Canadian Small Business Women

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As A Business Owner, Your Personal Profile Matters

As a business owner, your personal profile matters more than you might think. When it comes down to

it, as a small business owner, you are your brand. Like it or not, what you say even when you’re not speaking on behalf of your company will reflect on your business reputation.

You likely already have a presence online that you are building (hello,it’s 2018, this should be a no brainer!) or maybe you want to expand your current network through events and other face-to-face meetings. Regardless, here are a two things to take into account as you build your profile.

Always be aware of potential connections

You never know who knows who or the quality of their relationship if they are a mutual acquaintance. So, if you are thinking of badmouthing someone, one of three things could happen:

  1. The person you are speaking to actually likes this acquaintance and you have just offended them.

      2. The person you are speaking to really doesn’t like this acquaintance either and you have just bonded over                      something really negative.

      3. The person you are speaking to feels very uncomfortable and thinks,͞ “if you can so easily talk about them, are                 you badmouthing me as well to others?”

͟In all three cases, you have just opened your mouth (or let your fingers fly over the keyboard) without knowing what the response will be, and in all three cases you get a negative out come. Even though you bonded in #2, do you really want to get a reputation like that?

Your values should align with how you want others to see your business.

Put out what you want to get back

The way you interact with others says a lot about your personality. We have all heard about employers or clients who like to see how someone treats serving staff before making a final decision on whether to work together.

Consider also that having a politically charged, intelligent discussion is very different than ranting about our disgust of a specific political leader. It could make you seem like one of those conspiracy theorists who is a little unstable. Or how about that time when you unleashed your anger via a 10-tweet rant directed at a company because they treated you poorly?

If you focus on negativity, you’ll find that people will stop wanting to work with you because of it. When it comes to social media, customers have direct access to your online activity–and they will check you out before buying from you. This doesn’t mean you can’t be authentic when building your personal profile, but when it comes to  inappropriate messaging that could be seen as offensive or hurtful, think about whether it will give the right impression.

We all wish that our personal and professional lives could be kept separate. While it can be possible to do so, with the professional world increasingly moving digital, it makes it quite difficult. The solution is to be more self-aware and think twice about what you say before you say it.

Candace Huntly is Founder and Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

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How to unplug from social media for the holidays

Evelyn

The holidays are just around the corner and hopefully you’re planning some well deserved time off. Yet if you’re a small business owner it can be difficult to take the time you need to rest and rejuvenate for the New Year. Emails, phone calls and the ping of social media notifications can be hard to ignore. You also worry that your online presence might suffer from your absence. But it’s important to know how and when to unplug, without losing your spot on the social media hierarchy.

Schedule content ahead of time

If you’re not already using a social media dashboard such as Hootsuite or Buffer, now is the time to look into one. Dashboards make scheduling content easy and can act as an inbox for all those notifications. Schedule a tweet or post a day. That’s enough to stay alive online, but not so much that the responses become unmanageable.

Set a time limit

Set aside ten minutes a day to check the accounts; then shut it down and walk away. By setting a time limit you can reassure yourself that all is well, without taking up too much of your personal time. Check to make sure there are no emergencies but then shut off the notifications. If you use Hootsuite you can actually create “quiet time” where your notifications go silent. Better yet, turn off the phone.

Only answer urgent inquiries

Be smart about what you respond to. Is that question urgent? Is that issue an emergency? It’s easy to want to answer everything right away, but many of the queries you receive can wait a few days until you’re back at work. Only answer those questions that are truly urgent.

Allow yourself to let go

Too often we get caught up in the details. While one negative tweet might seem catastrophic at the time, in the overall big picture it’s not worth much worry. The same goes for checking the Facebook page and sending out that tweet. If you go silent for a few days, nothing terrible will happen. Your business will not fail and your customers will not desert you. In fact they’re probably not online either.

My past experience as a social media manager for a large charity taught me the importance of work-life balance when it comes to managing your online communications. While being online and listening is important, having the courage to turn it off and take time for yourself and your family is just as, if not more, important.

So this holiday, turn off the phone and enjoy the season. I promise your followers will still be there in January.

Happy Holidays.

 

Evelyn Senyi is the owner and chief marketer for Recurve Marketing, a Toronto-based digital marketing agency that offers creative, effective and affordable marketing strategies for Canadian small businesses and non-profit organizations. Follow Recurve on Twitter @recurve_ca and on Facebook www.facebook.com/recurvemarketing.ca.

Top Three Review Sites to Manage Your Online Reputation

TTRSTMOR

Online Reputation Management is important to any business especially when building an online presence. Getting listed on customer review sites can be instrumental in getting new customers but can also be a double-edge sword. Positive reviews will help you get the attention of new customers, while negative reviews can significantly damage your business reputation.

These sites can ultimately be great for your business by giving you constructive feedback for improvement and helping you create a positive online presence. Every business should claim their local listing review pages; this way, you can monitor the reviews you are receiving and manage them accordingly.

You can start by visiting some of the popular review sites and setting up an account for your business. The more complete your account is, the more effective it will be.

Your first step is to write a powerful business description, upload relevant pictures, and post all of your contact information on every account you create.


The top 3 sites to start with for online review profiles:

Google+ Local

While the official name is “Google+ Local,” many know this review site as Google Reviews, Google Places or Google Local. No matter what you prefer to call it, these reviews are the ones that pop up first whenever a customer performs a Google search for a local business. Reviews, along with your company’s contact information will show up, which means a completed profile with clear contact information can go a long way.

Yelp!

Yelp! is perhaps the most popular review site on the web today for local reviews. Customers can rate their experiences with virtually any establishment on a five-star scale and leave comments for other potential customers. Due to some recent issues with false reviews and shady practices, the site has been cracking down on anyone who attempts to post a false review to boost their business.

Yahoo! Local

The Yahoo version of Google+ Local, is known as Yahoo! Local. Here, past customers can also post reviews of different businesses with a five-star rating system. While many people have been ignoring Yahoo! in favor of Google, a large portion of the search engine market is still owned by Yahoo, so it shouldn’t be dismissed entirely.

Claim your listing today on these top 3 sites.

Dwainia Grey is an online marketer at Awesome Biz Online. She creates
awesome websites and blogs for businesses as well as working with
companies to optimize their websites with Search Engine Optimization and
Social Media. She can be reached at Awesome Biz Online or by phone at 647-799-1090 x 104. You a can also follow her on Facebook to get the latest on online marketing.

How Much Should You spend On Marketing?

Kerry George (1)

The amount that you spend on marketing has many different factors to take into consideration. For instance if you are starting a new business and you are well funded or going for a grant you will want to spend a larger percentage on marketing. Nobody has ever heard of you. You need to break into the market place. You will want to define who you are with your branding and put together a website, social media platforms, printed brochures, business cards and more that matches. You will want to carefully select a few strategic partnerships that can work with you to put out your marketing pieces, such as taking a spot in an annual magazine or working with someone to take part in a larger tradeshow. You may want to gather email addresses and build a loyal following using email marketing. Some time and thought should go into this process along with some study to wisely select some of the best pieces to your marketing puzzle.

Sometimes we go online and we see what others are doing, but one needs to compare apples to apples. Your company may not be coming from the same place. A well-established company such as Coca-Cola may only spend 4% a year on marketing. That still equals millions of dollars and the percentage may be enough for them because they are maintaining a presence. They are not trying to create a presence out of thin air.

Your brand new under-funded start up may need to do a lot of online marketing using profiles and setting up free channels. That may work for a while but the reality is that your business is going to have ups and downs. While you are on an upward rise financially you get very busy and you stop doing the things that got you there. That is when you better have your automation in place or else you will need to hire someone to keep the posting consistent.

So what is the right amount to spend?

There is no set number but here is the deal: You can’t afford to not be marketing. Marketing cost money, but it also is the machine that brings in money. So you can’t afford to shut the machine off or even to let it idle. The cost to stop marketing is far greater in lost sales.

In 2013 I worked with a couple of partners and founded www.cibn.ca a business networking organization in Calgary, AB. This new company had a unique advantage. As the CEO I also owned an online marketing company called www.loyal2U.ca and therefore had access to a team of people who created marketing materials and already owned a platform that could promote the CIBN across the city. By using simple online marketing strategies over and over we grew the engaged following of the Canadian Imperial Business Network to over 330,000 people in less than 9 months. The phone rings on a regular basis now as people have found us. Our blogs are viewed by a vast number of people weekly. Our posts are re-posted by fans all across the region and beyond. Sometimes we get interest in attending our events from as far away as New York City. People recognize my face and the faces of the other partners when we are out in the community. I often hear them talk about how they have been following our progress for years. That is quite remarkable for a company that is less than one year old. Why do they think that? It is because of perception. In online marketing, perception is everything. We make a bold statement online. We are everywhere. Our LinkedIn profiles are pimped out. Our Facebook pages are regularly updated. We put out a lot of new content every month and we tweet about it regularly from multiple Twitter accounts. Perception has made us as huge as our market.

You can also grow a large following of people in a relatively short period of time. Use the simple steps of marketing over and over again and invest in yourself. We invested a lot into marketing. We pulled 16 hour days to get more onto the website after the day’s work was done or to get one more blog article written. We often went without other things and took smaller paychecks. We made careful choices, watched the results and then reinvested again when something worked. We partnered with others. We bartered when necessary. We spent and spent and spent to make it happen, but now it is happening.

Do not accept the reality that nobody knows who you are. Create a new reality. Use whatever is free. Use whatever you can trade. Use your connections. Use your head and be smart. Use boldness. Use a percentage if you need to but understand that nothing equals no return. The larger you pour out your marketing, the bigger the benefits later.

The Answer To The Question

The answer to how much should I spend is this: Spend whatever it takes. Keep spending and keep trying until you are making so much money you don’t have time to spend it all. Then spend some more, create an exit strategy and sell your business. When you successfully own your business and it no longer owns all of you and all of your time, you are good to go.

Happy Marketing!

Kerry George is the owner of the Canadian Imperial Business Network which is currently the largest business network in Alberta and rapidly expanding across the country. She is a serial entrepreneur/author and speaker with a zest for life and a passion to help others succeed in increasing their potential and their bottom line. Kerry has several publications and blogs that you can follow and welcomes most interaction online.

Twitter

@createloyalty2U

@CIBNtweets

@yycbiznetwork

Blogs

http://loyal2u.blogspot.ca/

http://calgarybiz.net/blog-3/

http://kidsincowtown.wordpress.com/

http://loyal2u.ca/category/social-media-2/linkedin/

What Does A New Business Need?

Kerry George (1)

When you get started in business you will typically be bombarded with a thousand good ideas from hundreds of people who may or may not know a thing about how to succeed in business. Taking their advice may do you great harm. One must always ask themselves, “why would this person give me this counsel?” If they make their living by selling advertising of course they will say their advertising is the best. If they offer a gadget or an app that is supposed to save you time, they will want to convince you that theirs is the best.

A good question to ask a salesperson is, “Have you ever owned a business?” And close behind that question should be another, “As a business owner what differences did this make for you?”

So what do you really need to succeed in a start-up venture?

While it varies industry by industry there are a few common things that everyone needs. Here are 5 essentials:

  1. Good mentorship. Real mentorship can be had and it should be pursued. One mistake that new entrepreneurs make is that they believe they are the only one who ever had this kind of business so they do not seek advice. That is a mistake that could cost you everything. One poor decision can take you out. So find someone who has succeeded at anything at all and that is a better mentor than not having one because you can’t find a person in your industry. Entrepreneurs are busy people but they typically enjoy the stimulating conversation of someone who is earnestly looking to learn. Ask questions and listen more than you talk. Build the relationship and don’t ask for their business. That may come later after you have won trust but it is not the purpose of the friendship. You need their wisdom to survive.
  2. Capital or cash flow. You either need a lot of up front capital or you need to produce a solid and consistent cash flow. If you are producing widgets part-time and working at a job, keep the job until you have enough consistent orders or you will die. Your family will suffer. You will hurt. Cash flow is king.
  3. Marketing, marketing, marketing. Sales cannot be properly supported unless you have invested either time into marketing or money and in many cases both. Never wait to start marketing. Your sales staff needs to have brochures to explain your service and they should have business cards and whatever else it takes to support a sale. It also takes months to produce a legitimate following online with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. So don’t wait until your product launches to get started or you will shout about your new business to an empty room. Start building a small following online and take them with through the journey. By the time you launch you will have an active group of engaged cheerleaders who are excited about your new offering!
  4. Website and online presence. Today is a different world than it was even 5 years ago. These are not just about marketing these are essential to your survival and your success. Your credibility will be judged by a prospects ability to find information about you online. While branding is important do not wait to have it all perfectly aligned in the heavens to get started. You can set up a website for anywhere from $100 to $10,000 and you need to either have it done for you or get to work on it late at night. Remember that after they look at your website they then go look at you the owner. So develop a personal profile on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Don’t delay if you want to succeed.
  5. Accounting and tracking. Entrepreneurs often lack good bookkeeping skills. Get over it and get help. Use an online program or hire someone for a few hours a month to just keep you on track. An unpaid GST bill or a badly done tax return can destroy you. One also needs to know the numbers to improve the sales ratio later. If nothing is tracked success will be lacking. Find systems that work and implement them sooner rather than later.

Kerry George is the owner of the Canadian Imperial Business Network which is currently the largest business network in Alberta and rapidly expanding across the country. She is a serial entrepreneur/author and speaker with a zest for life and a passion to help others succeed in increasing their potential and their bottom line. Kerry has several publications and blogs that you can follow and welcomes most interaction online.

Twitter

@createloyalty2U

@CIBNtweets

@yycbiznetwork

Blogs

http://loyal2u.blogspot.ca/

http://calgarybiz.net/blog-3/

http://kidsincowtown.wordpress.com/

http://loyal2u.ca/category/social-media-2/linkedin/

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