What’s great about this WordPress blogging app is that it seems to be (mostly) fully featured and allows me to add photos, including taking photos on the spot with the camera in my iPad. You can also add videos from your video library or take a video in the moment. So far I have not figured out how to access other photos I have stored in WordPress.

You can also download the app to your iPhone and there are other versions for Android and other platforms too. I am going to test out the WordPress Mobile Android app for my phone, but I am sure I will continue to prefer the larger screen of the iPad for blogging.

I recently purchased a Bluetooth enabled keyboard for my iPad which makes blogging on the go easier too. I really like my Logitech Ultrathin Key Board Cover. I find it handy for taking notes in meetings, and since it’s a cover as well, it snaps over the face of the iPad and fits right in the same iPad case I already had even though it is bulkier than the regular leather cover. It has a sleek look, which I love as well.

I created this entire blog post using the WordPress Mobile App. It definitely took me more time than on the desktop to format the image placement and add links (I miss my mouse!), but I know I will get faster at using it the more I work with it. If you want to get the WordPress Mobile app for yourself, you can find it in the App Store or at WordPress Mobile.

Free Intro Session for Group Coaching Program for Solo-preneurs and Small Businesses

Overview

The goal of this On Target program is to enhance the overall business performance of each participant in the areas of business strategy, marketing and finance. Each Session is 90 minutes in length and includes a planned curriculum and interactive discussion between facilitator and participants as well as opportunities for participants to share ideas and help hold each other accountable to their own goals.

Schedule of WorkshopsGroup Coaching

Workshops will be scheduled at 3-4 week intervals with a goal for each participant to grow their business within 6 months. Investment is $97 per month for 6 months. There must be at least 5 participants at this price point. Groups are limited to 5 to 8 participants.

Topics to include:

Customers and Marketing

• Identify your Target Market & Unique Selling Proposition
• Create a Marketing Plan
• Develop a Customer Communications Plan
• Customer Relationship Management
• Customer Communication Tools and Systems

Finance

• Know your numbers – Key Metrics to watch
• How to track income and expenses
• Create a budget/profit planBusiness

Strategy

• Develop a vision for your business
• Set goals to achieve your vision

Introductory Session: The 4 Ways to Grow Your Business

It may sound a little simplistic, but there are really only four fundamental ways to successfully grow your business – in other words to make it more valuable. These four ways are:

1. Increase the number of customers of the type you want to have
2. Increase the number of times customers come back to buy from you
3. Increase the average value of each sale you make
4. Increase the effectiveness of each process in your business

It’s interesting to contemplate the fact that all of the business development strategies you might implement will fall into one of these four categories.

Join me for this free session (offered via live workshop or webinar)

Friday, February 1, 2013

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM 3940 Hortensia Street, San Diego, 92110

Register Here for this Free Introductory Session via Live Workshop

or

Friday, February 1, 2013

1:30 PM to 3:00 PM PT Webinar

Register Here for this Free Introductory Session via Webinar

There’s no obligation to sign up for the Workshop Series and Group Coaching, though we’ll be happy to welcome you to join us!

1. Plan
   A successful year starts with a good plan. Review where you want your business (and your life) to be in 3 years or 5 years or 10 years, whatever length of time makes sense to you. Do you want to be doing the same things you are today, or do you want your business and your life to look different 3 years from now? Chances are you do. How does 2013 need to turn out in order for you to be 1 year further on the path to your goal? Create a plan to get there. This includes creating a set of strategies and a profit plan/budget so that you can implement your plan and measure your progress.
2. Work ON the Business Weekly
   Don’t just wait until you have time to sit down and evaluate where you are and what course corrections you might need to take. You won’t do it very often! Take time each week for strategic planning for both the immediate short term (weekly) and to plan for what you can do this week towards your longer term implementation plan.
3. Use Your Calendar
   To make your strategic planning and implementation plan work, you need to actually put your “Working ON the Business” time into your calendar. Honor it like you would an appointment with your best client.
4. Communicate
   Most problems that business owners have with customers, employees and business partners stem from a lack of timely, honest and respectful communication. Learn from your past mistakes and resolve to communicate with others the way you want people to communicate with you.
5. Have Regular Meetings
   This goes hand in hand with communication. Regular meetings with your management team, your office team, sales teams or other teams in your company are critical to the regular flow of information about customers, employees, projects, initiatives, finances, etc. that keep your business running smoothly. Have an agenda and stay focused on the outcomes.
6. Review Your Key Metrics Monthly
   If you have a plan, you have goals and numbers to hit: revenue and profit goals, sales goals, hiring goals, productivity goals, debt reduction goals, goals for how much time you want to work (or not work) in the business, and many others. Your internal process and technology systems should allow you to review the relevant numbers easily. How are you doing? What corrective actions do you need to take, if any?

7. Engage Your Audience
   Customers are more discerning now than ever before. They don’t just want to be marketed to, they want to be engaged, and they want social proof. Building relationships with your customers and prospects is more important than ever in the world where so many of us our living our lives more transparently through social media, and online reviews and recommendations. Showing yourself as a trusted authority in your industry and sharing helpful information with your audience through your own channels and social media channels is very helpful to the process of engaging your market.

8. Talk With Your Customers
   Make a customer communications plan. This goes along with engaging your target market since your existing or past customers make up the most valuable segment of your audience since they have already purchased from you. Making a customer communications plan can be as simple as deciding how often to contact your customers, what message (or helpful information) you want to send them and how you want to communicate it, whether by phone, in person, email, direct mail or online social media. Talking with your customers can also mean getting their feedback on their experience with you, or how you can help them better. This is an opportunity to ask for public feedback as well in the form on an online review which will help build your social proof with prospective customers.

9. Take Action
   With all of the things you would like to accomplish in your business, it’s important to chunk your initiatives down into concrete action steps that you can accomplish in a set time frame. That way when you engage in #2 Work ON Your Business Weekly, you know what to work on and when it needs to be done to move you forward in your overall plan. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many things at once. You want to be able to celebrate small successes and milestones to keep yourself engaged and excited about your progress!

10. Get Support
    You can’t do it all by yourself! If you have a team of employees or business partners, you can mutually support each other. You can also assemble a team of advisors from outside your company to meet with you periodically – perhaps a trusted friend or family member, CPA, or other business advisors. You can join a peer group that will help hold you accountable to your goals, or you can work with a business coach. There are many opportunities for you to put the structure in place to achieve your goals.

One opportunity to kick start your 2013 is our 10 Week Business Intensive which starts January 29, 2013.

Here’s to your success!

For some reason that I am not really sure of, I grabbed on to that phrase and related it to my Friday workdays. For me, Take Out the Trash Day is about winding up projects, contacting people I need to get back to via phone or email, and closing out my week. In no way does it feel like unimportant work. It’s more like I need to get this done because it’s important to my clients and my business. It feels like a good way to complete the week, tying up loose ends and (hopefully) being able to hit the ground running on Monday. Here’s to your success in wrapping up your week!

Have fun watching this video trailer of the WW episode
Take Out the Trash Day

Summer seems to have a more leisurely pace for many people, though for some businesses, it is your very busiest time. Either way, I find that there comes a different focus, a different energy as we move into fall and a new academic year.

For businesses that have been slower over the summer, there’s a renewed energy to start a new initiative or accomplish something important before the holidays and the year end. For businesses that have been busier over the summer, it may be time to take a breath, look around and make a plan for what you want to achieve in the final quarter of the year, or better yet, get out ahead of what may tend to be a slower season in the winter.

Whichever scenario fits your business, it’s time to look at your strategy and goals for 2012-2013 and start implementing a plan for a successful outcome. At Advisors On Target we are here to help in ways that suit your business and suit your budget!

I want to particularly highlight our 10 Week Intensive program, Chart Your Course to Business Success. This is a program that teaches best business practice fundamentals that every business can benefit from, even if you have been in business for many years. The program is just what it says – a 10 Week Intensive and is delivered via live group coaching in an online webinar format. We meet Tuesdays at 10:00 AM Pacific beginning on September 25, 2012 and going through to December. Get more details here. Attendees have access to a special website with all the class materials, and recordings, so if you miss a session you can make it up. This program is limited to 10 business owners, so there is plenty of time for personal attention.

While this program is great for any business, it is especially valuable for home improvement contractors, so if you are a painting, remodeling, landscaping or any other type of contractor, this is perfect for you.
Come “back to school” for your business and join us this fall in our 10 Week Intensive or one of our other coaching and consulting programs for small businesses.

Are email newsletters overused? Yes. Do your customers always have time to read your newsletters? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean that they never read them. I don’t have time to read all the email newsletters I receive, but I keep my subscriptions to many that I know that I want to read from time to time.

What’s good about email newsletters?
They keep your brand out there in front of your audience. Maybe your readers don’t need your service this week or this month, but they may need or want it sometime in the next few months, and they’ll remember getting your newsletter and go back and search for it to contact you. When they do have time to read, we hope your great content will keep impressing them that you are the go-to expert in your field who serves up valuable information that will help them. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and your newsletter will reach them just when they are ready to buy. An example in my own business is when one of my readers signed up online for a $1,000 program I was offering without even calling me to talk about it. Though when that $1,000 hit my PayPal account, you can bet I called him!

Email newsletters are easy to use and very affordable. There are many good ones out there. I have tried several and found most to be user friendly. Most offer free trial periods. I personally use Constant Contact which has many great features and they keep adding more. I also see many people using Mail Chimp, which is free, with certain limitations. I found a very comprehensive review of email marketing software which you may want to check out. In future posts, I’ll talk more about how you can make your email newsletters more likely to be read and more effective in achieving your objectives. Many of the email newsletter software companies offer tips on their websites and some, like Constant Contact offer in person classes as well.

People love visuals and by using images (and videos too!) you can create more interest in your blog posts. If people see a post from your blog on Facebook, for example, they are more likely to click on it if it has a photo.

Here are a couple of tips for adding photos to your blog posts.

Where to get photos to put on your blog posts

If you have a visual business, like a painting contractor, for example, you probably have many photos of projects you have done that show off your expertise, give before and afters or demonstrate a technique. So your own photos are the best ones to use whenever possible (assuming they are decent quality).

If you have a non-visual business, like mine as a business coach, you will likely need to use some stock photos to add interest to your blog posts. Here’s where you need to be careful. Do NOT just search for images on Google and use them! You can be subject to copyright infringement if someone discovers you are using their photo without authorization. The exception may be when you are also linking to a vendor website from the post and including a photo from their site. You can find many low cost images from sites like iStockphoto and Fotolia. I usually buy a block of credits, so it’s then quick and easy to find an image and purchase it on the site. Be sure to observe the terms and conditions of usage.

How to edit images for your blog posts

I don’t know about you, but I am not a professional or even an experienced photo editor, so I like it to be really easy to edit photos. For years I was a big fan of Picnik, but they’ve now been acquired by Google. Their tools are supposded to be available in the Google+ Creative Kit, but it seemed more complicated than I wanted to deal with when I tried it out. What I’ve found now that I like is Pixlr.com. They have three versions (all free from what I can tell). I like the Pixlr Express which is quick and easy if you mostly need to just crop and re-size, which is 90% of what I need to do to get my photos ready for my blog. I definitely like resizing in a photo editing software as opposed to resizing with the wzard in WordPress. You have much more control to get it just the way you want it.

Happy Blogging!

Part of the problem lies with coming into your office and seeing piles of papers and projects spread over your desk. It often makes you feel like you don’t know where to start because you have so many things that need your attention.

I know that many business owners (myself included) can get sucked into working away on projects or meetings right up until the moment we need to run out the door to get to a meeting or social event, or get home for dinner with our families. When we do this, it leaves us feeling rushed and scattered, and when we return to our offices, we waste valuable time trying to pull ourselves together to be productive.

What I suggest for my clients (and need to remind myself periodically!) is that you actually block a time on your calendar – with a reminder that pops up on your screen, to stop what you are doing at least 15 minutes, or even 30 minutes before you need to leave the office to get closure on your day and be more ready for the next one.

This is the time to save and file electronic documents, file away any physical papers or files (even if they go into your inbox for tomorrow), and take stock of what you need to focus on when you get back to the office next, and make sure you capture anything that needs to get on your “to do” list.

If you follow this advice, I know you will be more productive and less stressed, a good combo, don’t you think?

“Did you know that 63% of all hiring decisions are made in the first 4.3 minutes of the interview. The rest of the interview is mostly used to justify the decision already made.

Most interviews are “wandering conversations” that don’t focus on the most critical aspects of a job. Most interview questions relate to the tasks necessary to perform a job. Most people don’t succeed on the job because their behaviors don’t match the culture of the company and the attitudes required to perform.”
Excerpt from Doug Duncan, Your HR Solutions. Download flyer

The Art of Hiring Smart 8 Steps to a First Class Selection Process

In this information packed webinar, Doug Duncan from Your HR Solutions will talk about how to select the right people and the appropriate approach to integrate your human system with your other business systems.

You will learn:

• How to get employees engaged in your work – what does engagement mean and why is it important to your business?
• Once you get the idea behind engaging your employees in their work, you need to decide how to select the right people
• As you understand how to select people correctly, then how do you train them, and how do you retain them

Doug will also share his 8 Steps to a First Class Selection Process

1. Properly written job descriptions (JD)
2. Expand your ability to find and source the right people
3. Applicant management tracking system (AMT)
4. Conduct behaviorally structured interviews
5. Do both technical and behavioral assessments
6. Use background checks to verify who they are
7. Build a linked compensation, bonus, benefits and reward systems
8. Legal hiring practices

Date: Friday, March 30, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Central, 11:00 AM Mountain, 10:00 AM Pacific
Duration: 60 minutes
Presenter: Doug Duncan, Your HR Solutions
Cost: Free

Let’s check out a few facts:

• Over 85% of mobile phones can access the mobile web
• Mobile web usage doubled last year and will double again this year
• In the US, 25% of mobile web users are mobile-only
• The most popular mobile web destinations include social networking, search and maps
• Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year
• 71% of smartphone users who see TV, press or online ads do a mobile search

Is there any doubt?

A few years ago, a small business mobile site was a novelty; today it’s a necessity. How many people get their first impression of your business from a screen that fits in the palm of their hand? And what happens when these visitors have to wait for your site to load, or struggle to navigate your site or read your content?

They leave…

You need your customers and prospects to have a positive experience on your site, whether they visit you from home, office, car or sidewalk. Fortunately, there are some simple guidelines you can follow to create a mobile-friendly experience for your visitors, starting today.

Make It Smart
When a visitor accesses your site with a mobile device, they should be directed automatically to a mobile version of your site (You can do this either by sending them to a separate mobile site or by using a mobile theme or plugin that re-formats your main site’s content – and that’s a whole separate topic). Don’t make visitors wait for your main site to load, and don’t make them hunt for a “visit our mobile site” link. Take them directly to a mobile version that loads quickly and automatically, and looks like it belongs on a mobile screen.

Remember that some of the content on your main site may not display properly on mobile devices. Simple features we take for granted on our desktops and laptops, like dropdown menus, don’t work the same on all mobile devices. Flash videos and animations won’t show up at all on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads). A smart site works and displays properly across all mobile platforms and browsers.

Make It Friendly
As in “user-friendly.” Remember that long, dense blocks of text are hard to read – especially on a small screen. Remember that navigation is by thumb, not by mouse. Break up your text into short paragraphs and bullet points. Make your links large, legible and spaced far enough apart for fat fingertips. Don’t make your visitors scroll in two directions to navigate your site or to view your words and images. Give your visitors a smooth, seamless mobile experience.

User-friendly also means well organized. Make it easy for your visitors to find the information most important to them, at a glance. You only have a few seconds to show them that you have what they’re searching for. If you frustrate them, they may leave and never come back.

Make It Tight
Keep your mobile site focused. Tighten up your content. Make sure you include all the information and functionality a mobile visitor is likely to need, and leave out everything else. Mobile visitors are less likely to be randomly browsing. They are more likely to be looking for specific information, so give it to them.

Make sure your phone number is large and prominent, and can simply be “tapped” to call you. Make it equally simple to email or text you, or to capture your contact information. Other key information and functions may include your business hours, a map to your location, a contact form, a list of your products or services, and coupons or time-sensitive offers. Focus on your visitors’ needs and minimize the marketing messages and fluff. Your users will appreciate it.

Make It Light
Even though mobile networks continue to improve, they aren’t as fast as cable or DSL internet. And for most mobile users, data usage is not truly unlimited. Keep your site lightweight for fast load times and minimal data usage. Don’t make them wait (and wait, and wait) for your site to show up – chances are they’ll go elsewhere to find what they’re looking for.

Use images and video sparingly – enough to get your point across, but no more. Don’t make your visitor’s mobile browser resize large images – make sure you load only small images to your mobile site. If you use videos, embed them from YouTube. They will be optimized for the mobile web and will probably load faster than videos hosted on your own server. Respect your visitors’ time (and bandwidth). Again, they will appreciate it.

Make It Local
If your business has an optimized Google Places listing (and it should), you may want to include a link to it from your mobile site. Google has optimized its Places listings for the mobile web. They load quickly and display a lot of useful information about your business, including reviews. Customer testimonials are pure gold – and they have more credibility if they are found on a trusted third-party site.

Make It Social
Social media use is increasingly mobile. As phones have gotten smarter and apps have gotten better, social networking has become one of the most popular mobile usage categories. Your mobile site should include prominent links to your social media profiles.

All the big social media sites have mobile-friendly versions, so they load quickly and provide a good user experience. Hint: Check out Facebook or Twitter or YouTube on your mobile browser to see a good example of a user-friendly mobile site.

Make It Happen Now
We are in the middle of a huge shift in how people use the web – and a corresponding shift in their expectations about the businesses they deal with online.

Phones have become incredibly smart and powerful, and increasing numbers of people use them as their primary (or only) means of web access. The devices are so good that expectations have been raised. People expect their mobile devices to deliver all the information they need about everything. They expect a simple, hassle-free, rewarding experience – every time.

If you don’t meet their expectations, where does that leave you? If you don’t offer a user-friendly mobile web presence, do you look like you’re capable of meeting their needs? Do you look like you care?

Take the time today to visit your business online with a mobile device. Are you happy with what you see? If you’re not delighted, chances are your potential customers won’t be delighted either. But there’s no need to disappoint them. Use these guidelines to tune up your site, and you can give them what they’re looking for – they will appreciate it.

Advisors On Target is sponsoring a free webinar with Bill McKinney about Mobile Web on February 16, 2012 at 9:00 AM Pacific. Register Here.