This time of year business owners face the reality of this year’s sales numbers and the planning for next year’s (hopefully increased) numbers. And while the day-to-day running of a business can easily take over every waking moment, I encourage you to spend time each month doing the far from glamorous tasks below. These efforts help me grow my business and some even increase my overall visibility. Here are a few To-Do’s that I’ve been up to lately.
1. Create or update your business listings on user review sites, like Yelp, (http://tinyurl.com/28rz9zl), Insider Pages (http://tinyurl.com/25j7qyb) and the all-importance Google Places (http://tinyurl.com/2c77sa5). The sheer number of these sorts of sites can be intimidating, but start small. And remember, you’ll be able to use similar content for each. Next, you’ll want to let your best customers or clients know where they can post a review on you. Each site has different policies and procedures for dealing with negative posts. I’m in favor of proactively joining these sites and creating a strong, favorable base for yourself—because at some point, someone will post a negative review.
2. Update your customer and professional contacts. I keep mine in an Excel spreadsheet, but this a good round up of other options (http://tinyurl.com/33chbwp) from the National Federation of Independent Business that features my quotes in the last paragraph. This way you have all these addresses and contact info handy for any mailings or eblasts you may want to do. Ideally, I would do this with each new client or when working with a new attorney, but like most small business owners, I don’t make the time to do so. Catching up on tasks like this is important.
3. Evaluate your 2010 marketing efforts and see what needs to be tweaked. I had great hopes when I launched my eNews aptly titled, NickRichardsonLaw.com’s Docket. But I missed a few months and didn’t really see a good ROI. I’m going to give it another try in 2011 and consistently blast it out for 6 months and then determine if I should keep it going or now.
These tasks might take you two hours or so, but they are beneficial in the long run to your business. I encourage you to think how these three To-Do’s could help you or come up with your and start checking ’em off!
Wishing you a holiday season filled with delight and loved ones.
About Me: Nick runs his own law office, www.nickrichardsonlaw.com, and started contributing articles to both the Palatine and Schaumburg pages of TribLocal in September 2009 (http://tinyurl.com/ylsly3u). Have a comment? Email him at:
Therichardsonstake—at—gmail.com.
