Survey Finds that Marketing Matters to Freelancers and SMB Owners

An insightful survey of 1000 small business owners and independently employed Freelance professionals sponsored by printing powerhouse VistaPrint and website builder Wix and conducted in March 2024 conclusively confirmed that effective marketing is as important to small business entities as it is to enterprise companies like Apple and General Motors. Despite the enormous difference in the size of marketing teams and budgets as compared to multinational corporations, Freelancers and SMB owners value the impact of marketing and they’re enthusiastic about leveraging its impact to benefit their companies. The survey findings deliver a persuasive vote of confidence for the power of marketing.

Reaching new customers drives the motivation to market for 46% of survey respondents. It was found that 71% of Freelancers and SMB owners do their own marketing, that 79% feel confident in their ability to function in the role of marketing manager for their company and 77% are satisfied with the results of their marketing strategies and campaigns. However, the majority of Freelancers and SMB owners are realistic about their marketing expertise and survey results indicated that the majority of respondents either have or plan to upskill and learn to market more effectively; 63% reported that they took steps to hone their marketing abilities in 2023; and 76% reported that they plan to do so in 2024.

Though Freelancer and SMBs are happy with the results they’ve achieved as marketers, they are aware that they face challenges. Standing out in a crowded marketplace is perceived as their biggest threat, with 53% worried about standing out vs. competitors. Furthermore, 47% of respondents are concerned about choosing effective marketing tactics to promote their business and 49% wonder if their budget can cover their marketing aspirations. Freelancers and SMBs see their greatest marketing opportunities in expanding their online presence (24%), increasing brand awareness (23%) and launching new products or services (22%).

Experimenting

The inevitability of digital marketing is understood by survey respondents but surprisingly, social media outreach and search engine optimization do not completely dominate their choices of marketing strategies and tactics. Survey results showed that while 78% of respondents experimented with “new” marketing tactics in 2023, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing tactics and identifying a mix of strategies and activities that work best for their business is the goal.

The importance of social media and search engines is obvious to them, but traditional marketing continues to resonate most likely because customers still value real-life and face2face interactions and physical touch points, as well as digital experiences. In 2024, 48% of Freelancers and SMB owners plan to increase their spend on newer (digital) marketing, while 30% will likewise increase marketing spend, but will continue with the same marketing mix. 

Balancing

Word-of-mouth will always be an asset to Freelancers and SMBs for promoting brand awareness, but a range of marketing touch points is often needed to raise awareness and persuade prospects to do business. For those reasons, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing activities is a goal for survey respondents: 28% allocated their marketing budgets 50-50 traditional and digital, while 40% invested more heavily in digital marketing activities and 32% chose to invest more in traditional marketing. The leading digital 
marketing tactics chosen in 2023 were an upgrade of the company website (60%), social media paid ads (60%), search engine optimization (50%) and email marketing (46%).

Traditional marketing continues to play a key role for Freelancers and SMB owners, with 71% reporting that physical marketing tactics are important because customers still value the experience. Regarding traditional marketing activities, 50% of respondents invested in business cards, attended trade shows and similar conferences, 31% invested in paid print ads and 29% used promotional items.

Locavore

It can feel intimidating to compete with major retailers and corporate giants when doing business, however small entities have one huge advantage—many customers want to feel connected to their local neighborhood when doing business and 78% of customers surveyed reported that it’s important to them to “shop local.” Marketing that emphasizes location, loyalty and community can help keep customers coming back, as reported by 1000 small business customers who also participated in the VistaPrint – Wix marketing survey.

Customers of SMB and Freelancers surveyed reported that marketing tactics that help them find SMBs and Freelancers to do business with include social media (54%), search engines (44%) and print ads (26%). Furthermore, 41% of small business customers reported that a primary reason they choose to shop small business over big is to support local business and 46% say they actively seek out such companies. These customers value knowing the owner and staff where they do business and those relationships are a motivation for shopping local. Click to read the full report. https://smb.vistaprint.com/_files/ugd/3121be_d99794458cee45079ba421dbb61ed1d2.pdf

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Santulan Architecture Denver, CO

Start-up Funding Options

Starting a new business venture will thrill you and challenge you. You’ll take on responsibilities you never knew existed but will become a regular part of life when you choose to launch your entity. It is likely that money will be a challenge, starting with figuring out how to finance the business launch and bring your entrepreneurial dream into reality. You’ll also need to secure sufficient funds to sustain operations while your marketing strategies kick in and attract customers whose purchases generate sales revenue.

The amount of start-up capital needed will depend on the product or service that your company sells and your sales and distribution strategy. Your start-up capital requirement could range from the low four figures to the high six figures and if your entrepreneurial plan is especially ambitious, the need might reach seven figures.

Unfortunately, nearly 40% of businesses fail because they run out of cash. Many aspiring business owners are under-capitalized from the beginning and are unable to hang on until the customer list grows and sales revenue builds. If the start-up capital requirement is modest, it’s likely that you’ll self-finance, but if your projected need climbs through five figures, you’ll most likely be compelled to look beyond your personal credit cards and bank balance.

It is essential that aspiring entrepreneurs accurately project the initial funding needs of their proposed venture and be proactive re: securing adequate working capital. Insufficient funding cripples your ability to invest in the infrastructure that grows the business—technology that supports business processes, from accounting software and marketing automation to the inbound marketing/ buyer’s journey experiences you’d like to present; appropriate staffing, full or part-time; an optimized company website; and your ability to attend networking events or invest in skills training.

When start-up costs can be expected to outstrip your personal resources, aspiring entrepreneurs must learn which doors to knock on when searching for vital business funding. Traditionally, most Freelancers and small business owners fund their start-up in three ways — personal funds, loans from friends or family, or a Small Business Association (bank) loan. While these are good options, larger funding needs are likely to require other sources.

The campaign to secure investment capital is time consuming; plan to devote three to six months for your financing crusade. If you plan to recruit investors, you’ll also need time to negotiate the terms as well as the amount of an investor contribution. Furthermore, there will be a legal process required to finalize investments made. Be aware that larger funding rounds often involve more extensive due diligence, negotiations and legal processes.

Since we’re talking money, maybe you’re looking for a good pitch competition? Click here to learn about 25 that will be held, or were recently held, on three continents in 2024: https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/startup-pitch-competitions/

Know your funding timeline

Begin your search for investment capital at least six months before funds run out, to give yourself time to replenish cash. If you are raising seed money for a venture that will need investment in the six figures, you’ll be wise to project the amount of funding needed to sustain business operations for two years. Projecting the number of months the venture can operate before running out of cash both documents the financial stability of the company and demonstrates that you are a responsible financial manager—qualities that are likely to inspire potential investors to fund your company.

Furthermore, giving yourself plenty of lead time as you search for investment capital can only strengthen your negotiating position with investors; it’s always best to ask for money while you still have money. Position yourself to have as much negotiating power as possible when discussing company valuation, terms of the investment loan and legal aspects of the funding deal. This can result in more favorable terms for you as well as minimizing worry about a cash shortage.

Investor database

An investor database will be a useful resource that allows you to streamline communication with potential investors and facilitate relationship-building by enabling you to manage the all-important networking process and follow-up with those who demonstrate an interest in learning more about your venture. Your database will consist of warm contacts; your strategy will be to commence networking and initiate conversations with a pitch that sparks interest and opens doors to follow-up meetings and serious discussions that might lead to successful investment deals.

Your investor database will also contribute to the success of your pitch, since you’ll have notes that document investors’ hot buttons and investment histories, so that you can customize your pitch with talking points that resonate. A personalized approach increases the likelihood of capturing investor interest and aligning your company with their investment priorities. Below are funding options that you may want to evaluate:

• Venture Capital and Angel Investors

Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity and a type of financing for start-up companies that have long-term growth potential. VC money generally comes from investors, investment banks and other financial institutions. VC firms raise money from limited partners to invest in promising start-ups or sometimes larger venture capital funds. VC investments in start-up companies might also be provided as technical or managerial expertise and the investment often includes strategic guidance and industry connections that substantially benefit the entrepreneur.

The downside is that landing a VC deal is extremely difficult; just 5 out of every 10,000 startups are able to secure VC funding. Entrepreneurs will need to prove themselves through rigorous due diligence and, if funding happens, living up to high growth expectations. Many VC investors are primarily looking to make a fast, high-return payoff and may pressure the company for a quick exit. Furthermore, VC investors are likely to demand a large share of company equity, make demands of the company’s management and founders risk losing control over the direction of the company.

VC isn’t the right funding choice for all start-ups. If it seems a fit for your venture, look for VC firms with expertise in your market plus target a funding amount that aligns with your needs. To obtain more information about VC investors click here https://www.vcaonline.com/directory/invdir/

By contrast, the typical angel investor is a high net worth individual and might include certain family members, close friends, or other associates who know you and might be interested in supporting your business venture.  They may have acquired their wealth through a variety of sources; however, most are themselves entrepreneurs or retired executives from enterprise business companies. These investors are inclined to fund ventures that are involved in the same or similar industries or business sectors with which they are familiar.

Unlike a bank, which will demand concrete proof of the viability of your proposed business venture, an angel investor might be more willing to gamble on your great idea. Angel investors generally understand the risk of investing in start-ups and may not expect any return on capital if the business fails. No wonder they’re known as angel investors!

To find potential angel investors or venture capital sources, networking within your business community is a must. Make a point to attend local business, trade and community organization meetings and other events to meet people—have your pitch well-honed. Start your research on angel investors by visiting sites that match entrepreneurs with angel investors:

Angel Capital Association : A collective of accredited angel investors

Golden Seeds : A group whose members focus on women-led ventures

Angel Investment Network : A network that seeks to connect entrepreneurs with business angels

• Revenue Based Fundraising

The downside to raising capital through traditional debt financing is that it requires the business to accrue debt with interest. Revenue-based financing (RBF) https://www.joinarc.com/guides/revenue-based-financing is a type of business funding in which a company receives investment capital by promising a percentage or certain amount of the venture’s future projected revenue stream to investors. This is potentially a win-win for both aspiring entrepreneur and investors, as the start-up entity receives the necessary capital to launch and build the business by generating sales revenue, and the financer generates a return. 

• Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a method of funding a business or venture by receiving small amounts of money from a large number of people who believe in the project. While crowdfunding can be an effective way to raise capital, it will require the business to convey its brand through compelling storytelling, strategic marketing and aggressive promotion.

In addition to financial resources, crowdfunding can also help the business build an excited and loyal community around the company’s products and services. It can also simultaneously validate if there is demand in the market for your business early in the startup process.

Crowdfunding bears similarities to angel investing. While traditional angel groups seek to match entrepreneurs with accredited investors, crowdfunding sites allow lots of smaller investors to pitch in to move your venture along. You’ll likely have to apply to have your idea or business vetted by the site before they’ll present your project to their members. Sites that are worth a visit include:

SeedInvest https://moneywise.com/investing/alternative-investments/seedinvest-review

WeFunder https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/investing/brokers/wefunder

Fundable https://www.trustpilot.com/review/fundible.com

• Blockchain-based financing

Blockchain technology may provide exciting new options for start-up fundraising, with the use of digital tokens and decentralized finance (DeFi). These innovative fundraising approaches enable start-ups to access capital in a transparent manner that operates outside the traditional banking sector. Blockchain technology can be used to issue and manage digital tokens that represent equity or debt in a venture. These tokens can be traded on secondary markets, providing liquidity to early investors. blockchain also allows startups to raise funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs).

DeFi is built on blockchain technology, primarily leveraging Ethereum.  Unlike centralized financial institutions, which rely on intermediaries such as banks, DeFi operates on blockchain networks, enabling peer-to-peer transactions, lending, borrowing and other financial activities without using intermediaries. Smart contracts, self-executing code on the blockchain, form the backbone of DeFi applications. These contracts automate financial processes, eliminating the need for intermediaries. Still, DeFi is still evolving, and there are smart contract vulnerabilities and regulatory uncertainty. Users must conduct due diligence, diversify and understand the risks before participating in DeFi.

Another way to fund a blockchain startup is through initial coin offerings (ICOs). ICOs are a type of crowdfunding, where a company raises funds by selling digital tokens to investors. ICOs can be used to fund the development of a new product or service, or to support the growth of a company.

• Government grants and incentives

To help encourage business growth in their area, many state, local and federal agencies offer grants, incentives, or tax breaks to businesses that satisfy certain criteria such as operating in a specific industry, for example, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). Securing government funding can be time-consuming and come with strings attached, so entrepreneurs should carefully consider their options before applying for government funding. https://www.shopify.com/blog/small-business-grants

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Snaprender

Your Business: Get the View From 30,000 Feet

If you operate a business, you know all too well that your work is never done. There is always a problem to solve, reports to run and statistics to analyze, emails to send, a customer to speak with (remember to take a break every now and again!). Along with the hands-on, task oriented items on your to-do list, there is another responsibility that business owners have, one that’s seldom discussed but is nevertheless a must-do—to think about the business entity and figure out how to make it grow and thrive.

Thinking about your company—where it is now, where it was a year go and where you’d like it to be in 12-24 months—demonstrates the difference between being a leader, who embodies the vision of the entity and a manager, who implements goals that enable the vision to be realized. Freelance solopreneurs must wear both hats—the manager, who prioritizes efficiency and gets things done and the forward-thinking leader, who engages in big picture thinking to contemplate the state of the business and looks to connect the dots between problems and their impact, recognize potential opportunities and plan for the future.

Ulyses Osuna, founder of the sizzling hot PR and personal branding firm Influencer Press https://influencerpress.com/ and protégé of marketing rock star Neil Patel, founder of both Kissmetrics and Crazy Egg https://www.crazyegg.com/ , recommends that business owners/leaders regularly examine your organization to assess what’s happening now and what might happen in the future. To effectively steward your business entity, it is critical that business leaders regularly devote time to think about your organization and observe how it functions in real time. Factors you may examine to supply relevant insights may include:

• marketplace conditions, including the competitive landscape
• how the company delivers its products and services
• perceptions of the customer experience, including customer service, that the company presents
• top-line and bottom-line sales revenues
• the inbound marketing conversion rate
• plans for growth and expansion

For companies large and small, including Freelance Consultants, Osuna feels that devoting an hour or two each week to studying the organization is needed to see and interpret the big picture view from 30,000 feet. Business leaders must do more than grind it out just to stay on top of (admittedly important) day-to-day responsibilities and keep things in motion. Remember what inspired you to create your entity; you want it to be all it can be. To maximize your organization’s potential, first get a warts-and-all understanding of where it is now, so you can recognize growth and expansion opportunities and decide how to prepare the company to pursue those opportunities. Neglect your business leader due diligence and fail to conduct frequent check-ins with the organization you created and you’ll eventually find yourself at the helm of a rudderless ship, tangled in the weeds, as you work hard but remain stuck and unable to achieve worthy goals that were once attainable.

Osuna says he gives his clients thought-provoking, sometimes edgy, questions to answer and you (and your team, if applicable) can do the same. It’s OK to address just a question or two in your brainstorming sessions, so long as you take a deep dive and keep it real. Osuna urges you to move forward and execute quickly when you have an ah-ha moment and discover something that might move the needle—do research thoroughly and plan carefully—because good ideas deserve immediate follow-up.

BTW, Freelance solopreneurs who doubt the wisdom of asking themselves questions and then answering themselves can refer to Consulting Drucker: Principles and Lessons from the World’s Leading Consultant, written by William Cohen, PhD (September 2018), to confirm that Osuna’s brainstorming method can produce useful results. Cohen’s book examines the influence that business consultant, educator and author Peter Drucker (1909-2005), who is known as the father of modern business management, has had on business practices. Cohen and his research team found that asking yourself questions and responding to them as if you are a separate entity, can produce credible answers. Your brain will supply answers, or attempt to, making the practice beneficial for a single individual to contemplate questions that require objective and big picture thinking.

Cohen at al. theorize that the primary reason for this phenomenon is that oftentimes, the facts needed to answer questions and resolve problems are already stored in your memory, even if some information cannot be easily accessed. Asking yourself questions, treating your brain as a separate entity and allowing it to find potentially useful answers, can eliminate many of the biases that may otherwise block you from identifying effective solutions. There is a limit to the phenomenon, however— if you are under a great deal of stress, or the problem is either too big or the situation is too demanding, the brain may not function well enough to identify a workable solution to the question or problem, even when you frame the query as if addressing someone other than yourself.

The list of questions below are written to help you successfully launch weekly or monthly business brainstorming sessions for your entity by focusing on three business functions that Drucker identified as vital: attraction of prospects, customer conversation rate and delivery of products or services. You can choose other questions to ponder, depending on your circumstances, and address them at your own pace. You may take on only two or three per week/month but devote an hour or two in each session to think about your business entity, it’s challenges and potential.

1. Which systems improvements will make doing business easier, more efficient and/or less expensive?
2. Which media outlets would best showcase the company and brand and has the company/or I been featured in one or more in the past 12 months?
3. If I was able to hire one (or more) employees whose salary would be paid by a grant and cost me nothing, in what capacity would it make sense for the person(s) to work and would s/he work?
4. Do my products/ services optimally fulfill the needs and aspirations of my customers? Should I add an upgrade or a simplified version or should I develop a new service or offer a new product?
5. If I was given a no-strings gift of $300,000 to exclusively spend on the business, what would I spend it on?
6. What do customers value most about the company? Where do customers feel the company falls short?
7. Does the content produced for the company showcase me as a thought leader? In what categories have I (or can I) establish authority? This could involve guest articles, interviews, or speaking engagements.
8. What do you want the company to look like in one year, two years, or five years?
9. How do I provide solutions that solve client problems or achieve client goals?
10. If I could do it over again, would I create this business in the way I have done—what, if anything, might change?
11. What are the most common objection that prospects give to your sales pitch and what might be the best response?
12. What is the biggest priority that the company faces now?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The Thinker created in 1904 by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) on display at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA 2016 exhibit, “Rodin: Transforming Sculpture.” 

Give Me A Break!

Ambitious people work hard. Their to-do list is too long—and they wouldn’t have it any other way. They are achievers and they have mountains to climb. They are always flat-out crazy busy and cannot afford to waste a single moment. Working hard, working smart (hopefully) and working nonstop defines being productive, as they see it. Productivity is the engine of ambition. To the hard-working ambitious, this is a no-brainer, right?

It seems that many, if not most, ambitious people buy into this mind-set. To show the world (and themselves) that they are not slackers, they may brag about sleeping just four or five hours at night, because they have so much work to do. Others brag about waking up at 5:00 AM, so that they can wring as much productivity as possible from the day. Working 10 or 12-hour days and maybe skipping lunch, too, is standard behavior for members of the Hard Working Club; even vacations can include a Dropbox file filled with documents to review and a list of emails destined to populate their send file.

If the above scenario describes you, please know that I admire your ambition, work ethic and determination to succeed. To keep you on your path, I respectfully offer an observation—in order to sustain your ability to work hard and smart and maximize your productivity so that you can take aim at the ambitious goals you want to achieve, you must effectively manage your energy, concentration (i.e., focus) and endurance, mental and physical. Proper management of energy has nearly as much impact on productivity as the time spent working on your task.

Recall an instance when you finally had time to work on a task that was hanging over your head, but you put it off because you were too unmotivated or exhausted to do it. What your brain and body were telling you was that every once in a while, it is beneficial to stop working and rest. Rest periods—breaks—during your working day are more powerful than you might realize. In fact, rest breaks can improve productivity because they allow you to replenish your physical and mental energy.

A period of at least 10 minutes, during which you stop working and engage in a restorative activity (or inactivity) helps your body and mind to relax and refresh. Fatigue undermines concentration, creativity and endurance. Ignore that reality and you can find yourself unable to focus or perform well. Habitually pushing yourself to work through fatigue is not a sign of discipline or determination. Ignoring your human needs is counterproductive and can lead to burnout, a condition associated with unfortunate physical and psychological consequences.

By contrast, taking short breaks throughout the workday will restore your energy and help you maintain the physical and mental endurance needed to maximize your productivity. Taking breaks also supports the healthy self-regulation of your emotional state and behavior—that is, your mood—to promote positive interactions with others. When over-tired, we are vulnerable to responding to others in ways that are reactive—brusque or irritable—and we’re prone to taking frustrations out on others.

So, to stay at the top of your game, take a few micro-breaks throughout the day. Those respites can be as brief as 10 minutes in duration, but they matter. Just as micro-stresses might accumulate at work, micro-breaks can help you counter the negative effects. Below are examples of how and when you can incorporate restorative, productivity-enhancing breaks into your crazy busy workday.

1. Give yourself permission to take breaks.

Challenge the assumption that you’re too busy to take a break—you can’t afford to not take a break! Instead of leaving it to chance that you’ll find a few random minutes to squeeze in the rest you need, be as intentional about restoring your energy as you are about working hard and being productive. When you get into your car to begin a journey, you must have fuel in the tank. Taking a break during your workday is like going to a filling station to get the fuel needed to reach your destination.

2. Schedule breaks and set reminders.

Schedule blocks of time during the day when you’ll step away from work-related activity and do something that allows your mind and body to relax, so that you can replenish your physical and cognitive energy. You can let your biorhythms guide your break time and schedule a rest period when science predicts that your energy is at its lowest — in mid-to-late afternoon.  Research shows that our energy is typically lowest at around 3:00 P.M. You might try giving yourself 15-minute breaks at mid-morning and mid-afternoon, plus a 30-60 minute lunch break. Adjust the timing as you see fit.

If you’re inclined to get lost in your work and ignore the physical or cognitive hints that signal it’s time to rest a few minutes, install a pop-up alert on your desktop or phone to encourage you to stop working for a few minutes. Having a visual cue on your workspace screen, maybe a coffee mug, or an image of someone walking a dog or in a yoga pose, is a practical and entertaining reminder that break time has arrived. There are several apps designed to do this and some are free.

3. Build on bio breaks.

The breaks we must all take are the bathroom breaks. You can build an add-on to one or more of your bio breaks by “stacking,” that is, developing a new habit by attaching it to an existing habit or behavior. So, after your bio break, add your preferred relaxation or exercise activity. In this way, you pair something you want to do (or should do), with something you must do, such as visiting the bathroom. After your bio break, it will feel easier to transition to a 10–15-minute break that you devote to practicing deep breathing, meditating, climbing a stairwell or, for a longer break, taking a walk or run.

4. Batch email and other communications.

It can be tempting to use a few spare minutes when you have them to quickly respond to email or Slack messages, to make what could be an avalanche of mail more manageable. Yet, blocking out specific times in your workday for responding to emails is not only an efficient use of time, the practice also makes it easier to develop the habit of scheduling time exclusively devoted to breaks that do not include some form of work. It is in your interest to enable yourself to periodically relax and refresh, to sustain your energy and work at peak productivity.

5. Maintain meeting boundaries.

If possible, do not allow yourself to be trapped in meetings that exceed their allotted time frame (admittedly, this is easier to enforce when you preside at the meeting). If you are not the convener or meeting leader, be proactive about defending your boundaries by communicating in advance that you have another commitment that follows the meeting and therefore, you must observe the adjournment time indicated on the agenda and make your exit. Setting the expectation from the start that you will leave a meeting on time subtly encourages other attendees to be sensitive to the need to adjourn promptly.

It’s imperative to exert control over your time. When meetings exceed their projected adjournment time it can cause you to join your next meeting late, which is disrespectful and possibly disruptive to those attendees. Moreover, being late adds stress to your day. Most people will appreciate your stated intention to leave the meeting when the expected conclusion time arrives because respecting time often benefits them as well. In the event that you arrive late to your next meeting, spending just 15 seconds to take three deep breaths can help you focus, feel more prepared and be fully present.

6. Your go-to routine for unexpected breaks.

When possible, take advantage of unexpected breaks that occur when a meeting adjourns early or, conversely, starts late. Whether you listen to music, stretch your neck and roll your shoulders, or engage in a breathing exercise, creating in advance an easy to do and remember relaxation routine will allow you to use unanticipated breaks to your advantage. When it happens, embrace the serendipitous gift of time and use it to reduce stress and replenish your energy.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Bettmann Archive, Lunch Atop a Skyscraper photographer unknown, September 1932. Iron workers take a lunch break 800 feet above West 49th Street during the construction of NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Make Sure the Price is Right

If your goal is to build a thriving and sustainable business entity (and I know that it is), it’s imperative that you determine the right price point for the goods and services you sell. Establishing the most advantageous price range is an element of your marketing strategy. That means your pricing strategy must align with both the brand identity and market position occupied by your products and services and also be acceptable to target customers. Understand where your company is—and where you want it to be—in terms of perceived brand value. Do you consider your company to be a discount option, middle-road, or a luxury option?

Pricing is integral to business profitability and a cornerstone of business success. Experienced business owners and leaders agree that a pricing strategy can make or break a company—set prices higher than what customers care to spend and sales are lost; set prices too low and revenue potential is not achieved.

Surely, you’ve noticed that pricing has been a sensitive topic over the past few years, as inflation that (allegedly) topped out in 2022 caused the prices of numerous goods and services to rise as business owners sought to protect their profit margins from increases their organizations faced for the raw materials, acquisition costs, transportation and other expenses associated with bringing goods and services to market.

Unfortunately, readers of this post—mostly, Freelance consultants and SMB owners—often lack the financial cushion to withstand all but the briefest periods of economic adversity. Enterprise companies and other well-capitalized entities are better equipped to absorb both the rising costs of product production or acquisition and customer push-back associated with higher retail prices. Instead, the “little fish” are squeezed between inflated business costs and customer reluctance to accept price increases. Their reluctance may stem from budget cuts that inhibit B2B sales and in the B2C sector, the problem can stem from wages that may not have kept pace with inflation. Both scenarios can lead to prospects who second guess their need to spend and result in shrinking sales revenue.

As was discussed in last week’s post, being in business is all about solving problems, is it not? In order to survive, companies large and small must at least generate enough revenue to cover operating costs. Increasing the price of your goods and services might make you nervous; it may appear that you’ll lose a customer or two and that is worrisome. Keep in mind that customers are aware of inflation. They also understand that you are in business to make a profit. Optimizing your pricing strategy is the best defense. Offering a simplified version of your products or services can perhaps be an attractive option that may allow you to retain price-sensitive customers.

Calculate production/ acquisition costs

Let’s start with the math: (Price – cost) x quantity = profit. Before pricing your products or services, you must calculate the time and money you spend to obtain or create them. Tally the costs of each item purchased and each hour spent to produce, acquire, or create each product or service that you sell. So, if you purchase at wholesale products that you resell, calculate the costs of buying and shipping those items. If you manufacture the products yourself, or outsource the production/manufacturing, calculate the costs of the materials, manufacturing expenses, employee wages and the time you devote to production tasks.

Likewise, if your business is based in the knowledge economy—maybe you customize business strategies, or you create sales training workshops that you present in video classes—to the best of your ability, calculate the number of hours spent designing your intellectual property and assign an hourly rate to yourself so that you can determine the wholesale cost of your work (keep in mind that you’ll bill your clients at retail).

Once you’ve confirmed the amount spent on obtaining or creating your products or services, you will have discovered a vital piece of financial info—the break-even point, which represents the minimum selling price required to cover the costs you’ve invested to obtain your products and services. For info on pricing tools that might be useful for your business entity, click: https://www.symson.com/blog/best-competitive-pricing-tools

Benchmark against key competitors

Both industry statistics and the pricing habits of key competitors can provide guidance when evaluating potential pricing strategies. Within each industry, there are typical standard mark-ups and profit margins that are recognized as normal ranges. This info can help Freelancers and SMB owners to first, understand if their product/ service acquisition or development costs are too high or low relative to the typical selling price range and also where, or if, their selling prices fall within the typical price range for that product or service.

Further confirmation can be gained by investigating the pricing of two or three direct competitors, to discover an upper and lower price tolerance for your customers and identify a pricing sweet spot. In other words, for products similar to what you offer, if you discover that the most expensive competitive price in your market is $300 and the lowest is $100, that’s a convincing indication of the price range your customers accept and you can therefore confidently price your offerings somewhere between those values, guided by your production or acquisition costs and your company’s brand identity.

Emphasize value, not price

Benchmarking the pricing of certain competitors can be instructive but you should avoid copying what your competitors do. Competitive pricing intel is best utilized as guardrails that help you discover a price range that your customers can be expected to accept. Believe that your products and services can stand on their own merits—that is, the value your brand delivers. Your company and its products and/or services are more than just a price tag, more than a commodity.

Too many Freelancers and SMB owners attempt to win customers by being the cheapest game in town. This mindset nearly always leads to underpricing—undervaluing— your products and services and your company as well. When you choose to primarily compete on price, it is unlikely you’ll ever preside over a thriving entity. It’s much more likely that you’ll be trapped in a race to the bottom as you compete with those who are willing to undercut your price whenever necessary. According to spellbrand.com, “by being the cheapest or lower priced, you attract the wrong customers. You attract customers who make decisions based on price and not value.” Leave the price wars to Walmart and focus instead on how much customers might be willing to pay once they understand the value associated with your organization.

When you compete on value, you will attract and interact with prospects who respect you, your professionalism and abilities, and your company. The moment you decide to emphasize the value, you will attract those ready to invest at the level of service or product you can deliver. 

On that note, along with a thrifty vision of your product or service to attract price-sensitive prospects, develop also a VIP up-sell category in each product or service that you provide because there are always customers willing to invest in the very best you offer. Including a premium option of your products and services is a quick way to add even more revenue to your business income streams. When you are playing the long-term game as an entrepreneur, you want the best.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: LazingBee

On Considering a Business Partnership

It’s often said that two heads are better than one. If you’d like to achieve an important goal or solve a problem that’s disturbing your life, help may materialize as a friend who suggests a solution that overcomes the obstacle. Now if the advice you need concerns a business venture, your answer could be found in the person of a business partner who’s willing to join you in the venture and bring resources that help jumpstart the success you envision.

Freelance professionals and other business owners may reap significant benefits from a partnership; a wisely chosen business partner will bring resources to your company that, depending on the products and/or services sold, can position the entity to take on big budget, high profile projects, introduce more clients, expand the products or services the company provides and/or improve access to capital that enables the business to scale and expand.

Partnership planning

Forrester, a global market research company with headquarters in London, UK and Cambridge, MA, in 2019 conducted a study that revealed companies worldwide use business partnerships to “drive competitive advantage.” Results indicated that 77% of companies view partnerships as “central to their business strategies and initiatives.” Those encouraging results could apply to your company, too, if you set things up right.

Because a partnership is a long-term, game-changing strategy, it’s essential that you discuss the idea with your accountant and business attorney before making any moves. There are different types of partnerships you can create, any of which might benefit your company. If the possibility of a partnership comes to mind, consider your vision for the business. Where is it now, in terms of profitability, number of clients and shrewd competitors? What do you want the business to look like in five years and what are you willing to do and spend to make it happen?

The insights and recommendations of your advisers, who are familiar with company finances and other important factors, will help you decide the type of partnership that has the greatest potential to fulfill your business goals. Involve whoever appears to be a strong candidate to join you in meetings with your advisers to talk specifics. It will make sense to ask your business attorney to draft a written partnership agreement for the new entity, whether or not your state requires that such a document must be filed with your Secretary of State or Attorney General.

Below are two standard partnership formats; the specifics of your choice will be included in the agreement, as will the ownership percentage of each partner. Keep in mind that partner contributions to the business may take various forms. Capital contributions can be made as cash, property, equipment, or intellectual property. The value of each partner’s contribution will impact the percentage of his/her ownership stake.

• General partnership: where two or more individuals own and manage the business. GPs share equal responsibility and decision-making rights for the business, will receive the agreed-upon share of profits generated and will incur the agreed-upon liability for losses and debts. The liabilities, contributions and responsibilities of partners are typically equal unless stated otherwise. Profits and losses are shared equally, unless stated otherwise.
• Limited partnership: limits the amount of financial liability for partners who join the entity as an investment opportunity. While there must be at least one general partner, there may be several limited partners, whose function is to bring additional operating capital to the entity. LPs receive profits and are also responsible for debts or losses, in accordance with the size of their contribution. They are not involved in the day-to-day management of the business, nor do they have decision-making power. LPs, often called “silent partners,” serve solely as investors in the business, with the funds they contribute being the extent of their liability.

The partner dance: who zigs, who zags

The person(s) you invite into your business is/are determined by the role the partnership will play in the company. Do you want a co-worker to help you operate the business and also add money and/or other resources? Or do you want more money to invest in the entity while you remain at the helm, developing and executing goals and strategies designed to advance business goals? As noted, you’ll begin by discussing your vision with advisers.

Once it’s decided whether a GP or LP arrangement is applicable, you’ll consider appropriate candidates to approach. In their 2015 book Rocket Fuel, authors Gino Wickman and Mark Winters stress the importance of having both a visionary and integrator — two different people — in order to successfully scale companies. The authors say, “When these two people share their natural talents and innate skill sets, they have the power to reach new heights for virtually any company or organization.”

Restaurants, in particular, typically follow an alternative partnership model, known as “front of the house” and “back of the house.” The front of the house partner is the extrovert who takes on customer-facing responsibilities—greeting customers, acting as the public face of the operation and talking to restaurant viewers and media representatives and, based on those functions, oversees marketing and brand management, for example. The back of the house partner oversees kitchen prep and clean-up, inventory management, accounting/finance and operations functions. Note that the format recommended by Wickman and Winters, as well as the restaurant model, are actually operating agreements and are used by GPs and not LPs.

Your partnership operating agreement should be committed to writing, so that the responsibilities of each partner, accompanied by job descriptions that clearly assign the related tasks, are spelled out. Below are questions that will help aspiring partners get to know one another better and perhaps anticipate how the new team will function, for example, when developing goals, implementing strategies and making decisions.

• What motivates an aspiring partner?
  It’s only natural to begin the conversation by explaining your reasons for seeking a partner. However, you may learn more by listening to the candidate discuss his/her preferences, expectations, perceived strengths and weaknesses and needs—you want to avoid making assumptions about others’ goals and intentions. Furthermore, make sure you’re on the same page about issues like work ethic, business growth or expansion, willingness to take on risk (see below) and spending money.
• How will you handle risk?
  Risk is present in all business ventures and we all have our way of approaching risk in its various guises. Partnerships will have a greater chance to succeed if those involved share a similar attitude toward risk. It may be possible to limit the possibility of taking on excessive risk in the partnership agreement, but it’s best to know if one partner is primarily risk-averse or a gambler and consider those characteristics when choosing the partner(s).
• Agree on performance evaluations (KPIs)
  Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs create or join partnerships that don’t deliver. Quantifying expectations that will define success upfront gives partners the ability to objectively assess and track business performance. If the needle isn’t moving, partners can then decide on a course correction. It may be useful to include in the partnership agreement required performance assessments that make renewal of the partnership contingent upon achieving certain KPI milestones.

Characteristics of the right partner

Partnerships, like all relationships, are primarily built on trust. With that in mind, below are practical considerations to help you recognize a potential partner. Obviously, you want to partner with someone who is honest, committed, works hard and smart and is easy to get along with. Characteristics and conditions that you may want to look for as you consider a potential partner include:

1. Trustworthy

As noted, trust is the foundation of the partnership. If you can’t trust your partner, nothing else will matter. The challenge lies in trying to assess trustworthiness when you don’t have a pre-existing relationship. Evaluating trustworthiness often comes down to the feeling you get when interviewing a prospective partner and examining his/her business track record. You’ll need to have several conversations with any potential partner — discussing experiences, beliefs, vision, background and other situational factors.

You may as well want to have conversations with people who know the candidate personally and professionally. Be sensitive to the way other people talk about your prospective partner—do they seem to feel positive and enthusiastic, or do they seem guarded or even indifferent?

A candidate’s business track record will also tell a story. Scrutinize candidate resumes and evaluate the financial performance of businesses they’ve owned or worked for in the previously. Were these companies and/or departments better off when the candidate left? Were there any questionable decisions that act as red flags?

2. Compatible

You’ll spend a lot of time with your business partner. You don’t have to be best friends, but you’ll need to forge a good working relationship, enabled to identify and prioritize goals and get things done. There must be a healthy dynamic that allows you to function as a team for the betterment of the business. Evaluating potential compatibility often comes down to a gut feeling.

3. Complementary skills

While compatibility is important, you don’t want to bring on a business partner who has an identical skill set. This won’t move the needle much for your business. Ideally, you find someone who has complementary skills. For example, if you’re good at innovation and product development, you might want a founder who has more experience with sales and marketing. Think back of the house, front of the house and also visionary and integrator.

4. The right network

Networking is a huge part of launching and growing a business. A venture in its early stages especially is highly dependent on a robust network of relationships to get the word out about the new venture. Even as the business grows, a healthy network will open doors for new opportunities.

Many will say that the network should be large, but I recommend quality over quantity. Having relationships with a select number of influential professional and/or personal contacts who will advocate for you and recommend or refer you to potentially good opportunities, as I see it, is much more effective than an extensive network that’s filled with people who cannot or will not make a phone call on your behalf or anything else to further your cause.

Apply this principle to your search for a partner. On your qualifications list should be the quality, or if you prefer the quantity, of his/her network. A partnership should give you/the business instant access to new, beneficial relationships . Between your network and theirs, you should notice an instant increase in revenue potential.

5. Problem-solving skills

As you know, running a business is all about recognizing, solving and, ideally, avoiding problems. That points to the need to find a resourceful and responsible person who has enough business operating experience to have become a skilled problem-solver. As you interview candidates, ask each one to describe a couple of business problems that s/he has faced and how (or if!) the issue was resolved.

It is very instructive to grasp how a partner is likely to respond when there’s a problem to confront. Did your candidate ignore the problem, hoping that over time the issue would resolve on its own, or did s/he quickly jump in to fix things, perhaps before understanding the root cause and whether an effective response could be made by your team, or if it would be wiser to rally the support of fellow business owners?

Depending on the situation, either response could be appropriate. Getting a sense of the Emotional Intelligence, judgment and strategic thinking style of a prospective partner will give you a strong indication of that person’s suitability to become a good partner for you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Diane Arbus, ©The Estate of Diane Arbus LLC. Cathleen and Colleen Wade at age seven (Roselle, NJ 1967)

Lemons into Lemonade: When the Prospect Says No

Unless you’re selling iPhones and iPads or another hot product, you know that sales is a tough business (I speak from lived experience). It’s a fact that prospects usually decline to buy. According to 2024 data compiled by researchers at Hubspot, the inbound marketing company based in Cambridge, MA, the average B2B sale has a success rate of 29%. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics

Selling is a complex and intimate form of communication, a skill that’s impacted by luck (good or bad), timing, money, relationships, serendipitous trends and the needs or wants of prospective customers. Is it possible to crack the 29% close rate? Maybe if you’re an especially gifted talker and luck is on your side. For the rest of us, though, a lost sale means trying to get past disappointment as you pick up the pieces and move on.

When you think about it, you may agree that the best outcome of a sales presentation is to get an honest answer from your prospect. The worse possible outcome is when the prospect ghosts you, gives you the silent treatment. According to research by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, co-founders of DCM Insights, a B2B sales training company, and co-authors of The Jolt Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision (2022), 40% – 60% of B2B sales are lost to no decision—ghosting by another name. Yes is always the favorite answer but even no feels better than being ghosted.

If selling is integral to your business, you’ll do well to focus on just getting an answer from your prospect, even if it’s not the one you hope for. In the competitive terrain of B2B sales, the pressure to extract yes from prospects can lead to frustration and stress. But those whose livelihood depends on successful sales—Freelancers, business owners and sales reps working for a company they don’t own—cannot continually chase down prospects, especially when it’s obvious they’ve slipped away. That’s a losing strategy, both time-wasting and corrosive to self-esteem.

There is a sliver of bright side, however, because when the prospect says no, it doesn’t always mean that you leave the scene empty-handed. The less experienced or confident salesperson will automatically assume that no means never. That could be true, but those who’ve been around the block a couple of times know that a prospect who declines to buy today might mean, “let’s talk at another time.” Those who sell should be aware that a third option can exist beyond the yes/ no paradigm.

The often neglected third option can lead prospects to revisit, reassess and sometimes redo a rejected sales decision. If you enable the process, you and your prospect together can access the third option and expand the meaning of a successful sale. It’s good sales strategy and respects the power you’ve earned as a professional who creates value.

So, when preparing for the next sales meeting, why not adjust expectations of potential outcomes and re-frame your definition of a “lost” sale? Like describing whether your glass is half-empty or half-full, allow yourself to reclassify no and redefine it as another type of opportunity—kind of like turning lemons into lemonade. Many prospective customers are not completely forthcoming when discussing a potential sale. As noted by Dixon and McKenna (above), roughly half of B2B sales are lost because no decision is made.

That all-too-common lapse should be the biggest motivation for those who sell for a living to ask probing questions when meeting with prospects. You need to tease out any unspoken agenda items and get the cards on the table. You set the stage for a candid discussion during sales meetings by showing that you care: listen well, take notes and repeat key phrases to confirm what needs to be resolved, achieved and/or avoided. Do that and you’ll earn trust and make it comfortable for the prospect to tell you what’s up, instead of ghosting you because s/he can’t figure out how to talk about things.

Yes, no, next steps

To encourage yes (and discourage a future no), make sure you and the prospect establish and agree on whatever next steps will continue the positive momentum of your conversation and facilitate ongoing engagement. In other words, do what you can to keep the prospect talking and keep alive the possibility of a sale, even if the timing will be later rather than sooner. Make the lemonade.

For best results, propose a specific time-frame for follow-up actions that lead to the next conversation. The follow-up will be an action plan that functions to promote the chances of converting the prospect into a yes in the future. Still, remember that your reassessment of a win should mean that you focus on getting a well-considered answer. If the answer is based on a thorough evaluation of your proposal by the prospect’s decision team, then call it a win, whether s/he says yes or no. Ghosting is what you want to avoid. Here are rewards you’ll get when you re-frame the meaning of successful selling:

• Yes: Always the favorite answer. Your talking points and proposal convinced the prospect.
• No: An unequivocal no does not always represent failure, as it tells you to move forward and pursue potentially more promising leads. The earlier in the sales process that no arrives the better it is for you. Then, you can redirect your time and energy on opportunities that may get you to yes.
• Next steps: This option is based on specific follow-up actions and a scheduled time to meet with your prospect. Next steps is a win because it confirms potential interest and outlines a roadmap to a possible “yes.” The key to next steps is a specific follow-up time-frame.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty images. Children Selling Lemonade, 1945

Your Business Needs Referrals

Whether your business is B2B or B2C, getting referrals is hands-down the best way to bring in new customers. When someone you’ve done business with recommends your company to their colleagues, friends, or family, your chance of getting the project or sale is greatly improved. Referrals demonstrate trust—they’re a big vote of confidence and one of the the greatest compliments your company can receive.

Most businesses receive referrals at least occasionally and for some, nearly all customers are referred, but the importance of referrals should not be underestimated. Savvy Freelancers and business owners are proactive and develop strategies to encourage a steady intake of referrals. The objective is to identify and motivate high-quality referrers and persuade them to recommend your products or services to those in their network who are in search of a solution your company provides.

Leverage your network

Keep in mind, BTW, that a degree of finesse is necessary when looking to stimulate referrals; you must be sensitive to the fact that referrals are earned and not an entitlement. That said, Freelancers and business owners who’ve been operating for maybe just a year or two will probably not be seen as pushy when reaching out to friends, family, or even former co-workers to let them know that referrals of prospective customers would be appreciated.

Those in your network surely know business owners, decision-makers and other professionals; some will be happy to make introductions that allow you to expand your network and, if possible, will also make a referral for you. Make it easy for those who know you best and are motivated to help you succeed by sharing basic facts about your business:

• Explain what you do using terms they will understand
• Create a professional looking website and LinkedIn profile
• Concisely and clearly describe projects you’re qualified for and interested in
• Give examples of the industries you typically work with, if that is a relevant factor (e.g., hospitality, defense industry, higher education, publishing) and the job titles of those who typically hire or interview you (e.g., CEO, Executive Director, Marketing Director, VP Human Resources)

Invite new relationships

Good referrals can also be made by people you’re not especially close with; meeting new colleagues at conferences and other professional settings can present opportunities to grow your network. When networking, do yourself (and everyone!) a favor and squelch the temptation to push your business card onto all you encounter as you “work the room.” Instead, show a genuine interest in those you meet, as demonstrated by asking questions and listening to those you chat with. Adopt a mind-set that includes generosity along with self-interest. Be willing to help others as you would like to be helped. Try these relationship-building tactics to expand your network and potentially generate referrals:

• Invite certain of your LinkedIn connections to in-person or virtual coffee dates to learn more about them and discuss how the two of you might help each other’s business.
• Explore local organizations related to your industry and/or the business community. Chambers of commerce are a good starting point. Attend business education programs, meet & greets, and/or virtual events and introduce yourself.
• If you listen to podcasts or webinars, start building a relationship with the host(s) by commenting or asking questions. If you especially enjoyed the program, invite the host(s) into your LinkedIn network. If a program attendee or guest stands out to you, get his/her name and introduce yourself in a private chat and propose follow-up.

Social media promotes referrals

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (Twitter) enable you to nurture relationships with both your new and long-lasting contacts and make it easy to occasionally say hello and also remind them that you’re on the lookout for referrals. Periodically revisit and update your social media profiles, to ensure that your online presence will inspire confidence when new connections check out your organization as they consider referring you to one of their contacts.

As noted above, pave the way for contacts to refer you by clarifying the work you do and the job titles of those with the authority to green light your projects. You might also provide samples of your work, when appropriate. Create profile-enhancing posts that have the potential to cultivate your standing as an expert and encourage referrals:

• Share industry news and thought leadership articles to establish yourself as an authority in your space
• Participate in discussions that relate to your work and industry
• Add customer testimonials or recommendations to your sites (and offer to make recommendations for others in return)

Exceed expectations

Referrals are 100 percent dependent on your ability to fulfill (or exceed) the expectations of customers. Whether your business occupies the B2B or B2C sector, you must ensure that the buyer’s journey, the quality and delivery of the products or services purchased and all touchpoints please the customers. Taken together, these elements comprise the customer experience; the customer’s perception of that experience determines whether referrals on your behalf will be made.

It is in the interest of business owners and Freelance consultants to both provide an exceptional end-to-end customer experience and also cultivate good relationships with customers. At stake are the potential for repeat business and referrals—important sources of revenue. You have ample motivation to keep lapsed customers on your mailing list, to give business updates when appropriate and to send December holiday cards to customers you’ve worked with (maybe within the past five years).

Remind customers that you welcome referrals

Once you have customers who are happy with your services or products, they may be willing to become a referral source when opportunities arise. Because they have direct experience working with you, they can speak with authority about the quality of work you produce and customer experience that you provide. Do you have a customer who’s told you they’re thrilled with the outcomes of a recent project? That’s the perfect time to ask for a referral!

• Ask customers to write a LinkedIn recommendation for you (and offer to return the favor).
• Ask customers to give you a written or verbal testimonial or participate in a case study that will appear on your website. Offer to include their company logo and website link, as a way to increase awareness of their company brand and provide a quality backlink for their company website
• Tell happy customers that you’re thrilled they’re pleased with your products or services. Let them know that you’re open to performing similar work and that you’d appreciate their referrals if they know of anyone with a need for the products or services you provide.

Make referrals for others

If you are aware of an upcoming project for which you are not a fit, or that current commitments prevent you from accepting, there may be someone in your network for whom that project would be ideal. That’s why forming relationships with other Freelancers and business owners and leaders is essential. When you refer a project or customer to a colleague, it reflects well on you—enhances your professional reputation and portrays you as a true professional. Furthermore, When you refer work to others, you’ll be at top of mind the next time a project comes along that you’d be a good fit for.

Avoid a mindset that’s based in scarcity, envy, or other negative feelings toward business colleagues, including direct competitors. It’s draining and does not insulate your entity from competition. Instead, be cordial and cooperative with business colleagues. Get to know what they specialize in and the types of customers they work with. Become the business owner who colleagues and contacts enjoy referring.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Natee Meepian

AI 2024: Freelancers and SMB Think Marketing

So much of operating a successful business centers on marketing. Generating revenue is about customers: bringing them in and keeping who you have, all the while doing what you can to outmaneuver competitors and work around business climate challenges. To slip through the obstacle course and achieve those objectives, you must think and execute strategically and that includes making use of resources available to you. Among the most powerful and most discussed resources can be found in the many groundbreaking technological developments that have so radically reshaped our lives over the past hundred years.

Some of these useful and exciting tools are capable of delivering significant advantages to your organization—quick access to relevant data, the analysis and interpretation of that data and automation of routine functions such as email marketing and social media posting among them—all can be yours with just a few taps on your keypad. Your task is to stay abreast of the fast pace of emerging technologies and recognize the tools that will give you operational efficiencies you need most at a price you can afford.

The tool that’s got everybody talking is, tah dah, Artificial Intelligence. Open AI/Microsoft (Chat GPT), Google AI, Nvidia AI and Amazon (AWS machine learning) are among the leaders in the race to dominate AI technology. It’s imperative to start your learning curve and figure out the right way to use AI in your business. Maybe you’ve already started and have a chat bot on your website? That’s a great tool to enhance customer service and there are more marketing functions that AI can successfully support.

More than a trend

AI’s gift to marketing rests on its data-driven insights that help you personalize the customer experiences your company provides. Freelancers and small business owners are able to affordably access AI generated data that is actionable, meaning you can convert whatever insights you’ve gleaned into marketing strategies that can be expected to move the needle and set your organization apart in a highly competitive marketplace.

Personalization builds relationships

Marketing thought leaders have already pointed out that the future of effective marketing is personalization. Creating a memorably satisfying customer experience has replaced the hard sell. Now, the task is to lead customers to develop a connection with your business and give them reasons to continue doing business with you. Promoting connection through the inclusion of personalized marketing tactics is how to build relationships now, as you discourage churn and encourage repeat business.

New technologies, AI and otherwise, enable you to precisely personalize your company’s marketing strategies and tactics. The data that AI et al. delivers enables you to deepen your understanding of the customer persona by amassing demographic info that, among other insights, gives you actionable data about their buying habits and preferred experiences that you can use to make them feel valued. You can use recently developed technological tools, including AI, to create a more trusting and mutually beneficial relationship between your company and customers that ultimately leads them to give your marketing content more responses and followers that result in more sales, donations and growth for your organization.

Personalize and optimize AI prompts to personalize and optimize marketing content

The good news about AI technology is that it enables users to create both text and visual content. The downside, if you want to call it that, is you must “tell” your AI tool the result you want; to make it happen, you must learn to write instructions known as prompts. AI prompts can be divided into two categories: text prompting and image prompting. The prompt is how users communicate with the chosen AI tool—think key words and long-tail phrases. With prompts, you “tell” the AI what you want and how you want it to be done. You must describe what you want to see as a result.  

In text prompting, you’re “talking” to a natural language processor like ChatGPT. If your prompt is a general query, e.g., “how do you bake bread?”, you’ll be given a generic answer. But if your prompt is a more specific query or statement, e.g., “explain in simple terms how to bake whole wheat bread”, then you’ll likely end up with an acceptable recipe. When your goal is to create an image, you’ll use image prompting words to describe that image. The AI image generator is a text-to-image tool that was designed to make it easier for digital marketers and content creators to create images online. The text-to-image models you’ll use will include DALL-E2, Google’s Deep Dream Generator, Jasper.ai, or Stable Diffusion.

Incidentally, know that while AI tools are designed to process language, they have a different way of understanding than your average human. When using a natural language text prompting tool, you may receive outcomes that are incorrect or downright nonsensical, so it may take several tries, using different phrases to develop the prompt, to arrive at the outcome that you want. 

A cheat sheet of prompts written by someone else most likely will not produce optimal results. Your own words, perfected through a process of trial and error, in the end will breed success. Before you get started with AI prompts, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. There’s no magic prompt. The Internet is flooded with AI prompts, but it might take some trial and error before you figure out which type is most effective for your particular use case. 
2. Clarify your desired outcome. A good rule of thumb: the response will generally be as broad or specific as its prompt. In some cases, it might actually be preferable to skimp on the details—like if you’re brainstorming blog post topics and want more varied and diverse answers. Something more complex, like a sales playbook or chatbot script, will almost always require more details.
3. Garbage in, garbage out. The quality of the output depends entirely on the input. AI enables teams to move a lot faster, but it’s still important to take the time to flesh out your prompts. Otherwise, you could find yourself drowning in responses that are unclear, inaccurate, irrelevant or just wildly off-base.  

Marketing copy text prompts

Ramp up your creativity with prompts like “craft a brief, captivating story of a summer trip” or “compose a social post introducing a new skincare product for winters.” The suggestions that you get for these prompts can inspire imaginative content. Another strategy is to tailor your content based on audience preferences — from short-form copy to artwork, music and videos. This can help generate more tailored, engaging content for social media posts or emails. 

Informational text prompts

Hone in on the most relevant metrics and other info that’s buried in big data by using prompts like “provide a brief overview of Adidas’ top-performing footwear collection.” This is perfect for informed decision-making and finding out what’s still trending. 

Reasoning text prompts  

These prompts go beyond facts. They help AI provide thoughtful conclusions about a subject, adding depth and insight to your content. This includes prompts like “what is the impact of sustainable practices on corporate profitability?” Such lines of questioning can go a long way in helping you with industry knowledge and competitive analysis questions. 

List text prompts

Compile lists effortlessly by using prompts like “create a list of engaging podcast topics in the realm of artificial intelligence.” They’re ideal for generating concise, bulleted options, be it for email subject lines or blog titles. These prompts help structure your thoughts in a more systematic way. 

Instructional text prompts  

Guide your content creation with prompts like “detail the process of setting up a home automation system from scratch.” Utilize them to provide step-by-step guidance, which is incredibly useful for creating how-to guides or informative content. 

Interactive text prompts  

Interactive prompts initiate conversations. This includes prompts like “imagine you’re a travel guide giving recommendations for a solo trip to an exotic destination.” They create engaging scenarios, which are ideal for training sessions or interactive content. 

Keyword text prompts  

Keyword prompts pinpoint words or phrases. They are used for tasks like drawing insights from data or aiding in image and video creation. Take the example of this prompt: “Generate creative ideas for nutritious meal options that are easy to prepare at home. Focus on incorporating fresh ingredients and simple cooking techniques.” This keyword prompt guides the AI by specifying terms like “nutritious,” “easy-to-make,” “fresh ingredients” and “simple cooking techniques,” providing a clear direction for content generation related to healthy and easy-to-make meals. 

Image prompts

Use a phrase to describe what you’re looking for. A few specific details about the object or character, including a description of the character or object that will be in the foreground or background and the setting you’d like to see in your preferred image design.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

 

 

Trending: Traditional Media Outlets

Freelancers and all business owners and leaders are well aware that promoting and enhancing their entity’s products, services and the company brand is a prime and ongoing responsibility. To accomplish that important objective, you’re always on the lookout for marketing opportunities and channels that are a good fit for your brand and also allow you to effectively broadcast your marketing message and/or brand story. As you consider which marketing channels are most appropriate, it would be no surprise that in addition to your company’s website social media, whose active users number in the billions, likely take precedence in your hierarchy of preferred marketing options.

But think for a minute. Facebook et al. do not completely dominate all influential marketing channels; your hometown newspapers and magazines still wield influence in the communities where you operate. Although their number and reach have probably diminished over the years and have never attained audience numbers that rival social media, you may nevertheless find it beneficial to periodically reach out to certain local media to share a newsworthy update about you and your business. Local media outlets and the stories they feature continue to get noticed and command respect. Their readers and listeners could easily include your customers and prospects. Getting yourself and your company featured (positively!) in traditional media outlets, however modest the audience reach, is a marketing win. Consider outreach to local media as part of your personalized marketing strategy.

Getting started

The various social media platforms, as you know, have made it possible for nearly anyone to build an audience if the topic is attractive to readers or viewers and they’re willing to create and post content. There’s no need for today’s aspiring Influencers to work toward a degree in journalism or media communications as a steppingstone to earning credibility and acceptance as a thought leader or style setter.

In stark contrast, traditional media outlets—print, radio, television—have gatekeepers, that is, publishers, editors, or reporters, who control all content that is featured. So, just because you call yourself an expert in your professional field, it will take some convincing to persuade the gatekeepers to quote or feature you in their publication, especially if you lack examples of previous media coverage to validate the expert status you claim. However, if you create an effective pitch in your press release https://freelancetheconsultantsdiary.wordpress.com/2020/02/25/press-release-to-send-or-not-to-send/ that concisely and enticingly explains how your topic (story) is relevant to the outlet’s audience and describe your professional experience and educational background in language that supports your position as an expert on the subject, you could receive a positive response to your media outreach and be on your way to being quoted as an expert source, if not a spotlighted subject of a feature article.

Build your media list

Before you can send a press release, you’ll need a current list of media contacts. Sending a well-crafted pitch that’s tailored to a small but select group of gatekeepers who may be interested in your story and have the power to green light it will always yield better results than sending a pitch to every email address you can find.

Begin building your media list with a visit to the mastheads or websites of media outlets you feel will be appropriate for your story; in many cases, the name and contact info of the editor who manages your story’s category, and/or reporters who cover your topic, will be listed there. You might also search back issues of your preferred publications to find and skim articles by reporters who cover topics relevant to your story and/or your business.

If there is insufficient info listed on the outlet’s website or masthead, search for reporters on X (Twitter), Facebook, or LinkedIn. You can direct message on those platforms, but it may be better to make your media pitch via email; it can be more effective to first telephone the reporter or editor and verify potential interest in your story before blindly sending a press release. Initiating a conversation with an editor or reporter is a better way to build a relationship. Be sure to mention that you’ve read one or two of that reporter’s articles if you get him/her on the phone.

Eye-catching subject line

Regardless of how you make initial contact, if you receive an invitation to provide some details in writing, the quality of your email subject line is the starting point of your media pitch. Whether you DM or chat on the phone, the email subject line will be the first (official) info the reporter or editor sees and even if interest in your story was expressed while on the phone, a riveting subject line will remind the journalist of your story’s relevance. Your subject line may determine whether or not your email gets opened. The viability of your story is at stake.

Devise an eye-catching subject line that contains maximum seven to nine words, if possible. Incorporating relevant current events, using an unexpected statistic or statement, or promising a unique solution to a common problem have been known to capture a journalist’s attention.

Surprisingly, it may be easier to create a good subject line after you’ve written the body of your pitch email. Reversing the usual custom will allow you to see your entire message and the big picture perspective may lead you to create a more powerful subject line. Finally, create a draft version of your pitch and open it on your mobile devices, to confirm that your subject line will always display fully.

An intriguing intro

Because you more than likely have had no previous contact with the journalist, there is no need for friendly overtures. Politely get down to business. If your subject line has held your journalist’s attention, you have just a second or two to keep that attention and a compelling intro is how you do it. You might repeat your subject line and add two or three additional sentences or bullet points to strengthen your case. The examples below may be helpful:

• The Chief Information Officer at workwear manufacturer Carhartt reported that the company currently utilizes 121 software-as-a-service subscriptions, up from 59 subscriptions five years ago. The number of SaaS subscriptions now exceeds the number of IT employees at the company. “We don’t have enough resources to manage the administrative aspects of the platforms,” says company Chief Information Officer Katrina Agusti.
• In response to a suit brought by the National Small Business Association against the Treasury Department, the U.S. Federal District Court for the District of Alabama ruled on March 1, 2024 that the Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional. More than 32 million U.S. business entities are estimated to be affected by CTA and were required to comply and submit company documentation. While it is likely that litigation will continue to play out in the federal court system, the initial victory has gone to small business and that means compliance with this now unconstitutional regulatory regime can be set aside for the time being.

Identify the problem and its impact on their audience

If the journalist is still reading at this point, congratulations, you’ve captured his/her interest in what you have to say, so it’s up to you to keep them interested with the pitch itself. Most stories in the media are based on some type of conflict—a problem that affects their audience in some significant way.

Succinctly describe the event or challenge and concisely explain how it impacts the media outlet’s audience. Avoid using technical jargon unless you’re pitching to an industry publication and you’re in the field. Your pitch will resonate with the journalist only if s/he feels it will resonate with the audience, so keep readers and/or viewers in mind as you craft your pitch. Keep it simple and clear, expressed in a few brief sentences or better yet, a few bullet points. Statistics and quantifiable data are especially powerful.

What makes you an expert

Compose a simple one or two sentence statement that establishes your expertise and authority to understand and address the topic, for example CPA, CFA, MD, or PhD. Trust and credibility are important to your clients and prospects and also important to journalists and editors. Even if the media outlets you approach are small and local, they must be confident that anyone interviewed is reputable and knowledgeable.

• (you) are a serial entrepreneur turned investor in start-ups launched by retired professionals
• (you) own the largest bridal shop in your state and have operated the business for 30 years
• (you) are a Freelance cybersecurity expert who’s received extensive training in private industry and at government agencies including the U.S. Air Force

What makes you and your story of special interest?

Arbiters of the media are perpetually in search of what will stand out and grab the attention of their audience. Audiences are sometimes interested in what they feel is “better”, but they more often give their attention to what is different. Keep that truism in mind as you create your media pitch because you must possess one or more attributes that make you stand out and capture the interest of a media gatekeeper. Otherwise, journalists will just cite the already well-recognized experts instead of you. You may have a unique perspective on, or solution for, a particular challenge but what is it about you that gives you a special authority to present yourself as a thought leader or expert?

Sell you story by highlighting how you do things differently and why your approach is better for their audience. If you and your 11-year-old daughter have figured out how to sell 5,000 boxes a week of Girl Scout cookies, by all means send a press release to your local newspaper!

Close with a call-to-action

A well-worded call-to-action will serve as a bridge or a well-lit path that encourages the recipient of your media pitch to take action and contact you to learn more about you and your story. For that reason, it is in your interest to conclude your media pitch email by telling its recipient what you’d like him/her to do next—contact you by phone or email as soon as possible to discuss how your quote or story might be featured in his/her media outlet.

A polite, yet unambiguous call-to-action works best. A statement as simple as, “If this sounds like a story you may be interested in covering, please email or contact me directly at (your preferred phone number and email address). It’s been said that failing to request follow-up action on a press release decreases the likelihood of the story being featured.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Photo by Marion S. Trikosko (public domain). White House correspondent Helen Thomas (R) with President Gerald Ford and White House Chief of Staff Dick Cheney (far left) during a 1976 White House press conference.

Differentiate and Dominate

Here’s a question—what’s the recipe for a secret sauce that will persuade a prospect to become your next client? How wonderful it would be if you could walk into your pantry and pull those ingredients off the shelf. Lived experience tells me that the X-factor of the secret sauce is the client’s gut feeling of your ability to do the job. The interview questions, info in your resume and bio, the references submitted on your behalf by colleagues you’ve worked with have but one purpose and that is, to convince decision-makers you are uniquely qualified to seamlessly produce the project deliverables needed.

That may not seem like a steep hill to climb but in our increasingly competitive marketplace, search committees regularly meet with candidates who appear to be highly capable and able to produce the deliverables. Some may even seem as if they’d also be a joy to work with. The good fortune of being presented with a group of extraordinary candidates ought to make a search committee’s job easier but oftentimes, the abundance of talent only complicates matters. When everyone looks like a winner, how does the committee recognize who deserves the blue-ribbon?

That this is a problem may not be immediately obvious because risk is always inherent in independent employment. Still, the Freelancers and other business owners among you may have become uncomfortably aware of the need to be more resourceful, resilient and agile than seemed necessary just a few years ago. Could it be that while many candidates are impressive, they are for some reason seen by prospects as a commodity and more or less interchangeable?

The topic has captured the attention of researchers at top consulting companies, including Accenture https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/song/accenture-life-trends . Differentiation emerged as a viable strategy to distinguish you and your company from competitors and help increasingly jaded search committees to see you as an expert who, if nothing else, can be trusted to make them look good by hiring you. So your task is to find a niche expertise that fits your brand, is adjacent to your current offerings and that prospects value enough to pay for.

The right niche expertise can make you stand out from competitors and sidestep the dreaded commodity label. If you choose well, your niche expertise will generate enough billable hours to enable you to become a big fish in a small yet lucrative pond. So, the next question is, how can you differentiate your skill set to become more valuable and positioned to dominate a money-making niche market and simultaneously remain true to your brand identity?

Know the customer, know the brand

As always, comprehensive knowledge of your target customers and deep understanding of your brand and its impact on customers will make you feel confident enough to:

• Recognize a market-worthy expertise that both fits your brand and will persuade prospects to pay you to provide
• Create and carry out the strategies that entering the niche market entails

Whatever you choose, you’ll be most successful by making a data-driven decision that is based on relevant metrics. Most of all, you must verify that the niche you’d like to enter is capable of grabbing the attention of prospects, making you seem like a more worthy and exceptional candidate and also has the ability to let you generate sufficient revenue to make it worth the work it takes to enter that market.

Also, be sure to research the need for professional experience and/or educational credentials that will allow you to be seen as a credible and trustworthy expert in your new field. Make a plan to acquire whatever certification is needed. Moreover, if there are upcoming conferences or other programs that pertain to your niche expertise, plan to attend and network with colleagues and prospects (if in attendance).

Finally, update your website, social media platforms, business card, inbound and outbound marketing strategies and tactics to announce and support the introduction of your niche expertise to current and prospective buyers and other stakeholders and begin to build trust in what may be perceived as a new competency for you. Competitive intel as regards key words and messaging should be helpful.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Living Color Garden Center Fort Lauderdale FL

The Case for Face2Face

Whether the topic is business or personal, most studies show that between 60 % – 90 % of communication is nonverbal and furthermore, nonverbal communication techniques, for example, tone of voice and physical distance between yourself and the person with whom you are speaking, are intuitively used by all humans. Moreover, within the first few minutes of meeting and speaking with someone, we begin to make decisions about what the other person’s intentions are and figure out if that person is trustworthy and safe to do business or socialize with.

Those study findings throw cold water on the 318.66 million U.S. citizens who in 2023, according to the German data research firm Statista, used the internet to send email and SMS (text) messages, follow social media and join videoconferences to communicate with colleagues, family and friends. Electronic communication platforms are quite convenient but numerous reliable studies show that nonverbal communication signals are challenged to cross the digital divide, causing unspoken but nevertheless relevant nuance to slip through the cracks.

Can any of us know how much of a story may have been lost when told through a digital method? If that’s not enough of a lapse, is a digitally transmitted story more vulnerable to misinterpretation? Nonverbal communication—facial expressions, posture, physical gestures and tone of voice, for example—is a vital component of human communication that can signal how you really feel, despite what you put into words. An awareness and ability to recognize and read the nonverbal communication signals transmitted to you and by you will greatly enhance your communication skills and relationships. In conversations both casual and critical, you want to understand the impact of verbal and nonverbal messages, what you send and what you receive. In their 1972 book Effective Business Communication, Herta A. Murphy, Herbert W. Hildebrandt and Jane P. Thomas noted, “Sometimes nonverbal messages contradict the verbal; often they express true feelings more accurately than the spoken or written language”.

There are three principal elements of nonverbal communication: facial expressions, body language and overall appearance. When speaking with someone it’s important that you are alert to his/her nonverbal gestures, because the story is being told on more than just the verbal channel. In fact, people are more likely to engage you in future conversations and consider having a social or business relationship with you when you recognize and act upon their nonverbal cues. Below are 12 nonverbal communication signals that you may observe, decode and respond to in your next conversation.

Cheerful face and voice

1. With appropriately displayed smiles and nods, you’ll communicate to your conversation counterpart that you are listening to his/her opinions and that you understand and agree with his/her story. Communication experts unanimously agree that listening is the most important communication skill; everyone wants to be heard.

2. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Charles Duhigg, author of Supercommunicators: The Power of Conversation and the Hidden Language of Connection (February 2024), notes that talking and laughing together is a bonding experience that contributes to relationship-building. Laughing with (but not at) someone promotes a happy mood and is another way to signal that you’re listening to the story.

3. Maintain good eye contact by looking your conversation counterpart(s) in the eye as the two of you talk to, again, display your interest in their story. However, you must periodically pull back the eye contact by taking brief breaks, perhaps to contemplate your next answer, for example. You don’t want your eye contact to be perceived as staring (that is, aggressive).

4. Regulate your voice so that you speak in a pleasant and confident tone that is authoritative yet not intimidating and matches the purpose and topic of the conversation. Speak clearly, enunciate well and pace your speech so that it’s neither too fast nor too slow for the occasion. Avoid raising the pitch of your voice as you end a sentence, as if you are asking a question rather than making a statement.

5. Mirror the other person’s facial expressions to demonstrate that you agree with and like the other person. Mirroring validates the opinions, wants and needs of the person you’re speaking with.

Body talk

6. Align your posture by gently lifting your chest, lifting up from your lower back and straightening your spine. Then, pull your shoulders back but keep them relaxed, so that you don’t look (and feel) tense. Activate your core muscles to support your midsection and comfortably maintain posture. In other words, don’t slouch; instead, communicate that you are cognitively present and ready to communicate and connect.

7. Place your legs hip distance apart when sitting or standing. When sitting, cross your ankles, rather than your legs, to demonstrate that you are relaxed and listening.

8. Leaning in gently is yet another body language gesture that indicates you are listening. As noted above, listening is the most powerful confirmation that signals to the other person that you hear and respect him/her.

9. Mirror the body language that you observe in your counterpart, to signal that you relate to him/her and that you agree with his/her point of view. Smile when s/he smiles; become serious when his/her facial expressions and vocal tone reflects that emotion. You want to communicate that you are on the same wavelength and understand his/her opinion or purpose.

Arms and hands

10. When, for example, the conversation takes place with participants standing—maybe you’re attending an industry expo or maybe you’re at a party—keep arms relaxed at your sides as the other person speaks, to show that you are listening and open to hearing what s/he has to say. It’s often best to keep your arms uncrossed, so that you don’t appear confrontational or intimidating.

Whether sitting or standing, use your hands to gesture while you speak, to enhance your credibility and confirm your engagement with the listener and topic. There is also evidence that using hand gestures while speaking improves your thinking processes. However, take care that hand and arm movements are not overly expansive and distracting.

11. Greet others with a firm handshake–but not too firm. A firm handshake is one of the most important body language moves, because it sets the tone for the entire conversation. Who wants to shake hands and have a conversation with a wet noodle?

12. Be aware and respectful of different cultural greeting and departure practices prior to your meeting. For example, when you greet the person with whom you’ll speak, will you shake hands, bow, or air kiss both cheeks? End the meeting with a firm handshake (or bow, or air kiss on alternate cheeks) and eye contact, to signal that you enjoyed your time and hope to meet again.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Erik Arazas. Meeting and greeting with a traditional handshake and nose kiss at the Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi during Eid Al Fitr 2012, the festival that celebrates the conclusion of the month-long observance of Ramadan (Ramadan 2024 begins March 10, Eid Al Fitr 2024 is April 9).

Brand Building: Deliver the Promise

Can we agree that data driven decisions produce the most favorable outcomes? The mega database of customer info compiled by the World Advertising Research Centre of New York City, USA and London, UK has since 1985 provided powerful information to business leaders and enabled them to develop marketing strategies and campaigns that attract the attention prospective customers and persuade them to try a product or service or persuade existing customers to become frequent users, meaning repeat customers, of a product or service. WARC data points to a product’s brand promise as the definitive ingredient of successful marketing and brand-building campaigns. The right brand promise, one that target customers perceive as memorable, valuable and deliverable, has the power to influence the purchasing behavior of your target customers and convert them to buyers. WARC data also indicates that a well-crafted brand promise not only translates into purchases and sales revenue, but also provides a blueprint that can be used to devise successful marketing strategies and campaigns.

In other words, the key to successful brand-building is a clear and specific brand promise that target customers feel can be fulfilled. Such a brand promise has been shown to result in marketing campaigns that positively impact sales revenue and also help to shape effective marketing strategies and campaigns.

Commit to the brand promise

WARC research shows that brand promises that target customers trust and believe will be delivered result in sales of the product or service. Roger L. Martin, a former dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (Canada) and author of A New Way to Think (2022); Jann Martin Schwartz, founder and Senior Global Director at the LinkedIn B2B Institute and Mimi Turner, head of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America operations at the LinkedIn B2B Institute teamed up to more closely examine the question of effective marketing—how can business owners and leaders make it happen?

Martin, Turner and Schwartz sought to understand the active ingredients, if you will, of a marketing campaign—what makes it successful? The team recognized the potential appeal of the brand promise and they began by classifying WARC marketing campaign data according to whether or not a verifiable brand promise was made to customers. They found that of 2,021 campaigns analyzed, 40% (808) included an obvious brand promise and 60% (1,213) did not.

The first noteworthy finding of their research was campaigns that included a verified brand promise were more persuasive than campaigns with no brand promise in nearly every instance. In measures of brand perception, brand preference and purchase intent, 56% of campaigns offering a brand promise reported improvement. Market penetration increased in 45% of brand promise campaigns and market share increased in 27% of brand promise campaigns. The only metric in which a brand promise did not triumph was in generating social media buzz, where 55% of successful marketing campaigns omitted a brand promise.

Anatomy of a brand promise

As noted above, Turner, Schwartz and Martin started out by confirming the presence of a brand promise the the marketing campaigns; next, they categorized the type of brand promise made in campaigns where one was present. Most (89%) brand promises fit their definition of one or more of the following categories:

• Emotional.

The researchers were surprised that a feel-good brand promise was the most popular category, with 35% assigned to this type. An emotional brand promise communicates the good feelings that will be experienced by customers who buy and use the product or service. A highly successful example of an emotional brand promise is the famous De Beers “A diamond is forever” marketing campaign brand promise that since 1947 has promised that the endurance of a diamond confirms the permanency and satisfaction of the marriage.

• Functional

In 32% of the research sample, the brand promise stressed the reliability and functionality of the product or service. The FedEx “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight” campaign brand promise of 1978 was so powerful that it resulted in the creation of a new verb—to FedEx. The campaign’s brand promise can also be said to convey an emotional brand promise as well: customers don’t have to worry, because it’s FedEx.

• Enjoyable to buy

Some companies (22%) took the unusual stance of portraying the enjoyment customers will experience as they shop for and buy a product or service. A good example an enjoyment-based brand promise is provided by the paint maker Sherwin-Williams; the company won the 2022 B2B Grand Prix at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for its campaign based on an artificial intelligence tool that allows customers to create and choose a paint color by using voice to describe it (“a turquoise like the sea in the Maldives,” for example). Designers and architects swooned and prospective customers were convinced.

After the research team categorized the types of brand promises companies tend to make, they examined factors that make a brand promise strongly appealing to customers. Again, three features dominated successful campaigns:

• Memorable

Surprisingly, making it known that a company is not the top seller in the marketplace can be highly persuasive. “We’re Avis and we try harder” was the slogan of the second-largest car rental company (after Hertz).  Within a year of its launch, Avis went from losing $3.2 million a year to earning $1.2 million a year. Advertising executives called the campaign the most brilliant of the 20th century.

• Valuable

Customers must want what the brand promise offers, especially when the promise is communicated and perceived as an upgrade from circumstances that are perceived as unsatisfactory or lackluster. Prospective customers must feel that the value is relevant.

Deliverable

A defining characteristic of a brand promise is that it represents a guarantee; the customer must be able to recognize that the brand promise can be fulfilled and the benefits from its fulfillment will meet expectations. For that reason, making a brand promise is a risk. The research team’s assumption was that brand promises made campaigns were generally fulfilled, based on the success of the marketing campaigns studied.

Brand promise becomes strategy

The insight that effective brand building is anchored in a promise to the customer can do more for a company than just help it invest wisely in marketing. The promise can serve as the guiding principle of the marketing strategy, able to inform all promotional activities. A well-crafted and communicated brand promise is your North Star; creating and executing a brand promise is, the foundation of a strategy. From that brand promise/ strategy, you can understand how the company will beat its competitors, the value that customers see in your products and services, understand how the company position itself in the marketplace.

Below, Martin, Schwartz and Turner leave you with a five-step template that your company can use—a go-to-market brand promise development guide that also functions as the foundation of your marketing strategy. Furthermore, the study provides guidance about resources the company should dedicate to the various aspects of brand building, including which information sheds the most light on customer preferences, how to ensure that the most highly preferred aspects of the brand promise are delivered and how to effectively and efficiently communicating your brand promise.

1. Step One is to understand customers well enough to know what constitutes memorability and value for them.

2. That understanding leads to Step Two, the development of a brand promise, expressed in a simple but compelling and memorable statement.

 3. In Step Three, your company publicly commits to the brand promise by launching the marketing campaign.

4. In Step Four, your company must communicate the brand promise to the target audience: If it isn’t received by way of the right channels, it can’t be effective.

5. Finally, in Step Five your company must fulfill the brand promise, or the promise will be largely worthless.

This cycle provides guidance about the resources the company must dedicate to the various aspects of brand building. How much should it dedicate to understanding customers? How much to designing and issuing a brand promise? How much to broadcasting and communicating it? And how much to ensuring that the key aspects of the brand promise are delivered? As the company repeats the cycle, it learns more about its strategic challenges and how to account for customer and competitor shifts.

The ultimate goal of a marketing campaign should be to go through the brand promise cycle often enough that your customers stop wondering whether you’ll make good on your promises. Once they assume that you will, they purchase out of habit rather than choice.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Photographed by James D. Love April 2021. William Hunn’s proposal to Brittney Miller included a helicopter ride over their home city of Atlanta, GA and Ms. Miller choosing one of the five engagement rings presented to her when she accepted his offer of marriage.

Managing Your Digital Image

Because the internet plays such a dominant role in life, it’s crucial that you take steps to ensure what’s posted about you is both accurate and positive. Information that appears online and is associated with you—your published content and information that identifies you—is collectively known as your digital identity. This information functions as a virtual introduction to you and tells your online story. Your digital identity is the foundation of your digital image and intended to be an asset. Because what appears online is basically immortal, it’s imperative that your digital image, defined by the published content and other information attached to you and your business entity, is presented in a flattering, trust and confidence-building manner.

It is assumed that prospective clients or employers will search your name and business online before making any meaningful contact to discuss your products or services, so it makes sense to periodically monitor and curate your digital identity to ensure that information is current and represents you well. Your primary objective when editing your info is to corroborate your digital narrative and the talking points you commonly share when meeting with prospective clients or employers. The core function of your digital image and the narrative it communicates is to confirm your credibility and build trust.

According to “Assessing Web3’s Building Blocks,” an article recently published by financial services giant J.P. Morgan that explores digital identity, four factors contribute to the digital identity (listed below). It is incumbent upon you to proactively examine the information included in your digital identity so that your online image and narrative will support your professional experience, education, achievements and, by extension, your personal and business brand.

In addition to ensuring that information is accurate, decide how you want prospects to see you. Remove text and images that don’t reflect your goals or brand. If a friend has posted a not-so-flattering image on a social media site and tagged you, ask him/her to kindly delete it.

1. Identifiers: Your name, email, addresses and social media handles.
2. Identity Attributes: Information about you, including educational degrees and employment history.
3. Reputation: Your online persona, contributions, affiliations and followings.
4. Digital Collectibles & Assets: Anything you own in digital form, commonly non-fungible tokens.

Always professional

Be mindful to consistently adhere to professional standards whenever communicating electronically, ever aware that text and images posted can remain forever, whether intended for public consumption or personal texts and emails. Be vigilant and safeguard your reputation; avoid committing to writing your uncensored thoughts about potentially sensitive political or religious topics. It may, as well, be wise to avoid expressing your positions on current events. You don’t want to worry about being compromised by a leak and ending up being canceled and in need of expensive and rarely completely effective crisis or reputation management services.

Social media listening and digital presence

It’s important to know what appears in an online search of yourself and it’s a smart idea to periodically consult the major search engines—Google, Bing, AOL, Yahoo and also Yelp, Yellow Pages, or other industry-specific ranking sites that would apply to your entity—and search your name and your business entity to examine the results and assess the quality and reach of your digital presence. To avoid or correct misinformation, take control by claiming and updating an existing listing and, if you like, create a listing for your entity if none appears. Furthermore, make it a practice to regularly conduct a social media audit on yourself, so you can remove problematic content before prospects and competitors see it.

You may also be well-served by investing in a social media listening campaign, a marketing strategy that refers to researching whether positive or negative conversations regarding you, your entity, products and/or services currently appear in social media and other online platforms. Social media listening monitors online channels to detect mentions of your brand, competitive brands and related keywords.

The use of (paid) social media listening tools enables you to gain an accurate understanding of how customers and prospects feel about your products, services and company by discovering what they say on social media channels. Through social listening, you can track all mentions of your brand on social media in real-time and get not only valuable insights into how customers feel about your products or services, but also verify what their pain points are and learn what they’d like to see from you in the future. Social media listening is also an excellent source of competitive intel, as it can monitor competitive brands, trending content and sentiment analysis on topics related to your industry to obtain a comprehensive understanding of what customers and prospects think about your competition.

Social media listening has become a major marketing strategy at national and global brands. It was originally thought that marketers at smaller businesses would not benefit from the practice, mostly because the cost wouldn’t justify the ROI. Yet over the past few years, social media listening is now considered essential and an increasing number of mid-size and small business owners and marketers recognize its value. The biggest motivators are likely greater affordability offered by marketing companies and the explosive growth of online customer engagement fueled by the pandemic shutdown. social media listening data can be used to inform everything from marketing and product strategy to customer service and support, helping you make smarter, data-driven decisions that will have a positive impact on your business’s bottom line. To learn more about social media listening services click: https://www.webfx.com/blog/social-media/social-listening-tools/#:~:text=7%20best%20social%20listening%20tools%20in%202024%201,5.%20Mention%206%206.%20BuzzSumo%207%207.%20Keyhole.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©The Bettman Archive. Gloria Swanson (center) as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950). Co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, the film received three Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay/Story.

On Avoiding A Cash-Flow Crisis

On any given day, a Freelancer or small business owner might find him/herself in the suffocating grip of a possibly game-changing marketplace challenge. Anything from flood-producing rains to a wily competitor can cause customers to vanish and profit margins to shrink. It’s a nightmare scenario and, obviously, you must do whatever possible to avoid the problem. Stepping up your marketing with a clever campaign and catchy message, to nurture customer relationships and promote your brand, may be an effective response but be aware that money has a role that goes beyond the well known advantage of being a defense against disaster. 

An effective defensive strategy is about more than simply having enough money to outrun your problem. The key to handling money is to treat it as an asset and take steps to manage your cash by following its flow through your business. Do that by studying your sales revenues and accounts receivables, that is, money that flows into your business and also your accounts payable, meaning, the money spent on business expenses such as rent, utilities, payroll and inventory. 

The benefits of vigilant cash-flow management practices are not to be underestimated. According to 2023 data produced by Minneapolis, MN based U.S. Bank, poor cash management and insufficient cash-flow are implicated in 82% of business failures. Poor cash-flow shows its teeth in several ways, including:

• Cash-flow gaps A cash-flow gap is a frightening emergency that occurs when a business pays expenses, for example, inventory or supplies, but does not receive the expected inflow of money within a reasonable time-frame. A shortfall is a warning that the business needs more cash, in a hurry. Maybe you’re waiting for a customer or two to pay invoices? Consistently expanding cash-flow gaps undermine working capital that can leave your business strapped financially, potentially putting it in a dangerous position if not addressed.
• Managing seasonal revenue fluctuations  Seasonal businesses frequently face significant cash-flow challenges. A typical example is that of restaurants that operate in summer resort locations. During the peak season of Memorial Day (last week in May) through Labor Day (first week in September), these restaurants welcome an endless stream of customers, who pack the premises and overwhelm staff. Revenues are robust while the peak season lasts but in the off-season, greatly diminished revenues can trigger cash-flow gaps that cause the business struggle to maintain financial stability.
• Opportunities beyond reach Expecting the unexpected, being agile and ready to act, is among the most valuable leadership qualities of a business owner, whether it’s the owner of a neighborhood dry cleaner to the CEO of a multi-national conglomerate. A business needs to be in a strong financial position to take advantage of interesting opportunities as they arise, whether that’s buying out a competitor, opening a new location, or launching a new product—the ability to act quickly usually makes all the difference. Without sufficient available cash, your growth and expansion plans will be hobbled, causing you to miss the boat on potentially lucrative opportunities.

Loans and credit cards are not the only options

When looking to resolve a cash shortfall, many business owners think of contacting their bank to discuss options for a business loan or credit card. Your business banker is there to support you in many ways but finding a solution to your cash crunch might more logically begin with your bookkeeper or accountant. S/he may not warm to the idea of you taking on debt associated with a loan or an increased line of credit; s/he may be more inclined to recommend that you become more vigilant about your entity’s cash management and make a modest investment in a cash management software package instead.

The power of cash management: cash-flow and forecasting

The purpose of cash management is to ensure that your business is able to pay expenses (accounts payable). Cash-flow management tracks how much money enters the business bank account—e.g., through sales revenue, accounts receivable payments, interest from investments—and leaves the business bank account for accounts payable. Cash management procedures position your business to both monitor expenses (and minimize or eliminate unnecessary expenses), make prudent financial decisions and, hallelujah, create and maintain a healthy cash reserve that will insulate your business from the financial instability. You’ll get your financial house in order and attain the means to pursue business opportunities that can further enhance financial stability.

Cash management software works by shining a light on money problems so that you can take corrective action in a hurry. Cash management software enables the user (you and/or your bookkeeper) to quickly and accurately monitor, analyze and pinpoint cash-flow problems. So, persistently late payments of customer invoices that cripple business cash-flow will be brought to your attention and signal that steps to speed up accounts receivables should be taken. Other cash-flow optimization benefits will likewise be made clear from the data that emerges from your cash management software, including the ability to accurately determine the amount of cash needed to cover accounts payable obligations and create a reasonable forecast of your entity’s future financial health.

Good cash management software will also have cash-flow forecasting capabilities to help you manage cash in the future, by creating “what-if” scenarios that let you evaluate various potential outcomes simultaneously. You’ll also be able to calculate expenses and ensure there is enough incoming cash to pay up. The best cash-flow management software will also have cash-flow forecasting capabilities to help you manage cash in the future and make the future of your business entity bright. Click link to learn how you can get started. https://www.trustradius.com/cash-flow-management

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Mother Counting Money, by Johann Georg Mayer von Bremen (Germany, 1813-1886)

Building a Referral Partnership

Now that you’ve got your business up and running, beating the odds and experiencing some success—congratulations!— ambition may bring thoughts of growing your entity. It’s natural that you’ll want to realize the dream that drove you to launch a business. You’ll wonder how you might continue to grow your customer base and revenue and become a force in your marketplace.

You’re dreaming big but you’re also pragmatic; you’d prefer to attain growth without taking on onerous debt or committing to some other risky strategy. Your choice of strategies may be limited but there is at least one that, over time, has the potential to deliver the growth you’d like to see without putting a dent in your budget. Your ideal growth strategy could be a referral partnership.

A referral partnership is an agreement in which business entities refer customers to one another. A well-chosen and consistently executed referral partnership agreement can become an important element of a business growth strategy and enable the participating businesses to reach new markets and access new customers to whom they can introduce their respective brands as they book additional revenue. While the reciprocal benefits of referred customers is the foundation of the agreement, in some instances a bonus might be paid for referrals that result in a sale or billable hours. Negotiating an agreement that is considered advantageous to the parties is crucial to building a successful and sustainable referral partnership agreement.

The principal building block of a successful referral partnership is your list of potential partners whose customers can be reasonably expected to become your customers as well, as your own customers can likewise be recommended to your referral partner’s business as a potential customer. The viability of a referral partnership rests on what you and your partner can offer one another.

When you think of business colleagues, or even your customers, whose product and/or service line complements, but does not compete with, your offerings you can create a short list of potential candidates and discuss the possibility of creating a referral partnership. There are other factors to consider when selecting those you’d like to discuss a referral partnership, as you might expect, including identifying a potential partner who shares your values and whose customers can be expected to have the motivation to do business with you and vice versa.

Once you have selected a partner, it is important to develop a clear plan for how the referral partnership will work and expectations for its performance. It should also outline the roles and responsibilities of each party.

Building blocks of a sustainable referral partnership

• Trust

Trust is a core aspect of finding the right fit in a business partner, and evaluating trustworthiness often comes down to conversations, track record and intuition. This is why it’s essential to take the time to have those pivotal discussions around vision, values, professional and personal background. Sadly, the business relationship you went into with such high hopes and visions of the money the parties will make is closer to fantasy than reality. In fact, some 50 to 80% of partnerships fail in the first few years. Before you finalize a deal, build a strong foundation of mutual respect and trust with your referral partner to increase your chances of success.

• Similar values

To create a beneficial small business partnership, there needs to be common ground. For this reason, it’s important to ensure your prospective partner shares business goals and values that are aligned with yours. This goes beyond the desire to simply make a profit — it means confirming that you share similar core values that guide how you conduct business.

• Define roles and responsibilities

Although there’s no legal requirement for a written contract that details the terms of a referral partnership agreement, getting things on paper will help participants to establish accountability, avoid miscommunication and defuse the potential for conflict that might arise from an underwhelming outcome, for example. Your referral partnership document can summarize the expected duties that participants will undertake to promote, whenever appropriate, selected products and services of a referral partner. A written agreement demonstrates that each participant is satisfied with the terms, in particular the amount of work that must be done to generate viable referrals. The terms and conditions of your referral partnership agreement might reasonably include:

• Describe the responsibilities and expectations of participating companies (owners and staff)
• Define what constitutes a referral
• When referral bonuses (if applicable) will be paid and the amount paid per referral
• Length of the partnership
• Results that define success or failure
• Timeline for assessing initial results and for declaring the partnership a success or failure
• How the partnership can be terminated

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Everett Collection, photo by Conrad Hall (1970 Academy Award Best Cinematography) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) starred Robert Redford (L) as the Sundance Kid and Paul Newman as his partner in crime Butch Cassidy. The film was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards and won four Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

8 Hacks to Make 2024 Your Best Year!

At the top of the year many of you—working or retired, seniors or teens, traditionally employed or self-employed— will develop a list of goals you’d like to pursue and achieve over the next 12 months. You know that identifying a purpose that inspires, motivates and gives direction to your professional or personal life makes you feel confident and is a cornerstone of how you define success.

To get started on your annual plans, dedicate a block of time and use it to make an objective assessment of where you are now and where you’d like to be at this time next year. Commit to writing the rough draft of your emerging goals and begin to flesh out the proposed actions and time lines to carry them out, whether you scribble on the back of an envelope or record your ideas on a white board at a company meeting. You’ll find it useful to include monthly or quarterly milestones as a way to document your progress and perhaps make adjustments as you observe the impact of your action plans on the strategies you’ve developed.

Below are a list of hacks (the good kind!) that I hope will nudge you in the right direction and serve as a general road map for your 2024 annual plans.

1. 5:00 AM wake-up

In the cold, dark winter even those who love early morning can struggle to greet the day before sunrise but you’ll soon learn that the sacrifice will be quickly immediately rewarded with a noticeable spike in productivity that will encourage you to maintain the habit. Here’s the earlier riser secret—as the days gradually get longer and brighter throughout late February and early March, set your alarm to wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual. Every week or two, change the wake-up call to half an hour earlier until you’re waking up at 5:00 AM. Whether you prefer to start the day with a mug of hot tea and a review of email or with exercise, you’ll be off to the races and you’ll win every time.

2. Define your success

Goals help you focus your time and energy and it’s wise to spend adequate time determining the business results you’d like to achieve, followed by creating strategies, action plans and a timetable that serve as the engine to move your plans forward. It’s useful to revisit the previous year’s goals and objectives as you define what success could look like in 2024—you can perhaps build on previous successes or modify that which remains relevant but could benefit from a re-calibration. Your challenge will be to identify reasonable, ambitious, achievable goals for your company and to understand the purpose, impact and ROI of each goal. Finally, you’ll need objective measures for determining success and experts agree that SMART goals are still the best—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

3. Follow the money

To properly manage your business you must understand its financial metrics and heed what those metrics indicate. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand the numbers, but I’ve found that my best and most profitable clients know their numbers. They monitor sales revenue weekly or monthly; they analyze cash-flow reports weekly or monthly; they calculate costs associated with client acquisition; they determine profit margins for their products and/or services and price accordingly. Furthermore, those who operate a service business will calculate the hours devoted to billable and non-billable work that’s performed each week or month. It will also be a good time to reconfirm or reconfigure the metrics, i.e. the KPIs, that will most accurately reflect the performance of any new goals or other initiatives you’ll put into place this year.

4. Nurture client relationships

Clients are the lifeblood of your business and it is obvious that cultivating and nurturing client relationships is of utmost importance. Video meetings, telephone calls and emails are the easiest contact methods available and each has a place in a comprehensive client outreach strategy; however, the most impactful relationship-building activity is a face2face visit. There is nothing like the warm and friendly rush of a big smile and a handshake. You may have had innumerable phone conversations with a client or prospect, and a video call or two as well, but can you say you’ve met him/her until you’ve met and talked in real time? You may find that you develop deeper and longer-term relationships when you meet people face to face.

Online meetings absolutely serve a purpose, but humans (and animals) respond most intensely to physical contact. That psychological fact should give you the motivation needed to attend business and professional association meetings, drop into networking events, or simply invite a client or serious prospect to meet for lunch or coffee.

5. Skills development

Ensure that you have the wherewithal to evaluate and, where appropriate, utilize resources offered by emerging technologies and leadership practices that will benefit your business. You can pay to take professional development courses and/or attend conferences but if keeping costs low is a priority, you have other means to keep your skills current.

For starters, make it a ritual to peruse at least weekly the business section of your local newspaper, so that you’ll obtain information that pertains to your local marketplace. Read also at least one national business-themed publication to keep yourself apprised of national trends and happenings that might eventually impact how you do business or influence how your clients might respond to your products and services.

In addition, promise yourself to read at least two business books in 2024. Improve your understanding of financial management and how that knowledge can be applied to grow your business when you read Financial Intelligence (Karen Berman, Joe Knight & John Case, 2006) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/financial-intelligence-revised-edition-karen-berman/1110913346 . You’ll thank yourself for reading Good Charts: The Harvard Business Review Guide to Data Visualization (Scott Berinato, 2016) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/good-charts-scott-berinato/1122655992 when you learn how to design and present charts and graphs that enhance your next client meeting or speaking engagement. Last, here’s an international list of 25 top-rated consulting themed podcasts for your edification https://podcasts.feedspot.com/consulting_business_podcasts/.

6. Exercise

Numerous studies demonstrate that regular vigorous exercise contributes to a healthy body, greater energy and stamina and sharper cognitive skills. You might play a sport and make a date to play once or twice a week and visit the gym on other days. Or, you might swim, bike or run twice a week and lift weights once or twice each week. If the weather interferes with outdoor workouts, you can always find an online class. The point is to exercise regularly. Early morning workouts are an unbeatable way to wake up and get your energy and creativity flowing. Since you’ll wake up at 5:00 AM, why not start your workout of choice at 6:00 AM?

7. Embrace AI

Exploring how to most efficiently use Artificial Intelligence will probably dominate the technology strategy of most of you this year. You may get some insight from the marketing automation and bookkeeping/ accounting software that you use. Expect a continued rollout of AI tools that will save you time and help business productivity. You will be wise to devote a significant amount of time researching and staying up to speed on these very fast-moving developments. Keep an eye on Microsoft, they are in the lead.

8. Strategize growth with your accountant

Your accountant is uniquely qualified to counsel you on ways to promote the stability and profitability of your business entity. All you have to do is ask. Moreover, if you’re percolating an idea of making any major capital investments, or if you envision growth and expansion as goals you’d like to kick-off in the next 12-18 months, a face2face talk with your accountant is your first step. Make it a tradition to meet twice a year with your financial guiding light; May and September seem like good months for a money talk.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©️ Getty Images. Jennifer Capriati won the women’s singles title at Roland Garros/ French Open in 2001

Confronting the Competition—Do You Scrutinize Or Ignore?

Business owners and leaders expect that competition will be a factor in their marketplace. The most successful among them have learned to not fear competition but instead recognize the hide-in-plain-sight gift that competition reveals—we can make money here! In fact, experienced business owners can even rely on the presence of competitors to help them discover a potentially lucrative customer segment for their line of products and services. But the question remains—when confronting the competition, what course of action would a smart business owner be wise to follow? Does it make more sense to closely monitor the activities of key business rivals or is it smarter to be a contrarian and take scant notice of competitors’ activities?

No matter how you choose to look at it, you will look— competition demands your attention. Even declining to closely follow and respond to competitors is an action that requires both thought and decision-making. Some people say that competition will bring out either your best or your worse. Whether you go head-2-head with an ambitious competitor or avoid a showdown and decide to play to your strengths instead, competition will test your mettle. Information—your company’s Key Performance Indicators, the results of customer surveys, industry sales trends and even the appearance of a social media meme that somehow influences your marketplace—is your best ammunition but how you use that resource is your decision. Let’s look at both possible responses.

The benefits of monitoring the competition

• You may need to stay on top of things When you plan to carry out a mission-critical initiative—expanding into a niche market or launching a new product or service, for instance—then any key moves made by either direct or indirect competitors will be of keen interest to you. Your launch timetable may need to be adjusted, for example. When there’s a lot on the line, it is imperative that you closely follow all significant competitors, so that you’ll be apprised of any activity that might impact your strategy. Take steps to gather the intel that will allow you to respond decisively to an unexpected challenge.
• Identify key competitors Conduct enough research to determine your top four or five competitors. Visit their website and social media sites to learn how they communicate with customers and also to refine your thoughts about your organization’s ideal customer. You can also get insight into the depth of customer loyalty, the power of the customer experience they offer and the strength of their brand—all qualities that you may want to incorporate, or avoid, at your company. Keeping an eye on certain competitors can make doing business better for you.
• Learn from competitors’ mistakes Even if your product or service is poised to rock the marketplace, it’s a good idea to remain humble and prepare for what might go wrong. Business history is filled with examples of products that were expected to become The Next Big Thing and instead, they tanked. Allow yourself to learn from the failures and successes of others (check out competitors that have something in common with your own entity, rather than a multinational). It would be a useful exercise to discover the keywords that propelled them to the top of an internet search (Google Alerts is a great tool for keeping on top of this) and the content they post that attracts sizeable traffic and shares?

Don’t stress out over the competition

It’s often a given that a business owners and Freelancers will to some extent follow the activities of one or more direct and/or indirect competitors. It’s usually considered good business to be somewhat familiar with the solutions that your prospects may have used to resolve their challenges and achieve objectives. With that competitive info in mind, you can create realistic and more effective talking points that can win new customers.

Still, close monitoring of your competition can potentially become too much of a good thing; the strategy may at some point result in diminishing returns. It’s useful to cultivate a certain awareness of what leading competitors are doing and who their clients are but ultimately, the type of products and services you provide, your method of delivering those products and services and the customer service and experience that your company presents are the value that personifies your brand and attracts loyal customers. When your response to the competitive landscape guides you to have confidence in your company’s vision and mission and perfect the delivery of what your customers value, you’ll always be positioned to rule the day. Find inspiration in the pointers below.

• Optimize use of resources Obsessively researching and tracking competitors requires time and energy that may not produce a convincing return on investment. It is prudent to direct valuable (and often limited) resources to factors and events that you can control, rather than attempting to influence that which is beyond reach—that is, the behavior of your competitors. You may discover that adapting your products and/or services to better anticipate and meet the evolving preferences and priorities of your customers and prospects. As well, seek ways to improve your customer service protocols as you enhance your customer experience.
• Focus on customers not competitors The majority of your marketing focus should be on your target customer groups. Conduct demographic and purchasing history research to update your basic customer knowledge and use the intel to ensure that your marketing tells the story that resonates with customers and prospects because it addresses what they value, want (or will want) and what they’ll pay to have it. Moreover, researching your target customers inadvertently reveals a lot about competitors and what it takes to stay ahead of them.

Taking a balanced approach

As with so much that we do in life, finding the middle ground and achieving balance proves to be the most pragmatic and successful approach. When you remember what is most important you can then set your priorities, direct your resources and become more efficient and successful when managing your business.

• Your Brand Is Your Competitive Advantage Monitoring the competition should be the second priority behind promoting your brand and delivering what customers value. For service businesses, brand reputation and positive word-of-mouth are among the most powerful competitive advantages. That’s what drives referrals, good reviews and leads to more sales revenue. That’s what you want!
• Competitive Intel Analyzing competitor’s is the core of competitive intelligence. While 99 % of your business’s day-to-day should be delegated on your own core business development, monthly or quarterly competitive intelligence sessions might be allotted to investigating what your significant competitors are doing. It will be your choice to either respond in kind, or emphasize your corresponding strengths and attempt to prevail that way.
• Google Alerts You’ll cast a wide net and achieve operational efficiency in your competitive intel research when you automate the process and let the results come to you—and that means setting up Google Alerts as a component of your quest to monitor competitors. Set up by industry keywords, competitors’ names and business names or branded product or service and let Google serves up nearly all the info you’ll need. In the meantime, you can focus most of your time on nurturing and promoting your brand in ways drive home the core mission and positioning.
• Segment Your Time 80/20 One way to keep the time you spend on each of these essential business functions that teach you how to better regard both customers and competitors is to recognize that once again, The 80/20 Rule, formally known as the Pareto Principle and developed in 1896, will guide the division of your attention and resources. From a pragmatic perspective, it will make sense to spend 80 % of your time working on expanding your brand and enhancing other aspects of your business—operational, financial, marketing, tech—and 20 % of your time researching competitors. Developing goals and an action plan for competitive intel could be very useful and will encourage you to focus and streamline your research efforts.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Cary Chu Photography. Jousters at King Richards Faire in Carver, MA September 17. 2023

New Regulations Will Impact SMBs in 2024

As if figuring out how to make a decent profit in 2024 won’t be enough to tie your stomach in knots, the federal government has arranged for the New Year to bring a passel of new regulations for Freelancers and small business owners to grapple with. While it’s true that business and labor regulations are created to promote fair, ethical and legal conduct and working conditions, what it takes to comply can sometimes place a burden on Freelancers and small business owners, who may struggle with the required paperwork, the costs of implementation and, always, the threat of penalties for missing a deadline or failing to comply. But cheer up, my friend, because one of the new rules will give you a spoonful of sugar (thank goodness!). Here’s the who, what, when and why of it all, coming your way.

Corporate transparency

As of January 1, 2024, most small businesses will be required to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report with the federal government under the Corporate Transparency Act. The act is intended to increase transparency regarding business ownership and help law enforcement officials discourage the use of shell companies for money laundering, terrorism, fraud, or other illegal activities.

Under the CTA, new and existing businesses that meet the definition of a reporting company must file a BOI Report with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The report provides information about the identities of the beneficial owners of the business, that is, those who directly or indirectly exercise significant control over the business or own 25% or more of the business. Entities formed on or after January 1, 2024, must also provide “company applicant information” about individuals who file business formation or registration paperwork and will have until January 1, 2025 to file the initial beneficial ownership.

Unless your entity is exempt, all corporations, limited liability companies and other reporting companies must provide the Treasury Department (FinCEN) with info about the beneficial owners, meaning, a list of those who either own or control the company. New businesses are also required to provide info about who prepared and filed the business formation documents. Reporting companies could face civil and criminal penalties if they don’t file the report. While the CTA may seem as if it applies to big corporations, the rule primarily impacts small businesses, including LLCs and S Corps with just one or two owners.

Domestic reporting companies are corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and other business entities created by filing documents with the secretary of state or similar office, or with a Native American tribe. Foreign reporting companies are businesses formed in a foreign country that have registered to do business in any U.S. state or Native American tribe. A sole proprietorship or informal business partnership is not considered a reporting company and will not have any reporting requirements under the CTA. LLCs, corporations and limited partnerships must file beneficial owner information unless they fall within one of the 23 exemptions listed in the act. Most exemptions apply to larger companies and specific regulated industries, so small businesses and Freelancers who operate as a C Corp, S Corp, LLC, or limited partnership will likely need to file a BOI Report.

Small business loans

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Small Business Lending Rule would require affiliated financial institutions to collect and report data on small business loan applications, including applications from minority-owned and women-owned small businesses. The rule would also create the first comprehensive database of small business credit applications in the United States.

The goal is to create a database similar to what the mortgage industry has. Per the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975, banks collect data from residential mortgage applicants that includes geography, race, whether or not the loan was approved and at what interest rate. HMDA data is used by regulators and the public to look for possible signs of mortgage lenders discriminating against borrowers (redlining).

It’s often difficult for small businesses to obtain a loan because there may be scant profit made or an insufficient track record to assure banks of the owner’s ability to repay the loan on schedule. Women and minority-owned businesses especially find it difficult to obtain loans to grow their ventures. To encourage more transparency and equity around business loans, the CFPB in 2023 said it would require banks to begin reporting the demographics and income of small business loan applicants in 2024.

In rebuttal, some small business advocacy organizations claim that CFPB requirements will slow down the loan process and make it still more difficult for small businesses to obtain loans, not easier. Karen Kerrigan, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council President and CEO, says the proposed regulations will “bury small businesses and financial institutions with costly and time-consuming paperwork, expose small-business borrowers and lenders to increased litigation and privacy risks, drive more small banks out of business and limit competition in the financial lending space”.

On October 26, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the CFPB from implementing or enforcing its Small Business Lending Rule, the CFPB has stayed deadlines for compliance with the small business lending rule for the moment. The U.S. Supreme Court may take up the matter, so those of you in search of a business loan may want to follow this issue.

National Labor Relations Board joint-employer rule

Also in October 2023, the National Labor Relations Board issued a revised joint employer rule, expanding the definition of “joint employer.” This means that two companies that are both responsible for some decisions about employees—such as a franchisor (entity that holds the trademark and grants license to use the corporate name) and franchisee (owner/operator of one or more individual franchise locations)—can both be held liable for unfair labor practices and the rule goes beyond franchises.

Backstory: in 2019, a group of 1,400 McDonald’s workers filed a lawsuit alleging that their employers had violated California Labor Code wage-and-hour regulations by denying them overtime pay and meal and rest breaks and also forced them to work off the clock. Furthermore, the suit alleged that as “joint employers,” both the Haynes Corporation, the franchisee that owned eight locations in Oakland and San Leandro, and the franchisor, McDonald’s, were responsible. Although the employees and Haynes reached a class-wide settlement, the court ruled that McDonald’s was not responsible, since it isn’t involved in “day-to-day operations” of the restaurants, despite them carrying the McDonald’s name. But on October 26, 2023, the NLRB issued a clarification of the joint employer rule, deciding that both franchisors and franchisees can be held liable for unfair labor practices and labor law can no longer insulate corporate franchisors from liability for what goes on at individual franchise locations.

Unions and workers’ groups say the new rule will benefit and help protect workers, but restaurant associations and other small business advocacy groups say it’s unfairly burdensome to owners. The rule was scheduled to go into effect on December 26, 2023 but pending Congressional and legal challenges, the NLRB extended the effective date of the new joint-employer rule to February 26, 2024.

Wages and overtime

Maybe you own a seasonal business and hire minimum wage employees to keep things going during the busy season? If so, you already know that hourly wages are rising and in fact, more than 20 states will have minimum wage increases in 2024, including Nebraska’s minimum wage increase of $1.50 to $12/hour on January 1, 2024, and Rhode Island’s increase of $1 to $14/hour.

There could be still more action on wages coming soon—in August 2023, the Department of Labor proposed a rule that would allow 3.6 million more workers to become eligible to receive overtime pay. The proposed regulation would require employers to pay overtime to salaried workers who are in executive, administrative and professional roles and earn less than $1,059 a week, $55,068 /year, as full-time employees. That annual salary threshold was increased from $35,568.

Karen Kerrigan, President and CEO of the SBE Council (and who also opposed collecting demographic info on small business loan applicants, as discussed above) said she expects that when the final rule is handed down it will face legal challenges, since raising the minimum wage would have a big impact on many businesses. The Labor Department may issue the final rule sometime in 2024. Kerrigan said, “That’s going to have a lot of disruption for small businesses in terms of cost, but also the models they may use in their workplace in terms of career growth models, compensation models, etc.”

$600 online payments reprieve

I’ve saved the best for last! In November 2023, the Internal Revenue Service for the second time delayed activating the requirement that payments of $600 or more for goods and/or services provided by you and sent to you via Third-Party Settlement Organizations, e.g. payment apps like Venmo and Zelle or online marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy, must be reported on IRS Form 1099-K as taxable income. The requirement was scheduled to go live in tax year 2023.

Instead, the IRS has instituted a threshold of $5,000 for tax year 2024 that will introduce a phase-in of what will eventually include the Form 1099-K $600 reporting trigger for TPSO payments received. The IRS in November 2023 said that in tax year 2023, 1099-K reporting will continue to be required only of Freelancers and others who received $20,000 or more in annual gross TPSO payments for 200 or more sales transactions in that year. Beginning in tax year 2024, the TPSO annual gross payments threshold for Form 1099-K reporting will be lowered to $5,000. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Update: In response to a suit brought by the National Small Business Association against the Treasury Department, the U.S. Federal District Court for the District of Alabama ruled on March 1, 2024 that the Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional. Presiding Judge Liles Burke granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and issued a permanent injunction after finding that the CTA “exceed[ed] the Constitution’s limits on the legislative branch and lacks a sufficient nexus to any enumerated power to be a necessary or proper means of achieving Congress’ policy goals.” The ruling was handed down only two months after the CTA went into effect on January 1, 2024 and an appeal by the Biden administration is expected.

Image: © (Getty Images) James Stewart (R), as a caring community activist, points at Lionel Barrymore (L), a “greed is good” style real estate baron and banker, in a scene from It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, produced and directed by Frank Capra).

First Up for 2024: Get A Tagline!

As you brainstorm ways you might market your business in 2024—content you’ll produce, an updated list of keywords you’ll add to your website and social media, the panels, podcasts and webinars you’d like to appear on, the guerilla marketing campaign that might grow your customer list—you may eventually get the bright idea to create a tagline. A tagline, also known as a company slogan, may not receive priority status as you consider marketing strategies and tactics; however, you know that dozens of powerful taglines have figured prominently in the marketing campaigns of companies they represent, companies that billions of Americans and others have used for decades.

A clever and appealing tagline can become enormously popular and go on to play a role in popular culture, as it encourages current and prospective customers to use and refer the products or services it represents. Developing an effective tagline will strike a personal or even emotional chord in current and prospective customers that moves them to perceive your brand as more than just another provider of goods and services.

The tagline defined

So, what is a tagline? It’s a short, memorable phrase or sentence that sums up the essence of a company brand, products and/or services. A good tagline succinctly distills and communicates what the brand aspires to be known for and what differentiates it from competitors. It is influenced by the company vision and/or mission statement, as well as the value proposition and brand reputation but rather than presenting a lengthy and ponderous statement to describe the company, the tagline wraps those serious intentions in one brief and catchy phrase that keeps the company at top-of-mind mind for future buying decisions by reminding customers and prospects why they should choose to do business there.

A tagline can even become synonymous with the brand. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee elegantly captured the strength, athletic prowess and engaging personality of boxer Muhammed Ali (ne Cassius Clay, 1942-2016) and stands as a brilliant example of an ideal tagline.

What makes a good tagline?

A tagline can be a powerful marketing tool and although it will most likely take time to create the right one for your entity, it could be well worth the effort. It would be best to use your tagline to identify what your business does and highlight its benefits to current and prospective customers. Why not create a rough draft and keep the following in mind as you brainstorm possibilities?

• Brief: Your tagline doesn’t need to cover every aspect of the business or explain your company values. It should be brief, unambiguous in describing the essence of the business, likeable and easy to remember.
• Clear: Creativity makes your tagline unique, but you don’t want to be so creative that the intended audience misses the point. The wording must be clear, concise and immediately understood.
• Memorable: Since the best taglines have but a few words, make every word count. Your tagline should be memorable for its creativity, uniqueness, or other positive aspect that inclines customers and prospects to remember and like it.
• Reps the brand: The tagline should communicate the core of the brand identity. It should succinctly convey the brand image and voice, whether that’s upscale and formal or frugal and casual.
• Customer-centric: While the tagline refers to the company, its focus should be on the customer and what the company can do for them, for example, save time and/or money, be trustworthy and dependable, give great service, or be convenient. “Have it your way.” (Burger King)
• Relatable: A successful tagline has a personal appeal and speaks to the customer on an emotional level as it expresses the benefits of what the company’s products and/or services can do for them.

Short and simple

An effective tagline is direct and to the point, brief, uncomplicated, engaging and easily remembered. Aim to use no more than 10 words. A good tagline rolls off the tongue, is properly descriptive of the company’s purpose or benefits and is easy to remember. A useful way to test your tagline in development is to ask your friends, family or even new acquaintances and ask whether they understand what your company does and their overall impression of its message. “I ❤️NY” (Empire State Development Services)

Relevant to customers and prospects

The best taglines are about the customer, not about the company. A tagline focused on your company could possibly cause customers to wonder how it relates to them. By focusing on current and would-be customers, you’ll more effectively promote brand recognition and loyalty. Be sure to incorporate your company’s brand voice and persona. Avoid making promises in their tagline, which will put the focus on the company, and emphasize benefits instead. “Breakfast of champions” (Wheaties breakfast cereal)

Make your tagline match your brand

A tagline, like a logo, helps to define your brand. Ensure that the style, brand voice and other elements of your tagline match the style, voice and other aspects of your logo design. Because your tagline will be part of your overall branding, you’ll want the tagline to reflect your company’s personality. “Where’s the beef?” (Wendy’s)

Who’s your competition?

Knowing your competition is an important consideration of effective marketing. Study the marketing tactics used by your most prominent direct competitors and examine their taglines for both inspiration and to understand what not to do. Use the marketing of competitors to identify the elements of your company that differentiate it from the three or four who are closest. This could refer to the customer service, customer experience, and/or the comprehensiveness of your products and services (e.g., one-stop shopping) that differentiates and would be advantageous to convey in your tagline. Ensure your tagline sounds distinct from your competitors and larger brands around the country that your customers are likely to know as you communicate your competitive advantage and value proposition. “We try harder” (Avis Car Rental)

How you help customers

Think about how your company or products and services help your customers. How do your solutions solve or avoid problems, help achieve objectives, or make life easier and more enjoyable? Make a list of the ways you provide tangible and intangible benefits to customers, as well as any statements your business makes relating to them.

If your business is growing, consider your entire range of services or products. What value are you delivering to your customers? Think about what your products mean to people in their day-to-day lives, and list all the positive adjectives you can think of that relate to the core promise. “It keeps going and going and going…” (Energizer batteries)

Positive vibe

A considerable body of research shows that negative statements generally don’t sell well, whereas positive messages are conducive to brand building over the long term. Because taglines reflect the brand over time, keep your tagline positive and focused on benefits that customers seek out, depend on and appreciate. Avoid a vague reference to the good things that your company provides and make it unabashedly specific, descriptive of what drives your customers do business with you. “Yes we can” (2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign)

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Survey: Freelancing in America 2023

Upwork, the global marketplace that connects businesses in need of capable and reliable Freelance professionals and talented independent workers who are looking to generate billable hours, has just released the results of “Freelance Forward: 2023,” the 10th annual comprehensive study of the U.S. independent workforce. The study found that 64 million Americans participated in Freelance work during the past year, adding 4 million more self-employed workers over 2022. Freelance workers now comprise 38% of the nation’s workforce and contributed nearly $1.27 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023.

Highly skilled professionals

Most Freelancers perform highly skilled professional work. Nearly half (47%) work in the knowledge economy and provide B2B services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, graphic arts and business consulting. Another 23% of Freelancers create influencer and other marketing content that fuels livestreams, social media videos and images, blogs and newsletters. 

Freelancers are also at the forefront of embracing new technologies. When asked about generative Artificial Intelligence use in the past three months, Freelancers were 2.2 times more than traditionally employed workers to say that they frequently use generative AI tools. In total, 20%, approximately 12.8 million Freelancers, use generative AI tools regularly (multiple times per week), compared to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals. When asked the functions for which Freelancers use generative AI, research (46%), brainstorming and ideation (35%), translation (33%), proposal writing (32%) and coding (28%) ranked at the top. 

Why we Freelance

Results of Freelance Forward studies produced over the the study’s 10 year history show that respondents enter Freelancing for various reasons, but flexibility and control consistently emerge as prime motivators. Beyond earning a living, when asked about reasons for Freelancing, “to have flexibility in my schedule,” “to be in control of my own financial future” and “to work from the location of my choosing” top the list. This is mainly because unlike traditional employees, whose work schedules are largely imposed by the company, Freelancers are our own bosses. We determine when, where and for whom we will work and therefore, we are able to control our schedules and lives.

The evidence of this freedom is apparent in where Freelancers perform our work. Although return-to-office mandates have brought many professionals back to their cubicle, the majority of Freelancers work from home, at a co-working space, or in another location of their choosing. In fact, 60% of Freelancers work remotely, as compared to just 32% of traditionally employed professionals who work remotely. Furthermore, Freelancers also choose the hours and amount of work they’ll do at a given time. While 77% of Freelancers say they work consistently, they do so based on a schedule that best suits their lifestyles.

The future is Freelance

Freelancing continues to grow as a viable career choice for professionals and according to survey participants, the future of Freelancing remains bright. To understand the future of Freelancing, survey respondents were asked to assess their feelings of optimism, or pessimism, ahead of 2024. Overwhelmingly, Freelancers are optimistic about prospects for their professional growth (80%), personal income and revenue increases (76%), opportunities to earn billable hours (74%) and personal development (84%). When asked about the future, 85% of Freelancers say the best days for Freelancing are ahead. Key findings of Freelance Forward 2023 include:

• Freelancing remains a significant part of the U.S. labor market and economy: Freelancers contributed $1.27 trillion in annual earnings to the U.S. economy in 2023. This was a 78% increase from the estimated $715 billion contributed to the economy in 2014, the first year of Freelance Forward.
• Freelancing hits a new all-time high: The number of professionals Freelancing increased to 64 million Americans, or 38% of the U.S workforce, an increase of 4 million from 2022.
• Freelancers are 2.2 times more likely to regularly use generative AI frequently in their work: 20% of Freelancers use generative AI tools on a regular basis (multiple times per week), which compares to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals.
• Nearly half of Freelancers provide skilled knowledge services: 47% of all Freelancers, or nearly 30 million professionals, provided knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting in 2023.
• A quarter of Freelancers are creating influencer-style content: 23% of all Freelancers, or 14.7 million professionals, created influencer content including livestream services, social media videos, images or blogs in 2023.
• Generation Z and Millennials are the most likely to explore Freelancing: In 2023, 52% of all Gen Z professionals and 44% of all Millennial professionals performed Freelance work.
• Older Americans continue to be part of the Freelance market: In 2023, nearly 8.3 million professionals, or 13% of all U.S. Freelancers, were aged 59 or above.
• The future is bright, according to Freelancers: Over 85% of Freelancers say the best days are ahead for Freelancing.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Frontal Lobe Coworking, located in the Nationally Registered historic downtown of Howell, MI, opened in 2013 with the intention of attracting workers to a shared office space while also utilizing empty downtown buildings.

Think, Plan, Do: How to Think and Act Strategically

By now, I’m certain you’ve figured out that life is a game of chance that’s impacted by luck (good or bad) and planning (strategy or happenstance). You cannot really “make your own luck” (only lucky people think you can), but by thinking strategically and implementing your strategies, you’ll be able to influence certain variables that may tip the outcome in your favor.

Strategic thinking is an essential skill that promotes success both in the business world and in your personal life. Business owners and leaders rely on strategic thinking to make informed decisions and plan for the future, to promote innovation, respond to changes in the marketplace and recognize good opportunities. Strategic thinking depends on reliable information that you’ll analyze to identify the potential outcomes of a decision and ensure that decisions align with your company’s long-term goals. Strategic thinking can begin when you address three basic questions:

• Where are you now in terms of achieving your preferred outcome (the goal, success)?
• Where do you want to be (the preferred outcome)?
• What actions will you take to bring about your preferred outcome?

Rich Horwath, author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage and Achieve Executive Excellence (November 2023) and founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, a strategy workshop facilitator where he is an executive coach and strategic advisor, defines strategic thinking as the ability to Think, Plan and Do. Horwath believes that strategic thinking leads to insights that allow us to recognize or create competitive advantages that lead to success. His coaching experience has shown him that strategic thinking can be learned, that we can assess our own strategic fitness level and apply the skill to create value for the business.

Acumen

Howath points to acumen, the way you think, as the basis of strategic thinking, along with context awareness, insight and innovation. Acumen gives you the ability to size up a situation, see the big picture and generate new ideas that move the organization from its current state to your preferred future. The components he assigns to acumen work in tandem and are what separate strategic thinkers from the rest:

• Context awareness—informs your vision of the big picture and reflects your understanding of both your internal situation (culture, purpose, processes, guiding principles) and external situation (market trends, customer behavior, competitive landscape, business conditions). This awareness and perception informs your choices to allocate the resources you’ll use as your pursue your goals.
• Insight —the ability to learn and draw conclusions, however preliminary, from current conditions and past experiences. This requires curiosity and an exploratory mindset. A key trait of strategic thinkers is their discipline to continuously record, categorize, share and reflect on insights.
• Innovation —can occur when you focus your awareness and insights to create new value. It typically generated by the brainstorming or problem-solving involved in overcoming a challenge or obstacle.

To evaluate your acumen, ask yourself:

• Do I regularly assess my business’s current situation, both from both the internal and external perspectives?
• Do I share valuable insights with my team?
• When problem-solving, do I stick to the tried-and-true, or do I look for new approaches?

Allocation

Howath sees allocation as how you plan. Strategic thinkers set goals, distribute resources, recognize the risk and tradeoffs when making decisions and create advantages that bring value. Where you invest your resources — time, talent and capital — is a primary driver of your effectiveness and it requires the following components:

• Ability to focus resources: Resources are usually limited and should be used judiciously in service to achieving your goals. An effective strategy involves the ability to focus resources, confirming that resources are sufficient to produce the desired impact and confirming how the resource should be applied to achieve the desired effect.
• Decision-making: Strategic thinkers generate and evaluate a range of viable alternatives. Since trade-offs are being made with each decision, they analyze the pros and cons of each alternative, as well as the level of acceptable risk.
• Competitive advantage: A competitive advantage is created when the value created by your resources and actions exceeds the value that prospective customers assign to your competitors. Once an advantage is attained, strategic thinkers continue to refine it in order to stay ahead of the competition.

To evaluate whether you allocate effectively, ask yourself:

1. Do I recognize when it’s time to redistribute resources from underperforming areas to projects that show more potential?
2. Do I spend time on activities that align with my goals?
3. How do I measure myself against the competitors?

Action

Action is what you do, that is, carrying out your plans. Preparing a business strategy is but one step; how you execute your strategies is pivotal to your success. Action requires the ability to collaborate with others and optimize your performance.

• Execution involves using your resources to achieve your goal. It requires focus, discipline and follow-through, as well as monitoring to ensure interim results and a contingency plan to salvage a plan that fails to produce the expected result.

To assess your ability to take action, ask yourself:

• When it comes time to implement a strategy, how prepared am I to take action?
• Do I ask others what their goals are at the beginning of the conversation?
• Do I easily get side-tracked by other obstacles along the way?

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jackie Gleason as a fictional pool hustler in The Hustler (1961).

Subscription Model Spotlight

The subscription-based business model is an American classic. From the newspaper that the neighborhood paperboy delivered every day to your parent’s house, to the magazines you looked forward to receiving from the mailman each month and, of course, the Book-of-the-Month Club, founded in 1926 and enjoyed by your grandparents, millions have bought subscriptions over the years. We trust the process.

As the e-commerce revolution lured millions of newspaper, magazine and book readers to digital formats and software as a service (SaaS) introduced a menu of business services that make back-office operations much faster and efficient, the number of products and services available by subscription has exploded. There are now hundreds of subscription-based businesses to indulge you, from cable TV and movies to goodie gift boxes for you (Hot Sauce of the Month Club) and your dog (Barkbox).

Subscriptions are the original recurring revenue business model, able to bring a fairly predictable amount of money into a business at predetermined intervals, making subscriptions adored by business owners (and increasingly, Freelancers). Customers also appreciate subscriptions: they make obtaining frequently used products or services more convenient and often less costly, since there is almost always a discount offered as compared to the price of a one-off item. Plus, time is saved and inconvenience spared when there is no need to repeatedly make purchases; a subscription guarantees that your order is complete and payment settled just once a year and renewed annually as desired (and sometimes renewed automatically, which means you do nothing beyond reading the renewal confirmation if no changes will be made).

What’s not to love? Monthly (or annually or quarterly) recurring revenue represents predictable cash-flow and every business owner wants it. The smartest, most forward-thinking business owners and leaders, including Freelancers, are brainstorming ways to integrate a subscription service into their company’s offerings. The good news is that the acceptance level of subscriptions in the general population makes it relatively easy to persuade prospective customers to buy. Persuading subscribers to renew the deal, however, can be another kettle of fish.

So, if the idea of selling your products or services by subscription comes to mind, first ask yourself which of your products or services customers regularly purchase throughout the year but might prefer to order and pay for just once a year and save themselves time and money? Float the idea with two or three of your steady customers and heed the reply. Adopting a subscription model requires serious forethought and planning and this is especially true for many B2B service businesses, where value is intangible and not always immediately recognized. For example, the value of software subscriptions is continually demonstrated with tangible and actionable information that’s generated on a regular basis and by frequent use of the platform by the customer. The value of leadership and Emotional Intelligence coaching, however, can be less immediately obvious.

Subscription business model experts reveal two critical success factors—perceived value and the subscriber experience. Regarding value, subscribers accept a recurring subscription fee when the product or service subscribed to consistently demonstrates its worth. Should the subscriber feel that s/he is not receiving value that justifies the subscription cost, the possibility of service cancellation is imminent. The benefits derived from the product or service subscribed to must be front and center in the subscriber’s mind. S/he must clearly witness or perceive the expected value, preferably through a noticeable, if not measurable, improvement in whatever need the service or product addresses.

Regarding the subscriber experience, quality control and the consistency of the expected outcomes delivered by the product or service are key. There is an ongoing need to maintain, and periodically upgrade, the subscriber service and experience delivered. Subscribers tend to expect service enhancements at regular intervals. Suggestions of other critical factors you may want to examine as you and your team evaluate the potential viability of a subscription model for one or more of your products or services are below:

1. Is the subscription model is right for your business?

 As noted above, do yourself a favor and confirm that enough of your customers will feel it advantageous to commit in advance to the purchase of one or more of your company’s products and/or services by subscription. Is it important to customers to reorder what you sell on an ongoing basis, or are sales typically intermittent or even one-off? Discuss with your accountant the amount of monthly subscription revenue needed to make offering subscriptions feasible for your entity. If you get a green light to move forward, it will then be necessary to develop strategies that promote and defend subscription revenue and minimize subscriber churn (i.e., cancellations). Be prepared to develop marketing campaigns that describe to current and prospective customers how buying your product or service as a subscription service will make life easier or doing business more cost-effective for them.

2. Subscription or retainer fee?

Even if you do a steady business with a certain client, for example, providing payroll solutions or website maintenance and security, a retainer agreement may be more appropriate than a subscription (both generate recurring revenue). A retainer fee is a fixed amount of money that a customer pays to a company/consultant in advance and for a specific period of time, typically, a month, quarter, or year. The retainer fee covers an agreed-upon scope of work or number of hours that the company/consultant agrees to provide to the customer. The customer can use the consultant’s services as needed, up to the limit of the retainer agreement. If the customer does not use all of the hours or services included in the retainer, the consultant still keeps the entire fee; if the customer exceeds that limit, the consultant can charge extra fees or negotiate a new retainer.

A subscription fee is a recurring fee that a subscriber pays to a company/consultant for access to a predefined service or product. The subscription fee is billed monthly, quarterly, or annually and the subscriber can cancel (sometimes) or renew the subscription at any time (usually toward the end of the billing period). The subscription grants access to the product or service, which the subscriber can use as desired. The consultant/company provides the product or service on a continuing basis or provides access to an online platform or membership access site.

3. Try before buy 

Consider offering a short free trial to allow prospective subscribers to experience the advantages of subscribing to your product or service—first month free, for example. Tempting current customers and prospects with a sample of your subscription service could convince a number of them to sign up and pay. Furthermore, you’ll make subscribing still more attractive when their pricing options are uncomplicated. Offer one standard monthly (or quarterly or annual) fee; if you also sell premium and/or economy versions of your product or service, price those subscriptions accordingly.

4. Set clear expectations:

Set clear expectations from the start of the subscriber relationship. Customers must understand what they’ll receive for the price they’ll pay–services, products, tools and/or supporting technologies. Subscriber info should walk customers through what the subscription offers, the level of support available from your team and company contact info.  Ensure that prospective subscribers fully understand the value they’ll receive, tangible (the product or service) and intangible (training, additional info and/or support).

5. Discounts for longer-term subscriptions

The monthly fee should reward longer subscription commitments—24 or 36 months, for example—with correspondingly progressive discounts. While some subscribers desire only short-term use, others will use your product or service basically forever. By offering subscribers a variety of subscription options and offering deeper discounts to those who agree to pay upfront for long-term commitments, you’ll have a better chance of attracting more subscribing customers and increasing recurring revenue.

6. Easy or automatic renewing

The subscription model is an excellent vehicle for customer retention, but your organization must implement strategies to further remind subscribing customers of its relevance to them and provide various incentives for renewing the subscription. Make renewing frictionless and enable subscribers to auto-renew (with an opt-out option). When you make renewal easy for subscribers, they’re more inclined to do so.

7. Quality control and customer experience

Subscriber satisfaction is not to be taken lightly; it is never a given. Ideally, you’ll find it in your budget to assign or hire (W2 or 1099) a subscriber experience specialist who will be responsible for ensuring that expectations are met. That person will also document and report on the turnaround time for resolving issues, as well as any recurring problems. Proper quality control offers you much-needed insight into subscriber concerns, which will drive ongoing service enhancements and continue to enhance subscription value. 

Furthermore, marketing experts have convincingly demonstrated that personalized communication is a deciding factor in reducing churn, building loyalty and re-engaging lapsed customers/subscribers. Your organization should collect as much subscriber data as possible and apply that info to generating email updates and personalized special offers that aim to encourage renewals. The goal is to maintain subscriber enthusiasm and reinforce the convenience, enjoyment and/or habit of subscribing. You want to avoid disengagement, complacency, or other dissatisfaction that may result in a lapsed subscriber.

8. Don’t skimp on packaging

If your subscription is a physical product, invest in premium packaging. With all due respect to the U.S. Postal Service, your product deserves better packaging than a flat rate priority box. While your physical product will require shipping, it is highly recommended that you avoid the temptation to save money by packing and mailing yourself. Instead, find a fulfillment house and outsource packing and shipping.

Your logistics provider will fulfill subscription orders for your product, packing and shipping those orders directly to subscribers in a way that effectively communicates the value of your brand and enhances the subscriber experience. The fulfillment center will also manage product inventory and store the inventory.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

“Upload Photo Here” B2B Gets Personal

Creating B2B marketing content that brings in leads and builds your brand is a real challenge! Bound by (real or imagined) expectations to appear “business-like,” B2B content creators are known to merely deliver the info that decision-makers need—the what, why, when, by whom and how a product or service is used, topped off with a serviceable call-to-action. The particulars will be in there but the end result is usually content that’s dry and impersonal. It doesn’t reach out and touch, it checks off the boxes.

If developing B2B marketing content is your responsibility, keep in mind that the decision-makers you aspire to influence are actually human. They laugh, they get bored, get frustrated, curious and (sometimes) inspired. They are busy, if not overwhelmed, and it takes something special to get their attention and win their trust. Your target audience responds best to content that is fresh, unexpected and shows that you understand what’s important to them.

Maybe you’re ahead of me and already have a guerilla marketing campaign in the works, as was discussed in last week’s post? But once the guerilla sizzle has grabbed audience attention, back it up and bring the steak. Your next move is to convert the buzz into confidence and trust that leads to loyal relationships. You achieve that by knowing your clients and using that knowledge to develop content and other means of communication that demonstrates you have their priorities and needs on your front burner. Below are factors to keep in mind and actions you may decide to take as you re-examine your B2B marketing strategy and prepare your organization for the start of a new year.

Personalized customer profiles

To figure out how to sell your products and/or services, you must know the goals and priorities of your prospects and have an idea of what might worry them, too. Accurate and updated client information is among your most valuable resources; data can be collected in quick-and-easy, nonthreatening ways, on your website or social media platforms. In exchange for a prospect’s name, contact info, business name and category, you may offer free 15 minute video consultations, free copies of your case study, or a free link to the webinar on which you made a guest appearance info. Inbound marketing tactics, spotlighted by a tempting call-to-action, not only moves prospects through the sales funnel, it also functions as a portal for client info.

Beyond basic contact info, a review of previous client or prospect interactions with your company will reveal more detailed info, including the purchasing history of current and lapsed clients, their buying preferences, concerns and the amount they spend. Get to know your target audience by understanding their unique preferences and help yourself to retain clients, make more sales and reduce churn rate. Clients and prospects are what a mailing list is all about; it’s members represent potential sales revenue for your company. Consider the following questions as you build customer profiles.

• Who is a window shopper and who is researching with a goal of buying? Have you designed a “try before you buy” option available to undecideds, or is it effective to initiate a face2face or video meeting to show undecideds how your solution will solve problems and achieve objectives that matter to them?
• Who are they buying for? Is the prospect an end-user and stakeholder, who influences the purchasing decision, or is the decision-maker, who may not directly use the product or service, doing the shopping?
• After they complete a purchase, what kind of follow-up support, including info on the optimal use of the product or implementation of a service, would the new client appreciate?

Purpose-driven content

Companies are re-evaluating how they deliver their marketing messages and many now feel that creating purpose-driven marketing content is integral to being seen as relevant to potential buyers. The more you know about the goals and buying behaviors of your prospects, the more successful you’ll become in selling to them. You want information that guides you to describe, price, deliver and provide after-sale support for your product or service in words and actions that are quickly understood and strike the right chords with the target audience and in so doing, earn their trust and confidence. Consider the three phases of the buyer’s journey:

• Discovery phase: What do prospects see when they conduct a Google search of your entity? What links appear in the results and what story is told about your products/ services and brand?
• Consideration phase: How is your company represented when a prospect or client engages with your social media and other content? What platform links, articles, images and websites appear?
• Conversion phase: How does your brand show up when a client transacts business on your website? What action do you want your client to take beyond making a one-time purchase?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Supermodel China Machado (born Noelie da Souza,1929-2016), photographed by Richard Avedon in New York, NY for the November 6, 1958 cover of Time Magazine’s 100 Women of the Year issue.

Guerilla Marketing Playbook

Have your marketing strategies and tactics become stale and predictable? Do you tell yourself not to rock the boat because what you’re doing seems to be OK, even though you get a nagging “been there, done that” feeling when you click and post marketing content? Listen to your inner voice! It’s telling you that outdated marketing tactics will not deliver the results your organization needs. While there’s no shame if the menu at your restaurant features a couple of grandma’s recipes from World War II because customers love them, the ways you communicate with those nostalgic customers must be in step with the here and now. You may have gotten comfortable with the marketing tactics you’ve been using for the past few years and your customers may be comfortable, too—and that’s exactly why it’s time to stir the pot and shake things up!

Even before the pandemic shutdown pulled the rug out from under us, companies large and small, local and global, B2B and B2C, have experienced intense competition, mixed with political, economic and social instability. Forbes Magazine recently introduced the acronym VUCA—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous—to describe the current economic landscape. Freelancers and small business owners are especially vulnerable to unstable circumstances. Well-chosen marketing strategies, executed proactively, are integral to your company’s survival.

Guerilla marketing playbook

Like grandma’s century old recipes that are still beloved by many, another 20th century throwback that can be adapted to the 21st is Guerilla Marketing, a term coined by the business writer and advertising executive Jay Conrad Levinson in 1984. Guerilla Marketing borrows the mindset of guerrilla warfare, the Spanish term for a band of soldiers who wage war not as part of the regular troops but as an independent unit that makes surprise raids behind enemy lines and attacks larger, better-funded forces.

Guerilla marketing campaigns use innovative, unconventional promotional marketing tactics whose goal is to shock, surprise and ultimately delight the audience. When at their best, guerilla marketing campaigns are memorable and known to drive (good) publicity and brand awareness. Guerilla-style campaigns are often relatively low-cost and have been used successfully by Freelancers and neighborhood businesses, as well as multinational conglomerates. Below are suggestions for guerilla marketing tactics you may want to consider:

• Grassroots Marketing A marketing approach that relies on modest resources. Companies that utilize grassroots marketing strategies typically rely on frugal tactics that depend on people’s time. Recruiting friends and family to hand out flyers that announce the opening of a new business in the neighborhood is a classic example of this type of guerilla marketing. The technique is marketing at its most simplistic.
• Viral or Buzz Marketing A strategy based partly or entirely on word-of-mouth publicity. The word spreads by way of social media, as this guerilla tactic relies on one user sharing a company’s content with those in his/her social network. Instead of trying to generate excitement by itself, viral/ buzz guerrilla marketing relies on enthusiastic fans or customers to organically raise awareness of a product or service, entertainer or business.
• Projection advertising This guerilla tactic refers to the big-screen projection of large, captivating advertising images onto the sides of buildings or other walls. This style of guerrilla marketing allows companies to personalize promotions, especially for events. Instead of presenting a more permanent form of advertising that requires capital investments or long-term agreements, projection advertising is highly visible, unconventional and unexpected and may be less costly than marketing techniques that would otherwise be used.
• Ambush Marketing Large sporting events and concerts are favorite locations for unauthorized guerilla marketing “ambush” campaigns. Companies that use this strategy, also known as coat-tail marketing, and are sometimes assumed to be official event sponsors although they are not. Popular within event sponsorships, ambush marketing may be employed as a guerrilla marketing strategy by companies looking to save money as they capitalize on a well-attended event that is occurring.

Solutions that matter 

Regardless of how you shape your company’s marketing campaigns, it’s essential that you understand what customers are looking to achieve or resolve when they do business with you (or others like you). With the knowledge of what customers prioritize and value, you’ll know what creates demand—and that means half of your marketing job is done. You can then create a theme with talking points and images that communicate the solution your audience wants. If you can also place your marketing text and images in an unexpected location (maybe outdoors) that your audience frequents, and keep the costs down as you do, you will have realized the essence of guerilla marketing.

What’s in it for the customer?

Unexpected turns of phrase or doubles-entendres may stroke your sense of creativity, but remember that the purpose of marketing messages, whether you go guerilla or conventional, is to inform (and reassure and reinforce) your audience that your product or service will solve a problem and achieve the objective, whether you’re selling gardening gloves or cashmere sweaters. Your text must succinctly, clearly and perhaps also cleverly, answer the question that customers and prospects silently ask—“What’s in it for me if I buy this”?

Make sure they get the message.

It’s been said that one picture is worth 1,000 words and there’s no doubt that the image(s) used in your campaign can get attention—but don’t let images overwhelm the message you intend to communicate. All marketing thrives on creativity, but don’t allow the artwork to over-shadow the product. The marketer’s goal is to persuade the audience to feel that the product or service being showcased so interesting that s/he desires to buy it.

 Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The Richard Oscar Burgess House in Providence, RI is best known for its head-turning design created in 1984 by The Armory Revival Company. By leaving a section of the house only partially painted and attaching large simulations of Crayola crayons on the wall, the house is both a marvelous spoof of the obsession about paint color that not infrequently preoccupies new owners of Victorian-era homes and a celebration of mid-1980s urban revitalization.

10 Under $35: Great Client Gifts 2023

You can run, but you can’t hide! The December holidays are at your doorstep and asking you to respond accordingly. Yes, it is a chore, and you’ll spend some money, but look at the bright side—-the holidays are much more than a gift-giving obligation. Recognize that the December holidays are your best client outreach and relationship-building opportunity of the year. So if you neglected to include current or lapsed clients on the mailing list for your blog or website, or you hesitated because you worried about looking crass, and decided against including clients when you announced that you’d appear on a podcast or would teach a social media marketing class, your opportunity to rectify that oversight has arrived. December is your gateway to redemption, your big chance to show clients that you remember and value them.

The holiday gifts you send, and to a lesser extent the holiday cards you send, give you entree to reach out in January and diplomatically float the idea of receiving an assignment in the New Year. Reach out with a conversation-starting topic that might persuade your client to schedule a voice, video, or face2face meeting so that you can assess and suggest how your products or services can provide solutions that achieve the client’s objectives. After all, the reason that your client gifts and cards qualify as business expenses is because you’re spending money to support the goal of making more.

Below is my 2023 list of business-appropriate, cost-conscious holiday gifts and I hope you like what you see. Every vendor is different, but you can expect your gifts to arrive on time if you ship before December 10 (that date also applies to the cards you’ll send, whether or not a gift will also be sent). Shop on Black Friday (November 24) and Small Business Saturday (November 25) to catch the sales and get more for your money. Be advised that Christmas falls on the fourth Monday and some offices may be closed on Friday December 22, maybe until Tuesday January 2.

1. Dossier Fragrances

Dossier, the luxury fragrance maker, recently launched its third line of scents: the Wellness Collection. The new line includes sage and black tea, rose and basil, ginger and grapefruit scents that serve as a “sensory gateway, inviting you to embark on a fragrant journey toward balance, serenity, and rejuvenation,” says CEO Sergio Tache.

The Wellness Collection will refresh, re-energize, and rejuvenate, giving you aromatic therapy through fragrance for a heightened scent-sory experience. The Speakeasy Collection is crafted with celebration in mind and captures all the bubbly, warm, or even smoky sensations that come with every sip– or in this case, spritz!

Dossier Originals

$29 each

2. The Weekender Dopp Kit

A rugged, classic pouch to keep all your toiletries in order. Outside, it’s built from heavyweight cotton canvas that will take anything your trip can dish out. Inside the sturdy metal zipper, there’s an additional internal zipper pocket and elastic loops to secure your stuff.

https://www.bespokepost.com/store/line-of-trade-weekender-dopp-kit?clickId=0oizTcy5fxyPUBdy6FSGNz3uUkFVy91Px0Jk2U0&a=m_10078&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=IR&utm_campaign=0oizTcy5fxyPUBdy6FSGNz3uUkFVy91Px0Jk2U0&utm_content=Skimbit%20Ltd.&nb_adid=70438&nb_cid=1804&nb_pid=10078&nb_aname=Online%20Tracking%20Link&nb_atype=ONLINE_TRACKING_LINK&nb_asize=&nb_product_sku=&nb_partner_name=Skimbit%20Ltd.&nb_mtype=mediapartner&nb_partner_shared_id=thespruce.com&nb_platform=impact

$35 each

3. Jiminy’s Doggie Dental Chews

Dog owners adore gifts that have their furry friend in mind! Here is a multi-purpose, cinnamon-flavored chew designed to clean teeth, freshen dog breath and reduce oral inflammation while the chew’s flexible, nubby texture cleans teeth and gums. Cruelty-free superfood ingredients make Jiminy’s Dental Chews the sustainable choice for the health of your dog and our planet. The chews come in four sizes. Jiminy’s dog treats and dog food are also available.

https://www.chewy.com/jiminys-grain-free-cricket-cookie/dp/205078

$9.95 each 5 oz. bag

4. The Pasta Queen Cookbook

TikTok star and social media sensation Nadia Caterina Munno, a.k.a. The Pasta Queen, is opening the recipe box from her online trattoria to share the dishes that have made her pasta royalty. In this delectable antipasto platter of over 100 recipes, cooking techniques, and the tales behind Italy’s most famous dishes (some true, some not-so-true), Nadia guides you through the process of creating the perfect pasta, from Pasta Al Limone to Fettucine Carbonara. The book was a New York Times bestseller. See reader reviews here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60321510-the-pasta-queen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pasta-queen-nadia-caterina-munno/1140976219?ean=9781982195151

$23.99 hard cover

5. Lapgear Tablet Pillow

An unique, triangular-shaped bolster pillow that has a reinforced front pocket that holds your tablet or phone at optimal screen viewing angles, allowing for comfortable and efficient tablet use. The microbead filled cushion allows this tablet pillow to conform comfortably to your lap or any surface while using your tablet. Tuck your phone, device charger, ear buds, or other accessories into the convenient side pocket to keep them handy. Use the snap-on handle to attach the lightweight tablet pillow to your suitcase or backpack when you are on the go. This item is the perfect stand to prop your tablet up and go hands free while streaming your favorite show, shopping online, FaceTime conversations, or playing a game.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/LapGear-Microbead-Tablet-Pillow-with-Phone-Pocket-Gray-Herringbone/268528336

$19.69 each

6. Born to Bloom

Collaborate with Mother Nature to give this combination birthday and December holiday gift that grows and changes every day. Seeds, a glass bottle to grow them in, soil-less growing medium, instructions, and info about what your flower symbolizes are all included. Once the garden has finished blooming, wash the grow bottle and use as a vase. Cork lid doubles as a coaster for the bottle. A lovely gift for gardeners, sentimental types and those who don’t want any “stuff.” (Sorry that I’m over budget here!)

https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/birth-month-flower-grow-kit?clickid=3tTwSAy5JxyPUBdy6FSGNz3uUkFVy6xex0Jk2U0&irgwc=1&utm_source=Skimbit%20Ltd.&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=8444&utm_term=Online%20Tracking%20Link&trafficSource=Impact&sharedid=thespruce.com

$36.00 each

7. Apple Air Tag

The Apple Air Tag is the game-changing remedy for those who habitually misplace keys or wallet and maybe also could use a better way to keep track of a pet. Or maybe they just want to know exactly where their bags are while traveling? The one-tap setup makes it a breeze to connect with an iPhone or iPad all in the Find My app. Selected iPhone models have Precision Finding that will lead users right to your nearby AirTag. If it’s further away, hundreds of millions of Apple devices in the Find My network can help track it down. AirTag is compatible with any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch device running iOS/iPad OS 14.5 or later. All activity will be anonymous and encrypted for privacy.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-airtag/airtag?afid=p239%7C1442537&cid=aos-us-aff-ir-1442537

$29 each

8. Queen Bean Coffee Sampler

The coffee sampler is a great way to explore these fabulous coffees, available in six (6) contain quarter-pound packs. While you cannot chose specific coffees, Queen Bean invites you to provide a basic guideline, e.g., a random sample, sustainable single origins, dark roasts, flavors, decafs, etc. If you aren’t sure what you like, we suggest you order the random pick or send an email to help you figure out your coffee type. When ordering, please use the comment box to indicate if you would like ground or whole bean coffee.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/489146056/coffee-sampler?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=coffee+samplers+gift&ref=sc_gallery-1-1&sts=1&plkey=da64bda243454aefb4e84ebf5bb733cb02c8266e%3A489146056

$29.90 for six (6) + $8.50 shipping

9. Cantaloupe & Prawns

Celebrate the colors and ambience of the Mediterranean this holiday when you choose this lovely (unframed) art print created by Maggie Cowles, a freelance artist and illustrator whose has been shown in galleries in Tokyo, London, Paris and Los Angeles.

https://society6.com/product/cantaloupe-prawns_print?cjdata=MXxOfDB8WXww&sku=s6-21353150p4a1v45&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=2114&utm_content=100017238&utm_id=5370367&utm_term=14068151&cjevent=70c9033a84b911ee829514e90a82b821

$27.20 (regularly $34.00)

10. Charity Choice Holiday Gift Certificate

In this holiday season, allow your client gift to demonstrate your company’s values. Charity Choice, an official donation site of the American Red Cross, will enable your clients to support a cause that resonates with them. As your client gives back, you present a positive image of social responsibility for you and your company. You choose the giving level and your recipient chooses the cause to support. You decide the format that your client receives—digital card via email or physical gift card that is mailed either to you or to your client on your behalf.

https://www.charitygiftcertificates.org/#GiveGiftCards

$25.00 each (also $10, $50 & $100)

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Library of Congress / Science Source. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) served as First Lady of the U.S. March 1933 to April 1945. She was the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), who served as PTOS March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945.

Saving for Retirement Gets Easier

Many Americans are unable to adequately save for retirement–or for any other reasons, including emergencies and post-high school education, unfortunately. Rising prices and decades of stagnant wage growth have contributed to both the inability to cover more than basic living expenses and increasing debt. It’s a recipe that undermines saving for the future.

This is not to say that Americans don’t understand the need to save for retirement. Just about everyone knows that once you’ve retired, Social Security cannot replace your entire annual income for the rest of your life. This sometimes results in a cash-flow gap for retirees that until the early 1980s was usually remedied by an employer sponsored defined annual pension benefit but thereafter, most employers chose to address the shortfall with a 401(k) plan. The difference is huge.

A defined pension pays recipients a specified monthly benefit at retirement. The employer funds the plan by contributing a regular amount, usually a percentage of the employee’s pay, into a tax-deferred account. Depending on the plan, employees may also make contributions. Typically, pensions are calculated through a formula that considers the employee’s salary and length of service.

The 401(k) plan, and also the 403(b) plan, by contrast, are defined contribution plans, as are employee stock ownership and profit-sharing plans. A defined contribution plan does not promise a specific amount of benefits at retirement. In this scenario the employee, the employer, or both contribute to the employee’s retirement account, often at a set rate, such as 5 % of annual salary each year. The employer usually works with a major financial services company that invests the retirement funds on behalf of company employees. Upon retirement, the employee receives the balance in the account, which is based on contributions plus or minus investment gains or losses. The value of the account will fluctuate due to changes in the value of the investments made.

The defined pension plan has nearly disappeared from the American landscape. For the most part, only city, state and federal government agencies offer a traditional pension plan to employees. Although we’ve had about 40 years to adjust to the next wave of retirement funding, the update has been a challenge. According to a survey published last October by the financial services company Bankrate, 56% of working Americans reported that they’re behind on their retirement savings goal. Furthermore, the general savings rate for Americans has fallen to an all-time low, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The average American had saved 2.3 % of disposable income as of October 2022, down from a 7.3 % savings rate reported in 2021—but that figure was impacted by the pandemic, when people couldn’t get out and spend. Those are very disquieting statistics but in December 2022, Congress approved legislation that should provide a ray of sunshine to brighten the day.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act 2.0 Act is intended to change at least two depressing and embarrassing statistics: first, that nearly 75 % of small businesses do not offer retirement plans to their employees and second, to grow the percentage of Americans who not only contribute to a retirement plan but also encourage and enable them to start saving for retirement earlier in life. The idea is to allow retirement savings to grow over a longer period of time and result in a more financially secure retirement for you.

401(k) automatic enrollments

The enhanced rewards that come from saving for retirement will take time to kick in. Beginning in 2025, small businesses will be required to automatically enroll employees in 401(k) or 403(b) retirement plans, with a contribution rate between 3 % and 10 %. The employee contribution limit for 401(k) plans will be raised from $19,500/year to $26,000/year to encourage and reward more robust retirement savings, per Secure 2.0. Also, employers must offer retirement plan benefits to part-time employees who’ve worked for them for at least two years. Businesses that are less than three years old, or those that employ 10 or fewer employees, are exempt. Moreover, employers must explain to employees that they may opt-out of the auto-enrollment feature (maybe the spouse has a better retirement plan).

Another new feature of Secure 2.0 is the Starter 401(k), designed for small companies that currently do not offer a retirement plan to employees. The Starter 401(k) is not subject to year-end nondiscrimination testing (an additional compliance measure that examines if a business is fairly distributing its plan) and caps annual contributions at the same amount as the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) limit. The maximum contribution for an IRA account was $6,000 in 2022 and $7,000 for those older than 50.

Tax credits sweetener

Many options in the retirement benefits market haven’t been accessible to small businesses because private sector plans were designed to serve companies with 100 + employees but finally, SMBs will receive additional relief from costs associated with offering retirement plans through Secure 2.0. Previously, employers with fewer than 100 employees were eligible for a three-year, start-up tax credit that covered up to 50% of administrative costs, with an annual limit of $5,000. The new law has increased this credit to 100% of qualified start-up costs for new plans sponsored by employers with up to 50 employees. While costs to start retirement plans vary on the basis of a business’s size and the type of plan, the enhanced tax credits should cover a majority of an employer’s out-of-pocket costs for the first three years.

In addition to addressing the larger national economic issue of retirement savings, Secure 2.0 confers yet another advantage to SMBs—an opportunity for to improve their benefits package, which can attract talent. Benefits can be a competitive advantage when it comes to hiring, whether you operate a neighborhood breakfast and lunch place or a medical equipment company.

Retirement Plans for Freelancers

You didn’t think I’d leave you out of the mix, did you? Here’s an overview of tax-deferred and after-tax retirement savings plans that work well for Freelance professionals. Most feature similar options to save for retirement as employees participating in company plans.

Simplified Employee Pension (SEP)

• Contribute as much as 25% of your net earnings from self-employment (not including contributions for yourself), up to $66,000 for 2023 ($61,000 was the 2022 limit).
• Open a SEP-IRA through a bank or other financial institution.
• Set up the SEP plan for a year as late as the due date (including extensions) of your income tax return for that year.

401(k) plan

• Make annual salary deferrals up to $22,500 in 2023 ($20,500 was the 2022 limit), plus an additional $7,500 in 2023 ($6,500 in 2022) if you’re 50 years or older either on a pre-tax basis or as designated Roth contributions.
• Contribute up to an additional 25% of your net earnings from self-employment for total contributions of $66,000 for 2023 ($61,000 was the 2022 limit), including salary deferrals.
• Customize your retirement plan to allow access to your account balance through loans and hardship distributions if you must.

A one-participant 401(k) plan is sometimes referred to as a solo-401(k) or individual 401(k). It is generally the same as other 401(k) plans, but because there are no employees other than your spouse (if s/he works for the business), the plan is exempt from discrimination testing.

If you are a Schedule C a sole proprietor and have a SIMPLE IRA plan, you are treated as both an employer and an employee when calculating and reporting your own retirement plan contributions and limits. Report both your salary reduction contributions and employer contributions (non-elective or matching) for yourself on Part II – line 15 of Form 1040 Schedule 1. Note that this is different from reporting employer contributions (non-elective or matching) for your employees, which you record as a business expense on Schedule C.

Maximum annual contribution SIMPLE IRA

Re: your salary reduction contributions, you may defer up to $15,500 in 2023 ($14,000 was the 2022 limit) however, you may not exceed your net earnings from self-employment from the business sponsoring the SIMPLE IRA plan. If you are age 50 years or older , you can make a catch-up contribution of up to $3,500 in 2023 ($3,000 was the 2022 limit).

When you are an employer

Employer contributions for yourself must be the same type and rate as the contributions you make for your employees. You must either:

• match your salary reduction contributions dollar-for-dollar up to 3% of your net earnings from self-employment; or
• make a non-elective contribution of 2% of your net earnings from self-employment that do not exceed $330,000 in 2023; ($305,000 was the 2022 limit).

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Enjoying retirement at Seabrook Island, near Charleston, SC

 

Persuade Investors to Show You the $$

At some point during the life cycle of a business venture, most entrepreneurs will seek an infusion of investment capital. The venture may be at start-up stage or ready to scale and money is needed to carry out the plan. The prospect of obtaining additional funding for your venture is intimidating, but it’s part of an entrepreneur’s experience. Know there is way forward and with some planning, a happy outcome can be yours.

Once you’ve decided the growth or expansion strategy you intend to follow, contact your banker, your accountant and a business attorney and get their input on this very impactful decision. Your accountant is intimately familiar with the business finances and can weigh in on the expected revenue potential of the way you plan to grow or expand. Your banker has a good idea of how much credit you’re qualified to receive. Also, s/he has listened to dozens (an possibly hundreds) of ideas that business customers would like to fund and can recognize which appear to be promising and which seem like pie-in-the-sky. The business attorney can advise you on the legal ramifications of your proposed funding strategy, especially if you decide to fund by forming a partnership of some sort.

Whatever option emerges as your preferred course of action, before you make the appeal for money, work closely with your accountant and bookkeeper to confirm that all financial statements are in order and paint a good picture of you and the enterprise. Investors want to see you and your company as a good risk with sufficient money-making potential. Along with your Income and Cash-flow Statements and the Balance Sheet, include a Break-Even Analysis so that investors will know when the company will be positioned to achieve a desirable level of profitability.

Regarding the type of funding your plan and your financial history recommend—bank loan via the Small Business Association, soliciting investors, taking on a money business partner, or seeking venture capital for a start-up—entrepreneurs should do their research to find out what companies the partners, investors, or VC firms currently or previously have invested in. If business has been done with a competitor, that’s a red flag. Ideally, those who invest in your business will be able to create good relationships for you and can recommend good prospects who will become customers. Below are four factors that VC investors, accountants and business bankers feel are what investors want to see from those who need funding.

Include the right numbers

Investors are interested in the financial track record of ventures that are operating and they are especially interested in the financial projections of start-ups (where all the financials are projections) and currently operating businesses that seek funding. They closely scrutinize the Income Statement because it contains much relevant information: gross sales revenue, cost of goods sold and expenses fixed and variable are recorded there, as is net profit. Investors want Income Statements, actual and projected, to demonstrate that a currently operating venture has a history of consistently generating solid revenues and profits and that the plans of either start-ups or existing companies present a strong financial case for success.

Investors will next parse the Cash-flow Statement to get an overview of the flow of money in and out of the business—gross sales revenue, accounts receivable, accounts payable and the like—to see what the projected cash-flow will be once the growth or expansion strategy plan has been implemented. Because start-ups are not profitable at first, it’s important for investors to analyze their cash-flow forecast to understand whether there will be sufficient funding to continue operating until the cash-flow and net profit goals are achieved. Including quarterly, and if necessary, monthly projections for various scenarios, such as a slower pace of revenues or other marketplace difficulties, is advisable.

Investors want to be confident that their investment capital will result in a certain level of revenue and profit and when that can be expected to occur and for that reason, your financial documents must include a Break-even Analysis, a financial calculation used to determine a company’s break-even point and reveal when investment is returned dollar for dollar. One the venture reaches the break-even point, it is theoretically positioned to become profitable.

While business owners typically base their financials on what their research shows as the most plausible scenario for cash-flow, investors also want to know what you’ll do in a worst case scenario. For example, what would happen if your revenue gets delayed by six months or a year? When would you run out of cash? Investors want to see contingency plans, evidence of risk management.

Never inflate revenue projections

Different types of industries have unique profit margin ranges, so as you compile your financials, research the economic parameters of your industry sector so that you’ll create accurate and reasonable financial projections. For example, in-person yoga studios may generate profit margins of 15% – 25 %. Conversely, restaurants typically have net income profit margins between 2% and 8%.

If your start-up must fund research and development and other expenses, for example, significant gross sales revenue, supported by economies of scale that will control cost of goods sold, will be necessary to both generate cash-flow to allow the business to continue to operate as well as generate a net profit. If a founder is projecting profit that doesn’t mirror the reality of their industry, will indicate they haven’t done their homework or don’t understand their business, which can make an investor wonder whether they can trust any of the company’s projections. Either way, it will do your credibility no favors.

The story of how your business plan will work

Tell potential investors, including your banker if you’ll apply for a loan, a credible and engaging story of how and why your business strategy has great potential, will generate a healthy return on investment and deserves funding. Consider structuring your pitch as a journey, a concept that will likely resonate with your audiences. Make the story of your journey clear and uncomplicated. Be a teacher with a relatable (and never a know-it-all) communication style and avoid coming across as a sales person, which is bound to be a turn-off. Be sure to include in your story:

• That your plan has a clear destination, you’ve defined success
• That your plan has the first steps of your growth strategy mapped out
• You’ve considered the obstacles you might face and developed contingencies
• You’ve built in milestones that will measure progress

Build flexibility into your strategy

Your business will operate in real life, in real time, and anything that can happen, will. The possibilities for unexpected adverse events are numerous, up to and including a spell of bad weather. It is therefore essential to discuss a contingency plan in your financial projections and also in the marketing plan. As noted above, if the unthinkable happens, what adaptations will you make in terms of say, product acquisition or staffing to cut costs? Alternatively, what will you do if other factors contribute to a slowdown in sales revenue? Might a pivot to a related product or service be possible and what might that look like? In sum, when making an appeal for investment capital in whatever form, potential investors will be reassured when you show that you’ve prepared for a rainy day as you work to satisfy customers and ensure the company’s survival.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images 2011

Smart Choices and Good Decisions

When you face a big decision whose outcome may significantly impact your business or life, what steps do you take, what routine do you follow, to help yourself do the right thing? Big decisions, especially, involve consequences and their after-effect can reverberate over the long-term. The decisions you make, delay, or avoid shape the path of your personal and/or professional life and for that reason, the ability to make effective decisions is a survival skill.

Business owners and leaders are called upon to make many decisions; most are routine, and some are high stakes, positioned to have significant impact on the direction and/or fate of the venture. It is therefore worthwhile to do whatever possible to develop skills and practices that support your decision-making proficiency. Below are practices that, unlike the whims of fortune, are within your control and can guide you along the path to decision-making success.

1. See the big picture

As you get ready to make the decision, be clear about what you expect the preferred outcome will mean for you and/or the business. Good decisions require awareness; the decision-making process fares best when you are attentive to the context in which it will be made, meaning key internal and external factors that can assist or impede your ability to choose the right path. Influencing factors are likely to include the competitive and economic climate in which your venture operates and in larger organizations, the level of support that stakeholders have for the initiative you are trying to advance.

2. Review desired outcomes

“Begin with the end in mind,” advises Stephen Covey, author of the phenomenal bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). Your decision-making process has a better chance of seeing a happy ending when the decision is motivated by a realistic purpose that you can clearly articulate and defend. It is essential that you understand what you want to achieve and why. It is also useful to decide the criteria you’ll use to define success. Before you commit to a decision, create a mental picture of what your company (or life) will look like once that proposed choice is in place—in the near term and 12 months later.

3. Consider different perspectives

Escape the trap of your inherent biases and invite different opinions to the decision-making. Start with the obvious—stakeholders and end-users who will live with the outcomes, along with those who will implement the decision. If you have a team, include its members in the process, for they surely bring to the table expertise and experiences that will enrich your understanding of the big picture, as well as factors that could influence its outcome. The unique viewpoints and wisdom of your team could possibly show you that don’t know what you don’t know!

4. Leverage relevant data and technology

In today’s digital age, there is every reason to turn to technology-supplied data to provide trustworthy insights that are grounded in objective information to guide your business decisions. Data-driven decisions are usually the most successful. You may have a history of making good decisions based on what your gut tells you, but you’ll be better served to allow (relevant) numbers to validate the power of your intuition.

There are numerous analytic values readily available to provide snapshots of company performance that decision-makers need to see. Your decision may benefit from a review and analysis of the number of qualified leads per month, industry benchmarks, annual sales of your products and services and/or the average dollar amount of new contracts signed per quarter.

5. Avoid analysis paralysis

While good data is essential, as is objective thinking and keeping the purpose of the decision in mind, it’s also important to realize when you have sufficient facts and figures to commit to a choice. It often makes sense to set a reasonable time frame for gathering information, and once you have enough in hand to make an informed choice, move forward.

Trust your judgment and remember that in most cases, all the information you’d like to have will not be available; nearly every decision is haunted by unknown factors. Boost your confidence by creating conditions that will promote effective decision-making when you align your decision with the vision, mission, guiding principles (values) and brand of your organization.

6. Overcome fear of failure

Risk is a factor in every decision because results are not always predictable. Along with good information, luck, timing and intuition are often credited with a decision’s success or failure. All leaders understand that unfortunately, not every decision will lead to a favorable outcome.

Instead of fearing failure, embrace it as a valuable learning experience when it occurs. Do a postmortem and analyze what went wrong; identify the root causes and determine how you can avoid similar pitfalls in the future. When the experience is applied correctly, failure strengthens resourcefulness and resilience and over time will eventually enhance your decision-making skills. A decision gone wrong is embarrassing and disappointing but push yourself to make lemonade from the lemons. You might find a way to fail-up!

7. Practice decision-making consistency

Consistency in decision-making is key to building trust and credibility among your team. If your choices waver based on mood or circumstance, it can create confusion and erode confidence. But you may instead find it helpful to revisit the same, or similar, criteria that were used for a decision whose outcome was especially positive.

If the approach you took, factors you considered and certain friends and mentors you consulted led to a successful outcome previously, those factors, adjusted to fit the question at hand, might be successfully applied to future decisions. Why not experiment? When you’re next faced with a big decision, apply some or all of the criteria you used to approach the question, choose and study the data and seek input from friends or family who have a history of giving you wise advice?

You may discover that it’s useful to evaluate, say, three to five qualifying questions first, then another three to five questions that are customized for your decision? A decision-making protocol that considers the same factors each time will bring objectivity, standardization and reliability to your priorities and judgment and help you avoid getting swept up in the emotional reactions of either reckless enthusiasm or panic.

8. Hone intuition through experience

Decision-making is often considered both an art and a science. It’s a competency that goes beyond algorithms and spreadsheets — it’s about accepting risk and seeking wisdom from data, lived experience, good advice and intuition. Furthermore, learning to recognize when it might be the most advantageous time to make a certain decision is another plus—- when you have the luxury of choosing the time to act, that is.

By adopting a big-picture perspective, leveraging diverse viewpoints and integrating data-driven insights, you will improve your decision-making skills. As you gain experience, your subconscious mind will develop a sense of pattern recognition, meaning you’ll remember what works and so you’ll do it again. Use this intuitive sense to guide you when data is unavailable or inconclusive.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Chess Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson (Colombia born, represents Sweden)) vs. International Master Espen Lie of Norway (R) in Malaga Spain, 2008

Emotional Intelligence: The Foundation of Leadership Ability

Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to recognize and respect not only how you feel, but also how those with whom you interact feel. Emotional Intelligence also helps you to manage your emotions effectively, both in your inner life and in your relationships. Alternately known as EQ and often portrayed as a qualitative, subjective yin (female) counterpart to the data-driven, measurable and objective yang (masculine) IQ, EI entails more than displaying empathy and being kind, or “sensitive.”

Ongoing research has presented credible evidence that supports EI as a different, but nevertheless valid and beneficial, form of human intelligence. Psychologists, organizational development specialists and leadership development coaches recognize EI as a core life skill that promotes one’s ability to deliver excellent performances, particularly in the domain of leadership. There is no absolutist blueprint, or model, that codifies EI, but there are variations on a standard theme that have been developed primarily by psychologists and organizational behavior specialists. I recently discovered the work of Emotional Intelligence researchers Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis.

Goleman has written extensively on the topic of EI. He is co-director of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ and he is the author of Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence (2017) a 12-primer set on each of the EI competencies that he co-discovered. He also offers training on those competencies through an online learning platform. Boyatzis is a professor in the departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology and Cognitive Science at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and he’s been recognized as a Distinguished University Professor there. He is a co-founder of the Coaching Research Lab and co-author of Helping People Change (2019). According to Goleman and Boyatzis those who aspire to become exceptional leaders will need to develop a balance of strengths across the suite of EI competencies. When that is achieved, outstanding business results will follow.

Goleman and Boyatzis see as EI consisting of four domains—Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management—and connected to each domain are 12 EI competencies. When you’ve mastered the domains and the competencies associated with each category, you will possess capabilities that allow you to be an adept at team player or a practitioner of inspirational leadership, as the situation requires. Below is a capsule view of the domains and the related competencies.

Self-Awareness

This domain refers to the ability to read and understand your emotions as well as recognize their impact on others. In short, self-awareness is a basic understanding of how we feel and why we feel that way. The more we are aware of our feelings, the easier it becomes to manage our feelings and control how we might respond to others.

Those who have nurtured their EI capabilities achieve objectivity through the self-awareness that this form of intelligence develops. Leaders who have developed a high level of EI promote productive and motivated workplaces that give all workers equal opportunities to shine.

• Emotional self-awareness: I know what I am doing and why
• Accurate self-assessment: I am cognizant of my beliefs and mental models
• Self-confidence: I am aware of my abilities, including strengths and weaknesses. I trust my judgment and have a sense of control in my life. I set realistic expectations and goals, communicate assertively and can handle criticism.

Self-management

Also known as self-regulation, this domain can be defined as the ability to manage one’s actions, thoughts and feelings in flexible way, in order to produce the desired results. Optimal self-management contributes to a sense of well-being, a sense of self-efficacy or confidence and a sense of connection to others. You are able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, express your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments and adapt to changing circumstances.

• Emotional Self-Control: You are able to keep potentially disruptive emotions and impulses in check and maintain your effectiveness under stressful or hostile conditions.
• Achievement Orientation: You intend to meet or exceed a standard of excellence. You seek ways to do things better and improve outcome. You reasonably challenging goals and take calculated risks.
• Positive Outlook: You are able to see the positive qualities and characteristics in people, situations, and events. You persist in pursuing goals, despite obstacles and setbacks.
• Adaptability: You have the flexibility to handle change and juggle multiple demands, as you adapt your ideas or approaches to new and unexpected circumstances.

Social Awareness

Social Awareness is the ability to accurately notice the emotions of others and “read” situations appropriately. It is about sensing what other people are thinking and feeling, to be able to take their perspective using your capacity for empathy. Those adept in the qualities of this domain are able to read another person’s face, voice, body language and other verbal or nonverbal cues that communicate emotion and help direct us as to how we should speak and otherwise interact with that individual.

• Empathy: The ability to sense others’ feelings and perspectives, take an active interest in their concerns and recognize cues about what others may feel and think. Goleman further describes empathy as the cognitive and emotional processes that bind people together in various kinds of relationships that permit sharing experiences as well as understanding of others.
• Organizational Awareness: The ability to read a group’s emotional currents and power relationships, identifying influencers, networks, and organizational dynamics.

Relationship Management

This domain pulls together and integrates the other three domains and creates the final product, relationship management. Relationship management can be used to influence those around us and guide or encourage them to make good decisions. You can sense other’s reactions to situations and then fine-tune a response to move the interaction in a positive direction.

Relationship management proficiency also addresses teamwork and other collaborations.
You’ve learned to use the skills acquired in the other domains to steer the group toward
the goal. Furthermore, proficiency in relationship management promotes the ability to effectively manage conflict. Those who become particularly adept in this area can see that conflict is forming and take steps to move others away from this and toward more positive interactions. Effective Listening skills and empathy are essential to deal with these difficult conversations.

• Influence: The ability to have a positive impact on others, to persuade and convince others in order to gain their support.
• Coach and Mentor: The ability to foster the long-term learning or development of others by giving feedback, guidance, and support.
• Conflict Management: The ability to help others through emotional or tense situations, tactfully bringing disagreements into the open and finding solutions all can endorse.
• Inspirational Leadership: The ability to inspire and guide individuals and groups towards a meaningful vision of excellence, and to bring out the best in others.
• Teamwork: The ability to work with others towards a shared goal; participating actively, sharing responsibility and rewards, and contributing to the capability of the team.

You can evaluate and improve your EI skills. Goleman and Boyatzkis recommend a 360-degree assessment, to receive systematic, objective observations of your behavior by people who work with you. Incidentally, EI has been found to not correlate well with IQ or personality traits, but the two values are the best predictors of a leader’s effectiveness, actual business performance, engagement, professional and personal satisfaction. A 360-degree assessment tool that uses ratings generated by you and those who know you well can reveal your EI current strengths and suggest where your EI needs improvement. To best improve your weak spots, find a leadership development expert to coach you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella

Should You Outsource? Think It Through.

I’ll wager that the biggest obstacle Freelancers and small business owners face is limited time. There are so many responsibilities you must manage in order to keep the show on the road. Now look at the bright side—if you’ve got lots to do, it means that your business is growing and has the potential to grow even more. Your stumbling block is, most likely, that you have a small team (maybe just yourself) and you struggle to get your arms around a list of important decisions to make and other responsibilities that demand your attention. You may also have deadlines looming`.

You always assumed, but the point has now been emphatically made, that productivity is a key ingredient in the recipe for success. It’s imperative that you have the focus and ingenuity to develop goals and objectives that will promote your mission and then create and execute strategies and action plans that bring your plans to life. If you’re overwhelmed and stressed by an unmanageable to-do list, you’ll be unable to perform at peak efficiency. Circumstances will force you to make a change because at some point, every business owner must address the challenge of how to get the work done— on time, on budget and in ways that deliver a rewarding customer experience.

Spoiler alert—all potential solutions, including the choice of keeping the status quo (and eroding both the success you’ve created and your health), require that you spend money. The good new is, if you’ve objectively assessed your situation and determined how to efficiently handle your responsibilities, you will be positioned to increase productivity and business revenue.

Weighing your options

The process begins by confirming the tasks that must get done, acknowledging if anyone other than yourself can be reasonably expected to successfully perform certain tasks and documenting the number of days in a typical week you face a backlog of work. If you frequently work more than 50 hours per week, that indicates you’d benefit from bringing in help. If you frequently work more than 60 hours per week, that indicates you’d benefit from a full-time or part-time employee (W-2 tax form). If your need of assistance is more intermittent, for example, during the last week of the month or one or two afternoons a week, outsourcing (1099NEC tax form) is your best solution.

Make an honest assessment of your time, abilities, preferences and money. Furthermore, once you’ve decided which tasks are unsuitable for you, own the tasks that can be most effectively done by you. For example, it will likely be for the best that anytime the face of your brand must be represented, you, business owner, should be present. However, a number of office-based functions can be effectively handled by a savvy outsourced professional. An outsourced marketing expert will be able to suggest goals, objectives and strategies to jump-start growth in ways that the business owner may not immediately envision. A bookkeeper who has experience working with small or mid-size companies will not only bring the entity’s accounts up to a high standard of detail and accuracy but can also advise on issues such as cash-flow problems.

Accept that it may be too expensive for you to perform certain tasks if it diminishes your pursuit of billable hours. In general, if a certain task takes you or your team too long to do, it probably makes sense to outsource the function, especially if it’s something that must be done on a regular basis. Furthermore, if a task is highly specialized, it may make sense to outsource it to someone who spends their time immersed in that particular function and has a real expertise.

Consider outsourcing functions when:

• You don’t have the ability to adequately perform the task
• You have the ability to do the work, but dislike doing it
• You have the ability to do the task, but the time needed to get it done is unacceptable (maybe because it’s specialized and you and your team lack the expertise)
• You’ve realized how much billable time you’re losing by performing tasks that you could pay someone else to do (for less than your own billable rate).

Enable outsourcing success

Establish goals and define expectations for this new role in your organization, so that you can create a good experience for yourself, your team and the specialist(s) you bring in to provide outsourced services. It will be very useful to include in your productivity improvement journey an outsourced Human Relations professional who specializes in job analysis. This individual will discuss and confirm your recommendations of tasks that might be successfully outsourced and responsibilities that will be best handled by you, or current staff. Your outsourced HR adviser can also develop job specs, review and discuss your performance objectives and suggest the compensation you should offer to whom you’d like to hire.

Benefits of outsourced talent:

• Cost: When you outsource certain tasks or services, you don’t have to pay the same wages as you would if you hired an in-house employee. Hiring outsourced talent is a way to manage fixed operating expenses as you nurture business growth. Furthermore, outsourced talent does not come with costs associated with in-house employees, such as taxes, insurance, holiday and vacation pay and other workplace expenses.
• Efficiency: By outsourcing, you can free-up yourself and your team to focus on more important aspects of your business. This allows you to be more productive and get more done in less time.
• Talent: Outsourcing is an attractive option when you need specialized skills or expertise only on an intermittent or short-term basis. Outsourcing gives you on-demand access to talent that would be impractical to permanently hire.
• Scalability: If you have access to a larger pool of talent and resources, your business can scale up quickly without incurring the expenses associated with hiring W-2 employees or configuring additional office space, or even additional equipment rental fees. Chances are, your outsourced experts work remotely.

How to choose the right provider

When looking for the right expert to handle those functions you’ve decided to outsource, consider the provider’s specific industry experience. Choose providers who have excellent references and communicate well. When outsourcing critical functions or handling sensitive information, data security and confidentiality are of paramount importance. Assess the outsourcing partner’s security protocols, compliance with industry standards and measures to protect intellectual property. Evaluate their data protection policies, employee training, and physical and digital security measures to ensure the safety and integrity of your confidential information. Cultural fit and values alignment between your organization and the outsourced specialist are often overlooked but can significantly impact the success of the working relationship. Consider factors such as work ethics, corporate culture and shared values to ensure a smooth integration and collaboration.

Frequently outsourced functions:

• Accounting and bookkeeping: Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping services can not only save time, but also ensure that business cash is well-managed. You will be grateful when, for example, cash-flow is efficiently managed and you can make better business decisions. Moreover, you’ll be relieved to know that the business complies with tax regulations.
• Human resources: Outsourced HR services can provide cost-effective solutions should you need to hire additional employees and decide whether the new hires should be brought in as employees or outsourced specialists. Your HR specialist can also create the job specs and refine your organization’s new customer or new hire on-boarding process, to ensure that all paperwork is present and written correctly and see to it that you present a seamless experience that reflects well on your brand.
• Payroll: Outsourcing payroll services will save time and money by eliminating the need to close books or run reports after every payroll cycle. Regarding new hires and contractors, your outsourced payroll expert will ensure that all tax forms are sent in the on-boarding materials and that information to guarantee timely payment is included and signed by both parties.
• Information technology: Outsourcing IT services can be beneficial for small businesses that need access to technical expertise without the overhead costs associated with hiring in-house IT staff. You must have a network that consistently delivers peak efficiency. Seamless and reliable IT performance is a necessity.
• Customer support: Outsourcing customer support services can help your organization provide better customer service without having to hire additional staff or invest in expensive technology solutions that may not deliver the relationship-building personal touch that your organization needs.
• Legal services: Outsourcing legal services can be a cost-effective way for small businesses to gain access to legal expertise without the onerous expense of paying to add the salary of an in-house attorney or law firm to your payroll. Depending on your needs, it may be smart to negotiate a retainer fee, if legal advice is a regular requirement. Otherwise, contact a business, patent, employment, or other attorney on an as-needed basis.
• Marketing: Outsourced marketing services can be beneficial when you need help creating and executing marketing strategies, running campaigns and tracking results. Your outsourced marketing expert will introduce marketing automation to your company, or will optimize the automation system you have in place. This specialist will also maintain your social media accounts and ensure timely responses to comments and questions.
• Web design and development: Outsourcing website design and development services can bring a level of design and technical expertise to your website that you and your team do not possess, even if coding skills are available in-house. Your inbound marketing and marketing automation depend heavily on an attractively, intuitively designed site that downloads quickly and operates efficiently. Your website designer may also provide technical support services that keep your site up and running, as noted above.
• Virtual assistance: Virtual assistants provide administrative support services for tasks that may include scheduling appointments, managing emails, making travel arrangements and more–allowing small business owners to focus on running their business instead of getting bogged down with mundane tasks. Many virtual assistants offer specialist digital and social media marketing services, helping you attract new customers and some offer specialized accounting and bookkeeping services.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Stephen Root as Milton Waddams in Office Space (1999), directed by Mike Judge

Stir Up Your Sales Strategy

Because you have set up shop as an independent business owner, consistently generating sales of your product or service is central to your existence. Whether your company’s revenue is derived mostly from the sales of long-standing customers or from new arrivals (some of whom are referred by long-standing customers, I hope) and whether your economic landscape is brimming with opportunity or undermined by difficulty, the presence of a sales strategy that consistently produces revenue for your enterprise is a matter of survival. The performance of your sales strategy is not a phenomenon that you can leave to serendipity. It’s a vital sign that deserves your constant attention. Should sales become sluggish, or on the other hand unexpectedly vigorous, you’d better know why it’s happening. If the significant movement in your sales trend is anything other than a seasonal variation, it will be incumbent upon you to diagnose the situation and fix it.

As we’ve explored in this column over the past several months, B2B selling encompasses several factors. It’s a lot to keep your eye on, but that’s the nature of the beast:

• A robust inbound marketing funnel that invites prospects to explore and consider your products and services
• Communicating the perceived value of your products or services
• Asking smart questions that invite prospects to share information that confirms what s/he hopes to achieve when using your category of product or service.

Building a robust sales engine that helps your entity survive the inevitable economic downturns is required of every business owner. Understanding your ideal customer, recognizing which Key Performance Index metrics are relevant, meaning you follow the numbers that reflect an accurate picture of business operations and diversifying the sales channels you use, all with the goal of increasing sales volume, are the primary components of a resilient sales strategy.

Even the invincible iPhone has a sales strategy because there is no product that “sells itself.” Develop and implement a successful sales strategy and you enable your business to not only survive economic challenges but also be positioned for growth and long-term success.

Define your ideal customer

To successfully navigate through business adversity, a deep understanding of your ideal customer will be your guide. You need to know who they are and why they buy from you, instead of a competitor. Along with basic demographic info, you should also comprehend customer pain points, i.e., buying motivations, plus the usual challenges they face and what they hope to achieve once their preferred solution is enacted.

As you discuss the needs of your prospects and the particulars of the project you’ve been hired to do, as well as other conversations you may have with the customer, you’ll be able to conduct in-depth research, gather feedback and eventually get a picture of your ideal customer and what matters most when your category of product or service is used. You research will enable you to create a buyer persona, a sophisticated reference document that identifies and describes your ideal customer, his/her motivations and behaviors.

By understanding your customers well, you can tailor your sales approach to address their specific needs. This not only enhances your value proposition but also establishes trust and credibility. When customers feel heard and understood, they are more likely to choose your products or services, even during challenging economic conditions.

Define and recognize success

A robust sales process relies on clear and measurable metrics. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the metrics that become your compass, a roadmap of the numeric indicators of company performance. If business softens, following a data-driven approach to bring about a recovery is the best defense.

Identify and define KPIs that align with your sales objectives. These may include the sales conversion rate, number of new customers, number of returning customers, average invoice amount and sales cycle length. Regularly monitor and analyze these metrics to identify trends and areas for improvement. By having a data-driven sales process, you can quickly adjust strategies and tactics to respond to changing market conditions.

Identify new sales channels

Relying too heavily on a single sales channel can leave your business vulnerable during economic downturns. To build resilience, diversify your sales efforts by locating additional channels. Investigate both online and offline avenues that align with your target audience and industry.

So if you primarily sell products at pop-up venues, consider expanding into e-commerce and/or strategic partnerships with local stores. Diversification not only expands your reach but also spreads the risk. When one channel faces challenges, others can continue to generate revenue, helping your business weather downturns more effectively.

Utilize technology and automation

In an unpredictable business environment, leveraging digital tools becomes essential for sales resilience. Integrate customer relationship management (CRM) systems to gain insights into customer behaviors and preferences. These platforms enable your sales team to fine-tune your customer outreach activities, prioritize leads and enhance customer interactions. Additionally, consider automating routine tasks such as email follow-ups. Marketing automation not only ensures that every customer request receives a response in a timely and appropriate fashion, but also allows you to concentrate on building relationships that lead to generating revenue.

Finally, because your B2B prospects are not always available for either video or telephone meetings, it’s also wise to invest in virtual communication tools. Platforms for videoconferencing and virtual demos ensure continuous engagement with clients, bridging any physical gaps. By embracing digital transformation, your business is better positioned to navigate economic uncertainties efficiently.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Wang Huazhong / China Daily. Shoppers browse for bowls at the Barkhor Shopping Mall in the Kham region of Lhasa in eastern Tibet.

What Creating Value Means Now

https://neilpatel.com/blog/create-value-in-b2b-markets/

When providing B2B products and services is the focus of your business, it has always been necessary to create, demonstrate value as a means to attract and retain customers. Perceived value, often delivered as convenience, simplicity or cost saving, is a time-honored motivating factor in this sector. Of course you understand this basic calculus but like everything else, as business conditions, technological advancements, shifts in population, or the cost of living are impacted by various factors, then how value is perceived will also evolve. To complicate matters, you can also throw in the question of how value can be not only created, but also maintained and expanded. To dive into this subject, I turned to marketing savant Neil Patel.

As I knew he would, Neil Patel provides a practical explanation of how the potentially confusing matter of B2B value might best be approached and delivered when instability is the order of the day. To start, he segments customer buying behavior into five areas and labels them as “particularly important for B2B markets since these customers are keenly aware of and interested in anything that gives them an edge or adds to their success”.

• Response – The knowledge that someone understands your problem and is ready to solve it
• Service – The ability to clearly spell out the details while eliminating all of the risk (or perceived risk). Can also affect the credibility and trustworthiness of the company depending on how well they handle service-related needs.
• Quality – A consistent formula that results in well-made products or services that help the customer achieve their goal(s)
• Price – An assigned value that’s clear, practical and competitive
• Time – The product or service is dependable, has a sensible learning curve, demonstrates clear return on investment in a shorter period

Having identified factors that were identified as decisive in both his corporate practice, which includes global players such as Amazon, Intuit and Microsoft, as well as the work he does with much smaller B2B entities, he discovered an uncomfortable truth—B2B customers aren’t going to tell you what they want. In fact, they may not immediately recognize, or are unable to describe, the value that will activate their Buy Now button. Your prospects cannot paint a picture of what they’re really looking for and that makes it very difficult for you to offer reasonable solutions that might be evaluated. But the good news is that Patel recognizes that the five decisive factors that govern perceived B2B value can be measured and they can be impacted and improved.

You Are More than Your Product or Service

All of these things add to the core value of the product and/or service, making it so much more. Companies that fail to demonstrate the benefits of these things in ways that customers can understand and appreciate will find themselves hard-pressed to justify the value of their product – particularly where price is concerned.

Notice that there’s one (very important) factor I’ve left out of the value puzzle – trust. Trust supersedes all of the other motivations in this list – however, it’s not something that can be outwardly measured. If you don’t have the customer’s attention, you can build up all of the other facets as much as you like, and you’ll get absolutely nowhere with them. But building trust centers on ensuring that you have the rest of the factors presented in a way that’s relatable, understandable and most importantly, actionable.

All that will happen only when the five critical factors are in place and leading you to create value thar customers will recognize, when they see it.

All of these things add to the core value of the product, making it so much more. Companies that fail to demonstrate the benefits of these things in ways that customers can understand and appreciate will find themselves hard-pressed to justify the value of their product – particularly where price is concerned.

So Why Is So Much of “Creating Value” Focused on the Price?

A lot of discussions about creating value center on price – but this perspective is misleading at best. The truth is, all of the other four facets of value-building: response, time, quality and service, make it possible to justify the price. If the customer isn’t on board with any one of them, you’ll have a hard time closing the sale.

Competing on price alone is a race to the bottom for B2B companies

So how to you make sure that the customer doesn’t simply hinge on price? Follow these steps:

Discover What the Customer is Willing to Pay For

Notice I didn’t say “discover what the customer is willing to pay”. You can uncover a great deal about what a customer values by simply talking to them. They’ll make it abundantly clear if you ask the right questions, especially where previous vendors are concerned. Everything from technical support and training to white-label options is on the table here, and when you find a collection of things that’s high on their priority list, you can:

Hit All the Right Buttons

B2B buying decisions are rarely made by one person. You’ll need to have the whole C-suite, marketing, sales and other executive members of the team on board – and all of them value different things. Don’t hesitate to demonstrate how your product or service can affect a priority of the marketing department, save hours of time for sales and otherwise provide demonstrable ROI to the C-suite. With this in mind, perhaps most importantly, you should:

Sell the Results, Not the Features

Don’t just tell them about the benefits, let them envision the outcomes for themselves. Always remember that the first use of your product or service is in your customer’s mind. When you can communicate the ROI they get in real, measurable ways – whether that return is in profits, time saved or anything else the customer values, you’ll have their attention and most likely their name on the client roster.

Never Stop Improving

Finally, even if you’ve created a fine-tuned money-printing Value Machine, your work is still not done. Even though you’re not competing purely on price, if a competitor can demonstrate that they provide similar (or superior) benefits at a lower price, you’ll find yourself on the defense. In order to continually outperform the competition, it pays to have a finger on the pulse of not only trends within your industry, but trends within your customers’ industries as well.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Work crew drilling through solid rock to create the Panama Canal, Panama, 1906 (Everett Historical)

Build Buzz with Good Word-of-Mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is still the most powerful marketing tool for most businesses, along with an ad that appears during the Super Bowl. In a study conducted by Nielson, the global media insight company, “Global Trust in Advertising”, 83% of responders said they trust the recommendations of friends and family most of all. A study done by McKinsey showed that 20-50% of all purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth marketing.

Positive comments, reviews and recommendations are powerful—don’t underestimate them. Face2Face and online conversations started by you, your customers and even potential referral sources are among the most valuable marketing assets available. Positive talk contributes to your brand’s reputation. Business owners and marketers who take the initiative to build a word-of-mouth marketing strategy can create a steady drumbeat of customer conversations that have the potential to generate new business. User experiences drive word-of-mouth marketing, mostly fueled by product customer recommendations and reviews.

Engage on social media

Social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Pinterest and Snapchat, are tools that amplify your word-of-mouth advertising. Communicate with your customers, solve problems and build your referral network by way of your preferred social media platforms (and also your company website).

Quick response to questions and complaints.

Not all customer experiences will be positive ones, but the right approach can make all the difference. Being proactive about complaints can turn dissatisfied customers into your most loyal brand advocates. Stepping up your response time and personalizing customer care can cement your positive reputation—within four hours, ideally.

Email marketing outreach

Using email to communicate regularly with customers and prospects who have requested to be on your mailing list helps them remember you and brings in repeat business. If you’re regularly providing interesting information, discount coupons, useful how-to articles, or other material customers want, they’ll update friends who have similar interests about the benefits they’ve derived. 

Influencers and brand ambassadors

Although most word-of-mouth marketing is focused on organic engagement, don’t neglect the value of influencer marketing. Having influencers shout out your product or give it a review not only introduces you to a new audience but once again serves as social proof. In fact, recent data shows that reviews are actually considered “the most valuable type of content” that influencers publish. Chances are there are relevant influencers out there that’d be the perfect fit for your brand. If you already have a dedicated customer base, you might alternatively consider starting your own ambassador program.

Reviews and recommendations

It’s been shown that 41% of shoppers say that “robust” online reviews (featuring photos, keywords and more) are important for a positive shopping experience. Potential shoppers will notice that these testimonials are not present and you will be well-served to encourage your happy customers to speak up about what they like abut your company, products and services. Getting good reviews not only represents positive word-of-mouth but also a proven way to gain trust.

Much like user generated content, sometimes scoring reviews is as simple as asking. Ideally, this can be done non-intrusively via email. Many brands implement post-purchase auto-responders to ask for reviews by default, meaning that each purchase is a potential opportunity to earn a much-needed review.

But how you ask for reviews matters. Beyond putting on a smiling face, also consider additional incentives, Your customers’ time is valuable and sweetening the deal is worth it if it means a rave review.

Monitor mentions and respond ASAP to comments.

Do yourself a favor and make sure to respond within 24 hours, and ideally within 4 hours, to customer questions, comments and concerns. accordingly. As you build your brand, your quick, polite and complete responses will be imperative.

• Respond to all customer questions, comments and concerns
• Defuse difficult situations and negative comments
• Keep track of your conversation history so you can build better relationships with customers

Encourage user-generated content

Global brands can easily generate user-generated content but regional and local brands will find it useful to promote their company #hashtags and even customer photo campaigns. Along with your own company photos (hint: start building your photo library!), invite your customers to share photos and feedback. To increase the visibility of your user generated content, try the following:

• Feature a hashtag (and call-to-action) in your bio, perhaps on Instagram or Twitter, and encourage customers, friends and family to share photos
• Include invitations for customers to promote hashtags on-site, in-person and via email (see an example below)
• Regularly publish and re-post user generated content in your content calendar

Share positive reviews and customer testimonials online.

When you do receive positive attention and word of mouth advertising, do not keep it a secret. Share that valuable information online, where the world can see it. Take the initiative to use customer re-posts and re-tweets and into your promotion strategy.

Building buzz for your business and your brand will take time and effort, but the steps you take today will pay dividends tomorrow. Word of mouth advertising is not for sale at any price, but it is the most valuable form of marketing your company can receive. The eight strategies listed above will give you a starting point, but the rest is up to you.

Thank your customers for their business.

Everyone likes to be appreciated, and customers are no exception. While you may have the words printed on receipts or included in email confirmations of sales, or you or your staff may say “Thanks” in person, doing something such as sending a handwritten thank you card to new customers or a returning customer will set you apart as a business who cares about their customers and is worth recommending.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Photographed by Bert Morgan (1904-1986) on the golf course at the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, FL circa 1940.

Maximize Email Marketing ROI

Email marketing campaigns continue to generate solid returns on the time and money spent to produce them and for that reason the format remains among the most effective marketing strategies one can undertake. Email itself is a tremendously popular communication tool as evidenced by a Statista report that shows as of August 2023, 4.73 billion people globally use email. Better still for marketers, 61% of consumers prefer to hear from companies they’re interested in by way of email.

The emails you compose for campaigns require thought, as does all of the marketing content you produce for publication. As always, your objective is to devise clear and concise messages that have an easily recognizable purpose that resonates with email recipients. Your core theme is the most important component of the email, but there are other factors that shape and influence its impact. Below are eight important actions you can take to enhance the success of your email marketing campaigns and improve the odds that your customer outreach will produce the results you need and, best of all, nurture relationships with your clients and prospects.

1. Irresistible subject line

It’s more than likely that those on your mailing list receive dozens of emails each day. How do you convince these busy people to click on your message? Seduce them with your subject line! Maybe it’s amusing or maybe it’s a tad outrageous, but it’s definitely an eye-catching hook that makes the recipient curious enough to click and read.

2. Concise compelling message

Be mindful of the length of your email. Convey your thoughts succinctly. Express your message in simple language and avoid business jargon. For in-depth discussion of a topic, write a short introductory blurb, an abstract, and link to the details.

3. Call-to-action

What would you like your email readers to do, now that you have their attention? Your email needs a purpose—otherwise, why are we having this conversation? You might ask recipients to click a link and leave their contact info, so that the reader can, e.g., RSVP to attend the workshop you’ll teach, schedule an appointment with you, receive the link to a podcast where you were a guest, buy your book, or vote on election day.

4. Image or video

Readers respond to images, whether still or video, that illustrate the purpose of your email campaign. If you include a video, three minutes is your target maximum length.

5. Easy-to-follow layout and graphics

Use spacing and images to break up big chunks of text and make longer emails less intimidating. Choose one font style and use it consistently throughout the email. The idea is to visually please the recipient and literally tempt the eye to linger, look— and read.

6. Cleaned up address list

Holding on to customer email addresses from years ago is understandable — growing an email list is challenging. However, email data becomes obsolete at an average pace of 23% annually, so it makes sense to regularly monitor the accuracy of your mailing list. Check the bounce rate and either delete or correct invalid addresses. When more than 2% of emails bounce back, your company begins to look like a spammer to inbox providers and your emails will be sent to spam files as a result.

7. Follow-up with customers

Getting a reply from one of your subscribers is email marketing gold. Whether they’re writing back to share feedback or ask a question, it shows they care and want to further communicate with you. What’s more, replies are good for email deliverability as inbox providers see them as a sign of trust. Ensure you respond to all emails. Ignoring a message from a customer is unacceptable.

8. Document results

Along with the overall bounce rate and the identity of undeliverable emails, study your campaign open rate and check to see who opens, or doesn’t open, your emails. Use your email analytics and tracking to measure the success of campaigns and make data-driven improvements. Hint: monitor the open rate to discover which topics have the largest percentage of recipient opens and let that guide your content choices.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Keystone View Company (1902). A Letter from Pat in America Young Irish woman reading a letter from a relative in America to an older woman outside of a thatch-roofed stone cottage.

“What’s In the Budget For This Project?”

Hallelujah! A prospect you’ve courted for quite some time has finally agreed to consider using you for a project. You’ve been invited to meet with a couple of members of the project team. You’re preparing for the meeting like a seasoned pro and that includes asking questions that show the prospective client’s priorities matter to you. You’ll ask about the ideal outcomes for the project, how the project fits in with long-term company goals and how a successful project is expected to promote brand awareness and grow the customer base. You’ll ask who will make the decision as to the vendor and when that decision will be made.

You know the right questions will ensure that you understand what the project is expected to achieve and confirm your ability to produce the deliverables. The right questions also signal to the prospect that you intend to meet or exceed expectations. But after you’ve inquired about the project specs, remember to ask another question, an essential question that is sometimes neglected—-the amount of money that’s been earmarked for the project budget. Without ascertaining this vital piece of information, you cannot move forward. To think that you can write a credible proposal without first discussing at least a ballpark price is unfair to both yourself and the prospect. Do you shop without looking at the price tags? Of course not.

The budget is a critical component of the project specs and there must be transparency. Without knowing how much money can be made available, neither you nor the prospect will know if either can afford to do the project until the proposal has been sent and that is too late. When the money talk is omitted from the project specs discussion, decision-makers and stakeholders waste time.

Money talks are intimidating for many. You’re thrilled to be invited to meet with a prospect and you want to make a sale, you want to get to yes. However, if you’re going to be a successful Freelance consultant, you must learn how to discuss money. The money talk brings on the big reveal—-can the prospect afford to work with you (and the flip side, can you afford to work with this company)?

As you know, attitudes about money are an emotional issue and you won’t know how the prospect will respond until you go there. Some prospects are comfortable being up-front and transparent about the budget. Others are not that evolved—- they jolly well know their budget, but they don’t want to tell you. Oh, well!

Nevertheless, you must face up to your money talk and tiptoe through whatever emotional baggage your prospect may have. Here are three direct but polite money talk icebreakers that are guaranteed to make it comfortable for your soon-to-be client to be candid about the budget before you write the proposal. If you’ve done it right, you and the prospect will first discuss the pertinent matters, including budget, and your proposal will confirm in writing what the parties have agreed to.

1. Is your budget in the hundreds or the thousands?

This question quickly helps you understand the resources that your prospect is willing and able to invest in the project. If the response in the thousands, you can further clarify by asking if an amount that seems reasonable would be in the thousands or tens of thousands?

2. Are you thinking $500, $5,000, or $50,000? 

This question encourages the prospect to verbalize a spending range for the project. Remember, these are not your actual prices; these are numbers that make it easier and less intimidating for the client to express what s/he can afford.

3. Would an amount somewhere between $7,000 and $10,000 be affordable?

Suggesting to the prospect a range that’s close to the higher end of what you’d likely charge for that type of project is another good tactic. This question lets you know what type of services the prospect can afford and will make it clear to both of you if it’s worth moving forward with you as the project vendor. Fish or cut bait.

Finally, if you choose to give a verbal estimate, say the price, or the range, and be quiet. Silence gives your prospect an opportunity to consider the price and respond. Silence also communicates that you have confidence in your price. The worst thing you can do is announce your price and then offer to negotiate it down before the prospect has had a chance to say yes or no. Resist the urge to say, “Will that work for you?” Or “We can negotiate that if it’s too much!”

The best lesson you can learn as a Freelance consulting professional is that your time and talent are worth money and you deserve to exclusively work with clients who value what you bring to the table. Those who who attempt to wheedle or bully you into accepting a price that does not reflect your estimation of the value of your services is best avoided. Have the courage and the self-respect to walk away, as disappointing as it is. There’s no point in wasting it on a proposal for a client who can’t afford you.

Having money conversations is not an art–it just takes confidence and practice.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Anand Purohit/Getty Images. An Indian lady is shopping and is ready to pay in rupees.

Recipe For A Winning 4th Quarter Finish

Ready, set, win! In business and in life, it’s not where you start it’s where you finish. When the bell rings at the end of the game—the end of the year—with all your heart, you want to be a winner. Whatever you’ve experienced this year, whether you struggled to close deals or were touched by an angel, your performance in the fourth quarter is going to be impactful. I think it’s safe to say that you’re motivated to leave no stone unturned as you aim to close out 2023 with a victory.

The 4th quarter officially begins on October 1 and summer ends on September 22, but you’re about ready to kick-off your year-end sprint now that September has arrived. It’s time to go full speed ahead; optimizing your visibility to potential customers and referral sources can be the wind at your at your back. Start your campaign by identifying organizations and venues that sponsor programs that align with your brand and will bring you and your company to the attention of the right decision-makers. Your objective is to position yourself as an expert, thought leader and trustworthy professional who, BTW, can deliver solutions to a certain target market and make those who hire you look good. Here are a few strategies that when implemented will propel you out of the starting gate and toward the year-end finish line.

Elevator pitch

You’ll have two or three versions of varying lengths that correspond to the person you meet but in general your elevator pitch , which is an introduction to you, your company and your product or service, should be 20-40 seconds long. Your name and the company name, what you do, for whom you do it (i.e., your typical client) and the primary benefit (outcomes) delivered are what you want to communicate. Hone your pitch until you can define your venture in just a couple of punchy sentences.  An effective elevator pitch will grab the interest of the listener, showcase your mission and get people hooked on your vision, all in less than one minute.

Personal brand

It’s not unusual to confuse reputation with the personal brand, but the two are not interchangeable. Reputation is earned and acquired, influenced by how you behave and communicate. It is external and reflects how others see you.  

Your personal brand, on the other hand, is internal and intentional. It’s also aspirational and is based on how you’d like others to see you. It’s your preferred identity, your unique selling proposition and what sets you apart from competitors.

 Personal branding involves creating and communicating a compelling story about yourself, maintaining a professional demeanor and nurturing a reputation that positions you as trustworthy and dependable. Remember that your brand reflects your core values and purpose, it should resonate with your target audience and inspire their loyalty and respect.

Networking

Networking is the process of meeting and greeting, having conversations and getting to know colleagues and competitors so that you can exchange information, find common ground and develop professional or social contacts. Once in a while, you might be lucky enough to meet someone who becomes a real friend.

You’ll find opportunities to network wherever you meet people. The essence of successful networking isn’t about what someone can do for you; it’s about what you can do for them. Ideally, the experience of networking results in win-win outcomes. The best networking agenda is to create value, be a resource and forge genuine relationships, so that you and your network will support one another.

Social media

Whether your preferred platform is LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, establishing a consistent presence on social media will be a key element in your strategy to maintain visibility in your professional sector. Keep your audience engaged with promotional content, industry insights, interesting company updates and behind-the-scenes peeks, leavened with a dash of your charismatic personality. Because your customers and prospects feel more comfortable doing business with those they feel they know, make your content relatable.

Content marketing

Content is king, but not just anything will do. The content that you produce—text, visual, audio—must give the information and tell the stories that your clients and prospects find meaningful. Your content must also be high-quality, engaging and impactful to tell a memorable story , communicate your expertise and nurture your community. As well, remember that content marketing sidesteps a hard sell.

The format is about providing valuable insights, stimulating conversation and showcasing your genius to the audience. Publishing a blog and/or newsletter that explores topics that interest your target audience, producing or taking a guest spot on webinars and/or podcasts that allow you to personally speak to subjects you explore in your blog and/or newsletter posts are standard B2B content that you’ll post on your website and social media sites or send to your email marketing list. Creating video clips that show you engaged in a local charity event, receiving an award that honors your volunteer work, or even a clip of you decorating your office for the holidays are among the visual content possibilities you might use to present a less formal and more relatable aspect of yourself.

Public speaking

Public speaking opportunities are plentiful these days; your task is to identify venues that deliver your target audience. Panels, webinars, workshops, podcasts, rotary clubs or the chamber of commerce provide great venues for speakers.

If the very idea of public speaking gives you butterflies in the belly, start small and build your speaking skills. Practice in front of a mirror, practice and record yourself on your smartphone. Joining a panel or being a guest on a webinar or podcast are good ways to gain experience and build your confidence, as you get exposure to an audience that might bring you a customer or a referral. Soon, you’ll be commanding the room and leading the conversation in your industry. Public speaking is an investment with dividends in credibility, authority and a wider audience reach.

Press releases and media spotlight

While self-promotion is vital, third-party validation is perceived as impartial and objective and for those reasons, articles that appear in the media have the most credibility. Earned media is the term; to approach media outlets and invite them to in some way include you and your company in a feature, you must make contact with journalists or editors with press releases.

Journalists traffic in stories that they feel will interest their readers (or viewers), so your objective to obtain earned media must be based on a story that the media outlet’s audience will value. Write a press release when you win a business award, when you’re scheduled to appear on a local (or national!) television program, or when you’ll participate in a visible way in a noteworthy charitable event in your community. The story you’d like to share must be enticing and relevant to the publication’s audience. If done consistently and with viable story angles, media features can provide immense visibility and position you as a thought leader in your field.

Guest posts, podcasts, webinars

Engaging with your audience in virtual real-time has become standard practice in the digital era. There are now hundreds of podcasts and webinars broadcast nearly every day. More than just a knowledge-sharing medium, webinars and live sessions nurture a sense of community and belonging. They facilitate connection between you and your audience, fostering a dialogue that’s both dynamic and personal. The topic of your podcast or webinar session and information shared must deliver value to the audience.

Expand your writing credits and your reach by guest posting on popular industry blogs. Be sure to return the favor and occasionally invite a guest blogger to write for you and gain new readers as you do. Guest posting gives you exposure to a broader audience and solidifies your position as an industry expert. Whether you are the host or a guest, podcasts are a fantastic platform for showcasing your insights, opinions and your unique perspectives.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: West Aurora, IL High School’s Victoria “Tori” Spagnola, left, wins the 300-meter hurdles race. Alexandra Johnson, right. (June 2021)

8 Digital Productivity Tools

Freelancer friend, if you’re doing things right, you’re working in the zone and maintaining a steady flow, doing things like managing your client work, generating content for inbound marketing campaigns that fill your sales pipeline and invoicing clients so you’ll get paid, for example. There’s a lot on your plate and making good use of time is a must.

Maximizing productivity is the way to get through your to-do list. Recognizing where you can create operational efficiencies is integral to the process. How wonderful that there are numerous, easy to use online tools that can be of service. You are certain to find that a modest investment in digital productivity tools can pay big dividends, allowing you to save time, show clients that you’re organized and in control of project details and reduce your stress level. Here are eight online tools that can help you get more good things done and give you more time to relax as well.

1. Project management—ProProfs Project $19.99/month (solopreneur)

The right project management software can replace several of the tools you’re using now, to monitor and evaluate the progress of your project, collaborate with clients, share files and feedback, create reports and more. Here’s an online tool that will simplify planning and scheduling of your projects, allow you to quickly view your project, delegate tasks and schedule deadlines all in one dashboard. The platform is a straightforward and user-friendly software solution designed for small to medium-sized businesses across different industries. Keep clients in the loop and let them see that the project is moving forward and you are on top of things.

https://www.proprofsproject.com/

2. Time tracking and invoicing—My Hours free; or $6/user/month

Time tracking software helps employers and workers keep track of time spent on various tasks, projects and other deliverables. You can use this tool to stay organized, whether you’re working solo for a client or when you must track both your own hours and those of subcontractors you’ve brought in to help you.

• Time tracking: You efficiently keep track of how your employees/ sub-contractors spend their time while on the job.
• Timesheets: Timesheets calculate the work your employees/ subcontractors perform in terms of billable hours and make client billing and invoicing faster and easier.
• Reporting: Most time tracking software creates reports on active employee/ subcontractor hours, tasks they complete and more.
• Integrations: Seamless integrations with project management and communication tools such as Salesforce, Asana and Slack, tools your client probably uses.
• Mobile app: With a mobile app, you (and your employees or subcontractors) can efficiently manage reporting and tallying billable hours from anywhere.

https://myhours.com/billing-invoicing

3. Digital wallets—Apple Pay 1.5 % fee applied to each transfer of funds to debit card or bank account when using Instant Transfer.

Digital wallets are apps that enable you to store and use credit cards, debit cards, passes, tickets, ID cards, gift cards, reservations, boarding passes, coupons, membership cards and whatever else that you need to store safely and access easily. So many transactions are now online, I think you’ll agree that it’s time to properly organize and safeguard your important records and receipts? Digital wallets are more secure and convenient than traditional physical wallets and can be used to make payments or transfer money directly from your smartphone.

https://www.apple.com/apple-pay/

4. Writing—Hemingway Editor free or $19.99 one-time payment

Are you producing relevant content that showcases you as a thought leader and expert in your field? Of course you are and that means you do a lot of writing. Hemingway Editor will do more than Microsoft Word grammar and spell check to correctly identify spelling and grammatical errors in your text. The software also illustrates which of your sentences are too clumsy and wordy and suggests alternative words and phrases that are simple, eloquent and make you sound like a silver tongued genius (which is the whole idea!).

You can type directly into Hemingway Editor or, if you don’t want to be bothered with its recommendations while you write, paste your draft text into the tool for edits when you’ve finished writing.

https://hemingwayapp.com/

5. Social Media Management—-Meet Edgar $29.99/ month

A social media management platform that allows you to create a library of posts that can be scheduled to appear on the accounts you choose and at a day/time you specify. In other words, if you’re creating content today that will be ideal for a campaign or occasion that will take place six weeks from now, you won’t have to remember to dig into the file (and hope you can find it), you just save and schedule and know your great content will show up where and when you like. You’ll also receive data that lets you analyze how your content performs on the various platforms you use.

https://meetedgar.com/

6. Email Management—-SaneBox $7/month

This handy tool works with every email platform and, by using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, figures out which of your emails is important and which are not so urgent. Low priority emails are placed in a “SaneLater” folder, while important emails remain in your inbox to receive your immediate attention. Better still, you can learn which emails you’ve sent that have not received a reply, automatically save email attachments to your cloud filing platform and quickly unsubscribe from mailing lists.

https://www.sanebox.com/

7. Scheduling—Calendly free or max. $12/user/month

Regardless of your appointment-setting needs, your scheduling software should present your business in a professional light while simplifying the booking process on both ends. The best appointment scheduling apps offer the practical mix of flexibility and ease of use. They save you time (and headaches) by allowing clients to make appointments with you on their own, as well as cancel or reschedule as needed. At every touchpoint, provide a pleasantly efficient and memorable customer experience.

https://calendly.com

8. Online signatures—DocuSign $10/month (solopreneur)

Here’s an electronic signature platform that will speed-up and simplify your signature processes, all while providing better customer experience and document management. Electronic signature software allows you and your clients to quickly and easily digitally sign contracts or other documents. Whether you need to sign an IRS Form W-9 or authorize an electronic invoice payment agreement as part of client onboarding, your clients will appreciate, and be impressed by, digital signature capability.

https://www.docusign.com/plans-and-pricing

Happy Labor Day and thanks for reading,

Kim

Getting PR: On-Message Expert Source

Not every Freelancer enjoys selling, but every Freelancer knows that selling is the name of the game. You may have a kickin’ inbound marketing strategy that keeps your pipeline filled with good prospects but if you want to close deals, you’ll have to sell. It’s a fact of life—-Freelancers and all business owners are more or less forever in selling mode, always on and ready to promote the brand.

Then again, there are times when it pays to shut off your sales spiel because it won’t work. Social events are the usual no-fly zone for a sales pitch but there is another, less obvious, scenario where a sales pitch is a faux-pas—when speaking with a journalist. Surprise! It may feel counterintuitive, but it is a fact. When you’re lucky enough to win the PR jackpot that a conversation with a journalist brings, anything beyond your short form elevator pitch, presented as self-introduction, is inappropriate. What sounds like a sales pitch is a turn-off to reporters. Here’s why.

One, the journalist is not your prospect. S/he is not interested in buying your product or service. Resist the temptation to sell someone. Two, it’s not the journalist’s job to sell your product or service, so why would you waste time explaining features and benefits and how your offerings are so much better than the competition’s? Don’t go there.

A journalist’s purpose in life is to tell stories that interest and inform readers. To do that, they must identify compelling topics. They also need facts and expert opinions to convince readers of the relevance of the stories. When an invitation to speak with a journalist arrives, a media savvy Freelancer knows to present yourself as a successful entrepreneur and expert, a qualified source who will be on-message and make the reporter look good.

Be the expert source

When a journalist puts out a request for contributors on whatever topic, as is done at Help A Reporter Out http:// http://HelpAReporter.com , it’s your chance to pitch yourself first and foremost as an industry expert. The reporter is searching for a source, a credible expert who can produce a few good bullet points on the topic before deadline. Your products or services take a backseat.

If you are chosen for follow-up, prepare ahead of your interview and be ready with three or four succinct and punchy, memorable quotes. If one or more of your quotes is included in the article, even if the publication is small and local, you’ll reap the benefits that earned media, PR, can bring—-credibility, trust and exposure to new prospects. That’s a lot more impactful than any sales pitch you can make.

If the reporter has in mind a profile that spotlights one or more entrepreneurs, discussion of your product or service may be integral to the story. If that’s the case, avoid the technical, in-the-weeds aspects and instead, focus on the benefits and value-added that clients receive from your product or service. Use the five W’s of journalism to create bullet points for a product or service overview:

• Who does your product or service help?
• What is unique about your product or service?
• Why should readers care?
• Where is this being used?
• When should someone use your product?

Credentials have clout

Before reaching out, a reporter in search of a good source will probably tour your social media accounts to see the content you’ve posted. If you’ve built up a significant following, so much the better, but the size of your following may not be the most important factor when evaluating a potential expert source.

Journalists trust academic and professional credentials and that trust can outweigh even a sizable social media following. While social media might help journalists discover you, they’re looking for someone who can truly educate their audience. Emphasize your degrees, certifications, experience and awards to establish credibility when introducing yourself as an expert source to the media. If your social media following is impressive, by all mean include it.

• Education (PhD., MD, CPA, MBA)
• Professional (university professor, partner at a law firm)
• Achievements (published a book, awards and citations received)
• Media exposure (copies of articles in which you’ve been quoted)

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) is in uniform and on-message at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Kyiv.

Rapid Response: Being Agile

Throughout history, human beings have learned that unexpected circumstances can bring instability to your life or your work and cause you to abandon plans you assumed were carved in stone and adapt to a new reality. Pragmatists are aware that disruption of one kind or another is inevitable and destined to visit your life if you live long enough.

Business owners and leaders, including Freelancers, recognize that in order to successfully navigate uncertainty, it’s possible—-but probably not easy—-to shift gears and make the necessary adjustments. There may be sleepless nights, but you can regain your footing. Agile strategies are the way to make it all happen.

You can trust agile strategies to become your go-to crisis response plan, the roadmap that guides you when the ground is shifting beneath your feet. An agile mindset and strategies will help you to rationally assess how the changed business conditions impact your organization, recognize factors in your organization that must change in response to the new scenario and figure out how to effectively operate within your new business landscape—-and in a timely fashion.

When the tide suddenly turns, agile strategies offer a useful alternative to the typical long-term planning outlook and instead encourage you to devote the upcoming 12-18 months to wrestling with the obstacles your company now faces and, ideally, discovering whatever unexpected opportunities the altered business environment presents. Below are practices to keep at top of mind as your new reality unfolds.

Always-on strategy

• Adaptability in a rapidly changing environment. Freelancers and small business owners usually operate in dynamic environments. Often able to access only limited resources, these entrepreneurs need strategies that can support their evolving circumstances. Agile strategies enable flexibility. They allow business owners to adjust plans and actions in real time, based on customer feedback. Weekly strategy assessments are a useful way to monitor the success (or weakness) of interventions that were enacted and facilitate making refinements as needed.
• Innovation and competitive advantage. Innovation is a driving force of business success. Agile strategies encourage creative thinking as they challenge the status quo and lead you and your team to explore new opportunities. By baking innovation into your strategies, you can discover or create competitive advantages and build a loyal and lucrative customer base.
• Focus on high-value opportunities. Agile strategies help business owners focus on the most critical challenges and high-potential/ high-value opportunities. Your resources are not infinite and it’s imperative that you invest time and money into areas that can be expected to yield the greatest ROI. By identifying these key opportunities, you’ll maximize your chances of success.
• Agility and speed in execution. Small and medium-sized businesses often have the advantage of being nimble and agile. Agile strategizing facilitates quick and objective decision-making, as it eliminates the tradition of lengthy planning processes and empowers teams to swiftly analyze, plan and execute. When your business climate changes, a timely response to customer priorities and preferences is essential.

Smarter strategy

As you acclimate to the practices of always-on strategizing, promoting creativity and innovation, engaging stakeholders and becoming intentional about your company’s strategic direction are among the benefits you will enjoy. You’ll discover the rewards of smarter strategy — AKA agile strategy. Clarity, coherence, focus, adaptability, innovation and action are the guiding principles. Invite agile strategies to become the engine that moves your organization forward.

• Focus on the most critical challenges and highest-value opportunities.
• Address challenges you expect to encounter in the next 12 to 18 months, instead of relying on the usual three-to five-year planning cycle.
• Bake innovation into strategies and let go of benchmarking against your competitors. What they do may no longer apply. Instead, find the courage to think outside the box and always A/B test to confirm your assumptions.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Academy Award winner George Chakiris (Best Supporting Actor, 1962) as Bernardo Nunez in the film adaptation of West Side Story, released by United Artists in 1961.

Which Marketing Channels Are Doing the Job Now?

The platforms and media outlets you use to transmit promotional messages to your target audience, also known as marketing channels, play a role in your marketing campaigns that is nearly as influential as the messages they carry. Each channel has a persona and target audience of its own and appeals to that demographic in a unique way. It should be no surprise that certain channels are more suitable for certain types of content, or are more popular in certain demographics and are less so in others. When you have a story to tell, it’s critical that the marketing channels used are appropriate for the content and appeal to your customers. You need to know which channels deliver the desired ROI, so you’ll know where to focus your resources and attention.

It’s important to customize marketing activity to resonate with your target audience and brand. It’s also incumbent upon marketers to understand that it is almost inevitable that at some point, fluctuations in the global or national zeitgeist might impact customer perceptions of the marketing channels you typically use. So much of marketing is about being in the moment and able to read the mood of your customers and prospects.

As we learned early in 2020-2021, a health crisis, political instability, wars and the resulting economic fallout can cause a seismic shift in customer priorities, budgets and preferences. In a 2022 survey of over 1,200 marketers conducted by the Cambridge, MA inbound marketing company Hubspot, more than 80% of respondents said that marketing has changed more in the last three years than in the last 50 years. Effective marketing means that Freelancers and their corporate counterparts must be vigilant and willing to revisit the matter of which marketing channels win the loyalty and trust of customers in the here and now and ensure that your channel strategy fits your audience.

The Hubspot survey reported that the leading channels used by B2B marketers are social media platforms, company websites, blogs and email marketing and the trend is expected to continue throughout 2023. Also, 61% of companies plan to increase the number of marketing channels of all kinds and they anticipate that the necessary increases of time and money will be budgeted.

Social media use is expanding

The HubSpot survey also found that 45% of B2B companies and 61.5% of B2C companies use social media channels to promote products and services. That customers appreciate the convenience of social messaging allows marketers to engage in real time with customers to answer questions, resolve customer service issues and provide insightful feedback about the product or service. In 2022, more than half of U.S. adults purchased something through a social media channel, according to a 2023 survey of 750 marketers conducted by Sprout Social, the Chicago, IL based social media management platform, and 98% expected to use that channel to make another purchase in the future.

Investing in relationships with customers directly impacts business revenue and strengthens customer loyalty. When customers feel connected to brands, 57% will increase spending with that brand and 76% will buy from that brand over a competitor. B2C brands are more likely to sell products and services on social channels (58%) compared to B2B brands (37%). Still, Sprout Social reported that 89% of B2B marketers rely on LinkedIn to generate leads.

When you reevaluate the validity of your usual marketing channels, whether you’re thinking it might be the time to either add or to subtract, you’ll improve your calculus by addressing the following questions:

• Do the new marketing channels align from a brand and customer experience perspective?
• Do the touch points on the new and original channels align around and emphasize the same benefits and brand image?
• How will new marketing channels attract new customers, lure customers away from competitors, or persuade current customers to do more business with you?
• Do customers understand and appreciate the value they acquire by using new channels?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Italian Air Force fighter planes in an airshow celebrating Frecce Tricolori in Rivolto, Italy on September 11 & 12, 2010

3 Ways That Competition Works for You

When you operate a business, competition is a fact of life. It’s only natural to be unsettled by the thought of competition—it could put me out of business!—but in fact, the presence of competitors in your marketplace sector is a good sign, better than you think. If you adjust your perspective and dial back your (understandable) fear, you’ll learn that competition can pay dividends. You have to know where to look.

To make competition work for you, begin by identifying your principal direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors offer products and/or services very similar to what your entity provides; indirect competitors offer “Plan B, ” products or services in a different category altogether but which your target customers perceive as an attractive alternative. For example, a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses are indirect competitors for Valentine’s Day gift giving.

B2C business owners can easily ID and research competitors who operate either a physical location or e-commerce site by running a key word search and browsing competitors’ websites. You can also follow-up and visit storefronts, to check out the location and the merchandise and say hello to the owner (or the manager). B2B business owners can likewise conduct a key word search and visit the websites of direct and indirect competitors who operate in your geography (or beyond). You can evaluate the products and services catalogued on the sites, but meeting your B2B competitor peers will probably take some effort. Most work from home and even if an office is maintained, it would be inappropriate to drop in without an appointment. Your best option is to look for competitors at business association meetings and other networking events.

It’s good business to benchmark two or three of your most successful direct and indirect competitors and learn the secrets of their success. Some of what they do might work for you, too! Read on to learn how you can turn competition into a win for your entity.

Barometers of marketplace potential

This insight is only an estimate and is not based on metrics specific to your organization but as a rule, if businesses similar to your own are doing well in your marketplace, it’s indication that your venture could also do well. That local competitors are thriving is convincing evidence that there is money to be made.

Remember, though, that many factors contribute to building a successful business and in the B2B sector that would include influential relationships and strength of reputation, access to decision-makers and the ability to consistently meet or exceed client expectations. Another factor is market saturation—established companies may be doing well, but is there enough demand to allow newcomers to prosper?

How you can succeed

Not only are competitors your canary in the coal mine of marketplace potential, another useful dividend that competitors offer is teaching you to become a more astute business operator. So as you study the websites of your main competitors, pay attention to the descriptions of direct competitors—products and services that resemble yours—and indirect competitors—products and services that offer a credible alternative to what you sell.

Furthermore, make note of the calls-to-action you see—which are especially clever and compelling?, the blog or newsletter archive, scheduled speaking engagements—what are the topics and who is the host organization?—and the client list. Those operating in the B2C space can browse the websites of competitors (or visit a local store) and inspect the products and services offered, note the pricing strategy, assess any add-on and up-selling deals and even see the available payment options. In either the B2B or B2C space it will also be instructive to tour the social media accounts—which platforms are used?— and witness how competitive brands interact with customers.

It’s best if you don’t simply copy everything your competitors do. Every business is unique, even amongst direct competitors. If something looks like an intriguing possibility for your venture, test for effectiveness and optimize for your target clients and brand.

You are also advised to resist the urge to compete on price, unless your competitive intelligence shows that your prices are significantly higher than the amount charged by two or more competitors for a similar product or service. It’s tempting to cut prices to gain market share, but it’s a strategy that seldom works in the long run. Aiming to under-price competitors can only put you in a race to the bottom and that’s not what you want. Particularly in the B2B sector, focus on demonstrating and articulating value as you position your products and services in a premium tier.

Cooperate and collaborate when necessary

Now to be seriously counterintuitive, the most savvy and pragmatic Freelancers recognize that it is not a given that competitors are destined to be your adversaries. Assuming that there will always be a certain amount of hostility between you is shortsighted and could possibly cause you to lose out in some way. While you may never trust certain competitors, it’s nevertheless a good idea to be strategically cooperative when necessary. Ideally, there will be enough trust and respect that allows you to build alliances, cooperate when necessary and, in some cases, even collaborate with selected competitors (while observing boundaries, of course).

You never know what the future will bring—the time may come when it’s mutually beneficial for you and a competitor to align professionally and do a little business.  For example, if a policy or piece of legislation is expected to have a strongly positive or negative impact on your industry or working environment, it would be a compelling ice-breaker if you were to reach out to certain competitors and propose that you join forces to oppose or endorse pending legislation that could affect your livelihood.

Don’t be shy about engineering an introduction if you are fortunate enough to encounter one (or more) of your competitors at a chamber of commerce or other meeting. Your competitive intelligence strategy is to be friendly and ask for an exchange of business cards, so that you’ll have contact info. Getting to know your competitor colleagues as individuals is good business. You never know where those relationships might lead.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Walt Disney Company. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the animated movie produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Pictures in 1937. Based on the 19th century German folk tale published in Volume I of Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1812) by the brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm of Hanau, Germany.

Virtual Mode Selling Asks You to be Mindful

When you have a product or service to sell, it’s important to connect and communicate in formats that are convenient and comfortable for your prospect. As we discovered in the early days of the coronavirus shutdown, face2face In Real Life conversations cannot always be arranged. In March and April 2020, you took your first clumsy steps into videoconferencing. Once in a while, you leaned into telephone meetings, one-on-one conversations and group conference calls, too.

You did your best to maintain business as usual (under very unusual conditions) and that included talking with prospects about how your solutions might be of service in COVID era business conditions. As you continued to schedule virtual sales calls and other types of negotiations, it became apparent that the distance inherent in videoconferencing (and also phone calls) presents an obstacle to sensitive conversations. It’s so much easier to to connect with your prospect when you’re sitting in a room together. When in a face2face conversation, you’re more adept at conveying empathy for your prospect and showing your grasp of his/her situation. You instinctively know how to create trust that will nurture a good relationship and encourage the sale.

Virtual mode team meetings are one thing but selling, what with the nuance and expertise required to handle objections in a way that reassures and the diplomacy that supports you during price negotiations, can be rather a challenge. Selling is selling, whether you and the prospect are hashing through details while across the desk from one another, or while you try to make eye contact with a video image, or maintain your focus while speaking to a disembodied voice on the telephone. It’s just that you would be wise to remember that your approach to virtual mode selling must differ from face2face discussions.

Virtual communication requires a pronounced shift to a client-centered perspective. An intentional strategy on your part is needed to more effectively reach across the digital divide to establish rapport and build trust. Below are five actions you can incorporate into your virtual sales calls to show prospects that you understand their needs, priorities and concerns and enable them to feel secure as you guide them through the sales journey.

Lead with empathy

When prospects demonstrate interest in your product or service, perhaps by responding to your inbound marketing, it’s because they need a solution that will solve a problem or enable a goal to be reached. Descriptions of your product or service have aroused curiosity. They hope you’ll understand what they need to do and how to efficiently get it done. Demonstrate both empathy and business acumen by asking questions to show you intend to understand their needs and propose a credible solution.

Employ active listening

It’s been said that the most successful sales professionals devote as much as 80% of their sales conversions to asking questions of the prospect and listening to the answers. The best way to persuade prospects to become clients is to create conditions where they feel seen, heard and understood. You do that by listening more and talking less. When in doubt, or to confirm your understanding of the situation, ask more questions. The more carefully you listen, the more sales you’ll make.

Become the trusted adviser
Your would-be clients are in need of a solution, but they won’t buy until and unless they trust you. The worst move you can make is to get someone on your screen or on the phone and make it obvious that your motive is to rope them into a fast sale. No one wants to have a sales call with someone who just wants to “close” them and maybe even trick them into spending money on a solution that’s not the best and costs more than it should.

Serious prospects want an advocate — a smart, dependable adviser whom they can grow to trust. Prospects, whether they consciously realize or not, want to do business with a professional whose primary intention is to be of service. They back away from those who are too hungry for a sale.

Exhibit the behaviors referenced above and direct them to help you understand the prospect’s need, earning trust and building a relationship as you come to understand how you can be of assistance—-ideally by providing them with the right solution at the right price. A 2019 study published by Gartner Peer Insights found that customer perceptions of a sales professional are a critical element of purchase decisions. Customers are motivated to spend on purchases that support business growth when they feel their sales contact is a trusted adviser who boosts their confidence in their purchasing decisions.

Emphasize outcomes and benefits

The best sales professionals focus heavily on the solution’s outcomes and results, often by painting a vivid picture of how the prospect’s working environment will benefit when the solution is implemented. Prospects want you to take the lead, figure out what’s going on and tell them why your solution will work, without getting bogged down in minutiae. What really matters to prospects is, “How will my life be different after we work together? Will this project be worth the pain—i.e., time and money—-of hiring you”?

Moderate your tone of voice

It’s not only what you say, but how you say it. You’ll be most comfortable speaking in your natural vocal tone, but it may be to your advantage to adapt it for virtual formats, just as you do for speaking to an audience. You don’t want to sound timid and apologetic, but neither do you want to be perceived as arrogant or intimidating.

The ideal tone of voice for virtual (or face2face) presentations is warm, businesslike, confident and straight to the point. Your tone of voice and the pace of your speech should convey a sense of expertise, authority and trustworthiness to your prospects. Use your smartphone to record yourself reading a paragraph and play back to critique your pace, tone, elocution and relatability. Your goal is to find a way of speaking that is both authoritative and friendly.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Close- Up: Revenue and Profit

Does the thought of managing finances more complicated than your household budget fill you with fear and loathing? You are not alone! Many share that sentiment but in the world of Freelancing, getting your arms around the management of company finances comes with the territory. Outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting functions can be a smart move that allows you to focus on client acquisition and retention or other things that only you can do, for example, but you cannot afford to be in the dark about what’s happening with your money. You can’t plan and execute a marketing campaign or an expansion strategy until you know how much money will be available to carry it through.

You can ask your bookkeeper or accountant to suggest a reasonable budget for your plan, but it’s better if you have the answer before you ask the question. In order to know how much money you’ve got, you’ll need to get comfortable with reading your Income Statement, also known as the Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement. The P&L details all the money that is earned (sales revenue) and expenses paid, e.g., rent, utilities, professional association dues, or payroll.

Financial management is a big topic so today we’ll limit our focus to money that comes into the business—revenue—and the money that remains after expenses are paid—profit. The two categories are very similar and are frequently used interchangeably by those of us who are not accountants or bookkeepers, but there is a subtle difference between the two and it makes sense for Freelancers to grasp what each term says about your entity.

Revenue

Revenue is money generated through the sale of products and services plus other money-making activities that take place within the business. The initial tally of revenue indicates what’s been generated before expenses are deducted. Calculate revenue by using this equation:

Revenue = Price x Quantity sold

Sales generated when clients pay for your products and services, along with other income streams if applicable, is classified as revenue derived from normal business operations. However, since a business may generate revenue from different sources (income streams) it’s useful to consider each line of business separately, so that you can scrutinize how each performs. When you separate revenue by source and type you’ll quickly see which is lucrative and which is lagging—and you’ll be positioned to make smart business decisions.

So if you begin to regularly teach a class in addition to your Freelance consulting work, you can record that revenue separately, as it’s own income stream. If you also sell a tangible physical product in addition to your intangible B2B services, you can record revenue from your tangible products and intangible services separately. Or maybe you own a restaurant? If so, you’ll separate and analyze each revenue source by categorizing your menu offerings: side dishes, main dishes, appetizers, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages.

As well, you can separate your revenue into operating and non-operating sources. Operating revenue represents sales from a company’s core business. For instance, in a restaurant, operating revenue is derived from the sale of food and beverages to customers.

• Annual Recurring Revenue

Another category of revenue that you would be wise to record and examine separately is known as annual recurring revenue (ARR). ARR is revenue that is associated with subscription agreements or other contractually dependable, expected revenue streams. Documenting ARR is critical because it provides companies with a predictable revenue stream. There is nothing sweeter than money you can depend on!

• Non-operating Revenue

Non-operating revenue is sort of like selling an add-on—it’s revenue earned from sources outside of the primary (core) function. So in your hypothetical restaurant, non-operating revenue might represent sales of loyalty program cards, gift cards, branded T-shirts, or mugs, for example. Non-operating revenue might be unpredictable or mostly seasonable (associated with Valentine’s Day, or whatever) and is considered nonrecurring. Selling an asset is also categorized as non-operating revenue. Maybe you bought a non-fungible token (NFT) art work that’s now worth big money and you’ve decided to sell?

Revenue vs. Income

For an intermezzo we can also consider income, which in the world of accounting is distinct from revenue, despite the obvious similarities—-both categories mean money in your pocket. Recall that revenue represents money earned from core business operations, that is, the sale of your products and services and also ARR and money classified as non-operating revenue. Income is the money that (thankfully!) remains after all fixed (operating) and variable (sales, marketing, professional development, etc.) expenses have been paid. Income has more in common with net profit, or earnings, than with revenue.

Profit

Profit describes the total gain (or loss) of money that a business has at the close of the period (e.g., month). As is the case with revenue, there are various aspects of profit to calculate and consider. Gross profit, operating profit and net profit are three metrics recorded on your P&L Statement. In general, profit is calculated by subtracting the total fixed and variable expenses, taxes and calculated amortization and depreciation values from total revenue. Calculate profit by using this basic equation:

Profit = Revenue – Expenses

• Gross profit

The amount of money brought in from the sales of products and services, minus the acquisition or manufacturing costs of the products or services that were sold, is known as gross profit. The number reflects the Cost of Goods Sold (product or service acquisition or production costs, including direct labor) but does not reflect the impact of fixed or variable expenses. Calculate gross profit by using this equation:

Gross Profit = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

The interim assessments of profit, in addition to gross sales revenue (also called the top line) allow you to scrutinize the numerous expenses incurred between the top line (gross sales revenue) and the bottom line (net profit) and expose points of profitability weakness (i.e., worrisome expenses) in the acquisition or production of the solutions you sell, all of your fixed and variable costs and even taxation, of your business. In fact, if your top line number is strong but your bottom line number disappoints, an adjustment of COGS or fixed or variable expenses could remedy the problem.

• Operating profit

Operating profit is the next step in the P&L progression toward the big reveal that is net profit, the bottom line. It’s similar to gross profit but includes three more categories of expenses. Calculate operating profit by using this equation:

Operating Profit = Revenue – COGS – Operating Expenses – Depreciation – Amortization

Depreciation and amortization are also values you’ll want to understand as one who manages money, even if you outsource to a bookkeeper and/ or an accountant. Depreciation reduces the actual value of equipment or vehicles due to time or use—wear, tear and age. This calculation puts a numerical value on the asset’s cost versus its operating and residual value.

Amortization refers to the value of intangible assets, such as patents or trademarks and is calculated in the same way that depreciation is calculated. Both of these accounting methods exist to spread out the cost of assets over their useful lives and provide a more accurate picture of a company’s expenses and profits.

• Net profit

Net profit is the final assessment of actual profit and it’s calculated by subtracting all fixed and variable expenses, plus taxes, amortization and depreciation, from your total revenue. Net profit illustrates the overall health and profitability of the entity. It is the final word and is found on the bottom line of your P&L Statement. You can calculate net profit by using this equation:

Net Profit = Gross Profit – Total Expenses – Taxes– Depreciation – Amortization

Differences between revenue and profit

These very similar values are calculated in different ways and each tells a somewhat different story. Revenue reflects your company’s sales and market share growth. Profit is the company’s indicator of financial health. Another difference between these two values is the potential for fluctuation throughout the year. Revenue is prone to fluctuate from month to month because it is subject to marketplace demand which, for example, can be seasonal. In contrast, profit tends to remain more stable over time.

Finally, net profit earnings may also be known as net income or net earnings. Net earnings may be the most important number on your P&L Statement not only because it comprehensively shows the company’s total earnings performance but also, the value is carried over to your company’s Balance Sheet and Cash-Flow Statement.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Get Aboard Your Onboarding!

Signing a new client, or welcoming one who has returned, is a real vote of confidence. Winning a client’s business is a victory that validates your decision to become a Freelancer but as you know, bringing in a client is just the beginning. Before you take on the tasks specified in the contract, it makes sense to introduce your client to the next phase, beyond the sales process—the working relationship, where you show your bona fides and live up to your brand promise. Your client will feel even more confident in the decision to do business with your organization when you:

• 1. Provide a coherent introduction to and efficient launch of the working relationship
• 2. Reiterate the value that the client will receive from the product or service that was purchased
• 3. Show the client how to get started with the product or review how your organization will begin to implement the service

You have a unique opportunity to achieve all of the above (and more) within the sliver of time between the contract signing and initiating the working relationship between your organization and the client’s. Onboarding facilitates that opportunity. It is how you formally welcome new clients, acquaint them with your organization and demonstrate that they are in capable hands. Onboarding reassures new clients by letting them know what to expect when working with you and your team. Onboarding can also be used to allow new clients to get comfortable with using your product or understanding how your service will operate.

Onboarding isn’t just about pleasing clients, however. It’s in your interest to skillfully deliver a seamless experience, from the first pre-sale touchpoint through the post-sale stage. Onboarding is a critical function and your organization must get it right. Do that and you set the stage for successful, long-lasting client relationships that will reflect well on your brand, promote client retention and create conditions that grow your client list and revenue.

Onboarding strategy

For the same reasons that you wouldn’t launch a marketing campaign without first creating a strategy, your onboarding process likewise deserves careful consideration. Because there is both an obligation and opportunity inherent in onboarding, it’s imperative to have a clear purpose for your objectives and desired outcomes. You need a roadmap for where you want onboarding to take your client and envision how that should proceed. Build an onboarding strategy that is specific to your product or service and the client.

Onboard to set expectations

While you made clear to your client the features and benefits associated with the product or service that was purchased, it’s nevertheless a great idea to reiterate during the onboarding process the value that the product or service provides to your clients and it’s also wise to prepare them for potential setbacks that could confuse or frustrate. That way, should they encounter a bump in the road, they’ll be able to take it in stride and not label a sticky point as failure.

Welcome email

Your first correspondence with new clients should be to congratulate their purchase and thank them for choosing you over the other options. Let clients know that you’re delighted to work with them. You can include a request for client information in your email, as shown below.

Client information

Once a client has agreed to work with you, it’s time to collect all the information you need from them to do the job. Consider automating this function to make it easier for and to demonstrate that your organization is tech-savvy. With the right form-building tool, you can quickly create and share digital forms that guide clients through the process step by step. The best tools allow you to add context to submissions via embedded video, text or attachments. They also allow you to send automated reminders for missing info. The info you might request or confirm includes:

• Client contact information
• Project details and goals
• Project completion target date
• Budget
• Point of contact for client’s team and your team
• Schedule a face-to-face meeting or videoconference call with your new client

Recognize onboarding as an opportunity to create a personalized experience for new clients. Each customer has a unique set of concerns and the more you tailor your solution to their needs, the easier it will be to nurture customer loyalty.

Confirm milestones, invoicing, payment format

If an electronic invoice payment system will be used, the client will send the payment registration form to you. Review of the scope and timing of the project deliverables, plus the associated payments or other payments can be discussed at the project kick-off meeting. Also on the kick-off meeting agenda are a confirmation of the project or product performance goals, client expectations for the product or service and ideal outcomes for using the product or implementing the service. You and the client can then discuss how you’ll work together to make them the client’s goals and expectations actionable and achievable.

• Review and confirm project milestones
• Review and confirm payments triggered when milestones are achieved
• Review and confirm the invoicing schedule, if milestones are not used
• Confirm the accepted payment methods—digital, credit/ debit card, check (electronic or physical)
• Integrate info with your Client Relationship Management software (if applicable) to capture client data
• Allow clients to view, comment on and sign e-documents

Check-in call

Although check-ins fall under the heading of a best practice, they should be a feature of your onboarding process. Your new client should feel like you care about his/ her progress and satisfaction with the performance of the product or service. Schedule a check-up call 30 days after beginning to work with a client. You want to make sure that no one has dropped the ball during the onboarding process and to ensure that everything is running smoothly on their end. Make it your practice to periodically check in to see whether and how your client is getting stuck, if that is the case, and either offer advice or assistance or—-happy day!—- celebrate success.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the most luxurious train in the world, travels from London or Paris to Istanbul.

Summer Reading List 2023

There are so many reasons for you to sit down and read a book. Reading is a pleasure, an adventure and an education. Books expand your horizons, awaken your creativity and stimulate your intellect. Reading shows you exciting possibilities, warns you with cautionary tales, challenges and enlightens you with new information and introduces you to alternative points of view. Books open whole new worlds for you.

Reading is also good business, whether you own the enterprise, preside in the C-Suite, or hustle in an entry level position, from barista to call center help desk. Reading is integral to building and maintaining the scope and value of your skill set and for that reason, reading books is integral to professional development. The books you read—in particular business books, but might include history, philosophy, psychology, semiotics, or other disciplines—can strengthen your analytical, problem-solving and creative outside-the-box thinking skills.

No matter how successful you’ve been in your business or career, no matter the educational degrees and professional certifications you’ve earned, regardless how amazing the team you collaborate with, you are destined to encounter challenges as you progress through your working life. You may find the answer to your dilemma while reading a book. Whether your book describes the grit and timing needed to launch a business, provides insight into how you can expand and grow your enterprise, or explores the art of leading or managing teams or organizations, there are books that will teach you to recognize and overcome obstacles and coax the best performance from your team and yourself.

The books included here are appropriate for every stage of your working life. The authors are people who’ve experienced obstacles in the business world and lived to tell the tales. Who better to learn from than someone who has already conquered the difficult predicament you’re facing now, or will encounter in the future?

Start With Why Simon Sinek (2009)

Sinek explores a way of thinking, acting and communicating that cultivates your ability to rally and inspire those with whom you work and interact. A defining behavior of that charismatic quality is demonstrated when you ask yourself (and your collaborators) why? When there are important choices or decisions to make, starting with the deceptively simple question why—-why is this matter important? why should we attempt to resolve the issue in this way?—-has the potential to put you on a path that will result in better answers, better strategies and, by extension, will allow you to achieve more fulfillment in your work and your life.

Leaders in organizations who have the courage to ask why—and question common assumptions, behaviors and practices—typically thrive even when others around them are failing. Often, their why is well articulated and forms part of their identity as it informs the reasons that people do the things that they do. Great leaders and visionaries have a powerful why and they invite others to explore it with them.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/start-with-why-simon-sinek/1016513563

The Personal MBA Josh Kaufman (2010)

The Personal MBA delivers need-to-know information from that which MBA programs consider fundamental, from the five elements of business to the 10 ways to evaluate a potential target market and in the process, the book saves you the time and money involved in earning the formal degree. The Personal MBA breaks it down and helps you understand functions that are essential to business success—from finance to sales, marketing to operations, to the nuances of psychology, motivation and teamwork, to creating systems. Kaufman distills everything you need to know to transform your business, or your career.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/personal-mba-josh-kaufman/1102823220

The Power of Geography Tim Marshall (2021)

Marshall explores 10 regions that are positioned to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry—Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain and (surprise!) Space. Learn why Europe’s next refugee crisis is perilously closer than it appears now. Examine the roots of the tragic instability that roils the Sahel; understand why Middle Eastern nations would be wise to look beyond oil to secure their future; explore why western Asia is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the 21st century; and contemplate why Earth’s atmosphere is set to become the world’s next battleground.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Power-of-Geography/Tim-Marshall/9781982178635

Thinking the Future (2021) Clem Sunter and Mitch Ilbury

Think about it—every decision you make impacts the future! We constantly make choices that affect the next week, next year or upcoming decade. The problem is, you can be blinded by what you want or expect the future to be. Scenario planning experts Clem Sunter and Mitch Ilbury posit that the futurist’s art of decision-making, where the flexibility of thinking like a canny fox plays a key role, will be a deciding factor in successfully adapting to a complex and interconnected world.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/thinking-future/9781776096299

How Big Things Get Done (2023) Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

Understanding what distinguishes triumphs from failures has been the life’s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, who’s often called “the world’s leading mega-project expert.” In How Big Things Get Done, the author identifies common errors in judgment and decision-making that cause projects, big or small, to fail.

Happily, Flyvbjerg also shares research-based principles that will make your projects succeed. The book includes numerous helpful and vivid examples, ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House, to a home renovation in Brooklyn gone awry.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-big-things-get-done-bent-flyvbjerg/1141634446

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business (2007) Gino Wickman
Don’t let common problems and frustrations overwhelm you and your business entity. In this book, you’ll learn the secrets of strengthening the Six Key Components of your business. You’ll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, improved outcomes and more enjoyment.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Traction.html?id=VVDZCQAAQBAJ

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1984) Robert Cialdini

The author cogently explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings. You’ll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader and how to defend yourself against them. The principles apply to readers at every stage of your career journey. Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a catalyst for your success.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28815.Influence

Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy (2020) Patrick Bet-David

From the creator of Valuetainment, the #1 YouTube channel for entrepreneurs, is a practical and effective guide to thinking more clearly and achieving your most ambitious professional goals. Combining these principles and revelations drawn from Bet-David’s rise to successful CEO, the book is a must-read for any serious executive, strategist, or entrepreneur.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-next-five-moves-patrick-bet-david/1136404932

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It (2016) Chrisopher Vos, Tahl Raz

Negotiations take place in many different sectors of life, such as politics and business, and also in some critical events, most dramatically demonstrated by hostage situations. The book is a guide to the wisest behaviors to exhibit when stressful situations develop, whether that involves the need for negotiation techniques in hostage situations or in business. The authors describe what to do, questions to ask and how to react in situations that require negotiation.

Without question, Never Split the Difference can teach you a new and useful competency. Raz and Vos offer unique perspectives that will improve anyone’s negotiations skills, from novice to advanced.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/never-split-the-difference-christopher-voss/1122714695

Freelance Your Way to Freedom (2022) Alexandra Fasulo

Freelancing phenomenon Alex Fasulo delivers a practical, step-by-step guide to navigating the potential and perils of launching your Solopreneur side hustle. The author draws on her experience of scaling a $36,000/year Fiverr gig into a million-dollar enterprise. She explains how to manage those critical moments in business when decisions need to be made quickly and without warning.

In the book, you’ll find actionable tips and hands-on examples to make the gig economy work for you. The book is a must-have for Freelancers, Solopreneurs and Entrepreneurs, as well as anyone who participates or is interested in the future of work.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/freelance-your-way-to-freedom-alexandra-fasulo/1141301804

Happy 4th of July to my American readers! To all my readers, thanks for reading. I appreciate.

Kim

Image: Johann Hamza (1850-1927, Austria) A Gentleman Reading in the Library

You Can Own the Change

The ability to envision future growth opportunities for your company and devise credible strategies to enable their realization can sometimes seem daunting to Freelancers and small business owners. Chances are, you do not have the financial resources to ride out unforeseen obstacles or changes in your marketplace that can derail your progress. That observation is especially true during extended periods of economic instability. How can you position your entity to thrive when even the present is a moving target? Attempting to devise reasonable strategies to guide your enterprise through the next 6-12 months may feel as if you’re mapping a course through a minefield, instead of merely figuring out how to dodge the usual slings and arrows of marketplace competition.

As business, political and environmental conditions continue to fluctuate, you may find it helpful to adopt a new frame of reference, a new approach that is in tune with the times, a mindset that can help you adapt to the inevitability of change. The zeitgeist of the moment seems to recommend three must-have leadership qualities—agility, innovation and communication. These characteristics enable you to have an open mind, let go of the past and encourage you to recognize where and how elements of unavoidable change might work in your favor.

Forward-thinking leaders have always found opportunity hidden by uncertainty. Hard work and determination alone have never guaranteed success. You must face up to the inevitability of change and own it. Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky said it best— “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Communication

As is frequently noted in these posts, cultivating mutually rewarding relationships with clients is the foundation of a good business. Good relationships are built on trust. You open the door by ensuring that your company’s solutions deliver results that exceed client expectations, by going the extra mile to provide superior customer service, including after-sale service and/ or training and when you invite client feedback.

Make it possible for clients to feel that you and your organization are dependable, demonstrate that you value their business and they will be happy to share with you honest feedback that keeps you updated re: any number of changes—how their organizations operate now, shifts in focus and priorities, regulatory updates in their industry, or technological innovations—-factors that may change how your solutions fit their needs.

Communicating regularly with clients represents a competitive advantage because the information you receive can be used to get you out in front of impactful changes. Time and information are money. Conversations with your clients can inspire you to evaluate the feasibility of launching innovations, large scale or incremental, upgrades, or modifications that can position your products and services to more effectively meet client needs and enhance your revenues and long- term viability.

Agility

Let’s step into the agile mindset noted above and acknowledge that fluctuations in the business climate present an opportunity to re-imagine your enterprise and find new ways to deliver value to clients! It has always been true that uncertainty is the only certainty. Your agile mindset will guide you to incorporate a collaborative, cross-functional and communicative workflow style that keeps your organization nimble and responsive to the evolving needs of your clients. In the world of business, the clock never moves backward. You can’t afford to be left behind as the world moves on.

Innovative

Changing circumstances are known to result in new or reimagined products and services coming to market. The most reliable source you can tap into to get ideas about new products, services, or adjustments you can make to your current line is your clients. Be advised, however, that what a client suggests may not be the best change to make—remember that you see the big picture of your business in a way that no one else can.

But from time to time a great idea will surface, perhaps just a small, uncomplicated tweak, that makes your clients more satisfied with how your products and services address their needs. Invite your clients to share the backstory of what they’re facing now and brainstorm how your organization might you make their job easier and less stressful. That’s the real meaning of innovation.

By thoughtfully considering potential product or service modifications you might make, new technological tools you might introduce, or how you can update your delivery model (for example) on a case-by-case basis, you can support innovation, agile practices and beneficial communication with your clients. Best of all, you’ll ensure that your company stays ahead of the curve as you integrate what works to deliver value to your clients now.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Master’s degree students in the Medical Device Design Program at Duke University March 2021

Perfecting Your Pivot

If the quintessential American motto is “change is good,” then in the business sector change finds its ultimate expression in the pivot. You have no doubt noticed that business publications often feature reports of a pivot executed by one entrepreneur or another. The pivot is the new American myth, a swashbuckling action-adventure narrative that stars a Luke Skywalker archetype who launches a start-up. If sales start tanking, our brave and brilliant entrepreneur-hero correctly diagnoses the problem, intuits the marketplace zeitgeist and engineers a flawless pivot that not only saves the company from bankruptcy, but carries it to phenomenal success.

These heroes’ journeys are exciting and tremendously appealing but as you know, reality does not unfold like scenes in a movie. What’s lost in the fawning admiration is the cold fact that a pivot is a complex process. Getting it right demands a deep dive into both your data and that of your marketplace. The ability to recognize the story that the data tells and the good judgment to know what to do about it is another requirement. A dose of good luck is the third resource you’ll need.

It may take a couple of disappointing quarterly financial reports to convince you that a change must be made, and soon, to avoid getting trapped in a permanent downward spiral. Once it becomes obvious that corrective action is necessary, your first challenge is to identify which aspects of the business need to change and what might be left in place.

Resist the temptation to assume that major surgery, i.e., a pivot, is the best remedy. Choose the course of action that data indicates is the most specific and least disruptive solution and should have the best chance of successfully turning the company around. The purpose of your research is to discover and confirm growth opportunities and how to either successfully enter a new market or hit the restart button on the market you’re in, by refining your methods. Carefully research the size of potential new target markets, your access to those customers and the competitive landscape.

For example, as you analyze the efficacy of your marketing strategy, you may realize that some combination of ramping up your inbound marketing activities to increase outreach to target customers, reassessing your pricing strategy and/or upgrading pre- and post- sale customer services provided could make a substantial positive impact.

Once you’ve analyzed your business and marketplace data, you would as well be wise to review your company mission and vision statements. Before making any big changes to the purpose or mission of your enterprise, make sure that the new direction of your company will align with your values and guiding principles. Or will your pivot necessitate a rewrite of your vision and/ or mission statements?

Pivot to solve a problem

Analyze your KPIs, with special emphasis on marketing data and revenue streams. Get input from your customer-facing team members and feedback from high-volume customers—both groups have wisdom to share. Every pivot is different, but every pivot must solve a problem. Following your analysis, you can develop your pivot strategy, the roadmap that defines the aspects of your business that you’ll pivot and the aspects that will support the new direction and can remain in place.

Your pivot plan will outline the steps you’ll take to execute the pivot. It should include timelines, resource allocation and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure its success.

As well, encourage yourself to be confident once your decision is made. A pivot is a significant challenge but it is nevertheless a sign of robust strategic thinking and problem solving, essential qualities that support the long-term viability of your enterprise. Signs that a pivot might be necessary include:

• Insufficient customer base
• Weak brand equity
• Unsatisfactory revenue and profit
• Negative customer feedback
• Overwhelming competition

Types of Pivot Strategies

Pivots offer customizable options—-there is no one-size-fits-all template. Your company’s pivot may involve a group of small changes that together result in a significant positive impact. Conversely, your pivot may be based on a very visible alteration in your signature product or service that precipitates a re-calibration of your brand and all the ways you market and sell it. Below are five of the most common pivot strategies:

Marketing Pivot: Signals a big change in your company’s core marketing strategy. Pivoting in this instance may include targeting a different audience, using more appropriate outreach channels, re-calibrating your use of inbound and outbound marketing techniques, or adjusting the company’s brand voice and messaging tactics.

Product Pivot: Describes a change of the company’s product or service offerings. Pivoting a product may include altering the product’s ingredients, features, or packaging. In a more dramatic approach, the defining characteristic of your pivot may be the introduction of new product or service lines to provide solutions that are more responsive to customer needs and priorities.

Brand Pivot: A branding pivot strategy entails one or more adjustments to a company’s characteristic image and philosophy. Pivoting a brand may include renaming the company (see Facebook to Meta), editing its mission to serve a new target market, updating the company tagline, or refreshing the visuals, e.g., the logo and/or color scheme used.

Pricing Pivot: In this choice, a company may change the pricing tier in which it has previously operated. For example, a retailer that originally priced in the mid-market tier may conclude that economy pricing will better reflect the perceived value of its products. The expected outcome is a broader customer base that generates greater revenues and increased profits.

Distribution Pivot: Closing all or most of a business’s physical locations in favor of operating in the e-commerce sector is a bold example of a distribution pivot. The strategy involves changing how a company delivers its products and services to consumers. Pivoting your distribution model could include expanding into new geographic markets, adding or discontinuing retailer partners, or introducing the franchise model.

Communicate and monitor

In advance of your venture’s pivot, encourage support by explaining the upcoming changes to stakeholders—employees, customers, investors. Outline the changes you plan to make and clearly articulate how those changes will benefit their relationship with the organization. Schedule videoconference meetings with each key constituency to discuss the pivot and make the case for why it is necessary.

Be certain that your explanation adequately answers the anticipated questions and potential concerns of each group. Consider creating a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheet for each stakeholder constituency. Finally, closely monitor the pivot’s progress as reflected in the KPIs you’ve chosen, as well as feedback from key members of your constituencies.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps of Tempe, AZ

Customer Loyalty = Competitive Advantage

No doubt about it, being in business is about the customers and nearly all of your important functions as a business leader are customer-driven. Customers are the fuel that sustains your enterprise and they are worth their weight in gold. In exchange for just a few basic necessities that your organization provides—high-quality products and services, pleasant and efficient service end to end and prompt follow-up to whatever questions or problems, chief among them—your customers will be pleased. They’ll reward you by doing more business with you.

Some will become your cheerleaders and happily spread the good news of their positive experience with you. They’ll write glowing reviews and award your company five stars. Not only will they give you repeat business, they’ll also refer their colleagues and grow your list of customers. Good customers are the foundation of a successful enterprise and in particular for small and midsize businesses they are one of your most impactful competitive advantages.

Now, you may have built a strong brand that within your target market commands admirable brand awareness, but it is undeniable that small and midsize entities do not have the powerful brand influence wielded by even regional companies, let alone the multinationals. Furthermore, in the big picture, the products and services offered by Freelancers and other small entities are seldom perceived as unique. For the most part, small and midsize companies are all-too-often uncomfortably close to being considered a mere commodity and more or less interchangeable with competitors. Ouch.

So how can Freelancers and other owner – operators of small entities distinguish themselves and get positioned to thrive in an increasingly globalized marketplace? Fortunately, one of the most attainable and effective competitive advantages you can bring to your brand to rescue it from the taint of mediocrity is the loyalty of your customers. You nurture and sustain that powerful competitive advantage by the customer experience that you (and your team) present. When your organization gives the gift of a first-rate customer experience to those who do business with you, that happy feeling will become the defining memory that customers have of your organization.

A strategy, not an afterthought

You can showcase as competitive advantages any attributes or resources that your business holds, but the particulars of the customer service and experience your organization offers are personally and uniquely yours. What you do, how you do it and how your customers feel as a result will distinguish you from all competitors.

The customer experience you present is an extension of your company values and culture. When your guiding principles direct you to place the customer at the center of how you interpret best practices, you’ll incorporate that perspective into your business decisions, strategic directions and every customer touch-point. The customer service training you provide to customer-facing employees will reflect your standards of customer service best practices. The desired result is a rewarding customer experience that encourages customer loyalty and customer retention.

Products and services that consistently deliver

It is a given that the quality of your products and services is the leading factor in creating customer loyalty. Excellence is the expectation and customers will quickly abandon your organization if its solutions do not meet that standard.

If for some reason a product or service fails (as the customer defines it), your best defense is to respond quickly, deliver an apology that expresses genuine empathy for the inconvenience and provide a well-delivered correction that exceeds customer expectations.

Surprise and delight

It is always good business to thank your customers for their business and show them that you appreciate their confidence in you and your organization. That they choose to do business with you is the most sincere compliment. A thoughtful gesture costs very little and has the power to repay you many times over with customer loyalty, retention and referrals made.

Providing perks or VIP status is one way you can show gratitude to your best customers and it’s known to encourage repeat purchases and create enthusiastic brand advocates. Depending on your product or service line, consider inviting certain customers to have pre-release access to a new product or service. You might offer those customers a small discount in exchange for their inclusion in a case study that you’ll publish or appearing in a social media campaign.

Another way to show gratitude to customers is by sending a hand written note to thank them for their business. A short, simply written thank you note is an elegant and powerful way to express your appreciation for the opportunity to work with them. At the December holidays, remember to send a (secular) holiday card to customers you’ve worked with over the past four or five years.

The little extras you provide are an expression of your guiding principles, an extension of the memorable customer experience that your organization presents and a welcome change of pace from the digital realm, where most business interactions now take place.

Enable community

When your company’s guiding principles point you toward a customer engagement focus that is centered on customers, you won’t limit yourself to one-way broadcasting of company updates. Instead, you’ll spark conversations that have the potential to inspire your customers and motivate them to interact with each other, along with you and your customer-facing employees. Engagement means that customers feel that they’re part of a community, one that welcomes them with bonding activities that can include interesting conversations, receiving cards and personal notes, or gaining access to special product or service offerings.

Because your customers will find it most convenient to have these types of conversations online, take care to participate in social media platforms that first, make this type of communication accessible in terms of text and images, as does Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok and second, that your platform is one that customers are comfortable using.

When you take steps to build and nurture a satisfying and memorable customer experience, you can be certain that your brand will be recognized and appreciated by customers and prospects alike, who will be delighted to do business with your entity again again. Their loyalty will become one of your most powerful competitive advantages.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Marketing Automation—Give It A Try

Can you afford to invest $50 or so each month in marketing for your business? Can you afford not to? Marketing is a hugely important business function—how else can your future customers know what you do and know where to find you? You may struggle to keep up with your marketing aspirations—it’s a common problem. Small businesses owners and Freelancers are often too busy to fully implement the marketing campaigns that they devise. Today, let’s talk about how marketing automation can create a great leap forward for your LeadGen strategy and deliver a nice increase to your sales revenue.

The most successful marketers know that automating routine marketing functions will enhance your ability to provide the most effective marketing campaign outreach and as well the best possible buyer’s journey experience for prospective customers. When marketing automation software is in place, all prospect requests for information about your products or services will receive timely follow-up. You, your team and your company will look good as a result —professional, responsive, trustworthy and reliable, all brand enhancing qualities.

As you know, marketing automation is the process of using technology and software to automate your company’s marketing activities across all of your digital channels—website and social media platforms. By using automation, you can target prospective customers easily and efficiently and launch special outreach campaigns by using automated email messaging that is peronalized to reflect the customer’s buying history or interest. BTW, according to a recent survey, 80% of prospects reported that they were more likely to do business with companies that offer a personalized buyer’s journey experience. Data from consulting giant McKinsey revealed that personalized emails sent to prospects can reduce customer acquisition costs by as much as 50 % and increase sales revenues by 5–15 %.

Consider trying these four digital marketing automation strategies. Doing so can potentially free up 10 hours/week of your valuable time and allow you to focus on other aspects of your business. Marketing automation service packages and pricing vary widely, but a basic plan offered by most companies is unlikely to take a big bite from an inflation impacted budget. Plugs, there is reason to be optimistic about adding to top line sales revenue. Spend a little money, make more back.

Build targeted email campaign lists

Despite the obituaries that have been written over the years, email marketing has shown us all that like a cat, it has nine lives. Email marketing automation is very useful for LeadGen, helping to generate sales from prospects in your sales funnel. Marketing is all about providing the right information at the right time in the buyer’s journey. Automating email outreach enables you to send that correct message to the right person at the right time and simultaneously save time and increase efficiency as you communicate with prospects.

Nurture warm leads

Encourage the process of converting prospects into clients by personalization—from correct names to accurate buying history data — and enhance prospect engagement. Help yourself and your team to respond quickly to contact forms that prospects submit when they’d like to schedule a call or meeting with you or someone from your team. Follow-up fast on calls-to-action from prospects who’d like to receive your newsletters or attend a talk that you’ll give. Marketing automation will guarantee that you’ll avoid the embarrassing occurrence of leads that get lost in the shuffle and drop off your radar screen.

Your goal is to move prospective customers through the buyer’s journey, AKA the sales funnel, to become a paying customer, Your marketing automation system can monitor consumer activity and assist you in determining where in the sales funnel your prospects are. You can select the info that your leads will receive and the frequency of emailing at each step of the buyer’s journey to help you execute an effective lead-generating strategy.

Automate social media posting

At the beginning of each month, help yourself and create a calendar by planning 30 days worth of social media content ideas. For example, every week, vary your content by type (i.e., educational, entertaining, inspiring, tips and tricks, behind-the-scenes, etc.). This will help keep your social media audiences engaged and interested in your posts while making it easier for you and your team to create the content.

Furthermore, when filming videos or taking photos for social media accounts, aim to capture a variety of content that can be reused and repurposed for various posts. This will cut down on the content creation time, as you’ll utilize one shoot for multiple pieces of content.

Analyze campaign performance

Measuring the success (or not-so-much) of marketing campaigns is often guess work. Especially for Freelancers, following the rate of client acquisition, that is, the bottom line represented by the clients you bring in or bring back, is what many of you do. More ambitious types, or those responsible for marketing in larger organizations, most likely work with spreadsheets to monitor the performance of marketing initiatives. I’ve done it before and I find spreadsheets to be very time-consuming. Plus, not everyone on the team who should regularly post updates will do that without prompting fom the team leader, which takes time.

The beauty of marketing automation is that when you program the software to perform certain functions, the results will always be accurately reported. Once you’ve categorized your leads and customers according to where they are in the buyer’s journey, you can email targeted content that’s specific to each lead, increasing your marketing and sales effectiveness. Next, the lead tracking function will automatically update the system if that lead becomes a customer or makes an important action that might signal a movement toward becoming a customer, such as downloading a price sheet or requesting a copy of a case study.

Once you customize your system, all you’ll have to do is log in, view the results and evaluate what the information tells you. Appropriate follow-up and other trust-building actions can take place every time. Potential customers do not get lost in the shuffle. You make more money!

See the best marketing automation options for 2023 here: https://www.g2.com/categories/marketing-automation

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Walter Nurnberg/Getty Images. 1960s computer technology