I’ve been an interior designer for over 20 years, so I’ve had plenty of time to make these mistakes. Here’s a startling statistic (and I’ll bet it is higher during this recession) – 62.8% of all new businesses fail within 6 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 96% fail within 10 years. That means you’re lucky to be one of 4 out of 100 to make it past 10 years…or is it luck?
What if you could avoid the mistakes that these business owners made?
I’d like to see you avoid them, and if you’ve already done a few of them, now you can learn what not to do so you don’t waste your valuable time and money:
Not having a written “ideal client” profile – If you don’t know who your ideal client is, how can you tell other people who they can refer to you? If you’ve ever had the client from &%$&, (or more than once) the key is to know what you don’t want in a client as much as what you do want.
Not knowing the lifetime value of your client – If you’ve been in the business even a few years, you can add up your billings and divide by the number of clients to get your current lifetime value. You should also look at how long they stay as a client. These two metrics are critical in your business planning and if you have this data as part of your Business Dashboard, it will help you grow your business. (more…)
Good evening, I’m Ron Burgundy, and this is what’s happening in your world tonight. What you’re about to see is a Channel 4 Social Media News exclusive.
Part of the Channel 4 News Team.
Residents have spotted a turquoise lamp traveling from one Charlottesville location to another. It’s quite phenomenal, to say the least– a lamp traveling. How about that? Does it have feet? Channel 4 has received reports that this mobile lamp is a part of a contest involving local businesses and Gibson Design Management member, the Shade Shop. Meteorologist Brick Tamland has responded with: “I love lamp,” offering no further comments when questioned about his devotion to this mysterious lamp.
Authorities have noted that this Shade Shop’s cheerful turquoise lamp has moved to a new temporary residence every Wednesday, waiting for curious Charlottesville locals to stop by, take photos, tweet (@ShadeShop’s #TravelingLight Lamp Giveaway), or respond to the weekly question posted on the Shade Shop blog– all of which were ways to enter to win. And the outcome? It looks like the word has traveled about this lamp and a lucky winner will bring this charming lamp home at the end of this very week!
Unfortunately this means the lamp will not be gracing our studio with his presence – but hey, I can’t even be mad. That lamp is amazing! At least someone will be able to enjoy him in his glory. When I am finished reading this teleprompter, you should go read the Shade Shop blog to learn more about this breaking news story and find out what lucky son of a bee-sting gets to take him home.
For all of us here at the News Center, I’m Ron Burgundy.
A salon in our hometown of Charlottesville is doing a great job with promoting its business on Facebook. They have tremendous fan interaction and loyalty, and you can really see the personality of the salon, without even stepping foot in the door. In fact, I was so impressed with their company after being a fan on Facebook for the past few months I even considered scheduling my next hair cut there…until today.
I am a fan of their page on Facebook. A week ago, they posted on their wall that if they got to 1,000 fans (now “likes”) by the end of May, one of their fans would receive a giveaway. This is clearly against the Facebook Terms of Service agreement which now prohibits contests being held on a Facebook business page unless offered through a third party vendor or approved by Facebook directly.
I felt a bit like a little kid saying “my mom says that you’re not supposed to do that”, but I wanted to make sure that this salon did not get in trouble and have their hard work on Facebook be for naught. I commented on the giveaway post by the salon and diplomatically told them to be careful about offering contests on their page. I also said that I was not sure how actively Facebook was enforcing these guidelines, but I wanted to be sure that they knew.
What did the salon do??? They deleted my comment. They have then proceeded to post more on their wall about this giveaway, even weekly contests to their “likes” group. (more…)
The to-do list can be a daunting document. For every one item you check off, you probably add two. For many of us, it is far longer than the number of hours that we each have in our days. The question then is: “how can we set up a strategy to prioritize the to-do list so that you are best utilizing your time”? Think about ROI (return on investment) as your ROT (return on time).
Too Familiar?
Here is a new system that we created within our company. I suggest that everyone have the same 3 categories across the team, but that the prioritization is role-specific.
Determine your 3 categories that all of your actions fall under (or should fall under). In our company, I determined the following as our 3 categories:
Revenue producing: an item on the to-do list that will bring money into the company
Service-related: an item on the to-do list that will make our members or clients lives and businesses better
Brand awareness and networking: actions that will help build our brand throughout the industry and beyond
Based on your list, prioritize your categories. My particular role in our company is bringing in new business and also long-term strategy. If my role was to service our clients and members more directly, I would prioritize the categories differently. Therefore, my category prioritization is as follows:
Revenue production
Brand awareness, strategy, and networking
Service
Determine some examples of what each category would entail. For example, I would use the following examples for our company:
Revenue production: sales calls, creating letters of agreement, invoicing, etc. For your firm, this might also be billable hours or creating proposals.
Brand awareness, strategy, and networking: arranging presentations at design centers, writing blog posts, staying connected with my professional network, etc.
Service: adding functionality to the website that would improve the client experience, monthly member calls, etc.
A few more ideas:
Establish a “D” category. There will naturally be things that fall into the “Other” category. We call those category “D” items. These will still need to get done but in the prioritization exercise, they will be the items that are least important to your business.
Every time you add something to your to-do list, make sure that you put a letter next to it or color code it. This will show you where you need to be prioritizing and what items can be downgraded.
For more great techniques to work smarter, I suggest Gina Trapani’s columns at FastCompany.com. What systems do you use to prioritize your laundry list of to-dos?
Unless you’ve been stuck under a pile of F. Schumacher sample books for the last two years, you have probably heard of the social media phenomenon with the cute bird mascot. Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to post status updates that range from personal (“Why are there so many crumbs in my purse?”) to educational (“Pantone announces its new color for 2010 is turquoise”) to conversational (“@gibsondm That was a great article about 5 steps to start Twitter”). Your tweets are limited to 140 characters.
While this article is not about why to use Twitter, I must devote one quick paragraph to my soapbox. Twitter has helped grow our business. I’ve hired people that I first interacted with via Twitter, created business relationships, found clients, been interviewed for USA Today, been interviewed for a marketing book, and more. If you still don’t get how it can help your business, email me and we’ll discuss.
Getting your feet wet with Twitter is the right way to start.
Here are 5 easy steps:
1. Go to http://twitter.com. Click on the big button that says “Sign Up Now”.
2. Select a username. Your username will also be called your Twitter “handle”. You’ll want to choose something that is close to your name or close to your company name. Make it as simple as possible. If I could do it all over again, I would have chosen my name “alexandragibson”. Unfortunately, that name is no longer available and I’ve developed a following with my current handle—@gibsonmd.
3. Write a profile and upload a picture. Be sure to do this before following anyone. Your profile is limited to 160 characters; I suggest using a mixture of professional information and personality. My profile is:
4. Enter your first tweet. We typically write things like “Just getting started on Twitter. Thanks @gibsondm for teaching me! ”
5. Start following people. This will both mean that their tweets will update in your newsfeed and that they will be alerted that you are also on Twitter. If I know that my friend Bob Willywog is on Twitter, I can find him by clicking “Find People” and entering his name. If I just want to start following people in my town, in my industry, or who have similar interests, I go to www.twellow.com and run a search. This will search profiles for your keyword.
If this all seems overwhelming, don’t despair. Contact us about our social media services. We can hold your hand through not only getting your business set up but also on how to use these tools to improve your marketing.
Those of you on Twitter will understand the prolific Fail Whale that tells us that Twitter is overloaded. For those of you not on Twitter, get to it and sign up here! Drink this martini while you’re setting up your profile. You may be much more charming and intelligent.
This martini is featured in our February e-newsletter, The Gibson. If you don’t receive The Gibson, click here to sign up!
Ingredients:
1.5 ounce vodka (top shelf)
1.5 ounce Cointreau
1.5 ounce Blue Curacao
Lime slice
Preparation:
Chill martini glass.
In a large cocktail shaker, combine the ingredients with ice. Shake until mixed and chilled.
Strain the cocktail into the chilled glass and garnish with the lime.
We will be working with Ondine on spreading her great design and personality even further through the beauties of social media and online PR.
As part of the 20 Young Designers feature from Traditional Home, the magazine is holding a Reader’s Choice contest. Please support Ondine and support us by voting for her!
Note: Make sure that you click on the “Vote!” button and not just the “Like” button to vote!
Also, by voting you are automatically entered to win a complete room design and $5,000 in fabric to outfit the room so there’s some extra incentive…besides your undying love for us.
For those of you who think that you just need to have a Facebook page, tweet, and do some blogging, think again. You actually need to use them as tools to get results. Ramon DeLeon, owner of 7 Domino’s Pizzas, is the king of monitoring what people are saying about his brand. He doesn’t just listen though, he answers and he makes things right if they’re not already, often in very memorable ways.
For a limited time, we are offering our Social Media Launch Pad at a discounted price. Don’t miss out!
Our Social Media Launch Pad sets up your firm’s presence on all appropriate social media platforms. This starting point allows your company to jump into social media and learn along the way.
The Launch Pad includes:
Kick-off call to explain the different tools and briefly discuss strategy
Adding photos, information, and all other necessary details to the above platforms to create pages that will show that you not only have a presence, but have a robust presence and want to encourage engagement
Creating a blog for your firm, using one of hundreds of wordpress.com templates that work aesthetically with your current web site
1 month of “co-piloting” to ensure that you have a resource for questions as you begin using the different tools
6 months of unlimited Flight School classes that teach you about how to use Facebook, Twitter, Ava Living, blogging, and LinkedIn for business
Special Discount from December 11-December 31, 2009!
We are excited to continue our new Flight School classes on the following social media tools’ uses for business: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ava Living, and blogging.
Our next Flight School class will be offered on Twitter 101 for Business. The class will be held on:
Twitter Lingo: “tweet”, @replies, DMs, “follow”, and more.
Twitter tips to get you started.
How Twitter keeps you connected to your customers.
How Twitter can keep you updated in the Interior Design industry.
How Twitter helps you to build relationships within your industry.
Each online Flight School class will be limited to 12 participants. This will ensure that people can ask questions and there is interaction between you and your Social Media Flight Instructor. Register below and you will receive a confirmation within 24-48 hours. Classes are 60-90 minutes and include a Q&A session.
I’ve been an interior designer for over 20 years, so I’ve had plenty of time to make these mistakes. Here’s a startling statistic (and I’ll bet it is higher during this recession) – 62.8% of all new businesses fail within 6 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 96% fail within 10 years. That means you’re lucky to be one of 4 out of 100 to make it past 10 years…or is it luck?
”
For a limited time, we are offering our Social Media Launch Pad at a discounted price. Don’t miss out!
We are excited to continue our new Flight School classes on the following social media tools’ uses for business: 
