Do people know the sound which is coming from your business?

When people think about your business what sort of sound do you think they are hearing and how are they hearing it.

• Is it the voice they hear in your newsletter?

• Is it the voice they hear when visiting your website?

• Is it the voice they hear when dealing with you face to face?

Most likely they are hearing all of these so the next question is:

Are the voices consistent? Is there a conflict in the message that is being sent out of your business?

As the business owner it is important that your voice is heard consistently both inside and outside your business.

There are many ways that this can be achieved but often the business owner forgets and people are left hearing disjointed voices from employees, disgruntled customers or competitors.

Determine today that your voice will be heard consistently and in a way which supports the business values which you aspire to.

What do you think about this as a concept?

Employees will usually see a business from a different perspective to that of a business owner.

In today’s Vlog we look at how a business owner can assist staff to see the big picture for their business and we discuss three tips for helping align their energy with the business owners to ensure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

The Vlog series comes from One Sherpa an online global membership community dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and prosper.

The series is filmed on location around Melbourne, Australia and answers questions commonly asked by small business owners.

This video is filmed from Emerald Lake Park and answers the question ‘How can I get my employees to help me more?’.

When I started working online I mistakenly thought that it was about building a website that would attract lots of people who would want to buy my products and services. I could then make good sales and life would be great.

In fact, at that time there was a great deal of emphasis from web developers and graphic designers to invest in a well designed and well constructed website but little emphasis on what happened around that site.

I was using the good old strategy of ‘Build it and they will come.’

I had a wake up call one day when a wise online marketing expert told me that a good rule of thumb to use in thinking about the web is this:

• 25% of your web effort is about your website

• 75% of your web effort is about other people’s sites

This meant a change of paradigm for me and a completely different allocation of resources. The most important resources in my business are TIME and MONEY and I had to reallocate my time and money away from my own site to other activities which built an online presence for me beyond my own website.

How much activity do you have on other people’s websites?

How much web presence do you have beyond your own website?

When you want to implement a new idea in your business it is helpful to understand how the idea will impact the different parts of your business.

Today Andee gives some tips on how to see which part of your business your idea might impact and explains why some ideas are harder to implement than others

The Vlog series comes from One Sherpa an online global membership community dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and prosper.

The series is filmed on location around Melbourne, Australia and answers questions commonly asked by small business owners.

This video is filmed from Puffing Billy at Emerald Lake Park and answers the question ‘How come my ideas take so long to implement?’

In his famous book Wombat Selling, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson says ‘there’s no such thing as closing the sale!’ During a talk to leading insurance salespeople, Michael even offered $100,000 if some one could come on stage and close him.

Needless to say no one was able to and he kept his $100,000

So this made me think…

What is the real value a salesperson brings to an organisation and how might that be changing?

If the salesperson can’t close a sale then what is their role in the sales process?

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson also put forward the thought that a sales person’s role is to make enough ‘check moves’ so that the prospect can close themselves.

He describes a sales process made up of ‘check moves’.

A ‘check move’ is defined as ‘a customer contact of any kind.’

So following this process sales people need to have great follow through and discipline so that the ‘check moves’ are consistent and continuous.

But there is an issue..

Most prospects are incredibly busy these days and therefore don’t want to take multiple face to face visits from a sales person.

More and more ‘check moves’ are being done online which can be mechanised through the thoughtful use of auto responders.

This means that some of the value of salespeople is being transferred into online software and those increased costs must be paid for by the business.

Unless this value is recovered in sales the additional costs will mean a reduction in profitability.

I doubt whether any sales person would want a reduction in salary but it is clear that part of their function is being taken online where it is far more efficient and costs effective.

Do you have any live experiences on this?

How are you going about recovering the additional costs of developing your online presence?

In today’s fast paced world getting the right information fast is critical to maintaining a winning edge in business.

Today Andee discusses how to quickly get to the heart of financial issues in your business, and reveals three points to look at for a fast reading on how your business is going.

The Vlog series comes from One Sherpa an online global membership community dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and prosper.

The series is filmed on location around Melbourne, Australia and answers questions commonly asked by small business owners.

This video is filmed from Grants Picnic Ground and answers the question ‘What’s the secret to getting quickly to financial issues in my business?’

When new technology is around it is easy to fall into the trap of buying the ‘bells and whistles’ without carefully analysing where the technology fits in your business and what it might be replacing.

Let’s take the example of a website

We all know that it is very important to have a website but what did you have in marketing before websites came along?

Where were you spending your marketing dollars before you decided to invest in your website?

Did you spend money on a business brochure which has now been replaced as an online brochure inside your website?

Have you simply doubled your marketing costs by having an online brochure as well as an offline brochure?

Why don’t you do a review and work out which marketing initiatives are bringing in the most inquiry and look to rationalise your marketing spend rather than simply continuing to add to it.

What is your story on this?

Have you found a better way to spend your marketing dollars in this area?

Being able to see where you are going when driving a car is pretty important to your survival, right! Well the same applies when driving your business.

Today Andee shows you how you can see quickly, and at a glance, what is going on financially in your business and how you are travelling compared to your plan or budget

The Vlog series comes from One Sherpa an online global membership community dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and prosper.

The series is filmed on location around Melbourne, Australia and answers questions commonly asked by small business owners.

This video is filmed from Olinda and answers the question ‘How can I see my business budget quickly?’

Can you remember the famous line from the yellow pages advertising?

Let your fingers do the walking

This is an obvious throw back to when all research was done by walking around and meeting everybody face to face.

Obviously in the fast paced world we now live in, time is at a premium and it is impossible to do all your research face to face.

Your web presence, if done well, can be the greatest qualifier that you have.

And think about this…it saves your time which is one of the most precious resources you have.

Think about it.. Would you rather be wasting time qualifying prospects or spending that same time doing more productive things in your business?

That may also give you more valuable time with your family or friends as well.

So the best way to do this is to be more transparent in your business by making information more readily available on line.

Your prospects can take as long as they like going through it and through that process are more qualified when you meet them face to face.

Do you have examples of prospects coming in to your business ready to buy because they’ve completely qualified themselves through researching online?

I’d love to hear your story

“How long should I keep putting money into my business when things are not working?”

When is enough enough? Many business owners wonder how do you know when it’s the right time to recognise something is not working and change strategy so as not to pour good money after bad. Today Andee explores this question.

The Vlog series comes from One Sherpa an online global membership community dedicated to helping small business owners succeed and prosper.

The series is filmed on location around Melbourne, Australia and answers questions commonly asked by small business owners.

This video is filmed from Sassafras and answers the question ‘How long should I keep putting money into my business when things aren’t working?’