How to shorten the cab line in Vegas?

I just flew into Vegas and although someone picked me up, I know of a way to get in a cab faster on busy nights. All you do is go down to baggage claim and when you see one of the sky caps walking around asking people if they want help with their bags, wave one of them over. Even if you only have a small bag, once they come over ask them if they can get you in a “shorter cab line.”
When they say yes, ask them if $10 will cover it? If you have more that one person and a couple of bags it probably won’t be enough. Don’t be surprised if it takes a $20 to do it, especially on a busy night. Believe me on a busy night it’s worth it! Enjoy your trip!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Should I get a MySpace page for my company?

For most businesses the answer is no. If you’re target market and current customers are all under 30 it may be a good idea but chances are most businesses will not benefit from a MySpace page.

Why not? If your business creates a MySpace page, most likely you are doing this to expose your products & services to the public and eventually obtain new customers. To generate interest in your site you’ll need to invite people to be your “friends”. As you invite people to be a part of your page any searches for your company will now start to appear with the “quotes or notes” that your new friends have left on your site.

Imagine someone searching out your company online, they enter “ACME Pluming Supply Denver, CO” and here is what comes up:

· “Acme plumbing supply…..Me and Suzy wanna party and we like staying up all night long texting our friends in Amarillo.”

· “Acme plumbing …..Party at Pure Saturday night and bring all the fine women you can find!!!!

You get the picture. When you have a MySpace page the crawlers from search engines pick up your company name and you have no control what else they pick up with it. Be very clear who your audience is and who you are trying to get as customers before you decide to get a MySpace page. Whichever way you decide to go, Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Do you take responsibility for the service your company provides?

We’ve all had it happen; your airline seat has changed from the original you booked without any logical reason, so you question the people behind the counter. Their response is that they can’t do anything and you’ll have to check at the gate, unfortunately their hands are tied. You proceed to the gate and now those people are saying they can’t make a change because it is “beyond their control.” Every now and then you’ll get an employee that says “Sure I can take care of that, there is no reason that should have happened to you”.

The funny thing is you’re so happy someone is finally helping you that you forgot how poor the service was with the other two reps, this occurrence is called contrast. Initially, the customer service was so bad that when you finally received decent service (that you should have received from the beginning) it seemed superior. But it really wasn’t…

How is the service at your company? Is it just average or is it something you would like to receive and feel comfortable paying money for? Have you ever made an excuse for the service your company provided? If so, nobody wants to hear it, just like you don’t want to hear it when you get poor service.
Step up and provide service through your company that you would want to receive, not settle for. Service separates the successful company’s and the excuse makers. Excuse makers that offer poor service eventually go out of business.

We all know companies that give great service that we continue to support, and refer to our personal contacts, because of this, these companies will experience continued success. Be one of those companies and strive for excellent service. Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Should I join a networking group?

Networking is a vital activity for all businesses. Becoming a member in a networking group is a great way to expose your company to the public and other business advocates. The organizations available have standards and procedures in place that will assist you in becoming successful. With that said, each organization is tailored in its direction and not all may be great fits for you. But how do you know which ones are best to join? You’ll have to get proactive.

The only way to get an accurate sense is to attend different networking groups and base your decision off of these ‘trial meetings’. While you are there, talk to the members. It doesn’t cost anything to ask questions so start up conversations with multiple individuals. Try to get business cards from people you didn’t get a chance to speak with and give them a call later on that week.

Before you call, create an outline of questions that are important to you because like you, these individuals are busy and you don’t want to waste too much of their time. Here are some good sample questions to start off with:

• What do you like best about the meetings?
• What do you like least?
• What kind of advice would you give a new person like me that is joining the group?
• What’s the biggest benefit of being a member of the group from your perspective?
• Are there other groups you think might be a good idea for me in my business?
• How would I go about exchanging referrals with someone like you in the group?

After speaking with other members it will easier to decide if that group is good fit and positive use of your time. Talk to at least 5 people from the group before you decide to participate. If you decide to join one, participate fully. Step up or step aside. Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

How are you personally performing in your company, really?

Judging and reflecting on your own personal performance is the hardest job of being an entrepreneur. It’s easy to criticize others’ performance but what your own? Are you really doing everything you can to grow your company or do you find yourself “thinking” about doing more?

Try this exercise, point your finger straight out like you are pointing at someone, now count how many fingers are pointing forward? Your index finger and your thumb, right? Now stop and look where your other three fingers are pointing? Yes, at you. So, one or two are pointing towards others, but the majority of them are pointing right back at you! I know, I know, you’re starting to get cranky because there are more fingers pointing back at you than at others.

In a normal eight hour day there are about 480 minutes (8 hours x 60 minutes) of working time. Most entrepreneurs that are starting to build their company work closer to 10 or 12 hours or 600 to 720 minutes per day. How much work are you really getting done in that time? Could you be doing more? Will you do more?

If you were work at an 80% efficiency rate, you can still accomplish a great deal each day. If you were making calls and each call took 5 minutes, you could make 12 calls an hour or approximately 100 calls in an 8 hour work period. Breaking it down to a simpler level lets you see just how much you can get done each day.

Now, think about getting paid by the minute instead of the hour. Do you think someone would take 35 cents a minute over $15 an hour? If they did they would end up making $43,680 a year instead of $31,200. If you had a goal of making a $1.00 per minute you would make $124,800 a year for a normal 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 52 weeks a year.

Value your time and your results by the minute instead of the hour and start adding real value to your business and your income! Make it happen!

Click here to read a great article about efficiency ratings for employees and yourself.

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Is your phone voice running off customers?

Most people answer no right off the bat.

Have you ever spoken to anyone on the phone and their voice was so loud that you had to pull your phone away from your head? Did you say something to them about how loud their voice was? Probably not. Most people don’t know how to ask someone to “pull away from the phone a bit” or “can you move your headset a little further from your head?”

Instead you just irritatingly complete the call as fast as possible and hope the person doesn’t call you back again any time soon. If they do, you just try to get off the phone as soon as possible. If your potential customers feel this way about talking to you, you’ll end up losing business over it. Call someone you know that will really tell you the truth about something like this and ask them how your voice sounds both on your cell phone and on your office/home phone. Is it too loud? Can you always hear background noise?

Take the time to find out how your voice is coming across on the phone and make any modifications you need to. Most phones and headsets have adjustments that can be made to reduce background noise and the volume of your voice. Eliminate a loud phone voice from being a potential customer-runner-offer. Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

How come getting new business isn’t as clear to me as getting a new car?

When you decide to get a new car your emotions get involved. We start focusing on the car we want and we can see the shiny paint color, smell the leather, and hear the roar of the engine. Basically, we see ourselves driving it and emotionally we begin to crave this product. Very quickly, our minds become trained to notice these cars more often and soon we begin to see the same car everywhere!

Funny thing is, there aren’t any more of these cars on the road now then when they first peaked your interest. Your brain has just started to “pay more attention” now. This is human nature; the more thought and emotion you put behind something, the more your brain figures you want it, so it starts picking out and noticing those kinds of things.

Think about your business, do you put this much energy and emotion into getting new customers? If not, that may be why you’re not getting as many as you would like. Start projecting out all the benefits and enjoyment you will have by adding new customers to your business. Think about how happy those new customers will be enjoying your products or services and the positive experience they will receive working with you or someone else on your team. Do you find it hard to get emotional about this? If so, you’ve found your answer: lack of passion.

Time to re-invigorate and remind yourself about all the reasons you went into business for yourself in the first place! All those same emotions and passion need to resurface so your brain can once again get excited about it. Remember, you get what you focus on, so focus on the right things! Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Are you really focused on Success?

A couple weeks ago, I spoke to a home inspector who spent a great deal of time telling me how bad he thought the market was. After asking him why he felt this way, he proceeded to explain how bad new housing was and that the mortgage crisis was affecting everything. It really didn’t matter what kind of “business building” suggestions I made to him. He opposed every single one of my ideas. No matter what I suggested, he was not willing to adjust his viewpoint that everything was “terrible”.

I decided to research other home inspectors businesses. I approached employees of AHIT, American Home Inspectors Training Institute, a company which has trained thousands of home inspectors across the country and asked them what the general feeling and feedback was the inspectors who called their customer service and technical support. Overall these were the comments: “I’m not growing as much this year as last year, but things are still plugging along” or “I stepped up my marketing efforts because my business is a little flat this year, but I feel like I’m going to be up a little over last year when it’s all said and done”. In general, the people who remain positive and focused on building their businesses are doing better than the negative ones.

This is true of people in any business. If you only focus on what the media is saying, whether bad or good, your business will probably flow with the “headlines.” The reason for this is because what you believe and get emotional about, you bring about. If you’ve built your business on sound business principles and you focus on the positive, you have very good chance of doing better and more customers will want to work with, or refer you. It’s much more enjoyable to talk and be around positive people than negative ones.

Take a close, objective look at your attitude and make sure you’re staying positive about your business and your industry. If you’re staying positive, good for you! If your attitude has been negative, change it. Every industry has cycles and your attitude has a lot to do with how your business will weather it. Focus on how you want your business to be, focus on the good benefits you provide your customers, and focus on being positive. Do this and you’ll have a better outcome with your business.

Make it happen!

© 2008 eMarketing 4 Business LLC