Archives for July 2014
How to Lose Respect as a Leader
When you're the leader of a small business, respect is difficult to gain and easy to lose. Even if you think that you're doing a great job of building and commanding respect, there are certain things that you might be doing that could undermine your ability to effectively lead your team of employees. These ‘things' may not be as obvious as you might imagine. The list of habits that lose respect is obvious, but the actions and characteristics that cause them may not be.
Here are a few of the biggest ways that people in leadership positions lose the respect of their employees:
- Violating trust. You should never make promises to your employees that you can't keep, and you should certainly never lie or withhold the truth or other information from your team. Once you've lost the trust of your employees, you can basically count on the fact that you'll never
get it back.
- Failure to focus. As a leader, you should always know where you're going. Part of this is in having a clear, straightforward mission for your company to follow. If you don't have clear goals or any kind of plan, your employees will sense that you are directionless and quickly lose their trust in you. Remember, your team relies on your vision to fuel their income, losing that vision or not properly conveying that vision instills a lack of trust in your team.
- Being selfish. Always do everything you can to elevate your team over yourself. Credit them with all of their successes and do everything that you can to help them succeed. People hate being in the employment of a glory hog. Every great leader has a superior team of wing-men!
- Being passionless. Being a bump on the log will rub off on your employees. If you want them to buy into your mission and love what they do, then it has to be obvious that you have bought in yourself and are extremely eager to see your company succeed. You see, your employees view their future with your company as a safety net but only when they love your passion!
- Being unavailable. You have to be accessible as a business owner. Employees should never have to feel as though they have to go through a ridiculously complicated process just to be able to talk to you. Keep your doors open at all times and keep steady lines of communication with your employees. You shouldn't necessarily be a constant presence in their work, but they should know that you're always available for a chat. Now, if you can't have an open door policy, then make sure you grant authority with the responsibility you task your team with.
Are you guilty of any of these actions? If so, now's the time to change. You'll be amazed at how much you can help your business by reversing these bad habits.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
How to Kick Off a Content Marketing Campaign
One of the best ways to get the word out about your business and to increase the effectiveness of your overall web marketing campaign is to engage in content marketing. This refers to the creation of original content that you place online, whether it be video content, written content or otherwise. Content marketing helps you to build engagement with your brand and, eventually, increase sales conversions as well.
But how do you set yourself up for success as you get started with your own content marketing campaign? Consider these tips:
- Make the content reflect your brand's personality. The tone of your content should reflect the identity you want your brand to embody. This will, of course, depend on the types of customers that you are attempting to reach. Whatever that personality is, it needs to be
consistently reflected throughout all of the content that you create.
- Realize that content marketing is a long-term investment. You are not going to find immediate success with content marketing. It just doesn't happen. But if you stick with it and do it right, it will build momentum over time. And once it gets big, the benefits are enormous.
- Use multiple types of content. Sure, it's great to set up social media pages and blogs and reach out to people that way, but remember that the content you create doesn't just have to be written. You can create images, videos, podcasts or any other type of content that you think your customers will respond to well.
- As with everything, quality is more important than quantity. There should definitely be a quality/quantity balance; posting too infrequently will make your content marketing scheme ineffective. However, you shouldn't feel like you have to produce content so often that it hampers its quality. If you only produce a couple great blog posts a week, for example, this is a great way to get started.
- Don't forget promotion. Creating the content is only part of content marketing. Remember that you are in charge of promoting your content as well, whether that's on your website, through social media, through a company newsletter or elsewhere. You can't just hit “submit” and expect that people will find your content by themselves.
Viral Solutions can help you get started with content marketing for your company. Contact us today for more information and to learn how we can help you take your web marketing to the next level!
Christine Kelly | Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Celebrate Your Customers with a Customer of the Month
Everyone loves to be recognized. After all, it’s fun to be in the spotlight for a few minutes. Businesses have long celebrated their customers by posting photos of them on bulletin boards at their places of business. Many have taken the traditional photo board or customer of the month photo to their social media sites to good effect. Many featured customers will then “share” their honors with their own networks, resulting in increased exposure for the business.
Celebrating customers with a customer of the month feature is a fantastic way to spread good cheer. However, there’s more involved than simply snapping a photo and posting it on your Facebook page. Here’s what you need to know.
1. Define your own guidelines. How will you determine who to feature? Will it be random? Will you select a customer from your physical location? Will you hold a drawing at your office? Will you run some sort of contest? Must the person you select be a Facebook follower?
2. Determine how you will get the photo. If you run a traditional brick-and-mortar business, you’ll have more opportunities to interact with potential customers of the month as well as take their pictures. For example, if you own a restaurant, you could take photos of happy diners. If you’re 
a real estate agent, you could take photos of new homeowners standing in front of their new homes.
If your business is largely based online, you may want to run a photo contest to determine the customer of the month. You could also approach the next customer you’d like to feature and ask him or her to email you a picture.
3. Make sure you get proper model releases. Download a model release form from a legal forms site such as Rocket Lawyer or Nolo or buy forms at your local office supply store and make sure to get permission to use the photo for your own purposes. If children are in the photo, you will need permission from their parents or legal guardians.
4. Use a photo editor. While you could simply post the original photo as submitted, it’s better to use a photo editor before you post it. Not only can you crop the photo and correct any errors such as red eyes, you can also add text such as “Company Name Customer of the Month.” Will you’re at it, include the URL to your website of Facebook page for additional exposure. You may even want to create a basic frame and template to use with each photo each month.
5. Use a hashtag. Identify your customer of the month posts with a hashtag. Use the same hashtag across each social network you use. As time goes by, you can later revisit all of your customer of the month posts by hashtag.
6. Create a designated customer of the month page on your website. Who says you have to limit the fun to Facebook or Instagram? You can also celebrate your customers on your primary website. In fact, you may even want to write a short blog post about each new customer of the month and why they’re special. Another idea is to interview your customers of the month on your blog.
Celebrating your customers with a customer of the month promotion each month is a fantastic way to engage with your customer base, potentially increase your social media followers, and demonstrate social proof. Your featured customers will enjoy the attention and share your posts. Your other customers will see you giving back and may even aspire to be your next customer of the month. Your prospective customers will see that people genuinely enjoy your products and service and may be more inclined to give your business a try.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Email Messages to Have in Your Arsenal
While many people in the business world tend to spend too much time on email, there are certain types of messages that you should never cut out of your routine. These types of messages range from being motivational to personal, and every one of them has its own unique benefits.
- The Thank You Note. The great thing about the thank you note is that it can be used in a wide variety of situations. You can send formal thank yous to a potential employer for an interview, or a customer or client for continuing to support your business. You can send personal thank
you notes to employees for the great work they do for your company. Whatever the scenario, these are great messages to send out to show the people surrounding your business how much they mean to you.
- Big Picture Messages. If you're the leader of a business, every now and then it's important to remind the other people in your company about the common vision that you are striving toward and to give some sort of motivational message to help spur them on.
- The Apology. Even business leaders and owners screw up every now and then, and it's important that you admit your mistake when you do. This type of email doesn't have to be overly long or mushy, but a brief apology note taking responsibility for a mistake goes a long way toward maintaining great relationships within a business environment.
- The Delegation Message. If you've got a lot on your plate, delegating a task to someone else within your company is great because it allows that employee to take on some additional responsibility and to feel that his or her work is truly appreciated. Email is the best way to get this done.
- The Disciplinary Message. In most cases, it's best to talk face-to-face to an employee that is causing troubles within an office environment. However, every now and then there's an appropriate situation that will arise for you to use email to deliver a quick, clear message of your displeasure with the employee's behavior or performance. You should not go over the top with this note, of course, but you might find it a good tool to have in your email arsenal.
Can you think of any other types of email messages that are good to reserve time for every now and then? How do you feel about the tone of an email versus the tone of the same message in a personal phone call?
Christine Kelly | Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
How to Design Your Office for Success
Sometimes how productive you are individually and as a company is affected by more than just the people you have working there, or the kinds of motivation you use as a leader to spur on your team. You might be surprised at just how much of an effect the physical workplace itself can have on the quality of work that you do. There are ways that you can redesign or reorganize your workplace to better set yourself up for success.
Here are a few tips:
- Clean up the mess. Some entrepreneur's are working out of their homes, in a spare bedroom or basement. But just as the old adage that one dresses for success, so goes their work environment. This first tip is a bit of a no-brainier, but you'd be surprised at how many people work
in filthy, disorganized settings. Get rid of all of the clutter on your desk and throughout the office. Not only will this help you to be better organized and get more work done, but it will also be much less of a distraction as you work. Your surroundings should emulate your vision.
- Get more comfortable furniture. Desk chairs and other furniture in the office shouldn't cause people back pain, and if they do, then they need to be adjusted – or replaced. How many hours do you set at your desk? Great posture is a product of quality furniture set for ergonomic comfort. Uncomfortable furniture will quickly distract employees from work. Your desk, your chair, your keyboard, your monitors and your computers should all be set up in a way where people don't have to be hunched over to get work done.
- Use color and motivational fixtures. There have been many studies done that indicate people are more likely to get work done in colorful settings than washed out white offices. While color preferences may vary from person to person, it's clear that some color is a great way to inspire productivity and creativity. Let your team members have some say in the colors that you use throughout your office. Then back that color with what is important to your life. Family photos to goals and aspirations should adorn your walls.
- Bring in plants. Putting potted plants in offices, cubicles and on desks is a great way to increase productivity. It adds live to the room, helps to filter the air and may even produce some pleasant smells, depending on the type of plant you bring in. Nobody likes working in a sterile, lifeless work environment.
- Let in more natural light. Keep window blinds and shutters open ad let in natural light. People are much more likely to tune out in spaces that are only lit with light bulbs. While you might not be able to knock out wall space to add in more windows or skylights, you can definitely try and make sure that people's desks are placed in the path of natural light. Then also consider your use of Skype or video – lighting is not only a key to your work environment for you but also for those who see you.
Does the design of your work space get in the way of productivity? If so, consider these tips! They aren't very expensive. It does not take much of an investment in you to make you feel like you are on top of the world you are about to conquer.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.