Business Mastermind Groups with BLITZ Business Success

Make Your Clients Feel Special: The Small Things Matter

Barb Stuhlemmer — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:28:24 +0000

Well, I say ‘the small things, matter’, although what I’m going to tell you about may be physically small, it represents a huge effort on Starbucks part to make their clients feel special.

If you are a fan of Starbucks coffee and their location culture, then you already know that it is worthwhile grabbing a Starbucks card from the till, loading it with cash, registering it, and using it. There are lots of perks that come along with paying for your coffee using a registered card. I love that little ‘thank you’ that I feel when I receive my free steamed soy in my decaf Americano.

Look what I got in the mail this week.

For those in the United States, I think you have had these cards for a while, but here in Canada – NOPE! I have never even seen it. You cannot imagine how special I felt when a shiny, gold card with my name on it arrived in the mail this week. It is very shinny! Somehow this piece of plastic had great value. There is no money loaded on it, but it is preregistered to my existing account, saving me the effort of connecting all my cards.

This is a huge effort Starbucks had to undertake to put all the systems in place to be able to manage this program and give me this one card. They have had to roll it out in stages and I’m sure they tweaked the program as they received feedback on its value.

Here is MY feedback on its value. I felt:

I am noticed
I am worth their effort
I have value to their business
I am not just a cup of coffee

If you want your clients to continue to buy from you then do something that makes them feel noticed and valued to your business. It doesn’t have to be this big, because the small things do matter. Remember, your customers are not just a transaction; they are why you are still in business.

“Omnipresence” vs. “Omni-availability” part 2

Barb Stuhlemmer — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:43:02 +0000

In the first part of this article (“Omnipresence” vs. “Omni-availability” Part 1) I asked you, “Are you always available for your client? Do you take calls in the middle of dinner, during your birthday party, and on your vacation?” We looked at how to evaluate the cost of running your business at times when you feel you should be available but maybe it doesn’t make financial sense. Today I want to get you thinking about what is important to your time.

If you want to be able to set boundaries for how and when you do your business you first have to know what your boundaries are. Go through this list and define your negotiable and non-negotiable activities.

What time is yours? – Non-negotiable!
- Volunteer time
- Church
- Family dinner
- Time at gym
- Date night
What time is always for work? (BNI meetings, chairman, client time)
What times are set aside as negotiable work times? (e.g. Saturday’s mornings)
What are you willing to tolerate?
- Social media on Sunday’s?
- Meetings on other evenings?
- Working through the night?
- Travel?
What are you not willing to tolerate
- Cell calls during dinner?
- Meetings in your home office?
- Interruptions while you’re on a call?

Now share this with your family, friends, partners, and clients. Make your business boundaries understood for your business associates and your personal and business boundaries accepted by your closest supporters.

Post it
Ask for their support and help
Get their input
Compromise if needed to support your partners and family, but then make the compromise the boundary.

Let us know what your boundaries are. Share in the comments below.

Get Down to Business – The 1-for-1 Focus

Barb Stuhlemmer — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:27:06 +0000

If you really want to accelerate something in your business then try this. Focus on accomplishing one goal for one week. This means that the majority of your time will be spent on the tasks required to make that goal a bigger part of your business.

For instance, what if you want to offer online training, but you have been putting it off because there is too much to do to get started. Book a week in the near future where your main goal for that week will be to decide on the type of training you want to offer online, the platform, and the support you will need. Work on setting it up and book your first online training seminar, even if you are not prepared to give it. There is nothing more motivating then being pressed to perform.

How Fresh Does It Have To Be?

Barb Stuhlemmer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:53:25 +0000

It used to be that you could put up a website and basically allow it to be a static page you could use to just hand out information to people you met. It has not been like that for some years now. Your website is like your business’s store window. If you never change the window display people will stop coming. In this case the search engine web crawlers will stop coming and you won’t get found.

One easy way to create new content is to have a blog attached to your website. This requires dedication to writing something at least once a week, if not more often.

Also, make sure you are revising your website content. It does get old as your business grows and changes. This is particularly true if you are fairly new to your business. Your own language around your products and services are likely evolving and your website should reflect that.

Remember

Stale is not a great selling feature so keep it fresh.

Do YOU have a fresh page you want to share? No spammers please, but if you have something you want to share I will approve the comment so everyone can have a look. Here is my latest updated page, now send me yours.

http://blitzbusinesssuccess.com/index.php/about-blitz-business-success/

You Can’t Get There!

Barb Stuhlemmer — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:31:16 +0000

If you don’t know what you are building you cannot build it.
If you do not know what your destination is, you cannot say when you get there.
If you do not know what you expect your company to be then you cannot create it.

If you know you want to create something of value then you need to start by defining the value you want to create. I am the Queen of Process and I always start by looking at the end. What do I want it to be, how big, how many people, what do I want to be doing, what do I not want to be doing. I may have to do all the work in the beginning, but if I don’t know what it is that I want to focus on I will be doing all the work for a very long time.

Build your systems into the journey so you can easily remove yourself from the day-to-day aspect of your business and allow your business to grow with fewer challenges.

There are no blueprints for an imaginary building.
There is not map for a place to nowhere.
There are no steps you can plan for to grow a business into the unknown.

Know where you want to go and what you are working towards so you can create a plan that will take you less time and cost you less then just ‘winging it’ and hoping for success.

The Biggest Benefit of Sharing Online

Barb Stuhlemmer — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:27:39 +0000

Think about the last time you had a conversation with someone that constantly told you about what they did, their preference, their success, their accomplishments, their contacts, their leverage, and their brilliance. Without context to another point of view you may think they are conceded or self-centered. It’s hard to want to spend much time with them. Only people who have already proven themselves, like maybe Seth Godin or Michael E. Gerber, are expected to share their wisdom and focus on certain subjects, but even they look for and share other people’s ideas.

When you share other people’s information online, especially people that are accepted as experts, you show an alliance to, or an ability to bring new thought to, accepted concepts. You also give people the ability to bring their own perspectives to a conversation.

Be open to ideas and engage more people online by sharing more information from different sources.

Helping Hand: Building Trust for Business Online

Barb Stuhlemmer — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:49:04 +0000

One way to create trust in your business relationships is to help someone. You don’t have to be face-to-face with them or even in their community. If you have ever shared something online to help someone sell tickets, raise money, or get a job then you are doing this.

This is so important when you are using social media to build a business. If you want people to follow what you are doing and saying it cannot be a ‘sell’ all the time. In fact the consensus I have heard is the old 80/20 rule, where 80 percent of your time is spent giving and the other 20% is informing.

What a great way to start a long weekend with the feeling of giving a gift to help others become more successful. Try it out and you will start seeing more people following you and interacting with your content.

You Need A Strategic Partner!

Barb Stuhlemmer — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:06:28 +0000

‘What is a strategic partner,’ you might ask? This is a person that sees your potential clients often in their line of work or business. It is a symbiotic partnership that allows both of you to grow and do what you want to do while helping the client in more ways than you could on your own.

Example:

If you are a wedding photographer then a great strategic alliance for you may be an event planner or a wedding dress store to partner with. Brides go to them for their needs and they can refer you if they need a photographer. Also, if you have a bride that still needs to get her dress or venue, you can refer them.

I believe it is important to have 2 to 3 strategic partners. It is a Triple-WIN; (1) You are able help more people, (2) your strategic partner will also be able to help more people, and (3) the Client’s needs are fulfilled.

Looking for Tech Help? 3 + 2 Suggestions

Barb Stuhlemmer — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:17:24 +0000

One thing I do not have time to do is review and research programs and applications that will help me do my business easier or work for my personal life. I think we are all like this to some degree and relying on a referral to a great product with instruction is what we are looking for. Either a referral or ignore the need completely is how I often handle this task when I’m absolutely swamped.

If you do not have an assistant or employee that can help you find what you need then, of course the next resource is the Internet. Recently my son decided he would like to start mixing Dubstep. We thought we would fine a starter software package for him to explore the interest, but as you can imagine, there are hundreds to choose from and a huge learning curve to help in the decision making.

Here is how I recommend making decisions around software.

1. Find the industry’s most popular software

This does not make it the greatest or the best price, but this is a great place to start. Being the most popular will make the company more accountable to upgrades because they will be more highly scrutinized.

2. Ask, ask and more asking

Ask in forums or search YouTube where professionals are gathered. The forums are often monitored by experts at the software companies. You can also ask people you know or go directly to the companies to ask their experts. I found a neat site (PCM Tech Help) where the owner is interested in reviewing, blogging, or vlogging his findings.

3. Find a site that does side-by-side comparisons

When looking for video-editing software I came across a site that reviewed the top 10 amateur software packages and compared their features and price side-by-side. Companies like Staples may do this as well.

4. Hire someone

All of these three ideas above still require you to do the research, but you could give these ideas to a student or VA to find out and report back to you. If you can pay them a fraction of what you would charge for your time then make time to do the important things in your business and hire out the rest.

5. You can help

If you have other suggestions or want to offer people your help, then let us know. You can be the expert on the forum. I still haven’t compared Dubstep mixing software so if you know a great starter application please let me know that too. Maybe I should ask Craig on PCM.

What Does ‘Networking in the Right Place’ Feel Like?

Barb Stuhlemmer — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:51:44 +0000

Are you networking in the right place? Networking is a great place to make connection with your peers, make friends, find support for your business, and be a part of something bigger than your day-to-day activities. When you network in the right place you should feel energized by the event.

Networking should not be a chore. It will a take significant amount of your time, so attending should be a place you want to be and the people should be people you enjoy investing your time in.

When I am networking in the right place I feel welcome and encouraged to return time after time. I feel I am adding to the value of my business, to others’ businesses, and to the value of my personal growth. I feel uplifted by the support and generosity of the people in the room AND I feel I am not wasting my time.

The bottom line may be ROI, but you will never get to profit without the relationship, so if you are not feeling this from your networking events then maybe you should re-evaluate how you are spending your valuable time.

Check out some pictures from the eWomen Event I was at last night. I never feel like I’m wasting my time with this amazing group of business women.

Do you have an amazing place you network? Share it in the comments below. I love to hear about great places to do business and connect.