Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Systems are Saving Me

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are your system in place?As I’ve mentioned in my newsletter and on the blog, client work is going great and keeping me busy lately! And I’m not feeling my usual overwhelm. Why? I have some great systems in place, including trying out some new stuff.

Here’s what I’m doing:

At the beginning of the month I created a list of every deliverable I promised clients by the end of the month. THEN I sent out an email to my clients (individually) and shared those deliverables with them and asked if there was anything else they were expecting or needed for the month. It kept us both on track and organized and on top of things.

This month, I haven’t sent the email to every client (some are just a monthly newsletter so we don’t need to), but I created the same list. And then I really went granular with each WEEK, and what needs to be accomplished each week. And you know what I discovered?

I should be able to take the last week of the month off. Yeah, #winning #blessed.

My biggest fear when I get busy is that I’m going to drop the ball on a project. I have good systems in place, but adding this checklist of EVERYTHING in one spot is really helping me to stay on my A game so that when a client called and wanted to start a new project, I knew I could. And when a prospect showed up out of no where, I was able to say yes on the spot without worry of when the work would get done.

How are your systems? Do you know what deliverables you have this month? Do you have a plan in place for it?

4 Things Your Interviewee Want

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podcast-guest-interviewI hope your week is going great! You may have noticed over the past couple of months that I’ve been featured on a couple of podcasts and last week I was featured on the Turn Knowledge to Profit radio show. I’ve had a great time sharing my message of consistency, follow up and sending a regular newsletter. And I love to share this media with my network. If you host a radio show or podcast, or even have a guest blogger to your site I have a few suggestions to make this easier for all of us.

4 Ways to Get Better Guest Promotion

  • Let me know! One recent show never told me it was coming up – I just downloaded the episode and there it was! At the bare minimum give your guest a heads up please!
  • Send out the link one business day in advance. Getting a note the night before is a bummer. I usually stop working at 5 pm, even if you don’t. A couple days a week I am out of the office all day – so it could be a day and a half before I have a chance to schedule or post about it. If I had access to the link (even if it wasn’t yet public) a full day before I can schedule a few more posts to promote!
  • Ask me to promote – I will gladly share me talking about me to my network. You know me, this isn’t a surprise. But help me do it. Send me some pre-written tweets, some short blurbs I can add to LinkedIn, Google+ or Facebook, and maybe even an image I could use on Instagram!
  • Do Your Part – I’m going to assume you’ll be promoting the crap out of your blog post, radio show or podcast. Make sure to tag me along the way so I can retweet, comment or share with my networks as well.

If someone is a guest on your show they probably have a message they want to get to a larger audience. You’re giving them that opportunity and it’s a huge value to them, even if they don’t take advantage of all the opportunities you provide. Do your best to help them take advantage of this opportunity you’re giving them to share it with their network.

Have you been a guest in the past? Have other requests you’d like? Are you a host and wish guests would do more to promote? Share your thoughts in the comments!

How Do You Get Found Online?

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IMG_2820Lately as I’ve been talking to clients, I’ve seen an increased request to get found online. But where do you start? Yes you can hire SEO firms to work with you on this, and depending on what you do that might be a great idea. But if you’re a small business owner like me, it may not be in the budget. So where do you start? Here’s what I suggest to my clients:

  1. Setup Your Google Business Page – First things first, start with the big guns. Make sure to completely fill out your profile and add photos and your logo! I also have my blog posts automatically posted to my page so that it’s regularly updated. That way people know I’m alive and kicking, and by people, I mean the Google bots.
  2. Setup Bing Places – Why? Because we live in the Northwest and people actually use Bing. Bing Places is great because you can set it up and forget about it.
  3. Depending on your industry I recommend a few other options: Yelp, Angie’s List, and Houzz are three of the most popular.

There’s a ton or sites out there you can choose from but making sure that the main places that people are finding you are claimed and your profiles are completely filled out is the key. Here’s three resources that I use and recommend for clients:

  1. Moz Local – this website tells you all the spots you’re found online and what’s missing.
  2. Google Analytics – if you have your analytics setup then you can see each month where your traffic is coming from. If I see a new referral source to my site I make sure that my profile is filled out on that site to increase my chance of being found.
  3. Odd Dog Media – my friends over at Odd Dog Media are a great web development and local SEO firm. If you need a company, they’re it. But if you don’t have the budget, they wrote up this awesome and simple guide to Local SEO.

Questions? That’s what I’m here for!