The short answer is yes. However, not usually in a single box. This article came about because I was browsing the web and found a small business toolkit that promised more, I am sure, than it could deliver. I found there were many tool kits for many business needs. All this begged an answer, what do I need in my toolkit as a small business owner.

I am going to narrow this article down to the three must have tools to keep you in business  while also having a life. The minimum tools you must have include: Customer Relationship Management or CRM, Invoicing or billing, and communication.

Let’s start with the communication. It is critical that you be available to answer customer and potential customer questions when they want answers. Unfortunately, you don’t likely have the resources or time to be available at all times. This is where a strong communication strategy and tools come in handy.

Your communication strategy should include three tools: Web presence, voicemail and literature. I recommend that all of your literature be provided online as well as hard copy.

Literature is still a valuable tool even with all the digital progress we’ve made in the past decade. I recommend that every piece of literature you might hand a customer or potential exist in digital format as well. The literature arsenal should include a detailed business brochure, business card, policies, product or service specific leaflets to inform and much more. Think about how you can make literature available and keep it handy at all times.  Making documents available for immediate access will impress many web savvy customers today. To make your documents available online you need a web site.

 Your web site should be simple, universally accessible, user friendly and loaded with valuable information. Online success is obtained with a two edged sword: search engine optimization and rich content.

 Some have called LinkedIn the new Yellow Pages. LinkedIn should also be a part of your web toolkit. there is no better way to make it easy for people to find you online. LinkedIn will automatically search engine optimize you and your business if you use it wisely.

Now that people are finding you online you will want to be virtually accessible. Voicemail is a great way to make yourself accessible even when you can’t answer the phone. Using voicemail can give your business a voice. You can use a tool like www.K7.net to setup multiple voicemail boxes, for free, to meet specific needs of customers and potentials. You might have a number customers can call for project status or updates. By simply updating the greeting daily the customer gets to hear your voice sharing relevant information they may want to know. Because they hear the information in your voice they feel connected with you and that you are really committed to them. Furthermore they can leave a message which makes them feel they can contribute. You get the messages by email and can manage the communication process without difficult to manage interrupting phone calls. A strong voicemail strategy can improve you customer relations and save you lots of time and stress.

I can help you build a stronger communication strategy and help you build it around cost free tools that will help you do business like the big dogs no matter what size your staff or budget. Just call,(724) 49BUILD or (724) 492-8453 to arrange a free consultation.

Now that you are talking to customers you need to get money out of them. The backbone of successful small business collections is having the tools to handle invoicing consistently and systematically. The software to do this can be very expensive. I have found two invoicing or billing tools you should consider for your small business toolkit. They are both free. The first I want to mention is www.zoho.com. Zoho offers Zoho invoice free for the first 5 invoice a month. If you offer a big ticket service or product this may fit your needs with little or no cost. Zoho remains very affordable when you need to manage more customers. I recommend Zoho first because they also offer other valuable tools you will want in your small business toolkit. And they work seamlessly together. another great Free tool for invoicing is www.billingboss.com. With both solutions you can have automated billing service that sharpens your image and handles balance due calculations, repeat billing, invoice reminders and even tracks overdue accounts.

Finally, the last tool I want to mention in this article is CRM. Big business has used CRM software for years with great success. The resources and affordability of modern technology make it practical for even the smallest business to automatically and systematically manage customers and contacts. With Zoho CRM I have a single stop resource for storing all of my contacts and documenting leads and potentials as they come to my attention. I can even document phone calls, schedule appointments, schedule emails to go out and start a web meeting with a client in a single click. There is no neater or more efficient way to manage your contacts. Best of all it is free for up to the first 500,000 contacts. So what’s holding you back, get started now.

The few tools I have suggested here will save you time, make you more thorough and create more opportunities for you. I am interested in growing your business momentum. My team and I are constantly researching better and cost effective ways for you to manage your business. Make www.charlesspeaks.com your first resource for small business guidance.

I was recently asked, “What single component makes a social media strategy outstanding?” Really the answer is very simple. However, who cares is you are effective in your social marketing strategy if you aren’t reaching the right people with the right message?

The key to any successful social marketing is to socialize the right people. The more targeted your efforts the better your results. Another consideration is that if you are making the wrong offers to groups or users with no interest you are perceived a spammer. If you are making offers and never “GIVING” any value you are perceived a spammer as well.

You can use a message across numerous groups and networks if you custom tailor it to meet the needs of that group. You might have a audio book on diffusing angry people and choose to write an article excerpt from the audio book. You can rewrite the article with keywords and solutions specific to certain groups. In example if writing to the Customer service alliance you would want to change the words in your manuscript to match. Instead of, “an angry supervisor raises his voice,” you might write, “a first time customer raises his voice.” By being very specific your writing seems more relevant and valuable.

All that being said; the most important component in any social marketing strategy is to socialize. Make sure you engage your network just as you would face to face. Ask questions, answer questions and share. The more conversational you are the more your network will warm up to you. As they warm up you build trust and credibility.

 I recommend you make a 5 minute daily commitment:

1.  Spend 2.5 minutes to check you updates and reply to any that are relevant and for which you have feedback. You should do this on both Facebook and Linkedin if appropriate and you have time.
2. Spend 2.5 minutes to browse your group’s discussions and comment when appropriate.

You can answer questions, agree, disagree and add you own additional advice and tips where appropriate. The key is to engage the network and have a conversation. Conversational networking is the best way to build trust, rapport and credibility. These will contribute to trust and help you close more sales and build strong leads.

Make sure your posts are branded and contain contact or website URL information so readers can learn more about you. I learned a long time ago that the reader may not be diligent about finding my profile and links but if they are in a post that caught their interest they are very likely to follow the link and explore my site to get to know me better.

Bill “thebuilder” is available for keynotes, seminars and custom tailored training that is guaranteed to build your business momentum. Just call or email for available dates.

937-935-6789 or charles@charlesspeaks.com

In every economy there are four catalysts that leading businesses understand. They have never changed and never will. Some of the world’s most OUTSTANDING business leaders took advantage of these catalysts in tough times to launch their businesses. Some Icons that remain include Hyatt, Burger King and FedEx.

Burger King, with its flame-broiled burgers, is an OUTSTANDING recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During yet another recession in 1957, the company introduced its signature burger, the Whopper. Today Burger King is OUTSTANDING in 65 countries.

Hyatt opened its first hotel’s doors at Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession. The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries.

FedEx began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express. Founder Frederick W. Smith had hoped to get a contract with the Federal Reserve, when he didn’t he set and ambitious goal and challenged his team. The company delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations and now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.

All three of these companies capitalize on the 4 momentum catalysts we will explore here.

Efficiency

The key to sustainable profitability is lean productive operations. One of the biggest roadblocks to sustainable business momentum is wasted effort. Systems support good habits and good habits make us consistently effective. When you have discovered activities that produce results it is critical that you implement systems and processes that accommodate those activities.

We recently discovered a niche group with a need for our keynote and event services. To our surprise these groups proved highly profitable. Unfortunately we had not made effort to reach these groups. We immediately began brainstorming ways to connect with them and began the process of building this group into our marketing campaigns. Reaching these groups required no greater effort, just differently focused effort.

I often hear people say, “marketing doesn’t work.” This usually means they aren’t using effective methods or are not focused in their efforts. I may be aggressively growing my network and contact list by thousands. But if my efforts are not targeted I may never see much ROI. In example, imagine I am in the business of low glycemic snacks. My list of thousands of contacts contains 40 percent between the ages of 18 and 28; these are clearly not my target audience. Effort is being made. The right efforts are being made. But when results aren’t produced we assume the system is broken.

Here are three efforts that will sharpen your efforts and improve your results.

Sharpen your skills.

Make sure you know how to use your software and resources. The better you know your tools and resources the more you can accomplish in less time. Familiarity with tools and resources reduces errors and makes you appear more polished when dealing with customers as well.

Prioritize and schedule your day’s activities by priority.

A good rule is to identify your “in stone” appointments first thing. These would include scheduled meetings, conference calls, client appointments or any event that is planned. Once you have identified those, determine which ones need preparation and how much time is needed to prepare; plan preparation into the day’s calendar. One last tip is to plan for known necessary duties. You know you will have email to tend to, so plan for it. A great plan for me has been as follows:

1. At the start of the day I check my inbox

• Make quick responses if possible (I follow a 30 second rule)
• Delete obvious spam and update my spam filters and rules to reduce it in the future. (avoid spending too much time on the spam control, but it is worth a little effort)
• Mark or flag important emails for immediate attention
• Move any mail you can to appropriate folders for organization and latter review

2. I watch my incoming mail notifications throughout the day. Be wary against non-productive interruptions.

3. I spend a few minutes on email at lunch time.

4. I do a mid-afternoon sweep of email to keep it under control

5. Before ending the day I clean up email with the following:

• Forward anything I can to another responsible party
• Deal with any 30 second responses
• Organize messages into appropriate folders where possible
• Determine if new rules and auto responses can handle some of my email and set those rules when practical.
• Consider forwarding qualified emails to a remote email for after hour response when possible.

 Prioritize, plan and polish your efforts every day to stay on the cutting edge.

 Innovation

FedEx is known for its commitment to efficiency and performance. Innovation is the key to staying on the cutting edge. By constantly analyzing our efforts and improving ensures we stay fresh and productive. Innovation is also a great way to stay relevant and trustworthy for our client base. I hold monthly meetings with my team and accountability partners to address 3 questions that keep us relevant and sharp.

 Are there new or better resources or tools that might help improve our customer relations, productivity or profit margin? These may be improved tools, lower cost tools or simply trends that position us as cutting edge when used.

 Are there processes that are unneeded or not returning a higher return than investment? Trimming the fat is critical in this economy. Trimming the fat may mean reducing the effort, eliminating the effort or refocusing the effort.

 What new information or ideas should be explored? I make note of new ideas, problems or observations made that might prove of interest to our business. Exploring these gives us the opportunity to innovate and lies to rest the bad ideas.

 Marketing

It is absolutely critical that we do the marketing regardless of the economy. It is equally important that we use the best and most practical techniques. I have noticed a revival of social networking across every business group. This is in part due to social media, but the reality is that when times are tough buyers are tougher. Customers want to know who they are doing business with. Networking gives us the opportunity to see, hear and touch. When done right networking allows you to connect with lots of people and be seen by even more. When I go to networking events I hand out full color mini brochures instead of business cards. They are information packed and interesting. I have observed others showing my little brochure to others in the group. I have had people approach me to ask for one.

The bottom line in marketing is impression. Make as many impressions as you can and the more impressive the impression he greater the results.

 Engagement

Perhaps the greatest weakness shared by the majority of business professionals is follow-up. We connect with people and then fail to follow-up with them. I know from experience, dropped balls and failure to follow-up is the single greatest deficit in any marketing strategy.

 Here are three ways to follow up and profitize your relationships.

 Add value

Once you have made a connection or have someone’s contact information immediately start making them glad they know you. Share your secrets, tips and tricks that will prove valuable to them. One of the greatest ways to create value for another business is to give referrals and leads. However, to do this you need to know and trust the provider you are referring.

 Inform

Make sure every contact knows everything they need to know to do business with you. What services do you offer? How are they provided? What payment options exist? Who else do you do business with? Why should any of this matter to your new contact? How can they contact you?

 Understand

This is a powerful follow-up technique. Send an email asking questions about the new contact’s business. Let them tell you about themselves. Read reviews and find out who they do business with. Ask yourself, why should all of this matter to me?

If you immediately start sharpening your momentum catalyst you will quickly start standing out.

Subscribe to our momentum news list to learn about events and gain FREE access to momentum building resources including videos, audios and ebooks. Simpy visit www.charlesspeaks.com and enter your name and email on the right side of the page for immediate access to the download vault and hundreds of dollars in business momentum resources.

In this economy every business, big and small, is looking for ways to reduce cost and increase profits. One of the questions I’ve been hearing is, “Should we cut our marketing budget?” The short answer is no. That is unless you are retooling your marketing efforts with proven tools and techniques that cost less. In this article I am suggesting a timeless marketing technique that doesn’t have to cost a dime.

Networking is something all living organisms do naturally. The strongest have just learned how to do it better. In business networking means connections and visibility. The more you network the better you are known.

Think of networking as team building. Your team will work for you at all times. To network well, you need to first decide who you need on your team.

The most obvious question that will help you build your team is to ask, “Who are my customers?”

Think about your most faithful customers. You might want to find out about their interests. Where do they spend their time? What are their hobbies? What are their causes? If you discover they have a favorite charity you might ask, “How can I help with that?” If you find out they are attending an upcoming event you might plan on attending yourself. By getting involved with their causes and attending the events they attend, you create opportunities for them to introduce you to their network. These can be rich opportunities. Do your customers have children? Are they involved with youth teams or activities? Wherever people congregate, is a good place to network.

Another customer related question might be, “Who do your customers do business with?” If you have a customer doing business with the sign shop down the street, you might simply send an email that states, “One of my customers highly recommends your services. His name is Mark. I was hoping we might talk about how you can help me with a unique project we’re working on.” The fact that Mark is a shared customer creates incentive for the sign company to work with you in any way possible.

A third question you should be asking is, “What services do I pay for?” How well do you really know your service providers? Could they serve you better if they knew you better? If they knew you might generate referrals, would that incent them to give you a better deal?

 A question you might be overlooking is, “Who does business with the people I do business with?” For example, as a speaker I do business with event planners. Hotel and conference center sales managers do business with event planners. So, I should be networking with the hotel sales team. I might give them a CD of me speaking or offer to provide a free training day for their staff. In return I might ask that they keep my brochure on hand to give to event planners they meet.

One last question to consider is, “Who can I give value to?” Obviously, these may be potential customers. However, they may just be people who will speak highly of you if you help them solve their problems. And you can’t have too many people singing your praises.

There are three things you need to know to start network marketing right now.

Networking works best when everyone finds value in the network. Value is the greatest reason anyone connects on an emotional level with another person.(listen to Relationships & Business Audio http://www.charlesspeaks.com/momentum-resources ) In other words, if I feel you have helped me, encouraged me or informed me, I find value in that. If I think of you as an asset I am comfortable with investing in our relationship. The most important thing you can do to be successful as a networker is to share ideas, solutions, tips, referrals and support.

Trust is oxygen to relationships. When trust is broken it is like a fist to the diaphragm knocking the wind from our chest. When that blow is dealt, it is unlikely that I will trust again. Safeguard your integrity as if it were your most valued possession- because it is. If you make a mistake, admit it readily. If you drop the ball, inform everyone affected promptly. Even if you think the dropped ball is insignificant, follow-up. You don’t want others hearing comments like, “She took three weeks to get back to me about my premiums.”

Experts at networking understand the value of being outstanding. Make sure you are memorable from exemplary service to your business card. Avoid the ordinary. Make people laugh. Give others something to talk about, you. Of course, you don’t want to be obnoxious, off color, rude or excessively loud. You want to strike a delicate balance between credible and entertaining.

A great networking resource is www.meetup.com. You can join us for a networking event by registering online at www.meetup.com/columbussbn

You can follow Bill the Builder at www.twitter.com/billthebuilder

There are videos at www.charlesspeaks.com and you can email at Charles@charlesspeaks.com

Bill Carpenter is available for keynotes, seminars, personal coaching and webinars.