What does YOUR blog photo say about you?
Does it say “I had my 4 year old take my picture after I chased him through the park”?
Or does it communicate the fact that you are a wonderful person, established business person, trust worthy and honest?
Can a photo even do that? It certainly can!
I’m sure you’ve seen the photos I’m talking about–the ones where the blogger (who is blogging for a business–honestly, I don’t care what you personal blog photo is) looks bedraggled, rushed, and unprofessional in every way.
Is that the image you want your online customers to associate with you?
Wouldn’t it be great if the picture of you brings up great thoughts, warm fuzzies and return visits? It can.
I know, some of you are staring sternly at your screens–you want your photo to have personality! You want it to show how unique you are.
It can still do that.
A blog feels informal but if you are blogging about and for your business, it’s not. You might feel like you’re just sharing with friends, but you are reinforcing your customer’s ideas about you. I’m not saying you have to have a boring “business” headshot for your blog but you want a consistent image presented to your customers.
Think about it: If this picture is the ONLY image they see of you, don’t you want it to deliver the best impression positive? This is your FIRST IMPRESSION for customers who happen to find you via the web. Don’t you deserve an amazing picture of yourself?
While it might seem like hiring a photographer for something as small as a photo for your blog is lavish or a waste of resources, consider this: if you are a small business, chances are good you are your business. So why would you choose to present yourself in less than favorable light to thousands of potential customers or clients? Isn’t that more wasteful than hiring a qualified professional to collaborate with you to create an image that speaks of you highly?
If you have a brick & mortar store, you might consider having a photographer capture an image of you at the business.
When you hire a photographer, you are hiring a visual artist. Don’t be afraid to “shop around”. Find someone who’s style, energy, personality and ideas mesh with yours. You want someone who will not only share your vision for the end result but add to it in an amazing way to deliver an image you will be thrilled with. If you simply hire any photographer, its true–you could be wasting your money.
If you are looking for a photographer who can deliver an image with personality, you owe it to yourself to do your homework and find someone you feel is a good fit. Don’t just go with the first photographer you find or the cheapest. While there’s something to be said for being thrifty, chances are good a lower price means they aren’t as seasoned as a more expensive photographer. This is one reason seeing a portfolio and meeting the photographer is so important.
So take a look at your blog photo with a customer oriented eye: what does it say about you? What is says about you will be projected onto your business and perception is everything.
We can’t change how people perceive you, but you can control how you are presented.
Be willing to get a new photo if yours doesn’t fit. It’s not a bad thing. It’s saying “YES” to all those potential clients & customers. And “YES” to showing you off in your best light. You and your business deserve it.
Filed under BusinessLove | Comment (0)Excellent Service
Just another example of amazing customer service that I hope spurred some “pay it forward” sentiments and actions!
The gist of the story: A Whole Foods store in West Hartford was operating as usual until a computer glitch rendered all the registers unusable. They simply could not ring up customers. So the manager, Kimberly Hall, made a snap decision after consulting with other employees. What was the decision? That is wasn’t fair to make customers wait until the registers were operating normally again. So what did they do? They gave away the groceries. Now, they didn’t announce it to the whole store so people were honestly shopping not loading up to take advantage.
Most people were astounded. One woman pledged to donate to a food bank the amount her bill would have been.
They gave away approximately $4,000 in groceries. How amazing is that? I’m quite certain that those customers who were trying to beat a winter storm home near the holidays felt doubly blessed and will easily make the choice to shop at Whole Foods every chance they get.
You can read the WHOLE story here: The Story
So what can you do for your business today that will encourage employees to have such great minds?
My recommendation would be to promote the idea of living out great service not just giving it lip service. Share stories like this one that exemplify the type of service you want delivered to your customers–with or without you.
Filed under VividSpark Marketing | Comment (0)How do I….
See how many comments are on a specific post on my own blog?
In WordPress, its easy to see all the comments on a single post and they are even numbered for you.
- Simply login to your administrators page/dashboard,
- Click “Manage” You’ll see a list of all your posts.
- Click the number under the “comments” column that corresponds to the post you are interested in.
- Voila!
How is this useful?
If you remember that a specific post has a comment you’re looking for this can be faster than using the search function under “comments”.
And if you run blog contests that require entrants to leave a post, this is the easiest way to pick a winner. Simply note the number of comments there are and have someone special choose a number between 1 and that number. That commenter will win!
Much less work that printing out the comments and having a drawing–and still random since you will choose someone who hasn’t memorized or even looked at the comments on your blog, right?
Hope that helps!
This answer is Wordpress specific. Check with your blog hosting company if you are using something else. :
Filed under Answers for Common Questions | Comment (0)Where to start?
Q. I want to start a business. I know what I want to open (clothing store, bookstore, music store, furniture store, lighting store, photography studio, cafe…you get the picture) but I don’t know where to start. Help me!
A. I know, it all seems overwhelming the number of things you need to do to get your business off & running. Hopefully this helps!
1. Get a name for your business. Don’t fret! This DOES NOT have to be the final name you put on your store. You need a name so you can get your reseller tax ID (if you buy something with the intent of reselling it, you want this–it means you don’t pay sales tax on it since you will be collecting sales tax on it when you sell it). If you have a name, great, if not use your own or use one you’re pretty sure you like. You also need a business name in order to being working with wholesalers. No business name and you won’t be able to get catalogs or place orders. Also make yourself some basic business cards with this name & your personal contact information. You can get free business cards from www.vistaprint.com and since these won’t be a part of your permanent store identity, you don’t want to invest much into them.
2. Create a business plan. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from sources that can find the information you’re looking for more quickly. Sometimes it pays to hire someone to do initial research on locations, the market and the local economy rather than trudging through miles of internet sites and books. Having a business plan means you will have a much better idea of your target market, budget and what financing you may need to pursue. It also means you already have a polished document ready to take to the bank.
3. Learn to live & breath your target market/demographic. You want to know what they like to do, listen to, drive, where they eat, what shows they watch..you get the picture. The better you know them, the better you can serve them.
4. Gather. Start a file on wholesalers, merchandisers and other people you want to work with. Clip magazine articles & pictures that you feel represent something you want in your store. From colors & fabrics to lighting & merchandise, write it all down! By the time you open, you’re likely to have all the key items in one place and ready to go!
5. If you KNOW you are going to do this, start buying the basics. Since you have time, you are much more likely to be able to sniff out deals and save some cash on essential things like your cash register and other non-inventory items.
6. Do hands on research. Go to stores that you think might be like what you want, head to a trade show, soak up information at a conference…Each of these trips will inspire you, grow your knowledge and build a network of talent that you can readily access. Going to a merchandise mart is a great way to meet vendors and narrow down companies you think you’ll want to work with.
7. Soak it up! Again, hit the pavement…even virtually. Shop online stores if you think you may want one. The idea is to gather up as much exposure so you know what you want to and don’t want to do in your store. Take notes!
8. Read Read Read. Information again. You want to read up on every aspect of your business since its likely you’ll be running it. 
From taxes to employees to marketing and customer service, you want to know what to do, how to do it and how to do it well. At this point, you are your business so you have to be in command of everything from writing good business letters, sending appropriate emails, being professional on the phone, placing adverts. So until you hire some help, it will pay off to be prepared to handle all the tasks you will be undertaking from filing sales taxes and finding your COGS (Cost Of Goods Sold) to hiring.
9. Ruminate. Don’t jump in. Live with your business concept, name & information for a bit. Ask yourself the deep questions before running in headlong. You don’t need to take a sabbatical, but do spend some time thinking about this since it is a big decision that will impact your entire life and financial stability.
A few questions to ask yourself:
- Am I okay with how this will change my life?
- Am I willing to work hard (and even harder) to make this work?
- How will this change my life?
- Is this going to help me get where I want to go? (or think I want to go?)
- How long can I do this alone? (here I mean running the day to day business–you need support even if it’s not through having employees)
- Do have I support at home?
- If this doesn’t work out, how will it impact my life? Will I lose my home? Car? Can I sell the business? Can I break even?
There is so much to ponder as you begin the process of starting a business.
A few recommendations: hire a CPA to deal with at least the taxes for the business. Tax law is complicated–let a professional handle it.
If you can, outsource anything you don’t want to do or just don’t have the skill to do. Sometimes you can trade, but regardless, it is always cheaper to have a professional (or someone with oodles of talent) to do something that you would have to invest tons of time into. Like designing an ad–find a marketing student and an art student. Get the marketing student to figure out your message and the art student to design it. Chances are, it will be faster and better than what you would have cobbled together. Putting out poorly done marketing is usually worse than doing none at all–it puts a bad face in people’s faces. Not a good first impression.
Remember all that about reading? Make sure you put a few start-up books on your list. They will help you with things you’ve never even thought of.
I hope this helps you get started with building a business. Owning your own business isn’t a cake walk and doing your homework will always pay off in the end. In business, there’s no extra credit, no late grades, and no one to take your test for you.
If you like what you’re reading but need more answers, Jennifer & Deb are available for 1 on 1 mentoring sessions.
Filed under Answers for Common Questions | Comment (1)