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March 18, 2019 0 Comments

7 Strategic Ways To Grow Your Mompreneur Business

If you are a mompreneur who has been working your business for a while, there comes a pivotal point when you seek to take your business to the next level. Whether it’s to increase your income goals, elevate client experience, streamline your processes or all of the above, growing your business will require some high-level strategies.

As a full-time mompreneur myself in business since 1996, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with the details but the best place to start, even when growing your business is to focus on drilling down what has worked best for you so far. And it’s important to keep in mind, that there is no substitute for keeping it simple.

So here are our 7 strategic ways to take your business to the next level right away.

 

1. Reevaluate Current Expenses

Before you dive into all the new ideas you have for your small business, it’s always a good idea to evaluate where you are right now. Make a list of your current business expenses and ensure you are not spending time and money in areas that you aren’t using. Those $15-$20 monthly subscriptions can really add up.

 

2. Juicy Offer

If you have been building an email list with an opt-in through your website great job! Building an email list is one of the best things you can do for your business. With social media platforms changing daily and algorithm’s decreasing the organic reach of content, having a clear and consistent email marketing strategy is a must. When you email your list, you don’t have to worry about how much reach it will get.

Maybe you have a freebie on your website that has been working and now it’s time to create some additional free resources so you have multiple offers to share and market. Consider creating a “Resource Library” on your website where your visitors can sort through the best offer(s) for them. Create pinnable graphics for each offer through a Pinterest Canva template and pin to a free resources board on Pinterest. This will help you capture more leads for your business where you can build a deeper relationship with through email.

Don’t have a freebie offer on your website? Now is the time to create one! Come up with a high value resource that can help your ideal client solve an immediate problem and position you as an expert.

 

3. Email Marketing 

As you build an email list, it’s important to communicate on a regular basis with that list in order to take your business to that next level. Send out a weekly newsletter to share something of value, your latest blog post, tool, video training, helpful hack or resource.

When it comes to email marketing, it’s definitely quality over quantity. The goal is to provide high-level value that can help your ideal client while positioning you as an expert. The goal is not to pitch your audience to buy something (this is a strategy that is okay every so often but 90% of your emails should be high quality value). Pitching your email list with offers constantly will only land you with lots of unsubscribes.

When crafting emails focus more on letting your personality shine through and less on perfecting polished sales copy. Tell a story through your emails and talk to your audience like you are sitting down with them for coffee.

At the end of the email include a photo of you with a bio, a subtle call to action and link to learn more about how they can work with you.

 

4. On Boarding Process

Maybe you’ve built your business doing discovery type calls and while it’s worked, you are wanting to take back control of your time so you can focus on only working with exactly the type of clients your skill sets are best suited for.

Having an on-boarding process for new clients can definitely grow your business by helping to weed out people who are not 100% your ideal client. Create a Google doc that you can direct people to through your website. You can set up this document to email you the responses once it’s filled out.

Ask important questions that can help you determine if a phone call is the next step or if responding with an email to let them know they are not the right fit for you at this time. You can direct them to paid resources or courses you offer, (we will talk about this more below)or refer them to someone who is a better fit.

Having a process to properly vet clients can save you hours of precious time each week so you can spend that time on other revenue generating activities, working with the right clients and spending more time with your family.

 

5. Passive Income Resources

Marketing a business takes a lot of hard consistent work, and you want to leverage the leads that come into your business as much as possible. While not everyone who lands on your website will be a good fit to work with, that doesn’t mean you don’t have value to offer them.

Put together digital products or courses that can generate passive income so you can focus on investing time to work with higher-paying clients. If you are a graphic designer who designs logos for example, you could put together an eBook training of how to create a simple logo for a new website and charge say $27. Those who may not be the right fit for you to work on a larger scale can take a DIY approach allowing you to still earn revenue for your expertise without doing any extra work.

Passive income resources like this are a great way to grow your business since it’s a product you’ve already created that you can sell over and over again.

 

6. Streamline Processes With Templates

Create templates for every aspect of your business for tasks such as onboarding clients, emails, proposals and invoices. Tools like Freshbooks are great for this as they not only manage invoices and expenses, but also client and project notes.

Use apps to track expenses to save you hours at tax time and create folders for client emails so you aren’t spending hours searching for them. Spending time up front to stay organized can greatly increase your productivity and take your business to the next level.

 

7. Batch Your Time

There is nothing worse than feeling like you are going in circles not being productive. In order to grow your business, you need to use your time wisely and batch your recurring tasks.

For example, instead of trying to figure out every day what to post on your Facebook business page, batch that task and work on it each Monday from 9am-10am and plan out the whole week. You may not even need a full hour as you will find that as you create content focusing on one platform, your creativity and momentum will flow more easily.

Now think of other recurring tasks and batch those. For instance, schedule an hour each Tuesday to create pinnable graphics for your blog posts and quote cards in Canva and upload them to your Pinterest boards.

Batching your time will drive up your productivity while creating a higher level of consistency.

There are your 7 strategic tips to grow your mompreneur business. Implement even half of these and your business is sure to flourish!

Looking for more training, networking, support or ideas? We’d love to have you join our HireMyMom community today!

 

 

 

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March 15, 2019 0 Comments

9 Tools to Help Your Virtual Team Succeed

In our last article, we gave you 10 Key Questions to Ask during the Interview and prior to that we shared 4 Tips on Writing a Great Job Post.

Now that you’ve hopefully found your virtual professional, we wanted to share some tools to that can help you and your team be more efficient, effective and organized. Below you’ll find a variety of tools from time tracking to management to organization to help your team soar to success!

Harvest makes it easy for users to keep track of the time users spend on tasks and projects. It also allows you to spot trends and compares someone’s work hours vs their capacity week over week. Here are four other time tracking options to consider.

Slack– a platform to connect teams with apps, services and resources. From Slack’s website, “When your team needs to kick off a project, hire a new employee, deploy some code, review a sales contract, finalize next year’s budget, measure an A/B test, plan your next office opening, and more, Slack has you covered.”

Loom allows you to connect with your team via videos. You can record yourself, your screen or both. Save time by videoing notes, how-tos, directions, and more without spending valuable time emailing back and forth.

Asana  is a free team management tool that allows you to delegate and organize tasks into projects. You can track the progress of group projects while also displaying individual to-do lists.

Trello is a task management tool that gives you a visual overview of what is being worked on, who is working on it and what’s next to do.

Zoom is a great tool if you are looking for face-to-face meetings, a way to share your screen or conduct online meetings.

DropBox and Google Docs let you share and access files remotely. No more emailing files back and forth, now you can easily edit and share files instantly.

idonethis makes it easy for your team to provide quick daily status updates and helps you run your team more efficiently.

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details!

 

 

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March 4, 2019 0 Comments

10 Key Questions to Ask During the Interview

In our last article, we gave you 4 Tips on Writing a Great Job Post to help you attract some great candidates for your job.

Next you’ll want to narrow your list of candidates down, and then you’ll want to make sure you ask the right questions to confidently hire the best professional for the job.

Here are some great questions to consider asking potential hires:

  • What interests you about this job?
  • What other virtual jobs have you held and what were your responsibilities?
  • What did you like and dislike about this job(s)?
  • How do you structure your work day?
  • How do you handle disruptions?
  • What do you like and dislike about working virtually?
  • How do your skills and experience fit this job?
  • What makes you think you are the best candidate for this job?
  • What is your top tip for having a successful virtual working relationship?
  • How would you describe yourself in 5 words?

 

If you want to get more in depth, the Book, “Who”, authors Geoff Smart and Randy Street outline a thorough process for hiring “A” players. The process may be overkill for some smaller remote roles but the basics of the process provide a solid foundation for selecting the right candidate. 

The interview questions Smart and Street recommend are easy and conversational. They recommend an initial phone interview asking the following questions:

  1. What are your career goals? 
  2. What are you really good at professionally? 
  3. What are you not good at or interested in doing professionally? 
  4. Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a 1–10 scale when we talk to them? 

Each of those questions should be followed up with “tell me more”, “how” and/or “what” to dig deeper to gain more insight about the candidate and their performance, work ethic and skill level. Other tools and resources are available on their website. 

 

After you’ve interviewed the candidate make sure to contact at least 3 of her references to see what they have to say about her and her past work.

Once you’ve asked these questions and talked to their references decide which candidate:

  • Has the skills you are looking for or is a quick learner willing to be trained,
  • Is confident, reliable and trustworthy,
  • Is Independent, self-starter, and doesn’t have to be micro-managed,
  • Meets deadlines and stays on task,
  • Is a great communicator both verbally and in writing.

 

Hiring a great remote employee or contractor doesn’t have to be difficult. Putting in a small amount of time up front and being intentional about the process will help you and your hires have a much more productive, satisfying and successful outcome!

And don’t forget we offer, our personal “VIP Concierge Service” which was created for busy entrepreneurs and small business owners, like you, who need to hire help but don’t have the time or desire to go through the time-consuming process.

With our full service Concierge service, our HR Specialists will do it all for you start to finish and present you with the top candidate(s).

 

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February 18, 2019 0 Comments

4 Tips to Writing a Great Job Post

As a business owner, we know that your time is valuable, and you do not want to spend unnecessary time on the hiring process. That’s why we’ve created a strategy to help you attract and hire the best candidates for your needs.

The first thing you need is a great job post.  

A well-written job post will:

  1. Include a brief overview of the job role and responsibilities including an explanation of the tasks the candidate will be doing.
  2. Indicate any specific experience or skills you are looking for.
  3. Give estimated hours needed per week and if applicable, the specific hours of the day the candidate is needed.
  4. Include your company / team values. Give the candidates insight to what’s important to you and your company to make sure they are a good fit for you and your business.

Here is an actual job post we’ve had on HireMyMom: “I’m looking for a VA I can grow my business with long-term. Hours will increase with growth. I need soeone good.”

Not only does the job post have spelling errors but it does not include any real information about what the job entails or what skills the candidate needs.

Aim for clarity with your job postings.

If you want qualified, experienced, knowledgeable applicants, make sure you job posting is clear and thorough. It doesn’t have to be long but make sure the applicants have a clear understanding of what you need.

If you need ideas to get your kick-started, try doing a search for “______ job description” and work from some of the duties and skills you find online. You can then refine it to reflect exactly what you are looking for.

If you would like us to craft the job post for you, contact us or if you would like help with the entire process, we do offer our personal “Small Business Concierge Service” which includes:

    • consultation to learn about the position,
    • writing a professional, descriptive and thorough job post,
    • posting the job on our website (once approved by client),
    • reviewing all applicant resumes and cover letters, including a check of LinkedIn to reality check the resume.
    • Scheduling interviews – Reach out to selected candidates, coordinate interview scheduling,
    • Interviews -prep & conduct interviews, record interview notes, save interview recordings, etc. ,
    • Select top candidate(s) to pass along to client, write candidate summaries, upload interview video file(s) to Dropbox, email client with resume, summary and link to video file.
    • Follow up with client, answer questions about candidates, etc.
    • Wrap-up – Send turndown email to candidates interviewed but not selected, etc. along with final notes.

Contact us for details.

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January 3, 2019 0 Comments

2019 Small Business Conference Resource List

Conferences are an excellent way to learn new ways of growing and improving your small business. They also provide a great way to learn new trends, tools and resources. Another great benefit to conferences is that they are a great way to network and meet others in your same or similar industries where you can connect and learn.

And let’s face it, if you work from a home office or a small office, just getting outside those four walls can inspire and motivate you in new ways! So here are some Small Business Conferences we have gathered for you.

 

Small Business Expo

12/10/19

Houston, TX

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

12/17/19

Austin, TX

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Know of any other small business conferences not listed?

Please send them to us!

 

 

Past Events:

 

Tony Robbins: Business Mastery

1/26/19

Palm Beach, FL

Price not listed

https://www.tonyrobbins.com/events

Learn from industry leaders, gain an edge on your competition, realize the #1 chokehold to growth, increase your profitability, grow your business 30-120%

 

10X Growth Conference

2/1- 2/3/2019

Miami, FL

$147-$347

https://10xgrowthcon.com/

Learn strategies from the most successful entrepreneurs that will guarantee you to 10X Your Business, 10X Your Income and 10X Your Life

 

Small Business Expo

2/6/19

Dallas, TX

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Startup Grind

2/12- 2/13/2019

Redwood City, CA

Full Access price:  $795 ( early bird until Jan 16- $355)

https://www.startupgrind.com/conference/

Roster of world-class speakers, thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators looking to build relationships, hours of impactful networking and partner opportunities

 

Small Business Expo

2/13/19

Miami, FL

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

EntreLeadership 1-Day

2/19/19

Grand Rapids, MI

Price TBD upon completion of submitted form

https://www.entreleadership.com/all-events

Businesses or leaders at any level.Knowledge and tactics to give you and your business the edge in a market that’s constantly changing

 

PubCon

3/5-3/7/2019

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Platinum Pricing All Access Pass: $799
Gold Badge:  $699
Networking Badge: $499

https://www.pubcon.com/

Insights and techniques in SEO, PPC, social media, content marketing, paid social, local search, Google Analytics and more that will help them revamp and improve their online marketing strategies.

SXSW Entrepreneurship & Startups

3/8- 3/17/2019

Austin, TX

Prices: Badges range in price from $495- $1450

https://www.sxsw.com/conference/entrepreneurship-and-startups/

The Entrepreneurship & Startups Track brings together founders and funders of all stages to talk about current best practices as well as the most exciting new companies and services across industries.

Tony Robbins: Unleash the Power Within Conference 

3/14/19

Los Angeles, CA

price not listed

https://www.tonyrobbins.com/events/

Learn secrets to peak performance, discover the 3 steps to change, master the skills of rapport, decide what you want most in life, dramatically increase your energy.

Social Media Marketing World

3/20-3/22/2019

San Diego, CA

Price Rangs from $297- $1337

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld

Social Media Marketing Tips from World’s Top Experts

Small Business Expo

3/28/19

Charlotte, NC

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Global Entrepreneurship and Business Management Summit

 

4/10- 4/11/2019

Toronto, ON

Business Speaker Price: $599
Entreprenuer Price: $599
Exhibition/Vendor: $2039

https://entrepreneurship.global-summit.com/

Innovation and Latest Trends of Entrepreneurship

 

Small Business Expo

4/12/19

Philadelphia, PA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

4/17/19

Orlando, FL

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Summit 2019

4/28/19- 5/1/19

San Diego, CA

Price TBD upon completion of submitted form

https://www.entreleadership.com/all-events

Business owners, senior/mid-level leaders, leaders looking to grow. Business and leadership strategies that you can immediately implement in your organization.

 

Small Business Expo

5/1/19

Boston, MA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

99u

5/8-5/10/2019

NYC

Price: Badge- $999

https://conference.99u.com/

Hands-on workshops give you a chance to dive into new disciplines, trends, and technologies. 99U provides you with endless opportunities to meet fellow attendees and get exposed to new ideas

 

Small Business Expo

5/9/19

Washington, DC

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

6/5/19

New York City, NY

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

6/20/19

Chicago, IL

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Entrepreneurs Cruise

7/7-7/14/2019

Orlando, FL

Cruise Event Pass: All Access Pass $697 ( family members are free)
Booking Cabin for Cruise ( price ranges from $1500- $2000

https://entrepreneurscruise.com

Content Strategy, Web Experience Management, Usability/Design, Mobile Marketing, Customer Engagement, Social Media, Targeting & Optimization, Branded Search, Marketing Automation, Analytics & Data

 

Tech Cruise

7/7-7/14/2019

Orlando, FL

Cruise Event Pass: All Access Pass $697 ( family members are free)
Booking Cabin for Cruise ( price ranges from $1500- $2000

https://techcruise.co/

Content Strategy, Web Experience Management, Usability/Design, Mobile Marketing, Customer Engagement, Social Media, Targeting & Optimization, Branded Search, Marketing Automation, Analytics & Data

Small Business Expo

8/22/19

San Francisco, CA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

9/27/19

San Diego, CA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Tony Robbins: Leadership Academy

9/30/19

San Diego, CA

price not listed

https://www.tonyrobbins.com/events/

Master 3 mandates of leadership, learn 7 steps of lasting change, hone your unique leadership style, persuade and captivate an audience, tools to coach and empower others

 

Small Business Expo

10/24/19

Phoenix, AZ

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

10/30/19

Los Angeles, CA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Master Series

11/3-11/7/2019

Nashville, TN

Price TBD upon completion of submitted form

https://www.entreleadership.com/all-events

Business owners and leaders who make ownership decisions at their company. A definitive operational plan for scaling your business

 

Small Business Expo

11/14/19

Atlanta, GA

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

Small Business Expo

11/20/19

Brooklyn, NY

Free

https://www.thesmallbusinessexpo.com

Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Sales Strategies, Website Best Practices, Legal Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid, Business Budgeting & Planning, Marketing on a Budget, New Technology Demos, And many, many more!

 

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August 10, 2017 0 Comments

3 Ways to Handle a Negative Business Review

It’s something that every business owner dreads in today’s digital world – the negative review. Between SiteJabber, Facebook, Google, and similar sites, reviews are everywhere – and they’re very important. We do our best work to avoid the negative ones, but sometimes customers aren’t satisfied, whether rightfully so or not. Although negative reviews can and do often happen, the way we respond makes all the difference.

Since we can’t stop negative reviews from happening, read along for some best tips to handle them effectively.

Always Respond

It can be tough to want to respond to harsh words about your business, but it’s very necessary. Responding to the negative review shows that you care about your customer’s experience and your reputation. Future clients and customers put a lot of stock in online reviews these days, so it’s important to have a response.

It’s always better to have negative reviews with responses versus unhappy customers that appear to have been ignored.

Although responding to negative reviews is crucial, it’s also nice to respond to the positive ones! Give your raving fans some attention too, and show them that you appreciate that they took the time to give you a glowing review.

Stay Calm

When you see a negative review, you probably feel angry, hurt, or disappointed – or all three! It would be easy to respond with emotion and anger in the moment, but that won’t fix the problem or make you feel any better.

Once you spot the review, take a minute to calm down. Take a deep breath, step away if you need to, and come back when you feel that you’re able to respond calmly and rationally with facts and apologies if appropriate. Focus on the points that the unhappy customer made, instead of seeing it as a personal attack on you and your business. Express understanding and acknowledge the complaint, while taking the next steps to listen and fix it.

Correct the Issue

If your customer’s unhappiness is fixable, do your best to fix it. Sometimes, they just want to be heard and your response can do that.

Can you offer a coupon, something free or perhaps a consultation to address their concerns and try to win them back over? Offering something small can make a world of difference, especially if the offering is based on their specific concern.

In the case of most negative reviews, the customer just wants their frustrations to be heard. If you can offer something of value, do so! Remove emotion from your responses and address each review with concern, understanding, and professionalism.

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August 10, 2017 0 Comments

4 Tips for More Effective Meetings

Whether you work from home or in a traditional office, meetings are typically a part of your working life. They often get a bad rap as being ineffective, too long, and pointless, but they don’t have to be!

As a manager or supervisor of employees, you can change the outcome and effectiveness of meetings. Read along for some best tips and advice to hold meetings that are worth the time of your employees.

Determine if it’s needed

The first step to ensuring an effective meeting is to see if you even need one! Ask yourself:

 

  • Can my questions be answered easily in an email or over the phone?

  • Is this more of a question for one person versus a whole team?

  • Are the topics needing discussed going to be of benefit for the whole team?

 

You can potentially address questions or small issues via phone, email, or with one person much more effectively, versus involving your whole team’s time. This isn’t always the case, but it’s important to only hold meetings that serve a purpose.

Create a schedule

Once you’ve established that your meeting is necessary, it’s important to create (and keep to) a proposed schedule. While things can veer off course slightly, schedules will keep you on task and on time. Start with the topics to be discussed, then allocate a realistic amount of time for each topic. Be sure to leave time for further discussion and questions at the end of the meeting.

Take notes and distribute

Delegate someone on your team to take good notes, and be sure that they’re written in a way that all can understand them. Once the meeting is done, make sure that this person sends the notes to all meeting attendees. You can also start a team Google Document that keeps the notes in an easily accessible format in one place.

Keep it short

No one likes a long meeting! We’re all busy and other tasks need to get done, but sometimes a meeting is just necessary. Whether it’s to recap client notes and activity, to address a specific question or issue, or just a time to get the team together, meetings are still important. When you put more attention into determining if your meeting is necessary, putting organization and scheduling at the forefront, and making the most of the meeting time, your employees will appreciate your efforts to conserve their time.

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August 10, 2017 0 Comments

3 Top Tips to Use Pinterest for Business

According to SocialMediaToday.com, “87% of Pinners bought something because of content on Pinterest” – which means that Pinterest is still clearly a very powerful social network. You can truly make sales from this network, and it’s important that you’re using it to your advantage in business.

Not only is Pinterest a great place to find recipes and home ideas, it’s a useful place to share your business knowledge. From images of your work to blog post graphics, it’s crucial to utilize Pinterest’s visual medium to produce content for your clients and prospects.

Work on your images

Pinterest is a visual platform, so your images are crucial! Pinterest images should be a certain size to be optimal, and that size is 735 px x 1102 px. You can use a program such as Canva.com to create graphics in this size.

In addition to the correct sizing, your images should be eye-catching and optimized. You can optimize images by naming them something relevant, versus simply leaving them as is. If you’re writing and then pinning a blog post featuring homework tips, you can name it something like: “top-homework-tips-for-kids.” It’s also important to look into keywords here, as that will make your images even more likely to be found. This allows your images to be optimized and more SEO-friendly. In addition to your image file names, you’ll want to include a detailed description of the Pin.

According to CoalMarch.com, you can use keywords to create image file names by using this formula: Industry + Service Provided + Location or Feature (not both). Use Google Trends or another keyword search to find trending topics, as well as keywords that those in your industry are seeking.

Lastly, you can use free graphics programs to create a custom image. Find a stock image of your blog theme, add some text, and make it look nice! Attractive images are more likely to be pinned.

Get social

Pinterest is place where you can share, but it’s also a place to be interactive. Follow relevant Pinners, Pin others’ content your boards, and generally stay active.

The more you add content, pin others’ content, and continue to follow new users, the more your page will be viewed, and the more your Pins will be saved. Try following other Pinners every day, and see how many you get in return. If you’re putting in the effort to follow others, it will likely come back to you.

Be consistent

Consistency is very important in using Pinterest for business! Whenever you write a blog post, piece of content, or produce a product/service with quality photos – Pin them. Get into the habit of sharing your content on this platform, as it’s very visual, and visual networks are encouraging for buyers.

By spending some time optimizing your images, creating stunning graphics, naming your files, being social, and posting consistently, you can see the outstanding sales and business results of Pinterest.

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June 2, 2014 0 Comments

How I Grew my Virtual Business by 50% in 3 Months

In 2013, I boosted sales by 50% in 3 months, while also cutting my stress and workload by about 25%.

Before I get into the details of how to make money online, first you should know about a very special group of 15-year-olds running a Billion-dollar business.

Yes, that’s Billion with a “B”…

Miraculous Billion-Dollar Teens

In their personal lives they can be air-headed and make bad decisions clouded by hormones.

For some of them it’s a miracle they even graduate from high school.

YET…

When they yank on their work uniform suddenly they’re *the* heartbeat of McDonald’s, one of history’s greatest business successes.

Collectively, this teenaged staff (still too young to buy booze) are serving 70 Million people every single day!

…while getting almost ZERO complaints and making a tidal wave of sales… day after day after day… predictably, successfully, profitably.

YET…

You and I – as smart, proud entrepreneurs and salespeople – struggle to manage our load of 20 – 30 active prospects, projects, and customers at any given time.

We follow-up inadequately with new opportunities, we often ignore our best customers, and quickly fall behind on paperwork and filing taxes.

What’s wrong with this picture?

It’s simple.  The solution is SYSTEMS.

Let me use fiery NASCAR driver Danica Patrick to explain…

Tim VS. Danica – It’s ON Like Donkey Kong

Let’s say Danica challenges me to a 1/4 mile drag race – fastest down the strip wins.

She gets to drive her fire-breathing, 750-horsepower NASCAR race car.

Me, a far inferior driver, is allowed to race my everyday, 200-horsepower Mustang.

I would get destroyed.

BUT…

If we swapped cars, I’d crush Danica.  Every. single. time.

How can that be?  After all, she’s *such* a better driver than me!

Well, a car is nothing more than a big system, made up of a bunch of smaller systems: cooling system, fuelling system, steering system, etc.

When I’m driving Danica’s 750-horsepower race car, I’m a fairly average person running a world-class machine – just slam on the gas and keep it pointed straight down the track!

Because the race car’s systems makes it SO easy to go really fast, instantly I’m smoking Danica every single time.

When Danica’s in my (much, much slower) 200-horsepower Mustang, she’s a world-class driver running a fairly average machine.  Even though she could handle so much more, she’s completely limited by the system she’s running.

And *this* is the major difference between entrepreneurs and McDonald’s….

You Are Handicapped By Your Systems

You are like Danica driving an everyday Mustang.  You’re a world-class talent being completely held back by the systems you’re running in your business.

You’ve probably got ho-hum systems to get new customers / clients / investors.

Ineffective systems to complete paperwork and reporting.

Maybe even inefficient systems to produce your product / service.

But McDonald’s?

They’re a bunch of 15-year-olds driving Danica’s 750 Horsepower race car – fairly average workers driving world-class systems, producing world-class business.

The Kids of McDonald’s make Billions while entrepreneurs burn the midnight oil scratching out a living.  Always remember…

Stellar systems, driven by average people,

Will always beat

Stellar people running average systems.

My Path to Systems and Increased Profit

Since 2003 I’d read The E-Myth (Micheal Gerber), Built to Sell (John Warrilow), The 4-Hour Workweek (Tim Ferriss).  All of these books were inspirational but short on details.  I struggled.

My marketing business – Tim Francis Marketing – was growing.  In 2012 it hit a plateau.  I couldn’t possibly take on another stitch of work – I was maxed out.  Or more accurately – my business model was maxed out.

Then in 2012, I read Work the System by Sam Carpenter, which rocked my world.  Best book on small business systems out there.  I immediately took the Work the System Group Coaching, offered by Sam Carpenter and Josh Fonger.

Over the course’s 3 short months I adapted the general lessons they taught – intended for any kind of small business – specifically for my 100% online, virtual business.  I’m sure you’d agree running a business entirely online with staff around the world in multiple time zones is far different than a brick-and-mortar factory or warehouse.

With my first few systems in place, I was now ready to hire staff.  I turned to HireMyMom.com and had two winning applicants working for me within weeks, each executing systems I’d created just a few weeks previous.

In the end, the revenue of my small marketing company soared by 50%, and my work week lightened by about 25% – from around 60 hours to only 45 hours / week.

Today the process continues.  I haven’t reached Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek, nor have I reached Sam Carpenter’s 2-Hour Workweek… yet.  But I’ve made some colossal strides forward and sincerely hope I can help you learn how to make money online too.

Onwards and Upwards,

Tim

– – – – – –

Tim Francis teaches How To Systemize Your Virtual Business at http://www.SmoothOnlineSystems.com.  Tim also runs his marketing company, which has clients in CAN, USA, and AUS, spanning from $150K in sales all the way up to $100MM.

Check out these other great articles about home-based business as a work from home professional. Also check out our home-based job descriptions and current job postings for mom professionals.

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January 14, 2014 0 Comments

Challenging Times Call for Creative Hiring Solutions

In today’s economy, many businesses are having to downsize and cut back expenses every place possible in order to survive. This includes letting valued employees go – often times with much regret. And unfortunately some believe our economy will not improve for a couple of years. So what are businesses to do? How do you support and grow a business if your employee pool is or will be dwindling? Are there creative hiring solutions?

Outsourcing is a Creative Hiring Solution

The good news is that many businesses are finding a perfect solution in outsourcing to independent professionals. These professionals offer the same skills and experience as an on-site employee yet they work as an independent, not requiring employee benefits or office space. One of the largest pools of independent professionals is mom professionals who have left the workforce voluntarily or involuntarily.

Many of them are looking for ways especially now to help supplement their families’ income. And in some cases support their family altogether if their spouse has been laid off. These professionals are experienced and educated but are seeking the freedom and flexibility to work hours that are more conducive to having a family. Some of them work part time and some work full time. Some of them work on an hourly basis and others work on a salary or by the project. What’s great for them and for the company is that studies have proven that a person’s productivity actually goes up when working from a home office. This is at least partly due to the fact that independent workers want to prove themselves and go above and beyond expectations to ensure the work keeps flowing to them.

A Win-Win Solutions

The beauty of it is that these creative hiring solutions is a win-win for the company and the professional. In the majority of cases the company saves on payroll and employee benefits and the professional is pleased to have flexible work and puts forth his or her best effort to make sure the work keeps coming in. For more information on hiring at home professionals, visit www.HireMyMom.com.

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Lesley Pyle is the founder and president of HBWM.com Inc. which includes the national association of Home-Based Working Moms helping moms network, learn and grow in their role as a Home-Based Working Mom and HireMyMom.com connecting at-home Mom Professionals with home-based jobs and projects in virtually every career field.  Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Home Office Computing, and many others.  Twitter @lesleypyle and @hiremymom

Check out these other great articles about tips for mom as a work from home professional.Also check out our current job postings for mom professionals.

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