Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

Why building snowmen will help you attract clients

I live in a cul-de-sac.  It’s a quiet road with only 30 odd houses but we rarely see each other.  It’s a classic example of modern day life, everyone works and we all go about our busy lives, driving in and out of the road in our cars.

Today was different.  Today we were snowed in and no-one was going anywhere.  And with both children at home because of school closure, the best way to spend the morning was to get out there and build snowmen.

I phoned up two neighbours and invited their children to come and help us.  Within 15 minutes of being out, one of the other neighbours came over with 2 bright red toboggans.  We have never met each other in the 7 years of us living in this road and yet the snow brought us together, not only in a conversation, but with an exchange of her grown-up sons’ treasured possessions.  

Another 30 minutes later and 2 other children come bounding out of their house to join in the fun.  This family moved in about 6 months ago and we had never met.  Within another 30 minutes I was sharing a cup of tea in their kitchen with both the mum and dad, being shown around their house.

Today I have had more conversations with my neighbours than I think I have had in the seven years of living on my street.  And the only reason being was because we were spending time out in the street, being visible.

Why am I sharing my day with you?  Running your own business can be a very lonely business.  Stuck in front of your PC, returning emails and hiding in your home office.  Not conducive to making you very visible.

To attract clients you need to be build relationships.  And to build relationships you need to visible.  Whether that is going out to network meetings, being active on Facebook or getting articles published in your industry’s magazines; visibility is crucial to attracting clients and building your business.

Where could you go and build a snowman today?

Can complaints be good for business?

No one likes it when someone complains about their service or returns a product because they are dissatisfied - especially when it is our very own business that we have built up from scratch. 

But complaints can be good for business.  And actually they can be the best thing for your business if dealt with in the right way.

Virgin airlines made headlines this morning in the British media.  No TV advertising, no front page splash in The Times, but they were being talked about on BBC news this morning.

Why?  Because of someone's complaint about the airline food.

Richard Branson responded personally to this one complaint and invited the person to be part of the next food tasting session to help Virgin airlines improve their catering.  The complaint was pretty scathing.  It included pictures of the food and didn't hold back on telling them what they thought.

But rather than ignore it or send a bulk autoreply including the standard discount coupon on the person's next travel, it was decided to let Richard Branson answer the complaint personally. 

What a great bit of free publicity!

so, how do you deal with any complaints you have? How can you turn them in to a business opportunity?

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?

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?

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.

Let's get back to it!

My children aren't back at school until next week but couldn't wait until Wednesday before getting back on the ol' blogging wagon.  It's like anything isn't it?  You take a break and the first post/email/phone call is always the hardest.

Takes a while for the brain cells to get back to where they were (or maybe they never will!).

So as we were back from (not-so) sunny Devon this week, I was itching to get back infront of my PC and get some writing done, as well as making lists and lists and lists of things that need doing. 

Looking forward to getting some kick-ass posts posted :)

Schools out and it's time for a break this summer

I had all good intentions of keeping my blogging going throughout July & August.  But now that I am officially in week 4 of my kids’ school holidays, my pace of life has slowed down.

What with constant meals (I had forgotten that they eat so much all day!!), providing the play-date taxi service and shouting “Switch that TV off right NOW and find something to play with”, my business brain is turning to mush. 

And I think, to be honest, that it deserves to turn to mush.  I need a holiday so I am blogging today to let you all know that I am taking a well deserved break.  But I will be back in full force again in September – that’s September the 3^rd to be precise!

Have a great summer everyone. Thank you for subscribing and reading my posts and I look forward to sharing lots more practical, kick-ass marketing ideas and business tips very soon.

Feeling overwhelmed and don't know what to do?

Whether you are in the very early stages of starting a new business or have been going for many years and have begun to want to move your business forward a notch or two, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

I know as it is an emotion that I often feel myself – I call it my “rabbit in headlights” look!

It’s important to keep everything as simple as possible during these times.  Start with the end in mind and when you have decided what your “big picture” is, then break this down in to smaller time chunks, for example 3 months, 6 months and 9 months.

Think of it as creating a time line of events and these can become your shorter term goals.  Once you are clear on your 3 month goal, now is the time to brainstorm and come up with a list of simple steps to take and activities to do that will take you on your journey.

Mental Space is Critical for Success

When you are self-employed and run your own business from home, it is very easy to find yourself busy – ALL of the time.

When you aren’t answering the phone or replying to emails, you are speaking to clients, going to meetings and doing the work that you are being paid to do.  All that rushing around and no time to think!

But being a home business owner, it is critical to make the time for mental space.  And I am not just talking about spending valuable time on planning.

I am talking about time spent gazing out of the window watching the sun shine through the trees.  I am talking about the time spent walking around your neighbour without listening to the latest podcast or business audio download.

It’s amazing how much clearer your business becomes and what the next stage of your action plan needs to be when you spend time leaning back in your chair – just gazing!

How do you create mental for your business?  Leave your thoughts as a comment below.

Does your home business have a secret gastric belt?

So, Fern Britton had a gastric belt fitted a couple of years ago and decided to keep stum about it all this time.  What Fern does is her own business.  Or is it?

Fern’s personal brand, whether she likes it or not, is about representing the “bigger” woman.  And she has slowly but surely lost the pounds over the years.  She may not have specifically said that her weight lose was only because of her healthy eating and exercise, but by being the face of Ryvita (known diet eating accessories) she has implied this.

I can see why there has been such a public (or is it media?) outcry when this secret gastric belt has been admitted.  It is not congruent with Fern’s personal brand and image.  Many of the woman’s weeklies have used Fern’s image to promote fitness programmes and diets, but suddenly they all seem fake.  Fern’s natural weight loss is not so natural after all and I am sure Magazine Editors are growling everywhere.

But what on earth has this to do with your home business?  Having a secret gastric belt could have big implications on your personal brand at some point in the future.  If you are a personal trainer who advocates healthy eating, but spends every Friday and Saturday night binge drinking and eating kebabs – this is not congruent with your personal brand.

If you are a complementary therapist who helps people keep their stress levels down through meditation and massage, but between client sessions secretly smokes the odd cigarette because it calms you down – again not terribly congruent with your personal brand.

No one is perfect, but trying to appear perfect (and create an artificial personal brand) can be detrimental to your success in the long term. 

What do you think about having “secret gastric belts”?  Is it a challenge separating your personal brand with what your business stands for?  Or are they the same thing?