Focused Business Action

The overwhelming amount of information on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites can be daunting to say the least. For those who want to be involved in social networking or who use it for their business,  it is so easy to get lost in the social media jungle. The instant gratification and seemingly infinite areas to explore on sites such as Facebook can lead to wasted time with no results. Unlike TV, it’s a two way interactive communication, which makes it even more enticing.

Here’s the big question:

Are you staying on task or surfing aimlessly?

Don’t let yourself get caught in this trap otherwise known as the web (Ha!). You can stay on task while marketing on social media, but you need to have a plan. The first step in devising a plan and in reducing the hours you hang around social media sites is to get an idea of just how much time you do actually spend there.

For the next 24 hours keep a close eye on the time you spend doing specific tasks with social media – Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc. Write it down if it helps. In many cases, this will be a real eye-opener. It is often much more than you think. Doing this will help you identify when you are not being productive, cut down on aimless surfing and become more efficient when you on task.

Get Found Online: 7 Proven Steps to Make More Profit in Less Time with Your Online Marketing Pyramid

To learn more about utilizing social media to build your business, join us this Tuesday for the Marketing Action Seminar. Donna Gunter will be sharing how to banish Internet marketing overwhelm and how simple it is to create an online business with a long waiting list. For more information and to register for this free conference call, click here.

Sometimes even when there’s a lot going on around you, you still need to get work done. What do you do to ensure that you will not be disturbed?

• Use your door – I had a supervisor at a previous job who had a very clear signal for whether she was available to be disturbed or not. When her door was open, it was never a problem to enter her office to ask a question. When her door was closed, you were not to disturb her unless there was an urgent need or an emergency. It was one of the things she shared with you when you were first hired so she set the expectation up front and everybody knew it.

• Block or screen your phone calls – When I was in a meeting with the same supervisor (with the door closed), she would put her phone on “Do Not Disturb” so that her calls went directly to voice mail. In today’s world that is the same as putting your phone on silent.

  Another tip I used when I owned a computer store and would receive almost constant phone calls. There were times when I just had to get some work done, and there were certain people that I still needed to talk to. I told those people to ask for Scott David (adding my middle name) when they called. My staff knew to let those phone calls through and to take a message if the caller didn’t have the “secret code”. I still chuckle at the creativity of this early caller i.d. system.

Protect your productivity. I would suggest that for any business owner you need to have at least some time each week to work undisturbed. Schedule that time for yourself and use these tips (or similar ones) to own your zone.

If you have an office, close your door when you don’t want to be disturbed. If you don’t have a door to close, let those around you know that you would like to be left alone for a certain amount of time.

Turn the ringer off on your phone when it’s appropriate. Or use caller i.d. to screen your calls and know ahead of time who you are going to let in.

What do you need to do to protect your productivity?

Most of us run our lives on a handful of systems. Between our cellphones, our planners and our e-mail inboxes, we have systems in place to organize ourselves and our time. And if you ever doubt the importance of these systems, recall your panic the last time you lost your planner.

Yet as important as these systems are, most of us don’t take advantage of what systems can do to improve our businesses. Systems are simply ways of automating or structuring processes so that they can occur systematically without so much thought or attention—and by more than just one person, so that the business can continue to run even if the owner takes a vacation.

For most of us, there are dozens of similar repetitive tasks, large and small, in our businesses that could be systematized. To identify where you can apply systems, step back and look at your business as objectively as you can. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Where are your frustrations? This is important for two reasons. First, you are more likely to be frustrated if you are redoing tasks that bring no particular satisfaction. Second, you are going to be frustrated if you have to relearn a task or “reinvent the wheel” every time a specific need comes up.
• What is holding back your business? Do you need to generate more prospects? Do you have prospects but a low rate of conversion? Do you convert prospects but lose them as customers through poor follow-through? Strategically focusing on your business this way is more likely to spot high-value opportunities for systemization.
• What causes you stress? Is it sorting out your invoices for your accountant? Finalizing the material for your new program? Preparing for your annual make-or-break tradeshow? Even if you know the steps by heart, systematizing at least part of these stress-inducing activities could yield big benefits to your business—and your well-being.

Tuesday, February 16 Linda Claire Puig from Ready2Go Articles and Ready2Go Ezines will be our guest expert on the Marketing Action Seminar, and will be sharing how to publish an ezine that makes you money. Linda suggests that establishing an expertise requires consistent and intentional efforts. Here are some of her guidelines to follow when using an ezine or newsletter to market your business.

• Fill your newsletter with helpful information that readers can use in their lives. Give suggestions, new ideas, “how to’s,” warnings, resources, tools or advice. You may include brief information about your services, but avoid self-promotion; keep it focused on the benefits of your services.
• Make the newsletter relevant. Whether it is about school bullying, managing conflict at work, healthy ways to age or reduce weight, Internet addiction, changing careers, or finding one’s purpose, make the newsletter current and helpful to your audience.
• Send out your newsletter consistently and regularly. This builds trust and confidence that people can rely on you. It also keeps you in front of your public enough that they grow to associate you with the newsletter and with the services you offer.

Yet a lot of people find publishing their ezine to be very time-consuming—often overwhelming—and they give up.

Join us on the Marketing Action Seminar as Linda Claire Puig shares some of her secrets for making ezines MUCH easier so that you can reap the benefits of a regular, consistent newsletter such as: more clients, more income, more attention, more opportunity.

For more information and to receive the call-in details, click here.