Follow up is a crucial piece in the sales cycle that not everyone is comfortable with. When you come from a place of service with your follow up, you stand out from the crowd and increase your credibility. You can follow-up in many ways – email, a handwritten note, a card with SendOutCards.com, face to face meetings, and many other creative avenues.
Post your favourite ways to follow up with our community.
In the heat of summer, you do not want to lose the sizzle of your business! This is a great time to catch up reading, take a few notes, and think about how you can implement what you learn into business. When do you get the time to catch up on some of your reading?
Books that will make your summer sizzle include:
POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Tagline, and Title for Anything by Sam Horn
I love this book! It is an easy read chalked full of tips and brainstorming ideas to create ideas that literally POP! and grab people’s attention and leaving wanting to find out MORE!
The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
I highly recommend this book as I was a graduate of The Success Principles Coaching program. Simply sectioned reads that can get you onto the road to success in no time flat. This is literally the self-help bible of books!
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Sinek’s thought provoking style really help you self reflect on where you are going and whether or not you are doing what you doing intentionally. Great reminder to align with your values and beliefs and ultimately your – WHY!
The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
Imagine if you could have more play time in your life – what would that be like? Tim Ferriss has a unique approach to streamline the clutter of life and getting down to the heart of the matter so you can live more and LOVE it!
Okay …maybe I am just a little bias…. The Entrepreneurial Mom’s Guide to Growing a Business, Raising a Family, and Creating a Life You Love by Debra Kasowski
Life can get crazy as mom! I get it. Many mom’s wonder how the can achieve their dreams without compromising the dream or vision they have for their family. Society send us so many messages but you must ultimately decide who’s life are you living! I share tons of tips and techniques that have worked for me in growing my business and raising my family. But just waiting I am just in the beginning of the teens years so their can be a sequel!
Let us know what your favorite reads are! Boost business and innovation everywhere!
It would be great if all businesses ran like a well-oiled machine. Do you want to go on a vacation without worrying about your business?
Do you want to help your employees cope even if you are out from business for a day or more?
Remember it is about working on your business NOT in your business.
Implement systems and processes that will be efficient for your employees and convenient for your partners and customers.
When you have clear systems and processes you will be able to use your time accordingly and become more productive.
Here is what you can do:
Create checklists
Are there processes that seem pretty routine to you? Creating a checklist can not only aid training new people but can act as a recipe for success!
Have a standard sales process for your company
When you decide on sales processes, consider the methods of delivery (will you post the goods or will customers collect them), payment methods (will you accept checks or credits cards?), Will you offer credit or cash only? Will your goods be returnable or not? Will you have guarantees and warrantees?
Use an effective accounting system
Not all entrepreneurs have the necessary skills to deal with numbers. An accounting system will help you set accurate service rates, file taxes, and manage your budget. Alternatively, you can hire an accountant who will handle all your accounting activities. Work where your talents lie!
Create a recording system suitable for your type of business
Bookkeeping is unique for every type of business. There are businesses that need tracking services for orders but some don’t. Ideally, you need a qualified bookkeeper who will analyze your type of business and come up with bookkeeping system and process that will ensure your records are always accurate and up to date.
Streamline and automate your company interactions with customers
A streamlined and automated system will save money and time for your customers. Business activities like social media and email campaigns, product orders and customer enquiries can help you run your business efficiently when they are automated.
Document your processes and make them easily accessible to other employees.
Create documents that outlines your business processes step by step, particularly for those task that you do every day. This will ensure that your employees perform some of your duties successfully in your absence. Decide on a central place where you will keep all documents for your company systems and processes so that other employees can access information easily and in the shortest of time.
Find an efficient payroll system
An efficient payroll system will help you manage your employee salaries and taxes without hassles.
The purpose of business systems and processes is to help you do more for less, hence every business needs them to be profitable. Enjoy your well-deserved vacation.
Grab your FREE complimentary mp3 download of the 7 Resolutionary Breakthroughs to Profit and Prosper and stay in touch with our biweekly Success Secrets. Debra Kasowski discusses how indecisiveness can kill your business by missing opportunities, losing time, money, and resources. Move forward through inspired decisive action!
Did you know that over 4 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every month? Did you know that there are over 800 million unique users visiting YouTube every month? According to YouTube statistics, 72 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute. Now you are probably wondering how do you get you video to stand out from the crowd? 
Did you know that video also increases your ranking on Google?
Video is a powerful way to communicate your message. There are several things you can do position yourself in the marketplace without breaking the bank.
1. Authenticity – Be yourself, unless you are putting on a drama play or comedy skit – just be you! You are representing your brand. What do you want people to know about you and your business?
2. Discover the “why” before you achieve results. Develop a clear picture of what you would like your blog content or video to do. Is there a call to action? Do you want them to like or share the video or content?
3. Don’t aim for viral, aim for good compelling content that is educates, entertains, or inspires. The more you try and create something that you want to go viral, the more and more it may look like an American Funniest Video contest. Let the epidemic or viral campaign occur naturally.
4. All video does not have to be professionally done. Take heart my fellow small business owners. There are flip cams, iPads, and iPhones that can capture good quality video. Place on a tripod and voila! You can create your own studio right where you are at. I suggest that you may want to hire a professional to create your welcome video for your home page but for your blog you can use amateur video. I know many people who use the webcam on their computers.
5. Good lighting is a must. Try to video where you can capture as much natural light if possible but be aware of too much light or areas that may cast shadows on your face. Do some test drives to ensure your lighting is good as some may cast yellow or green skin pigmentation due to the lighting. You may even consider a green or blue screen with extra lighting (Worklights work great!)
6. Frame your scene. Are you looking for a close-up, 3/4 shot or showing some background? Ensure that you are capturing what you reference unless you are the main focal point. Position yourself just off centre so the eye is draw to you.
7. Eliminate background noise or distractions. Even though smartphones have a fairly decent microphone, you will still want to speak up unless you are quite close. Music and background noise can deter from your message. You may shift your attention to the distractions and break eye contact with the people you are speaking to. This action can lead to distrust unless your viewer knows what is distracting you.
8. Be prepared. Before you capture the video, you want to have a good idea of the message that you want to get across. Think of 3-5 bullet point type message you would like to convey. Tell a story and share a lesson learned. You may script your information but share it like a natural conversation otherwise people may think that you do not know what you are talking about.
9. Smile, Camera, Action! – of course, have fun! Let your personality shine. I cannot tell you how many times I have retaken videos until I am feeling relaxed and letting my personality come through. It is about taking inspired action and just going for it! It is much easier than you think.
You can upload directly to You Tube or edit it with photos, trailers, music, and text. Play around with the editing process – it can be a lot of fun. Your skillset will develop over time or you can always hire it out!
I would love to hear your video creation tips!!!
If you like this post, please share it! If you want to use this in your blog or newsletter, please contact me at Debra@themillionairewoman.com