Successful Blog

Are You Afraid of Getting Personal in Business?

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Guest Post
by Annabel Candy

Would you like to build stronger relationships with your potential clients and create trust faster?

Me too and I’m finally making in roads. It took me 1o years to work out how to get my clients to trust me or, more accurately, to accidentally discover how to build their trust faster, but now I’ve cracked it I’m never going back.

When I first set up my own business in 1998 I didn’t know much about the business world and I lacked confidence. I felt as if I didn’t fit in. In my mind business people were hard-nosed professionals, wearers of suits and time poor workaholics.

To make things worse it wasn’t just that I felt as if I didn’t fit in. I really didn’t. I worked from home on a small island in New Zealand and all my clients were a 30 minute ferry ride away in the city.

They had real jobs in real offices. They were real business people and I was just a pretender, a business wannabe.

To make sure my prospective clients didn’t find out that I worked from home I played safe. I invested in a great logo in a timeless design and chose safe corporate colors of blue and grey.

My branding, which carried through to my website and business cards, looked classy and professional but it didn’t have any personality. It just wasn’t me.

Being new to business I did what I had to do to start finding work. I got the yellow pages out and started cold calling.

My business is web design and web copywriting. I had an MA in Design for Interactive Media and two years experience designing, writing and setting up effective websites but getting work was still hard. Like pulling nails in fact, and during the nine years I ran that business I never once got a job unless I met a client face to face.

Even after we got our first few jobs and started getting leads through the search engines and word of mouth recommendations, I still had to meet people before they’d give me the job.

But over the past few years my business has turned around and so have my clients. All of a sudden I have clients in faraway places who’ve never met me and couldn’t even if they wanted to. Even though I live in a small Australian vacation resort town I now have clients all over the world.

So what changed?

Two years ago I started blogging. I set up a blog called Get In the Hot Spot because I wanted to learn about social media and blogging to help my web design clients.

I wrote about travel but my blog posts often strayed into personal development or just personal stories.

My blog was definitely not a marketing tool for my business but gradually people started contacting me and asking if they could work with me even though they’d never met me.

People all around the world suddenly wanted to work with me not because they knew my qualifications or work experience, but because of personal experiences I’d shared on my blog.

Looking back to when I was new to business I made a big mistake by always putting up a professional front. I hid my personality and values behind what I thought was business-like behavior.

But sharing personal stories has helped build trust and grow my business much more effectively. Whereas before I probably came across as one of those boring experts we all try to avoid, now people see me as a real person, someone they wanted to hang out with online and offline, someone flawed like them and someone they’d enjoy working with.

These days I still have my safe, grey and blue corporate website for my web design business Mucho but my fun blog Get In the Hot Spot has really taken over. To give you an idea of the difference in branding check out the logos.


Which business would you prefer to work with?

 

How to Get Personal in Business

Blogging helped me grow my business so well that I eventually set up a separate blog where I could share my business and online marketing tips. But I’m careful that, although the topic is business, the writing style is still fun and shows my personality. I often share personal stories there too if they’re relevant.

You don’t have to have a blog to share your personal side with your clients and show your personality. You can do it on your website, through Twitter or Facebook or anywhere else you connect with your clients both on and offline.

Of course there are parameters and you don’t want to over share, but these are my tips for humanizing your business by sharing personal stories:

  1. Be personal but still professional. Make sure your language and stories are family friendly.
  2. Tell stories that people can connect with and choose personal themes like childhood, family or holidays that everyone can relate to.
  3. Keep it interesting – short, sharp injections of personal stories are good. Lessons learned are always popular. Endless rambling monologues about you aren’t.
  4. Inject humor into your story. Everyone likes to laugh and a smile or chuckle will make people relate to you faster.
  5. It’s a two way street. Don’t forget to pay an interest in your client’s personal life too and ask them about their family or vacation plans. It will let them know you care about them as people, not just as potential clients, and help you find common ground.

What are your experiences? Do you share personal stories with your clients?

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Annabel Candy is a copywriter, web designer and travel fiend. She wrote Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps to help other small business owners and writers tap into the power of blogging. Annabel shares her blogging tips at Successful Blogging and her travel stories and personal writing at Get In the Hot Spot.

Thanks, Annabel, for sharing your story!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Beach Notes: Time to Reflect

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Right now on my healing journey I have been givine lots of time and space for reflection. The beach is my favorite place to just sit and be still. I find the calmness of the sea and the ever changing patterns that nature provides is the perfect place for me to just be. – Suzie

Do you have a quiet space where when you need to recharge or just take time out that you go?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

5 Steps To Create a Solidly Successful Online Product

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A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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We know that almost all products, no matter how good or bad they are, have a certain life cycle, and once a product has ran its lifecycle, the business needs to modify, innovate, or even create new products to survive. So, whether you are an old online business or a new one, you can benefit from having a step by step course-of-action for product creation, because you will need it sooner than later.

Online businesses should not be treated differently from their offline counterparts, as far as product creation is concerned. In both cases, the businesses have to come up with a product, or service that some customers are looking for, while expecting some rewards (AKA profits) for doing so. The only difference is probably in the nature of the products, for example, in cyber world, even a website that offers a very basic service like accumulating news on a specific topic at a single platform is still a product, regardless of how profitable or unprofitable it turns out to be.

Following are five basic steps that you should adhere to, when creating a new online product, regardless of how small or how big the product is supposed to be.

Step 1 – Idea

First step in product developments of all sorts is the idea, whether it is unique or just inspired by an already successful business model. The idea for an online product should be based on solving an unattended problem or a particular need of Internet users. Mindlessly copying some get rich quick schemes with the purpose of earning some extra income doesn’t really stand for an idea.

Remember that the web might appear to be already cluttered by all types of business, but a little out-of-the-box thinking will reveal many untapped markets, however you will be able to see these opportunities only if you are not driven by “overnight riches” dreams.

Step 2 – Scrutinizing

Next step is to brood over the idea, while considering all aspects. This phase is very important, still most entrepreneurs, in sheer excitement, neglect this very important step, and go straight from idea to development phase. It’s important that you take some time and wait for the excitement to settle down, only then you will be able to see the glitches in your plot. Once the initial excitement fades out, you will see that it’s not really a walk in the park.

Step 3 – Marketing Strategy

Some businesses devise a marketing strategy after the product is ready. Ideally, you should be wearing your marketing hat even before you get into the development phase. Having a marketing strategy, or more importantly the target market in mind will help you come up with a product/service that caters to the specific type of customers you are going to target. Thinking from the perspective of a marketer will give you an idea of the cost, and profit margins. Otherwise, it’s quite possible that once you’ve invested your time or resources in the product development, you will discover that you aren’t left with enough money or resources to invest on marketing.

Step 4 – Product Development:

Once you’ve mulled over the idea a number of times, and devised a marketing plan, it’s now time to develop the product. This should be easy, because you’ve successfully gone through the planning phase.

When developing product, think of your customers, and what they’d be looking for, and not what you’re looking for.

Step 5 – Test Marketing

Before you go full throttle with your marketing strategy, you must do the test marketing. Test marketing is quite the same like the actual marketing, but on a smaller scale, while targeting a small test group. Thanks to the Internet, you can use the power of social media to identify your target customers and check the initial response. If it’s good, you should set the wheels in motion, and if they are finding faults in your product/services, be thankful that you’ve avoided a bigger setback, and get back to make necessary changes before launching the final product into the market.

Rahil Muzafar

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Author’s Bio:

This article was contributed by Rahil, who is an Internet Marketer, specializing in making available discounts (like this) and coupon codes (click to see) opportunities. At his website, you will find all kinds of coupon codes and discounts, from hosting packages to stuff like 4inkjets or 123inkjet. Feel free to avail these deals to save on popular online products.

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What Great Interviewers Ask to Always Hire the Best

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Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

Insight on Interviews from Stan Duncan, SVP, Westfield

People power boils down to one thing: potential. Just ask Stan Duncan Senior Executive Vice President of U.S. Human Resources and Global Head of Management for Westfield. Rome could always have been built with enough hands, but those hands needed a dream to follow and voices to guide them. In the 20-plus years that Stan Duncan has worked with human resources divisions in several multinational companies, he’s learned a thing or two about what makes a good job candidate. He’s learned which specific resources are vital to those who are ultimately hired and, more importantly, which questions to ask those candidates.

Duncan says that it’s all about asking the candidate to tell you what they want, what they have done, what will make them successful and “why.”

According to Duncan, having a prospective employee reveal what they see as their own abilities and competence is a surefire way to not only get a raw understanding of their talents and pros and cons, but also to get an understanding of their ability to adapt and their potential to last in the long term. “We aren’t looking for super-humans; in my two decades as an HR executive, I’ve yet to meet one. We want people who are talented, but most importantly, willing to grow and change as the company grows and changes, too.” I believe people who know a lot about themselves do the best selling themselves in an interview. Basically, make sure you’re introducing yourself, presenting the real you in the interview.

Duncan is certainly not shy about his two decades’ of experience as an interviewer. That was proven when he was asked what he’s learned about hiring the right people: “Doing this for 20 years certainly helps you see the big picture; it’s all about potential.” Duncan has been around long enough to see what works for the long-term and what only succeeds in the short term, and his reflections have resulted in him founding an HR model that prizes a prospective worker’s long-term potential over short-term spunk.

“Working in human resources for companies that focus on everything from career apparel, managed services, aerospace glass manufacturing to chemical agent creation has allowed me to see what always stays the same despite the change in labor practices, techniques, and strategies. Human resources are universal in that HR personnel are always seeking out that potential for a long-term employee presence once they’re hired. That’s because longevity in employment means a stronger, more developed team, which increases the likelihood that each member reaches their potential due to the longstanding support of one another.”

The beauty of Ancient Rome would never have been erected by unorganized stone cutters with no collective vision, no matter how many were hanging around looking for work, which demonstrates the power of potential. Without a guiding vision, the kind that an institution like Westfield has and HR leaders like Duncan possess, the potential of individual talent to serve something greater is often wasted. Asking the right questions and paying close attention as human resources workers is the only way to uncover that potential and make sure the talent stays around long enough to make an impact. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your company won’t be, either. Let Stan Duncan’s success show you what can be accomplished in 20 years if you put your mind to it.
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Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for new insights on a critical topic.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Simple and Basic Ways to Get Your Blog Noticed

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A Guest Post by
Susan

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Promoting your personal blog

With the constant expansion of social networking, there are plenty of ways to promote your personal blog to the right people who have an interest in what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Online pinboard tools

Whether your blog is about parenting, business skills or DIY, online pinboards can be an excellent way of attracting followers that have similar interests to yourself. This type of publicity is free and worldwide. Sites such as pinterest.com allow you to create an online pinboard and post pictures to it from your blog using a simple application added to your tool bar. You can have as many online pinboards as you wish (within reason) each with different subjects or themes. The site will then allow you to follow the pinboards of other users that have similar interests to yourself and in turn to follow the things that you post. Your followers can then re-pin your images to their own boards creating a whole large network. Your images will be available to your followers’ followers and so on.

Include relevant links in your blog

Including relevant links to other products and businesses within your blog can help create a network of interest and create new followers. For instance, when writing about an arm chair, use a hyperlink to create links to other relevant businesses and pages. This is a good an easy way to create an interesting and informative blog.

Facebook

There are many different ways in using Facebook as an excellent tool to promote your personal blog. Facebook groups are there to join together users that have similar interests and want to join discussions on matters that are related to you. It is always beneficial to join groups that can help you forward your ideas and create a good buzz about your blog.

Following other users, pages and businesses on Facebook will often give you the opportunity to promote your blog. For instance if you keep a personal blog regarding crafting, you may want to consider following businesses and even magazine publications that are about the same or similar subject matters. You will often find that like-minded people will be following the same pages as you and will pass on links to your blog.

Finally never underestimate the power of sharing your personal blog with family and friends. These loyal followers will often share your links creating a web of interest stretching out across hundreds of people and businesses.

Twitter

Twitter is an excellent way of promoting your personal blog in an unobtrusive way. Expand the list of other users that you follow to again include people and businesses that have similar interests to yourself. You will find by doing this that Twitter will begin to recommend your tweets to a wider range of users on the site.

Joining blogging sites

By joining a blogging network you will make your blog available to thousands of other users. You can use an RSS feed to automatically update your page on the blogging network so that when you create a new post or make a new tweet. This will work in your favour if you are a frequent blogger.

A good blogging site will also give you access to hundreds of blogs that are on a similar subject to your own. By following those, not only will you be able to find new and interesting ideas to help you along the way, but also attract followers from these blogs in your own right.

Effective use of search words

Most internet users will search for certain words and phrases if they want to find out information. If you are writing about a certain subject matter, make sure that you mention the subject frequently within your blog, this way it will be picked up by the search engines and your blog will increase in popularity.

StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon.com is a very good website searching tool where users can recommend sites that they have found to other like-minded people. When you register an account users can set their preferences to help them find blogs on the subject matters that they are interested in. Whenever you create a new blog post, by adding it to the Stumble Upon register you will make it available to thousands of people who are looking to read articles and information on the things that you are writing about. They will also be able to ‘like’ your blog in turn passing the link on to other users and increasing your bloon behalf of her favorite catnapper recliner specialist.

Thanks! Susan!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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