Tag Archives: Left Behind

Are You a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Posted on 09/29/2011 by admin
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Unfortunately in business things change all the time, and some business people like the challenge of keeping ahead of the competition and coming up with new ways to do business and make themselves original and others definitely do not!  If you want to succeed in business long term then you have to be in the former group I’m afraid because your customers requirements and problems change and unless you keep up then your business will simply run out of people to sell to.

One of the things I like to look at when working with a client is how can we keep streaks ahead of whats already out there, what innovation can we come up with or new way of presenting our skills is there? If you can constantly think outside the box with regards to your business then you are definitely on to a winner.

Did anyone see Dragons Den this week? Two women were on there because they have come up with the idea of people doing their own Wedding Videos. Now this struck me as odd because why aren’t videographers nationwide offering this service already? Lets face it Videos have changed a LOT in the past 10 years, they used to be a novelty that people went for then the price of videos came down and down so people did their own, then the CLEVER videographers started doing videos to music almost like pop videos and they were everywhere on YouTube and now we seem to be going back to the DIY version but brides want them professionally edited, so its changed a LOT!

Other businesses have changed a LOT – cakes are more fancy and quirky, photography has got more artistic, everything has had to change to meet the requirements of the bride and unless you supply what your customer actually wants then you will get left behind. So how do you know what they want? Well the easiest way is to ASK! Keep chatting to future brides at every opportunity and ask them EXACTLY what they want, don’t try and pigeon hole them into what you are offering – its their wedding, they are the customer and they are the ones paying so make sure you listen.  And especially important is to ask when you DON’T get the business, ask the bride why not, was iit price (very rarely is) or was it what you were offering?!?!

 

Claire x

 

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Is Your Website About You or Your Customer?

Posted on 04/24/2011 by admin
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I love looking at peoples website, when I meet them on Twitter, Facebook, at a networking event one of the first things I do is look at that website to see how pretty it is and how much business I think it gets them. I actually did this before I started my wedding planning business, I had a look at local and national companies to see what their websites were like and to see if I thought they would be much competition and I was amazed at how bad a lot of them were and to be honest thought that some of them must be very good in marketing in other ways because there was no way they would get business through the website.

When the internet first came about people had websites almost like online brochures, they gave out information about the company and that was about their only purpose, but now that the the whole way we shop has changed and most of the focus is on the net unless your website has changed too then you are being left behind and there is pretty much no point in having a website at all!

One of the biggest website crimes I see is that the website has too many ‘I’s’ and not enough ‘You’s’ -it should be all about your customer and not about you because on the website you are normally only just beginning your relationship with your new, potential client. They actually don’t want to know about what you are doing, they want to know how you can ease the pain or increase the gain of the problem they are currently seeking to solve. By all means reveal yourself and talk about yourself on the About You page, if they click on that and read it its because they want to find out more about the person behind the product or service but the rest of the website should be about your customer.

I wont go into the whole ‘features’ and ‘benefits’ lecture again, I’ve previously written a blog post just about that but when you next look at your website, look at your home page and go through and COUNT, yes COUNT everytime you’ve said ‘I’ (or ‘we’ if theres more than one of you) and everytime you’ve said ‘YOU’ – ideally you should should have mentioned your customer  (the YOUS) FIVE TIMES more than you’ve mentioned yourelf, yes thats right, FIVE TIMES!!!!!

 

Ok – so get counting right now and see how you can immediately improve your website.

 

Claire x0x0

 

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R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Posted on 10/27/2009 by admin
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This weekend I went to visit my very lovely Mum and Dad, they’ve been happily married since 1963 and the operative word in that sentence is ‘happily’ – its quite an achievement I reckon and my Mum is very proud of the fact that she thinks my Dad had to jump through hoops just to date her let alone anything else.

Anyway, while I was at my parents I was leafing through the Sunday papers and started reading the problem page in one of the magazines. The first problem was a woman that had a very lazy, overweight husband that had no job and went fishing every evening whilst she worked 2 jobs, paid all the bills and mortgage and did everything around the house! The second problem was a woman that was having an affair with her boss (his wife didn’t understand him) and of course she loved him and wanted to know if he was ever going to leave his wife!
My reaction to both these problems was the same – ARGHHHHH! When did it become OK for women to be treated like this and for women to not have the backbone to stand up for themselves and scream out loud that they deserve so much better before running at the speed of Ussain Boult out the back door?
Somewhere between 1963 and today women seemed to have allowed men to stop jumping through hoops just to date them and handed everything to them on a plate, and in doing so are finding that they no longer treat us with the respect we deserve. Well there’s only one way to get back that respect and that starts with yourself. If someone treats you like rubbish you cant expect them to change unless you stand up for yourself and say – enough!
The only person in control of how you are treated is yourself – set your standards high and live by them – I guarantee if you start now, in no time at all everyone around will raise their standards to keep up with you and those that don’t are best left behind.
Have a wonderful, respectful week!
Claire x