Raising Queens and Successful Business Owners

My friend and business colleague, Cynthia Newman, has just published a book. It's titled Raising Queens.
The opportunity to help her to plug it notwithstanding, the theme also sparked my thinking.  
The same values that we should be teaching our daughters and girls about success in life, also apply to success in business. 

• Excellence
• Ethics
• Esteem

None of these "3 E" values have changed over many milenia. Congratulations, Cynthia on bringing the message to the masses. Here's to making it a best seller.
Read about the book on Cynthia's promotional website. 

Cynthia's first book signing is Sunday, June 13, 2010 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Indy Arts Center in Broad Ripple. 820 East 67th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46220.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Manage Your Money Monday - Niche Focused Marketing Can Improve Visibility

Are you focused on a Niche Market?

...or are you aiming for whatever can bring revenues in the door? 

Consider an archer, with a quiver full of arrows. In a field filled with targets, will that archer pull out a bevvy of arrows, load them into the bow, and launch them... HOPING to reach one or more of the targets? 
Probably not and neither should you!

A few weeks ago, a blog entry was published on how your Business Model affects your top line. Answering those 5 W's will help you to define a niche. Once you do define your niche, however, it's usually in the best interest of your company to stick to it.  

A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product or service offering is focused.

Wikipedia

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A key reason to stick to your niche -- it makes it much simpler to market your product or service. This is especially true when it comes to the Who your target market is: the demographics. 
Have you ever been to a networking event and listened to various people introduce themselves? The format is often a 30-second or 1-minute Elevator Speech or Elevator Pitch. 

• The ones that make you sit up and take notice are which ones? 
• The person who starts with "I'm looking for anybody who..."  -or-  "My company helps very small businesses, owned by women who..." 
• The guy who says "We can help you get more customers."  -or  "If you've been thinking about finding time-saving ways for more potential customers to get to know you, we can help you with that."

Those are just a couple of examples. But, here's another question for you: 

How narrow can you make your market niche? 

The better you can define exactly what you're selling, the more likely it is that you will find your target market quickly. This is especially true of services providers -- the folks that sell intangibles. They must know what prospects' problems look like and what the symptoms are of an unsolved problem. That helps them to tell good stories and paint mental pictures for their prospects of them solving THEIR problems similarly.

A narrower niche may help you to hit your target more consistently, with a corresponding increase in revenues. You will likely find yourself spending less time, and marketing dollars, to get more customers with just a little more focus. Try it. Let us know how it works for you. 

Comments are welcome. Tell us what you think.
If you need help being more visible to your target market, click here and we can get started on solutions targeted for you!

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Webcast Wednesday - The Visibility Equation: Social Media + Video

Are you really still wondering whether or not you need Social Media as a part of your Marketing Strategy?

Please allow me to respectfully submit the following theorem to you -- 
The time for wondering is over and the time to incorporate Social Media into your visibility toolkit is now. 

There are several variables in the Visibility Equation. Two factors that are givens, however, are: 

1. Social Media
2. Video

That is clearly illustrated in the informal treatise in the video below. Michael Stelzner walks, drives, and talks about why Social Media is here to stay.

"It's a lot like fax machines when they first came out... Every business is going to have to have a presence in Social Media."

Michael Stelzner Creator of Social Media Examiner

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Social Media Drive 2 from Michael A. Stelzner. 


Oh, yes... Michael is advertising a virtual Social Media summit which starts in May 2010. I'm sure it will be great! 
How would you like to get a jump start on your planning process, though? Just keep reading below... 

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Social Media for Business Webinar Series

Why don't you join us on a journey toward using Social Media to help you build your business? 
It comes in small, manageable, evenly spaced, virtual bites - i.e.: webinars. Click Here for details and to register, if you decide that this series is for you.



Comments are welcome. Tell us what you think.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Manage Your Money Monday - Visibility on the Level Playing Field Called Internet

Last week, we looked at your need for a viable business model - the road map for the journey to managing your money well. This entry for Manage Your Money Mondays focuses on how a strong visibility arsenal can help both the top and bottom lines of your income statement. 

Promoting your business is a basic requirement for its survival. How you promote it spells the difference between surviving and growing faster than your competition. More and better visibility content and visibility venues can give your company an edge. 

You must have an edge. What's yours?

"Whether you call it a commercial, elevator pitch, or 60 second presentation ... it's a must. If you have a product or service to sell, you must let others know who you are and what you offer."

Victoria Trafton, owner of Referral Institute of Central Arizona

I have referred to the internet as the great "playing field leveler" in other posts and presentations. This is borne out almost daily with an seemingly endless stream of web-based tools that can give smaller businesses their competitive edge. They are ever more flexible, often customizable, and most importantly AFFORDABLE.  
The service used to deploy the video below is an ideal example of an edge builder.





Disclosure: I was so impressed with the capabilities of this service that my company is now an affiliate. What do you think? Could this be the edge you need? 


However you decide to invest your marketing dollars, just make sure you get the best available set of benefits. Find tools with features that you will use to generate revenues or minimize costs.



If this thinkVISIBILITY service may help you to build your business, click here to sign up for a free trial.
Comments are welcome. Tell us what you think.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Visibility: Don't Run Your Business Without It!

What one thing does every business need to stay in business?
Put simply: The one big common factor is visibility!

"A business with no sign is a sign of no business."

A common tagline in the sign-making industry

This widely accepted concept for brick and mortar businesses applies equally well to all businesses. 


Why? The great playing field leveler The Internet has made it so. You may not have a storefront at the corner of Apple Lane and Orange Boulevard, but you still must have a visible presence. Otherwise, no one knows where to find you.

Furthermore, in today's Web environment, no one has a plausible excuse for lacking a Web presence.

With just a little bit of research, a savvy business owner can find free hosting, free design tools, free domain registration, free blog sites and certainly free social media communities.

The caveat is, however, that a zero cash outlay does not necessarily mean "cost free." Some of the hosting sites will display your website for free, but that comes with banner ads -- of their choice, not yours. Visitors could get so distracted by other companies' ads that your message is buried in the busyness.
Design tools are also limited. Your choices for page templates, layouts, and colors -- if there are any choices -- will be limited.

Still, there are many other choices that offer very serviceable options for carving out your corner of business visibility. 

One of the easiest ways to build visibility is Blogging.
Among the group of visibility tools that require creating content, blogging takes the least amount of technical knowledge. Dressing up your page with colors, bold characters, and graphics takes just a few mouse clicks. The real "work" is in the writing. In a blog post on the Mashable site, Mark Suster - a venture capitalist - published an article called HOW TO: Create a Successful Company Blog. He clearly details Why you must blog, What you should blog about, and some Right and Wrong ways to go about it. 

It's my fond hope that this blog is an example of a "right way" to go about it. Let me know what you think. 
In future entries, we'll take a look at some other visibility options, including a newly emerging concept called Vlogging - no that's not a typo.

If you would like to have higher visibility for your business, start by checking out one of the services we offer to our clients: A Webmercial. You can see an example -- and place an order --  in this post "How Visible Is Your Business?"

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Manage Your Money Mondays - Small Business Owners and Retirement

Why should a new business owner be thinking about Retirement?
If you have a business plan - even a one-pager - the very last (but not least) section should address your Exit Strategy. Eventually, you will exit from your business venture. Why not exit on terms that are most favorable to you?
REMEMBER: As the years go by, it takes a larger (and more painfully difficult to find) chunk of your earnings to build a nest egg for retirement.

Most of my clients are, in fact, planning to retire from the businesses they are running now. Some may start new ventures later, but the firms that they are now nurturing are also their means for building wealth. Retirement planning, therefore, is a key strategy for right now, not the future.

So, how does a savvy business owner address the issue of retirement planning -- along with all the other challenges that come with business ownership? The short answer: Face it head-on and treat it like the necessary expenditure that it is.

Retirement investment funds should be in your budget, just like every other planned monthly cash outlay. Whether or not this line item is in your corporate budget, your personal budget, or both depends partially upon how your business is structured. Consult your financial planner and tax advisor for the best approach. Sub-S corporations can manage this process a bit differently from LLCs, for example.

The bottom line: You gotta do it! For a perspective on the retirement realities and the impact of timing, see this Facebook video from Pete "The Planner" Dunn.

E-mail us with your questions, or leave Comments below, about how to reach your business goals.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Cogent Cogenesis - Helping thinkVAULT Help You, Small Business Owner

"How can I help you?"
I first heard those words from a senior manager nearly 20 years ago. It caught me off guard, stunned me in fact. Those are not the words you usually hear from someone "in charge." They stuck with me, nevertheless, and have helped to shape my approach to fulfilling clients' business development needs.

So, as I roll out the next phase of thinkVAULT's on-line virtual and tangible products and services, your needs -- small business owners -- are top-of-mind.

Information is proliferating on the internet at a dizzying pace. I've seen estimates that what took 20 years to double will double again in the next 4 years. My goal is to contribute to your business' growth, not your information overload.

Toward that objective, the information "menu" below is offered for both your planning ease and my sanity. You may expect articles, blogs, and tweets to center around the high-level subjects listed on the days indicated.
One of your opportunities to get more actively involved will be on Wacky Webcast Wednesdays. We will have some fun, while business-building information is shared with our e-viewers.

thinkVAULT Daily Fare.	Subject or Topic Area.
Manage Your Money Mondays.	From the top line to the bottom line and nearly everything in between. Timely info you'll want to know about how to build wealth from your business.
Non-Techie Tuesdays.	Tips and shortcuts to tame your computer and other biz electronics. How to shape them into the time-saving tools they should be.
Wacky Webcast Wednesdays.	The cyber "wires" are open to you! Ask questions on the biz topic of the week or bring your own hot business issue to the Web-table. Watch for more details on the Webcast soon.
'Tough It Out' Thursdays.	For the times when your Perseverance, Persistence, and Patience start to run out.
Fearless Five Fridays.	Might be five of something -- might not. The fifth day of the week will be an eclectic mix of people, places, and things to help you keep your life balanced: Healthy Business / Healthy You.
SocMed Saturdays.	Links and insights on how to better integrate Social Media - especially the "Big Three" - into your marketing strategies. On a day when you may have a little more time to tend to it.
May See You, May Not Sundays.	Do I work on a lot of Sundays, like the rest of you? Sure. But I also seek balance. (See Fridays, above). 'Nuff said?
You are invited to "tune in" any or all days and media.Watch for tweets on what and where.	There will be guests and input from expert sources, too. Let us know how you like it!

E-mail us with your questions, or leave Comments below, about how to reach your business goals.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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How Visible Is Your Business?

Is your business as visible as it should be?

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."

Bill Gates

Can the global village of today find your business on the internet? For just a while longer, search engines still "like" businesses with multiple pages on the Web. Can your potential clients locate you? Or, are you web-invisible?

We have almost come to a point where even a small business will need an e-Community Manager or a Social Media Specialist and an internet guru on staff. Creating the content for blog pages, web pages, social networking sites and more is a time consuming process. Yet, all of those marketing tactics are becoming less of a luxury and more of a requirement. Your business must be visible in multiple web venues to truly leverage the power of the internet. Without that visibility, a competitor is sure to usurp a lot of web-initiated revenue dollars that could otherwise have been yours. What's a savvy business owner to do?

The rise in popularity of social media sites such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, and twitter -- along with many others -- helps connect people worldwide who have never met in person. Could some of those people be future clients? Have you made it simple for them to get to know not only you, but also: Your Company?



Bill Gates also said this "I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act."

So, you may act on the information in this post, if you choose to do so. One solution for increasing visibility is adding richer content to your company's web or blog pages. One way to add richer content is though a Webmercial. It just so happens that thinkVAULT produces affordable, high-quality, branded informational videos that you can use to increase your visibility on the internet.
Here's an example:

thinkVAULT Webmercial Demo and Promo

How can we help you to kick your Web Presence up a notch?

• Produce a Webmercial for you?
• Set up a blog site to house your Webmercials?
• Suggest a complete Web Business Solution for you?
  

If all you need is a single Webmercial, you can place your order to start the process below. We will contact you by e-mail and/or phone to get all the necessary details.
Your custom, branded Webmercial will be ready for you within just a few days.
** Some restrictions do apply.

Order your Webmercial

Select Length - Music Combination

Basic One (1) Minute, No Music $179.95 Basic One (1) Minute, with Music $199.95 Basic Two (2) Minutes, with Music $299.95 Multi-media Two (2) Minutes, with Music $349.95 Multimedia Three(3) Minutes, with music $449.95 Multimedia 4 or 5 Minutes, with music $499.95

Describe your message purpose:

Will you provide logo art?

Remember:
The internet is a marketing tool that never sleeps. Could you better utilize it to vault your business to the next level?
If a Webmercial can help you, be sure to place your order today!

E-mail us with your questions, or leave Comments below, about how to reach your business goals.

© 2010 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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Will your business grow this year?

It's time to grow your business.
The new year is here... and your business wants to know what you're going to do about that. 

Was one of your New Year's resolutions to spend more time and energy running your business, instead of letting it run you?

• Have you made any appointments with yourself yet, to actually set out some objectives and plan strategies for reaching them? 
• Are you already caught up in the old routines of last year and trying to catch your breath? 

Take a couple of minutes to watch this video thought-starter.

Then call to see what thinkVAULT can do for you and your business.

thinkVAULT New Year - Grow Your Business

What are you thinking NOW?

At a time when it seems logical to curtail spending, some business owners will recognize the window of opportunity to gain market share. Are you one of them?




It is a jungle out there.

To make a real impact in 2010, planning is required. 
thinkVAULT can help you with that.

I can help to clear away the distracting vines and underbrush for you -- even tame a few revenue-limiting tigers. Let me know when you're ready. 

© 2009 DMMI Associates LLC – All rights reserved

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