (referred to as the habit loop):

Cue – This is what triggers the behavior.  For example, when someone comes to an ecommerce site, they may automatically look to the search box instead of the banner at the top of the page or your navigation bar. If you’re listing your specials or differentiating factors (such as free shipping) in the banner area, your customers could be overlooking them completely.

There’s no way you, on your own, will counteract this behavior, but you can play to it by listing your differentiating factors near the search box.

Routine – This is what happens after the trigger (cue) has been engaged. For example, once someone lands on your ecommerce website and automatically looks to the search box, the next step may be to type in what they are shopping for instead of clicking to categories in the navigation bar.

Reward – The reward is to find what they are looking for on the search results page.  Since this is the reward, you might look into placing messages/copy on this page that will help guide visitors’ attention to what you want them to see.

This is just the tip of the ice burg.  Habitual buying is truly fascinating.  I’ve purchased Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” and can’t wait to read it all the way through.  In the meantime, you can bet I’ll be busy outlining habit loops and opting to provide better rewards for my visitors and my conversion rate.

Article Contributed by Danielle

Pinterest is the hottest new social networking platform, and is quickly becoming a great way to connect with friends as well as customers. If you are not familiar with the Pinterest concept, it’s easy. Users can “pin” websites as they browse, which creates a virtual bulletin board of interesting ideas they can share with friends on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.

Pinterest is mainly used to gather inspiration such as recipes, craft projects, fashion ideas and even decorating tips. Recipes and projects are a natural choice because when people try something like this, they want to share their successes with friends and family. Fashion ideas are pinned when users find a “must have” garment or just want to build a look book and browse all the pretty clothes. Grandiose home interiors and decorating ideas are popular. People pin thousands of DIY décor tips or photos of impressive homes with high ceilings, unique paintings, pool tables and pools.

So, the question that may come to your mind is, “How can Pinterest be used to promote my business?” Unlike Facebook or Twitter where businesses actively advertise to followers, Pinterest is a bit sneakier. The first way to use Pinterest to your benefit is add a “Pin it” button on your page. This is very similar to adding a “like” or “tweet” button. It encourages your traffic to add your content to their boards. But remember that Pinterest is highly visual, so if you want content to be shared it must have an intriguing picture.

Make your website pin-worthy. This may mean adding additional content. Generally Pinterest users are looking for things they can DO, which is what makes it such an interesting networking tool. By adding dynamic content such as recipes or projects, you are more likely to get pinned, and bring in new people to your website who will check out your preexisting content.

No matter what topic is the focus of your website, from poolside fun to pool tables and beyond, you can likely find a way to make it relevant to the Pinterest community. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you enjoy the Pinterest network you may wish to become friends with many of your customers and website readers. This way they’ll see when you pin — a great way to encourage repeat visitors. Take time to check out what’s available and learn more about this popular new phenomenon which has web users talking and pinning up a storm.

About the Author

Danielle, who blogs on behalf of Sears and other prestigious brands, found her new favorite recipe (Starbucks Frappuccino Cupcakes) on Pinterest. She was also found by her newest client on Pinterest by pinning photos of her product offerings. Read her work at suitsandladders.co.uk.

Each quarter, I do my market research. A few things I look for are the trends, language and messaging the folks in my industry are using. The goal is to shed some light on what my industry thinks is hot and to decide what topics are becoming overused. I also look at programs being offered, both in subject and delivery.

I have a folder in my Outlook where the emails I subscribe to (for market research) pile up until I sit down to look for trends. When I did my market research the other day, I was pretty surprised. This folder, packed with over 500 emails, was 85% sales material. That’s right-85% of what should have been interesting, educational, relevant information that was of service to those subscribed to the list (and helped the sender highlight their expertise while creating preeminence) was instead trying to sell something. Ugh, I thought. This doesn’t say good things about the direction the business-growth industry took this quarter.

That brings me to the rule I always remind my clients about: the 80/20 rule. When you reach out to your list, 80% of your contact with them (emails, letters, etc.) and 80% of your content should be educational (aka the “beef”). Discuss what readers should think about and why it is important (but not how to do it). And 20% of your content is the “take”, which is the place for your call to action. Your call is a specific problem (a source of pain) they are having and a specific result they want to achieve, and the action is what you want them to do—hence a “call to action.”

Keeping your 80% of your content informative, educational and of interest to your readers allows you to build a relationship with potential clients instead of trying to shove something down their throats while telling them to buy it.

Whatever you’re selling, remember to manage your clients’ expectations. Be clear-there is no magic bullet. When clients sign up for a live event, webinar or coaching, or when they buy a book, a video, a program or a service, they still have to do the work required to be successful. Products sit on the shelves and gather dust very easily. Success from any program involves the client doing the work. There is no magic about it.

In other words, just listening to materials or getting on a coaching call is not going to bring success. In order to create a successful business, the client has to do the work. That’s the biggest challenge-getting clients to consume what you sell. And if there is any magic involved, it’s the magic in your clients, not in a system, program or book. In order to create success, your clients must be willing to do what’s necessary to achieve it.

Want More Clients? Grab a free copy of my Report “What You Need to Know to Be Successful at Getting Clients”.

Small business is flocking to online video as a powerful marketing tool. Online video viewing is skyrocketing with uber-video juggernaut YouTube leading the way. Video marketing is here to stay, so entrepreneurs must lead, follow or get out of the way!

Online video is very effective because it creates a personal connection, helping to increase the “know, like and trust” factor among your prospects and clients. Video marketing can also help you enhance your online visibility and stand out in a crowded and competitive environment. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you dip your toes into the video marketing waters…

Tip # 1: Keep it simple: While there are some common misconceptions about online video, the truth is it’s not expensive to get started. Using video in your online marketing efforts is also less technical than most people think. While production quality is important, you don’t need a big Hollywood production to create compelling videos. Start with what you’ve got, even if it’s just a webcam – or even the video camera on your mobile phone!

Tip # 2: Content trumps quality. The common elements of most video marketing “success stories” include consistency, strong content, a connection to the audience, and the ability to effectively communicate your marketing message.

Tip # 3: Choose your format wisely. There are numerous ways of using online video, ranging from live versus pre-recorded, on camera or off camera, educational or promotional. What platform do you prefer? How you choose to use the medium should be driven by your specific marketing goals. Video marketing is all about playing to your strengths.

Tip # 4: One video at a time. There are sales videos, list-building videos, website welcome videos, expert tips videos, instructional videos, and live videos. Decide which type of marketing video is best for your business and begin with that one!

Tip # 5: Begin with the end in mind. Before you create your video, consider your marketing goals. Video objectives can include increasing online exposure, driving website traffic, building trust and credibility, or developing your personal brand. And let’s not forget the elusive “viral video!” Viral video is like the Holy Grail of marketing…

Start with these 5 simple marketing guidelines and your online video will break through the clutter and maximize your internet marketing.

A while ago, I was attending an event and I met someone who offered a service I needed. We exchanged cards and promised to be in touch when we returned home.

When I got home I turned over all those business cards to my team member as usual to enter into our database for follow up. It was about a month later when I realized this potential vendor had not contacted me or followed up with me. I no longer had the cards so I couldn’t look through them and I couldn’t remember her name or her business name and I didn’t have the time to comb through my database looking for her.

Needless to say, she didn’t get the project. And the sad part was I was ready to give it to her, that was why I thought of her a month later. But she hadn’t followed up so she never got a chance to get the business. I ended up finding someone else.

The morale of the story — you need to follow up with your prospects. Period.

Look, I know you’re spending a lot of time and money attracting leads into your business. You’re networking at live events, networking virtually using social networking, blogging, speaking, and probably a million other things.

So when those leads DO flow into your business, are you following up with them? Are you treating them like the gold they are?

I see this mistake happen over and over again. Entrepreneurs spend so much time and effort to bring leads home and then they never follow up. All those business cards get piled up on their desk never to get into a database. They have every intention of sending out a regular ezine for those online leads but somehow it never gets done. They rarely pick up the phone to connect with a warm (or even hot) prospect.

And then they wonder why their business isn’t growing and they struggle getting clients in the door.

There’s just no substitute for following up. (Have you heard the saying “the fortune is in the follow up?”) Giving someone your business card is NOT the same thing as following up with them. You’re relying on them to not lose your business card AND to remember the solution you offer when they’re ready for it. That just isn’t realistic.

You need to be the one to initiate, build and maintain the relationship. You need to be the one to remind the prospect about the solution you offer and how it will transform their life. Not the other way around.

Now I realize you’ve probably heard this before and you probably already know it. So if you’re not consistently following up, why not? What’s stopping you?

Most likely it’s 2 reasons — time and fear.

You’re busy and you don’t have the time to properly follow up. And you’re afraid you’re bugging your prospects if you do follow up.

I get it. I really do. I was there myself once. But here’s the thing — if you don’t get over those 2 issues, you’re never going to grow your business or enjoy consistent cash flow.

So here are 2 quick fixes to help you get started:

1. Who said YOU have to be the one to follow up? Get some help! Notice in my story I said I handed the business cards I collected to someone on my team to enter into my database. I did not say I was the one doing the entering. Have someone help you. (And the best part is you can probably justify the cost of this help because it directly impacts your bottom line).

2. Follow up doesn’t have to be calling people up and asking for work. Do things people will look forward to getting — send them articles, tips, or maybe something funny that entertains them. Think about ways you can stay in contact with your prospects that’s not about just making sales calls.

Remember, it typically takes 7 “touches” before a prospect turns into a client (and in the “new” economy it’s probably going to take a lot more). So don’t be discouraged if you’re first few attempts don’t turn into anything. Be persistent and consistent and eventually you’ll see your hard work paying off.