Working with entrepreneurs this summer, I have come to realize that time management can make or break the success of your business.  When is busy being productive?  The trap I see for entrepreneurs is that productivity creates administrative busyness.  It is easy to fill time by looking after the administrative duties of a business; that’s why many hard working people watch as their incomes drop. 

A simple approach to evaluating the productivity of your work is to list your business related activities over the period of a week.  If administrative tasks take up more than 20% of your time, these should be delegated to an assistant.  The value of your hired help can be calculated by figuring your own hourly wage when you do only what is productive.  Don’t get busy, get productive. 

-Katrina 

How do you know when it is the right time to turn your website into a marketing and lead generation site?  There is so much technology out there it can be confusing for us “non-techie” entrepreneurs!  Today’s 15 questions come from web marketing expert, Jeff Baker at Open Box Integration .  As Jeff says: “Just attempting to answer these questions gets business thinking in a new way and has them much more prepared to ask the right questions when evaluating and engaging a website company.”

1. Do we know who is coming to our site now and how they’re using it?

 2. Do we know where & why people leave our site now?

3. How have our current customers found out about us? Why did they start to do business with us?

4. Can we express what we do in words that a ten year old would understand?

5. Do we have a clear brand?

6. Do we know our value proposition?

7. How are we different from everyone else out there?

8. How do people find out about us?

9. What keywords do people search on in our industry?

10. What will give prospects that ‘wow’ experience when they come to our site?

11. Do we have already developed marketing materials that can be leveraged on the site?

12. Do we know what call to action has the most impact on our target audience?

13. What would have people think ‘Ah good, I’m in the right place’ immediately when they get to our site?

14. How will we measure the success of our new site?

15. Do we have a good CRM system to track leads through to sales?

Today’s guest post is from Theresa Coles, the PR expert. 

One of the best ways of getting your message across during a media interview is to do lots of preparation. Very often, it’s the simple – but sometimes overlooked – things like solid preparation – not techniques and gimmicks on how to “handle” an interview – that really help to set someone up for success. 

Good preparation runs the gamut, from finding out about the journalist and his or her media outlet, to practical issues such as how long the interview will last and whether visual aids or additional information would be helpful to the journalist.   

Good preparation helps to calm nerves, creates a sense of control over a sometimes stressful situation, and helps the interviewee get that all important point across to the audience!     

The South African golfer Gary Player is quoted as saying “The more I practice, the luckier I get” and this is true for media interviews as well as whacking a little white ball around a golf course! Something as simple as putting together a Q & A sheet, and practicing your answers until they become second nature, gives you the best chance of getting your point across.  

Given that an interview often results in only a brief sound bite or one-line quote, it pays to have those important responses and points at your finger tips, so that when the opportunity comes up, you’re right there, effortlessly answering the question, and positioning your company effectively to the audience. 

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Theresa E Coles,  Principal: Syllable  Words and Ideas, is a former journalist who “crossed over” to public relations some 15 years ago.  (604) 960-0515 or theresacoles@shaw.ca

I was introduced to the Kiva website in a Gender and Politics class this past year.  Kiva’s purpose is to connect individuals to third world entrepreneurs through a person-to-person micro-lending experience.  As the first of its kind, Kiva partners with knowledgeable microfinance institutions in order to have access to exceptional entrepreneurs around the world.  On the Kiva website, lenders choose a specific entrepreneur to support by lending as little as $25.  Empowered by their new loan, entrepreneurs are able to either start or continue to grow their business.  Lenders are repaid as entrepreneurs succeed. 

What I found most amazing is the number of women seeking loans.  Microfinance programs have been targeted towards poor women.  This not only supports a strong message of gender equality in often male dominated societies, but it also reflects that women in these societies are a better financial risk.  Women, without income in third world countries, frequently have more to lose as they are usualy responsible for children and extended family.  Once she gets a loan, a woman’s status in her community improves and she is able to be more assertive and confident in her home and in her business.  

-Katrina

As a university student, I am accustomed to hard work being the greatest source of positive results – good marks and a high average. Being in the work world has shown me that there is much more to the formula of success than simply hard work.

Favourable results depend on the relationships you have with superiors and co-workers who should have an opportunity to get to know your character and understand your motivations. In this way, you can learn to work “smarter” rather than “harder” because tasks are laid out more efficiently based on an understanding your superiors have of your skills and of your willingness to be challenged.

It is important to spend your time viewing your employment as more than just a job: focusing on the end results and making those results your passion rather than attending to the mechanics that get the job done. The employer places a value on the completion of a task, honouring that will often lead to the employer taking a personal interest in your career with more challenging assignments.
- Katrina

I always get a ton of questions from business owners on how to get good PR for their company so I have asked PR expert Theresa Coles to share her insights on how to build effective publicity for your business. She will be guest blogging in this Friday spot for the next few weeks. Feel free to email any questions you have on PR to info@fmwalsh.com and Theresa will be happy to answer them.

One question I’m often asked by new clients is how good my relationships with the media are. Earlier in my career that question used to elicit the fairly typical “Of course they’re very good!” response. Over the years, however, I have learnt to answer the question more accurately: my relationships with the media are good, mainly because I’m very careful about not bothering them with anything less than a good story!

In my view, good media relations is primarily about the story you have to offer.

That’s not to say that good relationships aren’t important, and that building relationships isn’t an important part of any media relations program. However, no matter how good your relationship with the journalist, without a good story, you’re not going to get exposure. It’s amazing how good your relationship with the media can become if you have a few really good stories to offer them.

What the media needs is extremely changeable, and it’s really up to the editor or producer to decide what is newsworthy on any particular day. Ultimately this is decided by the public.

So the question is: “What’s the news value in a company’s activities, products or services?” Once you’ve given this some thought, it’s amazing to see how many possibilities exist to offer the media something they can use, and get the kind of exposure your client wants.

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Theresa E Coles
Principal: Syllable Words and Ideas
is a former journalist who “crossed over” to public relations some 15 years ago. She provides public relations services, with an emphasis on media relations, media relations training, issues management and crisis communication. You can contact her at 604-960-0515.

On Saturday I had the honour and pleasure of speaking at the Beyond Pink Conference to 225 delegates - what a great conference! Lots of energy and good information shared, great connections made. This conference is the launching pad for a brand new organization - Young Women In Business

This group is the brainchild of a group of extremely bright and talented university students who spotted an opportunity in the market and in four months, launched the group, organized the conference, got major corporate sponsorship and sold out the conference.

This is a great example of thinking big. Instead of thinking of all the things that could go wrong or might now work, this group just went out and did it! Keep an eye on them, everyone, because they are going to be very big indeed.

Two cool things happened while I was in LA this weekend.

The first is that the Easter Bunny drove by on a Harley on Easter Sunday morning - I love this city!

The second is that I attended the West Hollywood Women’s Leadership Conference on March 22nd - what a powerhouse event. Put on by the City of West Hollywood, it attracted over 100 women from the political, public service, non-profit, corporate and small business arena. Amazing women with amazing stories.

My favourite story of the weekend was the web designer who when she started out her business was charging very little for her services, and hence, making very little money. A year ago, she decided she had enough and did two things to significantly increase her profitability. First, she raised her hourly rate significantly and second, she started charging clients for all the changes and extras they wanted. She admitted she was worried that she would lose clients and go out of business. What actually happened is that she has never been busier and clients happily pay her prices. That’s the funny thing about being confident in your value to clients - you don’t have trouble charging what you are worth and you don’t have trouble asking for payment. Negotiating a decent salary or charging a fair market price for your product or service is not imposing on others or being pushy. It is good business. Make sure you put it into practice.

People often question the value of going to networking events, tradeshows or conferences. They comment that the time spent out of the office is not a good investment as they rarely have the time to do follow-up with any prospects or connections they meet. They come back with business cards that end up sitting on their desk - often for weeks or months. Something you mean to get around to doing one day. Not following up on these leads is costing you money so let me outline a simple system you can put in place to use for every event you go to, so you don’t lose out. Here’s what I do:

1. Define clear objectives for every event I go to. What do I want to accomplish by going? Are there particular people or companies I want to meet? Connect with the speaker or the organizers? Before I walk through the door I know exactly what I’m looking to do.

2. Block off time in the morning the day after the event to do follow-up.

3. When someone gives me their card I’ll make a quick note of anything I need to do or remember about them; then I put all the cards into one place while I’m at the event.

4. The next day, I’ll pull out all the cards and determine the next action I need to take with each person - arrange coffee, book a presentation, call them to discuss training or coaching, or send them information they asked for. Then I do it right away. My rule is that all follow-up after an event has to be done within 2 business days of meeting that person. By blocking off 2 hours the morning after the event for follow-up, I get it all accomplished.

5. File the business cards - use the system you prefer - paper or electronic. Just make sure you get it done quickly. There is nothing more frustrating than having to dig through a pile of business cards looking for that person you want to get in touch with.

Implement this simple system and you’ll be surprised at how little time it does take and how many opportunities that will open up!

You know you need to get out there and network to build visibility and make contacts to grow your business. The challenge is that networking takes time and money and all of us have crazy schedules already. There is nothing more frustrating than joining an organization and finding out that the fit is not a good one. And sometimes you want to go to more than one event before you put your money down!

Enter ‘The Observation Deck’ - the brainchild of Madeline Chapman, with the Orange County Chapter of National Women in Construction. She wants to attract more new members to their chapter so they can realize the benefits of membership for building business success, but she also realized how tight time was for many women. So she has created the Observation Deck - any woman can drop into any NAWIC Orange County meeting at any time and stay for as long or as little as they want. A separate table will be set aside for the Observation Deck and you can check out what the organization is all about without any pressure.

This is a great marketing idea and one you want to consider if you are looking to attract new members to your organization. I hope more groups follow her lead.