Business in General blog

Diana Peloquin found out recently that she had secured the property she was hoping for: a much sought-after piece of commercial real estate in Surrey, British Columbia. She intends to turn it into Cafe Pelorina, a high-end cafe featuring not just coffee, but art, books, and a community involvement component.

When she first began exploring locations for her cafe, she says, “I was told by my commercial realtor that the developers would not even look at an offer unless I had a business plan. Being of the strong mind that you don’t re-invent the wheel, I went on the Internet to search programs that offered business plans.”

Peloquin needed to get the business plan together quickly, as there were several other businesses interested in the property she had her eye on. She had never written a business plan before. “Instead of taking time, which I didn’t have, trying to figure out what a business plan is even supposed to look like, I Googled business plan software.” And that’s when she found Business Plan Pro, and discovered how helpful it was.

She says the planning process provided a lot of insight into her business. “As I was going through I realized how much detailed information I really had to get to be better prepared. I also realized that it was going to actually cost twice as much as I had thought!”

Her cafe hasn’t even opened yet, but Peloquin is already going back and fine-tuning her business plan. “I have already had to go back a couple of times to adjust numbers when I would look at the final outcome and see where there could be a problem in prices I had set. I was going to be paying too much for some supplies, which led me to get new suppliers and allowed me to achieve the margins I needed to make to be successful.”

Now a big fan of business plans, Diana would hate to think of what would have happened if she hadn’t written one. “If the developer hadn’t required that I have one I wouldn’t have made one, and I now realize this could have led to a huge disaster.”

Peloquin believes there’s no substitute for having a concrete plan when you’re starting your business. “Until you have everything in writing in front of you, you don’t know everything you should know.” She adds that Business Plan Pro made the entire process painless for her to accomplish. “I was amazingly impressed by how easy it was to do and how very professional the finished business plan was,” she says.

“I feel that doing a business plan gives you a great idea of how your business is going to work. You will be amazed by everything you learn about your industry.”

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Tags: news, small business tools, success story, testimonial, testimonials
Posted under Small Business, Startup Business, Success on November 5th, 2009 | No Comments »

Why I’ll Never Retire — Tim Berry talks about how liking what you do can make it more attractive to keep working, rather than retire.

How I Tweet — Guy Kawasaki shares his work flow for using Twitter as a marketing tool

5 Ways to Improve Your Email Replies — Auto replies can really turn off your customers. These tips can help you make your messages more useful and less annoying.

How to Get Lucky With Content Marketing – Everyone who writes a blog wants people to read it. What can you do to get more eyeballs?

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Posted under General on November 5th, 2009 | No Comments »

If you have ever read any books on marketing you are no doubt familiar with the 4 – “P’s” of Marketing – Product, Price, Place and Promotion.  When combined correctly, these 4 elements can have a tremendous impact on your bottom line, but NONE of them are anywhere near as effective as the never mentioned 5^th “P”.  Every company struggles with it, and most would confess it is what holds them back from achieving success in their marketing.  What is this elusive 5^th “P”?

Productivity

It’s all well and good to have a sound plan or system on paper, but it is another to put those plans into action and then to maintain those activities on a consistent basis.

Because so many business owners remain the key rainmaker for their organization and still carry out a ton of the work, non-time-sensitive activities, like marketing tend to fall to the wayside.

Let me ask you this.  If you were meeting with a new prospective customer to work on a sizable proposal, would you miss the meeting because the printer needs fixing or you have a ton of emails in your inbox?  Of course not!

It’s time to consider marketing your biggest client.  It does, after all, bring in more money than any other one activity, yet we constantly put it aside for less important issues. Want to make a big difference in your business?  Then start keeping your appointments with your marketing.  Here’s how you can harness the 5^th “P”

1. Make Appointments With Your Marketing – In your calendar, set aside consistent meetings with Mr. Marketing.  Try 1 hour a day at least 3 days a week for a start.  Now don’t break these appointments.
2. Minimize Distractions – Turn Notifications off on your Email, put your phone on Do Not Disturb, close the door to your office and remain productive for one hour.  After all if you were in a meeting with a client, you wouldn’t be answering emails, phone calls or questions from staff or family members!
3. Make a Priority List – I like to create a list in Excel and then next to each item I rank it first by priority (1 is high and 3 is low), and then by the amount of time it takes (.1hrs, 3 hours or 40 hours).  Now multiply these two columns and sort your task from those with the lowest to the highest.  For big tasks, you might want to break them down to smaller tasks so they get started and don’t remain too far down your list, especially if they are a high priority.
4. Create a Weekly Task List – of everything you want to accomplish that week so that when you sit down you know what it is you’re working on.
5. Too much on your plate? Then ask yourself, can you outsource this to someone else, and is it really that important right now.  Remove those items that others can do or that can be delayed with little detriment, to a later date.
6. Be Held Accountable – who do you have to hold you accountable on your marketing?  Face it – we all work best to hard deadlines.  Choose an accountability partner, or of course you can always enroll in one of our courses!

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cindee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

You should follow us on twitter here

Tags: Cidnee Stephen, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Marketing, news
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Marketing on November 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Melodie Ellis knows what it’s like to work for somebody else. And she knows what it means to work for herself. In fact, she managed to do both for almost eight years, holding down a job as an employee at a private piano studio while also teaching students on her own in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In 2004, she decided to make the leap to full-time self-employment. She left her studio job and started her own business – Learn Piano in Your Home.

Melodie Ellis

“I guess I was tired of dealing with politics… When you work for somebody else sometimes it can seem like no matter what you do you’re not going to be able to make things better,” Melodie remembers. But she had learned that things are different when you are your own boss. “When you have your own business, you can change everything by your actions.”

Five years later, 14 contractors now work for Melodie, and Learn Piano in Your Home caters to over 200 students, providing private lessons not just in piano, but also in voice, guitar, drums, brass instruments, and more.

“As I started to grow, I saw the need to write a business plan,” says Melodie, but since her business was so small and she had such limited time at her disposal, it wasn’t a huge priority. “What really motivated me to do it was that I  wanted to apply for a grant.” As a member of the National Association for the Self-Employed, she was eligible to apply for a $5,000 Business Development Grant. Applicants are required to meet certain criteria, including submitting a business plan.

Melodie knew she would have to do some research. She bought a few books to help guide her through the plan-writing process, but says they weren’t nearly as helpful as she had hoped they would be. “I found them to be very theoretical and not practical at all. I didn’t get anywhere with them. I understood the concepts, but when it came down to putting it all on paper… the books were just really poor at trying to help me do that.”

Next she hit the Internet, looking for some business-planning software to help. “And that’s when I found Business Plan Pro. It was definitely worth it, because it allowed me to put everything together and it made it all practical and very real.”

One of the challenges Melodie faced in writing her plan was the fact that her business had been in operation for several years prior to putting the plan together. “I had to go back and think through things very concretely. I hadn’t always paid attention to the numbers or tracked them that carefully…  I had to get all those numbers from my history and somehow incorporate them into my plan. And that can be hard when you don’t have an MBA,” she says with a laugh.

In the end, Melodie’s hard work paid off. “I know that the fact that my business plan was well put together was definitely a major factor in getting the grant,” says Melodie.

“One of the most helpful things about the software was that, at the beginning, it asks you the question about whether you’re an existing business or a brand new business, and it tailors the plan based on your answer,” Melodie comments. She had tried other tools but found that they didn’t make this distinction, and in fact seemed to be based on the assumption that business plans were only for start-ups. That made the process harder for her, trying to fit details about an ongoing business into a start-up format.

“Just that one choice made all the difference in the world.”

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Tags: customer spotlight, Small Busines, testimonial, testimonials
Posted under General, Small Business, Success on October 29th, 2009 | 4 Comments »

5 Kinds of Trolls Hiding Under Business Bridges — Trolls aren’t just creepy creatures from fairy tales. As Tim Berry explains, they really do exist in the business world.

Three Magic Questions That Drive Sales — Asking the right questions can not only close a deal, but help you get what your service is worth.

See an example — When you’re working on a business plan, sometimes examples are just what you need to get started.

Homepreneurs and Pots of Gold — A new report shows that home offices are employing a lot of people, doing a lot of business, and making serious money.

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Tags: BWIR
Posted under General on October 29th, 2009 | No Comments »

“Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to be like a job,” says Paul Graham, programming language designer, author, and venture firm partner. “It explains why people [in startups] are surprised…and why the surprises are so extreme.”

Graham’s recent post, What Startups Are Really Like, talks about the surprises in startups. He sent an email to all the business founders who had been funded by his venture firm Y Combinator, asking what things had surprised them in their startup.

Over 100 responded and their lists were summarized into frequently recurring patterns, including:

2. Startups take over your life — “I didn’t realize I would spend almost every waking moment either working or thinking about our startup.”
4. It can be fun — “The best way to put it might be that starting a startup is fun the way a survivalist training course would be fun…”
6. Think long-term — “For the vast majority of startups that become successful, it’s going to be a really long journey, at least 3 years and probably 5+.”
12. It’s hard to get users — “I had no idea how much time and effort needed to go into attaining users. ”
13. Expect the worst with deals — “Deals fall through. That’s a constant of the startup world.”
19. Things change as you grow — “Your job description … is completely rewritten every 6-12 months.”

Says Graham, “These are supposed to be the surprises, the things I didn’t tell people. What do they all have in common? They’re all things I do tell people.”

The answer to the puzzle is that our prior experience in business is our jobs — working for someone else. Being a founder of a startup is orders of magnitude beyond our experience and ability to imagine. Despite our preparation, we can’t believe it is as intense as others tell us, hence we are surprised.

So, go to Paul Graham’s site and read this essay, What Startups Are Really Like, and think about what surprised these other founders. Print it out, and stick it up near your desk where you can re-read it often. Take the advice to heart.

My thanks to my co-editor Sara Prentice Manela for sending this essay my way.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

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Tags: job, news, Paul Graham, startup, startups, surprises, work
Posted under Startup Business, entrepreneurship on October 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

What makes social networking so exciting right now is that “the book” is still being written. What I mean by that, is that people are finding a multitude of ways to use tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to promote themselves and their businesses. Are they producing the intended results? In many cases, the answer appears to be, “absolutely.” If you haven’t stepped foot in this arena yet, at the very least set up your accounts and post a picture and a link to your website. It takes 15 minutes and it’s free.

The big question after you are LIVE is, “now what do I do?” The quick answer is start by posting updates and inviting people to be part of your network. In this article, let’s start by looking at what type of information you can post to boost exposure and promote your business. I’m not one personally for updating the world on the newest run in my nylons. So what kind of comments should you post? Strategic, well-thought-out ones of course, mixed with a personal flavour – hmmm sounds just like live networking.

Here are 10 clever ways to use your updates in Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Twitter to get results.

1. Think Media – Did you know the larger news and broadcast media are watching social networks for relevant news ideas? Well they are. So think of some catchy headlines that are topical and use these for updates.

2. Q. & A. – Do you get asked a lot of common questions? Pose the question via your update and then develop a link back to your site for the answer.

3. New Article or Newsletter Link – Check the software you are using. Can it automatically update your status? If so, set it up to do so or manually enter the topic and a link to read more.

4. Conduct a Poll – Want to test a new product or service or gauge market demand? Ask people what they think on a topic.

5. Brag - Share your successes. It lets people know you are in business and making progress. This could be a big client or an award or media exposure, as examples.

6. Invites - Invite people to your next Free tele-seminar or webinar or even to a paid event.

7. Share Interesting Resources – This could be a helpful tool, recommended reading, a great blog or a useful website.

8. Announce New Products or Services – Again, this lets people know you are invested in growing your business.

9. Introduce/Promote Others in Your Community or Network – Networking is about connecting people. Make sure you “give” back and support others by singing their praises, providing a testimonial or commenting on a useful page on their website.

10. Stay Human – Ask for help or expose a weakness. Because you may never meet these people face to face, it’s important to show people you are just like them. Poke fun at yourself every now and then, or allow others to help you. Otherwise they may see you or your company as too high-level for them.

Think about it. If you can think of 3 examples for each of the above ideas you would have 30 updates. That’s a month’s worth!

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cindee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

You should follow us on twitter here

Tags: Cidnee Stephen, Duct Tape Marketing Coach, news, social media
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Marketing on October 27th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Some of our best business conversations happen in the most unlikely places, including our daily walk to the local coffee shop we fuel up in, and the dog park where Liz takes her border collie, Mike.

One of our dog park buddies is a woman we’ll call Mary. She’s a self-employed consultant who knows we’re always open to providing what insight we can while we throw tennis balls for Mike and his doggy pals.

We like what Mary does, so we took her along to meet a client of ours who needed the kind of services she provides. Now, when a colleague accompanies you to meet a client with a stated need, you can be pretty sure there is real business to be had, and that you have a better-than-even chance of getting it.

Here’s how the meeting went. Client to Mary: “Here’s what I need (gives detail). What would you charge me for that?” Mary to Client: “That would be X dollars. But I could give you a discount if that’s too much.”

So Mary got the job, but gave away about 20% of what the client was willing to pay her because she didn’t know the Three Magic Questions she should have asked.

Magic Question Number One:
What is the biggest frustration, or the most powerful opportunity you have been facing in the last twelve months?

Magic Question Number Two:
If you had solved that problem, or been successful with that opportunity, what would that have meant to your company (In dollars? In market share? In profit? In store traffic? In lead generation?)

Magic Question Number Three:
On a scale of one to ten, how committed are you to solving that problem, or succeeding with that opportunity, in the next twelve months?

Can you see why these questions are pure magic? Because the client has the opportunity to talk about his favourite subject (himself) and is actually telling you exactly what he wants to buy and how much it is worth to him.

If the prospect had said his commitment level was eight out of ten or more, Mary could have said, “I specialize in providing solutions that (solve the biggest frustration the prospect has) so that my clients can achieve their goal of (what the client said he wanted to achieve).” She could have quoted a fee that was reasonable in relation to the answers to Magic Question Number Two.

If the prospect had said his commitment level was under eight out of ten, Mary would have suspected that the client was not willing to pay her usual fee. She might also suspect that the project might be terminated early, or even that she would have trouble getting paid on time.

In this case, she could have said, “You’ve said your problem is (restate the problem or opportunity) and that resolving it would result in (restate the results he mentioned). But it doesn’t sound like it’s your number one priority in the next year. I specialize in this type of work, and I feel that you should invest X (a reasonable fee). How does that sound?”

Based on the response she got, she would then be able to make a decision to accept the job, decline it, or negotiate a short-term contract she and the client would be happy with.

Increasing the value of your sales? All it takes is a little magic!

Ken Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

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Tags: Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Elizabeth Walker, Ken Burgin
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach on October 26th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

When looking for a product or service they’ve never used before, what do people most often do? Ask someone who has had experience with the product or service of course.

This would include taking the advice of an unbiased product review. By “unbiased” we mean reviews that are not paid for, or supported in some way, by the entity being reviewed, so the information is impartial—the reviewer has nothing to gain or lose by giving an honest opinion.

When taking the advice of others, you’re getting what’s called in the marketing industry a “third party endorsement” (TPE) and it’s one of the most powerful forces in the universe for anyone marketing a product.

It works because as humans, we typically are more inclined to believe what an uninvolved “third party”; a friend, neighbour, or unbiased reviewer; has to say than an advertisement or paid communication of any kind. This is not to say that advertisements don’t have credibility, all we’re saying is TPE’s have more.

So how do you put this tremendous force to work for your company? First of all, we’re assuming that your product is a good one so recommendations are a possibility—no one’s going to recommend you if you’re offering something of inferior quality or outright junk!

The starting point might be on your web site—do you have a list of client testimonials? People want to know what others have said, so start asking your happy customers if they’ll supply a testimonial you can use. Don’t use anything without their permission and don’t change what they’ve said to suit your purpose!

Make it a policy to always ask for these testimonials, not only will they be useful in your marketing, they will tell you what you’re doing right—so you can do more of that.

You can also slip a testimonial into your advertising. Now you’ve got that TPE right in the ads!

In many publications, there are columnists that write reviews for entertainment, automobiles, and housing developments and increasingly for consumer items and services. Make sure these people are aware of what you offer. Send them a letter asking to be reviewed and then stand back. Be prepared to accept what they write, after all, you asked!

Now, since the media is such a good vehicle for TPE there must be other ways to use it than just placing ads. Quite right, because people tend to believe what they read in quality publications. So harness the power of “media relations”—become an expert that the media will love to quote when writing on your field of expertise. Target the reporters that cover your market and keep them up to date on what’s happening in your industry. Don’t try to sell them your product or service, just stay available to answer questions they may have—guess who they’ll call and quote when they need answers.

Send out regular press releases on new developments and product improvements in your company. Make them factual and be sure they have an interesting story angle that will command attention—they should be newsworthy not fluff or sell.

Maybe your firm has a great story on how it was founded, or how the business evolved to its present state. Write it up and send it to a publication that may be interested in including it as editorial—be sure it’s a publication that’s sure to be read by your ideal kind of customer. People love stories so keep it interesting and be truthful!

These are just a few of the ways you can get the word out, you can probably think of many more, but keep one thing uppermost in your mind—a bad reputation gets around much faster than a good one. Always take care to do the best you can do and when others are pleased with you, tell the world!

Ken Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

You should follow us on twitter here

Tags: Duct Tape Marketing Coach, Elizabeth Walker, Ken Burgin
Posted under Duct Tape Marketing Coach on October 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »

Define Your Strategy by What You Aren’t Doing — Tim Berry suggests figuring out who isn’t your customer, to help narrow down who you actually ARE going to serve.

Is Disaster Recovery Possible When the Computing Cloud Evaporates? – Data loss happens. Are you prepared for the worst case scenario of complete data loss?

Success by Listening, Correcting and Evolving — Sometimes it takes several attempts before you get your business idea, and the pitch for it, right.

Don’t Believe the Hype: Email’s Not Dead –  Despite recent blogs saying the contrary, email is alive and well, and not going to be replaced by social media any time soon.

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Posted under General on October 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »