Recently, a smart, savvy man named Kurt, a social media expert, decided he was going to sell his house. Not really knowing that it was going to go way above reserve, but using youtube, twitter and other media to connect with people that may just be in his target market. It was a brilliant strategy, and probably took a lot of time and a bit of investment on his part, but it certainly paid off with an extra $135,000 over the reserve price, what a great result.

If you are trying to sell a property or car using a social media marketing strategy, here are 20 tips on how to get started: (more…)

Business Tips for Family Business

Today I thought I would write about some ideas family business owners like yourself can implement to achieve higher customer and staff satisfaction.

I have written some posts on this topic before (see above links), but thought I would come from a different angle just to give you some extra things you can think about.

As a family small business owner you have a lot at stake, you need to make sure your family gets along while they are working together and you also need to make sure they don’t feel like you are attacking them if you feel the need to say… “hey you aren’t doing what I need or you are not acting in the best interests of the business’.

A dreaded conversation for anyone, let alone family, but there are some ideas here that may help you deal with it if/when the time comes.

Here is a list of business tips for your family business that could just push your business into excellence.. want to see that happen? (more…)

You might be asking yourself “How can I improve staff morale and staff satisfaction“, this post should give you some ideas to help you get started.

If you are a business owner with 1-20 staff you may like to keep reading as I discuss how you can go about improving morale within your team(s) and get them to start thinking about working towards your goals for the business, rather than just completing their daily tasks.

Regardless if you have 1 or 20 or more staff, each member of your team needs to know their role and what you expect from them and believe it or it, you may find it is relatively easy to improve performance in any area of your business that includes resources, this could be suppliers, contractors, customers and so on.

How do they know their role?

Your staff (including Managers) should have …  (more…)

Have you ever asked your customers how you can improve your service?

The majority of businesses are too scared to ask their customers what they really think about their product and/or service, but the fact is that your customer will feel valued and appreciated if you listen to their opinion and learn from their feedback. No matter how small a suggestion, it can lead to greater overall satisfaction for your client/customer, which is your ultimate goal… right!

Suppose you don’t ask your customers for feedback and you miss something vital like … (more…)

Is your website ready for mobile browsing?

How can you tell? Visit the Mobi page on GoDaddy website. Try it right now! Compare your site with and without mobile optimization, I bet you will be surprised, I was!

You are missing heaps of opportunities because your site is not designed for mobile browsing, you can fix this easily with the mobi app from GoDaddy. Register a domain name and you get the app for free, otherwise it is still fantastic value for money and VERY easy to implement.

GoDaddy also has some fantastic business packages available with lots of freebies.

In light of recent events in Queensland and other parts of Australia over the past couple of weeks, and a nasty experience that someone very dear to me had with her business last week, I wanted to write an article about how you can ensure you have a business continuity plan in place to get you back on your feet quickly; even if everything is falling down around you and it looks like all hope is lost. (more…)

Stand out from the crowd of competitors - grow your site and increase traffic

How To Grow Your Site & Increase Traffic

Below is a small list of little things you can do to start increasing traffic to your website. Once you have a product to offer or some useful information you can start attracting more attention. Have you implemented all these marketing strategies. I am still working on some of them:

1. Create useful content
2. Update your useful content regularly. Today’s web audience expects to see fresh, unique material, and having regularly updated content will keep them coming back (don’t forget to sign up for my blog)
3. Build sticky and interactive pages on your website including discussion boards, comment capability and anything else that helps build a community (include sharing buttons) if you have the time to monitor it
4. Seek out partnerships with other people with email lists to promote your website (would you like to partner with me, if yes, please sign up to my blog and email me. I am currently developing an awesome product for family and small business that you might like to be part of)
5. RSS feeds are a great way to keep visitors informed of fresh content on your site
6. Create an affiliate program to promote your products and services (working on that one myself)
7. Use SEO techniques to get listed naturally at the top of Google, Yahoo and other search engines (I achieved this on 2 sites)
8. Podcasting is a great way to build a regular audience and keep them coming back, see http://www.feedforall.com/videos/what-is-podcasting.htm
9. Invest in PPC advertising (ie. Adwords) to drive targeted traffic to your website, see http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/adwords/webinars/index.html
10. Create a blog with fresh content that builds a regular audience. Use the following tool to find out which blog software is right for you http://www.weblogmatrix.org – I use WordPress or Blogger
11. Build profiles on popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Use your profiles to connect to others with similar interests and send them to your site, see http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellepavel and http://twitter.com/bestbuys4biz and http://www.facebook.com/michellepavel
12. Invest in other forms of free and cheap advertising including banner advertising – visit http://www.fasterprofits.com.au  for a full list.

This post concept was courtesy of David Riklan, Self Growth. Links and info has been updated

A Cafe Marketing Guide 

27 Money Making & Saving Ideas For Marketing Your Cafe

My brand new ‘original’ book includes marketing ideas to help you boost your cafe or coffe shop business. When implemented correctly it will honestly drive extra cash into the till. And the best part is that it is extremely easy and you can add your own touches to make it even more effective and to suit your business.

In my new book Cafe Owner’s Guide – How To Make An Extra $200+ A Day you will find out exactly what you need to do to make that happen. I will also bet that you will be saying, “why didn’t I think of that, it’s so obvious and easy”.

If you don’t use these strategies, your competition will!

Available now for only $7

Secure payment through PayPal.

So grab your copy today, with 27 Money Making & Saving Ideas For Your Cafe, what do you have to lose. Plus, add your feedback and advertise your business, as my thank you for purchasing my book.

Did you know that just by rewarding your existing customers for buying from you (in the past or recently) can help your business, because:

• it demonstrates your professionalism
• it makes your customers feel appreciated
• it brings them back to your business
• it can boost your cashflow overnight
• it can attract new customers (referrals)
  

  Happy customers

If you have the email addresses, physical addresses of phone number of your customers, and/or website, you can make money overnight using the latest marketing strategies. (more…)

Want an idea that will make you stand out in the crowd?

Stand out from the crowd of competitors

So how do you find an idea that will help you stand out from the crowd? It is not the idea that will necessarily help you stand out, it is:

• the service, quality and professionalism that you provide
• the support you offer your customers
• the value for money you offer your customers
• the passion you have for your business
• your love to succeed and have fun while doing it
• your commitment to building a better business
• about listening to feedback and implementing improvements and features as required
• about managing your business responsibly
• and so on

Need help standing out or setting up a business and getting it moving forward? Contact me today!

Delegating tasks to your staff or hiring a consultant may help you with tasks that will free up your time to work ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ it… but you need to ensure the person carrying out the task knows everything required to complete it to your satisfaction – upfront!

Working ‘on’ your business allows you to:

• look for new ways to attract customers
• improve your business system
• monitor staff performance; ensuring your values and guidelines are being followed
• find new products
• analyse and beat the competition
• create new marketing campaigns
• enhance your business image
• find business partners
• and the list goes on

Of course, if you don’t want to work ‘on’ your business, and prefer to work ‘in’ it doing what you love, then delegation is great for handing out the tasks you despise. You may even have staff that would love to do that task and be better at it. (more…)

Are you dreaming of creating a really successful business?

Then you might like to start by following these guidelines.

This cycle diagram represents all the elements of your business that need regular attention; if your really are dreaming of being successful in business. Some of these elements you may have working beautifully, but have you considered that the others need a little TLC as well.

A synchronised business system will help you to achieve … (more…)

What if the reason why we are currently experiencing an economic crisis is because there are too many ‘get rich’ schemes ripping people off or products being sold that are not quality or do not provide value? How can they get away with it? Maybe it is time for those ‘advantage takers’ to step back and realise they now need to provide value and quality or they won’t get the droves of customers they were getting a 1-3 years back.

Have you noticed all the ‘deals’ that seem to be popping up lately, like ‘buy xyz car and get $000s cash back’; and that’s not all, you also get a set of steak knives (just kidding). If you are in business that provides a product that is ‘not’ of sound quality (unless you are a bargain shop), what do you think is going to happen to that business down the track. In recent months I have purchased several items through online wholesaler sites. The items were for personal use mostly, but here’s the thing, most of the items have either been thrown out or just not used at all because they were not of the standard I expected. (more…)

It is now more vital than ever to stay ahead of what is going on around us, so that our businesses remain in tact and stronger than ever. I strongly believe a ‘quality system’ is one way to do that. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to go to all the trouble and cost of obtaining an accreditation certificate to ISO 9001; what it does mean is that you can use the ISO 9001 guidelines to setup your very own quality system.

If you are having problems in areas of staff performance, comebacks, customer satisfaction… a quality system can help you:

• identify problem areas and rectify them quickly
• track customer feedback
• improve performance of staff
• with continual improvement
• develop or provide better quality products and services
• force you to communicate more with your staff and customers
• increase sales and profits
• grow your business
  
• define an appropriate supplier
• protect your business
• standardise processes and procedures
• gain recognition from external bodies
• with obtaining government projects (usually certification is needed here though, but not always)
• define roles and responsibilities of management and employees- reduce overhead costs
• and heaps more benefits

There is a catch though … (more…)

Below I have created a little questionnaire that can help you determine if you are providing ‘quality’ products.

If you have more than one product, write down or type up your answers (excel maybe more suitable) so you can see if there is a pattern by product type, supplier and so on. Below is a list of questions to ask yourself:

That should get you started towards figuring out where your business sits in regards to ‘quality’ products but … you might like to setup a ‘quality management plan’ that includes any issues related to the above items and the action you are going to take to rectify any problems. Try to make each item in the plan measurable, so that you can see how much your system has improved over a period of time. It’s like tracking your marketing campaign really.

Congratulations if you are not experiencing any problems associated with questions 1, 2 & 3. You obviously have some sort of quality system setup, regardless if it is documented or not, and you likely know how to supply ‘quality’ products. Of course, there is probably always room for improvement and documenting a process that is working well also helps you delegate tasks to others, so you can spend time working on your business, rather than it in.

How did you go on a scale from 1-10? Please leave a comment and share your experience with us.