Posts Tagged ‘Small business’

Kathy's family at the Beach

This week, I returned from two weeks away on vacation.  We had a fabulous time in New England at Old Orchard Beach and I was able to check some emails and do a bit of needed work, but my preparations before I left and my team support while gone really made it easy to be away from the office.

Of course we returned at a very busy time – not only is it the end of the month (books and billing due), but the kids are still home and needed a few more things before starting school on Sept 2nd AND add to this one of the worst heat waves I have ever experienced in Nova Scotia.

Today the temps got up near 34 C (about 88 F) and with our lovely maritime humidity it felt like 41 C (104 F).  I am not very good with high temperatures like this – not at all.  So my productivity this week has been less than my norm and that only adds to the cranky-i-ness.

We are all human and have issues at times.  Today mine was the heat. Oh, the horrible heat of the last few days.  Earlier this summer I told my husband (during another mini heat wave) that I had had enough and was going to buy a portable air conditioner for my office.  Of course, it was a hard sell, that type of purchase, when in all honesty I might only need it a few weeks (even days) every year. Yet the arguments against it were coming from someone who works day in and out in a nicely air conditioned office building.  So we decided it was not something we would pursue.

Yesterday, however, was my breaking point. We all have them, and mine was when I started sweating in places I did not know that it was possible to do. The kids were all cranky and hot, I was cranky and hot and nothing (not even a quick trip down the road to the neighbourhood beach) could keep my mind off the uncomfortableness of it all. Needless to say I was not very productive at all.  I even tried working late at night, but the heat just wouldn’t go away.

As a small business owner, my work is the business and if I cannot work then not too much gets done. And this heat wave is to continue until Friday night when we will probably get hit by Hurricane Earl.

This morning when I got up at 7 and the day was already stifling, I made my executive decision. Right after walking the dog, and checking some online availability, I headed out – telling the kids I would be back in while.

I went right to my local Canadian Tire store (think Lowe’s, but even better) and found what I was after – the tool to make me a productivity machine!   I also got the extra materials I needed to rig up something to make it work properly and back home I went to spend the next 3 hours on setup.  (Or should I say sweat up)

The end result was absolutely what I needed.  Sometimes you just have to go for it and take the steps needed to make everything work properly.  And that is exactly what I did.  I took a picture and emailed it to my husband at his work.  His response?

“You look happier in this picture than you did on our wedding day.” (Absolutely not true, but I was pretty happy).

You can see for yourself my level of happiness!

The lesson for other Work at Home and Small Business Owners – Staying productive is Key.  Always be looking to implement systems or use tools that will help run your business efficiently and keep you productive. And, these tools/systems may not always be standard to everyone.

PS. Hubby was quite okay in the end with my purchase – partly because by the time he made it home from work, the humidex was setting records all over the province and neighbouring ones as well.  My task for tomorrow?  Figuring out how to keep everyone from crowding in my office to stay cool! :-)

Technorati Tags: efficient business, home office, productive at work, productivity, Small business

Everyone wants to bring in more traffic to their website.  A simple way is though other blogs -  making comments on other blogs,  especially those in your niche.

How does this work?

Commenting gives you backlinks to your site. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. Most blogsites have you enter your name, email and website link to post a comment, this allows other readers to click on your name and link and they will be directed to your website. Backlinks can also help your own SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Your ranking in search engines is increased with the more backlinks to your site. Better rankings, means better chances of being found in an internet search.

Making these comments also allows you to showcase your expertise on the topic to others reading the blog and comments.  It offers and opportunity to get exposed you to an audience you may not otherwise have a connection to.

Choose wisely when picking what blogs to comment on.  Go for a niche connected to your type of business and choose well ranked and respected sites. Making comments on sites like this means your name and backlink will also be published within another high ranking website.  This helps your own online visibility. Finding blogs can be as easy as following main ones in your niche or setting up Google alerts for specific terms and watching for good blogs to comment on from these alert results.

In most cases the first person to comment will get the most clicks to their site. People tend to follow on the first few then the most valuable… so make it a good comment and one that people will remember.

For your own blog you should encourage readers to engage and post comments on your posts, and when they do; reply and acknowledge that they took the time to:

1. Read your post
2. Make a comment

Their comments are also an opportunity for you to go deeper when providing an answer – help them out by providing links to your services or products. Take what you posted in the blog and based on what their comment is, go into more detail to help them.  Taking the time to do this will build your reputation and someone who is willing top lend a hand and go one step further when people ask questions. This helps build that KLT factor – Know, Like and Trust – so that people can visibly see why people do business with you and want to do the same.

Always have the option for blog readers to get blog updates via email or an RSS reader.  If they can sign up it means they get an email every time you publish a new blog post, creating an opportunity for them to directly read your blog and make a comment.

How often do you look for other blogs to comment on?  Is it a regular task you schedule in your weekly work – or simply a chance happening?

Here’s a challenge:

1. Do a Google search on your name and see how many results are online.
2. Setup a blog commenting time regularly over the next month.
3. After the month is up, check your name search again and look at the results.  Is there an increase in hits on your name?

I started this practice in late 2008, at that time there were about 1400 search results for my name (and they tend to all be me *benefits of a unique last name*).  If I do a search today there are over 32,000 results.  Yes all the social media content I do helps, but the blog commenting does as well.

Technorati Tags: blogging for business, increase website traffic, Small business

Seems everyone is always asking, what’s the best way to build links to your site? This is an easy one to answer. Hands down, the absolute best way to get others to link to your website is to offer them quality content that’s worth linking to.

Link building is a valuable way to increase your page ranking, website or blog exposure and help increase your traffic, sales and business.  However, not all back links are created equally and therefore it is important to decide what your goals are and how you will achieve them.

Quality content can vary depending on what your niche is and your target audience. But it will almost always include fresh and original content on various aspects of your niche, resources to help those who are looking for what you have to offer and information that website visitors want.

Quality content—the kind that encourages others to link to your website—is relevant to your topic, offers value to your visitors and potential customers, fits within the overall industry of the topic of your site (such as related products or services), and provides value to your site visitors.

Building links involves offering your website visitors what they want and that’s what quality content is all about. It’s the old WIIFM thing… (What’s In It For Me?). If you can answer that question with your website visitor in mind, and create content aimed at that visitor, you’ve just provided quality content. The odds of your visitors linking to that content will increase tremendously.

If your website deals with cocker spaniels, there will be some competition there, that’s probably not one of the most popular topics online. It should be relatively easy to create original content to build links to your site.

What if your niche is more common and your competition is stiffer? What if your site focuses on Internet Marketing? You can still create quality content to build links to your site.  For instance, your content could include original reviews of Internet Marketing (IM) products that you write yourself or have someone write for you. You can include resource lists of software products, eBooks and websites that are truly useful to other Internet Marketers.  It could include original articles and tutorials on every aspect of Internet Marketing.

The idea—regardless of your niche—is to create a site with content that is just a little different, or just a little better than anyone else is offering. Content that others will say, I need to tell my contacts about this.  When people ask me what’s the BEST way to build links to your site, my response is Quality Content, without a doubt.

If you want to establish yourself and your business for the long haul, then offering quality content and encouraging your readers to link to it is by far the best and most effective strategy.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, promote business, Small business

I invited Donna to blog today because I felt her message could be transposed to many industries not just Virtual Assistants. There are many industries where clients and business owners have similar relationships, and this is great advice!

Guest post by Donna Toothaker, CEO, founder and coach of  Step It UP VA Coaching

——————–

The phone rings.  It is who you think it is, calling AGAIN.  How many times has it been today?  Three?  Four?  You know you should answer, but you dread the conversation.  You slump in your seat and sigh.  Is that an e-mail from her now?  Is this a headache coming on?  You can no longer avoid the inevitable.  It’s break-up time.

Just about every VA has had a client who presented challenges that proved too much to deal with for too little payback.  These challenges were not about difficult projects or tasks, but about difficult people, making the issues more personal, and therefore harder to resolve.

You may be afraid of confrontation, or of losing income; however, as in a dating relationship, the worst thing you could do for your business would be to stay with the wrong person.  Continuing to let such a conflict persist will sour the way you feel about yourself, and your business.  So, if you’re involved with one of the following client types, come clean about your feelings, and if you can’t make it work, make a break!

Control freak.  Your client is an entrepreneur who, until now, has had the reins on every single aspect of her business.  Unfortunately, over the past few months, you have discovered they have no plans to hand them over.  Why did they bother hiring you, anyway?  Micro-managers are time- and energy-vampires who display little respect for your time and abilities.

Needy. Another sort of time- and energy-vampire, the needy client does not micromanage, but requires a lot of hand-holding and constant communication throughout the course of a project, sometimes expecting you to take on more than your agreed upon workload.  Needy clients require extra boundaries.  Discourage telephone calls with the needy type.  Keep it a strictly online relationship if possible, so you have control over how and when you respond to questions and requests.  If that doesn’t work, it’s not worth keeping the client.

Inattentive. The opposite of the needy client, this client makes it difficult to get anything done because of their lack of communication.  They’re often wondering why a project isn’t getting done, when all the while it’s because you can’t spend your days chasing them down for answers, information and approvals.  You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops and spend excess time trying to do your job.  If communication is a one-way, dead-end street, it is probably a good idea to reverse direction!

Penny pincher. This is the client who wants to cherry pick your services, or negotiate you down from your hourly rate or minimum monthly hours.  This client will make your life very difficult, nit-picking, disputing bills and expenses, or asking for you to do extra, all the while taking extra time to pay your bill!  If you sense a potential client is a penny pincher, take hourly rates off the table, and offer only package services.  If you are currently serving a penny-pinching client, consider letting go.  Their money issues are holding you back from enjoying a prosperous, fun business.

Establishing boundaries with clients early in the relationship AND becoming clear on who is an ideal client for you will help to eliminate having difficult clients but some will sneak through on occasion, and these difficult clients will eat up your time, energy and passion for your business…but only if you let them.   Identifying these behaviors early on will give you the chance to either ask your client to make some changes, or get out before they take a toll on you and your business.  Do not be afraid to let go.  You’ll be freeing yourself from negativity, and opening up an opportunity for better clients to come in.

Donna Toothaker is CEO, founder and coach of Step It UP VA Coaching. These highly sought-after VA coaching programs have been created for established, successful VAs who wish to now create the 6-figure business of their dreams. Visit www.stepitupva.com for a free report, The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Creating a 6-Figure VA Business.

Technorati Tags: business plan, efficient business, Small business

Don't let this be you!

I always start thinking of organizing and filing near tax time. Gotta be ready for the taxman and if you have a system in place you are probably not getting all stressed out right now.

I also have a system in place for backing up my computer files and information. Working virtually for many clients I have all sorts of information on work I do for them stored on my computer. I simply cannot afford to lose it.
Having a backup system in place means I have a copy of all those files when needed.

How often?
I back up to a portable hard drive every night, which is then disconnected from my PC after so no damage can occur to it and then there is an online one I do weekly as well. I do this nightly because some days I can enter a lot of information for clients – and I really don’t have any time to re-do or recapture the information. When I head out of my office to make supper – I plug in the hard drive and let it back up everything new. A simple process and very painless.

What is your back – up process or system? Any tricks up your sleeve with regards to backing up your computer system? Please share them here, or on our Facebook Page we are always open for new info to share on our Fanpage.

Technorati Tags: efficient business, home office, Small business