Rules of this SandBox

June 30, 2005→ Add Comments

Tom Peters has the honour of being a chosen thought leader for many and over the past 20 years I have on many occasions been one of the masses to pay attention to his wisdom.

Recently the UK arm of his operations prompted me to think about expressing my vision and mission for Working Solo in a similar way – 12 basic rules for how I operate the business!

tompeters! management consulting leadership
training development project management: “We have just agreed on these 12
rules for how we operate in Tom Peters Company UK. What would your ‘teamship’
rules be?

Here are the rules of operation for Working Solo (called our Rules of the Sandbox) :

Speak, do and be authentic
Working solo doesn’t mean working alone – engage and partner with others
Make it easy for people to deal with us
Address issues quickly—don’t let them grow horns and fester!
Come at all things from a place of curiosity
All work and no play makes us very boring
Be willing and prepared to make mistakes – and if necessary say sorry
Think and act outside the box
Technology is a tool not the answer yet can be leveraged to great effect
Share knowledge and experience to benefit others
Provide only the services and products that people actually want not just the stuff we think is a good idea
Celebrate surviving regularly and celebrate success seriously!

What are your rules of operation?

Filed Under Life in Business ·

Email Deliverability and Hotmail

June 29, 2005→ Add Comments

One of the growing challenges of business over the past few years has been in maintaining email contact with friendlies, contacts, clients and prospects. With the increase in spam more and more service providers are looking for ways to protect their users from the junk mail. (I suppose this is one of the reasons for the popularity of blogs).

For those of us that use email contact/marketing in according the the best practices it can be a constant challenge to keep up with the changes.

I received this notice in an email from AWeber (my autoresponder and list server) today about upcoming changes to the way Hotmail/MSN handles potential junk mail.

Last week Microsoft announced enhancements to their MSN/Hotmail
systems regarding how email being received would be
authenticated. They are using an email authentication scheme
called Sender ID to check and make sure that email being sent
from a server is permitted to be sent from that server. Read
more about Sender ID at:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/jun05/06-22SenderID.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/resources.mspx

Microsoft will be displaying what they call a yellow “Safety Bar”
above messages that do not authenticate. This will cause
consumers to have less trust in messages that do not
authenticate. Beginning in November any messages that do not
authenticate will be sent directly to the bulk folder or blocked
entirely.

So it is time to check with your list server what they are doing to come into line with this new requirement from Hotmail/MSN.

It may also be time to evaluate your strategy for online and email based communication and find out from your readers, clients and prospects what they want, and would support, from you.

Filed Under Applications & Software, Tips & Techniques ·

100 Keys to Solo Success – #23 Get People Talking About You

June 28, 2005→ Add Comments

You know that "pool of friendlies" you have been developing (refer to Key #21 – Focus on the Friendlies)? Your next challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to get them talking – and specifically talking about you.

In technical biz terms I am talking about getting the word-of-mouth marketing machine up and rolling. Word-of-Mouth has been around since cavemen and women talked about where all the tasty and easy to catch food was (where to shop) and where the safe warm caves were (the best real-estate). Before anyone had started worry about marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, or even (heaven forbid) blogs came onto the seen as a business building tool.

So why do so many solopreneurs under leverage this key tool of marketing. There is that ‘M’ word again – marketing – and looking back on Seth Godin’s definition that I posted on last week it sounds like word-of-mouth fits this defition to a ‘t".

It’s about spreading ideas that you believe in, sharing ideas you’re passionate
about… and doing it with authenticity.

Word-of-mouth is about spreading your ideas so that other people can continue spreading your ideas. Much like a virus (we also have Seth Godin to that for the concept of the Idea Virus – I know this looks like a Seth-athon but its not). You want people spreading your ideas, and if possible your passion, to the people they know.

If you feel that you don’t know many people or are paddling around in a very shallow pool of friendlies it IS TIME to get the word out there. Have you ever done the numbers on how many people that you are only 1 or 2 degrees removed from? Why would you leave a potential pool like that untapped?

Now there is some good news for you if you are a female entrepreneur and those of you with female clients – Yvonne DiVita at Lip-Sticking, in a recent post, shared something that many women have known for quite some time :

women are better at word of mouth marketing than men, hands down. Some
folks may call it gossip… but the truth is less sullied; the truth is
that when women have something good to say about you or your product,
you can bet they are going to share it — with family and friends.

Are you leveraging this in-built marketing tool? Because if you are not then someone else is. You can bet that women are talking about something and someone. And if it is not you then is it your competition?

Many business owners get a little stuck when it comes to ways to develop the word-of-mouth buzz. It sometimes seems just easier to go a hire a designer to put together another snazzy brochure. Well Yvonne (aka Jane) came to the rescue again in her post (Jane Spreads Word of Mouth) with 5 innovative ways in which to nuture word-of-mouth in women.

1. Join WOMMA. This is the Word
Of Mouth Marketing Association.

2. Sponsor a tea. Afternoon tea is coming back!

3. Have a reception after hours — invitation only. At this
reception, have personalized postcards about your products or services
prepared.

4. Put an ad in your local paper, or suburban publication, or
whatever print publication your customers read, thanking them for their
patronage.

5. ASK your women customers for input on your best-selling product or service.

(Visit Yvonne’s post for details on each of these strategies)

Now I can here some rumblings from the guys here – what about strategies for them? Why aren’t they good at word-of-mouth? Well in fact I believe that men also are very good at word-of-mouth, but just not the same way. They may not be ones to rave about the new service or product (with the exception of a few of my engineering buddies and the latest technology) but they do share information and referrals – ever hear of the "old boys network".

When it comes to man sharing information and tips some of the tried and true still works – over lunch, on the golf course or at sporting events, you will hear men talking about who’s who. And this has also been around since a caveman could swing a club (a nice #3 wood I mean).

What ever you do and who ever you do it for, take some time this week to get people talking about you. Have an idea, share it with passion, make it relevant, get them talking.

Filed Under Marketing, Tips & Techniques ·

Friday Funnies #3

June 24, 2005→ Add Comments

As the winter sun enters into its early departure below the horizon this cold Friday afternoon it is time for Friday Funnies.

Today I would like to introduce you to Bernie DeKoven. Bernie dedicates his life to the noble cause of increasing the fun quotient for every person. His blog – or should I say Funlog - chronicles his personal search for games and toys, ideas and
innovations, people and events that enhance our capacity for having fun.

Take some time out each week to visit Bernie’s site and get a dose of fun.

He recently posted on a practice which I include in my daily habits and rituals – Have Fun Every Day.

Enjoy your weekend!

Filed Under Humor, Technology Toolkit ·

Marketing Has a Marketing Problem

June 24, 2005→ 2 Comments

Let me be the first to put my hand up and say – I used to be a solo professional that hated marketing. I was like so many solopreneurs that I come across (particularly those that have a service based business). The concept of marketing my business gave me the shivers. I knew that I had to do it but I would look for all sorts of ways to get around it. The crazy thing was no particular experience had ever given me a fear of marketing – I just didn’t want to be seen as being too self-promoting.

Reading these words now make me think “What a load of bollocks!”

In the wise words of great marketing story-teller, Seth Godin, marketing had a marketing problem with me. In a recent post Seth posed this very interesting question.

Somewhere along the way, people were sold that marketing [equals] advertising.
Somewhere along the way, people were trained that marketers are liars (oops).
And now we wonder why people are so clueless about what marketing really is.
Maybe it’s because marketing has a marketing problem.

Seth also provided a definition of marketing that I have come to believe in but had never seen it expressed so eloquently -

Marketing is not about trickery or even insincerity. It’s about spreading
ideas that you believe in, sharing ideas you’re passionate about… and doing it
with authenticity. Marketing is about treating prospects and customers with
respect, and realising that it’s easier to grow the amount of business you do
with happy people than it is to find new strangers to accost.

Is it time that you challenged your attitude towards marketing? What definition of marketing do you have in your business? If you attitudes and definitions are based on negativity then it will come as no surprise if you avoid it like a dose of bird-flu.

Unless you find a way to develop and embrace marketing skills then your business will probably never reach it’s full potential. You can be the best _________________ (insert title) but ultimately it is your ability to market (read “spread your ideas” or “sharing ideas you are passionate about”) that will determine how many others know that you exist. And the more people that know you exist the better chance you have of turning a profit.

Now this may seem a little obvious or a little basic (and to many active marketers it is). But I believe that the principles of an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, may be in play here. I suspect that only 20% of solo business owners have fully embraced authentic marketing as the tool to grow their business. Unfortunately the other 80% are something akin to “scared weird little guys”.

If you are part of the 80% in fear of marketing then you are playing just small enough so that you don’t have to challenge yourself. If you have ideas that you are passionate about (and if you are a solopreneur then I hope for your case you do) then it is your job to share them. It is not the job of your web designer, or copywriter, or marketing consultant. It is not up to your past clients, or friends or family to tell every one how interesting, worthwhile and thought-provoking you are.

IT IS YOUR JOB TO SHARE YOUR IDEAS – to market them.

You could be the cleverest consultant, the most intelligent engineer, a creative designer of the likes the world has yet to see, or the most intuitive coach but unless you have well developed, sound and positive marketing skills you will also be the world’s best kept secret.

Let me hand back to Seth for a minute -

Name a cellist. Did you say, “Yo Yo Ma”? Of course you did. There are other
cellists that might be as good in some ways, but you don’t know who they are.
Could it be because Mr. Ma knows something about marketing?

Name a religion. Did you say Shaker? Of course not. Could it be because the
major religions of the world are organized to spread, while the very structure
of the Shaker religion ensured its demise?

Think of the people you know–in every endeavor, in every line of work. What
business discipline would they most benefit from? Would it be the ability to do
a spreadsheet or manage inventory? Perhaps they’d do better in their careers or
with their passions if they were better at conforming to human resource
regulations… I don’t think so. It all comes down to spreading ideas. If you
can get your art or your political cause or your restaurant’s ideas to spread,
you win.

Do you want to know the secret of having a successful small business – don’t be a secret!

Take some time over the next week and look at you attitudes and actions around marketing. Whether you are doing it well or doing it porrly it is time to step up to the next level. Your business and your clients will thank you for it.

Filed Under Life in Business, Marketing, Tips & Techniques ·

100 Keys to Solo Success – #22 Ask Questions

June 22, 2005→ 1 Comment

Knowing the answers will only get you so far in your journey as a successful solo entrepreneur. The next step, the added extra, the secret key to achieving real, sustainable success is to be able to ask great questions.

Asking great questions is not an art (although personally I learned a great deal about questioning from being in a corporate sales role and from my coach specific training). The key to asking great questions is based on 1. your care factor and 2. your ability to listen and understand.

If you are willing to listen to the truth, from yourself and those around you, you can become a master of curiosity (hat tip Jay Perry and Margaret Krigbaum) and master the art of questions.

Matt Sunshine offered a genuine client focused question in a post yesterday titled “Ask this Question”

Have I (we) earned the right to continue to do business with you again next week
or next month?

In response to Matt’s post, Stacy Brice at Virtualosophy posed another question that is the other side of the coin to Matt’s client question -

And because there are two sides to every story, before calling to ask your
question, I think a person would be wise to ask him/herself the question that
will tell the other side of the story. That question is:

“Has this client earned an ongoing place in my practice/business?”

How often do you ask your clients if you have earned the right to continue to get their business? You may assume that by them continuing on you have earned the right. But then again they may be dissatisfied with something and are continuing to use your services or products out of habit rather than out of received value. You will not know until you ask the question.

How often do you ask yourself if a client has earned the right to use your valuable time and energy? Not every client is a good client and sometimes clients need to earn the right to work with you (just as you need to earn the right to work with them). A business relationship is a two way street and is about respect and value for both parties. Don’t trade your integrity just for the money.

It can be very confronting to ask these tough types of questions and the fear of hearing a negative answer is, in my opinion, the reason that more business owners don’t ask the questions.

One of the other confronting questions for a business owner (but one that needs to be asked for sustainable success) has been posed over the last week by Seth Godin – is anything as good as it could be?

This question set off a flurry of blog posts and comments around the world, both for and against this thinking. There is one point (and there were many) that Seth made to highlight why I think that each and every solopreneur should schedule time for asking if what they are doing is good enough -

If you riff through your top 10 great successes of the last decade (you pick
your field, doesn’t matter) aren’t most of them areas where someone refused to
accept that the industry’s status quo wasn’t good enough, and instead set out to
change a fundamental rule of that industry?

What is the status quo in your industry? What have your competitors and your clients settled? How can you differentiate yourself by not settling?

Just because it works doesn’t mean you can’t break it for something better.

Action Challenge - Take a couple of hours this week and schedule an appointment with yourself and/or your clients and ask the tough questions. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, you may even hear things you would prefer not to, but I can guarantee you that if you are willing to listen you will hear things that COULD change your business – for the better.

(BTW – my action challenge this month will be to have a discussion with my clients this month and ask the question that Matt Sunshine so eloquently posed).

Filed Under Life in Business, Tips & Techniques ·

And the Winner is ….

June 22, 2005→ Add Comments

Thank you to all those who joined our the notification list for the weekly blog summary over the past couple of weeks. As promised we did a drawing of names on the blog summary subscription list and the winner of David St. Lawrence’s book “Danger Quicksand Have a Nice Day” is

Janine Keating of Corporate Conference Solutions

Even though Janine owns and operates an innovative conference and event management service I am sure that with her regular business with corporate organisations and employees will make David’s book a very useful resource for her.

Filed Under Life in Business ·

Friday Funnies #2

June 17, 2005→ Add Comments

After years in a coporate environment where motivational posters seemed a ubiquitous part of the landscape, and now as a business coach where positve attitudes are expected as part of the job description, there are times that you just want to step out of motivation into reality.

And so came the inspiration for this week’s Friday Funnies ….. Despair, Inc.

This is a very clever site with some very humourous approaches to de-motivation. You know that the reality of your business is you HAVE felt like some of these.

Enlarge

Filed Under Humor ·

Who Are You Competing Against?

June 17, 2005→ Add Comments

I have come across many people that, if not now then at some time in their life, do not feel or see themselves worthy of success, happiness or abundance. When we maintain this view of ourselves then no matter what opportunities are available to us, we cannot let ourselves fully realise what is possible.

Many “experts” will prescribe courses and readings in personal development but; it does not matter what theories have been learned or methods put in place from this practice, unless you can elevate your sense of self-worth.

Much of a person’s sense of self-worth, or lack thereof, can be attributed to a sense of “I could have done better” or “I am not good enough”. In some absolute sense this may be correct, but with this message as a constant shackle we will always lead ourselves down a road paved with misery.

Instead of this limiting thought, work towards being the best you can be each and every day.

If, for example, you wake up one day with a throbbing headache, you may not do as well as the day before when you felt great. But both days can be used to do the best you can with what you have to work with. As you clear your mind and balance your life, your “best” gets better all the time.

I know that as a coach and consultant I am improving everyday through the wisdom my clients bring me, my theoretical learning and my personal experiences. As such I am a better coach today that I was yesterday. But yesterday I was still a great coach, happy person, being and doing the very best I could.

Remember, at the end of the day, you only need to compete against yourself.

Filed Under Inspiration, Life in Business ·

Reader’s Choice Weblog of 2005 Goes to ….

June 17, 2005→ Add Comments

Congratulations to our friend and colleague Andy Wibbels – winner of Marketing Sherpa’s Reader’s Choice Weblog of 2005 for his blog- Easy Bake Weblogs. Andy wasn’t nominated in the initial phase of the awards but managed to win the Reader’s Choice award by the sheer weight of votes from his readership and network.

This award is a testiment to Andy’s philosophy of providing valuable and interesting content for his target market. The other great aspect of Andy’s work is that it is authentic – you get the feel for the real Andy Wibbels.

Well Done Andy!!

If you want to experience why Andy’s readership hold him in such high regard you can go no further that a recent post – 40 Questions About Blogging (+40 Answers). If you are still al little unclear about this blogging stuff, get yourself over for a read of this summary of all that is blogging.

Other winners of the Marketing Sherpa’s 2005 Weblogs of the Year include :

Best individual’s blog on the general topic of marketing and advertising

Awarded to: Seth Godin’s Blog
http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/blog.html

Honorable Mention: Adrants
http://www.adrants.com

Best group weblog on the general topic of marketing and advertising

Winner: MarketingVOX
http://www.marketingvox.com

Honorable Mention (Tie):
Marketing Genius http://marketinggenius.blogspot.com
Church of the Customer http://www.churchofthecustomer.com

Best PR-topic blog

Winner: Media Guerrilla
http://mmanuel.typepad.com/media guerrilla

Honorable Mention: Strategic Public Relations
http://www.prblog.typepad.com

Best B-to-B marketing-topic blog

Winner: Guerrilla Consulting
http://guerrillaconsulting.typepad.com