Like riding a bicycle...NOT!

How long has it been since you rode a bicycle?

Do you remember when you first started to ride a two-wheeled bicycle? It was not a simple thing, was it. If you were like me, you ended up with a few scraped knees, elbows, and a bruised backside...more than once.

Then you finally caught the hang of it and you sailed off down the roadway feeling like you had just been given new wings! Remember? Remember the exhilaration that flushed through your entire body as you actually rode your bicycle all by yourself, no training wheels.

Now think about marketing your business. Are you still trying to market "using training wheels"?

What I am referring to of course, is are you moving your marketing techniques into the 21st century, or are you still using the "old-school" systems? My question then is, are those old systems still working as well as they used to or are you questioning what you need to change or upgrade?

I can hear many voices groaning as you force yourselves to keep reading this blog post. But you know what, I understand where you are coming from.

You are already working twelve to sixteen hour days and are having challenges fitting anything more into your day. This makes me wonder if you are trying to wear all the hats in your business. Does your business rely totally on your own actions? If so, perhaps you need to learn how to delegate.

There are definitely some things that you cannot delegate, but when you have a business, you need to decide what parts of the business only you can do, and what parts you can pay someone else to do for you.

Or perhaps you just don't have the budget that allows you to delegate yet. You will be elated to hear that you can use online systems and social media marketing programs to help gain exposure to a greater market potential with only 30 minutes a day! Yes! I kid you not!

If you are a solopreneur or any type of entrepreneur trying to get connected to your target market, all you need are these five key elements:

1. A computer that works and is connected to high speed internet.

2. Be connected to the three basic platforms of social media - LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.

3. A social media autoresponder, like SproutSocial.

4. A website with a blog, and a customer connect page

.

5. A mentor to help you with your plans.

Sound a little daunting for you?

Try scheduling in a time every day to concentrate on your marketing and start recording ideas on your smart phone to help you get your blog rolling. As thoughts come to you throughout your day, record them on your smart phone. Then when you get to your 30 minutes, you can just sit and write, publish and post. 

Easy-Peasy!

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

Fired at Fifty: Stop Looking For Work and Discover What You Were Meant to Do.

http://bit.ly/FiredatFiftyKindle

Are you “Stuck in the Ozarks”?

The world came crashing in on me January 4, 2011. I walked into my office where I had been working in the capacity of sales and marketing director. An hour later, I walked out of that office having been given my wings! 

Yup, I was fired!

The common terms you hear are pink-slipped, downsized, side-stepped, out-sourced, or laid off. Let’s face it, if that employer does not have another job for you, you are ‘fired’. . . plain and simple.

After a period of self-pity, I decided that I would search for another job. So I sent out a myriad of resumes and cover letters thinking that I present myself well, and don’t have dementia, so should be able to find work quickly. Well, I got 4 job interviews and one job offer at $10.00 an hour! I was stunned!

What was I going to do…work 3 jobs?

I went to my car and cried. I still had car payments to make and a mortgage to pay. I was at a loss for ideas.

Then I spoke with my son, Michael, and he mentioned that I had been doing podcasting for a while now, and was also very good at sales and marketing. Why not start a Marketing podcast show and coach people how to use LinkedIn?

Voila! The Marketing Mentress was born along with the Marketing Mentress show.

What I did was dig deep to find my strengths and then package them in a way that people would want to use my services…and pay me money.

Once I started networking and meeting others who had found themselves in similar situations, trying to build a brand around themselves and their strengths, I realized that I had finally found my niche, and could help these people, but you don’t just walk up to someone and give them advice, do you. That is how I came to write my book…”Fired at Fifty: Stop looking for work and discover what you were meant to do.”

Sounds simple, doesn’t it. Well it was not so simple. It took me time to find the resources I needed to bring everything I needed together. I found free resources and free coaching services. I traded for services. I did whatever it took to succeed with my brand. –As long as it was legal & morally right.

A few short years ago, I was literally dragged into the 21^st Century kicking and screaming. Let’s see if you might have been too.

I figured that I had managed just fine without a cell phone and without a computer for most of my life. Then one day I walked into my office where I had been working as a real estate secretary and there sitting smack in the middle of my desk was an Apple 2e! My beloved IBM Selectric typewriter was gone! I searched everywhere for my beloved typewriter, and it was nowhere to be found. The nerve of my boss to do such a thing. Didn’t he know that he had just cut off my right arm?

How in the world could this be really happening to me? I had seen the fate of the Commodore 64, so to me it was a no-brainer that computers would never succeed further than the rooms full of computers that helped run big business. Come to think of it, I have a good friend who still laughs today about his degree in “Commodore 64”.

Who’d-a-thunk-it!

It is obvious that more than just one someone did “thunk-it”. Today we have computers everywhere around us. They run cell phones as small as a wrist watch, or as large as those that run automobiles, transportation systems, the petroleum industry, and the list goes on. Here I am typing on a laptop for goodness sakes!

Every once-in-a-while I have the privilege of meeting a business person who does not use a debit machine to perform financial transactions. Even the smallest sole proprietorship at least has a “swiper” these days to help them process purchases for their clients. You know, those square gadgets that plug into your iPhone or Android so you can swipe a credit card and have money deposited directly into your bank account.

In light of today’s high tech lifestyle, it is kind of shocking to find individuals who still choose to remain “in the Ozarks”.

Now using computers and cell phones have become just a small part of the whole online connection that can be utilized in today’s high tech world. Because of this new advanced technology, people and thus business have become mobile. We receive email and messages through our mobile devices. The goal today is to be able to still keep on top of our daily communications, find new products for business, and book appointments while we are out and about.

We as a culture have become totally dependent on technology. Can you imagine not having a microwave or a coffee machine or a stove? Computers are everywhere!

For over 20 years I have been involved with sales and marketing. It used to be that I would use the newspapers and phone books to find leads. –Or I just plain went door-to-door making friends.

Do you remember the good-old-days?

Although we can still find people using the old systems to generate sales, today we depend on more sophisticated means for finding new clients and keeping in touch with them. Instead of sending a physical letter or greeting card, we send email and text messages. –But then how do we become effective using this new type of communication to get sales?

All it takes to succeed with this new marketing medium is:

1.      Hard work.

2.      A system.

3.      Service with integrity.

4.      An unstoppable dream.

Let’s conquer this marketing together! What can I help you with?

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

…The Rest of the Story… The Learning Curve

 by Christine Till Leave a Comment

Your EI has run out, and you have taken out early retirement.  So, now you at least are earning $300 a month…woopee!  (They take 30% off for early retirement.)

However, that is not going to pay the bills, Right?  You do have some savings, but that will not take long to burn through, so that is why you have started your own business…Right!

Remember, “Nobody wants you”.  You have sent out tons of resume’s and when you finally got a response, they offered you a little above minimum wage?

Hence, begins the largest learning-curve of your entire life!

You have come all this way in life and have all the wonderful expertise, experience, wisdom and knowledge only to find that it is not enough!  What do you mean!!!?…It’s not enough?!!!

Here are the “goods”.

You now live in a different age… the internet age.  Everything is high-tec.  You need to be engaged with things like email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.   Oh yes!  You will also need a website/blog site.

No, I don’t mean you need to “get married” to them, however, you will, at times feel like you are.   Tee-Hee!

“How much is this all going to cost me?” you ask.

Probably your house and your first born…J  Not really!  There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Now that your brain feels like it is going to explode because of hyper-expansion, take a deep breath.  Relax and take it all in a step at a time.

Breathe…   Breathe…

Most of establishing your online presence can be FREE!  That’s right…absolutely FREE!  It will cost you some time, however.  Here are some simple steps that you might want to take in order to get started.

1. Start with one thing at a time.  Have you ever tried to eat an elephant?  Well it seems insurmountable when you look at the huge monster of the whole animal, but if you were to eat it one bite at a time, it would be easily consumed.  (It might take you a few years.  Just the same, I think I’d like my well done, thank you very much!)   …I digress…
2. Ask yourself  some key questions about your product or service that you intend to offer in the marketplace.  Who are your potential customers? Would it be businesses or private individuals who would purchase from you?  Where are your potential customers located?  For example:  If it would be businesses that purchase from you, then you need to concentrate your efforts through those social media forms that cater more to B2B (Business to Business).  The social media that would apply first would be LinkedIn, then Twitter, then a Facebook Page, and a website.  Oh, yes…and email…we must have email…Oh!  You do have email.  Great!  You are off to a good start.
3. Pick which of the media you want to engage with first, and work on it until you can understand it and use it with ease before adding something new.   All too often I see people frantically getting all their social media profiles set up at the same time, and they end up confused, or taking even longer to get themselves established with their online presence.  Hence, more customer absenteeism.

You thought you were busy before, eh?  Wait until you hear “the rest of the story.”

The Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

The Call to Action

So there you are, living your life the way you have always been taught . . . living the “Rut-race”. . . travelling the same path day in and day out, and now you are 55+.  The work is familiar to you and you really do enjoy it, even though you are getting a little tired, but you tell yourself you only have a few more years and you can RETIRE!  So that is what you motivate yourself with every day as you get up and go to work.

Until one day when you walk into work and are handed … a “pink slip”, voila, you are magically out of work!  The cushy job you had and thought would continue working at until your official retirement at age 65 has now de-materialized!

Now what?

You check your bank accounts and investments, and realize that you just don’t have the savings and investments you need to live the rest of your life with any kind of lifestyle close to what you have become accustomed.  You are 10, or so, years short of your financial goals.  The Employment Insurance will only last you about 5 or 6 months.

Then what do you do?

You are still vibrant and full of life!  You are intelligent!  You have no signs of dementia . . . perhaps a few aches and pains showing up slightly, but nothing serious.  You are active and exercise regularly.  You still look and feel great!  Why don’t they want you?

Oh yes, you shed more than a few tears!

Even though you feel dejected and rejected, you go out and search for another job and send out hundreds of resume’s . . . only to find that nobody wants you!   “Are they discriminating against me?” you ask,  ”-Or is it my age group?”

But wait!  You receive a job offer!  Whoopee!  Someone really wants you!  The excitement wells up in you and your heart pounds as you open the email!  Everything is just what you were looking for, until you read the last line.  Sadly, they are only offering you a little above minimum wage.

What do you do?

If you accept this offer, you know that you will not even have enough to pay your essential bills, let alone food.  The offer isn’t much above the amount of your EI cheque.  Do you swallow your pride and accept this “new offer” or do you dig your heels in and start your own business?

News Flash!  You are not necessarily being discriminated against!

Businesses are only making a business decision.  If they can hire two people who are half your age and pay them both what you were receiving, it is only economics.  The businesses know that they will be sacrificing some wisdom and experience by hiring someone younger, but they will only be paying them ½ of what they were paying you.  To the businesses, it is worth the sacrifice.  It’s simply business economics.

Here you have all this wisdom, experience, knowledge, great health and energy.  How can you use all this to be of service in the world?

So, you decide to start your own business while you are on EI.  Don’t tell anyone, because you might just be making an income!  Sadly, you don’t, however, and your EI runs out.

How do you get your little business to start paying you?

Read the next post for “The Rest of the Story”.

Sign up for "Stuck In Peanut Butter" Webinar:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/stuck-in-peanut-butter-linkedin-profile-101-tickets-16217598273

Christine Till

The LinkedIn Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

"I Quit!"

Have you seen someone post on Facebook or Linkedin something like, "I quit!"?

Personally, I have witnessed this many times over the years. They may not state it in so many words, but it is stated through their actions.

The last time I saw a post something like this, I decided to do some research on the person who was "quitting". It did not take long to discover that there was nothing on their Facebook to show what their business was. They didn't even have a "business page"! All I ever saw them post was silly stuff about friends and fluff. I had no idea what they did for a living!

So I took it to the next level. I checked Twitter. That was even worse, so I made a final attempt by checking LinkedIn. Guess what I found? I discovered what their business was! I could not help but reflect on all the times I have read their posts and all this time never knew what they did to "bring home the bacon". No wonder they were going out of business! They never asked for any! You know what? You get what you ask for, pure and simple.

Here are the 3 Massive Mistakes even smart business owners make that prevent them from reaching 6 figure incomes.

Number 3

Using Social Media without a plan.

They use social media without any rhyme or reason and hope someone will see them there and ask what they do. After a few months of non-focused sharing, and getting no business, they give up on social media.

Number 2

Failure to focus on one area and specialize to be different from their competition.

Many new business owners start with an idea that they think will make money for them, and they find out that they are not making the kind of money they need as fast as they need it to come in, so they give up, or add another thing to the mix. Remember that 70% of your potential clients in the marketplace need and want your product or service. Only the top 3% already are looking. The rest need to be educated. 

Number 1

Failure to ask for help.

Asking for help can be asking your connections and associates to help you spread the word about what you do, or collaborating with a business coach on some ideas to get you moving with your business. There are many ways we can ask for help. Know what? People want to help, all we need to do is ask.

Have you found yourself caught here in the treadmill of trying to build your business "flying by the seat of your plans"?  

Here's a secret that I have learned:

The best platform to use for your social media marketing is LinkedIn. Most people in small business do not know how valuable LinkedIn is to them and the prosperity of their business.

I decided to make a difference with my workshops and webinars. When you attend my LinkedIn events, you "get your hands dirty" by bringing your computer to class and working on the spot. We work together to help you get the very most out of your time spent in class. You make connections with the people you want to know and do business with in class, so you are not having to spend more of your valuable time outside class making your LinkedIn work for you. Then you can maintain your LinkedIn on 15-30 minutes, once or twice a day.  That’s it.

Book your seat: MM 101 Doing It Right the First Time, Up Close and Personal

Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress
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