Manifesting Your Imagination into Reality

Thoughts on Virtual Education and social media Friday, Jul 10 2009

Relationships and Social Media and business and classes Bob Craft, business northwest conference, Social Media, Taylor Ellwood, virtual education, web 2.0 imagineyourreality 3:00 am

Some excellent advice on achieving balance with your finances, with more than just you’re checkbook.

Facebook demographics changing as older generations start using it more.

An interesting article on social media “Experts”. My take on this: When you claim to be an authority, you’d better be able to back it up with actions.

This week’s radio show is with Bob Craft, from yourclassroom.com. Bob is one of the presenters at the Business Northwest Conference (See below for more details).

Thoughts on Virtual Education and Social Media

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I used to be a ph.d candidate in a program for Literacy, rhetoric, and social practice. I obviously DID NOT get my Ph.d, as I don’t have the three letters after my name, and I get a lot more sleep than pretty much any academic professor I ever met does. But while I was in that program, one of my areas of interest and research was focused on virtual education, e-learning and how students used technology in general. I worked with a compatriot of mine, Joe Dudley to do some research into virtual classrooms, and student usage of technology, because we both found the crossover between education and technology fascinating.

I still find it interesting, but more as a marketer and business person and less as an academic concerned with e-literacy. I still question the benefits of virtual education, but I also see it proliferating in a variety of ways in the business word through teleclasses, webinars, and even virtual conferences and microlessons in twitter.

It seems to me that virtual education is more of a reality today, as a complement of in-person education. I don’t see in-person education being replaced by virtual education, but I do think virtual education provides some opportunities as well, provided you have the technology to access the virtual technology.

And where does social media fit into all of this? Because the medium of communication is changing so much through social media, technology is becoming more of an integral reality in our lives. How we communicate is changing to such a point that we can reach across government boundaries a bit more easily, can almost bring the internet down with the death of a celebrity, and perhaps most importantly can change how we connect with each other.

However, it should also be noticed that while the medium of communication changes, what is being communicated about hasn’t changed. Twitter is starting to become a haven for spammers who relentlessly tweet about their products and services with little consideration, if any about who is reading their tweets. The automation of tweets provides opportunity for people to become ghosts in the shell. They appear to be there, but really aren’t and may not even care if you notice they aren’t there, as long as they can drive people to their sites. And of course the death of a celebrity suddenly has a lot more meaning than anything happening in Iran. And if any of this strikes you as absurd or unreal, it is in fact all too real, and speaks a lot to what we communicate about, what we consider significant, as well as how that shapes what people in general will focus on when it comes to education. My point really is that what social media really reveals is how much our focus is ultimately on material gain, morbid fascination with the life and death of someone famous, and also trying to get as much out of a social media network as possible without necessarily being on said network.

And tying that back into virtual education…Virtual education can provide a model of how social media can work when it focuses on showing how people can interact to not merely learn, but also form genuine relationships. The relationships we create, as well as how we sustain those relationships dictate how we use the technology we use to have those relationships.

Upcoming Events

Business Northwest: Virtual Conference on using Today’s Technology to get your business message out to the world

Welcome to the Business Northwest 2009 Summer Conference “Getting Your Business Message Out In Today’s Economy With Today’s Technology”.

This is the conference that comes to You! Over 20 speakers and a great Keynote Panel. $8.50 get you full access for 30 days! Register now at http://www.businessnorthwest.org/conference/ and watch, interact with speakers, join forums and get the conference directory. Sessions begin opening at 9:30am July 9th until July 11 and will be available for viewing for 30 days after that.

Topics include:

Atomic Marketing
Practical Social Media
Training the Youtube Generation
and much more!

Why do I need Social Networking for my Business? Yes, you can do it less than one hour a week.

Social networking is a hot topic in businesses today. Many of us are not sure how it helps grow our business or acquire new clients or where we will have the time to add one more thing to our hectic lives. However, one thing is for sure, if we don’t come and find out, we will never have answers to these questions.

In this program, Taylor Ellwood will explain what social networking is, why it’s important to be on these sites, and how it can benefit you and your business. Hew will explain how to automate your social networking presence so you only need to spend one hour a week and still have time to run your business and live your life. In this class you will learn:

What Linkedin, Facebook, Biznik, Twitter are and why it’s important to be on these sites or some of them.
How to get clients and business from these sites.
How to automate your online presence so are spending minimum time and effort, yet getting maximum returns.
What a status bar is and why it’s a good idea to update it regularly.
How these sites can be used to obtain recommendations and testimonials from your clients.
The do’s and don’ts of Social networking and how to maintain a professional profile on each site.

Taylor will not only explain, but also demonstrate the benefits of social networks, and show you how you can attract more clients to your business.

Date: Thursday, July 23rd 2009

Time: 11:30pm to 2pm

Price: $35.00 per person, Lunch included

Location: 607 Main Street Suite 240, Oregon City, 97045

To register please RSVP with Diane Dahlins at diane [at] page10accounting.com. Check and credit cards only please, when rsvping.

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Social Media: Is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Thursday, Jul 2 2009

Radio Show and Social Media and business Business Northwest, Social Media, social networking, Taylor Ellwood, Tom Cochrane, web 2.0 imagineyourreality 6:50 am

Here’s an interesting article on Social Media and ROI. The author makes some good points. See below for some of my thoughts on social media lately.

This week’s radio interview is with Tom Cochrane of TKC Solutions about the Business Northwest Conference. Next week’s interview will be with Bob Craft of Your Class Classroom about Virtual Classrooms.

Social Media: Is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

I’m a social media coach, so it might seem odd that I would ask if the hype about social media is really all its cracked up to be. But I think maintaining some healthy skepticism is really important, especially with something new such as social media. A lot of social media “experts” and “gurus” are very enthusiastic about social media, but are so busy hyping it up that they’re not stopping to examine how warranted their beliefs about social media are. I find that taking a more skeptical approach can help you evaluate the technology as well as how you can integrate it into your business. With that thought in mind, I’m going to evaluate some of the social media out there and tell you what I think the pros and cons are. Then you can decide if the social media technology is all its cracked up to be

Hello Txt (http://www.hellotxt.com) It allows you to post updates to multiple sites at the same time. The upside is you can automate a lot of your social media presence through this site. The downside is you need to get on the web to use it, and while it’s connected to many different social networks, it’s not connected to all social networks.

Ping.fm (http://www.ping.fm) Similar to hello.txt. Same pros in that it lets you send out a status update to multiple social networks. It also can be integrated into some twitter applications. The downside is that it’s not connected too all of the social networks and in fact is connected to some social networks hellotxt isn’t connected to, while hellotxt is also connected to some social networks ping.fm isn’t connected to.

Both of these social networking sites are useful. They can help you cut down on a lot of time and extend your reach to a variety of sites. However they also present a possibility of less interaction on social networking sites because they do allow you to automate your updates significantly. this can be a problem if people don’t feel like they are really interacting with you. Consequently it’s important to not shoot for quantity in your interactions, but instead focus on quality.

I’ll be posting more about social media from a skeptical perspective in this blog, though some of my posts will continue to be focused on other topics.

Upcoming Events

Business Northwest: Virtual Conference on using Today’s Technology to get your business message out to the world

Welcome to the Business Northwest 2009 Summer Conference “Getting Your Business Message Out In Today’s Economy With Today’s Technology”.

Topics include:

Atomic Marketing
Practical Social Media
Training the Youtube Generation
and much more!

Why do I need Social Networking for my Business? Yes, you can do it less than one hour a week.

What Linkedin, Facebook, Biznik, Twitter are and why it’s important to be on these sites or some of them.
How to get clients and business from these sites.
How to automate your online presence so are spending minimum time and effort, yet getting maximum returns.
What a status bar is and why it’s a good idea to update it regularly.
How these sites can be used to obtain recommendations and testimonials from your clients.
The do’s and don’ts of Social networking and how to maintain a professional profile on each site.

Taylor will not only explain, but also demonstrate the benefits of social networks, and show you how you can attract more clients to your business.

Date: Thursday, July 23rd 2009

Time: 11:30pm to 2pm

Price: $35.00 per person, Lunch included

Location: 607 Main Street Suite 240, Oregon City, 97045

To register please RSVP with Diane Dahlins at diane [at] page10accounting.com. Check and credit cards only please, when rsvping.

Leave a Response »

Business Northwest Monday, Jun 29 2009

classes imagineyourreality 1:40 am

Business Northwest

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Sometimes I forget… Thursday, Jun 25 2009

Radio Show and Relationships and business and marketing and networking Jason Miletsky, networking, perspectives on marketing, relationships sales, Taylor Ellwood imagineyourreality 9:31 am

This week’s radio interview is with Jason Miletsky, C0-author of Perspectives on Marketing. We discuss his book, what it was like to write it with his co-author, and perspectives on publishing and social media. Next week’s radio interview is with Tom Cochrane of TKC Solutions about the upcoming video conference on how businesses are using technology to succeed in this economy.

Sometimes I forget…

Today I attend a talk by Charles Hude on Relationship selling. Sometimes I forget that what really makes a business succeed is relationships. You’d think I’d know this after six years of being involved in industries where relationships are an essential part of success, but sometimes it is hard to keep that perspective, in an economy that is down. However as Charles pointed out, and others have as well, using the down economy as an excuse for not doing well is ultimately not examining your own role in why business may or may not be going so well.

The truth is, what we put out there, not just in terms of attitude, but also actions, connections, and relationship building does effect our own business. When we come into a situation feeling desperate, people will feel and note it, even if only on a subconscious level. When we come into a situation with confidence and a focus on the other person, s/he will also note it.

Most importantly, right now what is important is thinking of each other and doing our best to support our network. When we take care of our network, we show the people in it that we care and we are willing to go the extra mile for them…and we also tell them what we need and trust they will do the same for us.

It can be easy to forget that, in the rush to try and get business. And so it’s always a good reminder to go to networking with a focus on learning at least one interesting fact about who you network with, which doesn’t overtly relate to your business. By doing so, you focus on building a relationship with the person that extends beyond the immediate needs of your business with that person. And in fact you may learn something which can help you refer that person to someone else in need, or refer another business to that person. In that way you create a network where everyone benefits and the success is shared all around. It takes time and patience, but don’t forget it can pay off in the long run in many different ways.

Book Reviews

Twitter: Tips, Tricks, and Tweets by Paul McFedries

Although I’m already conversant with twitter, I did finding reading this book useful, because it turned me on to some twitter applications I didn’t know about. The author’s enthusiasm for the technology is evident in the book and in the tips and suggestions he provides for how to make twitter a useful experience. And whether you are a beginner or an expert, you will learn more about twitter in this book, as well as how to take advantage of all it’s technology and the applications it provides.

The one issue I have wit this book is a minor one. As time goes on and the technology advances, it will become less relevant. It’s mainly focused on how to use the technology, so while that is useful, it doesn’t present strategies for how to use it beyond being familiar with the technology itself.

4 out five tweets

Perspectives on Marketing by Jason Miletsky and Michael Hand

Right from the beginning I found this book to be an engaging read, which showed two (and occasionally three) perspectives on the relationship between clients and agencies in the marketing world. While this book can definitely shed some light on the relationships between agencies and clients, it also will give small businesses some perspectives on marketing and client relationships as well. What I really like however is the rapport between the two authors. At times they might disagree with each other, but throughout the book the honesty and clarity they bring to the book shows through and provides insight on their own relationships as well as the relationship between clients and agencies, as well as how to improve those relationships. Highly recommended as a must read for its unique format and approach to the subject.

5 out of 5 marketers.

Upcoming Events

Why do I need Social Networking for my Business? Yes, you can do it less than one hour a week.

What Linkedin, Facebook, Biznik, Twitter are and why it’s important to be on these sites or some of them.
How to get clients and business from these sites.
How to automate your online presence so are spending minimum time and effort, yet getting maximum returns.
What a status bar is and why it’s a good idea to update it regularly.
How these sites can be used to obtain recommendations and testimonials from your clients.
The do’s and don’ts of Social networking and how to maintain a professional profile on each site.

Taylor will not only explain, but also demonstrate the benefits of social networks, and show you how you can attract more clients to your business.

Date: Thursday, July 23rd 2009

Time: 11:30pm to 2pm

Price: $35.00 per person, Lunch included

Location: 607 Main Street Suite 240, Oregon City, 97045

To register please RSVP with Diane Dahlins at diane [at] page10accounting.com. Check and credit cards only please, when rsvping.

Leave a Response »

How to deal with trouble clients Friday, Jun 19 2009

Radio Show and body work and business and marketing and networking accupuncture, chinese medicine, Does social networking create relationships, Elie Cole, how to deal with trouble clients, Jason Miletsky, Knowing when to start a new business, Nourishing medicine, perspectives on marketing, Taylor Ellwood imagineyourreality 12:14 am

My latest Biznik Article: Is it too Good to be True: Knowing when to start a new Business is online.

I was a guest blogger on the Network is Not Selling Blog. My article asks whether social networking really creates relationships.

This week’s radio interview is with Elie Cole of Nourishing Medicine Acupuncture. Next week’s interview will be with Jason Miletsky, co-author of Perspectives on Marketing.

How to Deal with Trouble Clients

We’ve all had them…clients who are more trouble than they are worth. Or potential clients who right from the beginning display problematic behavior that demonstrates that having them as clients would cause a lot of grief and unnecessary work. These are clients who will haggle with you at every opportunity or want everything you offer, but aren’t willing to provide equal energy to the exchange involved.

I think a good sign that a client is a trouble client is if s/he is looking to cut corners or trying to pay as little as possible for a service. There’s nothing wrong with shopping around, but their is a saying which applies, “You get what you pay for”. Personally, I find that if someone is trying to haggle with me about my prices, it’s also indicative to me of how they approach business with other people or how they’d do business with me. What I mean by that, is that if I hired that person to do a job for me, I should expect that person will cut corners on materials, product, etc, and do a substandard job, while charging me regular price, because that person is likely haggling with every person they do business with.

If you find someone’s prices disagreeable, go somewhere else, and shop around until you find the price you are willing to pay. Don’t haggle with someone to try and bring down their prices, unless you are in a culture where haggling is actually expected. Personally, when someone tries to haggle with me it tells me that they either don’t understand the value of my services, or more importantly they want to pay as little as possible for as much as possible.

Another type of problematic client is the one who needs to micromanage or check in on everything you do. Some oversight is expected. A client should know what you are doing and should reasonably expect that s/he is getting the services offered, but a client who checks in on everything you do not only can be very annoying, but can actually waste your time and his/her time as well by being a micro manager.

How I deal with trouble clients is do my best to simply not have any. The majority of potential clients you run into are people who simply need your services and are willing to pay for those services or provide and equivalent exchange in barter. In situations where I’ve run into a haggler, I’ve simply told the person I don’t haggle. That usually ends a potential client relationship, and I’m quite happy about that, because the kind of relationship it would be would involve an unequal energetic exchange…them wanting more for less…no thanks. For micro-managers, when I catch them doing it, I explain to them very succinctly what my policies are about being micro-managed. If that ends the client relationship, it was likely good that it ended.

The element in common with both cases revolves around communication. Speak up about your boundaries, listen to what the potential client has to say and weigh what you are willing to deal with vs what they are willing to give you for your services. If you feel like you are in a situation where you are giving far more than the client is, do some serious thinking about what’s keeping you in that situation, and if you need to, walk away. There will be other clients out there, and if you’re not happy with how you’re being treated, and the client shows no inclination to change, it’s not worth the unhappiness, financial grief, etc., that can occur. Knowing what you will and won’t accept from clients is as important as doing business with those clients.

Also take time to educate your networking partners about what you consider to be a good or bad client. For instance, I once had a networking partner recommend someone to me who did haggle with me. I left the meeting knowing the person wasn’t going to be a client and I communicated that to my networking partner, as well as why said person wasn’t going to be a good client. He definitely paid closer attention to the leads he sent my way, after that occurred, and it likely saved me some time and grief as a result. Just remember to also be receptive if you get suggestions on how to improve the types of leads you send people.

Upcoming Events

Why do I need Social Networking for my Business? Yes, you can do it less than one hour a week.

What Linkedin, Facebook, Biznik, Twitter are and why it’s important to be on these sites or some of them.
How to get clients and business from these sites.
How to automate your online presence so are spending minimum time and effort, yet getting maximum returns.
What a status bar is and why it’s a good idea to update it regularly.
How these sites can be used to obtain recommendations and testimonials from your clients.
The do’s and don’ts of Social networking and how to maintain a professional profile on each site.

Taylor will not only explain, but also demonstrate the benefits of social networks, and show you how you can attract more clients to your business.

Date: Thursday, July 23rd 2009

Time: 11:30am to 2pm

Price: $35.00 per person, includes lunch

Location: 607 Main Street Suite 240, Oregon City, 97045

To register please RSVP with Diane Dahlins at diane@page10accounting.com Check and credit cards only please, when rsvping.

Leave a Response »

It takes Discipline Friday, Jun 5 2009

Radio Show and business it takes discipline, Mapping the Dharma, marketing your book, Paul Gerhards, Taylor Ellwood, the 4 hour work week, Timothy Ferriss imagineyourreality 2:18 am

This week’s radio show is with Paul Gerhards of Parami Press. We discuss his book Mapping the Dharma, the publishing industry and the importance of marketing your book.

It takes Discipline

It’s 11:15 pm and what I really want to do, right now, is play the new video game I bought last week. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, and it’s fairly easy to get into. Instead I’m writing a draft of this blog post, so that later this week I can post it with a push of a button and let readers on here find out about the latest radio show, read this article, and otherwise see what else there is to offer. I don’t really want to write this draft, or do anything else business related, but I know if I don’t, nothing will get done, and soon thereafter, I’ll have to do something much more strenuous than writing a blog post: find a job.

Owning and running a business is a wonderful experience, overall, but occasionally I just want to drag my feet and do whatever it is I feel like doing. And at times like that, it can be very hard to focus on the minutiae of my business, and getting something done to keep my business relevant and important. And sometimes all that motivates me is realizing that tomorrow, it’s that much more work I have to do at some point.

It takes discipline to run a business. Each day, you can face new challenges, different routines, and most importantly yourself. No one can force you do run your business, except you. There are days when you will get up, when you don’t want to do anything related to your business and occasionally it can be good to take a day off and not do anything. In fact, if you can sufficiently automate your business, it can even be fun to take a lot of time off. However, you still need discipline when it comes down to it.

Discipline is really the ability to keep yourself focused on working on your business. It involves recognizing the need to put time into your business on a regular basis, unless you can automate it. Discipline is what keeps you focused on your business, even on days when you don’t want to be. It reminds you that your business only exists as long as you are willing to put effort into it existing.

Discipline yourself by putting some time into your business each day. When you feel like being lazy, that’s when you really need to put some work into your business. By doing so, you ensure that you can stay focused on your business and help it continue growing.

Upcoming Events

The Eleven Elements of Business: How to use your Strengths to grow your business Teleclass

Do you know what your business strengths and weaknesses are? Are you leveraging your strengths to grow your business? In this twelve week class, we will focus on how you can effectively grow your business by focusing on your strengths and delegating your weaknesses. You will also learn my secret for making a business successful, by learning how to use your discomfort to grow your skills and business awareness.

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

How to Build a Marketing Platform to publish and sell your Book Teleclass

You can write the most elegant and wonderful book in the world, but unless you have an excellent marketing platform to promote that book, publishers won’t touch it. Drawing on my experienced as a published author and a Managing Non-Fiction Editor for a small press, I will explain how you can create a successful marketing platform that will wow your publisher and agent, while also entertaining and informing the intended audience, your readers.

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

Book Review: The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

The author presents an interesting argument…that it’s possible to work only a few hours each week and otherwise live a life of luxury and ease. The author provides strategies for mini-retirements, outsourcing work, and other methods for otherwise organizing and cutting down on the amount of time you spend working.

I definitely found some of what the author wrote useful in terms of analyzing my own patterns of behavior and whether or not I was really spending my time effectively. However, his book is written toward people who are primarily working from a product driven approach. Since I work in a service industry, this book is only somewhat helpful, and doesn’t address how to achieve such a lifestyle, while working in a service industry. The book has some useful ideas, but there’s a lot more that would need to be addressed from a service focused industry.

3.5 lifestylers out of five

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Defining your business effectively Thursday, May 28 2009

business defining your business effectively, elevator speeches, Mapping the Dharma, Paul Gerhards, Re-thinking your business, Ric merrifield, Taylor Ellwood imagineyourreality 6:52 am

Next week’s radio show will be with Paul Gerhard, author of Mapping the Dharma. We’ll be discussing his book, how to make publishing a successful business and how Buddhist principles can be applied to one’s business.

Defining your business effectively

I’ve been running this business just over a year now. Recently I decided to join a business to business networking group, but there was a potential obstacle in my way: One of the other members seemed to offer the same services as I do…or at least our elevator speeches sounded the same. Before I could join the group, I needed to meet with that person to determine if our services overlapped or if we just complemented each other.

When I met with her and we talked at length, she and I quickly realized that our services complemented each other. Our problem was that our elevator speeches were too similar. We essentially offered complementary services, but we phased what we offered in similar ways. She told me that she’d realized that she needed to changer her elevator speech, and I realized I needed to change mine as well.

You’d think that after a year of being in business I’d have an elevator speech down pat, which would be unique enough and specific enough to really tell my clients and networking partners what I do, but this situation showed me that my elevator speech still needed work. Defining my business was harder than I’d thought it would be.

The next time you go out networking and you offer your elevator speech, pay close attention to what you are saying and then listen just as intently to the elevator speeches offered by other people. Does your speech sound similar to what someone else is saying? If so, interview the person. Find out what s/he is really offering. Is it the same as what you offer? If it’s different, how can both of you get more specific about what you offer?

The challenge for any business is to concisely and yet uniquely define what it offers so that clients can understand its value. But to do that, sometimes we have to listen to what we are telling our referral partners and also listen just as intently to what they are telling us. By doing that we can learn if we are really defining our businesses effectively or just telling each other vague generalities about the services we offer.

Book Review: Mapping the Dharma by Paul Gerhard

I found this book to be very readable and easy to follow. I really appreciated how it was set up to explain Buddhism in a very approachable manner, with clear and concise explanations of what Buddhism is about. While I’m already familiar with Buddhism, the author’s way of explaining the core concepts and different components of it really helped me understand a lot more about Buddhism. I came away with a much more solid understanding of Buddhism, its practices and how I could incorporate it into my life.

5 out of 5 meditators

Rethink: A business Manifesto for cutting costs and boosting innovation by Ric Merrifield

In this book, the author explains how businesses need to focus less on how they do the work and more on what the work is. The author provides case studies of successful business and not so-successful businesses that changed their focus from how to what as well as providing exercises and questions to help readers examine their own business. The companion website provides additional information, which can be really helpful to readers, in rethinking what they do as well as how they do it.

4 out of 5 re-thinkers

Upcoming Events

Play To your Strengths and Delegate your Weaknesses! Teleclass

Do you feel like you’re always trying to fix your weaknesses in your business, instead of focusing on your strengths? Do you find yourself doing a task which leaves you feeling drained and unhappy? Are you feeling business Burnout, where you just don’t want to work on your business anymore?

If your answer is yes, come to this discussion which emphasizes playing to your strengths, while delegating what you are weak in to people or technology which can do the job for you, so you can focus on doing what you love.

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

How to know when your Book is ready to be published! Teleclass

If you find yourself keeping your writing in a desk and only bringing it out when it’s time to go to your writing group, this class is for you. There’s a time to write, edit, and revise, and there’s a time to let your writing go. In this class, we focus on recognizing when it’s time to let your writing go, and get it published.

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

Why do I need Social Networking for my Business? Yes, you can do it less than one hour a week.

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

The Eleven Elements of Business: How to use your Strengths to grow your business Teleclass

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

How to Build a Marketing Platform to publish and sell your Book Teleclass

For more information about this event, please visit the Events page.

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Why events and classes can really help you grow your business Thursday, May 21 2009

Social Media and business and networking Bob Dunn, catseye marketing, E-newsletters, how to use events to get more clients, Imagine Your Reality, Judy Dunn, online marketing, Social Media, Taylor Ellwood, web 2.0 imagineyourreality 12:35 am

My Latest radio show is on the importance of streamlining your business. What does that mean? Listen to the show and find out!

Why events and classes can really help you grow your business

The other day there was a class on e-newsletters taught by Bob and Judy Dunn from Catseye Marketing. I went to the class and found it insightful for helping me work on one of my latest projects: my own newsletter. After I left the class, I thought about how it was likely that the presenters would get some business from the class. It might not be direct clients from the participants of the class…it could be referrals from the attendees, but regardless these presenters would likely get some business from simply presenting a class.

I went to the class because I didn’t know a lot about e-newsletters. I’ve just created one and I wanted to know what else I could do with it, beyond the obvious. And I did get a lot of information from that class, which I’m starting to implement in my newsletter. All of that information showed me why newsletters were beneficial to my business and how they could be used to grow my business.

There are two ways events and classes can grow your business and I’ve already hinted at them above, but I’ll speak directly to them now.

First, being a speaker/presenter can be an excellent way to grow your business. Not only does it allow you to demonstrate your credibility and authority, but it can also lead to direct business, especially if you pass out an evaluation form, which allows people to provide feedback and indicate if they want particular services or other information. Remember to follow-up with people promptly, so that they know you are as interested in them as they are in you.

Second, attending classes can be an excellent way to learn new ideas and techniques for improving your business. No matter how much you might think you know, there’s always more to learn. And what you learn can sometimes bring you some business because it helps you change something in your business formula, which is otherwise holding you back. I have definitely found attending classes useful because it gives me opportunities to learn not only from the presenter, but also my fellow attendees.

It’s not hard to become a presenter and it’s definitely not hard to attend a class. Both approaches can help you generate business, and also let you learn more about yourself and your business.