I’ve recently had two of my clients make some big changes to their membership programs - and in both cases they had folks come back to them who were upset with the changes. A few people were upset with the new pricing structure, others didn’t realize why things had to change at all, etc.

And of course, this caused both of my clients to have a moment of doubt. Did they do the right thing? Have they upset all their members? What if they made a big mistake with these changes? When someone pops up saying negative things about your business it is really easy to take that to heart and start to doubt the changes you are making.

When this happens bear in mind a few of things:

• People resist change, even if the change is good for them. It is human nature and I believe there are scientific studies that back this up - regardless of what you are changing you will always have people who resist that change. And in some cases they may get upset and possibly even angry about the changes. 
• As so… when you make changes just *know* that you will get some resistance (and if you expect it then it doesn’t have to hit you so hard). There will probably be at least a few people who share their dismay over the changes.
• What is really important is the numbers. One of my clients was feeling pretty upset about what seemed like “a bunch of people upset with the changes in her membership”. However when we took a look at the numbers it was actually only 3 people (out of hundreds) that sent in emails about not liking the changes. No big deal in the grand scheme of things! If a few people are upset that is fine (and normal)… if a bunch of people are upset that may be something to consider.
• People speak up when they are upset, not when they are happy. So just know that for those few people who were upset, there are hundreds more that are perfectly happy with the changes - you just aren’t hearing from them.
• You have the right to make changes in your business. Even if you upset some people, this is YOUR business and you have the right do whatever you like with it. Of course you don’t want to go nutty and make changes that send all your clients running, but really… so long as you are still serving the needs of your niche market in an authentic and value-laden way then go to town!

I like to call these scenarios a ‘water off the ducks back’ moment - even though these emails can be upsetting you need to just let it go. Don’t take these kinds of feedback and criticism to heart, and be sure to stick to your guns! For example, if someone says I don’t like your new higher prices don’t say “oh, well let me discount that for you”… just thank them for their feedback and let them know that they are welcome back at anytime.

And beware the messers! Business Coach Chris Barrow teaches about “messers” - there are certain people who will NEVER be happy with what you do regardless of how much you try to help them. Even business will have a messer or two (or more!), the key is to recognize that they are messers and let them go. A nice note saying “I don’t think we are the right solution for you and so I am cancelling your account” is all that is needed here - cut the messers loose and save you (and your team) the headache of dealing with them.

So here’s to change! It is a necessary process for any business, especially as we grow and refine our offerings. Let me ask you - what will you change in 2009? Hmmm….

Filed under: General Biz, Life & Such | Add a Comment »

Pam Ivey has done what many VAs and other online support professionals aspire to - created a successful multi-VA business. She runs a team of 15 Virtual Assistants and project managers that assist coaches, authors and speakers grow their business. Pam is also owner of the Canadian Virtual Assistant Network, which currently boasts 400 members from across North America.

How does she do it? Join me for a quick discussion with Pam where I ‘pick her brain’ about what works, what doesn’t and everything in between.

Click play to listen or you can download the MP3 - this recording is 22 mins.

Part of the Online Business Manager Podcast - click here for the Podcast RSS Feed URL, also available at iTunes.com.

Filed under: Build Your Team, Podcast | Add a Comment »

I happened upon this today’s on Amazon’s homepage (for some reason the story was a graphic image and not a webpage, so this link opens up a graphic).

Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging, a multi-year initiative designed to alleviate “wrap rage,” features recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties. The product itself is exactly the same—we’ve just streamlined the packaging.

Now I don’t know about you, but I am truly a sufferer of “wrap rage“. Electronics and gadgets have always been pretty bad with all that crazy ‘impossible to open’ plastic packaging… but now that I’m the mother of 2 small children my wrap rage has risen to new levels. Have you ever tried to open a new children’s toy? It is truly ridiculous, and I kid you not when I say you almost need a degree just to get the toy out of the box. All these crazy wire ties that go through the toy, plastic tabby things stuck all over the place, twist ties that you can’t open with your fingers alone (need pliers) and more. My family and I have often wondered who the heck came up with all this packaging? Not only it is VERY annoying and sometimes dangerous in itself but it seems a huge waste… here is an example of how crazy the packaging is from the Amazon site.

Amazon is starting by offering 19 items as part of their Frustration-Free Packaging initiative and will be continually adding to the list. I have certainly bought many books and some DVDs from Amazon over the years, but i’ve rarely purchased anything else from them. This will now change… they’ve tapped into a HUGE annoyance of mine and provided a solution. And for that they have created a raving fan.

There is a really great business learning here as well - a brilliant example of tapping into a ‘problem’ and providing a ’solution’. I actually find it kind of funny that Amazon is the one to lead this initiative, I would have expected this to come direct from the manufacturers themselves (wouldn’t it save them packaging costs anyhow?). But the fact that Amazon is leading the way here has a fun twist to it, go Jeff Bezos go! hehe…

And hey, while we are on the topic of Amazon… how about making the Kindle available to Canadians? I’ve been waiting for the Kindle to hit Canada but alas my patience is wearing out and I think i’m going to go for the Sony Reader instead.

Filed under: Marketing/Traffic | 1 Comment »

I’m reading Seth Godin’s new book Tribes, and something on page 101 jumped out at me and bopped me over the head.

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

Isn’t that the way to live? Heck yea!

This sentence hit me in a funny way. I do already have a life I enjoy - great family and love the work I do. So it is very rare that I actually feel like I ‘need to get away’ and go on vacation. And i’ve always felt a bit strange (guilty?) about this - why don’t I ever feel like going on vacation? Shouldn’t I want to? Everyone else around me wants to go on vacation… I daresay at times i’ve almost wondered if there was something wrong with me that i’d rather stay here at home doing what I do already. I’ve set up a life that I don’t need to escape from.

Cool.

That’s not to say i’ll never take a vacation for fun, but I certainly don’t feel like I need to take a week or two off at a time just to escape.

Seth shares a story in the book about how he couldn’t sleep one night while on vacation in Jamaica and decided to check his email in the hotel lobby. A couple walks by and says “Isn’t that sad? He’s here on vacation checking email and he can’t even enjoy his two weeks off”. But the thing is that he is passionate about his work and there was nothing he would rather be doing in that moment.

I think that is the key - vacation or not, is there something else you would rather be doing in this moment? Ask yourself that question as you go about your day…

Loving the book Tribes by the way, it’s actually been very timely for me with the release of my new book. What i’m most excited about is connecting with people who want to play a bigger game with their clients in the role of Online Business Manager. I’ve setup OBMConnect.com to be our own little tribe… come join if you are game.

Filed under: Life & Such | Add a Comment »

Come one come all! Last week kicked off a 2 week book tour for my new book Becoming a Online Business Manager: Playing a Bigger Game with your Clients (and Yourself).

Similar to an book tour in the ‘real world’ (haha), instead of stopping by your local bookstore for a chat/signing I am stopping by the following blogs each day for the next two weeks. Be sure to join me at each stop, for a series of interviews, Q&As and book reviews… and be sure to grab your copy of the book here.

Note: I will be updating the links to each blog on the day of the tour, so you can click through direct to the tour page.

• October 20th - Terri Zwierzynski at Solo E
• October 21st - Melody Campbell at The Small Business Guru
• October 22nd - Jennifer Smith at Eco-Office Gals and Carol Deckert of RUNLancaster
• October 23rd - Heidi Richards at WE Magazine for Women
• October 24th - Andrea Lee at Money and Meaning Blog
• October 27th - Donna Toothaker at 1st VA
• October 28th Wendy Piersall at Sparkplugging
• October 29th Tracy Lawton of Office Organization Success & Andy Wibbels of Andy Wibbels.com and author of Blog Wild
• October 30th Kathie Thomas at VA Directory
• October 31st Teresa Morrow at Key Business Partners
• November 2nd Craig Cannings of VA Classroom
• November 3rd Pam Slim at EscapefromCubicleNation

Filed under: Build Your Team, Offers & Goodies | 1 Comment »

Global Network Studios has asked me to present at the ”Virtual-ize Your Business” event for 2008 (and is also giving me 17 ‘tickets’ to give away.  The first 17 to register with me can attend the first two days of this 7-day event for FREE). 

At this event you’ll learn about vast resources that are already available to you in order to “Virtual-ize Your Business”. Learn from qualified experts in Outsourcing, Automating, ‘Virtual’ Strategies - and how to use these to rocket your business skyward, no matter what the economy is doing. 

This telephone event starts out with a series of FREE panel discussions on October 14 & 16 (i’m speaking on the second day)

>> October 14 - “Why ‘Virtual-izing Your Business’ may be an attractive necessity in order for your small business to survive and thrive”

>> October 16 - “Business tools of the future (meaning, RIGHT NOW!)”

… and continues November 10 thru 14 with over 10 expert presentations presenting their best information on how to thrive in your business by “Virtual-izing Your Business”.

• “Dare to Work Fewer Hours” with Joan Friedlander
• “Joint Ventures meet Social Marketing” with MaryPat Kavanagh
• “What’s Your System to Build a Company?” with Spencer Parikh
• “Outsourcing for Increase” with Randall Bird and Will Owens (2 sessions)
• “What You Must Know About YOU, Before Hiring Virtual Staff” with Cindy Greenway
• “Defining Your Objectives and Eliminating Distractions” with Matthew Best
• “Increase Your Audience Using Blogging and Podcasting” with Dr. Paul H. Jenkins
• “How To Turn Your Website into Your #1 Salesperson” with Stacy Karacostas
• “Graduating to Hiring an Online Business Manager” with Tina Forsyth
• “Getting Back to Doing What You Love” with BevAnn Bonds

Go ahead and sign up now for the free 2 days - it will be fun!

Filed under: Automate Your Business, Build Your Team, Offers & Goodies | Add a Comment »

I get the value of using Facebook for business building purposes, believe me - but there is still a part of me that resists friending ‘anyone and everyone’ in order to have as many friends as possible.

For me it dilutes the purpose of Facebook - to connect and build relationships - to have just under 5000 friends (the current Facebook limit of # of friends a person can have) most of whom I don’t know at all. And yes, I understand that the more friends I have the more people who can see my posts, status updates, etc.

However when I get these friends requests out of the blue from people i’ve never heard of - quite a few these days! - I can’t help but wonder who the heck these people are? And why would I want to ‘friend’ them? And nine times out of ten these people don’t include any kind of personal message as to why they want to connect with me. Which to me means that they don’t really care who I am - they just want to get as close to that magic number as possible.

I like to compare it to a regular ‘offline’ encounter (which is rare for me these days, LOL). Say I was at a local networking meeting, and someone came up to me, handed me a business card without saying a word and then moved on to the next person. I don’t know about you, but that person’s card would go straight into the garbage bin on my way out the door.

This ‘friend everyone I can’ Facebook strategy feels very much the same to me. And so i’ve set up a personal rule for accepting new friend requests - they need to either be:

1. people I actually know - I LOVE how many old friends and business contacts i’ve been able to reconnect with in Facebook! OR
2. people who take the time to send a message along with their request - even just saying ‘hey tina, i see you are also friends with X and would love to connect with you as well’

As a good rule of thumb I think it’s a great idea to always send a personal message with your friend requests - even if you know the person they may not necessarily remember you, especially if a few years have passed. I’ve had that happen a few times where I know the name but can’t remember exactly how we met, so even just to say ‘hey sarah, i haven’t seen you since we met at conference X - what a blast that was when we went out for dinner that night! how are you?’

I really enjoy my Facebook connections, and want to keep them ‘real’ - for me it dilutes my connections to have a bunch of people who don’t know me at (nor I them). Be it a new friend or old, if we can make an authentic connection I would love to become your Facebook friend.

Filed under: General Biz, Marketing/Traffic | 3 Comments »

Just read this tweet from Pam Slim

wow, for such an amazing and prolific woman, what a bad website. http://www.mayaangelou.com/

And it made me realize something… that in the online world, our websites are the equivalent of ‘business attire’. And a poor site can actually reflect negatively on the person in the same way that shoulder pads and an outdated haircut will in the corporate world.

Our websites are what we are ‘wearing’ online - and I think we may need to call Stacy & Clinton to do a bit of website intervention for some folks. It is SO much easier these days to get a really professional website done for a very reasonable price (if you need a referral to someone let me know)… and for that reason I think that anyone serious about doing business online needs to be willing to invest in their ‘look’.

Perhaps it is time to start What Not to Wear - the website edition. Anyone care to nominate a friend for a makeover? Just pop their name here into the comments field and we can plan our ambush.

Filed under: General Biz, Your Website | 2 Comments »

I’m very annoyed by the changes that 1ShoppingCart has made to their ‘manage products’ section. Those of you who use the system will know what I mean.

They’ve changed it from being one simple, clean page to setup a product to a series of ’show/hide’ buttons that you have to click to access all the different options. So instead of just being able to scan through a page and add/tweak the information I now have to a) try and figure out where everything is and b) click a bunch of buttons to fill in the required information.

I’m in the cart pretty much everyday and am finding this very annoying. To the point where it almost makes me want to consider other tools for my clients… hmmm.

Makes me wonder who decided to make these changes and why? I’m guessing they didn’t actually ask any of their users, as everyone else I know who uses this system is equally annoyed. 

Being a simpleton at heart, I subscribe to the philosophy that ‘less clicks is more’ when it comes to working online. The more you ask a person to click, the less likely they are to ‘take action’ (applies to the sales process as well as the systems we use). It now takes me about six clicks of various buttons to create a new product where it used to take me only one. Arg!

As I see it, the system wasn’t broken before so why did they try to fix it?

Filed under: General Biz | 3 Comments »

…which includes pretty much everyone I would think? LOL

When I was asked to review Linda Dessau’s new book The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had no clue what a style guide was and wasn’t sure if I even needed one?

As I dove into Linda’s book I very quickly came to understand the benefits of a style guide and how to create one for my business. Put simply, a style guide is a central reference for how you (and your team) will handle recurring writing issues. By using a style guide you will have consistency in your writing style, be able to write with ease and improve your overall readability.

This book isn’t a boring grammar lesson - Linda takes a very simple and light approach to the various elements of writing that you need to consider. Things like proper use of punctuation, when to capitalize (did you know Internet should be capitalized?) and how to use lists (when to number a list or just use bullet points) to name just a few.

What I love best about this book is that it answered some age old writing questions for me:

• should I be using hyphens in my writing - which I tend to do alot.
• do I put a period at the end of points in a list?
• how to properly use quotations so I don’t ‘overdo them’
• why I should stop using i.e. (and use e.g. instead)

She also includes some great tips on how to approach different writing projects, from websites to white papers and everything in between. And of course there is a section for us Canadians and what we need to consider in our writing - a client of mine likes to point out the very Canadian words and phrases that I use from time to time, hehe.

If you are using writing at all in your business I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Linda’s book. It is a quick read, and you will be glad to have it on hand when you tackle your next writing project.

Filed under: Info Products, Recommended Resources | Add a Comment »