Social networking a.k.a. the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Ecademy, LinkedIn and so on have become the new marketing buzzwords. Everyone is interested in finding out about them and knowing how to use them to get business in through the door. 

So, if you’re interested and want to use them in your business, where should you start? Here’s my top ten tips: 

1)    Don’t expect to see clients immediately. Social networking is a long term strategy. It’s about relationship building. The more people see you adding information and content to online networking sites, the more people will get to know you and want to do business with you. 

2)    New social networking sites are springing up all the time, so don’t expect to keep up with all of them. Choose 3-4 to keep on top of and work on these. That means setting up your profile and regular posting on there so that people can get to know you. 

3)    Write a generic profile of your business and about you on Word and then use it on all of the social networking sites you’re going to try out. That way, if you get invited to start using another one, your profile is already written. 

4)    Link your social networking sites as much as possible. By that I mean, use sites like www.ping.fm to help you manage all of your sites. That way, you can post on one site i.e. Twitter and have the content automatically sent to all of the other social networking sites you’re using. 

5)    Write as much content as you can. Put your articles on there, give your opinion or views on topics and write down tips. You can write absolutely anything on social networking sites, so get creative. 

6)    Write as often as you can. It’s no good setting everything up and then ignoring it.

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Creating the Franchise Concept
The wily entrepreneur will always express a desire to start a business and make lots of money.  While there are no guarantees, it is difficult to succeed if you don’t even try.  One of the ways to leave a lasting impression on the world of business is to start a company, watch it grow and profit over the years, and then take the next step—turn it into a franchise operation that allows others to benefit from your proven system.  You will multiply your earnings many times over thanks to the upfront fees you receive from new franchisees, plus from ongoing royalty payments.  You will also see your brand spread out across the countryside, perhaps even becoming a household word.  After all, there was no McDonald’s chain prior to Ray Kroc, nor a Dunkin’ Donuts until Bill Rosenberg dipped his first lump of dough into a vat of fry oil.

Good Legal Advice Is a Top Priority
When turning an existing business into a franchise opportunity, the best place to start is to engage a competent attorney—one who knows the franchise industry and is familiar with various state and federal requirements regarding disclosure and other touchy issues.  Before you ever solicit your first franchisee, you will need a comprehensive package of material that conforms to specific government regulations.  The Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) is a legal requirement as mandated by the U.S.

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What is the SBA?

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal agency, created in 1953, responsible for assisting and protecting the interests of American small business.  The agency operates through a series of field offices around the country - as well as in partnership with public and private organizations - to offer such things as technical assistance (how to do business overseas; how to teach your workers new skills), contracting assistance (how to bid on government jobs), and other areas of importance to small business owners.  These might include recovering from natural disasters, complying with civil rights laws, or helping young entrepreneurs get a business off the ground.  But the main reason most people approach this agency is to obtain an SBA business loan - either as start-up funding or for financial assistance to expand an existing business.

What Are SBA Loans?

With no sense of irony whatsoever, it is not possible to obtain an SBA business loan unless you have been rejected in your application for a conventional loan.  In order to keep this government agency from unfairly competing with commercial lending institutions - banks, credit unions, and so on - the law states that the SBA may not guarantee a loan if the customer can secure one “on reasonable terms” from some private source.  There are a number of different types of SBA loans available to the business owner, depending upon the size of the loan, the use to which it will be put, and other factors.  Here are some examples:

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This morning I received an email from a contact of mine. It went something along the lines of “Just listened to your new audio. I have some feedback if you are interested.” Oh dear, I thought. That doesn’t sound good.  I’m pretty sure that if the feedback was positive, the email would have sounded like another email I got recently – “just listened to the audio. Fab by the way. Can’t wait for parts 2 and 3).” So, I sat there this morning, having a really good think about whether I wanted to hear this feedback or not.  You see, as small business owners we’re taught that any feedback (good or bad) is a good thing. And bad feedback is actually brilliant news because it helps you to improve. But, here’s my take on things. I don’t believe that receiving every bit of feedback is helpful or useful to your business.  

The reason I say that is this.  I think there are three types of people who give feedback to businesses and that you should generally only be listening to one of them: 

Type 1 are people who are genuinely angry and are making a complaint about you or your business. These are the people who you should listen to and go out of your way to sort out. This sort of feedback, while usually not good is definitely worth listening to and doing something about. 

Now here are type 2 and 3 which you should be very careful about listening to:

Type 2 are people who want to sell you their own products and services. They will deliberately criticise what you’re doing and tell you that they can do it better for you. Listen to these people at your peril.  

And type 3 – well they are just people that like a good moan. Nothing will ever please them and they delight in passing back their negative feedback to make themselves feel better. Of course, they’ll never admit that though! 

Why shouldn’t you listen to these people? 

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Business Knowledge Test

What does UPS do?

1. Delivers Packages
2. Provides Logistics Services
3. Drives fashionistas crazy with the never-trendy brown
4. Repairs laptops for Toshiba
5. All of the Above

In order to reduce costs and speed up repairs, Toshiba handed over its laptop repairs in North America to UPS.  Now when a Toshiba laptop malfunctions, a UPS truck picks it up and delivers it to the computer repair depot at the nearest UPS hub that same day.  The computer is repaired the next day and returned the following.  Faster and cheaper.

What does CGI do?

1. Provides computing services for large corporations
2. Charges lots of money for consulting
3. Provides insurance adjustment and evaluation services
4. All of the above

CGI started life off creating and managing large computer systems for large companies.  As they grew and expanded they started managing the data entry for these companies.  At that point they realized that in fact they could also handle the data collection for their clients.

If you answered all of the above to both questions then you know that Insourcing exists.

Now the next big questions:

1. What is insourcing
2. Why are companies doing this
3. How can I participate

Insourcing Defined

Insourcing is when Company B entirely takes over a complete process in Company A and fully integrates its staff and processes into that of Company A so that no one knows the difference.

Why Insourcing

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Reputation in business is everything. It helps you build trust and credibility with your customers and contacts; it can help persuade someone to buy from you if they’re not sure and it’s also far easier to raise your prices if people perceive you as an expert.

Building your reputation is one of the most important things you can do in your marketing. There’s nothing more powerful than this – I’d much rather buy from someone who looked as though they knew what they were doing. Wouldn’t you?

So, if it’s that important, how do you go about doing this?

Well, there are lots of ways you can build your reputation as an expert in your field. Here’s just a few – I’m sure you’ll be able to think of other things you can do too:

1. Speaking on the radio
2. Commenting on a subject in the press
3. Speaking at an event or a conference
4. Having a letter that you sent to a newspaper or magazine published
5. Being associated with a major organisation
6. Participating in on-line forums
7. Entering awards
8. Being seen on your local television news
9. Writing and publishing articles
10. Having a regular column either in the press or on-line
11. Writing a blog or contributing to the blogs of others
12. Writing e-books, reports and tips sheets
13. Holding an event and giving a demonstration
14. Being an expert on a talk show (go on, be brave!)
15. Write and publish a book

I know not all of these ideas will appeal to you, but if any of them do, go out there and give them a go. The more you concentrate on building your reputation, the more people will perceive you as an expert – and that can’t be a bad thing at all.

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On any given day you will find a group of engineers or programmers huddling in the back room, sitting in the corner of the coffee shop, or gathering around the most recently divorced individual’s kitchen table to plan the next major new company built on breathtaking technology.

The hard fact is…we really don’t need more technology. 

What we do need is better application of the technology we have.

In fact, it would be fair to say that we probably have enough sound technology available to last us for the next five to ten years.  What we need are people to make the technology usable for the rest of us.

Technology is important, but what is needed even more is sound marketing/market understanding, ability and practice.

We rush insanely great technology/products to market, we get them reviewed/talked about by bleeding edge media techno-writers and the din of noise fills the media.   Print, web, blog, radio, TV all cover the insanely great solution and we forecast fantastic hockey stick sales and insane profits. 

Instead of the product sweeping the globe in a year – or two – it trundles along with respectable growth but nowhere near the hyped numbers we read.  Obviously the product is a failure and we’re certain it was the product failed…not the consumer.

As time goes on the product slowly and by now without the insane profits we envisioned sales grow and the product is absorbed into our daily lives. 

It wasn’t magic.  It wasn’t the consumer epiphany.  Manufacturers/retailers didn’t convince the consumer he or she had to have the product.  Instead Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm product lifestyle discussion.  His book hit the street in 1991, established Moore as a visionary, people read the book and most returned to the same old technology/hype/failure practice.

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When you look at all the “superstars” our heroes, the people we emulate we tend to think they are endowed with Super Powers.  They are able to achieve fame, success, fortune due to abilities beyond those that we have been given.  They are simply blessed. 

However, that isn’t the case.  The people who achieve extraordinary results have simply learned how to use a series of skills to achieve their goals. 

Regardless of how vastly different their goals are, they all use basically the same skills.

The wonderful thing about this fact is that if it is just a skill – skills can be learned.  So you and I can Achieve Extraordinary Results, because, it’s just a skill!

In this program I break down the basic skills for goal setting and achievement into 7 tools and 7 rules.

Achieving Extraordinary Results is simple, but not easy.  It seems to me there are three reasons why this is the case for most of us.

First, we live in a society that gives us far too many options.  When we run into resistance we can simply move to something else. We lose sight of the objective.   It is easy to quit without penalty or consequence. 

Second, we have become lazy.  Everyone wants to stand on the platform and receive the gold medal, but few want to actually work for it.  We want the rewards without the work.  Since most of us can get that to some degree, we don’t push ourselves to goal achievement. 

Thirdly, and most importantly,  we really don’t know how to Achieve Extraordinary Results, it is not taught - until now. 

The most important skill that we are missing is the first of the 7 tools and that is how to actually set an achievable Goal. 

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