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If you own a business I’m pretty sure that there is something that you want more of.  It could be…

• More clients.
• More clients that you enjoy working with.
• More profits.
• More free time.
• More money in your retirement program.
• More ideal employees.

And let’s also look at what you want less of in your business…

• Less time spent with paperwork.
• Less time spent with complaining clients.
• Less money going out in expenses.
• Less worry about the economy.

So I’ve given you some ideas to get started with.  Take a moment, right now, and consider what you want more of, or less of in your business.  In other words, what is your most pressing problem right now?

And take some time on this.  What do you really want? You may think that you want more clients because you don’t have enough cash flow.  But the reality might be you aren’t charging enough for your product or service.  So in reality, you want more profits per client or customer.

Here’s another example.  You may think that you want another assistant because you are spending too much of your time doing paperwork.  However the reality might be that you don’t have the right systems in place to handle the paperwork in the first place.  Or your current assistant isn’t the right person for the job.

OK–do you know what you want?  Great!  Let’s discover how the internet can help you get more of what you want.

Now  let’s be clear for a moment, I’m not implying that the internet is a magic wand that will automatically solve all your business problems.  There’s no way that an effective online marketing campaign will transform your substandard office employee into an efficient, happy, productive assistant that you love working with.  But the internet can be a wonderful tool to help you find that person. And even give you tips on how to gracefully send the other one on to a new employment venture.

Let’s go a little deeper with this….

The most common problem I hear from business owners is that they want more clients.  If this is the case for you, consider these questions:

1.  Who is your ideal client?

2.  What problem do you solve for your ideal client using your product or service?

Now take a look at your website.  Is the identity of your ideal client clearly labeled on the banner or home page of your site? In other words, if your ideal client lands on your website, will they know they are in the right place? Or would they just quickly click away because you look and sound live everyone else in your industry?

Is what you do for clients clearly stated on your site?  If you sell a product is that product clearly labeled with instructions on how people can quickly and easily get your product?

All too often website owners think that they need more traffic to their site when in actuality they need to work on their conversion.  Often times a few simple changes on your site will transform the visitors you are already getting into happy, satisfied customers.  Thus increasing your profits without any additional traffic.

Let’s look and the “I want more time” desire.  Most business owners I talk to never feel like they have enough time in the day. If this is you, there are many online marketing tools you can you to systematize and streamline your business.

One big “time sucker” can be collecting customer payments.  Are you using automated systems for client billing? There’s nothing more time consuming that sending out individual invoices every month by hand, getting a check back in the mail, depositing the check…

Pay Pal has allowed many small businesses to completely automate their billing process.  Anyone can set up a Pay Pal account (for free), send their customer an invoice and then have the funds in their Pay Pal account within a day or two.  Easy. Simple. And efficient.  You don’t even need a website to collect fees through Pay Pal.

These are just a couple of examples of how you can use the internet to solve your most pressing business problems and create more of what you want.

No one knows more about you, your business and what you want more than you.  Invest the time to create some clarity about what you truly want and how you can get it.

If you would like some creative assistance in using this process consider in investing in a coaching session with me.  An outside consultant can help you see through any blind spots you may have and act as a creative agent in helping you see the solutions you so desperately want for your business.  So call today 520-820-4014 and let’s get you creating more of what you want in your business.!

Today, every small business needs to have a prominent web presence to be successful.  Now more than ever with all the traditional methods of advertising….yellow pages, newspaper, radio, etc. drying up.

More and more consumers/clients are turning to the internet to help them make buying decisions.

In the not so distant past a web presence was accomplished by putting up a website and using it mostly as a type of online brochure.  The website was a place for people to come, find out the history of the business, get the location and perhaps make some online sales.

Costly and hard to maintain (almost every traditional website needs a programmer to make simple updates) the traditional website is launched and remains the same, year after year, usually buried on the 4th or 5th page of the search results.

Then the blog enters the web world or blogosphere  in 1997.  The term blog actually means “web log” and they were first used as sophisticated, easy to use on-line journals.  Posts are presented in a chronological order with the newest ones being at the top.

In the beginning blogs were mostly used as personal platforms to share thoughts, opinions and occasional resources in the form of links.

In 1999 several companies and software developers created software and tools that made them more business friendly and their usage exploded from a few thousand to over 100 million.

Now many small business owners are abandoning their traditional HTML (best description of HTML–the “language” coders use to make websites) websites in favor of a blog.  They have evolved from a series of journal entries to full blow “websites” with tons of cool features, multiple pages and the ability to engage and interact with readers.

Here are 3 reasons why every business owners should create and maintain an active blog.  Or trade their old HTML website in for one!

1.  They are easy to update and maintain. I always say, “If you can write and send an email you can successfully update your blog!  No more waiting around for your webmaster to make updates and changes.  You are in control (and you don’t have to pay anyone either…unless you want to )

2.  The search engines (especially Google) love them. The web is comprised of content.  And it is the goal of the search engines to deliver fresh, new relevant content to people who are searching for it.  Blogs come ready made with the ability to alert the search engine spiders through a process called pinging that new content has been added to the web.  The spiders come, crawl your site and then the content is indexed and ready to be found by people looking for what ever it is you are providing.  Old fashioned HTML sites don’t have this automatic capability.

3. They help you create loyal followers and fans and ultimately attract new clients. With the advent of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) the web has quickly become more than a place to look up content.  It’s transitioned into a network of people ready to make connections and build relationships.  Blogs automatically come with a comment section where your readers/clients can share thoughts, ideas and interact with you, the blog owner.

Having a strong web presence can be very profitable to small business owners.  Blogs are the cornerstone of that presence.

There are many more reasons but they’ll remain for a later post.  In the meantime, do you have a blog?  If you do, make a comment in the section below and let us know what you like most about it.  Or share your frustrations.  And leave your link so we can visit your blog!

Don’t have a blog yet?  You’ll find many resources here at Business Blogging Made Easy to help you create on yourself and affordable options to have one made for you.

What are you waiting for?!