YOU: Your Business’ Most Important Asset
March 31, 2011
By Julie Wise, The Silver Owl
When you work from home, it can be easy to get caught up in the ‘liberty’ of it all – setting your own work hours, not having to commute, and working when you want to work. To build a successful and sustainable business that will help you live the lifestyle you want to live, you need to take care of your most important asset – YOU.
How? Focus on a few simple things:
Value yourself
As a service professional, your business is YOU, so be sure to be aware of how important you are to your business. When you are putting together your marketing materials, do not undervalue yourself or your service offerings. People will work with you because you are the best at what you do. Be sure you believe that too! On the practical side – this should also help you realise what insurance covers you need.
Value your clients
You also need to value your clients (and potential clients), since working with them is what will allow you to live the lifestyle you want. By knowing what they need, and providing that to them in a really solid way, you will be honouring them (and we all know that means referrals to more great clients, which will build your business!). Open and honest communication with your clients is important too. If you don’t tell them what’s going on – they’ll fill in the gaps themselves.
Outsource
This is such an important thing that people often hesitate to do until it’s almost too late. What specific tasks do you do each day? Which of those items generate revenue for you? Unless you are a bookkeeper, have your books done. Instead of doing every bit of your marketing, have someone help you with newsletters or social media. You should only be doing two things in your business – working with clients and strategic marketing like planning and networking.
Set a schedule
Remember that you not only need office hours for your clients, but for yourself. Schedule everything you can (including potential client follow up!) and hold yourself to your schedule. You will be so much more productive if you are well organized, even if you only work part time.
Work with a coach or mentor
By working with someone who has been where you are, and is far ahead of you, you will get to where you want to be much faster. This also goes right back to valuing yourself.
By making these few simple shifts in your mind, you will naturally focus more on what is important, you will be more productive, and you will realise more success. More importantly you’ll not be isolated and you will have built an invisible thread of connections that you will never know about unless the worst happens.
Building a successful business requires great productivity and that starts with nurturing your most important asset – YOU. Focus on the things that are most important and get support where you need it.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY JULIE WISE
- Networking – Improving my ROI
- “Think & Grow Rich”: Who’s sitting at your table?
- A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
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Julie Wise - The SilverOwlJulie has over 25 years in business operations, strategy and performance improvements. She is an accredited Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an alumnus of the Institute of Executive Coaching. She established The SilverOwl specifically to help businesses with their strategies and operational efficiencies. With Julie’s wealth of experience, and network of associates, The SilverOwl provides access to a vast range of business performance solutions and experienced professionals. Julie is on the Australian Business Women’s Network Advisory Board and the NSW Committee for the Australian Women’s Archive Project. In Jan 2010, she joined the Fred Hollows Foundation.
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Blogging for Startups – Do You Blog?
March 30, 2011
By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au
When I committed to writing a monthly post for the Australian Businesswomen’s Network, there were many good reasons to do it. I was about to launch the happychild website; I thought blogging about starting a business could be good for me. I also value the ABN and wanted to give something back to it. But the last couple of months, I’ve been late in submitting my post – partly because I’ve been so busy with the website that writing another blogpost seemed one too many. I even thought about pulling out of my ABN blog commitment. But two things stopped me. Since starting this ABN blog, I have had at least two people contact me to say that something I’d written made a difference to them. For me, that’s the best reason to keep going. And then I read a blogpost on the Tech Crunch site called “Why Startups Need to Blog” and I felt re-inspired.
So I’m going to urge you to start (or continue) blogging – on your site and maybe also on another site. This is what I get from my blogging experience:
- Time for reflection: the process of having to generate something worthwhile to say about what I am doing and why, is valuable in itself. I write a blog on the happychild website- it’s for parents and teachers to read. But each time I write a blogpost for the ABN it sharpens my focus on my business.
- Training my voice: all business owners need a ‘voice’ to talk about their business during PR opportunities, to explain their business to an investor and to communicate well with staff and contractors. Writing about my business and how and why I started it strengthens my message online and offline.
- Building my brand: one of the reasons I agreed to write for ABN is to build the happychild® brand; it’s something I’m proud of and passionate about. But at the same time, I am building my personal brand. That may sound conceited, but I think that startup business owners need to build their own brand alongside their business because, not only are we ambassadors for our fledgling brands, one day we may need to part company and launch our next successful enterprise.
They are my reasons, but the Tech Crunch blogpost which you must read adds these reasons:
- Accessing an audience
- Reaching customers
- Communicating your vision
- Reaching others in your industry
- Marketing your services
- Engaging in dialogue with others in your industry
Before you rush over and read the Tech Crunch article, please leave your footprint here in the way of a comment – the Tech Crunch article advises this: “you need to comment on other people’s blogs. First, it is a place where your comment will often link back to your blog where it can drive traffic. Occasionally, and not overtly, and only if relevant you can provide a comment with a link back to an article in your blog. Don’t do this often, don’t be blatant and make sure it’s relevant.”
If you are a member of the ABN, have started a business and you’re blogging, please do let me know where. I await your relevant, not blatant, comments and links.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY YVETTE VIGNANDO
- Begin it Now – a Entrepreneur’s Quick Guide to Procrastination
- 5 Things I Did Not Know About Being an Entrepreneur
- Find a Mentor, Grow Your Business
- The Profit Principle: A New Book and a Great Resource
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Yvette Vignando - www.happychild.com.auYvette is pursuing her passion – to take action that helps children develop great social and emotional skills as a foundation for a happy and successful life. Formerly a lawyer and then successful executive coach specialising in Emotional Intelligence, Yvette was encouraged by her experience of MentorNet to launch her business – a website for parents that publishes practical and engaging information about raising children with emotional intelligence. Yvette looks forward to sharing the challenges and successes of her experience as she navigates her way through the adventures of launching a website, and tackles online sales and marketing, an evolving business plan, and the growing universe of social media. Yvette hopes that by following her personal and professional development as an entrepreneur you will also be inspired to follow your passions.
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David Meerman Scott at SXSW – Video – Doing What You Love
March 29, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis
David Meerman Scott (coauthor of numerous marketing bestsellers including “New Rules for Marketing & PR“) was at South By South West Interactive giving a talk about his book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.
In this brief clip he shares his message and a message from his coauthor, Brian Halligan (Hubspot) about the power of doing what you love.
FREE WEBINAR WITH DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT AND BRIAN HALLIGAN
David and Brian were our guests in 2010 on the BOOKED for Lunch webinar series.
You can watch the one-hour webinar NOW free at our website.
ABOUT “MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD”
What can internet marketers learn from cultural icon and American jam band, the Grateful Dead? The Grateful Dead is a great case study in contrarian marketing. Their marketing innovations spurred from doing the opposite of what other bands (and record labels) were doing at that time. Starting in the internet-free 1960s, the Grateful Dead pioneered social media and inbound marketing concepts that businesses of all industries still use today.
Ahead of their time, they believed in “freemium” content and created a huge network of people who recorded and traded tapes. They focused on cultivating a dedicated and vocal community that drove millions of fans to the band’s live shows for over thirty years, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Today’s companies using social media can still learn from their success.
ORDER YOUR COPY OF “MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD”
Order your copy of Marketing Lesson from the Grateful Dead from Booktopia and save.
REFERENCES:
BOOKED for Lunch are free webinars with the world’s leading business book authors and thinkers, presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and Citrix GoToWebinar. Check out which author is being featured next.
Valerie Khoo finds resources for her Aussie business at SXSW
March 29, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis
Valerie Khoo of the Sydney Writers’ Centre attended South by South West (SXSW) to look at what ideas she can share with her customers and also implement in her own business.
In this video she shares:
- some of the valuable resources she found in the SXSW trade show
- why content creation has to go beyond trying to get search engines to find you
- and how Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy presentation echoed one of the main themes of the conference, that of being more authentically generous and without an agenda.
MORE FROM VALERIE KHOO
Valerie was interviewed for the In Her Shoes business series. In this interview we discuss
• Why good writing is an essential part of doing business
• How social media writing differs from other writing
• What small business needs to be doing right now to be successful
Here’s a link to the video. Watch now for some great writing tips, and more.
Visit the Sydney Writers’ Centre
Best wishes,
Suzi
Games Your Customers WANT You to Play
March 28, 2011
By Cat Matson, Alito
I’ve recently returned from Austin, Texas, having attended the world’s largest Interactive Media conference, South by South West.
There’s no doubt, based on the presentations by the world’s marketing and interactive media EXPERTS, that social media platforms are here to stay … and are forever changing how we do business. So, if there are readers of this blog who are yet to jump on board with platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, wait no more. (Contact me … or any of the other social media strategists within the ABN … and figure out how social media can be utilised in YOUR business.)
What was most exciting about SXSW was seeing the future trends. Now that the business-world is getting used to being ‘social,’ experts are suggesting the next evolution will be based on gaming… or as Seth Priebatsch (CEO of SCVNGR) called it, the gaming layer.
If you went to school, have a loyalty program card in your wallet or have ever had your credit card ‘upgraded’ to black, gold or platinum, then you have participated in the gaming layer. Essentially, a game is where players progress up levels of status or reward in return for appropriate behaviour – and are penalised for inappropriate behaviour.
What’s this got to do with business? Well, game mechanics of rewarding a purchase, or even a visit to a store, could assist a business with new customer acquisition. Or, instead of giving a customer their sixth coffee free, game-based loyalty programs could be used to reward regular customers with status and special privileges.
Dennis Crowley, Founder of FourSquare
Such games can now be played within social media applications. For example, FourSquare allows users to ‘check-in’ at a venue (retail store, hospitality venue, public space) and receive tips or insights from other visitors. More importantly, savvy businesses can make offers to both new and returning customers via these applications. A FourSquare user can also be enticed into a store or venue near their most recent-check-in… all based on their profile history.
Customised, targeted, real-time marketing… that’s fun for the consumer. Now that’s a game-changer!
Questions to spark more ideas…
How might *your* business use game mechanics to attract new customers or increase loyalty?
Which game mechanics have enticed you to ‘check-in,’ visit or buy?
MORE GREAT POSTS BY CAT MATSON
- Done! It’s time to get things finished and ‘shipped’.
- Strategy. What is it? Really.
- Why Are You Doing This?
- Party Themes – Simple Questions to Set the Scene
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Cat Matson - AlitoCat is a Business CATalyst, sparking ideas for peak business performance. With a keen interest in strategy, marketing, social media and personal effectiveness, Cat works with clients to have their business firing on all cylinders. Appalled by the notion of ‘silver-bullet’, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to business success, Cat works with savvy business owners to connect the RIGHT resources with the RIGHT strategy to produce the desired business outcomes. When not working, Cat enjoys time with her 2 young boys, her husband and exploring the ever-evolving possibilities of social media. She is a connection junkie – getting a buzz out of connections both on- and off-line and is often seen with iPhone to ear and iPad at fingertips.
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Quotas on Boards. What’s the real issue?
March 28, 2011
By Susan Wareham McGrath, Susan Wareham Immigration Services
On International Women’s Day, Australia’s peak shareholders’ body said women should be appointed to company boards according to their abilities, not arbitrary quotas, according to The Australian newspaper. And Federal Opposition Women’s Affairs spokesperson Michaelia Cash restated the Coalition’s opposition to gender quotas, in response to Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey’s call for women to occupy a mandated 30 per cent of boardroom positions.
Meanwhile, Governor-General Quentin Bryce used International Women’s Day to call for board quotas, saying they are needed to break the “old boys” stranglehold over Australian business, and Australian Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis has stated that quotas were a last resort but that the government was leaving this option on the table.
But are we targeting the real problem in our discussions about quotas and getting more women onto Australian boards? I don’t think so.
I see the lack of women on boards as just a symptom of a much deeper problem that seems to have had disappointingly little media attention paid to it.
The real issue – the problem that must be addressed before any sustainable progress can be made toward gender equity in corporate Australia – is Australia’s prevailing organisational culture that keeps women off boards, by restricting their access to the C-suite executive roles that are feeder positions to corporate directorships.
I recently undertook a piece of research relating to factors that affect women’s representation on boards in Australia. I only used significant Australian and international studies that were up to two years old, so my sources were somewhat limited, but even so they identified no less than sixteen separate and evidence-based factors that currently block women’s ascendency to the board table.
Just a few of these factors were:
- the culture of mateship that continues to pervade Australian boards
- a lack of transparency in board appointment processes, and a failure to articulate and assess applicants against clear selection criteria
- the fact that boards usually recruit from restricted pools of applicants that are already known to, or referred by, their members
- board members’ tendency to “appoint in their own image”
- the fact that significantly fewer males than females see gender diversity on boards as a strategic corporate priority
- organisational expectations of a straight-line, always-available, geographically mobile career model
- the fact that board feeder positions – senior corporate C-suite roles with line management responsibilities – are predominantly filled by men
- the lack of support for women who wish to continue to build their careers after having a child, or taking on caring responsibilities, for example personally tailored return to work programs, telecommuting and the provision of quality, flexible child care, and
- the lack of high level female mentors to assist other women get onto boards and into board feeder roles within an organisation.
And this is despite the fact that evidence has proven over and over again that having women in leadership positions and on boards is good for business, not only by leading to improved financial and corporate results, but because it leads to improved governance, enhanced public perception of the organisation and better employee attraction and retention.
The introduction of quotas would certainly improve the gender balance on Australian boards, and would do so over a very short period of time.
But the introduction of quotas would also have the potential to encourage lip-service, forced compliance, a public questioning of the worthiness of the incumbents who were appointed under the quota requirement and a nagging worry in the minds of the incumbents themselves, about whether their appointment stemmed from merit or tokenism.
So regardless of whether Australia eventually does nothing, goes down the forced quota pathway or takes the voluntary target option, one thing is obvious.
To address the organisational culture that is the fundamental cause of the lack of gender balance on Australian boards, we need strong corporate leadership that champions gender equity for all employees, from the new recruit to the executive team and the board.
Until corporate Australia has the strategic foresight and pragmatic business sense to use such leadership to implement change across Australia’s business sector, the best that will be achieved is the continued implementation of band-aid solutions which, to the detriment of the Australia’s business sector, mask the obvious symptoms, but do little to stem the growth of the real problem.
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The Australian Businesswomen’s Network recently presented an exclusive, one hour webinar with governance expert Julie Garland McLellan. This presentation dispelled the popular myths and provided viewers with the practical information needed to decide whether, how and when to enter the boardroom. |
MORE GREAT POSTS BY SUSAN MCGRATH:
- What I Want for International Women’s Day
- “Tell us a little about yourself” – How to answer tough interview questions
- Six Characteristics of Success-oriented Small Business Owners
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Susan Wareham McGrath, Susan Wareham Immigration ServicesSusan Wareham McGrath is a skilled and experienced Australian visa and immigration consultant; jobsearch strategist and career management consultant; professional writer, blogger and social commentator. She holds a degree in psychology, an advanced diploma in human resource management, a post graduate qualification in public policy development, a national training accreditation and registration as an Australian migration agent with the Migration Agents Registration Authority. Susan is a strong advocate for the personal and professional advancement of women, and after serving as an Advisory Board Member of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network since 2007 is now the ABN’s National Special Projects Manager.
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Lara Solomon of Social Rabbit discusses two SXSW trends
March 27, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis
Lara Solomon of Social Rabbit (which provides social media and client engagement training) and Steps Learning attended South by South West to meet new people and to access the great speaker line-up.
In this interview we discuss the themes that have dominated this year’s festival including gaming.
GAMING FOR BUSINESS
What is gaming’s role in business? Lara tells us what she learned about how to use gaming mechanics in her business.
THE THANK YOU ECONOMY
Another theme that dominated the sessions was that of paying it forward and the Thank You Economy (the theme has been named here after the new book by the same title by the dynamic Gary Vaynerchuk. Details below.)
RESOURCES
Guy Kawasaki – Enchantment
The author of the best-selling The Art of the Start offers insight into the role of influence in successful entrepreneurship while making recommendations on how to enact positive change by working with and through others.
Order your copy of Enchantment from Booktopia and save.
Gary Vaynerchuk – The Thank You Economy
“Gary Vaynerchuk has seen the future of marketing. The Thank You Economy shows how it’s built on both the time-honored techniques of listening to and appreciating customers and newer services like Twitter that allow you to engage directly with customers at unprecedented scale and speed. The book, like Gary, is also a lot of fun and full of passion.”
—Dick Costolo, chief executive officer, Twitter
Order your copy of The Thank You Economy from Booktopia and save.
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Lara Solomon is the ABN’s guest speaker in the upcoming Facebook Pages webinar, 13 July 2011, where you will learn how to harness the power of Facebook to drive your business. We will look at the importance of planning your Facebook posts, how to plan your Facebook posts, posting ideas and how to attract and keep more LIKERs.
Free for all ABN StartUp and Growth members and $39 for Community and Non-members. Learn more and register now for the upcoming Facebook Pages webinar. |
RELATED POSTS:
- Can You Outsource Your Social Media? Cat Matson speaks to Suzi Dafnis
- Cat Matson interviewed at SXSW
How to make your content rule – CC Chapman and Ann Handley at SXSW
March 26, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis
In a day and age when those companies and personalities who dominate an industry or sector tend to be the ones that have the most consistent, compelling content, authors CC Chapman and Ann Handley have captured the need to determine how to create, publish and distribute content in their new book Content Rules.
In this short clip from South by South West (the five-day interactive festival held each year in Austin) the authors touch on how to get your content distributed.
They explain why you need to find the people who are looking for your content.
They also invite you to take your content and re-imagine it. (Reimaginig is one of the great concepts covered in the book and looks what you can do to take the most of the content your already have.)
Chapman and Handley also comment on the sometimes considered artsy-fartsy view of “creating your brand voice”.They tell us that the voice has a lot to do with your brand. We’re compelled to ask: What’s our perspective? What’s our point of view that’s unique and can be furthered?
They end off asking us to be willing to have an opinion.
FREE WEBINAR WITH CC CHAPMAN
CC Chapman was our guest earlier this year on the BOOKED for Lunch webinar series (a regular series of interviews with business book authors). Over 900 people registered to listen in. You can watch and listen to the interview with CC Chapman about Content Rules, here.
ORDER YOUR COPY OF CONTENT RULES
You can also order your copy of Content Rules by CC Chapman and Ann Handley from Booktopia, and save.
Did Dinosaur Designs blunder this opportunity to do good during Earth Hour?
March 26, 2011
By Suzi Dafnis
When is supporting a cause really only supporting you and your brand?
When done authentically, social enterprise has a powerful social impact. Some businesses contribute because that is their key driver. However, when a social initiative is done (or could be construed as being done), primarily to drive sales, I suggest it does not.
Yesterday one of my favourite Australian brands put out a promotion that, I feel, falls short of generous and does them a disservice. Dinosaur Designs offered to give you a free candle (to use during Earth Hour) if you spend over $100 in their store on Saturday 26 March. (See ad below.)
Here’s what’s wrong with this picture:
From a Marketing Perspective
- What sort of candle? Tealight? Designer? What is it worth? You’ll see in the ad there is no explanation.
- You need to spend $100 to get the gift. This offer is akin to the “Like our page on Facebook and we’ll donate to Japan” type of promotions that have received a lot of flack and push back.
From a Social and Contribution perspective
My belief is that if you want to contribute to a cause, then contribute. Don’t make it conditional.
What if Dinosaur Designs had said:
We are right behind Earth Hour and we want to help make it easy for you to take part in this great initiative. We’ll help you light your home while you have the lights out. On Saturday 26 March we will give away a free (description of an eco-friendly, good $ value, perhaps with a great story behind it) candle to anyone that comes by one of our stores.
Yep, it would have cost them a few dollars in candles.
BUT it would have driven traffic to their stores AND created some reciprocity and goodwill. They’d still have benefited as a business, but the offer would be far more compelling.
Social good can be very good for business too. But we need to keep it real.
What do you think?
P.S. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to see the story of TOMS shoes on a flight to the US. Then, I was lucky enough to hear the founder, Blake Mycoskie, tell the corporate story at SXSW. Truly inspiring. Here’s a link to one of his previous presentations, but look out for his South by South West talk. It was amazing.
Digging Out The Gold From Your Annual (P)review
March 25, 2011
By Lisa Murray, Revive Business Coaching
Have you done an annual (p)review of your business this year yet? Holidays give us a breathing space where we can take a step out of our business and really see it clearly from the outside. I’ve been running (p)reviews with coaching clients over the last few weeks as well as playing with my own businesses. If you haven’t had a moment to spare it’s not too late to create heaps of profitable possibilities for your business!
The annual (p)review looks both backwards and into the future. Ideally you do it with your key team members and one or two outsiders who will contribute fresh perspectives. The traditional way is to ask a few questions along these lines:
Looking back:
- What were the key achievements?
- What were the highlights?
- What were the low points?
- What opportunities were missed?
- What most needs to change?
- What was so successful that it bears repeating?
- What did you learn that will contribute to the coming year?
Looking forward:
- What ideas need to be initiated?
- What projects and ideas need to be dropped?
- What are your targets and priorities for the year?
- What talents and capacities do you have that can contribute to greater results?
- What resources, collaborators and expertise do you need?
- What would stop you from making this happen?
- What other knowledge and skills do you need?
Being the non-traditionalist that I am, I also like to add another step. Have a creative, collaborative catchup with a couple of people who inspire you and who also run a business. Talk about the possibilities for all of your businesses and let the conversation and ideas flow in all sorts of directions. Record the conversation and pick out the gems later on.
I did this with a colleague recently and we came away with a plan for a joint venture and a number of new products to create, as well as some projects that will feed into our existing plans! Sometimes it is the creative meandering conversations about what you are most interested in and intrigued by that deliver the best results!! And that’s when work becomes play!
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY LISA MURRAY
- To Achieve or Not to Achieve?
- The Risks of Starting a Second Business
- How to Start and Grow Multiple Businesses
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Lisa Murray – Revive Business Coaching/Bliss TribeLisa Murray is an experienced business mentor who brings bliss back into your business. Her holistic, unconventional and creative strategies help small business owners design authentic, ease-filled and profitable businesses. Through her BlissTribe community, Lisa is a catalyst for business owners to choose a phenomenal, rich and joyful life without compromise! The sky is not the limit… there are no limits… unless you choose them! Lisa connects the dots for you… she is an idea generator, a sounding board, a skilled facilitator, a strategist, a problem solver and a contribution to the authenticity and potency of you creating the business you truly desire and deserve. What else is possible? Ask and you will receive!!
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