Marketing and Procrastination:  3 Ways to Avoid this Potentially Deadly Combo

Many entrepreneurs procrastinate on one thing or another in the course of running their business, so if you find yourself doing this, you’re far from alone. However, when it comes to small business marketing, procrastination can lead to a lull between clients, which is bad for the health of your bottom line. Here are some ways to prevent this situation from occurring.

Create Marketing Goals & Use a Marketing System

You may have heard of the S.M.A.R.T. formula for setting goals.  Your goals should be:

S=Specific: General goals are harder to meet.
M=Measurable: How will you know when you’ve reached your goal?
A=Achievable: If your goal is too lofty, you’ll sap your will to achieve it.
R=Realistic: Make sure it’s something you can reasonably expect to attain while still pushing your boundaries.
T=Timed: It must have a firm target date.

The S.M.A.R.T. formula sets out the basics for creating effective goals.  A successful small business marketing system will include a goal setting process and provide you with both structure and the tools you need to turn your marketing goals and ideas in to productive action. In particular, a system for following up with potential clients is crucial to your overall marketing success. If you don’t have such a system, and you don’t know where to start, a business coach may be able to help.

Hold Yourself Accountable

As an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to keep your eye on the ball. There’s no one there to nudge you back on track should you start to stray. You may need someone who’s there to do exactly that – to help you to remain focused on your goals and on the “big picture”.

One way to do this is to hire a business coach. He or she can help you avoid the costly pitfalls associated with procrastination. The fact that you’re paying them for their time is an additional incentive for you to make the most of it, so when they ask you how you’re doing on your goals, you don’t want to be making excuses as to why they haven’t been reached yet. Business coaches can help you in any number of ways, but for entrepreneurs who have a tendency to procrastinate, holding you accountable might be the most valuable. Eventually, they can help you to find the root cause of this procrastination and work with you to eliminate it.

Outsource Your Small Business Marketing Tasks

Nowadays, marketing your business online can be a full-time job. If you don’t already have someone helping you with things such as blog posts, social media marketing, shopping cart maintenance, press releases and things of that sort, you owe it to yourself and your business to get some help now. This will leave you free to do what you went into business to do in the first place, and, if done correctly, can put your small business marketing system on autopilot.

Of course, every business is different, so your marketing requirements may be more or less involved than these common types of online marketing, but once you can leave the implementation to your support team, you’ll be amazed at the difference in your productivity and profits.

Clear, effective goals, a proven small business marketing system, a coach looking out for your best interests, and a dedicated marketing support team can take your business to new heights in a relatively short amount of time. Instead of procrastinating, you’ll find yourself constantly striving to achieve your goals and move your business forward.

Copyright, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

The Top 10 Ways to Grow Your Business with a

Virtual Business Manager

Every now and then you stumble upon a set of small business resources so simple – yet so revolutionary – that rapid expansion of your business is ushered in. For many of today’s small business owners and online entrepreneurs, hiring a Virtual Business Manager (Online Business Manager) is one such “big idea” whose time has come.

Imagine having a Virtual Business Manager who is responsible for the smooth functioning of your business to help you achieve your goals. Someone who while keeping an eye on the big picture, can manage all the pieces that bog you down, that you don’t do well or like doing. You’ll recapture the time and freedom you need to produce the results you want and have more work-life balance in the bargain.

Think Big

It’s critical to understand and adopt the mindset that your business is not your life. They are two separate things, according to Michael Gerber, the world’s #1 Small Business Guru, who says: “Once you recognize that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work on your business rather than in it.” You do this by spending your time ONLY on marketing developing new products and services and leadership (providing the vision and heart of your business).

Everything else should be outsourced to your Virtual Business Manager and support team or eliminated to achieve maximum profitability. Think of team building as a Profit Center instead of an expense. You will save a lot of money when you outsource tasks you pay someone less to do, plus have peace of mind knowing you will get the results you need , on time, as the tasks are being done by experts.

Virtual Assistants versus Virtual Business Managers

You may have heard of Virtual Assistants, professional independent contractors who provide cost-effective administrative and marketing services to help entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Well, a Virtual Business Manager (also known as an Online Business Manager) is similar in nature but there are two (2) key differences between the two roles:

Focus:

A Virtual Assistant focuses on completing specific tasks.

A Virtual Business Manager is a professional who brings a high-value skill set to handling important managerial duties you’d be smart to stop doing yourself. A Virtual Business Manager manages the administration, logistics, infrastructure and details of your growing online business, working in a long-term collaborative relationship with you.

Success Metrics & Level of Responsibility:

A Virtual Assistant’s success is measured by completing and delivering projects in a timely manner.

A Virtual Business Manager has a much higher level of responsibility. His/her success is measured by the successful management of your teams’ projects, their happiness, motivation and the overall smooth functioning of your business systems.

10 Ways a Virtual Business Manager Can Help You Grow Your Business

1. Implement key components of your business plan/strategies: If you’ve got a business plan your Virtual Business Manager will ensure that your plans come to fruition. With a grasp of the “big picture,” a VOM an work around obstacles before they slow you down.




2. Build and manage your virtual team(s): As you grow your business, you’ll need more than just one person – you’ll need a dedicated team of pros working for you. But you didn’t go into business to manage contractors. A Virtual Business Manager takes the minutiae of management off your plate, freeing you to do what you do best.




3. Source and manage vendors: If your business is one that relies on rock solid relationships with your vendors, you know that even the smallest snafu can set you back days and even cause you to lose customers. A Virtual Business Manager will have the time and expertise to create and maintain vendor relationships and ensure that needed items arrive on time, every time.




4. Build and manage key business relationships to increase your profits (i.e. affiliates, joint ventures): Are you convinced you can do more with your business, but you don’t have the time or expertise to check into every available avenue? Virtual Business Managers have the business acumen to cultivate joint venture and affiliate relationships that could bring in substantial residual income.




5. Implement new ideas and projects you haven’t had time to: Are you bursting with cool ideas that never see the light of day because you’re too busy making sure that your everyday operations go smoothly? With a Virtual Business Manager, you will finally have the time to pursue these ideas wherever they lead. Imagine having the freedom to take risks and try new strategies, knowing that your core business will continue to generate profits.




6. Manage projects through to successful completion: A Virtual Business Manager’s job is to see to it that your projects are completed to your specs – on time and under budget. No more juggling a bunch of projects and just waiting for someone to inevitably drop the ball. A VOM always has your goals in mind and will do everything they can to insure that they are met.




7. Create and streamline systems: Do you have standard operating procedures that you try to always follow? A VBM will streamline and enhance your procedures, and delegate them appropriately. If you don’t have any such procedures in place, you’ll realize a huge benefit, as your VBM identifies and implements time and cost-saving procedures throughout your business. A critical system a Virtual Business Manager should create, streamline and/or manage for you is your marketing system. The magic formula for marketing is doing effective activities consistently with systems. Your Virtual Business Manager can also be a sounding board, someone for you to brainstorm with, share ideas and consider options.




8. Assess and manage your customer service process to ensure you’re providing consistent and added value to your customers: It’s been proven time and again that businesses rise or fall depending on customer service, so it’s obviously in your best interest to provide the best service possible. But many times, that’s easier said than done. Imagine if you had procedures in place to ensure that no customer issues would slip through the cracks, and that customers requiring increased attention were sure to get it! Reputation is everything in the business world, and a Virtual Business Manager will help ensure that your business is seen in a positive light.




9. Money Management: It is vital for any business to keep track of their numbers on a regular basis to know if they’re making a profit. A VBM can collect the information you need to see what is going on in your business – your email lists, sales/revenue, promotion results and also expenses. A common area for improvement in a client’s business is expenses. A Virtual Business Manager can suggest ways for you to cut back on expenses.




10. Offer support and advice to automate your business with technology: Keeping abreast of the latest and most effective technologies is a full-time job in itself. A VOM will be able to filter through the maddening array of options to find the ones that will have the greatest potential to help your business, by either saving time, money or both. Automating certain tasks could allow you to reshuffle your personnel to put greater resources toward marketing and attracting more clients.

Virtual Business Managers are committed to the success of their clients. As a business owner, your VBM’s success is your success, and vice versa. It’s a collaborative relationship who’s bounds are limited only by your combined imagination!

5 Strategies to Generate a Stream of Referrals

You may already know that referral marketing (word-of-mouth) is a powerful and cost effective way to grow your small business. Many entrepreneurs face the challenge of how to get referrals. Getting referrals should be thought of as a marketing system and not a one-time activity you do when need to generate sales.

A referral marketing system is a “viral marketing” strategy. Viral marketing encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s influence and exposure.

Your referral plan should answer the following questions:

1.  WHO would be a good referral? Do you know who your ideal client is?

2. WHEN are you going to ask for referrals – at the beginning or throughout the relationship? Do you have a system for testimonials?

3. WHY should someone refer you? If you don’t know what makes you unique why should anyone else? How will you handle clients that won’t refer you?

4. HOW do you receive referrals? Do you make it easy for others to refer you? Do you have a system in place to thank referrers?

5. WHAT is your process to turn each referral into a client?

A Referral Mindset

The foundation to building your business with referrals is the mindset you bring to your marketing efforts. One of the ways to creating a success-based mindset is the mindset of service. You should look to provide value to prospects each time you come in contact with them. You must believe that you have the skills and knowledge that can help others and be generous in sharing your expertise with others. Always do more than is expected of you. When you shift into this mindset of service instead of focusing on ‘closing the sale’, you will be more successful.  Get started with these 5 referral strategies:

Referral Strategy # 1 – Team 100

Each month, identify 10 professionals who serve the same target market that you do (not direct competitors!) or that sell complimentary products/services to your offering. Send a letter informing them about your services and that you would like to develop a referral relationship with them. Within 10 months, you would have contacted 100 people and created a network to generate a stream of referrals. Feel free to go at a quicker pace of course!

Referral Strategy # 2 – Get the Word Out!

Include a request for referrals on all your marketing materials and on every piece of communication: letters, invoices, quotes, faxes, emails, ezines etc. Some ideas are:  We appreciate referrals We thrive on referrals We gladly accept referrals Thanks for your referrals We crave referrals By referral only (you do not accept any clients unless they are referred to you)

Referral Strategy # 3 – Offer a Reward

Clients may refer you if they are happy with your service, even if you do not offer a reward. However, offering a reward can speed up the process! Rewards must have value such that clients want to get them.  One way to do this is to send them a list of options so that they have a choice. A reward of $25.00 is usually acceptable. Offer this in the form of a gift certificate (ie. Amazon) or a discount coupon for your services or for your information products (ie. e-books, ecourses).

Referral Strategy # 4 – Give them Tools

Often we ask others to talk about our services but we don’t give them any tools to help them. Make it easy for your clients to refer you. You can send them three business cards and brochures. Add a “With Compliments” slip and write “For when you are talking with work colleagues or friends…”. If you prefer doing this by email, send them a short introductory message that includes their testimonial, along with your brochure and a link to your website. Send this message at least 4 times throughout the year.

Referral Strategy # 5 – Help a Worthy Cause

By offering to help a worthy cause, you can increase referrals and at the same time improve your community. You can donate a percentage of all business acquired by referral to a non-profit agency. Non-profit agencies can become strong referral partners because if they benefit from referring clients, they may be highly motivated to provide referrals to you.

Copyright, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

Yesterday I was having so much fun  creating systems and managing my client’s virtual team, that  I skipped my lunch, didn’t take my cat out for her walk and do some  personal things I planned to do.  Now, please don’t get me wrong, I’m a serious advocate for work-life balance.  I usually stick to my master calendar which gives me the balance I want,  while increasing productivity. What I am sharing with you though, is that when you do  ONLY what you love and are passionate about, you will have more energy, produce extraordinary results and have fun working.  Everything else should be eliminated or outsourced. 

Imagine the success you can achieve when you have a team where everyone does only what they’re brilliant at! Leverage your brilliance to double your income, have more freedom and create a wealthy lifestyle.  Find out how at http://www.bizsuccesspartner.com/teambuilding

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Today, more than ever, people are working online from home or using the Internet as a secondary source of income.  Generally, it takes several accounts to access the different providers and services necessary to make any online venture profitable.  Internet marketing alone may mean dozens or hundreds of usernames and passwords-which can be very difficult to remember and keep organized. Thus, among many resources for small business, a must-have tool for increasing productivity is Password Manager software.

How Good is Your Memory?

At first, you may try remembering all of your usernames and passwords.  But, it will not be long before you have so many that they get all scrambled up in your head.  Thus, you can spend a lot of wasted time trying to remember the right combination.  If the password cannot be sent to your email address, you may even have to set up a new account, which wastes your valuable time and is very frustrating.

Of course, a lot of people implement the infamous sticky note to keep track of their passwords.  It would be great, but there are two major drawbacks. What good does it have to safeguard your private information, if anyone can check out your sticky notes?  Second, what happens if you lose them?

Automation is the Key

Resources for entrepreneurs are meant for increasing productivity and making the job easier.  But, what good is it to have all of these online resources, if you cannot access them immediately?  If you can identify with this time consuming and frustrating dilemma of constantly searching for passwords, then you need Password Manager software that securely stores data in an encrypted form.

As far as software programs are concerned, this is one of the best small business resources available on the market today.  Now, you can let your computer be your memory, increasing productivity and simplifying your outreach to the online world. You can have as many accounts as you need.  It is like having an office manager without having to pay a salary.

If you’re an entrepreneur with an online business, you should always be looking for small business resources and strategies to get more done with less effort, increasing productivity and your profits. 

With great  Password Managers, you will have the ability to:

1.  Manage your login information
2.  Auto fill your forms
3.  Store Information securely
4.  Create a master password
5.  Have secure search engine access
6.  Have passwords set for you
7. Create safenotes (write notes that you can password protect)
8.  Bookmark (save and manage) your favourite websites

With a Password Manager, increasing productivity is easy  because it saves you  the time needed to access and make accounts.  The software will automatically remember your login information, so you no longer have to pause and try to remember how to access an account.  When you have forms to fill out in order to set up a new account, Password Managers can do that for you in the blink of an eye.

Password Managers can also set up a master password that will give you access to all of your accounts without a hassle; and the software will safely and securely store all of your pertinent information. Password Manager software can even generate secure  passwords for you which is absolutely critical to protect your data.  There are several elements  that are necessary to create a secure password – using your personal data is not secure. If you’re not using secure passwords, it’s like locking your door and leaving the key under the doormat.

If you want to simplify how you work, save tons of time and frustration, Password Manager software is one of the best small business resources available. You’ll have an automated assistant to remember all of your vital password details, create secure passwords to protect your data, create new accounts quickly and so much more! A Password Manager is a must-have tool for increasing productivity working online.
 
Copyright, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

Put Your Passwords on Speed Dial with Roboform!
 Free 30 day Trial: http://www.bizsuccesspartner.com/recommends/roboform

I often hear from entrepreneurs that they’re challenged with how to train their Virtual Assistant (or team member) effectively – to communicate exactly what they want done,  in the easiest and fastest way possible.

A simple training process that I use is the  5 step PEDAF technique. Educational and learning theory shows that the use of all 5 senses along with spaced repetition, increases the trainee’s understanding and retention. The PEDAF technique reinforces learning by tapping into 3 of our 5 senses.  The reason why many entrepreneurs don’t get the results they want with delegating is because they only do 1 of the 5 steps.

Today, I used the “Demonstrate” component of the technique which reinforces the trainee’s visual sense. It may not be relevant to use this with every task you delegate, but use it as often you can.  Your objective would be to show your Virtual Assistant (VA) what you want the end result to look  like  and/or what steps they need to take to complete a task .

For example, if you need your VA to do paperwork for you, show her what a completed form looks like. Or if you want your website or document to be formatted to look a certain way, show her an example(s) of what you like – make sure that you’re both looking at the same thing.  Today, I created a video  of a task I did on my computer to train my VA on  a new task.  I recorded step by step audio instructions, using Camstudio (a free and easy to use software).

Note that if you hire your Best Fit tm VA, she/he will often know the process to use to accomplish many of your tasks (ie. article marketing, social media marketing). However, there are things that you will want done a specific way – your way, and demonstrating what you want done will ensure success.

This technique is included in my Delegation Success Formula that I teach in my ‘Leverage Your Brilliance Team Building Program’.  If you’d like to  grow your business by leaps and bounds and have more free time with team building,  schedule a Free consultation with me at:
http://www.bizsucccesspartner.com/consultation

Online Faxing is an essential resource for small business owners. It’s another tool in the arsenal of a successful entrepreneur. It will allow you to work smarter, not harder, and save the time and expense associated with plain-paper faxing.

Here are some of the benefits of using an online fax service:

* Simple: Send faxes to any fax machine (or virtual fax number) worldwide using the web or email. All you need is Internet access and an email address – no hardware or software required. Receive faxes directly in your existing email inbox.

* Reliable & Mobile: Never miss another fax again. Online faxing is available 24/7 and it goes where you go. Fax by email from work or home. Send wireless faxes from the road using your handheld device. You can access real-time reports online anytime, and receive email notifications of the status of your faxes.

* Saves you money: Online faxing has become one of the cheapest resources for small businesses available today. It eliminates the need for a fax machine, fax supplies, a separate phone line for faxing, and costly maintenance. You can sign up for an online fax service and pay as little as 8 cents per fax. If you go over the monthly contract limit, you’ll still pay only pennies on the dollar.

* Saves you time: Once you send your fax you can forget about it. No more redialing if the fax number is busy. Your online fax service will do that for you. You can send to multiple recipients at one time. Fax confirmations are emailed to you so you don’t have to walk back to the fax machine to wait for confirmations. Also, you can pre-schedule faxes. Schedule them to be sent at a time that is most convenient for the person receiving the fax.

Some other great features include:

* Store your faxes online.
* Fax from multiple email addresses.
* Get a real local or toll free fax number in cities throughout Canada and the United States, sometimes at no additional cost.
* Send a fax to many of your business contacts simultaneously.
* Voice Broadcasting: once you experience the ability to contact all of your customers or business contacts with a single voice call, you will never want to go back to a traditional fax service.

Several online fax companies offer similar services, but at the very minimum, you want to ensure the program you choose:

* Offers 24/7 customer support
* Offers toll free and local fax numbers
* Offers competitive pricing plans
* Offers a NO RISK trial period

So, now you know. Online faxing is one of the most useful resources for small businesses today. Time is money, and online faxing saves both. It’s one of those small business resources that is vital to your entrepreneurial success.

Online faxing is an essential small business resource if you want to save money and work smarter. MyFax is an award-winning Internet fax service that lets you send and receive faxes through your email. MyFax provides exceptional value, a great low monthly price of $10 per month, and 24/7 customer support. Plus, you get 300 fax pages free every month!
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Giving feedback to your team members is critical to your delegation and virtual team building success. You need give clear, specific feedback and establish frequent check in and feedback methods to manage the process. The type of feedback that you give will vary according to the level of delegated authority you use for each situation (you’d never guess there are 8!) and when you’re just beginning to delegate, your check-ins and feedback should be more frequent and very specific.

I just hired a new Virtual Assistant to help me with marketing. I already have an experienced VA who does this for me but decided it was best to leverage her expertise for other marketing tasks. I could have hired an experienced VA who can hit the ground running, which is what I recommend to my clients. However, because I used to do article marketing and I evaluated my new VA as an ‘A player’, I decided to invest in training her.

Below is my feedback I emailed to her this morning about her first task. The level of delegated authority I am using as I train her is the lowest level of delegated freedom: ‘wait to be told/ do exactly as I say/follow these instructions precisely is’. Here’s why this feedback will result in a successful outcome :

1. Gives clear, specific details
2. Reinforces what she is doing right, will motivate her
3. Asks for her feedback
4. Reinforces check-ins
5. Improves systems

“Marie, for author resource box, you are correct in entering the default standard version for the GoArticles.com site since we can’t enter a different resource box for each article – great job! However, please note that you should have entered the HTML version since this site accepts html resource boxes.  I forgot to mention to you when we spoke that when opening a new article marketing account, you should look in the Publisher Guidelines to see if there are any specific instructions re submitting articles (apart from those I gave you).  The guidelines for this site said ‘URLs in the resource box should be set as hyperlinks.’  so  you need to enter the HTML version.

Also,  please update the submission process document with this step: “When opening a new article marketing account, check Publisher guidelines first before submitting article, to ensure that we comply.’ And as we discussed, if there are no instructions re html resource boxes, always enter the html version first and if it isn’t accepted ,  use the plain text version.  Enter this information about each site on our article submission report under ‘Comments’ section that we spoke about and use this revised spreadsheet to work from as I’ve entered some comments for you. If you have any questions, as usual, let me know and continue to email me updates daily. We are making great progress, thanks!”

So now, I can move on to other tasks, knowing that my VA has everything she needs to move forward. I don’t need to think about this anymore until I hear from her.

Feedback, feedback, feedback – VERY  important when delegating! It’s one of the key components of my Business My Way Delegation Success Formula tm  that ensures you get the results you want every time.

Delegate your way to success!