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Sharing Misery During Tough Times... :)

3/30/2020

This was my day at home so far:
8:25 - Giving kids 5 minute warning to start their homework
8:30 - Asking kids nicely to start homework
8:40 - Yelling at kids to start their homework
8:45 - Consoling kids after crying cuz they don’t understand their homework
8:50 - Separating kids after fighting about who gets to sit at what chair on the kitchen table
9:00 - Looking at clock to see how much time is left in the day
9:10 - kids asking if its break time yet
9:15 - 6 year old has melt down because he doesn’t want to rewrite a sentence that wasn’t legible
9:30 - 8 year old erases entire homework document accidentally and cries because of lost work
9:45 - looking at my own screen to see the same sentence I’ve been working on since 7am
10:00 - ...Thinking… Is it ok to have a glass of wine??

Here are some ideas to help pass the time and stay sane during social distancing:

We will get through this. These are challenging times but if you take breaks frequently, and keep busy this will be over before we know it. Have a routine in place. Get some fresh air, play games, bake, set up a marble track (video will be posted soon), clean out closets, junk drawers and the garage or basement. Make homemade pasta or bread. Paint! Tackle home improvement projects or get some yard work done. Give the kids some supplies to build forts out in the yard. Put your rubber boots on and get wet in rain. Find the deepest puddles to splash in. Go for a drive and let the kids do homework in the car. Get take-out and eat at a park. Watch movies, read books, learn something, watch videos and find a new hobby. Hike, walk, run, create a new at-home exercise routine. There are amazing videos online for workouts. Put on music really loud and dance around the house. Listen to music while you clean. Have zoom happy hours with your friends and family. Do whatever you can to stay busy, stay sane and get through this. We are all in this together! We can do it!

Any other suggestions? Lets us know what you've been doing in the comments below.

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What Should Small Businesses Be Doing During This Slow Period? (Part 1)

3/23/2020

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If you are a non-essential service your business may be experiencing a slow period while we try to contain the Coronavirus. Here are things you need to be catching up on during this time.

Create processes and SOPs:
Whether you are a product or service based business you have processes for almost everything you do. Write them down. Optimize and streamline these processes and have them available in hardcopy and electronically for all your staff members to have access to. If you have a certain sales method for pitching your products or services to potential customers, write it down and make it a standard practice. This way if any valuable members of your staff leave, you can train the new staff members on previously successful techniques very easily. It takes all the guessing out of the equation. This also makes your business more valuable. Having operations and management procedures are critical to establishing an effective workflow, ease of transfer of knowledge and reproducibility. This makes a business worth more! So start your SOPs now while you have a moment to breath.
Accounting and bookkeeping:
Catch up! You all know what I mean because we are all in the same boat. :O) Get your receipts together and snap photos of them. Stop those manual processes and automate everything you can. Quickbooks is an extremely user friendly tool you can use that is connected to your own accountant if you choose to do so. Your accountant will then have access to everything they need during the year to take care of taxes and make things easier for both of you. There are other platforms as well. Here is a great article that talks about the best platforms for accounting and bookkeeping in 2020 and questions to ask yourself in order to choose the best one for your business.
Clean up your CRM:
If you don’t have one then choose a platform that suits your business the best and start organizing your sales funnel. Hubspot offers a free CRM that is perfect for small businesses. That's the one I use and I love it. There are other great options as well that are a small cost per month. Go through your sales funnel and move leads along where necessary or drop them in the appropriate stages as you go through your list. Work on your warmest leads and go backwards from there. Touch base with them, email market to them, pick up the phone, write them snail mail letters. Use your time to be genuine and listen to these potential customers. Rekindle relationships that have died down. You can do this by going through your CRM and noticing at what stages they are in the funnel.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions please comment below!

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How to Keep Your Small Business Booming During a World Crisis Like Coronavirus

3/16/2020

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Bring your networking virtual
With access to technology these days, virtual networking is not difficult. If your business is anything like Clairant, many of your leads come in from networking events or interacting with prospects. This doesn’t have to stop during social isolation like we are facing today with Coronavirus. Set up your events online. Google is now offering businesses and educators free Enterprise Edition of G Suite so they can stay connected during these times of isolation. Here is an awesome example of effective virtual networking opportunities for small businesses. Join it for free. The next one is March 25th.
Schedule Check In Calls
Go through your CRM and check in with your current customers and your warmest prospects. Express your concern for their health, ask them about the state of their business and how this crisis is affecting them. Offer help in any way to make their lives easier. This personable phone call can go a long way and shows you truly care about your customers. It puts you in front of them and the next time they are ready for your products or services they will call you.
Keep Marketing!
While the world is hunkering down, most of us are heavily connected to our mobile phones, tablets and computers. The internet is being used in more ways than before with networking going online, increased online shopping and online education. Stay on top of your marketing. Write engaging content on social media and your blog and this is a great time to put together a newsletter to send out to your email list. Place attention-grabbing ads on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn and make sure to link each ad to relevant landing pages that walk the visitor through the conversion process. Take advantage of the world being online right now!

Questions, comments or suggestions? Comment below.

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3 Great Reasons to Start a Customer Referral Program

3/9/2020

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Costs next to nothing other than time
Referral programs are great because you can build your brand and generate leads simply from your customers saying great things about you. Besides your time, there are very few associated costs other than a creative incentive should you choose to offer one. But many customers will talk about how great you are without an incentive. People tend to talk about great products or services they love just because, and they naturally recommend brands that have proven themselves to their friends and family. After you transact with a customer have your team give them a call and ask them how they are enjoying your product or service? Tell them it would mean a lot to leave a review or to simply tell a friend how thrilled they are with your brand. This can spread like wildfire and the phone call gesture goes a long way.
Increases revenue
There is no better way to increase ROI than a referral program. When customers talk about you in a positive light, this will cause their friends and family to engage with you and become new customers or clients as well. The nice thing about this is if you offer an unbeatable product or service, this revenue will exponentially grow. Great products and services speak for themselves and customers love to tell their friends about the latest and greatest. It's human nature to share with your friends the things that make your life easier or that make you happy. A customer that has been referred by a friend or family member generally has a 25% higher lifetime value than a regular customer. This means they stay longer and they invest more money into your brand.
Improves customer retention
Customer retention is an important metric in any company. Finding new customers is challenging and can be expensive. Retaining customers can be challenging as well but it's cheaper and better for the company in the long run. The goal is to find quality customers that stick around and remain loyal to your brand. It just so happens that people who participate in referral programs are more likely to be loyal to that particular brand. And your reputation will strengthen when your customers are advocates. Also, retaining current customers is much less expensive for a company than acquiring new customers. So start your customer referral program now and start increasing revenue, and improving customer retention by finding higher quality customers who will naturally build your brand and become invaluable brand ambassadors.

Got questions, comments or suggestions? Let us know in the comments below!

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Must-have tips for small business marketing

3/2/2020

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Know your competitors
It is crucial to your business to know who your competitors are, what they offer and how they market their products. Check what their online presence is like. Do they have a nice website? Do they offer ecommerce? Do they have social media pages? and if so do they actively and consistently post? Understanding your competition can do a couple things. If they are successful competitors it can help guide you to finding their customers. But it can also help you differentiate yourself. If you know what others are offering you don’t want to offer the same things. If you have the same differentiators then they aren’t differentiators. You want to be one or four steps ahead of them. Think outside of the box for your marketing campaigns and be better than your competitors. If you keep at it, then you will see the increase in sales over time. Be persistent and know who and what you are up against.
Start a blog
You can benefit in many ways from starting a blog. For one, it is good for SEO because search engines like sites that update content frequently. For two, it shows that you know your industry, have in depth knowledge about what you do, and are experienced. Three… people love free information. They will keep coming back if you offer great content. And four, it builds trust in your brand. Many people claim they don’t have the confidence, topics to write about, or the writing skills to start a blog. But this isn’t true. There are many resources for this. First of all think about your days with your customers and the pain points they experience that require them to need your products or services. Talk about those pain points. People love “tips” or “lists” of ways they can improve. I even pulled a conversation from LinkedIn that I had with a follower and posted that on my blog. It was a story to tell, and people love stories they can relate to. Quora is a site that gives you ideas about what people are interested in and asking about within certain industries. Answer those questions on your blog and give your posts the title of those questions. Make sure to add an image or video that relates to your posts. Humans are visual creatures and are more likely to click on something that has a visual paired with it.
Great ways to promote your blog
If you already have a blog or just created one, make sure to promote it! Don’t expect people to find your blog without you telling them about it. You can do this by posting teasers on social media and linking to the full content on your blog. Send out newsletters or mass emails to your lead or current customer list and promote your blog content on there. On the signature of your emails that you send out every day to customers, clients, business partners, vendors, leads and others, place a link to your blog near your name. Place the url of your blog on your business cards or marketing material. When presenting at sales meetings tell them about finding additional information on your blog and supply the url. There are several ways to drive traffic to your blog. And when people read your blog and enjoy the content, they will come back and be more curious about you and what you do, and maybe one day will turn into a customer or client.

Questions, comments or suggestions about blog topics? Let us know below!

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Sharing Misery During Tough Times... :)

What Should Small Businesses Be Doing During This Slow Period? (Part 1)

How to Keep Your Small Business Booming During a World Crisis Like Coronavirus

3 Great Reasons to Start a Customer Referral Program

Must-have tips for small business marketing

Author

Archives

973.507.6980
privacy policy

Sharing Misery During Tough Times... :)

What Should Small Businesses Be Doing During This Slow Period? (Part 1)

How to Keep Your Small Business Booming During a World Crisis Like Coronavirus

3 Great Reasons to Start a Customer Referral Program

Must-have tips for small business marketing

Author

Archives

973.507.6980​privacy policy

973.507.6980
privacy policy