Archive for Guest Posts
Trammels of a Business Consultant …and how you can learn from them
Posted by: | CommentsGuest Post by Antar Salim (you can learn more about Antar at the end of this post)
Consultative activities and organizational development interventions can be riddled with flaws and drawbacks. On the surface, it may appear to be a negative statement, but many consultants can learn from these trammels and create capacities to better serve their clients. Whether you are dealing with business management, marketing and sales, finance or human resources consulting; following this article will teach the taboos that many consultants make and provides insight into how to avoid them in the future.
There are a number of errors that a consultant can make that hampers their ability to serve their clients. There are a number of complications encountered by consultants, including colluding with clients, placing financial gain ahead of the client’s needs, and under estimating the importance of implementation. Each type of flaw falls into one of two categories: a) purpose and b) partnership.
Let’s explore the broad component of purpose first. There are four elements of purpose:
- Defining the problem in the consultant’s terms
- Focusing on the problem, not the people
- Realizing the process is as important as the product
4 Tools for Successful Lead Generation
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Amanda Mitchell (learn more about Amanda at the end of this post)
Sales and marketing is considered by many to be one of the most difficult parts of a business, but it’s not as hard as it used to be. As recently as twenty years ago, generating leads was limited to three main avenues: postal mail, door-to-door, and the dreaded cold call. The Internet changed all that, allowing marketers to reach a larger audience more quickly, and via several more methods. Use one, a couple, or all of them for a successful lead generation campaign.
Blog
If your business site lacks a blog, you’re missing out on an important way to communicate with potential and existing clients. Your company’s site should sound professional, and needs to convey specific information, including but not limited to the services you offer, your privacy policy, and the terms and conditions that apply to anyone visiting your site.
A blog gives you the opportunity to be more informal, and to address potential customers directly. It can help readers to feel more comfortable with your company, and the more comfortable they feel with you, the more likely they will be to spend money with you. Keep your blog updated, interesting, and useful, and you’ll build a strong readership, which you can turn into leads later on.
You will likely have one or more regular writers creating content for the blog, but consider including other staff once in a while. Everyone within an organization can have a slightly unique take on your product or service, so you should leverage this as much as possible. Consider having your customer service manager, someone from the outside sales team, or even the CEO to contribute.
Hail Mary Strategy in Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Debra D. Kujawa (read nore about Debra at the end of this post)
In football, nothing brings the stadium crowd to its feet faster than watching the gazelle like moves of a great running back or the powerful arm of a skilled quarterback as he hurls a perfect spiral with pinpoint accuracy 50 yards downfield to a heavily guarded receiver. And while we definitely recall those heart racing moments as pivotal to the game’s outcome, we tend to overlook the quick 4 and 5 yard passes along the sidelines the team used to move the ball down the field quickly—converting their first downs and conserving the clock by stepping out of bounds after each completion.
In marketing, there are times when it is wise to shift focus from long term goals to immediate or short-term opportunities—an option play , if you will. The tricky part, is timing—determining exactly when to change course, what the new/immediate goal will be, and most importantly, what it’s going to take to get there.
Case in point: consumers and the current recession.
Being an Entrepreneur – How I Fight Against the Conformist in Me
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Rebecca Tervo (learn more about Rebecca at the end of this post)
I fell in love with a vampire and have become intrigued by vampire stories…No, this is not another book review or blog entry about vampires.
I became a fan of author Stephenie Meyer after being “forced” to read the wildly popular “Twilight” series because my 10 year old daughter wanted to read it. I had to read it before she did (because of my own policy). Turns out, I absolutely fell head over heels for Edward and the whole vampire love story….as weird as that may be.
I eagerly awaited her next book once I had finished the series. Would it be another vampire love story? Turns out, it’s not. “The Host” is Meyer’s latest read. It’s based on the story of two minds/souls living in one body. A very interesting concept, since only one can be in control of the body at a time. As you can imagine, these minds are in a conundrum. How does one dominate? How long can they actually live in the same body and agree on goals and how to achieve them? I haven’t finished reading it yet, so I can’t give you the answer.
I have two minds fighting for dominance…
However, as I’m reading, I’m reminded about the two sides that live inside of me. I call these the ‘achiever’ and the ‘conformist’. I bet you’ve experienced this to some degree. Especially if you are trying to enter the unknown, trying to start a business, or taking a leap of faith to do something new with your life.
When I started my business, the achiever was extremely dominant. My achiever side had huge plans, ideas, and motivation to start a business where I could do the work I love, work with the clients I like, and have time flexibility for my family.
Now that I’ve been in business for about 2 years, I’ve realized that once in a while the conformist rears its head and tries to hold the achiever back. Just like in “The Host”, the achiever and conformist are jockeying for dominance.
See if any of these typical conversations happen in your head:
I can’t do that!
Conformist: I don’t have any actual people I can talk to in my community that are doing what I’m attempting to do. There’s no logical proof that it can be done!
Achiever: Anything is possible! I bet no one had ever flown an airplane before the Wright brothers came along….just start doing something.
Hackers Use Vancouver Olympic Tragedy to Spread Malware
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
The 2010 Olympics is underway and it started off with a tragedy. A men’s luger representing the country of Georgia died just hours before the opening ceremony during one of his training runs. After reports of his death leaked out to the press, there were many stories and videos floating around on the Internet. Cybercriminals saw this opportunity to spread their malware into one such video.
To get their video ranking high organically in the search engines, these hackers used Twitter and SEO tactics. These criminals were already planning on using the Olympics as a way to spread their malware, but when this tragedy happened, they jumped at the opportunity to really get their malware out to the masses.
Roger Thompson, the chief research officer at AVG technologies told SC Magazine that, “These guys organize a campaign and they treat it like a business.” It seems their SEO efforts started to wind down by Tuesday, but this can be an important lesson for business owners.
Texting, Tweeting and More – How Your POS System Can Handle New Technology
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
With technology growing everyday, business owners need to stay on top of industry news and trends to get the most for their company. Businesses in the food industry are seeing popularity in how they can process orders, pass out coupons, and even how they process their credit cards. How are they doing this? Two words cell phones.
It seems like these days everyone has a cell phone. Because of this, you can now purchase software for your POS system that has the capability to support “call in” orders from text messages. These orders can really streamline a business’ call in orders, and free up employees to do other things like making the customers food items. Some Subway stores are already taking advantage of a software application called Zingle, which allows them to receive call in orders via text.
Other companies like Pizza Hut are utilizing social networking to promote contests. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Pizza Hut is inviting their customers to share their best pick-up lines. Customers will tweet their best pick-up line to “@pizzahut for the chance to win a single order of Hershey’s Chocolate Dunkers, Pizza Hut’s chocolate-topped dessert sticks.” With Twitter having mobile applications, this means their customers can tweet on the go, and one lucky winner can with the chocolate pizza.
Don’t Get Ripped Off – Tips for Saving Money on Credit Card Processing
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Stella Fayman (learn more about Stella at the end of this post)
When merchants begin accepting credit cards, usually they sign up for Paypal (if an online merchant). However, as business booms and revenue from credit cards grows, it may be more cost effective to switch to a credit card processor (merchant account provider). Be wary, processors are known to be tricky and take advantage of business owners who know little about their trade. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t get ripped off:
1. No cancellation fees allowed
Make sure to read the fine print from your credit card processing contract. You may be surprised to find a cancellation fee from at least $250 to several thousand dollars. This fee is a way of guaranteeing your loyalty to the processor, regardless of your satisfaction with their service. The good news is that getting rid of this fee should not be a problem: most salespeople have the authority to waive it. To avoid this problem, talk to the salesperson and make sure the fee is waived in writing either in the contract or as an amendment.
FTC and Other Organizations Aim to Help Business Owners Get Loans
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
Being able to budget your money is key for a new business owner—doing so can be the difference between being successful or not. Budgeting is even more important these days with the state of the economy. The U.S. Labor of Statistics has reported that the unemployment rate (as of December 2009 ) is 10% and 8.2% of the unemployed are women. Because more people are losing their jobs it is crucial to make sure you stay on top of your personal credit, as banks are making it harder to get business loans.
These high unemployment numbers makes it more difficult for business owners to stay in business, or even start a business as a result of people being thriftier with their money. Banks are no exception. It is harder today to get a loan than in many years, and banks are looking closer at your personal credit when deciding if you will get a business loan or not.
There is some hope against the banks and other business cash advance companies–at least in the near future. According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in 2011 lenders will, “require a creditor to provide a risk-based pricing notice to a consumer when the creditor uses a consumer report to grant or extend credit to the consumer.” This will allow anyone to get a free report of their credit score and be able to review it before sending it to their lending company of choice. If you see you need some work on getting your credit score up, you can look to a debt management service to aid you in getting that loan you will need.
In mid-December Obama met with top bankers to discus the problem small business owners are facing when it comes to getting a loan. He pointed out America bailed out banks, so now its time for them to help small businesses, “I urged these institutions here today to go back and take a third and fourth look about how they are operating when it comes to small business and medium-sized business lending.”
Top 10 Email Marketing Takeaways from 2009
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response (see disclosure below)
1. Get Social
The web’s most successful companies have discovered the power of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media to connect with their customers.
2. Host then Post
Web 2.0 marketers have found a great way to expand their readership beyond their opted-in subscribers. Create a hosted version of your message and post to social media sites, or keep an archive of your past issues on your own website.
See how others are using their hosted messages.
3. Clean House
The end of the year can be a good time to review your lists and understand how active your list members have been. What to do with unresponsive members of your list? Don’t throw them away – send a special offer via email, or try an offline method like a postcard or direct call to invite them back. Also, be sure to sync unsubscribed and bounced users occasionally with your main customer database. Although we filter those out for you, it’s good practice to keep your original data up-to-date.
See successful tips on reactivating your non-responders.
4. Segment Your Lists
Smart marketers are customizing their content to targeted groups to create a high-touch customer experience. Use the data you have to create highly-personalized messages and offers to see the greatest response rates and avoid burning your entire list with irrelevant offers.
Get more information here.
5. Send & Deliver
Create Your Own Prosperity
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Allison Maslan (learn more about Allison at the end of this post)
Money alone will not make you happy. It’s what the money can do for you that can bring joy. It can give you leverage to capture a life-long dream. It can go to a family in need. It has given me the ability to buy this computer, my writing tool in sharing my coaching, teaching concepts and to write my book, Blast Off! Money is often given a negative connotation. You’ve heard the idea that having wealth will make you greedy or give you an attitude of being “better than.” How can this be true? Money is actually an avenue for freedom of choice. Just as a state of balanced health gives us freedom to move and be in the world, money gives us the freedom to do, or not to do, what we choose. When money is limited, your choices are limited. If you’re struggling to come up with cash, your choices of housing and food decrease. The more money you have access to, the less you worry about survival, which frees up your mind from unwanted thoughts. Therefore, money is an avenue of liberty because it gives you independence to express your creative and individual voice.
What you want to spend your money on may not be what I want to spend my money on. Money is used to express your desires, whether you save it, invest it, or spend it. You may enjoy spending your cash on mystery novels and I enjoy spending mine on a vacation to Mexico. You may donate funds to the homeless and I choose to support a literacy campaign. Money gives us the freedom to express our passions. If you have money, you have more choices.
Do you struggle with issues of fear around money? Have you ever thought that the fear and the action of holding onto your money or your safe job could actually be the very things that may be causing you to struggle in survival mode? This fear of losing or not making money will actually hold you back from creating more money.
