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What Great Clients Know...

I did a lot of freelance consoling during May, mainly because some folk are doing my peeps dirty, but I'm going to try and fix that.  Here’s 3 things great clients know:

Freelancers do work for you, not work for you - they set their hours, rates, terms and methods. Employees do the job for you for the price you set, on your terms, how you want it done and when you want it done. Employees also come with salary and benefits expenses and it is illegal to pay them less than minimum wage. See the difference?
Message: Respect the freelancer’s mode of operation.
Real life: You gotta pay the cost to be the boss

Be aware of the verbal contracts you create. Stating that you will engage a freelancer’s services and pay deposit on a certain day/date is a verbal contract and can be held up in a court of law. Most freelancers don’t pursue it, but it is a viable option.  And sure, circumstances change, things come up, but without communication, you could be cited for breach of contract. Not to mention it can screw up a schedule and/or a budget. The freelancer with a lawyer on retainer that decides to sue for breach of contract could receive the amount of your project PLUS lost income if they could have someone in your spot.
Message: If your situation changes let the freelancer know.
Real life: it’s like the cancellation fee your doctor’s office charges if you cancel less than 24 hours in advance.

You get what you pay for. Let’s leave quality out of it for a minute and talk solely in terms of deliverables. I say this often, but when you change the scope of your project, you increase the cost and/or length of time.
Message: If your budget doesn’t allow for the high end package, either save up, make adjustments to your wants list OR invest the time into learning how to do it yourself.
Real life: dollar menu items aren’t on the value meal list

Quickies:

• 
  Failure to read and/or comprehend your service contract does not absolve you from your obligation to pay.
• 
  Your fee is for the product or service. Whether or not you use it is on you.
• 
  Treat your freelancer how you want to be treated in your own biz/on your job.
• 
  Your org may be non-profit, but most times the freelancer is not.
• 
  Freelancers work freely. For a fee. © 2009-2013 Auntee Rik

Hopefully this list gives you some insight or some confidence that you’re a great client. Happy June!

Until next time,

Disclaimer: These points only take into account those freelancers that handle their biz. If you’re dealing with anyone that does not, switch providers.
 

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You have a Facebook page. You have some fans. Nicely done. Now, like the smart beauty salon business you are, you're looking for some proven ways to engage your followers so you can acquire more of them and make the most of your presence on Facebook.

Engaging your fans is a critical piece to building and maintaining a long-lasting relationships on Facebook—and offline! Here are a few timeless strategies that local beauty salon businesses are using with great results.

♦ Spread the Love

Tell your fans how much you appreciate them. Tell ‘em often!

Thanking your fans for their questions, complimenting them on their comments, highlighting their success stories—these things go a looong, long way in social media. Many smart beauty salon businesses on Facebook run a ‘Fan of the Month’ promotion to encourage and reward engagement.

This is really savvy way to make people feel good about themselves and your business while also capitalizing on the power of social proof.

♦ Offer Coupons and Run Promotions

Discounts, coupons, special offers … your followers will NEVER get tired of opportunities to save money and get more value from their purchases. Pro tip: If you want to run a promotion for a specific geographic location, use the Custom menu when you’re posting to target your followers in a certain area

♦ Share Your Knowledge

You run a beauty salon business. You have special knowledge and insight. You can help people. So share! People are always grateful for information that makes their lives easier or more fulfilling. Sharing helpful tips is some of the best engagement around.

It also helps you take advantage of the reciprocity principle: do something nice for someone, they’ll feel bound to return the favor.

♦ Issue a Challenge

We humans are deeply competitive by nature and simply cannot resist a challenge, an opportunity to show the world that we’re pretty darn smart. Test your fans’ knowledge using fun quizzes and polls. Trivia, brain teasers, riddles … you’ll have your followers eating out of your hand by day’s end, trust me.

♦ Take Photos of Your Happy Clients & Customers

Don’t hire a professional photographer. Just start snapping photos with your cellphone and post them to Facebook. You will be amazed—truly—at how people respond. Data collected by social media expert Dan Zarrella shows that photos get more shares and likes than text, video and link updates. This also a great social-proof strategy: other folks will see people enjoying your products/services and they’ll want to join the party, so to speak.

♦ Ask for Advice

The highest compliment a business can pay to its customers is to ask for their input. If you own a beauty parlour, ask your fans to come up with a new beauty salon giveaway! Or let them name your new product. Make it a contest! Solicit ideas and then let your fans vote for their favorite.

♦ Use Insights to See What’s Working

Here’s the beauty of Facebook: you can see what’s working and what’s not. Just export your Facebook Insights data to an Excel spreadsheet to a get quick, clear look at which status updates performed best, what kind of media your audience responds to and what's driving engagement.

Could your beauty salon business be generating more clients and customers online?

Contact me today for your free marketing assessment!

It happened.

Your heart is pounding,

Your palms are sweating

You’re stuttering and fumbling over your words

Your stomach starts to turn flips and you secretly wish the sky would fall so you have a valid excuse to end this situation – IMMEDIATELY.

No matter the level of your business – whether you are new or seasoned, it’s inevitable, you will experience challenges. They may all appear different but they all have similar underlying emotions.

they create fear, anxiety, frustration and even in some cases horrible procrastination (I’m looking at you Dream list that’s collecting dust).

I’ve had my own share of challenges since starting my journey in entrepreneurship over 5 years ago – even in the midst of tremendous success and recognition  I still struggled with work-life “balance”, learning the fine art form of attracting the RIGHT customers (I’ve never had issues in attracting but in attracting the right customers consistently, I learned a while ago is a fine art) The beauty of challenges however that many entrepreneurs often overlook is that they also create tremendous opportunities when you’ve learned to master the art of “CALL & RESPONSE” instead of “REACTION”

READ THE REST HERE

Fire Up Your Client Attraction now via Social Media - Surefire Keys to Get Clients, Visibility and Profit Using Social Media

Got Clients? Quick and easy tips to help you attract clients.

Do you have a plan in place to attract your ideal clients? I know attraction is not the end all in your client getting strategy, however, you do need to attract them to sign them or ask them and better yet wow them so that they ask you where they pay or sign on the line?

As a woman entrepreneur it’s easy to get side tracked and major on
the minors. One of the things you may not spend enough time on is
marketing, but without marketing you won’t have clients/customers and
without clients/customers you’re not in business for long.

So how do you attract clients? Great question.

I’m going to share a few tips with you below. Some you may be aware of but
just aren’t doing them or you may be new and don’t know where to begin.

One simple way is your signature. You can add a small blurb at the end
of your outgoing emails. Most providers have it set up where it automatically attaches to the end of your email. You want the most prominent information at the top. If you most want them to visit your website to get your free report, audio etc. then you want to put that at the top and maybe your title beneath.

Another place is in forums and network blogs. A caution on network blogs make
sure that this is allowed. Depending on the mission of the network you may not be allowed to add your signature at the end of your posts. Don’t start off promoting immediately in the forums. Get to know the people there. Watch for conversations that you can lend your expertise to and post. Attach your signature to the end of your posts.

Provide an IFO on your blog or website
What? No opt in box on your blog or website? You bet. There are many sites I visit that don’t have any way to capture their leads or the information from prospects that show up to their site. Most individuals will never invest in you products upon their first visit, so you must have a value added IFO (irresistible free offer) ready for them to raise their hand to provide their information in exchange for your value added IFO. Notice I said value added.

There are many ways to attract clients, however, if you start here you will find that it makes a world of difference. I wasn’t adding my signature at one point not because I didn’t know but because I just didn’t take the time to do it. Once I did I started adding more people to my list.

There is a lot more that goes into attracting clients and one thing is to make sure you are attracting your ideal client. Your ideal client wants your solutions, is ready and willing to pay you for your results driven solutions.

The key is being visible to the right market, niche, sending the right message, showing yourself as an authority in your area, adding value and building relationships.

Want to learn more about attracting your ideal clients? Join me for my ULTIMATE “Marketing YOU” party! 21 JUICY ways to Confidently Get Your Message Out There, Get Leads, Clients and Profits “Authentically!”

This will be one of the most electrifying and empowering training events that I’ve done and I’ve facilitated a few.

Register, put this on your calendar, and commit to showing up. Success is 80% showing up. Get Your favorite glass, champagne glass and fill with your favorite nutritious drink and get ready for my BIZ Rockin’ Event because that’s what superstars do right? Talk to you soon “superstar! Click here to request your VIP access to my “Marketing YOU” TRAINING event!

As always I welcome your comments.

Robin aka The Empowerment Diva
EMPOWERMENT and Certified Social Media Marketing
Campaign Specialist

Authentic Business and Marketing Strategy: The Power of Autoresponders and Articles

First let’s talk about what an autoresponder is. When I first was introduced to an autoresponder years ago it didn’t catch my attention long enough for me to go through the learning curve needed to set one up.

Well you can imagine that my community and list wasn’t large enough to experience the pain of manually managing my lists. That was then and about a year later I found myself with the need to learn how to set up an auto responder. it was my new welcomed friend. It’s well worth the time to learn the ins and outs of setting it up, although we now offer a Done for you (done for you) service if you prefer not to deal with it.

Most complimentary offers, teleseminars etc. send you a welcome email once you opt in and if it’s a double opt in you will receive the welcome once you confirm. Now imagine having manually sending out the welcome emails or manually sending a newsletter/Ezine to your list of even 100 subscribers. Now multiply that 10 times. Ha! That’s why you need an autoresponder. So that your new friend can auto respond to your contacts, subscribers etc.

Now that you have a basic intro to autoresponders let’s talk about using articles to market your business, product, product or service.

Writing articles to market a product or service is an excellent way to build business. The articles should be very informative, providing the reader with information that is relevant to a specific topic. The article usually includes a link to a webpage for more information. The webpage, of course, is designed to sell a product or service that relates to the topic of the article.

These articles are commonly submitted to article banks, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one of the most effective ways to market a service or product on the Internet, and it can become even more effective when it is combined with the use of an autoresponder.

Begin by setting each of your articles up in your autoresponder. It is important that each article have its very own autoresponder address, so you will need an autoresponder service that will allow you to do this. Next, make a master list of your articles, with the autoresponder address for each article listed beside the title. You can even add descriptions of the articles on your master list if you want to.

Advertising your articles one at a time can take a great deal of time…but advertising one autoresponder address – the one for the master list – won’t take very much time at all. Simply put it in your newsletter and on your website. You can even allow other ezine publishers to use this is as a free resource for their subscribers!

There you have it an Authentic Business Marketing Strategy using the power of the article and autoresponder.

Want to learn more about marketing your business online? Register here for my FREE training call “How to Market Like a Superstar on a Shoestring Budget!” It’s not about a scarcity mindset but rather a “smart marketing” mindset.

Let start with what networking is not.  Networking is not handing out a bunch of business cards, and hoping someone calls.

Business networking as described by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Business networking is a marketing method by which business opportunities are created through networks of like-minded business people. There are several prominent business networking organizations that create models of networking activity that, when followed, allow the business person to build new business relationship and generate business opportunities at the same time.

Technology makes it easy for us to expand our circle of influence.  However, the most powerful connections are made face to face.

Master these powerful networking skills and you will gain respect and credibility from your colleagues and clients. 

1.  Take a positive and deliberate approach to networking, you will find this extra level of attention makes it easier to establish relationships.

2.  Your business image should reflect your abilities, values, goals, and business mission.

3.  Build brand loyalty one fan group at a time.

4.  Exude energy and passion to command respect and grab attention.

5.  Be honest about what you can do and cannot do.  If something has gone wrong be honest and upfront immediately.

6.  Focus on following up and following through while you’re still at the meeting.

7.  Asking this one questions will increase your bottom line.  “Who is your ideal client/customer, and how can I help you.

8. Remember the name.  We all like to hear our name, but don’t use first names unless you are asked to.

9.  Always defer to the other person.  Don’t monopolize the conversation or talk about yourself too much. Allow the others to have the spotlight.

10.  Using the terms “ma’am and sir”, shows the utmost respect.

11.  Be well informed.

12.  Perfect your “30 second commercial.”

13.  Remain standing as much as possible-you will appear more approachable.

14.  Remain in control even under pressure.

These techniques and tactics will allow you to seize opportunities that otherwise would not be possible.

“Take the time to be exceptional, it will show in how you make others feel, and in your bottom line.” Walethia Aquil

I know how vital it is that you leverage your unique knowledge, experience and brilliance. I definitely want to help you expand your business development and growth experiences, enhance your professional profile, promote your business and create visibility to attract those who want more from you. 

Schedule your complimentary discovery session today.  Send request to:
walethia@graceandcharm.com.  Put Discovery Session in subject box.


Make sure you get your copy of the free report “How to Network Effectively: The Key to Power, Influence and Wealth.”

1. Politics-Talking about politics is always a touch subject.  Some people are very passionate about their political views.  If you don’t agree with something that has been said, just acknowledge what has been shared by nodding .
2. Health-People really do not what to hear about your latest surgery.  Sharing too much bad news can bring the conversation down.
3. The cost of things-Ever been around someone and all the talked about was how much they paid for their car, house.  Don’t ask and don’t tell.
4. Personal question-Don’t ask questions such as “How much money do you make?” Or “When do you plan to have children.”
5. Don’t gossip-When you gossip you destroy your creditability and trust with the group.
6. Your boss/or job-You never know who knows whom. 
7. Off-color jokes-I tried to justify this by saying, “If you are with close friends and you all share the same views; however, I cannot.  It is never acceptable to joke about another’s weight, religion, racial heritage, physical limitations, or make any remark that will hurt another person.
8. Doom and gloom-People hear enough bad news, all one has to do is turn on the TV.  If you want to draw people to you, be happy and optimistic.

So, what can you do to avoid putting your foot in your mouth?

Learn the art of small talk.

   Definition of small talk:  n. polite conversation about matter of little Importance, especially between people who do not know each other well. Encarta World Dictionary.

• Be well informed-Read the news paper, Keep up with current events, locally, nationally, and internationally. Watch interesting documentaries on TV.
• Don’t interrupt-Interrupting a person’s conversation is very rude.  People could see you as being argumentative.
• Focus on the other person-Use the others persons name during the convection.  Pay attention to what they say, the other person will say something you can comment on.  They may share their love for a certain sport, or a movie or book they’ve read. 
• Maintain eye contact-Eye contact shows you are interested in what the other person is saying.
• Ask for their advice-Keep the topic light.  You may ask their advice or opinion on a new restaurant, or play.
• Don’t give advice-Give advice only if the other person asks.  It is best to hold off giving advice on personal matters, even if asked.
• Think before you speak-There have been more times than I care to admit, when I should have not said one word. 
• Always apologize if you say the wrong thing, or even is what you have said is misinterpreted.  People will respect you more.

You want customer loyalty in your business. You want repeat business, yes? How about making your customers into valued friends? Showing concern and empathy for their situation? The more your able to treat your customers as friends, the more business they will want to do with you.
You’ll watch your profits soar.

Let’s go through 10 ways you can keep your customers coming back to you, time and time again. And you will no doubt make close, lifelong “friends” in the process.

1. Send Birthday Cards – Do you like to be remembered on your birthday? How about doing something really easy and sending birthday cards to your customers. Could you send a little gift with it? What
about a “special offer” coupon? Free tickets to an event.

2. Make “How’s thing’s going” calls regularly – Section out 15 minutes a day to call your customers for no other reason then saying ” Hi ______, I just called to see how things are going?” Have you ever called your customers to do that? Watch your customers appreciate you thinking of them. It makes them feel that you do care. If you want to have more business, do this regularly.

3. Send out small bags of jelly beans or candies - Could you include a bag of jelly beans, with a handwritten note on your next sale, with the note saying, ” I thought you may like these, they are my favorites.” Or a note saying “Here’s something for you to enjoy” Watch their eyes light up.

4. Send unexpected gifts – If you find an article, audiotape, or anything specific customers might be interested in,send it with a note saying ” I thought you’d enjoy this. I just finished reading it and
there are some interesting ideas here. Also, if you educate your customers they will send you more business.

5. Send Holiday Cards – What about sending a Holiday Card that is different then all the “others” your customers are getting? Make it UNIQUE and PERSONAL and DO NOT promote or ask for business when sending holiday or birthday cards. These should remain sincere and be all about the person you are sending it to, not about you or your business!

6. Send Thank You notes – Send Thank you notes for everything. When they pay their bills on time, every time they order from you, if they send a referral your way. Be sure and thank them for referring
business, coming to see you. Whatever you want more of, reward. It works.

7. Make Thank You calls - You should started making Thank you calls, A variation from the letters. Saying, “Hi ________, Just wanted to say Thank you for referring Mr. Smith to ABC Co.”

8. Give your customers recognition - Take a photo of your customers while they are in your business and send them a card with their picture in it. How about a photo and a testimonial? They’ll be flattered and
your business will increase. People love recognition.

9. Give your customer awards – Yes, you read that right. Have customers of the month. Send them a award certificate or even plaque. Dear _______, Just the other day I was going through my records and I
realized that you are one of the top (10,20,50,) customers. We really appreciate your business. That’s why I want to send you this “Top Customer Certificate” that is enclosed.ABC Company looks forward to
seeing you soon.

10. Hold seminars, breakfasts, lunches. If you want to give recognition to your customers and stay in touch, have monthly or quarterly functions for your customers. Have a speaker and an interesting topic. Dear _______, I would like to invite you to our “Special Customers” lunch. It will be held at ______ on ______. It’s FREE It’s our way of saying Thank you. etc…

Do not under-estimate the power of showing gratitude and appreciation for your customers. Treat them like GOLD and it will result in more GREEN for your business!

If you are looking for an easy and affordable way to send out cards & gifts to your clients and customers, Send Out Cards is a cost effective way to do this. Contact me for more info on this awesome customer-appreciation system! Visit my website www.socretail.com/80793 or drop me an email dbjdesigns@gmail.com and I can tell you more.

Using a online greeting card system like Send Out Cards can make it easy and affordable for you to send real, high quality cards on an ongoing basis to your customers to keep your business “top of mind” so that they will entrust their loyalty to you!

I extend an invitation to all of you to take a few minutes and send a thank you to your most recent customer or someone whose business you've been after.

Try Send Out Cards- online greeting card and gifting system. Visit my website at www.sendoutcards.com/80793 select option #2 OR for more information on how you can purchase this product contact me at dbjdesigns@gmail.com.

Thank you and stay blessed!

Research shows that the average person only sends out about 10 cards per year. However the same average person has the need to send outabout 70 cards per year.

So why don’t they send them?

• Its inconvenient to buy the card, write on it, post it.
• Ít takes time, which people often don’t have.
• It’s expensive
• And people forget or don’t get around to it!

If there was a system that was

• simple to use
• cost effective
• time efficient and
• wouldn’t let you forget.

Would you be interested? Yes? This is it!!!
You can now send out cards for all occasions: personal, business, birthdays, holidaya, special occasions, staying in contact withclients, etc.

All at the click of a button.

It doesn’t matter if you are sending one card or 1000 cards, we can handle it. And these are real cards. Cards that arrive in the mail. The ones that people really appreciate. Acknowledging someone whether its a business or personal contact goes a long way.

Everyone loves getting cards in the mail, especially when it is personal and customized for them. You can even print in your ownhandwriting and sign it with you signature.

How do you Send Out Cards to your business customers, your family and friends.

• You pick a card
• You type in a personal message (maybe even add a photo)
• We print the card
• We stuff the envelope.
• We stick the stamp.
• We mail your card
• The recipient receives a real card, personalized for them, in their mailbox, from you.

See how simple it is to send out cards. Try it today.... www.sendoutcards.com/80793 click option #2.