The other day I called a client and the receptionist told me he wasn’t in, so I asked her to transfer me to voice mail. She told me the company didn’t have voice mail because the owner thought it was too impersonal. I wanted to ask her if she used an IBM Selectric instead of a computer, or carbon paper instead of a copier, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

Voice mail is invaluable to most companies, but is only as effective as the person using it. Consider these 5 ways to make voice mail more effective.

1. Help callers save time

When you record your voice mail message, let the caller know within the first few seconds whether or not he or she can bypass it. Long, boring messages are annoying, and most of the time callers don’t listen to them anyway. Instead of wasting callers’ time by making them listen to a long message, give each person the option to go straight to the tone.

2. Communicate clearly

Your outgoing message should be short, simple, and professional. Don’t forget to include your website address to help callers get more information about your company. Also include your e-mail address to give callers another way to contact you. If you notice that you get the same question day after day, add that answer to your voice mail.

3. Check your message

Don’t assume that your message is flawless. After you record your message, listen to it to make sure there aren’t any unwanted background noises and that your voice sounds clear. One of my clients didn’t realize that her dog was howling in the other room while she recorded her outgoing message. A few weeks later, one of her friends filled her in and she recorded it again while siting in her car.

4. Stop playing games

At the end of your message, ask the caller for the best time to return his or her call. Make sure you do the same when you leave messages for others. This will help you avoid phone tag, and if you don’t want to talk to that person, you can call during the times they said that they wouldn’t be available.

5. Be selective

Not all voice mail systems hold an unlimited number of messages. Instead of saving all of your messages, do something with them. After you write down or enter the message and number, erase it. Otherwise, callers may get a message that your voice mailbox is full.

How do you make your voice mail more effective?

When I worked in a corporate office — I’ve tried to block out that part of my life — a vendor called my office and thought I was the receptionist. He was rude, condescending and had no trouble showing his true colors.

He never knew why, but I did business with his competitor instead of with him.

No matter how talented you are, or how great your business reputation is, at some point you’re going to have to get past business gatekeepers. Consider these three gate-crashing tips.

Don’t push harder

When you can’t get through to someone, your first thought may be to push harder. Instead of making progress, you’ll aggravate the person on the other end of the line. At that point you essentially squelch any chance you may have had of seeing or talking with the person they’re protecting. And by the way, yelling, “Don’t you know who I am?” rarely works.

Make a list

If you don’t know it already, personal assistants and receptionists should be at the top of your list…the “be extra nice” list. They’re the gatekeepers and they can mean the difference between letting your calls go through, answering your e-mails, and giving you access to key contacts.

Get to know the gatekeeper

The more you call a company to try to reach a key contact, take the time to get to know the gatekeeper’s name. It’s even better if you can learn more about him or her. Keep good notes and when you call, ask the gatekeeper about his or her kids, talk about the weather, or ask the person about anything else to keep the conversation going.

Gatekeepers can make your business life a bit easier. By taking the time to get to know the person who can potentially block your way, you can break down barriers between you and your key contacts.

How do you get past gatekeepers?

One of my clients had to do damage control when her marketing department kept dropping the ball on large projects. She figured out that the marketing manager’s staff had stopped reading his e-mails.  He was a frustrated writer who couldn’t resist sending long e-mails to his staff, instead of sending clear, easy-to-read messages.

E-mail is an effective and time-saving way to communicate with others, especially when it takes the place of meetings and calls, but writing clearly is important. There are a six ways to make your e-mail messages more effective.

1. Educate instead of impress

Instead of using words that no one knows or ever uses, use simple words. When one word will do, use it. Normally when you try to impress someone, it usually backfires. You may think you’re coming across one way while the person reading your e-mail has no idea what you’re trying to say.

2. Proofread, check spelling, and then proofread again

One of the best ways to come across as unprofessional is to send e-mails filled with typos. Spellcheck will help you catch obvious mistakes, but it won’t catch words that you’re using the wrong way, for example “for” instead of “four” or “to” instead of “too.”  Read every e-mail again before you push send.

3. Keep your e-mails short and to the point

If you have to send a long e-mail, make it easy to read by using bulleted points, bold type, or italics to emphasize key points. No one wants to read a long e-mail, especially when the main message is buried somewhere in the middle. Say what you need to say and then move on.

4. Make it easy to respond to your e-mail messages

Your client probably will respond to your e-mail with another e-mail, but he or she may want to call you instead. Add a signature line to each e-mail that includes your name, company name, phone number, e-mail address and website address. Also — and I know it’s common sense — make sure your contact information is correct.

5. Know the best way to communicate

When dealing with clients, find out whether e-mail is the way they want you to communicate with them. I know it’s hard to believe, but some people rarely check their e-mail and unlike me, they’d rather talk on the phone. They may also prefer to text instead.

6. Limit the number of e-mails you send to a client

Your client may need project updates or other information, but contacting them too often may border on being annoying, rather than being efficient. It’s important to stay in contact with your clients, yet it’s also important to respect their time. Just as my client’s staff stopped paying attention to e-mails from their boss, clients will stop opening e-mails after they get too many from you.

E-mail is a time-saving way to communicate but only works when others read them. Make sure your clients and others who work with you not only receive your e-mails, but open them.

What do you do to make your e-mails more effective?

source: schipulites

My friend’s grandma used to say, “Don’t do special for me.” She didn’t want anyone to make a fuss over her because she knew her family cared and they didn’t need to prove it to her.

What about your clients? Do they know you care? Meeting your clients’ needs, completing their projects on time, and helping their business grow is part of your commitment to your clients. It’s also one way to show them indirectly that you truly take an interest in them.

Consider these five easy, inexpensive, yet more direct ways to show your clients that you care.

#1 Congratulate your clients on milestone events

When a client is celebrating a birthday, anniversary or a promotion, you can send an e-card, but a card you send via snail mail can mean even more. Don’t just sign the card…include a short, personal note. Although you’ll want to acknowledge happy occasions, don’t forget the sad ones. One of my clients recently lost her husband to cancer, so I sent her a card and made a donation to the charity included in her husband’s obituary. It was a small gesture but I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her during a difficult time for her and her family.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

source: discoodoni

A friend of mine keeps as many promises as she breaks. Why are we still friends? The main reason is that the promises she makes to me aren’t important.

When she promises to meet me for coffee, I enter the time in my iPhone and then before I leave my house, I send her a text to confirm. Sometimes she remembers and sometimes she doesn’t.

While those broken promises aren’t earth-shattering and haven’t affected our friendship, if she did the same thing to her clients, her client list were dry up. To a client, any broken promise is important, so you need to do what you can to keep every promise you make.

Start with these tips.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver

A huge corporate client with a large budget may tempt you to make promises you can’t keep, and add more to your plate than you can handle. Before you say yes to a request from a big client, take a close look at your current schedule and decide whether or not you have time to complete the job. Don’t forget to consider if you’re even the right person to handle the project. If not, recommend someone else who can help your client.

Prioritize your projects and clients

The minute you sit down at your desk each morning, make sure you have a clear idea of the tasks and projects that need your attention that day. Start by reviewing your list of ongoing projects. Bringing in new clients is important, but don’t forget about your existing clients. If a prospect calls you and you accept the project, how will the new client affect the attention and service your current clients expect? Will you be able to do a good job if you face a time crunch? You have one chance to make a first impression and if your work isn’t up to par, you’ll lose any chance of building a long-term relationship with any client.

Build in a cushion

When you promise something to a client, do your best to gauge how long it will take you to finish the project and then, if possible, add a week. That gives you extra days to make sure you deliver what you promise, when you promise it. Even if you’re the most qualified person to handle a job, yet you can’t meet your client’s deadline, you could damage your relationship with that client. And rebuilding a damaged relationship can take longer than you think.

As the old saying goes, “Promises are made to be broken,” but that doesn’t mean they should be.

What strategies do you use to make sure you keep your promises?

My sweet, adorable, perfect niece — I’m not at all biased — is at the “I’ll do it myself” stage. She doesn’t want her parents to help her do anything. My niece reminds me of the typical entrepreneur (myself included) who thinks he or she can do everything alone and do it better.

The truth is there’s no way we entrepreneurs can know everything and do everything well, but we don’t have to. There are experts nearby (virtually and in person) who are willing to share their business experience with other small business owners like us. Best of all, you can get their advice from one source: SCORE.

SCORE is a nonprofit association — it’s been around since 1964 — that provides information and support to entrepreneurs and small businesses around the country. They have 370 chapters throughout the United States and 11,200 volunteers nationwide. They’ve helped 8.4 Million Small Businesses including Vermont Teddy Bear, Vera Bradley Designs, Jelly Belly candy, and more.

SCORE offers advice from starting, managing, and growing a business, to financing and technology. They feature articles on their site from business owners around the world and offer online workshops.

The site itself is packed with information, but they also offer one-on-one help. The SCORE mentoring program matches entrepreneurs with both working and retired executives, and business owners. You can learn from retired CEOs, attorneys, business owners and other professionals who volunteer their time to help small business owners grow their businesses.

One of my favorite features on the SCORE site is the forms they offer, from business plan templates, to profit and loss forms. Why reinvent the wheel when you can get detailed forms with one click?

It’s easy to get lost in the business world, especially when you’re out there on your own. SCORE is worth checking out, and best of all, it’s free.

source: Horia Varlan

When my sons were younger, I was at the top of the volunteer list (translation: sucker). Whenever someone called me to help with an event, class project or anything else to do with school, I said yes. I did the same thing with two professional associations I was in.

One day I had a revelation. I was spending more time volunteering my time than growing my business. I’m all for helping others but eventually you have to say no more often than you say yes.

How many times have you said yes when you meant no? There are only so many hours in a day and if at some point you don’t say no, you’ll never get ahead (or get any sleep!).

Before you say yes to everything, consider a few questions.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

A business owner I’ve known for over ten years has owned several businesses. He sold two of his businesses within two years of starting them.

His last (and current) business was almost a failure. Although he had a strong business idea and product, he grew his business too quickly. Each month he added a few employees and by the end of his first year in business, he wasn’t making enough money to cover his overhead.

At the beginning of the new year he cut his staff in half and reorganized his business. By making a few staffing changes, he has converted his company from pathetic to profitable.

As your business grows, and you have less time to spend on sales and marketing, filing, and accounting, you may need to add additional staff or hire freelancers. There are a few things to consider when hiring others full-time, part-time, or on a project-by-project basis.

Hire someone with experience

Someone who has been around the business block for years will not need much training. One advantage they have over someone less experienced is that they can bring ideas and systems to your business that you may not have considered. The only disadvantage to hiring a skilled person is that they may have bad habits that have to be unlearned.

Hire someone without experience

You’ll have to spend time training an unskilled employee, yet the advantage is that you’ll be able to train that person to fit your company’s work style. Also, they shouldn’t have any bad work habits that you have to break. My first boss after I graduated from college hired me because I had no sales experience. He had a certain way of running his sales department and he wanted to make sure I followed his sales systems.

Hire freelancers instead of full-time employees

If you don’t have the time or desire to train employees, consider hiring freelancers to handle certain projects. The advantage is that you won’t have to spend much time training that person and you’re not obligated to pay for his or her health insurance. Also, they can apply the experience they have through working with other clients, to your project.

Before you bring on a full-time employee or hire a freelancer, ask yourself what your time is worth. Decide whether paying someone to handle a project will cost less than the amount of money you can generate during that same amount of time.

And most of all, remember, you get what you pay for.

Has hiring employees or freelancers helped or hurt your business?

I think we’re better off as friends.

It’s not you, it’s me.

The timing isn’t right.

We’ve all either heard or used those excuses during a breakup in our personal life.

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it comes to clients. But when a client has been with you from the start and your services are worth more than you’re charging, what do you do? Consider the following three options.

Gradually increase your fees

If you give your clients fair warning that you’re going to raise your rates, then your clients can make the decision to keep working with you or find someone else. If you’ve met your clients’ needs and helped them to achieve their goals, chances are they’ll stay with you and pay more for your services. If they decide to leave because of pricing, then you may need to question how much they valued your services.

Decide whether to keep current clients or try to replace them

Keep in mind that if the services you provide are worth more than what you charge, eventually you’ll resent your current clients. At the same time, consider how much time and effort it would take to find new clients and how much will it cost to market your services. If you weigh the time/cost benefit, you’ll have your answer.

Add additional services at higher prices

Ease your clients into a higher price bracket by adding additional services and charging for them. Early this year I added video consulting to my list of services. One of my clients moved to another city and wanted help with the set up and design of her new home office. We designed her office virtually, down to new light fixtures and artwork. The entire process went smoothly and she’s happy with her new workspace.

A business coach could add video consulting, weekly or monthly memberships to group masterminds, and could create new products for clients. While you’re expanding your business to provide more services and products for clients, you’ll also attract new clients.

Maintaining business relationships isn’t easy and creating new ones can be overwhelming and expensive. Rather than let your clients go because you’re not being paid what you’re worth, add additional services, gradually increase your prices and consider one more thing: announce your price increase. You may be surprised at how easily your clients will accept your new pricing.

Have you had to let go of a client because of pricing?

In my first job out of college, I sold commercial time for an AM talk radio station. Our station owned a suite at the football stadium, and during one of the games one of my co-workers was a little nervous. His biggest client was going to be there so several bottles of beer and a few too many shots of Tequila later, he needed to make a quick exit. He didn’t embarrass himself, but he could have.

He blamed it on the chicken nachos.

While it’s important to build rapport with a client, you need to make sure you keep your business relationship in line, starting with these tips.

Remember that you always represent your business

If you’re out with a friend and you do something reckless, a friend may laugh it off. But if you’re with a client, he or she may wonder whether you’re handling his or her account the same way. They may even lose faith in your ability to make good decisions on their behalf. There’s nothing wrong with having fun. Being out of control is beyond wrong.

Think before you speak

When you meet with a client, don’t get so comfortable that you start sharing secrets, insight or anything else that could compromise your business relationship. I remember having lunch with a supplier who was telling me about his company’s problems and that he was looking for a new job. My confidence in the company dropped so much that day that eventually I switched suppliers. That was a case of too much info, too fast.

Use good judgment

A client is a client, whether or not he or she is your friend. So anytime you go out, avoid letting your hair down completely. Treat your friends the same way you would a client, and don’t forget that something you do in your personal life could affect your business relationships.

The more you work with a client, the more comfortable you’ll be around him or her, and if all goes well you’ll work together for years. The key to a lasting client relationship, aside from delivering products and goods as promised and running an ethical business, is respecting the professional relationship you’ve built.

How do you avoid blurring the lines between your business and personal relationships?