5 Principles to Live By Online

Do you live by your principles? If someone were to ask you what principles you run your business by, would you have a concise and committed answer for them?

prin⋅ci⋅ples
a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct: a person of principle.

Over the years, I have found that many who want to start an online business for additional income or to replace their current income, have no idea or basis of what principles should guide them.

Your principles need to be based in respect, honesty, integrity, ethics and character. Unfortunately, each and every day that I sit behind these keyboard, I run into onliners who feel the need for these traits is not necessary or something they can disregard. Just to make a buck…

You shouldn’t run an online business if:

1. RESPECT: …you are not going to respect the time and efforts of others on your behalf. Whether that be suppliers, partners or customers. Not respecting their time or hard earned dollars is a critical error in judgment.
2. HONESTY: …you are not going to be honest about how you run your business and any mistakes you will make. And you will make mistakes — we all do. You need to be prepared to right your mistakes promptly and without excuses regardless of the cost to you to do so.
3. INTEGRITY: …you need to stick to your moral principles regardless of what the monetary value may be. I’ve had many an opportunity to rip-off customers by taking advantage of what they don’t know to make more money. I can’t do that because my moral fiber will not allow me to because that is the type of person I am.
4. ETHICS:…you need to be prepared to do what’s right regardless of the pressure, hype or cajoling by others to do otherwise. Sometimes standing against the tide is the toughest thing to do — but it’s the right thing to do!
5. CHARACTER:…you are not concerned about your character. Character is born of the four traits above. This is how you build your reputation as an honest and forthright business owner. Reputation cannot be bought, it must be earned and there is no way around this fact.

Without the above, you are no different than all the other fly-by-nights or snake oil Web sites out there purely to take advantage of or to get into the pocketbooks of their customers.

Doing what’s right because that’s how you roll is what allows you to look yourself in the mirror at the end of each day and know you did the very best you could — by those who know you, those you work with and most importantly yourself.

“Important principles may and must be inflexible.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

2009 Marketing Trends Considered Most Important

A very interesting survey/report came out that had some information you may be able to use in creating your marketing strategies. With the economic times being what they are and your customers being tighter with their wallets — in many cases becoming smarter before they open them up, it is critical that you make sure to offer the value and confidence they need to choose to do business with you.

I’ll list the Top 10 and provide my thoughts and considerations for you to ponder.

The Top 10 Buzzwords or Trends Considered Most Important

1. Customer Satisfaction 79%: This should go without saying but is more important than ever. If your customers do not feel they are getting their money’s worth they can easily get their heads turned by your competitors with offers of more perceived value. This is where Extreme Customer Service comes in! Customer service can give you an edge!
2. Customer Retention 76%: Customers are more comfortable with consistency and predictability when it comes to their partners. Look for ways to keep in touch with your customer base on a regular basis. “Check In” with them every so often to remind them you are there if they need you. Then, when you do hear from them — see #1 above.
3. Marketing ROI 65%: Part of running any business is experiencing a return on your investment. When it comes to marketing, especially online, the only way to determine your ROI is to test and track. If you don’t track your efforts to know the results, you won’t know what you are doing right — or wrong for that matter. You have to know what efforts are converting into business otherwise you are operating in the dark.
4. Brand Loyalty 61%: Brand loyalty can only be achieved if you work at having a brand! Many I work with neglect simple steps that can be taken consistently in their daily online activities that can contribute to their branding. The first that comes to mind is using your site’s dot com as an e-mail address in lieu of your aol, gmail or yahoo account.
5. Segmentation 61%: Sit down and look at your overall product or service offering. Then create a list of the top 3 groups of people who would use your product or service. Once you have this information in front of you, create 3 specific programs or strategies that cater to each. You simply cannot be everything to everybody; nor should you try. By identifying your top 3 business segments and acknowledging their needs, desires and expectations, you are then better able to cater to and grow each segment.
6. Quality 56%: This is a nobrainer. If you do not offer quality in everything you do, you won’t succeed. Nuff said.
7. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 48%: Less than half surveyed felt this to be important. I can understand why. If you check for SEO companies one would think it is a science fair project to integrate and implement. It really isn’t. So much of SEO is plain old common sense, understanding of how search engines work with a combination of good writing skills. With a little effort to acquire basic SEO knowledge, you can easily work on your site’s content and improve your rankings. Just do a search on this site for “search engines” and read, learn and apply.
8. Competitive Intelligence 43%: You want to know what is going on in your marketing or industry so you can discover trends and strategies that you may be able to use to your advantage. You can easily do this by setting up Google Alerts and have this information delivered to your inbox.
9. Data Mining 43%: This is an activity that contributes to you understanding the “big picture.” So often we live in our own “little world dot com” that we neglect to see the big picture and relate that to our enterprise. Review this page on Data Mining, to get an overview of what it is, involves and how you can use it to your advantage.
10. Lead Generation 43%: Online marketing is all about lead generation. But you will not generate leads if you aren’t out there participating and/or if you don’t have a site that encourages site visitors to contact you. Without either you’ve won’t get those all important leads.

To gleam more information that may be useful to your business in the year ahead check out the Marketing Executives Networking Group Survey .

HTH!

E-mail Etiquette Books

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Company-Customer Pact

I ran across a neat little site that reflects the fact that both companies and customers should share equal responsibility during the business relationship process. All too often now-a-days you run into companies with sub-par customer service, know it and don’t seem to care. On the flip-side there are those customers who are darned right unprofitable and unwilling to even make an effort to be a good customer.

The Company-Customer Pact states simply and clearly a call for shared responsibility. There are only 5 points to each side for each of us to be aware of and strive to incorporate in our business dealings. I can emphatically state, and proudly so, that the 5 Company points are those at the core of how I’ve run my business for over 13 years. I believe that why I’ve been able to survive amidst a see of wannabes and less scrupulous consultants.

From the customer POV, I’ve also held up that side of the bargain when dealing with company’s that through my frustration seem to not deserve the benefit of the doubt. But I understand, probably because I am a business owner myself, how stuff can happen and how I would appreciate customers who would behave as I do when things don’t go right. Problems will happen — it’s all about how each side reacts.

If you run a business, incorporate these points into your day to day operations. If you are a customer, these little tid-bits will help you to be viewed as a customer worth catering to.

The bottom line is treat others as you would have them treat you — regardless of what side of the screen you are on.

How is your company run? What type of customer are you?

10 E-mail Organization Tips

Who doesn’t have issues with organizing their inbox!? I receive close to 600 e-mail each day due to the variety of activities and contacts I have online. Some I am truly interested in their content – most I am not. Read more

5 Rules of Forwarding E-mails

Forwarding of e-mails is one of the topics I get contacted about the most. And, one which also causes hurt feelings and misunderstandings more than any other topic. Daily, e-mails flow in from onliners asking about a “nice way” of telling someone they care about, relative, friend or associate to not forward attachments, chain e-mails, political commentary or the jokes that are so prevalent online. Read more

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