It’s good to be the biggest fish in the ocean, right? When your business is the predator all the little fishies fear, you never have to worry about

Is your business well caged, or is it the predator that's running your life?

 being run out of town. Becoming that megalodon is a challenge that inspires you to work harder, longer and with more dedication in your ultimate quest to step out and leave your mark.

But what happens when your business becomes the megatooth shark that’s gobbling up all the other fish in your life?

I was reading Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog this morning and stumbled on the great debate between being inspired to make your business into a multi-billion dollar industry and being inspired to make your mark on the next generation. Author Kyle Lacy ‘fessed up to something all of us have been guilty of at one time or another: Putting our personal lives on the back burner to get our business moving.

That Zen part of Utopia where all the aspects of your life are in perfect balance is a beautiful place-or so I hear. I personally haven’t seen it, nor do I know how to get there, but if you have suggestions feel free to share! I can tell that you, however, that there are some tried and true techniques that will help you keep your sanity while you’re looking…or at the very least, stop your kids from selling your clothes on eBay when they decide you’re not coming home!

• Leave work at work. The idea that getting out of the office and bringing work home helps you make more time for your family is a good one. It is. I personally love that flexibility when one of my kids is home sick or there’s a basketball game or ballet recital I absolutely cannot miss. The problem is, at some point you’re going to have to actually do the work you brought home. The added pressure of trying to do work when your family wants your attention can make it more stressful than just spending that extra hour or two at your desk. Schedule work hours for when you know you’ll be uninterrupted, or leave work at work.

•  Schedule a break. Seriously. Between work, housework, supervising homework, spending time with your kids and your spouse and trying to be an active part of your community (oh, yeah, and finding time to eat, shower and sleep for an hour or two) your day can disappear in a blink, leaving you standing there wondering, “When do I get time for me?” Schedule a break. Block off an hour after dinner and take a walk every day. Take your lunch from noon to one, shut off your phones and go outside. Lock the door and turn out the lights. By zealously guarding your time, you’ll have a clearer head for the rest of the day.

• Delegate. No one can do everything, all the time. When you’re first getting your business started you’re going to be boss, employee, bookkeeper, marketing team and clean-up crew. There’s no getting around that. But as soon as you can, delegate the parts of your job that don’t leave you dancing with glee each morning. You’ll enjoy the work you do do that much more.

• Do one thing at a time. Did you know that someone once actually had the audacity to declare that the amount of multi-tasking we do in a day isn’t good for us? *gasp!* What were they thinking? Isn’t the ability to multi-task solid gold when you’re talking about an employee? Yes-in the short term. Sure, it’s great to have someone at your beck and call that can schedule appointments while they proofread that brief and pick up your dry-cleaning, but the more you multi-task the harder it is to focus on just one thing…including relaxation!

Tags: balance work and life, family, life, small business, work

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It seems like every time you turn around there’s another headline making its way into the news from downtown Google. This time? This time it’s Google Instant flashing across the country and around the world in Google’s never ending quest to give its customers better, stronger and, most importantly, more accurate results.

What is Google Instant? If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you may not have heard about Google’s hottest new technology; however, if you’re part of the 99% of the population that uses Google as a primary search engine, you’ve seen it in action. Google Instant takes the words you type into the query box and immediately draws up the appropriate page of search results while you search, giving your results up to 2 seconds faster. 2 seconds might not feel like a lot, but when you consider the fact that the average marketer only has 3 seconds to catch the eye of their consumer, it all comes into focus.

Of course, knowing Google came out with another incredible piece of technology that people are going to be talking about for the next month isn’t exactly news. We almost expect it from them these days! What is news is what Google Instant can teach you about giving your customers what they really want from your business.

1)      Our customers appreciate convenience.  You live in a world where things need to be done yesterday, and so do your customers. Google Instant is making a splash by shaving 2 seconds off the amount of time they spend waiting for their search results. What can your company do to put more than 2 seconds back into their day?

2)      Think outside the box. No one told Google there was only one way to run a search engine, and they’ve been dominating the global market ever since. The only one that’s dictating the way something needs to be done is you. When you’re willing to set the blinders aside, you’ll be amazed at what you can do.

3)      Don’t think in terms of dollars and cents. Google started out as a school project, not a multi-billion dollar corporation. Their focus has always been on customer satisfaction first, with advertising dollars coming in at a distant second. Every time they change their algorithms, it’s not to please their advertisers. It’s to please the millions of people every day that come to them looking for results. When you give your customers what they want, steady revenue is sure to follow.

Tags: Business, customer satisfaction, google instant, marketing, product development, small business

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How many times have you wished you could turn back the clock to add 7 or 8 hours to your day? Whether you’re overscheduled, haven’t mastered the more intricate components of effective time management or simply fall prey to distractions from the time you get up to the time you go to bed, if you’re constantly ending your day with a to-do list that’s longer than the one you started with it’s time to step back, re-evaluate, and put these simple principles into play to help you crank your productivity into overdrive.

1) Prioritize your day. Sure, you’ve got 100 things on your desk, half of which should have been done yesterday, but what’s really important? What projects are going to cause huge amounts of stress if you allow them to be pushed to the back burner? These are the projects you want to concentrate on first.

2) Make a schedule and stick to it. What time are you going to be in the office? What hours are you available for meetings? When will you be working on specific products, and what times of the day are reserved for routine tasks? If you commit to a schedule you’ll not only get more done, you’ll also feel better when the you get to leave work at work at the end of the day.

3) Kick procrastination to the curb. We all have jobs we don’t want to do every now and then, but putting them off

They tell you not to live your life by the clock, but sometimes it just works.

only makes the misery last even longer. Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can just as easily get done today.

4) Delegate. There’s a reason businesses have “teams” and not soloists. You can’t do it all. No one expects you to do it all. And the sooner you stop trying to do it all and start handing some of the responsibility over to the people who work with you, the sooner the end of that to-do list is going to come into sight!

5) Schedule your distractions. Everything takes twice as long when you have to stop every five minutes to answer the phone…or check your email…or talk to a colleague. Schedule your distractions and ignore them for the rest of the day. The more peace and quiet you get, the more you’re going to get done and the more productive you’ll be.  

6) Take a break. Seriously. You actually get more done when you stop and take small, regular breaks throughout the day than when you push yourself to the point of boredom. Why? Because when you’re rested and enthusiastic you’ll bring some energy to the project, and energy always increases productivity.

7) Shake it up. Don’t work on the same project from the time you punch in until the time you punch out if you can help it. Spend an hour working on one project, then an hour working on another. By not working on the same thing day in and day out you’re not burning yourself out.

Carry a notebook. Remember when we talked about managing distractions? Well, not all distractions are outside our head. Some are still up in there, lying in wait for the minute we turn our backs. Ideas, thoughts, to-do lists, phone numbers…all of these take up residence in our subconscious and irritate us to no end when we’re trying to finish our work. By writing them down when they pop into your mind you can keep your head clear and your day moving forward instead of stalling out halfway through.

9) Keep your office clean and organized. Thomas J. Peters said, “If a company has a clean desk policy they’re nuts, and you’re nuts to stay there.” I know I personally prefer controlled chaos to sterility in my working environment, but let’s face it. There’s no way you’re going to get from one to done on your to-do list if you have to spend the entire day looking for the resources you need.

10) Don’t forget to sleep! When you’re rushing from the time you get up until the time you go to bed, it’s easy to let little things like sleep fall to the wayside. Unfortunately, that also means that you’re running at something slightly less than your best the next day. Take the time to get a good 8 straight and watch your productivity go through the roof!

Tags: increase productivity, productivity, small business

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Okay, before we go into the ins and outs of improving your customer service, I want to ask you a question. A serious question. One that could, coincidentally, inspire you to chime in below and let us know, because…well, because we really want to know!

What am I talking about? I’m talking about how much time each week you spend catching up on the latest news in the business world. Do you scout the headlines every morning? Every other morning? Religiously sit down and devour the business section of your local paper?

Studies show that the most successful companies in the world are the ones that encourage their employees to keep up on current events, which is precisely what inspired this particular blog post.

When I was sitting down with my coffee this morning and scanning to check out the day’s headlines I stumbled on an article titled, “Customer Service isn’t Dead After All”…or something to that effect. The topic? The importance of good customer service for the continued life, health and happiness of your business!

One of my favorite quotes came from a small business owner who stated, “It’s easy to get busy being busy.” There are never enough hours in a day to get done everything we need to get done. As a result, we end up trying to cram 27-28 hours’ worth of work, projects and social interactions into a 24 hour day. That means things get rushed, and our customers don’t always get the personal, one-on-one attention they deserve-the personal attention you promised them when you sent out those direct mail marketing pieces we talked about earlier this week!

How do you keep your customer service from slipping so your customers keep coming back for more? Just follow these 5 simple steps to see a guaranteed improvement in your employees, your business and the reputation your company earns for customer service:

1)      Educate your employees. Nothing leads to bad service like service people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Make sure any employee interacting with your customers knows all of the ins and outs of your products, and make sure every employee knows where to go for answers when they don’t (whether it’s their job or not).

2)      Stay adequately staffed. Leaving 2 service people to try and do 3 people’s jobs is an instant recipe for disaster. They’re going to be so rushed trying to do everything they need to do in a day that they’ll never have time to give your customers the personalized customer service they deserve.

3)      Don’t be afraid to host a customer service training program. Encourage your employees to actively expand their education when it comes to pleasing your customers. Role playing, seminars and yes, articles/blogs like this one will go a long way in helping smooth the rough edges of their customer service skills. While you’re at it, why not teach them all of those upselling skills you wish they’d come with in the first place?

4)      Employee autonomy isn’t a 4 letter word. Customer service is most effective when your customers don’t have to sit around waiting for management to give the A-OK. Give your employees a certain amount of latitude to make their own decisions. Within reason.

5)      Always keep a back-up on board. Waiting tables and washing dishes paid my way through college, and I can’t count how many times in those very, very long years I stepped in to help a co-worker when a customer was tap dancing on their very last nerve. Always have someone ready and able to step in when you’ve got an employee that needs a time out. It might seem self-defeating, but I promise: It’s all for the best.

Tags: customer service, improve customer service, small business

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Marketing’s the name of the game around here. Not only our own, although we try and pay plenty of attention to that, but also creating amazing marketing materials for our customers. That means that over the years we’ve seen it all, we’ve heard it all, and not much takes us by surprise anymore. Therefore, we sometimes forget that business owners can find themselves drowning in the number of options they have for their small business marketing materials!

What do you really need? What don’t you really need? What’s just taking up time, space and money and what’s really going to help your business grow? How do you know before you invest a ton of time and money what small business marketing materials are honestly going to bring in business for your small business?

Unfortunately, when it comes to marketing materials it’s really a matter of trial and error. With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you slash your way through the jungle of small business marketing materials to find the solution that’s right for your business.

#1: Is it representative of your business? The best marketing materials are ones that really show off what your business can do.

#2: Does it reach your target market? There are a ton of companies posting their information here, there and everywhere, so mass marketing just doesn’t bring in the business it used to. Instead, you have to make sure your materials are going to reach the people you’re marketing to. For example, if you’re marketing to local businesses a small presentation packet and personal sales rep may do a lot more than marketing out on the web. On the other hand, if you’re a B2C company trying to reach the general public it’s going to be much more cost effective to post flyers and brochures than to send someone knocking door to door.

#3: Will it grab their attention? There’s a reason marketing materials don’t read like textbooks! You have exactly 3 seconds to grab the eye of the average consumer before they move on to something more interesting. If you can’t accomplish that, in that amount of time, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

#4: Do they work? Redundant question? Not at all. The best way to judge the success of your small business marketing materials is to set up a system to judge the success of your small business marketing materials! After all, how will you know what’s working and what’s wasting money if you never take the time to find out?

Tags: marketing materials, small business, small business marketing, small business marketing materials

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Hi, and welcome to East Ridge Printing! Inside our four walls we’re your one-stop shop for commercial printing projects of all shapes and sizes. Out on the web, we’re that and so much more. We work with educational facilities, non-profit organizations, healthcare service providers and businesses of all shapes and sizes to design customized marketing solutions guaranteed to stand out in any crowd, no matter how competitive that crowd happens to be!

When you subscribe to Business Innovation you’ll have a front row seat for tips, hints and pro secrets to help your business thrive Since 1979 we’ve worked with businesses just like yours, putting our creative energy directly behind your company’s marketing campaign. Here at East Ridge we don’t believe in cookie-cutter advertising. We specialize in providing custom marketing solutions, from stunningly unique logos to customizable direct mail marketing postcards and full color digital posters.

At East Ridge you’ll find some of the best marketing minds in the business working toward one goal and one goal only: Developing a complete personal brand for your business. So subscribe using the link on the right, pay us a visit at www.eastridgeprint.com and stay tuned for the hottest business innovations for today’s business!

Tags: business innovation, commercial printing, digital printing, Marketing Solutions, offset printing, small business

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