Networking

It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to find the whole idea of marketing
intimidating. Even seasoned business owners often feel their marketing
efforts aren’t working.

Don’t let marketing intimidate you. At its core, it’s really not much more
than common sense - the key elements that form your plan. Add some
creativity. This is what you’ll use to implement your plan and make it
work. That’s the basis of marketing. Pretty simple once you break it
down.

Let’s do a quick overview. There are a few key questions you need to
answer upfront.

1. Is there a market for your product/service?

If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board. Start over. Because
no matter how great you think your product is, if no one needs it/wants it/buys it, you don’t have a business.

2. Can you make a profit?

Have you done the number crunching to ensure profitability? If not, go
back and work your numbers. Figure out what you need to charge to
make your profit on each item or service you sell. See what the
competition is charging. Be in line but don’t necessarily be the
cheapest. Your products may command higher fees (better ingredients,
exciting packaging, snob appeal). Or you may choose to be the low
price leader - but you’ll need more volume than you would at the high
end. In any event, do your homework.

3. Can you survive?

Do you have the resources to see you through until your business starts
to show a profit? If not, you may need to keep your day job and do this
on a part-time basis initially.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’re ready to proceed.

The Plan

You’ve determined that you’ve got a product or service that is
marketable. Now you need a plan.

Depending on your budget and/or level of expertise, it can be as simple
as a Guerilla Marketing Plan - or a more detailed plan prepared by
someone who specializes in this area.

Basically, your plan will cover the following:

Stating your goal or objectives

Defining your target market

An overview of the competition

Defining your niche or what differentiates you from the competition

Developing a strategy to achieve your objectives

Evaluating the various marketing tools and deciding what you will use/
when

Preparing a time line with goals written in

Reviewing your budget

A detailed list, elaborating on the above items, can be found at the end
of this article. You’ll see that most of these questions are really based
on common sense, nothing more.

Action

I was going to call this section “The Execution” but decided it had a
negative ring to it.

Actually, here’s where creativity comes into play. And this is where you
may want to call upon an outside resource (or two) to help.

You can’t start a business without business cards and stationery (well
you can, but don’t). If your marketing plan calls for a logo and identity
development - and you’re not a creative - find yourself a designer.
Interview some freelance designers to see if their style fits what you
want for your identity - and also if their rates fit your budget. Or you may
want to find a design or marketing firm that specializes in working with
smaller companies.

A marketing firm will be able to help you with all of your marketing, not
just logo design and development, so that may make more sense.
Whichever route you decide to take, make sure you’re comfortable with
the people who will be handling your business. If it doesn’t feel right, it
isn’t. Keep looking. There are lots of firms and freelancers around.
Don’t settle.

Make sure your logo and business cards really reflect your company’s
unique identity. The goal is not to look like everyone else.

Promote, Promote, Promote

Networking is probably the entrepreneur’s most important marketing
tool. So get out there and network. Take your business cards (always!).
Join a networking group - or two or three. Join chambers of commerce.
Attend events. Look into associations relevant to your industry. Make a
list of everywhere your target market might be - and go there.

Where’s Your Web Site?

Today, most businesses have web sites (mine is coming.). A web site
can serve as an online brochure — a sorry fact for printing companies -
a plus for small businesses with limited budgets. It also gives you an
unlimited geographic reach and the ability to update 24/7.

If you opt for a web site, make sure it presents the image you want for
your company. Unless you’re skilled at web design, get yourself a
professional to handle this. Nothing will send potential customers
running as quickly as a bad web site. Think about what you do when
you’re on the internet.

Your web site should be:

Well designed

Clean and uncluttered (ie. easy on the flash if you must include it)

User friendly — easy to navigate, fast to download (not everyone has a dsl line)

Well written (written for the web, not for print — and no typos)

Informative and/or newsworthy

You want visitors to bookmark your site and come back often

Optimized for search engines

Most of your visitors will come from either search engines or links -
your pages need to be planned for search engines to find them.

It may help to put together a list of sites you’ve visited that you really like.
Use these as a blueprint for your own web site, and don’t get side-
tracked by a lot of irrelevant glitz. In fact, you may want to also compile a
list of sites you dislike. Show these to your web developer so she totally
understands what you want.

What About Traditional Marketing Material?

Brochures

Ideally, it’s great to have both printed marketing material and a web site.
Your printed brochure is used as a “leave behind” or mailer. Take it when
you make sales calls or attend events. Mail it out with cover letters to
prospective clients. Ask colleagues to distribute them along with their
marketing material.

But if you can only do one, opt for the web site. Whatever you do, make
sure that everything with your company name on it is well designed and
well written.

Direct Mail

Along with networking, direct mail is one of the most effective, affordable
marketing tools in the small business marketing toolbox. Not only is it
highly targeted, but it’s affordable enough to allow for ongoing
promotion.

Use direct mail for:

Introducing new products or services
Special offers
Sale announcements
Drawing traffic to your web site

In addition to traditional direct mail, look into direct e-mailing. Recent
studies show that it’s about to overtake direct for most U.S. businesses.
Newsletters or sales letters, particularly created in html, can be an
extremely effective way to keep in touch with existing and/or potential
customers. Just be sure to include that “opt out” on the bottom for
people who do not want to be on your e-mailing list.

Other Marketing Tools

For reasons of time and brevity, let’s just list some other marketing tools
you may want to consider as you plan your assault:

advertising
public relations
speaking engagements
trade shows
newsletters
flyers
premiums
door hangers

Depending on your product or service, the list is pretty extensive.
Fortunately, it’s just a buffet from which you can pick and choose.

Evaluate everything and decide what will work best within your budget.
Test and test some more. If one tool doesn’t work, try something else.
And don’t expect to get a hit the very first time. You may - you may not.

Like all good things, building (or growing) a business is a process. The
dotcom bust should have taught all of us that overnight successes aren’t
necessarily lasting ones. The goal is to reach your key audience as
efficiently and effectively as possible. And to grow a successful (ie.
profitable) business.

Copyright © 2002 Rickey Gold & Associates

Rickey Gold & Associates is a small, hands-on marketing
communication firm that works closely with clients to identify, reach,
entice and sell to their target markets.

http://www.rickeygold.com
rg@rickeygold.com
773.348.4973

Tags: collateral, entrepreneur, marketing, networking, plan, web sitescollateral, entrepreneur, marketing, networking, plan, web sites

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A lone ranger is someone who prefers working in solitude or isolation. Sometimes life circumstances can call for us to adopt this attitude. When it comes to marketing our business, however, adopting this mentality can prevent you from achieving the success that you desire.

There are many reasons why people operate in isolation. Some do not know there are better or easier ways, while others prefer to work alone because of certain personality characteristics. Yet working with others in our businesses or even on certain projects can provide us with a boost of energy, motivation, and inspiration.

When we’re coming from this place, we can more easily and readily take advantage of business opportunities. As Red Holzman, basketball coach for the New York Knicks once said, “The power of we is stronger than the power of me.”

What types of lone ranger activities are you engaging in and how can working with others create more business success for all involved?

1. Not enough money. One of the most common reasons cited by people for working in solitude revolves around money. Because most small business people are not making a great deal of money at start-up, they feel they cannot involve other people because they cannot pay them. This is when you need to put on your creative cap. Why not barter or trade your expertise for theirs? Or perhaps there is someone who would be willing to act as an unpaid intern for you in exchange for learning more about what you do.

2. The need to control. When just starting out, many new business owners want to control everything. They feel that if they don’t control every aspect of their business, then something will go awry. Often the underlying fear is the fear of failure. So the result is usually one very burned out business owner. It is important to learn to delegate tasks whether it is to a temporary or full-time employee, or to a virtual assistant. It’s easier to control when one is coming from the perspective of a manager rather than an employee or jack-of-all-trades. Delegation is a great skill to learn, and the sooner the better. By offloading responsibilities, you’ll give yourself the space to be more creative which can be a great benefit to your business.

3. Protecting your assets. Many of us create intellectual property. When we’re starting out, we are quite fearful that people will steal our ideas for e-books, e-courses, articles, books, and audio collections. The sad truth about this is that there are unscrupulous people who will steal from you. But, the reality is, most people won’t. It’s important to keep in mind that you are not the first person to come up with a particular idea. You certainly can’t copyright or protect your ideas, but you can put your particular slant on it. The best attitude to have is that you want people to benefit from your material and let it go at that. If you don’t feel you can move past the fact that people will take and use your material for their own benefit, find another avenue to disseminate your work.

4. Doing it all. Some people are just used to doing everything themselves, never relying on others to lend a helping hand. While that is all very good in and of itself, that type of mentality might not be serving you or your business well. In today’s competitive market place, where being quick to respond can mean the difference between getting a new client or not, you might need to re-consider working with others. At first, when your business is small, you can probably manage everything on your own. But when your business starts taking off and you find yourself rushing around from 7 am to 7 pm, or later, on a daily basis, working weekends and holidays, it’s time to rethink things. You can’t do everything and do it all well.

5. Asking for help. Some people aren’t comfortable asking for help or support from others. They might look at asking for help as something that signals a sign of weakness or neediness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Asking someone to help you out in your business is a wonderful gift you can give to them. People love having the opportunity to help someone out. You never know how their wisdom might contribute to your business success. You might even uncover an opportunity to partner with someone on a project; something that never would have otherwise come to fruition had you not asked for some help in the first place.

6. Where are they? You have a great business idea and you’re certain it would be a real winner if only you could pull it off. But, it might be just too big to handle all alone. Or, you might not have the expertise to make it happen. You don’t know who to ask to help you because you can’t find someone with the same interests to partner with you. So you decide to remain isolated, the idea goes nowhere, and no one benefits - not you and not your clients. This scenario is more common than you might think. The easiest way to find people to partner with is to start networking, whether you’re standing in line at a bank, attending a chamber meeting, or sharing with your clients. Tell everyone you know about your idea and see what they have to say. Before you know it, you’ll find someone who wants to know more about it. They might just be the person who will help you make it happen, or knows someone who can.

7. Too critical and judgmental. Being critical of others is a popular reason for many people to remain working in isolation. You might not think anyone can do the task or project as well as you can. Each one of us is unique and we all have talents and gifts in different areas. Rather than judging or measuring someone in a particular area in which you excel, look for areas in which they excel, from which you can benefit. Another person may be strong in an area in which feel you are weak. By combining talents you can create more than you could have if you remained working in isolation. Take a step back, and set aside your judgments of others. Instead look for the treasures inside of them.

8. Superman syndrome. Many people feel that they are like the fictional character Superman, who could do everything, even see through concrete and steel. Unfortunately, humans are far from this idealized cartoon character. As Jonathan Swift once said, “No man is an island.” We can’t do it all ourselves and if one really thought about it, there is nothing that you have that is solely based just on your physical or mental efforts. It’s actually more fun not to do everything yourself. Let others help you out. Let them share their ideas with you and vice versa. Lighten your attitude, delegate tasks or projects, and really enjoy the work you are doing. Doing everything is not a badge of honor, but rather it is a sign that you don’t know the power of working with others.

9. Not enough for everyone. A scarcity mind-set is a strong underlying component of the lone ranger mentality. This often happens when we “fall in love” with an idea, thinking it is “the idea of the century.” And because of that, we don’t want to share it with anyone. We remain in isolation because we fear someone might do a better job or become more successful with that idea than we ever could. Put your ideas out there. Don’t make the mistake of not sharing your talents and gifts with others because you think you’re going to “corner the market” with your ideas.

10. Not understanding of the power of collaborative partnerships. Lone rangers don’t understand the power of collaborative partnerships. These relationships are a strong and necessary component of any successful business. A collaborative partnership is one where the participants bring their talents and expertise to the relationship. There are open discussions, sharing, and creation of ideas where everyone can benefit. Each participant expends less energy than they would have had they been working in isolation, but the result can be much more than they could have ever hoped to achieve on their own. Seeking out people who have the skills you are looking for while offering your own talents in return, is a great way to break out of isolation and experience new opportunities for business growth and success.

© Copyright 2004 by Alicia Smith

licia Smith is a Coach and Trainer whose specialty is helping coaches to Make Money Now. This article is derived from just one of the 90 lessons contained in her e-course, 90-Day Marketing Marathon. To learn more about that course and her other products and services, please visit the following sites. (You also can email her at alicia@aliciasmith.com.)

http://www.90DayMarketingMarathon.com
http://www.discninja.com
http://www.InternetAssessments.com

Tags: business, entrepreneur, judgemental, management, marketing, networking, relating, relationshipsbusiness, entrepreneur, judgemental, management, marketing, networking, relating, relationships

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Excerpted from: Dr. Fanning’s book: “Do What You Love & Get Rich” c 2006

Whether you are currently in a corporate position, entrepreneur or business owner your FIRST introduction can make a lasting impression…or fade you into the woodwork. It’s your choice. Typically you have 10-30 seconds to introduce yourself in a way so that your listener/audience knows exactly what you do & why they would want to work with you.

DEVELOPING YOUR 10 SECOND FIRST IMPRESSION

What you want to do is develop & practice a 10-30 second “speech” or introduction that describes the benefits of your business to others. It’s often referred to as an elevator speech because when you’re in an elevator you have about 10-30 seconds to chat with the other person on the elevator and then one of you leaves.

Why create this introduction? - Because you’re in BUSINESS and business succeeds when you have customers. Others are interested, but they’ll never know what you do unless you create something interesting.

You will want to write down several versions of this introduction. Here are the key points:

Compelling, people want to listen

Solves a problem

Makes you the expert

So, let’s look at some examples of what NOT to do.

I am a VP at Eagle Credit Union.

I own a construction company.

I do counseling

I think you can see immediately that these greetings are NOT compelling!
Let’s take those ideas and add YOUR mission, vision & answers to THEIR problems. Here are a few EXAMPLES. Be sure you tailor your speech to fit what you really believe in.

1. Instead of - I’m a VP at Eagle Credit UnionSay for example: I am a VP at Eagle Credit Union in charge of Marketing and Product Development. Under my watch our marketing efforts have increased our membership by 35% in a year and we’ve developed 3 products to improve the quality of our members’ financial lives.

2. Instead of - I own a construction company Say for example: I own Big T construction. We recently completed the overpass exchange on budget and under time. The other project you may have seen is the Natural History museum. We came in both on time and on budget.

3. Instead of - I do counselingSay for example: I am so enthusiastic about working with families to help them create a happy, healthy loving home whether they are married or divorced. I am a specialist in families and I find that my clients reconnect with each other, learn to communicate & discover their home to be a nurturing place to be after working with me.

IT’S YOUR TURN

Now, write your speech. Come on. It’s that important. Try tweaking it with several different words. Once you have one or two versions, practice in front of the mirror. Watch your eyes, smile and demeanor. If you don’t really believe what you’re saying, it won’t work. You’ll either need to write what you really believe or become confident enough to say what you believe. OK, do this NOW!!!

Free Newsletter: http://www.irisfanning.com

Dr. Iris Fanning is a Nationally recognized Success Coach. Dr. Fanning is a graduate of Coach University, holds an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity, M.A. in Psychology, Counseling & Guidance and a B.S. in Psychology. Additionally Iris is the self published author of “Change Your Life Right Now” c2006 and “Do What You Love & Get Rich” c 2006. Dr. Fanning is also an in demand public speaker. Individual and group coaching is also available. Contact: coachiris@hotmail.com Please place Coaching in the subject line.

© Copyright 2006, Dr. Iris Fanning. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.

Tags: business, entrepreneur, marketing, networking, wealth buildingbusiness, entrepreneur, marketing, networking, wealth building

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