Organizing Tips for Small Business Success
July 14, 2007
If you discovered the bottom line in your business depended on the organization in your office, your reaction could range from complete composure to sheer terror. Organization certainly has an effect on your bottom line ? and just as significantly ? on your peace of mind. For the small business or home office professional, effective organizing can mean the difference between business failure and success. For the 11.1 million workers who have their offices at home, organization skills can have a significant impact on their personal lives as well.
At no time in history has there been a greater need for getting organized. There are three major reasons for this:
(1) Information is accumulating at a faster rate every day. The speed of the microchip doubles every 18 months - with no end in sight. Every day we are bombarded with new opportunities and challenges. Having the right information at the right time can turn a prospect into a client, a disaster into an opportunity.
(2) Not only do we have more to organize, but the demand to organize it continually increases. Computers, fax machines, cellular phones, and on-line services enable us - and require us - to do more than ever before. If I can e-mail you a question in 20 seconds, why can’t you respond with equal speed? And if you don’t, I’ll move on to your competition!
Good News Travels Fast
July 14, 2007
This newsletter is full of opportunities staring you in the face. If you don’t believe me, write and tell me so–and by doing that you’d be proving me right.
That would make you a proactive marketer: spotting a marketing opportunity in an everyday activity.
For instance: Something most of us do every day is read the paper, and though they may not seem like business issues at first glance, editorials or news items offer one of those marketing opportunities. How does that merger, government legislation, tax increase, tornado–or whatever–affect your business, your industry, your clients? Take a position on the subject, and write a letter to the editor to tell them. Include your company name in the body of the letter. Readers often give more credence to opinions of business leaders, and it gets your name out there.
Act immediately. After reading the paper, set aside some time to respond. Then go over your response carefully. (It’s easy to fire off a letter, but you might regret sending something not fully thought out.)
Your letters may not be used every time, but when one is, it goes a long way to building your image as an expert.
News2: Changing of the Guard - Old News Technology Bows to New Technology
July 13, 2007
News2: Changing of the Guard - Old News Technology Bows to New Technology
by: Dan McTaggart
It all started during hurricane Katrina
It can be compared to Reality TV. There was a weird time during Hurricane
Katrina when Network News had to cover the hurricane via a user’s blog because
that was the only live coverage available.
So that was like Reality TV only it was “Reality News”. Not produced, just live
and put up. Basically the Network news or production news was unable to cover
the story as well as a person at the scene, hooked up to the Internet with a
webcam and a Blog.
This guy had awesome videos of the storm that he kept putting up on his website
and they kept showing them on CNN. So as you watched CNN, you were actually
watching someone’s blog.
Instead of “Network News or produced news” this is news as it comes in. The
Internet was designed to keep working even during a nuclear disaster. Network
News doesn’t have that kind of technical reliability.
This is a case of the old infrastructure not working, despite how much it cost.
Getting Paid to Promote Yourself
July 12, 2007
We all know we can pay a magazine or a newspaper to run ads for us. Businesses do it all the time. In many cases, you’re obliged to advertise to survive. But wouldn’t you rather promote yourself and your company in a number of publications, and get paid for it?
You can. Simply by writing magazine articles. When you write articles as a business person, you gain on three levels: 1. You demonstrate your knowledge. 2. You help other people. 3. If you write often, you develop a following.
Contrary to common belief, most articles in magazines are not written by professional writing staff. They’re written by freelancers. Many of these people are just like you, experts in their field, writing on the side. Many don’t even write their own articles, they hire other writers to ghostwrite for them.
As a published author, you’re exposed to a wide audience, with whom you’ve gained an authority and credibility you might not otherwise be able to achieve.
But how to get published? Study the magazines your target audience reads. Analyze the type of articles that are in them. (i.e. anecdotal, how-to, case studies, etc.) What’s the word count? It’s even a good idea to look at the titles and the subheads– how many words in them?
How to Achieve E-commerce Success ?You Gotta Plan!
July 11, 2007
Before becoming a netpreneaur, I was an entrepreneur. First, I owned a successful child care center which grew to capacity in less than two years. When I sold that, I bought a little flower shop that had less than 300 customers and grew it to what it is today, one of the most successful, award winning companies in South Florida with more than 7,000 customers who purchase from us on a regular business. To better serve our customers, we took our business to the Internet. We still have a brick and mortar storefront, yet everyday we receive more and more customers via the Internet.
How about you? Do you or did you have a traditional business or professional practice? Is it successful? Unless you were born under the star called "LUCKY," you probably did lots of planning. A business plan, a marketing plan, maybe even a succession plan for what to do with your business when you were through.
You may have heard the statistics that half of all small businesses fail in their first year and of those, only 25% make it through to five years. According to youngbiz.com it can be even less for e-businesses.
When and How to Say I Just Cant Do It!
July 10, 2007
We naturally hesitate to tell our boss when we can’t do something or are feeling overwhelmed in our job. Bosses don’t want to hear that, right? Well, it depends.
In many situations, your boss is so busy that he/she doesn’t keep track of how much work you’re doing. When your boss gives you a new project, he’s not thinking about all the other projects you’re already working on.
And here’s the kicker — unless you speak up and tell your boss that you can’t handle the workload he’s giving you, he’ll assume everything is fine.
This can have bad consequences for you AND your boss. You know what will happen. Eventually things will start falling through the cracks or you’ll rush through tasks and start making mistakes.
You can only do so much in a day, and deadlines will be missed. While you’re stressing out, work that your boss needs you to do is NOT being done.
When this happens, your boss will not appreciate your excuse: “But I had too much to do, I was overloaded with work!” Saying that AFTER the fact will be much worse than telling your boss up front — before mistakes occur or deadlines are missed — that you’re having trouble with your workload.
It is your responsibility to tell your boss when you are overwhelmed, and there’s nothing wrong with doing this.
Of course, you don’t want to tell your boss, “I can’t do that; I’m too busy.” But you can say, “I’ll be happy to take that on, but I need your help with prioritizing the other projects you’ve already given me. Which jobs can I put on hold or delegate to someone else while I work on this new one?”
That’s way better than keeping your mouth shut, trying to do too much, and failing miserably.
Bonnie Lowe is author of the popular Job Interview Success System and free information-packed ezine, “Career-Life Times.” Find those and other powerful career-building resources and tips at her website: http://www.best-interview-strategies.com.
10 Essential Tips for Starting Entrepreneurs - Ignore these at your Peril!
July 9, 2007
1. Do What You LOVE: If you’ve chosen your business because you read that this niche was the next hot one, or because your favorite uncle (or your best friend) thinks you’d be well-suited for this business, you may as well pack up now and save yourself some time and money. If you don’t love what you do, it will show…potential customers will know it and will go elsewhere. Is it possible to be successful anyway? Sure — but it won’t be easy and it won’t be fun…and isn’t that why you want to be in business for yourself anyway?
Instead, choose what you love. You’ll know what that is when you find yourself being incredibly productive, forgetting the time passing by, and not being able to wait to get up in the morning to do more! At Solo-E we call that being juiced…but whether you call it being in the flow, or the zone, or whatever, FIND IT!
2. WRITE DOWN Your Business Plan: As a small or solo business owner, you still need a business plan. Even if you aren’t getting a loan! Would you invest thousands of dollars of your own money buying stock in a company that didn’t have a written prospectus? (I hope not!) Then why would you spend thousands of dollars AND hours of your precious time on a business that doesn’t have a written plan?
Selling -abilities : Part 2
July 9, 2007
In the last article I talked about different strategies for selling the ‘reliability’ aspect of your software or hardware. I mentioned how most high tech salespeople love to talk about their "-abilities": Reliability, Upgradeability, Compatibility and Expandability. In this article I want to discuss how to sell upgradeability. When is the right time to sell upgradeability? When do you mention the possibility of future upgrades? How do you position future upgrades to software or hardware with a new or existing customer without selling yourself short? How often should your company release upgrades? These are all great questions when it comes to the art of selling upgrades.
Selling Upgradeability
So how do you sell upgradeability? Well, lets start with a basic question. What does the word upgradeability bring to mind when a salesperson mentions the word? If you’re like myself, I think the product has room for improvement and in the future if I choose, I can upgrade to whatever new capabilities the software or hardware may offer. Microsoft Windows epitomizes the model for selling upgradeability. There are four ways to sell upgradeability:
Lesson 2 - The Commodity Of Kings!
July 8, 2007
What is “The Commodity of Kings”
“Power is simply “the ability to act.” Since ancient times, power has been the commodity of kings. Power originally came to those who were strongest physically. Later, it came to those who had a special heritage through royalty. More recently, it came to those who had the greatest wealth or capital. Today, those who possess specialized and valuable knowledge have the greatest capacity for power.” Anthony Robbins - from his book Unlimited Power
Specialized and valuable knowledge.
In lesson 1, we learned that there are only two things that can prevent you from becoming wealthy. You don’t know how, or you are unwilling to apply what you know. Today we will dive into reason number one.
Simply put, chances are, you were never taught how to become wealthy. Think for just a moment, what is it that separates you from the Donald Trumps of the world or for that matter any mega-wealthy person?
Is it time? No! we all have the same 24 hours in each day. As you will learn, how you spend your 24 hours will make all the difference however.
Why Your Business Needs an E-Mail Policy
July 7, 2007
Why is it imperative to have a company E-Mail Policy? It is simply good business, that’s why! In addition, having a clear and detailed e-mail policy in place, one that employees sign and date before they are allowed access through your businesss’ computers, is critical to you being able to enforce or react to situations that may arise at a later date.
Even assuming you have the best folks working for you, or on your behalf, does not negate the need for this type of policy to be established. Hopefully, you will never need to refer to your policy statement in regard to an employee’s actions or behavior while on company time. However, if you do find yourself in that situation down the road, you will be relieved these terms and conditions are in place for your protection.
With technology now in the workplace and e-mail accessible to more employees than ever, connectivity makes it easy for all employees to surf the Web on company time, circulate unnecessary and/or inappropriate messages and illegally copy content. These activities can lead to:
