As my 18 yr old son was getting ready for prom the other night I sat and thought about his first day of kindergarten (I know, I know I probably shouldn’t reminisce so much but it was fun).  How times change in what seems like a blink of an eye.  How did my “little” boy grow up so fast?  Where did those last 12 yrs of school go?

Isn’t that the same in your business?  If you don’t put action in place to grow your business soon a year will go by, then two, then 5 and so on.   You will be stuck in the same trap you are now.  

I know that trap as I was also stuck in it.  However I finally put goals into action and started working toward my goals. 

3 ideas to help: 

*The night before write out your game plan for the next day.  This will keep you organized and on task.

*Put a timer on for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or even an hour.  This will help you concentrate on what you are working towards and make you feel like you accomplished something.

*Set out a small goal for the day.  Then accomplish it.  Make sure it is something that you can do that day.

Don’t let any more time slip away from you.   Go for it!

Social Media is Hot, Hot, Hot right now and if you are not on the social media bandwagon you better jump on because this is where business is happening.

Twitter doubles in size every 90 days.  Facebook has over 450,000 new people sign up every day.  The fastest growing population on Facebook is the 50+ and older generation.  Isn’t that crazy?

The average person reads 6 Blogs per day. 

18-34 year olds spend 40% of their free time on Social Media.

Are you ensuring that your business is out there for all of these people to see?

Definition:  quality characterized by honesty, reliability, and fairness, developed in a relationship over time. Customers and clients have much more confidence when dealing with a business when they can rely on the representations made.

I heard some good descriptions of integrity this past weekend but the definition above really describes it.  Does your business have integrity? 

Make sure your business is reliable, honest and fair.  You will go farther if these qualities are engrained in you and your employees. 

If you are just starting out in your business or have been doing it for a while we all know how important bookkeeping is.  For the first few years of my business I struggled with my bookkeeping.  But I always thought “I can do this myself.”   Was that a sign of a good entrepreneur?  Always wanting to do it “myself?”  I don’t think so. 

As a good entrepreneur you must delegate what you cannot and will not do.  You see I found out that I would not keep my books.  When my new current bookkeeper asked for my daily register I said “I don’t have one.”  She about fell over!  Once she took over and showed me where my expenses were going and how I could cut certain expenses I started following her advice.  And guess what?  I do now.  I know exactly where every dollar is going and where every dollar is spent. 

For me it is some of the best money I have spent for the hiring of my bookkeeper.  Judy – shouts out to you!  Thank you for keeping me in line and keeping my finances in line. 

Are you able to say the same about your bookkeeper?  If not check into different ones and if you need a referral I am pleased to give one.

YEARS ago, we had a speaker at our event, Maximizing Success, and his name was T. Harv Eker. He shared THE JAR SYSTEM with all of us that day, and it changed many peoples’ lives regarding money. Whenever I find something that is good information AND life-changing, I think it is MY responsibility to share it.

Here’s how it works. Divide your money between 6 jars, and label the jars as follows:

1. Financial freedom account (FFA): This jar is for your financial freedom. Each month, put 10% of your income in this jar. Money you put in this jar can be used to invest, start a business, create a passive income stream, etc.
2. Necessities (NEC): Put 55% of your income in this jar for your necessities. It’s for things like paying bills, food, necessary clothing, etc.
3. Long term saving for spending (LTSS): Put 10% in this jar. You may have more than one LTSS jar. It’s for things like a plasma TV, your family vacation, contingency fund, your children’s education, etc. If you have more than one LTSS, divide the 10% between the jars according to your priority.
4. Education (EDU): The 10% that goes in this jar is for your own education. It could be used to attend seminars, buy books, etc. Basically, it’s for your continuing education and learning.
5. Play: Allocate 10% of your income for you to have guilt-free fun. Use it to go to a fancy restaurant you’ve been eyeing, or get a massage at a spa. Just do something fun. Let your inner child play.
6. Giving (GIV): Allocate 5% of your income to give to charity. If you want to allocate 10% for giving, take 5% off your NEC jar.

Many people think, ‘But I don’t have money. I’m barely getting by. How can I manage money if I don’t have money?’ If you’re one of those people, that is exactly why you need to use this jar system. If you have very little money, you can start by dividing $1 between the jars. The amount you put in the jars doesn’t matter. It’s the habit of managing money that’s important.

So find yourself a few jars, and start dividing whatever money comes in, into the jars. Mark your calendar 6 months from now–see if it changed your life and thoughts about money.

Hope you enjoy the exercise!

Patricia
www.patriciadrain.com

P.S.
Just a reminder that we will be launching lots of new products and programs soon, so watch for them.

P.P.S.
Ezine readers, I need your help…  I have a client in San Francisco that has a seasoned staffing company for sale.. Know anyone? Email me patricia@patriciadrain.com if you do.

Once I became certified in Social Media Networking my business took on a whole new caliber and niche market.  I have new clients coming in weekly.  I am currently working with a writer and we do package deals to help our clients have great success with social media. 

Here are some more examples of what getting certified with Craig Cannings and VAClassroom.com can do for your business:

One graduate of the Social Marketing Specialist Training Program at VAClassroom mentioned that she landed a great new Social Media client in the plumbing business. Plumbing? If pumbing businesses are starting to use Social Media Marketing strategies, then can you imagine the massive potential client base that is just waiting to be tapped into?

Another graduate from VAClassroom, mentioned that she is working with a Real-Estate company setting up a blog and performing other Social Media Marketing activities.

There are so many vertical markets to tap into and the opportunities for Social Media Marketing Specialists are truly endless at this point!

Since Craig at VAClassroom is so excited to hear these success stories from the graduates of the training program, he wants to make sure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to be trained in this “high demand” area right now.

So, VAClassroom is running a special for the last ten days of April.They are knocking off an additional $100 on our training program ($397) and offering it to you for $297 until midnight on April 30th.

If you are serious about growing your business in 2009, then there is no better opportunity right now then to position yourself as a Social Media Marketing Specialist.

Just click on the link below for all the course details. Also, please make note of the below coupon code that will give you the $100 discount off our training program.

Click Here: http://tinyurl.com/dykp2w
COUPON CODE: april09

Once you click one of the order buttons, you will see a “coupon” field where you can insert the above coupon code.

In these trying times for the economy and money is tight we are all looking at ways to tighten up our marketing efforts. 

Here are 5 tips for Free or low cost advertising

1.  Submit an article to your newspaper.  This article should be of interest to people and not solely based on your business.  Remember to submit it to the correct editor that handles the articles.

2.  Write a Press Release about your business.  Have you learned something new with your business or made any additions?  Announce it to the world!  Once you write a press release there are numerous places you can submit them.  Submit to the editors of your local newspapers and submit online to the online press release websites.

3.  Make a Donation to your church or another community event.  A lot of places do fund raising.  This is a great way to advertise your business through giving.

4.  Have fun with Social Media!  Join Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  Join groups that relate to you or your business on these sites.  Become engaged in conversation with others.  Build those relationships with others. 

5.  Volunteer.  I cannot stress enough how good it feels to volunteer your time and services to others.  Businesses and especially non-profits are always looking for volunteers.  If you cannot find a place to volunteer call your local Volunteer Hot-Line and they will line you up with a place. 

We all want business right now.  Do your part to help others.  Think outside the box and have fun with this.  Getting your name and business name out there can be challenging but fun at the same time.  

One of my good business colleagues is a CPA. We were talking several weeks ago, and he observed that way too many people think the economy is going to hell in a hand basket.

Based on what we’ve seen to date, it’s hard to deny that hell might be in a hand basket, and one that seems pretty full right now. But here’s what’s really grabbed my attention–I’ve seen more than my fair share of small business owners who are thriving when, in theory, they shouldn’t be.

Because they’ve seized that basket by its handle. They’ve made the basket their own by using this rough economic time to their advantage.

These industrious small business owners have realized that by adjusting what they do, they can turn their business from addressing the good times to succeeding in troubled times.

They are clever. They’ve examined their strengths in a different light, the light of an economy going in the other direction to adjust their company to meet today’s client needs.

Let me show you what I mean. At market OUT LOUD, one of our clients is a lawyer who specializes in worker’s compensation. While worker’s compensation claims usually go up during economic downturns, by rethinking his practice, he anticipates a four-fold increase in his billings. He sees his “new” Hand Basket — companies historically overpay worker’s compensation in 80 to 90% of the settled claims. Those are pretty well documented numbers. In the past, companies probably didn’t want to save that money as the hassle wasn’t worth it. Now it is. So our lawyer is showing them exactly where they can stop the overpayments at a time when they cannot afford to overpay. BAM…up goes his billings.

Here’s another example. Real estate isn’t flying off the shelves these days. Yet a realtor we know has discovered her Hand Basket for these economic times. She wants to buy good quality houses in short sale. To do that and get the houses before everyone else sees it, she started a mortgage modification business. Mortgage mod is hot right now…the perfect economic Hand Basket. But remember mortgage mod is not her end game. She wants to buy houses on a short sale. So here’s how her Hand Basket comes together. By working with clients to modify their mortgage, she is also finding people who want to sell their investments or personal homes on a short sale.

Now you know what my question is to you: “What is your Hand Basket for this economy?”

How can you modify your business, get out of the groove that has worked for you in the past and adjust to perfectly fit what people need right now?

First, let’s recognize the types of products and services that struggle when people are strapped for cash or are simply cautious about their spending. The big ones are expensive, luxury items and anything that could be considered a non-necessity. If what you offer isn’t totally necessary in our daily lives, then your products or services are candidates for a sales decline.

Next, you need to examine the groove your business has gotten into. Hey, it happens to all of us. Things are going well. We focus in and off we go. All of our systems are locked into a particular way of meeting the market that served us well in a strong market. All of our employees are tracked and rewarded to execute that direction. It’s not that we’ve stopped thinking about our business. It’s just that we’ve created a habit–a habit that worked in the good times but now it needs to change. Recognizing the habit is the next step to finding your Hand Basket.

If you offer a necessary product or service, you need to be even more necessary right now. You need to help your clients understand that what you offer is in the “must have” hierarchy of needs. And you need to do one more thing. I should get that “must have” from you. There are others out there who offer what you offer. Why should they choose you? You must deliver a benefit to your clients that they must have. The benefit is delivered to them because you are different than everybody else out there that does what you do. If everyone is alike, then we make our buying decision based on price–and that is surely not the place any of us want to be. This is the key–it’s the benefit that your clients are buying. The benefit arrives in a container marked “I’m different”. Some people call this your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). I’ve never been fond of that term as it’s all about you selling when in reality the right way to look at it is that it’s all about the client buying.

Let’s go back to my mortgage modification client. There are a lot of people offering such services. What makes her different is that, in addition to the mortgage mod, she can also help you determine what your house is worth and what it could sell for if you need to or decide to go that route. You don’t have to work with two people with opposing ideas. That’s a winner for her clients.

Don’t have a necessary product? You need to make your luxury a necessity. How can your non-necessary products and services become a “must-have”? It’s clear that luxury items and non-necessities are the first things to be cut, even if just for awhile. We’re a buying people and many behaviorists are wondering how long the American public can curb its buying habits. That said, let’s not wait for that to happen. Let’s grab your Basket by its Handle. It’s time to rethink the reason why people use your service.

I was noodling just this idea several weeks ago with a dentist. While he’s a necessity when we have a tooth ache, that’s not the revenue model on which his business is built. He makes his money on cosmetic dentistry, exactly the type of expenditure that consumers cut first. How could this classic luxury item be turned into a necessity? Here’s our thought–there will be a whole lot of older employees laid off or returning to the work force. They will be in competition for jobs with younger folks. Let’s be frank–they’ll need to look younger to get those jobs. Yellowing teeth. Not good. So our dentist friend could team up with Outplacement companies to offer teeth whitening for people in the job hunt. A luxury becomes a necessity. And our dentist has a new Hand Basket.

It’s time your business developed its new Hand Basket. How do you make your business invaluable during tough times? Make your business something I “must have”. Almost every business has a Hand Basket just to thrive in this economy. Your job is to shrug off your groove, get out of how you’ve looked at your business for years during the good times, and invert your thinking to make your business a “must have” during must have times.

If the economy is going to hell in a hand basket, make that Hand Basket yours!

Copyright © 2008 market OUT LOUD, All Rights Reserved.

Starting with her MBA from The Wharton School and across two decades of in-the-trenches experience, Martha Hanlon has developed innovative, high-performance marketing programs for every size company, from Fortune 100 firms to small business start-ups. She leads companies to start fun, authentic conversations with leads and clients, find out what they want and need, and then tell the story of how they can get it–from Martha’s clients. The happy result: watching the new business roll in. For Martha’s FR*EE how-to articles and marketing tips, visit www.marketoutloudtribe.com.