This weekend I took the family over to a friends house across the state on the east coast. We hung out for the weekend and headed back home on Tuesday. As we stopped to get a bite to eat before heading back, we almost made the assumption that the place we wanted to eat was out of business.

That is exactly what your potential customers might be thinking if you are not in the maps. There are over 100 Million people using Google Maps from their phone to find businesses. How many of those customers are you losing by not being there?

Google Maps

If you are not familiar with Google Maps or Google Places as it is now referred to, I will briefly explain it. Google Maps is the map that shows up when you do a local search for a business in the top left of the results. They will usually show up to 10 results and this is referred to as the “10 Pack”.

That means that the top businesses in that list are above everything else on the page. Google maps are also used as an app in mobile phones. This is where many are searching for a local business. I do it all the time when I am looking for the closest retail store or a certain type of business.

So just imagine if you owned a sports store and someone searched “sports store” from the Google Maps app in their phone. What do you think happens when you do not show up? They move on to the next store. You are losing business every day by not being in there.

Are You Open for Business?

So as mentioned we wanted to stop and eat before the long drive home and almost did not end up eating where we did. In this case we actually saw the place before looking for it on the maps. We happened to drive by a Pizza Hut and I had recently been wanting to eat at a Pizza Hut Buffet.

So naturally my wife pulls out her iPhone to search for “Pizza Hut” and get the number to verify that they had a buffet. What she found was not a Pizza Hut but a few other Pizza shops instead. The Pizza Hut we just drove past was not in the Maps.

My first thought was that maybe they went out of business. Luckily for them and my craving I went to PizzaHut.com and checked for locations near where we were and found it. When I called I had to verify that it was the one we were looking for. Still thinking maybe the one we were looking for moved or closed.

I was able to verify that they had a buffet and we ended up eating there. But if I had not seen it there, I would not have looked further for the phone number. If I was just craving Pizza I may have gone to the other shops that showed up in the Maps. It was literally like putting a closed sign on that location and sending me to a competitor.

This is not the first time this has happened to me. I have had it happen plenty of times where I know that there is a store at a certain location but they are not in the Maps. Chances are that owner is still blaming the economy for business being so slow. But most likely business is so slow because his market is looking for him where he does not exist.

So, are you open for business? If so, you better be in the Maps.

Related posts:

1. It’s Business and Now It Is Personal

Every once in a while I get really frustrated with being unorganized. Those are the days that I go into ultra organization mode. Last night this happened with my email. It was getting out of hand and something had to be done.

I sort of went through this once before by creating filters for certain emails and having less in the inbox. It was not enough and I was looking at 300+ unread emails and hundreds just sitting in the inbox.

The other issue I was having was that some emails were slipping through the cracks and getting ignored because I forgot they were there. I would read it and maybe star it (useless that way) and hope to get to it later. This rarely happened and the inbox just grew.

New Labels

Being that I use Gmail, I knew the solution would be more labels. I already have several labels for different email addresses. Different areas, like politics, marketing etc.. I also have labels for all of my clients so I can easily pull up all of their emails.

But for some reason I was missing what I would call “productivity labels”. These are labels for actions that need to be taken with certain emails. Here is what I did and I am sure I will add more and fine tune it.

Needs Follow Up and To Do

The first 2 I created are “Needs Follow Up” and “To Do”. These may seem like they are the same but not in my brain. I am using the “Needs Follow Up” label for any emails that need a response or a file sent via email. So a request for information would be “Needs Follow Up”.

“To Do” is more for items that need work outside of email. So maybe creating an estimate or invoice, placing an order, appointment requests etc.. . Anything that is not done by hitting “reply” on the email. 

This allows me to get it out of the inbox and into a label that tells me exactly what I need to do with the email. Where as before it would sit in the inbox and get buried with other emails. The key here however is to now check those 2 labels every day and take action on the emails in there.

Chances are I will add more to that as needed. Like maybe a long term follow up or long term to do list. For the items that are not immediate but eventually I want to do something with them.

Homework

I am always learning and studying. I sign up for a lot of different mentors email lists and so I tend to get educational emails. When these come in I do not always have time to read them and do something with them. So again, they sit in the inbox and get buried so nothing happens.

Now I have a label called “Homework”. This label is for when I get an email or a video sent that is educational and helps me with my business. It goes into the “Homework” label and I can get to it later but at least I know what needs to be done with it.

I then use the “Multiple Inbox” addon in Gmail to see these labels as inboxes. So I see what is in them while looking at my email. I use the “Superstars” addon to make starring my emails more efficient. These allow you to color code the stars and add extra symbols to mark importance.

So last night I finally got my inbox to “Zero”! But most importantly I now have action plans for the emails that need action. I know friends that would joke about the thousands of emails they have in their inbox. The bottom line is that if you are not organized you are losing productivity.

I try to apply this to everything in my life. The more organized I am the more productive I am. Very rarely will I see someone who is successful also be unorganized.

If you have any other label ideas or email organization tips I would love to read them.

Related posts:

1. Who Stays In Your Inbox?
2. Setting Up Gmail For Multiple Accounts
3. My Top 10 Apps 1st Edition

One of the greatest things that I have learned in Martial Arts is focus and determination to achieve my goals. I have enhanced my skills in self discipline as well, to make sure that I stay on task and do what it takes to be successful.

Yesterday I stopped by the Tae Kwon-Do school that I work with as well as train at and was asked to speak to the kids for a bit. I talked with them about focus and goal setting.

Primarily the goal in Martial Arts, is getting to Black Belt. That is the goal in any Martial Art and really it is just the beginning of your training. But so few who start training will get there. Maybe 1 out of every 10 students will actually get to Black Belt.

While talking with the kids, I mentioned how it is no coincidence that many of my mentors are Black Belts in some form of Martial Arts. Two off the top of my head would be Chet Holmes and Brian Tracy. I am never surprised when talking with successful people to hear that they are a Black Belt.

The amount of focus and determination, goal setting, hard work etc. that goes into achieving a Black Belt can do wonders in a business. It would certainly not be an easy task to find a Black Belt working at McDonald’s. Well, unless he is the owner.

Setting Goals

Setting goals is not just about writing some stuff down and hoping you get to it someday. It is about creating a plan to get them done. Whenever I talk with my son about setting goals, we create tasks for each goal and a plan to get them done.

With Martial Arts you have several goals and achievements along the way. You have to put in the training and focus on those in order to obtain them. Each one is just a stepping stone to the bigger goal.

What stepping stone goals can you set in your business that will help you achieve a greater goal?

Leverage

One thing you learn in Martial Arts is how leverage can help win battles. Often times you can take someone down simply by using their body weight against them. Many times just certain points on the body can allow you to control an opponent.

Often times in business you can find ways to use leverage to tackle certain problems or tasks. The right pressure points can remove obstacles. You can bet that the Black Belts you find running successful companies have found ways to do this in their business.

Leverage allows you to work smarter not harder. Leverage is how even the smallest person can take down someone twice their size.

How can you gain some leverage in your business and work smarter?

Related posts:

1. What World of Warcraft Taught Me About Achieving My Goals
2. 2010 Here I Come!
3. It’s Business and Now It Is Personal

Today is Friday, that means that my Twitter and Facebook stream will be filled with comments from people who hate their jobs screaming – Thank God It’s Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every Friday I see the same thing over and over. Being that I love what I do and it is my own business, I actually do not like Fridays. It means that my work week is over. Don’t get me wrong I love my weekends and spending more time with the family. It’s just not the same as when I had a dreaded job and Friday was like Christmas every week.

When I see Friday coming it puts me into overdrive trying to get as much done as possible. In fact quite often throughout the day I will look at the clock and hate the fact that it is 2pm already. I sit there wishing time would go by slower instead of the other way around.

I gave up on working for someone else in a job I did not like, over 2 years ago. I decided that I was tired of working for idiots quite honestly. I was determined to do whatever it took to be successful in my own business. If that meant Ramen Noodles every night then so be it.

You know the saying about doing what you love and you will never work another day in your life? Most apply that to some job again. They figure they will be happy doing something they like doing. The problem with this is there will be other people there. This increases the chance that you will long for Fridays again.

No More Case of the Mondays

Every Sunday night I would get so annoyed by the fact that tomorrow was Monday. I hated it, that meant back to work. Even when I was doing jobs I liked I felt this way. I would try to make Sunday last as long as possible.

Now I could care less. I get excited for the work week to start and for the new opportunities. In fact now that I think of it, every night I would try to make last as long as possible. This would lead to staying up late and not wanting to go to bed. Then of course I am tired all day.

As you can see I was certainly not someone who was made to work for someone else. Although I did every job I could get to support my family, I was always working on some new business idea. I cannot remember a time in my life where I was not trying to start a business.

I fell on my face a lot in my attempts to start something and I am so glad I did not give up. Looking back now it was all of that failure that has led me to where I am now.

Are you allergic to working for others as I am? Have you tried to break out and do something on your own but failed? The important thing is to keep failing, the more you fail the more chance you have for success. This may require you to turn off that TV and start burning some midnight oil but it will be the best thing for your health!

If you get up every Friday and say “Thank God it’s Friday!” and hate Mondays as much as I did, you may want to reevaluate your career.

No related posts.

I’ve received some emails asking me what happened to the blog and why I haven’t been posting. I wanted to let everyone know that I am still here. I had to put some things on the back burner in order to restructure my business. I mentioned this briefly in my “2010 Here I Come” post.

I have recently shifted to helping more local businesses with their marketing. I was getting more and more requests to do so and so I decided to create a plan to help them more. I will still be working on my Internet Marketing and Blogging. I am hoping to add even more value for everyone here on the blog.

More tips, more advice and even some products here and there. The posts may not be as frequent but they will definitely be of value. They will not only deal with marketing but business advice as well.

The really cool thing about Internet Marketing is that it is just Marketing on the Internet. Which means that you can use the same tips and tricks in all Marketing. No matter what niche you are in or what media you are using to market.

I will try to cover  a healthy variety and again making sure I am always providing value.

I look forward to some really cool post coming up. Please email me on the contact page with any posts you would like to see or anything you are struggling with.

Related posts:

1. It’s Business and Now It Is Personal

We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s business, it’s not personal”. One of the greatest things that Social Media has done for the world is made business very personal. So much so that if a business does not figure it out soon, they could be out of business.

The game has changed and now more than ever the power is in the hands of the costumer. Social Media can make or break a business.

Behind the Mask

For as long as advertising has been available, a business could pretty much tell the customer whatever they wanted them to know. They hire actors as testimonials, shoot commercials with the perfect looking person, having the greatest time at their store or with their product.

They could be the worst business in the world but put on the greatest show. They had all the power to put on a mask and not let you see behind it, until they had your money.

Social Media Changes the Game

Social Media has changed everything! The customer now has a bigger voice than ever! It does not take long for the news about a business that did something bad or good to spread with sites like Twitter and Facebook.

With review sites like Yelp, Google local reviews etc… Businesses have to be on top of their game and as personal as ever. Social Media has allowed us to see who a business really is. To see which businesses care about you the costumer and which do not.

When I was selling cars, they use to remind us that if you make a customer happy, they may tell 1 person. If you make a customer mad, they will tell 10.

With Social Media, if you make a customer happy, they have the ability to tell thousands. And you have the ability to it in front of thousands. And of course, if you make a customer mad, they can tell thousands, who then will tell thousands!

Small Town Rules

Gary Vaynerchuck posted a great video on Small Town Rules. He talked about how with Social Media, everyone knows your business. That means that more than ever we know which businesses actually care about the customer. It’s like living in a small town.

Services like FourSquare add even more to that, as you can now see where people are going most and what they like about that place. That sign on the window of every single coffee shop in town that says “World’s Best Coffee”, no longer matters.

Business is now more personal than ever!

Stay tuned for a post on how a business can effectively use Social Media.

Related posts:

1. Black Belt Focus on Your Business
2. McDonald’s Gives You What You Want
3. What World of Warcraft Taught Me About Achieving My Goals

Whether you are a Blogger, Internet Marketer or a Business, you need an autoresponder. Whenever I mention email autoresponders I always get that weird look from people and the question of why they would need it.

So I want to clear up what it is and why it is needed.

What is an Autoresponder?

First let me define what an autoreponder is. I use Aweber (affiliate link) to handle my autoresponder service. What this does is allows me to place a form on my site that asks a visitor to give me at least their name and email. This is done normally in exchange for something.

This can be a newsletter, a coupon, a free gift etc… Once they give you the name and email they automatically get sent their gift.

Then that person can start to receive emails that you setup automatically, as many as you want. These emails deliver a message that you feel that person should be receiving to either market or inform. Plus you can send emails to the entire email list that you build when you have announcements or specials etc..

So what can you do with it?

Auto Marketing

First, I like to look at an auto responder as “auto marketing”. For some of you I just said the “M” word! Marketing is not a dirty word! It is all around you, you do it every day!

I recently was told that I should not tell people that I am in marketing because it scares people. If you are scared by marketing, then I can’t help you. It is essential to the survival of any business, and the success of any individual. You have to market yourself throughout your entire life.

With an autoresponder you can set up small email messages that are automatically sent at intervals you determine. These can be used to market your product to the customer or your business.

This person has taken an interest in what you have to offer and now you have a chance to automatically market to them on a daily basis if you wish.

Auto Informing

You can also look at an autoresponder as “auto informing”. Sometimes marketing may not be the right term. Informing may fit better. An autoresponder is a great way to give someone more information about you, your products or your company.

Sometimes that little bit of extra information can go a long way in building trust. An autoresponder can do that for you. One of my business clients is an appliance service. We set up the auto responder to send out 3 initial emails that teach the customer tips on how to maintain their home appliances.

In this case he is not necessarily marketing but is informing the customer in order to build trust.

Auto Retaining

Another great way to use an auto responder is for “auto retaining”. This is the area that most businesses fail at. They spend so much of their efforts trying to bring in new customers. They forget that retaining the current customers is much cheaper.

You can send out short emails thanking them for their loyalty. Offer discounts to customers on the list. Ask for referrals. There are many ways to use an autoresponder to retain current customers.

Auto Communicating

The bottom line is that an autoresponder can “auto communicate” for you. That is the most important thing. It captures leads and communicates whatever message you want to them.

An autoresponder can be the difference between a shopper and a buyer. Once they have filled out that form they have told you that they are interested in a service or product you have.

They willingly gave you their information and if you use it wisely you can gain not just a customer but hopefully a lifetime customer.

The most important thing with the autoresponder is to make sure that you have a call to action at the end of each email. Whether it is to buy something, visit the site or even just to reply to the email.

An autoresponder can be huge for a business or even if you are just trying to get information out!

Related posts:

1. Who Stays In Your Inbox?
2. McDonald’s Gives You What You Want
3. Is This Thing On?

2009 went by way too fast! I can’t believe it is 2010 already. To be honest, the closer we got to the end of the year the slower I wanted it to go. Why? Because I had not achieved all I wanted to in 2009. There were a few goals I set for the year that I had not reached and I wanted more time to do so. But that didn’t happen, so what’s next?

Analyzing my failures

I’m not afraid to call them failures, failures are not always a bad thing. Sometimes we fail due to lack of effort. Sometimes due to bad planning. Sometimes because we set the wrong goal.

Many of the goals I had for 2009 were actually unrealistic. Unfortunately I figured that out too late and probably put more stress and wasted time than I needed to.

Sometimes we have a goal or project in mind that we want to do, but fail to really evaluate how important it is or whether we can achieve it in the time we set.

My biggest failure in 2009 was taking on too much. Which really stinks because in this business that is what the experts warn you about. I took on a lot of projects which caused me to overload and not finish many of them to 100%.

I want to list some of them here so that I can read back on it and see if I learned my lessons.

My Failures

I started blogging as a serious blogger in late 2008 – early 2009. 2008 was kind of experimental but it was last year that I made the decision to really work at it. One of the dumb mistakes I made was taking way too much time designing my first blog instead of actually blogging. This was a huge mistake that was mostly made in 2008 but affected 09.

I also ended up with 2 blogs within my first year, which I definitely do not recommend.

Too many projects. As I started to increase my understanding of Internet Marketing and wanted to do more of it, I took on too much. This cost me a lot of money because it became very hard to finish a project.

Many of them I cannot list here but one of them is Tweet Matrix. This was one of those cases where I had a great idea but did not evaluate the time I would have to invest. I also did not consider outsourcing the work and come up with a plan to do so. So it sits there and waits for me to get time or drop it.

Not being as organized as I wanted to be was another failure. Although I am more organized than ever it was not good enough to be as productive as possible. I can definitely say however that the last 3 months have been very productive. So I did get it about 90% down toward the end of the year.

Moving Forward

So moving forward into 2010 I actually am taking a tip from Chris Brogan and using the “ 3 words” method.

My 3 words for 2010 are:

Grow – There are a lot of areas in my life that I have room to grow. A lot of things I have learned that I know I could perfect. I don’t think we ever stop growing in any area of our life but I know there is growth needed in 2010.

No – I have to work on saying no more. No to people who need my time when I don’t have it to give, and no to myself. That includes not taking on too much. Some ideas need to be filed in the “long term” file. I say yes too many times when someone needs my help, it’s great to be helpful but not if I just don’t have the time.

In fact there is one project I have been a part of since 2004 that has taken a lot of my time. It’s a good project but I always find myself unable to give 100%. Going into 2010 I am  phasing it out.

Structure – This is my term for organizing in 2010. I like structure, little systems for getting things done. When you structure different areas of your life you will find that it is far more organized. And many times each area affects each other and we don’t realize it.

So what are your failures in 2009? List them in the comments and reference back to this post next year. What are your goals for 2010?

Related posts:

1. What World of Warcraft Taught Me About Achieving My Goals
2. My Inbox is Empty!
3. Black Belt Focus on Your Business

Just recently I went through my inbox and was trying to get it more organized. I use Gmail for all of my email accounts and have many just forwarded and some are pop3. But I have like 10 different email accounts and it can get cluttered.

As an Internet Marketer I also subscribe to many other Internet Marketer’s email lists. I like to see what they are up to and always keep learning. This can lead to a very busy inbox. Many times a hundred or more emails a day from Internet Marketers.

I also follow many Bloggers and receive their emails. It’s one of the ways that I keep learning. But not all of the emails are all that helpful. In fact 90% of them are just selling something. Which is not always bad but some value mixed in is always good.

Then there are some who I always want to read because even if they are just selling something, they are very gifted at their email copy and so I learn just by reading what they write.

So to be successful at actually learning something here I have to filter it.

Filtering the Noise

In Gmail I use filters and labels a lot. For those who do not know, with Gmail I can take emails from a certain person and have it labeled “Internet Marketing” for example. Gmail will then label all emails from that person. This organizes my emails kind of like tags. If you are using outlook it’s like your folders.

Gmail also allows me to “skip the inbox”. Meaning that the email just goes straight to the label/folder and does not show in my inbox. But I can still see that I have a new message in “Internet Marketing” or “Blogging” etc…

This allows me to not get caught up in checking those emails all day and look at them later or tomorrow when I have more time. I can leave the inbox for only important messages.

But some of those Internet Marketers or Bloggers I want to see as they come in and don’t want them getting lost in the mix and possibly ignored for a few days.

The 2 ways to do that is have them starred automatically or have Gmail leave them in the inbox. So as I was setting up my filters I was taking notice of who I was leaving in the inbox and who I had skipping the inbox. I thought it says a lot about that person and how much I respect their emails. It was kind of an inadvertent way of seeing who gives me the best content.

Who Stays in My Inbox

So who stays in my inbox? (in no particular order)

Frank Kern – Frank is one of the most brilliant Internet Marketers I know. Not only does he send out good content but his emails are generally really good and I like to read them.

Darren Rowse – Darren was one of the first people I started learning from. Before I got into Internet Marketing it was blogging that got me interested in working online and that then lead to Internet Marketing. Darren’s newsletter is great and I am also subscribed to his ProBlogger Community.

David Risley – David was one of the early people I found as well and was pretty excited when I found out that not only does he live near me but he also runs a local meetup group every month. I have been going to that group for almost a year now. David has a great blog and puts out some good content in his emails. He is one of the few I know of that is combining Blogging with Internet Marketing and doing it really well.

Chris Brogan – Chris is constantly offering great content on his blog and also puts out some really good stuff in his newsletter. I would highly recommend signing up for that.

Jeremy Schoemaker aka Shoemoney – Jeremy is also one of the guys I started following early. His blog is pretty diverse but he is a genius when it comes to Local Affiliate Marketing which as a business consultant I have found great use of.

This list is not a list of the only people who I find worth following, it is just a list of the people I consider to give enough good content that I want to see their emails daily as they come in.

There are several other really good people out there who I love to keep up with but because of time, may not be able to do so every day.

This list is also not a list of the people who have influenced me the most, I am actually working on a post about that, that I will be posting soon.

So who stays in your inbox?

You may not even realize it but there are probably some people you follow that are providing more great content then others and you are already filtering them but don’t know it.  If you aren’t, make sure that you are. It is always good to surround your self with motivators and good influencers and then identify the ones that really help you and separate them.

Might even be a Twitter Group or List. Or using Gmail like I am.

So who stays in YOUR inbox?

Related posts:

1. My Inbox is Empty!
2. Setting Up Gmail For Multiple Accounts
3. Why You Need an Autoresponder

Last night I was up until 3am organizing my office. I cannot believe how much clutter I had on and around my desk. Every morning I was literally shoving stuff out of my way to have room. If you are like me, you probably do not work well when things are messy. I find that I am way more productive when I have a clean environment.

Over time though we can let things build up and then we are working in an extremely cluttered environment. So I took action and cleaned it all up. My wife was amazed at how much I got done last night. Now I am sitting here and feel way more productive and ready to be more productive.

What got me started on this mission to cleanup the clutter was actually an email from Robert Plank. I signed up for his Time Management course called Time Management on Crack. He gives you a 10 part mini course for free.

One of his emails was about keeping a clean office for better productivity. I had always known that but got lazy and it was a good reminder. So I thought I would share that with you and give you a chance to get the free course too.

Hopefully you are already smarter than me and always keep a clean workspace. It definitely does help.

Related posts:

1. My Inbox is Empty!
2. How To Be Productive When You Work From Home
3. Who Stays In Your Inbox?