I get asked by contractors almost weekly if there truly is value in Social Networking, especially Linkedin. A short answer is, “Yes! Depending on how one uses Social Networking.” I’ve seen a lot of contractors that use it as a way to promote their services instead of creating good value and content. Social Networking sites should be used to connect with like minded people or businesses. It is also used to get to know potential clients, in a non “sales” approach: just down to earth. Linkedin is a very powerful networking tool, and most of the features are free.
If your marketing budgets are struggling right now, you have to network and prospect more. Linkedin Groups is a great way to build your connects and credibility. Make sure you watch this Linkedin Groups video and begin following some of their advice.
Steps to Success Using Linkedin Groups
Research some local and nationwide groups that best fit your industry and target audience. For example, a remodeling contractor in Chicago may want to join a community/local historical society group. A landscaper may want to join a garden club group. Get the idea?
Turn on email alerts. You can get email alerts “as they happen” daily or weekly reports.
Begin scanning through and reading some of the discussions in these groups
Start commenting, asking questions and sharing your knowledge without trying to sell your product or service. This will allow people to get to know you and your company without you having to push why you are an expert in your industry.
Once you are part of a group and participating, start to connect with the members. You don’t need an invitation. Add them to your network!
Finally, start your own discussions and even your own group!
If you use Linkedin Groups properly, you will see your connections group and will likely get a few leads/prospects when the time is right. Let them come to you, not you hunting them down.
I am often asked what bookkeeping software I use for my business. You’d think I’d be using one of the big dogs such as Quickbooks or Peachtree. Well, I may be forced to do this down the road, but at my size, I decided to try a more simple route. I’ved tried a number of programs online from Quickbooks, Clarity, and IAC-EZ but settled upon Freshbooks. You may have heard me rant and rave about how easy Freshbooks is to use, so I won’t continue in this post. I will admit, there is NO invoicing software I’ve seen that is as cool and easy to use as Freshbooks. I wish it was a full accounting system for contractors to use. Freshbooks manages your client’s estimates, invoicing and your company expenses. It also will produce a few simple reports such as a P&L and Expense Report. Contractors really need to have more features to track their Gross Profit, do Pay Roll and Job Costing, which is why I have not been recommending this program too much for my clients. But if you want to use it just for invoicing and basic expense reporting, give it a try! For a full accounting system, I’m still recommending Quickbooks Onlines. For job costing, use an advanced Excel spreadsheet!
I use to use a program called Outright to track my expenses and tax information. Outright is completely free, and I’m still not sure why. I’m sure they are building a fan base that will absolutely love it and then start charging. It is similar to Freshbooks: easy to use: period. I heard that Outright just released automatic bank syncing with my bank, so I went back to my Outright account to test drive it. Wow! After some updating of my accounts, I’m now able to do almost NO data entry in Freshbooks or Outright. The two programs are linked and update automatically. My invoices are automatic and all my expenses from my bank and credit cards are downloaded automatically. All I have to do now is make sure I categorize my expenses, which takes just a few minutes.
So for the small company with 1-3 employees, give Freshbooks and Outright a try. For the larger company who needs an easy invoiving system, try Freshbooks.
A few years ago, most small service business owners did not know what a blog is? Now, more of these owners have blogs on their site. However, when I look over company blogs, I do not see either good content or activity. Most of the time a company starts a blog with good intentions but gets too busy to keep up! This is why, I highly recommend outsourcing your blog writing services to a professional writer. You will find hundreds and thousands of writers who are capable to writer for you. The key for you is to find the right writer(s) that fits well for you. The video below is about 10 minutes and a little technical. However, it is worth the 10 minutes to discuss the important of outsourcing content and the benefits of hiring a good writer. The presenter makes an excellent point: 1 Good Article is worth ten if not a hundred crummy articles. So watch the video and create a plan on hiring a skilled writer to create remarkable content for your business. As always, please give me your feedback.
If you are serious about online marketing and see the benefits of being on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, then you will like a new program called Nutshell. Why? Because you don’t have to login to all these accounts all day long. Nutshell compiles a list of all the activities that have taken place in your networks and gives you an attractive, easy to read, email with the updates. You can customize what you want and don’t want to see and request and email 1 to 3 times a day. It is like getting the morning Wall Street Journal but just for Social Networking. You scan the headlines and click on the things that are of most interest to you. In fact, you can even comment and post right from your email.
The online scheduling software market seems to be growing quite rapidly these days. A few months ago, I settled on two programs I liked: Setster and Bookfresh. Setster still is my favorite, partly due to good support. They are slowly making some good changes to their system, so please do check out Setster. Bookfresh looks nice, but their customer service is just terrible. They really need to get a phone number to take calls! I did not want to limit myself to just one program to recommend (as some folks have different taste) so I stumbled upon a brand new booking program called YouCanBook.me.
YouCanBook.Me is a Google Marketplace item, which links up with a businesses’ Google Apps account. The logo and website did not really attract me to dig deeper. I almost went away because the site was not attractive enough. But I decided to give it a try! Glad I stuck around! YouCanBook.Me truly is a remarkable program. It is not as flashy as the Setsters, Bookfresh or BookingBug programs out there, but the simple features are impressive. In fact, of all the online booking programs I’ve tested, YouCanBook.Me is the fastest at syncing with Google Calendar. It literally took seconds for it to show up on my Google Calendar and iPhone and seconds to remove it from all my synced calendars. This program is pretty custom too. You can create custom forms (questions to ask a client before meeting with them) and even customize the colors of the booking calendar.
I’ve contacted the developer of YouCanBook.Me, and he has been very responsive. I’ve given him a list of the features I’d like to see for service contractors, and he was very receptive. The other programs I’ve recommended are almost more geared towards businesses that have a physical location. YouCanBook.Me is so simple and custom that a service contractor can easily use this program on their emails and website. It truly is remarkable. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
If you have not started a Facebook Fan page yet, get going! Don’t wait. Before I give you a few tips on how to get started, let me tell you what NOT to do on Facebook. Do not use Facebook as a means to SELL SELL SELL. Facebook is a Social Networking tool. A business page is called a “fan page,” and it is just that: people who like your content and company will become fans! They will “de-fan” you if you try to sell them stuff. Use it as a tool to connect, share and get feedback. I like to look at Facebook the same way I meet someone in person. Just start a normal conversation and try to keep it going in a conversational way! It is really pretty easy if you have good people skills. The only time you can sell is when you have VERY loyal fans, but even then, you can’t promote too much. For example, lets say you have built 200+ fans that seem to like your post and even comment regularly. Now it is the winter months and work has slowed down. You can very cautiously post that a few of your painters, carpenters and/or employees need work. If you have raving fans, they will help you out!
So, here are a few tips to get started:
Create your business page here (Make sure it is not a group but a “page”) A Group can be important but that is for another blog
One the page is complete, fill in your company information, website information, Twitter and Blog RSS
Create a custom profile image to use for your company fan page (any length but no wider than 200 pixels) View My Sample
Make sure your Facebook page is posted everywhere: Linkedin, Twitter, Blogs, Website, Email Signature, etc.
Tell your friends and customers to join the fun on Facebook. Tell them in a non-sales way! Just ask them to join and they will! If they need a little help, send them a link.
Then start posting remarkable content and respond to anyone who comments on your site. If you don’t have remarkable and fun things to say, don’t use Facebook. If you get stuck, hire a professional Social Media writer or expert.
Zoho CRM has been working on a Native iPhone App for months if not years. I keep hearing that in two months, we’ll see something. I’m not sure which two months they are talking about, but I hope it is soon. Until this App is a reality, Zoho CRM still has an excellent online product. It is truly a threat against the big box Salesforce. Salesforce, is still the leader and has a nice product. The problem with Salesforce is the price tag for small business owners. It is just not affordable. Zoho CRM is very affordable. A small contracting company can purchase 3-4 users for around $25 a month. Zoho also just added a Chat feature, which will just make it even better!
Tactile CRM, though not as robust as Zoho, Salesforce or ACT! by Sage, is an up and coming online CRM. It does the basics: Sales tracking, Calendar, To-Dos and basic Reporting. They told me this week they are working out the final bugs on their native iPhone app and will be releasing it to Apple I would hope by mid August. If Tactile beats Zoho CRM, I might give them a try. Their price is around $9 a month. I believe you should be able to use Tactile App for everything and cut out Google Apps etc. However, I like Google Apps and Outlook and hope Tactile will still make a two-way sync for those of us who do not want to switch.
Finally, Pipeline Deals already has a nice iPhone browser-base App. They too are working hard to release a native app to Apple. We should see their App be released within the month. Pipeline Deals is a simple CRM. I really like it. The last time I tried it, I did not like their Calendar features. BUT, I received a notification that they have made some dramatic changes to the calendar and task scheduling, which I think will make Pipeline Deals a favorite of mine.
So who will be the first of these three companies to release a Native App for the iPhone? When I know, you’ll know. I’m still waiting for ACT! by Sage to get their “act” together and release a stand alone App for the Blackberry, iPhone and Droid. They have been the small business leader and are NOT staying ahead of the game. They will be losing a lot of clients within the next 6 months if they do not follow suite. I’m calling 2011 the year where Customer Relationship Management programs become bigger, better and cheaper than ever before: all online too and on your phone.
Note: It takes time and money to develop an App. The iPhone is relatively easy to develop an App and the Blackberry is not. Android Apps are also easy…but are not the same as the iPhone. So all these companies are doing one at a time. At this time, iPhone wins!
I’ve been using LogMeIn’s software for a couple years now and have been quite impressed with their iPad and iPhone apps as well! They work great. I only use LogMeIn on my iPhone when I forgot something at my office computer that cannot wait til I return. The reason is because the screen is so small on the iPhone. For example, if I forgot to click “send” on an email and ran out the door. I’d use Logmein from the iPhone to send the email. As for the iPad, that is definitely a wonderful app due to the larger screen size!
The LogMeIn has a free and paid subscription. For contractors, you only need the free version if you are trying to login to 1 computer. If you want to login to multiple computers, I’d suggest the paid version. The App for the iPhone or iPad is $29.99 but is well worth the cost!
I recently was turned iTeleport, which looks like a competitor of LogMeIn. To read a thorough review comparing iTeleport to Logmein, Visit this blog. I have not tested iTeleport, but from reading an article or two, it looks like LogMeIn might be the same or better. Give LogMeIn or iTeleport a try and let me know what you think. iTeleport has also done a better job, in my opinion or marketing to the small business folks. Their short videos take after Dropbox and really help consumers know what iTeleport does well!
I’ve tried a number of different email newsletter programs. The leader seems to be Constant Contact followed by iContact and Mailchimp. Although I have a lot of clients who already use Constant Contact, my personal favorite is Mailchimp. Why? Because it is smart and easy to use. Now, when I say easy to use, I mean it is easier to use than most email marketing programs. You still have to know something about design and working with templates. What I like about Mailchimp is they’ve made it easy to import and update your list and create a simple, yet attractive looking email campaign. The reporting systems and Social Media plugins also make Mailchimp the leader in my experience. Their website design and function is also…way better than its competitors.
Mailchimp also has a free version! No really…it is free. If you have less than 500 emails in your database, use Mailchimp as much as you want! It is 100% free! If you go over the 500 email list (hopefully you will over time!) then the fees are similar to Constant Contact or iContact. $20-40 a month is typical. I recommend not doing the monthly plans with any email system unless you plan on using it every month. If it is every quarter or even 6x a year, go with the “Pay as you Go” plan. Mailchimp has that feature, and it is pretty inexpensive (cheaper than the monthly service in most cases).
Although I am endorsing Mailchimp, that does not mean it is a perfect program. There are little bugs and quirks if you don’t know HTML. For example, when you cut and paste things, the text sometimes gets messed up. This is not Mailchimp’s fault but just the nature of the beast. They use what is called a “wysiwyg” editor which stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” That wysiwyg converts your simple text editor into HTML. That is where you will sometimes see some formating problems. To avoid this, hire your web designer to create and send a custom CSS email just for your company. In other words, if you are not real web-savvy, I’d definitely get help creating and sending email blast. Email marketing campaigns should have the same or similar branding message and design as your other marketing materials. A lot of people think email marketing is cheap. It is inexpensive compared to a Direct Mail campaign, but you should still spend some time and money making it look sharp and useful!
Another email tool I’d recommend is: MyEmma. MyEmma is a MUST for someone who wants a custom email marketing campaign. This is for serious email marketers.
I recently received an invite to an interactive, online Stationary program. It is pretty nifty and called Paperless Post. The program is easy to use to send custom stationary online, instead of printing and mailing it. Although I still prefer the Old Fashion approach at times, Paperless Post is a good alternative if you are trying to save on postage. The cost to design and send a custom letter in a virtual envelope starts at about $.06. As best as I can figure out, it would cost closer to $.25 if you wanted your company logo sent and a custom envelope look. So, Paperless Post can get pricey if you don’t look carefully at the bottom line price per piece. No matter what you do, it is cheaper than the US mail.
Play around with the Paperless Post program. The first few letters you send are free of charge. It can add a nice personal touch at the end of a project: something different than an e-Card or letter in the mail.
I get asked by contractors almost weekly if there truly is value in Social Networking, especially Linkedin. A short answer is, “Yes! Depending on how one uses Social Networking.” I’ve seen a lot of contractors that use it as a way to promote their services instead of creating good value and content. Social Networking sites should be used to connect with like minded people or businesses. It is also used to get to know potential clients, in a non “sales” approach: just down to earth. Linkedin is a very powerful networking tool, and most of the features are free.
