Newsletter - What form of advice?
Last week's survey about free advice generated an interesting conflict. Most of you (about 85%) thought that small businesses should pay for advice - even if there was some subsidy - and that people generally take more notice of advice if they've paid for it. On the other hand, the vast majority of people offer free advice at least occasionally! I think some of the confusion is probably down to different definitions of what constitutes advice - after all an article published on a website is a form of advice, but so is a 3 hour meeting at which you explain possible approaches to the client and they then decide to take your advice but do everything themselves!
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Newsletter - Marketing yourself on-line
You may remember that we asked early in January if you'd be interested in attending a 'How to use Skillfair' event. The feedback was pretty positive and we've decided that combining this with a review of how best to market your services on-line would be a good way to help you focus on marketing ready for 2010.
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Finding reasons to call
Most consultants I talk to find calling new prospects a daunting proposition, and many find even contacting existing clients is something they continually put off. Chatting about this with a former colleague today we realised that we were perfectly happy to call out contacts to help someone else - our anxiety circuits only seem to kick in when we're trying to sell ourselves. The good news though, is that if you do call with the aim of helping someone else there's a good chance the conversation will move on to other areas and you never know, there might turn out to be some work in it for you as well!
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Time for self-help?
As it's the start of a New Year and the end of the 'phony war' in UK politics, I was going to talk about the impending election this week - but the weather and all the stories surrounding it have made me think that we should regard politics & economic ups and downs as just another form of weather. In snowy weather it pays to clear your own path and in difficult economic conditions I think our best tactic is to go out and help ourselves, and if possible do something to help the other businesses we're in contact with.
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Planning Ahead for 2010
In the middle of the run up to Christmas it sometimes feels as though nothing will happen until we've reached the 'other side' of the holidays. In particular, if clients haven't decided to start a new project now, they probably won't pick up the phone until 1st working day of January.
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