What is your time worth?

What Is Your Time Worth? There are many different definitions of time.  Time can be broken down many ways.  The value of time varies considerably from person to person and depends upon the purpose of the journey, but can generally be divided into two sets of valuations: working time and non-working time. This division is necessary because the value of working time (i.e. time spent on activities in the course of work) is calculated differently from the value of non-working time (i.e. time spent on activities outside work).   This article will be discussing working time since 90% of us go to work  and have a job! By focusing on the reasons why the business was started in the first place and the goals that a person sets forth for  the business, the time question can be easily answered.  One question that every small business owner or start up business asks themselves everyday is "Why should I hire someone to do a project when I am able and capable to do it myself?"  A person or business owner must be able evaluate themselves and come to a conclusion on what the strongest qualities are that they possess. After these qualities are established, can the person answer this question.."Are they spending more time outside of these strong qualities that they possess rather than focusing on what they are good at?  Focusing on a person's business includes deciding how much their time is worth. But, how does a person put a value on their time? How much is each hour of each day worth, especially when that person is doing projects that are not generating revenue or increasing to their customer base?  Here is a great way to value what a person's time is worth:   1. You charge $75 per hour for your services/time. You spend a total of 5 hours trying to catch up on your correspondence…entering information into a database, typing and re-typing your letters and preparing them to be mailed. 2. $75/hr X 5 hours = $375.00 of your valuable time and profit If it would cost you less to outsource, why not do it? Why not allow a professional to handle some of your tasks leaving you with more time to generate revenue? For an example: 3. $25/hr (sample cost to outsource administrative tasks) X 5 hours = $125.00 4. $375 - $125 = $250 + the $ of the contract you signed while a professional took care of the non-revenue generating tasks. Although you are spending some valuable earned money, you are freeing up much more time to be able to concentrate on the processes that will generate more revenue for your business!   Outsourcing to gain time is happening in the new age of business.  People and businesses are getting more and more specialized each and everyday.  By outsourcing, a person can free up time to concentrate on the things that they are great at.  In return, that person gets a better product or service in return by sending their duties/services out to a person that specializes in that area.  This is a win win situation for everyone and it is the basis of how businesses can help each other grow at a significantly quicker rate.  So my question to you is.... "What's your time worth!"

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time." Henry Ford

"Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?” Brian Tracy

Prospecting in the Right Places

Prospecting in the Right Places

For too many people in business, prospecting for clients is like fishing with only a string and a pole. They know if they throw something out there, they'll draw attention. What they don't understand is that you must first be at the right fishing hole. And, second, that you have to use bait that the fish you're trying to catch like.

Let's address the right fishing hole first. Answer this question: Who is your ideal client? You should be able to list at least five criteria of your ideal client without even blinking an eye.

The answers might be something like this:

1. Married

2. Living within five miles of my retail location
3. Has school-aged children
4. Drives at least 30 miles per week
5. Between the ages of 20-40

Then, start picturing your clients. Are they grandmas? Businesspeople? Teenagers? Start thinking about them as categories of clients. You just might have a service that teens enjoy, but who invests the money in it? Grandma, mom and dad. So you'll need more than one marketing strategy to make sales, won't you?If you can't list at least five characteristics of the people who you need to reach, your business isn't going very far very fast. To get your answer quickly, consider your top three existing clients. What do they have in common? The answer to that question will get you started.

Next, you need to know how to reach these people.

If you sell to soccer moms, where will you find them besides soccer fields? Your list might look like this: grocery stores, gas stations, quick-stop stores, car washes, sporting goods stores. You can advertise on the bulletin board at the local car wash or grocery store--preferably ones that are close to soccer or baseball fields. Even better, sponsor a local kids' team. The parents feel obligated to use the services of those who help pay for uniforms, equipment, programs and the various fees involved in children's sports.

If you sell to those who earn very high incomes, where will they be found? Country clubs? The marina? Nice restaurants? Where should you advertise? Where they'll be found, of course. Okay, it might not be feasible to advertise atthe country club, but you can certainly advertise in publications that'll be found there. Advertise where the other companies of your caliber advertise. Check to see if you can invest in the mailing list of everyone who docks a boat at the local marina. Mailing lists are often available if you ask at the right place.

No matter who your future product purchasers are, you can get the names of new ones from existing clients. All you need to do is ask. Don't ask if they know anyone, ask: "What other parents of the soccer players might have a need for new tires?" "Who do you most enjoy playing golf with at the country club, Mr. Natzel?"

Or, even better, offer existing clients special discounts or bonuses for sending in new clients. I'm sure you've heard or seen advertising where existing clients are offered a 10% discount or free car wash for sending in three new clients. They're given coupons with codes on them to hand out to others. You don't have to go crazy with this costing you money. You might offer a free $5 Starbucks gift card or a coupon worth a discount on the service of a neighboring business. Chances are that the neighboring business will reciprocate on your behalf. The key to bonuses is offering something good enough that the client will think is worth their while to find others to send your way, even if it's just in a passing conversation.

Once you wrap your mind around the information covered here, you'll know where to find the best fishing holes and what bait to use!

Motivation and what IT takes to stayPOSITIVE

Motivation:

Definition: Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. Motivation is the energizer of behavior and mother of all action. It results from the interactions among conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2)incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and of his or her significant others.

Motivation is a very important key to success.  Something that goes hand and hand with motivation is creating a positive attitude in all aspects of life.  Without one, you won’t be able to fulfill the other.  I truly believe that motivation and attitude mold who we are day to day.  It starts when we wake up in the morning and ends when we tuck ourselves in at night.  There are six keys to keeping a positive attitude and staying motivated.

1. Start believing in yourself!  The biggest obstacle most of us have to overcome in our lives is right between our ears.  Most of us are “trained” to do certain job and are supplied the tools to do that job.  All the training and tools won’t help out an individual if they don’t believe in what they are doing.  Granted, tools and training are very important in business and life, but being able to utilize those tools and training to their maximum is what separates the successful from the not so successful. 
2. What you do between 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. is very important. What you do between 5 p.m. and the next morning is going to determine where you go in life itself!  What you do with your spare time away from your work directly effects how you far you will go in your work the next day.  This leads me into the 7 P’s that one of my first employers taught me at the age of 14.  Prior Proper PreparationPrevents Piss Poor Performance!  You must prepare to be the best person that you can be.  With the proper preparation, you will be able to avoid many of the mistakes that begins start that dread-full chain reaction.
3. Surround yourself with positive people and positive things.  This will enable you to exert positive energy.  You are who you surround yourself with.  If you want to be successful one of the most important things to do is surround yourself with successful people.  The positive energy will thrive and the networking opportunities will grow with each successful person that you engage. 
4. Think outside the box!  You are able to take over the power of how you think!  Think BIG thoughts and BIG things.  Think of BIG goals and envision yourself achieving them.  This pushes the envelope of traditional thoughts and guides you to maximize your own potential.
5. Keep Your Health Sound.  A healthy body creates a healthy mind.  If you have both of these, you are invincible in the destination that you choose for yourself. 

I will leave this blog with a quote from a master of all of these!
 
"Oh divine providence, I ask not for more riches, but more wisdom with which to make wiser use of the riches you gave me at birth consisting in the power to control and direct my own mind to whatever ends I desire."  Napoleon Hill

Social Media Part Two

Do you think Social Media is an intricate part of marketing your business?

Social Media and It's Impact on Business Part 2 As promised in last weeks blog, I will go through the basic steps of setting up a successful  social media marketing campaign and discuss the ways this will give you an internet presence.  I could go into great depths on each one but it would take many pages to discuss all the tools that these social medias provide.  With that said, I will give you a basic overview of how to get started with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and You Tube.  I will also go over how to use Hootsuite to manage all these social media platforms. The first social media platform that is very important in creating a successful social media marketing campaign is Facebook.  Facebook is one of the most widely used platforms in the world.  Facebook is also one of my favorites because it has many useful applications and systems.  You can now apply for your own Facebook email and even customize a personalized Facebook “Like” page for your business.  The first thing you have to do is go to Facebook if you haven’t already signed up for a page and set up your own personal profilehttp://www.facebook.com.  Once signed up you will want to create a “like page” for your business athttp://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.  You will want to choose the category that best fits your business.  Once that is set up you will want to add pictures, engage people in discussions, and provide useful content to individuals who are visiting your “Like Page”.  One thing that I have learned is that if you don’t provide useful or interesting content or pictures, you will loose your following base and all your hard work will be lost.  Once you have your “Like Page” set up, it is now time to get traffic to your page and link it to your website and all your other social medias.  One way to get people to follow you is to suggest your page to your friends that you already have set up through your personal Facebook page.  Another great way to get people to your page and to start following you is to ask strategic friends to suggest your page to all of there friends.  I was able to build up a following base of 2000 “Likes” for Your Custom Image in about a year. This can be quicker or slower depending on how many friends you have and how many strategic partners you are able to engage.  It will also increase or decrease with the content that you provide or don’t provide to your potential customers. The second social media that is very useful to use is LinkedIn and can be found at http://www.linkedin.com.  LinkedIn is a business platform and should be used to strengthen business networking.  As with any social media platform, you will want to fill out your information to start your page.  Be creative and consider this your cover letter and resume!  You want to create a great impression of yourself and the services that you are able to provide.  LinkedIn can and will open many doors if used correctly and efficiently.  One of the most efficient tools (located at the bottom right hand corner of your home page) is the “See who viewed your profile”!  You can click on this and gives you the names of the last 5 people that viewed your profile!  If you choose to upgrade your LinkedIn account, you may then see everyone who views your profile.  What does this mean?  It means that that person who viewed your profile must be interested in your services or what you have to say.  The next step is engaging that individual with a message.  I have used this technique which I have learned from Brian O’Neil who is the owner of Sales Empowerment Group out of Chicago and it has increased my “Warm Calling” significantly!  Warm calls lead to meetings and meetings lead to SALES!  Sales=Happy Business Owners! Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile oryour blog, sent to your followersand are searchable on Twitter search.  Twitter feeds can be linked to your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles along with a slew of other social media platforms.  It could be the single most effect tool out there to keep people updated on new products, services or exciting news of your company.  To build a successful twitter profile, you will have to think outside the box.  Start following people who you are interested in and groups that may want to use your service.  Don’t go overboard with tweets on your business but lead into products that you can provide.  This will get people interested in you and it will build trust in your relationships.  Down the road, these relationships can be turned into trusted sales and referrals! The last social media that I am going to discuss is YouTube. This can give your clients and/or followers a sense of who you are and what you have to offer.  With it being a video platform and also owned by Google, YouTube videos posted to your website can help boost your rankings in the search engines.  With that in mind, you can sign up for a YouTube account with your Google account.  Video blogging is very crucial in helping your potential customers learn about YOU!  One question…. Would you rather read about a product or watch about one?  From my personal experience, I have had a much larger response on the videos that I have posted versus the pictures or even content that I wrote about the products my business had to offer.  People are visual and want to be engaged.  YouTube is great for this and serves it purpose as being the most widely used video platform on the internet. Now for the secret on how to integrate all these social medias and save yourself oodles of time.  HootSuite is a great platform to integrate all these together and can be found here www.hootsuite.com .  You can link all your social media platforms into this and post only to one platform or all of them with a single click.  You can also schedule messages to be sent out days or even months in advance.   This has saved me hundreds of hours of time and enabled me to get very creative in my blogging/posting! There are many other social media platforms and techniques out there to help you in creating a successful social media campaign.  These are considered the Big 4 in my book and should be the foundation of any great campaign.  It is important that you and your business “Stands Out” and is “Visual”.  With that said……  “Make It Custom….Make It Yours”! "The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."  ~Bill Gates “Be creative, be efficient, and most of all be "You" in your social media marketing campaign!