Congratulations!  You’ve now thought about keywords and should be beginning to see the impact they can have on your online success.  But doing the research is only half the puzzle — now you have to use them. 

The first step is to review of your list of potential keywords  and keyword phrases and pick the one or two, but no more than three, of them to target.  You may have a list of 25 potentially dynamite keywords, but you cannot effectively go after all of them at once.  For each keyword or keyword phrase, think about how you would use it in a headline or sentence.  Sometimes keywords pop up that have a decent number of searches and almost no competition — because they are almost impossible to use in regular language.  You can choose to target those — but understand that it will make your job just that much tougher.

Before you do anything else, pull up a Google search box and type in the keywords or keyword phrases you have chosen.  Make note of the top ten results.  You want to be one of them within the next 60 to 90 days (or sooner).

Now get to work on your copy.  If you have a traditional website, ideally, all three keywords will appear on your website’s home page:  include all of your keywords at the top of the page; put at least one keyword or phrase in a headline or a subhead; at least one or possibly even two of your keywords or phrases should be in the first paragraph of the page; and make sure you add at least one in the last paragraph of the page.  If you can make the targeted phrase a logical hyperlink to another page in your site, Google will give you bonus points in your search rankings.  Note:  Make sure your keywords are in text, not artwork.  If your headlines and subheads are graphics and not text, Google may ignore them.

Make sure you include one, two, or all three of your targeted keywords in your page’s title and meta description and of course, include them in your web headers as meta keywords.  You can target different keywords on different pages of your website if each page is indexed separately.  That may be a little advanced for a basic website, but it’s something to keep in mind.

If you are using a WordPress or other blog format as your platform instead of a traditional website, you will want to make sure that each post has one or two keywords in it and that your targeted keywords are included as Categories and Post Tags.   If you have added an SEO plug-in for your WordPress blog, make sure you include your targeted keywords in your Title and Meta Description.

But don’t stop with your website or blog.  Now go into every directory your site has been listed in and re-write the description to include your keywords.  Pull up your profiles in LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook and add your keywords.  Begin a concentrated, targeted online campaign emphasizing those keywords.  Try to use those targeted keywords in your Twitter updates, on your Facebook wall, in articles submitted to article directories, and in press releases.  Add your website or blog to different social bookmarking sites and include your keywords in your profiles.

Finally, set up Google alerts to track your keywords or keyword phrases.  As you start to use the phrases more and more, you should start to see your site or marketing efforts pop up.  This will give you an idea of where Google is recognizing the phrase and you can adjust your copy or marketing efforts accordingly.

Give it a shot.  I would love to hear your success stories in a couple months.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

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Okay.  First things first.  You ARE getting Google Alerts every time your small business is mentioned on the web, aren’t you?  If you’re not, get with it.    It is an awesome tool that can make increasing the online visibility of your small business online so much easier.  (Side note: I’m talking about the real Google.com/alert, not the commercial googlealert.com.  I don’t know the commercial version, only the free Google service.) Basically, you ask Google to troll the web for you, looking for specific keywords or your company name.  Every time a Google bot finds what you requested, it captures the page and sends it to you.  You can choose to have it sent “as it happens,” which means immediately upon the bot finding it, once a day, or weekly.  Your own site isn’t included in the results, nor are Tweets or Facebook mentions at this time, but those will be coming soon. 

Google Alerts are great for finding out when you are mentioned on someone else’s blog, or in an article, or in an Answer in LinkedIn.  If you are submitting press releases to dozens of press release services, Google Alerts can give you exactly which services are distributing your releases, and which aren’t.  You’ll know what sites are promoting you.  It’s the easiest way to create a file of your online press clippings I’ve found.  It’s also a great tool for monitoring who is talking about your competitors, what blogs are actively talking about your areas of interest, and catching any negative reviews or bad-mouthing before it goes viral.

But what I have found with many small business owners that I consult with is that they set up Google Alerts, they get the email from Google every day or every week, they open it up, say, “Oh goody, my press release was published,” and go on with their day.

Wrong.

You got the information, now DO SOMETHING with it.  For instance, if a press release about your small business’ upcoming event was published by one of the online news agencies, go to the site, capture the URL, and send a tweet announcing you’ve been mentioned.  Don’t stop there.  Submit the URL to Digg, Redd It, StumbleUpon, and every other social bookmarking site you participate in.  Go to a couple forums and say, “Hey, PRNews just published our press release.”  Update your wall on Facebook, submit a little news items to each of your LinkedIn groups.   

I suggested this plan of action to a client and she responded with “Why should I promote their blog?  Aren’t I just sending traffic to them instead of to me?”  I had to pause for a second.  But really, why wouldn’t I want to promote a blog that is talking about my business?  Sure, I’m making an effort to make that blog successful, but I think that’s OK.  If that site publishes a mention about your small business, and their site viewership increases, what are the chances they will be interested in publishing the next release you send, or mentioning your small business again?  Pretty good, I’d say.

But Google Alerts can be used for so much more.  For instance, if you are a graphic designer looking for a new project, you can set up a Google Alert to look for “graphic designer wanted.”  You’ll get an Alert that has combed through Monster, Careerbuilder, Elance, GoBig, and other sites and condensed it down to a daily digest of potential projects.  so much easier and more convenient that going through each site separately.  It can work for just about any job or project search.  I’ve used it to identify companies who are actively looking for an online marketing consultant. 

Think about the topics you want to know about on a regular basis and create an Alert.  You’ll be amazed at how much information you get so easily.  I have found in my small business consulting practice that my topic research for certain clients has been cut to almost nothing because Google is doing it for me and delivering it right to my inbox.  It’s like having an intern doing your research and just presenting you with a summary of the latest news.  How cool is that?

I’m curious about how you use Google Alerts.  Please leave your comments below.

And as always, if I can help you create an online or offline marketing plan or help you get your business growing and moving toward your success point, please call me at (614) 753-5979 or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.  I would be honored to help.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

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In talking with small business owners who are struggling to find success, I am often struck by how strongly they resist change.  In my role as small business consultant, I seem to have to bite my tongue at least twice a day so I don’t blurt out that Dr. Phil one-liner, “So, how’s that working for you?”  I try to listen, give constructive suggestions, and try not to over-promise on how I can help their small business grow, but it’s so hard when I see what great potential there is with offline relationship-building techniques complemented by online social networks and online marketing techniques, and so many small business owners don’t.

Take the insurance agent I recently met.  He has been a small business owner selling property/casualty/health insurance for almost 12 years.  The past 2 years have been the hardest of his career.  He is struggling to find new business.  Where does he currently get most of his clients?  The majority of new business comes from a half-page ad he runs annually in three yellow page-type directories, but the phone doesn’t ring as much anymore.  The other main source of new business are leads he gets from his parent insurance company.  Where do those leads come from?  Those leads are people doing online searches, of course, not people looking in the yellow pages.  Lightbulbs coming on, anyone?

Does he have a website?  Yeah, the one the company put up for him almost 5 years ago – and it’s never been updated, at least not by him.  Does he promote it?  Not really.  Ever think about a blog? No, too time-consuming.  ”Are you on LinkedIn?” I asked.  ”I think so,” was the reply.  I looked him up.  Yeah, he has an incomplete profile and only 12 connections.   Facebook? That’s for kids.  Twitter?  Doesn’t get it.

“So what steps are you taking to encourage your current clients to refer more business to you?” I asked.   Nothing systematic, it turns out.  I didn’t have my laptop with me at Panera, but if I had, I would have made him sit through THIS VIDEO right then and there.  Ah, live and learn.  He got a follow-up email from me AND a thank you greeting card is on the way, so he’ll be exposed to the information that can literally turn his current customers into a dynamic referral machine.  Will he take action?

“What networking events do you regularly attend?”  None.  He used to be involved in the local Chamber, but not now.  I suggested a couple groups that he may want to check out, but he has young kids so evenings are spent at home.  Some of these groups meet in the morning or over lunch.  No enthusiasm.  I don’t want to say the guy was negative, but I think all he could see was the desperation of shrinking business, not the excitement of growth.  But he’s not willing, right now anyway, to hire me to help him.  The pain isn’t great enough — yet.

On my way home from my meeting with him, I was listening to a CD I had gotten a couple years ago from my good friends, Dave and Linda Brincks, of ActionCoach International, entitled 6 Steps to a Better Business, featuring ActionCoach founder Brad Sugars.

One of the things Brad talked about was overcoming resistance to change.  (Sidenote: I once said I wanted to be like Brad Sugars when I grow up.  I still do.  He imparts a lot of common sense.)  Turns out, there’s an actual scientifically-proven mathematical formula that governs when an organization – either an individual, small business, or even the largest corporation or government in the world — overcomes resistance to change.  It was actually introduced back in the 1970s by corporation efficiency expert Peter Drucker and then mathematically proven by the team of Gleicher, Beckhard & Harris in the late 1980s.

Anyway, the formula is stated something like this:

Dissatisfaction + Vision + Action > Resistance to change

Basically, in order to overcome the resistance to change, there has to be a certain level of dissatisfaction, often rising to the level of actual pain, the small business owner wants to alleviate. But pain is not enough.  The small business owner will continue to do what he or she has always done despite the pain unless there is also a vision of what their business can look like after the pain is removed.  That’s where a business consultant like me can help.  I help refine, or maybe even completely define, the vision.  But envisioning the result is not enough.  There has to be action.  Meeting with me may have been my insurance agent prospect’s first step.  But he doesn’t yet have the vision.

I have my work cut out for me with him.  Only when all three elements are in place: 1) enough pain, 2) a clear vision, and 3) action will he be willing to let go of his current ways to doing business and try some new things.

I am convinced that building relationships is the way to build a successful small business today.  Whether it’s offline relationship-building activities, like consistent communication strategies like SendOutCards, or newsletters, or even one-on-one personal networking, or it’s online relationship-building activities like email, blogging, and social media strategies, no small business owner is going to be able to really experience the success he or she seeks without embracing a new vision and overcoming  resistance to change.

If you are dissatisfied with your current business, and are ready to seek out a new vision, then take that action and call me at 614-753-5979 or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.  I’m ready and excited to help.  A more successful small business is in your future.

Until next time,

Here’s to helping you reach your Success Point,

Trina

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Every small business online quickly discovers that you need to have traffic to make any website or blog successful.  Just as quickly, you’ll discover that traffic is an elusive thing to find.  Traffic, traffic, traffic. The fact: building traffic to a website or blog takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Even if you find the perfect keyword that has no competition so you’re on the first page of Google for that keyword, chances are it only gets a few hundred hits per month, if that. So unless you have the resources of Fort Knox at your disposal, you can’t effectively buy clicks for keywords that get thousand and thousands of clicks per day, especially if your site is not already highly ranked by Google.

What if they were all on their way to your website?!

Building traffic to any small business website or blog is a result of cumulative efforts. Traffic at first will be a trickle. The trick is to create a plan to exponentially expand your reach so that each effort builds on the next. Here are several proven no- or low-cost traffic-building strategies that should be in the marketing mix of every internet marketer.

First of all, make sure your website URL is connected with websites that get lots and lots of traffic. If there are ways to have direct links on your site to Amazon or eBay, do it. Even if the connection is tenuous at the beginning, it will help increase your visibility in the search engines.  Google ranks websites according to how “relevant” they think your site is.  Lots of links to and from your site or blog make it look more important.

Also, take advantage of the link and content opportunities available at sites like Squidoo or HubPages. Create a lens or a hub complementing your product or service and make sure your URL is either in the text (conservatively, of course, no spam), and in your signature and profile. Then promote these pages. Theses sites are highly ranked by Google, so if you can rise to the top in these formats, you will increase your own site’s relevance.

Write articles and submit to multiple directories, making sure your URL is in your author resource box.  Definitely get some articles in Ezinearticles.com, as it’s the biggest and Google loves articles accepted there. Different readers prefer different directories, so make sure you spread your work around. Go a step further and submit your articles to sites like Digg, Reddit, De.li.cious, Stumbleupon, and similar bookmarking sites. Again, traffic is a result of exposure so do whatever you can to get your links in front of eyeballs.

Learn how to use some of the social bookmarking and networking sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.  Participate in forums, making sure you include your URL in your signature and profile. The more comments you make, the more the URL to your small business website or blog will be seen.

Make sure your small business site is listed in directories. There are thousands and thousands of directories. You can manually submit to several hundreds, or pay a service to submit for you.  I have been using TrafficBug.com lately, and I must say, the results have been impressive.  If you do it yourself, just make sure you submit your sites to categories that make sense.  How many newbie website or blog owners forget to even register with Yahoo?  It’s the simplest thing.  Just go to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit and put in your URL.  It may take a few weeks to register, but doing that simple, 20-second submit will leapfrog your site over thousands of others that are waiting to be “found” by Yahoo.  Raise your hand, tell Yahoo you’re there and ready for business.

Never forget Google Adwords, as it can be very effective, though costly if you use the wrong keywords. But also consider advertising directly on Yahoo search marketing or even Microsoft AdCenter. These provide a great deal of traffic and are typically less competitive and less expensive than Google.  Personally, every head-to-head test I have run so far between Google and Yahoo, Yahoo has won every time as far as quality clicks for less money.

Just keep working on each of these traffic-building strategies and traffic will begin to build to your small business website or blog. The more traffic, the more eyeballs, the more Success. Just keep at it and you will succeed.

If you need help developing a traffic-building strategy for your small business website or blog, please let me know.  I would be glad to map out a step-by-step plan to build traffic and get the results you want.  I want you to reach your Success Point.

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Does your computer do this to you?  I woke up this morning, all rarin’ to go, ready to finish up some market research I owe a client on, of all things, reikki for animals (this is the small business she wants to start and by golly, I think there may be a market for it — who knew?!) and when I fired up the computer, I saw the dreaded “Do not turn off your computer. Installing update 1 of 13.”   Ugh.

My first reaction was “Oh no, what a waste of time.  There’s nothing wrong with my computer. It’s running fine the way it is.”  But then I recalled a conversation I had just this past Tuesday with my good friend Tony.  So I sat back, had a third cup of coffee and said “Okay, it’s needed.  So go ahead baby, update.”

Tony has been in business for himself, quite successfully I might add, for about 12 years.  He has a law degree, an MBA, and is a CPA.  He specializes in auditing the financial records of mid-size to large companies, often when the company is preparing for a merger or sale or restructuring.  I’ve known him for several years and he was on my “get in touch with” list.  So we were talking and he was complaining about how business has just dried up this past year.  He has laid off a couple accountants and is afraid he’ll have to close his doors.  This economy, oh dear, it’s ruining everything.

I couldn’t resist putting on my small business consultant hat, so I asked him what marketing he was doing to find new clients.

Well, he buys lists of the CEOs and CFOs of companies over a certain size and mails them a direct mail package.   He used to have a salesperson on staff fulltime who would follow up with those companies with face-to-face appointments, but his salesperson resigned last Spring and he hasn’t found a replacement yet.  So he calls, or one of the other accountants calls, when they can.  Does he go to networking events?  No, between his daughter’s soccer and his church choir practice, and his school district’s elimination of busing, he just doesn’t have time. Again, his salesperson was the one who always did that.

As a friend, I tried to gently point out that he needed to get a salesperson on board right away, that this was not something that could wait.  He said he couldn’t afford to hire anyone right now, especially since he had just let two accountants go, both of whom were both fairly long-term employees.  It didn’t feel right to hire someone new.

I wanted to be helpful, so I asked him if he was using LinkedIn.  He had heard about it, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.  He thinks his previous salesperson was on LinkedIn, but he wasn’t sure.  Twitter?  No, he doesn’t really understand how it works.  Facebook?  That’s something kids do.  Blog?  He’s not a writer.  Every suggestion I threw out was met with resistance.

His marketing methods have provided a decent living for his family and his employees for twelve years.  In his mind, the thing that is making all the difference this year versus previous years is the global economy.  His small business is a victim of circumstance.  Success will return once the economy bounces back.

Will it?

Just like my first reaction this morning was “ugh, who needs this, what a waste of time,” I now realize that his reaction to my suggestions were actually exactly the same.  Just like me and my computer, his small business needs a system update, but he doesn’t see it.

Whether he realizes it or not, he is relying on old, tired marketing techniques.  Sure, they can work but to really perform at an optimal level, he needs to embrace new marketing methods.  Becoming a successful small business in today’s market requires a different set of tools in the marketing toolbox.  And the fact that he could leverage a network like LinkedIn and maybe achieve similar or even better results than he is currently getting from those lists and direct mail packages at almost no out-of-pocket costs … but I couldn’t convince him.

He thinks his system is running fine.  No update needed.

I offered to put together a plan for him, to introduce him to the world of Web 2.0, but he declined.  He can’t afford me right now, he says. I know where he’s at.  How many times have I hit the “remind me later” option when presented with an opportunity to update?  But eventually, either I accidentally hit the button the computer cleverly puts in the path of my cursor or I get so tired of seeing the notice that I give in and say, “Okay, update now.”

So I guess I’ll have to keep on him for a little while.

If your marketing is not performing like it used to, perhaps you need a system update, too.  Just like a computer, if you keep putting off update after update after update, eventually your computer will just stop functioning altogether, and so will your marketing.  You don’t want to wait until your small business has ground to a complete halt before you take action.

If you need a fresh set of eyes to look at your current process and made suggestions on how to improve your performance, let me know.  I would be glad to help your small business reach it’s Success Point.

See you soon.

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Success takes action.  Sometimes it is simply that easy.  If you want to be successful at building a small business,  you have to beat the paralysis of analysis and do something.  I met with two small business owners and their staff about a year ago who were struggling with knowing what do to next.  They were not seeing the revenue they needed and were caught in that old paralysis of analysis on which way to take their business.  They didn’t want a long-term coaching relationship, they just needed some help coming up with ways to increase sales without increasing expenses.  So I offered to lead a brainstorming session for them.  I started with a presentation on  “10 Problem-Solving Ideas for Any Small Business” or something like that.  I got a call from someone in that group earlier this week and I’m happy to report that their business is doing really well.  They have some new staff members on board, and they’ve asked me if I could re-send them my hand-outs.  So I pulled out that file and as I reviewed it, I thought, “Hey, there’s some good ideas here.”  So now I’m sharing some of those ideas with you.

As I remember it, the biggest discussion generator I put up on the screen was, “Pretend you know exactly what you should do next, and do that.”  Some people scoffed at first, but it actually got this group off-center and the ideas started flowing.  The point is: Don’t stand in your own way.  Even if you take the “wrong” action, just by doing something, a dynamic or two will change and the solution will become clearer.  No problem in business is ever un-solvable.  Now, I’m not saying that you will always like the outcome, but a solution always exists.  It just sometimes takes a little creativity to get there.

Attack with Hummus

The biggest laugh came from the slide entitled “Attack with Hummus.” I don’t know about you, but I was a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan.  And one of my favorite moments in that series was a scene where the gang was sitting in the library talking about how to kill the monster du jour and someone suggested something and Buffy said, “That’s the dumbest idea ever,” to which one of the characters replied (it’s the actor Seth Green, but I can’t remember his character’s name at the moment), “Well, we could throw hummus at him.”  The room goes dead silent for a moment, then Buffy says, “I stand corrected.”  That moment stuck in my head.  If you are at a loss about how to solve a business problem, start with impractical or foolish solutions and figure out why those wouldn’t work.  I always start with “attack with hummus” and move on from there.  The practical, sensible solutions will become more obvious the sillier you get.  For instance, it would be foolish to send your past-due clients an envelope filled with hummus instead of their monthly invoice that apparently just gets ignored, but is there something else you could put in the envelope that would make it memorable and not just “another” bill?   How do you get their attention?  Put some thought into it and you’ll probably come up with a good idea.

Another idea is to pretend that a fairy godmother magically appeared, waved a wand, and poof! problem solved.  What would change?  Make a list of all the ways in which your situation would change once the problem is solved.  Then work backwards to see how you can go from success to the struggles you are having now.  Often, when you look at a business problem backward, you’ll see the path it takes to get it done.

What would he do?

If you’re still struggling with coming up with possible solutions, imagine how someone in a totally different profession would handle the same kind of problem.  If professional football team faced the same kind of problem as your small business, what would they do?  They would shake up the roster, get a new coach, practice new plays, study more film.  Have you taken those kinds of steps? Or if you stranded on an island with the cast of Lost and they had to solve this problem, what would they do?  Take yourself mentally out of your current environment and see what ideas pop up.  It often works.

And finally, when you come up with a possible solution, don’t stop there.  Come up with another idea, then another.  Often, it’s the third or fourth idea you have that is actually the best solution.  And just knowing that you have more than one option to try to solve a business problem will give you the confidence to try your first choice solution.

If your small business is stuck in a rut or has a problem that you are just not able to solve, when all else fails, get on the phone or send an email and ask someone for help.  A small business consultant like me can sometimes see a situation with fresh eyes and because I have a different knowledge set, I may present a different solution.

I would be glad to help you.  After all, I want all small business owners to reach their Success Point.

See you soon.

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Admit it.  When you first thought about starting a small business of your own,you got really excited.  You were going to set the world on fire.  But then you spent WAY too much time surfing the web, reading sales letters that go on and on, pulling out your credit card to buy this and to buy that.  You probably attended a couple seminars, maybe some webinars.  You even thought you’d check out those books from the library on how to start X business.  But the books went half-read, if you had time to touch them at all.  As soon as the file for the “solution” was downloaded, you were looking at a new email promotion, wondering if THIS new program being touted is the one you should buy.  It all sounds so good.

Before you know it, your credit card is maxed, your hard drive is running out of storage space, you have saved so many videos your computer has slowed to a crawl, your spare room is filled with books and 3-ring binders and gadgets, and you still don’t know where to start.  Your dreams of success are beginning to fade. You’re beginning to think that maybe running a small business is not for you.

You are experiencing the Paralysis of Analysis.   Many people go through it.  They get excited about an idea for a moment, but they get stuck implementing.  So you move on to the next idea.  Many would-be small business owners jump from business concept to business concept, trying to find a perfect solution to an imperfect problem.

Stop.

You can’t spend your entire life in learning mode if you want to be successful.  You have to act.  You have to take the plunge and actually do something with the information you acquire.

The best suggestion I can give you if you find yourself in a paralysis of analysis situation is to pick one business concept and then work out a clear, step-by-step plan based on what has worked for others, and follow it.  Starting a small business is a lot like baking a chocolate cake.  If you have a recipe to follow, you can be pretty sure your end result will be a chocolate cake.  If you don’t have a recipe and you are not a baker, you may end up with a chocolate mess that in no way resembles a cake because you neglected to add some key ingredient, like flour or an egg.  We want your small business to end up looking and acting like a successful small business.  Sure, you might make a mistake.  It may come out a little dry, or undercooked the first time around, but you’ll be so much closer to your goal.  Try something.  Don’t sit on the sidelines any longer.  Take action.

Following a proven plan will cut your learning curve and get those first customers in your door faster. Do exactly what others have done to create their business success, and you, too, can see your bank account grow.

When you are first getting started with any small business, granted, you have to spend some time learning.  But there is so much to learn, especially if you don’t know how to manage a small business, you can easily become overwhelmed.  But when you have a plan set out for you to follow, with a specific task or set of tasks for each day, you don’t get overwhelmed.  You overcome the paralysis of analysis.  You can actually move forward and get results.

The clearer the plan and the more thorough the plan, the better your results will be.  You want a plan that teaches you the basics.  If the plan introduces you to valuable resources, like software programs which help you automate your growing business, or area professionals who can provide the support and services you need, so much the better.

That’s where a small business consultant like Success Point Consulting, who specializes in getting small businesses like yours up and running, can help.  I provide a 12-week Fast-Start Program especially designed for small business owners who are just getting started and want someone to help them jumpstart the process.  I will work with you to set out a weekly or daily plan to develop your business concept, conduct market research, write a business plan, create a strategic marketing plan, and set the wheels in motion to getting your small business to its success point.

Like everything in life that’s worth doing, you have to invest a lot of your time and effort at the beginning. But success is worth it.

Here’s to your success!

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Last night, I hosted a roundtable discussion about how to achieve small business success using a blog.

Here are some quick take-aways and success ideas we discussed:

– If you want to attract highly qualified, highly motivated, and highly interested traffic to a blog, you HAVE to write keyword-rich content.  If you are not providing the search engines with keywords that people are actually typing into the search engines, you are missing out on TONS of prospects.  We went over how to do keyword research and how to find the keyword terms in the “sweet spot” that have enough searches per month to give your site decent traffic, while having a manageable amount of competition.  If you don’t know how to conduct keyword research, let me know and I’d love to put on my small business consulting hat and show you exactly how it’s done.

– Blogger and WordPress both have their fans in the small business world and both can be used effectively.  Blogger has the advantage if you want AdSense sales because they are automatic on the free version.  WordPress has the advantage in its flexibility for the small business owner.

– There are tons of ways to drive traffic to a small business blog.  You can start by telling your offline contacts.  Then go into online forums where your potential audience participates and announce that you have started a new small business blog.  Ask forum readers to give you feedback.  Many people want to be helpful and they will visit and respond.  Don’t forget to Ping after every posting (favorites in the group last night were Ping-o-matic and Technorati).  Take advantage of all the possible automatic link update features, like automatic updates to your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other profiles.  Plus, get your posts submitted to as many Social Bookmarking sites as possible.

These steps will explode the traffic and effectiveness of your small business blog and help your business reach its success point.  That’s what I’m all about — helping your small business achieve small business success.  And thanks for the great ideas on additional services I could provide to small business owners as part of Success Point Consulting.

If I can help you, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Here’s to your success point!

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Plan your day for small business success

Having trouble getting everything done?  Everyone has the same 24 hours available every day.  When working in my small business consulting capacity helping small business owners reach their success point, I have discovered that many successful small business owners manage their schedules in very similar ways.

First of all, success comes when you are at your peak energy and creativity when you are working.  If you work best first thing in the morning, schedule most of your most mentally-demanding work time then.  If you are a night owl, then your work time should be late in the day.  When you schedule against your natural rhythms, you will be less effective.  Oh sure, you’ll still get things done, but it will take twice as long and be more mentally and physically draining.

The most effective schedule for your small business success is to set up what is called a mini-day schedule.  A mini-day is basically a period of time set aside to complete a specific type of task.  Your work day would then consist of several mini-days.

The first step is to identify your vital tasks and determine how much time per day or per week you should spend on each task.   Keep a journal for at least 3 to 5 days and write down every task you do and how long you spend doing it.  For most people running a small business, your list of tasks will include things like returning telephone calls, replying to email, sending Tweets, writing letters, developing ads, reviewing reports, managing staff, and dealing with administrative tasks.  You also need to set time aside to think about strategy and write down goals and plans, and research new products and processes.

Once you have tracked your activity for a few days, sit down and group your activity into specific tasks.  For instance, you may have spent time returning telephone calls and placing phone calls, but at different times.  Lump those like-activities together and see how much time you spent on the phone.  If you are the type of person who checks email every 20 minutes and has to respond to each Tweet as it comes in, you will notice that you are actually wasting a lot of time.  It is more efficient to schedule a time and only check your email at specific times and only respond at a specific time.

Once you have grouped all your activities into similar tasks, you then need to schedule time for each type of task.  For instance, your Monday work schedule may look like this:  2 hours making telephone calls, 1 hour replying to and sending emails, 3 hours managing administrative tasks, etc.  Then Tuesday may include 2 hours of correspondence, 1 hour of review of data and reports, 2 hours of planning, etc.  The more detailed your journal of tasks, the more detailed your schedule can be.

The key to success is to stick to your mini-day schedule.  If you have scheduled a two hour mini-day for telephone calls, for you should spend two hours making telephone calls.  Do not stop at 30 minutes.  If you have called everyone on your list, go back through your customer base or stack of business cards and call more people.  What ends up happening is you start to get ahead of the curve on some projects, while keeping up to date on all others.  But what if the opposite happens?  What if you don’t get to call everyone on your list?  Stop after your designated 2 hours and move on to your next scheduled task.  Keep those remaining contacts until the next time you have telephone calls scheduled.  If you stick to the schedule, then you will be making progress on every vital task and are less likely to neglect a key element of your business.

Creating a mini-day work schedule can be beneficial not only in reducing the number of hours you work, but it makes your work time more productive, reduces stress, and helps you maintain a passion for your business.

If you have a schedule tip that works for you, I’d love to know about it.  Leave a comment here or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.

See You Next Time

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I have a passion for helping small business owners achieve success.  I hope to provide you with tons of tips, suggestions, and resources that will make it easier to start, run, organize, and manage your small business every day.  My tips are for both offline and online enterprises.

I hope you will find my information helpful, informative, and occasionally fun.

I look forward to helping you find your Success Point.

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