This year’s Working Naked day was a huge success. People around the world shed their sweat suits, chucked their daily commute and celebrated the freedom they have to work from home. [Read more...]
6 Ways to Expose Yourself on Working Naked Day
February 1, 2012 By 6 Comments
Working Naked means different things to different people. To you it may mean working au naturel, while your neighbors and friends may follow the other meaning — working on your own without the support of the corporate workplace.
Whichever way you interpret Working Naked, today is the day to celebrate your independence from corporate life, bask in your break from a daily commute, and enjoy the flexibility you have to work from home on your own terms.
Today as you bare it all and enjoy your work-from-home freedom on the 3rd annual Working Naked Day, expose yourself to these six ways to grow your business.
1. Partner with other small business owners
Working Naked can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Connect with other small business owners and find ways to work together. Let’s say that most of your clients are realtors. Think about companies that target realtors, like sign companies and home stagers. You could approach them to put ads on your site, sponsor your seminars or webinars and even share client lists. You’re both trying to reach the same market, so why not work together? [Read more...]
5 More Business Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
January 23, 2012 By 15 Comments
When I blogged about business mistakes I’ve made, several of you asked me to list even more. This time I asked a few of my friends to share some business mistakes they’ve made, but I admit I’ve made a few of these mistakes too.
Mistake #1 Not spreading the word about your business
Maybe your business is better than everyone else’s, but it doesn’t matter if no one knows about you. When you develop a new product or service, send an e-release out to your media contacts, spread the news on Twitter and other social networks, and tell everyone you know. Don’t be shy. [Read more...]
How to Keep the Promises You Make
January 19, 2012 By 22 Comments
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. [Read more...]
Drawing the Line Between Your Business and Personal Relationships
November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments
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. [Read more...]
How a Broken Fridge Can Motivate You to Reduce Home Office Papers
November 16, 2011 By
source: NatalieMaynor
A few days ago, my refrigerator stopped working.
When I opened the refrigerator door, the light turned on but everything felt a little warmer than it should. When I opened the freezer and squished an ice cream sandwich that should have been frozen solid, I knew I didn’t have much time to clear everything out.
While I cleared out my freezer, I tossed a few things I’d had a bit too long. I did the same thing with some of the food from my refrigerator. I was making a clean start (no pun intended).
My forced refrigerator and freezer purging and cleaning made me think about people who struggle to toss papers they don’t need. What if the papers scattered all over your home office were fruit, vegetables, or meat that had an expiration date? You’d be forced to deal with them within days instead of within weeks or months from when they hit your desk.
You may have stacks of papers on your desk that you want to get rid of, but don’t know how. There are a few ways to get started.
To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.
Look for New Ways to Work With Old Clients
October 26, 2011 By 8 Comments
One of my clients, a business consultant, has worked with the same clients for years. She helps a client solve a problem, the client’s business grows, and then she finds other ways to help that client again. She knows that if her clients are happy, they’ll refer her to new clients…and they do.
When your business is thriving, you may not be worrying about getting more clients. On the other hand, if you’re waiting for the phone to ring, hoping that prospects will fill out your “get more info” form, and you have more bills to pay than clients to cover them, you’re probably thinking about ways to find more clients.
You can go after new clients, which can cost time and money, or you can find new ways to serve old clients. Studies show that it’s less expensive to service an existing client than to market to a prospect. Consider these tips before you spend more time and money trying to find new clients.
- Anticipate your clients’ needs. You don’t have to be psychic (although it wouldn’t hurt) to gauge your clients’ thoughts and concerns. Some people use intuition while others use a more direct approach: they simply ask their clients for other ways they can help them. If you ask the same question rephrased differently each time — try not to be annoying — you should get the information you’re missing.
- Be a resource to your clients. If a client asks you to do something that’s outside your area of expertise, recommend someone else. Your client will appreciate your willingness to help and when they need your help again, you should be the first person they call. Make sure you recommend someone reliable, because if they drop the ball, it reflects poorly on you.
- Create new products or services based on your clients’ needs. For years I’ve heard from clients who have moved from one part of the country to the other, but still want to work with me individually. Some weren’t able to fly me to their home offices, so I had to refer them to a colleague in their city. The light bulb finally went off and I started offering consultations via Skype. At first I didn’t think the virtual consultations would work, but they do, and have become a large chunk of my business.
Before you give up on a client who hasn’t contacted you lately, ask yourself it there are any other services you can offer them. They’ll enjoy hearing from you, you’ll enjoy reconnecting with them, and the bottom line: you’ll be able to help them again.
How have you found new ways to help old clients?
Would More Hours in the Day Make You More Productive?
October 25, 2011 By 14 Comments
When my (now 29-year-old) nephew was four years old, I asked him if he wanted to go to the store with me. He told me that he didn’t have enough time because he was too busy.
I don’t remember much about my life at four years old, but what I do remember is that all I had was time. My nephew probably had learned that response from everyone around him.
What would you do with more time?
No matter what type of business you’re in, and whether you’re working from home full-time or part-time, time is a valuable commodity. Take the time to consider what would happen if you had more time.
- Would you take the day off, spend more time with your family, or work on your personal development? If so, let go of tasks that don’t need your attention so you can have more time to spend on yourself or with your family. [Read more...]
Do The Right Thing But at The Right Time
October 6, 2011 By 2 Comments
source: Ant Smith
Yesterday, I grabbed a sandwich at a deli near my house and the place was packed. While I was waiting in line, one of the employees almost knocked me over. He was busy mopping the floor and putting the rugs back, while customers tried to walk past him to pick up their orders.
The floor needed to be mopped, but did the guy have to mop during the busy lunch rush? He was doing the right thing, but his timing was off.
How is your timing? Consider these questions:
Do you follow up with clients when say you will?
A superstar realtor friend of mine has had a record year. Why? She calls her prospects back on the exact day she promises to call. When she shows that much attention to detail, the prospects are so impressed (and surprised), they hire her to represent them.
One of the few times a prospect she was working with decided to sign with another realtor, was when she responded to the prospect’s text at 3 am. The client had sent the text at dinnertime the night before and didn’t appreciate the text in the middle of the night. [Read more...]
4 Ways to Get Your Reading Under Control
September 26, 2011 By 8 Comments
If you had a few extra hours every day, how would you spend them? Considering that I’m a closet bookworm, I’d probably spend part of them reading.
For most of us, taking time to read seems more like a luxury than a necessity, but keeping up with the latest in your industry and knowing what your competition is doing, is an important factor in moving your business forward.
While you can’t add more hours to your day, there are a few ways to make a dent in your reading pile.
1. Sort through your books
As you look through your books, give away the ones you’ve had for years and will never look at again. You could make a few extra dollars by selling your books to bookstores that sell used books. In most cases, any books they don’t buy, they’ll donate to charity. An interesting online option, BookMooch, is a point-based bartering system. You type in the books you want to give away, [Read more...]
