Business Insights

If you are like most people, you probably feel a bit uncomfortable walking into a room full of strangers. However, this experience can help you boost your business and allow you to do some market research as well.  Learning how to behave at networking events and to keep in touch with the contacts you make is vital when you are a small business owner or entrepreneur.

Here are some top techniques encouraged by very successful business consulting firms to ensure you relate effectively at any networking event:

Before the Event

• Do some research – find out about the dress code so that you fit adequately among those in the group.
• Get more than enough business cards, a pen, and a notebook.  For example, take 30 business cards and make a commitment not to leave until you have handed them all out.
• Eat before the event; if it is a cocktail party, get a drink but avoid having both hands busy with finger foods that can make it difficult for you to deliver business cards or write down important data.
• Make a list of your goals for the event.  Why are you attending this specific event?  Do you want to meet people? Find potential customers? Find resources? Work on the relationships you have already made?
• Plan to ask for business cards only from people you really want to keep in touch with.

During the Event

• Get there early, when the group is small and controllable.
• Always wear a smile on your face, even if you feel nervous. It will make you feel better, and in this way, people will feel comfortable enough to approach you because you will appear enthusiastic, open, and friendly.
• Mingle, do not stand in a corner all by yourself or just talk to the people you know.  Move from person to person, and do not spend more than 5 minutes talking to someone.
• Ask the host to introduce you to key people or to help you approach a group where you don’t know anyone.
• Ask the greeting committee to help you with the introductions, and approach people who are alone to introduce them to others.  You can even offer to be part of the greeting committee in order to have an excuse to talk to everyone.
• When meeting someone, shake hands and repeat their name, it will help you remember it and will show that you are making an effort to get it right.
• Wear a nametag for easy identification.
• Describe yourself and your business in 30 seconds or less (practice your elevator pitch!).
• Listen more and talk less.  People feel flattered when someone listens to them and shows sincere interest in others.
• Ask questions that prompt answers that help you understand the person.
• Take notes so that you can remember every bit of important information about someone (but be sure you are still interacting with them – don’t just write the whole time).

After the Event

• Organize all the information you got and write it down on your contact file.
• Follow up on the owners of the business cards you collected within the next 24 hours.
• If you discovered a worthy contact, invite them to lunch or coffee to learn more about them.

Networking events are meant to be a valuable and profitable experience, not a drag.  They are great opportunities to meet interesting people, do market research, and get new clients.  When you have a plan, you can really make them work for you.

Do you have other great tips that have helped you network successfully? We want to hear about them! Please leave comments with your thoughts and suggestions.

Creativity is a must-have skill for running any small business, especially in this current economic climate. There are the technical aspects of running your business, but it’s the creative aspect that will truly separate you from your competitors. If you think you’re not creative you must realize that everyone is creative. Creativity isn‘t exhibited only by artists, designers, musicians, and the like.

As a business-owner, you can demonstrate your creativity by coming up with a new approach for what you do (having a “thinking outside the box” mentality). It might take some time to hone in on this skill, but it’s definitely worth it. Your business will be rewarded by your innovation.

Here are a few ways that may help you find your inner creativity:

1. Relax
Have you ever noticed that you often come up with a great idea when you least expect it? You might be driving, exercising, or playing a video game and then all of a sudden an idea presents itself. Your mind can generate new ideas when you take a break from your usual routine, as opposed to when you’re under pressure and feeling rushed. Instead of concentrating too hard on an issue, let the ideas flow to you.

2. Record any ideas immediately.
Write down all of the things that come to your mind. It’s a great way to reference your train of thought of at the time, so you can easily go back to it and branch off from there. Keep a notepad and pen handy or even save your ideas on your phone with a recording. Brainstorming is an old tool that should never be underestimated!

3. Tell others about your ideas.
Give it the proper care and attention. Don’t immediately dismiss an idea until you’ve finished brainstorming because it might shut down your creative process. Evaluate the ideas later and incorporate the effective ones into your business.

4. Encourage innovation.
An environment of creativity plays a significant role in building a successful business. Create a company culture that welcomes ideas and be sure that people feel comfortable sharing them. Richard Florida said, “Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking.”

Your creativity is crucial in getting your message across and separating you from your competition. Get your creative mind working to break free from what is preventing you from being more productive and bringing in more revenue.

Do you have any more ideas on how to be creative in your business? Share them with us by commenting below!

When you hear the term “clutter,” you probably think of your overflowing kitchen cabinets or all the junk sitting around in your garage. Clutter in any area of your life is certainly draining and overwhelming – both mentally and physically.

What about the clutter in your business? Is it negatively affecting your productivity and growth? Multiple studies have confirmed that having physical clutter leads to mental restlessness and roadblocks, anxiety, and a lack of focus on personal and professional priorities. This year when you start your spring cleaning, don’t just clean around the clutter in your life – clear it out!

These tips will help you get started clearing out the clutter in your business, your home, and anywhere else that you may have accumulated it.

1. Schedule time to focus on clearing clutter, and establish time goals, not just task goals. For example, if you decide to clean out your file cabinets on Tuesday morning but it’s really an all-day job, you’ve set yourself up for failure. Instead, set a goal to work on the file cabinets from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and get as much as possible done in that time. That way, when the time is up, you’ll have met your goal even if the task itself is not entirely completed. If you finish that project before your time goal is up, you can start another! If you set time aside each day to work on your projects, you’ll have everything cleared out before you know it!

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2. Make a decision. Pick up each item and decide if it is something you need to keep. If the answer is “yes,” put it immediately in its permanent place. You may also find that you need a pile for items you plan to keep but you don’t currently have a “home” for. You can find a place for these items once you’ve cleared out some space.

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3. Divide and conquer. If you decide it isn’t something you need to keep, place it into one of four discard piles.
   Trash – Hopefully this will become the largest pile!
   Donations – If an item is still usable, you may want to consider donating it to charity. An added perk of clearing out your clutter is that the donations you make are tax deductible. Plus, you’re helping others that are less fortunate, and you’re “going green” by recycling your unwanted items.
   For sale – Anything you might want to sell at consignment – or even in an online auction like Ebay or Craigslist.
   Decide later – Things you cannot decide whether to toss or keep – this pile should be small, as you don’t want to simply move your clutter around!

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4. Time to get rid of the discard piles.
   Trash – Immediately take these items out to the garbage.
   Donations – Call your favorite charity and make an appointment for a pickup, or set aside a time to deliver the items You may want to make this trip once you’ve finished cleaning out several areas.
   For sale – As soon as you are able, list your stuff on the online auction site, place an ad in the local newspaper, or take your stuff to a consignment shop.
   Decide later – Look back through this pile and try to divide as much of it as possible. If you still can’t decide on any items, place them in a box somewhere out of the way. One month later, if you haven’t needed any of the items in this box, you probably don’t need it!

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5. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the excess items, it’s time to think about organization and storage. It doesn’t make any sense to go out and buy more storage containers before you’ve de-cluttered. Once all the clutter has been removed, you’ll have a much better idea of what storage and organization items you need – so now it’s time to go get them!

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6. It’ll get worse before it gets better. When you start to clean out a drawer or a pile of papers and you begin to divide the items, things will become more spread out and appear to be worse than when you started. Don’t mistake this temporary mess for a lack of progress… just keep going until you’ve gone through it all and made decisions about what to keep and where to keep it. It will be much better once you’re done!

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7. If you’re having a hard time getting motivated, reward yourself for your accomplishments. Once you’ve cleaned out every drawer in your desk, go get that massage you’ve been putting off. Plan in advance the treats you will earn as you reach your clutter-clearing milestones. This will help you stay motivated to stick with the process until it is done. Just remember – don’t add to the original problem by choosing rewards that create more clutter!

Complete clutter clearing is not usually an overnight process – it takes time and focus, but it is well worth it! Once you’ve cleared the physical clutter in your life, you’ll release a great deal of mental clutter along with it.

Have electronic clutter to deal with, as well? We’ll be sharing some tips on clearing that out very soon!

Do you have some great clutter clearing tips of your own? We want to hear them! Also, once you start this process, let us know how it’s going! Leave your comments below!

When establishing your fees, you have to consider two things:

1. What you need to charge for your products or services, and
2. What customers are willing to pay for them.

You, as a small-business owner, try to keep your fees as steady as possible, however, if gas, shipping, health care, food and many other costs go up, you most definitely also need to raise your fees if you want to stay in the market.

It is understandable that you raise your fees, everyone does; you just have to ensure you communicate it appropriately so that your customers accept it without any complaints.

Here are 9 secrets to do just that:

1. Don’t maintain lower fees because of fear
   Try to identify if you are making excuses based on fear or limiting beliefs for not raising your fees.  For example: “If I raise my fees, customers will find a cheaper provider” or “My services are not worth so much.”
2. Have clarity about where your minimum profit point is
   You should never lose with a sale.  In fact, instead of thinking in terms of what you need to earn, think in terms of what you wish and deserve to earn.
3. Center your fees on the worth of the benefits and results that your products or services offer your customers
   If you are good at solving someone’s problem, and if that problem is worth solving, he or she will be very pleased to pay the right price for your help.  A business coach, for example, helps small business owners make more profit with their businesses, and this is very valuable to them, thus, the coach’s fees are based on this value.
4. Establish your fees in accordance with your level of expertise
   The more experience you have, the higher the fees you can charge.
5. Research the competition
   How much are others charging?  Do they offer the same as you?  Do they have the same level of experience?
6. Identify if your products or services are commodities
   This is, if these are equal to what others are selling.  For example, if you sell a 32-inch Sony TV, it is the same TV your competition is selling, thus, it is difficult to differentiate if not by price.  But if what you offer is unique, and you possess a special set of skills and experience, you will be able to charge more.  In fact, in these cases, if you charge too little, you can scare the good customers away.
7. Decide if you will raise your fees for everyone or just new customers
   You can start by raising your fees for new customers; however, at some point, the fees you charge your current customers will have to go up too.
8. Go for the 80/20 equation
   Identify the 20% of your customers who give you the lowest profit and raise the fees they pay you.  Remember you are in business to make a profit, and unprofitable customers are not an advantage.
9. Call or write to announce your new fees to your current customers
   It is important to let your customers know in advance that you will be raising your fees, so write them a caring letter or call them personally to announce the fact.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

I love the Olympics for many reasons. The sheer fun, joy and spirit we get to participate in while watching the athletes, their stories, their families, and the highs and lows – it all makes for a great way to invest time in observing others pursue their dreams partly for their country, partly for themselves.

I can’t help but ask myself what these athletes did to prepare for the Olympics. What physical workouts, diets, practice and dreaming did they do? What doubts, fears anxieties, lack of confidence, certainties and feelings did they experience on their journey to Vancouver? Mostly, what did they do to overcome these feelings that each one of us has at one time or another in pursuit of our goals and dreams?

The Olympics, I believe, gives us a chance to live vicariously through the participants, be it athlete or coach, spectator or staff member. In asking myself these questions and watching the games, I realized that I want to be on the field playing my heart out regardless of whether I win or lose. What about you? Do you want to be playing or watching? Cheering or checking?  Feeling the exhilaration of the game on the track or from the stands?

Either way, business is a game that you can either play or watch, enjoy or not. It’s your choice. Either way, the game is very short when you are playing full out or very long when all you do is find what’s wrong with it.

As I observed the games, I felt a sense of pride and joy and a sense of sadness. In every sporting event someone won the gold, silver or bronze. Many of the athletes didn’t win a medal. Were they losers?  I prefer to think of all of them as winners, just in varying degrees based on their own set of circumstances.

If they showed up, did their best and felt and knew that they did…isn’t that a win? I say yes!

Life is not about winning medals. Life is about showing up ready to play full out and doing the best YOU can do. Competition helps each of us see what is possible by pushing or pulling us to meet our potential and our goals.

Every one of the athletes came to the Olympic Games with a goal. A goal that they committed to, trained for physically and mentally and then went after with all their heart.

What are your business and personal goals? Have you committed to them and are you playing full out? Like the Olympic Games, your flame will burn out. My hope and wish for you is that you have no more game left in you because you left it all on the field, doing and knowing you did your very best!