8 Tips to Clean Up Your Small Business in the New Year

 

Spruce up your work by chucking these eight productivity pitfalls. No Swiffer required. Original post from Entreprenuers.com

1. Scattered day plans.
Failure to plan their days is the No. 1 reason business owners waste time, energy and money, says New York City-based time-management expert Julie Morgenstern, author of Never Check E-mail in the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work. By not planning their days, they tend to become reactive and distracted, diminishing their productivity and the revenue they can generate. Although a daily to-do list is a start, Morgenstern recommends planning a three-day arc. By looking at a three-day period--and the meetings, deadlines and other demands on your time--you can make better decisions when surprises or emergencies arise. A three-day plan also gives you a clearer idea of when you can postpone activities without overbooking your future. Morgenstern advises spending at least a few minutes each day updating your three-day plan.

2. DIY syndrome.
Morgenstern estimates that 75 to 80 percent of the small and midsize businesses she consults with waste employee salaries, including their own, by not focusing each person's time on the optimal task for that person. Kristin Marquet, founder of communications firm Marquet Media in New York City, found this to be her experience. When she mapped out how she was spending her time, she found she was devoting about 10 hours each week to administrative tasks. At her hourly rate of $100, she estimates she lost approximately $10,000 by trying to do everything herself. After that realization, Marquet hired a bookkeeper, writer and website designer, who cost one-forth of the revenue she would have lost if she had handled the tasks herself. "Although you may feel as if you don't have time to train anyone, spending six hours training someone on a two-hour-per-week task saves you nearly 100 hours per year," Morgenstern says.

3. Disorganized direction.
To make the delegation process more effective and less time-consuming, Bakersfield, Calif.-based business growth consultant Russell S. Allred, co-author of Best Practices of High Performance Entrepreneurs, recommends creating task-related systems and processes. Write a list of steps for each task you perform regularly in your workplace and the best practices for completing those steps. Many people learn through observation, so ask your employees to shadow you to see how you perform the tasks, he says. For maximum efficiency, create process sheets for as many activities as possible, and try to train more than one employee in each. If the employee who usually handles the task calls in sick or leaves, someone else can fill in--or, at least, you'll have an easier time training a replacement.

4. Untamed distractions.
A survey by home and office product company Brother International Corp. in April 2010 found that an estimated 38 hours per employee are lost looking for misplaced items in the office each year. And let's not think about how many hours are spent watching cute animal videos online. Many people have no idea how to manage the overwhelming amount of communication that comes their way on paper and electronically, says productivity consultant Kimberly Medlock, founder of Productive Matters in Olive Branch, Miss. To cut down on distractions and time-sucks, clean up your act, she says. Develop hard-copy and electronic filing systems to help locate important papers and information more quickly. Limit e-mail check-ins to certain times of the day so that you're not constantly interrupted by the "ping" of a new message, and unsubscribe from any recurring e-mail you don't need. If social media is a problem, look into tools such as Anti-Social or RescueTime, which put up a wall between your computer and distracting sites for blocks of time.

5. Leaky expenditures.
By checking his monthly expenses closely, Eli Mechlovitz, co-founder of GlassTileStore.com, an online glass tile retailer, found a variety of unwanted subscriptions, warranty programs, fee-based website analytics programs, utility bill errors and other incorrect or unwanted charges. Eliminating these budgetary leaks has saved his Brooklyn, N.Y., company approximately $4,000 per month. "It's so easy to add a subscription here and there or a small program that doesn't seem like it costs much. But over time, these things add up," he says. Every quarter, be sure to review where the money is going, he advises, and discontinue or fight unnecessary or incorrect charges.

6. Collecting (all) customers.
Maria Marsala, a business coach in Poulsbo, Wash., finds that many of her clients waste time and energy serving the wrong customers. She encourages them to define their "ideal" customer--the person or entity that will pay a fair price for their product or service, value their business, return and buy from them again and generate referrals. The greatest marketing investment and effort should be devoted to finding and courting those ideals, she says. Marsala initially marketed her coaching services to all small-business owners. She decided to define her niche in the business-to-business world serving established business owners who didn't balk at her fees. Then she created an opportunity to sell to a different audience by developing a series of CDs for startup or more cash-strapped business owners.

7. Energy-sucking employees.
When Mechlovitz has trouble with unproductive or negative employees, he tries to move them into positions that better suit their skills. In one case, a warehouse worker who wasn't good at picking orders turned out to be an exceptional packaging team member. But if an employee isn't a good fit or is miserable, he says, you have to end the relationship--quickly. A negative employee "sucks all of your creativity out of you and leaves you drained," says consultant Allred. "And why? You're the boss. Why are you messing with this person?" Of course, it's more complicated when the individual is a family member or close friend. Have a frank discussion to find out why the person is unhappy and what can be done to change the situation. At the very least, you need to stop the person from spreading the negativity, he says.

8. Persistent procrastination.
If you constantly avoid tasks or put off work until the last minute, you need to figure out why, Morgenstern says. Burnout could be from being overworked, but she often finds that procrastination is rooted in uncertainty or intimidation. If a project seems too big, procrastination can be a coping mechanism. She suggests breaking the task down into manageable steps you can do in shorter chunks of time: "You don't get eight hours to focus on something anymore. You'll get a 30-minute or one-hour window. Learning to chunk your work so that you can look at the time you have and figure out what part of the project you can finish in that time will help you find a place to start to get it done."

See similar articles:
6 Tips for WAHM's to Spring Clean Their Computers: http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/05/6-tips-for-wahms-to-spring-clean-their.html
5 Tips to Ressurect Your Business: http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
10 Tips on How to Make the Most of Your Time Without Wasting Your Time: http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/01/10-tips-on-how-to-make-most-of-your.html

"New Customer Service for 2012"

 

    " In fact, if you have a public-contact job, you don't have to say anything.  All you have to do is smile.  Many outsiders may form their impression of your organization based upon subtle unconscious clues you transmit through your tone of voice, facial expressions and general appearence. " (Business Today, Bovee/Thill 8th ed.)  As small business entrepreneurs that have "public-contact jobs", we have to remember that the impression that current and future clients have about our companies is based upon what we communicate to them.  Our methods of communication: non-verbal, verbal and written haven't changed, but the mediums that we use have, as we conduct business-to-business meetngs via Skype, chat with our clients on social networking chats and alert customers to your products and services in blogs.  These new mediums are creating new customer service for 2012 and beyond.
   
    Non-verbal communication is the "most basic form of communication" (Business Today, Bovee/Thill, 8th ed.) and is essential to developing new customer serivce.  For example, if you are conducting a business-to-business (B2B) meeting via Skype, how would you sit? would you slump down in your chair?  Your posture is apart of your non-verbal communication.  By using good posture you project  a positive image to your client of respect for them and your company.  In order, to present a positive image in your posture you must make a conscious effort by stretching your backbone, tucking your shoulders, keeping your head up and relaxing (exercising helps too).  By practicing good posture it can help to deterr many painful back problems, poor circulation and difficulty breathing. (Professional Development, Harcourt/Brace/Jovanovich)
   
    Your posture is also an indication of your mental quality, by mental quality we are referring to your attitude.  The way you stand or sit makes your attitude obvious to others.  One way to see what your psoture expresses about your attitude, is by practicing in a mirror.  As you are looking in the mirror pay attention to your facial expressions that also give non-verbal clues.  Those facial expressions show your emotion, type and intensity of feelings.

    Also your personal appearence should be attended to while you are in front of the mirror because it is also a non-verbal form of communication.  The type of response you will receive from a client in a B2B Skype meeting will be determined by the way you dress.  Other forms of non-verbal communication include: vocal characteristics (tone, volume, accent and pace), touch (good and bad touch) and time/space (use of time, respect for clients and personal time/space).  All of these forms can be used effectively by paying attention to the cludes to make you a better speakers and listenener.  Be sure to remember that your non-verbal communication should be effective without being manipulative and that these are only clues; they are powerful tools to effective communication but aren't infallible. (Business Today, Bovee/Thill, 8th ed.)

    While in that same B2B business meeting you must also be cautious of your verbal communication; as one would whe speaking to a current or future client.  When speaking there are five basic componenets to remember: (Professional Development, Harcourt/Brace/Jovanovich)
1. be concise: keep to the business at hand
2. be complete: give all, not half or part, of the necessary information
3. be cohesive: don't jump from one subject to another
4. be clear: speak with clear enunciation
5. be courteous: be thoughtful and considerate in the way that you phrase your message.
By remembering these five basic componenets you can be sensitive to your clients needs by keeping answering questions on the phone and/ or video-conferences.

    These five basic components can be applied to written forms of communication as well.  As you use chats on social networking sites, blogs etc. to answer questions and inform clients on our products and/or services.  All of these things help you to cultivate a good relationship with your clients in order to become sensitive to their needs.  However, it is easy on social networkin sites inside of chats to become lax in our written communication.  In written communication, you must remember that we have an advantage that isn't available in the other two forms, in that you can plan and control your message.  In planning your message you should use complete sentences, with correct grammar, punctuation and to edit your message before sending or posting.  This form of communication is only valuable if you plan carefully, due to its complexity.

    Although, all three of these forms of communication have always been in existence they must be applied to the new mediums (video-conferencing, online chatting, blogs etc.) of communication that serve as tools to help us to offer customer service in a new way for 2012 and beyond.

See related articles:
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1730465015674633225#editor/target=post;postID=1511318185809955160
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1730465015674633225#editor/target=post;postID=4811211814260402282
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1730465015674633225#editor/target=post;postID=882845144282575848

How to Start an Online Business 101

Welcome back everyone, I hope that everything is well with you. I wanted to post this blog not only for those who want to start their own online business and for those of us who already have businesses online. Because as an online retailer, we should never stop learning.

ONLINE BUSINESS

From: The Everything Start Your Own Business Book
Author: Rich Mintzer

Rivaling traditional retailers today are online retail businesses. For the most part, e-tail (as it’s affectionately called) has not made a significant dent in the retail world… yet. In fact, many people still research products on the Internet and then walk into a bricks-and mortar retail location to see and purchase the products. Certain products, such as books, CDs, and toys have shown tremendous results over the Internet. For someone who wants to maintain a low overhead, selling a niche market item via the Internet can also be advantageous for a small business. Specialized services such as gift items or custom-made products such as a golf clubs have also enjoyed success. The Web has also proved a marvelous way to promote and increase sales for established bricks-and-mortar businesses that do additional sales over the Internet but don’t base their entire business on e-tail sales.
One of the biggest concerns of many customers shopping over the Internet is not knowing from whom they’re buying and not feeling confident that their privacy is respected and maintained. Other than dealing with established online companies, many people are reluctant to give their credit card number to unknown and possibly unsecured source. While many source show more breaches of security with traditional credit card methods used in retail stores, consumers are still wary of cyberspace. Fraud and privacy issues as evidenced by the ever-increasing rash of unwanted spam mailings that occur whenever they sign up or put their personal information on certain Web sites. If you’re going into e-tail, be sure to make yourself as accessible as possible with a toll free number, good customer services policies, a business address, and so on. People have become quite concerned about the anonymity of many e-tial-only businesses.
Another problem of starting a Web based business is unlike hanging a sign out front-as you would do for walk-in business with a retail location-you need to find a way to draw people to your site. For many entrepreneurs, Web marketing has not been an easy venture. The glut of reported, demise of many those sites, has not been as favorable for new e-tail businesses in the new millennium. It has become increasingly difficult for Web startups to find venture capital. While this trend may change in the near future, at present most people looking to start up an Internet business are thinking small or looking to start up an adjunct business (to a bricks-and-mortar business) but not use the Web site as their primary business source.
There are plenty of Web-based success stories, and if you find a niche, a way to market yourself, and enough venture capital to survive, you can still get a Web-based e-tail business off the ground. To your advantage is that you can very likely get by without many (or possibly any) other employees. Other than possibly needing someone to help set up and run the site from a technical standpoint, it’s quite possible that you can handle the orders yourself with a fulfillment house. You also don’t need an inventory, an alarm system, a night watchman, or a shovel for clearing the snow off the sidewalk so that customers can get to your shop.To succeed with an e-tail business, you need to think like an online consumer. It helps to either be one yourself or, at the very least, talk to regular online consumers. Get to know what people look for from an e-commerce site. Browse numerous sites to get a feel for how they look and how they operate. (Visit www.gomez.com or www.sites.com for Web site reviews.) Evaluate which sites are easy to navigate and purchase what you want and which ones are not. The point of ordering is the most important juncture of the process. If customers are clicking repeatedly to get through the process, they will simply click off of the site. You need a fast dependable, foolproof server. You need to be able to handle various payment methods, not unlike a bricks-and-mortar location. Because the Web is global, you may improve your sales potential by being able to handle foreign currencies as well. Finally, you need to have very reliable methods of shipping; otherwise your reputation will diminish quickly. Web sites have gone out of business by taking more order than they could handle or ship.

Remember, you’re providing customers with the ability to shop from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Ask yourself: How can you capitalize on that? How can you gain their trust and confidence? How can you make the shopping experience easy and time efficient?
E-Fact One of the largest target audiences online is the college student. About 90 percent of U.S. college students have access to the Internet--most through their schools. College students spend an estimated $700 million online annually. Now that's buying power!

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networks (Pt.3)

Good evening everyone, we have come to the conclusion of our three part series on sales and social networks. I hope that you have enjoyed it and feel free to comment on the subject matter.

Now a social network site works better for those who are selling services and or consultation because you are selling only yourself (meaning your experience and/or expertise) so its VERY important to be sociable. However, when you are selling a product you have to sell yourself and the product so its more than being social its about getting them to buy. On the social site they can view your profile page and ge to know you and visa versa to spark conversation, view your website and any videos about your services and/or consultations.

Overall, when you are on an online network (be it social or e-Commerce), you will recieve more traffic than by just having a blog and/or website (my business partner and I have three blogs and are on multiple social networks,  an e-Commerce site and our own website).  On a network there are  more people who visit than on a typical blog or website and that is because of the content that is on networks.  The content is produced by the members, the more members the more content; content is important in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and others have "crawlers" or "spiders" that search for good content (by content I mean: blogs, videos, photos and profiles). The members also live links to any sites that they have be it professional or personal, which is searched by those "crawlers" or "spiders", where people can find and/ or follow them.

See more related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html 
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networks (Pt.2)

Hello everyone and welcome back...as promised I will be continuing our discussion on sales and social networking with the part two to the discussion.

Starting off, let's first define the term "social network" by breaking it down into two separate words. Webster defines the term social as being: " marked by or passed in pleaseant companionship with one's friends or associates tending to form cooperations, interdependent relationships with others of one's kind" and a network as an interconnected or interrelated group, chain or system.  Now that we know what a social network  is will it work for your business?  It will only work to a certain extent depending upon the type of busines you own.  If your business is a service than social networks will work great for you because you can network with people that have an interest in your service that you offer.  Push them to your website which (because it is a service business) probably will not a have a lot to download, this can cause you to loose a sale if you have slow or long downloads.  Your website should basically have information about your services and your contact information (general rule: K.I.S. "keep it simple").  However, if you have products to sell then an e-Commerce network website would be the best choice.  Why is that? An e-Commerce network is know for selling merchants / sellers (that is you the online small business owner / entreprenuer) products, with your products being setup to make immediate sales safely.  You can sell to members and non-members of the e-Commerce network.  Some social networks say that they have a marketplace but all that you can do is place a link for your company and a picture / image and hope that they go to your website.  Then they have to navigate to your site and find that particular item.  "Time is money", if it takes to long to find it the sale is lost.  Most people from social networking sites will only visit, they won't buy because they are just about soicializing. If they do visit your site that may be there just to see what it is that you do so that they can sell their products and/or services to you.

The atmosphere on an e-Commerce networking website is unlike that of a social network, in that it is an marketplace (a marketplace: is a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange money for goods and/or services).  When non-sellers come to an e-Commerce network they come to buy, not to socialize (unlike on social networks), they same is true for sellers (small business owners / entreprenuers) they come on the site to sell not to socialize.  Also e-Commerce networking sites are ready to handle an order in a speady and secure manner because they know that a sale can be lost in two seconds.
* The e-Commerce website isn't to replace your existing personal website if you already have one, but can be an additional arena to sell your products.
The sellers have a secure account on the e-Commerce network with companies such as: PayPal and Charge.com to properly handle the transaction and to keep your and your customers information confidential.

Thanks everyone for reading our blog...part three is coming this Friday October 15 so be sure and read it! And please subscribe to this blog and our sister blogs: http://www.uniquic.blogspot.com/ and http://www.hwheeler06.blogspot.com/. May GOD bless and keep you in JESUS name, Amen.

See related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and_16.html  http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html 
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html

What They Don't Tell You About Sales and Social Networking (Pt.1)

Welcome back! Just as I promised before we will discuss those statistics about sales and how to get the most of our social networking for your business. This blog post is a three part series, so I hope that you read all three in that each one picks up where the other left off.

So, you have a website  and now you need to bring in traffic.  You say, what must I do, hmmm network right? So you find as many people as you can and make friends with them on a large social network.  Then you tell them about your website (exposure, exposure, exposure) and sit back and watch the money roll in right...wrong.  When you join social networks you can make hundreds of friends, have your website posted with links to it, send them emails with coupons and discounts but the are catches to all those things. First of all, from all those hundreds of friends you will need a thousand people to see your site and from those thousands only 15 percent will buy from you. Secondly, make sure that your links work and that they aren't being seen as something that could be potentially harmful to the person's computer (some sites don't send people directly to the links that are posted on their site for fear that you could be viruses). Thirdly, people could get turned away from your company from the emails that you sent with coupons and discounts, seeing them as spam. I know what you are thinking, you say this is what everyone is doing, so it must be the right thing to do. But do you really know if they are making money from all "these" efforts?

Statistics state that out of every thousand visitors to your site you will only get 15 percent of those people to buy (which is 1.5 percent of those thousands of visitors). For example if you get two hundred friends in 6 months, then yu have picked up 33 people in a month and one person a day. That's not a lot of potential customers to visit your site. How many other sites do you have a membership? Do you make profiles and them leave them because of low membership on that site? All these are important factors in determining if you make sales because the more sites your on the better and inorder to generate traffic to your site you need a large number of visitors, so the site that you are on needs a large memebership base. In the political arena, they post campaign flyers everywhere from school yards to light poles and they post in areas of HIGH traffic (even if their is an abandoned building on the street, if it is a busy intersection, they are there).

See next blog for Part 2...

See related articles:
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and.html  http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-sales-and_16.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-tips-for-resurrect-your-business.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/11/give-them-more-of-you-how-to-build.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/12/10-ways-to-get-your-business-organized.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2011/02/be-dressed-for-party-learn-how-to.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-of-entrepreneurship.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-start-online-business-101.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-customer-service-for-2012.html
http://uniquicnetworking.blogspot.com/2010/10/7-tips-to-great-profile-picture-your.html

Exposure...exposure...exposure!

Hello everyone, welcome to Uniquic Networking Online U.N.O. Blog. This blog will be a helpful tool to small business owners and also a means to inform everyone. We hope that you find the information that we give you to be helpful and welcome any comments or suggestions that you may have on a topic.

The old saying is "location, location, location" and location is very important but if you don't tell anyone that your business is at "that" location no one will ever know. That is where "exposure" comes into play. The definition of the word "expsoure" by Webster Dictionary is " the condition of being presented to view or made known" and that is what we MUST do as small business owners; present our businesses and/or make them known.

As an online small business owners many people may come to your site, but statistics show that it takes a thousand people to visit your site  before you will begin to see sales and you only get fifteen sales for every 1,000th person. Those are small numbers but they don't have to be...we will talk more about this statistic, sales and selling on social networking sites in our next blog entitled "WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT SALES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS".