The word on the street!

The word on the street.

With the massive boom of social media and more ways than ever before to connect to people... how are we as business owners supposed to choose the right route?  Who should we talk to and how much time should we spend doing it?  I suppose that is the million dollar question ... I mean we are bombarded with tweets and updates (including this one) and actually how many people really do read them?  As a small business who can’t afford to employ armies of people to sift through the tons of social media updates how can we keep on top of the tidal wave of information?

Well, I think part of the answer is to be selective and only follow people whom are really going to provide you with useful and helpful information.  I have lost count of how many people tell me that they are going for a walk or just nipping for a coffee and as a result I now have a 3 strikes and you’re out policy!  I really don’t have time to read silly tweets and updates!  And in return as someone listing tweets and updates then think about what your followers will read (providing they don’t miss it in the tidal wave!)  Maybe split your time spent on social media to 3 slots in the day (morning, lunch, and late afternoon) that way you will still miss a lot but might pick up on relevant tweets which are often posted more than once.

With this boom of social media there has also been a boom with networking events. I could spend my time constantly going to events, presenting at events, holding events and so on ... but is networking useful?  Well, from my personal experience I would definitely say so ... but again a word of warning ... I only attend the networking events which benefit me and my business, the ones where I can learn something or meet potential clients.  Probably the worst kind of networking events in my opinion are the seated around tables kind ... I mean unless the organiser has really thought about the benefits of specific people sitting together then you could end up spending money to sit with people who are of no use to you ... and although there is some benefit in terms of profile raising ... the possibility of business  generation is very slim.  The other thing about networking is that the cost of the event and your time out of the office needs to be offset against business coming in ...which means it can be a costly business!

And remember the main reason you attend events and engage with social media is to win business and sell your unique products and services.  Many business owners are not natural sales people and have concerns about their own abilities in this area. However, this isn’t a good reason to ignore it!

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."

Mahatma Gandhi

And on a final note you might be interested in this event The Launchpad are holding which will help you to understand your market and how to market yourself effectively.

http://sellsellsell.eventbrite.com/

Visualisation & gratitude - the true secrets to success?

Positive thoughts = positive outcomes!! It's not rocket science, yet astronauts use it.

If you have read ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne, then you will know what I am talking about and hopefully you will enjoy the moment of re-treading familiar footsteps and visiting an old friend!

We, as humans are hugely complex, living, working organisms of electrical and biochemical activity, busy whirring away 24/7. Is it any wonder therefore that we can get de-railed along the way sometimes? Something upsets this finely tuned balance of hormones, thoughts and emotions and we can find ourselves ‘out-of-sorts’ and having lost our path? Look at poor (and brave) Catherine Zeta Jones for example who has revealed her personal torment of late today. She has had an incredibly tough year and it has understandably knocked her sideways.

‘The Secret’ would seem to be to stay focused on the things that make you happy and be grateful for these things. It is a piece of DIY electrical hardwiring you can do for yourself and this piece of information was a revelation for me… gratitude = happiness, NOT the other way round as you might imagine. One of my husband’s favourite expressions is that comparison is a direct route to misery… and I do get this. Comparing your life / car / children / marriage / business to someone else’s will usually only end in misery, whereas being grateful for what you are good at or what elements make you happy, help to keep your thought processes on track.

So, in your business life, apply this principal. Try loving everything! Appreciate and be grateful for all the little things. And see if this changes your attitude or removes the focus from the ‘other stuff’. Take this a step further and visualise where you want to be as if it has already happened. Feel the feelings of satisfaction and joy and then, according to the book, you just watch it actually happen before your very eyes! Athletes do it, astronauts do it, captains of industry do it.

As Albert Einstein once said:

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

If you don’t already own a copy of this book, you really must give it a try. I read mine regularly and each time, pick up something new! I’m going on holiday next week, guess what book I will be packing? It’s time for me to check in to my happiness again!

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, published by Simon & Schuster UK

www.thesecret.tv

A day to cash in

I woke up to beautiful flowers, cd’s, breakfast in bed, coffee, chocolates and the best ever handmade card made by the creative hands of my seven year old son.  Wonderful!  What a way to start mother’s day!  So I lay there for a while contemplating getting up and thinking better of it lay there for a little while longer.  I listened to my son and husband happily playing football in the garden and began reflecting on the wonders of being a mum ... and how lucky I am to have such a lovely family. I began to think about the origins of mother’s day and who and why it was invented, so I spontaneously switched on my lap top and started to do a little research and this was probably the most concise description I found:

‘The modern version of Mother's Day with families bringing Mother's Day flowers to their moms can be traced back to seventeenth century England. Mothering Sunday was the fourth Sunday in Lent...a special day when all the strict rules about fasting and penance were put aside. Older children who were away from home learning a trade or working as servants were allowed to return home for Mothering Sunday.”

Great!  Exactly as I thought or thereabouts ... no great big fuss, just a day where mums get to see their kids and put some pretty flowers on the table!   I looked again at my gifts and knowing my husband had actually bought the CD’s, chocolates and flowers (which of course is very nice of him!) well nice of ‘us’ actually because no doubt he used the joint account to pay for them!  But somehow the value to me of those gifts are lessened by the fact that my son didn’t really have much input, and they seemed so commercial compared to the lovely card... which of course is my favourite thing!  That card symbolises the love my son has for me, the way he has thought about me for more than 3 seconds and created something unique, thought-out and lovely!  So all the other stuff was it really necessary ...to be honest not really ... a homemade card from my son ... priceless! 

My thoughts soon turned to the commercial element of mothers day and how much money is spent buying gifts such as the CD’s I received for mother’s day and the only figures I could find relate to 2006 when spending on mother’s day was 1billion pounds in the UK alone!  Wow that is madness.   Yes it probably does give the shops an extra boost which in this climate I’m all for but when £1 of every £7 of your hard earned cash is actually spent in Tesco ... then what impact is there really on local businesses?  Probably not much ... Oh I know Christmas is the same, and Easter and Valentine’s Day ... but for some reason Mothers day is the one that gets me.  Maybe, it’s because I don’t want money spending on me, the fuss or the feeling that kids are being forced to show love for their parents ... whatever the reason next year I don’t want anything, I have of course said this every year  but this time I really mean it... especially when I found out that the CD’s, flowers and chocolates were all bought from ... you guessed it Tesco!

Blog created by Michele Bentham from The Launchpad