It is a great line from a fun movie. Keep on swimming!

This is important for all your business matters from regular networking and social media posts to servicing your customers and increasing your education.

It is hard to keep up with all the little aspects of your business. We recently had a severe hail storm in Colorado Springs and all the reputable body shops were immediately booked out six months or more. That is a great problem to have, until all those jobs are finished and you do not have any new prospects because you quit advertizing because you were turning away work. You need to attract new customers even when you are working to capacity. Some of those future appointments may decide to take their car to Denver or Pueblo instead of waiting eight months and your anticipated income is gone.

You may have let your continuing education slide as you work your business. There are orders to fill, advertisements to create, calls to make, bills to pay… you can not do it all alone. Yet sometimes you do have to do it alone. Add education to your priority list. Change is constant and if you are not continually learning to adapt your business will get left behind.

You do not have to be an expert in every part of your business. You do have to learn enough to hire well for the tasks you can not do or do not want to do. Social media gives you a headache? Hire someone (me) to do it for you, but learn what to look for and which questions to ask so you get good value.

Learn some skills that compliment the services you already offer. I focus on social media and email marketing; however I can also edit most websites, create graphics and edit videos. If you ask me to build a WordPress website from scratch will I do it? Not a chance, but I will add a new page, post your blog or edit your website. Those are simple (for me) tasks that I do for my clients that keep them with me because they do not have to contact multiple people when they want to make changes.

Keep asking for feedback from your customers. The more you learn about your customer’s needs the better you can serve them. I have two primary types of clients. One type could do all the tasks I do for them easily. They hire me because they are more profitable spending their time on other tasks yet still need what I do for them done. I rarely communicate with these clients other than sending and receiving new content updates.

My other type of client needs lots of hand-holding. Their eyes glaze over when I mention adding a buy button on their website or try to explain to them how to share a post to their facebook profile. These clients ask me the same questions repeatedly because the subjects are so foreign to them they can not process them. 

I have learned I need to spend more time with the second type on educating them about how social media and email marketing actually work so they can feel comfortable about what I do for them. These clients also pay me more because I am frequently on the phone with them when they get an idea they have no idea how to implement. By learning their needs (more phone calls and cheerleading) I have been able to retain these clients.

Take a look at where continual learning can help your business and keep on swimming.

Until next time…

Have a great day,
Susanne

If you are ready to dive into the world of social media… Social Media 101 is Perfect for You. Click here to find out more.

There are 17 years between my older daughter and my younger daughter so their idea of fun is not likely to match up very often. Last year the younger asked to older to jump with her and the older, who had been fighting a cold the previous days, declined.

“Why don’t you want to jump with me? It is fun!” Her three-year-old mind could not grasp the idea that a task in which she found such great joy was not just as amazing to someone else.

I know you have been there on one side or another. Maybe you are using a marketing product that is working well for you, but when you tell your friends in business about it you get indifference. Maybe your friend attempts to get you to try out skiing and you do not like to be out in the cold.

Sometimes it is lack of interest and other times it is just bad timing. My daughters have since jumped together and had a mutually great time. Not that day.

Sometimes you are not ready. I have a couple of friends who I have made marketing suggestions to during the past few years that appeared to be ignoring me (my suggestions, not me personally). Recently they both expressed interest in implementing some of those suggestions. They had been so consumed by their businesses they could not even consider a new concept at the time I was playing cheerleader for it.

Sometimes you have to agree to disagree. I have a friend who sells candles and home décor, two items I have zero interest in. It is very unlikely I will ever be her customer. I hope someday to refer a client (or ten) because I want to support her but I am not willing to buy items I do not want to use.

Whichever side you are on remember it is seldom personal. I will be ready to jump together when you are ready. Or vice versa.

Until next time…

Have a great day,
Susanne

If you feel you are spinning your marketing wheels, join me for a Marketing strategy session.