FrontLine Results Blog : Hints & Tips for Small Businesses

Is your marketing mixed up?

At recent talks and workshops I’ve been sharing the benefits of using online marketing to gain more business.  It seems that many business owners are waking up to the fact that they need to do more than rely on word of mouth!

However, although the internet has revolutionised the way we do business, it mustn’t be regarded as a replacement for the traditional, or offline marketing that works so well.

We will always need to meet people face to face at networking events; to pick up the phone for a quick chat; and to use good old-fashioned snail mail as part of our overall strategy.

I’ve noticed some business owners are looking to the internet for miracles, and expecting them to happen straight away!  But just as most offline methods rely on constant and consistent reminders to clients & prospects, so do blogging, tweeting, SEO and Email marketing, before you see tangible results.

The main, and most exciting, difference that online marketing brings to us as owners of small businesses is the ability to reach a much wider audience, very quickly, for a modest financial outlay, and to get our message out there in many more ways than were possible just a few short years ago. 

What’s in your marketing mix?

Does your work space work for you?

What’s on your desk right now?  Do you operate a ‘clear desk’ policy where everything is put away each night,  do you keep your latest project files ready to work on or is there so much paper and post-it notes that you can’t actually see your desk underneath it all?

One of the reasons I’m asking is that my desk has recently been invaded!  I bought a new ergonomic keyboard to use with my laptop and a platform to raise the laptop screen to my eye level.  While all this is great for more comfortable computer work my clear desk space has really shrunk!

Another reason I’m asking about your desk space is because it tells a lot about how you work.  A chaotic desk is often a sign that you’re trying to work on too many projects at once – or it could be you’re having trouble prioritising because everything seems to be equally urgent.

A lesson I learned from time management coach Mark Forster in his excellent book Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, is to gather all the ‘work in progress’ files together and ‘declare a backlog’.  Don’t panic, you’re not forgetting about the work, just placing it out of sight to give yourself some breathing space.

If you now regard the backlog as a project, the next step is to do something on it first thing every day.  That means before you check your emails or make any phone calls! 

You’ve probably guessed that this has the effect of making the whole backlog into your number 1 priority.  And by taking action on it every day you’ll find it gets finished more quickly than if you had left it covering your desk.

Still overwhelmed and now ......

... I’m a little bit cross, and it isn’t just the hot weather!  You may remember that, as part of my goal to reduce the amount of overwhelming information I receive, I unsubscribed to all but those email newsletters I enjoy reading and find useful. 

Using Microsoft Outlook, I also spent a while creating rules to send these newsletters to folders as they came in.  My reasoning was twofold – first to keep my Inbox clear from all but client correspondence and any new or urgent enquiries; and secondly to be able to read the newsletters at a time convenient to me.

For a while it worked very well.  And then, last week I noticed some sneaky mailing tactics were being employed, with the result that certain newsletters and promotions were bypassing the ‘rules’ and arriving in my Inbox once again.

If you use Outlook Mail Rules, you’ll know that you have to specify either the sender or the subject of the email to set one up.  As the subject line of email newsletters is likely to be different each time, I set up the rules using the senders’ names.

I’ve identified the service that is annoying me as one used by many marketers and newsletter publishers.  Each mailing now has a unique sender ID, thus bypassing my carefully crafted rules!  I haven’t given up on beating this automated service, but I am a little bit cross at needing to spend more time sorting out something I thought was done and dusted.

Hey! Don't forget the pay back

If you work from home, or you’re the boss of your business, one of the perks is being able to organize the day how you want to. 

No longer tied to being at work from 9-5, it’s wonderful to be able to do the shopping when there aren’t any queues at the checkouts; to visit the gym or golf course and take things at your own pace.  And if you fancy doing some work in the garden while the weather’s good, you can.

So far so idyllic!  But.... you knew there was a ‘but’ coming, didn’t you? 

.... sometimes we can get a bit carried away with the freedom of an unstructured day and this can become unproductive, even chaotic if we’re not careful.

One of the changes I recommend to coaching clients when we work on improving their productivity, is to keep a record of those personal hours taken during their core working day and make sure to pay them back to the business.  So, if you take 2 hours out to go to the gym (don’t forget to include travel time), then you need to repay that 2 hours, perhaps by working later in the evening than you normally would.

Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you don’t need to impose some rules about the number of hours you’re going to work, and to make sure you don’t short change either your business or yourself.

Do you have a set working day or just put in as many hours on your business as you can?  I’d be interested to know what works for you.

Don't wait until it's too late

With the very sad news of Michael Jackson’s sudden death last week came the predictable, and understandable, outpourings of grief; testaments to his musical genius; sharing of personal memories and the lament of opportunities now lost forever.

MJ’s music has been playing almost non-stop, reminding us of the astonishing scale and diversity of his talent and musical output. 

His greatest hits album ’Number Ones’ rocketed from 121 to the top of the UK album chart after a surge in sales since Thursday.   The same album was his last number one when first released in 2003 and some of his other albums have raced up the charts too.   Read the full story here.

While I sincerely hope that MJ’s children benefit from the play royalties and proceeds of all those sales, isn’t it a shame that they come now it is too late to lift the worry of financial ruin from their father's shoulders?

I nearly didn’t write this blog post because I dislike the idea of jumping on such a distastefully morbid bandwagon. The reason I’m writing this now is because, with the sad story still prominent, my reflections will hopefully make more sense than if I wait until later.  Which is also the point of this post.

Sudden losses can mean guilt for those left behind if they didn’t tell a deeply loved relative or friend just how much they are loved and appreciated, while they still had the chance to do so. 
Who are you going tell how much you love & appreciate them, today?

We often believe we have all the time in the world to fulfil our ambitions and dreams, when the reality is very different.
What dreams are you going to start making real, today?

Waiting until the time is right before embarking on a new project usually means it doesn’t get started.
What’s the first step of your new project that you’re going to take, today?

It can take life-changing events to force us to evaluate what we’ve achieved so far, and how satisfied we are with the results.
What changes do you need to make, beginning right now?

Whatever you've been putting off, please do it now.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Are you on target?

Unbelievably we’re already half way through 2009!   I’ve always found this to be a good time to check and reflect on the progress made so far towards both my business targets.  And as it’s my birthday early in July, I also like to review how I’m doing with my personal goals since the previous year!

What I do is set aside some quiet time (usually over a weekend) to do a bit of self-coaching. I turn off the phones and select a CD to accompany my thoughts. 

Here’s a sample from the questions I’ll be reflecting on:

• Is this still a valid goal?
• How will I feel at the end of the year if I don’t reach this?
• What actions do I need to take to get back on track?
• What outside help or extra resources do I need?
• What would Richard Branson do?
• What one thing will I do today to start getting back on track?

If you’re reviewing your progress so far and gearing up for the next 6 months, I hope you’ll find these questions useful.  And if you need any help, just give me a call!

Do your customers see you?

It’s rather unfortunate but our customers can be a fickle bunch!  Oh, they’re very nice when they meet you, and then a couple of months later you hear they’re working with one of your competitors!  If you want to reduce the likelihood of that happening, then you need to make sure you’re the person they think of calling – and you do that by keeping yourself visible.

While Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging are great tools for communicating quickly and reaching a wider audience and will help to increase your visibility, they work best when done in addition to some of the more traditional marketing methods.  Here are some of my favourites:

• Write a regular newsletter (email or printed) and actively build your list of readers
• Go to networking meetings and remind people what you do (and that you’re still around!)
• Set up a system to follow up with your prospects and contacts
• Have a keep in touch campaign for your customers - present & past (different to the previous point)
• Pick up the phone!  It’s easy to fire off an email but you still can’t beat a more personal approach.

What works best for you to stay visible to your prospects and clients?

Help - I found another Overwhelm 'Monster'!

What I’m finding out is this is an ongoing, rather than a one-off project!  No sooner do I think I’ve got this monster tamed than it grows another head and threatens to overwhelm me again.

The latest monster crept up on me while I was busy planning!  I have a stack of 5 trays on a shelf behind me that started overflowing with paper.  Do you know where it all comes from?  I certainly don’t.  But I’d got into the habit of throwing stuff in the top tray ‘to deal with later’.  Big mistake!  Before I knew it the tray was full.  My concern was that there might be something urgent at the bottom, and I’d miss a deadline. 

At the weekend I went through the contents of all the trays to find out what was lurking.  Fortunately it turned out there was nothing urgent and the piles of paper were soon reduced to current work, with everything else either filed or recycled.

In an attempt to stop this happening again, I’ve made room for the top tray (the biggest problem) on my desk so I can see it and avoid its contents building up.  That’s the theory anyway! 

The rest of the story so far
I’ve ruthlessly reduced the number of email newsletters arriving in my Inbox.  That’s ongoing and the one-out, one-in policy is working well.

I finally got around to writing down a list of business development projects, prioritised them in order of which will bring the best return and selected just 3 to work on.

What’s next?
This story is far from finished, in fact I think it’s going to run and run!  The next challenge is to actually get the first projects on the list finished, and make sure I don’t get swamped by new information coming in while I’m working on them.

How do you tame the amount of information flowing into your business?  I’d love to hear from you.

Stop Comparing Yourself!

Have you ever been at a networking event, chatting to a business contact and listened, with a smile fixed on your face and a sinking feeling in your stomach, as they told you about all the new clients they’ve taken on?  While of course you’re pleased for them, at the back of your mind have you wondered why you aren’t having the same success?

It’s a perfectly natural reaction to compare your situation with theirs – but it can also be very damaging to your self-esteem.  It can pull you off track from your marketing efforts as you scramble to find ways of increasing business in a hurry.

If you have a carefully worked out marketing plan, then you know the results you can expect over the next few months.  To change your plans suddenly, without a valid reason, will endanger those results and leave your marketing activities in disarray.  They are not you and their business is not yours.

It could be that their recent influx of new clients is the culmination of months of marketing effort (which you don’t even know about).  It’s a bit like comparing fuel consumption when they drive a Ford Ka and you’re in a Range Rover!

By all means find out what marketing methods are working well for your contact, but don’t compare their results to yours unless you are comparing like for like.

Have you got room for new business?

Now that may sound like a strange question, especially if you haven’t got enough clients at the moment.  But don’t think it doesn’t apply to you.

If you have a cluttered office, a backlog of work or unfinished projects you need to take notice.

How on earth are you going to have room for more business if you’re working in a disorganised muddle?

Start by clearing up your backlog and throwing out (or selling?) that unwanted clutter.  Get those unfinished projects under control and work on finishing them – one at a time!

The best way I’ve found is to do a little bit every day, even if I only manage 15 minutes.  It’s a lot easier than waiting until Friday and being face with over an hour to get through (especially if it’s filing or accounts!)  But usually once I get started, I end up doing more than 15 minutes and the job gets finished quicker than I though. 

The key here is focus.  Just concentrate on finishing one task or project.  The sense of achievement as you complete each one is greater!

If you haven’t got enough clients just now, try getting organised, clear up your unfinished jobs and make room for that new business!