First, it’s important to understand what social capital actually is. In truth, it’s actually very similar to traditional capital, in terms of money and assets. Social capital is the accumulation of resources that you develop through networks and relationships that can help you flourish. As you accumulate these over time, you can put them to use and produce real wealth and growth for your business. Every drop of social capital you build up can be cashed in later down the road in some form or another, and once you build up momentum in this area, it’s easier to keep it going for good.

These resources include contacts, information, new opportunities, reputation and presence, knowledge, ideas and the ever-important referrals and good word of mouth. With all of this on your side, the sky will truly be the limit, and you’ll be able to accomplish nearly anything that you’d like to. That said, it’s not guaranteed that you can establish this, and it’s not always easy. So how can you develop social capital?

One of the most important aspects of social capital is the networking side of things. When you are networking, what are you really doing? You’re building relationships, and you’re establishing a presence with individuals, communities and businesses that are important or related to you one way or another. Therefore, a great networking framework and game plan can go a very long way towards building this up.

Just like any other aspect of a marketing plan or business plan, your networking plan should have formal steps or goals you want to achieve. This could be in terms of the number or types of conferences you want to attend, or how many local business owners and community leaders you want to meet each month. By doing this, you’ll keep yourself on task and keep on accumulating that capital.

Another great way to build up social capital is to simply always be very professional and dependable. Always be on time for meetings, and always treat people with respect and care. Demonstrate a great attention to detail, and a high level of customer service. Be there for other individuals when they need a sounding board, or want your opinion on one thing or another. If you do all of this, you can expect the same to be returned, and you’ll be held in high esteem by many important individuals, whether they are clients, colleagues or even competitors.

It’s not unlike the old saying of doing unto others as you would have them do to you. When you treat people with respect, and you show a high level of professionalism and care, then you’ll receive the same kind of treatment in return. You’ll raise your status, improve your relationships, reach out to more individuals and ultimately simply enjoy more success in all facets of your business.

Don’t forget that you should also always be handing out referrals for people in need of a service or product that you may not be able to provide. You can think of this as sending out some great social capital karma. If you send out all of these referrals, you’ll be seen as credible, unselfish and willing to do anything to help a customer or individual out. Just watch as the referrals start coming back in your direction in no time at all.

So as you’re worrying about your bottom line and the assets that your business controls, don’t forget to look beyond the numbers. The other type of capital is just as important, and it can unlock the doors to great success, growth and profit for you. It’s social capital, and you can develop it through sound, high quality business practices and a networking strategy based around building strong relationships.

We’re A Happy Family! Tips for Managing the Family While Working Your Way to the Top

You may not be operating a family business, but you know your business affects your family life. It takes a lot of balance and struggle to keep everyone happy from the boardroom to the living room, but it can be done!  You delegate at work to ensure everything gets done, so why would you not do the same thing at home?

The following tips will help you manage these two aspects of your life so everyone is one happy family!

1. Call a Family Meeting

If you have never sat your family down and discussed the division of labor within the home, now is the time to do it. Even the smallest children are capable of doing some things for themselves. Now is the time to ensure they know their responsibilities so sit everyone down and have a discussion. Make agreements. Set plans in motion.

If you don’t feel your spouse and you can cover everything without stressing out consider bringing in some help. Family members or close friends may be more open to helping you out than you realize so ask them!

2. Loosen the Cape

If you have been living like a superhero trying to do it all, now is the time to loosen the cape and let others step up to shoulder some of the burden. Look at all of the household chores that you now handle and honestly assess whether someone else in the family could be doing them. Do the same for childcare and all other duties you currently do alone.

Make sure everyone is doing their share to make the family more effective and happy.

3. We have an app for that.

You may be away from home a lot, but you should never be unreachable.  If you are hard to reach while away you will worry more and your family will feel cut off.  Make sure to use cell phones, text messages, and email to remain connected to your family throughout the day.  This will ease some stress from everyone.

4. Take Care of You

You are completely useless to your family if you are not taking care of yourself.  (Yes I know, I’m preaching to the choir here.)  Make sure you do not work yourself to the point of burnout or a complete break down. Watch your body and look after your health. This is the only way to ensure you remain physically capable of caring for your family and rising up in business ranks.

A healthy body will also respond differently to stress and will remain young and energetic as you grow older. You owe it to your family to keep your body healthy and young!

These tips may not ensure complete happiness and harmony at all times, but they will help you get some control and balance out your obligations so no one feels completely neglected or unloved. You can work your way to the top while raising children and pleasing a spouse.  It just takes dedication and a lot of work.

Watch the Clock – 5 Tips to Make the Most Out Of Every Day

How many times have you heard someone complain “there just isn’t enough time in the day?” Not having enough time to get everything done is probably the biggest excuse we all have for dropping the ball.  Unfortunately, most of us just aren’t making the best use of our time.

Rather than wishing you had more hours in the day you should make sure you make the most of all the hours you do have. The following are five tips to help you do just that.

1. Plan for Tomorrow

If you are slow to get started in the morning or take pauses during the day to go over everything that needs to be done, you are wasting valuable time. Make a list of everything that needs done the next day before you call it quits in the evening. Put this list in order of importance so you can immediately start at the top of the list and work your way down the next day.

2. Set Your Priorities

Use the ABC system to prioritize all of your daily duties. A duties are the most important tasks, such as prospecting for new clients. B duties are the second most important, such as growing your business from where it is right now. C duties are the odds and ends that need done but which aren’t all that urgent, such as writing reports and thank you letters.

Use this priority system when creating your check lists of what needs done the next day!

3. Use Your Travel Time

There is no down time when you are operating a successful business. I use your cell phone with a hands free set to make calls while driving to and from locations and use my voice recorder option on my phone to rattle off essential notes and thoughts that you don’t want to lose while stuck in traffic.  (Be careful to not talk on the phone while in a school zone.)

If you spend time waiting for your children to get out of dance lessons or off the ball field take a laptop with you and turn waiting time into working time.

4. Nothing Can Wait

The term “don’t put of till tomorrow what you can do today” is entirely true in some  business situations.  One time management expert has his employees listen to motivational tapes on their way to work so they are ready to start making calls the moment they arrive at their desk.  I myself like to listen to music to get me in the zone.  Try both and see what works for you.

Every second counts so make sure you never put things off.  Just dig in and get it done.

5. Take Breaks

You will be amazed what great ideas flash through your mind while you are out taking a jog. You can solve big problems while out to lunch with a friend!  Taking well timed breaks is very important to time management because it ensures you don’t burn out and allows your brain to come up with new ideas from fresh stimulation.  If you’re like me, you may need to set an actual timer in the other room, so it forces you to push yourself away from the computer and go turn of the alarm.  Thus, while you are up, walk around, get a glass of water, stretch, etc.

Think about each of these tips and determine ways to incorporate them into your daily life. You will find that you can be a lot more productive in the amount of time you have allocated to business. You could even free up more time by ensuring wasted moments away from the office are no longer wasted.

Work time doesn’t have to be conventional or predictable. Notes rattled into a recorder while your daughter plays soccer could transform your entire life or they could be lost because you didn’t have the recorder and wasted that time!

Learning how to successfully work from home is very important for home based businesses.  It’s easy to get lost in this situation, and either make the people around you uncomfortable, upset or bothered, or to be unproductive and unsuccessful. However, when approached properly, entrepreneurs can make the best of both worlds and succeed excellently from the comfort of their home quarters. Here are seven tips you can use to do just that.

1. Separate Workspace: Find a separate workspace in your home, a place that you can get away from everything in, and a place where you can concentrate. Don’t sit down on the family room couch or the kitchen table and expect to see great things happen. You need an “office”, even if it’s just a dedicated space within a room in the home

2. Set Work Hours: One of the great aspects of working from home is the flexibility of the hours that you can enjoy.  However, you should actually be setting normal work hours so that you know mentally when it’s time to focus.  Now, that could be 8 to noon with a two hour break and then 2 to 8, or whatever else you want. Just make a schedule and stick to it

3. Let Others Know: Try to have some kind of obvious signal that other people in your home can pick up on so they know not to disturb you around the house, whether it’s a child, spouse or roommate.  You can put up a cork board or dry erase board and hang or write a message on it, or simply close a door halfway so people know you’re busy and concentrating

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Say No: Ultimately, even with a signal, you’re going to need to learn to just say no, you’re too busy working right now, when people come at you with a request to do something or spend time.  You’re not doing anything wrong, you just have to be clear and comfortable telling people when you need to buckle down and focus

5. Business Phone: Have a separate business phone line in your home. Then you don’t have to worry about interrupting other people on their calls, or having somebody try to get in touch with you, only to find a busy signal, or have somebody else pick up.  This also adds to the element of having your own “office” that’s conducive for hard work

6. Soundproof Your Office: Buy some materials and spend a few hours soundproofing your office.  This way people can have conversations together, put on music or the television or anything else without bothering you, and they won’t have to feel like they’re walking on eggshells. You’ll also be more comfortable discussing your own business in private

7. Separate Office Entrance way: If it’s at all possible, try to put your workspace in an area where you can have a separate office entranceway. This could be possible in some rooms with patios, in a basement or garage, or other potential areas. Now it’s really a private enclave for yourself, and you know it’s all business in there when you enter.

What are some ways you have found to make working at home successful?

Most people are always talking about how overworked they are, and how stressed they are from the daily tasks and to-dos. This is especially true for entrepreneurs, who often are working extremely long hours in tight situations, with less staff and help than they would like. But even for busy entrepreneurs, taking some breaks and getting away for a few days is still extremely important. Here’s how to make sure you can make your next trip or vacation happen.

First, the most important thing to remember is that while it might seem like the world will collapse if you leave town for a few days, in the vast majority of cases, it won’t. It’s tough to get away when you have so much on your plate and so much invested, but ultimately you’re going to need to get out there, for your own mental health, and a renewed vigor for the work life as well.

If it helps you get in the right mindset, don’t think about it like taking a huge vacation, just go on a little weekend trip instead. If you take a Friday or Monday off, and go away for the weekend, you get a relaxing trip without separating yourself from too much of the daily activities. This is a great way to fit your fun in, and get in the mindset of leaving the office and the business in order to get away.

Another crucial component of getting away for entrepreneurs is to make sure that you really do get away. This should not be a working vacation, you really have to separate yourself from your business. If you absolutely must handle a few tasks with impending deadlines for example, then set a strict limit for how much time you’ll spend each day on work.

For example, limiting yourself to an hour a day in the morning or evening is a perfect way to make sure you answer all of your emails and manage any last minute situations that popped up, while still separating yourself from the chaos. Even better, simply leave the laptop and cell phone at home! Delegate everything that you can and have an emergency contact or representative that you trust in place in case something unexpected occurs. Then say goodbye to those digital ties and really let loose and enjoy.

Another tip you can take advantage of is booking your vacations ahead of time so you can plan the most important activities around them. Additionally, try to get away during the slowest time of the year for your business. If it’s been a while since your last trip and one isn’t coming up for a while longer, then be sure to spend more time looking into fun, unique and enjoyable activities close to home. A day long getaway is better than nothing for the busy entrepreneur.

Spending time with the family, or with friends or other loved ones, is important for everyone. Even the busiest of businessmen and entrepreneurs need to find a way to separate themselves from that world, even if it’s just for a long weekend now and then. You’ll feel much better and you’ll be renewed for your responsibilities, and you’ll be bringing some fun and relaxation back into your life once again.

Being an entrepreneur can be tough, but it can also be enjoyable. The one thing I have learned in my business career is that it’s just a job of work. At the end of the day we should all work to live, not live to work, and it is important never to lose sight of your perspective. All work and no play makes Jack (or Jill) a dull boy (or girl), so getting that work/life balance right is very important.

Starting your own business, and making a success of it, is a real challenge, especially in this modern age of economic downturn and intense competition. There will be plenty of tough decisions to be made and getting your business priorities in the right order is a very difficult thing to do. This is where goal setting really come into its own.

Goal setting works on several levels. Firstly it helps to keep you focused. It’s very easy to lose that focus when there’s so much going on. You end up not being able to see the woods for the trees. So setting business goals is an important tool when it comes down to keeping all those balls in the air.

The goals that you set yourself are your own creation. It’s always useful to remember that you can make your goals as simple or as difficult as you want, but they should always be achievable. For subjects that are quite complicated, you can split you goals down into “bite size chunks” to help make them become a little easier to achieve. This is a really useful exercise because it becomes your operating blueprint and will really help you to control what you’re doing. It will also help to structure things in a way that gets end results.

But don’t lose sight of the fact that you need to chill out. When you are building your own business, you will work under a lot of self induced pressure. It’s really important that have a safety valve or two whereby you can let off steam. If you’re on your own relationship-wise this can make it a lot easier in as much as your time is totally your own to do with as you see fit. However you still need to find time to chill out, or you’ll find that you just get too close into your business, and you’ll start to miss things; even with business goals in position.

If you’re in a relationship, then it’s even more important to make time for a social life. Partners can be very forgiving, and very supportive, but there is a point beyond which even the best saint will crack. So, if your relationship means anything to you, it is vitally important to get that work/life balance sorted out.

Try not to be too hard on yourself. If you’re anything like me, you are your own worst critic. It’s all too easy to give yourself a hard time over something that as gone wrong. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with that, (it helps to keep your standards up), you should also give yourself a pat on the back when you get something right.

The final piece of advice is to get help when you need it. Yes, you probably think that no one does as good a job as you, and you’re probably right. However, you cannot do it all, especially as your business begins to grow. You need to time to concentrate on the smooth running of your business, and worrying and about where the next orders are coming from. It’s always possible to hire help either part time or temporary. You’ll find it will free you up to get on with the more important things.

But whatever you do, make time for yourself, and especially for your partner if you have one. A happy entrepreneur is more likely to succeed; so be happy, and be successful!

Do’s

Do set a schedule for your social media marketing activities. Your schedule will help ensure that you are not spending too much time on social media activities. It is too easy to get wrapped up and lose track of time. The return on your time is not going to be good if you are wasting hours online.

Do stay active. Social media is all about staying active and connecting with people. If you simply set up a profile and then never return, then you will get nothing from social media marketing. You need to go there daily, make posts, take part in activities. The whole idea to connect on a personal level with your social media friends. You can only do this by staying active.

Do be interactive. You want to take advantage of the interactive options that social media provides. Videos are a great example. There have been numerous companies that have used video campaigns to help boost the effectiveness of your social media marketing. You can invite people to send in videos about your product or create a contest, like a chance to create a new ad for a new product.

Do make sure to listen to your contacts. Social media is not just about talking to others. It is also about listening to what they are saying. You can get a lot of valuable information about your brand image, what people think about your products and about what changes you can make to make your business better just by listening to people responding to your social media marketing.

Do use social media to get to know your customers better. Social media lets you learn a lot about your customers. You can find out their likes, dislikes, their interests and numerous other things that can allow you to learn how to better market your products or services.

Don’ts

Don’t forget to be professional. It can be easy to blur the lines between fun and business when you start social media marketing. It is very important that you stick to a professional image. You can’t make statements or do anything that you do not want your customers to read or see. Remember your social media marketing represents your business, so keep it professional.

Don’t forget to network. It may seem obvious, but you have to work to connect with people. You need to meet new people by sending out friend requests and not just sitting around and waiting for them to befriend you. Be proactive and make connections with people, other businesses and other professionals.

Don’t be boring. One thing you will notice when you get involved in social media is that the most popular pages or people are those who are interesting. They have things to say that make people take notice. They are active and they are great friends. They make comments on other people’s posted items. Boring has no place in social media. You can’t expect to get noticed if you are sitting back and watching everyone else interact.

Don’t rely solely on social media marketing. Social media marketing is a great marketing tool, but it can’t be the only marketing you do. You still need to diversify your marketing efforts. Not every person in your target market will be accessible through social media, so make sure that you are not neglecting a whole sector of your target market by diversifying your marketing efforts.

By following these simple ideas about what to do and what not to do when it comes to social media marketing you should find that this type of marketing can be wonderful for your business. And, yes, I’m going to say it again . . . You should have a plan before you start your social media marketing so that you end up targeting the right people, doing the right things and avoid doing the wrong things. The only way to benefit from social media marketing is to make sure you do it right. Otherwise you will just be wasting time and effort.

Step Away from the Static

A brochure is static. This means that once published, it doesn’t change. It can’t change. It is what it is. Thinking of your website as a brochure means you are not taking full advantage of your website. Any website that goes static, is a dead site. In order to compete you have to keep updating your website. You have to make it exciting and change the content as your business changes. It should be a reflection of your business and what is happening with your business right now.

There are many ways you can keep your website from going static. Adding new content, changing the look and introducing elements to your site, like video, that can easily be changed often are great examples of things you can do to help keep your website fresh and up to date. The last thing you want is a website that is not current. People will rely on your website as a way to get information about your business and if it is out of date or it shows signs that nobody has updated it then people will stop visiting.

Don’t Be Limited

Brochures are pieces of paper. They include pictures and words. That is it. They are pretty simple. If you think of your website as a brochure then you will not be getting as much from it as you can. A website is not simple at all. It has many layers to it. It has many possibilities. You can do so many things with a website. It is much more than just a place where people can come to read about your business.

Your website can be interactive. You can post videos. You can sell products. You can make announcements. You can run contests. Your website allows you to really interact with your visitors. You have the chance to sell your business and to make people take notice and choose to do business with you over the competition.

You are not limited. You can say as much as you want about your company and your products or services. You can really give people as much information as you want. Your website is an amazing tool.

Making the Most of It

Your website is something that will become the face of your business online. Your website will help you to connect with other businesses that could drive customers to you. You can network and even reach a larger target market. That is why it is so important to not think of it as a brochure. You do not want it to become boring and useless. Here are some ways to ensure you are getting the most from your website:

- Optimize. You have to set up your website to ensure that it can be found by the search engines and that customers can get to your site. If you can’t get traffic to your site then it will not do you any good.  I contract with one of the best in the industry so let us know how we can help!

- Keep content fresh. You need to be working on new content on a regular basis. One great idea to ensure your website always has fresh and new content is to start a blog. By having a blog on your site you can be sure that you are publishing fresh content regularly.

- Give something away. People love to get something for free. People also love valuable information. By giving away something valuable for free to visitors, you will be able to keep traffic flowing to your site. Additionally, when you are giving away something like a report that has valuable information, you are also working to build trust. People will read it, get value from it and equate that with your business. They will know that you providing them with something valuable and will be more likely to come back to your site and see what else you have to offer.

Thinking of your website as a brochure is a bad mistake. You have to see that it is so much more than just an informational pamphlet. Your website can really take your business a whole new level, but in order for it work you have to start thinking of it as a valuable business tools and not just a piece of paper.

One of the major challenges with social media marketing is ensuring that you are reaching your target market. You need to talk to people who are going to actually do business with you or the whole process is absolutely useless. You don’t want to waste your time marketing to teenagers when your target market is mothers of school aged children.You may not be losing money, but you will lose valuable time when you are not targeting your social media marketing efforts.

Gauging your Success

The biggest question most business owners have about how to target their social media marketing is just exactly how that is done. How do you know you are connecting with the right people? How do you know that what you post or what you say will draw in the right people? The key here is paying attention to the reactions you get from the information you put out there.

Just as with any other marketing effort, you will base the success of your marketing on the response. With social media marketing that is actually very easy.  Social media works when that you post something- content, a video, a remark- and people respond. You get immediate feedback in most cases. So, no waiting around to see if things are working.

Your Profile

One way to ensure that you are drawing in the right people is to create a profile that really speaks to your target market. In order to do this you have to know some information about your target market. (Hmm sounds familiar?)

Define your target market. I know I may sound like a broken record, but this is key. Are you targeting consumers? Other businesses? Suppliers? You also should know the basic demographic of your target market. Find out about your target market’s general online habits, behavior and activities.

Learning what your target market is doing online and what types of things they seem to be interested in will help you to figure out what type of profile to create. You can configure your profile to their interests. Add in things that would grab their attention.

Once you have set up your profile, you can then start working on what you post and start to make it suit your target market by working with the feedback that you get.

Understanding Feedback

When you make a post you may only need to wait a minute for someone to respond. Read through responses. Check into who is making the responses. See if the people responding are people in your target market.

You will likely get a range of responses. Your goal should be to get feedback and reaction from your target market. If you see that too much of the feedback you get is from people outside your target market then it may be time to adjust your social media marketing so that you start getting responses from your target market.

Using social media marketing to reach your target market is really actually easier than using other marketing methods. You get instant confirmation that you are reaching the right people. You can easily make adjustments if need be so that you do reach the right people.

Many people think it is too hard to target who you are marketing to when you get involved with social media. That is a big misconception and something that causes many businesses to avoid this amazing marketing tool. You need to take advantage of social media marketing and not be put off by the fear of not connecting with the right people. As you have learned all it takes is paying attention and staying on top of what target market is doing in order to ensure you target the right people with your social media marketing.

Marketing Business to Business  (B2B)

A business will work hard to make buying easier. At a business a lot of time is taken to research companies they do business with. They will make choices that will help them save on money and time. Businesses base buying on logic. This is a very important point to keep in mind when you start developing your marketing materials that you will use for B2B sales.

Marketing to a business requires focusing in on the features of the product. You need to make it very clear why your product or service is the best choice. You have to prove yourself and prove that buying from you is the decision that makes the most sense/cents.

Focus on providing a lot of information. The buyers for the businesses that you are marketing to will be looking for information. They want to read about statistics and figures. They want to learn as much as possible so they can be positive they are making the right purchase.

Also keep in mind that they will be looking to save. You need to tell them how your product or service will save them time, money and resources. Make them see that buying your product or service will actually do them good.

Marketing Business to Consumer (B2C)

Consumers are quite different from a business. They don’t have a group of people researching different products or services before they buy. They often do not have the luxury of taking their time before making a purchase decision. They do want to buy products that save them time and money, but a consumer is more likely to buy based on emotion rather than logic.

Consumers really want to buy products that will make them feel good about buying it. You need to show them how the product will benefit them. If you have a specific angle, like a product or service that is environmentally friendly, then capitalize on that. Something of that nature will really speak to a consumer.

Consumers also want things that will make their life easier. Show the consumer how your product or service will make things easier for them. Show the benefits of how the product is better than a competitors.

Keep your marketing message short. Unlike a business, a consumer is not too interested in hearing a lot of information. They want the basics. They want to get to the heart of what you have to say without having to read or listen to a lot of information first. You have to be direct and clear with your sales message.

Get personal with your marketing to consumers. You have to make it touch them emotionally and make them see how they will benefit from buying your product.

Adjusting your Marketing for B2B verses B2C

There are two main points you have to keep in mind about the difference in marketing to B2B verses B2C. The first one is that with B2B you need to appeal to the logical side of the sale and with B2C you need to focus on the emotional side of the sale. The second point to keep in mind is that when marketing to B2B customers you have to focus on the features of your product or service and when marketing to B2C customers you need to focus on the benefits of your product or service.

By understanding these important points you will better be able to create a marketing campaign that will bring success no matter who you are marketing to. Creating one campaign to market both B2B and B2C is a huge mistake. You may never reach your goals with both sets of clients if you do this. Even if you are just marketing to B2B or B2C it is still important to understand just what these types of customers look for and the best way to market to them, so you can launch a successful marketing campaign.