The Muse Who Helps Move Your Small Business Forward
Business doesn’t have to be cut-throat, kill or be killed, beat the competition at all costs. Thank goodness! I’d never survive in that kind of world. And I don’t believe in running a business that way. The great news is that business that care about their customers, their competition, and their planet can be successful!
I just found a great deal on Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green at Amazon and wanted to share it with my readers. You can get the paperback or the Kindle edition for under $5.
This is a follow up to one of the most popular articles on my site, Bright Ideas to Keep Your Newsletter Interesting.
If you struggle to come up with ideas for your newsletter articles, you aren’t alone! Many small business owners aren’t sure what to write about. You want topics that will be interesting to your readers and help them get to “know” you so they learn that you can be a trusted source of the information or products they want.
Let me share some creative ideas with you to help you jumpstart your brainstorming. Keep reading to find out what that robot time machine has to do with newsletters… :)
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What products or services do you regularly tell others about? Just today I can think of several recommendations I’ve made – the shopping cart I use, a free website builder, and a brand of gluten-free pasta. Have you read any books lately that you found valuable?
If you choose carefully you can turn your reviews and testimonials into more great ways to get your name and your business noticed.
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Note from Michelle: I was introduced to Liz LaClair earlier this month during a Coffee with Jane chat. I soon realized she was a whiz at Word and other Microsoft Office programs! If you’ve tried the new version you may have gotten a bit lost like I did at first. Below is a guest article Liz was kind enough to share on how to troubleshoot damaged documents. For more brilliant help with Word 2007, you can get a free copy of her Tid Bits of Help for Microsoft Office 2007 by requesting it on the bottom of the page at http://virtuallyhelps.com/
Tid Bits of Help: How to troubleshoot damaged documents in Word 2007
Now folks, you may think this is a LOT of information. But as any of us who’ve tried to recover/fix a damaged document feels, “hey I don’t care how many steps – just tell me how to fix it!” When you’re running a business of any size the last thing you want to do is loose any important document, so let’s go through these steps and see if they help you.
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One of the keys to success in business is to know what your customers want, so you can deliver it. But unless you’ve perfected your Vulcan mind meld skills, the chances are good you could use a bit of help figuring out just what it is that your customers want. What’s the easiest way to do that? Ask them!
Would you like to give your website visitors an easy way to contact you with comments or questions?
Instead of a mailto: link (which doesn’t work for people who use web-based email like GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or similar services), or javascript click to email (which also doesn’t work for everyone), make it easier for your visitors to contact you by adding a simple form to your website.
Sound too complicated? Don’t worry. It’s easy when you know about a couple of very cool tools.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
One of my personal challenges is that I’m not one of those naturally outspoken people. It’s part personality and part learned habits (nice girls sit quietly… the whole be seen and not heard mentality). Gotta work on breaking out of that thought pattern!
There’s nothing wrong with a calm quietness or reserved dignity, of course! But sitting quietly and never expressing our opinions or sharing our thoughts certainly won’t help us build our businesses, change the world, or make history.
Afraid you might… [Read more...]
I had a thought the other day as I was applying my makeup. If you’ve noticed my photo, I’m an Irish girl, white with freckles (that’s whiter than sour cream for you Weird Al fans). And I live in Alaska where there’s limited sunshine in the winter. So put that together and it means I go from pale in the summer to super pale in the winter.
I don’t wear a lot of makeup, but when I do it’s sort of on “auto-pilot” – powder, lip gloss, eyeliner, mascara, all done. Apparently I’ve been a little TOO on auto-pilot as I noticed the other day my power didn’t at all match my skin! Eeps! I wonder how long I’d been using the wrong shade without noticing? Time to go a few shades lighter (yes, to the lightest color I can find).
And that got to me to thinking about how it’s so easy to… [Read more...]
If you’re reading my blog, I think it’s safe to assume you’ve got a small business, correct? (And small doesn’t refer to how many items you sell or your revenue, just that you’re either a solopreneur or a business with just a few employees.) Why are you in business? Do you love what you deliver to your clients – service or product? Do you rock at it? Do your potential clients know that?
You’ve got to tell people you’re great at what you do!
Easy for me to say, right? Many of us, especially women, have a hard time expressing that we know we’re really good at what we do. But we’ve got to find a way to express that to our potential clients if we want them to feel secure in hiring us or purchasing products from us.
So, what’s a business building gal to do? [Read more...]
I’ve had a Facebook fan page for a few months for my hosting business, and noticed there’s a review tab. I could just wait around and hope someone would leave me a nice review. After all, it’s a little scary to say, “Hey, come share your feedback!” when your business is your baby and you put your heart into it. But we’ve got to reach out and ask for feedback. Customers will sometimes share spontaneous feedback… but more often, you’ll need to ask! When you do you’ll be rewarded with great responses. Plus you’ll be notified if there’s something that needs fixing (it’s better to know than wonder!).
Twice recently I’ve done this. I asked customers to leave me a review on my Merchant Circle account and got some fabulous feedback. Then I asked on my company fan page at Facebook and got testimonials that really made my day.
Here are some easy ways to ask for feedback and reviews:
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