The new model of business is education. Business owners everywhere, whether running a small or large operation are tasked with educating their market about what they do, why it matters to the market, and who, specifically, within the market cares enough about what they are doing to want to buy their product or service.

Because of this, many business owners have turned to the likes of social media: Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In (and there are many more) which are all forums being used all over the world to spread the messages of business. One of the main challenges, therefore presented to business owners is coming up with relevant, fresh and interesting content. And gone are the days of having just a monthly newsletter, the sophisticated audience of today’s market is looking for content everyday and many prefer multiple times during the day – a tall glass to swallow for the already busy entrepreneur.

I don’t know about you, but the easiest way for me to get in to writing mode (i.e. content development) is to get first in to reading mode. Once I have a chance to read up on what others are writing about, in terms of topics of interest to me and the segment of the market that I’m in conversation with I get juiced up with content ideas, opinions of my own, or personal stories that give context to content that is already out there.

Alltop, an “online magazine rack” is a one stop shop for a plethora of web based, credible content written by bloggers and the like from all over the world.  Similar to an RSS feed but without the hassle of managing it.  Think Cosco for the mom of 6. Alltop also has a great feature that allows you to customize a page of your own personally selected blogs of choice on topics that you are most interested in.  In a 30 second glance you can browse the headlines (if you hover over a headline you like, you can read the first paragraph of content) of relevant topics topics that are of top interest to you. Having a system created to spark creative moments will save you time and money when coming up with fresh, new content for the market.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

One of the hardest things for entrepreneurial women to do is trust their systems, especially if their system comes in the form of another human being. Being able to let go and leave your business in the hands of someone else, or a computer system can be a challenge for many, but not if you whole heartedly trust the system.

However, in order to truly trust the system there has to be some level of understanding on how it works. Fear is the opposite of trust and, in my experience, fear is most often bread from ignorance or not knowing. I’ve heard a countless number of clients say that it’s just ‘easier if I do it myself’, and this makes it impossible to walk away from your business, even for a few hours.

Sit down TODAY and write down a wish list of things that you would love to delegate in order to put your business on auto pilot. Then write down what you would need to know in order for you to trust that a system would take care of your business as well as you would. Then take action in educating yourself on how the system would work. You might ask an expert, read a book or article, or simply go for coffee with a fellow business owner who’s having success with a system you want to implement.

Your ability to trust systems will allow you to create a work/life balance that gives you the ability to truly ’shut off’ without ever compromising the credibility or success of your business.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

At the Ghost CEO, we have a five-step process of business development:

Visibility, Credibility, Profitability, Sustainability, and Scalability.

When you engage in networking functions with intention, you are able to create Visibility by being there and then Credibility by sharing with people what you do and how you do it. When the market sees you out and about, they know that you are serious about being an active contributor to the business market. Sitting at home hoping business will magically come in doesn’t get it done. You have to get out there and hustle if you want opportunities to happen. Before you go, make sure that you can clearly state what role you hold in the business community. If you fumble what it is that you do, you will lose some credibility which is not what wew want to happen.

Take some time to get clear on these three questions:

What do you do? Why does it matter? Who cares?

When you can speak clearly to these three questions, you are well on your way to developing the visibility and credibility required to build your bottom line.Take this to your next networking event and continue to build market credibility during these opportunities.

Best,

Chris.