The Flipside by Alternative Strategies

Resources for a Greener Business

Search Google for "green business practices," and you'll turn up more than 6 million hits, including countless Web sites devoted to the topic. But relatively few sites offer practical help to entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are some of the best:

1. Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE, dsireusa.org). Search by state to learn about local and federal financial incentives promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. The site provides information about free energy audits, loan programs, and utility rebates.

2. GreenBiz (greenbiz.com) serves as a clearinghouse for information about businesses and the environment, from reporting on giant corporations' environmental programs to guidance on how to publicize your green efforts.

3. The Green Office (thegreenoffice.com) sells environmentally friendly office supplies, from clipboards made with recycled plastic to paper manufactured with the use of wind power. The site also serves as a one-stop shop for helping business go green, offering everything from in-depth articles on business environmental issues to sustainability consulting.

4. Energy Star for Small Business(energystar.gov) offers resources such as how-to guides tailored to specific industries and lists of environmental engineers for all 50 states. You can join the Energy Star for Small Business and Congregations Network at no cost to receive free technical support for green initiatives.

5. U.S. Department of Energy (doe.gov). Are you considering replacing your incandescent office bulbs with compact fluorescents? Search this site for a "compact fluorescent calculator," which will help you determine your likely cost savings. 

Saving the World at Work

Sustainability. Carbon footprint. Green design. These are not fads; these are the new norms by which companies are being measured. Companies are now looking to do good as a whole and, in turn, are attracting customers and employees who choose to support their unselfish intentions. These are the companies that are growing in popularity and revenue.

I had the pleasure of meeting a very inspiring individual, Tim Sanders, author of Saving the World at Work.  This book is full of inspirational stories of foot soldiers of the “Them Generation.” This generation comprises those who are concerned about “them", or others in totality. The book is formatted with an intuitive list and easily executable actions. According to Sanders, as the Responsibility Revolution unfolds, five rules of the New Order will become clear:

1. The longer it takes to join the Responsibility Revolution, the more expensive it will be to realign in order to catch up with the innovators.
2. Integration is as important innovation in the long term.
3. Progress must be measured and reported.
4. Companies must provide rewards for adding social value.
5. Companies must stay focused on the new Value.

                 Order Here                                    

So what can you do to change the world at work? It can be as simple as being more conscious of your printing habits. After all it’s not just about saving the trees, but saving the resources needed to harvest, produce and distribute one single page of print. Even before getting your hands on this must-read, I recommend you implement the following actions as part of your everyday routine:

1. Become conscious of what you print and spread the word. Often times we print an e-mail or PDF unnecessarily. Make your clients and colleagues aware of "being green." Go to www.greenpdf.com and download the widget to discourage unnecessary printing
2. If you must print, cut and paste only the parts you need and use the back sides of paper. This could reduce your paper needs by half! Simple. But once you start to become conscious; your paper consumption reduction is drastically reduced. Multiply this across the entire office and you get a sense of the degree of impact, if everyone participates.
3. When you must print, use ecofont, which claims to use 20% less ink by placing tiny indistinguishable holes in the font. Download it here.

Tim Sanders is a foot soldier in the movement toward a better tomorrow. He inspires me to take action toward one of my favorite inspirational quotes - “Be the Change you seek in your World,” Gandhi.

I hope after reading his book, or even this article, you are inspired to save the world at work.

5 Common PR Mistakes

When it comes to marketing communications, public relations is generally not as well understood as advertising. Simply put, with advertising, you buy space or time. You have something specific whether it’s a billboard or a radio commercial.

PR is far more subtle because it relies on securing media coverage that works to enhance the public’s recognition and confidence in your business or profession. It is rarely quantifiable.

This month we thought we'd give you a quick PR lesson by sharing the 5 most common mistakes businesses make with their public relations efforts.

1.    Not planning ahead. A lot of businesses have natural "tie-ins" to events that occur throughout the year. Figure out your strategy at least 6 months in advance.

2.    Writing bad press releases. If you're going to write a press release, get help from the professionals. If you decide to go it alone learn the basics first. Make it interesting and don't forget the contact info.

3.    Not returning media calls. Often the media is on a tight deadline. If someone calls you from a magazine or TV program, make it your first priority. You might not get a second chance.

4.    Fumbling your big break. Always be prepared and practice what you're going to say. It will keep you from sounding confused or too rehearsed.

5.    The professionals. Lastly, if you engage the help of professionals, you should always keep them informed of what's going on with your business. This is true even if you feel it may be insignificant.

Best Ways to Take Care of Your Clients

Managing the needs of your clients is always a tricky endeavor. As a professional working within a different organization, you are attempting to manage needs that are far different than your own.   Your company needs more money, more sales. You want to meet a quota and you want to get the business. On the other side is the client, who is expecting for you to act with their best interests at hand.  This rift is what has often given salespeople the reputation as money-hungry used car dealers just looking to make a sale. 

Although we are not all in sales, it is the driving force behind every business, and is something that every business must account for.  This sales stereotype can be hard to shake but, in reality, successful businesses and account managers are those that act with their customers interests first.  Looking out for the interest of the client will usually come full circle and end up benefiting the salesperson as well.

The power of a lost relationship is something that constantly gets overlooked, and may be the largest disservice you can do to your business.  The statistics vary, but many analysts suggest that it costs about five times as much to gain a new client than it does to retain one you already have.  So knowing this, making sure your client is happy should be the number one priority on your list!

Sure it is easy to get a customer, pat yourself on the back and then move on to bigger and better prospects.  This strategy may help you get more people through the door, but ultimately it will come back to haunt you.  When you fail to take care of a client properly you not only lose them, but you lose their entire social network.  Image if each client or customer you have currently has three good relationships that could be of value to you.  This would mean that losing a client could actually be the equivalent to losing four clients.  But, what if that client is an extremely influential business owner with 100 contacts?  Could you afford to lose 100 potential customers because you failed to manage the needs of one?

These are the questions you have to ask yourself when it comes to managing your clients and customers.  It boils down to taking care of those you already have established relationships with and making sure you are properly nurturing those relationships.  Here are four basic tips that you can do every day to help facilitate your client and customer relations and grow your business in the process:

Go the Extra Mile

• Offer to participate in charity events, special events or other business-related activities they  have arranged.
• Attend any required events that may pertain to your relationship with the client.  This may be an insurance agent going out to see a new property, a CPA being onsite during an audit or a public relations firm walking their client through a television interview.
• Send thank you notes and birthday cards.
• After meeting someone, jot down notes on the back of their business card.  This can act as a reminder of some key details about the person, for the next time you speak. It will go a long way to building a relationship with that person.

Give them More for Less

• Be sure not to nickel and dime your customers with extra charges.  This is a leading cause to dissatisfaction and a primary reason they will look for a different business to work with in the future.
• Put in some extra work or hours on your clients behalf, free of charge.   Do not hesitate to let the customer know you are putting in extra effort for them. (NOTE: It is not a good practice to do free work, but a little extra effort will be recognized as an amazing service.)

Treat Clients (and Others) Like Networking Partners

• Keep a list of all your clients’ businesses and services on hand. When the opportunity arises, refer business to your clients.  This process
• will allow you to grow the business of all your contacts, which will make you
• look great and inspire them to return the favor. 

Offer Incentives

• It is a basic strategy, but do not be afraid to give clients added discounts or incentives to continue their relationship with you.
• Always let your customers know what is going on in your business with mailers, letters and electronic blasts.  You do not want to overwhelm them, but reminders of how you can help them are always appreciated.

Top 10 PR Blogs

All upward-bound professionals know the value in understanding what’s going on their industries. Public relations practitioners are no different. And like many other industries out there, the internet is full of PR people blogging about what they do. PR blogs are great resources to get a pulse of what’s   going on in the industry and stimulate creative thought for managing PR in today’s media climate. Some blogs even offer in-depth discussions of PR campaigns and pitches gone bad (and good).

Like with all blogs out there, some PR blogs are particularly insightful and useful, while others are, well, not so much. I’ve taken two “authoritative” lists of the top PR blogs out there and come up with my own list of the Top Ten PR Blogs. My list is compiled from a list of the Top 85 PR Blogs, pulled from AdAge’s Power 150, and Buzz Bin’s Top 15 Independent PR Blogs. The top-ranking PR blogs found on both lists made my list of the Top Ten PR Blogs.

Here they are:

1. A shel of my former self
Arguably the favorite PR blog out there, A shel of my former self offers valuable insight into the world of PR, especially as it pertains to social media and new technologies. It’s the style and depth of information that keeps PR types coming back for more.

2. PR Squared
Todd Defren, creator of the Social Media News Release and Social Newsroom Release templates, has created a blog that offers insightful perspectives on how to handle PR’s shift to Social Media and stay ahead of the curve.

3. PR Blogger
Stephen Davies of 3W PR in the UK focuses his PR discussions on social globalization (read: Social Media). See a trend with the top three?

4. PR 2.0
Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorksblogs about marketing & tech. Solis is among the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media. Might as well get info on PR in Social Media from a pioneer of Social Media!

5. Communication Overtones
The contributing authors of this blog offer some great principles and tips for running effective public relations strategies. They also share personal insight from lessons learned on the job and in the world.
 
6. Strategic PR
This blog does an excellent job of meshing traditional PR issues with burgeoning Social Media topics. Case and point: Check out the stimulating discussion on Mortin’s recent TV ad that offended moms everywhere and exploded the blogosphere. Motrin knows no fury like a mother scorn!

7. Common Sense PR
Like the blog’s name suggests, Common Sense PR offers readers plenty of makes-sense advice. It does an outstanding job of breaking down current issues affecting PR, including issues that affect the success and future of the business.

8. Young PR
This blog is somewhat of an anomaly to me. I’m not quite sure why it’s ranked so highly among PR blogs. While it offers up-to-date posts of who’s doing what in Social Media, much of it seems to be a self-promotion for Young PR, intermingled with some laughs for PR insiders.

9. A PR Guy's Musings
Stuart Bruce, founder and managing director of Wolfstar, a specialist public relations, social media, and word of mouth consultancy for brands, business and the public sector, shares his take on developments in the electronic PR landscape. He offers some valuable perspectives, though often too personal to be generalized for everyone’s use.

10. The New PR
The goal of this blog is to create a holistic philosophy of how PR is being forever changed by social media. While it has a sort of, “we need to act fast or PR will die” approach, there is a great learning and teaching component that serves to keep PR relevant in the blog era and beyond.

The Key to Turning Prospects into Clients

Having a 10-year history in business across many sectors, I’ve found that there is a key component responsible for the great gulf between those that see consistent results and those who seem to spin their wheels and not get very far.  The difference between a new client and another failed prospect is follow-up.

Every business or organization thrives on leads. However, once they are discovered or generated there must be a follow-up system implemented to convert the leads into actual business. While this may look slightly different for each business, avoid follow-up faux pas and consider the following:

48 Hour Rule Never let more than 48 hours pass after you’ve made initial contact with someone.  In the busy world in which we live, there’s a small window of opportunity to get someone’s attention. It is vitally important that you maximize your efforts to follow up before you’re forgotten or tossed in the “I’ll get to it later” pile. Harness your ability to make a good first impression by making a timely second impression.

Timing is Everything If you are making an attempt to follow up with someone on Monday morning at 9:00 am, chances are your efforts will falter. Why? Workloads are at an all-time high and it’s the busiest time of the week for most people. Time your efforts to contact people when they’re least likely to be inundated with e-mails and phone calls. By Wednesday afternoon, for example, people may have gotten the urgent things accomplished and may have more time for you. Try sending e-mails in the evening, after hours. Those who check e-mails after hours, are often more relaxed and are away from ringing phones, unending texts and the entanglement of other e-mails.

Diversify If variety is the spice of life then it’s sure to garner your piece of the pie. Simply put, employ a variety of follow-up techniques. Be creative. The degree to which you can capture someone’s attention, is the degree to which you will receive a response. Your follow-up efforts may include e-mails, phone calls, personal notes, small and thoughtful gifts, samples of your product or an in-person visit. Depending on your industry, you know what’s best. Be free to try different approaches. Whatever you do, be consistent!

Be Organized It is your responsibility to present yourself or company in a way that reflects excellence and integrity. You need to let potential clients know you’re informed about them. This requires organization. Do your research on potential clients and find out as much as you can about their industry or service. When making contact, be prepared and keep notes so you have specific points of reference in future conversation. If you don’t have a good memory, don’t rely on it. When you’re unorganized, it shows. It places doubts in clients’ minds about your ability and level of competency. Worse yet, it could cost you major business.

Know When to Move On Sometimes the signs become painfully clear that a potential client, for whatever reason, just isn’t interested in working with you. Carefully assess your efforts over time and be courageous enough to move on without taking it personally. Remember, people have every right to make the decision to go with another company or service, even if you think it is the most unwise, risky decision they could make for themselves.

If properly and consistently utilized, these keys of follow-up should unlock many doors of opportunity and propel you to a place of greater success.

Designers' Dilemmas

There are so many dilemmas a designer has that sound simple or stupid, but they are oh so important! They’re important in the sense that the right image, color, and font give the outcome, the right atmosphere that the client wants to portray for their product or service. These are some examples of the questions that fill my head before I start a design project:

    o What shade of red would the client prefer?

    o What font would be just right?

    o Am I going to find the right image?

    o Is the leading ok?

    o Should I start with adding colors, working with the image or picking the right fonts?

    o Wait! How or where do I even start?

They sound like non-threatening questions, right? But these questions are what make a business a business. They help to create the identity and brand of a company, its essence. Making the right decisions can be a big investment in creative energy, not to mention time.

Beyond these difficult questions, designers also face the dilemma of dealing with design trends. Deciding what direction to take a design makes a huge difference. For example, does the client want clean, simple and straight-to-the-point design, or more creative design with a clever pitch, or even an artistic flow with a simple icon? Whatever the decision is, a designer needs to acknowledge that whatever they come up with, it has a design shelf life. More trendy designs may stand out and catch viewers’ attention, but will need to be updated sooner. That means the client has to make an ongoing investment in design. Classic designs can stand the test of time and rarely need major updates, but may not be as catchy.

Any designer could keep on going with thousands of questions they have to answer when they sit down at their computer. At the end of the day, it is their responsibility to talk with their clients and listen to their needs and wants. Do that and the dilemmas will disappear and the outcome of the art work will just "wow" your clients!

Expand Your PR Outreach with a Podcast

Have you been thinking about using podcasting to reach out to a broader audience? It’s easy to get started, with the technological side of things being offered by many companies. For example, Audacity provides free software to make creating audio files for online marketing easy, so don’t worry that it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to get started.

Start your podcasting library by creating a list of upcoming topics you want to cover – an editorial calendar of sage advice you’ll dispense to your listeners. You want listeners to come back for more and more.

After you’ve established a set of topics that you believe will be applicable to your audience, make sure you can cover a variety of topics in a manner that will be appealing. The format can include a mix of reviews (just you), interviews (one-on-one with a guest) or multiple-guest interviews. Starting with singular reviews and topics of discussion, then segueing into guest and multiple-guest interviews will allow you to get your feet wet one step at a time.  

Be prepared to devote a solid amount of time to building your podcast library and your audience. Remember, be enthusiastic and informative. Enjoy yourself during the process and your listeners will too.

Interesting Topics for Spreading Your Message by Popular Industries

Food & Restaurant Industries
-          Reviews of new food & beverage items
-          Chef interviews
-          Reviews of food & wine from travels

Health & Fitness
-          Seasonal health advice
-          Interviews with trainers, nutritionists and doctors

Home Décor & Design
-          Design on a dime
-          Forecasting design trends
-          Color’s influence on your mood
-          Incorporating the latest fashion trends into your home

Children & Toys
-          Toy reviews
-          Making learning fun for kids
-          Travel with children
-          Product discussions
-          Tough issues: divorce, moving etc.

Travel & Tourism
-          Destination guides
-          Tips for saving on travel
-          Staying healthy on the road

Fashion
-          Behind the curtains at fashion shows
-          Fashion tips for the seasons
-          New wardrobe: revisit your closet
-          Making your clothes last longer

Events & Floral Design
-          Creating seasonal centerpieces & arrangements
-          Entertaining 101 – must have items to stock your pantry
-          Interviews with evening and wedding planners

Real Estate Services
-          When to buy, when to sell
-          Understanding today’s marketing
-          Tips for selling your home faster
-          Real Estate agent 101 – what you need to know

Pets
-          Exercise your pet
-          Best toys for your pet’s health
-          Obedience training 101

Rain Will Come

It is certain that in every life rain will come. The rain represents the situations, sensations, conditions, and events that we try to avoid: adversity, controversy, stress, pain, inconvenience, and delay. We do not intentionally seek out these tough challenges. We do not desire to face these difficulties. We do not want to weather these storms. When the rain does come, it is our human nature to allow these times to get the best of us, to overwhelm us, to cause us to sink.

However, when we can appreciate these challenging times and respect their value in our lives, we come to a place of contentment. When we can see beyond our current difficulties and realize that these challenging times will make us stronger, allow us to grow, and give us a deep admiration for the blessings that life grants us, we truly open our eyes with optimism. And when we understand that ultimately we are in control of the way we respond and think about life's events, that only we have the ability to choose the thoughts that enter our minds, we discover absolute freedom. No longer are our attitudes tied to what happens to us. Such hope is there in knowing that when faced with any type of circumstance, the truth remains, after all, that life is what we choose to make of it.

When your rain comes…will you choose to be the person, upset how the storm has inconvenienced you? Or will you choose to be the farmer who knows that while rain has the potential to be destructive it also brings growth and new life?

When the first drops fall, may you be reminded to think differently about facing life's obstacles. May you choose to see beyond life's storms, to uncover the blessings that the rain brings, and during all of life's twists and turns, may you always choose to...Welcome The Rain.