Free Job Search Teleseminar Series Announced

Peggy Collins is a twenty year veteran job search coach, workshop leader, and author of Help is Not a Four Letter Word. Peggy has helped thousands of people from all walks of life learn the secrets of her unique approach to job searching to take their job search to the next level. In this brand new, free teleseminar series, Peggy will share exclusive secrets of her effective job search strategy that you won’t find anywhere else.

If you’ve been laid off or are at risk of being laid off or let go, or if you’re simply thinking it might be time for you to move on, you don’t want to miss these exclusive free calls. Visit http://www.thespiritualjobsearch.com for details or to register. If you’re a consultant who works with clients who could benefit from this information, there’s also an affiliate program available – http://www.thespiritualjobsearch.com/affiliates

Tough Marketing Lesson: Sometimes It’s Better to Fire a Client or Customer!

You were probably shocked to read the title of this post. It was a hard lesson that I’ve learned these past few days, but it’s true. Even I am guilty of always trying to go the extra mile to please customers, no matter what the cost to my own business. But in reality, there are situations in which it’s best to simply let a client or customer go. Here’s why.

I have a client who pays a ridiculously low rate. I accepted this assignment because I felt bad for her and her inability to pay more, and her obvious need for marketing assistance. My other clients pay, literally, five times the hourly rate that she is paying. Yet, she has been the most demanding and difficult client I have ever worked with. A self-proclaimed “self-taught” html-coder, she did not agree with the W3C compliant standards I adhered to when creating pages and templates for her website.

When she asked me to create a PowerPoint presentation, I took very specific instructions on exactly what she wanted the design to look like. After following her exact specifications of “plain white background with nothing but the text and the logo in the lower right-hand corner of every slide”, her response was that it needed more “design work”. She then proceeded to inform me that she felt I lacked the experience that she needed. I laughed.

After spending countless hours of unbillable time trying to please this client, and then being insulted by her, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I must actually fire this client. I have far too much other work to be doing for clients who appreciate the value of my time and expertise to be wasting that valuable time trying to please someone who will never be happy. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she asked me to help drive traffic to her internet marketing pyramid scheme site that she firmly believed was going to make her rich. I have an ethical concern promoting a product that tries to take advantage of the many people who are seeking desperately for a way to support their families during these difficult economic times and asking them to invest money in a ridiculous scam.

The lesson here is that at some point while building your business, you may have to make a similar difficult decision. If you find that 10% of your clients or customers are taking up 90% of your time but making up 5% of your total income, the unfortunate reality is that you are actually hurting your own progress by continuing to work with these people.

If a customer or client has a legitimate complaint, by all means, you should attempt to resolve it in any way possible. But, if you find yourself continuously jumping through hoops to try to please one or two clients who ar paying very little in comparison with much easier to work with clients, it’s time to re-evaluate what makes sense for your business. Cut your losses and move on to the positive people who will help you grow your business and be successful – and to those who understand the value of your time.

How to Start a Business

With unemployment rates soaring, some out-of-work professionals wonder how they’ll make ends meet if they can’t secure another position. It may be a scary time to start a business, but when you’re faced with few alternatives, the motivation to succeed is even higher. Learning how to start a business is not as difficult as it sounds.

First, you’ll need to decide on an industry. In the current economic conditions, it would be wise to choose a recession-proof industry. Think about goods and services people will need and continue to buy even during difficult economic times. Your second step is to create a business plan. Consult with an attorney to determine what forms you’ll need to file to establish your business and file your business name. After the paperwork, work on creating a brand identity for your business, have business cards and marketing materials created, and start advertising your products and services.

Gold Alliance Group offers a much more detailed range of resources describing the different aspects of starting a small business. Depending on the type of business you’re starting, there may be other steps involved, such as setting up physical office space or ordering a supply of products. If you plan carefully and make wise decisions, starting a business during a recession could be the smartest thing you’ve ever done!

Persistence Pays Off!

“Persistence Pays Off.” It’s a phrase that’s been used by inspiring entrepreneurs and successful people under a variety of circumstances, yet it rings true in each and every one. Persistence does pay off, no matter what your goal is.

Entrepreneurs, athletes, people on a mission to get fit or lose weight, sales professionals trying to land a great deal, business men and women seeking a promotion, new position, or raise. In each and every one of these situations, persistence pays off. It rings true.

Persistence pays off in marketing, too. Persistence – and consistency, which we’ve discussed before. You will see results if you are persistent in your marketing efforts, no matter what your marketing objectives are for the year. If your efforts are persistent and consistent, they will pay off.

Don’t give up on your new marketing plan one month into the year because you haven’t reached your goals yet. My life coach taught me yesterday that when I look at my goals for the whole year, the rest of the year seems like plenty of time to get it all done. Not everything needs to be accomplished today! Great things sometimes take time to accomplish, which is an unfortunate reality for those of us with Type-A personalities who want everything done yesterday. Practice exercising patience, and keep being persistent with your plan, and give it a chance to work!

Manage Your Online Reputation

The internet is a fabulous resource for many businesses to gain publicity, often free. The downside of that is that your business can often get negative publicity on the internet from customers or clients that may have been less than satisifed. As a business, you want to be sure to stay on top of your online reputation by frequently “Google”-ing common search terms for your business, as well as your business name. Keep an eye out for any negative comments made about your company around the net.

Online reputation management is easy if you stay abreast of the most recent gossip in your industry. Become an active participant in any blogs, forums, or discussion groups related to your niche. If you are already a recognized expert in your field, people will be less likely to believe one negative comment made about you or your services if they know and trust you already. Not to mention, your active participation means that you already have a strong network of trusted business contacts and referral sources, so a stray negative comment here or there won’t significantly damage your online reputation.

Reputation management is something that should be taken seriously. Many people do an internet investigation about a new company or product before spending money – and if your online reputation is not the best, you’ll miss out on a tremendous amount of potential business. The internet is rapidly replacing the yellow pages and other traditional print media.

Keep track of your reputation and learn techniques to manage it effectively, and you can maximize your public relations efforts!

Using Your Advertising Dollars Effectively

Business owners are resolving to use their advertising dollars more effectively in 2009. In our current economy, it makes sense to allocate our already thin marketing budget to the tactics that are going to bring us the greatest return on our investment. When you’re developing your advertising plan for the year ahead, think about new media and how it has impacted traditional advertising.

When is the last time you picked up your phone book to look up a business in the yellow pages? Personally, the phone book frustrates me, because I have a stack of about four different ones, all of which are formatted differently. For some strange reason, some don’t include business listings in the white pages, and other businesses are only listed in the white pages or are in some obscure category no one would ever think of. As a result, I seldom utilize the phone book when looking up a business, or a person, for that matter. I find it far more effective to bring up the trusty Google search bar and type in exactly what I’m looking for.

The trend in 2008 was that almost twice as many people said they use an internet search engine to look up a business address or phone number than those who said they still use the phone book. The really nice thing about those local listings that come up in a search engine search is that they appear in the hot spot where a web searcher’s eyes land first in the results. So how do you get listed in the local search results?

You can spend hours looking for search engines and web directories and inputting your contact information into every form yourself, or you can pay us to do it for you, at a cost that’s less than the cost of a simple yellow pages listing in the average print directory. Best of all, you can be listed across multiple categories and keywords, and we’ll update or enhance your listing once a month for free.

Visit our site for more information: http://www.stringfellowcreative.com/services/local_listings.htm

Happy New Year

It’s New Year’s Eve. A time for celebration and a time to look forward to good things to come in the new year. An old Italian tradition involves throwing out old items – literally, out the window – to make room for the new things the universe has to bring in the new year. While I’m not suggesting that you throw your old college sofa out the second story window, it might be  good time to evaluate where you’re at and where you can weed out some of the clutter in your life to make room for new, wonderful things to come your way. It’s a principle that is ages old, but still discussed in newer Law-of-Attraction materials.

Is your home or office cluttered? Do you have lots of stuff lying around that you never use? Consider making a donation to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Someone might be able to benefit from your gently used items, and you’ll have a nice space to fill with something shiny and new.

The New Year is also a great time to set goals for the coming year. What would you like to see happen in your business within the next year? Would you like to take things to the next level? Try some new marketing tactics? Land five new clients? You do have goals floating around in your mind. Solidify them by writing them down on paper. Make a marketing plan. Writing things down shows you’re committed to making it happen – that’s one reason banks always want to see a written business plan before they’ll consider making a small business loan. Some people say writing things down in such a way as though it’s already happened is a great motivator. For example, “I am happily enjoying a sunny vacation to Cancun with my family, paid for with the extra money I made from the two new clients I landed in the first quarter of 2009.”  Type it up, print it out, and hang it in your work station so it will be clearly visible as you’re plugging away.

Best wishes for a safe and happy New Year!  You, as a dedicated business owner, can do your part in helping to turn our economy around in 2009. We at Stringfellow Creative look forward to helping you make it happen.

Dedicate Time to Building Your Business

You’ve got to dedicate time to building your business.  Business isn’t going to be knocking down your door without any effort on your part. Unless, of course, you’ve got a niche market totally cornered or you’ve been around awhile and are the absolute best at what you do, and everyone knows it. For most of us, that’s not the case (well, at least the part about everyone knowing we’re the best).  You’ve got to make a consistent effort at marketing your business, or you may end up a casualty of this awful economic crisis that’s happening all around us.

You can’t allow yourself to become distracted by the day to day operations of your business. While those tasks are extremely important, you absolutely must set aside dedicated time each and every week to work on business development activities. If you truly do not have the time, hire someone!  If you’re really that busy working that you don’t have time to work on building your business, you can afford to make an investment in a marketing consultant – such as Stringfellow Creative.  It’s an investment, not an expense, because it should net you a solid return if you hire well.  The great thing about consultants is that they’re not employees, and they can handle short or long-term projects.  If you develop a good relationship, you’ll probably find yourself passing on regular assignments, but if it doesn’t work out, there’s no obligation to continue working with that person.

Otherwise, if the situation above doesn’t describe you – as in, you really can’t afford to hire outside marketing contractors, or you’re truly not that busy working, you’re just busying yourself with other things that could be rearranged – then you need to reevaluate your priorities and your daily routine. In the current economy, it is absolutely essential for any small business to be on top of their marketing efforts. Only the strong and the savvy are going to come through this economic crisis unscathed.

There are simple tasks that can boost your brand recognition that you can easily be conquering each week. Update your blog, submit an article for publication, make a few cold calls. Re-design your website, send out a few brochures in the mail, or attend a local networking event. Work on improving your search engine positioning.  No effort will be wasted.

The bottom line is, no one is going to do it for you. You’ve got to advance yourself towards your own goals, and you can only do that by taking action.

Be a Resource to Gain Clients and Customers

One of the best ways to market your business is simple: Be a resource to your potential clients and customers. There are many, many ways to do this that are very effective. Being a resource gives you more credibility than you get with a standard advertisement. It’s less blatant, less in-your-face, and actually provides value so your potential clients are more likely to pay attention, particularly if the information is relevant to them.

By being a resource, you’re basically providing information or some expertise related to a topic within your industry. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same thing that you get paid to do, but should be within the same general area, and it should be applicable to your client base. For example, this blog allows me to be a resource to my potential clients, because I provide relevant information and advice that my customers can use today to help build their business. 

Marketing and business are my expertise. It wouldn’t make sense for me to write articles on minimizing your insurance costs, because the people who are interested in reading an article like that are not my target client. If the reader of the insurance article would happen to also be a business owner, they’re not seeking out information on marketing at that moment. If they were, they’d be clicking on marketing articles instead of insurance articles. The key to being a resource to gain clients is to put relevant information in front of them at an appropriate time.

So how can you use this marketing tactic? Writing articles is an easy way to start, and it’s free. You can summarize what you already know about your industry into targeted articles and submit them to article directories all over the web. If you don’t have time to spend on that sort of thing, you can hire an expert, like Stringfellow Creative, to write and submit articles on your behalf, with your name as the author and a link to your website in the byline. It’s a totally hands-off way to conduct an effective marketing campaign.

Blogging is also an easy way to generate publicity for free. You can set up a WordPress blog just like this one, completely free. You’ll have to make an investment of time to keep your blog fresh and up to date with new content regularly, or you can hire a blogging expert, such as Stringfellow Creative, to keep it up to date for you. We have multiple blogging packages available to meet your specific needs, and we can assist in designing your blog as well.

Depending on your industry, it is often useful to offer free seminars in your community. With the ever-growing popularity of the internet and technology, it’s now easy to offer a seminar online to a global audience. Stringfellow Creative can assist with seminar production, marketing, and design. We can create your materials, design powerpoint presentations, and design online delivery systems.

Take advantage of any opportunities in your community to lend a helping hand. Yes, you might be giving out valuable information for free, but it will only build your reputation. Educational opportunities are abundant, you just have to seek them out. Network with other professionals – someone might be holding a panel discussion relevant to services you offer, and you could easily end up being a panel expert. Discussions like these frequently end up getting free media coverage. It’s a win-win situation.

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. When you offer your knowledge as a resource to your clients, it’s an easy way to get free advertising, and it’s often more effective than traditional advertising. You’ll boost your reputation and your brand awareness, while at the same time saving your advertising budget.

What Motivates You?

I was just sitting at my laptop, trying to decide which of the many things on my seemingly endless to-do list I should tackle first. My mind wandered to my tendency to procrastinate certain tasks, and why? Some items on my list jump out at me and I dive right in and get them finished, but others seem to linger there for weeks at a time.

Apparently I have somehow categorized my list, mentally, in order of priority, using criteria that are not obvious to me at the moment. Suddenly, I realize the importance of being aware of what motivates you. I’ve always been the kind of person with internal motivation, yet now I find myself neglecting the items on my list that are important only to me and my own business. I have no problems completing work for my clients well ahead of schedule. To me, that sounds like external motivation.

So what is it that motivates you? Learning what motivates you to take action can be hugely helpful when you’re trying to reach a goal. Does money motivate you? Opportunity? Prestige? The simple fact that you don’t like lingering items on your to-do list? You want free time with no obligations hanging over your head? You don’t like to fail?

Whatever it is that motivates you, try to pinpoint exactly what it is. Then try to manipulate situations so that your motivating force is present and can help you reach your goals. If you’re motivated by having to answer to another person, let someone else in on your plans and ask them to hold you accountable. If you’re motivated by opportunity, set a goal to find a new opportunity – there are plenty around for the taking, despite what the media might have you believe. The best opportunities are those that are created out of a challenge.

What motivates you into action? I’d like to hear your ideas.