Building out systems in your business is one of those things that is important, but the “know it all” crowd of marketing experts have completely taken it over the top. They beat you to death with discussions around “standard operating procedures” and “outsourcing to your team”.
Picking Your Battles in Business
Recently, I had a client make a few unreasonable requests with respect to some services that we provide them. They weren’t outrageous to the point where it was foolish to even suggest it, but they could be classified more as “stretching the friendship” type requests – we could do them, but it wasn’t what we agreed and it was a bit cheeky to even ask.
Dealing With Expectations
When you start a project, a business or even kick off a new promotion, you inevitably set some expectations for yourself. When you’re just starting out this can be really tough because we almost always are overly optimistic about the possibilities. In truth, that optimism is often times what keeps us going during the hard work beforehand.
Information Vampires and Tire Kickers
One thing that I’ve always believed critical to the success I’ve had in my life, in relationships and in business is that I’m a fairly generous person. In business and especially online, I’m pretty open about sharing a lot of what I know and talking about how I’ve learned or gained the experience. In fact, these daily emails are a big part of that sharing.
Networking Is About People
Most people who know me will tell you that I’m fairly shy and that things, like networking or meeting new people, doesn’t really come easily to me. I’m not crippling shy or anything, but I’m just not one of those people who can join a crowd and within ten minutes I know everyone and we’re BFFs.
What’s In It For Me?
For most of us running our own businesses that serve clients and customers, we generally spend a fair amount of our time thinking about how we can add additional value for them ahead of ourselves.
I Missed A Milestone!
This is going to be an unusual email for a couple of reasons.
First of all, it’s going to largely be reflective and about me. There will be some lessons for you to take away I hope, but for the most part, I’m going to talk about myself and my journey with Casual Marketer so far.
Knowing Your Boundaries
I was talking to a coaching client tonight who’s starting up a services business and we got to talking about understanding your boundaries when it comes to clients. I’m not talking about how often they contact you or understanding the demarcation points about responsibilities, I’m talking about knowing the lines in the sand about the kind of clients you’ll take on.
Hangin’ Tough
I figured if I couldn’t suck you in to read an email using a New Kids On The Block song title then nothing was going to work!
But the title is more than boy band clickbait I assure you.
Community Spirit – Community Marketing For Smart People
I’ve mentioned before that I think forum and community marketing are great strategies to help you build your own following and an audience. If you can find a group of like-minded people that go to an online community, post messages and participate in an ongoing conversation, that’s a really valuable commodity.