If you answered yes to any of the above then this blog’s for you!

Did you know that every business has a pain point? If you just answered NO then you might not be tapping into yours.

The key to great marketing is addressing a pain point that your clients and potential clients can relate and identify with. You’re business offers a solution to some problem or painful task that exists out there – when we tap into that pain and offer a viable solution; we’ve just addressed a pain point! Try this and you’re sure to see a jump in the future results of your marketing campaigns!

Let’s use a cleaning company for today’s example. When advertising home cleaning to a prospect we must first identify and address the pain points. The easiest way to go about it is to make a list. Once our list is complete then we review that list and choose a marketing plan based on those pain points.

1.  Cleaning behind toilets
2.  Vacuuming high plant shelves
3.  Cleaning windows that require a ladder
4.  Shower scum that just won’t come off
5.  Dirty grout on a tile floor – no matter how hard you scrub you just can’t clean it!
6.  Getting gum or a tuff stain out of the carpet
7.  Dusting all the photos and paintings on the walls
8.  Cleaning the mildewed outdoor furniture
9.  Dusting all the blinds in the house
10.  Physical back pain from hours of cleaning

As I’m writing this all I can think about is how nice it would be to have a cleaning company take care of my home. Keep in mind your target audience and cater to them; the working mom, or the retired couple who would rather be enjoying a round of golf more than cleaning that big home.

Now market based on those pain points, for example;

 #1 Pain Point may have a picture of your staff with cleaning gloves on nestled behind the toilet cleaning in the farthest back point.

#2 Pain Point you may want to show a picture of an elderly woman on a rickety ladder carrying a huge vacuum, then on the side show a uniformed employee wearing one of those cool backpack vacuums

#3 Pain Point, how about showing the outdoor furniture being cleaned and scrubbed while the homeowner is reading a book and sipping a cool drink by the pool in one of the other chairs… very powerful image.

Pain Points are the best way to market your product or service, now get out that pad and paper and start listing your pain points.

Remember to have fun with it; if you can get them to laugh or smile at your marketing you’ve got em!

Whether you’re a large company or a small “Mom and Pop Shop” start thinking locally because that’s where your customers are. If you’re not promoting your business on Google Maps (and Yahoo! Local), now is the time.

Google Maps will help you get high search engine visibility for competitive (and potentially lucrative) local city oriented keyword phrases like “Plumber Fort Myers“, “Kitchen Remodeling Naples“, or “Air Condition Company Cape Coral.”

When potential customers search Google Maps for local information, they’ll find your business: your address, hours of operation, contact information, even photos of your storefront and videos of your products or services. Google Maps will even give them a detailed map of your location and easy to follow directions to your office or storefront. They can also view satellite images with or without map data of your location and a “Street View” showing photos of your street and building. It’s free, easy to set up and you don’t even need a website to be listed. Google Maps is truly an amazing Internet tool.

Google Maps Provides High Visibility in the Search Results

Google Maps results usually show up just below the Google AdWords Pay Per Click Ads and above the organic search results in this order…

How to Get Listed in Google Maps?

Adding your listing to Google Maps is very easy. Just follow these step by step instructions and your listing can be online within 48 hours.

Step 1: Log in
To create your Google Maps listing follow these easy directions:

• Navigate to http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter
• Log into your Google account
• Click “Add New Listing”

It’s that easy!… do it now before your competitor does.

Here are some great tips you can be doing right now! to generate more traffic to your company and web -site.

Be sure and subscribe to my blog, you won’t want to miss the follow up blog post when I show you how to get your listing to the top of Google Maps

Nowadays you couldn’t pay me to swim in those lakes. But what I did back then was take all the golf balls I could find, clean them up, sort them, and put them into egg cartons. I would then sell them for $5.00 per dozen to the passing golfers. Not a bad gig considering I was my own boss at such an early age.

The reason for me sharing this story is not just to let you know how crazy I was to swim at night with alligators and snakes but to also let you know of a simple lesson I learned back then. That valuable lesson was to never overlook the obvious.

Here’s how I learned it: One afternoon, my buddies and I were hitting all the old golf balls into our neighborhood lake. This was a common thing we did after selling off all the good balls. Just then, a neighbor came out and curiously asked what are you doing?  We explained that we had no use for the weathered golf balls and figured we could at least work on hitting our irons and polish up on some lacking golf skills. After pondering for a second or two he suggested I take the golf balls to a friend of his who owned a driving rage in town. He said he was sure his buddy would pay me for the extra golf balls.

He was correct! I got an extra 15 cents a ball to be exact and well from that day forward my profits soared! Ok, maybe not exactly soared - but it sure is fun to exaggerate when strolling down memory lane. To be honest my profits didn’t soar but it was an extra $150.00 bucks for every 1000 balls I sold. Now granted these were balls I was normally discarding and not making a profit on at all. This extra cash gave me the buying power to acquire a lot of music tapes or better yet go see Romance in the Stone or Ghost Busters one more time before leaving the theatre’s.

So the Great Small Business Tip of the day is: Don’t overlook the obvious! There are always revenue streams in every business. Think about what you are discarding at this moment. Maybe you are an air duct cleaning company and just throw out the waste… maybe it could be resold for furniture stuffing? Or what about a flooring company… what are you doing with all the carpet you pull up? Is there a way that you can use that waste? Maybe it can be ground up and re-purposed? I hear auto mechanics are taking old tires and having them grounded down for mulch.

In this day and age of a GREEN awareness movement where recycling is IN and the economy is tight… it might be a good idea to take a moment and think about it. You just may have another revenue stream right under your nose and you didn’t even know it.

 let me know what kind of extra revenue you bring in with any new business that you discover. As always, I love to hear from you!

The gun fires suddenly and now you’re off and running fast, amazingly it’s the perfect start! You come around the first turn and you have a three person lead. “This is it”

you think to yourself, all the training is finally going to pay off…. If you can just keep this momentum going and the race is yours to win. The excitement is overwhelming, you’re on a high…

Then suddenly something unexpected happens, wait a minute – what’s going on? You start to hear the footsteps slowing down behind you. The crowd’s cheers slowly turn to whispers and you don’t understand. You look ahead and realize that the unthinkable has happened. Somewhere, somehow, someone forgot to put up the finish line. How can this be? Now what?

Who can keep up this momentum with no goal in sight? You already know the people behind you are quitting. It’s just a matter of time before you quit as well right? RIGHT!

Remember this story the next time you set a goal for yourself or your business without a finish line. You and your team will most likely lose your momentum after a while. Its easy coming out of the gate with enthusiasm and excitement the hard part is maintaining it. Usually what keeps us going is the vision of accomplishing our goals.

By Definition:  Goal setting is the process of deciding what you want to accomplish and devising a plan to achieve the result you desire.

This goal setting definition emphasizes that goal setting is a two part process. For effective goal setting, you need to do more than just decide what you want to do; you also have to work at accomplishing whatever goal you have set for yourself with the end result in mind.

For many people, it’s the second part of the goal setting definition that’s problematic. They know what they want to do but have trouble creating a plan to get there. Goals without action plans are just words. If you are not setting goals with clear action plans for yourself and your company now I suggest you start today.

After you have defined your goals and decided on a plan to get there, remember to always walk in the direction of your goals. You can’t get to California if you’re facing towards New York and going in that direction. Every now and then review your goal list and action plan. When it comes time to making an important decision ask yourself, will this take me closer to my goal or further away?

From a study done at Yale University in 1953 in which the graduating class were asked if they had clear, written goals. 3% of the students said they had written goals, 13% had goals they had not written down and 84% had no clear goals.

At the class reunion 20 years later, further investigation is said to have discovered that the 3% with written goals were worth more than the other 97% put together!

Yah! I think I’m setting some goals.

I know that you at times, much like me, feel overwhelmed and don’t need another thing added to your ever growing “To Do” list. However, I recently learned that I was overlooking a very important part of my business – The Follow Up Phone Call.

A few weeks ago, my wife had Captain Steamer Carpet Cleaning  over to our home in Fort Myers Florida cleaning the carpets and the upholstery for one of our couches. As usual, they did a terrific job erasing the signs of  my children and dog from the house! The gentleman they had representing their company was on time, kind, neat and courteous. He also had a real passion for what he was doing with a focus on making sure my wife was totally satisfied with the work he did (which is always a plus).

A few days had passed and as I walked in from work my wife said: “I had a really nice phone call today from that Kyle guy. You know the owner of Captain Steamer.” Apparently, Kyle had just called to follow up and make sure the job was done to her satisfaction. “What a thoughtful thing to do.” she said and then she proceeded to ask me: “Are we, by chance, doing that with our window cleaning business?” I paused for a second and softly replied “No”. “Well why not?” she asked with her hands on her hips and that all too familiar serious look. You know the one… with the tilted head and raised eyebrow? I was a bit embarrassed as I replied: “Because I’m afraid of what my customers might say…”.  As hard as that is for me to admit, it’s true. But if the main focus of this blog is to create small business success and it is, than I feel I need to share that in all honesty.

After taking some time to ponder my fear I realized that some things are just out of my control and mistakes will always happen but leaving them in the dark isn’t really the answer. When we find the courage to pick up the phone and follow up with our clients we are giving ourselves the opportunity to find out how we’re really doing out there in the field and beyond our reach. With knowledge comes power and this means we can then fix anything that didn’t go as planned. We actually take control of our business relationships when we take the necessary steps make each and every one of our clients happy. This reminds me… happy clients are very likely to refer us new business!

You know, I think it was the fact that I was afraid to follow up that made me realize I had to immediately start doing it. Face the fear and do it anyways I reminded myself. Deep down I know I have a good team of employees working with me, so why the fear? I changed my perspective on things and as I dialed I expected from my customers nothing but glowing remarks, just like Kyle had received about the carpet cleaning they did for us.

So think about it, are you afraid of the unknown? Are you nervous about making that phone call? Are you worried about what the customer on the other end of the line will say? Well remember that you can’t fix what you don’t know about and that the old saying really is true… 99% of what we fear never really happens.

I would like to say thank you to Kyle for following up with us. Kyle, it’s because of you that today I’m following up after jobs and I’m inspiring others to do the same.

Talk about paying it forward…

So how can we counter act some of this negative stuff that seems to randomly rain on us in our daily life?

Well, you’d be surprised… just the other day I was talking to my friend Monica who called to thank me for the sticky note I sent her in the mail. I just included it over a letter and wrote “Have a Super, Terrific Day” on it. It took me all of ten extra seconds and I did it without thinking about the long lasting effect it could have on her. That day she took my post it note and decided to put it on the edge of her computer monitor. At that moment she realized she’d been posting her “To Do” list on her monitor and she realized that constantly looking at everything she needed to do was stressing her out. So my post it note inspired her to replace all of the To Do notes with positive thoughts, quotes and sweet notes from her kids. Big difference in her daily life she says… I wonder what it could do for yours!

This reminded me of how simple it really is to just release the negative and focus on the good in our lives. Something so simple as posting positive post it notes where we can see them on a regular basis can help remind us to stay positive and keep walking in the direction of our goals. Sometimes people just lose sight of their dreams and that’s why they never actually realize them. I’m humbly reminded that it’s not what happens to us in life but rather how we choose to react to it. Sometimes just a smiley face on the rear view mirror is enough to keep us smiling instead of getting upset and cursing at the unappreciative driver. Sometimes the “You Can Do It” note on the wall can give us the extra push we need to finish that project and give it our all!

In our day to day we forget that people feel our attitude and then react to us. Smiles and positive thoughts really are contagious. Sometimes I come across people that I just want to do business with because every time I see them there’s a smile on their face and they just make me feel good with their presence.

So do me a favor… or better yet do YOUR SELF a favor, where ever you have stress in your life, simply place a sticky note to remind you to relax, focus on the good going on in your life and remember you have a choice to act from a positive perspective instead of reacting negatively to a challenging situation. Maybe for you it’s a smiley face in the rearview mirror. Maybe a positive post it note in the corner of your computer monitor. Maybe it’s a reminder on your calendar to just smile and be happy. Here is a great one for putting next to the phone – Put something funny on a piece of paper, for example maybe you can write: Hey I know you’re stressed but if it will make you feel better, you can wrinkle me up and throw me at the wall!

 See it works, I bet you’re smiling already.

Stick to these tips, they work! – No pun intended.

If you have ever done any form of mass mailing e-mail marketing then you most likely already know that the hardest thing to accomplish is to get the recipient to actually open the e-mail, right?

I mean you first have to go out and make the connection, then have them fill out a form with some sort of incentive like Get our monthly newsletter for great coupons! or how about You won’t want to miss out on these interesting facts that could save you thousands!  Or better yet, Don’t be a victim – you have to read this!

Ok, let’s say you are fortunate enough to get their e-mail address or as we say in the business “Opt-in”. Now the hard part really begins by finding a way to keep the reader not only interested but looking forward to your next e-mail. My advice would definitely be Get Creative and Keep Getting Creative.

However, let’s start with Email Marketing Rule #1 and the most important rule is: Don’t forget to put the person’s name in the introduction box! No Joke – This recently happened to me. I stopped in at a new pizzeria here in town. I filled out there comment card knowing good and well I would soon be receiving an e-mail thanking me for filling out the card. I assumed they would be thanking me for my patronage, and I had hoped it would at least score me a coupon or two as well

Oh to my surprise I got an email without my name on it! Well let me speak from experience when you get the e-mail addressed to: Dear insert name here, nothing makes you feel more important than that! I was disappointed to say the least. I opted out immediately as I thought to myself… after all I went to the trouble of filling out the card, giving my comments and suggestions and all they had to do was enter my first name. How can you forget my name?

So remember to keep your emails creative and PERSONAL by putting in the persons first name at least. I hope this post is helpful, remember think about your readers – I know I will be checking twice to make sure I have the name filled in properly.

If this post was helpful to you, please comment below or use the share this button to repost to Facebook or Twitter.

After enjoying a few hours at the swimming pool we decided to participate in a bomb fire with all the works, marshmallow roasting and sing along included.

This fine event was kindly offered at the vacation resort we booked. Now I know what you are thinking… there’s nothing more fun than having a bunch of children hanging around a fire with burning lava balls on the end of a stick to get your weekend going right?

Well before you judge me, here me out!

 I was sitting back relaxing dodging the occasional fire ball while listening to some of the old classics, “Jack and Diane”, “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Take It on the Run” by Reo Speedwagon… ah don’t I wish! Ok, the truth was more like Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but we can keep that between us. Just as the music got good and I was sitting back watching the scene before me, it hit me and I realized how good kids are at networking. Every time a new kid would walk up to the bomb fire my daughter would walk over introduce to herself and ask him or her to play. Emma was the new friend she had just made and they were both sitting in front of me playing in the sand. I listened as my daughter asked “How old are you?” “Where do you live?” “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” “How long are you going to be staying here?” “Do you like Taylor Swift?”… you get the idea.

The thing I noticed most was that she wasn’t talking about herself at all; she was truly interested in Emma and getting to know more about her. I felt she was really building a quality rapport and being genuine. This is what makes networking great and effective because it really allows us to connect to others beyond the superficial level.

I think as adults we lose some of that innocence because we are too busy thinking about the end result, which in most cases is business. We tend to rush through the conversation doing the dreaded 15 second elevator pitch! Come on, have you ever really created a great relationship leading with the elevator pitch? The honest answer is No! You have created quality relationships by asking questions, and truly wanting to get to know someone in a sincere and genuine manner.

So next time you’re sitting at a kid’s birthday party – take a moment to just sit back and watch the dynamic’s of the way children interact with each other. Watch, observe and take it all in so you can remember it and use it the next time you’re out networking. Come to think about it, I’m sure this is why some kids have more friends than their parents… they’re better at it!

If you have been on Facebook for more than a few minutes you’ve probably seen that 80% of the posts are just like this. You also might have made that knee jerk decision that this Facebook stuff is just for kids and has no real use in my business, correct?

Well, I disagree and let me tell you why!

I believe that when used correctly, the information posted on Facebook can be very valuable in creating and nurturing a business relationship. Let’s say you have befriended someone on Facebook and would like to do some business with them. How do you go about using that information to build upon your relationship? Here’s how! I will use the posts above for an example of how this may help nurture or build your business relationships.

Example 1:  “Andy is heading to the gym” a pretty common post (I’ve posted this myself a time or two using my name of course not Andy’s) Now let’s say you’re a personal trainer, then you may want to comment: “Sweet! Have an awesome workout – hey if you get a second I attached a workout program that is terrific for shoulders check it out tell me what you think.” Now you’ve given him something to think about and talk to you about in the future.  

Example 2:  “Monica is wondering hmmm…. white or wheat bread?” now if I’m a dietitian I may want to say “YUCK WHITE! Wheat of course! I used to eat white bread all the time before I read this article on all the benefits of whole grain wheat bread.” This is a great way to open the door to more questions about your business and what you do.

Example 3: “Chris is hoping the Yankees win tonight” your response “Me too I heard Andy Pettitte will be pitching should be a blow out!” Here’s a great way to start a conversation that later leads into other things you may have in common. Getting to know someone is the first step into wanting to do business with them.

Example 4: “Joe is heading to his 20 year reunion” response  “Kinda creeps up on ya doesn’t it? Mine was 3 years ago!” Having people identify with you is what makes them feel comfortable with you and hopefully this leads to business opportunities.

As you can see by the first two comments when the opportunity arises you can direct them to your blog or website by sharing helpful information REMEMBER it’s important you don’t sound pushy Facebook is great for nurturing a relationship just like you would in a social networking scene, the last thing you want to do is sound like your trying to do business.

The second two responses are geared toward nurturing a relationship, it doesn’t and shouldn’t be about business the great thing here is getting the lines of communication open – it’s a proven fact that most people get excited when someone comments on their post  HECK! – they actually get upset when no one comments – not that I would know.

On another note – keep in mind the majority of facebook users will accept your friend request simply because they want to seem popular and remember the more friends you have the more popular you are perceived –  by the way you can request to be my friend here.

So remember this stuff isn’t just for kids it’s the NOW and the FUTURE of business. It wasn’t that long ago I would be snail mailing you this post

We’ve all seen ads like this with a strong call to action that drives new business. It’s what we have been told to do by advertisers and marketing companies forever. And we do it because it works! Strong calls to action will get your phone to ring and create great possibilities for new business.

What we don’t realize is that there is a big problem with the small print of these ads because it reads “for new customers only” OUCH!!!! What a smack in the face for those long time customers that have been with you since the beginning. Those were the jobs that paid to fill your gas tank when you couldn’t. Those are the customers that help grow your business through word of mouth because there was a day when you didn’t have the extra money to run ads like these.

Now let me ask you this, how would you handle your regular customer who just read this ad and asks the following: “I just read the ad you ran in the local coupon saver offering me two free months of pest control with annual payment, however the fine print says new customers only? I have been doing business with you for five years and always pay the year upfront. Could I get this deal? I could sure use the savings.”

I speak from experience because something similar happened to me not to long ago. I was having some shelves installed in my garage and just happened to meet this gentleman at a local home and garden show in Fort Myers, Florida. I liked what he offered so I hired him. He came out and did a wonderful job and I gladly paid him for the work.

The next day my wife was flipping through a magazine and noticed the same company was running a special offering  $200.00 worth of extras if you spent “X” amount of dollars with them and well, we just did! Since it was only two days prior I called him up and asked if he would honor this coupon? His answer was an immediate “Of course I will no problem! Be happy to come back out! I totally forgot I was running that ad this month or I would have offered it to you when I did the work.”

That’s exactly how it should be handled! Remember, the hardest thing to do is get a new customer. I would hate to see you pick up a new one only to lose a regular customer because you wouldn’t honor a coupon. It’s just as important to keep the existing customers coming back as it is to grab up new ones!

Marketing tip: Always write the fine print terms as if you were an existing customer reading it.