Archive for January, 2010
Increase Your Visibility
Posted by: | CommentsYou may have a strong business idea and a great product, but are you doing everything you can to be seen by the right people? Increasing your visibility can change the way that potential customers see your business.
Visibility is the glue that holds all other strategies together when it comes to achieving success as a business owner. Each strategy gets your name out among other business owners, movers and shakers and potential clients. Being seen goes a long way with the word-of-mouth crowd.
Here are a few ways that you can increase your visibility:
- Attend business seminars
- Public speaking
- Write press releases
- Start a blog
- Publish a newsletter or ezine
If you are comfortable doing what you are doing and it works for you, still try at least one or two of these ideas. No one ever became a success by playing it safe or being comfortable. Trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone is one key to gaining visibility.
For some business owners, business can become stale. They only want to do certain things all of the time. This goes back to the issue of comfort level. When you are on Facebook and a fellow business owner is looking for speakers for his online conference or a local event in your area, throw your hat in the ring. Try something new that will increase your visibility.
Does someone in one of your associations need advice or a speaker for the next meeting? Take that spot for yourself. Every opportunity places another feather in your cap. It is a point that you can add to your bio and to your press releases for new products or events.
And, you can create newsletters for your customers. Sending a monthly or quarterly newsletter about your business gives you the chance to add information about accomplishments that have occurred since the last newsletter. Each solidifies your expert status in the eyes of current and potential customers.
Once you put all of this in place, keep a monthly check list on your ventures to be sure that they are still bringing about the desired effect. Some of it won’t require much tweaking – just checking in with the movers and shakers to be sure they still know your name.
Achieving expert status inspires confidence on the part of customers and fellow business owners. Increasing your visibility is the first step and the information in this post can help you do just that.
The Great Organizing GiveAway Starts Today
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know that getting organized always lands in the Top 10 list of New Year Resolutions? That must be why now is the perfect time for this GiveAway. There are many outstanding resources available to help you organize, but you know how hard it can be to to find the right ones for you. The Great Organizing GiveAway has solved that problem by collecting about 100 FREE resources in one spot!
The Great Organizing Giveaway starts today!
Go to the site and simply register to get access to the resources such as e-books, tip sheets, audio programs, complementary consulting and more! You can also enter into drawings for amazing prizes. My colleagues have really stepped up to the plate to deliver quality content just for you and it will cost you nothing!
Information at the site is divided into three main categories: your office, your time and your home. Business professionals, parents and students will all find expert material that fits their personal productivity and organization needs.
Here’s just a sample of the material you’ll find there:
And there’s lots more. While you are there, look for my free report – Efficient Computer Use.
Here’s the link again so you can find the right organizing tool for you.
Visit Reader Blogs and Get to Know Them
Posted by: | CommentsReaders visit your website each day. They are there for information to start. They may keep coming back because of your knowledge or to get to know you before they try your product or service offerings. Let them know that you are a real person by returning the favor and visiting them too. It’s great add a comment to your blog post where your reader commented, but it’s another game all together to return the favor by commenting on their blog.
Everyone is a real person but not everyone comes off like they are. Business owners who intentionally stay aloof from their readership set themselves up for all sorts of scathing comments. They are like royalty in ivory towers – high and unreachable.
You are one part of the business equation. Your readers (potential customers) are the other part. Without traffic, you can’t hope to make a sale. Unless you build relationships with the readers, they won’t see any reason to stay loyal to you.
Blogging
Chances are, at least one third of your readers have some sort of presence in cyberspace. More than likely it will be a blog. They may be professional bloggers, recreational bloggers or online entrepreneurs like you.
One way to get to know them is to visit their sites. If you have your own blog for your business, have a category devoted to reader news. Take some time to highlight some of your regular readers on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.
Next, visit their blogs. Read what they have to say and the kind of topics they talk about. Leave helpful comments that show you actually read the posts and not just wishy-washy “I came to visit you to say hello.” Really get involved. Remember the old saying, “treat others the way you want to be treated?” This old saying, when put into practice, can really catapult your expert status.
If you have an RSS reader, you can include all of their sites in it so that you will be notified when there are new updates. Participate just like any other follower of the site. They will recognize your name.
Sites, that you like, will benefit when you link back to them on your site. Organic links rank higher in search engine eyes than simply doing each other a favor and exchanging links. On your blog, you can post reviews of their blogs or just write posts that highlight each one. This is essentially a review without calling it that.
Interacting with your readers and getting to know them in this way is mutually beneficial. Those organic links work both ways. Besides, you never know who will hear about your business through these comments and other relationship building techniques.
Organize Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsAs an entrepreneur, your systems are the processes and procedures by which everything in your business runs. When your systems work, everything runs smoothly, or as smoothly as possible when running a business.
Systems are essentially a step-by-step process written out for each aspect of your business. They help you stay on track, they make you more efficient, they streamline your business and they help you see where you can improve and where your business is excelling. When your systems work, everything runs smoothly. When they don’t work…well you get the picture.
Some potential systems include:
- Customer service
- Marketing
- Sales
- Product creation
- Product development
- Purchasing
- Production
- Producing an ezine
- Billing
- Invoicing
- Outsourcing
Systems are particularly useful when you’re outsourcing a task to a virtual assistant. If you’ve done the processes in advance, then, you’ll have everything written down from the very first to the very last step, and your virtual assistant will know how you like your business handled.
Creating your systems
The first step to creating systems is to realize what processes your business uses. Simply make a list of the processes you go through on a daily or weekly basis. Once you have your list, it’s time to actually create your systems. They’re created initially by simply writing down the steps to accomplish a task. As new processes are added to your business, you’ll simply create a new system for that process. For example, if you add on an affiliate program then you’ll have several new system like a payment system, a communication system, a recruiting system and so on.
Once your systems are created, the processes can be fine-tuned by using several steps. Firstly, you may want to simply evaluate the process you’ve written to see if it works and if there are any loopholes or steps you’ve missed. Secondly, you may want to include goals and measurements to determine whether the system is a success.
For example, if you have a customer service system and your goal is to have 100% customer satisfaction, and you end up losing 20% of your customers due to an inadequate customer service policy, then you know the system needs to be tweaked.
Storing your systems
Because you are a business owner, you are probably on your computer at least 50% of the working day, and more than likely you’re on it almost 100% of the working day. This means it makes sense to organize your systems on your computer. A simple file with the date and the name of the system will make them easy to access. You’ll also want to organize your goals and how you’re going to measure the goals.
Systems are a business owner’s best friend. They’ll help keep you on track and running smoothly today, tomorrow and for years to come.
Wanna be a Professional Speaker? I Do!
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the most exciting and challenging decisions I’ve made in my business recently is the decision to add public speaking as an income stream in the business. Exciting for me and good for you – if you would like to walk alongside me as I learn how to do just that! Take advantage of my journey and learn how to be a professional speaker yourself.
In order to take this step, I enlisted a very successful and vastly experienced professional speaker to teach me the ropes. Peggy Collins has been speaking since 1993 on sales and marketing, relationships, networking, women’s issues and much more. Peggy has extensive experience as a speaker and in 2008 alone, she spoke to 48 live audiences, appeared on 4 television interviews and 67 radio shows. Peggy’s list of clients is amazingly long and is a rare collection because she has spoken to both corporations and associations/conferences. In addition, she’s a member of The National Speaker’s Association and an MPI Platinum Speaker (a designation for stellar performance by Meeting Professionals International) and the author of the book, Help is Not a Four Letter Word. Peggy really knows her stuff.
Join Peggy and me on Monday, January 25th at 7:00pm ET for the free teleseminar Find Yourself as a Speaker. On this call, we are going to cover the basics of what you MUST know in order to get started as a professional speaker. Perhaps you’ve been toying with the idea of speaking, but don’t know where to begin. You already realize that professional speaking is one of the fastest routes to increase your visibility, showcase your expertise and grow your income and your business. If so, you’ll want to be on this call.
Peggy will teach us Six Simple Steps for Hitting the Ground Running:
- Grasp the Secrets for Success from the very beginning
- Identify your unique message, your ideal audience and get started
- Learn about each of the four Speaking Tracks and dive in
- Choose your initial specialization wisely – Keynotes vs. Workshops
- Discover “How-To Tips” for crafting a powerful presentation that will get you booked over and over
- Develop your Next Steps Action Plan
Register for the free call here.
I really hope you can join me live for this event to get the most from Peggy’s wisdom. If you can’t be on the call, make sure to register anyway so that after the call we can send you the link to listen to the recording.
Again, here’s that link to register for Find Yourself as a Speaker.
7 Reasons to Use WordPress For Your Website
Posted by: | CommentsYou are ready to do it. You are ready to have your voice be heard. You are ready to start your own website or blog. Good for you – now to decide which platform to use…
Blogger, WordPress and TypePad are just a few of the more popular platforms. While there are several different applications that are low cost and/or free, most solopreneurs find themselves in the world of WordPress. There are many good reasons to choose WordPress over the competition, including open source content management and SEO ability. If you find yourself trying to decide which is right for you, here are some everyday reasons to use WordPress as your platform of choice.
1. Personality Zone – WordPress is all about you. There are hundreds of free themes available to personalize and provide an Internet presence that represents who you are as a solopreneur.
WordPress themes are flexible and can be customized to your niche audience, service and product line. Best yet, if you get tired of the theme you are using on WordPress, simply change it by uploading a new theme. With a simple click of a button WordPress moves your content to the new theme for you.
2. Plugins! Plugins! Plugins! – Get the idea? Plugins are another way to customize your space. Popular plugins include contact forms, site statistics, search engine optimization, and photo resources. WordPress currently offers many different free plugins and is adding to their plugin resources daily.
3. Pagination – Back in the early days of blogging or using a platform of this type, blogs appeared as online diaries with one post following the next and comments intermixed between. With WordPress you can actually create pages to separate your material or to provide additional information.
Maybe you have a blog that focuses on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each of these could be placed onto their own unique page, making it easier for your readers to find the information they are looking for.
You can also create additional pages such as ‘Contact Me’, or ‘About Me’ pages. This functionality also makes WordPress the perfect platform
for businesses, not just bloggers!
4. Performance – Believe it or not, not everyone who uses WordPress is an expert at web design. Creating your own website or presence can be a daunting task for anyone. WordPress provides easy to use functionality with a built in dashboard to help manage your sight. Also, because of its popularity WordPress has many resources available to their users including online forums, help references, and support teams. Best yet, if you just want to try blogging out for a bit before you invest in your own domain name, WordPress allows you to register your blog on their site for free at www.wordpress.com.
5. Permalinks – When you create your blog and/or website, you want the world to be able to connect to that specific blog quickly. This is where permalinks come into play. For every blog you post, WordPress creates a unique permanent link to that specific post.
6. Ping Back to Me – What is auto pinging anyway? It is a tool that allows you to notify the search engines that you have posted a new entry. By default, WordPress has pingomatic.com built right into the platform, so the search engines are automatically notified that you have posted to your blog. In addition each time another website or blog owner links to one of your blog posts, you are notified on your WordPress Dashboard as well as in the post iteself in the comments section.
7. Pathways Back – Have you ever commented on another person’s blog? Many times the blog will only post your user information when you leave a comment, but if you use WordPress and you are commenting on another WordPress blog, then WordPress has the ability to automatically provide a link back to your blog for anyone to see. A great and free tool to increase your readership.
This is only a small list of reasons bloggers choose WordPress to host their blog. Ultimately, you need to choose the platform that’s right for your needs. Keep in mind, WordPress prides itself on being one of the most user friendly platforms and is constantly striving to make things better for users.
Adding Speaking As An Additional Income Stream
Posted by: | CommentsGetting speaking engagements is not all hard work. What it takes is a mind that is open and knowledgeable about your business subject. With a little bit of creativity, you can leverage what you do already by adding speaking to increase sales and product variety.
The first strategy you use to become known as a speaker is visibility. Others have to know that you exist and have something important to say. Through speaking and building relationships with your audience, your “sphere of influence” will begin to grow.
Wouldn’t you like to take advantage of tools that help you become an expert without breaking a sweat? We figured that you might. So, here are some ways that you can do that:
The Pitch…
Let’s say that you have been coaching individuals and get great results. The next logical step may be to create an entire program around a specific need that you serve. For example, if you write articles to increase your visibility and coach others to do the same, why not create a 4 week teleseminar series dedicated to “Increasing Your Visibility By Writing Articles.” This will help you get your feet wet speaking, will increase your visibility and increase your expert status. Not to mention the additional income stream you created for your speaking.
The Hit…
The speaking engagements that you do aren’t just for one time use, but rather carry a ton of potential. One single speaking engagement can give rise to another. Look at your topics with new eyes. You can probably see them turning into:
- Ebooks
- Special Reports
- Audio products
- Video products
- Articles
The list goes on but you get the idea. The information in just one 60 minute speaking topic can morph into each one of these. Better yet, take a series of talks, bundle them to create a special report or an ebook if there is a lot of information. Take each section of the eBook and create a course that customers can buy. Add audio and video to the course and turn your course material into a study guide to accompany them.
It’s Out of the Park…
Instead of one speaking topic, you now have leveraged that piece into a variety of product offerings all of which will add to your expert status and your bottom line.
Self Improvement Gifts 4 – Event Offers 100s of Free Personal Growth Items
Posted by: | CommentsI wanted to let you know today about a Self Improvement site that will allow you to download 100’s of self help gifts. And the best part is that it is absolutely FREE!
If you’ve had enough of plodding along year after year and you want to improve yourself to make 2010 your BEST ever year, then you need to go here.
Self Improvement 4 will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME from January 5th to January 19th 2010. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all FREE – provided by Self Improvement and Internet Marketing experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:
* Personal Development Tips
* NLP – Love Your Physical Self
* Dynamic Personality
* Transformational Fitness
* Anger Management
* Managing Stress
* How to Stay Focused
* Outrageous Health
* Secrets of the Subconscious
* Law of Attraction
* How to Reinvent Yourself at Midlife
And my special report , “Get Along Better: Relationship Reinvention Tips” !!
There are more than 500 free items in this giveaway, so go ahead and join the fun at Self Improvement Gifts 4.
You only have to walk into any book store in any country to see how popular the subjects of self improvement, self awareness and personal development are. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry churning out hundreds of new books, audios, CD’s and other paraphernalia every year. These can be very expensive but in this giveaway you can pick this information up completely FREE.
With 2010 upon us, what better time is there than right NOW to set yourself and your business up for future success? You can’t do better than to go look over what information you can get for free. The organizers of the event are Stephanie Mulac, Rodger Hyatt and Gary Simpson. Come and join Stephanie, Rodger, Gary and me and see for yourself how YOU can focus on self improvement for free in 2010.
If you want to grab the largest collection of self improvement and internet marketing products you’ll find ANYWHERE – all FREE – then go here NOW and claim your bounty!
Creating A Strong Brand for Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsCreating a business brand is one thing, but creating a strong business brand is another. Every entrepreneur needs to be aware of the fundamentals involved in creating a business brand that will enable your service or product to excel in the market. However, you must not be scared by this process, instead, try to enjoy building your brand by creating one that you can be proud of and that your customers will love.
Focus on the Business
Before thinking of a brand, think first of your business. After all, the brand is merely a representation of your business. So, you must refrain from focusing too much on developing an effective brand without giving attention to your business. Your brand must come as a result of your business, not the other way around.
You need to come up with your brand depending on the following factors:
*nature of business
*type of service
*distinction from competitors
Nature of Business
One of the main purposes of creating a brand is to communicate to the consumers what your company does. Therefore, take time to evaluate the nature of your business and the distinct attributes and images it conveys to the market. If possible, try to produce your brand according to the specific target market of your business. Is your business catering to doctors, six figure entrepreneurs or children? This will help establish the name and image for your business.
Once you increase awareness of your brand as a representation of your company’s products or services, only then can you expect to experience increased sales. Creating a firm brand that will be easily remembered and distinct will enable you to create a loyal customer base.
Type of Service
The concept surrounding a brand name such as a logo, mission statement, or color scheme are just abstract concepts. What establishes a brand as a concrete representation for your company and business is the experience that your customer has with your product or service. Therefore, you need to establish that relationship between your customer and the kind of service you bring to them.
The perceived value of your company is a vital formula that will produce a strong business brand. It is not all about images, but includes delivering of tangible results to the emotional and physical needs of your customer.
Distinction From Competition
Although examining the type of brands that are utilized by your competitors will help you establish your own brand, you need to differentiate from them while exceeding them at the same time. Distinction must not only arise from the business name or logo itself, but in terms of the quality of service that you deliver. What can you offer that your competitors do not and cannot offer? Then, incorporate that into the creation of your brand so you will easily be able to capture your customers’ attention to the possibility of doing business with you.
In a market that is flooded with several other businesses, making yourself unique and distinct from others is one way to establish the reputation of your business. Couple that with a passion for delivering top-notch customer and quality service and you are sure to establish a strong business brand that will help your company achieve its goals.
