High Yield No Till Integrated Gardening means less work, lower cost, and more produce.
Click to Download Your Free Heritage Pickling and Culturing e-Book Now!
Instant Download, NO Registration Required!
Less Rah Rah… More Ah-Ha
Many distributorship businesses miss the point when it comes to rallying the troops. They spend much time on “motivation”, but miss teaching critical concepts which would, by their empowering nature, inspire people with the idea that they could succeed with much more convincing effect than mere motivational speeches.
All the rah rah in the world won’t teach a scared newbie how to market. It won’t help them understand that there are marketing tactics which they can successfully do, if they have the desire to do them. The cheerleaders simply cannot bounce a team to victory unless the team has had useful training in how to actually win. All the enthusiasm they pass on to the players does not mean a thing if the players are confused about what to do, or if they are doing the wrong things.
I’ve spoken with people who had businesses that they did not know how to promote. One good practical brainstorm session, with a few key concepts explained, had them so excited to go try it that no cheerleading was needed!
I simply helped them understand what worked, and why. And what didn’t work, and why.
Once they understood that, and could see what their choices really were, they picked out things they could do and ran with it. Most people WANT to succeed. They need help knowing WHAT to do, and HOW, more than they need told that they CAN. Because when they truly understand the what and the how, they KNOW they can.
Forget abstract motivational speeches from people who are in positions far removed from that of the average business startup. Give them instead, empowerment through understanding how to succeed. And then, they will succeed.
Keys to Successful Offline Networking
Offline networking has the powerful advantage of face-to-face opportunity. Compared with online networking, offline networking has the potential to be faster, and more effective.
It still takes time. The critical factor of networking is always building relationships. And that is something that just cannot be hurried.
I’ve heard people tell me they joined a Chamber of Commerce so they could gain marketing benefits. Then they quit it, because it didn’t do their business any good. When asked what they did with their membership, they say they did nothing. No wonder it didn’t work!
Our local chambers have been some of our most powerful marketing dollars. We get contracts from them. But we don’t just sit around waiting for referrals.
We got to know the chamber leadership. We made ourselves useful to them – offered small things free. We attend Business After Hours, we volunteer to teach classes. We get out of our own comfort zone, and shake hands when we’d really rather stand in the corner.
We set up a booth at local events. We make sure we leave people with something, even if it is only a business card.
Twice, we’ve gone beating the streets, dropping cards and brochures at local businesses.
We’ve taught classes through the University Enrichment Program. And we’ve done other things to develop a local reputation.
I also attend local Women’s Roundtable meetings once a month – I didn’t just go once, I keep going. And I keep introducing myself.
Offline networking is very powerful once you get the hang of it. It is really about two things:
- Meeting people and getting to know them. You develop relationships with people, and become friends. It takes time to get past the initial suspicion in networking circles – they won’t trust you as a friend until they know for sure that there is more to you than an advertising tagline.
- Let them know what you do – not in a pushy way, but matter of fact. “Hi, I’m Laura, I am co-owner of Firelight Web Studio.” My business is part of who I am, so I just include it when I say my name. I wear a nametag – a custom one, not handwritten – that also announces my name. When I leave someone with something, it has my name on it also, and my company name. My business is part of me, and I want them to think of it along with me. I don’t get obnoxious about it, it is like the sig line at the bottom of an email – it is just THERE, if you choose to pay attention, but I don’t beat them over the head with it.
Over time, as you KEEP showing up, and keep doing things, it sinks in. You become part of the fabric of the business community. That takes repeat appearances though.
There are a HUGE number of companies that come and go. They show up, and then disappear. People do not remember them, and networking circles go right on without them. So when you show up for the first time, people welcome you, and then promptly forget about you. They’ll dismiss you completely and not even consider you, even if they have that very need the next week.
Why do they do that, when you just told them what a new and neat thing you do?
Because you have not proven yourself. They won’t take you seriously until you do! You have to KEEP showing up. You have to be there, with a smart answer, whenever they have a question. You have to show up where they think you ought to be more often than you are absent. THEN they remember you. Then they know you take your business seriously, and they’ll admit you to the circle of “real businesses”. If you don’t do that, they won’t bother – because they can see that you don’t bother.
Half of networking offline is BEING there. And this is the real advantage over online networking. You can visit a forum and be a lurker, and nobody will ever know you are there. If you just SHOW UP at a networking function, someone will eventually notice you, and introduce themselves. Just by being there each time, you gain ground, and learn to make it work. Pretty cool!
Find a networking venue. And then BE THERE!
Surviving a Recession
We aren’t sure if it is coming. We do know that if it does, it will affect a huge number of businesses, large and small. What do you do if it does come? How will you know if it is here, and if you are one of the businesses whom it will affect?
First, assess your business from a customer standpoint.
Do you sell a luxury, or a necessity?
Is your item high end, or low end?
Is the value of what you sell truly solid? MLM products are not – they are priced high to allow for complex compensation.
High end products often fall in sales during hard times. So do luxury items. Items that people can put off for a year, usually get put off for a year. People still buy, but they buy more conservatively.
The next thing is to assess some other potentials:
Does your product or service offer a potential income source? If so, it may actually gain ground if it is a good potential.
Does your service enhance business success? This can go either way – when businesses are in a pinch, they will look more to do-it-yourself options, or lower end solutions, but they may feel a stronger need to compete.
If a recession comes, you’ll need to be looking at the possible outcomes within your own business. You’ll need to understand the mindset of your own customers in regard to your product or service.
Watch your site traffic and business trends. Make sure you account for seasonal trends as well, but if your business slumps at a time when it usually would not, for a period of more than two months, it may be time to call in a pro to help you devise some strategies for recovery.
It is more affordable, and easier to compensate early on. The businesses that fail will be the ones that do not recognize when they are sliding into trouble, or who do not respond in an effective manner once they realize they are there. Plenty of businesses will fail. Yours might as well be one that succeeds.
Keys to Successful Online Networking
Successful online networking requires two things:
- Time – that is, you have to do it for a while before you see results.
- Time – that is, you have to take the time TO do it on a regular basis!
In addition to patiently doing it, you have to do the right things. The wrong things get you ignored, insulted, and potentially in court!
The right things include:
- Be nice. Just be friendly, and be yourself. That is the best way to make friends.
- Write regularly. People remember the names they see often.
- Be helpful. Find ways to offer help on little things.
- Be considerate. Reply to messages, say thank you about compliments, make compliments that are sincere.
- Give something of value. Write a tip, share a great find, tell a clean joke.
- Drop a signature line. Leave a signature line with a URL at the end of every post. Keep it short and sweet, or nobody will read it.
- Choose the forums for the right reasons – professional forums for professional learning, help forums to gain clients.
Along with DOING the right things, you have to avoid doing the wrong things:
- Don’t advertise. Nobody likes a hit and run forum poster who is only out for themselves.
- Don’t be pushy and reply to a request for help with “I sell this, come hire me.”, or any variation thereof!
- If someone asks for the service you offer, reply OFF list, not on list!
- Don’t break the rules. Forum rules are no joke, you’ll get kicked off it you are inconsiderate about them.
- Don’t expect clients from your first few visits. You have to stick it out before people take you seriously.
- Don’t be a lurker. It won’t do you any good if nobody knows you are there.
- Don’t be rude – you never know who is reading what you write. Even if you think you are right, or even if the other guy is rude, you’ll put people off and ruin your reputation.
Online networking is all about relationships, and those relationships are developed through writing – no writing, no relationships! If you feel that you do not write well, then get in there and start trying. I promise you, it gets better with practice, and any sincere effort is better than no effort at all.
It takes longer to develop relationships online than it does offline. The advantage is, you can do it on your own time. You don’t have to show up on someone else’s schedule, you can network in your pajamas at 11:30 at night, and nobody cares!
People want to do business with people they like, and trust. In order to BE liked, and BE trusted, you have to be nice, and you have to be consistent. Those things are absolutely achievable by anyone who is smart and has a heart.
Get in there, and start writing something – make your voice heard!
What is Networking, Really?
Networking is a buzzword that gets a lot of attention, because it is so frequently misunderstood.
Internet marketers have grasped this concept, stripped the essential concepts from it, and are now passing it off as a “fast and easy” means of promoting scams. Their interpretation of networking means spamming forums, and submitting blog comment spam, or using other social internet venues to push a purely marketing message.
That isn’t how it works. People seem to think that there is a shortcut to it though, which truly separates the pros from the impatient newbies. Those who work it successfully know there is no shortcut, and that there really isn’t a secret to it. Rather, the key to success with networking is nothing more than following age-old rules for gaining a good reputation:
- Be yourself – really yourself. Your BETTER self. Put aside your impatience, and just learn to enjoy being there, and find people you like.
- Take an interest in other people. They call it “social” networking, because it revolves around society and social rules – the same ones that gain a person a good reputation in person. No one likes a selfish person.
- Be helpful and kind. People want to do business with people they like, and they like people who help them. Find little ways to be considerate and to help where you can without giving away your business. There are always ways!
- Make sure they know WHO you are, and WHAT you do. Not by being pushy, but by always dropping a signature line so that no matter when someone wants to know, it is always there.
- Don’t advertise. Find ways to show your credibility that do not involve advertising. When someone asks for a service, answer them off the forum, and be polite about it.
- Follow the rules! Most forums and venues have rules about ads, and they define ads as anything that exists for no other purpose than to promote your interests.
- Choose your venues for the right purpose. If you are there to LEARN, then don’t expect to gain clients directly from it. If you want to gain clients, then find a forum where a high number of your prospects are likely to hang out.
- Many benefits are abstract, and ALL take time to build. When they do build though, they gain tremendous power.
Networking is the process of building associates, getting to know people, developing a reputation as a person of integrity. There is no shortcut for that. You have to get out there, get known, and be the kind of person that others want to turn to in a time of need. If they trust you to keep their interests at the fore, they’ll come to you first.
You just can’t rush it. Networking isn’t a bulldozer that sweeps all before it. It is more like needlepoint – painstaking at time, routine at others, but if you keep doing it consistently and neatly, over and over, eventually a pattern develops that is impressive and awe-inspiring.
It is all about relationships. And those take time to form.
Systems in Business and Family
Business systems are NOT those things you see sold on 1 page websites where someone claims that you can buy their guaranteed “system” and just plug it in and have it earn money for you. That kind is always a fraud.
Business systems are any one of the following things:
- Tools that streamline a repetitive task.
- Routines that facilitate smooth functioning of a specific segment of your business.
- Processes that are implemented to ensure fast and predictable results.
- Anything that you analyze, improve the performance of, and then repeat at higher performance.
Good business systems help to keep a business moving forward and help it absorb changes in personnel, clients, and projects. Good systems adapt easily to change, and are designed with sustainability in mind.
When I first learned about business systems, I realized that my father had taught me about them long ago. He just did not label them. I remember him saying, as he taught me to vacuum the shop floor, “Do it systematically!”
I also realized that I had already been using systems in our home – with a big family, certain things have to be done around routines, and standards. We had a daily routine. We had systems for giving haircuts, washing dishes, preparing meals, answering the phone, and yes, vacuuming the floor.
Within a family, some people wonder whether routines will replace humanity. In a business the same danger exists. This is why the best systems are flexible. They take into account the differences in individuals, and the need for periodic assessment and change.
Once you realize the power of systems, they become a terrific tool for keeping order in either a home, or a business, and especially when the home IS the business! They can smooth out regular annoyances, get you over the hard times of day, and help your kids know what is expected so they can meet that expectation.
In a business, they become the glue that holds the business together during the busy times, and through growth. That’s a powerful tool!
Managing Time – Moving from Hobbiest to Professional
It seems pretty easy when you first start a business, if that business is not your sole source of income. You have no particular need to develop intense efficiency, you can dabble at some things, network when you feel like it, and explore new avenues just because they are there.
Moving from hobbiest to professional though, means that certain things must change. You have to think about working in the most efficient and productive manner.
You have to consider which networking is effective, and which is just enjoyable, and sort between the two. There isn’t a lot of time for idle chatter anymore, yet there must also be casual conversation and not just business conversation if you are to build friendships around which network marketing thrives.
Productivity becomes a huge issue. If you move into working full time and living off your business income, the dynamics of productivity change. You end up analyzing on a regular basis, to see if the prices you are charging are sustaining the amount of work you are putting in. If they are not, you have only two choices:
- Raise prices. This is only possible if you have not reached the top of your value bracket. Eventually, there comes a point where you cannot raise prices any more without pricing yourself out of your target market, or pricing yourself beyond the value of your product or service.
- Become still more efficient. Find ways to reduce the time you put in, without reducing the value. This is hard, and every serious company goes through this pretty much constantly, assessing, reassessing, looking for ways to shave a little time here, a little cost there. This attitude is, in fact, more of a determiner of a true professional than just raising prices. It comes from an understanding of your clients, and caring for them, as well as a desire to survive in business.
In addition to this, you learn how to schedule, and how to organize task tracking. You may need good tools to do this. Notesbrowser (Google it) is a nifty tool to start out organizing information and tasks. But eventually you may need more. A full scale project manager may eventually be needed. If you work with others, they may need to learn to use a group project manager (these are available online, or a web professional can install one for you into your own hosting space).
Once you begin to make the transition, it will never end. You will, from then on, be engaged in regular adjusting to manage better, track better, get more done in less time, and re-evaluating your solutions to make sure they are keeping up with the ever changing needs of business.
Large corporations deal with these issues every day. Tiny startups don’t. And in between the two, there is a wide gulf where enterprise solutions just aren’t needed, but SOMETHING more than a pad and pencil is required. We transition step by step from one extreme to the other, and it is largely our ability to survive the middle stages that determines our ability to grow beyond a certain point. This is, indeed, why many sole proprietors choose not to grow beyond that point. If you intend to, you must survive those transitional years.
Everything is Grist for the Writing Mill
When you first start a blog, you are full of ideas. Coming up with the next one is not difficult at all. For at least the first three days!
Somewhere between 3 and 15 days, you start to wonder how you are going to keep it up. You usually struggle for a while – learning how to brainstorm for ideas of things to write. Then a slow change takes place. You begin to think about blogging throughout the day – topics occur to you at the most unusual times. You find yourself thinking, “I should blog about this!”.
When you become a true blogger, you realize that everything is grist for the mill. You don’t have to produce something profound every time. It just needs to be something of interest, worth writing down. I can blog about watching the tree bud from the livingroom window near my office chair. I can blog about how in between business projects I am thinking about the garden we’ll grow this summer. I can blog about how nice it is to be able to weave the necessities of life into my daily employment. I don’t have to produce Pulitzer Prize quality editorials every time!
I used to blog once a week. When I did that, I could mull over what I said, really think out a conclusion, consider what the most important thing was. It was a column, more than a blog. Useful, and appreciated, but different.
Since stepping up the pace, I’ve noticed a change in how I write. I’m less concerned with the huge concept, more able to explore the trivial. Sometimes there is value in trivia – not that it should ALL be trivia, but, like the old parenting argument of “quality versus quantity”, sometimes we actually define the profound better in detailing the small things than we do in trying to consolidate it into a large conclusion.
The essence of blogging changes when we blog more frequently. I don’t think it changes in a bad way, because I think those profound editorials still find their way in. But we find the opportunity to explore more things in a more detailed way, as well as just dash of peripheral or surface observations in a way that we miss when we are focusing on one thing a week.
Give yourself the freedom to explore things in a new way. When that happens, you find a voice you did not know you had.
This article is a companion to an article on Keeping Track of Blogging Ideas on our MicroWeb Blog Community blog.
It’s Never What the Client Wants, No Matter How Good it is
Redesigning a site is always exciting. I get to think about what the business is, who the target market is, and what kind of visual message will display it well. Then I get to go create. It is a lot of fun – unrestrained creativity!
Finally I have it completed – something that looks good, coordinates, and has that snap of class. But at that point, it isn’t done, because the client has to approve it – and they NEVER do!
No matter how good a designer you are, it is almost never right on the first try. And it isn’t because you aren’t good at what you do. It is because the way you see their business, and the way they see their business, aren’t the same. To truly do a good job, you have to find that blend in between the two.
Ego really gets in the way – you send this out, and it is a little like sending your firstborn to school for the first time. You don’t know if the other kids will like them or if they’ll come home beat up. Sometimes your design comes back beat up – totally wrong. Usually it isn’t totally wrong, usually it is just a little off.
So you morph it a little, get it a little better, tweak it some more, and it is finally right. Not quite what you envisioned, but still good. Often MORE than you’d have done on your own. Sometimes less. Because people see things differently, like different things.
The real difference between a pro and an amateur is NOT whether or not they can get it right the first time. It is whether or not they accept the preferences of the client and gracefully make the changes required. A true commercial artist knows that ultimately, the goal isn’t to produce a masterpiece, much as we’d like to think it is. The goal is to please the client.
One of our clients is also a designer of a different sort. As we were building her gallery, she sent a shot of a project she had done, along with the description. She said, “Funny, I’ve never known if that one was better before, or after the job!”. I told her it did not matter – because it wasn’t about HER preferences, it was about what the client wanted. She wrote back and said that was true, and the client had LOVED it.
Sometimes we don’t think it is as good as it could have been. But if the client is pleased, the job was done right. That is hard when we know we are capable of so much more, or when their preferences seem to get in the way of good presentation. Success is built on more than just our talent to produce amazing things – it is also built on humility and kindness in dealing with clients and their own visions.
Over and over we do this – put all we have into it, then go back and change it to make it into something else. Over and over we graciously tell the client that we’ll make changes, and keep at it until they are satisfied, even when they hate our favorite part.
Because that is what professionals do.
The Best Ideas Come on Saturday Night…
I’ve noticed that my week usually really gets interesting about 9:00pm Saturday night. I take Sundays off. So that is just NOT a good time to have a great idea, or to really get into working on something.
I’ve learned something about that though. A lot of times, the things I think of Saturday night, are really just distractions. Other times, when I’m finishing something, I’m very productive during that time, so I finish up the week with a burst of accomplishment. I think it all depends on whether I’m getting excited about a new idea, or whether I’m finally getting the motivation to finish an old one!
Having ADD makes me have new ideas all the time. Once in a while, one of them is brilliant. Of course, ALL of them feel brilliant in the first blush of inspiration. The good ones though… They can last until Monday, even if I ignore them on Sunday.
I’ve had to learn the trick of taking notes, so I’ll finish the stuff I need to finish, and put the new ideas aside for a while. The good ones stick, I come back to them, and they STILL seem like a good idea, and they grow into something grand. The less impressive ones don’t seem to take on a life of their own.
Saves me a lot of wasted time, actually. Saturday night, when those ideas strike, if I just write them down, and then go back to finishing what I need to finish, they have time to sort of ferment. The good ones develop in my mind, and I add more notes. The less impressive ones never get started. I used to follow up on all those Saturday night ideas – I’d just be so excited to jump in, I’d forget to let it have the test of time to see whether it was a keeper. I got distracted a lot. I get distracted less now, I finish more, and I keep working the business that I have, rather than trying to branch out before the line I’m working fully roots.
Sunday morning I battle too – getting my mind in gear for Sunday. I need that day – that one day – without business. Time to turn my mind off of business and worries, and get it into a higher mode. I’ve found that Sunday mornings are the hardest few hours of the whole week. If things are hard financially, that is when it falls on me. I have time to think about it, for one. And I can’t do anything about it! Usually takes till the middle of church for my mind to really settle, but I come home feeling much better.
I think that life is like that. Hurdles to get over just to get a day of rest. Ideas and work intruding when we really ought to be shutting down. If success is to happen though, order has to prevail. Little by little, I think it is in our life.
Declaring War on the One Page Website!
Back in the dark ages of the internet, when HTML was new, people could slap up a web page with a quick overview of a business, and stand back and admire the fact that they had a new website.
Ever watched old cartoons? I mean the REALLY old ones… with bad sound tracks, lame story lines, and black and white characters. We look at those now, and we wonder why anyone ever bothered to watch them. They seem so cheesy, and so absolutely devoid of humor or value. They put it on the screen and made it move and talk. They weren’t expected to do much more than that, because it was new and fascinating just because it was new. The standard of expectations today is much higher. We expect color, we expect something clever, and we expect a PLOT!
The web has evolved in the same way. Anything at all used to be good enough. Not anymore. We expect color, certain pages to validate credibility, good organization, and we expect certain things to be in certain places so we feel comfortable there.
One page websites have none of that. Legitimate businesses just do not use them anymore. In fact, only two kinds of businesses use them:
1. Scammers. A one page website is the surest sign I know that the product being sold is not going to do what it says it will!
2. Inexperienced business owners. Some business owners still believe the tale the scammers tell, that a one page website is effective. Experienced business owners on the right side of honesty simply do not use them.
They don’t work except to bully the greedy or the inexperienced buyer into buying something that the buyer HOPES will actually do what it says. You really have to lower your principles to get them to work in the first place, and even then, scamming is a saturated market, and hard to compete in, should that be your goal!
My real issue with one page websites is this:
1. Some web designers are still selling one page packages as a way to “get a start on a website presence”. Given that a one page website, or ANYTHING less than about 6-8 pages, will HARM your business more than it helps, I find that such a tactic is itself the next thing to a scam.
2. What is being sold on them. They invariably contain info-products or software that is worthless, or even harmful. The exceptions to this are so rare that as a guideline for judging quality, you can follow the rule of avoiding anything on a one page website, and never miss anything of genuine value!
As a business owner, I do not want to sell something in a dishonest manner, nor do I wish to be lumped with those who do. I’ll avoid both the practice, and the appearance of the practice.
A one page website won’t help a business to grow. It will hinder the progress and make cautious and intelligent people shy away. I would not build one, nor would I recommend one for any business.
Personal Photos on a Business Website
I recommended to the real estate agent that she put a photo of herself on the home page of her website. Two days later, someone on a forum we both participated in posted a long article about how putting photos on a home page was tacky, and how no real business did that. The woman I recommended it to gave me the email equivalent of the pitying look, and went elsewhere.
I still recommend a home page photo to real estate agents, and to a few other select business professionals. I do not recommend it as a success tactic for most businesses, though I do recommend that they use photos of themselves on the site where appropriate. Yes… it makes you look like a Mom and Pop business. But guess what? People LIKE Mom and Pop businesses! The key point is, to use the photo in the right way for your business.
You see, a photo on the home page for a product sales business, or even most services, makes you look overeager, and self-promoting. But for some businesses, and some purposes, photos of the business owner or personnel are highly effective.
- For microbusinesses, the only advantage you have over a corporation is personal attention. They can outgun you on just about every other front, but you can be more personal than they can ever be. So placing a photo of yourself on the about page, (not on the home page!) or photos of your employees, gives the business a face and conveys that message of personal touch. That’s something large corporations cannot really do, though they really try to imply that they can.
- For personal service businesses like real estate, or insurance, where the agent IS the difference, a photo actually belongs on the home page. If they want impersonal service, they go to Realtor.com. When they want a real person, they look for a real estate agent’s own website. Putting a face on it right up front helps to reinforce the message that they found what they were looking for. The agent’s personality is HUGE with that kind of website, and a photo, if done well, helps to appeal to the kind of people the agent wants to be working with. Without the photo, the site loses that moment of instant message of a real person being behind the agency. In this instance, the agent IS the purpose of the website, so the photo is an integral part of the purpose of the website, which is, to introduce the agent.
Unless you are emphasizing that you are a family business, leave off the kids and the dog. But get the human touch in there. It helps you to compete with big business in a way they just can’t touch!
Gardening doesn't have to be that hard! No matter where you live, no matter how difficult your circumstances, you CAN grow a successful garden.
Life from the Garden: Grow Your Own Food Anywhere Practical and low cost options for container gardening, sprouting, small yards, edible landscaping, winter gardening, shady yards, and help for people who are getting started too late. Plenty of tips to simplify, save on work and expense.
