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We hope you find this arcthve useful. A subscription to The Small Business Advisor Newsletter is free. Subscribe now - it's easy! The Small Business Advisor Newsletter for May, 1997 CONTENTSNotes, tips, etc Unsolicited Questionable e-mail How to Leverage your Strength to Boost Business Do you Really Deserve Free Time? How to Trade for Advertising 900 Telephone Numbers Writing Competitive E-mail Expert Advice Don't Park in The Comfort Zone! ++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTES/TIPS/etc HINT. When typing a manuscript,
letter or other correspondence, using a wordprocessor remember to place
only ONE space after a period (and comma) and NOT two like was the custom
when using a typewriter (remember those?). You will see why if you look
at your text when full justified. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ QUICK MARKETING TIPS.
++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNSOLICITED QUESTIONABLE E-MAIL
- ONE SOLUTION I doubt there is anyone who has not been plagued by unsolicited e-mail in one form or another. Most are harmless and a few actually may something of interest. But every so often a really outrageous e-mail is received. Something that is clearly beyond the bounds of good taste or possibly something that looks illegal. What to do? 9 times out of 10 if you try to send a reply, your message will come back undelivered - which is sort of insult on injury. However, there is something you can do to assist in putting an end to this kind of e-mail. Many ISP's are becoming very sensitive to their users engaging in this kind of activity and they are quick to deactivate the offenders account. How to find the ISP? Easier than you might think. Go to the InterNic website at www.internic.net (click first on "Registration Services" and then "Whois") and search for the domain name of the message as shown in the "from" line. For example, if the "from" address is johnsmith@something.com, the domain is "something.com." The InterNic database will return the complete address and e-mail information of the domain host. Forward the offending message to this address and register your outrage. It works! I have done this more than once and have learned later (in a message from the ISP) that the originator of the message has been deactivated from their system. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOW TO LEVERAGE YOUR STRENGTH
TO BOOST BUSINESS Let your business feed off
your strength. Most businesses that fail do so Prepare yourself to deal with being in business, every day: - set goals & objectives
Good health is also important
too. Remember working long hard hours requires Do it! It pays off. USE THE 5 "Ws" Understand "why" you are in business, "what" you hope to accomplish, "who" needs you, "why" & "how" - - and you can't go wrong. Research your market. Update constantly. "When" business is good, find out "what" can make it better. If business is not so good, find out "how to" fix it, and do it! Know "where" to go in an emergency. Reduce the panic, fear and frustration. Become the strong leader your business needs. You must use the power of Positive Thought too. Think like a winner then WIN! If you do not believe in yourself then no customer, employee, distributor, supplier, creditor, banker. . . will. Everything is within your grasp. All you have to do is reach for it! Use every means available to strengthen yourself and your business. You owe it to your business, don't you? Make weekly, monthly, yearly and even daily evaluations (and forecasts). Frequently step back to take an objective look. Do whatever it takes to WIN (not just survive). If no one knows about your services: can they use them? Make a list of your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), now! (This information is an excerpt from Arthur A. Hawkins II's book "Street-Smart Ways To Generate Income." To order send $11 US currency postpaid ($14 international) to: Information Research Lab 9824 Western Avenue, Suite 144, Dept. SBAdvisor, Evergreen Park, Illinois 60805, USA. <a href="mailto:A_Hawkins@nwu.edu">E-mail</a>) ++++++++++++++++++++++++ DO YOU REALLY DESERVE FREE
TIME? As a matter of fact, no, you don't. Free time isn't a reward for good behavior, it's a necessary precondition for optimum productivity. So stop thinking that you'll let yourself take a few days off when......(insert your excuse here). Think of it this way; you're the brains behind the business, right? In order to keep being successful, you've got to keep that brain sharp and creative. Trouble is, if you use it continuously, it will get dull. Mass communications, including television, radio, fax, advertising, electronic mail, cell phones and pagers require us to constantly process huge amounts of information. This means we must maintain an extremely high level of mental activity whether we want to or not. It sometimes seems that there is no escape. Most of us can relate all too well to the meaning of "information overload". The technologically advanced world in which we live can wear us out very quickly. This weariness can wreak havoc on your business. Consider the symptoms of fatigue: lack of innovation, irritability, reduced productivity, and stress. The list goes on. And we are frequently unaware of how run down we are getting. We are moving away from the industrial age into the information age, yet the work ethic that most of us grew up with taught us to maximize work time - time at the factory or the office. Even our language reflects the inherent value judgment of time away from work. We call non-work time "off-time" or "down-time". The emergence of creativity, ideas, and information as our most valuable resources, and the pervasiveness of the global, 24-hour business world have changed our concept of "time equals money". Now, it's "results equals money". And we all know that more time at the office does not mean more results. In fact, it often means less results and more mistakes. What's the answer? The solution is to take time away from your business. Free time makes you sharper. Free time provides the rejuvenation you need to restore your confidence and sense of well-being. You come back from time off with a new perspective, a higher energy level, increased creativity, and often, a breakthrough idea. Take one vacation a year, get one breakthrough. Take two vacations, get two breakthroughs. Take three, get three. Plan at least three breakthroughs this year. This is a hard concept for many business people, even those of you who won't admit to being workaholics. But, you might as well face up to it - you need free time. The success of your business is riding on it. Here's a little test: (Answer YES or NO) You believe the business can't
run without you If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, drop everything and plan a vacation immediately. Three or four days will help. Seven or more is ideal for rejuvenation. Many people have made financial objectives their sole concern and have paid a heavy price for their success - poor health, failed marriages, neglected friendships, no personal development in any area except business. Financial success, no mater how great, can never compensate for poor quality of life. In the scheme of things, a properly functioning business is supposed to be the servant of a full and satisfying life that includes good health, close and loving relationships, recreation, culture, and a powerful contribution to the community. The 21st Century Entrepreneur will develop a personal life that is multi-dimensional and characterized by ever increasing quality of experience - and increasing income continually to support that quality. (Gary Lockwood is a Business Coach, Speaker and Publisher of the BizSuccess Coaching Program(TM). He can be reached toll- free at 1-800-272-1575 or email MyBizCoach@aol.com) ++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOW TO TRADE FOR ADVERTISING
USE THE MEDIA--marketing help
for small biz. One radio station owner, who never forgot his penny-pinching beginnings, is always on the lookout for businesses wanting to trade. When he needed extra storage sheds behind the studios, he got a carpenter to build them in exchange for free commercials on his stations. When the station promotional vehicles required regular detailing, he traded commercials for custom car washes. A big snow brought a private snow plow purchased with traded on-air mentions. The station owner figures he has a few commercials that his sales reps won't sell. Why not trade them to other business people who have extra products and services they can't sell? It's a classic WIN-WIN arrangement. And lots of media managers welcome the situation. Joan, who owns a very successful donut shop, bases her advertising entirely on trade. She gives boxes of her high-quality donuts to select radio stations for daily giveaways. In return, they speak highly of her donuts on the air. It's not unusual to hear a morning DJ go on and on about how wonderful her product is. She has a rock solid reputation in the community as a result. The cost? A few boxes of donuts that might be surplused anyway. A newspaper editor reminds us that radio isn't the only fertile ground for trade. Newspapers frequently need traded items and services to give away as prizes to readers, advertisers, and employees. He advises to check with the circulation department. They often need prizes to give to paper boys and girls. Be creative. Got a book store? It's trendy now days for TV weathermen to publish their own books on local weather stats. Call the manager at your favorite TV station and offer to do a cooperative promotion with the station. They can place the books in your store, AND have their weatherman do in-store appearances, in exchange for mentioning your store's locations. Offer to help them write and publish the book. "But I'm a Realtor," one man told me. "How would I trade real estate services to a media outlet?" There is a Realtor in my town who solved the problem. He does his own real estate show on talk radio. Enlisted sponsors pay his on-air fees. For the Realtor who doesn't have that show biz zeal, appearing regularly as a real estate expert on someone else's show can be just as effective. Not all media outlets do trade.
Some welcome trade some times of the year and not others. Many will
do a part trade, part cash arrangement. A great many will bonus a certain
number of free commercials or mentions when you buy ads.
(Kevin Nunley is a veteran broadcaster and marketing consultant. He specializes in marketing help for small business. Reach him at DrNunley@aol.com Ask for a free list of his hard-hitting, info-packed special reports on media and marketing. Got a small business? Dr. Nunley will serve as your personal marketing consultant--all the expert marketing advice you need--for 12 months for only $49.95!) ++++++++++++++++++++++++
900 numbers have become a
billion dollar industry. With a little inside information you can tap
into this remarkable income source. Dr. Kevin Nunley specializes in marketing help for small business. Reach him at DrNunley@aol.com. Ask for a list of his latest special reports on marketing. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ WRITING COMPETITIVE E-MAIL
E-Mail is a prized tool for the small entrepreneur. It allows you to communicate quickly and frequently with your customer. It doesn't matter that your competitor can afford a fancy logo and expensive stationary. E-mail puts you on even footing. Without graphics or engraving to enhance your message, what you say and how you say it matters even more than with print communication. But because e-mail is so easy to send, and because as a harried owner of a small business, you feel pressured to respond immediately, you often dash off a response on the fly. How many times have you clicked on "send" then remembered a couple of points you forgot to mention? Or did you send a rambling message, giving your client the task of sorting it out? Did you think your spelling didn't matter? After all, "it's only e-mail!" It matters a lot. Your well-heeled competitor has the stature of his organization to back him up. His misspellings will be chalked up to, "too busy to spell check." Your misspellings and unorganized messages will call into question your competence. Does your inattention to spelling reflect a similar disregard for customer service? If your message is ill-conceived, can your product be any better? When you write e-mail messages, remember your client will judge you by what you say and how you say it. Don't let your writing give your customers a reason to turn to your competitor. Here are some guidelines to enable you to write e-mail like the Fortune 500 pros. - THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE: Before writing, jot down your main points or purpose. Decide what's most important and lead with that, in the first paragraph, if possible. Don't leave important information for the second screen. Readers hate to scroll, and may not get past the first screen. - MAKE YOUR SUBJECT LINE INFORMATIVE:
Forecast your main message by writing a subject line that announces what
you are writing (request, announcement, etc.) and what about it
(to purchase new desk chairs, of vacancy in the finance department).
Readers use the subject line to perform e-mail "triage." A good subject
line announces that it's relevant or "urgent." A vague subject line
invites the reader to ignore or delete the message. - FORMAT FOR EASY READING: Make your paragraphs short, use vertical "bulleted" lists to condense information, and add "white space" for visual relief. - NARROWCAST, DON'T BROADCAST:
Resist the temptation to send copies to everyone. Define and narrow
your audience to those who need the information. After receiving
a few irrelevant e-mails, your client may not even bother
- CHECK YOUR TONE: You may
be tempted to tell your pesky client exactly how you feel. And it
may make you feel better to write it. Just don't send your flaming
message. Keep your tone cordial, business-like, unbiased. Don't bad-mouth
the competition. He's only a click away! (Marilynne Rudick and Leslie O'Flahavan are partners in E-WRITE. They offer writing training and consulting with an emphasis on writing for e-mail and the Internet. Contact them at 407 Scott Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20904; (e-mail) Ewrites@aol.com; (phone) 301-989-4655; (fax) 301-989-9583. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ EXPERT ADVICE
I have found that there is no shortage of expert advice, also known as conventional wisdom, about the mail order, direct mail, and just about all other business. Neither will you have any trouble finding advice from experts and those who purport to be experts. Mail order people tend to be open and friendly; you can get lots of free advice. Unfortunately, while some of the advice will be most helpful, some of it will be most unhelpful. Much of this kind of wisdom is of that kind that, you will be assured, "everybody knows." It is usually the kind of thing that is handed down to newcomers from old-timers. Unfortunately, many of those "old-timers" who want to be helpful have not been in business much longer than you, and they simply propagate what they have heard without knowing whether it is true or not. The best advice I have gotten about this business was passed on to me, fortunately, while I was still rather new to mail order, and I found that man a sage indeed. What he told me was to take all this conventional wisdom with a large grain of salt, not to reject it, for the advice giver means well and the wisdom offered may be valid, but not to swallow it whole, either. His advice was to test all this conventional wisdom and see if it was true for me. I have found this to be a good idea: What is true for Joe, Paul, and Mary may not be true for you Not long ago I was invited to present a seminar in Montreal. The client agreed readily enough to the fee I quoted, and when the time came, I went off to Canada and gave my seminar presentation. Returning home, I sent off my invoice to the client. In due time I received a check for my work, made out in the proper amount, but on a Canadian bank. That is, the check was in Canadian dollars, which are presently considerably cheaper than American dollars. That is, when I deposited the check to my account I found myself well over $200 short of the fee I had quoted. My fault: I had neglected to specify that my fee was to be paid in American dollars or the Canadian equivalent. I had only myself to blame. Checking with an expert, I found myself being cautioned to be more careful in the future. I was assured that I had been had, that Canadian firms often took advantage of Americans that way, and that I was just out of luck. In my humiliation at my own naiveté, I was inclined to charge my loss off to experience, but my tougher-minded bookkeeper (to whom I am married), was not so inclined. At her insistence I wrote to the firm and requested the amount they still owed me. To my surprise, in a couple of weeks I received a check for the amount I had requested! The moral of this tale? Listen respectfully to what experts advise and then take whatever action you think wise. The experts are often right, but they are often wrong too. They often tend to take a single experience they have had and use it as a general rule to be followed by everyone. Perhaps business is bad in June-July-August and good in September for them, but that is not necessarily true for you. And it may be true in 1996, not be true in 1997. I have found it impossible to predict with any certainty when business will be slack and when it will be brisk, just as my expert friend found it impossible to predict how my Canadian customer would react to my request for additional payment. (Herman Holtz is the author
of the best-selling How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant and more
than 60 other books. You can reach him at holtz@paltech.com, fax 301-649-5745,
and at his Web site http://www.bellicose.com/freelance/)
DON'T PARK IN THE COMFORT
ZONE! Most of us have, in our house,
a thermostat that regulates the temperature. When it gets
a bit too warm, the air conditioning kicks on to bring the temperature
down to an acceptable range. When the temperature drops below a
Our personal 'comfort zone' is where we are comfortable in what we are doing in our jobs, our lives, our experiences. It is when we have no feelings of risk or anxiety. Some call it 'being comfortable'. Some would call it 'a rut'. Each of us has our own personal comfort zone. We have built-in 'thermostats' that regulate our level of anxiety, fear, discomfort. In the areas of our knowledge, skills, habits and attitude, when we step outside our normal, existing boundaries, we begin to feel a bit anxious. Our natural tendency is to pull back. Try this: fold your arms. Now, fold them the other way. How did that make you feel? Felt a bit unnatural, didn't it? That's why we usually stay within our comfort zone. When we try something new, we often feel uneasy about it, and frequently pull back. The security feels good. The downside of all this is that always staying in our comfort zone can be very limiting. The world passes us by as we stagnate. Complacency, in our fast-paced competitive world, can be fatal to business and severely limit personal and professional growth. If we are not learning, trying new things and growing, our jobs and businesses may be deteriorating. How do we step out of the comfort zone? Before you just throw all caution to the wind, try some simple things. Drive home a different route. Shop at a different grocery store. Order something from the menu that you've never tried before. Sleep on the other side of the bed. Make a conscious effort to experiment. Let yourself feel the adrenaline level rise a bit. Allow your anxiety level to increase. Feel your heart rate and breathing going faster. The adrenaline is your body's natural drug that, in moderation, makes you sharp, creative, and quick. It creates the feeling of excitement and exhilaration that comes from trying something new. Recognize that it also can be scary and stressful. Some stress is useful. Too much can be harmful. Some stress provides energy. Too much stress causes distress and can lead to burnout if done to extreme. Why would we want to give ourselves the stress of stepping outside the comfort zone? Because that's where growth takes place. Just like a muscle gets stronger when we exercise it outside its normal range of use, we get stronger when we get out of our rut. And just like our muscles, once we stretch beyond our current capabilities, we don't ever go back to our original dimensions. As we try new things, we gain confidence. Confidence makes us feel powerful and good. And when we are confident that we can survive new ideas, we allow ourselves to try even more new things. What's the limit? Obviously, we need to be realistic in our risk management. The most successful people think through the possible outcomes of taking a risk. Then they prepare for how they would deal with each. Successful people take risks, but they are not foolhardy or stupid. What are some higher level activities that could add to your personal and professional growth? Here's my challenge to you. Make a list of 50 things that, if you really were successful in doing them, you would be a better person or a better company. Things like give a speech (oh no!), write and publish an article, start an exercise program, meditate daily, teach a class, feed a homeless person, volunteer, climb a mountain, learn to play a new musical instrument, sign up for a dance class, try for that promotion, and so on. Then, from your list, choose one or two that you are willing to do within the next 90 days. Schedule those one or two new activities, then go for it. Afterward, choose one or two more and do it again. Make personal and professional growth a lifelong habit. Don't stay parked in the comfort zone. Gary Lockwood is a Business Coach, Speaker and Publisher of the BizSuccess Coaching Program. He can be reached toll-free at 1-800-272-1575 or email MyBizCoach@aol.com Return to top of page - Back to Home Page - Back to Archive Index |