Posted by Jackie Ewing on June 14, 2010
Whatever your business, the lifeblood of that business is your customers. Without them, you don’t have a viable business and it won’t make you any money.
Too many businesses make the mistake of constantly seeking new customers to sell to while ignoring the customers they already have. A lot of money is spent on marketing to prospects while little, if any, is spent on marketing to the existing customers.
Making your customer feel special
Just think about it, you’ve spent time, effort and money in getting a customer to buy from you – are you just going to sell to him once, or are you going to make every effort to sell to him over and over again?
If you can communicate to your existing customers that they are special to you, you will find it far easier to sell to them than to a crowd of unknown prospects. Business owners need to remind themselves constantly that their customers are people, and people like it when they are made to feel special in some small way.
So, how can you get this idea across to your customers? By communicating with them on a very regular basis! With the advent of so many new mediums in social media – Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In to name but a few – some people think this is the only way to communicate now. That would be an incorrect assumption as not all of your customers will be in that particular social media audience. There are still those customers out there who want to get something from you via email and snail mail – yes, people still do want to get something in the mail!
My recommendation for effective communication with your customers would be to have several different ways of communicating with your customers
- phone
- email
- direct mail
- some well-chosen social mediums
It’s my belief, based on my own experience with clients, with businesses that I do business with, with some of the major corporations that we all deal with on a
Which ones should you use?
daily basis, that using all of these together will reach far more of your customers in their way, at their time. If you choose to use only one method of communicating with your customers, you will be limiting your success with them. Your decision to choose only one could be based on time, money and/or effort – a very normal way to deal with this. But email is relatively inexpensive with a wide reach; social media is free for the most part and direct mail can be inexpensive but have a great return on investment (ROI).
I recommend that you try several different ways at once, integrating them whenever possible. If your website is the ultimate place you want your customers to land, then all other communcations with them should point them to your website. You can connect your blog to your website, use Twitter to promote your blog, use Facebook to promote your blog and your website, use an email newsletter to direct people to Twitter, Facebook, your blog and your website. Are you starting to see the pattern here?
Next post will discuss each of these in a little more detail.
Feel free to ask questions that you want addressed.
Posted by Jackie Ewing on May 31, 2010
Jackie's Skin Care
As I was going through my regular twice daily skincare routine this morning, I thought how I need to apply the same steps to my business. I do my skin care routine so I can care for my skin and help it survive the best way possible in today’s environment. I really want to do the same for my business!
So, here’s a sneak peek into my life and how I apply the same techniques to taking care of my business as I do to taking care of my skin.
1. Cleansing.
Washing my face with cleanser and water, takes away the dirt and debris that has accumulated throughout the day, or night.
Cleansing in my business allows me to remove the dirt and debris that collects in my voicemail,
Does this need some cleansing?
email and paper files. If I have a routine and do it twice a day, I can stay on top of it and not let the crap accumulate and drag on my attention. If I don’t do this step regularly, I get easily distracted and often start down the procrastination road!
2. Toning.
Applying toner to my face both freshens and revives my skin and prepares it for the arrival of the good stuff – moisture. It’s kind of like preparing a surface for painting or varnishing.
I make a lot of lists
Toning my business is when I get my lists done and focus on certain tasks that must be done each day, get them done and prepare my slate for whatever the big project is that day. Without this step, I don’t get nearly as much done in a day. I can wander from task to task not really finishing anything very well.
3. Treating.
While treating my skin isn’t always a daily task, it does happen two or three times a week. Treating can be exfoliation; cleansing masque; hydrating masque or something special to boost my skin.
In my business, these treatments are the purging of all emails, files, junk mail, people and sometimes even clients who are not helping either move my business forward, grow it or enhance it in some way. I have to decide to do this or I may end up running my business by someone else’s rules.
4. Moisturizing.
This final step is what my skin has been cleansed and prepared for. The moisture applied brings
Adding moisture for optimum performance
it back to it’s optimum appearance and performance and, let’s face it (pun intended!), helps me defy time and stay looking so young!
Relating to business, this final step is the constant reading and adding new information to my business. like nutrients and moisture for skin, a business needs a constant influx of new information, exposure to different people and ideas so it can continue to grow and stretch.
As with skincare, if the steps are not done on a regular routine basis, they lose their effectiveness and you go backward a little. But, you can start a routine at any time. So if I do forget a step or two here or there (and, believe me, I do!) I can just start a new To-Do List and get refocused on what I have to do and start from the first step again today.
Posted by Jackie Ewing on April 22, 2010
Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day. While the Ewing family continues their own recycling program – from separating the trash into various recyclable piles to reusing printed paper for school projects – I searched for other ways to expand our efforts and reduce our carbon footprint. Today seemed like a good day to do that!
I found some interesting, novel and completely crazy ideas in my search, but I also found a couple of things that we, as a family, can implement right away and add to our lives. Add a comment below to tell me about your own Green efforts, what’s working, what’s not and of course, fun stories are always welcome.
Here are some of the most interesting links I found. Hope you can find something interesting or crazy here for you!
Ten Ways to ‘Go Green’ and Mark Earth Day
Our favorite – Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. Great topics to get the kids interested and actively working toward making their future more Green.
10 Ways to Mark Earth Day at Your Company
Our favorite – Take a Look at Your Windows. Inspiring story about the windows in the Empire State Building and energy saving.
‘Avatar’ Strikes DVD on Earth Day
Our favorite – this was purely a ploy by the kids to get me to buy the Avatar movie today. Will it work?
Rocking in the Green World – 7 Songs for Earth Day
Our favorite – Megadeath: Countdown to Extinction. Some good headbanging music with great lyrics.
Google Doodle Celebrates Earth Day
Earth Day 2010 by Google
There is only one Google and the Doodle Artists have done it again. Something very cool and very Green for Earth Day. Makes me want to find Sean Connery in the rainforest!
Posted by Jackie Ewing on April 9, 2010
As an entrepreneur with limited funding, I have found some really great tools that I use on a daily or weekly basis. The best thing about them, other than that they work really well for me and my workspace, is that they are FREE – no cost me!
1. Logmein.com
Logmein.com
This fabulous software allows me to log on to my workstation from anywhere with internet access. I needed something that didn’t require me downloading my emails to different locations and then trying to synchronize so I didn’t have to read, delete or answer emails more than once! Using Logmein accesses my PC remotely, similar to PC Anywhere, but with super response time, clear graphics and very rare log offs. I use an Acer notebook when I am out and about and it runs so fast because I don’t have to put any software on it. I just connect to my PC via Logmein and have access to everything.
I also load this software on certain computers for clients that I do work for. I can access the information I need without having to drive over to their offices. It’s especially useful when working with big databases. They sometimes don’t copy too well and then copying back to the original location can be a nightmare.
Simply put, Logmein allows me the freedom to log me in to whatever remote PC I need access to. I LOVE it and highly recommend it to all and sundry! Click here to get the software download and instructions for use.
2. Cute PDF Writer
Although I really want to get Adobe Pro, I just cannot afford it right now. So between Adobe reader and cute PDF writer I have managed to do very well without it. This software is loaded like a printer so when I need to convert a document to PDF, I “print” it to this PDF writer – cute, huh? Click here to go the site and look for the Cute PDF Writer, Free Download.
3. Mozy.com
Mozy.com
I have a small backup drive attached to my main PC but I have way more data than it can store for me. My IT guy told me about Mozy which is a remote back up
service. They offer a certain amount of storage for free, and as you grow you can increase for a pretty nominal fee. It works well for me and I have been able to access my data when I want. Click here to access this nifty tool.
4. Pandora.com
As anyone that does any kind of writing or data entry can tell you, sometimes music just helps the process along! Pandora is different to your regular radio stations in that it learns from your music choices and tries to find you more like that. You can save your music types as radio stations so that your favorite music genres are ready when you log on. You can connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts if you like and share a song or an entire radio station. There are some ads, but not enough (yet!) to tick me off. Of course, I could pay the whopping $36 for a year of ad-free music, but that would spoil the fact that I can use it for free! Click here to access Pandora.
So, there you have it. 4 Free Tools for Entrepreneurs. Would love to hear about it if you try them and like them, or not! If you have any of your own faves that you’d like to share, please comment.
Posted by Jackie Ewing on March 17, 2010
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Jackie wishes everyone a very special
St. Patrick’s Day this March 17th.
“Come in the evening. Come in the morning.
Come when expected. Come without warning.
Thousands of welcomes you’ll find here before you.
And the oftener you come,
the more we’ll adore you!”
Beannachtaí na Féile PÃdraig oraibh!
(St. Patrick’s Day Blessings Upon You!)
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Best wishes,
Jackie
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