Run Your Business. Don’t Let It Run You!

Time. As an entrepreneur, that is the most valuable asset that you have—especially if you’re a multi-tasking micro enterprise. Therefore, you need find ways to truly manage you time. Here’s what I recommend:

Set up a work schedule and stick to it!

There are, of course, many ways to set a schedule but if you’re handling most of the business operations yourself, consider breaking up your weekly work schedule into three main areas: (1) Prospecting / Sales, (2) Client Work, and (3) Administrative Tasks.

Breaking Down Your Work Week…

I suggest cornering off two days per week for prospecting / sales task. (Tuesday & Thursday, perhaps.) Having a specific amount of time set aside for prospective provides greater opportunities for you to meet with clients while still maintaining some order to your overall work schedule. Whether you’re on the phone making cold calls, meeting with potential clients, or networking, scheduling time for prospecting is a MUST!

Next, reserve off two and a half days per week (say, all of Monday and Wednesday, and half of Friday) for completing client work. That’s it. All you’re to do on those days (unless it’s a absolute “can’t do it later” emergency) is to crank away at completing the work you’ve already got.

Finally, the last half day of the week. If you set your schedule as described above, that would be on Friday. Invoicing should be done each day as applicable but other administrative task should be done on this half day. This will be the day to handle all of the administrative tasks that are easy to get behind on but that do not require immediate attention; things like recording mileage for meeting, paying vendor bills, entering payroll data, working on the marketing plan tactics you’ve established for your business, etc. I recommend doing client work during the first part of the day and the administrative work the second half. Customers come first, right? (They should!)

An Alternative Schedule…

If it’s not feasible for you to dedicate full days to various tasks, consider segmenting your days so that you’re able to do a little bit of everything each day. Here’s a sample schedule:

• 8a – 10a
  Complete all administrative tasks (Organizing of paperwork, invoicing, payroll, making bank deposits, bookkeeping, etc.)
  
  
• 10a – 12p
  Prospecting calls, client meetings, and appointment setting. (NOTE: This block of time may have to shift daily, depending on client / customer availability…so be prepared to be somewhat be flexible!)
  
  
• 12p – 1p
  Lunch
  
  
• 1p – 5:30p
  Work on client projects / fulfilling customer’s order
  
  
• 5:5:30 – 6p
  Plan what you’ll need to do during each block of time for the following day.

This alternative schedule does come with a warning: This route is not for everyone! Splitting up your workday in this way will take extreme discipline.

Regardless of whether you follow a day-to-day schedule or a segmented daily schedule, the key to successfully getting everything done will be being cognizant of time. There will be times that you’ll get off schedule or need to extend your workday. When that happens, adjust. However, do think about ways that you can minimize your need “adjust” in the future. Otherwise, the business will run you instead of you running your business! You don’t want schedule adjusting to become your norm instead of your schedule. You will also have to stave off distractions—from clients as well as family / friends—that may interfere with your schedule. After all, time is money so as an entrepreneur you’ve got to make the best use of your time to earn that all-important mighty dollar!

Free Marketing Tactics Every Local Business Should Employ

It costs to market a business…but it doesn’t have to cost money ALL of the time. In some cases, the cost can be limited to time. Those “cases” are particularly important for new businesses that have limited marketing funds and cater primarily to local consumers. Since the number of new businesses is on the rise, most of them serving the local community, I thought I’d take a minute to highlight a few free marketing tactics that new local businesses can use to begin rounding up customers. So, without further delay, here are my top three marketing tactics that I believe every local business should invest (time) in…

Be a Host

The benefit of being a host is that it allows you to take part in experiential marketing; it provides you with an opportunity to invite others to experience you, your office / store and your products / services. So, if it’s at all possible, I recommend that you give being a host a try.

There are two ways that you can be a host. The first way is to hold your own event. For example, you may decide to offer a workshop, seminar or demonstration designed to inform potential customers about your products / services while providing value to them. Alternatively, you may host a social event that is designed primarily to brand your business and familiarize customers with your business without the sales edge. However, if you decide to go this route, understand that planning and promoting an event can be hard work in itself…especially if you’re low on cash.

If you’re not up for hosting an event on your own, consider the second way to be a host: Partner with an organization. The key to hosting events in this way is finding organizations that target audiences you’d like to attract to your business. Once you find those organizations, you can offer your building / store / office space as a locale for one of their events. This is a great way to reap the benefits of being a host while minimizing your event-related responsibilities.

Toot Your Own Horn

Media exposure is one of the best forms of marketing a business can have…but there’s a catch: The media is a diva! Small businesses solicit the media, not the other way around—at least, not when it comes to positive news stories, that is. So, tooting your own horn is my cutesy way of saying that if you want to capitalize on the potential benefits of media exposure, you’ve got to write news releases. However, you cannot just write the news release about anything related to your business; it must be newsworthy.

What’s considered newsworthy?

Well, that depends on the local media outlets to which you plan to submit your news release. However, generally speaking, newsworthy means that the information you’re conveying via your news release is relevant to the media outlet’s audience; the information must benefit the local community in some way for the media to consider it newsworthy and your news release should demonstrate how the news you’re sharing is a benefit to the media outlet’s audience. FYI: If you’re hosting an event, ALWAYS send a news release prior to the event to improve your chances of news coverage! It doesn’t guarantee that the media will cover your event, but it definitely increases your chances.

Befriend Google

If you didn’t know, Google is more than just a top search engine. The company also offers several tools to help business owners to promote themselves. Three free Google tools that can be particularly beneficial for you business owners who sell to local customers are Google Local Business Center, Google Sites and YouTube.

Google Local Business Center allows you to create a business listing and offer coupons. Customers can then print the coupons and bring them into your business or, if you enable the mobile option, they can simply show you the coupon when they visit! Meanwhile, Google Sites allows you to set up a free basic Web site to give your business a Web presence. (NOTE: Since Google Sites is template-based, the capabilities are limited but the features are sufficient to build a good informational Web site that gives an overview of your business.) As for YouTube, you can use this resource to create your on channel on which you can post commercials, seminar / workshop clips, tips of the day, demonstrations, answers to customer questions, etc. Any of those types of posts can help to draw attention to your business.

The common thread with each of these marketing tactics is that you, the business owner, are completely in control of the cost. You can certainly execute all of them in a professional manner without spending a dime. However, the greater benefit is that they are tactics that you can expand on once you do have a budget to invest in frills that will enhance whatever you’re doing. On a final note: Regardless of how much you spend (or don’t spend) on a marketing tactic, make sure that you’re putting your best face forward because whatever you do will reflect on you / your business. Okay, enough talk. It’s time for you to get back to work!

Do you have a marketing or self-publishing question you’d like me to answer? Email me and let me know. After all, I can’t answer a question that hasn’t been asked, can I? Right? So, send me an email!

Website Design: Custom or Cookie-Cutter?

There are those out there who believe that a cookie-cutter website (aka stock template-based website) is just as good as a custom-designed website. To all of those folks, I say, “Hogwash!”

I’m in Marketing / Advertising and in my world, anything that a business can do to differentiate themselves from the competition gives them a leg up. I’ll admit that it’s highly unlikely that a web surfer will find two websites in a particular industry with the exact same template but it can happen. (I’ve actually done it myself in one sitting!) And really, web surfers are savvy these days and are more adept at recognizing a custom site versus a template. With that said, I say build a custom website if you’re able to because it's always the best way to go in order to have complete control over how your company is branded on the web.

Many custom website design companies offer hosting and domain services. That’s the ideal provider because there’s definitely something to be said for dealing with one vendor for all your website needs. Some firms even offer content writing services as an add-on but beware! The writers may or may not be professional copywriters. So, be sure to ask to see sample website copy when you’re asking to see design samples if you need both website design & copywriting.

Now, admittedly, custom website design can be expensive. Therefore, if the price is too steep for custom website design, your alternatives are to:

(a) Purchase a template that you can customize and upload to your hosting provider

or

(b) Use a template provided through a company that offers website builders along with hosting services.

The former is a better option than the latter because companies that sell template for use tend to limit the number of purchases for each template, thereby significantly decreasing the number of possible businesses that have the same design. (Check out: http://www.templatemonster.com to see samples of the semi-custom templates.) If your budget for a website is next to nil, then you can go for the full cookie-cutter website. Again, that would not be the first recommendation to a client I was consulting but in business, the budget always rules. And in the case of a tight budget, a cookie-cutter website is better than no website at all!