In this article of Tips In Ten, I want to talk about how to get your list: How to start it and how to build it up.

How to start your list
People will exchange their contact information for free information that they feel is helpful and relevant to them. Your job is to create the content and show them why it’s valuable and then make it easy for them to sign up.

The first thing you’ll want to do is think about who your prospects and customers are and consider what they want to know. You likely serve a specific niche and this niche has some problem or need that you fulfill.

While you might have products or services that they pay you for, think about whether there is information they might want for free. What can you give them that they will willingly exchange their contact information for? The most common information delivery methods for your list include:

• An ezine (aka newsletter) or autoresponder
• An ebook
• A whitepaper or report
• Access to an “insiders’ site”

(NOTE: Ezines are fresh issues of content each week and subscribers get whichever one is next when they subscribe, while an autoresponder is a set of emails sent out in a pre-determined order and subscribers always start at #1. You may recall that I cover ezines and autoresponders in previous Tips In Ten issues. What you read there will apply here so check your archives).

Don’t hesitate to get creative here. You don’t have to stick to the ‘norms’. Here are some industry specific ideas:

• Website Designers: Giving away free themes to wWrdpress, or a free plug-in for their site, or a custom code/script for a neat feature/widget to put on their sidebar.

• Salons & Spas: Free Manicure or Pedicure (i.e. gift certificate etc.), Free ‘how to’ do something ebook or white paper – i.e. How to make your own mud mask.

• Author: Free sneak peak at the first chapter of their book (via digital download).

This list of the most common information delivery methods can be mixed and matched to create a really useful, meaningful free offering to people, which will compel them to subscribe.

• The ezine is the most basic form and it’s the easiest to start because you really only need one issue to get going.

• An ebook or report by itself is not a bad idea because it has an attractive amount of information, but it’s just a one-time download. You should think about combining the whitepaper report or ebook with an ongoing form of communication so your list doesn’t forget about you. A whitepaper or report followed by an ezine or autoresponder is a good combination. People sign up for the whitepaper (perhaps a “tell all” report on something your niche is dying to read about) and then you just continue talking to them with an ezine or autoresponder.

• An autoresponder is pretty structured (because it has a pre-determined order). In some ways it’s very useful because you’re always using the content you have written. However, it’s hard to stay timely and relevant that way since one subscriber might get the issue at one point in the year and another will get it later in the year. So if you want to go with a slightly more connected-to-now approach where you can reference the news or a current situation, an ezine might be more appropriate. However, ezine content is used once and then forgotten. Some markets do well with autoresponders (because their content is timeless) while other markets do well with ezines (because their content is very time-sensitive).

• A website that requires someone to sign-up is a good way to build up a list but I’d recommend that you continue to email them something anyway because you want to continue communicating with them and you don’t want to leave it up to them to take the initiative to view the website.

While you are thinking about how you want to deliver your content, think about some type of information that they might want to read. It should be…

• Relate to what you do.
• Valuable to subscribers.
• Something you know or can easily access (while list-building is good, you don’t want to take away too much time from the deliverables you get paid for by doing research on something you don’t know enough about).
• Something other than free versions of the products or services you sell (otherwise, why would they ever buy from you?).
• Something different than what your competitors are offering
• Easily distributed (i.e. via email).

Brainstorm some ideas and, if it contains all six of these qualities, you’ve got a potential winner. If you’ll forgive me talking about myself for a moment, I’ll use these Tips In Ten issues as an illustration: They are related to what I do (business-building productivity), they are of value to subscribers (because they save people time and contain useful information), the topics are things I know (because I never recommend something I don’t already practice), it’s not just a free version of what I do (my coaching is much more in-depth), it’s something different than what my competitors are offering, and it is distributed through email.

Building some critical mass
Once you’ve come up with some ideas, my recommendation is to try and write a few issues of your ezine or try writing your ebook or report. I’ve seen a lot of people who wanted to build a list but they just don’t have the time to write their ezine each week. They invested a lot up-front and then discovered that they didn’t have the time on the back end to continue.

I’d suggest writing a few issues (say, one or two month’s worth) to make sure you have a feel for the workload. This is also helpful to clarify the purpose of your freebie. After writing, you might discover that you need to alter the point of the freebie because it’s too close to what you get paid to do or because it doesn’t differ enough from what your competitor is doing.

It’s also helpful to write a bit just so that you have some critical mass in place early on. You might be working out the kinks of your whole list-building system and you might not have the time to add more content right away.

The technical details
Once you’ve decided on what the freebie is you want to offer to build your list, it’s time to put the details in place. The “big picture” steps are…

1.    Set aside the page on your website (or buy a domain if you want it on a separate page).
2.    Add content giving your potential subscribers a reason to subscribe.
3.    Go to an email marketing provider like Aweber.com or ConstantContact.com or 1ShoppingCart.com to sign up.
4.    You’ll get a snippet of code you can add to your site and this will embed the sign-up form on your website that your users need to enter their name and email address.
5.    Upload your written content (your ezine or your autoresponder) into the email marketing provider’s interface and schedule them according to how you want them to be distributed.

(Again, you can get more details from the previous Tips In Ten articles on autoresponders and ezines if you’re not sure of the difference or want more details about how to do the steps above).

Reducing your workload
These steps will take more than ten minutes to implement but the point of this Tips In Ten is to show you something quickly that will have a dramatic impact on your business. If you’re busy (and I know you are), consider delegating or outsourcing some of the work and dividing up the steps above into ten minute tasks over a week or two.

In the next article of Tips In Ten, I’ll talk about some do’s and don’ts for building your list and I’ll help you to make your list even more effective and responsive to you.

Related posts:

1. The Power of a List: Part 3
2. The Power of a List: Part 1
3. Ezines in 10 Minutes a Day- Part 2 – Picking your Software

You’re in charge of your

But there ARE ways you can improve staff productivity in just ten minutes a day and in this issue we’re going to talk about one of those ways. (In future articles I’ll show you some other ways that you can improve staff productivity, too.)

One of the best ways to get the most out of your staff is with a ten minute staff meeting every day.

Now, if I can read the minds of most of my readers who are in multi-staff situations, I’m sure that you’re thinking “oh no, not MORE meetings!!!”. Well, stick with me and I promise that this will be good.

Your daily ten minute staff meeting should have 3 functions: First, it should refocus everyone on the most important things. Second, it should get everyone working on the same page. Third, it should motivate everyone to do a great job. That’s all you need to do. And if you use that as your agenda for 10 minutes every day, you and your staff will get more done… AND you will have fewer meetings.

Your meeting’s agenda should be as follows:

1. Focus: Two to three minutes of you talking about the important issues of the day. For example, “Remember that we have a sale on blue widgets today and don’t forget to incorporate the sales techniques you learned from Friday’s sales training”.

2. Overview: Three to five minutes where everyone gives a 1-2 sentence description of what they are doing that day. A sales person might say: “We’re going after XYZ Inc. today and hoping to win them over as a client by the end of the week” and the accounting department might say “we’re finishing up last month’s expense reimbursements so everyone should make sure their expense reports are handed in by noon today.”

3. Motivate: One to two minutes where you “pump up” your troops. This is where you add a little motivation to their day. You might say something like: “We’re so close to breaking a revenue record this month; let’s push to achieve it!” or “I’m really proud of the work you’ve done” or you might introduce a contest or read something short from a motivational book.

That’s it. Ten minutes. And here’s why it’s so powerful:

During the Focus section: When you focus everyone on the most important things and on the big picture, you’ll help them to avoid doing work that doesn’t matter and you’ll keep at the top of their minds the things you want to achieve in your business. If you remind them that blue widgets are on sale, they will sell more blue widgets. If you remind them to incorporate the stuff they learned from Friday’s sales training, they will be more likely to do so.

During the Overview section: When everyone talks about what they are doing, you’ll help the team feel like a team, and that’s good for morale. You’ll reduce the number of emails floating around… and you’ll reduce the number of important emails floating around that aren’t read anyway! And, when people know what everyone is doing, they’ll tend not to work at cross purposes and they will often require fewer meetings. And, when they do have other meetings, they will often be more productive because everyone is up-to-speed on what everyone else is doing.

During the Motivation section: You’ll improve morale yet again by getting people excited about working. You don’t have to say anything profound; you don’t have to be the next Tony Robbins. However, if you have a passion for what you do and you talk about it with others, you’ll infect them with it.
And the great thing is it only takes 10 minutes a day.

A few tips to make the time even more productive:

• Make it mandatory that everyone is there. If you have salespeople on your staff, they might want to get out and start the day (and you DO want them selling) but everyone in your business will benefit by their presence. And don’t forget that you can use telephone or video conferencing to dial in offsite staff.

• The morning is a good time to do it because that kicks off the day really well. But we live in the twenty first century and you might have people on staff who are in different time zones. If possible, hold your meeting first thing in the morning but if that’s not possible, hold your meeting in the middle of the morning or right after lunch. Don’t do it at the end of the day.

• Plan what you are going to say the night before. Or, if possible, plan the entire week’s worth of Focus-section and Motivation-section thoughts on Friday afternoon.

• If you have “talkers” on staff who tend to give more than one or two sentences during the Overview section, just cut them off with a good natured “okay, time’s up!” and move on to the next person. They’ll learn quickly to keep it short. If it’s a common problem in the office, then rephrase your Overview section by saying: “Give me one goal you’d like to accomplish by the end of the day today.”

• Pay attention during the Overview time. This is a time for you to listen and make sure everyone is on track. Also, listen for duplicated effort, gaps in workflow, and mistaken priorities. Obviously, no one is going to account for their entire workday in a one or two sentence blurb, but they will probably talk about a bigger, important project. If their highlight is: “I’m sorting my paperclips by size” then you need to investigate what else they do in the day.

• At the end of the day, pick two or three people and give them a quick call or IM  and ask them about their work. Did they accomplish the work they wanted? Can you help them in some way? At first they’ll wonder why you’re asking them but over time they’ll realize that you’re just following up. They’ll appreciate the support and you’ll be totally in the loop. (They’ll also work a bit harder to get the work done on the off chance that you are going to call them and ask). Make sure you do this everyday and rotate who you call so that you call everybody at least once before you start your list again.

• Find a selection of motivational books or thoughts and keep them handy when you’re preparing. You might have something more appropriate for your situation but I like work by Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Napolean Hill, and even sales-specific work like Jeffrey Gitomer and Tom Hopkins.

Bonus tip:

If you don’t have time to do a daily staff meeting, think of having your manager host the staff meeting, or pick a less frequent schedule, such as weekly.

Related posts:

1. Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of Your Office
2. 5 Common Productivity Barriers and How to Eliminate Them
3. Business Growth in Ten Minutes a Day

She’s still doing okay but has had to play “catch-up” to achieve the level of success she once enjoyed.

Competition is fierce! We can all probably think of a time when our competitor pulled a fast one on us or came up with something just a little more clever or a little more innovative than we could. (Perhaps the reverse is true, too, but we never remember those times as clearly!). So, part of your job is to keep an eye on your competition and make sure that they don’t accelerate too far past you.

Now, if I recommended competitor research in any other situation, you’d probably say “I already have enough to do; this just seems like something else.” But I’m going to show you how you can take ten minutes today to set up some easy competitor research and then take ten minutes each day to monitor your competitors. Chances are, they’re NOT monitoring you so that gives you a distinct competitive advantage.

Setting up your competition watch:

Step one: Create a spreadsheet that lists your competitors in the first column and then includes various comparisons in the next columns. You’ll probably watch them on price and benefits as well as temporary specials, sales, or offers. You’ll also want to know what they are saying about you. Just list across the top of your spreadsheet whatever factors you want to measure them in.

I’ll use a simple example to illustrate: If I ran a sandwich shop and I wanted to see what my competitors were up to, I’d create a spreadsheet that listed the following parameters across the top:

• Competitor
• Website
• Low price sandwiches
• Low Price point
• Mid-price sandwiches
• Mid Price point
• High price sandwiches
• High price point
• Specials
• Positive things people are saying
• Negative things people are saying
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats
• Notes

Obviously, you might want to place more across the top but this is what I would watch for if I were a sandwich shop. And yes, you should include a SWOT analysis of your competitors so you “force” yourself to take what you are learning about them and use it to your benefit.

Lastly, I’d go online and keep an eye on them to see what they are doing.

I recommend that you find the following information about your competitors: If you are on Twitter , and you use HootSuite  or TweetDeck , set up a column to list your competitors (tweets from the owners and employees themselves, but also any mention of the business, too).

Next, if you are on LinkedIn, go to the sidebar (where you can review and add applications) and add “Company Buzz”. Set it up to search keywords that include your competitors.

Also, go to Google Alerts and set up an email search that delivers you information containing your competitor’s names.

Lastly, if your competitor has RSS feeds, subscribe to them. By doing these four things in just ten minutes, you are automating the entire process so you don’t have to go hunting for competitor information; it comes directly to you.

Filling out your spreadsheet

Now it’s time to fill out your spreadsheet. Depending on how many competitors you have, and how detailed the columns are across your spreadsheet, you might want to take one competitor each day and spend ten minutes filling it out, starting with your biggest (most threatening) competitor. Or, in some cases, this might be as simple as visiting their business (if they’re local and if they don’t know who you are, of course!).

Daily monitoring

Once your spreadsheet is complete, you can turn your attention to tracking and updating your competitors as the content comes in through the various sources you subscribed to earlier. You shouldn’t have to spend more than 10 minutes per day on this once everything is set up. Watch for:

• Price changes
• News items
• Specials
• “Buzz” (what other people are saying about them)

When you notice one or two things, it might not amount to much. But the value of doing this on a consistent and ongoing basis is to spot trends because they will give you a hint of something before it happens.

For example, one of your competitors has been a #4 or #5 competitor for some time. Then one day a news item reveals that the company is under new ownership. That prompts you to do a bit of research and you learn that this new owner is really good and taking middle-ground businesses and making them excel. Then you notice that they start to increase their specials and lower their prices to “buy” marketshare! You might not have noticed all this without doing some 10-minutes-per-day competitor analysis!

But the real question is: What can you do with this analysis once you have it?

The first advantage is in knowing your competitor really well. I’m sure we’ve all heard that story about how Xerox repair people knew their competitor’s photocopiers better than their competitors did! The same rule applies here. You won’t become an immediate expert but by paying attention to the information you get, you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll get to know your competition and what really makes them tick.

The second advantage is by including a SWOT analysis while you use your spreadsheet. If you get into the habit of working on it a little bit during your 10 minutes of competitive analysis, the actionable outcomes are quite clear.

When you spot a competitor trending in a particular way, you need to take charge. If they are trying to lower their prices to buy marketshare, you should market more aggressively. If they are trying to steal your customers, you should increase customer loyalty. If they bring in a turnaround artist of a CEO, you should improve your business to make yourself untouchable.

Competitor analysis doesn’t have to take a long time. You already have a really busy schedule. But if you take ten minutes now to set it up and then you take 10 minutes a day to review the research that comes directly to you, you will be an expert on your competition and that will be good for your business!

Related posts:

1. Keyword Research in 10 Minutes a Day
2. What Compels People to Hire You (Instead of Your Competitor)?
3. Generating Repeat Business in 10 Minutes a Day

So, how do you do that? Here are ten ideas:

1. Call them up periodically and DON’T sell to them. Customers expect you to sell to them (that’s what makes them “customers”, right?). But if you call them up and DON’T sell to them, you will surprise and impress them. Now, that doesn’t mean you should call them up and shoot the breeze with them. They’re busy. But it does mean that you should genuinely take an interest in their well-being – both as a professional and as a human. If they sound stressed, offer to help. Don’t take money for it but do something for them that will make a difference… even if it means driving to their house to take out the trash. (Disclaimer: obviously you’re not running a charity and the point here is not to be busy with all kinds of trash-to-the-curb giveaways every day. The point is to find out what they need and help them with it. Most frequently it will be a paid service you provide, because that’s what they know you for, but from time to time be willing to step up and do more for them).

2. Become an expert in THEIR business. Think about the industries your customers are in (chances are, there are only a handful of you are marketing yourself appropriately) and become familiar with those industries. Subscribe to industry newsletters, read up on industry trends, and follow the happenings of your clients and their competitors. When you sit down to talk to your customers, you’ll know more about their situation and that will show.

3. Proactively meet their needs. Don’t wait for your customer to come to you with an order. Periodically, contact them with recommendations. If you’re a web designer, contact your customer and say “I noticed that three of your website pages have dead links. I thought you might like to hear it from me instead of from a prospect or customer. I can clean that up for you today, if you’d like”. This adds value because they might never have realized their site had dead links. You don’t have to spend a long time creating large proposals. In fact, these proactive projects might be small… but it’s the small things that are often missed! If you adopt “adding value” as a mindset, you won’t have to schedule the time to go looking for proactive work.

4. Ask yourself: Does this content add value? Look at all of your communication. It’s easy to talk about your business and unintentionally become self-centered. No business owner ever plans to talk about themselves but we just naturally trend that way because business owners like to talk about their businesses. So, from time to time, you need to revisit your communication – blogs, newsletters, etc. and make sure that you give people a reason to read it. (Disclaimer: Of course you’re going to have content that talks about yourself – “About Us” pages, etc. – but most of your content will be more frequently read if it adds value to customers… And by the way, even your “About Us” pages can add value to your customers, it just takes work!)

5. Work your network. You know lots of people. More than you think you do. Just look at all the people on Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook and your Rolodex and wherever else you’re networked. They aren’t just “names” you collect. They aren’t just potential or current customers. They are resources to help you add value to your customers. Spend a few moments each day to think about what your customers need and see about setting up an introduction with someone who can help.

6. Recommend your customer to your other customers. You (hopefully) don’t just have one customer but many. Why not introduce them to each other if you think there is a fit and that one could potentially do business with the other. Some disclaimers: Ask for permission first! And, when introducing them, point out why you introduced them with something like, “Jim, this is Mary. Mary buys gadgets from us but from time to time she also needs widgets. So when I learned that, I thought of your widget store, Jim.”

7. Customer appreciation days. Some businesses open up the barbecue and have customer appreciation days. That’s fine for local business, but we live in a larger business community now. So what can you do? Find a great book that is a valuable resource, buy it on Amazon and have it sent to your customer. Obviously, make sure it is relevant to them and solves an important need that they have. Nice little gifts like wine or a gift basket are okay but they don’t add value in the same way that a helpful resource does.

8. Attend a conference with your customer. Okay, this one may seem crazy to you small business folks but it’s not that unusual in big businesses, particularly B2B businesses. You just need to figure out how to make it work for you (so you’re not spending a fortune or all of your time). Here’s what I recommend: Identify your top 3 customers. Find a conference that they each might be interested in going to and, if it’s in your budget, cover the cost of admission for both of you. You’ll have their ear for the whole day, you’ll demonstrate your focus on their business, and when they introduce you to their peers, they’ll mention that you are a supplier for them (hello networking and automatic positioning).

9. Help their business. If you’re a business that works with other businesses, most of the tips so far have had to do with adding value to your contact at your customers’ business. Remember that there might be other staff there, too. One of the reasons my customers continue to come back for repeat business is to train their internal staff to do work that aids in our projects together. I work with so many people that think training others is losing job or client security. Don’t think that way. Your client’s best interest has to be in mind and training their staff to complete or maintain some of the ongoing work is in their best interest! (Oh, and do I even need to mention that you’ll be able to get past the gatekeeper from now on because they’ll recognize you and think of you as a part of their business?)

10. Spontaneous freebies and giveaways. From time to time, offer something for free (or, better yet, offer something extra as a bonus)… like maybe a bonus newsletter, like I’ve done with this one. Or maybe add an extra donut into the dozen your customer ordered from you. And when you do it, point out that you’re doing it for them. From time to time, add something extra to their order. Some disclaimers: This is trickier than it sounds. Don’t do it regularly, and don’t schedule it, or they will come to expect it. Make sure you give something to all of your top customers or someone might get wind of it and call you up wondering why they didn’t get something for free. It’s okay to periodically give away something that you normally sell (i.e., “a freebie”), but instead consider creating something new and giving it away. (One example might be a free report or ebook, which is easily and affordably replicable). Giveaways have the perception of higher value and they can also be more lasting than simply adding that extra donut.

Related posts:

1. Should You Listen to Your Customers?
2. An Innovation Mindset – “Should you listen to your customers?” Continued
3. Nine Tips for a More Successful Business

1. Hire a Virtual Assistant to sort and prioritize for you.
2. Utilize Email Center Pro

Email Center Pro allows you to link multiple email boxes up on the web and assign to multiple people. Let me give you a scenario:

I have the following email accounts: Sales, Admin (catch all), Accounting and Mine.
Then I have 5 users: Let’s just call them Larry, Mo, Curly, Bob and Bo.

I, as the administrator, have access to all email boxes, but my default is Mine.

Larry only has access to Sales
Mo and Curly both have access to Accounting Only
Bob has access to Admin
Bo has access to Mine

Larry handles the sales email as that is his job, if there is anything I need to see he can assign it to me. (No forward there).

Mo and Curly can simultaneously handle accounting as it tracks their movements and one cannot reply while another is replying – they leave notes for each other, etc.

Bob can filter through admin and only pick out relevant emails from all the junk our catch-all email account receives and move them to my inbox.

Bo is my right hand man and he handles all my email before I even see it.

Now, that is taking email management to a whole new level and probably overkill for most of my readers. I want to tell you how it can help you to handle and prioritize your email but first I just wanted to let you see its vast capabilities.

So, let’s talk about the average user.

You have your email box now feeding in to Email Center Pro and you and your assistant Bo now both handle your email. On your Email Center Pro dashboard you see “My Mail” top and center. This is email that has been “assigned” to you. Then underneath you see “All Mail” and this is mail that has come in. If you have a virtual assistant, you don’t even need to look at the “All Mail”, just the ‘My Mail’.

Technically, your mail comes into your “All Mail” inbox and it is unassigned.  Then Bo can label it and do one of three things: Assign it to you, archive it or handle it himself.

What is great is that Email Center Pro lets you have “mailbox level” signatures and “user level” signatures, so while everything coming from my mailbox has my standard signature, when Bo responds or handles an email on my behalf his signature is there and I have a disclaimer on his signature that reads:

“I check and handle email on Heather Villa’s behalf to assure timely and responsive communication. If you have concerns or an issue with this, please let us know. Heather does review all incoming and outgoing emails once daily.”

So I am not being misleading. My clients, colleagues and friends know Bo is handling my email.

If Bo uses the same sorting techniques mentioned in the previous email:

1. To Do Immediately
2. To Do Later
3. To Be Reviewed
4. Waiting on Follow Up
5. Business
6. Personal

…then you don’t have to worry about costly assistant bills because Bo’s work will just take minutes daily. When you log in to Email Center Pro you go directly to Label 1-To Do Immediately and can handle everything there and then change the label on the email once done.

Or you can use one of Email Center Pro’s other features. For me I have done away with label 1 and label 2. Because of the “My Mail” feature. Anything that belongs in Label 1 or Label 2 is assigned to me and if it is label 1 it is “starred” so when I go into the “My Mail” section of Email Center Pro I know that the only things that are in there are things I need to do and the yellow stars symbolize that it needs to be done immediately.

Obviously, guidelines have to be given to Bo or he has to learn a bit more about your business to do this efficiently. However, remember this: 1 hour invested today can save you 10 hours in the next month!

Disclaimer: This Tip in 10 Minutes obviously will take much longer if you have hundreds or thousands of emails a day.

Bonus Tip:

When you are ready to really delegate, take everything one step further and show Bo how he can do things to handle some of your incoming email. Email Center Pro makes this easy with a Note feature that allows you to add notes to a specific email. So when Bo assigns an email to you, you can assign it back to him with a note that says “yes schedule an appointment on my calendar for this person and email him to confirm”. Voila!

Related posts:

1. Sorting and Prioritizing Email in 10 Minutes on a Shoestring Budget
2. Kick Your Email in the @

The social communities topic in the Social Media Framework mindmap seems somewhat empty, especially if you compare it to the immense pile of social networks I am invited to on any given day (by people I barely know). But the basic ones are here – Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace – so there aren’t any surprises. And, I’ll give the author this to his or her credit: it’s a tough category anyway because most social media has some kind of community surrounding it (Twitter users have followers, for example).

If your market is primarily a B2C market, it is understandable if you want to use several communities (Bebo, Facebook, Myspace). If your market is B2B, it’s likely that you’ll stick with LinkedIn (increasingly, though, Facebook is a place for business colleagues to connect). Pick one or two and really build them out and get active on them. If you try to do all of them, you’ll still end up focusing on a couple and doing a half-baked job on the others.

Once you’ve selected the one or two that you are going to be active on, build your profiles fully and be active there. Make it your network. Build relationships with your connections. Ask them how they are doing. Engage with them. Share with them.

Ning is also mentioned. Ning is a way to create niche communities around a specific topic. The idea here is to create a social network around something of your own focus – sort of like a Facebook for people who are only interested in the one thing you’re interested in. I haven’t used Ning very much but I do like the idea. (The only reason I haven’t used it much is because I have lots of other things taking up my attention right now). Ning as a concept is great and if you have a target market who will participate in a social network like that, you’ve got a captive audience who will also be highly engaged and more likely to buy. But if you’re thinking of trying Ning, you’d better weigh the ROI because they are moving away from free networks towards paid networks later this year. (Still, it might be a good thing for your business and worth the cost).

The last item mentioned in the mindmap is Cliqset. Cliqset is a way to pull together all of your content and participation from around the web into one place in a sort-of Lifestream. I like the idea of a Lifestream: People can view your Lifestream as a single repository where all of your links and status updates and bookmarks and published content is gathered. It can position you and it keeps everything altogether.

If you’re looking for a fast start to get a Lifestream going, Cliqset could be for you. But if you don’t mind a couple of extra steps, consider adding a Lifestream to an existing site you own instead. For example, convert a page of your site to a Lifestream (as I have done) or use Twitter as your Lifestream. The reason is, this can end up being an extra thing to pay attention to if it exists outside of your current network of sites, and it doesn’t offer as much value to you because of that: As an example, consider a prospective customer. When they search for you, they might look at your site and your Twitter account but it’s unlikely that they will continue on to look at your Lifestream on Cliqset (or elsewhere). However, if your Lifestream is integrated into an existing network (like your website) they will see it and it will further position you.

I have a lot more to say about social networks, but I’ve given you enough to think about for now! Find a few, succeed with them, and add a Lifestream to one of your existing identities.

Happy Blogging!

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As someone who thinks about business productivity a lot, developing strategies and helping businesses take action are two key elements of what I do. Entrepreneurs often do a great job of creating strategies (after all, what entrepreneur doesn’t love to dream up new opportunities for their business!?!) but they struggle with turning those strategies into actions. If you have great ideas but you often feel like you’re plodding along doing the same old thing, you’re certainly not alone. Even some of the biggest companies in the world complain about this as a constant problem they face.

In this blog post I’m going to give you a step-by-step way to create actions from your strategies.

Step 1: Write out your strategies. (I’m assuming you can do this already; I think lots of entrepreneurs find strategic development to be the easy part!) Write down plans and ideas to take you to new levels of success.

Let’s use as an example the strategy: “Become a thought leader in my market.”

Step 2: Break it down. Most strategies are big, fuzzy ideas and not easily actionable. So you need to break down your strategy into smaller pieces. Some people call these objectives (but others consider objectives to be subsets of goals – whatever). I don’t care what you call them. Just list the elements that will make up your strategy; list the things that you feel will fully contribute to achieving your strategy.

In our example of thought leadership, the elements might be: “publish a book”, “develop a proprietary system”, “get a regular column in a periodical”, “speak regularly”, “get quoted in the media”… and there might be several more.

Step 3: Create actions for each of these objectives. Now it’s time to create step-by-step, easy-to-implement actions for each one. Get as basic and granular as you can so that all you need to do is sit down, do whatever it says, cross it off, and move on to the next step.

In our example, “Publish a book” might have actions like: “brainstorm, write chapter 1, write chapter 2, write chapter 3, write a proposal, query an agent… (etc.)”

You will have some actions that are dependent on other people and could influence the course of your plans. These are inevitable but you should try to reduce them as much as possible or put them as early as possible into your plan. That way, if other peoples’ decisions change your course, it will change your course earlier rather than later.

Step 4: Set dates. Beside each action, set a due date. This is an important step, even though it seems like a lot of work. Setting a date is not just setting a deadline, but it also helps you to get a realistic view of what your timeline to completing your strategy is going to be like. You might desire to achieve your strategy in six months until you count out all of your dates and realize that it will take two years to write and sign a deal on a book. And as you start implementing these actions, you might discover that new situations occur that speed up or slow down your timeline.

Step 6: Go! Now it’s time to start acting on these. Work toward the “due dates” on each one, but be willing to adjust all of the dates as you go. And, as circumstances and technology and opportunity changes, you might need to add or subtract objectives or actions; that’s okay.

This was a quick-and-dirty step-by-step way to turn strategies to actions and there are more subtle points to be made. But this is a good start and I’ll touch on some more ideas in the near future.

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Experience
This should be one of the main considerations when looking at a potential candidate. You need to determine how much experience he or she has working at the tasks you want them to do. It doesn’t mean that they must have performed the exact role, but they should at least have experience in the tasks you need done. For example, a branch manager who is applying for the job of marketing manager might still be well qualified, just because they did marketing while a branch manager. Insist on and check references. Be sure that the experience listed matches what you are seeking.

Integrity
This trait is particularly important if your employee will be dealing with confidential information. Again, reference checks are invaluable and a background check should be considered when client confidentiality is important. Integrity can be a difficult quality to measure so you might have to rely on instinct a little.

Professionalism
This is always important in the business world. If your employee will be dealing with clients via the phone or email, it is imperative that they are able to conduct themselves in a professional manner. How do they conduct themselves on the phone? Do they have a pleasant speaking voice and use proper grammar? A thorough interview as well as a writing assessment can help you make this determination. And seriously consider doing this same assessment for all employees, not just front-office employees, because these people might answer phones in a pinch or they may end up becoming managers when your business grows further.

Initiative
This is huge, but it’s often missed. In my opinion, it’s the second-most-important quality after integrity. A person with initiative may not always do a perfect job, but they’re also not going to sit around and wait. They will be assertive, proactive, and a self-starter. Watch for candidates who seem to think “outside the box” and resist hiring employees who seem to be timid and who need a lot of guidance. You don’t want to spend your time micro-managing people or cleaning up after their messes! You will want to ask how they handle obstacles or difficulties in completing a task and how they manage their time when working from home.

These qualities are imperative in every staff member you hire, whether virtual assistant, freelancer, or employee. Use this article as a “checklist” to ensure that they possess these qualities before you hire them.

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

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I believe that many successful people seek help early: They realize they can’t do it all so they bring someone else on board. While I don’t know the exact details of the 3 people mentioned above, I do know many successful people and one of the things they have in common is that they have help: They have people to whom they can delegate work and they recognize that they can’t do it all themselves.

I don’t think that’s a new concept to business owners, but many small business owners who might be reading this might be thinking, “but I don’t have the revenue to support an employee, nor do I have the time or office space (or employee liability or software licenses or equipment or desire to post a job opening).

This is where another step comes in that I believe is the perfect step between the solopreneur and the growing multi-employee enterprise:

Assistants. And, specifically (thanks to today’s web-based interaction opportunities) virtual assistants.

Now, you might be wondering: “How can an assistant make any difference?” Here’s my answer: Assistants can be used in every aspect of a business organization to help with administrative work, bookkeeping, and customer support. By taking care of these tasks, the business owner has recaptured time that was formerly spent on important (but non-revenue-generating) tasks. Even though they are spending money on an assistant, they are still earning more money, making their time even more valuable.

As an example, consider the consultant who bills $100/hour and spends 4 hours a day consulting and 4 hours a day on marketing, administrative work, research, bookkeeping, scheduling, and more. While they might bill $100/hour, they only bill 4 of their 8 working hours; so their effective rate is only $50/hour. But when the consultant hires an assistant, they might pay that assistant $20 for 4 hours of work per day and the assistant does the marketing, administrative work, research, bookkeeping, and scheduling. This leaves the consultant spending $80 per day on an assistant, but they now have an additional 4 hours of potential billing time! They could do another 4 hours of consulting to earn an additional $400 per day, or they could do a couple more hours and hit the golf course.

But an assistant can do even more. If you find the right assistant, you can even give them some of your marketing, sales, and customer service work. In some cases, they can do some of your revenue generation for you (depending on the product or service you provide, of course).

This is the concept of “scaling”. Many small businesses stay small because they feel that it’s too big of a leap between solopreneur and multi-employee enterprise. But there IS an intermediate step: the virtual assistant. They’re affordable, skilled in many things, and you can scale up your virtual assistants by several iterations long before you ever hire your first employee.

And that is how you make the step forward.

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

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So, how does a business get from “survive” to “thrive”? I suggest that the clue is in the title: Are you managing? Or managing? Yes, it sounds strange so let me explain:

Are you managing your business like the captain of a ship, directing this, automating that, delegating the other? Or, are you barely managing to get your work done each day, hoping that tomorrow will be different but not really sure how? That is the ultimate difference between thriving (the former type of managing) and merely surviving (the latter type of managing).

There is a huge difference, not just in activity but in mindset. All too often, the mindset is (unconsciously) one of survival: Business owners take on all the tasks, working a bit here and a bit there on everything, and hoping that they can keep it all together. They are pulled from one situation to the next. I think it’s a lot like juggling knives: Once the knives are in the air you don’t want to stop juggling for fear that the sudden change in rhythm will cut! Unfortunately, this is a very reactive mindset because business owners will spend too much of their time putting out fires and answering to issues. Yes, they will have some glimmering moments when the job is humming along nicely, but most of the time it feels like a frantic pace.

The “thriving” mindset is one that business owners should strive for. It’s a challenge and not all entrepreneurs will reach this “Nirvana” of business-thinking. It starts with the idea that you need to let go of quite a bit of the effort that you’re hanging on to. Rather than trying to do it all at once, the thriving mindset does this:

1. Identify the most important actions. (Hint, they’re not ALL important)
2. Identify the rest of your activities.
3. Create ways to automate as much as possible.
4. Focus your efforts on the actions you listed in step 1.
5. Delegate, revise, or stop doing the activities in step 2.

In presenting this idea to business owners, they usually come up with a few objections. I’ve listed those objections below with my counterpoints:

• Objection: “Everything I do IS important!” My response: No, it’s not. Everything you do feels important but it really isn’t important. What is truly important is: First, dreaming great things for your company; and second, bringing in new prospects, turning them into customers, and repeating that process over and over. The dreaming/visioning effort is something that is solely yours and cannot be delegated. The sales funnel effort is yours to think about and modify but the actual activities can be automated and delegated.

• Objection: “I don’t have the money to invest in automation.” My response: Automation is a convenient word but doesn’t necessarily mean that it all runs without any input from you. A checklist for a series of common tasks is a good example of “automation” that doesn’t require a lot of investment. Templates for emails and letters is another great example of “automation”. One professional I know uses an assistant to select 10 qualified leads from the hundreds of semi-qualified ones and he contacts those leads and closes 4 – 5 of them. Because he’s not spending his time qualifying and then closing, he can focus on closing and his close rate has increased dramatically.

• Objection: “You’re suggesting that I STOP doing my non-essential activities?” My response: Try it. You might be surprised. This was a sticking point for me early in my career but someone advised me to test it and see if my ignoring certain activities had any impact. In most cases, it did not and I eliminated them entirely, freeing up so much of my time.

The captain of a large ship nicely illustrates the “thriving” mindset. The captain is able to maneuver his or her ship through water (sometimes wide open oceans, sometimes shallow and rocky narrows) but rarely does the captain actually do the work. The captain oversees the effort, directing, advising, and relying on his or her expertise to make changes, but trusts staff and automated effort to act in order to bring the vision to reality.

That is the thriving mindset – the mindset of someone who is expertly managing his or her business.

So, are you managing? Or are you just managing?

Good Luck!

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