ActionBites

Pinterest - Are You There Yet?

2012-01-30T19:42:00.001+11:00

Just when I thought there I was reaching saturation point with social platforms along came word of Pinterest. To be fair I'd heard about it and ignored it for quite some time but for some reason I opened an account.

Why did I do that? Hmm. Well actually I thought I was a member and responded to someone who was looking for an invitation. As it turned out I registered and received an account within a few days.

For now Pinterest is serving as a super fast way to scan things that might be of interest and I can see that with time the access to sites and special interest articles will increase and get better from a match point of view.

Fortunately, right now the marketers are largely staying away but that will change. Hopefully they will keep themselves nice and pot selectively.

Are you using Pinterest yet? Drop by and say Hi.

What do you like about it most?

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Tips To Stop The Email Monster

2012-01-13T15:20:00.001+11:00

I see a lot of articles come past on Twitter on 'how to get your inbox to zero' and wonder why anyone would bother - don't they have Gmail? I guess not. But really the big issue with email becoming a stressor in our life is not just the number of emails we receive. Sometimes it is the quality of the emails as much as it is the number.

It would be useful for businesses to spend some energy and effort in creating good protocols to teach employees to use for sending internal email. Having someone at the next desk email you and clutter up your inbox with something they could as easily asked you is just stupid. And happens all too often. If you do that - stop it. Get up and go ask. There's one less email and one less response to that email that you will have boomerang back to you.

Learn to filter your email so that you can easily locate emails from people who are likely to send important regular emails from those who send you cute pictures of cats and chain letters in oversize pink font. If you are using Gmail then this is less an issue as you can easily search for emails from that person. Here are some instructions for setting up rules in Outlook (that's how you filter the email - the rules 'tell' Outlook what to do with emails from people according to the rules you want to apply).

Start improving your email by getting better at the email that you send. Before sending just check through these elements before your email leaves your computer.

Email Checklist - Ask yourself...

Do you really need to send that email? Is there a better way to get that information by asking directly or making a call? Or do you already have that information available to you some other way? Remember when you send an unnecessary email you are adding to the clutter in their inbox, and probably adding more to your own with responses that will come.

Summarising the reason for the email in the header means that this email can be easily located again if need be by topic. It also makes it faster to see that the topic is not urgent, or is urgent (to you) and needs priority attention.

Getting clear in laying out the email - one topic per email stops the message being confused and other issues missed. Have you included all you need for them to be able to take action? Double check and only send when you are confident that you have everything included that is needed. Ensure the attachment, if there is one, is attached and that it is a common file extension that they will be able to open. Commonly .TIFF files are not easy to open on the average computer and pictures are often easier to open for non technical people if they are .JPG or .PNG files. If you are sending photographs then compressing these makes for much easier email receipt.Compressing just makes the file size smaller so it 'weighs less' when it is being sent.

A common issue that I see from time-to-time is whole lists of people being copied with their email addresses showing. This is poor practice and exposes everyone on the list to spammers harvesting their email addresses. Sending via the BCC field means that they get the copy but without exposing their address.

Summary

Ask first - do I need to send this email or can I just ask directly?
Should I get this information by email so I have a hard copy of the answer (which may be copied to other applications to save time)
Have I summarised the subject in the Header so the recipient will know what this is about?
Have I restated any question that was asked to which I am replying so the recipient will know to which topic what my message relates?
Have I included all the information they need to respond?
Have I attached any files that need to go with the email?
Have I made it clear what the call to action is so that the recipient can understand and act?
Have I set the email out so as to make it easy to read and understand?
Have I confined this email to be about one topic only?
Is there a contact number for me on the email?
If no response is required, have I stated this on the email?
Have you only included copies to people who actually need to see this?
Are your copies being sent BCC?

Most people are sensible with their email but occasionally we will find someone who repeatedly sends us emails that make no sense, or invariably result in a back-and-forth email relay to clarify a point that could have (should have) been clarified in the first email, or by phone. If you have a special person in your life who does this you may like to ask them to help you by sharing this checklist with them. A few kind words once may save you multiple episodes of wasted time throughout the year and those minutes add up!

Of course if you have business, then setting up a good procedure and training your staff in how to use email effectively will increase productivity, reduce unneccessary anxiety and mean a lot less wasted manhours on nonsense.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering
Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Introducing Google Search + Your World

2012-01-11T15:40:00.000+11:00

Forget everything you knew or thought you knew about getting your business found online. Today is another day and everything has changed. While SEO is still important the bar has been raised and if you want to be found then you best start paying attention to building your online presence across platforms and providing quality content targeted to your market.

While websites are still often very poorly constructed and virtually unfindable (and no this isn't just cheap websites - many are expensive very fancy designs and have lots of bells and whistles - just none that help to get Google placing them well on search), the game has changed forever. If you want your business to be considered relevant - or to stay that way - then you must heed this and begin to do what it takes to be in this new marketplace.

"These days, any business that doesn't have a Web presence isn't taken seriously." - Morgan McKean, a consultant and writer who recommends "green" fashions, beauty products and home décor for women.

Official Word From Google

The Google Blog States:

"We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:

Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Together, these features combine to create Search plus Your World. Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.'

Here's what some are already saying about this new update from Google...

"Regardless of how you do it this is the only kind of influence that is "future proof". Tech will come and go, searches will come and go, social sites will come and go... but when you have influence and a strong community or "tribe" around you it will allow you to continue to thrive!'

-Kimberly Castleberry more here

"Google+ isn’t the only thing Google does. YouTube, Blogger, Google Docs, Google Reader, etc… Google+ is the glue pulling all that together. Your social profile across all Google properties now have a singular home… Google+. Google+ however is not in the social networking business, they’re in the data business and Google+ is a method of joining all your different web interactions together. With the release of Search plus Your World we’re beginning to see how all if it ties together… and how it’s all related to the one thing Google has always been good at: search." - Paul Spoerry more here

See the full lowdown on the Google Blog

Start From Where You Are Now

There has never been a better reason to review your online marketing. You don't build an online presence across social media platforms and good placement for your website overnight. You need to build that presence and make it get the message out that you want new customers and old to see and reinforce. Make that call today and get started.

See Also:
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness

Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.

How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online

Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering
Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Wisdom From American Pickers

2012-01-06T16:32:00.001+11:00

Watching junk TV can reveal some real wisdom but you need to look for it and be able to spot it when it presents.

Here are some quotes from American Pickers that each of us should inscribe inside our brain and remember when we are struggling to get to the result that we want to achieve.

Be where you can find that thing you want
Find out from the one who has it now, what they need to let you have it.
Ask them for it and be willing to pay the price that makes sense for you both.
Ask the question.

Do you have a TV program that has given you unexpected insight?

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Set Up Policies & Procedures For Small Business

2011-12-02T16:13:00.001+11:00

Documenting your tasks in the business and producing well-written accurate procedures and policies is your key to a well-run business. This allows you to systemise your business and that means managing your resources and your compliance obligations efficiently.

The spin-off advantage - your employees know what they are supposed to be doing - and how - and also why it is important. That saves you time, ensures consistency and that makes good financial sense.

It reduces stress and lets employees function at high performance and be more productive and happy at work.

Tasks To Be Performed

Start by capturing every duty within the role for that job. This is a great time to assess if this action is still working effectively, or if there are modifications that can be made to streamline and more efficiently cover that activity.

Starting with tasks means that those doing the role now can take responsibility for completing the tasks and documenting them as they exist. It also allows you to see if some tasks are better assigned to a different role, or perhaps delegated to a new role as the business grows. Of course for new businesses you may be carrying out ALL of these tasks yourself!

Policies and Procedures

Some policies and procedures centre around obligations that a company has to ensure compliance with work health and safety. Others are just good management devices that ensure things get done on time and in the right way. Part of your role as owner or manager of the business is to make it easy for your employees to do the right thing the right way. They should never have to 'guess' what you want or how you want it done to your company specification. Getting this right can be tricky, but this is where you need to be very clear in your instructions and cover every section!

The Employee Manual

Creating a manual for employees gives you a head start when you want to hire a new person for a role and lets them 'hit the ground running'. You can include your vision and cultural statements and history of the business to date, as well as policies they are to follow and a clear diagram showing to whom they report, their duties and he standard that they are to perform.. Issues around uniform, behaviour and pay dates as well as holiday protocols can all be set out, as well as any drug and alcohol policy, etc. Awards that apply and any additional opportunities for training or career development that may exist can also be included. Also induction procedures.

Organisation Chart

A well articulated heirarchy showing to whom each employee reports does several things. One it shows clearly to whom the employee should go for instruction and to report - and who not to!

This also serves to clarify to those people to whom the person reports, just where their obligations to the employee reside and makes it easier to recruit new employees if someone leaves or the workload grows and requires more employees to be added.

Training & Testing Knowledge

Having policies and procedures documented is a great start, but it is up to management to ensure that employees - and managers including the owners - understand what the policies mean and that they comply with them. It isn't enough to have a policy and then for the managers to ignore them.

Performance Management

When management and employees have a clearly stated case for what is expected, managing performance becomes simple. You can see if the policies and procedures are being adhered to and should this not be happening, remedial action can be taken as it happens, to correct the behaviour, add any resources that prevent the processes being followed and get everyone back on track.

Getting this all happening can take some time but it is well worth it. Once policies and procedures are set up you can keep them up-to-date and manage the business more efficiently and without the headaches.

If you need help in getting started, get help.
If you would like me to work with you on this, you can contact me at the address below.

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 61 + (0) 403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com

www.designbusinessengineering.com

Would A CUSTOMIZED Marketing Roadmap Help You Guide Your Business On The Path To Success? ABSOLUTELY!

Contact Me

Actionbites Blog Feel It - Say It.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Feel It - Say It.

2011-11-28T15:51:00.001+11:00

Have you ever had that thought - you really like doing business with someone and you would like to tell them... but you stifle that thought and push it away and forget about it. It remains unsaid and they never know you feel that way.

We do that with employees too. We even do it with family members.

We even do it with our children.

To me, this is a no-brainer solution for capturing that impulse as and when it happens and doing something useful with it.

Here are some examples...

You just sold this country property to a couple from the city. Or maybe you arranged the mortgage or facilitated the conveyancing or maybe you did a pest inspection. You may have not even done anything with them yet but would like to do business with them in the future since they have just moved to this area.

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

Your client or a service provider - or a friend - just treated you to a special event and you want to say thanks. Or maybe you took them somewhere and they participated and introduced you to someone you wanted to meet.

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

Your client just bought their new home. Maybe you sold it to them, or sold their old home or maybe you just supplied them with new curtains or a kitchen. Or maybe they are a relative or your child and you want to send them a memento of this special date.

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

When people make a change in their life. They move, they downsize, they switch to a bigger home for their family to grow ... whatever it is, it feels nice when someone notices. If feels even better if they make an effort to mark the event.

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

You shop somewhere and like the service. Let them know! We know the numbers for people complaining are 10x what they are for customers passing on a compliment. Be one of the people who notice others Doing Good Things. Stand out because you are thoughtful. Appreciation is high value currency.

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

Like I said, this is a no-brainer but it takes some thought. Don't send ugly cards and don't send cards that say "I am just going through the motions and making no real effort." If you feel the urge - do it. Send a card that has some meaning. If you don't care, don't fake it.

If you do mean it ...

Send a card. Make it personal. Something you can't buy in a shop.

This is a link to my card shop with Send Out Cards. Go play and see what you can come up with. If you need some ideas, email me and we can work out a strategy.

A real one of course. Nothing fake, make it personal, please!

Oh and by the way ... this is a step to incorporate into your marketing plan. You have one, right?

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Marketing Without Spamming

2011-11-21T19:21:00.001+11:00

There's a lot to learn about being online!

Today a friend on Twitter posed the question "How can businesses be online marketing without spamming?"

Really for me it goes back to the fundamental question:

What are your activities online meant to achieve?

And remembering some good manners.

Let me unpack that a little.

My guess is that most people go online with a hope that doing so will result in benefits for their business and not to put too fine a point on it - they will profit from it somehow.

That's a fine sentiment but profiting from online activity is something that few know how to analyse and many don't understand how the process works.

"I Can See You"

The first and most obvious avenue for benefit to a business is more sales. But there are others too, and chief among them in local business, is to be visible to those who have the need to use your products and services and the money and inclination to do so. Being thought of when someone is wanting to buy happens long before a sale is made, but without it the chances are zero.

You want to make more sales - so you need to be visible to the people who can buy from you.

There is a school of thought that some people ascribe to that "any publicity is good publicity" and you like me might conclude that spamming a network is an example of that in action. I think many business owners in their excitement lose track of what would be obvious if it was happening on the street. For example, can you imagine if you went to a networking event and walked up to people and started yelling at them with your business pitch?

Likewise online, nobody online follows you so you can just send them spam.

So what is spam really? In the world of social marketing it is anything that is sent unsolicited to people who have not expressed a request for your products or information.

So what does this look like in play?

Automated DMs in Twitter with links to your products when you have never been asked.
Posting your link to your products, uninvited, on the walls of people friends or other business Pages you follow.
Sending advertisements to your contacts on Twitter.
Posting self promotional pieces to the discussion threads on Linkedin
Commenting on people's blog posts and ignoring the post and just adding your information and links.
And let's not forget this one which is more and more common and extremely annoying ...
Adding people you just met to your mailing list without permission.

Anything that resembles this, that is self serving and providing nothing of value is, by extention, spam.

If you think it might be considered spam. It probably is.

Online Content Is Where You Create Value

So what do you post instead?

First and foremost it is essential to understand that social marketing is not like pushing out ads as you would in traditional advertising. It is not a broadcast medium it is a social medium and while you can post topics that demonstrate your expertise in certain areas, this is a two way enviroment and for people be interested in you they need to see that you have more to say than just posting ads.

Think before you post - how does this fit with what I want people to think about my business? Post in alignment with your values.

Connect with people who are in the location your business serves. So if you have a local business, connect with local people. If your business serves customers across the world then focus on the demographics of the sector to whom your offering appeals. It may be work at home mothers, or people who like to travel, or whatever.

That's really an important element to consider.

What are the characteristics of your existing customers - and where do people like them spend time online?

When you know that, then you can connect and you have a key to your next element to consider...

What are these people interested in and how can I add value through posting content that will be useful/entertaining/of value to them?
Understanding what your business offers - what people want from it - and what gains their interest is a foundation to what will become a framework for your social marketing.

Social marketing is about being visible to potential customers, expanding your chances to make new sales and to build on existing relationships but it is not for amateurs. Get trained, get help to understand the landscape online, the etiquette of online communications and understand where your risk points are. Your reputation is valuable and the better you understand how to use the online tools and platforms - and what to never do online - the greater your chance of success.

More followers.
More engagement.
More sales.

Where Is Your Content Located?

Do you have a blog?
Is your website being updated regularly?
Do you have coupons for special offers?

These are the obvious places to be adding quality content on your special topic. Showcasing your knowledge of your industry and building a presence online where people can find your bank of articles. These will be the content that sets your business apart and is unique. You can use this to post links to your networks, use in your email marketing (permssion based, of course) and to repackage into other forms for use as appropriate.

You can post these links in moderation between other posts of a general nature and discussions that you may engage in on your networks. How often? Well that depends on so much but since you are going to be creating quality content to post, this will limit how much you can post of your own promotions. Get started on building that bank of good content from which you can draw.

Customers Are Online ... But Not All Of Them!

Remember

Not all customer groups spend a lot of time online. Some may never use social networks and yet even for these industries, having a full and engaging social presence online has a value. It makes finding you on search easier but also it builds a picture in the the client's mind that they can feel reassured about you. Suddenly you are not some faceless business, you have roots in the community, people they know are connected with you and this brings with it great peace of mind and credibility for you and your business, so guard it well.

Building a good reputation online takes time just as it does anywhere. And just like offline, it can be ruined with lightning speed.

Action plan:

Research your market.
Build a model of your best customers so you can find more like them.
Devise your strategy to build your online presence.
Write your social marketing plan and schedule.
Create a bank of content to start.
Add value to your networkby sharing general items of interest to them that they are unlikely to have seen.

Above all, respect the people in your network and never take the people who follow you for granted.

See Also:
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness

Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.

How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online

Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website
Related:
Remember to build your mailing list
What to do next when you feel like giving up
Send cards for marketing and friends automatically using this Cloud app
Step up in your business - Here's how to improve performance

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Get Old Fashioned Referrals

2011-10-31T13:37:00.000+11:00

Franklin Lyle (Frank) Bettger (1888 – 1981) was a salesman and self-help author. He was the father of longtime actor Lyle Bettger. He played Major League baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1910 under the name Frank Betcher. He was demoted from playing time. Very disappointed, he went to the manager and asked why he was demoted.

The manager told him "You have no enthusiasm"
Bettger told the manager: "I'm just trying to hide my nervousness."
The manager replied: "Try something else. That's not working."

Frank Bettger was an interesting fellow. In 1947, after some prompting from mentor Dale Carnegie, Frank Bettger wrote How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling. An old fashioned book that is in concept as fresh today ever it was.

He got right to the bottom of selling.

He said:

You can’t collect a commission until you make a sale.

You can’t make a sale until you write the order.

You can’t write the order until you have an interview.

You can’t have an interview until you make the call.

The call is the whole foundation of the business of selling.

Frank Bettger's 13 Secrets To Success In Sales:

1 Enthusiasm
If you don’t FEEL enthusiastic, ACT enthusiastic. Soon, you’ll BE enthusiastic. Double your enthusiasm and you’ll probably double your income.

2 Order (self-organization)
Set aside time to plan how you will spend your time. Think about what’s most important. Then do those things first.

3 Think in terms of others’ interests
Find out what your prospect wants. Show him or her how to get it.

4 Questions
Questions get you further than comments. Let your prospect talk while you discover his or her wants.

5 Key issue
Find the prospect’s basic need or main interest. Then focus solely on it! Ask “why” and “in addition to that” to discover the key issue.

6 Silence (listen)
Good listening works magic in selling. Listen intently intentionally!

7 Sincerity (deserve confidence)If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, neither will your prospect. Give your prospect the service you would want.

8 Knowledge of my business
Keep your mind young by continuing to learn about your business.

9 Appreciation and praise
Show people you believe in them and expect great things. Don’t go overboard – just give them your honest appraisal.

10 Smile (happiness)
Smile your best smile at everyone you see. Think about all the things you have to be thankful for … and smile. The world will smile with you.

11 Remember names and faces
Take a mental photograph of the person’s name. Repeat it immediately in the conversation and then silently to yourself. Associate his or her name and profession.

12 Service and prospecting
Take care of them and they will take care of you. Follow-up on all leads immediately.
Set up for your next contact on this contact.

13 – Closing the sale (action) In modern language this is really helping the customer to get their solution.
Proceed through the sales process – Attention, Interest, Desire, Close. Conclude your presentation with the magical question, “How do you like it?” Welcome objections. Don’t be afraid to ask for the money.

Why Don't People Give Referrals Easily?

Most people don't hold back from referring business to you because they are mean spirited. Mostly people just don't think about it. To be frank, most people really don't think of your business at all in any way beyond thinking do you have something they want to buy or access.

Nobody cares about your business. If you want referrals you will have to make it part of your process to make it easy for customers to refer you. As an old wise insurance salesman that worked with me once shared - to get referrals you must be referrable. Indeed, as I recall it was this same gentleman who first introduced me to Frank Bettger's work.

Ask For Referrals

If you want referrals to someone you should know that people don't refer 'up'. They will only refer to someone on their level or below. So if you want quality referrals you need to ask people who are the kinds of customers you want.

Of course if you want A Grade customers you have to be A Grade at what you do!

If you are working with a good client then you want to let them know you appreciate their success and a good way to open the discussion for referrals is to ask them: "Of the people you know in business, who do you admire most and why?" Then after you learn who that person is, ask to meet them. Have lunch with them both and learn more about the person and do not attempt to sell them anything! If you find you develop some rapport with them, then you can feel out if there is any way that you can be of service. Never pull out the desperate high pressure sales pitch on someone you meet this way! After the lunch you can follow up with an appropriate card in the mail to say thanks. And another to your client for the opportunity.

For general referrals you may want to talk to the client about work you' ve just done and ask them "Who do you know (like you) who needs this kind of work too?"

But back to Frank. Frank Bettger not only asked for referrals. He also followed up and if the referral was slow coming he had a strategy for that too.

He Who Hesitates ... Needs A Hand

If thecustomer hesitated to give a name, he'd help them this way. "That's all right, Mr. Wright. I think I understand how you feel. Give methe name of someone you know, under fifty, who is making money. I promise youI'll never mention your name."

"Mr. Wright, my name is Bettger. I'm inthe life insurance business. A mutual friend gave me your name with theunderstanding that I wouldn't mention his name. He told me that you have beenvery successful, and that you would be a good man for me to talk to. Could youspare five minutes now, or would you rather I stop by some other time?"

Times have changed in so many ways since 1947 when Frank Bettger wrote his book. But some things that have changed have been unfortunate. Like the tendency for people in business to forget about listening to what customers want. About taking an interest in the client and coming to the sales process with an attitude of serving the needs of the customer and developing rapport and relationship.

Work through a reliable process.

If what you are doing isn't working remember Frank's manager's words...

"Try something else. That's not working."

And get enthusiastic about it!

Need help developing a referral strategy? Let's talk.

Related:
Remember to build your mailing list
What to do next when you feel like giving up
Send cards for marketing and friends automatically using this Cloud app
Step up in your business - Here's how to improve performance

How to get your business found online

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Business Writing Not Just On The Wall

2011-10-26T11:40:00.000+11:00

A quick look around local websites in Anytown will show you that there is a problem with how businesses are presenting online and wasting the opportunity to be of service to customers seeking what they provide.
As ths article from Entrepreneur outlines there are many reasons that combine which stop business from selling more (online and back in the store) than they could.

Web content is one of the critical factors in a business being found in search but it goes much further than that. First people have to find you. Then they want to find what they are seeking and for your website to serve them well it needs to have good information that addresses their interest. They need to be able to find your location easily, your contact details and the extent of the services you provide. All of these are just the beginning and the more you can add in layers of well targeted written articles and pieces of information, the more it will help the site be found online and answer the questions the customer is seeking. So your content helps in two ways 1) Getting found online and 2) Showing customers good useful and helpful information.

So what is content? Content is really the professional know-how that you have as a business about your product, how your products can be used and what's good about those products and services. A recent study by Focus found that "Ninety percent of B2B buyers prefer to consume information online." The challenge is to make your content valuable and easy to find.

But your website is just one place for you to be providing good content. You can be adding good content to your profile on social business networking sites and the many free directory sites that are available now, which also allows you to add a link back to your website (this is valuable to help your search placement on the search engines) (Ask me if you are not sure what these are).

Content can also be made available for offline too, and one of the common written pieces that businesses don't have is a Business or Corporate Profile. You don't need to be a large organisation to need one of these for your business. You could be a small accountancy firm or a supplier to industry and this gives an outline your story and your professional bona fides.

When the act of writing for your business is given some importance you fill find that you can do things you could not do before. You can easily let people know about your business, you can include testimonials, and position yourself as the expert in your field and professional in your way of relating to customers, potential business partners and investors. Your quotes can be sent with supporting material to reinforce your professional approach and give customers confidence in your expertise.

Ultimately your business needs to be able to show its best face to the world. Online or offline, it is the same. Good quality information, great tips and well presented material shows that you know your industry, you know what customers value and you are thinking of their needs, not just your own. Your content should reflect that you are there to serve their needs and this should be the focus behind all your communication pieces.

What Content Do I Need?

Content for your website and brochures should show:

Who you are (We like to know there is a person around)
What you do and sell
How to contact you
Where you are (even if sales are made online it gives some certainty that you will be available if something goes wrong)

Quality photographs of your business, your people and your service (well tagged for online to help enhance search)

Adding More Value
Extra content that you can include:

How-to articles
Product reviews
What to use where
Things to know about using products or services
Specialty insight into common problems you see and how to fix them
Good service stories
Happy customer stories

The list is endless and once you begin to think of Content being a high value part of your inventory then you will never be short of topics to write about.

Remember - you not only need content online - it needs to be kept 'fresh' so added to regularly. Search engines put a high value on good quality content and freshness.

Gettng started can be the hard part. Email me if you would like me to review your content.
Did you know? Ask about my blog and content writing service to get you on track.

To your success!

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Would A CUSTOMIZED Marketing Roadmap Help You Guide Your Business On The Path To Success? ABSOLUTELY!

Contact Me

Actionbites Blog A Website Is Part Of Your Social Marketing

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

A Website Is Part Of Your Social Marketing

2011-10-04T13:24:00.000+11:00

An Apple Is Not An Orange...And They Are Both Fruit

Okay so I've been putting off writing on this topic but recent posts and comments that have been put to me make now as good a time to dispell some myths that are percolating around which on the face of it sound plausible but are built on very shakey foundations and show more a lack of understanding than they do insight into online marketing and especially what social media is all about.

Let's take this headline for example "Ignore the Social Media Hype. Your Business Will Always Need a Great Website"

No kidding.

Let's break this down.

Social media and the use of it for promoting a business does not and never has meant that your website is not necessary. And there may be people who will want to sell you a Facebook page that will tell you it is all you need but they are not people who deserve your attention.

Your website is as important as ever - and social media is the spark that can help drive more traffic to your site. All the reason you could need for ensuring that your website is up to scratch ( and most are not) and that your links from social media are leading to your website.

Scratch that. Your website is more important than ever.

Your Business Will Always Need A Good Website.

Absolutely!

And this is often not what businesses have.

Many companies have websites look good and have cost a lot of money and say virtually nothing of interest to people who will probably never see it anyway because it doesn't have any effective search engine optimisation. Google can't find it and neither can customers. Or worse - if they do there is nothing useful for them to read.

Here are some more mistaken beliefs that have caught my attention lately.

Social media is not for every business.

This may be true if your idea of social media (marketing) is only about directly selling goods.

For perhaps most businesses this is not going to be the result of using social media. But for some businesses social media can deliver sales directly.

This is not necessarily even the most useful means of using social media.

So what can social media be useful for in addition to direct sales?

For many in business, "Having a chat with a stranger" is not high on their list of priorities. Some issues that are though, and if they are not already, should be high on the list of priorities, include:

Researching your marketplace
Being on top of trends
Meeting people of influence in your chosen area of interest
Meeting future customers
Meeting future business partners
Learning ahead of the curve
Understanding customer sentiment
Learning
Teaching
Building your profile
Becoming a credible expert
Meeting new people in your community
Gaining new skills
Being on top of changes that are coming
Keeping current
Managing your company's online reputation
Being accessible to customers
Showing transparency and approachability
Developing wider competencies
Engaging in ways that are not available offline
Observing different ways of thinking
Seeing new ways of doing things that can work in your business
Increase exponentially the number of people who know your business

That's a few things to start with.

And no it isn't a spectator sport. Neither is it a broadcast medium.

Oh and no... These benefits don't all come from having a Facebook page.

First you need to start with a better framework for what you imagine social media to be.
And get your website in order.

How many other benefits can you think of?

Related
Develop A Strategy For Social Marketing
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness
Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.
How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online
Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website
Quick And Dirty Business Review

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Business Intelligence: For Small Business Too!

2011-10-01T19:12:00.000+10:00

In one of the not-so-rare synchronous events a blog by Thom Singer arrived in my inbox on the topic of business analysis. He makes some good points about business analysis being the realm of larger companies with big budgets and not so much that of small and medium businesses.

It's a drum that I seem to bang a lot with clients and that is the issue of understanding the critical dynamics within a business, knowing where customers come from, what they do and why they deal with you - or why they don't. For small business there are ways to streamline the process of collecting this information but much of it can be done with old fashioned methods.

Simply, if you know that Action A leads to Result X - if you get a good result then you can do it again. You can do it more often and predict your results over time. If you don't know what results or lack of results come from certain actions (or inactions) you can't. Simple as that.

Marketing Not Gambling

If you don't have that business intelligence for your business then you don't know a whole lot of things that you need to know. You don't know what's working. You don't know what will improve your results and you don't know what it is costing you aside from the money you spend, when you pay for that marketing initiative, in lost opportunity and sales not made.

Just like paying for that Yellow Pages ad and never tracking sales. That's not marketing or even advertising. That's gambling.

Just like hiring employees you want to perform well... but you never instruct fully as to their role and what you expect from them, never manage effectively, have no useful reporting process to monitor their progress and never bother to review their need for training or resources. What is that?

Moving to online presence that a company generates, from the website to use of social media platforms to promote the business it is clear that the same kind of Business Intelligence (BI) is not understood and so not being captured.

Not All Websites Are Created Equal

A cursory investigation of a local chamber shows websites that are poorly constructed, not functioning in any way to generate interest and not likely to be found in a search. Oh some of them look good! Most of them don't and to Google they may as well be a blank page with nothing showing on the site.

Who is to blame? Ultimately it comes down to the business owner to make sure they know at least enough to know when they are getting quality information and not bragging from someone who talks a big game but produces nothing of substance.

Commonly I ask business owners "How do you access your website traffic analytics to check?" All too often the response is a blank expression. This is the first question I ask when assessing a current strategy because it is clear - that if they don't know the answer to this question ... there is no point asking them anything more technical about the site because they don't know.

How then, do you make a reasonable judgement about the value of the work done so far on the website and how do you reasonably then commit to good actions going forward?

This lack of understanding results and Cause and Effect in business is not confined to poor results. It could be that the results are good - but the numbers are not suffiently understood to allow the owner to recognise that hey - this advertising we just did has not only been good - it has given a result 3x better than anything else we have ever done! And suddenly the cost has a context by which we can measure performance objectively and track against future advertising.

You cannot get good business intelligence by guessing!

Of course the response from some business owners to questions of this nature can be "Oh I'm too busy for that!"

Too busy to know if the money you are spending is being wasted.

Too busy to know if you're not spending the money that could be increasing your profit three-fold.

Measuring is important. Too often, people go mad measuring metrics that don't matter. And neglect those that do.

Here are some simple business intelligence items that you should know now:
Where do I find the traffic statistics for my website?
Where is traffic to my website coming from?
Where is it not coming from that it should be?
Where are my customers finding my business?
Who are my top 50 customers who have spent the most with me over the past 3 years?
How much have they spent with us over the past three years?
How did they come to be our customers in the first place?
How many other customers have they referred to our business?

That's some that I like to start with. These are simple questions to which you should already have the answers. If you don't then you need to fix that... that's the first step.

The second step is to learn what to do with it.

Related
Quick And Dirty Business Review
Develop A Strategy For Social Marketing
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness
Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.
How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online
Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website

Like to discuss your business? Lindy AsimusDesign Business Engineering Get Help For Your BusinessDownload your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Small Business Reminder: Google Is Blind

2011-09-27T16:57:00.001+10:00

The environment for business to have a website and look to the internet as a new marketplace to promote our goods and services is no longer new. It's been around for more than 10 years now and certainly over the past five years has become mainstream.

Or so it seems.

So why is it that so few businesses are using the internet in a way that promotes them effectively?

You have a website.
You may have paid a lot for it to be developed.
How is it doing?

How do you tell?

What bits are working and which bits need to be changed?

Traffic is not the be all and end all of having a business website. But it is fairly fundamental as a starting point to measure your progress and to see where improvements should and can be made.

Yet time and again I see business owners with no clue what their numbers are but not even the most basic idea how to find out and what they should be looking for.

Reasons

One of the misconceptions with web property is that a web designer - or even a web hosting company that sells you a template that you pay monthly to host your website online is the place to learn about what you need to know to get the best results.

Nope.

Indeed many of these places know very little and care even less about your results. Their product is to get you online. Your success online is not their problem. With many designers, they will do the site as you want it and it is up to you to know what to put there and they will do it. The responsibility for how well it does is not their concern. That's up to you.

Here's another myth.

What your website looks like is an indication of how well it will function to attract customers.

There are two parts to correcting this myth.

SEO - search engine optimisation is all about ( or should be but often isn't effectively done) how Google "sees" on your website. Google is blind. It reads instructions behind the page and content on the page. That's pretty much it. Ask a blind person to tell you how you look today? That's about the same as Google viewing your website. So you want all the elements that don't show and the content that does, to be right.

PEO Person Eyes Optimisation - is all about how those people having searched and found your site through SEO - can find what they are looking for, what they want to know about your business, where you are, how you work, how to reach you and whether you have even bothered to be findable. The content needs to be useful and current and easy for them to buy from you. This is true even if you don't have a shopping facility on the website - they can still reach you by phone or email and purchase whatever is they want that you have.

There is a bit to learn about this topic and yes there is a lot of bad information out there. Sales pitches are not the best place to learn what you need to know. And yet it seems like many business owners want to be sold the magic bullet (sorry, there isn't one) and instant results. There isn't any of those either.

Nor are there any fixes that don't cost time and/or some money (probably both) to work effectively. But then your experience with other things in life has shown you that already, right?

Steps To Take Right Now

Find out how your website statistics are being tracked.

Get access to check them at least weekly.

Check them at least weekly.

Look at where your traffic is coming from.

Get your friends in different places to look for your business online as they would if they didn't know you and were just a customer looking for someone who does what you do. Collect the responses for where (page)you come up in their search.

Find out which companies are coming up first for what you do

Consider your message and what story you have to tell about your business as your keywords you need to use will be in there.

Google is blind when it comes to 'seeing' your website but it picks up everything it needs if you set your website up well. And your web? Well it is a lot like a guide dog. Look after it and keep it well fed and it will be on duty 24/7 and returning the love.

Call me if you need a hand.

Related Posts

The Dirty Secrets Business Needs To Know About Social Media
Why You Need To Build Your Mailing List And How To Do It
How To Get Your Local Business Found Online

How-To: Developing A Social Media Strategy For Marketing
Quick & Dirty Business Review
Test Your Website For Roadworthiness
What You Should Know About Social Media For Business

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Actionbites Blog How Do Your Customers Find You?

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

How Do Your Customers Find You?

2011-09-26T12:59:00.004+10:00

"How Did You Find Us?"

A recent conversation on Twitter brought this up as a discussion point. In the course of our back and forth, @gregbepper mentioned that as president of his local business chamber he had seen many times that business owners were missing the vital step of asking customers how they came to be at their business.

The old adage of half of marketing being a waste of money, but not knowing which half - is as true now as it ever was. The difference now is that the tools to track where new business is coming from are now available. Technology takes away any excuse we had for not knowing these metrics but still this is ignored.

Without knowing where your customers are being activated, we put a blindfold on and start pinning money to that Marketing Donkey. Why would you do that?

This was confirmed during another discussion with a local advertising consultant who expressed similar views and frustration that many of us share, in the lack of interest that some business owners and managers seem to have when it comes to taking a professional approach to understanding what is essentially basic management application in the business.

It may be true to say that for many small business owners approaching marketing that they don't know how to do this. They don't know how to go about setting up a system to collect this essential data and some will say they are "too busy"! Really.

I kid you not.

Which is fair in a way. Preparation for anything takes some thought and time. Doing things without thought is easy! It is fast! And it costs a lot of money. But if being not prepared is your thing, then you probably won't notice that.

"Oh I tried that. I sent a letter once and it didn't work." I have had this said to me by intelligent people who believe that sending one letter is direct marketing,.

"I don't have time for social media and anyway I don't use the internet. And my customers are local anyway."

Truly. I have heard this so many times I have just wanted to lie down with a blanket and curl up in fetal position.

These are our local businesses. They are what give our local area colour and character and they are the businesses that we watch and see them slide and then disappear with all their money and time invested just gone. Or we watch them limp along barely getting by and wondering why the government is making it hard for them Why the customers are not loyal. And complaining bitterly about the terrible overseas merchants selling goods to "their customers" over the internet.

How well are your using the intelligence in your business about existing customers?

Your secret business asset

View more presentations from Lindy Asimus Business Coach

What is motivating your customers to come to you?
Where do they find you?
Where do they go instead of buying from you?
What do you need to do to make them come back again?
What do you need to do to know what they want?

How much time are you prepared to spend to know these things in your business, or are you too busy "saving money" on your marketing?

There are ways to know the answer to these questions. If you don't know what they are yet, then make the time and investment you need to find out and get some help to do so. But beware. Not everyone will care if you get good results and good information.

To your success!

Related posts:

Step-Up In Your Business
Business Manners - People Are Watching You.
Goals - How To Set Them & Achieve Them
Coaching Tips
Roles & Responsibilities - Who Is Wearing What Hat?
Gratitude. It Has A Place In Business Too.
Appearance Doesn't Matter And You Will Be Judged By It.

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Would A CUSTOMIZED Marketing Roadmap Help You Guide Your Business On The Path To Success? ABSOLUTELY!

Actionbites Blog Blogging For Business: What To Write?

Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook!

Blogging For Business: What To Write?

2011-09-19T13:30:00.000+10:00

Slowly small business owners are starting to 'get it' that being online is something their business needs to do even if they are not sure how to go about it.

Aside from a brochure-style website that lists all the usual details about the business: what you do: where you are; when you're open and how to contact you, it is important to know that you need fresh content that is updated regularly. The best way to do that - the easiest way to do that - is with a blog.

In fact the old days of the static webpage are pretty much over and many websites now are just an upscale blog with some additional static pages. The beauty of this model is that it is easy for non-technical people to just add their new content and not have to fuss too much with knowing how the 'behind the scenes' parts work.

When we think about content being added it raises all kinds of questions that may have not been considered before and chief among them may be "What will I write about?". Not everyone is accustomed to writing for the public and this can seem like a daunting prospect.

Here are some questions I've been asked about this and hopefully this may shed some light you can use in finding topics for writing content for your business.

Social Media For Business Results

View more presentations from Lindy Asimus Business Coach

Write about what you know.

We can be blinded by the things that we take for granted and assume that everybody knows what we know. That's not true though and what seems simple to you with your experience, can seem like arcane magical voodoo for me who has never had to know about the inner workings of a magneto or the finer points of painting a house.

What you know about your specialty, if I am in the mindset for needing that thing, is madly interesting to me right then. People go searching for very specific information when they have a need for something and if your article is on target for that thing of which they seek, then your article (blog) will come up and be seen. This is where you can stand out from all the other businesses who do what you do. I may have no interest at all in mixer taps - until my kitchen sink is flooded and I need to buy one. Then I want to know what I need to know before I buy.

If you say it - then you own it. Even if everyone else in your industry does the same thing only the one with the information out there for me to find will get the credit.

What does your blog say to us? We know you know your stuff - and that's evidence right there on the webpage that you have some experience, knowledge and enough savvy to put it out there for us to see.

I don't want to tip off my competition.
This is a common fear and the reality is that they already know part of what you know. That doesn't matter. Focus on what customers will find useful not your competitors. Frankly most businesses are doing zilch about marketing effectively and carving out a slice of the market to own. Be there first and seek to own your little corner of the patch.

You don't have to 'give away the farm' but you can provide background information that makes it easy for me to know what I need to know to make a good decision.

Developing a strategy for your online presence and your blogging means that you can work through all the informaton that you want potential customers to know about your expertise and your service offering. Over time this will add real value to your website and attract targeted buyers to your business.

With a strategy, and a schedule to follow you can streamline your writing and ensure regular updates without taking too much time away from your other activities.

So - what's the message you'd like to share about your business?

Related posts:
10 Steps To Local Marketing Online

The Dirty Secrets Business Needs To Know About Social Media
Why You Need To Build Your Mailing List And How To Do It
How To Get Your Local Business Found Online
How-To: Developing A Social Media Strategy For Marketing
Quick & Dirty Business Review
Test Your Website For Roadworthiness
What You Should Know About Social Media For Business

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

10 Steps To Local Marketing Online

2011-09-18T13:08:00.000+10:00

When What Used To Work Stops Working
Local businesses are in a quiet panic. Many have gone along doing the same marketing over and over and using the same methods to attract customers and finding that the results are not the same now.

Tempting as it is to say "We told you this was coming... but you wouldn't listen.", that's not much help so maybe you who own a local business will be more receptive now to try some other methods.

Oh but you don't like the internet?

Too bad. We do and that's where we make decisions about who to give our money to.

Get used to it.

Now before you start asking about guarantees and return on investment or thinking you'll get your teenager to set up a Facebook page for you here are some points to get your head around.

1) Setting up a Facebook page is not a marketing plan. If you give money to someone like that then you deserve to lose it.

2) If you have no way to measure your old marketing results, don't ask about ROI on social media marketing.

3) "We put out a catalogue and people came into the shop" isn't measuring results.

4) Your marketing may not be what's keeping people away. Maybe it *is* You.

5) You're going to have to do some research.

6) If you have no idea how to research or what to research then you would do well to get someone in who does.

7) You're going to have to get your hands dirty. Yup. You are going to need to polish off those social skills and actually engage with people.

8) No the internet is not only full of people who live on the other side of the world. It is full of people who live locally too. In fact, it is full of people who maybe used to go to your business. But you may not know that since most businesses have a dismal record when it comes to collecting data on who customers are and what they like and how to reach them.

9) You'll need some patience. You've spent years getting into this position and building your online network and developing some online presence is going to take a little time to mature. Just like anything else.

10) Think of your business efforts online as another staff member. A golden employee who never complains, works 24/7 and never takes a holiday. Treat them well.

A review is a great place to start and there is no time like the present.

Good luck with it and if you need a hand, well give me a yell.

Lindy Asimus

Business Manners: People Are Watching

2011-09-15T16:07:00.002+10:00

Some recent discussions with business friends have been around several issues that actually come back to the same basic issue. Which is "Why do so many business owners not put some effort into learning the basic skills their business needs?"

Web

If you are in business then customers expect to be able to find you online.

If you haven't taken steps to make sure you have a website that works, you are still online but not in a good way.

People notice that.

If you think that your keywords for your business is your name then you need to learn more about the internet and marketing online. This is basic knowledge that your business needs. Basic knowledge that you need to have in order to even pick someone to help you carry out implementation of your site in a way that is useful and can work for you.

Procedures and Systems

Your employees need to know what they are expected to do and to the standard that you wish them to do it.

Having proper systems documented means they don't have to guess and don't have to follow you around to ask you. Even better - the business can run more effectively, more efficiently and customers can be more consistently given the service that you promise and they want to get.

Social Media

No matter what you've been told, getting a Facebook Page ( or worse, a personal profile you think you will promote your business on) isn't social media marketing. Getting a FB Page or a Twitter account is the start. Not the finish and your work begins from then on. What will you do next? This is what you need a strategy for and good understanding of what to do - and what not to do online. Be assured. The next person who approaches you telling you that a Facebook Page is the answer for your business online probably knows barely more than you do about it. This is not what your business needs. But it does need you to understand social media - whether you decide to become active or you decide not to become active online. You still need to understand it.

Marketing

Your Yellow Pages advertisement is costing you a lot of money. How many jobs do you need to cover the cost before you make anything for you? If you are paying a monthly fee then it is still the total amount that you need to know you have to pay back to yourself to recover your cost before you make $1. Are you getting value for this? If you don't have a system for monitoring leads from your marketing how will you know how well anything works?

How will you combine your activities for marketing and test where you get the best bang for your buck? Where does social media and online marketing fit within your overall marketing plan?

A marketing plan is not a plan if it is in your head. It needs to be set out and planned and costed and budgeted for in order to be able to provide you with any good result and intelligence that you can use going forward for future years.

This is another area that your business depends on you to gain the skills you need to keep on top of this.

Professional Courtesy

You have a phone message. Are you going to return the call? Today? Next week? What about the quotes you promised to deliver? Are they delivered yet? How well have you set them out for your customer to study?

Too many businesses are just slack when it comes to those issues of manners in business. You got a referral from someone in your network? What did you do to show your appreciation? What do you do to reciprocate that act? You go to network meetings. How much thought do you give to how you can introduce people to potential customers and actively promote those people who support you in some way?

Not returning calls, not replying to enquiries are all signs that you don't care. Period.

Not paying your bills is a sign that you have no respect for the people who have provided you service.

When someone has to chase you up for things that are for you then that is a demonstration that you don't care about your business so why should they?

On the other hand, those people who think of others, who return phone calls and go out of their way to demonstrate quite basic manners really stand out and shine. With very little effort they can be standing above the crowd just with a few simple measures.

Which kind of reputation would you prefer?

Businesses Suffering

Every day the news is filled with yet more reports of new closures, more businesses going into liquidation and more families being left in despair over business failure. Many of these will also have put their homes at jeopardy in the process.

We need strong local businesses and to that end we need businesses to operate effectively and efficiently and to be monitoring their business numbers and activities so they know right where they are and can react to change as necessary. Not as so many do, to be just doing what they do, oblivious to the issues can run them into trouble.

Ongoing education is now required in many industries for technical aspects of the industry. It is your job as the business owner to take measures to ensure that you are educating yourself overall in matters relating to business, to your marketplace and to technology is being added to on an ongoing basis.

The markets are changing and the opportunities too. There is no place for complacency in a healthy business. These issues can look daunting but they are actually quite simple to fix. That small amount of effort can reduce a lot of stress for everyone including the business owner.

Remember. We're watching.

Who have you seen in business that you admire who shines at being on top of all these issues in their business?

Related Posts

How To Set Goals - And Reach Them

The Dirty Secrets Business Needs To Know About Social Media

Why You Need To Build Your Mailing List And How To Do It

How To Get Your Local Business Found Online

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Networking. Who Loves Ya, Baby?

2011-09-09T09:10:00.000+10:00

Driving to an appointment the other day I pondered - not for the first time - the huge number of business hours each week, each month, each year, going into what is called networking and wondering "Why isn't this working?"

And it dawned on me the similarity between these networking sessions and what happens behind closed doors with what we sometimes call lovemaking.

Here's the shocker.

Lots of people are clueless in bed too.

When it comes to networking, we can be like the erstwhile lover, screaming in silence "no - not that... do this..." but yet never say a word out loud to the one we are with... while the partner fumbles around, achieving little, save for creating frustration, irritation and perhaps regret.

Just like in sex, we can expect people to know what we want most, what we need for it to work out well and an interest in the interaction culminating in satisfaction for both parties.

People are terrible mindreaders.

Or like just a casual hook-up with someone whose name you'll never even remember or maybe cross the street to avoid if you see them later.

Networking, if it is to be successful needs both to be concerned about the outcomes for the other.

Not standing aloof waiting to be serviced.

Are you a considerate networker?

Successful networking should be about building relationship and sharing a mutual interest in getting good results for each other and those they refer for assistance.

Time to end the Wham-bam casual bumping into strangers.

What's your best strategy to encourage mutual gratification in networking?

Come on now. Networking. It's Business Time.

Social Media For Business Survey 2011

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Networking Imposters
Networking: Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Social Media For Business Survey 2011

2011-08-30T11:33:00.000+10:00

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Thanks for helping. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are changes from this survey results from 2010.
Please send this link to your friends too!

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Getting The Best From Employees

2011-08-27T17:59:00.000+10:00

Are you good at following directions?

Recently I've been supervising a team with a project that has a limited run time and well documented (if not so well organised) procedures and schedule to which they run. And by the way - I didn't design this process!

The team is a comprised of different aged people, from mid 30's to 70s and to a person, quite intelligent and self driven. As we get toward the end of the project, some issues arise that are things that we've covered off on in one-on-one discussions, and of course are in the procedures in full detail. Some things we have covered off on several times. And yet they arise as a surprise to some of the team!

Which got me thinking.

Sometimes we make things harder than need be the case.

An irritation for me during this project has been the large amount of detail to get across, but without a clear context of what's Important and what's just important. What's a Must Get Right and what's good to get right but won't break anything if not every I is dotted and every T crossed. Since I tend to work best with an understanding of the global concept (big picture) and then the detail, this has seemed a bit akin to being given a jigsaw puzzle to do - without a lid to the box to see what the thing is supposed to look like when it is done.

Are you good at giving directions?

People are not all the same. Some people just want to know the details that relate to them, and others (like me) want to know how it all fits together in order for any of it to make sense. But we don't always give good directions or format them in ways that accomodate these different styles. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong kind - just different and we can streamline much that is to be done through producing directions that allow for both types to be covered.

If you have good instructions for new work you have to do be glad! But if you are faced without a clear map of how it all comes together, a good idea is to map it out first and create your own guide to capture any information that turns up that wasn't covered in the instructions.

Make a List!

Draw the project up as a mindmap diagram
What are the critical elements in this project that need to be covered off
Write a checklist for each section that can work as a cheat sheet to which you can refer.
Check if there are any materials or resources or extras that you need to get this done but aren't included
Verify what your understanding is for the actions you need to take before you begin
Clarify and resolve any ambiguity that arises
READ THE PROCEDURE!
Follow the instructions for the procedure!
Again... Follow the instructions!

Whether you are the one carrying out the work, or the person writing the instructions, make it easy for these steps to be done and you'll save a heap of time, aggravation and unnecessary stress along the way. And get a better outcome as a result.

If you are creating projects to be carried out by others, then ensure you design a process to make it easy for those who will bring it to fruition to feel competent and smart.

So the team has done very well.

It's been fun to work with a range of ages and personalities doing something new and that's always great for building new neural pathways, for everyone concerned.

And gave me a blog to write!

Do you have a favourite tip for learning new processes? Please share your comment below.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites BlogHere

Business Mastery: How Agile Are You?

2011-08-18T21:01:00.000+10:00

Whether is is your business or your hobby or something else you want to do well, it takes some work. And then some more. And then more again.

In a business, it isn't enough that you are good at making widgets, or using your technical experience. Many elements of business, in order to run effectively, need to be done and some of those facets of the business may be things you have no interest in, or natural ability.

But guess what?
They still need to be done.

Confidence

“Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.”
~Thomas A. Bennett

Want to be confident? Increase your capacity to do. Become competent. If that means learning to be a great manager learn to be a great manager. If it means learning to see where the scary gaps are in your business, then discover where the scary gaps are and build a solution to create competency.

There are so many things that we can't control in business. Even more that you can be on top of, so cover off on those things that you CAN control.

Flexibility
Consider the law of requisite variety which tells us that in any cybernetic system the element or person in the system with the widest range of behaviours or capacity for choice will control the system.

Try not knowing what you know and trying new approaches to things you've always done one way. Start with small changes and see your mind stretch to new possibilities. This is where Breakthrough lives.

Practice

"Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice."
~ William James

Forget that you have done something a few times. How many times do you need to do something to be expert at it? Aim to raise the bar on your expectations - and make the effort on the follow through.

"The emerging scientific picture is that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.

Now how long is ten thousand hours? It is equal to roughly 3 hours of practice a day, or twenty hours a week, of practice for ten years. Of course some people never reach mastery, which is not really explainable yet. But, no one has found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery". ~ Daniel Levitin

Now maybe you aren't seeking mastery in everything. But the question is really: "How good is good enough?" and how much effort are you be prepared to expend to get better at this thing you want to accomplish?

Here's a great example of what mastery looks like. Any kid can ride a bike, right? Take a look at Danny Macaskill.

How does your agility in your special field compare?

What do you need to do to excel at what's important to you now?

If you've achieved mastery in some field, please share your story below as a Comment.

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Are Workers Lazy Or Are You Rewarding The Wrong Behaviour?

2011-08-15T02:34:00.001+10:00

All that time on the job. Shows we are working harder, right? Well according to the statistics, maybe not.

Yet we have this fascination to see 'bums on seats' and use time in the office as some measure of value - rather than measure efficacy.

Really. Would you rather have people in the office getting their work done and leaving or have them hang around the full day accomplishing nothing in particular?

Time to review what it is you're trying to achieve?

And by the way. Owners and managers have their own way of wasting time while looking busy.

Pity.

With a little more thought, some accountability and new skills, they could be getting more done and factoring in some downtime.

[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

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Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Social Media Marketing: The Dirty Secret

2011-08-12T15:03:00.001+10:00

Social media marketing is topic of the day it seems wherever I turn. Old media can't get enough of new media and it seems like they have run out of ideas to broadcast and are stuck trying to make their old media 'hip' by chasing the new media wagon.

Like so many things that are reported in the sensationalist media outlets, much of what is reported sounds good ...but when you get right down to it has some fatal flaws. Social media marketing is no exception.

Let me start by making this statement.

Social media for business is nothing about Facebook.
Nothing about Twitter and nothing about any other platform that you might use. Just as your business is not the accounting package you use. But like your accounting package, you can use it well, or you can 'half use it' and waste the functionality that it could be giving you to better place your business and ensure your success.

Here's the dirty secret that people promoting social media don't want you to face. The owner or manager of your average conventional business doesn't find pleasure in hanging around online and nor do they have spare time to spend that way. If they did have spare time, there are other things they would rather be doing.

Neither do they understand why they should care about social media for business, or the internet or even have noticed that the world has changed and what worked in the past may no longer be the way to get the returns they want.

Conventional business has been sold a lot of bunkum about new media and not much in the way of real information that they can understand and relate to their business situation.

Local businesses are often run by people who don't spend time online in a way that opens them up to new business research and frankly the more information that we are faced with, the more we can turn away from it in self defense. Too much information. No real way to tell the good from the not-so-good and soon we become hit with a wall of overwhelm.

For the business owner or manager considering how they could use the tools of social media for business the first thing to understand is this: You need to understand what this can do for you, and what you will need to learn, and acquire, and actions to take in order for this to give you any benefit that you can measure.

First Step:

Before You Start...
Make sure you have the answers to these questions.

What is the situation in my business that I'd like social media to be able to address?
What do I need in the form of resources to use social media as a marketing addition?
What budget can I dedicate to my social media marketing?
Who can help me to physically work on the social media campaign with the skills the business needs?
How much effort am I prepared to put into learning to understand this marketplace?
Is my website properly set up to take advantage of increased traffic and to allow customers to purchase easily?
What else besides sales is beneficial as an outcome for my business by being online and active?
What do you want your business to look like in 1 year... 5 years time?
How will you provide the content that you need to generate interest online?
What's the story you want customers to know about your business and values to share?

Now what?

These are just a few questions to get you started. There are many more and yet as you see, none of them are questions about Facebook, or Linkedin, or Twitter or any other social media platform.

How would you like your business to show on your own online video?

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Define Your Purpose: Know Why

2011-08-03T10:46:00.002+10:00

This video came to me today and I'd seen it before but it is one of these clips that are worth sharing and relate to the question that I like to ask at the start of any new project, obsession I may want to take on and what I really would like to see clients begin to take on board as they are considering making change - or are stuck in making no change at all.

How connected to your purpose are you?
Do you know what is driving you to pursue your present direction?
Are you doing what you do for your reasons, or to satisfy (or pacify) someone else?

How do you remind yourself to stay on Purpose?

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Life Coaching Is...

2011-06-11T16:56:00.006+10:00

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"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living."
Anais Nin

Life coaching is... about adding choices to life.

I had a call through the week from someone looking to get help with some issues that they have been challenged by for some time now and affecting their relationships at home and at work.

It gave me pause to reflect that I write so much from the perspective of business that it may not be apparent that I work with clients on life issues too. Indeed, our way of being in the world personally and the interpersonal skills that we have can be very closely tied to and affect what happens within a business and every other facet of life.

So what are some areas that I see relate to life coaching as a means of developing and making progress?

Some examples that illustrate for you.

The person who feels like they have little to contribute and so hold back from engaging as fully as they might, and whose voice is seldom heard, but often is drowned out by those around them. This can act as confirmation of them being 'less than' when in reality they have much to contribute but lack the skills to be able to stake a claim on the space to do so.

When someone damps down that part of themself so as to fit in with other people, leading them to spend their life according to what someone else values ... without exploring what is meaningful in life to them.

When faced with information that doesn't meet with their approval, the person 'shuts down' and refuses to acknowledge what is happening, choosing instead to close down any opportunity for meaningful discussion and thereby adding stress within relationships..

Feeling 'stuck' in a problem with no choices being apparent. This is usually less a case of no choices than it is of a lack of appreciation or way to connect with more choices - or could even be that the choices available are not ones that the person wants to face.

Too many ideas and nothing followed through to completion.

Clutter in the person's surroundings and relationships.

Lack of purpose and focus on the things that are important - or even being able to determine priorities in life.

Tolerating bad situations and relationships that are not empowering the person.

Anxiety when faced with challenge and without a good strategy to move forward.

We can easily fall into the trap of believing that the past can only show us the future. That isn't so. Yet we can lack the skills to unpack the past and take from it the learnings that will help us create the future in line with the life we prefer to lead, while letting go of the pain from the past. Just as we can forget to recalibrate and notice all the resources that we have at our disposal that we lacked in the past when we were children.

When considering life coaching look for a coach who can help you learn new strategies to develop more flexbility in the way you think and analyze situations. Your coach should be working with you in ways that support your development and let you function and with more understanding of your options and behavioural flexibility.

A good life coach will help you to identify, check ecology and conditions of well-formedness, to achieve your goals, not make you strive to reach theirs.

When working with a coach you need to feel that there is respect there - even thought the questions they ask may be challenging.

There is no place for coaches to be asking you to divulge personal issues that don't relate to your coaching relationship, so if you ever feel that this is happening, mention it and if it persists, consider if your coach is acting appropriately. At all times you should feel safe working with your coach. If for some reason you don't and if you have any reservations you may want to terminate the coaching relationship with that indivdual. Your coach should be there for you to help you progress. Period. Your role is to help yourself and your coach to create the environment where you can do that.

Have you used a life coach?
What was that like? What did you experience from your coaching?
Please share your observations in the Comments section.

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Actionbites Blog On Character

On Character

2011-05-16T15:03:00.000+10:00

Character

"If the past has taught us anything is is that every cause brings its effect, every action has a consequence.

The Chinese have a saying, "If a man plants melon seeds, he will reap melons. If he sows the seed from beans' he will reap beans." And this is true of everyone's life - good begets good, and evil leads to evil.

True enough, the sun shines on the saint and the sinner alike, and too often it seems that the wicked prosper. But we can say with certainty that with the individual as with the nation, the flourishing of the wicked is an illusion.

For unceasingly, life keeps books on us all.

In the end, we are all the sum total of our actions.

Character cannot be forfeited nor can it be put on and cast off as if if were a garment to meet the whim of the moment. Like the markings on wood, which are ingrained in the very heart of the tree, character requires time and nurturing for growth and development.

Thus also, day by day, we write our own destiny, for inexorably, like the rings on a tree, we become what we do".

Character is an interesting concept and one that gets very little attention in these times.

What does character mean to you?

The Ch'an Training
From the Hsu Yun Ho Shang Fa Hui
Tr. Lu K'uan Yu (Charles Luk)

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Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Contact Me
Actionbites Blog Are You Wrong Or Right? How Do You Tell?

Are You Wrong Or Right? How Do You Tell?

2011-05-08T12:40:00.003+10:00

Kathryn Schulz' TED talk looks into the idea of differentiating between abstractly understanding that humans are fallible ... and in the moment where we live, assuming that we are always right.

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong

There is definitely wide appeal to being "right" - even when we are not. Sometimes it can seem as though we would rather cling to the idea that we are right, instead of learning and being able to update our knowledge to the facts.

Then of course some things are not right or wrong. They are subjective and where this is the case, we need to remember to respect the perspective of others. Unfortunately there seems to be a trend toward treating objective issues (evidence is available) as though what we want to believe is so and that the objective issue is a subjective one. You'll have seen this in action with the current 'debate' on climate change. Here's more on that in this recent article:The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science

Rushing To Judgment

All this need to feel right could be said to be a factor of our skill at taking scraps of information and filling in the missing pieces with bits that we make up so that we can derive a meaning for what we see. While that is useful in some contexts, it can lead us to effectively hallucinate elements that just are not there. If our need for meaning is greater than our interest in veracity then we can rush to judgment without having sufficient data on which to make an elegant opinion based on all the relevant aspects.

Our language can work against us in this regard, since the way we communicate - the way we organise our thoughts, can lead us into leaving out important elements. We delete bits of information (or fail to notice them), think in shorthand ways that take up only the things we notice, not the things we see but don't notice, and discount things that don't fit with what we already hold as an opinion. Opinions too, are often a collection of personal biases and wish-this-was-so positions, with no evidence to support their validity. When we add this together we have a perfect brew to create situations of emotional turmoil and misunderstanding. Perhaps the best start to getting more useful skills in this area is to learn to change perceptual position. That is to not only see the situation from our own point of view, but to also imagine what must be so to make true the opposite view. To do this though, we need to be able to suspend judgment long enough to really observe cleanly without adding our own baggage.

Imagine yourself in a place without judgment. Observing. Noticing. Not creating meaning, just seeing without judgment for now. Let's call this Nerk-Nerk. A place of Not-Knowing.

Nerk-Nerk

Todd Epstein in Pragmatics, dreamed up Nerk-Nerk as the name of a fictitious space alien who has the exact same nervous system and physical characteristics of human beings, but none of the perceptual, linguistic or cultural assumptions. Nerk-Nerk has studied and is familiar w...ith all forms of human language, but is incapable of making the deletions, generalizations and distortions that most human beings do habitually while communicating verbally with one another. Nerk-Nerk is only able to understand and respond to fully specified sensory based descriptions and instructions. http://www.nlpu.com/Articles/artic25.htm

Not-Knowing can be uncomfortable. It is sometimes said that men have a tendency to want to provide answers to women when they are just venting. This can irritate women, and confuse men. Surely if someone is talking about an issue that is distressing them in some way, then they must want a solution. This is not necessarily the case. It should be noted that this happens the other way around too and men don't necessarily want a solution, or need one from the person to whom they are venting. Keep that in mind. Not knowing doesn't have to be a permanent state. Ultimately we are able to navigate effectively through life by making judgments. We need to be able to do this to function fully. Making judgments in itself is perhaps not the problem. It is when we get attached to the judgment - rather than to understanding what is really the case, that we create the bother.

It feels good to be right. It feels much better, and is much more useful to be informed and right. For now. Given what we know so far.

Context really is Everything.

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Get Your Online Business Presence Reviewed.

2011-04-19T12:17:00.002+10:00

You’ve heard all the chatter about the internet and how it is the place to be for business to grow and develop new business using websites and social media marketing.

Have you ever wondered how you can get new business using online tools to promote your business?

It can seem daunting. Websites, SEO, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, on and on it goes. Maybe you have a website that doesn’t seem to do anything ... and you don’t know how to tell if it is doing anything useful or not.

You’re not alone. Many businesses have thought about using the internet and have a basic website that may have cost a little money or a lot of money at the time, but it is still a bit of a mystery as to whether it serves any purpose or not.

“You have to be online” they tell you, but don’t tell you why, or how to judge a good website performance from a bad one.

“My website is on page 1 on Google ... for my business name!” Oh that’s a common one. The truth? You need to be on page 1 for what you do. Not for your name. Nice to have but it is a given. Your name doesn’t count, since anyone who knows your business name and what you do, already knows how to find you. You want your business to be found by those looking for what you do, who don’t automatically think of you.

“I have a Twitter account ... but I never use it.”

“I am on Facebook but I don’t really know how to use it. I’ll have to get my teenager to look into it and fix it for my business.”

Social media marketing may be social... but it is still business. And as such it deserves to be taken seriously. As a business owner you need to understand the rules of how online marketing for local business works. Even if you decide it is not for you.

· How to guage if your website is working as well as it should. Sometimes it just needs a few tweaks to make it work better. Sometimes it needs a lot of work. Know what to look for when you are hiring web designers and what to make sure is included on your site.

· What you need to do to have any chance to get the website to page 1 on Google for the words and phrases people look for to find what you do.

· How to set up a social media marketing strategy. It is not just opening an account. You need to know the right kind of account. Know which platform is going to work for your business and have a purpose and a strategy that will allow you to know how and what content to add to keep it fresh.

· Understand that your reputation is at risk online – even if you don’t use the internet yourself. Your duty to your business means you need to be able to know how to manage that risk – and exploit your business opportunity. If someone is talking about you online - good or bad - you need to know about it. And know how to deal with it.

· Learn the difference between traditional marketing (broadcasting) and social media marketing. They are not the same! What works in old media, won’t work in new media and can work against you.

I hear many business owners say that they have been to a workshop on social media but they were dissatisfied because it didn’t really give them the skills they need to know how to go about setting their business online with a way to successfully use social media for their business and in their local area. You need one-on-one help to really get to know this new world.

Others say they can’t see why they need to be on the internet because their customers are local and they know who they are already. In reality, it isn’t about what you want. It is about what customers expect. Even if you never use the internet (“I don’t have time!”) your customers do. And if they are looking for your business at 2am then they need and want to be able to find the solution they need for their particular problem. If you can solve it for them, you want them to find you and know that you can help them.

The world has opened wide for local business and social media marketing brings high tech opportunities for local business to widen the scope of their marketplace beyond their front door and being at the mercy of just selling to the people who happen to walk past their door during the hours they are open. Even a cafe can bring people in who would not normally have chosen that place to visit were it not for finding them online first.

As customers we don’t know anything about your business unless you make it known. If we are visiting your street, we look for what’s there online before we make appointments and before we head out in the car to look for what we will buy. Whether you own a cafe or are an Accountant or Zookeeper, the same applies. Your job is to make sure we find you first.

Unfortunately some business owners think they can do this without any training. While many ‘social media gurus’ have no online footprint of their own to speak of, might be doing workshops promoting social media marketing but are only telling part of the story. They are setting up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts as though that in itself is the important part. It is like buying a car and never having a licence to drive it, and not knowing it needs fuel in the tank if you want it to get you anywhere.

Special Offer

For this reason I’m making a very special offer available so you can get some idea of where you are now and where social media marketing and your online presence can help you grow your business. This Online Business Review will be available for a single payment of $199.

If you want to proceed on your own then, you can do so with some understanding of where you are going and steps you can take to get there. If you want help going forward then that’s available too.

If you would like to get your business online working and would like a review of your online presence, a report on what could be fixed and a 2 hour consultation on where you can go from here then contact me today to arrange your Online Business Review.

Here’s to your success – Online and Offline!

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 61 + 403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Australia's Marketing Mentor

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Actionbites Blog Control Quality In Your Business

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Control Quality In Your Business

2011-03-13T14:28:00.000+11:00

In the past 20 years we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of business franchises available worldwide. But what is a franchise really? At its most basic level, it is a method – a system- that can be replicated and each task in the business defined and able to be carried out by anyone, with minimal experience and at the lowest cost. That is to say, that a 16 year old with no experience can come into the business, follow the steps to deliver the same quality product as someone who has been doing it for many years and with great experience.

Of course you may not want to be employing juniors and you may not want to start a franchise empire but the elements of a franchise – the thing that makes it worth the money they command - is a proven business model that is captured, documented and to which employees adhere. What does that give you? It means that you have a framework for training new employees and a consistency to your service that allows you the business to perform in a reliable and predictable way and an end to having to ‘make it up as you go along’. Employees know the answers to anything they could need to know, and you are not caught up in spending time telling them over and over the same things.

For the customer, it means they can rely on getting the same standard of service from your business next time they visit you. This reliability is a comfort and reassuring for customers and it is a money saver for you the owner, as well as being a marker toward your business being optimized and sale-ready all the time. In real terms, that means you own a business which is more desirable to a buyer, a higher sale price you should command when you do want to sell, and a more profitable business every day.

You don’t want to franchise? You don’t have to go that route to have good systems. Your current business model, with your existing policies and procedures are the starting point to creating your own system to manage and optimize your business. If you have some policies and procedures you can use them as they are, or tweak them as you develop your system. Where there are gaps in the current model, these can be filled and additional components added as required and any procedures or policies modified as better ways of doing a task is developed. This provides you a framework to deliver consistent results but does not hamper you in any way.

Some business owners think that because they are a one-off and creative kind of business that policies and procedures don’t apply to them. In reality, the most creative businesses also need procedural structure for some elements of the business. These systems let the creativity happen where it is required, and the support mechanisms in the business to free up time, deliver good back up and assist with the delivery of the more creative elements. Very often good systems mean the business is able to scale in a way that was once impossible.

How are you managing the processes in your business? Could they be improved?

Areas For Procedures And Policy Review To Consider:

Administration
Operations
Internal relationships (employees, HR, recruiting, performance)
External relationships (suppliers, JV partners)
Financial
Marketing
Web and Social Media
Management + CEO responsibilities
Training

Good systems let you manage more effectively, save time and cut needless duplication as you maintain a consistent and high level of productivity that every successful business needs.

For more information download 7 Steps To A Growing Healthy Business Here no strings attached.

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Stop Theft In Your Business With Good Systems.

2011-03-08T16:01:00.000+11:00

It’s common for business owners to underestimate the potential for theft by their own staff. The reality is that the loss to a business though employee theft can be a real drain on profits and can undermine the stability of the business. Where this happens, the whole culture within the business can suffer.

As this recent article shows where 43% of small business employees admit giving freebies or discounts to friends and family. Some won't even see that when they do this, it is theft. It's up to you to teach them the values that apply in your business. And some will be knowingly stealing whatever they can get their hands on.

How To Spot It

Those who are stealing from the business can be very keen to keep their activities hidden and be attached to keeping the status quo with regard to their duties and function. They won't like change and will actively discourage good systems from being put in place that help you manage effectively.

Mix It Up

Changing the employees' functions from time to time can help with this but for many business that is difficult because often the roles are not well described and it can happen that management is less than sure what an employee even does in their role!

Where staff are stuck on keeping things as they are, that’s a bad sign and to prevent that happening, the business needs good systems, well-defined roles and descriptions for the position – not the person in the role. People can be moved and everyone be very clear on what they have to do and how they do it, when this is well documented.

That process for managing roles and responsibilities also makes for easy performance management, recruiting and can ensure that the knowledge in the business is shared and kept, even when key staff leave or are reassigned to new responsibilities.

In your business now, make sure you have put in place:

A clearly identified and written chain of command so people know who they report to and who they are supposed to be supervising.
Written position descriptions for each role in the business
Tasks written down in full for each of the positions.
Induction training for new employees into the business so they know from Day 1 where everything is and what's expected of them, and the culture and values of the business.
Performance management system to monitor progress, catch any training gaps and fix problems at the time they show up and catch your people doing good work.

Lead From The Front.

Your role as a leader in your business means that this is one of your responsibilities to ensure good governance and effective practices are in place. This raises productivity, makes for more engaged workers and lets you keep good control over your business affairs.

Someone from outside the business can often help you identify issues like these and more that can keep you on track and out of the rut that comes from having no systems in place.

Guarantee

Policies and good management alone won't guarantee there is no theft from a business. But you are guaranteed that without those procedures and good culture in the workplace, you are actively encouraging every kind of bad activity to flourish.

Your business loses money when you have theft but also when you have high staff turnover, low standards of training in the business and no good systems to manage the people and assets in the business. When you improve these areas, it is like money in the bank.

Related:
Remember to build your mailing list
What to do next when you feel like giving up
Send cards for marketing and friends automatically using this Cloud app
Step up in your business - Here's how to improve performance

How to get your business found online

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Good Records Management Is Good Business

2011-03-03T15:58:00.000+11:00

Government departments can be a good source of information for business on how to stay compliant with the legal obligations in the local jurisdiction and in this example below, it shows clearly the kinds of documentation that needs to be maintained and managed well. These documents are essential to your businesses well being and need to be managed effectively. Some will need updating at the right time and this can easily be overlooked.

I was at a networking luncheon recently and heard about a great example of where the right documentation being overlooked can result in ongoing issues that can threaten the complete operations of the business – sometimes without the owner being aware that it even happened. In this case the real estate license had expired and not renewed as it was due. To cover this, the administrations person had ‘doctored’ a certificate with the new dates on it to cover the fact that it was not done in time and of course once this had happened the first time, then they maintained this the following year. When this came to light, the real estate agent had effectively been without a current license for a period of 3 years. This could have been catastrophic to that business.

Cases abound where employees either by intention or by lack of understanding can cause problems for a business. Good management of the records in the business should keep a check and good oversight to the operations and administrative issues in a business. Compliance can be a trial for business to manage, but as well as keeping the business ‘legal’ – you can use the need for good record keeping to your advantage too.

Trying to manage this with files and bits of paper is a nightmare – and puts business at risk of things being missed, potential fines and court actions and more. But this need to be compliant is a perfect excuse to put in place systems to manage your information in a streamlined way, one that covers your obligations, but also lets you manage more effectively, reduce risk and create a relaxed environment where employees are able to know exactly what they are expected to do, alerts to remind them when things are due so they don’t need to rely on memory or bits of paper, and can be confident that they are clear on what is expected of them and how to do their work successfully.

How do you manage your records now?

http://www.business.vic.gov.au/BUSVIC/STANDARD/PC_50296.html

Records Management

Record keeping isn't just good business practice, it's a legal requirement. You are required by the Australian Taxation Office to keep business records for a minimum of five years, in plain English and in a way the tax office can access if they need it.

Business record keeping

In addition to your ATO financial records requirements other government departments require you to keep records relating to your business and employees.

When setting up your record keeping system you should also file records such as:

contracts, insurance agreements and other legal documents
your lease if you're renting
licences and permits
employee records including time sheets, copies of pay slips etc
safety records e.g. risk assessment for occupational health and safety
any other records which are 'business activity' specific and required by law for the operation of your business e.g. for a café your food safety plan

Tip: Write down the method you use for filing so if someone has to do it for you they know how to. As your business grows, this is a job you could give someone else to do.

	Checklist: Business records and how long to keep them (PDF 85Kb)
	A checklist of business records and how long to keep them, including financial and employment records.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Idea: A Quick & Dirty Business Review

2011-03-03T00:37:00.000+11:00

Too Busy For A Proper Business Plan?

If you are like many business owners, you may be so rushed with filling orders, paying bills and getting through the day-to-day crises, that there is just no time to get organized, and put your thoughts down into a business plan, or even know quite where to start.

If this sounds like you, then a Fast Business Review might be the way to begin your process of getting control of your business, fix those things that have been left undone that will bring the business fast benefits, and cut through some of the clutter that can turn up in a business, and prevent better results than you could be getting now.

Getting Started

To get started on your review, take a few minutes and think about your business and how it operates every day. Think about what issues come up time and again and cause problems, and think about the improvements that you may have considered making in some parts of the business.

Now make a list of the things that you would like in the business to work better, stop irritating you or improve your financial position. Is cash-flow an issue for the business, or is something else holding you back?

Make your Wish List.

Things you’d like more of
Things you’d like less of

Look At Your Business Objectively

Your business has a need to operate efficiently across a range of areas in order to work as effectively (and profitably) as it may. Very often, business owners start out in a business because they have a skill in one area, and may be very adept at performing that technical skill. Of course there are more responsibilities that need to happen for the business to run smoothly.

A good business needs a Vision for what it is to become, so that everything that happens in the business can reflect that and move the business in the direction of fulfilling that ambition. Employees need to know what the owner has in mind, in order to buy-in and help deliver that end result.

It needs sound financial management and effective marketing so as to drive new business, and great customer service to ensure repeat business and referrals to drive that cash-flow which is the engine of any business.

A business needs good employees and good employees need good systems to follow, good management to inspire their loyalty, and good standards for delivery of product and services.

In each area of your business

Operations	Marketing
Financial Business Health	Sales
Customer Service	Service Delivery
Product & Service Standards	Information Technology
Employee Management	External Relationship Management
Procedures & Policies	Workplace Health & Safety

*Your business may have additional areas, EG Warehouse, Inventory management, Point of Sale, etc

Review

Write down the top 3 things in each section of the business you’d most like to change.

Be sure to include all areas of the business. Be sure to include any items that are particularly prone to producing stress in the workplace for yourself, or friction with employees.

Commit

Write down the actions for each change that has to happen.

Write down the deadline for this to be finished.

Write down who is responsible for making this change happen.

Commit to this undertaking, no excuses.

Look At Your Strengths Objectively

As the business owner, the success of your business depends entirely on the quality of the decisions that you make.

What are the strengths that you bring to the business? What are those things within the business that only you can do? What are the things that you do in the business that someone else could do ... possibly better?

As the CEO of your own business, you understand that the needs of the business are separate from your needs as the Owner. Some things that may be your preference may well be bad for the business. Understanding the clear boundaries here is critical.

If you'd like a copy of a form to use for a Quick & Dirty Business Review contact me and I'll send you one by email.

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

Australia's Marketing Mentor

Contact Me
Actionbites Blog Developing A Social Media Strategy

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Developing A Social Media Strategy

2011-02-26T05:42:00.002+11:00

A question this week on Quora was a good one and one that deserves some attention from us all, in conducting our business activities. Here's my response.

"My company is a B2B company and we are trying to come up with a strategy around social media. I find it tough to figure out what to include and what to avoid. Are there any factors I should take in to consideration while devising a strategy?"

I would suggest you start with a clear understanding of the social media environment and a well defined purpose (and expectation) that is realistic and achievable in the first instance.

For those who want to use social media, and those who vehemently don't want to - they need to understand enough to make an informed choice either way and to deal with the consequences of that choice. Whether one is 'using social media' or not they can be the subject of discussion on social media and managing one's reputation online is just one element of this new world.

Basics

Get these right the first time. Know what kind of Facebook page is the wrong kind to use for business. Use the right kind. Don't set up a Twitter page then fail to keep updated regularly.

Remember Your Website!

Make sure your website is optimized for search - and for the people who
will use it! - Most that I see are very poor - on both counts. (Never
mind they may have cost a lot of money from an expensive web designer).

Never, never let a stranger be in control of your business online. Get informed and get interested.

Not Just What, But How

It is important to understand the etiquette of online interaction and also the ways to leverage time and effort without putting those to whom we are connected offside. (Easy to do!)

Putting up a Facebook or Twitter Page ( and with the correct configuration and naming protocols) all need to be considered and that is just the beginning, the strategy behind this needs to support the objectives and while platforms are free to use there is always a cost in time and resources and budget need to be allocated for this purpose. Expect this and include it in your plan.

Social Media Policy

Some things to consider on creating a social media strategy:

Your social media policy - needs to be fair, realistic and training done with employees so that everyone is clear. Also needs to be in line with employment legistation so that you are not overstepping and writing in clauses that you have no right to demand. Suggest your policy begin with an intention to be open to the opportunities of social media, as well as the potential downside.

Hoary Old Myths

On the matter of Control - some employers think they can dictate all manner of things to employees and restrict their access to social media during work hours and this will keep them in control of their staff members. This is quite a silly assumption. Firstly, because you have no control now, secondly, because such an environment may just guarantee that good candidates won't want to work for you. Lastly - they can access anything they wish to via their smartphones and a combative attitude is not going to deliver a harmonious outcome that leverages the best available opportunities that new media can deliver.

Your Social Media Stategy:

A social media policy
A Clearly articulated purpose and vision
Select appropriate platforms
Allocate a budget
Who will manage it?
Time and resources that need to be allocated
Which KPIs you are going to measure
How you will measure your results
How you will manage (an enhance) your reputation online
How you will integrate your social media with your conventional marketing
How thoroughly your social media activities should permeate throughout the operations of the business (Which department will handle this? Will all departments be involved?)
Ways you can adapt social media to help you improve how customers interact with the business
Ways that you can use social media to improve communications within the business and strengthen the team
Managing and monitoring the plan
Reporting - how often in what way
Integrating platforms to allow transfer of content seamlessly, but in a regulated way (not spamming)
Understanding that social media is not a broadcast medium! It can't be all just about YOU!
Design for the type and quality of the content to be delivered by social media
Who will create the content?
What amount of content should be (can be) generated and by what frequency?
Modes of content that can be made available - articles, blogs, ebooks, video, podcasts etc
Integration with website

Engagement

People follow people so it is important to remember that there needs to be engagement and if multiple people contributing to the social media for the company, there is merit in these being tagged to the individual who is posting at any time. Be interesting. Be interested.

Not Just For Christmas

There is often a thought that a social media strategy is a one-off, trial kind of activity that we do. It is not set and forget and it not even a funky thing to do any more. It is become expected. If you are not visible online, for an increasing many, you just don't exist. So get accustomed to this being a new marketplace. Devise a plan that brings your existing customers along with you and if you are really smart - introduce them to those who can help you help them develop their own online presence. This is where the magic is, and this is where most fail to connect the dots.

See Also:
Check Your Website For Roadworthiness

Think Social Media Is No Use For Your Business? Think Again.

How To Get Your Local Business Noticed Online

Purpose Then Strategy - Case Study Starting Your Website

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Check Your Website For Roadworthiness

2011-02-24T15:55:00.001+11:00

Your business has cars that you check on each of them for safety before you assign it to be driven, right? You have made sure that it is fit to be on the road, that it is reliable to get from point A to point B and that the tyres are not worn out and the pressure is correct. There is oil and fuel in the tank and the registration is up to date and the seatbelts all operating as they should.

Your Website Vehicle

Well we talk about traffic online and this is the currency of business.
How much traffic is there? How much of that traffic converts to sales?
That's what keeps businesses going and that is the beginning and the end of what any business owner in any field should want to know about their business whether it is online or offline or hopefully, both.

So since we are talking traffic terminology it makes sense to think of the vehicle by which the traffic is generated.

It is clear that many businesses who have a website do not maintain them as they would their fleet of vehicles and since the website has the potential to bring in new business, this is rather hard to understand why it is so.

Let's just investigate how a business might undergo a Roadworthy test with this checklist. The answers to these questions, should be known without hesitation by the owner of the business. No exceptions.

So here's your pop quiz! Now these do not represent an in depth list of questions that you should be monitoring but it is a very quick and dirty method of seeing if your website needs a service.

Your Website Roadworthiness Checklist

How do you measure your traffic to the website?

What are the top keywords people are using in search that brings them to your business?

Do you have a conversion system for your website?

What description about your business is Google picking up?

How are you using local search for growing your share of sales in the local area?

What pages are most visited on your site?
What websites are linking to you?
Which external websites are sending you traffic?

What percentage of your business comes from web compared to offline sales?

What is the turnaround time for enquiries to your website?

What facility is on the website for people to buy from you today?

If you have a shopping cart system, what is the dropout rate for those shoppers who don't complete a purchase?

What are the key words for which you want your business to come up, when people search?

In what way are you incorporating social media with your website and offline to generate traffic?

You have a process for monitoring your reputation online so you know what is being said about you and the business online.

In Summary

If you don't know the answer to these questions, then you need to get the report on these from your employees to you right now.

If you can't manage to get the report to you in short time, then this indicates you have issues that go beyond the website that need to be reviewed too.

These are just some of the obvious things that a business owner needs to be managing in the business. There are many more that you should know especially if you are paying for adwords and the like as well as issues of a more technical nature that can and should be measured in addition to these. And it is a good idea to get these monitored by someone outside the business from time to time - at leaste once a year, to ensure that you are getting the best advice from those inside the business whose job it is to oversee your web presence.

There are many ways to tweak a website for better performance and some of these can be done very easily and quickly.

So how did you go?

Happy with the result you achieved on this test?

If you are less than happy and would like a review of the rest of your website contact me now and let's investigate before there is any more damage.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

How To Start Making Good Decisions In Your Business

2011-02-08T18:24:00.002+11:00

In the planning stages right now for release of a new product that will be available soon to help businesses to easily manage their information around compliance for employees and actually manage the information simply and with the least amount of misery as possible. I was really drawn to this idea when I first heard about it because it is part of the cluster of issues that comes up again and again, when working with business owners and which gets them stuck and unable to work effectively in the business.

In recent days, we've had articles on the fiasco at Commonwealth Bank and their Big Brother approach of their social media policy and the Heat Company winning their costs for a harassment case that they have been stuck defending for four years. Can you imagine the time and disruption this would create, even apart from any costs directly related to the case?

How Would You Cope?

If you were called to defend your workers against some accusation of wrongdoing in the workplace where would you start? How do you prove something didn't happen?

How many have good reporting in the business even for logging the things that DO happen?

Not many.

There are so many things that should happen in business that don't that it isn't funny.

These stories in the media go with other stories I've run into lately of business owners telling me they don't have issues in their business covered that need to be and at some level they want to be covered. Where they are exposed to risk by not having them covered and yet they go on and continue to put the things that expose them to risk in the "do later" pile and never get around to them. They have not bothered to get them done in the past, so it is a pretty safe bet that they will not get to them in the future either.

So what are some of the things that don't get done in small and medium business?

Things Not Done In Business

No written policies and procedures which are always up-to-date, complete and accessible easily
No real process for recruiting the right people
No induction process for new hires to help them hit the ground running
No real system to monitor and track performance and training
No business plan with an outline of priorities for this next period (and no 'in your head' doesn't count)
No training process to keep employees improving their skills
No marketing plan to incorporate their online marketing
No checks and monitoring of the business on the web

So what are the possible results that can happen to a business as a result?

What Happens When These Things In Business Aren't Done?

Some examples would be (and I'm sure you can think of more of your own)

Wasted time and energy by employees not following the set standards
Frustration for customers
Opportunities not taken
Sales lost
Crisis when a new person is needed to be hired
Wrong people hired who are a poor fit and don't have the right skills or attitude
Poor performance from employees
Lack of interest and initiative in the workplace
Employees stagnating and not developing
Vital issues in the business not dealt with
Resources (money) allocated to things that don't return value
Resources (money) not allocated to things that will return value
Value of the business reduced as a result of poor efficiencies
Value of the business reduced as a result of poor management
Opportunities to grow customer base restricted
Lack of sales that could be made without increasing fixed costs
No data to analyze to improve business output
Opportunities for business to grow are hidden and not able to be activated.

I don't know why a business owner would want that.

To come back to the compliance issues and we know that the regulations and requirements for business to be accountable for legal obligations is not going away. We can probably feel safe in assuming that the red tape is going to get worse rather than better, into the future.

"Too busy to get to it" is not a very good excuse when something goes wrong and the business owner has to show that they have done the right thing.

No good decisions come from a place of being "too busy". If you are "too busy" to get to these issues, then you can be confident that whatever other decisions you are making in your business are likely to be ill-considered.

There are few guarantees in life but here's one. Where the things that should be done are not and only the crises that you manage day-to-day get attention... any decisions made from this position, will be bad for your business.

How To Start Making Good Decisions

Take an objective look at your business.

Work out:

What are the areas that have been neglected and need work?
What do you need to do to fix this now?
Do you have the knowledge and resources to fix this?
Do you know where to find help for the things you don't know how to do?

If you'd like a worksheet to use to start reviewing your business send me an email with your story and I'll send you one.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering

Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook!

Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Nurture Your Customers - Why and How

2011-01-28T16:37:00.001+11:00

Many businesses seem to have missed the fact that their clients over the past are the key to promoting future growth and so they fail to pay due respect to this vital element of the business.

The importance of capturing good quality information on customers (and people who are not yet customers but have expressed an interest in the business) cannot be stressed too highly. These are people who have had experience with your business and in the case of customers, have already 'voted for you' with their money by spending it with you.

So what DO you do with a client list?

First thing you do is make sure you have a good amount of the right kind of information about them.

Capturing Data

Some (minimum) things you definitely want, if you can get it:

First and last name
Date of Birth or birthday (depending on your industry)
Postal address
Email address
Mobile phone number
Purchase history
What they bought
When they bought it
What they spent
Family status Single Married Children etc

What you do with the information once you have it will depend on the strategy you are going to adopt for your Client Nurturing Program. Yes, you have won these customers to your business and paid a lot of money in marketing and advertising for them to find you in the first place, so now you have them, make the most of it.

Your existing clients will always be a more economical source of new business than anything else you do to gain customers.

Many businesses throw money at new people who have never supported them, in the form of special offers, discounts and the like - and completely ignore their existing customers!

Your customers:

Buy more things in the future
Influence friends' purchases
Talk about the things they buy
Can recommend you
Appreciate being appreciated

What are you doing with your existing customers to nurture them and encourage them to come back and buy from you again? What are you doing to capture good responses from customers who are happy with you in the form of referrals and endorsements? Do you even know where to start to put a Nurturing Program in place?

This should be your priority to get this done.

If you don't know how, ask.
If you don't know who to ask, ask me.
If you think you know how to but you're not sure where to start, get the help you need.

Spending money on marketing without getting this in order is just pouring money down the drain.

How long have you been doing that?

Start using your head.

Your customers need to hear from you.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

It Didn't Work So Just Give Up?

2011-01-11T12:09:00.001+11:00

The start of a new year is a time for many to set resolutions and revisit the previous year and see what worked and what didn't. Sometimes we set resolutions without resolve and without a clear How-To to support them. These are unlikely to work and when they don't work we can easily internalise that as evidence that we "can't do" it "doesn't work" and this then sets as the belief "I can never do it". It may be a belief that you have had evidence of from many such experiences. But here's the thing.

"It didn't work" is really a short version "It didn't work this time, this way."

Think the message through fully. No short versions. Think it through and be specific on what didn't work. The short version cuts the context and removes important information we need to learn from the experience.

Because it didn't work this way, this time, could mean any number of things.

For example:

You didn't prepare adequately.
You need a different way to get to where you want to be.
You gave up too soon.
You didn't have the tools you needed to help you do it.
You didn't have the knowledge you needed to do it.
You didn't follow through on it
You didn't know how.
You didn't have a plan that allowed you to follow through to do it.
You allowed other things to be more important than doing it.
You didn't really want to do it.
Not doing it pays off in some other way.
You didn’t believe yourself when you said you were going to do it.
Your intention and your actions were not aligned.

Whatever the reason - and there may be a combination of these, or others, it isn't simply "It didn't work."

"It didn't work", is the start, not the finish.

Consider something you attempted to do that didn't work.
Revisit that thing that didn't work and review the reasons that may have been present in it not working and get to know what the blocks are that you need to overcome in order to do it.

This can be hard to do alone.
Seek help from someone if you need to.
That's a positive step that you can see as evidence that you are indeed ready to make positive improvement in your life.

And by the way. The start of the year is just like any other time.

Start Now.
Whenever that is.

Like to discuss your business? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Social Media No Use For Your Business? Think Again.

2010-12-01T13:04:00.001+11:00

Many business owners still think that they don't need to know about online tools to promote their business and protect their brand. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here's why.

It doesn't matter if you are online with your business, people can still talk about you, can still complain about you and what you are doing offline, and still rubbish you without you being online to see it happen. Understand, you can go online and add new revenue streams to your business, or you can stay with your face against the glass in your shop waiting for people to wander past and hope some of them find themselves inside your store. Hopefully to buy something you have for sale.

Either way, that's another issue and doesn't alter the fact that you can monitor your brand reputation online with or without a website. Whether or not you like to use the computer or social media. Whether or not you think that the internet is ruining lives and is not for you.

Here's a classic case that just came across my desk.

How Harvey Norman Avoids PR Disaster Using Social Media

The world is changing and if the market doesn't like what you're doing in your business, or in your marketing, you can forget the focus groups - they will let you know without thinking twice about it.

So what are you doing to monitor your brand online?

How will you get to know how to navigate this strange new environment?

Are you prepared to step-up and learn some new things or are you going to just plod along pretending things are like they were before the world got wired and the customers had a way to express their feelings about Everything?

Related Posts

How To Set Goals - And Reach Them
The Dirty Secrets Business Needs To Know About Social Media
Why You Need To Build Your Mailing List And How To Do It
How To Get Your Local Business Found Online

Thinking Of Getting A Business Coach? Lindy Asimus Design Business Engineering Get Help For Your Business Download your free 24 Page Action Plan Marketing Workbook! Subscribe to Actionbites Blog

Would You Rather A Fixed Price Or Pay By The Hour?

2010-11-04T16:14:00.000+11:00

Interesting post today on Twitter and published to my Daily (which I love by the way, and is a great way to catch up on fantastic content that I missed by my Twitter pals, and also to showcase their fine contributions to my Twitter Experience), was by copywriter Divine Write on his blog which relates why he chose to switch to hourly after 8 years’ fixed price. He makes a good case study and it is a topic that is one that has been on my mind for a little while now.

With the difficulties in the economy, it seems that everyone is trying to save money and cutting back on all kinds of things. Not always things that they can afford to cut out. Marketing and help in their business would be an example of where it might be more prudent to spend money to ensure the business develops, but sometimes people look for easy answers and 'a penny saved', or at least not spent, may look like a deal, when nothing else is factored into the equation.

Considerations

From the client point-of-view there is much benefit in a fixed price. It makes it easy to budget for the expense and it means that any time lagging and delay that happens which is your fault, isn't at your expense. This is a definite advantage for a client who is tardy with getting their work done and in a way, an incentive for the business provider working with them, to think about charging for time!

A fixed monthly sum when averaged out can compare quite favourably with wages of employees who are there all the time and are being paid, when they are being productive and when they are not.

For the freelancer or consultant working with a business, it can perhaps seem more attractive to potential clients for a pay-by-the-hour option. Is it really better from the client point-of-view? I suppose clients will have a variety of views and for some an hourly rate might be better some times and not so at other times, or with particular contractors they hire.

I'm not sure it can ever be a win-lose game to work out. There is no win, if you can't get the help you need to do the things you want to do in your business but don't have the skills in-house to do. And if they have wasted away in diminished circumstances because nobody wants to pay them then they can't help anyone. (NOTE: It is fascinating to me that while some are pinching every penny, they will happily put their hand-in-pocket if there is a rah-rah 'dog and pony show' with all the glitz and puffery and self-congratulatory hoopla; just to be gouged and left wounded by the affair. But that is perhaps a topic for another day... )

So perhaps I should put it out to you the readers.

Would you rather pay by the hour, or pay on a fixed price?

Would you be more inclined to start work with a someone if you can do it at an hourly rate?

Please share your thoughts and reasoning in the comments section below.

Would You Like Me To Work With You?

Lindy Asimus

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit

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Actionbites Blog How To Step-Up In Your Business.

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How To Step-Up In Your Business.

2010-11-03T16:36:00.000+11:00

Performance is something we can judge in others and conveniently miss when it comes to our own.Often the topics of business issues come up and there is a rash of activity and articles posted online and in books about marketing and ways to move things around in business. Working with business owners on many of these issues, it is clear that they all tend to resolve back to the same issue.

It all comes back to the actions, skills and attitude of the business owner.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we can end up in business without preparation and training in the particular skills that will enable us to perform excellently in our new role as CEO of our business. Sometimes we just start doing what we love and before we know it, our doing-what-we-love activity has become a real life business and suddenly we’re faced with employees, compliance issues, customers to serve, and a need to keep the rent paid and feed all the mouths that are depending on us. Meanwhile the world has changed, and the way that we always knew how to do what we do, have changed too.

Now we have to contend with competition from big operators with vast budgets for marketing and advertising and a willingness to sell under our cost of goods, just to squeeze out the local operators. We have a changing marketplace where customers expect access 24/7 to our business and will spend their money elsewhere if we don’t make provision for them in a way that suits them best. Higher expectations and access to an internet full of alternatives makes it important that we keep up with the new changes, but often we can be so busy just ‘putting out fires’ that we don’t even notice how much is changed – or that those changes can also bring us opportunity, along with threats to the status quo.

So how do we grow into the role that our business needs us to assume?

How do we move from the harried business owner, to the calm, in control CEO who runs the business as a business, and maintains a standard of service and product that can compete in this new environment?

Here are some areas to focus on that can help you be that person.

Review Your Current Position

Think about it ... What commitment you are going to make to yourself and the contract you’re willing to enter with YOU to perform at the level the CEO of any business, should deliver. Commit to deliver for your business. Write it out and sign off on it. Get it witnessed!

Get Help: See What’s Hiding In Your Blind-spot

You know the signs on the trucks when you’re driving “if you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you”. The same is true in business, and while we are looking the issues that are right in front of us, we are in danger of not seeing those things that might be causing some of our problems, or those things that can blindside us and wipe us out fast, or just cause a slow and miserable death. What is in that blind-spot can be leading to money bleeding from the business, preventing money coming into the business, or creating an environment that is stressful and bad for business and everyone in the business, and customers who would willingly spend money ‘if only’.

You get a different perspective when you can share what you see, with someone who can see the same thing from an outside perspective. This value of this can be immeasurable. Make sure what you think you are seeing is really what’s there and get an external viewpoint from someone who can not only see, but understand how to analyse what they are seeing.

Consider Your Business Vision

Nobody can build anything well, if they don’t know what it is supposed to look like. Try putting that furniture together if you don’t know what goes where. It is too hard! And it doesn’t need to be. Pick what YOU want your business to be like.

Understand if the business doesn’t look like you thought it would – or would like it to – then it is up to you to recalibrate, retool if necessary, and revamp to create the vision that you DO want.

And you need people to help you, so you need to engage your employees, and others who will help you achieve bring your vision to life, so they know what it is, and you all know when you have arrived and can keep it flourishing.

Create A Blueprint

Just as you need to know what something should look like, before you can build it, you need some guidelines to make sure that you put it together the way that can get you to the final result for which you are aiming. Your blueprint is your working document to show you what, how and where everything goes and when it will be done.

Follow Through

This is blueprint is worthless unless you make the commitment to yourself and to the project to do what you say you will do those actions that need to happen in order for it to be done now. If you don’t know HOW to do it, or to do some part of it, then that’s okay. Just find out! Yes you can find out anything you need to know, and you can find it inside the business, or you can find it outside the business if you don’t have what you need to do it. Finding the help you need, well that’s part of your commitment. No excuses.

Make Yourself Accountable To Someone

One of the great things in business is that we often get to make the decisions. One of the terrible things in business is we often get to make the decisions, and not be accountable for the results. That’s bad for the business and while it sometimes feels like a good thing... it is bad for us too.

This is where ‘the rubber hits the road’ and this is where we find out if you are really Stepping Up in your business. It can be scary, here on what can seem like the ‘bleeding edge’ but is just doing what we should be doing from the outset.

Push through that barrier, and you’ll find your better self on the other side.

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit

Australia's Marketing Mentor

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Actionbites Blog How To Set Goals You Can Reach

How To Get Your Business Found Online.

2010-11-03T16:28:00.006+11:00

Business owners are often sitting ducks when it comes to the amount of no information, misinformation and sometimes outright lies they are told about getting their business found online.

They pay people to help them with their websites and are given as evidence of their 'success' that they can find their website when they look for it by name! This is deceptive and very dismal practice.

Other lies that are told to business owners is that they have to pay to advertise their business online and while they are having the money prised from their hand, they are told nothing about the benefit of organic (which they don't have to pay for) search.

In other cases people are sold websites with no contact details, flash sites that appear to Google as basically a blank space, and yet others that look very fancy, but have no chance of being found online, with pictures that take an age to download, poor coding with no descriptions, no content that relates to the key topic and no chance of being useful. Sometimes even with typos.

So what is a business owner to do? How do they tell the shysters from the people who actually have the skills and the intention to provide a site at a reasonable cost that can be managed easily and kept up-to-date?

Like anything else, it is important to know what you need to know to purchase well. This is a good habit to form, since it means that you can hire good help for whatever you might be looking for, as well as understand what is important to YOUR customers when it comes to looking at your offers.

For your website, the key is getting the information you want people to know about you, on the site from the outset.

For local businesses, looking to service the local market, then keep these things in mind:

Website Checklist

Your phone number clearly visible in a prominent position. Don't make them have to look for it!
Location - with map is a good idea if you have a store or premises where customers visit.
What You Do - amazing how often I see websites where I have to hunt to find out what business they are in.
Locations you service (if you go to customers)
How to order online (or by phone) if people out of area want to buy from you
Contact email. Forms are okay but many people like to know what your email address is so they know you are a real person not some scam artist.
Contact links to your other social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook - if you use these! Don't put them on there if your only tweet is from 18 months ago. More on social media and local business here
Link to your blog. And yes, you should have a blog and it should be posted to regularly
Description of your business in the code for your site.

Good links to your site from other sites is important, so look for opportunities to get links from authoritative sites. That will help you get found online. Check out the free directories that you can submit a link for local traffic.

There are many free products that can get you found online - even when you don't have a website. Expect to pay for quality information from your advisors.

Before all this though, think about your strategy for your website and your presence online. Think about how it fits within your overall strategy for growing your business.

What purpose do you want it to serve?
How will you resource it?
How will you measure how well it is working?
How will you integrate what you are doing online with your offline marketing?
How will you monitor the statistics on your traffic and interpret them?

Planning is imperative for a good web experience. Even if your website is doing well, it can do better.

Like anything else in your business, you need to know the right questions to ask, and the way to oversee your results and review, review, review. Tweaking can be a simple thing that brings great results. Get your website analyzed and really know what situation you are in right now, so you can take steps to always be improving.

And make sure that you have a way for me to buy something from your website if I visit!

This by no means a comprehensive list but if you start with the basics right, your website will have a much better chance to provide you with good results.

Contact me if you'd like more information.

Related Posts

How To Set Goals - And Reach Them

The Dirty Secrets Business Needs To Know About Social Media

Why You Need To Build Your Mailing List And How To Do It

How To Get Your Local Business Found Online

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit

Contact Me
Actionbites Blog William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle

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William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle

2010-10-13T23:25:00.000+11:00

How To Set Goals You Can Reach

2010-08-30T19:07:00.001+10:00

Setting goals is a common topic especially around each New Year but of course the best time to set goals and start making them happen is NOW.

Start With A Process

Have a process that will let you take the steps to help you achieve what you want. It seems odd but sometimes people set goals that they don’t want – because it will mean they have to give up something they won’t give up. And sometimes people set goals they achieve, without understanding that in getting that goal – they have put something else in jeopardy that they didn’t intend.

Ecology Is Important.

Ecology isn’t just about conditions in the environment. Our personal ecology - internally and how that creates action in our external environment – is important to remember. Be very clear and remember, just as you learned in high school science class – actions have equal and opposite reactions. For example ... You get in control of your weight – that might not please an insecure partner who shows love by giving you food.

Congruency

Your alignment between your stated ambitions and your personal actions need to be aligned. When you are congruent in your thoughts and actions, you are on target to achieve your ambitions.
Get Your Unconscious Mind On The Job Too!

Congruency needs help from the less-than-conscious mind too. It is the You which breathes for you and goes on doing all the things on autopilot so you don’t have to worry about them happening on time. Help train your unconscious mind to track opportunities and keep you on target by telling it exactly what you want in line with your goals and a great way to do that is to write your goals and creating a mind map or visual representation too is an even bigger help.

Put Your Goals Into Your Future

Take yourself forward to a time when you have achieved your goals. Picture what is happening in your life now that you have achieved them. What do you see, what do you feel, what has changed in your life now? What other things are you able to achieve beyond this now you have arrived here? Bring it to life in your imagination and feel it and see it and deepen the image and the feeling and you will know ‘when you get there’, and reach it next time for real.

Get Accustomed To Delaying Gratification

If you want to lose 50 pounds and you want to eat that chocolate bar, then you have a choice. Which impulse is going to win? The one you want or the one that you don’t bother to shutdown and choose and just let “happen”? You may not know it, but you choose either way. If you choose the one you “don’t want” then guess what. You’re kidding yourself. Make up your mind. If you want to pile on more weight (or whatever self sabotaging behaviour you pick) you are entitled to do so. Just own it, and don’t be pleading for sympathy while you sabotage yourself. That short-term gratification is killing your chances of a gratifying life. But hey, it’s your choice. Going without can seem like a punishment. Here’s news. Submitting to every impulse to feel good for the moment is the real punishment. You are what you ate. You are right now, living in the sum total of all the decisions you’ve ever made. If you would like something different for your life then your actions have to be different.

Give Yourself Some Treats

Mark your progress with some treats to show for your good habits. Make a list of things you have not done that you’d like to do and make them a part of your routine as a reward. Maybe a hike somewhere that you like or a drive to somewhere you don’t often get to for a weekend away.

Plan Goals For All Parts Of Your Life

Setting goals for only part of life can leave us neglecting other areas that need to be in balance too. We can sometimes focus on just one thing, while we fail to see that other elements in our life are leaving us hungry for something we haven’t considered.

Think about making goals for all these areas:

Health
Relationships
Career or Business
Education
Financial Wellbeing
Spiritual
Contribution

Self Care

What would you like more of in these areas? What would you like less of? What actions might you be taking in all these areas that you’ve not spent time on thinking about, but would enrich your relationships and your life in general, both now, and in the medium and longer term.

Summing Up

Remember ... we are all a work in progress.
That’s a good thing. It means that we hold the key to the future that is most in line with what we’d really prefer. Knowing ourselves well, helps us know what that is.

If you have some thoughts you'd like to share please add your comment.

And if you'd like a copy of the worksheet to go with this post go here

Time Management Guide

2010-08-30T12:46:00.000+10:00

Time management comes up again and again as a topic of interest
for people in business. Here's a short how-to to help you improve your
time management habits

Set Priorities

One of the biggest drains on time can be the trap of spending time on
things that don't have to be done - by us.

Think about the tasks that you have to do.
Draw up a list and look at them objectively.

-------------------------------------------
Separate into blocks:

Things that have to be done

Some things need to be done in business. By someone. If they are things
that need to be done AND they are things that could be done by anyone,
then the question that must be asked, then it begs the question - is
this something that could be done by someone else, at a lower $per hour
rate than your work, or by someone with better skills to do that task.
It is pointless if your earning rate is over $100 an hour, to be doing
work that could be done (and possibly more effectively) by someone whose
pay rate is $20 an hour.

Are you getting involved in tasks that you should be delegating?

If you probably should but don't have anyone to whom you can delegate this,
then it might be time to consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant (like a
personal assistant that you hire outside the business for odd pieces of work
when you don't have an employee in house who can do it. You only pay for the
actual hours they work on your behalf.) This might only need a few hours a week
but could help clear your desk of work you've been putting off - or not doing
at all! (You can contact Lindy Asimus for more information if you are interested
in finding a virtual assistant).

Things that have to be done by you

If you have been brutally honest, you'll probably have cleared some things out of
your list so now you're down to the core of things that only you can do. When you
sort your list and clarify those things that only you can do - then prioritise them.

Work out what you need to be able to get these done.

Do you have everything you need to do these tasks?

What other resources do you need to finalise these tasks?

If you need something to happen before the tasks can be finalised, arrange for
someone to do that, or do it yourself (if only you can do it) and get it that
one step closer to being finished.

Things that are good to be done

Ask yourself:

What would happen if you did them?

What would happen if you didn't do them?

In light of that, are they really necessary?

Can they be delegated to someone? If so do that.

If they are really worth doing, then add them to
the other lists - Things that have to be done and
Things that have to be done by you.

The rest - Delegate Or Delete

If they don't belong on these two prime lists, or the Delegate list,
then perhaps they don't need to be done at all and can be removed.

Part of the art of spending your time well, is
to very clearly understand the value of your time.

Set clear priorities

Be clear on how you spend your time and learn to say
"No" to things that are not your priority, or that don't reflect
the value of your time.

Get organized

Write everything down that needs to be done - and deal with it as above.

Block out your diary times

Going to the gym? Good, block it out in your diary before the week begins.
Know at a glance, when you are available, and when you are not,
according to your priorities.

Make meetings work for you

Every meeting should have an agenda and an outcome you want to achieve
from the meeting. Do you really need a meeting, or could you accomplish
the same thing over the phone or by sending an email? Meetings are a
time sink and if you must be at one, make sure you get something of value
out of that meeting, commensurate with the cost incurred in holding it.

Many times we attend meetings that never reach a conclusion, or have
actions that are never followed up on or reported about.

Look at your previous meetings and assess the return on your investment
for attending them.

Did anything worthwhile come from them?

Ask: Is there a better way to get to the result?

If a meeting is the answer, then before the meeting, write down the result
you want from it and make sure it achieves the outcomes you want.

Thinking Of Getting A Business

Lindy Asimus
Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit
Australia's Marketing Mentor

Contact Me

Actionbites Blog Purpose Then Strategy

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Purpose Then Strategy

2010-08-14T17:04:00.002+10:00

We're in the final days of an election campaign and this has brought about a lot of opinions on whether we 'need' or 'don't need' items around infrastructure and specifically a reliable National Broadband Network. It mirrors opinions around other issues such as whether businesses ‘need’ to be online and using marketing online as a part of their business strategy. Frankly someone using wireless broadband in their house successfully, doesn't mean that it is appropriate for sustaining a national rollout for the next generation. But you have to know something about the topic, in order to understand that these are different contexts, and that different solutions may be the appropriate choice for the issues at hand.

The same is true in business.

Here’s the thing. If a country needs a high speed internet service, or a business needs an overall online marketing presence on the web, then the right way to do it is something that can only be judged after review of the information available, based on merit . If the business has an online presence – or not – determining the right course of action, needs to be done in an environment where all the issues are laid out and examined, as part of that decision making process. No matter whether that decision is: Yes to proceeding, or No.
Understanding the background issues and the facets that will have an impact on what comes after the decision, is fundamental to getting great outcomes.

Example Case: Your Company Starting A Website

Take as an example, a company starting a website. The website needs to fulfil your expectations of what you want it to deliver.So it should follow the form that will allow it to successfully do the thing for which it was designed.

If the purpose of the exercise is to create an additional sales channel for the business, then it is going to need elements that satisfy different desires. It needs to satisfy the end user, the owner and the web developer, to the degree that they can produce a website with the functionality to do, that for which it has been produced.

Lets look at this as a project for a website for a business owner.
Just suppose...

The Company wants:

• To make sales through a new sales channel
• To generate prospects for ongoing sales
• Enhance reputation and positioning
• Ownership and functionality of the site so that changes can be made in-house, easily as needed.

This requires:

• The business to be found by search engines on the first page
• Promotion to attract the right kind of traffic to find it
• A means of capturing visitors who will be interested in receiving future offers and information
• Technical capacity to allow for the smooth transaction of sales
• An ongoing budget with funds to drive the marketing and promotions through this new sales channel
• Functionality that allows the owner of the site to manage the content in-house.

Customers - People searching for it want:

• To find what they are looking for
• Good information to inform them about the products
• To be able to buy what they are looking for easily
• To be able to find out how to get what they want from you
• How to contact you if they wish to
• How to resolve a problem if they have one
• Ease of fulfilment of their purchase
• To feel that you appreciate them choosing to purchase from you

This requires:

• Content that is relevant and of interest to those who would search for it
• A pleasing look and good navigation so people are encouraged to stay and look around
• Simple to find the thing the person is seeking
• A way to buy that is easy to find and easy to complete the sale
• Good system for delivery and problem solving if it becomes necessary
• Client nurturing systems to let customers know you value them and want them to come back
• Delivery systems that are simple and do what they promise

To Get This, Requires:

• Clear instructions to your web developer on what you want to achieve and what you don’t want.
• The web developer to be honest about their capacity to deliver as promised
• A process for delivery as scheduled on time and on budget
• Documentation to you showing how the website will deliver as promised
• Open communication at all stages
• Keeping to the scope of the project as you originally stated it
• Any variations to be documented to show how this will affect budget and delivery dates
• Evidence before commencing, that the developer has completed a project of similar complexity to this kind of project, on time and on budget (especially important if a complex site and not a simple ‘out of the box’ solution
• In many cases, ‘Out of the box’ solution may well be preferable over anything needing to be coded ‘from scratch’! (“There be Beasties here”)
• That there is a backup plan in case the developer is unable to finish as promised. “What If?” Are there others in the organisation capable of delivery of the project?
• Support after launch of the site to ensure that the website continues to function as per the original purpose and to tweak as required.

In this way, the project can progress, and deliver results in line with the objective.

What about SEO?

Note that these issues will take some time to be fleshed out. Each project will have a set of conditions that may be unique to that business and the objectives, but by working through a process to pinpoint the objectives and the overall purpose, there is a chance that the project can actually be set up to do that thing that it was intended to do, and have the functionality it needs for that to happen, and the pieces in place to allow the business and the customers to be happy with the result.

Now if we could just get the voters to look at the issue of a strong reliable fast national broadband network, with the same approach, we might have something!

Lindy Asimus Business Coach & Social Media Development Design Business Engineering
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