Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

The Importance of CASH Flow

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of being on a speaker’s panel with top entrepreneur Sandra Yancey, founder of eWomen network.  She was a bundle of energy and extremely motivating.  She spoke openly to the room full of women business owners how she became a successful business owner.

Her presentation included a discussion about how important cash is to running and managing a small business.  I nodded my head knowingly—having experienced cash flow problems many years ago in our business.

But she didn’t mean the cold hard kind of cash she meant this:

C: Care for yourself and take the time to improve yourself
A:  Take action.  Ask people you really want and need to meet how you can help them
S:  Share what you have.  Put good things into the universe and it will come back to you.
H:  Harvest your relationships.  Great relationships require care and feeding and harvesting.

Yes, it sounds like Steven Covey’s 7 Habits combined with Dale Carnegie and The Secret, but her point is that businesses are run by people and buy from people.  Having strong personal relationships can take your business far—farther than a strong bottom line.

How is your CASH flow? Take the time today to work on it and you should reap the rewards later!

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Posted by in Business Strategy, Marketing | No Comments »

Networking Tips

Friday, November 19th, 2010

I am on the Board of the Washington, DC chapter of the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) and was pleased to help plan for this month’s chapter meeting.  I invited Angie Segal from Action Coach to give us a presentation about Strategic Networking.  You may already know Angie, she is the founder of THE Original Third Tuesday Networking events at Clyde’s Tower Oaks in Rockville.

We all attend networking events– it’s no surprise that one could literally go to one during breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the business week– but how do we know which ones are the best to attend?  According to Angie, you can’t wing it, you have to have a strategy!  Here are her tips:

1.    Identify Your Target – Who are you trying to meet?
a.    Potential referral partners
b.    Potential clients
c.    Connectors
d.    Professional partners
2.    Set Goals – Measure the response
a.    What is your goal for each organization you join or event you attend?  For example, “I am going to meet 5 good contacts tonight”
b.    Create a system for tracking the results and use it to measure results
c.    Evaluate results against goals on a regular basis and determine future actions
3.    Choose the right groups – How do you select the few from the many?
a.    What is the concentration of people you want to meet in the group?
b.    What is the meeting schedule – can you commit to attending on a regular basis?  What are you giving up if you attend that meeting?
c.    Does the group’s style fit work toward your strength?  If you are a shy person, you might not be comfortable with a very large group.
4.    What is Your Message – How can you convey it effectively?
a.    Different relationships need different messages, are you prepared with more than one message
b.    Listen first – engage conversation by asking questions
c.    Don’t be too technical – once their eyes glaze over, you have lost them
5.    Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up
a.    Develop and implement a strategy for following up.
b.    Ask permission – can call you tomorrow?  Is it OK if I add you to my newsletter?
c.    If there is no response from your follow up, follow up again

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Posted by in Business Strategy, Marketing, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Extra capacity?

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Last week, we at Corporate Network Services had the pleasure of traveling down to Greensboro, NC to assist Microsoft office makeover contest winner, A.C.T. by Deese fitness center, with their new computer, software, and network services installation.  While the installation was being implemented, I had the opportunity to see how they ran their business.  I found their gym operation to be very impressive! Yes, it was clean and welcoming and had all the hot new fitness equipment.  It was also quite busy in the early morning (we were there at 7 AM and they were running a special circuit workout) and it was busy at the end of the day, when members came in after work.  But what was impressive was how they filled their afternoons– typically a slow period for fitness gyms.  The owners figured out that senior citizens were a good target market to fill the gym in the afternoon, so they developed programs especially for seniors.  They earned certifications in senior care and partnered with other business people that typically work with seniors, such as doctors and nursing homes, to market their services.  Their hard work paid off, as the afternoon was filled with senior citizens, some coming in groups with walkers, some as couples, and some alone.  The instructors kept them pumped up as they treadmilled and rode stationary bikes, and even helped them exercise their vocal cords.  The gym was busy during all working hours, thus maximizing the facility and employees.

Does your business have idle resources or extra capacity that can be filled by targeting another market?

Posted by in Business Strategy, Marketing | No Comments »

Welcome to our blog!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

I am pleased to present the next generation of the PROSuite eNews – the same great content as the monthly newsletter, but delivered in real-time and in a more meaningful way. The purpose of transitioning to a blog is to allow our customers and followers to have a one stop resource for all things IT and small business ownership. For years our customers have benefited from our consultative, business-minded approach to IT and now the management team at CNS has a place to share our thoughts and help small businesses succeed through technology.

As you browse through some of the blogs we’ve already posted, you’ll see topics ranging from how the new iPad can fit into your small business to new features of Outlook 2010 to how dressing for success can improve your overall image and self-esteem. There really is something for everyone!

This blog is just one part of our new online social strategy. You may have noticed our brand new website that allows for easier access to information about all of our programs and soon we will be launching our new Facebook fan page were we will share information about the people behind the programs. Our goal is to build a strong community that we can use to define best practices and industry realities. What we discover will enable CNS to help the entire community in a very organic fashion.

Please bookmark our page as we plan to update often – and feel free to comment! We welcome all of your comments and feedback – including your ideas for future post topics.

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Posted by in Business Strategy, Customer Service, Hot Topics, Marketing, News, Technology | No Comments »