Hey, don’t I know you? You certainly don’t want to leave doubt in the minds of potential clients, right? Did you ever wonder if you’re leaving money on the table by not being “in front of” clients and potential clients when you’re not even in the room? Passing out business cards is certainly one way to connect with individuals but are there other ways in which you can be visible?
Here are my thoughts on this subject:
Make certain you have a social media presence. Make certain the contact information you hand out easily lets people know where you are on the internet — your website and your social media platforms.
Do you hand out pens or other give-aways? Is your name, contact info and website on all of them?
Do you do a lot of driving for your business? Why not invest in magnetic signs and make your vehicle a movable billboard?
Do you you have employees that wear uniforms? Make certain the uniforms have your company name, logo and a phone number on them.
The best way to draw in more clients is to make sure your name is “out there.”
Do you make promises to your clients and then fail to deliver? This is a pitfall that some business owners fall into — they think they can “do it all” and perhaps they can, but they don’t set a realistic timeline for completion. If you’re working with a client and are offered a task, take a step back and consider how long it will truly take you and how many other projects you have in the works. You need to be realistic when setting deadlines.
Here are some tips on over-delivering on promises made to your clients:
As mentioned, set realistic deadlines. If you can deliver a product prior to a set deadline then that’s great. It’s better to be early on a deadline than to miss it or to have to go back and ask for an extension.
Is a client asking you to do something or provide a service that is outside of your realm of expertise? If so, you need to determine whether it’s worth it for you to take on this project or if you have a trusted business partner with whom you can share this task. Don’t say ‘yes’ just because your client asks, especially if you can’t deliver a high quality product.
Bottom line: Go above and beyond for your clients and they will thank you for your attention to detail as well as your willingness to help them solve their problems.
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you are driven and want to succeed. If you didn’t have the drive and the will power to undertake your own business or enterprise, you wouldn’t call yourself an entrepreneur, right?
What can you do to jump start your business, make it grow, and take away some of the natural growing pains many entrepreneurs suffer? Here are my tips:
Keep your eye on the prize. Your ultimate goal is to turn a profit. Don’t underprice your services.
Keep in mind that sometimes the terms of the deal are more crucial than the price. Don’t accept any deal that you can’t ethically live with.
Plan for most deals to take longer and cost more to implement than you originally planned for. Build a cushion into your plans.
You may not always feel you’re getting paid what you deserve, but if you take a step back you will likely find that you received what you negotiated for. If those numbers don’t sync, rethink your patterns for negotiating.
Persistence, perseverance and promotion are keys to a successful endeavor.
It’s never easy to tell exactly when an opportunity will present itself. When it does though, you need to be present and in the correct mindset to not only receive it, but to capitalize on it. As entrepreneurs understand, identifying an opportunity is the first step, making the most of it, comes after.
Here are steps to help you make the most of the opportunities that present themselves to you:
Define what an opportunity looks like for your business and your life. If you don’t have a sharp focus, you could take on more opportunities than you have time to devote to and you may take on opportunities that won’t benefit your overall business plan.
Analyze the information you’ve been given and create a map of the process by which you need to embrace it to make it happen. Having a process flow is crucial to success.
Communicate with the individual that presented the opportunity and begin its implementation. If you work with a team, involving them in the process will help it progress toward a fruitful end.
Improvement of processes and capturing of opportunities will propel you toward a successful outcome.
Google, it sometimes seems, is the be all and end all for business owners looking to be found on the Internet. While the rules change, sometimes before you’ve even implemented them, there are ways to remain relevant, be found and up your Google rankings when you write a blog post.
Here are my top tips for gaining Google love:
Always write original content. Don’t be redundant – even if you write and post on more than one website in the same niche market. While you don’t have to recreate the wheel with your posts, you do want to make certain the content has been rewritten even though the ideas may be the same.
Create value for your readers by offering practical advice and relevant information. Readers love how-tos, tips and topic articles. Incorporate original research into your posts by embedding your experience as an expert on that subject matter.
Are your posts spell and grammar checked? Are your facts correct? If your readers are faced with inaccuracies in your facts and spelling errors (which can be easily avoided) they may doubt your expertise in the information you’re presenting.
Write about interesting topics with SEO as a secondary idea. Writing a post with only SEO (search engine optimization) as your driving force will make your posts read like something from a content mill. Sprinkle your keywords into the posts but don’t make them so keyword heavy that your message is lost.
Are you positioning yourself as an expert? If so, what’s on your “resume” that will point to that expertise? If you’re positioning your site as a clearinghouse for other experts, make that clear up front. Make certain your site reflects who you are and what you do and what sets you apart from the competition.
What do you have to say that is different from the other bloggers that are saying the same thing? It’s true there are no new ideas so you need to take your blog posts and find a way to set them apart from the thousands of others that are out there. Make certain your unique voice and perspective come through in your writing.
Is your blog post all about calls to action? Is the post or site cluttered with ads and “buy me” promotions? Don’t let your blog posts and your ideas be lost in the noise of ads and promotions. While you certainly want to have clients buy from you or sign up to work with you, you need to do direct them to a different part of your website – don’t bury the message of your blog posts in ads.
High quality, relevant content is your best way to be found by Google and your best way to communicate with your clients and potential clients. Let content be your guiding force in your blog posts.
Today, business owners can’t ignore social media. Even though there are times you may feel you’re screaming into a crowded room when it comes to either being heard or listening effectively, the power of social media cannot be ignored.
Here are three quick steps to jump into the social media market and make the most advantage of the conversations:
Understand the need for social media. If you don’t believe your company or business needs social media, you won’t be able to fully embrace, or commit to, it. Whether you own a product or a service business you can harness the power of social media to start conversations, grow loyalty and get to know your customers. Keep in mind that potential clients want to do business with people they know, like and trust. Do your clients know, like and trust you?
Sign up for LinkedIn. If you already have LinkedIn, update your profile, use correct keywords, endorse others and ask satisfied clients for endorsements and recommendations. If you’re in business, having a LinkedIn account is a must. It’s likely more important than a Facebook or Google+ account, but those other two social media platforms cannot be discounted if you want to remain relevant.
Claim your Facebook business name, capture your Facebook Places site. Create your Facebook business profile — again with relevant keywords — then start the conversation.
Remember though, social media is a conversation, it is not a place to constantly put forth a “buy me, buy me” message. Your status updates and the products and services you provide will speak for themselves.
