Expected Outcomes

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

I was reading a white paper from HubSpot this morning on how people are choosing who they do business with, what they are buying and how they choose to spend their money.  The article I was reading discussed one of my favorite topics: push versus pull marketing. Let’s look at a handful of the stats I read about in the first chapter of this white paper:

You already know that the Internet has changed how we find what we want, connect with our friends and seek advice when making a purchase.

• Today more than half of US residents and more than three-quarters of US adults are online.  More and more of those online people are online with their “smart phones”, becoming mobile as well as online via their computers.
• More than one-third of US consumers spend 3+ hours online every day with another third spending more than one hour.
• Nearly half of direct (snail) mail pieces are never opened.
• Marketers (the big guys in particular) are shifting their budgets away from “outbound” to encompass “inbound” marketing utilizing blogs and social media.

As Craig Davis, Chief Creative Officer for the 4th largest advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, said, ”We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.”

Are you using interruption marketing or being what your perfect client is interested in?

About three years ago I met a lovely person who was changing employers and potentially even her career.  She had had a similar career path and interests that at one point I had had.  There were enough similar events & interests that caused us to form a  reasonable bond quickly.  My path at the time was completely different than hers but we were both wondering if where we were was where we should be.

The divergence of our paths led to only occasional contact but social media allowed us to observe our individual progression through our jobs/careers. Recently I saw that her career has taken a u-turn back to the job that is really the passion of her professional life.  I was so delighted that I sent her an email and said let’s get together to talk.

After I meet with her, I am going to tell you about her business.  I think it could help many people I know who are small business owners, especially women small business owners.  So stayed tuned.  we should be meeting within a week’s time so I will profile her business here as soon as we have talked.

Is there someone you admire or think has a business that could change someone’s business/life?  Make a comment below about what you admire about that person/business.

I often wonder how people stay up-to-date on their social media tools.  Several times a month it seems like the Facebook look and feel gets tweaked.  I took a month long class on Facebook  during Q1 2011 and a lot of the information is already out of date.

This month I am taking a class that is easily 40 hours in length, not including my own study time in reviewing what I am learning, on social media tools.  I read at least 10 different newsletters that come to me daily and try to limit my research/learning time to no more than 4 hours daily.  After all, I do have a couple of businesses to manage and a dozen or so authors to return emails to daily.  When I read something new, or listen to a podcast that has something in it I have not heard before, I research it, the person saying it and then figure out how it integrates into my business and my consulting. How can a person who is running a business, writing a book or having a life stay up on all this?

Which tools do you use regularly? Please, share how you manage to stay up-to-date on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the other tools by commenting on this post.

To me, challenges are opportunities.  What is a nearly insurmountable challenge to some businesses is an opportunity to me.  So as I talk to potential clients and customers about how blogging is the logical bridge between their business and their social media and the rest of the world, I am frequently asked by them, “What is your greatest challenge when blogging?”

Examples of blogging challenges -

• Writer’s block -

Everyone knows about writer’s block. But when you have been in business a while and know it like the street you live on, finding something to write about just comes naturally.  So that can be a challenge for some, but it is probably not the norm.

• Grammatical and contextual expertise -

Some people do not even know they have these challenges.  They go through life unaware of word spellings and proper grammar usage because they did not learn it in elementary school, nor was it corrected in the advanced studies.  Some people know they shortcomings in this area, but are at a loss as to how to correct the issue.

• Technical issues -

Which platform to be on – do they use Typepad, Blogger, WordPress hosted, WordPress self-hosted?

Once the platform decision is made, learning the tool and being able to insert galleries of pictures or a video or podcast can be challenging.

Internet connectivity can frequently be a challenge.  If your host has problems, you have a problem. Is your site slow to load? Are the pictures not the right size?  Do they not present well?

Is the blog part of your domain name and site or is it jury-rigged to your website?

So when I reflect on my answer to the question, I have two challenges.  Both are great opportunities and both feel like mountains to be climbed on any given day.

In a nutshell – my number 1 is SEO.  Keeping up with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that every article is completely optimized is challenging for nearly everyone.  I study and read and learn, but there is always more.  Just about the time I think I have it figured out, a major search engine adds something to their algorithm, changes a parameter, puts out some new direction they are using to judge our entries and there goes my learning curve ….again. Still everything I learn, as I learn it, opens more doors and provides greater opportunity.

Super Blogging - My other challenge relates to a site I have recently initiated for a group of writers.  I am the publisher of a travel site magazine, Striped Pot, with a dozen plus writers from around the nation and a few international writers.  These people are great travel writers and fabulous people.  But keeping them motivated, publishing articles, copy editing, technical issues, disseminating stats and keeping the site up and running smoothly is a little like herding cats or nailing jello to a tree.  How do I describe this challenge?  It is the best, most exciting opportunity and I am blessed many times over to have every one of these writers publishing. Welcome to super blogging!

What is your greatest challenge to blogging?  Let me know in the comments below.  And if expected outcomes can help turn it into opportunity for you, we will!

We all would like to have friends do business with us.  They are the easiest (or are they really?) to garner as clients because they already know and trust us.  But the question begs to be asked:  How do you charge a friend?  Do you charge the going rate, a discounted rate, or do it for free? 

My first answer is “Never do it for free! ”  Invoice even your sister/brother/mother/father for your services rendered.  You may choose to give them a discount for the project, but let your invoice show your real rates and real time it took to complete the project.  Then show the discount and present them with a net invoice.  This is important because when they refer you (and let’s hope they liked your product or service enough to refer your), they need to be able to say what their experience was worth.

An old adage is to never do business with family.  There are instances where I might have to agree with that, but let’s face it, getting started in business is not always magic.  Sometimes you need that first sale and it has to come from a family member.  Just remember to charge them.  You both deserve it!