by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Oct 1, 2014 | Entrepreneur, Small Business
Starting and growing your business is an exciting and at times, an overwhelming endeavor. The entrepreneurial spirit is a driving force to hang your shingle and as you know, it requires a specific mindset and continued effort to sustain and expand in your marketplace.
Break away: There may be several other businesses like yours and it is up to you to set yourself apart from the competition. It isn’t your widgets that generate the business. It’s you. Your service. Your commitment to your stakeholders.
Business ownership can be a 24/7 job and necessitates forward thinking and as Michael Port says, “thinking big.” Just because you opened your doors and provide a product or service, your job doesn’t end here. Build it and they will come is not enough. You must live in it, on it and breathe it.
Small business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for the brave, the patient and the persistent. It’s for the overcomer. Unknown
There is no room for stagnation or complacency if you intend to experience the full benefits of your company, aspiring greater revenues, satisfied customers, WOM marketing, new products/services and success. Embrace your business, your skills and your team on your journey as an entrepreneur.
Small Business Success Tips
- Have a passion for your business, service and product
- Solve an issue or problem, don’t just sell a widget
- Create blueprints to outline your goals, vision and action steps
- Set up systems for components of your business: i.e. marketing, sales channels, customer support, project management, social media and use them consistently. There is too much time and money lost searching for information or testing new tools and systems. Find one and use it
- Provide the service you expect from your own vendors
- Understand that response time to inquiries is very important. Don’t keep the prospect or customer waiting because your competitor is on your heels
- Stay connected and be available
- Never stop learning or reading for ways to help your business, network, customers or prospects
- Learn from failures and push forward, making new inroads
- Underpromise and overdeliver
- Be open to change and new directions based upon the market and your customers
- Know the difference between working ON your business, rather than IN it
- Why are you making yourself busy? All of the back end, low payoff, admin activities do not represent your core genius or generate income. It is important to allow delegation to become a strength, in order to grow and expand a business
- Social media and online marketing are here to stay – create a strong presence, understand the medium, know where your customers are
- Authenticity wins. If you aren’t true to yourself and your prospects, it is easily visible or soon to be discovered. Be real or don’t play at all
- Maintainable and consistent growth results from doing more of what produces progression and less of what seizes your time in the name of growth
- You must define the most profitable use of your working hours
- Focus your valuable time on the high payoff activities
- Limit distractions and stay centered on the task – you will be much more productive.
- Create collaborative teams within your company and industry
- Realize that every online action you take lasts a lifetime as your digital footprint. Your personal online brand represents you AND your company. Be cognizant of your posts and comments as your reputation may be determining your social impact
- Giving is better than receiving. Stop singing Me, Me, Me. Share the rich and relevant content of others in your network, industry, trusted circles, family, friends….. you know who. Reach out and ask how you can help. If you find a pertinent article to someone you know, email it. Go the extra mile
- Learn effective time management skills while you can’t manage time per say, you can manage yourself in terms of your priorities and scheduling. Never be late and don’t miss deadlines
- Maintain an organized office and life with productivity tools that work for you; whether it is a pen and paper, an online PM system or a spreadsheet, keep track of what you are doing, the milestones, results, action steps and To Do list
- Have some fun. Laugh a little and most of all, revel in your success as a business owner
Small business success doesn’t just happen overnight with a wish and a magic wand.
What is your secret weapon for success?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Sep 24, 2014 | Content Marketing, Organization, Productivity, Small Business, Time Management
Bleary eyed and reaching for your coffee, you boot up your computer and start your daily diet of content consumption. It is a filling nourishment of words, intel, fired up neurons and brain overload. Or at least it can be. Personally, I can spend hours reading all of the articles on social platforms, news aggregators, daily digests, emails and newsletters. Sometimes I think my head will explode.
Research demonstrates that we take in five times as much information as we did 30 years ago, raising huge challenges to organize it all.
We are drowning in data.
In a 2010 LexisNexis study, 62% of workers felt as though their quality of work suffered at times because they couldn’t sort through the information they needed fast enough.
There is so much to digest and learn. I could be bookmarking and saving content all day long. There are hundreds of talented bloggers and business owners sharing their incredible knowledge of tools, tips, recommendations and experiences. It can be overwhelming. Think of how many times you get sucked in to the black hole searching, clicking, and redirecting. It’s a vortex.
How do you manage all of the content? There are tools to organize your content or to help you search and save but you also need to decide what you are going to do with the information. Daniel Levitan, author of “The Organized Mind,” says “Whenever we feel overwhelmed by everything we need to keep track of in life, we talk about wanting to get organized.”
You’ve chosen your sources, thought leaders and industry favorites to follow and “study” in your own college auditorium of higher learning. That’s what it sometimes feels like for me and without the outrageous tuition costs.
What is the purpose? Business or personal? How does it apply to your business? Customers? Colleagues?
What are your content goals?
- Self-education
- Curation
- Repurposing
- Inspirational
- Research
- Love of reading
If you’re like most of us, you have a business to run and can’t spend every waking moment culling and sifting through information. It’s a full time job. Who has the time to sit and read all day when you are trying to live the entrepreneurial dream?
Use filters and keywords help to refine your searches.
This will help to save time and improve your overall content management. If you have some systems in place, it will be much easier to sort through all of the posts you want to read and combat your information hangover.
Researchers tend to agree that it’s not the volume of information that is the problem; it’s our inability to organize and process it all without experiencing “information overload, or what neuroscientists like to call “cognitive overload. Saga Briggs
| Research |
Organize |
| Social Media |
Evernote |
| BuzzSumo |
Readability |
| Scoop.it |
Spreadsheets |
| Tagboard |
Swipe files |
| RSS feeds |
Bookmarks |
| ContentGems |
Files and folders |
| Hootsuite Content Feature |
One Note |
| Flipboard |
Feedly |
| Alltop |
Google Drive |
| Inbound.org |
Dropbox |
| Biz Sugar |
Pocket |
| Topsy |
Ubernote |
| Feedly |
Powerpoint |
Design a system that works for you to enhance your time management and productivity as well as minimize on the extreme overload of data and what to do with it all. A method to your madness is guaranteed to keep you on track and focused. Systems and processes are the architectural structure of your success and productivity.
Establish some routines; otherwise you hit a wall, letting things go and opportunities are forfeited. The routines could be time limits or specific times you will be searching, saving and filing. Time block when you will surf. If you discover something important during the day, “save” it somewhere to revisit later. Don’t let it be a distraction and take you away from your current task at hand.
Decide what to keep or implement NOW based upon it’s perceived impact on your goals. Prioritize to your needs. Is it something you must have or must know? If so, how soon will you be needing it? Use your organizing tools to keep track of the data, being mindful of how you will use it and when. Some articles may have a more immediate use while others are purely for reference. You decide, but take action.
Declutter: remember to go through your folders or storage options so they haven’t blossomed into an overload of organized data. Purge the old to make room for the new. There’s no sense in just letting everything pile up and multiply as that will defeat the purpose of your systems.
How do you challenge your content zombie? What helpful tools can you suggest?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Aug 27, 2014 | Customer Service, Marketing, Small Business
What you serve to your customers is what keeps them coming back to you. Feed your audience more than a side dish of products and services. Anyone can make the same entree as you but when you spread on a little aioli love or some spiced up wasabi sauce, it is you who tantalizes the tastebuds.
Add some authentic sizzle.
A true taste of flavor of what it is like to do business with you instead of the competition. What makes you so different, so incredibly unique that your audience should shake your hand in partnership? Step away from the mediocre and predictable to be outstanding in your field.
Make a list of:
- The inspiration for starting your company
- Your most distinctive qualities
- Your company’s assets
- Your solutions to pain points
- Your customer’s needs
- Why does your product or service matter
- Your vision to give back and embrace your audience
Review your list!
- How do you put this into action every day?
- What message do you send to your fans and followers in each of your posts?
- Does your content reflect any or all of the items you listed?
- Do you embrace your followers?
- Does your audience feel valued?
Get into your customer’s head. Be their thoughts, anticipate their actions and feel what they are feeling. Remember, you aren’t writing for yourself, but for THEM. Know what they find meaningful and engage with them on their terms.
If you can be them, you can recognize what they need and it isn’t just your product but a solution to their difficulties. Your condiments are what will make the difference in their lives, their daily routines, or business operations.
Create brand evangelists who want to scream into a megaphone about your business. Don’t just run to the bank with their money. Show them they truly mean something to you beyond a burger and fries. They are the cornerstone of your meal. Without them, you have no business.
No one likes to gag on a dry hard bun. Use a fresh baked baguette. Toss on some garden tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic infused olive oil, some diced kalamata olives, sea salt and ground pepper. This little treat is something that entices the senses. It’s not dry. Boring. Or status quo.
“Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.” – Nelson Boswell
Think of the times when a vendor, potential partner or service provider has made you feel special or important. Did you tell anyone about them? Were you a repeat customer? If you know what impacts you to be loyal, to share your experiences with others, then deliver that same “emotion” to your audience. To your customers.
A recommendation from a friend is more credible and noteworthy than a paid advertisement.
It’s that simple.
Go the extra mile and pay attention to every detail, no matter how minute it seems to you, it will generate an impression. Do this with an authentic heart because it resonates deeply within you. Because it comes naturally – it isn’t something that is forced but instead a part of your innate persona. That is being real. That is appealing to the palette.
Don’t fake it and bake it. People can read BS and if you are only “under the cover of kindness” that is what will show through. Your voice is evident in every word you write, every comment, phone call or message. Keep it real or button up your lips.
The quote below by Melissa Bolton embraces the whole concept of service, business and the customer experience. Do it right. Do it because it IS RIGHT.
You leave pieces of your brand behind you wherever you go.
When people love what you do, it shows. They want to see you succeed and will do all they can to help.
Sprinkle your brand seeds to in the right field,
and your brand evangelists will help you grow them through accolades and referrals.
Empower them to WANT to share the word about you, your company and your services with the finest garnishes because they deserve it.
Earn their trust, loyalty and voice.
What condiments do you serve to your customers?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 16, 2014 | Organization, Small Business, Time Management
We have all heard that time and again, but it holds true. If you live and work in disorganization, your mindset and output will reflect your surroundings. Sure, we have some disorder or “organized piles” of stuff, but when there is overload, it overflows.
Clutter influences the way you work and the way you live. It impacts your brain. Learn to effectively manage versus just restyling the mountains of possessions, papers, contracts, or whatever lurks in your office or home. Streamline your physical and digital environment for success and focus.
“A recent survey says a disorganized workspace can lead to decreased productivity and unprofessional behavior.” Inc Magazine.
When you create a more structured environment you become more efficient and effective. You are no longer scrambling to locate important papers, files, emails or even your keys. Your time management increases as does your personal and professional productivity. Your setting is not just about physical space but mental as well. If you reside in chaos or mayhem, it does transmit into your work habits and daily living.
Your surrounding clutter competes for your attention, distracting your focus and thought process. I personally must have a clean and organized environment or I will only be thinking of what may be in the sink or if laundry needs folding. Everything has a place and it must be there when I work. Sure, a little OCD but I run my business the same way.
“When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. Clutter makes you distracted and unable to process information as well as you do in an uncluttered, organized, and serene environment.” Princeton University
According to the National Association of Professional Organizations, paper clutter is the No. 1 hindrance for most businesses. Some studies conclude that the average person wastes 4.3 hours per week searching for papers, which adds stress and frustration to the workplace while reducing concentration and creative thinking. Clutter creates chaos, untidiness and ineffectiveness in every aspect your life and has the great potential significantly influence your personal productivity.
When personal productivity declines, every aspect of your life will be impacted.
Fired up and ready to reclaim your productivity?
- Set aside time weekly to manage and organize information
- Clean out your inbox
- Use cloud storage
- Put things in their proper place when you are finished – don’t merely move away. Put it away
- Always organize your desk at the end of the day
- Establish routines for clearing the mind overload
- If you must file, then do it. Don’t let items sit on your desk, counter or inbox. It is disrupting
- Don’t keep things that aren’t necessary or vital to your existence. Aunt Betty’s tattered hair ribbon won’t garner money on on the open market. Loving memories last longer
- “More” doesn’t mean more – it translates into jumble and disorder which means distractions. Clear off counter tops and desk space so you can function.
- Donate to charity
- When you bring in one new item, throw out two
- Work on one room at a time until it “feels” good
- If you haven’t used or viewed it in 6 months, do you really need it?
- Know that your value is not your stuff. It does not define you
- Create deadlines to ensure you stick to your toss it and organize program
- Once you have cleaned and decluttered a room or space, maintain it
Decluttering and clearing out the chaos, both physically and spiritually will help you gain clarity toward a more productive life. Make the time to invest in yourself.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jul 9, 2014 | Delegation, Small Business, Social Media, Virtual Assistant
Do you feel as though your day flies by without a minute to spare? Maybe you even missed lunch, got home late, or forgot to pick up something at the store? Gosh, I am sure you know the feeling. You are constantly on the go and doing something BUT is that “something” productive and getting you closer to your goals? Simply being busy isn’t results oriented.
Being productive means getting things done. As in you’ve actually accomplished something, not just filled out a fake status report marked “complete.” Learn how the work you do makes it to the finish line and how it adds to the bottom line of your company. Craig Golightly
At the end of the day have you reviewed your long laundry list and found that you still have a lot of washing to do? Well, you are not alone. Your entrepreneurial spirit is driving you to do it all and be it all, no matter what the cost. No matter what the activity.
You should seriously consider the busyness and the low payoff tasks versus the real core drivers of your business that produce the income. The tasks and projects that ONLY you can and should do.
If you are entrenched with 10, 20+ hours a week on social media management, curating content, writing, editing, proofing and scheduling blog posts, calendar management, writing newsletters, creating documents and templates or acting as the project manager, then WHO is operating your business?
Value your time!
Honor your skills!
As I mentioned in: “Leveraging Time and Your Core Genius,” when you are able to maximize your potential by focusing on your core genius, you become more productive and effective. While there are many daily business tasks that require attention, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on your time. Delegating the lower return projects and tasks gives you back your time to build your business, develop strategy, nurture relationships, foster loyalty, seek partnerships, and focus on your bottom line.
I received an email from an exceptionally valued long-time client who shared her To Do list with me. She stated: “These are just a few of the things I need to grow my business – and I am failing at doing them, but when I do, it totally pulls me away from the work I NEED to do that is billable.”
Her statement firmly relates back to leveraging time and focusing on what you do best to build and cultivate your company.
The following are some of the tasks and projects that she must faithfully devote her time doing in order to continue to expand her business. What an expansive undertaking! Remember: Time is money! Invest wisely.
Are all of these her core genius? Certainly not, however; they are must do activities for business development and progress.
- Keep my Social Media up to date for all these areas:
- Links, research, updates
- Linking to all other things I do – I.E.: when I write a blog post, making sure it is pushed out to every single place.
- Doing key word searches in Google to make sure key wording is in every article for the most relevant search terms.
- Document management systems – keep all my documents on the shared drive (in the cloud) up to date and in order by first cleaning up the mess I have going now… – including but not limited to:
- Client files
- Website files
- Corporate files
- Marketing materials
- Research documents etc.
- Source potential clients in my geographical location who are in start-up to med-sized businesses, active in Social media and who may or may not need idea sessions to get their business further along
- Requesting a meeting for me
- Setting it up
- Reviewing and updating my calendar so I keep better track because I always fail to put things in calendars
- Meet with me via Skype once a week to see what needs to be done and doing it
- Use my contract template documents for me and update them for each new client as it takes me days to get to these.
- Review and edit all files sent to all clients or outgoing parties
- Do all my research for the topics I write about so they can be backed by data
- All invoicing and receipts for clients
- All sourcing of industry related expert themes
- Managing my LinkedIn polls
- Creating my surveys for clients
- Creating templates for all my follow-up reports for each facilitated session
- Taking all of my current documentation and finding ways of repurposing it
- Taking all of my product development efforts and interviewing vendors
- Responding to and dealing with all incoming email from all websites with initial contact to let them know I am here and I did get their email, and when I will respond
- Setting up of appointments with clients, prospective clients, peers
- Researching all speaker opportunities and sending out my speaker packages and filling out the applications
- Researching all clients who have recently undergone a merger or acquisition and sending the change management brochures out to them
- Develop templates for my processes so I am not reinventing the wheel every time I work with a new client
- Updating my BIO on every single software site I have it listed (and tracking where that is) so I can ensure it is always consistent every time I change it
- Updating the company project software for me at the drop of an email – because I cannot always log in
- Managing the company project software and following up with deadlines of contractors
- Using your network to get them to post my quotes on quote sites so I continue to build credibility
- Sourcing the least expensive book editors to edit my writing of each chapter of the book I never have time to edit.
- Kicking my butt and making sure everything I say I “want to do” becomes an actionable item in the company product software and is due to YOU to review for me – rather than my leaving it in there without a date and just “wishing” it would happen
So, after reading this list, how many of these tasks do you hold on to that keep you working IN your business rather than ON it? We sometimes don’t realize all of the day to day activities that go into growing our companies, as they have become second nature while we are on autopilot.
All of these tasks and projects are NECESSARY but divert your attention from the most important facets of your company which ONLY you can do. These are the low payoff, non-income generators that aren’t the best value of your time.
ACTION ITEM: Record every single task, project or activity for one week, noting which line items are income producers, core genius or something that was a time robber and should have been outsourced.
Come back to me in one week and share your list. Let’s talk strategy and outcomes.
“One of the most critical was the ability to learn how to effectively delegate. It is a skill that every upstart entrepreneur must master if they wish to grow their business. Without delegation your business will be limited by your own time and energy.” Matthew Swyers
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jun 25, 2014 | Small Business, Social Media
Participating on social media platforms can present many challenges from knowing when to post, what to post and how to engage. While we all know that utilizing a variety of channels is important to your marketing funnel, it can be a daunting, time consuming task to establish and grow your community. I hear it every day. My clients can spend 20+ hours a week buried in social media, which also takes them away from their business.
It is a big investment of time and energy. So many individuals or companies will create a profile, upload a few posts and then desert their networks. This action does not translate to results. If you are going to set up shop then you must actively participate to reach out and maximize your opportunities. The data clearly defines social media growth and it will only continue to explode over the coming years. Each platform offers you the digital ease of connecting on an infinite scale if done properly.
Social media success is developed on a solid foundation comprised of several components which help to build your credibility, following, loyalty and thought leadership. It takes time to build a loyal following and that is only achieved through mutual dialog and building relationships. Social media is not just a soapbox to taut your company, yourself or your achievements. The old adage, people buy from people holds steadfast.
Social Media Success via Weigh Your Mind
If you were at a cocktail party, you wouldn’t rush up to someone and abruptly hand them your business card and begin to discharge your elevator speech. Refrain from the same ME ME song on social media. Build relationships with an authentic voice and humanize your brand. I know when I have attended networking events or even establish a new connection with someone and they immediately deluge me with websites, posts, things to download, things to sign up for or I receive unsolicited emails, the “hair goes up on the back my neck.” Just don’t do it! It is a tremendous turnoff.
Reduce your angst and free up some time by implementing some systems and processes that will work for you. Test them out and create a schedule that you will adhere to. Don’t jump around – stay on task. There are always ways to work smarter and enhance your marketing efforts. These become your everyday routines, part of your calendar to help maintain not only your sanity but streamline your efforts. If you are all over the board, jumping from task to task or briefly stopping in on your networks when you think of it, you are decreasing your efficiency and of course, effectiveness. Always have a plan of attack.
Social media has to be done right. To execute properly, you have to begin strong, know what to do and what to avoid. Brett Relander
Become the Ninja: Simple Social Media Tips
- Identify your social business goals
- Learn about metrics
- Understand ROI
- Create a social media strategy
- Perform a social media audit
- Discover tools to help you search, curate, share and measure
- Plan your profiles with keywords and custom images
- Set up alerts for keywords, interests, thought leaders AND competitors
- Better engage with your influencers by creating lists and columns on your social channels
- Use and track hashtags
- Review profiles and websites
- Get listed on directories
- Create your content plan with a balance of rich information to share and how you will give back to your community.
- Be authentic and build relationships
- Tailor your content for the right network
- Use humor
- Compliment others and share their content
- Create captivating images
- Post some promotional content
- Automate and push some relevant content leaving you time to engage
- Delegate some of your social media management, saving the personal interactions to build your brand
These are just a few of the suggestions I recommend to my clients either for them to implement or to discuss as part of the Ace solutions. If you’d like a few more ideas, click on: 20 Time Saving Tips for Your Social Media Workflow – The key take away is to design a PLAN to implement and stick to in order to save some time and be more efficient with your social media marketing.
Just start somewhere but T H I N K about what you are doing and why. Always, always be real and give back to your audience. It isn’t just about you, it’s about them and creating the kind of relationships that you desire to be a part of. Yes, of course you need a strategy and tactics. That goes without saying but when you begin from the human standpoint, that is half of the battle to nurture your global network.
“Humility, gentleness, and helpfulness go so much further and open doors you cannot imagine. Think from a higher level and try to see beyond today. Some hard work and insight will bring you to paths that will reward you so highly, it’ll make the little inconvenience you incurred so worth it.” @AnnTran_
Best of success and please do share your thoughts and tips with us. We value your input.
