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
Networking

The Top 7 Trends for Job References in 2012

Article Contributed by Allison & Taylor

A popular resolution for many in the New Year is to find a job that’s the perfect fit; if you are one of them, creating a flawless employment profile has become even more crucial in 2012. Resumes and interview skills are always of critical importance, but making an investment in your job references is paramount in creating the “perfect employment candidate” impression that employers are looking for today.

The response a potential employer gets from a reference can make the difference between an applicant getting a job….or losing it. Professional reference checking company Allison & Taylor says that individuals looking for employment need to be aware of the following employment trends to succeed in their quest for that new, perfect job:

1. Your references will become even more valuable
Although the job market is poised to grow, hiring managers want to know how well you performed and only your references will be able to give the inside story. Make sure that your references are an asset, not a hindrance.

2. What your peers & subordinates have to say about you counts
You may have been able to hide your lack of production from your boss, but seldom are you able to hide it from those that report to you and your colleagues. Your coworkers can be, and often are, brutally honest. The simplest solution? Do your best work, every day, and let those around you know they’re appreciated.

3. Your reference list needs to match your resume
Often treated as an afterthought, references are a key element in closing the deal on that new job. It has become critically important that your reference list is well thought out, with full contact information, and presented as a matching and professional addendum to your resume.

4. Workplace bullies are still out there, even with all of the publicity about them
Even with all the negative press about bad bosses (or coworkers), bullies still continue wreak havoc, giving bad reports (sometimes completely fabricated) that can affect current and future employment. Find out what to do if you are, or have been, the victim of workplace bullying.

5. Technology offers a great way to stay in touch
Social networking provides a great way to easily communicate with that former boss and keep them updated as your career swings to new levels, so take advantage! Get your information up on sites like LinkedIn, Ryze and Twitter.

6. Employers will do even more background research, and look at your personal social media sites
Birds of a feather stick together, so be cautious who your friends are. Also, be sure there are no off -color comments, and keep certain things private- that way there’s no a chance for a potential employer to see something offensive.

7. Technology will play a large role in giving references
Trends show that employers are moving toward electronic reference systems, which rank an employee’s performance on a scale. This movement has pros and cons- it’s very comprehensive, and factual, and can neutralize negative commentary, but it will also limit the opportunity employers have to sing your praises. Make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance for a positive reference by establishing strong working relationships and negotiating the terms of your reference upon departure from the company.

It’s a new year, a great time for a fresh start! Make sure your resume and references are in order; to find out more about the professional employment services that can help in your job search, please visit Allison and Taylor.

About the Author:

Allison & Taylor and its principals have been in the business of checking references for corporations and individuals since 1984. Allison & Taylor is headquartered in Rochester, Mich. For further details on services and procedures please visit http://www.allisontaylor.com/.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Top 12 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs and Small Business CEOs

Article Contributed by Goranka

Do you need a leg up to jump start your career or business venture? Or launch and grow your small business? Well, we all do sometimes, especially when young and inexperienced. Not even our closest friends can always help us and give the right advice or support that we really need. Thankfully, there are social networks and communities where we can connect with seasoned professionals who can provide us with valuable tips, potential partners and like-minded people with similar interests, aspirations and goals.

Here are the 12 most useful social networks for entrepreneurs, small businesses and business professionals who are building their career.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most important social network for business professionals with over 120 million members. Obviously, it is a must social networking site for everyone who is serious about her or his career and business. If you are not convinced, check out how many members use the following in their profile:

  • 1,553,123 LinkedIn search results for “business owner”
  • 1,532,870 results for “CEO”
  • 2,420,655 for “general manager”
  • 325,807 for “entrepreneur”
  • 619,354 results for “business expert”

LinkedIn is therefore great for developing relationships and meeting people that you may want to work with. Furthermore, LinkedIn company pages can help you to increase visibility and brand awareness, as well as attract new customers through recommendations.

2.Viadeo

Viadeo is a network for entrepreneurs, managers and business owners with 35 million members worldwide. Founded in France in 2004, it is very popular among professionals from western Europe. Viadeo can help you to identify useful contacts, share information and knowledge, find new leads and partnership opportunities, showcase your expertize and strengthen your personal brand, discover and recruit talent or get recruited.

3. Xing

Xing is a social network for business professionals with more than 11 million members globally. Through Xing you can find new contacts, experts, colleagues, partners and jobs, or get headhunted. You can also discover events, groups and companies of interest.

4. Ryze

Ryze is a network for smaller business professionals. It helps the members to make and grow connections, and especially to “rise-up” through quality networking. You can network to build your career, grow your business or make sales. On Ryze you can customize your profile page, send messages to other members, join groups, add friends and keep in touch with them.

5. Biznik

Biznik is based on a premise that “it sucks growing a business alone”. This is simply a community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed. Biznik is about sharing ideas, not resumes. It is targeted to people who are building real businesses, not looking for their next job.

6. Cofoundr

Cofoundr is a fast growing social network for entrepreneurs. This is a community of startup founders such as CEOs, advisers, investors, programmers, developers and designers. By joining this community you can find co-founders, build teams and get advice.

7. PartnerUp

PartnerUp is a social network for small businesses. As a small business owner, you can use it to connect with professionals who can help you build and grow your small business, join discussions or get advice.

8. Ecademy

Ecademy is a business community for business owners and entrepreneurs to connect, share knowledge, support and transact with one another. Ecademy helps you to connect to the right people, market your business and grow revenue.

9. Entrepreneur

EntrepreneurConnect is a social community founded by Entrepreneur.com. It is intended for entrepreneurs who seek to connect, share expertise and network with their peers. Users can also promote their products and services.

10. Startup Nation

StartupNation is a free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Startup Nation offers lots of useful resources like helpful articles, step-by-step guides, expert blogs. Members can also join very active small business and entrepreneur forums.

11. FledgeWing

FledgeWing is an online community for aspiring student entrepreneurs. It provides entrepreneurial students the opportunity to connect with professionals and mentors in their field of interest, have their ideas tested out with other users on the site and get advice on launching and growing their start-up.

12. Young Entrepreneur

YoungEntrepreneur is one of the largest online forum communities for entrepreneurs worldwide founded back in 1999.

Have you joined any of these communities yet? Or some other? Please share your experiences and opinions on networking for business.

About the author:

Goranka is an online marketing specialist and a small business consultant as well as Internet enthusiast. She is also an executive editor of a Serbian marketing blog.

Categories
Planning & Management

A Maple Tree Business: Three Ways Your Business Stands Out in 2012

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

Nearly all of the trees on our farm had dropped their leaves by last month except for one maple tree.  This one maple tree held on to its leaves like a kid hanging on to his blanket when mom says it has to be washed.  Finally it let go of its leaves.

The other trees were gray and looked like sticks.  This last maple tree put on a show of color, its green leaves turned yellow, then orange, and red against the mundane backdrop of the woods.

A botanist would say the maple tree’s combination of rainfall, nutrients and sunlight determined its leaf dropping.  But it seemed that tree was unique.

Is your business like this maple tree, uniquely displaying its exceptional qualities in a negative world?

Or, does it blindly follow the mundane crowd and join the chorus of negativity?

Here are three areas of your business in which you can stand out and display your best, maple tree characteristics in the New Year:

Priorities

Balancing business relationships—customers, employees, and vendors—with business tasks is a matter of priorities. Your business exists because of relationships. Yet it exists to do something for and with them.

Wherever you lean on the fulcrum of priorities, make sure you create a healthy balance.

How will you know when you’re in balance in 2012?

Write down your ideal priorities balance and keep it in front of you. Think of it as a mirror to see your priorities reflected back for evaluation.

Core Values

The people with whom you do business know your core values without you ever stating them formally. Your business displays them every day in every way.

Are customers greeted warmly on the phone? As they walk through the door?

Do you authentically speak truth when negotiating?

Can your employees count on you to train and equip them to do well on the job?

Make a list of your core values. Read that list often, preferably every morning, to remind yourself, “This is who I am and how my business operates.” Share the list with others.

Unique Contribution

Odds are there are other businesses in your market that do what you do or something similar, like that maple tree stood beside other trees in a forest.

What is the unique contribution your business makes that causes it to stand out in the company forest in which your customers walk around?

How do you what you do in a manner that attracts positive people—customers, employees, suppliers?

If we surveyed your market and asked them for the first word that pops into their mind when they hear your business name, what would they say?

Be unique.

Avoid the herd mentality.

Stand out in your market by choosing your business’ priorities and core values, and doing business out of your unique contribution.

Be a maple tree business.

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is an international speaker, business coach, and best-selling author of the #1 Amazon business book, Work Positive in a Negative World: Redefine Your Reality and Achieve Your Business Dreams. He has taught business professionals this life-transforming process for over two decades, leading individuals in organizations of every size to achieve amazing results. He is the founder of Listen to Life, a company that coaches people to redefine their reality and fulfill their business dreams. He is the host of the syndicated radio show, Listen to Life. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org, connect with him on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter @DrJoey, and become a Facebook fan at Work Positive.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

How to Be a More Productive Sales Person

Article Contributed by David Lynch

I’m always looking for ways to improve productivity in selling because I know that it’s what makes the difference in the long-term. Productivity measuring makes more sense when you actually break down your working hours, days and months into some kind of programme where you can monitor progress over a period of time. If you put sticky notes on your wall instead of putting information into your desktop calendar, you won’t realistically notice if this creates beneficial results after just one day of trying, will you?

Make a to Do List

Just get a notebook and write down a list of 10 to do’s at the beginning of each day. Make sure that you write them out in order of importance and cross them off the list as you complete them. Don’t do the easier tasks first as this could create problems later in the day. People by nature tend to leave the uglier tasks to the last if they are given the choice and I couldn’t see myself making 20 cold calls in the last 45 minutes of the day. The most difficult tasks normally require more energy and drive and this is usually much stronger in the earlier part of the day.

Set Mini Goals

Setting mini goals each day is a great way of being more productive in selling. There’s nothing worse than setting goals that you will never achieve. Not only is this very disheartening, but it stops you from continuing the highly successful habit of goal setting. Remember the golden rule here is set mini goals every morning that will increase productivity, and monitor the success rate to see which ones work best.

Reward Yourself for Achievements

When you see that your mini goals have brought some positive results you are perfectly entitled to reward yourself for a job well done. I’ve seen situations in larger corporations where sales people don’t get enough thanks for their hard work. I’m sure that you will agree with me when I say that I believe that this is a huge mistake that can have very negative repercussions. Thanking people for their efforts breeds loyalty and consistency and is a must do for anyone managing a sales team. Great performers sometimes get taken for granted but they could quickly change their tune if they don’t feel appreciated.

Focus on Single Tasks in Blocks of Time

I’ve found this method of working to be extremely effective in terms of increasing sales productivity. It often happens in sales that you find yourself doing two or three different tasks at the same time. Maybe you’re answering an email from an angry customer while at the same time you’re on the phone to another client. Then on top of all this, a colleague walks up to you and asks you how to work the fax machine. All this multi-tasking gives you the feeling that you’re really busy and you’re getting loads of stuff done. Often the reality is very different because with multi-tasking you end up doing lots of things badly. What works much more effectively is to allocate blocks of time to particular tasks. For example, you can set aside 60 minutes for replying to customer emails and during this time you must switch off your phone and make yourself unavailable from any kind of disturbance. This will produce quality work and quality results. After such discipline you will also feel less stressed and more satisfied with the quality of your work.

Brainstorm New Methods

One final method that has really helped me to improve my productivity levels in selling is the simple old- fashioned idea of putting pen to paper and scratching my head for new ideas. We get so used to working in a certain way that we just don’t stop and verify if it’s the most efficient way of using our time and energy. This is why it pays to review our daily tasks and work out which ones are most important towards reaching our objectives and which ones could possibly be removed or assigned to someone else.

About the Author:

David Lynch is a Sales Training Designer & Accomplished Author. He has more than 20 years of experience in a variety of industries including software, insurance & hospitality. If you would like to learn more sales skills from David you can download a Free Copy of his E-book “25 Mistakes To Avoid When Selling” at http://www.saleswillgrow.com/freesalestraining2.html

Categories
Branding

Lessons About Warming Up Your Brand . . . From Parties

Article Contributed by Erin Ferree

Do you ever feel like your brand’s a little bit chilly? Like it’s too professional or boring? Or you’re distant… not as cozied up and close with your clients as you’d like to be?

Why not warm it up a bit? Warmth in your brand can make it seem more alive, open, passionate, and even both interesting and interested. The warmth is a sign that your small business is run by a real person and that you care about your clients.

A warm brand also does a lot for your client relationships. Warmth will create a better connection with your clients, make nervous, shy or hesitant clients feel welcome and at home buying from you, encourage engagement and conversation around your brand, foster goodwill and up your likeability factor. It can also increase your client attraction significantly, because people are attracted to warmth and openness – instead of feeling shut out in the cold.

In this season of open houses, holiday parties and rekindling relationships… you can learn a lot about warming up your brand from the parties you go to. The best holiday parties create a natural, easy “warm and fuzzy” feeling in everyone’s hearts.

Here are a few ways that you can create that feeling in your brand for your clients:

  • Focus on how you want your clients to feel. Parties create an emotional experience – they create happiness, celebration, closeness or even reflection. Instead of trying to tell your clients just what’s happening, or how it happens… use words and images in your brand to evoke a specific feeling.
  • Design your brand to create conversation. Whether or not there’s great conversation at your party depends on a few factors: lighting, music, whether you have games or dancing, and how comfortable your guests are talking to each other. If you want to create conversation in your brand, design opportunities to start and encourage conversation. To make this happen: ask questions. Create open-line teleconferences. Hold a “fireside chat” where the focus is more on talking and less on teaching. Introduce and connect your clients to each other to create community.
  • Bite-sized nibbles (of information) are the way to go. Unless you’re at a sit-down dinner party, maneuvering with a plate full of food can be tough – and it’s even harder to enjoy what you’re eating. In your business, how are you filling your clients up with information instead of breaking things down for people so that they can enjoy it one bite at a time? It’s tempting to show off all of your expertise and information, but that can make it harder for your clients to learn. One of the greatest ways you can serve your clients is by breaking things down and making it easy for them to learn, understand and use.
  • Be upfront about what you expect your clients to do. When you’re invited to a party, it’s natural to ask, “what can I bring?” Clients want to know what they need to bring, too. For example, when I design a website, I let the client know what they’re expected to bring to the table – like website copy, website hosting, their headshot. I even provide a handy checklist so they can work through it and make sure they’re organized. How can you do the same in your business?
  • Welcome a new client warmly in their first moments with you, and let them know what to expect. When you show up at a party, the host says hello, tells you where to put your coat, shows you around and makes sure you’ve got your first drink in-hand. How are you settling your clients – and even your subscribers – in? And how can you make that part of the experience better?

These are just a few of the lessons you can learn from a holiday party about warming your brand up. As you go to parties this season or reflect on those you’ve been to, what lessons do you see that you can implement now in your brand?

About the Author

Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up. She’s branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. Erin works with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and create an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity – instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery. Learn more at http://brandstyledesign.com