Archive for June 2012

Need Proposal Software? Get BidSketch.

By Jeff Gilden
Thursday, June 21st, 2012

BidSketch Proposal Software

One integral part of our day to day business is proposal writing. We searched forever trying to find a service that would cut our time down.

Enter Bidsketch.  The perfect online proposal software that will cut your time in half.

If you are looking for a proposal software that will cut your time in half and allow you organize your proposal process, then you need to give Bidsketch a try.  You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to the creator Ruben for making such a great product.

Categories : Build Your Business, Productivity

Why should you have a Facebook page?

By Jeff Gilden
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Facebook Page or No Facebook Page?  What’s the difference?

You may be thinking “I don’t need a Facebook page.  It’s just another thing that I am going to have to manage.”  Your customers are on Facebook so why shouldn’t you be?  Just as Ben posted about the other day, Failing To Plan is Planning To Fail.

Facebook allows you to take your brand online and connect with a network of your customers instantly.  Most of your customers check their Facebook everyday.  Looking at their new feed is an essential part of their morning coffee or their lunch break.  Having a Facebook page allows you to have your message delivered into their Facebook news feed.

This can be powerful when you are wanting to distribute a special or let people know that you are closing for a Holiday so they aren’t left standing out in the cold.

A Facebook page is also good for simply having a presence on the largest social network.  Even if you weren’t active on Facebook with posts and pictures, people can still check-in to your location.  This allows all of their friends to see that they checked-in to your location when they stop by.  This “check-in” is automatically sent out to all of their friends news feed.  If they have 500 friends, then you have 500 potential new customers just from the click of your customers button.  It will say something like “Jeff just checked in to Cohesive Ideas”.  My friends will see that and four of them might say “Let’s go hang out with Jeff at Cohesive Ideas.”  And instantly you have not one but 5 customers there in your shop.

If you have a WordPress website, you can have your blog feed (or status updates) automatically post to your Facebook page.  This will eliminate the need for you to login to Facebook and also scale down the management aspect of social media.  There are plenty of WordPress Plugins such as “Status Updater” that will do the trick.  You can simply browse for these with a quick Google Search with the keyword phrase “wordpress post facebook plugin” and you will find plenty of options in your Google search.

Your customers are also active on Facebook talking about their favorite brands and sharing with their friends with unbiased information and free testimonials and endorsements for your business.  Facebook enables your customers to spread the word for you and reach people on a local or global scale practically overnight.

Social media has become some businesses “tool of choice” for connecting with clients.  As long as you can get people to “Like” you that is.

Categories : Build Your Business, Social Media
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Top 5 ways to harness the power of the iPad in your business

By Jeff Gilden
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

Apple iPadDo you have an Apple iPad and own a business?

It’s one of the greatest tools of these days.  Here are 5 ways that you can harness the power of your Apple iPad in your business:

  1. Present your business presentations.  All you need is a Pico Projector or some other small form factor projector to project slides out of the Keynote Application.
  2. Sign all important documents.  Using the iPad to sign documents not only saves paper but time.  Using apps such as PDF Expert allows you to place your signature on the application and then email it to your recipient.
  3. Take all of your documents with you with DropBox.  DropBox allows you to take all of your documents with you to pull up anywhere on the iPad.  You can even upload pictures and other documents to DropBox from supported applications.
  4. Use it as a portfolio.  The iPad has a beautiful screen for showing off your work.  Simply upload photos, videos or screenshots of work to the iPad for quick access during a meeting.
  5. Use it as a portable conference phone.  You can utilize Skype or another application to make calls from your iPad using the built in microphone and speaker.

There are tons of ways that you can utilize the iPad for your business but these are 5 truly powerful ways that you can harness the power of the industry-leading tablet.

Categories : Productivity
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Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

By Ben Pettit
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

In our line of work it’s very important to plan. Managing the expectations of our customers and maintaining business relationships is important to the long term success of any company. Planning can be the difference between success and failure. Whether you are sailing around the world with Mike Horn or have the initial meeting with a new customer. Planning is key.

Here are a 3 quick tips on how you can become a better planner.

  1. Do a SWOT Analysis. Figure out where your strengths are and where your weakness may lie. It might surprise you. Give an employee, team member or staff member authority over those areas of weakness. The keyword is “authority”. Most people only give “responsibility”. When someone is responsible they report back to you and you micromanage them. This never works out and will leave you just as stressed. Authority allows them to take ownership of the task given. After you give the authority you then mentally separate yourself from it and not think of it again.
  2. Set some reachable short term goals. How many sales do you want to make this week? How many customers do you want to call? How many events will you attend this month? Set a goal and reach it. Give yourself a reward for doing well. Bet a fellow staffer something nominal (a $25 gift card to a local restaurant) for who wins the goal first. These small goals can help you reach an other wise unattainable large goal.
  3. Lastly, see the big picture and have big vision. Dream big but think about the details it will take to get there. Most people get stumbled on vision because it’s such an overwhelming thing to have. If your vision is big, so might be your confusion on how to get there. The most important part of vision is having it one day, one week, one month at a time. One day is all you should be handling at a time. Plan times on other days and weeks to handle any task that can wait.
Categories : Productivity, Vision

Top-10 Ways To Grow Your Business Today

By Ben Pettit
Monday, June 4th, 2012

Lots of people are sitting by letting money pass them by. Today I want to encourage you that you are not alone. However, today is the day to change all that. In a David Letterman style fashion. Here is a top 10 list, 10 ways you can grow your business today.

Top Ten List:

10. Start a blog, get those thoughts out of your head and start letting people know about them. This will establish you as the expert in your field.

9. Tweet about something. Start getting to know the influencers in your field by re-tweeting their tweets you find enlightening. Do it enough and they might even mention you and increase your followers.

8. Go work at a coffee shop today. You never know who you might meet while your there.

7. Turn your cell phone around and video yourself! Talk about why you are passionate about your business and post it on YouTube.

6. Update your facebook page with your thoughts. A poorly updated facebook page is a dead facebook page. You might as well have not started it.

5. Call your existing customers and see if you can do anything to help them run their business or lives better through your services.

4. Take the day off. As Jeff Gilden told you, sometimes the best productivity is a vacation. Burned out employees are never as passionate as rested ones.

3. Take 30 minutes today with out technology. Technology is great but so often it just distracts us from having productive free thoughts.

2. Have your IT guy block facebook from your company network. As Phil Yanov taught me at a goal setting workshop, “Facebook is a service to be featured on, talked about on, but not on.”

1. Pick up up the phone and call someone!

Categories : Build Your Business

Want to know how you can have more energy?

By Jeff Gilden
Monday, June 4th, 2012

Take a vacation.  It’s that simple.

We can get burnt out from work, relationships, and every day life.  We get so overwhelmed and put so much on our plates that we cannot handle it all.  That’s where the vacation comes in.  It gives you a break.  A chance to recharge and clear your mind (to be filled up again).

Once you come back from a vacation, you will be recharged with energy and ready to seize the day.

You can find great travel deals on sites such as expedia or orbits.  If you have kids, I suggest taking a Disney Cruise.  There are all kinds of entertainment for the kids and family.  You can even drop your baby off and go to the spa.

Bottom line:  Take a vacation.  It will give you more energy and make you more productive than staring at a computer screen and not knowing what to do next.

Categories : Productivity
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