Tag: systems

Categories
Home-Based Business

Office Organization: 5 Steps to Setting Up Your Core Systems

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For many solopreneurs they think that once they’ve set themselves up in business it’s all about marketing, marketing, marketing. But there’s one very important piece of the puzzle you need to have in place before you start your marketing … and that’s your managing.
Building a successful long-term profitable business isn’t about “marketing” your business, it’s about “managing” your business – the marketing comes once you have your management systems in place… this is a really important concept, and once you’ve got to grips with this, marketing becomes a whole lot easier!

You cannot begin to market your business if you can’t find the information you need, don’t know who you are marketing to, and don’t know where you are in your business.

So what I’d like to share with you today are my top 5 steps to setting up your core office organization systems.

1. CREATE your paper-based filing system. Having an efficient filing system in place will enable you to find the information you need, when you need it! First of all invest in your filing storage, whether that’s a dedicated filing cabinet or plastic filing crates. Keep in mind you will need TWICE as much storage space as you think you’ll need. When setting up your filing system it’s important that you design a system that fits YOUR style.

2. TACKLE the Paper Pile using my super-simple Two-Step System. This is a really quick and simple way of tackling your piles of paper. The goal is to get all the papers off your desk and floor and either have them filed away for when you need them again; in a special ‘action’ folder that you work on during your allotted ‘action focus’ time; or quite simply tossed! You would be surprised at how many papers you are holding on to that when you look back at them you find are either out-of-date or simply not relevant to your business needs anymore.

3. CREATE your PC filing system. Once you’ve got the first two steps completed, this third step actually becomes quite easy. Your PC is also a large filing cabinet, so it makes sense to replicate your paper-based system for the PC. If you have created main category files, then create a main category folder in your ‘My Documents’ folder on your PC, and create sub-files in this main folder as necessary. Repeat this process for all your main filing categories.

4. ORGANIZE your Inbox. Emails! Another huge time drain if not organized properly. Use the same system again to store and manage all your emails. Instead of them all going into one huge Inbox that’s totally unorganized, break your Inbox down into different folders and move the relevant email into that folder. Follow the same system as for your paper and PC-based filing systems. In Outlook you can create Email Rules so that emails are automatically moved into the appropriate folder as they come into your Inbox. Consistency is the key to an efficient filing system. Keeping to the same system will make it much easier for you to manage.

5. CREATE a PC and file back up system. Now that you’ve spent time creating all these systems it’s vital that you also have a PC back-up system in place. You simply cannot afford to lose any of your vital documents when you run a solo service business. In fact I highly advise having two back up systems in place – one onsite and one offsite. The onsite back up can be through an external hard drive, and the offsite back up service can be through an automatic backup service.

Make a plan today to get these core systems in place and your business will start to become effortless and fun – isn’t that an exciting thought!

Categories
Sales & Marketing

The Ultimate Guide To Discovering What Your Target Market Wants

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As a solo service professional you are probably already clear on who your niche is, i.e. you know who those people are who want and need your services, but are you providing the solution to their problems in the way that they want?

If your products, programs, and/or services are not selling as well as you thought they would it could be there’s a mismatch between what your market wants and what you’re providing them with. In other words, are you providing the solutions based on what YOU think the problems are rather than what your target market wants? And how do you find out?

The answer is simple… market research!

When you think ‘market research’ it conjures up all sorts of images of telephone surveys, sending out questionnaires, and standing in the street accosting people to ask them questions (yes – I used to do this type of market research many years ago when I worked for a management consultancy practice J ), and as a solo business owner it is crucial that you do your own ‘market research’ to find out what makes your target market tick, what keeps them awake at night, and what they’re really struggling with.

This process needs to be done on a continual basis – never stop asking your target market what they want – so that you can constantly provide the solutions to their problems.

Today, I’d like to share with you three simple strategies for conducting your own market research (that doesn’t involve standing around in the street!), and how you can put these strategies onto autopilot so that you’re constantly gathering information from your market. All of these have worked very well for me over the past few years.

1. Ask via your sign-up page. When someone signs up to your list, don’t just get their name and email address, ask them what their biggest challenge is too. This is something I’ve done for many years, and in fact you would have seen this yourself when you signed up for this newsletter. I have a specific question that asks: What is YOUR biggest office headache? Feel free to adapt this question for your own needs, i.e. what is your biggest [fill in the blank] when it comes to [fill in the blank].

2. Follow-up with an autoresponder. Once someone has signed up to your list, create an autoresponder that goes out a few days later and asks the same question again. Very often people may not have answered the question when they signed up to your list, and sending them an email a few days later will elicit a reply from them.

3. Create an annual or semi annual survey. At least once a year it’s a good idea to survey your readers and ask them several more in-depth questions. You’ll want to find out what their biggest problems are, what it is they want to learn more about, plus how they want to learn, or how they want their problem solved. For example, you might find your readers prefer home study courses to teleclasses, or would like more interactive programs from you. Putting together a survey is really simple, especially if you use a service such as Survey Monkey. They do the analysis for you, so you get really valuable data.

However, for the data you get through steps 1 and 2 above, analysis isn’t as automatic. Simply gather together all of your data and go through it periodically (at least twice a year) to see what your reader’s problems are. You don’t even need to be a statistician to figure it all out. Just print off all the responses and read through them, noting any common themes as you go along.

By combining all of this data, and implementing your market research strategy so that it runs on autopilot, you can then use this information to put your products and services together so that you’re providing solutions to your target market’s problems in the way that they want and need.

Remember, you are providing your market with what they want and need, not what you think they want and need.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

The Secret To Getting Your Office Schedule On Track Revealed in 5 Simple Steps

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It’s easy to let things slip over the summer – after all the weather’s far too nice to be indoors organising your office! However, the reality is when you do settle back into working after a break unless your office is organised you spend more time looking for files, business cards, papers, than you do working.

It’s a lot of wasted time! Use my tips below and get your office schedule back on track.

1. Clear out your desk and files

Make way for those exciting new projects that have been put on the backburner over the summer. I recently did this and apart from getting rid of four grocery bags of papers, I felt much more motivated to start those projects that had been lurking for months! And it’s amazing what you come across too!

2. Set up a Resource Folder

Keep track of those all-important pieces of information that you come across daily. How? Create a Resource Folder:

:: on your PC — store all those downloaded documents and create a shortcut on your desktop so that you can easily access your information. Go one step further and create folders within your folder, each relating to a specific topic, i.e. industry news, marketing, accounting — decide what works best for your business!

:: in your Favourites Folder in your web browser — bookmark those web pages that you find useful so that you can easily access them again. Create subject specific folders within the main resource folder.

:: using a ring binder file — print out articles that you come across while surfing or any emails that you may need to refer to again; cut out useful magazine articles; store newsletters, circulars or magazines. In fact use your resource binder to store anything that you will want to keep and refer to again! Use divider cards so that you can easily access resources on a particular topic.

Or use a combination of all three for maximum efficiency!

3. Get back in touch with your clients and contacts

Now’s a good time to update your client and contact database. It’s easy to let things slip over the summer, so drop them a personal note or email and make sure that the information you currently have for them is up-to-date — and this will ensure that your information is accurate when you come to send those all-important Christmas greetings!

4. Get your website listed in as many places as possible!

Update your directory listings; get entered on new industry directories; check backlinks — set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all of this.

5. Get your finances organised

I know, it’s summer; you’d rather be outside enjoying the sunshine than inside organising your receipts. Now’s the time to drag out all those business receipts and get your bookkeeping system back on track!

Follow these simple tips and you’ll soon have your office schedule back on track!

Categories
Online Business

What To Do About Your Online Marketing System Before It’s Too Late

One question I get asked a lot is which online marketing service should I use (or variations thereof):

“I use Constant Contact for my newsletter but want to start selling products via my website. Do I need 1ShoppingCart to do this?”
“Which is the best service to use for my newsletter – Constant Contact or Aweber?”

“I want to use an autoresponder service. Do I need 1ShoppingCart or Aweber?”

You get the idea!

This is something that many solopreneurs find a difficult decision to make; after all there are so many different choices and services available and the cost of each one varies a lot too!

So, which one to choose…

– Should you go with a service like Constant Contact that is purely for newsletter broadcasts and doesn’t have an autoresponder or shopping cart feature?

– What about a service like Aweber for your newsletter broadcasts and also comes with autoresponders, but no shopping cart feature?

– Or should you just go with a service like 1ShoppingCart that has all the features you need but with a hefty price tag?

I sound like an episode of House Hunters don’t I… (If you don’t watch this program you won’t know what I’m talking about!)

To help you decide the best service for you I have put together a list of the Pros and Cons of Constant Contact, Aweber, and 1ShoppingCart (although these are by no means the only services available!) I’m using these examples because they’re the ones I get asked the most about, and I also know each of these services very well having used them all over the past few years.

Whichever service you want to use, before you decide…

Ask yourself these two crucial questions:

1. What are the long-term goals for my business? (For example do you plan on just sending out a newsletter or do you want to sell information products via your website and have the ability to follow up with your customers via autoresponders?)
2. Which of these services will meet my long-term goals?

From my own experience I can tell you that going a cheaper router can be a false economy and can lead to its own headaches as your business grows, so carefully consider all of your goals, and the options each service provides, before making your decision.

What I’m sharing with you here is a quick overview of each of the three services I mentioned above and the benefit of my experience of each of these systems. When you read through this list, please note that this is only a very broad overview of each service; you’ll need to refer to each one for specifics.

Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com)

Pros
* Has 100’s of HTML templates for you to choose from
* Will automatically convert your HTML email into plain text format
* Has the ability to create as many different interest categories as you need
* Can schedule broadcasts ahead of time and to go out at a set time of day
* Can create a custom sign-up web form for visitors to be automatically added to your database
* Has very detailed click through statistics

Cons
* Is an email marketing-only service, so you cannot create follow-up autoresponders
* Does not have any shopping cart functions

Aweber (http://www.aweber.com)

Pros

* Has many HTML templates for you to choose form (although not as many as Constant Contact)
* Ability to create as many different lists as you need, i.e. one for your newsletter, another one for your teleclass sign-ups etc.
* Can schedule broadcasts ahead of time and to go out at a set time of day
* Can follow-up with your clients via unlimited autoresponders
* Can create a custom sign-up web form for visitors to be automatically added to your database
* Provides click through statistics
* Has a very high email deliverability rate

Cons
* Does not automatically convert your HTML newsletter into text – you have to copy and paste the information
* Does not have any shopping cart functions

1ShoppingCart (http://www.1shoppingcart.com)

Pros
* You can manage your entire business through this one service – newsletters, autoresponders, shopping cart, affiliate program
* Offers different levels of service depending on your needs
* Can follow-up with your clients via unlimited autoresponders
* Can create a custom sign-up web form for visitors to be automatically added to your database

Cons
* No HTML templates so you will either need to get someone to prepare your broadcasts for you, or have your own HTML software and prepare your broadcasts in this program and upload to 1SC
* Doesn’t have the ability to create a text version of your HTML newsletter – you will need to do this yourself and upload to 1SC
* Has a technical interface, so if you’re not comfortable using technology you may find this service difficult to use
* Can schedule broadcasts to go out ahead of time, but can’t set a specific time of day

Conclusion: Carefully consider all of your options before deciding on a service and see if that service will meet your long-term goals. It is possible when starting out to use a service such as Constant Contact for sending out broadcasts, and find a shopping cart service later on as your business grows – I do know of business owners that run their businesses this way. Keep in mind though that if you do go this route you will be running and maintaining two separate databases – one for your newsletter broadcasts, and the other for your online product sales.

Categories
Franchise

Does Size Truly Matter?

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Sometimes size does matter. When talking about a piece of chocolate cake – bigger is always better. When evaluating new cell phones – smaller gets the nod. In franchising, there are some advantages to being part of a large franchise system and other advantages to joining a small system. The question is not, “Which is better?” but “Which is better for you?”
Advantages of Large Franchise Systems
Everyone is familiar with the really big franchise companies such as McDonalds, Subway. Each has over 25,000 units and they are ubiquitous around the country if not the world. Since franchise companies generally start out with a single unit, growth of this magnitude takes years and years to achieve. Large franchise companies have had the opportunity to test and prove their value over and over again, which is the main attraction of franchising ? a proven operating system.
Perhaps the most obvious advantage of a large franchise is name recognition. When you see the Golden Arches your mouth will start watering even before you smell the hamburgers frying. Larger systems will have larger advertising budgets, meaning there will be more, and usually better, national advertising campaigns, increasing name recognition. Even moderately large systems, those with units numbering in the hundreds, have been around long enough to have tweaked their operations to the point they provide a pretty low risk to potential buyers. A smaller or newer franchise system may have to adjust their operations many times before achieving optimal results.
Support is an additional advantage of being a franchisee in a large franchise system. To achieve growth, a company will need to have a dedicated support staff that can help franchisees with any issue or problem. Also, larger companies are more likely to provide new franchisees with such specialized resources as demographic profiling, real estate assistance and technical support.
Advantages of Small Franchise Systems
With all of the advantages of a large franchise system, not everything is a bed of roses. First of all, there’s the whole idea of being a small fish in a large pond. If you like individualized attention, in a small system you may have a direct line to the company’s president or vice president. In a large system, you contact person may be a low-level employee in the giant corporate structure.
Franchisees in a small franchise system can have a greater say in the business as a whole and will sometimes have more flexibility in managing their own businesses. Once a system grows to a substantial size, there will generally be extensive rules for franchisees as well as a staff who ensures the compliance of each and every regulation – from the color of your businesses’ roof to the way you greet customers at the counter. At a smaller franchise system you will usually find fewer rules. If you like to do a bit of experimenting, a smaller franchise company may allow you to do so and will even welcome your ideas and suggestions.
Another advantage of smaller franchise systems is that they are less likely than large franchisors to be sold out in your area. If you want to join a large franchise, you may have to wait until an existing franchisee wants to sell.
And that brings up another point: Subway does not need to look for franchisees. They probably get hundreds of inquiries every week if not every day. Of those inquiries they are only going to be interested in awarding franchises to people with very strong qualifications. A smaller, newer franchise company is going to be more interested in you and may be willing to make accommodations so that you can join the team.
The franchise company and the people running it are more important than the size of the business as far as franchisee satisfaction goes. If you are interested in a business but unsure if you’d be a good fit, there’s one sure way to find out and that’s by talking to a number of franchisees in the system.
You will need to ask if they felt the support and training they received prior to opening their franchise unit was adequate. Find out how they feel about the support they are currently receiving and if they feel they are on track to meet their financial goals.
Both large and small franchise concepts have advantages and disadvantages so the more you understand about the company and your role as a franchisee, the better equipped you will be to make the decision.

KimberlyEllisPhoto.jpgKimberley Ellis is the President of Bison.com, a leading online resource for franchise and business opportunities. She has been quoted as an industry expert in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and a variety of local and regional publications regarding trends in business and franchising. Kim combines her entrepreneurial spirit with a diverse background in marketing and operation to help others succeed in franchising.