When Your Name is Not You
During his PodCamp NYC seminar presentation, Jason Van Orden mentioned that he reviews the Web, in whatever manner he chooses, to track when his name appears. My assumption, though I could be wrong, is that he subscribes to Yahoo! and/or Google alerts, which I’ve talked about in the past.
I concur with Jason’s diligence, as I do the same. The information you find can be useful as part of a marketing campaign, or you may have a chance to respond to someone who’s mentioned your name or company name on a message board or blog post.
Just a few minutes ago, I received an alert from Yahoo! letting me know that my name is in the news. I clicked the link and found that someone named Shirley Frazier informed a television station that she’s late filing her taxes.
Sometimes it’s amusing to see your name when it’s not you, as in this case. I filed my taxes on time, and unlike the similarly-named person who was interviewed, I had no problem putting my papers in order.
Solo business owners organize their paperwork so that there’s more time for sales and marketing. Or at least they try their best every year to do better.
Technorati Tags: small business marketing, solo business marketing, solo entrepreneur, Jason Van Orden, filing taxes, tax deadline
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Prime Time to Market Safety
Last week, Jon S. Corzine, Governor of New Jersey, was critically injured in a vehicular accident. It’s reported that his broken leg, broken ribs, and other injuries occurred because he was not wearing a seat belt.
This type of story encourages the news media to search for safety experts who explain car travel security tips for adults, children, and pets. Other safety-related issues are also fair game.
If you market a product or service with a safety slant or anything remotely related, now’s the time to promote it for increased visibility. You’re a solo business owner with no one except yourself to approve of this marketing project. Writing an opinion piece with your expert thoughts on safety can be completed quickly.
It’s unfortunate that the governor is critically injured; however, do not feel guilty for pursuing a marketing campaign that piggybacks on this story. The accident has made safety front-page news.
Safe practices and security issues are serious business. Go after your market now. The media, clients, and prospects will give you undivided attention.
Technorati Tags: small business marketing, solo business marketing, solo entrepreneur, Jon Corzine, New Jersey Governor, safety issues, safety products
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Marketing Planning 101
One of my goals each month is to read books written by other business owners or about a topic that provides a new or re-invigorated way of looking at a well-known subject.
I’m reading Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen, a book given mixed reviews on Amazon.com. As a solo business owner, I want to learn everything I can to tap into various income streams.
Chapter 2, titled “The 10-Minute Millionaire,” offers a reminder, and in some cases, a lesson for all marketers. It talks about planning and how this exercise saves time and money.
“Poor people have disorganized, short-term planning horizons. Rich people have organized, long-term planning horizons. The more scheduled you are into the future, the cheaper your life is going to become. You’ve got to begin to organize your life like a major corporation.”
I talked about planning a few weeks ago because I’m searching for a paper-based system to help me track my marketing campaigns. I can forget using software. It’s just not for me, though I’d love to know who’s successfully using marketing software.
I’ve developed a habit of planning my work schedule in weekly intervals, and when I’m time stressed, that weekly plan ends up being a daily plan. I know this is not good, and the book confirms it.
The chapter encourages anyone who’s not planning for the long term to start with an exercise of planning for the next 90 days.
“Instead of just planning your daily activites, look at your calendar 90 days out from today and ask yourself, ‘What do I need to do today to make sure that the things I need 90 days from now can be purchased smarter?’”
This practical thinking goes beyond a purchasing plan; it also makes you consider where you want to be in 90 days. What do you want your marketing efforts to achieve in the next three months?
When you become comfortable with a three-month planning schedule, you can stretch it to a six-month schedule, and so on. The goal for us solo marketers is to be well-oiled machines, similar to the companies we’ve left. No - actually, we’ll be better.
Technorati Tags: small business marketing, solo business marketing, solo entrepreneur, marketing planning, planning schedule, Robert G. Allen, Multiple Streams of Income
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How to Back Up Your Data
This morning, FedEx delivered a box at my office door. Inside the box was a dead external hard drive and DVD containing all the data from that hard drive, bringing to a close the very expensive lesson of not backing up data I considered valuable.
I’m a fan of external hard drives. I appreciate the plug-and-use simplicity. My data dilemma occurred because I blindly depended on the external drive more than I depended on my computer’s hard drive.
Each time I created a document, I saved it on the external drive rather than on the main computer hard drive. Whether on a daily or weekly basis, the data in the main computer would have easily copied over to the external drive, giving me access to two copies instead of one. But I never took action to set up a schedule.
Had I made data back up a habit, I would still have $1,000 to spend on a marketing campaign. Instead, I spent it on data recovery.
I must say that I’m very pleased that the data was recoverable. There’s no way I could have re-created all of my intellectual property, and re-taking photographs is out of the question. You cannot go back in time and snap again.
I now have a new external hard drive. It was installed the day it arrived. I performed the initial back up in just 15 minutes. The drive is on an automatic schedule to back up new data every day.
I urge you to follow these five steps to save your data, money, and sanity.
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Shirley George Frazier - Solo Business Expert, Author, College Mentor
When you hire me to speak at your conference, college or special event, attendees will thank you for a great program. Media interviews also welcomed. Call or Email me. 973-279-2799 or shirley@shirleyspeaks.com.
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