31 Days to a Better Business - Updated Daily for the Month of January

New Look

Registerd User
January 1st

1. Block Off Time for Surprises

Take a moment on New Year's Day to go into your calendar and block off several hour-long chunks of time each week through March 31. During this time, plan on working on your company's strategy, reading, mentoring members of your staff, or following up on long-term opportunities that often get pushed off in the hustle of a typical day. This time-management strategy comes courtesy of Scott Lang, CEO of Silver Spring Networks, a developer of smart energy grids, based in Redwood City, California. On Lang's calendar, for instance, only 50 percent of his schedule is typically booked with meetings and other appointments. That way, if a partner or potential client is unexpectedly in town, he can usually meet them. And if nothing else pops up? "If I have a free block and nothing presents itself, I catch up on industry reports, self-education, and big-picture thinking," he says. "In a packed schedule, those things can get neglected. They shouldn't be."
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
January 1st

1. Block Off Time for Surprises

Take a moment on New Year's Day to go into your calendar and block off several hour-long chunks of time each week through March 31. During this time, plan on working on your company's strategy, reading, mentoring members of your staff, or following up on long-term opportunities that often get pushed off in the hustle of a typical day. This time-management strategy comes courtesy of Scott Lang, CEO of Silver Spring Networks, a developer of smart energy grids, based in Redwood City, California. On Lang's calendar, for instance, only 50 percent of his schedule is typically booked with meetings and other appointments. That way, if a partner or potential client is unexpectedly in town, he can usually meet them. And if nothing else pops up? "If I have a free block and nothing presents itself, I catch up on industry reports, self-education, and big-picture thinking," he says. "In a packed schedule, those things can get neglected. They shouldn't be."

Great tip Carlos, thanks for posting.
 

New Look

Registerd User
January 2

Write Some Thank You Notes

Sit down and write five thank-you notes to key customers or business partners. These small gestures can go a long way to maintaining strong connections with key customers. That's been the experience of restaurateur Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group. With the aid of an executive assistant, he checks his online reservation system every day to find out who will visit one of his restaurants that night. He jots down a quick note to say hello and thanks. "I do not have time to do things like that," says Meyer. "But the less time I have to do something, the more important it is to do it, because the more meaning it will have to somebody."
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
January 2

Write Some Thank You Notes

Sit down and write five thank-you notes to key customers or business partners. These small gestures can go a long way to maintaining strong connections with key customers. That's been the experience of restaurateur Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group. With the aid of an executive assistant, he checks his online reservation system every day to find out who will visit one of his restaurants that night. He jots down a quick note to say hello and thanks. "I do not have time to do things like that," says Meyer. "But the less time I have to do something, the more important it is to do it, because the more meaning it will have to somebody."

We also need to remember that not only are we business owners ourselves but we are customers of other business as well. Whenever I feel that I receive great, extrordinary, above and beyond the call of duty, type service. I always 1) tell the person that helped me and thank them and 2) I ask them for their bosses phone #"s and email addresses or mailing addresses and 3) I let this employees manager, DM, RM, President, HR dept, and/or owner of the business know. Anybody connected with that employee I let them know about it and the fact that they have a FANTASTIC EMPLOYEE and that that employee makes them look good.

There are huge benefits to doing this:

1) You have just made someones day by braggin about the service they provided. And they deserve it too.
2) I just got every decision maker's contact info
3) 99% of the time you get a return email or phone call thanking you for taking the time to make them aware of the great service you got.
4) You have created awareness about your company in that decision makers mind, especially if your signature is a good one.
5) Have gotten many clients doing this.

These decison makers realize that in order to recognize great service, then you more than likely give great service.

Try it a few times, you'll be amazed.
 

New Look

Registerd User
We also need to remember that not only are we business owners ourselves but we are customers of other business as well. Whenever I feel that I receive great, extrordinary, above and beyond the call of duty, type service. I always 1) tell the person that helped me and thank them and 2) I ask them for their bosses phone #"s and email addresses or mailing addresses and 3) I let this employees manager, DM, RM, President, HR dept, and/or owner of the business know. Anybody connected with that employee I let them know about it and the fact that they have a FANTASTIC EMPLOYEE and that that employee makes them look good.

There are huge benefits to doing this:

1) You have just made someones day by braggin about the service they provided. And they deserve it too.
2) I just got every decision maker's contact info
3) 99% of the time you get a return email or phone call thanking you for taking the time to make them aware of the great service you got.
4) You have created awareness about your company in that decision makers mind, especially if your signature is a good one.
5) Have gotten many clients doing this.


These decison makers realize that in order to recognize great service, then you more than likely give great service.

Try it a few times, you'll be amazed.

Good and solid advice from Doug....thanks bro!!!
 

New Look

Registerd User
January 3

Avoid Your Email For One Hour

"One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is getting caught in a lot of multi-tasking," says Julie Morgenstern, author of Never Check E-mail In The Morning and CEO of Julie Morgenstern Enterprises. "It's since been scientifically proven to impair memory, to physically slow you down." So Morgenstern suggests adopting a very simply strategy: "Just completely avoid email for the first hour of the day." Instead of reading e-mail and spending your morning reacting, "you should start your day in 'proactive mode' doing your most critical strategic work…That sense of control that you feel will fuel you the rest of the day."

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New Look

Registerd User
January 4

Reconsider Your Value by the Hour

Entrepreneurs often struggle with setting prices especially in service businesses. One way to find out if you're charging enough for your time, suggests Inc. columnist Norm Brodsky, is to take the amount of money your business made in the past year and the estimated total number of hours your team worked including business travel. Then divide the first by the second to find out what your company's estimated "hourly" rate is (you can do this for individuals as well as groups of employees). You'll likely find that you're charging far less for your time than you need to be. It will also suggest a road map to follow for the coming year: You can use this equation to cut back on money-losing activities, focus on your best opportunities, charge prices in line with the true value of your services, and say no to people who aren't willing to pay you what you're worth.
 

New Look

Registerd User
January 5

Check Your Bounce Rate

Your website's bounce rate—the percentage of single-page visits in which a person leaves the site from the homepage—is an important indicator of the site's overall success. In general, a bounce rate in the 20 percent range is good; the lower your rate, the better chance you will have of converting browsers or sales leads into paying customers. Bonobos, a men's apparel e-commerce site based in New York City, had a bounce rate of roughly 30 percent. So the company asked several web experts for advice on how to keep visitors on their website longer, and how to steer them toward a purchase. One of them was Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent, a book on the power of new-media tools to build a brand. Beal deduced that Bonobos's homepage devoted too much space to PR hits, to its blog, and to goofy product names such as Snapdragons and Jive Cats. Meanwhile, different styles of pants were not grouped by categories such as fabric or style. Reorganizing the site's landing page helped the company reduce its bounce rate and increase sales.
 

New Look

Registerd User
January 6

Start Recruiting

"I used to think business was 50 percent having the right people," says serial entrepreneur Kevin P. Ryan, the founder of DoubleClick and the CEO of AlleyCorp. "Now I think it's 80 percent. The best way to be productive is to have a great team." To that end, Ryan spends at least an hour every day interviewing job candidates (even when he has no positions open) and meets with his HR director every two days to discuss recruiting and other issues. Why spend that kind of time trying to find the best people for the job? Ryan says it's so that he can delegate with confidence. "When you've got the best people running things, you can take your kids skiing in France," he says.
 

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