Davinci Virtual

A common question that I receive from small business owners is “how can I market my business the most the effectively?” The answer to that question, is that unfortunately there is no standard answer.  Instead, you must learn what will work for your business & industry, and what your target audience responds to.  Although there is not set formula, here are a few tips to help you along your journey.

• Know your audience.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but you will be surprised home many of my clients think they know their customers, only to find out they were wrong.  Knowing your audience means more than knowing what target demographic you are going after.  It means understanding who your market is, how they work, why they purchase, etc. 

• Don’t underestimate the power of the barter.  Partnering with the small business bureau in your area could open up a whole range of opportunities for your business, including a barter system, where you exchange services with other members of the organization.  This is a great way to spread the word about your business.

• Don’t be afraid to try some unusual marketing techniques.  Trying to understand what marketing techniques will work for your business means that you should be open to new methods.  Don’t be afraid of expanding your business to the web, or turning to social media.  It’s using unconventional techniques that  will get you noticed by consumers.

As you begin to incorporate these tips into your strategy, think about some other lessons you have learned, and tell me what worked (or didn’t work) for you!

With the economy in turmoil, and an increasing number of corporations cutting back, the unemployment rate keeps on rising.  Do you have a plan in place should the cutbacks affect you?  The reality is, one of people’s biggest problems today, is that they are saving less and less, leaving many vulnerable and economically unprepared.

The first step in becoming economically sound, is to start saving today.  If you do not have a minimum of three month’s living expenses stocked away into savings account, this is where you need to begin.  There are many different ways to start to save, here are a few tips to help you begin:

1.) Every month, separate your income into three categories: Expenses, Paying off debt, and Savings.  Once your expenses are paid, spend 40% of the remaining income on paying off your credit cards and other debt, and place the remaining 60% in to a savings account.

2.) Once your credit cards are payed down, stop using them!  Pay with cash, check or debit card to keep the interest monster at bay.

3.) Save money while you are with your friends by changing that night out on the town, to a fun night in, where everyone brings something to share.

4.) Have your paycheck automatically pull out a percentage for your 401k.

5.) When making large purchases, research the options thoroughly to seek out the best price.

6.) Get out there and network!  Building your own network has obvious career benefits, so don’t let opportunity pass you by, get your name out there.

Hopefully these tips will help you to start to save your way to a successful future.

Last week I wrote about leadership book by David Cottrell, called “Monday Morning Mentoring,” a guide to developing leadership skills, and effectively managing teams/groups. I imparted several key leadership learnings in that blog post, with the promise to finish up the lesson this week, and reveal with the “real” secret to leadership truly is.  Today, along with the big secret, I want to share with you one more leadership lessons from Tony.

Lesson 3: “Tough Learning”

In this lesson, Jeff comes to Tony with some unsettling news.  The annual corporate surveys were distributed for his company last week, and the feedback he received from his team members was less than stellar - and even more importantly - came as a total surprise to Jeff.  After speaking with Tony for several hours, Jeff learned that along with the feedback holding some room for improvement with Jeff, there were also a lot of great points that showed Jeff’s strengths, that Jeff had overlooked because he was so upset about the negative points.  Tony showed Jeff that he had to look at feedback as an opportunity to learn and grow, and that getting defensive and not accepting what others felt about him only made the situation worse.  In the end, Jeff needed to understand that criticism should be used as a learning tool to better one’s self and their team.

The Big Secret

Along with the three I have shared with you, there are many more important lessons in Cottrell’s book that  should definitely be read and understood in order to grow into an effective leader.  At the end of the book, Tony finally imparts the secret of leadership to Jeff (actually there are two secrets).  1.) Until you learn to accept total responsibility, no matter what, you will not be able to set up a plan to achieve your goals.  2.) Success is the result of making better choices and recovering quickly from poor choices.

All in all - the key here is responsibility.  Take responsibility for your actions (good or bad) and when a bad decision occurs, take a deep breath, and then develop an action plan.  Don’t play the blame game, or pass along the mess to someone else.  It is only through experience (both positive & negative experiences) can you become a successful leader.  The process worked for Jeff…and when I implemented the lessons in the book, it worked for me as well.  Hopefully these little tidbits of information can help you!

I read a book recently by David Cottrell, called Monday Morning Leadership, an informal business guide to developing leadership skills, and effectively managing teams/groups.  In the book, Cottrell introduces the reader to Jeff, a successful middle manager for a lareg corporation, who has hit a major wall in his career. Until recently, Jeff has been leading his team to sucess, and has show increased sales, quarter after quarter, for several years…Until now.  The tricks that Jeff used in the past to motivate his team and produce results no longer seem to be effective, and Jeff is overworked, overstressed, and understands that his professional and persoanl lives are at risk.

To help gain some insight into his situation, Jeff reaches out to Tony, an extremely accomplished executive, and old friend of his father’s, for advice.  Tony agrees to meet with Jeff every Monday morning for ten weeks to help him turn his situation around and get his career back on track.  During the course of these sessions, Tony imparts to Jeff the “real” secrets of leadership, through tough lessons and self-discovery.

Here are a few of the key lessons that Tony taught Jeff.  I will share more in one of my next posts, along with Tony’s “real” secret to leadership.

Lesson 1: “Getting Past Splat”

The primary message behind this lesson is understanding that as a business person, you are going to make mistakes.  Some will be small, some will be career-altering.  The key, is understanding that you can’t go back, once a decision is made (splat), you can only go forward, so take a deep breath, and devlop an action plan to “get past splat.”

Lesson 2: “Escape from Management Land”

This lesson is meant to make managers remember that there is no escape from the everyday problems that comes with being a manager.  Along with sales responsibilities, Jeff was also responsible for managing his team, hiring, firing, performance reviews, etc, and these responsibilities were dragging down the rest of his performance.  What Jeff learned from this lesson, however, was that in order to be successful, a manager must hire good people, coach everyone, and de-hire the people who are not covering their share of the load.  Jeff’s job was not to lower the bottom by adjusting and accomodating what Tony called “falling stars,” as he was doing in the past.  Instead, Jeff needed to be raising the top by recognizing and rewarding his “shining stars,” which in the end would motivate everyone on the team to excel.

Hopefully these learning lessons will help you on your journey to become a better leader.  Stay tuned for next week, when I impart some more key leadership lessons, and tell you what the “real” secret to leadership is!

Building business in challenging economic times is absolutely possible. The critical issue is a willingness to evaluate your products and services with absolute objectivity and a new knowledge of the marketplace.

Let’s start with evaluating your products and services. If you have been in your current position, or are the owner of your own company, it can be easy to slip into status quo mode. Making the same products and providing the same services is part of how a company maintains stability and focus on their mission. But difficult times require creative, out of the box thinking.

Now is a great time to reach out to your customers for product development and improvement ideas. Look for low hanging fruit, ideas that could be implemented with little effort for great results. Also, keep an eye open for patterns, which might indicate market changes or trends. While you’re asking for their feedback, take the time to let them know how valuable they are to your business.

Next, scan the marketplace, take a look at competitors and new, successful businesses. What direction are they taking? Evaluate their ideas and compare them to your customers’ suggestions. Create a list of minor and major changes that your company could make in response to market shifts. Gather your staff or supporters around for a brainstorming session and see what arises. Be open to new information and ideas.

Take the results of your market research and brainstorming and evaluate it with a critical eye. Be flexible and responsive in order to create opportunities for company growth. Think twice before making large changes with high risk. If, after thorough research and planning, that kind of change makes sense, embrace it and move forward. The key to your success is in flexible thinking and nimble responses…now is the time for objectivity and excellent market analysis.

Part II of this series will explore building your customer base in niche markets.

In the technology driven world we live, and work, in, it is easy to get swept up with the tide, and rely on modern technologies for interpersonal communication between colleagues.  Email, social networking sites, instant messaging, and SMS (text) messages, now rule business communications, due to their efficiency and availability of use.  You can now communicate with anyone, anywhere, as long as you have a strong phone or internet signal.  Unfortunately, one of the downsides to this technological revolution, is the decrease in 1 to 1, personal communication.

Gone are the days of walking two offices down to ask about last week’s report.  Now, businessmen and women are sending an instant message on their computers, or shooting off a quick email, and as a result, missing out of that 30 seconds of relationship building that occurs during a personal conversation.

Now don’t get me wrong, utilizing updated technologies to improve inter-office efficiency is a great tool for businesses, but the key is remembering that on the other end of that email or SMS message there is another person, who is communicating back to you.  Here are some tips for optimizing technologies for communication, while not forgetting about building the personal relationships one needs in the business environment.

Use proper email etiquette. By using email (and other messaging technologies) properly, you can convey a professional image for both yourself and your company.  Keep your emails concise and professional; avoid the usage of phrases like “lol” or  “TTYL,” as well as though fun little emoticons…  ☺

Send emails or technological messages when you need to track responses or provide a data trail for future use, but use your legs when you can. One of the best (and worst) things about communicating via technology is the ability to track and store messages & responses.  Use these new technologies when you think you need to keep a virtual paper trail, but if no trail is needed, pick up a phone or walk down the hallway to communicate.

Ask how your colleagues & business partners how they would like to be communicated with.  I had an old manager who loved to be updated via text message, but wouldn’t read emails fro days at a time.  Until I had a conversation with him on how he preferred to be communicated to, I was sending him emails that ended up lost in his inbox.

Hopefully these tips will help you manage the balance of technology and interpersonal communication for your business.  Do you have other tips to share?  I would love to hear them.

As sales begin to pick up in the new year, do you want to be stuck with your phone ringing off the hook, and no formal answering service helping?  I know I don’t!  I am hiring a virtual receptionist to help catch all of the overflow calls, help me with prospecting, and make my shadow look a little bigger than it really is.

A virtual receptionist can make a good impression for your business at a fraction of the cost of hiring, training and employing a live receptionist at your office.  When clients call there will be a “real” person on the other end of the phone, instead of an automated machine, giving customers, partners and potential clients the impression of a well run office.

When comparing options for virtual receptionists, make sure you are getting the best deal possible.  Some of the benefits that you shouldn’t do without include the following key benefits:

• Hold music – If your client must be placed on hold they listen to melodious hold music – not dead air.
• Multiple Line Phone Systems – A live receptionist helps you avoid missing calls or forwarding callers to voicemail. Your virtual receptionist only answers the phone for you and up to four other businesses.
• Calendar/Appointment Scheduling – our virtual receptionists can help you get organized and stay organized as a point of contact for your meetings and appointments.
• Order Processing and Customer Service – your customer may have found you through your website, but they want to talk to a real live receptionist before ordering.
• Live Outbound and Sales Calling – we can actively partner with you to grow your business, find new clients, and remind clients of appointments.
• Voicemail and Voicemail to Email – You can get your voicemail via email or on your phone, whichever you prefer.
• Fax to Email and Professional Email Address – get your faxes in your inbox and never worry about having a fax machine again.

Anything less that those options above would be below quality service, and not worth your money.

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Marketers must understand that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent, and when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and potentially national news. Yesterday I told you about how to effectively listen to your audience.  Read on to learn how to properly respond.

Talking Back
Once you have set up an effective monitoring plan, and you have listened to what the community is saying, it is time to talk back.  Here are some guidelines for communicating with online users about your brand.

• Respond quickly to criticism.  If you don’t respond quickly to criticism, you can lose control of the conversation.
• Admit your mistakes. Why is this so difficult for brands? When you mess up, the only—and I mean ONLY—acceptable response is to take full ownership, explain what went wrong, and share your action plan for fixing the mistake.
• Empower your employees to become problem solvers. As a customer, there is nothing worse than having a full-on collision with bureaucracy. We’ve all been there. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ll have to check with my supervisor.” Or worse, “I’d like to help, but we have a policy against that.” Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller, “The 4-Hour Workweek”, tells his employees and contractors, “Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 to fix, use your judgment and fix the problem yourself. This is official written permission and a request to fix all problems that cost under $100 without contacting me (p. 105).”
• Exceed your customers’ expectations. Every customer problem is an opportunity to create a new amazing experience. But it’s not enough to meet their expectations, you have to exceed them. Anything less is merely restitution.

Conclusions
Understanding brand monitoring and its impact on your business is critical. Static websites are no longer the pinnacle of communication, as today’s consumer seeks engagement and two-way conversations.  As consumers are increasingly empowered to take control of brands online through user generated content, blogs, forums etc, marketers must adopt new ways of approaching brand management and marketing their products/services.

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Marketers must understand that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent, and when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and potentially national news.

Why is this Happening?
Until recently, information was dispersed and controlled by mass media networks of television, radio and print, where large corporations could control the mass media with the right combination of public relations and marketing.

Now, however, the Internet has fundamentally transformed the way in which information is created, distributed and consumed. In additional to marketers losing much of their control of bramd image, they are also facing a larger variety of marketing channels than ever before.

The modern consumer has developed greater immunity to the constant barrage of advertising messages.  Increasingly, consumers are turning to online communities, consumer writers and fringe media as trusted sources of input on everything from what to buy to how to vote.

What Can You Do?
Developing a brand monitoring plan should be one of the most important pieces of a company’s marketing strategy, not an after thought. All too often I have seen companies fail because they have not listened to the buzz in the community.

All successful brand monitoring plans have two critical pieces: Listening & Responding.

Listening
Listenting is the gathering of online information about your brand.  It is simply put, listenting to what is being said about your products/services/brand online.

Once you have sucesssfully listened to what is being said in the market, you can begin to respond.  Check in tomorrow for part two of this post, and to learn tips for responding to all the chatter.

With the economy in turmoil, and an increasing number of corporations cutting back, the unemployment rate keeps on rising.  Do you have a plan in place should the cutbacks affect you?  The reality is, one of people’s biggest problems today, is that they are saving less and less, leaving many vulnerable and economically unprepared.

The first step in becoming economically sound, is to start saving NOW.  If you do not have a minimum of three month’s living expenses stocked away into savings account, this is where you need to begin.  There are many different ways to start to save, here are a few tips to help you begin:

1.) Every month, separate your income into three categories: Expenses, Paying off debt, and Savings.  Once your expenses are paid, spend 40% of the remaining income on paying off your credit cards and other debt, and place the remaining 60% in to a savings account.

2.) Once your credit cards are payed down, stop using them!  Pay with cash, check or debit card to keep the interest monster at bay.

3.) Save money while you are with your friends by changing that night out on the town, to a fun night in, where everyone brings something to share.

4.) Have your paycheck automatically pull out a percentage for your 401k.

5.) When making large purchases, research the options thoroughly to seek out the best price.

6.) Get out there and network!  Building your own network has obvious career benefits, so don’t let opportunity pass you by, get your name out there.

Hopefully these tips will help you to start to save your way to a successful future.