Authors tell businesses owners to break rules and lose control to get ahead!
August 19, 2010
The Australian Businesswomen’s Network will host Marketing gurus and lifelong ‘Deadheads’ David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, authors of new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, on a free webinar session: BOOKED for Lunch on 26 August.
Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead discusses how the unique approach used by The Grateful Dead, one of the most iconic bands in history, was ahead of its time and revolutionised the music industry.
The band pioneered many social media and inbound marketing concepts, which are successfully used by businesses across all industries today.
You can tune in from the comfort of your home or office, and discover some key insights and innovations that could be applicable to your business including:
- How to turn your customers into evangelists
- How to bypass traditional business channels and ‘go direct’ and
- How to out-market the competition
Find out how a band became a brand and learn valuable marketing lessons by joining BOOKED for Lunch.
Date: Thursday, 26 August 2010
Time: 12.00pm to 1.00pm (AEST)
Venue: Webinar
Price: Free
For more information or to sign up, contact the Australian Businesswomen’s Network on www.abn.org.au or call 1 300 720 120.
BOOKED for Lunch are free lunch-time web-seminars that feature the world’s best business book authors and thinkers. BOOKED for Lunch is presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and GoToWebinar – Webinars Made Easy.
Guerrilla Marketing + Social Media = Amazing Results
August 3, 2010
How do you apply the time-proven strategies of guerrilla marketing to the new media landscape? How do you measure your social media results? Why should you social media be part of an integrated plan, and just how DO you put together a social media plan that is true guerilla-style, and produces results.
Today at 12.00pm AEST Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing and his co author Shane Gibson are my guests on BOOKED for Lunch. BOOKED for Lunch are free lunch-time webinars with the world’s leading business book authors and thinkers.
During the webinar we’ll look at how to apply social media in an innovative, guerrilla fashion, to target and listen to what the author calls “nano-tribes” and communities.
We’ll also look at the often-asked question – of how do you measure the ROI of your Social Media.
“Guerrilla Marketing is about achieving conventional goals using unconventional methods. Today, more than any other time in history we have an almost limitless arsenal of free to nearly free marketing tools at our fingertips. These tools are the new media marketing tools called social media.” - Jay Conrad Levinson
I’m very excited about this webinar. The subjects (guerrilla marketing and social media) are personal favourites, passions, in fact.
Plus I’ve been a big fan Jay Conrad Levinson’s work for many, many years.
Join me today at 12.00pm AEST for BOOKED for Lunch. You can register on our website.
BOOKED for Lunch is brought to you by Citrix GotoWebinar and the Australian Businesswomen’s Neteotk.
City of Sydney Awards – The search is on for Sydney’s best businesses
June 23, 2010
The search is on for Sydney’s best businesses.
Nominations are now open for the 2010 City of Sydney business awards.
This year, Sydney’s best bike business will be recognised for the first time. This new category acknowledges the increasing number of manufacturers, distributors and retailers of bicycles and their accessories in the Local Government Area.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Awards new category - Best Bike Business
The City of Sydney Business Awards celebrate the best small businesses in the City of Sydney Area. It has 20 categories, including cafes and restaurants, retail beauty, healthcare and fitness, specialty retail, tourism, IT, and Education and Environmental Businesses, that will share in $25,000 in prizes.
“There are more than 20,000 small and medium businesses across the inner city who are the heart of our local villages by driving economic growth, employment and connecting communities. The awards acknowledge business leadership in sustainability, fair trade and social responsibility, as well as compliment our Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan. I encourage all local businesses to enter,” said Lord Mayor, Clover Moore.
Eligible businesses include those employing less than 200 full-time employees within the City of Sydney Local Government Area. More than 600 businesses were nominated in 2009, attracting more than 35,000 votes. “The fate of more than 600 businesses will be put into the hands of local residents and shoppers to tell us their favourite businesses and start voting,” stated Lord Mayor.
The winner of the 2009 Takeaway Food & Catering Services Award, Fresh Catering’s Director Peter McCloskey said, “The Awards gave us an opportunity to profile our business in front of a whole new market.”
Nominations opened 16 June 2010 and close on 30 July 2010.
For more information, to nominate and vote go to www.sydneybusinessawards.com.au
Media Contact: For more information about the Business Awards contact:
Leanne Lincoln 02 9265 9910 or llincoln@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
No. The shortest word to write; the hardest word to say
June 19, 2010
By Cat Matson, Alito
I’m frequently reminded of the importance of saying ‘no’ in favour of giving space to the things I want to say ‘yes’ to … but I do find it quite challenging. Particularly when so many of the things I say ‘yes’ to still fit within my strategic focus. It’s easy to say ‘no’ when you’re clear that something doesn’t get you closer to your goals… but how do you say ‘no’ when it’s something you really want to do?
In a recent blog post, Scott Gould provides what he calls ‘a lesson in no’ via Rich Quick (as an aside – is this guy destined for greatness with a name like that or what?!?).
Rich’s key point is that he often wants to say ‘yes’ to help out a client or friend, to get a sale over the line, or ultimately to be nice. I relate to that. Big time.
The problem is, when you say ‘yes’, the things that are already on your plate often suffer. An existing project is delayed, you compromise your service delivery or prices, or, more often-than-not in my case, I end up working too late into the night, affecting my sleep and therefore mood, tolerance, productivity, and worse-of-all, my relationships.
As Rich argues, when you say YES to things you should say NO to, you let people (or yourself) down.
Saying ‘no’ to everything that isn’t 100% ‘it’ for you right now is a powerful way to deliver quality … and to maintain your own personal sanity.
Saying ‘no’ then also needs to include saying ‘no’ to the parts of your business that aren’t your core strength. Up until now, I’ve always written all my own marketing copy. I think it’s good … and many people tell me I write well. But I’ve recently hired a copywriter to re-write my website copy. Oh. My. Goodness. The difference she is making is extraordinary and makes me realise that whilst I may be ‘good’ at something doesn’t mean I am the ‘best’ person for the job.
So how do you know what to say ‘yes’ to in your business?
- Develop what my colleague, Robin Dickinson, calls a ‘Diamond Focus’ for yourself within your business. What is THE thing in your business that YOU do best and that yields the best return on investment?
- Get very clear – crystal in fact – on what that thing involves. If it’s writing, for example, writing what? when? for whom? where?
- Recognise that all other things fall outside of that diamond focus… and therefore, need to be treated with appropriate ‘lower-priority’. Outsource or delegate as much ‘other-stuff’ as possible. What you can’t, deal with it as effectively and efficiently as possible to minimise ‘lost’ time.
How then do you say ‘no’?
- Practise. Yes, for most of us it’s awkward to say ‘no’ at first but we can get the hang of it. I’m often reminded of the clarity of intent of a toddler. When asked to do something that doesn’t suit him right now he has no qualms with saying ‘no’ (repeatedly in fact). As frustrating as those ‘nos’ are for parents, we would do well to learn from them toddlers are VERY reluctant to let anything distract them from their ‘current’ priority.
- Offer other options. Recommend another provider, suggest another solution, or, if it is something you can do but you can’t do it ‘now’, offer an alternative schedule – “I’d be happy to help you with that, however, my schedule is full for the next 3 weeks.”
- Be clear on your scheduling comittments. A friend recently started adding appointments to her diary not only for the actual meetings she needed to attend, but also preparation time and ‘action-time’ afterwards. Knowing that out of any meeting would arise a series of tasks / follow-up, she now blocks out the time in her diary to do that at the time of scheduling the meeting. That means she can’t get so booked up that she doesn’t have time to ‘do the work’ that arises from the meeting.
Ultimately, saying ‘no’ requires clarity – clarity of intent, clarity of available resources and clarity of what you’re willing to do (and what you’re not willing to compromise on).
As a friend recently put it to me, as I was contemplating saying ‘no’ to something I felt passionate about yet still felt conflicted about the time committment required, “Who would you prefer to be letting down? Those particular people or yourself and your family?”
What do you think? How do you say ‘no’? And how do you know what to say ‘no’ to?
MORE GREAT POSTS BY CAT MATSON
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Cat Matson - AlitoCat Matson ignites the performance of small business owners, their teams and ultimately their businesses through a range of robust mentoring, coaching and education programs. She is a strong advocate for practical, pithy and ‘real’ business advice and loathes the ‘one-size-fits-all’, ‘you-too-can-be-widely-successful-if-you-just-follow-OUR-system’ approach taken by many ’so-called’ business experts. Cat runs Alito with her husband Keith who provides synergistic and smart accounting expertise to their clients who enjoy having streamlined business advice across all key areas. When not working, Cat enjoys spending time with her two young boys and reading interesting business books and biographies.
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New Support for High Growth Women-Owned Businesses
June 15, 2010
Heads Over Heels is a new initiative that selects a small number of high-growth companies to support each year. Support can come in a variety of ways including providing access to mentors and business advisors, assistance with strategic and operational challenges, and exposure to potential customers through our extensive network.
Heads Over Heels portfolio companies are businesses with high-growth potential. These enterprises are led by committed, talented, women owners who seek to grow their companies, have impact in their chosen industry and establish ongoing, sustainable business operations.
Heads Over Heels holds four events per year including company presentation events and themed discussions.
You can learn more at the Heads Over Heels website. And, for more information contact co-founder Sue Klose on 0423 826 344.
The Curse of Mediocrity
May 20, 2010
by Cat Matson, Alito
I’ve been noticing a worrying trend of late. Despite the economic forecasts of ‘recovery’, the business community seems to be doing it tougher than ever before. I’m noticing in particular, small business owners scrimping and cutting corners – looking for the ‘low-cost’ solution rather than a cost-effective solution.
“It’s unwise to pay too much, it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.’
- John Ruskin (1819 – 1900)
Sure, VistaPrint can deliver you some charming business cards for next to nothing … but how does that affect your brand? Doing your own bookkeeping may save you a couple of hundred dollars a week … but can you be sure you’ve tracked everything for maximum tax benefit? Not investing in a quality accountant, business advisor or mentor might ease the pressure on the bank account … but are you making robust strategic decisions that enable your business to put its best foot forward?
There is no doubt that every business owner needs to make the right purchasing decisions for their business – decisions that are in line with their overall strategic objectives. And maybe VistaPrint is the appropriate solution for you in the business card department so you can invest in a quality bookkeeper – that’s your call. My concern is that an increasing ‘notion’ of ’sucking-in’ and ‘holding-on-to-the-cash’ is driving a new business culture of mediocrity – ‘near-enough-is-good-enough’.
On the surface that might be true – so what if the business cards aren’t as ‘glossy’ as last time? However it’s the mental and emotional shift that worries me. As soon as we, as business owners, start ’settling’ for ‘less’, then it’s easy to settle for less in our business as a whole … the standard we settle for now when things are tough becomes the new standard … excellence fades into average and our aspirations fade into survival.
The ‘curse’ that I speak of is mediocrity is self-perpetuating. You start ‘talking’ about survival … and other people chime in … and all of a sudden you’re having daily conversations at that level. This couldn’t be truer in the age of social-media where we gravitate towards people who are like-minded and are willing to share their experiences.
So the distinction I’d like to draw today is one of ‘keeping it real’ vs ‘lowering the standard’. It’s a mental and emotional space – one where while you adjust your strategy to meet ‘reality’ you maintain an appropriate level of excellence, a meaningful level of aspiration. If you start feeling the ‘pull’ of mediocrity – of ’settling for’ check who you’re listening to, reading or hanging out with (real or online). Reconnect with those who inspire you and keep you striving ‘up’ … and disconnect from spaces that invite you to stay small.
This quote from Ella Fitzgerald sums it up nicely …
“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
Rise above the mediocrity … be ‘the tall poppy’ – the view is better from there anyway 
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Cat Matson - Alito
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| Phone: | 07 3289 7055 |
| Email: | cat@alito.com.au |
| Website: | www.alito.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/catmatson |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/AlitoFusion |
| LinkedIn: | www.linkedin.com/in/CatMatson |
| Blog: | www.alito.com.au/blog |
| Member Profile: | See Cat’s Member Profile |
More Posts by Cat Matson
- Win, Lose or Synergise?
- Coaching vs Mentoring (and is it worth drawing the distinction?)
- The Fallacy of Managing Time
- Silver Bullets
Why People Fail: Obstacle 5 — Weak Energy
May 11, 2010
In his new book,Why People Fail, Siimon Reynolds addresses 16 obstacles to success and how to overcome them.
I’d like to look at the 5th obstacle to success that Siimon has identified in Why People Fail.
That obstacle is Weak Energy.
More often than not, success takes lots of energy and hard work. I haven’t met a successful person yet who hasn’t put in the hours.
Energy is really important to success. And, while some of say that we are all about high performance, we don’t give ourselves a real chance to succeed because we don’t do what it takes to support our body and mind to perform at their optimum.
In chapter 5 Siimon looks at the role of your environment, sleep, diet and exercise. What has all this got to do with success? Well, as many of us know unless you take care of some of these elements, you can have all the intentions in the world, but no energy to make things happen.
In this chapter we look at the elements that have an impact on your mood, your well being and your energy.
On the 18th of May, Siimon is my guest on BOOKED for Lunch.
BOOKED for Lunch webinars are free and brought to you by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and GotoWebinar – Webinars made easy.
Register for BOOKED for Lunch with Siimon Reynolds on our website, or call us on 1300 720 120.
I hope you’ll join me.
Suzi
Related Posts
- Why People Fail: Obstacle 1 — Unclear Purpose
- Why People Fail: Obstacle 2 — Destructive Thinking
- Why People Fail: Obstacle 3 — Low Productivity
- Why People Fail: Obstacle 4 — Fixed Mindset
Customer Service Tip #1 – Hug your customers!
May 3, 2010
By Julie Wise, The Silver Owl
Recently, the ABN kicked off the Booked for Lunch Webinar series with bestselling author Seth Godin and his new book – Linchpin. In this book Seth outlines that linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organisations: they invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. More importantly, a linchpin loves their work and pour their best selves into it – they turn their work into art!
During the webinar, I spied a book on my shelf – ‘Hug Your Customers’ by Jack Mitchell. This is an excellent book that outlines the customer service that Mitchell/Richards use for developing long-lasting and loyal customer relationships.
Mitchell/Richards own exclusive menswear stores in Connecticut and achieve the world-best margins in retail and have had a customer retention rate of 99.12% for the past 32 years. Their service philosophy is simple and is based on ‘hugs’ – personal touches that impress and satisfy the customer.
Some of the personal touches used are:
- Remembering the name of your customer’s dog
- Calling a customer to make sure he’s satisfied after a purchase
- Having a “kids’ corner” with TV, books, and treats
- Knowing your customers golf handicap
- Introducing customers to business contacts
- Letting your customer use your office to make a personal phone call
Look closely at the Mitchell/Richards philosophy and you will see a great example of Linchpins – connecting with others, doing things differently and adding value to their customers
Any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues.
Let me share with you a little story that highlights just how rare linchpins and customer hugs really are.
Like most of you, I shop, buy and subscribe from a range of businesses all of whom collect personal data – date of birth is captured by just about everyone. A fortnight ago was my milestone birthday. How many of the 45 that have my details sent through birthday wishes? 3 – that’s it just 3. They were: Bigpond Movies, Rolling Stones and Mitchell/Richards (who I haven’t brought anything from since 2002).
Was it hard for these businesses to do it? NO. Their CRM tools have the data. So they’ve linked up an auto-email based on date to auto send. Every business can do this.
Does it carry PR value? YES – you’re reading about it.
Did it hurt the other companies? Not right now but I do look at them slightly more ‘oh-hum’ and they do not have my loyalty.
Did I feel ’special’ because of these emails? I sure did. The emails from the last two companies were so personally written it felt as if they were specially written for me. Major brownie points.
Any business can adapt this hugging philosophy to attract great staff, lower marketing costs, and maintain higher gross margins and long-term revenues.
At a time when customer service is the difference between success and failure, it is worth every business owner stopping and thinking about how or what in your business can you change to bring about the art, make a connection and give your customers a hug!
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Julie Wise - The SilverOwl
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| Email: | julie@thesilverowl.com.au |
| Website: | www.thesilverowl.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/julie_wise |
| LinkedIn: | au.linkedin.com/in/juliewise |
| Member Profile: | See Julie’s Member Profile |
Win, Lose or Synergise?
April 23, 2010
By Cat Matson, Alito
The news has been dominated of late with the Prime Minister’s discussions about health reform … or more accurately, with his attempts to ‘win-over’ the Premiers during heavy-duty negotiations.
Watching the commentary about these negotiations got me wondering … why does he think he needs to ‘negotiate’ a reform system that he obviously thinks is in the best interest of the country? Why is it not a discussion or facilitation or think-tank?
Unfortunately his approach reflects, I think, our adversarial approach to power – not only in federal and state politics, but also in business. As business owners, we often think we need to negotiate with our staff, and negotiate with our suppliers … and goodness knows, our customers and clients often think they need to negotiate with us to get the best deal.
The problem with this approach is it pits the parties against each other … in some kind of competition where someone will win, and someone will lose. Or, if you subscribe to the notion of win-win, where someone will win ‘more’ and the other party will win ‘less’.
What would happen in business if we stopped ‘negotiating’ and started ‘co-creating’?
- There’d be less conflict
- Entering into what is currently seen as ‘difficult’ conversations would be less stressful
- We might create solutions that we hadn’t considered before
- We might actually create something bigger, better, more effective or more enjoyable for everyone
- Synergy
Yes, I appreciate that such a utopian approach isn’t always possible … but I suspect it’s possible more often than we think. Business isn’t really about ‘us vs them’ (whoever the ‘us’ and ‘them’ are) – rather everyone is trying to do their best … to do their best.
If we stop thinking adversarially and start thinking collaboratively … wow, the possibilities are literally quite breathtaking.
Have you been thinking ‘us vs them’ in your business? What would happen if you shifted that thinking?
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Cat Matson - Alito
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| Phone: | 07 3289 7055 |
| Email: | cat@alito.com.au |
| Website: | www.alito.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/catmatson |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/AlitoFusion |
| LinkedIn: | www.linkedin.com/in/CatMatson |
| Blog: | www.alito.com.au/blog |
| Member Profile: | See Cat’s Member Profile |
Maintenance is the key to organised numbers
April 16, 2010
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
In order to keep on top of your business paperwork, you need a system for keeping it organised all of the time; a maintenance program.
Maintenance must occur regularly, preferably weekly, regardless of who is doing it. Schedule a regular appointment with yourself (or your bookkeeper) to get it all sorted. Let’s say every Wednesday at 10am. Wednesday is selected because you have to pay employees anyway so you may as well do it all at once!
So what is required to maintain your paperwork?
1. Your paperwork needs a home before it’s entered into your accounting software. For this example we’ll assume that you enter all supplier invoices before being paid.
2. This means you need a home for:
a. Supplier invoices to be entered
b. Supplier invoices paid
c. Supplier statements
d. Customer invoicing information (if invoiced after the fact) OR
e. Daily register and EFTPOS receipts (for retail)
f. Bank statements
3. I have always found that manilla files work well for a, b, c and d above. Bank statements should be kept in your financials folder.
4. With daily register and EFTPOS receipts from a cash register (or POS) I recommend an envelope to keep them in one place. Just write the date on the top left hand corner. This can usually be kept near your register so that at the end of each week, that week’s envelopes can be transferred to your office after completing the reconciling process.
5. When Wednesday comes around take your manilla files and:
a. Enter your supplier invoices
b. Apply payments made to supplier invoices
c. Process customer invoices or cash register sales information
d. Reconcile bank and credit card statements
e. Make payments to suppliers – you should always have a day that you pay them
f. Pay your employees (if you have any)
6. Now, how does that feel? Great, doesn’t it? All sorted and empty manilla files! You do have to repeat the process next week but if you follow this method it is much easier to keep on top of your paperwork.
7. On a monthly basis you will need to check your supplier statements against your system. You will also need to reconcile your bank, loan and credit card accounts (this could be done weekly).
8. The maintenance program above will only work if you’re willing to commit to the process. If you’re not willing to do it then look around for someone to do this for you and get them to commit to this weekly process. Really be honest with yourself here – let’s face it, you can probably earn a lot more money doing what you do best than spending your time doing a job that a bookkeeper can do much quicker and probably much cheaper than your hourly rate.
Alycia Edgar will present the Managing Business Performance: Financial strategies for the growing business webinar on 21 April. Be sure to join us. Register here. Learn more.
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting Services
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| Phone: | 0403 983 529 |
| Email: | alycia@coastalaccounting.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/alyciaedgar |
| Blog: | www.numbersarelife.com |
| Member Profile: | See Alycia’s Member Profile |
