When it comes to marketing your business, are you staying open to the latest trends?  Are you adjusting your strategy to incorporate them?  Not every trend will be right for every business, but there may be new developments that can take your business from humdrum to hot.   

Check out the social and technological trends that are happening and decide what’s best for you:

Social Trends

According the latest data, the Hispanic population is the fastest-growing segment of the US.   This population represents approximately 25% of new births so expect them to have an impact on your future business.   Businesses will accommodate this fast-growing market with more localized websites and localized online marketing.

Video

According to Comscore.com, over 78% of the US internet audience views online videos and you’ve probably noticed more video blogs.   You’ll also see both online and mobile-based video especially with new improved phones.

Mobile and Text

With nearly 50 million people in the U.S. accessing the web on a mobile device now, some researchers predict that by 2014 over 20 billion mobile applications will be downloaded yearly.  While there’s been a lot of hype about mobile use for years, the mobile web market is here.  Start planning now on how this technology will change the way you communicate with your customers and leverage this technology.

(My Virtual Assistant was proofreading this article and snickered as she viewed it from her digital phone!  How people get work done is rapidly shifting!) 

Targeted Marketing

With massive online traffic overwhelming the inbox, there will still be a market for regular mail but it is expected to be used to develop relationships with prospects you’ve already met and as part of a follow up to business you’ve already secured.

Just a little over two years ago, marketing became more social and 2009 saw the social elements of marketing accelerate.  Social media went from being on the cutting edge, to approaching the mainstream with word-of-mouth relationships.

Businesses realize they need a social online media marketing strategy and will want to make sure they target the right social media platforms for their specific target market.

Authentic Marketing

People want to know the people they are doing business with.  The logo will continue to play a much less central role than it did years back especially for the small business owner.  Customers want to see a face so they know who they are dealing with before engaging services.

Business people are connecting one-to-one through social media sites and this activity will continue.

Consider these ideas to take advantage of these trends:

• Using video to record testimonials from your satisfied clients is only one way to add value to your prospect’s experience.  Give your business an added boost for your visitors.  Invite your customers to videotape themselves using your products.  Have a jewelry store?  Show the latest wedding proposal on your Facebook site.  Have a restaurant?  Show a short video on your YouTube page of customers enjoying their special occasions at your place. 

• Use your real name on sites like Twitter.com.  People like to do business with people they know, like and trust.

• Conduct market research with your customers to find out what’s really important to them.  Use free tools like Google docs or SurveyMonkey to collect your data.  For larger companies, you may want to use more robust analytics, like Infotool-online.com to get to the root cause of your customer (and employee) wants and satisfaction.

• Membership sites are great ways to work with your customers and are in line with the trend of creating an online community.   While consultants, coaches and financial service providers use membership sites to educate their clients and provide special online events, a growing trend is among restaurants and jewelry stores who use memberships to successfully even out cash flow and consistently entice customers with special member benefits.

Savvy entrepreneurs who continuously grow their businesses keep track of these trends and engage their creative thinking to see how the trends can be applied in their own unique businesses. 

What creative marketing are you doing?  Share it!

_____________

Lisa Mininni is President of ExcellerateAssociates.com, home of The Entrepreneurial Edge System showing entrepreneurs how their prospects find them, choose them, and buy from them.  Get tips, techniques and resources to grow your business at www.freebusinessplanformat.com

Just a reminder about my free teleseminar:  Get All The Clients You Need  – Automatically.  For more information, click here.

Finding yourself procrastinating?  Find out how to KISS your procrastination away for good… read on..

Procrastination can be detrimental to an entrepreneur’s productivity and business growth.  In some cases, it sidelines a project or product going to market.  Everyone has a certain activity they choose instead of the project they should be working on.  Once you identify those procrastination pitfalls, it’s a little easier to steer clear of them. 

The next time you feel the angst of procrastination, keep these three thoughts in mind to KISS procrastination away:

Keep It Super Simple

• If you’re an over thinker or try to anticipate every barrier before beginning, ask yourself, “if I had to accomplish this project in three steps or less, what would they be?”  This simple exercise forces you to think about the critical essential steps and leave the less important tasks aside (or to delegate).  Keep those three steps in mind as you execute your plan.

• Keep your mind clear to create simple solutions.  Remove any distractions, like the TV, email prompts, unnecessary interruptions or telephone calls.  This may mean setting boundaries or ground rules with family, especially if you’re a solo business owner with a home office.  Have too many ideas?  Keep a folder with ideas and review it monthly to see what could be added to your plan.

• Projects become complex because we try to solve it by ourselves.  Use your working relationships to help you problem solve.  Your solution may be as easy as asking your online community for help and direction.  Don’t try to reinvent the wheel when someone you know may already have the solution that you can use, like a business coach.

Keep It Step by Step

• One overloaded entrepreneur had a big volunteer project looming.  Faced with family obligations and a company she had to run, she procrastinated on a this project that needed to be completed because she kept in all in her head.  By simply writing down the first step and running through all of the resources that could help her with each step, she discovered that the project wasn’t going to be as time consuming as she once thought and instantly removed her self-imposed pressure (and procrastination.)

• Overwhelm often stops people from even taking the first step.  Overcome the overwhelm by breaking your project into manageable parts or sequences first.  When you break a project into parts, it makes that project more realistic.  It also gives those people who have the tendancy to expand and make things bigger, a reality check.

• Write down your steps, timelines, and resources.  Remember to take it one task at a time, cross off those completed tasks, and keep the end goal in mind.  Celebrate those completed tasks (which can be as simple as patting yourself on the back.)   This approach creates the step-by-step structure you need to get the tasks completed.  Small business owners often don’t write down their goals leaving their direction foggy.  Writing down your goals, steps, timelines and resources makes the implementation plan concrete clearly paving the way to your destination.

Keep It Scheduled and Systematic

One of the biggest reasons for procrastination is the way you organize your work.  Other contributing factors that sideline most entrepreneurs include:

• Lack of clear goals

• Feelings that the tasks are externally imposed on you

• Underestimating the difficulty of a project or task

• Underestimating the time required to complete a task

• Fear of failure

• Fear of success

• Perfectionism

• Using excuses of "no time"

Once you’ve identified your undercurrents that are getting in the way, look at ways to organize your work to keep your procrastination in check.

• Schedule tasks on one calendar.  Keep one calendar and include those personal appointments, too.  Too many calendars can overlap and make things more difficult than they need to be.

• Group related functions.  Map out a schedule that sets aside chunks of time for client time, writing, or marketing.  Make sure enough time is allocated for each project or task and give yourself some wiggle room between meetings to complete your to do’s from that meeting.

• Use internal systems to help you keep moving ahead.  With technology at your fingertips, look at creating rituals to get weekly projects completed by using the recurring function on your calendar to prompt you when you need to complete an upcoming task for your project.  

• Use systems, like a lead generation system, so you bring in prospects continuously and have automated messages that do the work for you.

• Resist the urge to do it alone.  Create an accountability partner that helps keep you accountable for completing your projects.  Create a team to help you with mundane tasks.  Many college interns would embrace the opportunity to help you grow your business (and you help them get college credit, too!)

Bernard Meltzer once said: “Hard work is often easy work you didn’t get done at the proper time.”  Keep these simple thought prompters in mind to KISS procrastination away: 

• Keep It Super Simple

• Keep It Step by Step

• Keep it Scheduled and Systematic

Your Challenge:

Take one project that you’ve been procrastinating on.  Identify the overall goal, the steps to achieve it, the timelines that each step needs to be completed by, and the resources available to assist you with each step.  Schedule those steps and timelines on your calendar.  Identify an accountability partner.  Complete at least one step each day.  In 21 days, see how far you’ve come.

If you’re just not sure how to systematize or structure your business to achieve the next level or wind up not achieving those goals you set at the beginning of the year, you don’t have to try to fix it yourself. 

There are resources available to you.  The step-by-step Entrepreneurial Edge System Biz Boost Self-Study Program shows you how to structure your business, set up recurring income models, set up your marketing, and effective ways to execute your Business Blueprint. 

Not only will you become clear about your Preferred Clients, you’ll learn how your clients find you, choose you, and buy from you.  It’s everything you need to know so you fill your practice in record time regardless if you just started your business or have been in business and want to get to that next level.  All the templates, step-by-step systems (including systems to build an automatic prospect pipeline), examples, and resources are in this program. 

The Success Circle, our online community with one-on-one Laser Coaching, also provides the Accountability piece, so you stay focused creating massive momentum and results.  That’s why my clients have gotten such great results from it.  You can order your copy today at http://www.entrepreneurialedgesystem.com.

When people decide they want to make a change, they will usually set a goal and start taking action.  When we focus exclusively on actions, however, it takes a lot of hard work and the demands on willpower are huge, especially if we don’t look at what’s underneath some of those actions.  

This is especially true for entrepreneurs who start up all of their activities but haven’t looked at the foundation that will influence their actions.   When you focus only on actions first, you might find yourself pushing so hard to achieve your goals.  It’s like starting an exercise program and immediately working out.  People start taking action first without understanding what influences their actions.  They end up creating a start-and-stop scenario.

So it comes as no surprise that most exercise facilities see their greatest enrollment in January and a significant drop off by the end of February.  In order to make changes last, you need to consider the influencers interrupting the flow to your sustainable results and develop a system for inviting the change you do want.

The first influencer is your hardwiring.  Your hardwiring is natural to who you are.  This hardwiring is a unique blend that determines how you will communicate, the degree of risk, how you triage things, and the degree of information you need for decision making.   Each of us has our own unique blend.  It affects everything in your business, including how you execute sales and marketing, delegation, hiring others, and managing your time. 

For example, if you like your information in bullet points, focus on results, and generally like your ideas best, this may part of your natural hardwiring.  Often times, entrepreneurs wired this way are looking for instant results, become discouraged when they don’t see it, and don’t always accept or dismiss feedback from others (because they like their ideas best). Meanwhile they proceed with their ideas and wonder why their plans are not working.

They will often either stop the activities or push even harder perhaps when they should be pulling or invite the contributions of others.  Stress amplifies your hardwiring.  The key to creating sustainable change is managing that natural impulse.

The second influencer to your actions is your Belief Systems.  Belief Systems influence your thoughts and your thoughts influence your actions.   Your belief systems come from experiences and other external sources, including family, friends, TV, radio, and internet, etc.

If you believe that you could never have a successful business in this economy or you’ve “tried everything” or you “don’t have enough time to get all that needs to get done” to have a successful business, your actions will follow your beliefs. 

The third influencer is your thoughts.   According to Psychology Today, “it has been estimated that we have anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 thoughts a day.  If your cast of mind is predominantly negative, imagine how many thoughts you are generating daily – thousands upon thousands.”  We allow ourselves to state negative messages and we easily believe them.  Your self-talk will influence your actions.  If you think each day you couldn’t possibly be a successful entrepreneur because you don’t have the expertise or education you think you need, you will approach your prospects with apprehension and this will impact your results.  If you think you have to work hard to generate income, then you will make it hard for yourself to make money.

The problem is that many entrepreneurs start with good intentions to create a new mindset system but then slack off.  The solution is to make that system part of your daily routine.  To create lasting change, consider this daily system: 

Understand and Manage your Hardwiring.  Many behavioral assessments are valuable contributors to finding out about your unique blend of hardwiring.  With development, you can learn how to manage and leverage these traits to work for you.  When you understand how behavior change works, you’re able to make better choices and connect with sustainable change on a different level.

Rewire your Belief Systems.  You can do this by first identifying your negative beliefs and negative thoughts.   Since your thoughts influence your actions, this is an important step.  If you believe “who will want my services and programs, your actions and what you invite into your business will mirror your beliefs.”  Instead, rewire them by writing down an affirmative “I am a prosperous entrepreneur and attract an abundance of clients to my services and programs.”  The act of writing down the new Belief Systems will help you with the next step of this system:

Develop New Conscious Thoughts.  Each day, without fail, create a series of affirmative statements, including those new belief systems.  Remember to say them aloud in the present tense.  For example, say, “I am…” (healthy, prosperous, etc.)

Each day, I found myself saying, “I’m tired” perhaps left over by a period of time where I may have been feeling tired.  By no coincidence, I said this and started feeling tired all of the time.  One day, I chose to change what I was telling myself to:  “I have an abundance of energy.”  I said this new conscious thought each day.  As I dragged myself out of bed the first day, I didn’t believe it, but I said it anyway.  Something delightful happened about six weeks later.  I woke up alert.  It affected my actions because I started working out and consciously watched what I was eating.  It affected my long-term habit because now I work out every day.  You can’t help but align your actions with your thoughts.

Visualize how you will look, feel and be in the ‘after’ stage.  How you see yourself and feel about yourself is important to create and sustain change.  Feelings are powerful indicators in what you are drawing into your life and business.  If you cast doubt, fear or desperation, your results will be delayed.  When you visualize, notice the feelings that you are developing.  Positive feelings, like contentment, gratitude, happiness, joy, pride, acceptance and openness will draw in more of your intentions of what you do what to change.

Instead of reading or listening to something negative to start your day, change your habit.  Take just 10 minutes to:

·        Discover your hardwiring

·        Focus on your new beliefs

·        Say your new affirmations aloud, and

·        Visualize how you will look, feel and be once these changes are realized.

Before you know it, you will create positive thoughts and habits, and start new actions that create results that have staying power.

___________

Lisa Mininni is President of Excellerate Associates, home of The Entrepreneurial Edge System^TM and the Best-Selling Author of Me, Myself, and Why? The Secrets to Navigating Change.  To learn more about your hardwiring, pick up your copy of www.memyselfandwhy.com.  To understand how your hardwiring impacts your business, get your free eBook, Get Ready, Get Set, Go! at http://www.freebusinessplanformat.com.

According to a study completed at St. Thomas University, members of a typical networking group will range from 20 to 60 with two thirds being over 40 years old.  It’s not surprising that the seasoned pros recognize the benefits of networking to give them the edge in the marketplace.

The benefits of a good networking strategy help you to form mutually beneficial relationships, develop new connections with a sizeable number of people, and connect you with resources and others who can help your business.  It’s a common misperception that simply attending a networking event brings new business the next day.  Expecting to land business the first time you meet someone is like asking someone to marry you on the first date.   Critical to any good networking strategy is to adopt the right networking mindset. 

Mistake #1:  If I give referrals, I’ll immediately get referrals.

Many inexperienced networkers have a misperception about the principle of reciprocity.  According to Weber’s Dictionary, reciprocity is “a mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges,” This leads inexperienced networkers to believe giving referrals will bring an immediate return for any referrals they give to another. 

One strategy to remember while adopting the principle of reciprocity mindset:  focus on the other person.  The act of giving is the most important part of this mindset.  Networking isn’t about what you can sell or get, it’s about what you can learn about others and what you can give to them.  Learn how you can help the other person. 

At an informal networking lunch, I helped a colleague make a difficult decision.  I just listened to her thoughts on her business, provided some advice (that she asked for) and she made a huge shift resulting in a significant increase in not only revenue for her business but in how she could have her purpose lived out more fully.  There was no expectation in return.  It was just a genuine concern for her success.  But something happened months later, she referred me to an organization who hired me for a big speaking engagement.

The next time you’re networking, actively seek out avenues to help other people.  Volunteer to help out someone in your network or offer support in a time of need.  The next time you meet someone, think to yourself, “who could I connect them with?”  These simple steps will bring benefits to your business in ways that will positively affect your business relationships for the long term.  You will also be known as a trusted resource to whom people refer others.

Mistake #2:  It’s My Territory And You Can’t Have It

Many new entrepreneurs find themselves attending events, meeting new contacts, accumulating business cards, and providing referrals.  One day you feel discouraged because you’ve put out all that energy giving referrals but you received nothing in return.  Further, you’re a bit cold to someone you perceive as your competitor.

But savvy entrepreneurs adopting an abundance mindset realize there’s enough business to go around.  The next time you’re networking, consider approaching someone you think is a competitor.  Explore the possibilities of referring business to them. 

But first, be very clear about your own offerings so you know exactly what kind of client or customer you want to work with (and the ones you don’t.)  Second, you very well may find that they offer a service or product you don’t and vice versa offering each other cross referrals. 

You might find they prefer to work with the clients you don’t so you can refer those people to them, realizing the abundance mindset in action.

Mistake #3:  I don’t have time to follow up

It is important to systematize your referral marketing so you devote time to building and maintaining solid professional relationships – a key in successful referral networking.  Many entrepreneurs have heard of financial capital.  Networking is your social capital that has a profound impact on your financial capital.  According to “Networking Like a Pro” by Ivan Misner, PhD, David Alexander and Brian Hilliard, “social capital is the accumulation of resources developed in the course of social interactions, especially through personal and professional networks.  These resources include ideas, knowledge, information, opportunities, contacts, and, of course, referrals.  They also include trust, confidence, friendship, good deeds, and goodwill.”

Your social capital is created by design, not by luck.  Seasoned networkers realize that social capital is acquired through focused networking and developing a strategy that’s brings the strongest return.  To build your social capital, consider these simple steps to get started that have a high perceived value with your networks and only take a minute to implement:

·        Write a short thank you note to those people who referred business to you.  It’s often forgotten, but a highly-regarded gesture that is sure to leave a good impression.

·        Call the people you referred business to.  Ask them how the referral worked out and if not, how the referral could be better in the future.  They’ll appreciate your concern for giving solid referrals.

·        Send an article that someone can use in their marketing.  One of my connections worked with large corporations and just launched her book.  I read an online article that was a spot-on match for her to use in her marketing and relevant to her new book’s content.  It only took a second, but the thank you note I received from her expressed genuine gratefulness and a time-saving marketing idea for her to implement right away.

·        Put together a list of strategic partners you’d like to stay in touch with this year, including those people who have given you business in the last 8-12 months.  Keep notes of their birthday and send out a card each year on their special day. 

Once you establish a solid reputation as someone who cares about other people’s success and consistently nurture your referral networks, you will have a strong line of people singing your praises and multiply your results many times over.

_______

Lisa Mininni is Best-Selling Author and President of Excellerate Associates, home of The Entrepreneurial Edge System^TM, the only national program taking a systems approach to profitability for solopreneurs and small business owners.

June is an ideal half way point for many small business owners to assess their performance compared to the goals and objectives that they set at the beginning of the year.  This intermediate assessment acts as a pivotal point in time to determine if your plans should be adjusted or continue.

For many entrepreneurs, however, it is difficult to make these assessments because they haven’t set objectives that are specific, harmonious, measurable, attainable, realistic/relevant or time sensitive yet these areas are critical for effective business goal setting, motivation, and evaluation.  More often, entrepreneurs interchange goals and objectives.  In the context of goal setting, there is an important practical distinction.  After you set important goals, you move to setting objectives whose purpose is to serve your goals.  While goals are more broad, general, intangible and abstract, objectives are more narrow, precise, tangible and concrete.

Whether you have objectives or need to create them, remember these 6 intentional steps to effective goal setting:

1.                A specific objective has a much greater chance at being accomplished than a just general one. 

When creating a specific objective, use the what, where, and why to craft it.  For example, your goal is “Plan for Continued Growth.”  A general objective would be, “get new clients.”  But a specific objective has more power to support the overall goal.  An objective to support the goal is, “Get 5 new prospects a week and secure 12 new clients a month.”  It is tied in to the overall goal and is specific to create action around it.  Remember to ask yourself, “How would getting 5 new prospects a week and securing 12 new clients a month tie in to the revenue and overall goals of the company?”  Adjust your objectives accordingly.

2.                Harmonious objectives have an increased chance in being developed than discordant ones.  

When you build a house, the blueprints are drawn.  Once the blueprints are drawn, the platform for the house is developed, the cement is poured, but the cement needs to cure before the rest of the framing is built.  There is a process and a harmony for each stage to work together.  Creating objectives are much like building a house and, when they are harmonious, you can build a better house in half the time because you know exactly and precisely when things are to be implemented, and more importantly, you are designing them to complement one another. 

Many solopreneurs and small business owners struggle to accomplish their goals and objectives because they haven’t reviewed them against the harmony test.  Be sure those objectives are also harmonious to what you want from life in general.  All too often, entrepreneurs get in performance mode and forget to determine how their business goals will impact their personal life.  Take a step back to assess both professional and personal goals to ascertain if they are working in concert with one another.

3.                One of the most important aspects to achieving an objective is to regularly measure its progress.

To determine if your objective is measureable ask:  “How will I know when the objective is accomplished?”  It is also important to develop smaller objectives so that you celebrate the interim successes.  When you continuously measure your objectives and how they are getting you closer to your overall goal, it gives you a clearer picture of your performance and enables you to adjust your plans accordingly.

4.                When you identify objectives that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them a reality. 

But you have to make sure they are attainable.  You must identify and develop the skills, abilities, attitudes, mindset and financial capacity to reach them.  Successful entrepreneurs make continuous development an ongoing part of their plan.  They get additional education, coaching or mentorship and utilize their resources to attain their objectives.

5.                An objective can be both high and realistic: you are the only one who can decide just how high your objective should be and if it is relevant to your goals. 

Be sure that every objective is realistic, relevant, presents substantial progress, and is aligned with the overall goals of your company.  Remember that your natural hard wiring plays a role in goal and objective setting.  Hard wiring is natural to who you are.  Those who are naturally hard wired to have a high sense of urgency, by their nature, often set timelines that are unrealistic and create undo pressure.  If you know this about yourself, remember to conduct a self check or ask the others that are involved on what needs to be considered and if the timelines and objectives are sensible.

6.                An objective should be anchored within a timeframe.  With no timeframe tied to it, there’s no sense of urgency.  

With no sense of urgency, it doesn’t get done.   If you want more clients, when do you want them by?  “Someday” won’t work.  But if you fasten it within a timeframe, “3 new clients by July 1” then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on it.

When you follow these intentional steps, you will find your objectives work in concert with your goals and guide you to your desired vision.

___________

Lisa Mininni is President of Excellerate Associates, home of The Entrepreneurial Edge System, the only national curriculum helping entrepreneurs take a systems approach to profitability.  To learn more about how your clients find you, choose you, and buy from you, visit http://www.freebusinessplanformat.com.