Author: Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

Categories
Operations

Doing Your Bit For The Environment: An Entrepreneur’s Guide

Regardless of the size of a company in this day and age, everyone seems to be rightly concerned with their carbon footprint and making themselves more environmentally friendly. As well as having a clearer conscience, many companies are also trying to cut their emissions to keep a good reputation. Here are a few tips to help cut down your carbon footprint as well as maintaining a positive image.

Energy Efficiency

Perhaps the most obvious piece of advice is to simply ensure that your energy goes as far as possible. Simple changes can be made to absolutely any business to ensure that this is the case. For example if you have an office or a depot; replace those old light bulbs with new, energy-saving ones and make sure that equipment is only switched on when in use. It’s amazing how simple these things are, and how often they are forgotten about. For those who have a little more time and money, it may be worth investing in some timers to ensure that electrical equipment and lights are switched off when the property is vacant.

Another thing that many people don’t consider is to upgrade their technology. Almost everything technology-wise is built with the environment in mind these days, and the newest developments are always likely to be more energy efficient than a ten year-old piece of kit.

Transportation

Obviously, depending on the type of business in question, transport can play a huge part in a company’s carbon footprint. Even if your day to day work doesn’t involve driving as such, the large majority of employees are likely to drive, catch a bus or train to work, whilst deliveries more often than not arrive in a van or wagon.

It wouldn’t be logical to suggest that vehicle use is swapped for an alternative method of transportation as many firms rely on cars and vans to carry out a daily job. However this isn’t to say that cutbacks can’t be made in areas relating to transport. The efficiency of transport can be increased simply through the use of a vehicle tracking device which can help reduce fuel usage by ensuring fleet drivers take the quickest, most direct route and get more miles per gallon of petrol. All this has a knock-on effect in ensuring the company has a smaller carbon footprint.

Carbon Offsetting

A novel idea that doesn’t quite reduce emissions, but allows companies to try and make up for their carbon footprint by contributing to environmentally friendly schemes. The scheme works like this: companies buy so-called ‘carbon credits’ that are measured in comparison to the emissions they have created. Once they are paid for, the money used to purchase the credits goes towards projects such as hydro-electric power stations which, in turn, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Although a business isn’t quite reducing its own emissions by using this scheme, they are helping reduce them from elsewhere. Whilst this is a nice idea and obviously very beneficial; it shouldn’t be used as a company’s first choice for cutting carbon emissions. The work should probably start from within and, if emissions are impossible to cut, then carbon credits should be considered as the way forward.

 

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Converting Leads to Sales! Leveraging Technology to Reach Your Peeps

In order for you to convert a lead into a client, your ideal client needs to hear about you (or see you) anywhere from seven to seventeen times before they’re ready to move forward with your firm. That means, once a prospect stumbles across your law office’s website or hears you speak at a networking event, you need to find a way to communicate with him or her an additional six to sixteen times, so when they do find themselves in the need of a lawyer’s service, you are the one they hire.

Ask yourself this … unless they have an immediate need for your services and hire you on the spot, what are the odds your prospects will hear from you another six to sixteen times after your first encounter?

As you already know, most people only hire an attorney “as needed” or because they have an emergency. So, unless someone finds you on Google or meets you at a conference at the exact moment they require legal help, your chances of turning them into a client are pretty slim.

There is an easy solution: deploy an automated communication system! But before we delve into the reasons you must create one (and trust me, you do), let’s make sure you’re already taking care of the first step in communicating regularly with your prospects: using a CRM database to create a list of prospects you can develop a relationship with on an ongoing basis.

When you meet people who might be in the market for your services, you need a system of gathering their contact information.

When you have such a system in place, you are “building your list” every time you network, speak, advertise, send out direct mail or use social media.  List building is the keystone of any direct marketing strategy, and though there’s a bit more science to it than simply collecting email addresses, you DO need to first make sure you’re keeping track of the people you meet, and collecting their contact information so you can reach out to them regularly, inviting them to get to know you and your business, before they ever even need to hire a lawyer.

So, what CRM (customer relationship management) System for lawyers and law firms are you using to build your list?

Okay, maybe you already have a list. Now what?

About 3% of your potential market will have an immediate need when they hear about you, but the other 97% need reminders about who you are and what you can do for them, should they need you at some point in the future. So, even though this potential client may not be in the market for an attorney right now, you want to be sure you’re the first person on his/her mind when he/she is ready. And that’s why you need an Automated Communication Campaign.

  • Automated: Because it has to be, otherwise it won’t get done.
  • Communication: The basis of every strong relationship.
  • Campaign: This means consistent, so you are communicating at least every other week and preferably weekly.

Your communication campaign should be designed to make your prospects feel like they know you. Your ideal client wants to hire an attorney with whom they have a relationship. People hire people who they know, like and trust. Staying in regular contact with your prospects allows you to create a rapport and a familiarity to forge bonds before you ever work together.

Trying to stay in touch with your list regularly takes too much time and energy to do it all on your own—you must automate! You’ll either make yourself nuts trying to get it all done, or give up on communicating all together. The solution? There are many online software systems and outsource services that can help you create a “set it and forget it” series of emails, so that you know you’re keeping up with your list without having to do all the extra work.  (More on those systems and services soon.)

One more tip: make sure that when you reach out to your list, your hand is not always palm up!

Of course, you want to make periodic offers to your list for discounted items or services, or to announce new products or special services. Let your communication invite your ideal clients to get to know you – the personal, real you. Tell your personal story through your marketing materials, share with them and show you’re a real person who wants to serve. Let people know that you are just like them, not some scary lawyer who’s going to try to take advantage of them!

Make the effort to build a solid relationship with your prospects so that when they finally do need legal services, it’s you they’ll turn to – not just the first time, but every time.

So, are you regularly communicating with your prospects? If so, how?  And how is it working for you? We’d love to hear.  Leave a comment below to share about your process for communicating with prospects or what’s stopping you.

About the Author:

Alexis Neely started her own law practice in 2003 after only three years in practice at the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Despite knowing nothing about business, she built that law practice into a million dollar a year revenue generator by creating a new law business model that her clients (and her family) absolutely loved.  Alexis wrote the bestselling book on legal planning for parents and has appeared on all the top television shows – from the Today Show to Good Morning America – teaching the American public about proactive family and business legal planning and new paradigm conflict resolution.  Today, Alexis is a Law Business Mentor and guides lawyers to reclaim their role as trusted advisors for their clients while building sustainable, fulfilling, money-making practices so you can love being a lawyer again.  For more information about Alexis, visit www.lawbusinessmentors.com

 

Categories
Operations

5 Essential FreeTools for Managing a Virtual Office

Virtual offices are becoming more and more popular as technology grows and allows them to become functional. Having employees and co-workers who live on completely different sides of the world is a common occurrence these days. This type of collaborative virtual office not only saves you from having to rent office space and equipment for your team, it also cuts commuting costs and provides a level of comfort for everyone involved by allowing employees to work from home or wherever they feel most inspired to work.

Here are five free tools that are essential to allowing virtual office’s to function and prosper by providing your employees or co-workers with the ability to communicate, collaborate and support each other even when they are thousands of miles away.

Google Apps

If there is one tool that is most important for running a virtual office, then it would have to be Google Apps. Google has set the standard for quality free services being offered to businesses. Gmail is one of the best and most trusted email clients, Google Calendar works as a great planner for all of your workers, and Google Docs gives your employees a full Office suite along with tons of storage space. All in all, Google Apps makes collaboration and coordination a breeze and is a must for any virtual office.

Skype

If you are looking for an instant messaging program to use when talking with your employees, Skype is probably the best option. You can chat via text with your co-workers and employees, but you can also talk to them and even do video conferencing. Skype also enables group chats for including everyone that can also be handled via text, audio or video. Skype is free and takes care of all your live communication needs.

CrossLoop

CrossLoop is a great tool that can help you fix problems without having to outsource even further. For example, if one of your copywriters has a problem  with their computer that one of your web developers might be able to solve, this remote desktop sharing solution enables you to let the expert in your team take control of whatever machine is having problems and fix the issue remotely.

Dropbox

Online file storage is very important for virtual collaboration and Dropbox has a proven track record as being one of the best free services in the business. Having a central location for storing files that several people within the virtual office might need at various times is very important. Dropbox gives you 2 GB of free storage per user and is very reliable.

TeamViewer

This is one of the best free screen sharing applications available. It allows you to connect up to 25 team members at once and have them all share their screens. They can also work together on the same file, track all changes that have been made and transfer files between each other. It is an essential tool for virtual collaboration, and it is especially good to use for tutorial or training sessions.

With these five free tools, you will be well on your way to establishing a well-oiled and productive virtual office that will be able your workers to function efficiently and effectively despite never being in the same place at the same time.

About the Author:

Janice Blythe is a longtime contributor at Cometdocs. Her interests as a blogger include new media, technology and education, among other things.

 

Categories
Online Business

10 Reasons Websites Need to Focus More on Customer Service

Article Contributed by Longhorn Leads

Customer service is a major factor in a customer’s overall satisfaction with a company. Consumers want to be assured that the company will back its product or service and be there to assist them when they have a problem or question. Since so much business is being conducted online nowadays, there’s an even greater need to know that the companies we do business with won’t be giving us the cold shoulder when we call with a problem. Here are ten reasons why websites need to focus more on customer service:

1. Competition – In e-commerce, and in all business, there is often little that sets one company apart from the competition. Pricing and product quality being essentially equal, consumer choice will come down to customer service.

2. Consumer Confidence – When a consumer makes an online purchase, he surrenders the convenience of having a local merchant to deal with. He needs to know that there will be someone there for him when he has a problem since he won’t typically have anyone nearby to handle it.

3. Social Networking – Word gets around fast these days, and that includes bad reviews about a company’s service. Nothing can shut down an otherwise successful venture like a bad reputation; and on the internet, a reputation can be established, and taken away, literally overnight.

4. Volume – The amount of commerce conducted online is at an all-time high and continues to grow. The more transactions that a website handles, the more likely there will be mishaps – incorrect billing, wrong items delivered, product defects, lost orders, etc. The need for a strong customer support team increases with the volume of business a company does.

5. High Expectations – Because of the wide open market that the internet provides, competition is stiff in virtually every service or business. Consequently, consumer expectations are high. There is zero tolerance in today’s business market for poor customer service.

6. Low Perceptions – Conversely, with so many businesses outsourcing their customer service resources overseas, public perception of the average customer service rep is at an all-time low. Being a company known for great customer service can be the defining factor for why consumers choose you over everyone else.

7. Availability – Customers now have so many avenues by which to contact a business – email, phone, online chat, Skype, and even social media – there’s no excuse for inaction or delay on the part of customer service personnel.

8. Cost-Savings – Forward-thinking businesses learned early on that by providing online tech support via  FAQ’s, downloads, operator manuals and help forums, not only did their customer satisfaction index improve, so did their bottom line.

9. Customer Loyalty – Repeat business is essential to the success of a company. There are only so many people that you can sell to one time. What brings people back, what sets a company apart more than anything else, is customer service.

10. Representation – As click-and-mortar entities replace the brick-and-mortar legacy businesses, the face of the company becomes those individuals with whom the customer interacts. In most cases, that’s the customer service rep. The customer service representative is just that – a representative of who you are as a company. That’s no place to skimp if you want to succeed.

Categories
Planning & Management

Leadership: What Is It? And Why Is It So Important to Us?

Google the word “leadership” and the search will return 360 million results. This staggeringly large number points out one “truism” about leadership – it is a topic about which much has been said and written.

A brief survey of even the first page of Web results will reveal that there are nearly as many opinions on the subject of leadership as there are people talking about it. One of the things about leadership that I often strikes me in the 30 years that I have focused on the topic is that, despite the fact that so much has been said for so long on leadership (one of the earliest writers on leadership was Plato who lived between 424 to 348 B.C.!), there seems to be no one commonly accepted definition of what leadership actually is.

And yet, clearly, leadership is important to us. As humans, we seek out leadership, “know it when we see it”, and rely on it to thrive and succeed in so many settings, be it in work, school, or civil society in general.

While there is no one accepted definition, detailed behavioral description, or methodology to discover and train leaders, it’s worth understanding the general schools of thought on what leadership is and how it works.

The full scope and range of leadership theories can’t be summarized without some degree of simplification and exclusion, but my historical research (and personal views – more on this later) on the subject of leadership lend itself to four broad categories:

1. Trait theories – leadership is based on a cluster of individual  attributes or traits

2. Style theories – there are multiple ways to lead and each approach consists of a group of behaviors that define the style

3. Situational theories – based on the idea that effective leadership is completely based on context, and that no single optimal psychological profile of a leader exists

4. Contingency theories – based on an amalgam of the three previous theories, contingency theories propose that effective leaders should and do adopt different styles depending upon the situation

Nearly three decades ago, during my days as a corporate executive, I probably fell into the first camp, believing that leadership was simply a collection of certain traits that certain people had and other people didn’t. But over the years, my views on the subject have changed.

In working with executives, entrepreneurs, coaches, and teams of all types, my business partner Gary Jordan and I have found each of these approaches to be incomplete when viewed as “the answer” to leadership. That’s why it’s so important to explore each of these theories, in addition to an approach to the subject that has proven most useful to us in helping people develop their natural leadership skills.

But first, you can gain a lot of insight into the subject just by asking yourself a few questions, based on the truth of your own experiences:

Is leadership inborn? (Do certain people have it, and others don’t?) Can leadership be learned? Can different types of people be leaders in different ways?

Do certain situations make leaders out of anyone? And do different situations call for different types of leadership skills?

Assess your answers to those questions, and then we will begin exploring the theories.

About the Author: 

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping coaches, coaching clients and entrepreneurs . She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com