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This article looks at how you inadvertently train your customers. Believe it or not, you are training your customers more than you realise.  Every time you do something in your business you train or reinforce your previous training in your customer’s minds.

This can be a good thing or it may not be.  It may be deliberate, or it may unintentional.  Most likely, you don’t even realise you’re doing it let alone how you train your customers on sometimes a daily basis.

I’ve been trained

A few years ago I was working with a business on a website redesign for my site (before SuperWAHM).  The business owner answered my emails very quickly, even on weekends.  And then one day I had to wait 24 hours for an email.  What?  I was stunned.  Why hadn’t she replied to me yet?  How long did I have to wait for a reply?  Sheesh….

This person hadn’t done anything wrong.  She simply took a day off.  However, because I had become accustomed to receiving an email reply within an hour or so, I was expecting that to continue.  I’d been trained.

You’re training your customers too

You do this with your customers, whether you realise it or not.  You train your customers to have certain expectations around your business, both good and bad.  They get accustomed to how you:

-          Answer emails

-          Send out newsletters

-          Publish blog posts

-          Your writing style and tone

-          Offer discounts.  A lot of customers will never buy from you at full price as you’ve trained them to wait for discounts.  Oops…

-          Reply on forums

-          Sales process

-          Package products – your branding, style of packaging and what you use

-          Your tone in any communications with your customers

Everything you do will train your customers

Every single time you interact, directly or indirectly, with your customers you are setting up an expectation and experience in their minds.

-          If you used to send your packages beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with gold stickers and curly ribbons, and you change that because of time, cost, whatever; you’ll have disappointed customers.

-          If you normally answer emails within an hour or so, and then take a day off; you’ll have people asking why it took you so long to reply.

There is nothing wrong with either of these two scenarios.  It’s simply about managing customer expectations and your personal boundaries.  If you tell your customers that you’re changing the packaging, in advance, then they’ll be expecting it.  If you tell your customers that weekends are just for your family and you don’t do business on weekends, they won’t expect emails from you then.

On the other hand, if you publish blog posts on a schedule then you need to make sure you have posts written in advance so you can keep to that schedule.  Miss a post at the normal time and readers will start asking what’s going on, and wondering why you missed it.

It’s all about what your customers have been trained to expect from you.

Make it intentional

No matter what it is, you are training your customers’ expectations of you and your business.  You may not even be aware that you’re doing it.  You are.  Make it deliberate, think about how your actions are impacting your customers, manage those expectations.

What do you think?  How are you training your customers?  What stories do you have about changing customer expectations?

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I was in a recent discussion on FaceBook about how to get customers to pay for items.  The majority of people in the discussion had experienced customers buying goods from them, and months later still hadn’t been paid.  The discussion was around how many invoices you send, how many months do you wait and can you cancel the order.

Firstly, I was stunned that this was such a huge issue.  That business owners would allow a customer to drag payment out for months.  Also the amounts – one business owner mentioned they had over $2000 in goods that had been purchased but not yet paid for, and that was just for that month.

And secondly, I was really surprised that the business owners would allow this to continue without resolving the issue the first time it happened.  They had all put hours and hours of actual time, mental energy and stress into attempting to sort out this issue.

Who allows this to happen?

This is predominantly an internet and freelancer phenomenon.  You don’t see people going into the supermarket to buy their groceries and asking to pay later.  People don’t go to a car dealership, buy a car and tell them they’ll send a cheque later.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in the brick and mortar shops – think of all those lay-bys (lay-aways) that get ignored and forgotten – but it’s much less common in brick and mortar shops.  This happens because:

1.  Online, we’re not as real.  The customer isn’t face to face with a real person.

2.  It’s easier to forget about the purchase, for the reason above.  Because the customer hasn’t interacted with a real live person, hasn’t handled the item before purchase, it’s not as real to them.

3.  A lot of the businesses in the original discussion I was in were selling via FaceBook and this adds another mental barrier.  If you’re buying via FaceBook, a social networking site, rather than a dedicated business website, then you’ll regard the business as not a genuine serious business.  It feels like it’s a hobby, not a business that they’re buying from.  So the importance of actually paying for the item is seriously reduced.

4.  Many online businesses and particularly the micro and at home business don’t have clear Payment terms and policies, and/or don’t enforce them.

5.  We allow customers to get away with it.

How to fix it

Like anything in business, resolving this issue is a multi-pronged approach.

1.  Write a clear Payment Policy that is on your website, your FaceBook page, attached to invoices and anywhere else it needs to be.  Make it very clear that when a customer purchases from you they are agreeing to the terms of your Payment Policy.

2.  If you currently have purchases that are outside your Payment Policy, ie: haven’t been paid for in more than two weeks or whatever your payment terms are, give them one last chance to pay:

a)      Send an invoice with “Overdue” written on it in large red letters.

b)     Include a date when payment must be received by, and clearly state that the order will be cancelled and the items returned to stock if payment is not received.

c)      Cancel any outstanding orders after this date.

3.  Make invoicing and payment simple.  Use a shopping cart that sends invoices, tracks orders and payments.

4.  Demonstrate to your customers that you are a serious, genuine business.  Have a proper website, and use your FaceBook page to drive traffic and to promote your items.

What to include in your payment policy

1.  How long people have to pay for an item.  It can be three business days, a week, two weeks, whatever works for you.

2.  Tell them your follow-up policy.  IE: If payment is not received by the due date they will be sent one reminder invoice.  If payment is still not received the sale will be cancelled.

3.  State your policy for custom orders or services. Eg:

a)      Work on the project will not be started until payment is received in full,

b)     All work requires a 50% deposit and the balance within two weeks,

c)      If you’re taking deposits or instalment payments, be very clear what will and won’t be done at each stage.

4.  How to contact you if there is an issue with payment.

5.  Your postage policy – that no items will be posted out until payment in full is made.

Enforcing the policy

Enforcing the policy is both the easiest and hardest aspect of this.  It’s easy because any time a customer objects because an order was cancelled for non-payment you simply refer them back to your Payment policy.

It’s hard because we feel as though we lost a sale.  In truth though, you didn’t lose a sale – you never actually had one in the first place.  It’s not a sale until you’ve received payment.

It’s up to you how quickly your customers pay

Don’t allow your customers to drag out payments in the first place, and you won’t be wasting your valuable time trying to chase them up.  Require payment at the time of purchase or within a couple of working days.

Initially you may have objections from your customers, after all, you’ve taught them that you’ll wait and now here you are expecting them to pay immediately.  Stay firm, this is your business.

Stick to your guns – nicely and politely – and your customers will quickly adjust to the new terms and will have more respect both for you and your business.

Sounds like a Win/Win to me.

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Today’s post (Day 15) in the Blogging Workshop is about finding a blog buddy, and in that post I wrote about synergy in business.  I liked the idea of Synergy so much that I’ve expanded it here for all SuperWAHM readers.

Firstly, what is Synergy in Business?

Synergy in business according to Wikipedia – Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

When two people work together with the intention of helping each other then it’s not just 1 + 1 = 2.  It becomes 1 + 1 = 5 (this is Mel’s Maths by the way; do not try this at school).  Synergy is the combination of two or more minds that work together to be more creative, stronger, more motivated, more focussed, than each of those minds working individually in isolation.

There are a couple of ways that you can utilise the power of Synergy in business:

Blog Buddy

Remember in primary school, when the teacher would tell us all to find a buddy when the class was going somewhere?  And you’d hold your buddy’s hand, so you both always had support, someone to help you and keep you going in the right direction?  It’s the same here.

A Blog Buddy is someone you can talk to about your blog, bounce ideas off each other, promote each others blogs, discuss issues that you’re facing, all with someone who understands where you’re coming from.

Blogging Alliance

If you’re interested in taking the Blog Buddy relationship further, here’s an interesting article from Problogger on a Blogging Alliance.  A group of entrepreneurs in complementary markets – not directly competing with each other – who formalised an agreement to support, assist and promote each other.

It’s not a publicised alliance, just a group who work together in the background, promoting each other and contributing to the success of the group as a whole.

Mastermind Group

A Mastermind Group is similar to an Alliance in that there’s a formal agreement, not necessarily written but a clear understanding that all members contribute.  However Masterminds members are normally from very different fields, unlike an alliance.

For example, I’m a member of an online Mastermind Group.  In that group we have a Realtor, Film Director, Music Teacher, Physiotherapist, Coach, Programmer and a Wed Designer.

The benefit of such a diverse group is that their thinking and perspectives are so different.  When you’re in a Complementary Alliance you tend to have the same experiences and knowledge.  With the Mastermind group every member has a radically different approach.

Informal Synergy in Business

And then there’s the Synergy in Business you get informally.  From having a cup of coffee with a friend that turns into a brainstorming session.  Asking questions on a forum.  Meeting new people at networking events. IM’ing a friend and chatting about your top business ideas.

Today’s Question: How do you utilise Synergy in business?  Rather than working in isolation, do you formal ways to harness synergy for your business?  What about informal methods?  How do these work for you?

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This one of my favourite posts that was originally published early last year.  Now updated and edited to be even more good-er.  Enjoy!

I was cleaning the shower the other day.  This is something I do regularly.  Once a year is regular, right? Just kidding – I clean it a lot more often than that.  While sloshing water around and scrubbing the tiles it occurred to me that cleaning the shower is in many ways like marketing your home business.

Read through and let me know what you think.

Firstly it needs to be done regularly. I once lived in a house where we thought the bottom half of the shower door and side was frosted glass, and that round bit on the floor was anti-slip coating.  About a week or so after moving in, I cleaned it.  Yes, it was ordinary clear glass underneath and plain tiled floor.  Yuck.

If you clean your shower regularly, it’s easy.  If you market your business regularly, it’s easy.  Consistency in small efforts is a lot easier and yields much greater rewards than neglecting it and having to put in hours of backbreaking, gut-wrenching work.  It’s much easier to keep up than to catch up.

If it’s done wrong you could end up with a greater mess. Sloshing buckets of water around may be great fun, watching it splash, however it has a tendency to, well, splash.  And go everywhere, generally all over the bathroom walls and floor – outside of the shower.   Or it just rinses the walls and floor and doesn’t actually clean anything.

You can spend as much money and time as you have on marketing, but if it’s not directed to the right people, if it’s not solving a problem for them, if it’s not compelling them to buy, then it’s a waste of time and money.  Know why you're using a particular marketing tactic, do it right, be focused and see the benefits. Make sure you're marketing to a niche and not a demographic.

Use the right tools and know why you’re using them. You wouldn’t go to clean the shower with the vacuum cleaner would you?  Or with a leaf rake?  Of course not, they’re tools for other tasks.  You go into the shower with some kind of cleaner, cloths to wipe, some way to rinse off the walls, bleach to clean the tiles if needed, maybe a squeegee.  You know precisely what you’re doing (cleaning the shower) and the appropriate tools that you need to do that.

This is where you need to know your target market intimately and thoroughly, inside and out.  Why do they buy?  Where and how do they buy?  What solution does your product provide?  How do you market specifically and directly to these people?  What medium do they use (online, magazines, forums) to find out about products and ask questions?  There’s no point putting an advertisement in the financial times newspaper if your target market loves parenting forums.  Don't put money into any form of marketing just because someone says you should.  Know how it relates to your market and what result you expect from it.

It takes work and planning. You clean the walls before the floor.  Put bleach on the tiles (my apologies to the environmentalists here) and let it start working before you begin to scrub.  And no matter what product you put on the glass and tiles, it still needs some elbow grease to be spotlessly clean.  With cleaning, as with marketing, you need to plan the best order to do things.

You can’t sell a product and then tell the customer why they need it.  The customer needs to be educated about what it does and why they want it.  You, the business owner, need to make this happen.  Customers don't come up and say “I want to buy this widget, what does it do?”.  Nuh uh.  Customers see your marketing, which tells them how your widget solves their problem and world peace at the same time.  And then they come to buy.

And lastly you need to be committed. If you just give the shower a quick swipe over with a dry cloth once a month  then you might think you can call it ‘cleaning the shower’.  But is it really?  If you put an ad in the cheapest magazine once a month, is it the ads fault that no one buys?  I have a friend who often tells me that she wishes she could have a profitable online business.  And then goes on to tell me how she's not interested in writing blog posts, or going on forums, or spending money on upgrading her website.  She’s not committed to the process or the work required.  If your business isn’t profitable, or not as profitable as you’d like, check your own commitment and activity levels first.

What do you think?  Are you using the right tools in the right way to clean your shower as efficiently and effectively as possible?

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We all need to market and sell our stuff, right? That’s the whole point of being in business. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to sell.

Sell something the right way and the person is happy they dealt with you and everyone is pleased by the whole transaction. Sell the wrong way – or try to – and it ends up a bun fight.

How Not to Cold Call

A few weeks ago I had the dubious pleasure of receiving a business cold call. By the time the call finished I was so angry I rang my husband at work to vent – the venting took longer than the call. (Hubby ended up being late for a meeting, and told his boss “She was way angrier than you, and I have to live with her” LOL)

Normally cold calls don’t bother me. We’re on the Do-Not-Call register so if we DO receive any cold calls it’s generally for my business. Usually it’s enough to tell the person very clearly “Nope, not interested, thanks for your time” and that’s the end of it. Not this call. Here’s how NOT to cold call someone:

The one thing they did right

They rang during the day. Ring me in the evening and you’ve got me offside from the second I pick up the phone. Business hours people, that’s what they’re for.

I love you forever, what’s your name?

The salesperson introduced herself and told me the name of the person she was calling for – I slightly know this business owner from a couple of forums that we’re both on. Her script, after the intro, went something like:

Our business helps other small businesses just like yours to grow and make more money. Tell me about your business, what do you do?

Huh? You rang me, you help businesses just like mine, but you don’t actually know what my business does?

Imagine you’re in a bar and a complete stranger comes up to you, takes you in his (or her) arms, looks into your eyes and says in complete seriousness “I love you and want to marry you, have kids with you and be together until we die. Oh, and what’s your name?”

You’d be like “Get away from me you freakin weirdo!”

That’s what this call was like. First you tell me your business is to help small businesses just like mine to grow – and then you ask me what my business is? If you don’t know what I do then how do you know that your business can help me?

Do some research. Look at my website – it’ll tell you. That’s what it’s there for (ok, one of the things). Or at least reword your script so it’s not so contradictory and doesn’t make me think you’re ignorant.

Pushy Pushy

I told the salesperson a very brief and general description of what I do. She suggested that I needed to narrow down my niche. I said it was a lot more focussed but my description would do for now. That didn’t please her at all. Did she really expect me to discuss my business in detail with a stranger who called me?

And then she started on her spiel. She was selling a course on creating info-products. I’d seen some details from the business owner on a forum, so I knew what she was talking about.

“No thanks, I’m not interested at the moment”

You know how in sales books they tell you that a ‘No’ is only an objection? Well, this person had been reading those books.

She began on the marketing questions that are designed so you either have to sound like a complete idiot to turn it down or you open the door for more selling. Her question was something along the lines of:

“Do you want to learn how to sell more effective and higher priced information products to your customers?”

Well, what am I supposed to say? “No, I like being broke and not selling anything” how stupid would that answer be? But if I say “Of course I do” then she’s got an open door to keep pushing the sale.

So I didn’t answer. I pointed out that it’s a typical marketing question designed to either open the door or make me look stupid, and I don’t appreciate being manipulated.  And said again “No, I’m not interested in this product”

The pushy got worse

I’m sure she took my ‘No’ as a personal challenge because she continued to try and sell to me. I ended up saying ‘No’ at least three times, very clearly. I told her “I’m not interested and I’m not your ideal client” and she kept on pushing to sell!

At this point I was interrupting her and talking over the top of her. Rude, yes, but it was the only way to let her know I wasn’t interested short of outright hanging up on her.

It ended when I told her (again) I wasn’t interested and was going to hang up. At that point she agreed I wasn’t their client and we said a rather terse goodbye.

Do unto others….

How many of us enjoy having someone disrespect us and ignore us when we tell them no? Who wants to get off a call feeling they’ve just been manipulated and sold something they didn’t really want? Why are these sales techniques still being taught?

A few years ago I read “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by John Cialdini. In it he discusses the brain conditioning and instinctive responses that we’re all wired with. Marketers hook into this brain wiring and structure their questions so we’ll give them the answer they want rather than look a fool.

Marketing or a Used Car Salesman?

Cold calling works – I won’t deny that. But at what ethical cost? Do you really want to sell to someone knowing that they bought because you twisted their responses? That’s why Naomi and Sonia created ‘Marketing for Nice People’ last year, because everyone is so fed up with the manipulative, sleazy sales techniques that are being used. (Marketing for Nice People is no longer available unfortunately, but if you’re looking for a marketing course try the Marketing 101 – great course!)

The point of marketing is to make the customer be panting to buy the product, to be standing there with their wallet in hand throwing money at you. Not because it’s the only way to get rid of you, but because they can see how that product is going to change their life forever and THEY MUST HAVE IT NOW!!!

Pt 1, the end

After the call, when I’d calmed down reasonably, I sent a message to the business owner to let her know that the call went badly and that I hadn’t appreciated being pushed and manipulated by a hard-selling salesperson. Tomorrow I’ll show you her response, and we’ll have a chat about receiving feedback. Let me just say, her reply was even more entertaining than the cold call!

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Hi, My name is ‘insert your name here’ and I’m an Info product addict

We’ve all done it.  Bought great info products – ebooks, audios, pdfs, ecourses etc – that are highly recommended and guaranteed to change our lives and send business through the roof.

We all have our favourite teachers, and if they recommend something as being great then we have to get it, right?  Because it will help us grow our business, right?  So we buy more products.  And more.  And we keep on buying.  And downloading and saving them to the hard drive.

You know that folder(s) on your hard drive that’s full of ebooks, video’s, downloads, pdf’s etc that you haven’t looked at since the day you bought them?  How do you feel when you look at that folder?  Guilty?  Upset? Overwhelmed? Waste of money?

Yeah, all of those feelings, right?  Let me tell you a secret – you’re not alone.  Really.  Many, many people have a stash of info products and have never looked at them.  I’m not going to tell you how much I’ve paid over the years for courses that I’ve never started, let alone finished.  And hopefully my hubby won’t ask either….  I used to be as guilty as anyone else on this one.

There ain’t no magic bullet

People buy information products in the hope that ‘this one’ will be the magic bullet that rockets them to instant stardom, money and orders pouring in, clients on waiting lists, kudos on the ‘net.  And it doesn’t happen.

No product is going to do this for your business.  None.  Not any.  Because all those info products, they’re just tools.  You have to use them, and use them in the right way.

So why buy information products?

Because they’re useful and will really help you grow your business.  If you use them properly.  The problem is that people often don’t use them properly, if at all.  They download them, save them, and plan to get to them soon.  Unfortunately ‘soon’ never arrives, the novelty fades and the lonely product sits there unused.

So you get stuck into them and start reading

Learning is good, yes?  The more you learn the better you’ll be at running your business, yes?  Sorry, but the answer to that is often a no.

Too much information is nearly as bad as no information.  When you do decide to get stuck in and work through the courses and ebooks you end up with a head full of ideas and no place to start.

Information overload is very real and paralysing.  When you’ve got a head full of ideas all bouncing around, and more information being packed in on top, it’s like being in a room crammed full of people all talking at the top of their voices.

Step outside with me

It’s time to get out of the room.

Turn off the noise.

Focus on just one thing.

Realise there is no magic bullet.

The answer to information overload is…

Taking action.

Give your mind a break – chances are that you’ve already read enough ebooks and know what you need to know.  See, we get so caught up in ‘learning’ that we stop ‘doing’.  We think we have to do things perfectly, and know everything about it, before we can start.

It’s true that we do need to have a certain level of knowledge in order to run a business.  It becomes a problem when we think that we have to know everything in order to run a business.

Focus on one thing and put it into action

So here you are – you’ve got a stack of info products, all useful, all highly recommended, and I’ve just told you to stop reading them. Here’s what you need to do to break out of the information overload and get your head right.

Firstly do a brain dump.  Every idea, every thought about your business, get it out of your head.  Write down the ideas.  Paper or on the computer, doesn’t matter.  Mind map if it helps.  Just get them out of your head.  Then save it somewhere so you can find it later.

Back to the information products.

Pick one.  Just one.  And work through it – do all the exercises or worksheets as you go.  Apply every technique in it to your business.  Set aside an hour a day to do this.  It’s not a race, take your time.

When you’re finished with the first info product, take a break for a couple of days.  Then pick another one and work through it the same way.  Every exercise, every technique.  Rinse and repeat.

Still don’t know where to start?

If you really can’t pick just one info product or you don’t know what you’re trying to do, I recommend starting with our Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan ebook.

Writing out a business plan will give clarity and direction – and from there you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do for your business.

Leave a comment and tell me what you decide to work on and how you’re going, ok?

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To learn why a business plan will always save your a$$, let’s first go on a holiday! Read on…

Picture this:

It’s a Saturday and you’re enjoying a peaceful sleep in (you know, those things you had before you had kids).  And your darling hubby bursts into the room and says “Honey, get dressed!  We’re going on a holiday!”

“When?” you ask, as you crack open one sleepy eye and try to process the sentence through a haze of sleep-induced blurriness.

“Right now” he says “Cmon, the kids are in the car waiting”

So you get up and get dressed, he assures you that you don’t need to pack “It’s all taken care of”, hop in the car and off you go.

“So where are we going?” you ask nervously, thinking of all the appointments and plans in your calendar for the next week.

“On holidays” he replies cheerfully.  And HE sure seems to know where you’re going, even if you don’t.

“But where on holidays?  For how long?” this really isn’t feeling right to you.

“Wherever we end up.  And I don’t know, how long are holidays normally?” Hubby is starting to seem not quite so darling and a bit more annoying every minute now.

“So what are we going to do there?  What kind of clothes did you pack?” Maybe that will give a clue to where he’s taking you and for how long.

“We’ll do whatever is happening when we get to a holiday somewhere.  And I didn’t pack anything, we’ll sort that out as we go” is the cheerful reply.

Ok, that scenario is nuts

Really, nobody sensible would do that, would they?  Then why do so many businesses get treated that way, with a happy-go-lucky “I’ll sort it out when and if it happens” attitude.  Why not plan for as much as possible – both good and bad – and prevent as many problems as you can?

Approximately 98% of WAHMs don’t have a business plan.  So the chances are pretty good that if you’re reading this and you’re a WAHM then you don’t have a business plan, or at least not a current one.  Am I right so far?

And by business plan I mean one written down on paper, not just in your head.  Having a plan in your head is pretty much worthless.  It has to get out of your head, onto paper, and have foundations and business strategies put in place to execute it.

If you’re one of the rare few who DO have an up to date business plan then well done.  Pat yourself on the back and take a bow.  You’re a rarity and well above average.  It’s also likely that you’ve been around for a few years and experienced first hand the advantages of a business plan.

Why WAHMs don’t write business plans

Here’s a list of the most common reasons that I hear around not writing a business plan:

• It’s too hard
• I don’t know what to put down
• I don’t need one for a home business
• It’s in my head
• I don’t have time
• I had one but it didn’t work
• I tried and it was too complicated
• I know what I’m doing
• It started as a hobby and I never got around to it
• What’s a business plan?

Planning your business is like planning your family

Think about this – there’s a lot of similarities between planning your business and planning your family (although I won’t insist on you writing down your family planning).

• Some people plan their families years in advance and the timing works out perfectly for the families and they grow precisely in line with their plans
• Some people get a family when they least expect it – what started as a bit of playing around suddenly takes on a life it of it’s own and you’re responsible for it
• Sometimes people will have a great family, and suddenly something outside their control happens and the unit is damaged, separated and destroyed.
• Some people plan for a steady increase in their family, but nature ‘happens’ and they get double or triple what they were expecting
• Or you hook up with someone, and suddenly it’s a package deal and you get fully-developed stepkids, full or part time, thrown into the bargain
• Some people plan to have a family, but no matter what they try and no matter how much money they put into trying – nothing happens, their family never grows and they eventually give up trying and go on with other life.

‘Business plan’ is not a four letter word

All those reasons we saw above are just excuses.  None of them are valid, legitimate reasons when you really get down to it.  If you’re going to have a business then treat it as a real business, plan for growth and development and make it happen.

Want to get off to a quick start?

If you’re in the 98% of WAHMs who don’t have a current, written down business plan then check out our No-Plan-Preneur Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan guide.  Priced at only $6.95 and designed to be both fast and easy, this ebook will give you a quick shot of motivation and get you  and your business headed in the right direction.

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Yesterday we looked at why you need a Newsletter list and where to get one set up. Today we’re looking at how to use it.

Ok, I have an autoresponder, now what do I do with it?

That’s easy:

1. You get subscribers to sign up to your list; and

2. You email them.

Finding Subscribers

So where do your subscribers come from? Anywhere you can legally and ethically find them…

Signup box on your website – have it clear, easy to see when people land there. For best results, ask for simply their First Name and Email Address. That’s all, just those two pieces of information.

Free Offering – give people a free gift for giving you their contact details. Offer a free report or ebook, related to your business. DON’T give away free consultations or anything that requires an ongoing time commitment!

Stalls, markets – have a signup form for people who would like to be on your list. If you do this, make sure you add them to your list within 24 hours of the stall and email them immediately to welcome them. Don’t leave it for long because they’ll forget they filled in the form and will delete your email or mark it as spam.

Promote on FaceBook – If you’ve got a fan page on FaceBook then you can add a tab or box with your signup form in it. Remember to let your fans know about it when you put it up.

Competitions – run a competition where people have to sign up to your newsletter list to join in. Check with your local government for rules and regulations concerning competitions first though.

Ask people – when you meet people at networking functions etc, and they express an interest in what you do simply ask them if they would like to join your newsletter list.

Joint Ventures – run a promotion or competition with an another business, complementary to yours,

What do I email them about?

Anything that is relevant or interesting for your subscribers. Unless you’ve set up your list to be very clearly a Sales list – like our VIP list, where people are told when subscribing that they’ll receive sales offers and it’s not a newsletter list – then you need to send interesting content to your subscribers.

I’m not saying you can’t market to them, that’s the primary purpose of having a newsletter list, I’m saying that you need to send them information that is interesting. And bring in the sales content in a nice way, without beating them over the head with it.

- A new product you’re releasing
- Product of the month special deals
- Case studies and testimonials
- New and interesting uses for a product
- Developments and new findings relating to your core business
- What’s been happening in your business
- Profile a client
- Answer questions from clients (be careful of confidentiality issues, ask for permission first before using a clients name)
- Profile one of your staff members
- Articles to help your subscribers
- Subscriber only discounts
- ????

What else can you add to this list?

Questions or comments about Newsletters and ezines?  Please come and share your thoughts in the comments.

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Last week we looked at Why we Need Systems in our business, even in our micro business where there’s only one person doing everything. Today we’re going to look at How and Where to start building those systems.

It starts with you. You’re the boss. Your job is to plan for expansion, and this is the first step (after your business plan). McDonalds systems enable 16 year old kids to run a busy restaurant. Your systems will enable you to work more efficiently, to identify hiccups and roadblocks in your business and to get people to help you when you need it.

So where do you start?

The easiest way to start is to write down every hat you wear within your business – Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Manufacturer, Copywriter, Supplies, Order Fulfilment, etc.

Under each heading then write a list of the tasks that position is responsible for – yes, even when it’s just you doing it all. Note that here you’re writing each task, not each step of the task.

Eg: Receptionist – answers the telephone, makes bookings, filing, taking orders.

Once you have each task, draw a flowchart for that task detailing each step from start to finish. This is where some shortcuts come in – skip the basic tasks. When it’s just you, then you don’t need a manual to answer the phone.

You do need a written down system for anything that you can envision yourself delegating at any time in the future. Usually, this will include tasks such as packing and posting orders, bookkeeping and emails (we’ll cover emails in a future post).

Write down your systems in a way that is so simple and basic that you could pull a teenager in off the street and ask them to follow it. That’s a really good test of a system by the way, if you can hand it to a person who’s never done the task before and they can follow it then it works. If they get hung up on any part of it and begin asking questions then you need to add in more detail.

When you’re satisfied that it’s written in detail and is easily understandable save an electronic copy in a special folder labelled “Systems” on your computer and then print out a copy. File the hard copy somewhere easily accessible – you’ll be using it regularly.

Keep working through each task until you’ve done them all, or at least the one’s with more than five steps.

The hardest part here is the actual doing. Finding the time to work through a task and write down every step, everything you do in the process. One good way to do it is to have someone observing and writing down what you do. Swap with a friend, you observe her and she can observe you.

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What are Systems and why do you need them?

A system is a written down process for a particular task within your business. When collected together, the systems form the Operations Manual for your business.

Now, I can hear you saying, “Why would I need one? I work for myself/at home/sole trader.” Why? Because having up to date and easy to follow Systems keep work flowing smoothly, prevents overwhelm because you know what you’re doing and where you’re up to. They allow you bring in staff members and train them, they add value to the business when/if you ever decide to sell it and they allow you to hand over tasks to other people – such as family members – so they can help you. Systems save you time and money.

You already have systems for most tasks within your business; you just haven’t vocalised or written them down. Often the systems don’t actually work that well, because they’ve evolved over time, rather than been designed for maximum efficiency and ease of use.

- When you answer the phone, do you have a particular way of answering and a set of words that you use to answer?  That’s a system.

- Do you have a procedure for registering new clients and recording their information? That’s a system.

- Do you have a routine for packing orders, checking them and posting them out? That’s a system.

- Do you have a process for receiving, distributing and answering emails? That’s a system.

Heck, we have systems for our housework, for our kids, for gardening. We just don’t recognise them and label them as such.

How often have you looked at some work for a client and had to figure out where you were up to with it? What had already been done and what still needed to be done? What if you had a written down checklist that began with the new client and followed their work through to completion and was then filed? How much time would you save, how much more work could you take on? How much more profit could you make?

How often has someone offered to come in and help you with some aspect of your business when you were overbooked and stressed beyond belief, and you said no because it was easier to do it yourself than to teach them how to do it? What if you could hand them a folder, walk them through it once, show them where everything is that they need and then leave them to it?

Are you one of those business people who talks of getting a VA one day “but just has to catch up with my emails/bookkeeping/orders first”. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could email your VA a document that tells them exactly how you want the work handled, complete with examples and text templates.

When are you planning to bring order and structure to your business systems?

Coming up in Part 2 – How and Where to start building your business systems.