Month: February 2011

Categories
Planning & Management

Five Reasons Why Nothing Has Changed in Your Organization

Article Contributed by Roberta Chinsky Matuson

Business leaders complain all the time that nothing seems to have changed in their organizations, despite their best efforts to make things happen. Yet they continue to do the same things and receive the same results. Well, it’s no wonder why nothing has changed!

Here are five reasons why your progress may have stalled.

1.    You have people on board who aren’t pulling their weight. If you’ve ever ridden on a bicycle built for two with someone who isn’t doing much pedaling, then you know what it’s like to try and move forward with someone who isn’t pulling their weight. It’s exhausting! Take a look around your organization and do an honest assessment. Who is peddling hard and who is coasting? Then make a commitment to remove those people who aren’t doing much of anything. Now try moving forward again and notice the difference.

2.    You’ve failed to invest in your firm or your people. It’s easy to complain how things are falling apart, yet you haven’t made any investments in your company or your people in years. People are not going to become stronger managers and develop better relationships with your customers by osmosis. These are skills that need to be built and continually reinforced. Loosen your belt and start investing in your people. It shouldn’t be too long before you begin seeing changes.

3.    You have a hard time delegating. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to move your business forward when you are still in the middle of daily operations. You hired people to help you, right? Then let them do just that, and notice how much time you now have available to grow your business!

4.    You really have no idea where you are going. I recently experienced this myself when my husband and I were driving through Tuscany. Yes, the scenery was wonderful, but after driving past the same church three times within a two-hour span, it was obvious to me that we needed a destination, even if it was just a gelateria! You will never get to a specific place in your business if you don’t have a destination in mind. It’s a good idea to look at your business every six months or so. This will allow you ample time to make course corrections so you don’t find yourself circling back to the place where you started.

5.    You don’t implement recommendations. You surround yourself with smart people and you ask for their recommendations. Sometimes you even pay for this advice. Yet you never implement any of these recommendations. Is it any wonder that nothing has changed?

I understand that change is hard and that sometimes you’ll experience even more pain before things get better. But in the end, isn’t it better to have tried something than to have done nothing at all?

About the Author:

Roberta Chinsky Matuson is the President of Human Resource Solutions (www.yourhrexperts.com)  and author of the highly acclaimed book, Suddenly in Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding All Around (Nicholas Brealey, January 2011). Her firm helps organizations create exceptional workplaces that deliver extraordinary results. Sign up to receive a complimentary subscription to Roberta’s monthly newsletter, HR Matters.

Categories
Business Ideas

3 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make While Building Their Businesses

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working with both very successful entrepreneurs and ones who aren’t so successful. What makes one entrepreneur successful while the other one not-so-much? Chances are they’re making one (or all three) of these mistakes. Read on to learn more.

1. Marketing their business is not a priority. This is probably the biggest reason why I see businesses fail or either get sucked into a stressful feast-or-famine model (either too many or too few clients). They don’t make marketing their business a priority.

If you want to have a full pipeline of clients at all times then it’s crucial you make marketing a priority.

So what do I mean exactly by marketing your business? Basically two things — you have one or more ways to bring new leads in the door and you have one or more ways to turn those leads into clients. One of the easiest ways to do this is to set up an opt-in box on your website so you can collect the names and email addresses of the people who visit your site, then have a follow up system in place once they give you their email address to start warming them up so they become clients. Ezines and teleclasses are two great tactics to use as follow up.

2. They don’t take action (or they don’t take action fast enough). Successful businesses are built on momentum. Momentum is built on taking action. Whether it’s creating information products, launching new programs or even getting your new website up (or your ezine out), it’s all about taking action.

Now there is a caveat here. It’s not enough just to take action. You need to take the RIGHT action at the RIGHT time in the RIGHT order. So how do you know if you’re doing that or not?

Well, one way to do that is to educate yourself about marketing and business-building. Or an easier (and faster) way is to find yourself a business/marketing coach or mentor who can quickly assess your situation and give you a plan of action. (Of course, once you have that, then you need to make sure you actually implement that plan.)

3. They give up too soon. Look, every successful business person and entrepreneur I know has had a few stinkers. The difference is they’ve been in a business long enough to know a failure or two every now and then is normal and they move on. Entrepreneurs who are new or a little unsure of themselves tend to create a story around their failures that are simply not true. They’ll instead think there’s a problem with the product or the industry or themselves or something else — you get the picture. When the reality could be they didn’t market enough or they didn’t take enough action or they skipped a couple of steps when they were marketing their product or a myriad other easily preventable mistakes.

Before you throw in the towel on something — whether it’s a product you just created or your entire business, stop and ask for some help. Find out if success is just a few tweaks away or you really do need to do something more drastic.

Categories
Branding

Ten Ways to Market Yourself in 2011

Article Contributed by Jeff Beals

Here we are in the first month of a new year. This is one of those years where many professionals are feeling more optimistic than they were at this time 12 months ago.

That’s refreshing. It’s a much better feeling than we had at the beginning of 2010. But while the stock market has been rising, tax cuts have been extended and business is picking up, these are far from ideal times. High unemployment persists, and the economy still has a cautious, uncertain feeling to it.

Today’s business environment remains somewhat perilous, but at the same time, there are great prospects for those who play their cards right. That’s why it is so important for you to build your personal brand and create opportunities.

Whether you want more/bigger clients or a better career opportunity, make a commitment to market yourself in 2011. To get you started, here are 10 items to consider:

Live actively and focus externally – Be active and involved outside your home or office. Show up at networking events. Go out of your way to talk to people when you are in public venues. Remember that 75% of all jobs are never advertised and a similar percentage of big clients only come from relationship-building.

Determine what is most interesting – You need an “area of self-marketing expertise,” something about your business or career that is fascinating to people outside your profession. Focus on this when you are networking or using social media.

Focus on results when networking – When you go to networking events, go in with a goal in mind. Sure, you should try to enjoy your conversations, but make it a mission to find a good lead or a golden opportunity.

Exploit social media – Don’t just have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Make sure you post material that is interesting and not just inane personal stuff. Use social media to strengthen your reputation by building on your area of self-marketing expertise.

Make people feel important – When you are talking to someone, make him or her feel like the only person in the world who matters to you at that moment. This will help you develop advocates, people you can count on when you need help.

Build your “Google trail” – Rest assured, that people are Googling you on a regular basis. A prospective client will probably Google you to know who he or she is dealing with before meeting with you. That’s why a Google trail is so important. If nothing or very little pops up when someone Google’s you, there’s a problem – they’ll assume you don’t have much going on. Therefore, Google your own name on a regular basis. If you’re not very visible on line, deliberately get your name out there to build an Internet presence.

Ask probing questions – Don’t just chit-chat and make small talk during networking conversations. Ask some questions designed to uncover the critical information that leads to new opportunities.

Refresh your elevator speech – Does your 20-second intro speech need updating? You need to be able to say what you do quickly, clearly and in a way that captures a person’s interest.

Listen to your clients and colleagues – When we get too busy, it’s easy to start making assumptions. Those assumptions can cause you to lose opportunities. Instead, ask the important questions and truly listen to the responses. Don’t just go through the motions. Let the other person’s words sink in and make an impression on your brain.

Never let up – When things are good, don’t let complacency stop you from perpetually marketing yourself. When things are going poorly, don’t let discouragement be an excuse for apathy.

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques.  As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide.   You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at www.JeffBeals.com.