Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

Best testimonial ever (and the funniest!!)

Testimonials are great for business!

Not only do they give you a personal boost, they also provide better promotional material than any marketing copy that you write.  It's far better to read and hear what others have said about someone or something than read "blah, blah" sales copy.

But have you had any testimonials that have made you laugh out loud?

Yesterday, I received an update from one of my clients before her session.  She listed all her achievements, what she was on target for and what the focus for the next session was (my ideal client - ready and prepared!).

At the end she added the following:

"Feel I am beginning to make progress – I feel like I have been mentally constipated  and finally everything is beginning to move!  You’re the catalyst that has made it happen! (I’m not sure if you would want to be described as a the coaching/mentoring version of a laxative!)." 

Now I won't disclose my client's name as I haven't asked permission to do so but I really wanted to share with you my best testimonial ever. 

It just goes to show that as a coach, you are what your clients see in you rather than what you think you are.  And if I am her laxative, then ... well, I had better stop this post before my wicked sense of humour offends anyone ;o)

Please add your comments but any rude ones will not be published!! :o)

Guided tour of the new facebook

If anyone is interested in a quick 10 minute show and tell of how to use the new look facebook, Mari Smith – the Queen of Facebook – has produced this video. 

If you are on facebook and wondering how on earth to use it better to promote your business, then kick back, watch and learn.

How do you get people to follow you on twitter?

It seems my last blog post on twitter has inspired many of you to look at/revisit twitter and see it as a possible valuable tool for your business.

But one question I had when I first started and one that I know others have asked me since is “How do you get people to follow you on twitter?”

First of all, I don’t think you need to strive to “get” people to follow you.  Remember Twitter is permission based so if someone has enough of you, you’re gone and out of their twitter feed instantly.

Having only been on twitter for just over a month, I have already experienced the twitter spammers and they are certainly out to “get” followers.  So, go with the attitude of attracting rather than getting.

Now that we have re-framed the question to “How to attract people to me on Twitter?” here are some of the ways I have seen that worked for me and resulted in attracting 98 followers in 4 weeks (at the time of writing) which I am quite proud of really!

• Don’t go out and starting adding hundreds and thousands of people to your follow list expecting people to just reciprocate.  First of all, how can you really follow 1,698 people when you are new to twitter (of course if you are The Scobleizer, you can – he is now following 21,004 people with 34,554 followers!) and secondly, IMHO if you are following 1,698 people but only have 34 following back, it just gives an impression that you are out to twam (is that short for twitter spam?!)
• Do start conversations with people that you follow.  When someone replies to you, others in their tweeter feed will see your name & so may click through to see who they are following & having a conversation with.  And if you build up a good enough relationship with that person, they must give a “shout-out” to your name in their tweeter feed.
• Do have an interesting & informal profile but don’t put up your “corporate tagline” or be “overly-friendly”   Remember, Twitter is fun and engaging, so reflect your personality & be interesting.
• Do link your twitter feed to your website, blog or newsletter.  Download a twitter widget to your sites and it can be an easy way of signposting your subscribers to other parts of your business to your twitter feed.
• Don’t twitter crap! Your twitter feed is going to be THE attraction for people to follow. If your twitter feed is full of useless information, then people won’t follow you from what they see on your home page.  Give value, offer help & support and engage in the twitter conversation – There is just no need to twit about your cats every day (unless you are promoting an online club for cat owners, obviously )

I’m sure I will have plenty more to share with you over the coming months, so do make sure you subscribe to this blog feed (top right hand corner) or join me on twitter – my twit name is @CanDoCanBe.

And if anyone from Twitland out there can add to these pointers, please leave a comment. I know I have still much to learn!

Is Twitter a useful resource for coaches, consultants or trainers?

I started using Twitter this summer (although confessed to have created an account months ago but never got round to doing anything with it!)

Twitter has opened up a whole new dimension that has many pros and cons for me.

Pros:

1. Able to follow and connect with people all over the world who I just would never have been able to access before
2. Improve my social networking efficiency & spend less time on each site – my tweets are connected to my facebook, ecademy and plaxo account so every time I tweet, these pages are updated automatically.  So whether you follow me on FB, ecad or plaxo, you can get my latest updates.
3. Updates my blog & websites – again every time I tweet, a little widget updates on my sites.
4. Gives you a great balance of showcasing your business & personality – allows you to show people the “real” you (but just don’t tweet about what you have for lunch every day – that’s dull! – unless you are a nutrition coach, that is!)
5. Gives another outlet for my blog RSS feed – I have set up my blogs to be feed directly in to my tweet feed automatically
6. Focuses my mind – when you only have 140 characters there is no space for blah, blah! (I am even starting to think in tweets – see cons!)
7. Twitter search – allows you to search for a particular key word/phrase and get twitter feeds to show you who is talking about your niche/interest and in what context (recommend you set up a search for your name & business name, too)
8. It’s free!

Cons:

1. It’s addictive! Be careful as it can take over your day and take you off your focus
2. Managing your twitter feed – it can be very overwhelming when you are following 100+ - so find a good twitter app that will help you track different people. TweetDeck is good & I also use twhirl.  There are others for Mac users.
3. It’s addictive!

There is a great blog and free ebook on offer for subscribers – www.twitterhandbook.com which I can thoroughly recommend for 1^st time users.

If you want to follow me – my twit name is @CanDoCanBe and drop me an email if I can be of any further help to anyone on twitter.

This post was originally written for a discussion on Eurocoach but I thought it was useful enough to share with you on blog.  Do add your comments below if you have any other pros and cons to share.  I would be very interested to read them. 

When you have a web address, why would you want to use a hotmail email address?

Once you have registered your domain address for your website, did you realise you can use that domain as your email straightaway?

I still see so many business cards & leaflets listing a valid web address, yet the contact email is your.name@hotmail.com or your.name@btinternet.com

Your business branding is important and when you are advertising your contact email address using one of the free email providers, it just looks naff.  In fact, it screams “newbie – just starting out in business”.

So how do you go about setting a business email address that reflects your business name?  Log in to your web hosting account (or get your web designer to do this for you) and create a new email address using your website domain.

Then set up a new email account in your outlook (or whichever email application you use) and configure your settings so that you can send and receive emails using your new email address. Click here if you want a step by step process for doing this in outlook.

What image do you want to portray?  “newbie” or business professional?

Really simple guide on how to sell online

Just saw this pop in to my inbox today – it’s a link to a really simple guide on how to set up an e-commerce website and get selling online.  It’s courtesy of paypal but you don't need to sign up, leave your name or email address.

If you are just getting started and want to read through a brief 7 step plan, you can’t get any easier to follow than this one:

https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/merchantservices/ecommerce/

Anything you want to share?  Just leave a comment below with your links or recommended sites to visit to help you get selling online.

Motivation is far higher when you have a target to aim at

I know, I know – when the phrase “business plan” is mentioned most of us groan internally.  But having a plan really, really does keep your motivation up high.

Some of you may know I like to run to keep fit, but I was starting to lose focus before the summer holidays.  My husband suggested (oh, foolish him!) that I join him on London’s Run to the Beat this October. 

“A half marathon”, I thought.  “Perfect goal to go for.”

Well, it’s only 3 weeks away and I have my running plan laid out & written in my diary.

I had a run scheduled this afternoon at 1.30pm.  At 1pm today, I didn’t feel like it. I wanted another cup of tea & chocolate hobnob.

But I knew if I didn’t run this afternoon, my next chance of a big run wasn’t until Monday and then I would be behind schedule. So on went the running shoes & I ended up having a great run (albeit a dash back through a torrential hail storm in the last 10 minutes!!).

So my point is this – without my half-marathon commitment I would have probably not run today.  Without my plan, my big picture, my focus – I wouldn't have achieved what I achieved this afternoon.

What plan, big picture, focus can you create to help motivate you to move forward?

Business Mindset v Business Attitude: Which will get you through the credit crunch?

There is no doubt that having some form of business ability, whether that's experience in managing sales teams or selling vegetables on a local market stall, does help your progress when starting up in business.

Having a head for figures helps you balance your books, previous project management skills may help plan out a new product launch and a background in PR may make it easier to know what to say to journalists to get your press release published.

But can the ability to balance your books, project manage or converse with journalists, be your ticket to successfully running your own business?

No, probably not.

Why? Because I think your business mindset is far more powerful and has a far greater influence over your ability to succeed than your business background or experience.

I believe business is an attitude. And if you don't have an attitude to succeed - no matter what the costs - then you will probably fail.

Tough but probably a fair statement, wouldn't you agree?

You can have the best skills training in the world and the most impressive business career behind you but if you don't believe in "you" and your business, then you are very likely to let the gremlins in and talk you out of attending that networking event, phoning that client once more to follow up on that proposal or chickening out of a speaking engagement that could have had you up in front of 100 people who perfectly fit your target customer profile.

And business attitude is needed even more in the economic climate that we are facing today.

I was speaking to a lady who owned a shop selling luxury food items last week about how she was worried about her marketing. She had noticed a dramatic drop of trade since May and was struggling to bring people in to her shop. She had also noticed that the designer hat shop next door had a 70% sale going on, as well the dress store on the other side. People had stopped spending money in her town, apparently.

But carrying on with the conversation, she then admitted that the other clothing store across the street seemed to be unaffected. They had no sale stickers in their window. They still sold their designer brands, but business was as usual. The credit crunch didn't seem to be affecting them.

Business attitude is about holding your own when everyone is panicking and decreasing their prices.

Business attitude is about grimly ploughing on with your marketing plan, even when you have had a major set-back and your biggest client has cancelled their contract with you.

It's about looking at your products and services which are not selling as well as you think they should and asking yourself, what can I do differently?

So, in answer to my question "Business Attitude or Business Ability: Which will get you through the credit crunch?" it's business attitude all the way.

Be aware of the economic climate, know what the interest rates are doing and keep an eye on the exchange rate. Don't make rash decisions but, more importantly, don't let the credit crunch talk you out of achieving success.

A little bit of business attitude goes a very, very long way.

What do you think?  Have you got any views to add to this article – leave a comment.  It takes just a moment :0)

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P.S. This is the latest article to go out in Karen Skidmore’s CanDoCanBe Attitude – the practical, no-nonsense newsletter for home business owners.  To receive your free copy, click here to subscribe.

Is the cost of memberships for networking groups really worth it?

The availability of networking groups up and down the country is immense today.  When I first started up in business 4 years ago, I had the choice of a Chambers lunch, BRE, BNI or the odd Ecademy meeting.

Now you can network before and over breakfast most days of the week, go on to a coffee session with Ladies Who Latte or Cappucino Connections, followed by an array of lunches, post dinner drinks and evening sessions.

But what about the membership costs?  When some meetings are free to attend and others pay as you go, do you really need to be forking out a couple of hundred pounds for a membership?

Let’s put this in to context and give you a real life example.  Working with one of my clients this morning, we were working out the cost of joining 12.30, a women’s networking group in the SE.

£55 annual membership for a business less than a year trading, £35 joining fee and lunches at £11 each.  £85 upfront was a little hard to swallow at the moment for my cilent and she was unsure whether she could afford it.

But if she was to go to 6 lunches across the year, the total cost of her networking (across the year) would be £156.  She offers a one-off consultation for £75 so all she would need is 2 consultations as a result of raising her profile by networking at 12.30 and she’s (just) quids in!

Could you really expect to get 2 consultations from a £156 one-off advert?  Um, I think not!

Think Big - Act Small

One of the problems of being your own boss is that you haven’t got a boss to keep you on the straight and narrow!  Now, don’t get me wrong – I wouldn’t go back to PAYE world given the choice.  But when you run your own business it can be hard to keep the motivation going each and every day.

Yesterday, I just couldn’t get my act together.  I faffed about, checked my emails (but didn’t reply!), cruised around a few web links and twittered on twitter.

By 12noon, enough was enough. I had to get my focus on the week and get certain projects moving forward.

How?  By thinking big and acting small.

In 10 minutes, I had reminded myself what my big picture was, what my goals where and what parts of my business needed work on before writing down everything I needed to achieve before the end of the week.

Not a big to-do-list consisting of an unrealistic number of tasks but simple, small actions that would all help me move towards my big picture.

2 days later and I have crossed off 4 things from my list of 10 actions.  My week is now rocking along fast and furiously.

How about you try it, too?  Let me know if thinking big and acting small works for you – leave a comment below.