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Posts Tagged ‘Tips’

Think Big, Start Small

January 26th, 2012

Maria Helm

We have learned to dream big and to go for our dreams. These are important messages for a successful venture, but sometimes we get carried away and don’t give our dreams time to firmly take root.

I remember a colleague of mine dreamed of launching an annual online marketing conference. He had a great concept and access to both the funds and the people to carry it out. He planned a three-day event with speakers, workshops, and an exhibit hall. Vendors signed up, facilities for a large crowd were committed. Ads and articles appeared in the local paper and online. Success seemed imminent.

But throughout the process several of his friends and colleagues (me included) had been skeptical. We urged him to start smaller – maybe an afternoon event, to test the drawing power of his idea.

Our colleague remained undeterred. He saw these naysayers as negative thinkers, small-minded folks who couldn’t grasp the potential of what was possible.

The day of the event arrived and everything was fabulous – except the attendance. Those who came found it valuable, but the turnout was disappointing. Vendors were upset, and the affiliating organizations were embarrassed.

Had he started small, none of this would have happened. If he had compacted this event into one afternoon, the small crowd would have seemed large and the event could easily have led to a daylong event the following year with plenty of time for word of mouth and the promise of more to come to buikld on. Failing so big damaged his efforts to do this again.

Lesson learned: dream big, but start small. Let’s go for our dreams, but let’s allow them time to grow into full blown success we envision.

Photo Credit: sirwiseowl

Posted in Goal-setting

Tags: Planning, Success, Tips

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How To Motivate Clients To Do The Right Thing

August 10th, 2011

Maria Helm

As business owners, we want our clients to stay with our company and to pay their bills on time, or even early. While you may consider penalties or the proverbial stick for bad behavior most of the time the true motivator for clients is the carrot. Not to worry–that carrot is often inexpensive or even free.

Reward clients for paying on time and for staying. If I want a late-paying client to pay on time, I would give him a bonus to pay on time. That’s more likely to give him an incentive to do it. For long-term contracts of a year and more, why not give 10 percent off your hourly rate?
Celebrate their success. If you learned that one client is a voracious reader and is marking his 10th anniversary with your company, then get him a first-edition book signed by the author. This will make such a good impression. When your clients do something special in their volunteer work or achieve another milestone, write a note or otherwise highlight the accomplishment.
Combine a carrot with your follow-up invoice. When needed, offer clients a carrot along with a subtle reminder that payment is due. Here’s how that combination might work:

Posted in Communication, Customer Service, Motivation

Tags: Small Business, Stay motivated, Tips, Values

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Have You Nudged Someone Lately?

August 3rd, 2011

Maria Helm

As I was getting ready for work one morning about a year or so ago, I was listening to Good Morning America. They did a segment on the book “Nudge”, co-authored by Cass R. Sunstein and Richard Thaler. The book was written in hopes of making small, little behavior changes to help benefit those who have a hard time losing weight. The idea behind the book, according to Richard Thaler, is a nudge which he describes as any small feature of the environment that captures our attention and changes our behavior – tiny and painless cues that can influence people to make better choices

Now, how does nudging relate to marketing? Nothing is more frustrating than sending out a regular email campaign only to find out through your email provider report the number of high unopened emails and low click-throughs. This may be discouraging, but not to worry. Even if your subscribers don’t open your email, its presence in their inbox leads to a solid impact on brand awareness and sales. The act of influencing your audience through the understated impact of unopened emails is called nudging. Here’s how it works:

As the recipient scans her inbox, she decides what needs attention now, what can wait and what she’ll delete without reading.
Even if your recipient doesn’t open your email, seeing your brand name in the “From” line and your pitch in the “Subject” line can influence her buying decisions. So, write powerful subject lines that encourage recipients to take action.

What types of “nudges” will you make with your marketing campaigns?

Photo Credit: mindgraph

Posted in Marketing

Tags: E-mail, Marketing, Nudging, Pitch, Tips

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Go Ahead, Take a Vacation!

June 16th, 2011

Maria Helm

Yes, everyone needs a vacation, even small-business owners and solo entrepreneurs. Don’t think you can’t take one, just because you run a small company or a home-based business, and don’t feel you can’t extricate yourself from it. You can — and should — take time off if you want to stay in business very long.

Here are 10 tips to help you plan that get-away.

1. Call or e-mail your key contacts at least one week before you leave. “Key contacts” are your partners, employees, and key service providers. Let them the dates you are going to be gone, and someone they can contact in your absence. A week’s notice allows them to reach you with any urgent business that needs your attention before you leave.

2. Designate people in charge while you are gone. Obviously, if you have employees, you want to designate someone to run the company while you are gone. Your employees need to know who’s in charge during your absence. You also need someone to handle communicating with key clients, partners, vendors and/or employees. This may or may not be the same person as the one in charge. You may have your No. 2 run the business, and your No. 3 handle external communications, for example. In any case, these must be people you can trust, to lead and represent your company well.

3. Designate a contact person for you. Along the same lines, you need to designate someone to reach you in cases of — and only in cases of — an emergency. If you have employees, that may be your No. 2. If you don’t have employees, it may be your accountant, attorney, a close relative or someone else you can trust. This person has been entrusted with how to reach you. You want someone who knows when and when not to call you.

4. Make a list of your employees’ work priorities while you are gone. Besides designating the people in charge, you need to establish a list of what tasks and projects you expect your employees to have completed when you return. This sets your agenda, and helps your employees know what is expected of them. It need not be excessively detailed, but it must be clear and understandable.

Posted in Motivation

Tags: Attitude, Entrepreneurs, Small Business, Tips

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Start Hiring When You Want To Grow Your Business

March 25th, 2011

Maria Helm

How much time do you spend each day going to the post office, inputting data or running errands instead of working with paying clients? Hiring your first employee will help you grow your company and free up extra time to grow yourself as person.

Ask yourself where do you see your business in a year? In five years? If you want to grow – serve more customers, create new products, make more money- you cannot do it all alone. Think about why you went into business. It probably wasn’t to do administrative tasks. With an employee – the right employee – you’ll spend more time on what you’re good at (and make money doing) and less time on grunt work. That’s just one benefit and here’s a few more:

Spend your time on money-producing activities
Produce more products or services
Serve more customers
Make money when someone else is working
Bounce ideas off someone else
Use your time on the things you do best and like to do.

How do you know when it’s the right time for you to hire? Perhaps like retail stores, restaurants, and many tech companies, you need employees the day you open your doors. Or you’re so busy that you turn away work or can’t handle routine tasks. It’s amazing how many self-employed individuals don’t have time to get out their invoices. If you’re thinking of hiring, consider the following.

Posted in Virtual Office

Tags: Hiring, Small Business, Tips, virtual assistant

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