Baby Steps to Grow Your Business

Baby steps aren’t taken all at once.  Business advice isn’t given all at once either.  Here are five baby steps you can take towards growing your business.

1. Exposure.  Expose your business to large amounts of people.  You can expose your business through flyers, business cards, networking at various events, trade shows and advertising.  Make sure your business stays in the forefront as much and as often as possible.
2. Communicate.  Use your voice.  Let people know what you do…especially when asked.  Don’t be shy or afraid to tell people that you have your own business.  Believe me, they wish they did too.  Talk or connect with fresh new people everyday.  Meet and greet people when you are out and about, invite new people as friends via the internet on social sites, volunteer for worthy causes in your community which will all increase your resource list. 
3. Educate.  Educate yourself everyday through online tutorials, articles written by other experts, and materials on your industry and other industries that exhibit good business models.  Don’t just stay in your industry, you will be surprised at what you can learn from other businesses and how they got started and how they market their products.
4. Follow-up.  Stay connected with your organization and outside resources.  Follow-up with individuals on information that you may have provided, a service or product that they received or questions that they or you may have.  Follow-up can be done in several different ways such as telephone, e-mail or note cards.
5. Coaching.  Seek out a coach to help you strategize and organize your action plan.  A Coaching relationship doesn’t have to be long term, it can be just enough to get you through an area that you need additional development on.  A coach will help you stay on task and help you experience life to the fullest in order to live life to your highest potential.

So take your baby steps, one at a time.  Before you know it, your business will have the strength and balance to support your every need.

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No Business from LinkedIn? Here’s What May Be Wrong

So you’ve been on LI for months and you haven’t gotten one shred of business…except maybe a few inquiries here and there that didn’t pan out; a couple nibbles from companies that were wrong for you; and those endless MLM offers you won’t even consider.

That leaves you wondering what all the fuss is about. Who are all these people who claim they have gotten new, profitable business on LinkedIn?

Bad news: It’s not LinkedIn. It’s you.

To drive business on LinkedIn, you need an action plan and a system, just like any other business strategy. You’re only going to get back what you put in. Without a plan, you’ll waste a lot of time being sociable, with no real business to show for it.

This is the biggest complaint I hear about social media marketing…it takes a lot of time and results never seem to materialize.

I agree, it is time-consuming. But when done correctly (which means planning SMM into your day, maximizing that time, and maintaining a narrow focus), the results can be astounding.

It’s kind of like cleaning your house. You start out enthusiastically enough. Two hours later, though, you haven’t moved from the bedroom. You end up sidetracked, going through closets and drawers and…“ooohhh! What’s this? My high school love letters!”

Before you know it, you’ve walked so far down Memory Lane you’ll need to catch the bus back to the corner of Main & Reality.

8 Steps to Optimizing Your LI Connections

1. See the future: How much new business can you comfortably handle? Be realistic. One new client a month is                              12 for the year. Not bad.
2. Choose a target market and do not stray from this focus
3. Join groups for those markets and actively participate in a meaningful way
4. Educate yourself on effective LI search…there are ways to search and findspecific information about specific people
5. Stand out: Be active! Be proactive! Be visible! Get out there and get involved. Create a highly compelling profile; not a resume rehash.
6. Answer questions to highlight your subject expertise
7. Accept connections and request connections. People want to connect with you!
8. Talk to people. I mean, really talk. Show an interest, look for ways to help each other…seeking connections isn’t only about having lots of connections!

Remember…this is social media marketing. You wouldn’t walk into your neighbor’s BBQ, announce your arrival, then sit in your neighbor’s favorite chair and start dominating the conversation, would you? The beauty of social media marketing is the opportunity to use natural, social strategies of communicating, connecting and collaborating to build your online visibility and attract the attention of companies you really want to work with.

What LinkedIn strategies have worked well for you?