When we think of automation, many different things come to mind.  Some people imagine computers, whilst others picture factory lines and robotic machinery.  Automation occurs everywhere. It’s in our alarm clocks, our ovens… our computer calendar reminders and even our wristwatches.  Automation is a part of modern life, working away without our noticing.

What about in business – do micro and small business owners need automation?

In any business, automation can easily be set up in a number of ways:

• Scheduling daily tasks in the computer calendar, with timers to remind you when a task is due.
• Using software programs that automatically run a program every month.
• Operating system is set to check for updates on a regular basis.

These are all examples of automation.

So how does a Small Business Owner utilise automation more to save time and make life easy?

Firstly, look at the tools you have available.  A calendar is a great way to set things up so that you’re keeping on track.  If you’ve created a schedule of your day and allocated time to do certain things, then set it up in Calendar (inside Outlook or Entourage), with alerts to remind you when to finish and start the next one.

Let’s face it – emails often distract us from our task at hand. If you don’t want to be distracted by emails, turn off the automatic downloading of emails or set it to download only twice a day.

You can also create different views or types of calendars for the different activities you have – very handy for those of us leading double lives!  Some calendars – such as Google Calendar – allow you to colour code your different calendars and activities, so that you have a visual representation of the different activities you’re doing.

Taking It One Step Further – Complete Business Automation

You can take things to another level in your business by actually automating processes, so that tasks normally done manually are done using technology.  This is where a system like Infusionsoft can put your business on Steroids (good ones) with marketing, sales, and billing automation – to name a few.

The best part about automation is that you control the set up – so it can be customised to your business and personal needs. Before setting it up, my advice is to find some smart tools and ensure you’ve identified all the processes that can be automated.  The benefits are well worth it.  And if you’d like some help with this, just give me a call.

If you’re a micro or small business owner you may be wondering if a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is worth the cost or time… It’s a fair question, one that is often debated online or in magazines, because small business is naturally less resourced. So today we look at the benefits of a CRM.

What is a CRM?
A CRM system – Customer Relationship Management – is a database that allows you to store information on your clients, prospects and other people related to your business.  The larger, fancier CRMs are more flexible and customisable, whereas the simpler, lower-priced ones are stock standard and hence have limitations.  Price follows functionality in this case.

What can it do for you?
I recall a client a couple of years ago who had a very profitable business, but was extremely inefficient in their processes and systems – so they hired me to sort things out.  What surprised me was that they had built a massively large database and huge client list using just Outlook, Word, Post-it notes and lists.  It’s no wonder they were in disarray!

Since they were adept at attracting business, imagine how much better off they were once they could view all their clients and sales details, and then follow-up with them all.

Ultimately you want a system that is going to make life easy for you.  So it should:

-       save you time
-       improve your productivity
-       streamline your processes
-       help you to make money

You might think that using those paper files, post-it notes, Outlook lists and Excel spreadsheets is safe – but it could be costing you dearly in time, not to mention efficiency.

Having all your client and contact information in the one central location is not just  ‘mandatory’ for big business; it’s essential for small business too.  As a solo business owner your time is precious – and you need to be able to access important information quickly.

Do your homework, set up a system, and reap the rewards.  Your time and business success is worth it.

What do you do when you wake up and don’t have any energy to tackle that ‘to-do’ list?

First, think about why it’s so hard to get moving.  Are these tasks or items that are your least favourite things to do?  Or are they things that you’re putting off for some other reason?

As humans we tend to move away from pain, towards pleasure…

We all have days that we would rather sit on the back porch in the sun with a magazine and cup of hot coffee (or similar) at our side.  But the reality of our life is that the bills still keep coming in, clients need our assistance, prospective clients need to be found, and we have to take action to create a nest egg for our future.  So the choice is: do nothing and sit on the porch, or get into action and make some money.

Obviously, doing nothing WON’T pay the bills!  So how do you push past those internal barriers of resistance to the activities that you really don’t like doing?

An Action Plan to Create Money

First:

• Identify what it is that you like doing and what you don’t.
• Identify what you’re good at and what you’re not.
• Identify the things that actually bring money into your business, and the things that don’t (for example they’re just admin tasks).

Then:

Consider how long it takes you to complete the things you’re not good at and don’t like doing, and what that time is worth in $ terms.  Is it worth outsourcing?  Someone else might be able to do it far quicker, and you can make better use of your time too.

When you’re in ‘work hours’ – always do the things that bring you money FIRST.  Leave the non-revenue stuff for the times when it’s not suitable to be sourcing clients or doing marketing.

And finally, remember your goals… look at any Goals list that you wrote on January 1st. Bigger goals are always much easier to get motivated for, so keep your Big Hairy Audicious Goal in mind as you set to work on those smaller tasks.

We all have motivation slumps – but if you re-examine your daily tasks, you’ll be able to manage them so much better.

Email Marketing Tricks of the Trade

While social media is the belle of the ball, Email marketing still arguably provides one of the most cost effective returns on investment… if you have a well-managed database.  So how do you spin those database names into pure gold?

Give it a Branded Look

Effective email marketing systems let you use easy templates, which you can have customised with your branding. Use them time and time again. This gives a consistent look to your prospects when delivered over time.

Send Laser-Targeted Campaigns

You can improve your campaign performance by segmenting your audience based on information collected with web forms, emails they’ve opened and clicked, their location, and previously purchased products.  This is the ‘gold’ in email marketing!

Track All Email Activities

If you want to know how successful your emails are, you need to track your email campaigns to see how well your campaigns engage (and convert) those that respond.

When you can easily view open rates, click rates, opt-out rates, and bounce rates for each campaign, you will know how to tailor future emails.

If you have a large database you should also test new emails on smaller sample groups (i.e. A/B split testing). You can test things like subject lines and pricing offers.

Automated Marketing

Most email marketing tools can send autoresponders (a series of pre-set emails sent by the system).  These are often lists of email addresses, rather than a database for your prospects and customers – which can prove quite limiting if you want to store and manage information about your prospects.  As well as the ability to have unlimited autoresponders, Infusionsoft can automatically start or stop any autoresponder when a person fills out a form, opens an email, or clicks a link.  And the database will tell you exactly who has done it, and who hasn’t.  Hence – you are using a far more sophisticated tool to manage campaigns that make the data crunching and analysis a whole lot easier.

Deliverability

While the average legitimate email delivery rate is around 56% (Return Path, 2008), a good commercial delivery rate is over 90%. Infusionsoft has a 97% delivery rate. A careful watch on wording will also see it get past the individual’s junk mail filters.

Delivering more emails makes the most of your marketing efforts, so it’s important to use your time and choose your system wisely.

Follow-up of Interested Prospects

I’d also recommend you employ a follow up system for all email and web form enquiries; people will have questions about your products, service, or costings. After all, this is how you bring people into your sales funnel and learn more about them!  Customer-focussed businesses need to watch they don’t ‘forget’ to respond. Australian businesses have a dismal rate of follow-up: 59% of businesses do not respond to email or web form enquiries within seven days (Strike Force Sales survey, 2008, NETT).

Copywriting of Emails

Use the right writer! While it calls for a journalistic style for newsletters, it takes stronger persuasive writing for effective lead generation emails.  Don’t think because you wrote a good essay back in 9th grade that you automatically know how to write to capture leads!  So seek out assistance of those who can do it better, quicker and more effective than you can.

Here are some guidelines:

1. The messages will need a consistent style and tone (especially if you’re marketing as if it were coming direct from you).
2. The copy must be not too wordy, and it should draw attention right from the subject line.
3. Of course, it must deliver on your campaign goals. Calls to action must be there!
4. Good writing needs time. Planning your campaigns well in advance with a copywriter will ensure that your emails are written in both good time and good style.  Let them know all the research on your customers that you have gathered, because then they will be better able to connect with your prospects.

If you hire a copywriter, expect to pay around $70 to $140 per hour. You can negotiate a good rate for multiple email projects.

Remember: email marketing when done properly with the right tools and resources will make a huge difference to your business.

Many people think that because they work efficiently that they always utilise their time wisely.  But is this really the case?

Efficient means you can get a lot done in a small amount of time… yet proper time management for the benefit of the business’s bottom line is another thing!

Today I met with a successful business coach who has a few different income streams.  He was talking about how he’d spent all morning on his copy for a new landing page he’s created to promote an upcoming event.  However the time he spent ‘locked away’ writing was in business hours, when he could have been making money calling and meeting with businesses!

One of his business services requires him to meet personally with his clients fairly regularly, and he isn’t able to do that during the middle of the day – when they are busy with the lunchtime retail trade.  He failed to see that this time in the middle of the day could be spent making money on another income stream, OR on those activities that need to be done AFTER all the client interaction has been done.  So I pointed this out to him – and he was very grateful for the tip.

Sometimes we’re too close to our own work that we can’t see how to improve it!

The important thing is to have a clearly identified plan of all the business activities to be done – and when those activities should be done in your workday. You will find that following a written schedule allows you to get the most amount of revenue in the door.

So think about all the things you spent time on in the last three business days and ask yourself:  were you making the best use of your time for your bottom line?

Tip:  Use your computer’s widgets to set up a sticky note reminder for yourself: “Am I Getting Paid for This?”

Sometimes we are lured by funky new software, devices with apps, and online tools that sing to us with their promises of status, flexibility, connectedness, and new toys to play with.  Rather than make us more efficient, these devices can actually cause us to lose productivity if we don’t first examine what our business needs are, with an eye on desired results.

Many business owners believe that getting the latest gadgets and programs will help their business… but the reality is far from it!  You can spend thousands of dollars on the latest laptop, related software, and then some specific programs for your business needs.  The costs can mount up.  But do you really need this major upgrade?  Will you use all the functions?

Every day there are new applications created for the iPhone and iPad, but most of these are more time wasters than time savers…  Then there are the programs that profess to take your hassles away, manage your marketing or your data, or print labels seamlessly, or even manage your tasks better in a timely fashion.

Here’s a tip:  technology is a lot like the big sales at Myer and David Jones… it’s only a bargain or of value if YOU NEED IT!

Determine Your Real Needs First
In my line of work I am constantly seeing new applications and systems designed to do multiple things. The marketing campaigns for these are brilliant because they make the busy business owner think that they NEED it to make more money!  Occasionally that might actually be the case.

Yet without having identified the business needs first – you aren’t going to make many wise purchase decisions.

When I worked for large corporations like NAB and Australia Post, we spent a LOT of time in the initial stages of our projects to determine our needs.  This shouldn’t be any different in the small or medium business.

If you don’t do this initial analysis, you will end up being MORE frustrated with a new tool that doesn’t meet your needs.  Plus you may find that they bog you down with complexity rather than make you more efficient. Seems pointless if you’re aiming to create an efficient and leveraged business!

So my advice to you is… if you are considering a new app, tool, system or gadget – ensure you know exactly how it’s going to benefit your business.  Otherwise you could get the exact opposite of what you set out to achieve.

Remember: in business purchasing make wise, informed decisions, and if you don’t have the expertise or knowledge about something – ask someone who does.

We are all masters of our own specialty… whether a builder, painter, accountant, real-estate agent, developer, coach, or manager – we’ve all got our area of expertise. But when is it time to let go of control?

Comfort Zones
We are very comfortable in our core talent, and there are also other things that come naturally to us in our daily work. Some people love administration and organising their desk! Others are suited to bookwork and managing accounts. Some people are naturally great communicators. We’re all different.

Yet as business owners we all have this common need to wear a lot of different hats to manage our business. These hats represent different functions and activities (e.g. sales, accounting, management, customer relations). Since most of us have invested a lot of ourselves in our business initially, it stands to reason that we want to ensure that everything goes smoothly under ‘our control’.

A typical small business owner naturally wants to control everything – because the business is their creation and investment. Yet, outsourcing or delegation is the first step to leveraging your time and being able to work ON your business instead of IN your business.

Getting help from someone else is often difficult and uncomfortable. The pain and fear of outsourcing is often expressed as doubt. A client of mine recently said, “I know I need to do it – I just get nervous that they won’t do a good job so I end up reviewing everything they’ve done”. Sound familiar?

How Do I Let Go?
There’s a process of letting go that will make it easier for you. My advice is – do it in baby steps. Outsource a small function first, one that doesn’t require a lot of time and energy and that you can check on in the early stages to ensure it’s being done correctly. Once you’re comfortable that they’re doing it well – then let them do it alone.

Choose your next hat and again keep it a small task. Do the same thing for the first outsourcing task. Give yourself time and don’t think that it’s going to happen overnight. Simply trust that it will be for your benefit, since you deserve to have your time back for yourself!

In all of this, remember that it’s important to find help from people who have proven experience and come with good, solid credentials. Use your wisdom and instinct in choosing outside service providers, and you will be far better off.

Outsourcing is going to be a strength for you and your business: so don’t be afraid to venture out from your comfort zone.

Let’s face it: we all have days when things just don’t go our way. If we feel strong, we can manage how that affects us emotionally, and what we choose to do about it. But what about when something you’ve set up perfectly suddenly doesn’t work? Even automated technology can fail sometimes, causing us time and effort.

I don’t like to admit it – but it happened to me recently. A few days ago one of my websites failed – for no apparent reason. It also affected my emails attached to that domain name and caused me to lose about 3 days worth of emails, perhaps very important emails. After spending an hour on the phone to my web hosting company, I learnt that ‘someone’ had changed my name servers. It was a manual error, but we have no idea who did it – and as a result my website and emails had crashed, costing me potential business, some stress, and a couple of hours of my day to get it fixed.

The one thing about technology is that it works brilliantly to make our lives better, however it requires human input and intervention to make it work.

How can I avoid this happening again? I honestly don’t know. It’s one of those spanners that stopped the wheels… but it doesn’t have a clear answer, with nobody officially to blame.

This kind of thing happens rarely, and when it does – we just have to get it sorted quickly and with the least amount of fuss. There’s no point investigating who was at fault because the problem has now been solved. And there’s no process I can put in place to save it happening again.

So in my ‘outsourced’ world built on automation and efficient systems, even I succumb to problems that cause the wheels to stop.

When a spanner is thrown in your works, do you feel safe in the knowledge that the providers you’re using are doing the best they can? I believe that having trust in your providers and keeping calm is the fastest way to get on with the business of making money and having a life.

When it comes to talking to your prospects or customers online, do you come across as yourself or as an automated purchase taker? Do you make it personal or keep it all business? Do you find a new prospect and try to sell them your big ticket item on the spot?

The best piece of advice a mentor gave me on this topic is this: See your prospects as though you’re dating them for marriage… you don’t go to fourth base on the first date – you’ve got to go on quite a few dates before you take it to the next level!

I often see business owners try really hard to make a sale by blasting out an offer on the spur of the moment, then sit by the phone and wonder why it’s not ringing.  Have you ever been sold to by someone you haven’t heard from in a while but ignored the offer?

Statistics from recent research tell us that it takes on average 7-9 touches to make a sale.  I have prospects who have taken longer than that, and who have required MORE than just an email every week.  My prospects like to communicate with me personally and get a sense that I understand them and that I’m adding value to them and their business.

How are you ‘courting’ your prospects?  Asking for fourth base on the first date?  Or are you taking your time to get to know them?  The truth is in the sales results.

As our web-based communication age continues, we are being challenged more and more to find new ways to promote and sell our products and services.  Remember that it’s not all about the latest design and pretty pictures.  It’s more than a great offer.  And it’s more than power words repeated ad infinitum.

It’s a mixture of ALL of these things, and the magic ingredient of the human touch.  People want to buy from people – and that’s who you are after all.

The Ladder of Loyalty

The Direct marketing system is built around a five step ladder of customer commitment, dating back to the 1930s.

On the bottom we have Suspects – people we think should have an interest in doing business.

Once they show interest in our business they become Prospects – we communicate to them to encourage a sale. Once they buy something they become Customers. But this is not where it ends.

If you continue the communication, giving Customers added value and real  information, they move up to the Clients level. So they are happy to buy only/mostly from you when they need those products or services.

By asking these Clients to refer friends who need your services, they then become Advocates. Advocates willingly encourage their acquaintances to try your products/services.

All businesses should nurture the customer through to the Clients and Advocates level – where most leverage happens. After all, look at your business you will likely find the Pareto Principle at work – 80% of the business comes from the top 20% of all people you trade with. These are your clients and advocates.

“Simplify, streamline, automate”.

They’re words you’ve heard before and might attribute to large corporate exercises to cut costs, save money and downsize.  True in some cases, but streamlining is not just reserved for the corporate world.

Where small business owners suffer is in the constant grind of daily tasks, never-ending work, and responding in a reactionary way to requests and problems. This leads to ending each workday feeling drained and uncertain about what progress, if any, has been made.

As the 4-Hour-Workweek describes, it’s not only a possibility to leverage yourself out of your business, it’s a creative choice.  Moreover, to get there takes some work – it doesn’t happen in an instant.

Keeping life simple is a golden ideal most of us have. But in our business, how can we possibly keep it simple?  To truly be ready for leverage and automation in your business, you must first go through certain steps to simplify things.

Simplify = understanding who you are, your business drivers, goals and strategic vision is a good start.  Know what excites you and what drains your energy.  Create a schedule to keep you on track, and employ methods that support your daily work.

Streamline = outsource the things that you don’t do best but that take up much of your time.  Consider your common tasks and activities and see where you can consolidate them.  Look at your marketing and sales processes, ask pertinent questions of your best customers, and then create better ways for your customers and prospects to experience your business.

Automate = use technology and systems to make life easier for you and take the guesswork away.  This will enable you to outsource more functions to others, because the processes are already set up.

Unless you’re an expert organiser (the top 2%) this can all be a headache to learn, and because of unfamiliarity it can be very slow.  Why not outsource it to those who are experts… enabling you to get on with making money in your business.