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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How to build a following...

When I started my Finance Coach group on Facebook a year ago, I set myself a goal of having 1,000 members within a year. I remember a number of people saying to me that that was a very high bar to set, and I shouldn’t be surprised if I fall well short of that. Well, last Friday was one year exactly, and I had 902 members. So, I didn’t quite make it to 1,000 in time, but I ‘scored’ 90.2% on my own ‘test’, and I’m pretty damn happy with that! So, I don’t confess to being the world’s best blogger (far from it), but here’s some of what I learnt in the process. While the lessons were learnt from blogging, they can easily be translated into a business context…

Give people something they want/need. Find a niche that’s not being served, or that’s not being served well enough, and fill it. If people want and need what you’re offering, half the battle is won. What spurred me to start my Finance Coach group was coming across more and more people that were in a real financial pickle, or whose businesses were struggling. I knew then and there that people would take to a group where they were given free, practical financial and business advice…


Keep your promises. Following on from the first point, do what you said you were going to do. If you suddenly start going off on a tangent, people will quickly become disillusioned, and drop you like a rock. There’s nothing wrong with diversifying, but don’t stop doing what it was that attracted people to you in the first place…


Get the word out. When you’re first starting out, take ANY opportunity you have to tell others about what it is you’re doing. Put up flyers, email everyone on your contact list, mention it in the conversation at dinner parties, hand your business cards out to everyone you meet, etc. The hardest part is getting out there, so be prepared for the hard yards, and to do whatever it takes…


Engage your audience. Invite feedback, and respond to it. Join the conversation about your product. Don’t be afraid of criticism, or try and cover it up – people will pick up on this straight away, and you’ll lose the trust that you’ve built up with them…


Give regular updates. I was told that, for blogging in particular, the single-most important thing you can do is to do it to write regularly. This principle can extend out to the business world as well – keep in touch with your customers, send them news, forward them articles that might interest them. This jogs their memory about you, and keeps you close to top-of-mind…


Measure, measure, measure. There’s no point in trying to grow a group of readers or customers, if you’re not tracking how you’re doing. This could be any metric that applies (reader numbers, rate of growth, increases in sales, etc), but monitor it closely to help you keep track of what’s working and what’s not…


Be sincere. Come across in all of your communications as professional, but still human. Remember that your audience/customers are, ultimately, still people – so talk to them in their language every so often, if not all the time. Being sincere will also pay off big time when you make a mistake (and you probably will sometime) – your followers haven’t forgotten that you too are human, and will be much quicker to forgive you your trangressions…


Ask for referrals. Once you’ve built up a relationship with your followers or customers, leverage off of their networks. Ask them who else they know who would like your product; and ask them to invite their friends to give you a try…


Set goals, and then break them down into manageable parts. Don’t just have a vague idea of where you want to be – be specific about targets, what they look like, when they must be achieved by, who’s responsible for what. Then, once you have a goal in sight, break it down into smaller goals (or milestones) that need to be reached along the way. This way, you won’t be overwhelmed by the sheer size of your big goal, as you’ll be focused on the smaller, more realistic mini-goal…


Speak to people who’ve been there. Seek out those who have been successful in the area you want to get into, and ask what they did, and what lessons they learnt. You’d be surprised how happy most successful people are to give you advice. I was very fortunate to have the support of very experienced bloggers like Chris at Imod and the guys at Cherryflava – their encouragement and advice was priceless…


Remember your motivation. There will be times when you hit a stumbling block, come across a massive obstacle, or start to lose heart. When this happens, go back in your mind to what your motivation was for doing what you do, and bring that forward. There have been times when I just haven’t felt like writing anything, but I always remember that the point of the group was to help and inspire others to manage their finances and businesses better. That idea – that I was helping others in some small way – is what kept me going, even when I wasn’t feeling so hot about doing the work…

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Finance Coach - Vol. 35


Finance tip: Transport


Make your vehicle as aerodynamic as possible. One of the best ways to reduce your fuel consumption is to make your vehicle aerodynamically efficient, as it then creates less resistance as it moves through the air (using less fuel in the process). Now, we don’t all have low-slung sports cars, but there a number of simple ways to help your fuel go further: Firstly, take off any removable roof racks that aren’t being used – all they are doing is creating more air turbulence as you drive. Secondly, keep your windows closed whenever possible – driving with one or more open windows can increase your fuel consumption by as much as 10%. And thirdly, give your car a regular wash. Not only will regular washes help to maintain its finish – and thus its value – and be some good exercise for you (that’s right, do it yourself!), but having a dirt-free car keeps its exposed surfaces smoother; decreasing air resistance while it’s moving. It’s one thing we can learn from the airlines – they have teams dedicated to keeping their planes clean, which helps to knock a few percent off of their fuel-burn rates…


Business tip: PR/Marketing


The timing of your PR and marketing efforts is everything. While it’s obvious that when you do your marketing is important, it’s even more so when working on public relations material through third-party publications. If you are trying to get an editorial though into a particular magazine or website, be sure to ask about their lead-times. Many publications plan their issues far in advance (sometimes as far as 6 months ahead), so be sure that you take this into account when approaching them, if you are looking to have your material out around a specific date. If you are wanting to advertise your Christmas promotions, for example, planning to start work on the campaign on 1 December will be far too late. In fact, if you haven’t approached your target publications at all yet, you’ve probably already missed the boat. Also keep in mind the theoretical ‘sales cycle’ – the theory that what you advertise now, you’ll start to see results on in six weeks. So pull out your calendar, and start planning now for your future campaigns…

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Finance Coach - Vol. 34

Finance tip: Leisure

Consider fractional ownership. For those of you looking at spending some of your hard-earned money on a ‘leisure investment’ (think holiday house, boat, plane, jetski, etc.), consider going the fractional ownership route. This is where, instead of buying the object or property yourself, you pool up with a number of other interested buyers, and each pay a proportionate amount of the total. The idea is then to share the usage of what you have bought, based on calendar days or some other equitable formula. The reason that this form of ownership has gained in popularity in recent times, is that people are realising that they actually get better value for their money – they were never going to use the property or object all year in any case, so they may as well only pay for a smaller proportion of it, and let others use it when they’re not. This then ties up less of their precious capital (which they can then invest in other things), and they still get to enjoy the benefits of using what they have paid for. For even more convenience, the next level is to pay a small levy, and get a third party to administer and maintain the property or object for all the owners, freeing them up from the potentially time-consuming aspects of ongoing maintenance and trouble-shooting...

Business tip: Marketing/PR

Write for publications to increase your profile. If you’re looking for an avenue to increase your exposure to the public, or to a particular industry, consider writing articles/submissions for publications that your target market would read. Most editors are constantly on the lookout for content to fill their pages (if it’s relevant and of a high enough standard), and gratefully accept submissions from those interested in writing them. Writing like this has a number of benefits to your business: Generally, if you do submit an article, the editor will allow you to put in a short footnote, where you can mention your company and perhaps some contact details. Even if they are a bit restrictive on this aspect, they would at least attribute the submission to you and put your name on it – if people want to find out more, they could simply Google you. If you do this regularly over a period of time, you’ll start to build up a reputation of being an expert in your field, which will put you at top-of-mind when people are looking for more information on your particular product or service – leading to more contacts and sales leads...

Monday, October 5, 2009

Finance Coach - Vol. 33

Finance tip: Utilities

Insulate your roof. One of the simplest ways to save on your electricity and energy costs is to have your roof/ceiling insulated. Going into summer here in the Southern Hemisphere, it will help in keeping your house/office cool, and reduce your reliance on energy-chowing air conditioners. For our Northern Hemisphere readers, going into a cold winter, it will help to keep the warmth in your building and stop it from escaping out through the roof. This then has the benefit of reducing the need for heaters and thermostats to be left on non-stop. While you can obviously contact the experts to come in and do it for you, there are also cost-effective ways to do it yourself. Speak to your local handyman or hardware store about the best materials and layout for the job…

Business tip: Finances

Create a ‘slush fund’. This is one of the most prudent financial habits that a business can get into, yet so few actually follow the principle. Essentially, what it revolves around is taking a little bit off the top each and every month (this might be based on revenue, profit, or whatever), and putting it into a separate savings account. This slush fund then serves two purposes: The first of these is to provide an extra source of income, from the interest generated off of the capital in the account. This may only be a few extra bucks a month, but it may be enough to cover something small like your phone line rental or coffee/tea expenses (remember, every bit helps). The second purpose is to build up a buffer against bad times or unexpected expenses. From personal experience, I have done this with my limousine company. Every month, once I have run the income statement and calculated profit, I only pay out 90% of the profit. The extra 10% then forms part of the company’s slush fund. Over the years, following this principle strictly has produced the following result: If I were to turn off my phones today, and stop running the business in its entirety, I would still be able to pay salaries and overheads for a full six months. That’s right, six whole months! How long would you last?