But Where ARE You?

I was researching some things on the web yesterday and came across a service that I thought would be  useful to me, and possibly to my clients.  Interested in potentially meeting this person, I looked through her website to see where she was located.  Then I searched again.  Sure that I was missing something, I looked one more time, then gave up and moved on.

This is not the first time this has happened to me.  This woman lost a potential client (and more, through my contacts) because she didn't have basic info on her website.  I think some people forget that it's not just the people in their area who are looking at their website.  Their website is not the equivalent of a local phone book listing.  It's global.  Anyone in the the world can see your information.  So it's crucial to have listed where you do business.  Even if you are not limited to where you are located (you might want to travel or be a virtual business), I think it's important for people to know where you are.

• if you do local speaking engagements, someone may want to hire you, or check you out before hiring you for their event;
• someone may want to meet with you in person, depending on your business
• for me personally, if I really like what someone is offering, I like to meet them to see if I could refer them to someone else
• it's a conversation piece that may get you more connections. "I noticed you're located in Portland.  My sister lives there and her friend really needs someone like you."  We're always saying things like "it's a small world", and you may find it's truer than you think.

You should also have your contact information easy to find on your website.  Not in teeny tiny print on the bottom of the page.  I'm getting older and need to wear reading glasses occasionally.  I want to easily find and see the contact info, so don't make me work for it.  Really make it easy and available.  I can't stress this enough.  It may sound really basic, but countless websites I've visited don't have this.  So please double check your website right now........go ahead.....I'll wait........

Read on, readers!

Reading is fundamental.  At least, that’s what I was taught growing up.  Plus I love to read.  I’m an avid reader of all types of books, and belong to a book club to boot.  I also enjoy reading about business news, especially since I started my own business.  Since my profession is organizing offices, I find it fun (really!) keeping up-to-date on the latest and greatest tools for organizing, whether they be tactile or digital. I sometimes drink my morning tea or coffee perusing websites, or I read the Business Journal over lunch.  It’s kind of relaxing to me because I see research as a little break from work.

Or, maybe I should be using past tense.  It WAS relaxing, I USED to find it fun.  And I realize it’s because I USED to have more time to do it all.

In the past month, I have gotten B-U-S-Y.  I enrolled in 2 business classes that have a lot of work involved with them, including reading.  I have discovered other sites with lots of information for my business I need to be reading regularly.   My client base is beginning to increase.  And oh yeah, I’m traveling more often.  I might have bitten off more than I can chew. 

As I think of ways to potentially cut my workload down (which I really can’t), or maybe back out of one of the classes (which I won’t), I realize this is a great learning tool.  It’s my profession to help people find the time to do the things they need to do.  I need to do all of it.  So I need to make it work.  (kind of a “duh!” moment for me).

First, I list all of the magazines, websites, and newspapers I need to read on a regular basis.   I have things like the Business Journal, some tech blogs, Inc Magazine, etc.  Then I list all of the emails that are business related that would drive me to their website to read their stuff.  Finally I list the things I like to read that are not really for my business but more of a distraction.  I stop listing these because there are too many.

For the first list, I start assigning times to each piece about how long it takes me to read it, and how often it gets printed/updated.  The tricky part is that, let’s say, the Business Journal gets printed every 2 weeks, but their website gets updated almost daily.  Very similar to most printed materials now that have a website.  But it’s not necessary to look at it unless I’m following a particular story, in which case I will get an email from the Business Journal informing me of such.  So my chart is starting to look like this:

Biz Journal – 1 hour to read – every other week
Inc Magazine – 1-2 hours to read – once a month
Mashable and other blogs – 3 hours – each week

And so on and so forth.  My list began to get pretty long, but I started to look more critically at what I was once reading and discarded the stuff that never really gave me anything worthwhile.  I went through the same process with my emails, except this time I created a rule that automatically puts them in a folder – out of the inbox where I will be tempted to read it on the spot.  

I then made a calendar of when each piece comes out (daily, every other week, etc) with the time I need to read it all.  The total time I need to spend reading still looked a little overwhelming, so I broke it down to make it more manageable.  Now I assign myself times during the week to read specific things, and I give myself 1.5 hours each day.  Sometimes I break that 1.5 hours up and do 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch, and 30 in the afternoon to help break up the day.  I allow myself a little flexibility in an increasingly structured work day/week.  

I’m now more relaxed about getting everything done, and not missing out on news that can help me further my business.  And with the time limits, I find myself wandering less to other sites that are not important (you know how it is, you’re reading something online, you click a link, read something else, click another link, and before you know it, 34 hours have passed?).

I have 30 minutes leftover in my time allotment today, so I've got to go read Cosmopol...er, Entrepreneur Magazine.  Gotta stay on top of this!

What's wrong with Spam?

Last night I was out at a professional association's meeting, and afterwards a few of us decided to go somewhere to socialize.  One of the people had just started her own business a year ago (let's call her Sheila), and in the midst of conversation she mentioned that she takes every business card that she gets and puts it on her mailing list.  She sends a weekly email (with no opt-out option) to her list.  I said "do you ask these people if they want on the list?" Sheila replied "no, but they can send me an email asking me to take them off if they want to".

Does anyone else see what's wrong with this?  The basic definition of what Spam is is any kind of unwanted online communication.  Usually it refers to large companies sending out massive quantities of unwanted email to bring down servers and cause mass havoc.  But it also pertains to being put on a mailing list without your knowledge or consent. A professional courtesy can be shown by simply asking someone right at the get go "I send out a daily/weekly/xxx newsletter/email on _______. Would you like to be put on my mailing list?"

"What's the big deal?" you may ask.  "Can't you just delete the email, or email the person to remove yourself?".  I'm glad you asked.  Why, yes I can do both of those things.  It doesn't take that long.  For this one email.  If this is the only email I ever have to do it with.  But of course, it's not. 

For busy business people who are out there meeting people and exchanging business cards on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis, the amount of mailing lists people are put on is huge.  Add to this the mailing lists people get put on from the large number of websites they visit weekly.  Removing yourself from all of these unwanted mailings lists is now time consuming.

As a business person whose job it is to help people reduce wasted time, I was shocked to hear a new business owner like Sheila be so blase' about creating a huge time waster for people.  In addition, it's not a good business model.

A business man I knew said he put every person he ever meets on his email lists because it sounds good to say he has a lot of people on it.  When I asked him how many people unsubscribe because they never asked to be on the list he replied “Most of them.  And they’re not happy with me either, but at least I got them for one email.”

I would be one of those annoyed people.  I spent 20 minutes last week unsubscribing from unwanted email lists.  It's a huge waste of my time, and it makes me wonder about the integrity of the person who put me on their list.  Sheila wasn't too worried about that and said if the person gets mad about being put on the list, then she wouldn't want that person as a client anyways.  ?!?!??  Because she's talking about me, and let me tell you, if I am your client and like your services, I will be professing them to the world.  So to continue ignoring professional courtesy is a great opportunity to say goodbye to potential clients.

To recap, if you put people on mailing lists without their consent or knowledge (Spam), you:

1. create a time waster for those people who don't want on this list
2. annoy those same people, the people you were trying to connect with in the first place
3. say goodbye to potential clients (and all they people that THEY know)

OR, when you meet them and take their business card (or in a followup email to them) you could ask them nicely if they want to go on your list.

The great thing about owning your own business is you get choose how you want to run it.  I know which model I'm going for.