Do you use Twitter to grow your business?
Using social media has become an essential part of running a business in these connected times. It has always been easier to use FaceBook and YouTube to promote our business but Twitter is now making a huge effort to get small businesses on board to promote and sell whist building customer loyalty.
This short video released this week by Twitter will give you some tips and tools to do just that:
The Big “F” of doing business 4
In this series I have take a number of ‘F’ words and unpacked some lessons we can all learn from how to do business more effectively and efficiently.
The next set of ‘F’ words are Financially Flippant. Far to many business owners do not know what financial management is or entails. I have seen many business owners living out of the till and treating the businesses money as their own. spending it on personal things, food and fuel and never recording these expenses as such. then when it comes time for reconciliation and financial statements they run around wondering why they struggle with cash flow.
Financially flippant business owners are not able to measure cash flow, manage expenses or risks. They also struggle with growth because there is not a solid base to grow from. Business owners need to become wise in their financial management and measure, manage and reward on all aspects of their business.
Human Rights and Wrongs
This week we celebrate Human Rights day in South Africa. A day when we get to look back at the checked past of our country and celebrate our constitution and the access to human rights as citizens of a free democracy.
Or is it? Jobs and secure employment is still only available to the elite and well connected. Being employed in a stable job is a privilege not a right, as is access to clean water, toilets and housing. The majority of the people in SA are no better off almost 2 decades after the ANC took over. Blame is still placed on Apartheid and the race card is played at every opportunity.
For the majority of people finding income to cover monthly expenses is a constant battle. But yet we see the fat cats of government, corporate and well connected gravy train ride-alongs gleaning huge sums of wealth for themselves and their friends.
Entrepreneurship and self-employment has become a forced way of life for many with little or no support from local government, and no regard to their struggles by central government, SARS or the Labour courts.
The daily grind we see people having to get through in order to survive and trying to make ends meet, whilst trying to cope with the high levels of crime, child abuse and violence against women, is not something we will be celebrating tomorrow.
The Big “F” of doing business 3
In this series I have take a number of ‘F’ words and unpacked some lessons we can all learn from how to do business more effectively and efficiently.
The next set of ‘F’ words are Future Focus. Any business needs to have their sights firmly set on the future in relation to where they are going and how they will get there. Beginning with the end in mind gets one to the end faster. We facilitate a process with our clients whereby they have a constant eye on their futures through good goal setting, planning and mile stone measurement.
It is critical to keep the course of your business set on a single fixed point. I heard a story that a jet liner travelling across the Atlantic is off course 98% of the time. It is only through the hundreds of minor adjustments it make that it is able to get to its destination across the ocean. The same applies to ourselves and our businesses. We need to know the destination, then make daily adjustments to ensure that we remain true to our vision and arrive at our destination.
Getting Around the Spam Filters
Have you ever wondered why your emails never get delivered or opened? Could it be due to the high amount of Spam alerts that they create? Even if you are sending out genuine legitimate emails with real business information, they may still be classified as spam. Here are a few hints to watch out for:
Make sure your email subjects have good call to actions that do not use any of the Spam words listed below.
Start emails to the person’s name. So not use, Hi all or Hello
Use your own name and email as the From address not Undisclosed Recipients
Cut down on the amount of Images in relation to the volume of text
Reduce or eliminate the use of the following Spam words:
Free, Instant access, one time offer, cancel at any time, give away, signup for free, this is not spam, instant cure, click here, compare our prices, earn more here, easy income.
The list goes on and on but you should see the trend here. For a complete list read this article by Hubspot. The more you try to manipulate your customers into buying stuff online without first building up a high level of trust, the more you will be pushed away. Not only by spam filters but by potential clients as well.
Try different email subjects on different days and times. See what best works for your clients and what gets the best open rate. The experts will tell you that an email send out on a Tuesday at 09:30 is the best time, but try it for yourself and your customers and then stick to a schedule that everyone can rely on.