Slow down and keep it simple advises Senior Writer Julie Rains on Open Forum.

"If you slow down and delve deeply into what seems everyday and ordinary, frequently you can make fresh discoveries and ignite new ideas you can apply to your business." she says.

Take the pressure off and engage in a favorite hobby or pastime, focusing on something different might get those creative juices flowing. "Fixation on one topic can cause frustration, which is counterproductive to creativity. Taking a break allows you to move from laser-like focus to broadened understanding." she says.

Creative thinking is not always instantaneous, writes Rains. "Give yourself time instead of rushing to get results." Contemplate on ways to create new business opportunities and resolve old problems.

Get advice from someone smarter than you.  "I am amazed at how much information smart people are willing to share." says Rains. "Toss out a topic and you can garner insights on historical perspectives, current trends, and predictions for the future. Listen and probe to gather wisdom relevant to your business."

Ask for advice on targeting your customer and how to get your message out.

Integrate new technologies and media.  Embracing new ways of communication can help you reach a new audience.  Reach your customer through the power of video, website blogging, podcasts and Social Media across the web.

Read everything you can on your business to discover what's missing from your business plan.

Learn from your kids.  Kids are not afraid to try anything.  Their endless experimentation is the process by which they learn how actions create reactions, writes Rains.

Experiment with new ideas and find ways to test them.  Try sending out different email campaigns to see which one gets the best result and then refine them.

We need to look differently at the way we do business in order to grow and create new paths to success.

Read the Full Story at OPENForum.

photo credit: ednl

Posted in Headlines, Internet Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Blogging

Small Business owners wear a lot of hats.  You are the boss and, sometimes, the janitor, and everything in between. You are doing it all.

What's the biggest worry a small business owner has?    Cash flow. Staying afloat.

"Money issues are absolutely the biggest pitfall that entrepreneurs face. If you don't keep it flowing, or can't keep enough of it, your business will suffer." writes Mike Michalowicz, author and entrepreneur.

Michalowicz offers some simple questions to ask yourself to avoid spending money unnecessarily:

1.      Do You Really Need that Expensive Office?  Invest in an office and equipment when you really need to. These can be a big expense on your monthly cash flow.  And that expensive office furniture to "show-off your success"? Better left for when you are too busy to shop for it.

2.      Track Your Miscellaneous Expenses:  There are always more than you planned on and they are more expensive than you think.  Are there areas you can cut back on?

3.      Who is Handling the Books?  Yes, the small business owner wears many hats, but this is one area where it pays to hire a professional.  "Entrepreneurs are often apprehensive to speak with an accountant, for whatever reason." writes Michalowicz. "Truth be told, you must get with an accountant, as it will save you money in the long run."  The accountant is your friend, says Michalowicz, they will keep you on track to keep the business going and avoid tax penalties.

4.      Can You Afford that Employee?  It's tiring doing it all yourself, but avoid hiring someone until there is enough work to keep them busy and the return is that it frees you up to bring in more money.

5.      What is my Marketing Plan?   "You need to be your biggest PR agent, spreading the passion and information about your business whenever possible." advises Michalowicz, "Through networking, talking to others, etc., you need to always focus on getting the word out about your product or service."  Marketing brings in the money.

In real estate we always say it's "location, location, location" but the small business owner knows it's all about "money, money, money". Rethink how you are doing business.  Are there areas you need to streamline to keep the cash flowing?

Read more from Mike Michalowicz at OpenForum.com.

photo credit: eatmorechips

Posted in Internet Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Real Estate Industry Trends, Lead Generation

Real estate is a people business, and you need to cultivate relationships in order to generate more business through referrals.  Mike Hixon offers these tips on how to find buyers.

Interviewer:  Today we are talking with Mike Hixon from Hixon & Associates.  Mike welcome to the program.

Mike Hixon: Thank you.

Interviewer:  Glad to have you here.  We are talking about buyers, of course every realtor would love to know how to get more buyers, so let's go ahead and just address the question, I am an agent I would like to find more buyers, I would like to find them with financing in place and ready to purchase, I mean I guess that would be the $65,000 question, right?

Mike Hixon: Team up, yeah, yeah.  That's a good question.  My sources use the lenders that have had people come to them, they come to us and say, 'Hey look, I am looking to get the financing ball rolling and then I get that phone call from that lender and they say, 'Hey, we've got a buyer, they are ready to go, I have got him pre-qualified or pre-approved and they are looking for a house, keep them below this dollar amount' and we are ready to go. Another good resource is your website; not a ton of leads come from my website, but you know if you get X amount of numbers per year it certainly is worth putting your "shingle" on there. 

Interviewer:  Yeah.  You know at the end of the day whether you are going to farm a neighborhood or you're going to do an e-mail farming system, whatever it's going to be this really boils down to a relationship business, talk a little bit about that.

Mike Hixon: Relationship is what it's all about; I mean referrals are huge for me, there's a magazine that does some surveys that go out every year and for the second year in a row, I'm proud to say that I will be in that magazine, that comes directly from your clientele, so the relationship you build with your clientele, they are telling other people and if you don't do a good job they are telling a lot more people.

Interviewer:  Yeah.

Mike Hixon: But thank goodness to the folks that I've dealt with, have spread my name around and referrals is huge.  So that's how you take care of your business.

Interviewer:  Obviously in the last several years there has been far more sellers than there have been buyers, I mean everybody's a little short on the buyer end.  And maybe people, agents say I have got a lot of listings but I'd really like some more buyers.  Any tips that you can give them to kind of balance that equation out a little bit?

Mike Hixon: Cloning! That's how..haha.  How do you get those buyers?  Well you know, it comes back to, you know back in the good old days you just really had to hit those prospect lists, you know you got to call people up and say, "Hey I've got a great house, do you know of anybody?'  There is a prospect list that comes out that Metro List provides you've got to call every single one of them.  And just remind them, 'hey if you haven't seen it yet, I got a new listing on the market and it sounds like it meets the criteria for your buyer'. 

Interviewer:  Obviously everybody's looking for those buyers and you have to figure out a way to kind of set yourself apart, how do you do that in today's economy and business?

Mike Hixon: I just think exposure is the key.

Interviewer:  Yeah.

Mike Hixon: I mean you've got to get your name out there.

Interviewer:  I tell people you just can't have enough conversations.

Mike Hixon: No.

Interviewer:  I mean when you're sitting getting your haircut and the gal or guy that's cutting your hair, ask him, where do you live?  Do you rent?  Do you buy?  Are you in the market for buying?  I happen to be a realtor, how about your family, what's your family doing for a house...?

Mike Hixon: That's right.

Interviewer:  I start a conversation with the grocery store clerk, you know.

Mike Hixon: I was just going to say, I was wearing my pin the other day in the grocery store line and happened to be on the phone...

Interviewer:  Yeah.

Mike Hixon: And the conversation came up, I said, "Sure! Here's my card, give me a call".

Interviewer:  Absolutely, that's how it goes.

Mike Hixon: That's exposure, yeah.

Interviewer:  Mike thanks, good information, appreciate it.

Mike Hixon: All right, thank you.

Find out more about How to Follow up with Business Contacts on BrokerIPTV.

photo credit: Greenbelt Alliance

Posted in Headlines, Traditional Marketing, Lead Generation

The conference is over and you have a pile of business cards and the monumental task of saving the information and following up with these contacts.  Alex Moore, CEO of Baydin Software shared his tips and tricks for staying in touch after the conference with TheNextWeb.com.

It can be overwhelming.  "If you're anything like me,you have a giant stack of business cards you've accumulated at conferences and events somewhere in your office." writes Moore, " I've got two such stacks, and I never contacted the majority of the people in them, nor do I remember anything about who they were or why (even if!) they were interesting."

Moore has streamlined this process into a system that helps him quickly and efficiently contact everyone he wants to follow up with and, he says, "Saves me time and keeps my perfectionist instinct from kicking in."

To use his system you will need to download these tools to get you started:

• Canned Responses from Gmail Labs
• CardMunch from LinkedIn (iPhone is available today, Android is coming soon, I hope!)
• Boomerang for Gmail (full disclosure, we make this one)

Canned Response:

FIRST: Create a "canned response" letter regarding the conference or event you attended.  Using keywords or contact names, this system will automatically send a reply.

Moore includes, "It was great to meet you..." and suggests you add a reminder about who YOU are in case they forgot. Save the message in the lab to use for later.

SECOND:  Sort through your stack of business cards. Moore uses these four categories: 

• VIP: People you really need to contact to bring in more business.
• Useful: Interesting people who might be able to contact us to other people, service providers we need.
• Marginal: People to contact when you have time.
• Unhelpful: Well, you get it, timewasters who have their own agenda. Sweep these into the trashcan right now.

CardMunch: 

Using real people, transcribing the information, CardMunch helps you digitize each business card into your address book or on CardMunch. This is only available for iPhone now, but Blackberry is coming soon! You can also send a quick contact request through Linkedin.

FIRST: Start with your VIP cards and insert customized information into the canned response letter.  "Include one clear ask in the message if you have one." says Moore," and since this stack is your VIPs, you probably do. Keep the message short and to the point, just enough to make it clear how you'd like to proceed and remind them how you met. "   Save this letter as a draft to be sent in a few days (Moore usually starts sending them 4 days after the conference).

SECOND: Capture the business card information on CardMunch.  "Take a picture of the business card, and in about 10 minutes, you'll have all the person's contact information transcribed automatically for you." says Moore, "It will be on your phone whenever you need it, along with a picture of the business card itself, and you won't need to sift through a giant stack of cards the next time you need to contact that person."

Continue this with all your VIP cards.

Boomerang: 

Boomerang is a free plug-in created by Moore's company for Firefox and Chrome that lets you control when you send and receive emails.

FIRST:  Go through the "Useful" stack of cards and customize the canned response letter much like you did with the VIP cards and save as a draft.  "However, for most of these cards," says Moore," I will have either no explicit ask, or an ask that is less impactful. It's less important to get these messages off quickly, so I typically use Boomerang to schedule contact emails to go through over next couple days."

Then use CardMunch to save the information.

SECOND:  If you have time, handle your "Marginal" cards the same as the "useful" cards, but prioritize who you choose.  "I'll pick as many...as I have time to contact," adds Moore," and schedule messages to go out to them in 2-3 days."

Use CardMunch to save the information, even if you don't contact them all.

FOLLOW UP:  After 4 days, "Reach out again - you can politely say that you wanted to make sure they received the message, or that it didn't get lost in the spam, or just repeat that it was great to meet them." writes Moore. "About 2/3 of the time, I find that they weren't trying to ignore me, they just were busy, and the second email solves the problem. In the other case, if they don't reply to email #2, I typically don't follow up again."

Moore's system for following up after a conference is an efficient way to manage all those contacts and get those business cards off your desk. "Remember," he adds, "if you're not going to build any relationships after a conference, why bother going?"

Read more about Moore's system: How to Follow up with Everyone You Met at a Conference" on TheNextWeb.com.

photo credit: carlaarena

Posted in Internet Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Real Estate Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Gen X-Y, Technology And YOU

"Different generations require different approaches." says Bernice Ross, Real Estate Coach and author. "Are you still marketing your business with personal brochures, glamour shots of yourself taken more than a decade ago, and other agent-centric approaches? If so, it's time to shift gears to fit the demands of the next generation of buyers and sellers."

The Baby Boomers, born before 1965, look to you as a "trusted advisor", one who can guide them through the buying and selling process.

"In contrast," says Ross, "those in Gen X and Gen Y (born after 1964), don't value expertise in the same way. A major source of friction between older agents and younger clients has to do with how older agents approach this important issue."

Ross says that you need to be a "trusted resource" to the younger buyers who are not looking for someone to advise them on what to do. In this role you offer your expertise by supplying the necessary information for the client to make the buying or selling decisions.  

"The power of this trusted resource approach is that it works with all generations." states Ross. "While the boomers may appreciate the fact that an agent has searched out and compiled the information they need, Gen Xers may appreciate being directed to where they can find the information. Those from Gen Y may prefer to do their own research, but they tend to check with their friends rather than searching exclusively on their own."

As the trusted resource, an agent closes the deal by leaving the final decisions up to the client...."It's your house. It's your decision. What would you like to do?"

Read the full article at Inman News.

photo credit: zen

Posted in Headlines, Traditional Marketing, Real Estate Industry Trends, Gen X-Y, Home Selling Services