Work Better, Not Harder

Imagine you've just gotten off the phone from a lively conversation with a prospect that lasted an hour. Your purpose in having the call was to build a new business relationship or build on an established one. You both discovered you have much in common and had lots to talk about. What was expected to be a half-hour call became a delightful chat that extended to an hour. You hang up feeling really good about the personal connection you made and pat yourself on the back. Then reality strikes. You check your calendar and realize you're now behind schedule. Your other planned work for the day has been compromised and you'll have to work a longer day or bump something to tomorrow. "That's OK," you think, "It was time well spent." But wait, it's not about you. The person you were speaking with undoubtedly feels the same way. Even though they enjoyed the conversation, now they are also struggling to fulfill their commitments and maintain their work sch...

Sometimes I take things for granted. For instance, while many have been adapting to working alone, I've been happy as a pig in sh*t. You might think this is because I've been working at home for 15 years, so I'm used to it. Sure, that's part of it. But... I don't always work alone even though I'm at home. A recent comment in MyRevenueRoom reminded me that working at home has never been lonely for me. And it's because of the telephone. One of my best friends lives in rural Saskatchewan. We used to work for the same company, me in Toronto and Danielle in Regina. Our 25-year friendship has always been based on phone calls. Now we both do marketing work from home, sometimes collaborating, and we continue to talk (sometimes for hours) almost every day. And we're not just chit-chatting (although there's some of that) - we work together as if we share an office. Danielle might say, "What do you think of this idea?" and I might say, "What if ...

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been low on my own priority list throughout the 15 years I've been marketing my own services. Yes, I freely admit I've been mostly ignoring it while doing just the basics. This may seem like a blatant disregard for something that's portrayed more and more frequently as essential. It's actually been a strategic decision for my business... not an oversight. Why? SEO is complicated, time-consuming and expensive. It's a skill I've never desired to acquire. It's technical and behind-the-scenes, whereas I like doing work that can be seen (and yes, sometimes admired). Hiring help for SEO would be a big expense. The goal of SEO is generally to attract strangers. Over the years, I've wasted time with a few 'tire kickers'. Those are people who have stumbled across my website, know nothing about my experience or the quality of my work, and have focused on price comparisons. I have never competed on price - my ...

Like many things, list building seems pretty straight-forward... until you start. You may expect it to be tedious work of copy/pasting and spreadsheets and looking things up online. Yes, it likely involves some of that but I get asked a lot of questions about who and how . Who can you add to your business email list?  If you sell to consumers , you will need to request express consent to add contacts to your list who have not done business with you. If you sell to business people , you can benefit from implied consent to build your initial list. There are three key requirements for implied consent: 1. The contact’s email address has been 'published conspicuously' and has no disclaimer that they do not accept commercial electronic messages. 2. The message you are sending is relevant to their job at the company they work for. (Example: You can email a university professor to sell her textbooks, but not clothes.) 3. There is an unsubscribe mechanism so the recipien...

We're all getting inundated with COVID emails - yes - but I'm glad the companies I do business with are paying attention and communicating their plans. I need to know that my web host and other service providers are taking action to be able to continue to operate. I am glad that local restaurants (Finbars, for example) have staff volunteers willing to help those in need. I'm comforted to know that we're all paying attention. During this time, most business owners are struggling with what to stop doing, what to start doing, and what to keep doing. Communication is more important now. Let's not stop but rather be mindful. Here are 3 reasons why business owners need to keep communicating: #1. To let your customers know you're running business-as-usual or... not. Many bricks-and-mortar businesses are closed, offering pick-up or delivery, or open for limited hours. Even people who work at home (like me) are susceptible to illness and need a back-up plan. ...

If your answer to the title of this post is "increase sales", you've got that part right. But you should also realize that there's no direct path from one to the other. You don't start a blog and immediately make more sales - although I sincerely wish it were so. To help you stay focused on that path to increased sales, identifying a couple of content goals is essential. These are typical business blogging goals: 1. 'Touching' your customers, prospects and colleagues regularly 2. Building strong business relationships 3. Developing your reputation and sphere of influence 4. Sharing your valuable information, products, and services 5. Being seen as an expert 6. Growing your fans, followers and contact list 7. Keeping up with your competition 8. Increase website traffic via SEO While you may think all of those things are desirable, they aren't all equally important to your business. The ones that are most important for you will depend...

Did you realize there's a difference between being found and getting found? The words suggest a subtle difference but, really, there's a huge distinction when it comes to online marketing. Many new and experienced small business owners make critical -- often costly -- mistakes by not understanding the difference. I'll start with 'being found' because this is my own strategy (and my area of marketing expertise) so it'll be easier to explain. Also, I think you'll be able to appreciate the difference more when you read down to the 'getting found' description. Being Found Someone searches for your name or the name of your company because they know you in some way or have heard about you. These people already know something about you or your business. They have a perception that you might be able to solve their problem and they are looking for evidence. Hopefully, they are also looking for how to contact you. In sales lingo, these are war...

Ever since I wrote this article -- Where Do You Get Stuck? -- a couple of years ago, I've been on a mission to come up with solutions to content creation obstacles. coming up with ideas adapting your ideas for writing starting to write finishing writing editing and proofing finding or creating graphics keywords and publishing Aside from talking about this a lot with small business owners, I've also been circulating a survey on my social media feeds. If I know where people most often get stuck, I know where to focus my problem-solving efforts. Here are the survey results so far: survey results as of Jan-4-20 If you haven't yet responded to this survey, I'd sure appreciate it if you would -- it's only one question. You can click here to do that now. If you're suffering from any of those first three obstacles, using writing templates will help enormously. You can get a workbook here that includes 15 templates. Click to Tweet this Article

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided on my one word for 2019 . It was a week after my husband had told me he wanted to split up... and I chose EMBRACE as my guiding word for the coming year. At the time, I had good intentions about business development, embracing and growing several different initiatives. Optimism is a good thing but, looking back... well, duh! It was more of a year of shedding: my 16-year marriage, my house and garden, and lots of things I'd accumulated. It wasn't all bad -- I taught three 11-week courses, partnered in the second successful Social Media Day Halifax Conference, moved myself and clients to a new bulk email service provider, built nine websites, and supported clients with their ongoing marketing. But I didn't really embrace anything; in fact, I turned business away several times. All is not lost. The word embrace has served me well for the last month of 2019. I'm settled in a new place with a lovely new off...

The best boss I ever had told me I was a crappy listener. Those weren't the exact words he used, but Carlos was always blunt and to-the-point during performance reviews. I was young and confident... and completely surprised to be told I had this failing. After surprise came denial, reluctant acceptance, and finally, a desire to learn to do better. Twenty-five years later, I recall that discussion with both chagrin and fondness. I'm still not a great listener but I'm a better listener than I was then. And I'll continue to improve. Now, as a small business owner, I'm so very fortunate to have a few strong people supporting me who have no fear of telling me when something is not so good. Feedback and advice are both important for doing good work and continuing to improve. Whether it's what we want to hear or not, honest, thoughtful feedback comes from people who truly care about our success. Whether you are a new business owner or an experienced pro, inve...

You may not often think of trust in relation to productivity but there's a very direct correlation, especially for small businesses. What is trust in a business relationship? It can be quite different than in our personal lives, of course. I've recently weathered the end of a 16-year marriage which was quite a life lesson in trust. And, while we can certainly have business relationships longer than this, the trust element is not all-encompassing - it's limited to delivering on work-related promises. This means things like having clear expectations, establishing goals and deadlines and meeting them, respecting each other's time, being honest about feedback, keeping communication open and relevant, and, of course, doing good work or selling reliable products. “Trust is your willingness to be open, vulnerable and courageous based on positive expectations.” — Lea Brovedani Having established trusting relationships helps us be more efficient because our customer...

Small business owners can spend a lot of time and money on marketing initiatives. Sometimes we're successful and sometimes not so much. I think of marketing as an experiment because - really - there are no magic bullets. There are best practices, there is good and bad advice, there are lots of experts and gurus. But we, the business owners, have to make the final decisions and... live with the results. Marketing isn't cheap (even if it's our own time) and poor decision-making can hurt more than our wallets - our reputation may also be at risk. So, how do we make decisions about things we have little experience with? How can we possibly know what all of our options might be when it comes to getting a new website? Or knowing which social media platforms will work best? Or building a content strategy? We can't... unless we put some extra effort into it. Step #1: Clearly identify the decision that needs to be made. Sometimes it'll be staring you in the face ...

If you're feeling - like I am - that you need to get focused for the next quarter, perhaps my list of planned activities below will be helpful. Business development: Continuing to refresh and work a business plan is a top priority, but sometimes it can get lost in the daily grind. I have several activities I'm keeping alive and making progress on by using a simple project management tool (Trello). I recommend reading The Phone Lady's post with advice about how to reach your revenue goals this year. Website refresh and audit: It's a good idea to do an audit of your website quarterly. It's even better if you pay or beg someone else to do it for you - they will see things you won't. Over the summer I've been working with Alison Knott on a brand refresh that you'll see roll out in September. A full audit will be part of that process. Masterminding: This continues to be an important road to business development and growth for me and my company....

Every small business owner struggles with their messaging from time to time and this is especially true when developing content for a new or refreshed website. I - and you - can sit and make a long list of words and phrases that describe the way we work with customers. That's a good idea, of course. Here's a more powerful option and, in some ways, it makes the task easier. Search your words and phrases online. See what others in the same line of work are saying about themselves and the way they do business. Start a list of the words and phrases that are NOT like you and your business, that are clearly not ones you would use. They will practically jump off the screen at you. Using that NOT list, write a list of 'opposites'. If this is how you're not , then change it to the way you are . Now you can use these new words and phrases as you develop your website content and marketing messages. And you could easily include a bullet list of "This is not .....

This is my 600th blog post. I'm feeling the pressure to write something wise and inspirational about blogging like I did with post #500 . Are you ready? Here it is... Aside from your business objectives, you actually have to like doing the work of blogging to maintain momentum for the long term. I wouldn't have made it through 600 posts if I didn't actually like doing the work. Sure, I've felt stress to meet deadlines and guilt when I haven't. My pace has sometimes slowed but I won't be stopping any time soon. The commitment grows, the longer you're at it. Here's the thing about blogging though - you can give it a try to see if you want to make the commitment. Do a few test drives to see if you like the work involved. I'm researching the obstacles that keep people from blogging for their businesses - those who say "I should" but never start. Can I help get you unstuck in a 10-minute phone call? Maybe. Want to find out? Book a ...

Many small business owners didn't start their careers as small business owners. And the road each of us took to get here is quite different. But one thing is fairly common - we're finding ways to earn a living doing work we love. Often that means evolving and growing and changing. My 'one word' for 2019 is EMBRACE. Admittedly, it hasn't been in my awareness much but two recent events brought it to the forefront. First, a Twitter friend asked if I'm succeeding. It gave me pause and moment to pat myself on the back - because I've been living it, even if subconsciously. A couple of days later I met with colleagues for some business development advice. Driving home afterward, I realized going through that process is also about embracing. Oh, do I have lists! Creating them has been about embracing all the pieces of my business. Here are some of the lists that have helped me work through this business development process. You may find this list of lis...

Survivor fans might remember WWMD - "What would Monica do?" - from Season 34 Game Changers . Brad Culpepper often reflected on what his wife Monica would do in a given situation. He considered Monica his hero as she had made it to the final tribal council on an earlier season. This introspection seemed to work as Brad also made it to the final tribal council. Recently I wrote to a trusted colleague describing the help I want from her as "What would Alison do?" After all, Alison Knott is an expert at branding and that's exactly the kind of help I was writing to her about. There are other heroes in my life - business and personal - whose advice I call upon often without their knowledge... by thinking, "What would *my hero* do?" I'm so fortunate to know and love them, to appreciate their expertise and learn from it. Do your heroes guide your daily business activities? Do they shape your decision-making without even knowing? Now might be a...

Did you know that a third to a half of the total time spent working on marketing implementation projects is spent communicating with clients? That communication usually takes the form of informing, consulting, decision-making and tracking action items. Depending on the scope, it may also include educating and training. That's a lot of communication! And it may be why price quotes are higher than you expect. Effective communication is absolutely essential to pulling off any marketing project successfully. Planning and budgeting for that communication are also essential. You want to work with creatives who will guide you through the process without wasting your time or theirs , who will ask for feedback frequently, who will skillfully mine your ideas and apply them to the project. I  want to work with clients who aren't concerned with hurting my feelings , who will tell me when they don't like something. No one can solve a problem they don't know exists. No on...

My good friend and business collaborator, Anita Kirkbride , has been doing keynotes recently about how to embrace being #flawsome . It's a hard lesson for someone like me with perfectionistic tendencies. But around mid-May, I made a conscious decision to let a few things suffer so that others could flourish. Here's one of the things that suffered: Fewer people read my blog. That tells me my own marketing is working when I'm maintaining it. I know exactly what happened: I wrote fewer posts and one of the scheduling apps I use conked out for 2 weeks. (Thank you, Google, for continuing to send readers.) I decided to live with it because other things, like Social Media Day Halifax 2019 , were more important. And yes, I felt a bit guilty because I teach this stuff and setting an example is important. No one ever said running a small business is easy. Sometimes we have to make tough choices... and move on. And really, while seeing my blog readership increase instead ...

Social Media Day Halifax 2019 was an amazing day of learning and networking. I've been spending hours on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram reliving the day through other people's posts... laughing, crying, and feeling the love. ( Cue the angles... er... angels singing. ) There is so much I want to write about but, oddly enough, first I'm going to write about one of the sessions I didn't get to attend - Mike Tanner's Beyond The Mic: The Real Work of Podcasting . Here's the thing - Mike recorded his session and posted it to his podcast (the same day!) Mike talks about starting a podcast in the same way I talk about starting a newsletter... What's the best way? What do you want to do? What can you do? Taking on too much can be a quick path to failure. If you can figure out how to fit it into your regular activities, you'll have more success. It's an important message for all of our small business activities. I encourage you to li...