Tag Archives: relationship management
twitter

How to Get Started on Twitter

by on June 21, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Branding & Marketing, Customer Service, featured, How to Start, Social Media, Technology

twitterUsing Twitter is a great way to start building your online brand.  If you can send a text message, you can tweet.  You can only communicate using 140 characters on Twitter, but if you want people to Retweet (RT) or share your content, you should cut your tweets down to 125 characters.  Here a few quick rules:  Listen first, then engage with people directly, then start sharing articles of interest to attract your target audience.  Once you establish relationships on Twitter you can then start writing your own blog and tweeting your original content.

 

  • Decide what you wish to accomplish before using Twitter. Are you trying to establish your expertise,  looking for a new work opportunity or simply want to connect with others who share a special interest or expertise?
  • Figure out who your target audience is and where these folks hang out online. (You want to be as specific as possible in targeting your efforts.)
  • Establish your own website. It does not make sense to use social media if you do not have a place to drive traffic, like your own website.
  • Developing a list of 3-5 blogs or websites. It’s a good idea to develop a daily habit of going out to a few websites and finding content to share on twitter
  • Remember that social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. You will get out of it what you invest in it.

 

5 steps to Establishing Your Twitter Account:

  • Set up an account
  • Enter your profile information & photo
  • Find your friends
  • How to follow someone
  • How to post messages

 

Step 1: Set up an account

  • Go to http://twitter.com and click the big green “Get Started – Join!” button.
  • On the resulting screen, enter the username you want, your desired password, your email address and complete the spam checker
  • About your username:

 

Step 2: Enter your profile information

  • Your profile information is important. If you want people to want to connect to you, you’ll need to tell them a little bit about yourself. Try not to write anything scary or silly; or too personal. You need just to explain your expertise and/or interests. And your location should be a larger city nearby.
  • Log into Twitter, and click on the ‘Settings’ link at the top of your Twitter homepage.
  • The ‘Account’ tab of the ‘Settings’ section includes a text box that lets you input a 160-character blurb about yourself, along with a link to your website.
  • The ‘Picture’ tab lets you upload a picture to your profile.  It is best to post a smiling picture of yourself

 

Step 3: Find your friends

  • There are a few simple ways to find people to follow on Twitter:
  • Click on the ‘Who To Follow’ to search for people who Twitter suggests you follow.
  • Invite from other networks will search your email address books (aol, hotmail, gmail etc.) to see if anyone has associated any of those addresses with a Twitter account.
  • Invite by email is a way to invite your friends to join Twitter through email.
  • Search tab allows you to search for new people to follow. You can mimic this function by using http://search.twitter.com.
  • You can search for the city where you live to find other users in your area. Enter your industry to find business peers. Enter your hobbies to find people with shared interests. The potential list is endless.

Step 4: How to follow someone

  • You can log in twitter from anywhere, you can use desktop applications, or you can connect from your phone.
  • To follow someone
    • Hover over their @username, click link, read their bio & recent tweets. If they seem interesting, hit follow

Step 5:  How to post messages

  • To post a regular message
  • Just type it into the box that says “What are you doing?” and hit the ‘update’ button below
  • To send an open message
  • When sending an open message to someone publicly, type “@” followed by their username, then the message. Here’s an example:
  • encouragement4u @smallbizlady How did you overcome your biggest business challenges? Check out these stories! http://budurl.com/eqbx

 

Send a Direct-message

  • To send a private direct message to someone, type “d” then a space and then their username. So, to send me a direct message you would type “d @smallbizlady That was a great #smallbizchat on Twitter last night!”
  • Note: you can only send direct messages to people who you follow, and who follow you back.

 

How to Retweet or RT someone else’s message

  • If you like what someone says, and want to show your followers that message.
  • Copy the tweet (not username), then hit grey arrow to reply, add ‘RT’ before the @username Put one space after @username & paste original tweet. If it is too long, You can edit, but only for space.  Here’s an example of a Retweet:
  • Holly_Hanna RT @smallbizlady 32 Tips to make online customers love you –http://tinyurl.com/op9bbk (this is really well done)

 

Quick Twitter Tips

  • Remember to click your @username  to see messages/tweets folks are sending to you openly.
  • Remember to Follow your Followers
  • Under your username & photo click followers to see who followed you and decide to follow back or not.  When you have time its nice to send a thanks for the follow note.
  • Now you are ready to get started. Welcome to Twitterverse!


Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com  Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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Ask @SmallBizLady: How do I follow-up after a business conference?

Ask @SmallBizLady: How do I follow-up after a business conference?

by on June 17, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, featured, Grow Your Business, Social Media, Technology

Every Friday, I answer your small business questions in a video blog segment called Ask Small Biz Lady. This week, I took a question live from the New York Times Small Business Summit.

Here’s the question: How do I make a plan to follow-up after a business conference? Here’s the answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3rKLFEkF_I

 

Immediately  reach out to all of your new connections on LinkedIn.

  • Separate your new contact into piles email follow-up vs. hand-written note.
  • Wait 5-10 business days to follow-up your initial contact with a personal phone call. I really enjoyed attending this year’s conference.

Here’s some key takeaways: It’s all about being ready to do commerce via mobile devices. All websites need to be mobile ready and google is coming out with some innovate tools to help…stay tuned.

LivingSocial.com CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, enlightened the audience by explaining how important it is to have a local sales presence for an online business. He also made the audience aware of all the other services his company can provide for small businesses beyond daily deals, which I am intrigued to learn about that more fully.

Susan Sobbott, President of American Express Open, shared sobering statistics on social media use among small businesses. 35% are using Facebook, 14% are using LinkedIn and 10% are on Twitter regularly.

If you have a question for Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, leave a comment on this blog using the contact us page or send me a note on Twitter @smallbizlady, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/smallbizlady or you can hit me up on www.linkedin.com/in/melindaemerson I’m always here as a resource.

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Baby Boomer

9 Reasons Why Boomer Businesses Fail

by on June 13, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Before You Start, Business Inspiration, Customer Service, featured, Grow Your Business, How to Start, My Recommendations

Baby Boomer

Baby Boomers Businesses

I know a woman (let’s call her Sarah) who was a vice president at a major Fortune 500 company. She was a sassy 48-year-old single MBA who was very successful climbing the corporate ladder. She worked in marketing, managing a brand at her company and making a handsome six-figure income. Then one day she decided that she wanted to start a business.

She did her research and decided to invest in a food franchise. She learned that franchises are 10 percent more likely to be successful than startups, so she decided to go for it. She hired an attorney to look over her franchise agreement. She spent weeks finding the perfect location and then hired an architect and contractor to develop her space. She gave notice at her job and invited everyone to her grand opening. She was so excited. She had prepared a thorough marketing plan and invested in local advertising through a coupon mailer.

Within two years, Sarah was back working in corporate America, grateful to have a job. I bumped into her and asked her what happened. She said, “I cannot be a slave to anything — especially something that does not fulfill me, and on top of that I hate teenagers and that’s who my employees were. I am grateful to be back at work with a regular paycheck.”

For baby boomers, making the transition from having a job to starting a business can be a tough road, no matter how successful you were in your previous life. Some of the issues that come up may have little to do with how well the business is doing financially.

Here are nine common trouble spots that cause baby boomer businesses to fail. These are the things that can destroy your entrepreneurial dream if they go unaddressed.

1. Not being coachable
To be successful in business, you must be a life-long learner and understand that you can learn something from anyone, even your interns and teenage employees. You also must be able to seek out– and take — advice from mentors and other entrepreneurs. Sometimes when you’ve been successful in the corporate world you might ask yourself “How hard could it be to run a small business?” Don’t be fooled; the hard work is endless!

2. Not developing a life plan
You need a life plan before you ever write a business plan. Take the time to think about what you want out of life, and then build a business around that. You need to know things like “How much money do I need to earn to be happy?” and “Is day-to-day variety important to me?” You do not want to start a business that is NOT a good business for you and your family.

3. Not having the energy
You must be honest about what you are willing to do to make your business a success. One of Sarah’s complaints was that she could not be a slave to anything. But that’s what it takes. In the first few years of running a business, your business owns you: 14- to 16-hour days are common, especially if you open a retail business that has long store hours. Can you physically sustain working seven days a week?

4. Not having a network
As a startup business, your network is your net worth. People do business with people they like, know and trust. You had no problem getting calls returned when you had a big corporate job, but once you are on the outside pounding the payment, it might be another story. Before starting a business, spend at least a year cultivating the market. If you are not good at making friends or are one of those people who never keeps in touch, entrepreneurship might not be for you.

5. Not willing to scale back your lifestyle
When you’ve been working a long time, and making good money, chances are you spend what you make. When you decide to become an entrepreneur, the first thing you should do is end your addiction to your paycheck. You must scale back your lifestyle to the essentials — and you need to cut back at least 12 months before you start your business. If you are someone who regularly enjoys retail therapy, eating out, extensive travel or indulging in the latest electronic gadgets, you might not adjust well to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

6. Not saving enough money
In my book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, I outline three pools of money that you should ideally have before starting a business. First, make sure you have the money to start your business. Then set aside enough resources so that you can survive for up to two years without a salary. On average it takes 18 to 36 months for a small business to break even, let alone replace your corporate salary. The third pot of money is your emergency savings. Your car may need to be replaced, your air conditioner may die, and your children may need college tuition. Your ability to start a business has everything to do with your ability to save money.

7. Having competing priorities
After age 40, you may have aging parents and perhaps a first grandchild that you’ve welcomed into the family. If you need to stay on top of your mother’s doctors’ visits or help out your daughter and son-in-law with the new baby, it may be really tough to get a new business off the ground because you will not have any spare time.

8. Lack of a niche target market
Too many small-business owners sell to anyone they think has money. Define your niche customer and make sure you know why your customer will buy from you. It is so much easier to develop a marketing strategy when you know who you are trying to reach. You have limited time and limited resources. Customers want to hire businesses that specialize in solving their problem.

9. Lack of personal and fiscal discipline
If you do not run your household on a budget, you likely will struggle to run your business on one. You must make business decisions based on up-to-date financial information. Will you make money decisions without consulting your budget? How will you focus on tasks that generate money? Will you raid the cash register whenever you need money? You should know in advance how much money you are making on each sale; otherwise, you might have an expensive hobby.

If you focus on these nine areas as you are planning your midlife transition, you are far more likely to start a sustainable and profitable small business.

This article was originally posted on SecondAct.com. The content of this article is copywritten by Entrepreneur Media all rights reserved. www.secondact.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known as the SmallBizLady, is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, small business coach and the author ofBecome Your Own Boss in 12 Months. In 2010, Forbes magazine named her as one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.

Comments { 4 }
9 Reasons Why Boomer Businesses Fail

9 Reasons Why Boomer Businesses Fail

by on June 13, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Before You Start, Business Inspiration, Customer Service, featured, Grow Your Business, How to Start, My Recommendations

Baby Boomer

Baby Boomers Businesses

I know a woman (let’s call her Sarah) who was a vice president at a major Fortune 500 company. She was a sassy 48-year-old single MBA who was very successful climbing the corporate ladder. She worked in marketing, managing a brand at her company and making a handsome six-figure income. Then one day she decided that she wanted to start a business.

She did her research and decided to invest in a food franchise. She learned that franchises are 10 percent more likely to be successful than startups, so she decided to go for it. She hired an attorney to look over her franchise agreement. She spent weeks finding the perfect location and then hired an architect and contractor to develop her space. She gave notice at her job and invited everyone to her grand opening. She was so excited. She had prepared a thorough marketing plan and invested in local advertising through a coupon mailer.

Within two years, Sarah was back working in corporate America, grateful to have a job. I bumped into her and asked her what happened. She said, “I cannot be a slave to anything — especially something that does not fulfill me, and on top of that I hate teenagers and that’s who my employees were. I am grateful to be back at work with a regular paycheck.”

For baby boomers, making the transition from having a job to starting a business can be a tough road, no matter how successful you were in your previous life. Some of the issues that come up may have little to do with how well the business is doing financially.

Here are nine common trouble spots that cause baby boomer businesses to fail. These are the things that can destroy your entrepreneurial dream if they go unaddressed.

1. Not being coachable
To be successful in business, you must be a life-long learner and understand that you can learn something from anyone, even your interns and teenage employees. You also must be able to seek out– and take — advice from mentors and other entrepreneurs. Sometimes when you’ve been successful in the corporate world you might ask yourself “How hard could it be to run a small business?” Don’t be fooled; the hard work is endless!

2. Not developing a life plan
You need a life plan before you ever write a business plan. Take the time to think about what you want out of life, and then build a business around that. You need to know things like “How much money do I need to earn to be happy?” and “Is day-to-day variety important to me?” You do not want to start a business that is NOT a good business for you and your family.

3. Not having the energy
You must be honest about what you are willing to do to make your business a success. One of Sarah’s complaints was that she could not be a slave to anything. But that’s what it takes. In the first few years of running a business, your business owns you: 14- to 16-hour days are common, especially if you open a retail business that has long store hours. Can you physically sustain working seven days a week?

4. Not having a network
As a startup business, your network is your net worth. People do business with people they like, know and trust. You had no problem getting calls returned when you had a big corporate job, but once you are on the outside pounding the payment, it might be another story. Before starting a business, spend at least a year cultivating the market. If you are not good at making friends or are one of those people who never keeps in touch, entrepreneurship might not be for you.

5. Not willing to scale back your lifestyle
When you’ve been working a long time, and making good money, chances are you spend what you make. When you decide to become an entrepreneur, the first thing you should do is end your addiction to your paycheck. You must scale back your lifestyle to the essentials — and you need to cut back at least 12 months before you start your business. If you are someone who regularly enjoys retail therapy, eating out, extensive travel or indulging in the latest electronic gadgets, you might not adjust well to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

6. Not saving enough money
In my book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, I outline three pools of money that you should ideally have before starting a business. First, make sure you have the money to start your business. Then set aside enough resources so that you can survive for up to two years without a salary. On average it takes 18 to 36 months for a small business to break even, let alone replace your corporate salary. The third pot of money is your emergency savings. Your car may need to be replaced, your air conditioner may die, and your children may need college tuition. Your ability to start a business has everything to do with your ability to save money.

7. Having competing priorities
After age 40, you may have aging parents and perhaps a first grandchild that you’ve welcomed into the family. If you need to stay on top of your mother’s doctors’ visits or help out your daughter and son-in-law with the new baby, it may be really tough to get a new business off the ground because you will not have any spare time.

8. Lack of a niche target market
Too many small-business owners sell to anyone they think has money. Define your niche customer and make sure you know why your customer will buy from you. It is so much easier to develop a marketing strategy when you know who you are trying to reach. You have limited time and limited resources. Customers want to hire businesses that specialize in solving their problem.

9. Lack of personal and fiscal discipline
If you do not run your household on a budget, you likely will struggle to run your business on one. You must make business decisions based on up-to-date financial information. Will you make money decisions without consulting your budget? How will you focus on tasks that generate money? Will you raid the cash register whenever you need money? You should know in advance how much money you are making on each sale; otherwise, you might have an expensive hobby.

If you focus on these nine areas as you are planning your midlife transition, you are far more likely to start a sustainable and profitable small business.

This article was originally posted on SecondAct.com. The content of this article is copywritten by Entrepreneur Media all rights reserved. www.secondact.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known as the SmallBizLady, is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, small business coach and the author ofBecome Your Own Boss in 12 Months. In 2010, Forbes magazine named her as one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.

Comments { 3 }
Ask @SmallBizLady: How can I get my kids to “buy in” to my business?

Ask @SmallBizLady: How can I get my kids to “buy in” to my business?

by on June 10, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Business Inspiration, Mompreneurs, Your Small Business

Here’s the answer:

 

Every Friday, I answer your small business questions in a video blog segment called Ask Small Biz Lady.

This week, we are taking on the question: How can I get my kids to “buy in”  to my business?

If you want to get your family to support your business follow these steps:

  1. Communicate with them and teach them what you do.
  2. Don’t be afraid to put even the little ones to work; Get them a job in the business
  3. Share your ideas and ask for their feedback
  4. Everyone loves to be asked for advice, so you can’t go wrong there.

If you have a question for Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, leave a comment on this blog using the contact us page or send me a note on Twitter @smallbizlady, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/smallbizlady or you can hit me up on www.linkedin.com/in/melindaemerson

I’m always here as a resource.

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comcast dreamit

The Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program Could Be Your Answer

by on June 8, 2011 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Business Inspiration, BYOB2011, Cash Flow & Finance, Customer Service, featured, Grow Your Business, My Recommendations, Social Media, Technology, Your Small Business

Comcast Interactive Capital, the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation, one of the world’s leading media, entertainment and communications companies, today announced that is has partnered with DreamIt Ventures (“DreamIt”), the leading technology accelerator for entrepreneurs, to provide seed funding, training, mentoring and other benefits to five minority-led startups through DreamIt’s accelerator program. The partnership with DreamIt, entitled the Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (MEAP), is Comcast Interactive Capital’s first investment initiative from the $20 million fund created by Comcast as part of the NBCUniversal transaction that is committed to expanding opportunities for minority entrepreneurs.

Comcast Interactive Capital and DreamIt are now accepting applications and will select five minority-led startups to participate in DreamIt’s three-month accelerator program taking place in Philadelphia this fall. The deadline for applications is July 8th and the program will commence on September 9th.

Kerry Rupp, Managing Director of DreamIt, said, “We are thrilled to have Comcast Interactive Capital as a partner and are looking forward to working with them. DreamIt is proud to provide assistance and opportunities to help entrepreneurs grow, and we know that Comcast will provide invaluable expertise and partnership to this process.”

MEAP will provide minority entrepreneurs with the opportunity to engage in an intensive, company-building experience. Applicants who are accepted into MEAP will be a part of DreamIt’s broader Fall 2011 initiative in Philadelphia and will be offered the opportunity to learn from, and be mentored by, recognized experts in marketing, brand building, business development, financial modeling, business plans, distribution and customer acquisitions. In addition, they will be provided with office space, working alongside the other startups selected and be provided with donated legal, accounting and administrative help. At the end of the three-month period, the startups will have the opportunity to pitch to venture capital and angel investors at a demo day in Philadelphia to secure further funding to create a sustainable business.

For details on how to submit an application for the Comcast Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, please visit the DreamIt website atwww.dreamitventures.com/about/Comcast-MEAP.php.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)


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Pitney Bowes Makeover Small Business

Do you need a Small Business Makeover?

by on June 1, 2011 in Ask Smallbizlady, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Customer Service, featured, Grow Your Business, Mompreneurs, My Recommendations, Social Media, Technology, Your Small Business

Pitney Bowes wants to give your business a communications makeover worth up to $10,000. If you could use some help with your email, direct mail and social media communications, you can win a free year of using Pitney Bowes’ full suite of business tools.  The grand prize winners will also receive in person one-on-one coaching from me @Smallbizlady and my colleagues marketing expert Jane Applegate and technology expert Phil Simon.Pitney Bowes Makeover Small Business

 

 

You have until July 19th to tell us how you’d improve your business communications. The earlier you enter the better as you will need to get a social media pals to vote for you in order to become a finalist. To enter write a 300 word essay on your biggest communications challenge or send in a one minute video. Click here to enter the Pitney Bowes Small Business Makeover Contest     http://www.pbsmartessentials.com/makeover/

Disclosure: I am a paid consultant to Pitney Bowes to participate as a judge and business coach in this makeover contest!

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

Comments { 0 }
Success Power Networking

7 Keys to Power Networking

by on May 16, 2011 in Become Your Own Boss Tips, Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, How to Start, My Recommendations, SmallBizChat, Uncategorized, Your Small Business

7 Keys to Power Networking

Success Power Networking

Power Networking at Business Event

May 16th kicks off National Small Business Week and for the next seven to 14 days there are tons of events and awards ceremonies for small business owners which is a fantastic opportunity to meet and greet potential contacts.  I keynote and speak at many conferences and small business events, and often I see small business owners doing their businesses a disservice by how they show up and network at events.  With tons of networking opportunities taking place from now until Memorial Day, I wanted to provide a guide on how to prepare for a networking event. I call them my 7 Keys to Power Networking.

Here are 7 things to consider when networking:

  1. 1. Set a Goal. Don’t go to any event without a goal in mind. You should always know why you are attending the event. You should not go to any event where your best target customers are not the majority of the attendees. When I attend events, I try to secure 5 quality contacts and that’s it. Why? Because there’s only so much time to follow-up with people.  The fortune is in the follow-up, I’ll talk about that in next week’s blog post.

 

  1. 2. Research Attendees. Try to find out who is attending the event. Look at who’s on the board of the event sponsor. Check out the names of the honorary committee hosting the invitation. Make a call to the organizers to try to get as much information as a possible.  (If they utilized an online invitation, you can see who else was invited. Use Google and LinkedIn to research as many attendees as possible. This makes having conversations much more interesting and you’ll show your prospect you’ve got legitimate interest in them. You want to learn any information that will help you make a personal connection as quickly as possible.

 

  1. 3. Bring You’re A Game. You can’t bring your A game in your B suit. Make sure you look great head to toes.  Men shoes are important. Ladies make sure the makeup and neckline are appropriate.  Everything should fit well, and it will really boost your confidence. You don’t get a second chance make a first impression!  Dress how you want others to perceive you and your business.

 

  1. 4. The Reception IS The Event. Game time is the reception. DO NOT BE LATE! The reception is your best chance to track down your targets. You must be on time and armed with your business cards at the reception. Why? Once you take your seat you can only network with the other 9 people at your table. If you are going to attend an event with a friend– divide and conquer the event.

  1. 5. Go For The Relationship– Not The Chicken. Do not head immediately to the food table. Work The Room! Be fearless and ready to introduce yourself to anyone. Once you make a contact maintain eye contact. Don’t look over their shoulder at your key target who just entered the room. Be present where you are. Anyone could potentially be a great contact.

  1. 6. Moving On From A Contact. Moving on can be tricky. It’s important not to be rude. But most likely the person you are talking to has an agenda too, so do not hesitate to shut down the conversation and move on.  Here’s three great lines you can use to make a graceful exit.  Use one of these lines as appropriate; “It was so nice to meet you, I’m going to head over to get a drink.”  or  “It was so nice meeting you and I’m going to give you a call.”  “I do not want to monopolize you at this event, I am sure there are more people in here you want to meet. Let keep in touch and see how we can help each other.”  With any of these lines you can smoothly move on to your next potential prospect.

  1. 7. Take Notes. You’ll want to remember the details of your conversations, write down a few notes on the back of the contact’s business card to help your memory later.  If you meet a lot of people each week sometimes it’s hard to keep people straight relying on your memory. Your notes will help making follow-up much more personal.

 

What other networking tips do you have? I love to learn about other good ideas.

 

Melinda F. Emerson, SmallBizLady, is one of America’s leading small business experts. She is an author, speaker and small business coach whose areas of expertise include small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to End Small Business Failure.  She publishes a resource blog, www.succeedasyourownboss.com and hosts a weekly talk show on Twitter called #Smallbizchat for emerging entrepreneurs.  Forbes Magazine named Melinda Emerson one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Melinda has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fortune and Black Enterprise. She’s the author of the bestselling book “Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.”

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small biz chat with melinda emerson

Finding and Keeping Clients Using Social Customer Relationship Management

by on January 14, 2011 in Grow Your Business, Q & A Interview, SmallBizChat

small biz chat with melinda emersonEach week as Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with Howard Yermish @hyermish. Howard has worked professionally in Internet development since 1993.

Howard has consulted on projects for clients such as AOL, Commerce Bank, Disney, Kaiser Permanente, Mattel and Microsoft, as well as start-up ventures. As a professional speaker, he presents topics such as Internet strategy, social networks, and productivity.  For more information: http://www.howardyermish.com

Smallbizlady: What is Social Customer Relationship Management?

Howard Yermish: Social CRM is a sub-system of an overall customer relationship management effort. The goal is for a business to be efficient and effective with building trust with its prospects and customers.  A good CRM system should facilitate capturing interactions with your customers, organize these interactions so others in the business can effectively help customers, and facilitate decision-making based on the collected customer data.

Smallbizlady: How is Social CRM different from what those of us who’ve been in business a long time call Customer Relationship Management systems?

Howard Yermish: The big deal with Social CRM is that so much of the conversation that traditionally happened in phone calls or site visits is now happening in email, Tweets, Facebook comments, blogs, reviews and forum posts. Using a dashboard or monitoring tool isn’t a shortcut to having a good CRM system, but at least it is a place to start getting a handle on this significant business challenge.

Smallbizlady: What do you think are the challenges that small businesses face when trying to embrace Social CRM?

Howard Yermish: The first challenge has nothing to do with Social CRM. It has to do with having a detailed profile of your customers.  This profile needs to go beyond general demographics and anecdotal evidence. The profile needs to include key performance indicators, which are different from business to business.  You have to know what data to collect. Otherwise you might try to capture everything, which gets in the way of a natural customer interaction.

The next big challenge is to understand listening. Businesses used to rely on direct feedback from customers or formal market research. However, listening now includes communications on the Internet – anyone active on Twitter knows this.  There are plenty of case studies showing how the simple Internet monitoring has helped large and small businesses have better relationships with their prospects and customers.

Smallbizlady: Is listening the place to start for Social CRM?

Howard Yermish: It is certainly the easiest and least costly place to start.  You can setup Google Alerts to monitor external content.  You can use saved searches in Twitter to grab real-time Twitter data.  You can search public Facebook posts and comments.A combination of social dashboards, RSS readers and your own web analytics should be part of your regular diet of online data consumption. Once you start getting data from these efforts, you will figure out ways to refine your listening devices to get better or more nuanced data.  And you will need to continually refine your data collection processes.

Smallbizlady: So after I have all of these Internet listening devices in place, what is next?

Howard Yermish: Having a formal response plan in place is key. The business needs to have a specific process as to how it responds to both positive and negative feedback. Just because a customer starts whining on Twitter doesn’t mean that organization should move mountains – it teaches your customers that whining works.  You might simply want to redirect complaints to traditional channels like telephone support.  Perhaps using Twitter or Facebook directly/publicly could potentially compromise customer privacy.  When you think through your response plan, consider both who is the appropriate person to answer and where the answer should be posted. You do not want to get caught in a flaming comments war on someone else’s blog.

Smallbizlady: What ways can small businesses be more proactive with Social CRM efforts?

Howard Yermish:  It depends on your specific customer profile. Let’s say that you run a floral company and your customers are all brides to be.  If brides are all reading specific blogs about wedding planning, perhaps you should be participating on those blogs or websites – not in a sales way, but in a helpful way. You might be inclined to post comments or offer to guest post on the site. This is definitely a great idea, but you might have missed an early strategy step. In this case, are the brides that use a particular website actually good and profitable customers?

Start with a simple survey to your existing or prior customers to find out which blogs and websites they used to find a photographer or DJ. Make sure to reward them for their time and effort to help you. But then follow their digital fingerprints beyond their answers. If you can determine what other sites they are using from comments, shared links on profiles, Facebook likes, etc., you will develop a more precise way to understand your clients. So the survey acts as a starting point for deeper research.Then you can take this newly found information and determine key measuring points to add to your customer profile.

Smallbizlady: How do you create a customer profiles?

Howard Yermish: Start by really looking at your customers, as many as you can. Group them as many different ways: by product/service line, by revenue, by profitability, by friendliness and any other way you can think. Trends will emerge and you will find that there are certain data points that could be tracked. For example, I’ve looked at my own best clients and learned specific things that I can measure during the sales process that very reliably predict profitability of the project. That data will inspire who you follow on Twitter, how you comment on blogs, which articles you share and everything beyond.

Smallbizlady: Compared to traditional CRM, Social CRM seems very nebulous, very unfocused. Should we stick to more traditional CRM efforts?

Howard Yermish: Traditional CRM solutions were about providing very defined channels and processes for customers. There has been a shift of power from the business to the customer. Customers now make the rules and define the communication channels. Customers can connect with each other with or without your help. Your business should choose which channels make the most sense. Trying to do everything might be an impossible task.

So if you provide appropriate communication channels that resonate with your customers, you are able to focus your efforts and define your processes.  You might cast a wide net for your listening efforts, specifically to catch the anomalies.  You can then focus the efforts on a couple of specific outlets, like web-based forums, or Twitter, or Facebook chat, or comments on your blog.

Smallbizlady: What problems do you see with current Social CRM tools?

Howard Yermish: The current crop of tools helps collect and respond to Internet based activity.  With sentiment analysis, some tools are attempting to determine whether comments and conversations are positive or negative. Unfortunately, the tools within reach of small businesses don’t offer an all-encompassing master view of every online activity and response.  This is to be expected since CRM should look different from one business to another.  Tools like Salesforce.com or 37signals Highrise can be very powerful if the business is tracking relevant information that they have learned from their customer profiles.

My hope is that the tools will evolve to allow businesses to spot customer trends so a business can be more proactive with its customers in ways that make businesses more unique.  Just imagine taking the “Long Tail” approach to your customer segments.  When the CRM tools help a business spot a particular niche in its customer base, really interesting product or service innovation can happen.

Smallbizlady: If a business doesn’t have any “listening devices” setup, where should one start?

Howard Yermish: Start with Google Alerts for your business name, personal name, brand, product, keywords, competitors, etc. you are missing out on a great information source. Rather than getting continual email messages, I prefer to setup the alerts as RSS feeds and then subscribe in my newsreader. Google Alerts aren’t quite real-time data, but it is pretty close and you cannot beat the price. (Free)

Smallbizlady: Are there tools that will work with my email correspondence?

Howard Yermish: Personally, I use a tool called Rapportive – http://rapportive.com/ – with my Google Apps email account. Rapportive plugs into your Gmail or Google Apps email account and shows related social profiles and activity for people that send you email. I like this approach because it allows me to connect with my customers, partners, vendors and such on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Before inviting them to connect, Rapportivelinks me to their social network profiles to see if it makes sense to connect.  It is a lightweight approach to Social CRM that you can do without any thought or planning.If you are an Outlook person, Xobni – http://www.xobni.com/ – shows you related social profiles, email activity and attachments.

Smallbizlady: Which dashboard tools do you use?

Howard Yermish: I’m currently a fan of Hootsuite – http://www.hootsuite.com/ but I’ve tried others that are similar in features and pricing.  MarketMeSuite –http://4hy.me/marketme – looks very interesting as a paid service which I’ve just started trying. If you are a solopreneur, you can probably get by with Tweetdeck– http://www.tweetdeck.com/ – for monitoring Twitter and Facebook.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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The Right Way To Make Sales Calls For Your Small Business

by on March 8, 2010 in 10 Things Lists, Become Your Own Boss Tips, Customer Service, My Recommendations, Your Small Business

I have recently been exposed to too many instances of sales calls that are inappropriate and ineffective to actually make a sale.  Social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are great for making the initial connection, but if you do not take the time to interact and actually build a relationship with your new connection, you are still a stranger.

My nickname is SmallBizLady and @smallbizlady is my handle on Twitter.  I am considered a power Twitter user, with more than 10,000 followers between two accounts. That is great and all, but my favorite thing to do is reach someone outside of Twitter – on the telephone.  That’s where the real relationship is made.  Once that connection is made, there’s a right and a wrong way to approach a sale.

SmallBizlady’s 10 Rules For Small Business Sales Calls

  1. Do not make sales calls on Monday! Mondays are tough enough for people; do not bother them when they are just getting their week started — if you want to be successful.
  2. Make sales calls on Tues. Wed. Thurs. and never make sales calls before 10am or after 3pm.The prime calling hours for sales calls are 10-noon and 1-3pm. People do not like sales calls generally. Do not be a bother to a potential client before they get their morning coffee. After 3pm people on deadline do not have time for your call. Give yourself the best possible path to success by respecting your prospect’s time.
  3. Always ask if your contact has time to speak with you. And if they are busy, ask when would be a best time to give them a call back.  Then you’ll have a scheduled appointment which is even better.
  4. Make sure you can remind your contact how you know them.
  5. Research whether or not the contact is really a potential customer. It’s always best to know what products and services your customer purchases – and when they make these decisions to do so. If you really know your target market, you’ll know this information.
  6. Make sure you have the correct name of the person you want to speak with on the call. When you do get a potential customer on the phone, be ready. You only have 7 seconds to make an impression.  Stammering over someone’s name is not the way to make a good first impression.
  7. Do not leave a voicemail if you do not reach your sales target. Connections are only made with real people. Your message will be deleted anyway.
  8. Use contact management software. You need to track your calls and when it’s time to make follow-up calls.
  9. Never make a sales call on a Friday! No one wants someone selling them something when they are trying to wrap up their week and get out the door to start their weekend.
  10. Use a target list for potential customers.  Make sure you contact you target list at least once a month by phone, email or direct mail.

Your sales pipeline is the life’s blood of your business, so you must make sales calls. Just remember these rules so that you can build on your social networks instead of instantly turning them off with no chance of a sale.

Do you have any more rules to add to my list of sales calls dos and don’ts for a small business owner?  Please leave me a comment below.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #Smallbizchat on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda’s first book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-By-Month Guide to a Business That Works will be released by Adams Media in March 2010.

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Working With The One You Love

by on February 15, 2010 in 10 Things Lists, Mompreneurs, Pink Slip Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, Women in Business, Your Small Business

When you are first starting out in business, you will need help.  Good help is especially hard to find when you have very limited resources.  Other than interns, you may be forced to look around your personal network to see if you have any friends or family that can jump in and help you build your new enterprise.  One of the most obvious helpers that may jump out to you is your spouse.  But working with the one you love can be a slippery slope.  If you drive each other crazy with simple household work, it’s probably not a good idea to work together.  There also are those who believe that you should never hire someone you can’t fire. Why? If you fire your spouse you could ruin or severely damage your marriage.

Relationships and certainly marriages are hard work every day without adding the complications and stress of working together in a start-up business.  My husband and I worked together in my first business Quintessence Multimedia for four years—so I have perspective on this subject.

Whether you go it alone or work with your sweetie… it’s a challenge.   One of things that you need to do if you decide to work together is really understand each other’s best skills and work styles. 

I am a morning person, who is a hyper Type-A, task master.  I make lists and mow down the list daily.  My husband is a corporate MBA, six sigma, sales manager, and a procrastinator.  We annoyed each other every day, before we even got to the office.  We drove to the office together, and were late most days because my husband was usually running late.  I found myself sitting in the living room, waiting silently and getting more upset by the minute.  One of the things that really helped us was seeking out mentorship from an older husband and wife team who had an office in our building.  Once they suggested that we drive separate cars to work, that problem was solved. 

One of the critical decisions that need to be made if you are working with your spouse is whether you are going to be equal partners, or if one of you is the boss.  Defining this dynamic upfront – and communicating it – is essential.  There’s a big difference between being a partner and being a key employee.  This especially comes into play when handling disagreements about the business. 

Ladies–this is a big issue for you if you started the business, and your husband later joins the business.  Some men really can’t handle being a key employee, and may assert themselves like they are the boss. 

The long term viability of the business and the marriage are intertwined. Resentment from this dynamic can really spill over into your home life.  When you are personally invested in your business; it’s hard to not take a bad day in your business home with you at night. 

So How Can You Avoid Having Your Work-life Ruin Your Home-life? 

Here’s SmallBizLady’s 10 Rules for Working Well With Your Spouse.

  1. Have clearly defined roles at work, and stay in your lanes.
  2. Regular date nights (weekly if possible)
  3. Drive separate cars
  4. Have separate offices (and separate assistants–if you can afford it)
  5. Have clearly defined roles at home, too
  6. Have regular meetings to air out disagreements
  7. Have separate interests outside of the business
  8. Make decisions based on what’s best for the business
  9. Be accountable to each other (regardless of who get the final say)
  10. Seek out other couplepreneurs to get advice and support.

A great husband and wife business owner team, Donna Maria Coles Johnson her husband Darryl Johnson inspired me in part to write this blog post.  They lead the Indie Beauty Network http://www.indiebeauty.com.  I interviewed them last year about being successful couplepreneurs.

Do you have a rule or suggestion for how to work successfully with your spouse?

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda Emerson, known to many as “SmallBizLady,” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Coach and Social Media Strategist who hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business. Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months is out in March 2010.

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Managing Difficult Clients

by on September 6, 2009 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, My Recommendations

Does this sound familiar…”How many 16 hour days is this project going to take?” “My client has saboteurs working with me on this project,” “This project started with an Managing Difficult Clientsunrealistic deadline and has gotten crazier every day since.” If you have said any of these phrases out loud to yourself recently – you are not alone.  Professional service businesses, particularly creative service businesses can really get abused and lose profit margin to rework.

Unanticipated hours spent trying to please a client that is never satisfied can drain you and your business like a vampire.  From the countless unnecessary revisions, to the “I don’t know what I want, but I don’t want that” dance or too many people allowed to influence the look and feel of your project.  Then there’s the real kicker– the client beat you up on price in the first place.  After more than a decade in business, I have seen that devil more than a few times-and now I have strategies to cope.

When it seems like nothing that you do is right, forget about preserving the relationship – save your sanity instead.  With a client who just won’t be satisfied no matter what you do, you need to operate defensively. 

Smallbizlady’s Rules for Managing Difficult Clients

  • Never start work without a signed agreement and at least a 50% deposit.
  • Don’t accept less than your standard fee without a good reason.
  • Reserve the right to adjust the budget if the scope of the project changes.
  • Make sure the budget is significant enough to hire a project manager to help you.
  • Have a kickoff to meet all the key stakeholders.
  • Create a project timeline and then have the client sign off.
  • Develop a detailed project plan with assigned task and deliverables.
  • Praise stakeholders openly who are helpful.
  • State clearly in your contract agreement, and every time you send over a draft how many business days the client will have to review the draft based on the project timeline.
  • Insist on a single point of contact.
  • 1 edit, 1 revision -That’s it! All additional changes are billable for time and materials hourly.
  • Use a signed work order for revisions. Before additional revisions are made, make the client sign a work order to approve any additional charges.
  • Over communicate with status reports.
  • Document all communication, just in case you need to prove ridiculous directives after the fact.

 If you are a project-based company it may make sense to invest in a project management software/file share program such as GoPlan, Microsoft Sharepoint, or SharedPlan Central. These programs allow you to give restricted access to clients and your project team 24/7.  It will also keep you from having 42 emails back and forth about the same project.

Always make time to fill your pipeline.  Do not fall into the trap of spending all of your time on one extremely demanding clients to the point where you can’t devote yourself to any new opportunities.  Say “no” or “that’s impossible” when necessary.

Take great care of customers, who love your work and acknowledge your dedication and professionalism.  They are rare, but they are the backbone of your long-term business success.

You will not love all of your clients; not everyone is a good customer.  The great thing about being in business for yourself is that you can move on from difficult clients after their nightmare project is over. Never be afraid to cut your losses and move on.

Have you ever dealt with a difficult client? How did you handle the situation? Share your story in the comments.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #smallbizchat on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted resource on Twitter to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda’s first book, Be Your Own Boss in 12 months or Less; A Month-by-Month Guide to Start a Business that Works! is scheduled to be released by Adams Media in early 2010.

For more helpful tips to start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog. http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com

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Newsflash–Nobody Cares About Your Business!

by on January 3, 2009 in How to Start

This may seem harsh, but if you do not take the time to build and maintain relationships with your customers your direct mail, emails, brochures, and that voicemail you left at 4pm on Friday is all headed for file zero or the delete button.  

All your customers care about is WIIFM or What’s in it for me? They want their problems solved. You and your staff must use solution oriented thinking to engage them and you should call sometimes just to say Hi. So what is solution oriented thinking? Read up on your customers. Study the trends in their industry. Anticipate their challenges ahead of time. Call and ask them what their biggest challenges are currently.

The other thing your email marketers need to learn is that your list loses its effectiveness by 10% every month. So any prospects on your list that have not bought from you in over a year, should be purged from your list.

The same rule applies to your employees will not care about your business either, if you do not engage them in major decisions and take care of their needs. Remember, it’s all about your employees and your customers and never about you. A key ingredient to being a successful business owner is being selfless. Make it a point to acknowledge little things. I like to make a big deal out of my employee’s birthdays. I cater lunch and buy a cake for everyone. My team is under 12 people, so this is not a big deal, but you get my point.

So how do you keep your small business relevant to your customers?

  • Always position your business as a helpful resource. Instead of sending cards at holiday time, subscribe your clients to a helpful magazine. I have used Pink Magazine, Success Magazine and Black Enterprise for this in the past.
  • Give away valuable information for free through white papers, blogs, and webinars.
  • Offer to brainstorm (for free) with clients about a challenge to get helpful insights  to bid on potential upcoming projects.
  • Create a “Clients in the News” section on your website to brag about what your customers are accomplishing.
  • Meet with key staff twice a year about their future career goals. Look for ways to support them, so they are not planning their exit on your dime.

Remember: When you invest your time and resources in your clients and employees the investment always pays off down the road.

Action: List three strategies you will implement this month to ensure your business is relevant to your customers or you are engaging your employees.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, E-NEWSLETTER OR WEB SITE?  You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Melinda Emerson is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Expert and Social Media Coach who hosts #smallbizchat on Twitter.  #Smallbizchat is the trusted Twitter resource to discuss everything entrepreneurs need to know about launching and running a profitable small business.  Melinda’s first book, Be Your Own Boss! How to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business 12 Months or Less! is scheduled to be released by Adams Media in early 2010.

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