Penguins & Preschoolers: A lesson for business owners

I know what you’re thinking. Connie’s lost it. What on Earth do penguins and preschoolers have to do with business? At first glance, maybe nothing. I mean preschoolers are like 4 years old and we’re…well…older and supposedly wiser.

I love to read a good blog and one of my favorites is the Mann Made Blog by Jaime Lee Mann. It amazes me how she can spin an everyday happening or event into a blog post that teaches you a life or business lesson. Seriously. She can be cooking, gardening, playing with her children or visiting a local coffee shop and she thinks of something about the situation that sparks a great blog post about business. Things we already know, but forget or choose to ignore.

Jaime’s latest entry revolves around her 4 year old preschooler bringing home a picture of a penguin she drew, or so Jaime thought. You’ll have to read the whole story over at Jaime’s blog, but the morale of the story involves copying off of someone else. Something that happens way too often in business.

I couldn’t tell you how many business owners, many have been potential clients, literally want me to copy someone else’s logo, website, marketing piece, or even web content. This is something I cannot wrap my head around because it simply isn’t something I would do. For many reasons. And the fact of the matter is, I have morals and blatant copying is just plain wrong.

Some people think imitation is the highest form of flattery, but it feels more like a slap in the face. It happened to me a couple of years ago when someone decided to not only copy my website content…word for word mind you that also included my personal bio…but this individual also decided to steal my design.

Think about how that felt. This was something that I poured my heart and soul into. I spent many hours, weeks, and months working hard to set myself apart from other business owners in my industry. Do you think I was flattered that my copy and design was so good that they wanted to copy it? Hardly. Not to mention that this person didn’t even have the decency to apologize when I contacted them to remove it immediately.

Jaime makes an excellent point and one that everyone should pay attention to. It is the same thing I preach to my own clients and they love me for it. I push them to think past their own comfort zone, to set themselves apart, to be the one that their potential clients want to work with. But Jaime said it right on target: “Market with your own personality. Be authentic. Be yourself. Make your own unique, individual mark on the world and be proud of it.”

So what are you doing to set yourself apart from your competitors?

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Anyone who knows me knows that I am extremely selective when it comes to promoting or even recommending products, services, or events. I don’t just trust anyone, and I certainly don’t promote lackluster happenings without first hand experience and knowledge. So today, I wanted to let you know about a really great opportunity that won’t cost you a dime…or even a penny for that matter.

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Registration is free of course, and this is your chance to get your hands on the largest selection of FREE ebooks, audios, videos, courses, memberships and more relating to the Self Improvement, Business, and Marketing niches that you will find anywhere!

Self Improvement 4 will be open only for a VERY LIMITED TIME – until January 19th 2010. When you go there you’ll find a multitude of products – all FREE – provided by Self Improvement and Internet Marketing experts from all over the world. Here is just a small sample of what you will find:

Get all of these and 100’s more here: Self Improvement Gifts and the best part is that you can download all of these products TODAY. I’ve already downloaded some pretty amazing ebooks on things like WordPress, Twitter, and Internet Marketing…things that I use and work with everyday. I’m a junkie when it comes to knowledge and I like to keep up with all the latest and greatest tips and techniques. I’ve also found many other great topics that sparked an interest in me that I can’t wait to read.

The organizers of the event are Stephanie Mulac, Rodger Hyatt and Gary Simpson.

Just briefly, this is Stephanie’s 4th Self Improvement Giveaway. Stephanie started this style of event in 2006. It’s in the form of a “Giveaway” which is sort of like a giant electronic trade fair where 100’s of experts offer their products free to the public.

Because it has become so popular, this year Stephanie has enlisted the services of Rodger Hyatt, a very experienced internet marketer, and Gary Simpson who has a copyrighting and self improvement background of some 20 years.

You only have to walk into any book store in any country to see how popular the subjects of self improvement, self awareness and personal development are. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry churning out hundreds of new books, audios, CD’s and other paraphernalia every year.

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With 2010 upon us, what better time is there than right NOW to set yourself and your business up for future success? This event is a life-changing experience for those who take it.

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The Twitter Guide Book – The Twitter Resource You CANNOT Live Without

Tweets, retweets, tweetups, tweeple, twaffic, tweeps…if you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, then you are obviously not using Twitter yet. If that’s the case and you’re running a business, you are missing out on a lot of networking with your current clients, potential customers, and all-around followers that will help you get your message out.

Twitter isn’t just about what are you doing anymore. Organizations are using it to get the word out about their cause or event, businesses are using it for giveaways and promotions, communities are using it to get organized and share information.

Just recently, XBox was giving away a new game room to the top 3 voted for children’s hospitals. Here in Jackson, Mississippi, we have the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children…the only children’s hospital in the entire state. Blair E. Batson used Twitter to their advantage to get the word out so people could vote for them to receive the game room. It was weeks of twittering and retweeting to get other people voting that pushed Blair E. Batson to the top of the list. After all was said and done, the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital for Children was one of the top 3 children’s hospitals in the county that received a brand new XBox game room. This is pretty significant considering we are certainly not one of the biggest states, and well people tend to forget about little ol’ us down here ;)

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The point is using Twitter is a very powerful marketing tool…and well, it’s quite fun which is a big fat bonus. So what is this post really about? If you want to get started on Twitter, or maybe you signed up, but just haven’t had time to mess with it or feel it’s beyond your comprehension, then I have the solution for you. Head on over to Mashable for The Twitter Guide Book. Seriously if you want to know everything about Twitter, but were always afraid to ask, THIS is your chance to redeem yourself.

The Twitter Guide Book isn’t even a book, although they do have a handy PDF to download. It is a web page with categorized links to the best information on how to use Twitter and it is easy to understand. They have it all…The Basics, Building Your Twitter Community, Twitter for Business, Sharing on Twitter, and Managing Your Twitter Stream.

So if you’ve been teetering on the fence about Twitter, this is your chance to put your fears aside and get twittering. Tweet. Tweet.

Why Your Marketing Efforts Are Failing

j0387302Have you ever heard the phrase, “It goes in one ear and out the other?” well, besides referring to my 4 year old daughter, I secretly think this of my clients or potential customers at times. In this case I’m referring to your marketing plan…you know that somewhat seemingly great plan you drafted when you first began your business. Or maybe you meant to or, as one client tells me, it’s all in her head. Well, in her head it will stay unless she actually puts the plan in writing and puts it in motion. (She’s heard this all before by the way)

So where is your marketing plan? There is no other way to say this, but marketing is constant. It is a process that never ends. It is not a one-time project. When you stop marketing, people WILL forget about you, or never know you exist. Keep your name and message in front of them and it doesn’t matter if you’ve done business with them before or not, the next time they are in need of your service or product, they will think of you first. Why? Because you’re consistent and have established a relationship with them. If they only hear from you once or twice a year, chances are you’re not going to hear from them.

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is maintaining this mentality of only marketing when they need the business. Not only is this a very dangerous road to follow, but it is ineffective, time consuming, and this will not solve your problem. Sure it might get you one or two customers, but then there you are again a few months later wondering where you’re going to get your next client from to pay the bills.

If you’re like the client I mentioned earlier, then you might be thinking, “I don’t have the funds to market all the time.” I’m not sure why business owners discount marketing as a way to save money. I’m going to throw another well-known phrase at you now, “you have to spend money to make money.” Now where this phrase is somewhat true, it is not entirely accurate as I’m pretty sure it was coined before the Internet existed.

The fact is you can do a whole lot of marketing, direct or indirect, that costs you absolutely nothing, and almost all of them are using the Internet. A few examples are:

These are just a few ideas to get you going. If your marketing efforts are failing, then it’s time to reevaluate your methods. Of course there are plenty of ways to market using paid avenues. But that’s another post for another day and the point to this one is there are plenty of ways to market your business without paying a dime.

As a side note and to give you a perfect example using 2 of the above methods, I follow a local restaurant called Sal & Mookies on Twitter. A few weeks ago I saw a Twitter message from them – they were giving away 2 $100 gift cards to their restaurant. To enter all you had to do was to re-tweet their message using Twitter or leave a message on their FaceBook page. I of course sent a tweet out and then left a message on their FaceBook page…not expecting to win because I NEVER win anything. Guess what? I was one of the winners! Hubby and I loaded the girls up last weekend and headed over to Sal & Mookies for dinner. What they didn’t know was that we have never been to Sal & Mookies prior to this visit and all because I won a gift card. We’ve heard of them of course, we see their name all over town…they’re kind of famous around here, but we had just never been in all our years here. The point to all of this is that they will have a customer for life. Not because we won a gift card, but because they got us into their establishment, we had fantastic service, and the food was OMG good!

So be creative and don’t drop the ball on your marketing plan. Oh, and if you don’t have one, then now’s the time to draft one out and start implementing it immediately. You don’t have to do everything at once. Start small and work your way up to bigger things.

Early Labor Day Sale on Online Printing

sale_stickerThis week only, get $10 off any order of $50 or more by using coupon code: LD10P from one of our preferred online printers during their early Labor Day Sale. They offer premium quality printing on business cards, postcards, brochures, letterhead, and more. Offer expires September 7th.

Of course if you need someone to design your marketing materials, we recommend Signature Worx! ;)

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