As business owners we are always looking for opportunities to promote our businesses and the products and services we provide.
Without such promotion where would we be?
Less known and less profitable, that’s certain. [Read more…] about Values vs. Sales, Is The Timing ALWAYS Right?
More and more business is handled over phone lines and screen-share. Well planned, these are brilliant ways to do business. If you miss important details, however, it can really take away from the experience. Those details have a way of seeming insignificant when two or more parties who haven’t met in person try to become conversational without facial cues. It can get awkward real fast. Don’t you just love it when someone tries to break the tension with a really poor joke or comment? That helps, right? Not.
Time may be a luxury you’re not used to taking, but the truth of the matter is that preparation is going to take a little time. Time is a necessary component. Without taking those minutes to think about objectives, roles and time frames, it can be too easy to have a misunderstanding between teammates or even between your company and your client.
Do you write your own Web site and blog content? Your own articles? If you are paying to have your content written, consider the source.
There’s an old saying that still holds true – you get what you pay for. If you purchase from freelance writing boards and only offer low-ball pay, you may end up with regurgitated content that was previously written for someone else, or student work.
Not that you can’t find good writers on a freelance job board, of course you can. But some writers who are willing to work for less may not believe your project is worth their best effort. If you do hire off of a job board, offer a decent rate of pay for the job to be done. This benefits everyone and gets you closer to the writer who knows what good content is worth and is willing to do a great job if paid fairly. This is a business.
If you’re a smaller residential service company, chances are you create your own fliers and marketing materials. It’s likely you create your own business cards and order your invoices and time cards from a company that also offers t-shirts, baseball caps, and embroidered name tag button-down shirts. It’s affordable. You get to have the appearance of a legitimate company and no one selling you pricey services and telling you how your message needs to sound to your clients. Certainly, these things are important for you to stay in control of your costs and your reputation.
Or is it? [Read more…] about How Much DO You Spend on Marketing?
Social media forums like Facebook and Twitter offer brilliant free marketing for small businesses when used strategically, but there are a handful of things I’ve begun to hate, I mean…er…strongly dislike when it comes to socializing on those platforms. They are, sadly, things I could have done better or understood more fully if I had made it my entire life for a set period of time. I couldn’t, and can’t, and I’ll assume that you don’t have that kind of time, either. I really do work, and because I write for my living, quiet thought is my friend. That means long hours of intense mulling over and reading (the one thing I love about Twitter, by the way – things I read and learn from what is posted there.)
Please learn from my mistakes. I committed these social media crimes knowing full well what I was doing, and thought in time these problems would rectify themselves. They haven’t. And now I’m paying the price for poor planning. [Read more…] about I’m Guilty: 6 Social Media Sins
Throughout the year, I receive requests from groups and organizations seeking product donations and sponsorships for events. These events are primarily related to the hobby industry, more specifically to scale modeling. I support as many events as possible, but there are times I simply toss the request in the trash because the request was written by a boob.
Some authors come across as simply begging. Others don’t know the name of their own organization or how to spell it properly. A word of advice: If you’re running a first-class event, take the time and effort to send out first-class marketing materials, even if all you’re sending is simply a well-worded letter.
[Read more…] about Take Another Look at Your Event Marketing Materials
