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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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Hubby brought this cartoon home from work several weeks ago.  I had intended to post it earlier with quite a few LOL and HA HA HA’s  and ROFL, but never quite got around to it.

Lately though, I’ve been feeling both sides of this.  The Darling Daughter, 12yo, has been on school holidays for the last two and a half weeks.  Hubby was home ‘sick’ last week with a bad back, and a couple of days this week with the flu (no, not man-flu thankfully, just ordinary flu).

So in the last few weeks I’ve launched the Two Hour Business Plan in the middle of finding time for a 12yo on holidays, looking after an injured/sick husband and then the lovely generous man (hear the sarcasm there?) decided to pass his revolting germs on to me.  Gee, thanks honey.

Self Pity and Woe Is Me is not what today’s post is about though.  Today I thought I’d have a chat about blogging with a business and list some resources that I use.  Some of the links are affiliate links, so if you end up buying any of these I might make enough to buy a cup of coffee, with cream.  Maybe.

Business blogging

I’m going to assume that everyone reading this knows what a blog is and what RSS is.  If not, feel free to email me and ask.  No, it’s not a silly question and you wouldn’t be the first person to ask me.

What’s your blog’s purpose?

Blogging is really useful for your business but it’s not a golden ladder leaning against the wall of huge profits.  It takes time, effort, technique and purpose.  It can also be a huge waste of time for very little ROI (Return On Investment).

Before you go putting all that work into your blog, you have to know why you’re doing it.  Here’s some of the things that a well-written blog can do:

- attract potential customers

- improve your website’s SEO (as long as the blog is on the same domain as the site)

- show people that you know what you’re talking about

- build a community of like-minded people through comments and discussion

- advertise sales, specials, new products

Know why before you start

Too many people jump into blogging for their business without a clear direction and purpose for it.  Just like everything else in business you need to know what result you’re working towards, so you know when you’re on track and if it’s working or not.

Know what you’re doing and why, and then aim every single post towards that purpose.

Readers aren’t buyers

I’m mainly talking to those who sell a service here, although this is still true – albeit to a lesser extent – for those who sell physical products.

Your blog readers aren’t your clients.

The majority of people who read your blog, subscribe to your RSS, comment on your posts – they’ll never buy from you.  This tends to be a shock for a lot of people, it sure was for me, when you’ve put in hours and hours and hours writing posts and then you realise that the readers aren’t actually buyers.

The majority of your readers are there for the free content.  There’s nothing wrong with that, and business blogging is still a great way to spread the word of what you do.  But if you’re looking at several thousand readers and wondering why they’re not buying – welcome to reality.

Readers don’t look at your website

The majority of readers never visit your website after the first hit, when they subscribe to your RSS.  So you can update your site to your hearts content, fill it with ads, promote every product under the sun and your readers still won’t know about it.

If you want your readers to know something, put it in a blog post with a powerful headline.

Partial feeds mean non-readers

So when a lot of people realise the above fact they decide to make their RSS feed only partial, meaning that RSS subscribers will see the first paragraph and have to click through to read the remainder of the post on the website.  Yay!  More hits on the site, better SEO and people see your site and ads, yes?

No.

Statistics show that partial feeds actually reduce readership.  Your first paragraph is going to have to be absolutely riveting and compelling to get people to click through.  Most readers won’t bother.  But if you have a full feed in your RSS – meaning the entire post is there in the reader or email – then most people will read it.

So why bother with blogging?

It’s a pretty depressing picture here isn’t it?  The readers don’t buy, they don’t visit the website and they don’t read partial feeds.  Why bother putting the effort in?

Because blogging will draw more people to your site.  It shows people what you can do and gives them confidence in you.  Used properly, blogging will attract the right people and get them recommending you.  It’s a great tool, but that’s all it is, a tool.

Use blogging wisely and with a clear purpose, and it will help grow your business.

Blogging Resources

Here’s some resources to help you get the most out of your blogging.  They’re all ebooks that I have bought and used myself.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.

Each day in the project contains:

A Task – something to DO that day.

Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

It’s normally $39 but when I checked the link for this post I noticed it’s only $19.95.  I have no idea how long this price is valid for though.

On a side note, I’m looking to run a blogging workshop during August for those who are interested in developing their blogs using this ebook.  It’ll be free (but you have to purchase the ebook), and I’m still working out the details.  If this sounds like something you’d be interested in please let me know in the comments.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar

Taken from the Beyond Bricks and Mortar sales page:

The Practical Strategy to market your Offline business using Online tools

Beyond Bricks and Mortar gives you the solid footing you need to access practical, useful information on how to blog for your business – when your business isn’t online.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar fills the gap when you’re standing confused on the edge of the online world, unclear on how to bridge it for your physical business, and wondering who’ll tell you how to do that.

This is an amazing book written for those who have physical businesses with an online presence.

How to Build a Professional Blog

How to Build a Professional Blog – the Quick Start Guide to Plan, Launch and Profit with your own Successful Blog.

$47 value, and absolutely free.  Gotta love that! 

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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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I’m giving away one copy of this fantastic book by C.J. Hayden ‘Get Clients Now!’.  It was originally recommended to me by a friend who has a very successful business and I’m now following the recipe in this book – it’s amazingly effective and it works.

This book is an essential in any Work at Home Moms library and you can win it simply by leaving a comment below.

From the back cover:

If you’re ready to dramatically increase your client base, this brand new edition of Get Clients Now! is the one book you need.  Completely revised and featuring scores of tactics, tools and foolproof strategies customisable for any professional service business, this powerhouse book gives you a unique and proven 28-day program for locating, landing, and keeping new clients in greater numbers than you’ve ever dreamed possible.

You’ll learn: how to choose the right marketing tactics for your situation and personality; a foolproof method for diagnosing exactly what’s missing in your marketing and how to fix it; how to use Internet marketing techniques, including e-zines, SEO and blogging; hands-on approaches for replacing unproductive cold-calling with the power of relationship marketing; and much much more.

Please note that this book is for Service businesses rather than retail.

How to enter

Simply leave a comment below and tell me what you like most about SuperWAHM (or WAHM Biz Builder as we were).  The competition runs for four days.  On Saturday 16th I’ll draw a random number for the winner and post in the comments as well as email the winner.

I’m more than happy to post anywhere in the world, so Good luck!

And the winner is….. Stephanie, from Scratchpad Secretaries, comment #16

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I’m giving away one copy of this fantastic book by C.J. Hayden ‘Get Clients Now!’.  It was originally recommended to me by a friend who has a very successful business and I’m now following the recipe in this book – it’s amazingly effective and it works.

This book is an essential in any Work at Home Moms library and you can win it simply by leaving a comment below.

From the back cover:

If you’re ready to dramatically increase your client base, this brand new edition of Get Clients Now! is the one book you need.  Completely revised and featuring scores of tactics, tools and foolproof strategies customisable for any professional service business, this powerhouse book gives you a unique and proven 28-day program for locating, landing, and keeping new clients in greater numbers than you’ve ever dreamed possible.

You’ll learn: how to choose the right marketing tactics for your situation and personality; a foolproof method for diagnosing exactly what’s missing in your marketing and how to fix it; how to use Internet marketing techniques, including e-zines, SEO and blogging; hands-on approaches for replacing unproductive cold-calling with the power of relationship marketing; and much much more.

Please note that this book is for Service businesses rather than retail.

How to enter

Simply leave a comment below and tell me what you like most about SuperWAHM (or WAHM Biz Builder as we were).  The competition runs for four days.  On Saturday 16th I’ll draw a random number for the winner and post in the comments as well as email the winner.

I’m more than happy to post anywhere in the world, so Good luck!

And the winner is….. Stephanie, from Scratchpad Secretaries, comment #16

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Over the last few weeks I’ve has several discussions with coaching clients regarding email lists, why they need them, how to collect names and how to use the list.

I’ve written about newsletter lists before, in The Money’s in Your Newsletter List and a guest post at IttyBiz on Putting the Permission Back into Marketing Take a few minutes and go read both those posts, then come back to this one.  Go ahead, we’ll wait for you….

Why do I need a newsletter list?

You need it so you can market to people, so you can contact them again after the initial meeting. Statistics show that it will take up to seven contacts before a person is ready to buy from you. If you’ve met someone who is interested in what you do, what’s the best way to contact them again? Your newsletter list.

But I already have a blog and RSS

Yes, yes, I know you do. So do I. And I also have a newsletter list  for our VIPs.  (Are you a VIP?  If you’re not already, go sign up now.  We both know you ARE important so go join the VIP list) What’s the difference between having a newsletter list and RSS?

People on your newsletter list have asked to be there because they’re interested in what you’re selling. Most people on your RSS list probably don’t read your feed regularly. (Sorry for the bad news, but it’s true) When people are busy – and we all are – feeds are one of the first things to be dropped.

People often sign up for RSS feed if they’re unsure whether they like the site’s content and direction.  They sign up to keep an eye on it without having to go back to the site.  People who sign up for your newsletter have proactively indicated that they’re definately  interested in hearing more from you. They’ve said they want to buy from you.

I have no idea how to set up a newsletter list

Autoresponders are brilliant. They take the hard work out of subscriptions, un-subscribers, setting up the list, emailing etc. Two of the best are MailChimp and Aweber. MailChimp is free up to 500 subscribers, Aweber is paid for.

Aweber has a higher delivery rate and more formatting options but is a a little harder to use (not much, just not quite as user friendly until you get used to it).  MailChimp’s pricing increases as you get more subscribers and if you send more emails each month, Aweber’s pricing stays the same no matter how many subscribers you have or how many emails you send.   It’s your choice which option is best for your business.

Best-practice – Single or Double opt-in

All autoresponders should give you the option to have either single opt-in or double opt-in. Single opt-in is where a subscriber fills in their details in the form, clicks ‘submit’ and they’re on your list. Double opt-in is where they fill in their details and click ‘submit’, your autoresponder sends them a confirmation email and they have to click on the link to confirm their subscription.

Single opt-in is not complicate with the CAN-Spam Act, however it’s still widely used. Double opt-in has a lower confirmation rate, which is why so many people stick with single opt-in.

Double opt-in is the best practice. It’s the safest option to use and helps give your subscribers confidence that you’re not going to spam them. If you’re taking care of them from the beginning then you’ll likely continue to do so.

Part 2 on using Autoresponders and newsletters will follow tomorrow.

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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.

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The very charming James from Men With Pens recently directed me towards Technorati’s recently released “State of the Blogosphere 2008” report. This report has been issued yearly since 2004, and the stats and figures it puts out are interesting. The complete report is so large they spread it over six days (so glad I wasn’t the one writing it!).

They’ve also recently emailed out a link for people to complete a survey for “State of the Blogosphere 2009”. If you’re interested in completing it – and if you’ve got a blog then you should be – click here for the survey.

What really struck me about this years report is the obvious gender bias in blogland. Looking firstly at the Introduction and the ‘Segment Snapshot of Bloggers’ the bias is obvious.

Personal Bloggers = 64% male

Corporate Bloggers = 70% male

Professional Bloggers = 72% male

I’m not sure exactly how Technorati defines the difference between ‘Corporate’ and ‘Professional’ bloggers, since over 50% of all three categories say they are in full-time employment. There seems to be no distinction made between full-time employment blogging and full-time employment elsewhere.

Average time blogging = 35 – 38 months. (Three years, give or take a month or two) There’s no instant path to success here. Experience, and sheer tenacity, seems to be a factor in being a successful blogger. Ask any of the A-Listers and they’ll tell you this, there’s no surprise there.

Looking at the “Global Bloggers by Gender” chart, 83% of females and 76% of males have personal blogs, however when it comes to business only 38% of females have a business blog compared to 50% of males.

These figures show something I’ve suspected for awhile. The internet is a man’s world, baby!

Think about it. Name for me a single female A-List blogger. Dooce – maybe? Others – there are a lot of females who are well-known, but not classed as A-Listers. Gender bias is well and truly alive on the internet, and I have to say it irritates me no end.

Why is this? I mean, why is it a man’s world, not why does it irritate me. If you’re a female then I’m sure you know why it irritates me, and if you’re a guy and you don’t get it then you possibly shouldn’t ask.

Honestly, I don’t know. Females are as intelligent as males, we’re as well educated as the guys are. We’re as tech savvy as them. Yet, what we say has less authority. We attract less readers. People question what we say more than they do a guy’s writing. I guess we as a culture haven’t advanced as much past the days of the suffragettes and equal opportunity as we like to think we have.

But you know what? The ‘why?’ is less important than the ‘so what?’. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for my clients, my friends, my peers? What does this mean for your business?  The fact is that the internet is male-dominated, so how do we live with that, earn a good income and grow our businesses?

So tell me, what’s your opinion on this? Is it truly a man’s world? What chance does a female have of getting to the top of the blogosphere? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.