How to mind your own business

How to mind your own business
Mike is mortified. He made himself look a complete fool at
the Board meeting this morning. It all stemmed from the
Chairman's seemingly innocuous enquiry as to how the Sales
team was performing against budget. Thereafter, questions
were being fired relentlessly at Mike from all directions.
From his hesitant responses and uncomfortable shuffling in
his seat, it soon became evident that, frankly, Mike didn't
have much of a clue. The Board is made up of a number of
very shrewd, successful business people ' captains of
industry. They recognise a bluff when they see one and have
clearly been unimpressed with his unconvincing responses.
Mike knows that this is not a good or safe place for a
Managing Director to be...

Every few weeks, it's the same old story. It's not as if
Mike doesn't prepare for these arduous meetings. Each of
his managers is tasked beforehand with the job of producing
facts, figures, reports and a host of management
information relevant to his or her own department. Mike is
bombarded with statistics but much of this information
seems to be conflicting, erroneous or irrelevant and, very
probably, is largely based on guesswork. It's Mike's
unenviable brief to try to interpret, analyse and make some
sense out of it all but, without a reliable system in place
to ensure accuracy and plausibility of the data, it's an
utter nightmare. Something needs to be done ' quickly.

Luckily for Mike, as he taps onto the Internet, the
solution is at hand when he finds a specialist in the areas
of data integration, reporting and performance management.
This is a business intelligence consultancy with its finger
firmly on the pulse, having had years of experience and
expertise in capturing, processing and presenting
companies' data and converting it into a useful, useable
format. Its know-how enables any company, large or small,
to implement solutions that will improve its performance
radically and add real value to the business. All of the
critical information assets of the business, be they on a
database or in document form, are dispersed in the right
format throughout the organisation, giving people the
ability to manage data and provide strong reporting
analysis, empowering them to make better informed business
decisions and helping them to drive business efficiency.

Mike contacts one of the consultancy's expert
representatives who, having listened to and evaluated his
business intelligence needs, helps him to identify the key
areas of weakness in his company's data manipulation and
report production. Mike's embarrassment and sense of
failure start to lessen, as he is reassured that he is by
no means alone. Very many people in similar positions face
the same frustrations ' but without the right tools and
technology for the job, he can hardly be expected to
produce credible data and reports that will satisfy his
Board. After all, what can't be measured can't be managed.

Together, Mike and the consultancy's representative plan a
bespoke programme of training for Mike and his senior
managers. The consultancy will advise organisations on
the most suitable technology to be used to access,
distribute, monitor, analyse and report on their data. It
also guarantees that its certified instructors provide the
highest possible standard of instruction, are accredited by
the software vendor and that course materials are
up-to-date and fully quality-assured. After two or three
days of specially tailored tuition and expert mentoring
from an onsite trainer, Mike's managers have already
discovered a new level of understanding and are eagerly
anticipating the forthcoming months, during which they can
expect an exciting cycle of development which will involve
them all, will shape their evolution and undoubtedly result
in countless benefits for their clients..

With a firm strategy in place for taking the company
forward, Mike is happy that he's made a sound investment.
For the first time ever, he's actually looking forward to
the next Board meeting, confident in the knowledge that,
with solid information at his fingertips, no amount of
gruelling questioning can floor him. He's in control.

----------------------------------------------------
Business Intelligence is all about making sure that a
business owner knows what is going on in their business.
This is just what Contemporary a leader in the field of
Business Objects offers. Training, hardware and software
can all be provided. http://www.contemporary.co.uk

Think BIGGER About What's Possible For You and Get Out of Your OWN Way!

Think BIGGER About What's Possible For You and Get Out of Your OWN Way!
In preparation for my Marketing and Mindset Breakthroughs
Workshop, I asked a few people to be part of my R&D team to
find out what stopped them from getting out there in a BIG
way to get clients. I also asked them to tell me the MOST
they could see themselves making being self-employed.
Honestly, I was saddened by the answers that rolled in, and
their answers were right in line with what I hear from many
other people I've talked to about this.

You see, most people have very LOW expectations on what can
be made in self-employment. The average from my polling was
between $50,000 and $75,000, and the highest amount I heard
was about $150,000. Using SYSTEMS and LEVERAGE techniques
in marketing and running your business, you can totally
change that to create an income that is FAR beyond what
you've ever thought was attainable for yourself. (I know
that it may not seem possible as you read this, but I
promise you, it IS possible for you too. I've done it for
myself and I've done it for countless clients.)

To help you change your mindset around that, I wanted to
share a paragraph in Louise Hay's book 'You Can Heal Your
Life,' which has stayed with me since the very first time I
read it years ago. Here's what she writes:

"I love the visualization of standing at the seashore
looking out at the vast ocean and knowing that this ocean
is the abundance that is available to me. Look down at your
hands and see what sort of container you are holding. Is it
a teaspoon, a thimble with a hole in it, a paper cup, a
glass, a tumbler, a pitcher, a bucket, a wash tub, or
perhaps you have a pipeline connected to this ocean of
abundance? Look around you and notice that no matter how
many people there are and no matter what kind of container
they have, there is plenty for everyone. You cannot rob
another, and they cannot rob you. And in no way can you
drain the ocean dry. Your container is your consciousness,
and it can always be exchanged for a larger container."

I was totally floored when I first read this. I remember
"looking down at my hands" and seeing a very large bucket,
one bigger than I could carry by myself, thinking that was
a LOT. But when I read about the possibility of having a
PIPELINE connected to this ocean of abundance, I was struck
by the very small thinking I was doing. And frankly, I was
upset with myself for having thought so small before.

It hit me like a ton of bricks that I wasn't asking the
Universe for nearly as much as I could. So, I started
"asking" for a bigger income, little by little, every year
by adding about $50,000 to the previous year's revenue
goals, believing that I COULD achieve it. And at the end of
every year, I did achieve it, sometimes by a lot more.

Now, each year, I ask to DOUBLE my income, and my ability
to help twice as many people attract more clients, and I
either reach it, or come pretty close each time. Knowing
that you can always trade in your container for a bigger
one, and that you cannot "rob another" because there is an
unlimited supply of what you want, what are YOU asking for
and going after?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on the sand,
toes in the water, looking out into the vast ocean of
abundance. Yes, even if it feels corny or goofy, just DO
it, no one's watching you! Besides, how you do anything is
how you do everything, in business and in life. (If you're
not willing to do THIS, then you're probably not willing to
do much to change your mindset or what it takes to grow
your business.)

Imagine that you cannot ask for too much because you can
never exhaust the supply that is available to you and
everyone else. No matter what you've thought up to now,
know this:

There will never be a shortage of clients you can attract.
There will always be enough people who will pay you what
you want to be paid and more. There will never be a cap on
how many clients you can help. There will never be a cap on
how many products you can sell. There will never be a cap
on how many attendees will attend your workshop or
teleclass. There is an inexhaustible supply of ways you can
offer what you offer that your competitors don't offer. The
only person who sets that limit is you. The good news about
that is you can break your current paradigm and situation
at any time you choose. You can find a way to innovate and
break the mold. You do not need to be tied down to what you
have thought up to now.

Heck, if you're gonna dream, well darn it, dream BIG! Look
back at your list of wants. Were you playing small? Were
you playing too safe? Were you afraid to ask for a lot
more? What came up for you? Now, tweak the list to think
BIGGER. You deserve it and once you believe it is possible
for yourself, you can indeed have it (that's what's been
happening with me, so it can happen to you too.)

That being said, you might be having trouble imagining
yourself achieving a BIGGER goal in your business. It's
probably a fear of overwhelm, fear of success, or fear of
failure, a fear of rejection, or perhaps a question of
whether you DESERVE that much abundance and success. Not
sure if you'll be able to actually HANDLE the success?

Many entrepreneurs stop themselves from having more because
of limiting beliefs, self-doubt, and self-sabotaging
behavior or procrastination and this currently keeps them
from having what they say they want. I see this DAILY and
it's got to stop. The good news is, it's easy to stop, when
you know how.

----------------------------------------------------
I'll be giving you the solution to eliminating this in the
soon-to-be-released 'Client Attraction Marketing and
Mindset Breakthroughs Workshop-in-a-Box' It's truly
life-changing. In it, you'll get all the easy-to-implement
Marketing, Leverage and Systems strategies you'll need to
FINALLY have more clients learn more at
http://www.clientattraction.com .

Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's Brand

Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's Brand
When you first start a small business, you create your
brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the
company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more
often than not it's based on a guess.

Then once you actually start doing business, you may find
that your business isn't following the same path you set
out on.

And now for something completely different

Just like in Monty Python, everything can shift and change
in your business. It may even take a whole new direction.

But changing everything in your brand isn't a matter to be
taken lightly. Redesigning a brand requires a solid
business reason.

What "solid business reason" can cause a brand change?

Even though I believe that it's important for a small
business to design their logo for life, there are
occasionally big reasons for a business to redesign their
logo—and even rename—their businesses.

What kinds of change are big enough?

Company name. This seems obvious, but if you change your
company name, it's important to redesign your logo and
marketing materials to signal the change. Don't just put
the new name with the old logo and hope that no one
notices. If you don't redesign the logo, it can seem a bit
"fishy" to attentive customers—why did the name suddenly
change? Changing your brand design will also make the
change more noticeable. You'll be less likely to receive
checks made out to the old company name (and that you can't
deposit in your new bank account).

The structure or way you work. If you've gone from
personally serving each and every one of your clients to
having more staff members that work on accounts, a brand
change can ease the transition. The new brand can help
reset service expectations. For example, a move from being
Jennifer Perkins Consulting where Jennifer herself works
solely on all accounts to being the Rocket Process
Consulting Group where a team of consultants who all report
to Jennifer work on the account makes perfect sense.

Drastically changing services. If you were an interior
designer and now you're going into staging, you might be
able to keep your logo and just rewrite the copy on your
marketing pieces to reflect the change. But if you're
growing your company into an architectural redesign and
interior remodeling company, a redesign of your brand may
make more sense. It will show the change in your business.
This can also make your existing clients more open-minded
about hiring you for projects in your new area of expertise.

New target audience. If you're going from consulting with
hospital staff members to consulting with government
agencies, it may be appropriate to change your brand to
better appeal to your new clients.

You offer different benefits to your clients. If you've
refocused your business to create different results for
your clients or to solve a different problem then a brand
change may help.

If your business has changed in any of these major ways,
it's time for you to re-examine and redesign your brand.
The new brand will perfectly fit in with your "now
completely different" business.

----------------------------------------------------
Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. As the owner of elf
design, Erin is passionate about helping her clients stand
out in front of their competition and attract more clients.
Her "Define Your Difference Branding Workbook" will help
you with your brand definition - the most important step in
the logo design process.
http://www.elf-design.com/products-define.html

The power of the right message to the right market

The power of the right message to the right market
Two success stories to share with you on advertising
effectively.

SUCCESS STORY 1 Network Marketing Money Machine

I received a phone call 2 months ago from a husband and
wife team. They have done exceptionally well in the
network marketing industry, and now was to go big on the
speaking information publishing business.

We designed them a campaign that goes like this

Step 1 Squeeze page to capture emails from people

All a squeeze page does is capture contact information from
people who visit your website. You need to entice them
into why they should sign up snippets of content they get,
free bonus books or audios, etc. When they enter their
information name and email they are then sent to step 2.

Step 2 Thank you for sign up and Free CD giveaway

We gave away an audio cd detailed part of their system they
use to earn well over a million a year in the industry. The
cd is free, shipping and handling is $5. This gives people
a very low cost way to get more familiar with you and your
techniques. If they take the free cd offer, they click
through to the order page with an option to buy into step 3.

Step 3 Upsell to higher end package at 20 -40 times the
price of step 2

When people go to the order page for the cd offer, they are
offered an option to buy a much higher pried package. In
this case we did 2 higher priced options one at 20 times
the cd s&h price, the other at 50 times that price. They
can get just the cd or take them up on the upsell offers
with much more information and product sent to them.

Step 4 For those who never took the offer for steps 2, 3 or
4 they get sold into step 2 through the auto responders
they receive once they sign up on the free newsletter

THE RESULTS?

Because the copy was targeted perfectly to their market,
and because they had a good number of people read the copy:

1.1800 people purchased the cd option 2.20% of those people
bought upsell #1 (at 20 times the price) 3.5% bought upsell
#2 at 50 times the price

Do the math! That is a serious money making AUTOMATED
machine.

For every 1,000 qualified people they send to their site,
they know roughly how much money they will make immediately.

QUESTION FOR YOU

How can you leverage these ideas and automate the sales
process in your business?

SUCCESS STORY #2 First time author ROCKETS to #1

Another client of mine just launched his new book. You may
have seen some of the promotions this week for The Power of
You

We invested a substantial amount of time and resources
putting a massive campaign together for him.

1.Teaser sales letters to get people to the main sales
letter

2.$3,000 in bonuses to buy the book on the launch day

3.Long copy sales letter to sell the book and bonuses the
key was that he needed people to buy on a single day so
Amazon could do their calculations on if he had a best
selling book (calculated by Amazon every hour based on
total books sold from their site)

4.Recruited LARGE numbers of partners to endorse the book
to their own client lists. They got to read the book
first, then endorse the book to their own clients if they
like the book. IMPORTANT NOTE: the partners received NO
financial compensation for doing this.

I wrote the copy they sent to their lists, to recruit them
as partners, to sell people the book, etc.

5.Arranged everything to happen on August 15th starting at
12:01 am.

THE RESULTS?

#1 on Amazon on the main book best seller list AND in all 5
registered categories the book qualified for!

PLUS, 3 days later it is STILL #1

Thousands and thousands of books sold (still waiting on
final numbers) each of those books is a lead generator for
him (ads on the inside of the books for other products) and
a MASSIVE database built from the launch (people had to
supply their emails to get the bonus materials)

Now he has #1 International Best Selling Author to his name.

QUESTION FOR YOU:

How can you leverage these ideas and have other people
promote you to their lists? How can you use this to launch
a new product, service or bundle?

The key here is to NOT say "that isn't my business". The
key is to say "HOW can I make that apply to MY business?"

When you do that and then implement what you wrote you
will see similar results as they have seen.

The power of the written word, combined with massive action

----------------------------------------------------
Troy White, The Marketing Results Mentor and Expert
Copywriter helps clients achieve HUGE growth surges in
their business in very short periods of time. If you're an
entrepreneur in need of quick cash flow surges ' here is
the quick-hit solution to put money in your bank.... The
Wild West Wealth Summit! Make sure you visit
http://www.WildWestWealth.com or sign up for the Free Cash
Flow Surge Newsletter at http://www.CashFlowSurges.com

To Attract More Clients, Plug Into Your Purpose

To Attract More Clients, Plug Into Your Purpose
If you've been in business for a few years, you've probably
been marketing your business for just as many years
(hopefully). You've tried marketing tactics that worked,
and if you're anything like me, you've tried some that
didn't and failed miserably.

After a while, I believe everyone gets into a slump with
their marketing plan. This happens with a majority of my
clients at some point or other, and has happened to me too
in the past. There are many reasons for this:

1. We get bored. 2. We get complacent or lazy. 3. We
become greedy or simply in it for the mo-ney.

I could give you solutions to all three of these reasons,
but these would be using your willpower and discipline.
Today, I want to appeal to your sense of purpose.

If you want a successful business, having a purpose in
marketing your business is an absolute necessity, and it
shouldn't be just making mo-ney. Yes, making lots of mo-ney
is great. Mo-ney is necessary and it makes life way easier.
But if the ONLY reason you're in business is to make
mo-ney, I believe that for most people, it's much more
difficult to get up the strength to market something that
just takes from people, without giving back more than what
you give.

Besides, people will feel that energetically and read right
through you.

The solution? Connect (or reconnect) to your purpose. If
you've been dragging your feet about getting out there to
market your business, perhaps it's time to reexamine if
you're connected to the original purpose for getting in
business. I'm a big fan of Ralph Marston's Daily Motivators
and he recently wrote something on the subject of purpose
that really resonated with me:

"Where there is purpose, there is energy. Actions directed
toward a compelling purpose will create a powerful momentum
that lines up events and circumstances in your favor.
Purpose gives you a reason to get going each day and
strengthens your determination to persist when the going
gets tough. Purpose pushes you firmly toward your highest
level of accomplishment."

I couldn't agree more. I've talked in the past about
letting yourself be pulled by your future. Today, we'll
call it being pulled forward by your PURPOSE.

If you look at any great humanitarian leader, you'll notice
they've had many obstacles and tribulations along the way.
Somehow, they always seemed to get right back on that
proverbial horse and try, try again, didn't they? If they'd
been in their cause just for the power or the mo-ney, they
may have given up shortly after starting. But I'll guess
that their strong purpose gave them the strength and
determination to keep going, to push through the obstacles
and reach their goals, because there was a greater purpose
to it all.

When I see a client who drags their feet or for whom
something's not going well, it's usually a sign that
something's not quite right, as opposed to just
procrastination. Either they're marketing something for the
wrong reason or they're not being true to their purpose and
the reason that they're here. For many, they've chosen to
ignore the nagging voice within that tells them something's
not right.

Perhaps they don't even know WHAT their purpose is. For
many of us self employed people, it's to serve others and
make a difference in people's lives, in one way or another.
My opinion is that when we get away from that, marketing or
doing anything in business is much more difficult.

And yeah, by the way, when we are authentic, serve people
well and stay connected to that purpose, the mo-ney
inevitably flows. The best part about making good mo-ney
doing something that really matters to you is that the
mo-ney is a byproduct of doing things well and for the
right reason. It feels great, not sleazy or like we've
ripped off someone.

Your purpose is to help others AND to feel good doing it.
Once you find it, throw yourself into it. Since having a
strong purpose in your business gives you more energy and
determination, it's time to either get reconnected to the
reason you originally got in business or to figure out what
yours is. Remember though, sometimes our resolve gets
tested to make sure we REALLY want this badly enough.
Persevere; don't give up.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: What's YOUR purpose? Here are questions to
ask yourself to find your own purpose or reconnect to it:

What section of the bookstore do you gravitate towards?
(Hint: I was reading success-mindset and marketing books on
my honeymoon and it didn't feel like work.)

What is the greatest challenge you overcame?

What brings the most meaning to your life?

If you had all the mo-ney you needed, but still wanted to
work, what would you do to make a difference in the world
while bringing you happiness?

Whether it means connecting to it for the first time or
simply reconnecting, do what it takes to live as close to
your purpose as possible, no matter what the setbacks.
Tweak the way you do things right now so it feels right and
like there's real meaning in your life. Success will
naturally come to you when you do. You won't believe you
get paid to live it.

Got your purpose but having a difficult time marketing it?
Then it's time to take action and invest in a step-by-step
marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you.

----------------------------------------------------
The Client Attraction Home Study System avoids all the
unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important
things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you
consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new
clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of
things. So, you do step one of the system, and when your
done with that, you move on to step two and so on. You can
get it at http://www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com

Online Sales Recruitment - Does it Work?

Online Sales Recruitment - Does it Work?
Sales recruitment in the 21st Century

The majority of businesses regularly need to fill sales
vacancies; in a global competitive market the need to hire
the best sales people is increasingly critical to business
success. In this first article in the series we take a look
at the different options, the respective costs, the time to
recruit and the probability of success.

Direct hiring ' small and medium sized business managers
and owners frequently take on the recruitment process in an
attempt to minimise cost, however without human resource
management expertise and qualifications, they are often at
risk of failing to make impartial decisions and ultimately
being in breach of the plethora of employment laws.
Effective assessment of a sales person's competence and
suitability to sell a specific product or service in a
specific country and to fit the culture of the organisation
is a complex process and one that line management all too
often get wrong, unfortunately past performance is no
guarantee of future success.

Direct hiring can still be successful provided a few basic
steps are taken, make the process consistent by using a
standardised set of questions at each interview. The
questions should test the person's competence at each stage
of the sales process, this is best achieved using situation
based questioning and by making sure that the question is
fully answered and the answer recorded for comparison
against other candidates. The use of psychometric testing
can add value and objectivity to the hiring process, as can
tests for numeric and verbal reasoning, this decision is
mission critical so why not minimise the risks.

You have chosen to go down the direct hiring route, but in
this highly competitive market finding applicants for sales
positions is increasingly challenging. The number of
unemployed people in many western markets is at an all time
low and many successful sales people are enjoying high
levels of success, how are you going to get you sales job
noticed? The alternatives include placing an advert in the
local paper, national paper, specialist publications,
unfortunately the response rates can be depressingly low,
producing few if any suitable applicants. Print media is
still an expensive from of advertising and with such poor
response can prove expensive and futile.

Online recruitment has become increasingly popular; a quick
search on Google for "sales jobsites" reveals over 5
million results worldwide, so where do you begin in the
challenge to find an appropriate online source of sales
candidates for your sales job? As with many things
recommendation and referral are a good place to start, but
this is not a night out, do you know anyone else with
experience of recruiting sales people online? Regardless of
whether or not you can get advice on which site or sites to
use, there are some important tests that you need to carry
out before choosing your online recruitment partners. But
don't be fooled by biggest is best, in the UK the two
largest jobsites, Total Jobs and Monster have less than 7%
market share, are they going to attract the right selection
of sales people to fill your sales job? I doubt it, in my
next article I will explain the various means of assessing
if a jobsite or website is likely to meet your specific
needs.

----------------------------------------------------
Louise G is a highly experienced sales recruitment
professional with over 20 years experience in all areas of
sales recruitment and is currently Sales and Marketing
Director of The sales Recruitment Jobsite.
Find out more about The Sales Recruitment Jobsite the place
for sales jobs and sales recruiters all around the globe at
http://salesrecruitmentjobsiteblog.blogspot.com or go to
the new site http://www.salesrecruitmentjobsite.com

So why does my business need to network online?

So why does my business need to network online?
Smallbusiness.co.uk recently reported new research, which
claims that small businesses should increase their use of
internet blogs in order to communicate with their
customers. The study, conducted by WebTrends, shows that
only five per cent of companies see the blog as a valuable
tool and more than three-quarters have never used the
medium.

It seems that companies still prefer more traditional means
of internet marketing such as direct email, used by 46 per
cent of respondents and web analytics favoured by 37 per
cent. Commenting on the figures, Nick Sharp at WebTrends
says: "Corporate blogs can be very effective communication
tools within or on behalf of a corporate community."

In a survey conducted by email research specialists,
emedia, using its RapidResearch service, it was found that
only 8% of online networkers use social sites to contact
clients or potential clients. However, the survey also
indicates that 87% of all respondents think that social
networking sites can be used for business purposes,
including networking (65%), exchanging ideas (58%), getting
advice (44%), recruitment (43%), research (35%) and selling
(31%).

Users of social networking sites visit these sites on a
regular basis and almost half of them (48%) admit using
these websites at work. Nearly one in four (24%) users log
in every day with half of them logging in several times a
day. Up to 45% of users log in at least once a week.

In an article by Claire West, these statistics are said to
show that almost two thirds (62%) of users say they are
worried about the safety of their personal data held on
these sites. The concern is so high that nearly one third
of users (31%) have already entered false information about
themselves to protect their identity.

The latest social media site to appear is Facebook - the
site that, according to Freshbusinessthinking.com, could
well be described as
Friends-Reunited-meets-MySpace-meets-Google. But from a
business perspective, the article suggests that social
networking sometimes seems more like a solution in search
of a problem.

LinkedIn.com, for instance, could eventually be a
subscription service allowing users to input and manage
their contacts and to search for connections - but it is
already feeling the heat from Facebook. Will Facebook (and
other forms of social media) become appropriate use for
enterprise and business?

The Daily Telegraph recently reported that "More than two
thirds of employers are banning or restricting the use of
Facebook and similar sites over fears that staff are
wasting time on them when they should be working".

In an article by Mark Ellis in the same web magazine, he
tells us that Facebook has more than 5 million users in the
UK alone. "Myspace", which is another "social networking"
website, boasts 10 million UK users. Add in to the mix good
old fashioned email and things like MSN messaging and you
have to wonder if the good people that work for you have
much time left to do any real work? Employers are right to
be concerned about loss of productivity! It's a serious
issue. According to some estimates addicts of Facebook,
Myspace and Bebo (that's another social networking site)
are costing UK employers more than £100 million a day
in lost productivity. Defending the right of employees to
surf the TUC has urged employers not to over react by
banning access to such sites but to put in place policies
to cover the general use of social networking sites.

However you are perfectly within your rights to put such
sites off limits altogether and you might well decide to do
so, continues Ellis. The TUC suggests a more pragmatic
approach which would allow staff access during breaks
within mutually agreed parameters. Ellis suggests a clear
Internet and Email policy for all staff.

So with the fear of misuse of information and negative
views from clients being publicly aired online, why is it
that businesses are still seeing social networking as a
viable use of their time?

Access to information is key to advancing in the workplace,
and having direct access to that information creates great
opportunities ' in particular for women - in large
corporations, especially if they are working part time,
from home or are on maternity leave. Tom Crawford, head of
employer brand and diversity at professional services firm
Deloitte, encourages the use of Facebook whilst providing
advice and guidelines on its use, rather than just banning
it from the workplace like many other employers.

If you're worried about compromising information that may
already be online, Garlik.com offers a service called Data
Patrol which scours the internet and then offers you
advice, depending on the information that it manages to
unearth.

But how can social networking work best for small
businesses, who want to increase their ways of keeping in
contact with new and existing clients?

In the Dow Jones White Paper "Tracking the Influence of
Conversations: A Roundtable Discussion on Social Media
Metrics and Measurement", Jeremiah Owyang and Matt Toll
tell us that "The advent of social media ' blogs in
particular ' (bring) with it at least the potential for
removing the barrier between a seller and buyers who are
remote ' geographically, economically, culturally or
otherwise." They go onto say that "Those questioning social
media's impact on corporate marketing strategy today may
well work for the same corporations that questioned whether
creating a corporate Web site in the mid- and late-1990s,
or allowing employees (gasp!) to access the Internet at
work, was a wise move."

Aleks Krotoski, conducting research at the University of
Surrey into the psychology of online social networks,
believes that social software encourages collaboration. It
is the social in the software which will bring communities
together, building upon the success of its technological
predecessors and enhancing, rather than replacing, human
interaction.

One online directory of professional service providers has
launched a social network online for the exclusive benefit
of their service providers. Whether it is to share
newsletter links with each other, hobbies, or favourite
charities, they hope it will become a place where their
professionals UK-wide will be able to get to know each
other better, or just pop on occasionally to see what
others are up to.

What's SNO?

One Social Network Optimiser, writing for O'ReillyGMT about
how social network optimisation can become part of a
marketing strategy for businesses, believes that companies
can no longer deliver a one-way web, 'interact with the
consumer or fade away' is the message which every business
needs to hear. Search Engine Optimisers have generated
large amounts of value in focusing search engine results
towards their client's one web site. Now a new breed of
"Optimiser" can take the message of the client to the many
eyes and in turn create new "conversations" and "awareness"
about their client and their business. This social network
optimiser believes that SNO Agencies will be another facet
of existing disciplines in Public Relations and Marketing
Agencies. They will use their own network of Friends and
Contacts on-line formed through social networks with which
to build new links and ideas between their clients and
their audience. SNO Agencies will work with existing Public
Relation and Marketing Agencies utilising current
conversations and ideas to help promote and direct
awareness of the product without directly advertising or
"spamming" those communities.

----------------------------------------------------
To learn more about how you can use SNO to benefit your
business, contact: Nik Butler
(http://www.certainshops.com/service-provider.php?sp=115 )
at http://www.certainshops.com .
For a humorous guide to social networking, visit
http://bloggingforblondes.com

Change Your Results - It's All In The Labels You Use

Change Your Results - It's All In The Labels You Use
I confess, in the 1970s one of my favorite songs was sung
by Neil Diamond. Every time the song played on the radio I
wailed along with him "I AM I CRIED..." It spoke to what
was churning in me at that stage in my life, uncertainty
over who I actually was, looking for a voice.

I didn't give much thought to it beyond that. And I didn't
give much thought to the phrase 'I am" and all the ways it
showed up in daily speech, for many years.

Then along came self-actualization courses, growth
programs, personal development gurus. Each of these offered
new ways of standing in front of a mirror, figurative or
literal, and learning techniques to shift self perception.
To change the words that follow the "I am..." of identity
in order to offer me new opportunities, possibilities, and
options for my present identity and future life.

I've loved immersing myself in every single one of them.
But frankly, I'm always taking in tools and techniques so I
can take them to my clients, and those particular tools
often required hours, days and even weeks of attention. Not
easy to translate into a discussion with a client.

This past week, one of my busy, overworked clients looked
me dead in the eye and said fiercely and militantly "I'm
rotten at managing."

We were discussing the poor performance of one of his new
hires; a young woman with little work experience who was
having a hard time learning how to follow through on
assignments he gave her. He was tense and frustrated and
angry at her for needing repeated time and attention from
him. He wanted a good fight and it might as well be with
me. She was making him 'work' at managing, and he expected
I was going to as well.

So I asked, "Do you mean you've tried to manage, with poor
results, or you can't be bothered to try?"

He paused. Well, let's call it a pause. He took a deep
breath and said "I am ..." and I interrupted him before he
finished the sentence.

I pulled out the big guns ' the howitzer of consulting and
coaching, the well-aimed powerhouse tool ... Actually, I
slipped in under his radar - I interrupted him.

"A part of me..."

I spoke it right over his voice and he stopped without
finishing the sentence.

"What?"

I repeated it. "A part of me..."

"A part of me, what?"

"Reword that sentence - A part of me is rotten at managing."

He sat there facing me, in silence, letting the words and
their implications settle in.

"You can hang on to that label, and make yourself right. Or
you can recognize it's only a part of you and open up the
world of options." I offered.

That simple change in wording gave him a choice. He could
choose between different realities and insist that 'all of
him' was rotten at something, and be darned proud of it. Or
he could declare that his effort had been lacking. Or that
some portion of himself might be rotten. But that last one
left a whole lot of himself that might have never actually
been given a chance to show what it might do by way of
managing.

And he sat there in the choice. He'd hired me to help him
get new results. And in that moment he was faced with the
fact that the results he was getting were due to the
identity he was fiercely and proudly holding onto. Being
rotten at managing meant the solution would have to come
from elsewhere, not him. His consultant was going to have
to solve this enormous, insurmountable problem for him!

"Try it," I said. "A part of me..."

"A part of me doesn't want to spend all the time managing
takes. It's distracting me from getting stuff done."

He changed the issue itself right then and there. And by
shifting his certainty and identity, the challenge melted
away, the guns were rolled back, the battle melted out of
existence.

"OK. So let me show you a simple, efficient way to walk her
through the assignment that will get her on track and get
you up a level in managing."

And he did. And I did. And she did. And a part of him is.

What about you?

© 2007 Linda Feinholz.

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© 2007 Linda Feinholz Management expert, consultant,
and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If
you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost
your professional and personal results and have more fun,
get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to
Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your
Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit
http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com