I am often asked how I find time to attend chamber events, business networking groups, keep up with social networking like Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin , write my Purple Diamond marketing blog AND help my clients with their own marketing and advertising and the short answer is that I work long hours which is made easier with a home office and I have a smart phone so I can access my accounts easily from anywhere. However, beyond having the tools in place to make everything possible, I still recommend creating your own strategy for what your business is able to handle for face to face networking and on-line social networking.
Part of the strategy must include writing down your objectives and prioritizing them. This is when knowing your target market is important. If you have determined that you are a business that is going after only the local market, you might choose to spend more face to face time in your community, then someone who needs to reach a global market. The more you narrow down who in the local market or what verticals are your best prospects, then you will be able to target the networking groups and business associations that they belong to. I do caution, though, to people who think you can “just” do face to face networking and ignore the on-line trend of social networking and marketing. The target market you are trying to reach is using the internet daily for their business and in their personal life. They are gaining on-line friends and making strong business alliances with a few clicks and tweets a day and they find that they can touch more people faster with this technology so they use it for their business. How do you reach them? You connect with them in person at a local event and then friend them on the various on-line social networking sites and keep your relationship active so that you never have to do “cold calls” again.
After you have written down your objectives and goals in the order of importance, be sure to then list the tasks that you will do to help achieve your objective and have an end date for achieving them. For instance, if you have determined that creating and maintaining a business blog is a great way to help you with your on-line marketing and to build your image as an expert in your field, then you need to give a realistic date to have your blog in place. This requires researching what program you want to use to create it, developing a schedule that will allow for time to be blocked off during your day or week to do your writing of blog posts, and then to use the other social networking sites to promote your topics so that there is traffic to your blog. Having a schedule for tasks and networking events you choose to attend will keep you focused on achieving your goals.
Finding time is easier when you have organized your work space. I have blogged before about having your office set-up for success and having help from a professional organizer. My company uses Organization Plus since it is easy to be lost in a sea of papers and lose the energy you need to remain focused and avoid procrastination. Small businesses live or die on using time efficiently and knowing who their target market is and how to avoid being distracted away from the end goal they are reaching for.
Finally, if you are like most small businesses today you are wearing many hats in your company. Be sure to hire your weaknesses so that you have the energy to tackle the projects that will help your business grow. I was amazed at how getting some help with my bookkeeping and hiring a great accountant allowed me to sleep better and feel more energized to handle growing my business at a rapid rate. Success comes by making a plan and keeping to your plan!
All my best to your success!
~Charlene
