Have you been practicing your communication skills today?
Have you spent a good proportion of your day answering e-mails, calling people up, responding to blog comments and posting up comments of your own?
If the answer is no, it could be that you’ve become caught up in your business, wondering about how to enhance your products or services instead of keeping your customers happy.
The Fundamental Trait
While both sides of running an online business are important, communication is fundamental.
Without it, our customers begin to feel unloved, and you run the risk of them drifting away to another, more friendly, service provider.
In my teens I loved disco music (I still do!) and most weekends I would be dancing to the tunes of Heatwave, Rose Royce, Earth Wind & Fire…
30 Years Later…
My wife and I have been dancing together now for almost 3 years…The Waltz, Quickstep, Tango, Cha-Cha-Cha, Foxtrot, Rumba and Jive.
Last week we were learning a complex part (well we thought it was complex!) of the Waltz. We just couldn’t get the move right. We did struggle.
We asked the dance instructor and she wasn’t that helpful – or so we thought.
In my previous articles on why small businesses fail I’ve mentioned ‘being overwhelmed’ and the fact that the small business owner is guilty of ‘trying to do too many things’.
When I first started running my own small business…do you know what the toughest part was?
Running the whole business:
As a small business owner, I quickly discovered I couldn’t do everything myself unless I was willing to work 20 hours a day, 7 days a week.
This is a guest post by Kevin Lenton.
Kevin works with companies to build and maintain their online relationships with clients, as well as prepare content geared at high conversion rates. In his spare time he enjoys playing the harmonica – an activity he’s been involved in since the age of 12.
If you want to guest post on this blog, check out my guest post guidelines.
When I interviewed Rebecca Thorman (Creator and Owner of http://kontrary.com/ ) for The Great Successful People Package we chatted as if we had known each other for years.
In fact, it was the first time we had spoken and she loved my accent!
The interview was great and time flew by. Rebecca shared her knowledge on such subjects as finding your strengths, writing skills, building relationships, making that jump from college to work, blogging.
Hear something new…
This is a guest post by Tim Millett is an Australian freelance writer and journalist.
If you want to guest post on this blog, check out my guest post guidelines.
Forget any hype you’ve heard. Online marketing is about sales. Marketing is about sales, its success is measured in sales, and if you’re not selling you might as well be collecting antique teaspoons. Whether you’re selling share trading strategies or apps for iPhones, the basic marketing rules apply.
Almost a third of 2011 has passed and I have one question for you:
Have you achieved everything you had planned to (so far)?
In the vast majority of cases, the answer will be “NO!”
So, as a small business blogger, you know what you want and you have all these good intentions, right?
Update your blog, get a new theme, write a blog post, create your first product, start a joint venture…
Perhaps even more personal like…lose weight, gain weight, stop smoking, start exercising, get a new job, earn more, find a partner…
A good blogging friend of mine, Tara Roskell, helps wannabe inventors, ideas people, artists and designers promote their work.
She shares many ideas and resources via her blog, http://ideasuploaded.com.
So…why am I telling you this?
A few weeks back she asked me to do an audio interview with her. The interview would cover how inventors could market and sell their inventions via blogging.
And the audio is now up!
Here are just some of the questions I was asked and answered:
When buying any service on-line I always look to see if they have a live chat service.
I like to ask questions BEFORE purchasing.
I like to know I can have technical support AFTER purchasing.
And most of all when I do have questions, I want to have the ability to get them answered immediately.
Having a live chat service can sometimes persuade to buy. It helps alleviate the uncertainly of doing business with a company or someone I don’t know.
Many visitors come to my site, see my business blogging services and then email me with questions.
I own quite a lot of domain names and they are registered with several different companies.
Each month I get email reminders to renew the registration.
Recently I received one which looked like this:
I thought, “Not seen one like this before”. It looked genuine enough. It had all my correct details…meaning I did own the domain name and it was due for renewal.
Then I saw the cost – up to $999 for life registration.
I thought, “Wow. That cannot be right”.
As a professional small business owner, there are probably a number of reasons why you chose to concentrate your business marketing upon online networking and communications rather than going out and promoting your business in your local area.
By adding a blog to your small business, it enables you to harness the power of a global communications platform at a low cost, without leaving the comfort of your home or office to promote your products and services.
Apprehensive small business owner…
For the shy and retiring business owners among us, blogging fits a number of needs easily.
Today I was planning to do some blogging client work and keyword research for a new product I am working on. Then take the afternoon off.
But my plans went totally out of the window.
“Why?” I hear you ask.
A few weeks ago I was invited to be a contributor to a new free e-book by Michele Welch, owner of NewBizBlogger.
I was enticed by Michele’s words:
“Imagine for a second, getting your hands on an e-book containing some of the best articles ever written from some of the most active site owners/bloggers in the virtual world. Articles discussing topics such as SEO, keyword optimization, article marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging for money, competitive research, web design, etc.”
Hi, Andrew Rondeau here and this blog, my blog, will not lie to you. I will give it to you straight.This blog is about blogging, the Internet and sharing my experiences and advice on 
