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Jan 15 2017

Got Discipline?

I’ve decided that my word for 2017 is Discipline. It’s funny that once I chose the word, I kept hearing people talking about what an important role discipline plays in successfully achieving our goals in videos and blog posts. I decided to view this as a reinforcement of the need to be more disciplined in 2017.

A couple of months ago I read the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and it reminded me of the importance of starting our day off on the right foot. The book reminds us of one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:  Start with the end in mind. If we want to have a successful day, we need to start with focus, intention setting and a clear mind!

I know that as entrepreneurs, we often think we don’t have the time for morning rituals beyond getting up, taking care of hygiene and starting our day. I’ve heard it said the less time you think you have for meditation, the more of it you need. I think it’s the same for all of the routines mentioned in The Miracle Morning.

Having a morning routine doesn’t require 3 hours of your time. You get to choose how much or how little time you give to each part of the routine. When it comes to establishing new habits, it’s about consistency more than anything else. It’s not about whether you do 3 minutes of meditation or 30 minutes, the key is to start doing it! It’s the same for journaling, exercise, visualization and the other habits you know will help you start your day off on the right foot.

Most of us know what we need to do more of and less of in order to truly focus on our goals and make them happen. Unfortunately a lot of us are also equipped with a long list of excuses for why we haven’t started to do the things we need to do and stop doing the things that are holding us back. If this is part of your struggle, then you need to remind yourself of why achieving your goals is important to you. Is what your life will be like when you accomplish your goals worth enough to you to make the changes necessary?

Try not to think of discipline as restrictive or a chore. Think of it as one of the magical elements that helps us reach our goals with less drama and more ease! Where in your life or business will you be exercising more discipline?

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution. She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect:

www.embraceyourdestiny.ca

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook

www.twitter.com/sandradawes

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Sandra Dawes · Tagged: achieve, business entrepreneurs, consistency, discipline, Embrace Your Destiny, Entrepreneurs, goals, habits, Hal Elrod, Sandra Dawes, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Miracle Morning

Oct 07 2014

The Importance of Persistence vs. Pestering

 

Sheralyn

We have all been told at some point that “persistence pays off.”  Probably your Mom, your Coach or even your Teacher gave you that little pep talk when you were struggling with a particularly difficult ask. Well, just as Robert Fulghum* might have said, this advice is actually timeless and bears repeating whether we are in school, in sports or in the world of business.

Statistics tell us that most sales are made between the 5th and 12th follow up call. Yet how many sales people give up after the second or maybe third call at best? How about networking?  You go to event after event, you share business cards and maybe you even get two minutes to give your “elevator sales pitch.” That’s great but how often do you walk away with a solid lead, a great referral or a sale?

Sometimes it might seem like you are investing plenty of your hard earned cash to attend networking events and not seeing any return.  This is where persistence comes in.  In our world of social media, 24-hour news channels and “Instagram” (the very name a play on the word instant) we have come to expect instant gratification and immediate satisfaction of our wants and needs.  As a result, we have forgotten that some things simply take time. Like nurturing any good relationship, networking and sales requires an investment of your time, energy and commitment. You wouldn’t expect someone you just met to drop everything, forsake their other commitments and go away on a vacation with you but it might be more than reasonable to ask your good friend of the past ten years to jump on that “sellout vacation package.” That’s because you’ve nurtured and grown that friendship over time, have learned that you are compatible and have taken the time and care necessary to foster a friendship built on the trust required to take advantage of this kind of quick get-a-way.

It’s the same in business.  We build trust in a variety of ways including word of mouth, by providing great service and through building a strong referral network around us. Yes your product is important but ultimately, it is your service that will separate you from your competition.  Great service is fostered through continuous contact with your customer, by taking the time to learn their wants and needs and to demonstrate through your commitment how best you can meet their expectations.  Persistence means that sometimes, it isn’t even the customer you were dealing with but another individual who will then act as a referral source for you.  As a female, I am never going to need protective sports-related undergarments geared to men (a jock….) but I might have friends, a husband or a son that need one.  If you have proven yourself to me as a consistent and reliable supplier and one with whom I can trust doing business, I will refer others to you.

How do you nurture these relationships without breaking the bank and without annoying your potential customer?  There are certainly an abundance of theories on this topic but chief among them is to offer something of potential value, at no charge and with no strings attached. Pestering is constantly sending emails of little or no relevance to your customer (which Canadian anti-spam legislation now expressly forbids) but persistence is offering something that adds value. We’ve discussed reciprocity before.  Giving something to a potential customer, even helping them in a capacity other than one involving a direct sale, will encourage them to think of you over your competition when it finally comes time to make a purchase.

If you belong to networking groups (and you should) perhaps you can provide something of value to the group that they will appreciate. If you’re in the travel industry for example, give away some free information like explaining to people how they can best leverage their Aeroplan points, information they might not otherwise have known if you hadn’t explained it to them.  In communications I have a handy Rule of 10 “10mplate” that helps small business entrepreneurs build website content successfully. You could give an information seminar for free and of course, samples of your product always go over well. Even if your business is a service and not a product, invest in something useful or delicious (a notepad or pen branded with your corporate logo or some chocolate is always popular) and hand these out together with your business card. Perhaps your customer is conducting a fundraiser and requires a donation.  Offer up a gift basket full of yummy seasonal products. You don’t have to spend a great deal, the point is to do something that gets you remembered, keeps you top of mind and that will be perceived as having added value to your potential client.

If you keep engaging your potential customer, offering not soliciting, eventually the phone will start to ring and your inbox will fill up with messages from those seeking or referring your services.  It’s all about persistence not pestering.  Persistence pays off, pestering annoys.  It’s a tightrope but if you balance it successfully you can use that tightrope to get you to the other side – bridging the gap between a referral and a sale!

*Robert wrote the popular “All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten.”

As Owner and Principal partner of “Writing Right For You” Sheralyn is a Communications Strategist – working together with entrepreneurs to maximize profit through effective use of the written word. Looking for web content that works, blog articles that engage or communications strategies that help you get noticed?  Contact Sheralyn today. Sheralyn is also the mother of two children now entering the “terrible and terrific teens” and spends her free time volunteering for several non-profit organizations.

Sheralyn Roman B.A., B.Ed.

Writing Right For You

Communications Strategies that help you GET TO THE POINT!

416-420-9415 Cell/Business

writingrightforyou@gmail.com

LinkedIn / Facebook / www.writingrightforyou.weebly.com

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Sheralyn Roman · Tagged: 10mplate, Aeroplan, business, business cards, business development, business entrepreneurs, Business Woman, Canadian Small Business Women, coach, commitments, entrepreneur, Instagram, Mom, Persistence, Persistence Pays Off, pestering, relationship, Robert Fulghum, Robert Gulghum, Sheralyn Roman, small business, small business development, small business owners, Teacher, Writing Right For You

Jul 09 2014

Three C’s of Social Media for #SmallBiz

Kelly Farrell - Teach Me Social -headshot (2)

 Kelly headshot (2)

It’s great when someone tells a new business owner that they “have” to be on Social Media. But, what does that look like? Where do you start? What can I spend the least amount of time on? What’s essential?

Entrepreneurship in the 21st century demands a knowledge of so much more than just what your specialty is. A business owner today needs to be adept at all facets of business, or at least how to navigate through all the outsourcing options to find the best resource at the most cost-effective rate. Social Media is no different. There are numerous companies who will manage your online presence, but like other outsourcing options, it is up to the business owner to dictate how and what that presence will look like. That demands an understanding of the unique realm of Social Networking.

To help you get started, here are three essential C’s for every small business social media marketing plan.

Be Consistent – Accounts on all major networks with the same username so customers/clients can follow you. The top 10 networks (at the time of writing) include: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest,  Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Flikr. While choosing which platform best suits your demographic, companies should have a consistent presence across all social media platforms, whether or not the profiles are equally active.

Be Cohesive – Cohesive branding across all accounts is the key to gaining brand recognition. Your logo and/or profile pictures on all your social networking accounts should represent your brand. Colours used in posts and in your email signature should also be representative of your brand. Take the time to ensure that you have the required sizes of your logo for all the different platforms (no, it’s not as simple as having one image file for your logo!) and that they are formatted and centered correctly.

Be Connected – To grow your followings on your social networks, make it easy for your clients and contacts to find you! Include your Social Network links in your email signature, on every page of your website or  blog. Then, link back to your website from your social media profiles. Making navigation easy for your followers will build brand loyalty and consequently increase your network.

  

Kelly Farrell is the Founder and Chief Facilitator of Teach Me Social, a visionary company that has a mission to empower small business entrepreneurs to take control of their own online presence and manage it in-house to maintain an authentic voice for their brand. Teach Me Social has been providing valuable Social Media and online marketing support to small business owners for 2 years, while Kelly’s personal experience in the marketing and Social Media realm extends over 15 years.  Connect with Kelly via her WEBSITE, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK page. You can also email her at info@teachmesocial.ca

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Kelly Farrell · Tagged: 3 C's, Be Cohesive, Be Connected, Be Consistent, business development, business entrepreneurs, business owner, Canadian Small Business Women, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Facebook, Flikr, google, Instagram, Kelly Farrell, Linkedin, Pinterest, small business, small business development, social media, social media platform, Social Networking, Teach Me Social, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine, YouTube

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