Invest in #1

A broken foot has laid me up. Luckily a lot of my business can be done sitting down. However, the challenge of slowing down has opened another door: to be able to invest in myself for a few weeks.

It's not often small business owners get the chance to look at what they could learn, and then be forced to take the time to learn it. But it's something we all should do more.

What you can learn:

1. Things can happen in your business if you're not there. Your staff will love taking the reigns. So leave them to it.

2. There are things to learn. Any time you spend improving your knowledge or your investing in yourself, is time well spent.

3. Systems are important. By putting procedures in place in your business, you'll be able to take time out without the sky falling.

This week, I've dragged out the inspirational books and CDs. I'm revved up and ready to go with lots of bright ideas for my business!

Try it.

Margie

Outstanding customer experiences

I went along to an internet seminar yesterday, just for the fun of it. There's nothing quite like a rev-up session (and those online marketers are good at it) to get you thinking about issues that are bigger than you.

I came away from it with a head full of ideas. But also feeling like I'd been battered around the head. At the end of the day, the promoters were a bit desperate for their "customers" to part with a hefty amount of cash in return for the 'secret formula'. The pressure during the final product flog was immense. I ran away.

What I did get out of it, however, was clarity about the two things that matter most when it comes to my customers:

A question of service
Every now and again you need to step back and think about your "customer experience". Is the service they receive outstanding? Is it honest? Would they recommend it to their friends?

A question of relationships
How do people feel when they walk out of your business? Have you connected with them? Do you nurture the relationship from the moment a customer or client walks in the door until they leave, whether they buy anything from you or not?

Superior service and nurtured relationships are two of the crucial ways that small businesses can define themselves.

So be outstanding today.

Margie

Small business emails

Email addresses and websites are now just like phones and answering services: everyone has them but not everyone uses them well.

So many small businesses I come into contact with still have their internet service providers (you know, Yahoo) as their email addresses. To me, it smacks of a couple of things:

a) They haven't realised that this looks pretty amateurish when they communicate with their customers (or they don't care)

b) They're not taking their email and internet strategy seriously (or they don't have one)

However, in our search engine seeking world, you just can't afford not to be leveraging the power of your brand.

The Australian Government's e-business guide suggests you ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does the domain name support the branding of your organisation?

2. Would your target audience guess the domain name and email address?

3. Do the domain name and email address stand on their own and make sense?

4. Is the domain name or email address too long, awkward to type or repeat verbally to people?

5. Can the name be confused with an existing popular domain name?

Even if you've had your domain name for a while, that doesn't mean you can't revisit your strategy.

Think it through today.

Margie