Month: June 2008

Categories
Communication Skills Sales & Marketing

To Blog or Not To Blog

typing.jpg
Our friend at YoungEntrepreneur.com, Evan Carmichael, alerted us to a really insightful post written by Andy Marken for his weekly Entrepreneur University feature. It’s about whether or not businesses should start a blog and if you decide to, what are the things to look out for that will help turn your blog into a success. The key learnings points we took away from the article:

1. Blogs are ideal for CEOs because the focus is on a topic you are passionate about. The blog allows the executive to address business issues and concerns, explain them and expand on key industry/company points.
2. Use shorter, more frequent blog entries rather than long white papers or position statements. As you study blogs around the web you will see that the best and most popular sites are a short paragraph or two and sometimes only a sentence. The goal is to show you are knowledgeable about the subject and to make one specific point. Some of the best executive blogs only have a sentence or two with a link directing readers to a relevant article in a respected business, trade or consumer publication.
3. The best business blogs reflect the viewpoint and voice of the executive, not lawyer talk or PR bullet dodging. This can be a tightrope because you want to be as honest and forthright as possible but you also have to write with the understanding that you are creating a very public presence of your information.

Learn more about whether you should start a blog right now at YoungEntrepreneur.com’s article: Should You Start A Blog? – Entrepreneur University.

Categories
Communication Skills

Art Of Persuasion

mini%20cooper%20ad.jpg
A creative ad by Mini Cooper placed at the Zurich , Switzerland train station, shows people climbing into or out of the car, when they are actually entering or exiting stairs. That’s persuasion at its best! More examples below.
I just listened to an mp3 interview with Paul Endress, persuasion extraordinaire and found some of his persuasion techniques insightful. He is also the man behind the persuasion article written for The Toastmaster (May 2008 edition). If you want to listen to the full version of the tutorial, click here. If you are in a hurry, you can first check out my notes below.
While research shows that most people believe they can’t be sold, the fact is those same people can indeed be persuaded if they don’t recognize that a sales tecnique is being used.
The trick lies in the different persuasive strategies used then and now. Lets use a car salesman this time since they top the list as the people you absolutely cannot trust in a poll.
Then: They go on downloading information in you, telling you EVERYTHING you need to know AND don’t need to know.
Basically, its like taking a shotgun with pellets in it, hoping that one of them will hit the target. This doesn’t work anymore!
Now: Being subtle.
The following are strategies for you to adopt as you attempt to persuade your audience, be it one or many.
1. Aiming at the Target
Have you been in a situation where a salesman or saleswoman was trying to sell you something by giving you the 4-1-1 of what he or she is selling while you absolutely couldn’t wait to get away from the guy? That he or she was boring you nuts with all the information?
You felt like running away as soon as he turns his head because he never found out what was IMPORTANT to YOU.
Ask a simple question : “What’s most important to you when you buy a car? ”
“What’s most important to you when you enroll your kids to a programme? ”
“What most important to you when you look for a life partn…( ok you get it by now don’t you? ) ”
This simple question is what gets you the most answers. So for example, if I’m going to go buy a car, what’s important to me is the price.
So if you’re going to sell me a car, you should immediately address my pricing concerns and not go rambling on how energy-efficient and how many awards the car has won. This saves your breath and of course, time spent.
2. Never start your questions with ” WHY? “
Not only is it annoying but you get only excuses.
Lets use an example: If your kid comes back from school with his report card dominated with D’s and E’s and (God Forbid, F’s ), You’ll probably be in a rage and ask ..”WHY did you get D’s and E’s ?? ”
And the answer (or rather, excuse) that you’re going to get is:
“My teacher ate my test paper.”
“My teacher doesn’t really like me.”
“The kids bully me if I get A’s.”
So how can you ask the same question but get solutions instead?
Start your questions with “What” or “How”
These 2 words empowers action in people. You’re still asking the same question, but you shift its mode and then you start to get changes!
3. Use STORIES to convey your message.
Its important to highlight before I continue with how we can use stories that people tend to be too obvious when they use their stories. As a result, they shift back into a sales mode.
Most people cannot come up with a story on the fly. Even Paul suggested practice and fine-tuning our stories to ensure an impactful message and one that really sinks into the human psyche. Remember? Stories, like humour is a process. Your stories are not going to come out fantastic the first time you tell them. Hence, you must be willing to let your stories develop over time.
I suspect, if I let my enthusiasm and excitement get the better of me, you’ll never reach the end of this entry…awake.
That’s why I’m leaving you wanting for more (which happens to be another strategy in persuasion that I shall cover in my next entry)
Promise that my next entry will be shorter..by a bit at least *grins*
EricFengPhoto.jpgEric Feng is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to impress your investors and customers through public speaking. For more tips and tactics that you can use immediately in your next presentation, visit The Public Speaking Blog.

Categories
Home-Based Business Operations

The Ultimate Guide To Creating A Bookkeeping System

book-keeping.jpg

Are you one of those people who are guilty of just stuffing your receipts into a folder and thinking ‘I’ll sort that out when I’ve got time’? Do you need a more organised bookkeeping system, nothing too flash, just something that’s simple and easy to manage?

Follow my tips below and you’ll soon have that simple and easy-to-manage bookkeeping system that won’t bring you out in a cold sweat whenever you hear the words ‘tax return’. And I promise you, it works!

1. Gather your supplies!
Get hold of a large ring binder, divider cards, A4/letter-sized paper, stapler, pen, all your business receipts and invoices, plastic folders and a large coffee (or whatever else you prefer!).
Then lock yourself away for a couple of hours.

2. Get Organized
You now need to organize your ring binder into the following sections:

Invoices – Unpaid — this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have not yet been paid i.e. supplier invoices. Write on the top of each invoice the date it needs to be paid by and place all unpaid invoices in ‘date to be paid’ order with the earliest one on top.
Invoices – Paid — this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have been paid or you’ve paid at the time service was rendered, i.e. that ream of paper that you bought from the office supplies store. Staple each receipt on to a blank piece of paper rather than just putting them directly into the ring binder. This just makes it easier to see at a glance all your receipts and you can also make notes on the paper. Also write on the top of each invoice/piece of paper the method of payment.
Receipts – Unpaid — this section is for all your invoices that you have sent to clients that have not yet been paid. Write on the top date payment is due and put them in date order so that it’s easier if you have to chase overdue invoices.
Receipts – Paid — this section is for all your invoices that have been paid. Write on the top the date it was paid and how it was paid i.e. cash, check, credit card etc.
Bank Statements — this section is self-explanatory! Just keep everything in date order.

3. Schedule It In
Now that you’ve got your system in place, schedule in each week/month to keep your bookkeeping binder up-to-date. In between updating place all your receipts and invoices in a plastic folder so that everything is together when you come to update your system–it would be too time-consuming to add each receipt as you get it!

What Next?

Depending on how far you want to handle your own accounts, you can either hand your very organised bookkeeping binder over to your accountant at the end of the financial year for them to prepare your final accounts, or you can maintain your own books with the use of financial accounting software.

Either way, you’ve now got a bookkeeping system that is simple and easy-to- manage and won’t cause you to break out into a cold sweat at the very mention of the words ‘tax return’.

Categories
Home-Based Business

4 Ways to Improve Productivity when Working from Home

home-biz.jpg
Working from home is growing in popularity in this unsettled economy. It’s great for the working parent as they can be there for their children and save money by avoiding the long commute day in and day out. Bosses are growing to appreciate this style of work as working from has actually proven to churn out more productive workers. However, when working from home there are always the temptations to stray from your work or just plain getting distracted. It may sound like a dream but it takes some serious discipline to work out of your house. Here are five tips to increasing your productivity as you stay home and work:
1. Stick to a schedule.
If you’re used to a 9 to 5 day then carry that over with you as work you from home. If you fall into a trap of putting things off and laying on the couch until 11 or 12 you’re going to get behind and this whole idea of working from home will go up in smoke. It’s imperative you treat each workday the same as you would if you were going into the office as normal. Wake up and shower and get dressed professionally. Don’t turn on the television; go to your workstation and begin tackling your day.
2. Set up a true workstation.
If you have your computer in the family room where there are distractions galore then move it to an unused room away from these temptations. You have to create some semblance of an office setting. Do you have a comfy couch with cozy blankets at your office? No, you don’t.
3. Let everyone know where you can be reached.
Give out your cell phone or land line numbers to your clients and co-workers. If you change your email address then let this be known. There can be no miscommunication and nobody will care about your excuses. The prevailing theme you must remember is that you’re still doing the same work; you’ve just changed locations. Consider it as you got moved to another office.
4. Leave your work at home.
As you’ve already developed a schedule (see step 1), you must stick to it. Once five o’clock rolls around it’s time for you to leave work and live your life. If you don’t follow the schedule you’ll fall into the trap of sneaking away to your computer during family time and odd hours when the rest of the people you work with are away from the office. You have to stay on the same page as your industry and Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. are probably not peak hours.
This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on the subject of types of credit cards. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Self Employment Marketing Plan: 4 Tips to Fine-Tune Your Niche Marketing

salesplan.jpg

Before you can have clients, you need to have prospects — that’s what marketing is all about. If your marketing isn’t attracting the kind of people you’d like to be working with, it’s like pushing a rope — you are trying to sell them something they don’t need, and they are looking for something you don’t offer. A little fine-tuning of your marketing plan can make the difference between a solo business that lurches and stalls, and a business that runs smoothly and is fun to operate.

Your Four-Point Marketing Tune-Up Checklist:

Understand the difference between your Target Market and your Niche.

A target market has distinguishing demographic characteristics; for example, recently widowed working women under 50. A niche gets more specific in characteristics that might not be as easily identifiable as demographics; using the previous example, you could further narrow your target market by including only women who want to remarry and don’t know how to meet suitable men.

Make sure your Niche is focused enough.

Think of all the people who might fit in your niche. Imagine them all in a room at a business or social event. Would you find them all interesting and enjoy talking to them? If you cringe at the thought of meeting some of the people in that imaginary room, note what it is about them that you’d like to avoid – and re-define your niche to exclude them.

Perhaps you want to coach women who will be patient in their search for a spouse — not desperate! If your marketing message implies easy, immediate results, you’ll be attracting the wrong prospects. Fine-tune your language so it is clear that your solutions may take time to be successful. You won’t be eliminating potential customers – you’ll be saving yourself time wasted on less-than-ideal prospects. And you’ll find yourself more effortlessly attracting clients in the heart of your niche market.

Choose marketing techniques that fit your strengths.

Just because every other relationship coach has written a book, doesn’t mean you have to! If the whole publishing and book promotion exercise sounds like torture, don’t waste your time. Maybe writing a Dear Abby type of newspaper column is more your style. If you find dealing with your website to be confusing, but are good at speaking to small groups, ignore the advice to do a lot of online marketing and instead look for opportunities to speak at senior centers.

Be authentic – be yourself.

Building an image that isn’t who you are is a setup for disaster, especially for the self employed. You’ll be exhausted keeping up the façade… and potential clients will sense the lack of integrity. If you yourself are recently widowed and learning how to meet the right kind of men, don’t try to imply that you are an expert. Your personal dating stories can be a great way to establish a relationship with a potential client, who can see themselves in you. Clients want someone they can trust — it is more important than all the credentials in the world.