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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!

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!

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.

Type your name into Google and see what happens.  If you have multiple forms of informative content about you appearing in the top ten, congratulations, you are pretty well branded.  If your results are slim, however, you have some work to do to increase the power of your name.  Large corporations understand the power of a name, but now, we are in an “Age of the Individual,” where your name is your brand, and the power of your brand determines your success.

There are many great ways to increase your individual brand power, and here are a few tips to get you started.

• Start a blog.  Become a thought leader in your industry, by starting a blog and writing about relevant new technologies, or business techniques.  The key to this method, is understanding what your audience (or potential audience) wants to read and learn about.  Tip: Don’t be afraid to get a little controversial.
• Join a Social Networking website, and use your name as your login.  My LinkedIn profile is www.linkedin.com/in/laurencandito, and as a result, when I google my name, my LinkedIn profile is the first result on the page.  What is better that having your personal resume networking page at the top of the search results, pushing people to your expertise?
• Get your name out there.  Post to forums, comment on other people’s blogs, spark conversations with colleagues across the Internet.  Keep your commentary intelligent and meaningful, and push users back to your personal websites (i.e. blog, social networking sites, etc).  Always remember, communication is critical.  The key to developing a personal brand is engagement.  You must spark conversations with other people to be successful.

By following these tips, you can successfully develop your own personal brand and differentiate yourself from your competitors.  In today’s global society, your name is everything, manage it well and you will find success.  Get lost in the shuffle, and you may end up struggling to keep your head above water.

Effective time management is critical for managing individual projects, and even your day, but you would be surprised how many of my clients struggle with this seemingly mundane task.  Time management is much more than managing your time in the day.  Instead, time management is actually activity management; it helps set priorities and make your day run much more efficiently. 

When my clients come to me with this problem, there are several techniques I show them to help improve their time management skills. 

• Develop a list of all of the tasks that need to be completed today.  Once the list is complete, place an “A” “B” or “C” next to each task.  These letters represent the importance of each task, with “A” being the most important/critical tasks, and “C” being the least critical tasks.
• Prioritize based on key delivery dates, the importance of the work, and who it is being delivered to, not by how much you want to work on a task.  For example, that budget that you need to deliver to your boss by tomorrow, but really don’t enjoy working on should be an “A” task, not a “C” task.
• Next, allocate a specific amount of time for each task, and stick to that time.  Be conscious about the amount of time you are spending on your tasks, keep in mind the rest of your list, and the amount of time you have left in the day.
• Begin to work on the “A” (urgent/critical) tasks first.  Then move down the list to the “B” & “C” tasks. 
• Keep your list flexible, there will always be random or emergency tasks that appear during the day, and you have to be able to shift your priorities to accommodate them. 

Hopefully these techniques can help you manage your time a little more efficiently.  Have patience, these techniques are meant to help you get into a time management groove, but in the end, the effort you put into the application of these methods will dictate the amount of return you will receive.

Choosing a virtual office partner can be tricky, there is a plethora of companies to choose from, and each company has different options for their clients. There is a lot to be said about choosing a virtual office that isn’t right for you and this could cause a lot of stress and undue problems. So with all of the different options, how do you know which company to choose?  Here are some tips in finding the right fit.

First, find companies that offer virtual offices in your area, and see if you can set up a tour.  It is critical that you understand what you will be getting, in terms of quality and appearance. The key to choosing the right virtual office is ease of operations and a smooth flow of daily activities.  Make sure you see everything running smoothly.

Next, determine whether you would like to use an automated system, or whether you would like to have “real” people answering your phones and working your office.  Personally, I think that automated systems are cold and impersonal, and could really hurt your branding in the long run if customers begin to feel this way as well.

Once you have determined what type of company you would like to work with, make sure that the company will let you choose the type of secretary or call assistant that suits you. Just like hiring an employee, hiring a virtual partner that matches your needs is critical.

Next, look at the services the company provides. Things like a centralised fax number, providing a physical mailing address as well as other services like being able to acquire ‘virtual meeting’ software as well as the option to rent a physical boardroom for those all important meetings and presentations that demand the physical presence can really clinch the deal.
Lastly, analyze the cost per partner, and compare services to find the most cost appropriate client.  I am not stating that the cheapest company is the best option, but make sure you will be getting your money’s worth.

One of the most important lessons a small business owner has to learn, is when it is time to “fire” a client/customer.  Firing a problematic client can seem like a fantastical and frightful notion for the small-business owner, but it might be the best strategic move you can make. Few things damage the long-term vibrancy of your business more than an unproductive client relationship. Remember, sometimes the client-partner relationship just doesn’t work. Or maybe the effort to keep a client happy isn’t worth it.

One easy way to evaluate the relationship you have with your clients is to grade them periodically. To do this, set up a client scorecard with of key valuation metrics–such as the number of services provided, fee potential, ability to offer referrals and even loyalty. Once the scorecard is complete, weight each category according to its importance in your organization.

For businesses that think they may need to fire a client, but just aren’t sure, here are some clues that that it is time to let them go:

• You are no longer growing professionally from the client’s work.
• Your main point of contact client has disengaged from your company/project, leaving decisions to others in the company, placing the project at a lower priority than before.
• It is becomming incteasingly difficult to get a meeting with your key client sponsor
• Your project profit margin is declining steadily
• The client fights paying your invoices or their payments are consistently late.

Disengaging from a client relationship is easier said than done, though, so expect it to take some time and courage. It’s difficult to fire a client, but you’ll likely replace that client with one or more projects that stretch you professionally, make positive changes in your new client’s business, and boost your profitability.

Lastly, to prevent this problem in the future, read my post on diversifying your client portfolio, it will help you understand where your clients rank for your business.

As we usher in 2009, many of my clients are beginning to weigh the pros/cons of moving out of their home offices and into a “real” office space for their business.  For many of these clients, a virtual office would be a better fit for their needs, however, some still do need a permanent operations headquarters that is their own.  Here are some of the benefits of utilizing a virtual office:

• Not having to battle through traffic every day to commute to and from your office space.
• Monetary benefits from savings in gas, wear and tear on your car, business clothing, and lunches out
• Reduced stress (always a good thing)
• Increased opportunities to hire part-time or contract workers

On top of those benefits to you, a virtual office can also offer:

• A prestigious office address you may not be able to otherwise afford– not just a P.O. Box but a permanent address for your business at an office building.
• Professional reception service, without renting a physical office. That means someone will be there to greet your guests for business meetings.
• Meeting and conference rooms that you can use as needed without having to rent out office space full-time.
• All the amenities of a larger office, including fax machines, break rooms, copiers, and other services.
• Mail and package pickup and delivery – you no longer have to rearrange your schedule so you don’t miss the UPS truck.
• Mail Forwarding / Shipping Services

All in all, virtual offices provide a professional presence in a commercial environment, for a fraction of the cost of a permanent office space.  Not a bad deal for small entrepreneurs…

As the holidays approach, many businesses stay open on December 24th, and 26th, even though these are not truly busy working days.  If your company is staying open, one of the best things you can do on these days is to take advantage of the slow days by running your spring cleaning a few months early.

Here are some tips to help you clean up and get organized this holiday season.

• Sort and file all your old paperwork.  If you have files that are not in use or have not been in use for over 30 days, if is time to find them a home.  Start a short-term filing system that will help you stay organized into the new year.
• Move out all of your technology (i.e. phones, computers, laptops, scanners, etc) and wipe down all of your surfaces.  You will be surprised how much dust and dirt collects under all your devices, and if not cleaned properly, it can actually hurt your equipment.
• Clean out your computer files.  Go through all of the files on your computer or laptop and see what can be deleted or filed.  One option is to purchase an external hard drive for your computer - it acts like a digital storage device for computer files.

By cleaning out your office now, instead of waiting until the spring, you can start your year off fresh and clean, and prepared for new business.   Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

One of the challenges that small businesses face is staffing.  A lot of the times, small businesses don’t use the standard hiring mediums of large corporations.  Instead, they rely on networking and job referrals to find the right person for the job.  An article on BusinessWeek.com’s website insights as to where to turn to find the top talent out there looking for a job.  Here are their suggestions.

“Small businesses should enlist their current employees as recruiters, essentially selling friends and contacts on the benefits of working at their company,” says Chris Collins, associate professor of human resource management at Cornell University’s school of Industrial & Labor Relations, for BusinessWeek. “Take the price of that ad you were going to run and give it to the person who identifies the candidate who eventually gets hired,” he says. “You’ll probably get a better pool.”

Small businesses can also find quality candidates by working with local and state universities, and recruiting graduating students.

Begin the hiring process before you need to fill a position.  Don’t wait until you are desperate for a  or your business could suffer.

Lastly, utilize the social networks, like LinkedIn, to find the right professional for the job.  There is a wealth of information available to you out there, along with a large amount of potential candidates looking for a job.

Do you have tips for a small business owner?  Leave me a comment and I will  include them in future posts!