Tag: Barry Roos

KaizenMarch 5th, 2013

As a small business, I often question myself.   Am I doing things right? Could I do things better? I am always looking to improve the way I do things, and each year I feel I get better at the services I provide.

Still, I constantly question myself and attempt to improve each and every day.  I am a big believer in Kaizen. Kaizen is Japanese for “improvement”, or “change for the better” and refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, & business management. Interestingly, I learned of Kaizen at a big company who preached the practice, but in reality did the opposite. (Unless Kaizen really means do things cheaper and get rid of anyone with an ounce of brains ;-)).

I think that any company that is succeeding in a less then stellar economy is probably practicing Kaizen.   If not, they are probably floundering or on their way out.

So the question is, how do you know if your attempts at ‘Kaizen’ are paying off?   To me a good way to measure is your word of mouth success. Are your clients or customers recommending you to their friends and their clients?

I have recently had that question answered with a resounding YES. I had a call which was a referral of a referral of a referral of a referral. A mouthful yes, but boy it did a lot to validate the practices I have put in place and spoke volumes how our clients are feeling.

So my question for my readers today is this: Do you feel strongly about the person or company that manages your website? Would you recommend them to clients, friends or family. If not, it is probably time for a change.
 

What tax time can teach us about websites & social mediaFebruary 27th, 2013

There are painful things in life which we put off until we absolutely have to get them done. For me one task I put off until the last minute is gathering information for the tax time. Although I personally like my accountant and enjoy seeing her, it is the process of going through my expenses, income, receipts, etc that I find boring and painful.  But, as I know the 2 things you can’t avoid are death & taxes, I deal with my procrastination head on.   I make an appointment with my accountant which gives me a hard date by which I need to gather my information. As April 15th is a hard date, I can’t push my meeting with my accountant and try to get in to see her by February the latest.

So what the hell does this have to do with websites and social media you ask?

Good question.

For me the answer to my procrastination is simple, I make an appointment that I can’t get out of.  The result is that I get accomplished what I need to. So, my advice for you is to schedule time to work on your website and social media properties. If your goal is to blog once a week, set up a recurring meeting to get this done. Treat it like a meeting though, don’t schedule anything else in that time period. The same goes for social media. Set aside time to work on your social media posts.  You will get into a groove and the winner will be you and your company. Although some people find working on their websites, tedious (wait, I do this for a living, thank you!) it is necessary to keep your content up to date to succeed. As you have heard me preach, in this business, stale=fail.

Here is a schedule I recommend for clients:

1. Blogs – Once a week is great, more is better, 2 a month is a good bare minimum.
2. Social Media – Set up a review every 60 days and plan a schedule for posting. For some companies a daily post is great, others a few times a week, and some once a week is enough. In your review, review your strategy and what works for your business.
3. Website – Do a thorough review each quarter.  You should be looking at your website every day, and make changes and additions as necessary, but do a thorough review and planning session each quarter.

Remember you aren’t alone in this. Hopefully you have a good web management company to help you, so you can just send them your content and social media updates that they can implement for you. If not, contact us, we are glad to help you.