Conference Call Etiquette – How to Sound Professional in Your Pajamas
The following is a guest post from Amanda Mitchell a freelance writer who specializes in getting the most of technology for small businesses. You can reach Amanda at mitchell_amanda (at) ymail.com
You’ve started a small business and quit your day job. Good for you! But just because you’re working from home now doesn’t mean you won’t be interacting with others on a daily basis. If you run a service-based business, you need to communicate with your clients. While e-mail and instant messaging can be useful to convey quick messages, the time may come when you need to have a real conversation with your clients. If you’re in New York and they’re in California, meeting at the office is out of the question. This is where conference calls come in.
Be careful, though. Working from home can cause some people to get a little too comfortable. You might be sitting at a desk, working on a computer, but if your professional dress code entails flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers, it can be very easy to forget you’re dealing with professionals who are expecting you to be professional too. A few simple tips will help you prepare for your conference calls, and keep your professional reputation intact.
Get dressed
There’s nothing wrong with working in pajamas, sweats, or even a muumuu, if that’s your thing. Part of the reason you wanted to work from home was that you knew you could be just as productive while you were comfortable as you were when you had to dress up in constrictive business attire. Maybe even more productive, right? But interacting with others via e-mail, instant message, or social media is very different from actually talking to them.
If it helps you maintain a professional demeanor during the conference call, get out of the pajamas and into some real clothes, even if it’s just jeans. It will remind you that it’s not an ordinary day where it’s just you, your computer, and your Twitter friends, and will help you stay focused.
Get the kids out of the room
A lot of people start businesses from home to spend more time with their kids, or simply to avoid paying nearly what they earn at a regular job on the daycare they’ll need while they’re at work. Setting up shop at home makes all the sense in the world, until you have to get on the phone with your clients and your kid is having a meltdown.
A crying child is not good background noise, and may cause your clients to wonder whether you’ll be able to get their project done while facing the demands of home. Your kids are important, but so is your business, and your clients deserve your full attention during a phone call. If your kids are school age, schedule the conference call during school hours. If they’re not, wait until nap time. If this doesn’t work for your client’s schedule, especially if they’re in a different time zone, ask a friend or family member to come over and keep the kids busy while you take the call.
Don’t eat
It may sound like common sense, but if you have to schedule a conference call during what would normally be your lunch time because it’s when your client is available, you may think there’s nothing wrong with having a sandwich while you talk. They can’t see you, right? No, but they can hear you, and the sound of chewing or lip smacking is not going to endear you to anyone. The last thing you want is a mouth full of tuna salad right when the client asks you to explain your project time line so they can approve your budget.
Sure, some meetings are held over meals, but this is a conference call. There are no visual cues or body language to enhance your communication, and it’s even worse if you’re the only one eating. All they have to go on is your voice, so don’t obscure it with food. This also goes for chewing gum, or hard candy. No, and no. Have a glass of water nearby, sure, but no eating. Period.
Turn off the TV
Some people need the ambient noise of the television, the radio, or their iTunes library to keep them on task. It may not distract you, but it will definitely distract whoever is on the other end of the line. They need to be able to clearly hear what you’re saying. Not to mention, hearing Oprah in the background may make them wonder whether you’re actually getting any work done.
Keep things quiet, behave professionally, and your clients don’t ever have to know you work in your pajamas.
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Photo Credit: Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline
How To Build A Good Website That Keeps Your Customers Fully Satisfied
In this guest post Lena Morrish and Dima Nikolayenko share their tips to building a website that keeps your customers satisfied, and coming back for more!
It is fairly common knowledge that there is wider acceptance of the online mode of shopping today, than ever before.
More and more customers who never considered the online mode for making routine (as well as exotic!) purchases are starting to discover the absolute convenience of being able to carry out their shopping from the comfort of their homes or offices, make payments online, and have the merchandise delivered to where they would like it to – totally hassle free!
Online Shopping Challenges
That said, all online business store owners – small or big, need to make sure that their customers remain happy with their efforts and keep coming back to them often. This is particularly true in the face of significant competition online.
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One of the major challenges that online stores face in particular is the lack of personalization and the human touch or element, which is often extremely important to many shoppers – they like to touch and feel the products that they are looking to buy. Another agonizing experience for online shoppers is the lack of instant nirvana or gratification – they actually have to wait out for the item that they have bought to arrive through the mail.
Advantages are Numerous
Yet, online stores proffer numerous advantages which actually outweigh the disadvantages by a huge margin. Customers can get exactly what they want, however exotic the item may be, something which a lot of offline, brick-and-mortar stores are loath to stock up on. Also, they never need to leave where they are, and can order, pay and expect delivery of the item they have shopped, from the comfort of their home or office.
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Online stores are great for the sellers as well – no major inventory to stock up on, neither any costs of sales personnel to incur. The only major costs are the marketing costs and ensuring that customers actually visit as well as buy things from the store.
Not to Burst Your Bubble, But…
But that is where the catch is – the costs, or at least the efforts for marketing and promotion are reasonably significant. This is particularly true since barriers to entry for all other prospective sellers are reasonably low, and there is immense competition.
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Also, while you may be able to sell to the whole world, anyone in the entire world could be selling those items too, as against having a shop in a particular neighborhood, where, by and large, you are competing with shops only in the vicinity.
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So, how to build a good website that keeps your customers fully satisfied?
Find the Right Tools
This is where website building tools really come in handy; they guide you on ensuring that your efforts are channelized in the right direction so that you end up getting maximum bang for your buck (particularly when the bucks we are referring to here are essentially metaphorical, denoting the efforts that you put in more than the money).
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For instance, keyword research tools can save you a huge amount of time and effort by providing you with just the right keywords that users are likely to key in when searching for what you have on offer. Similarly, there are tools such as those for email marketing and promotion, affiliate marketing tools, web design and hosting tools and so on, which can together go a long way in ensuring that your efforts pay off to the maximum.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it would be wise to try out each tool one after another and see which one works best for you; you can then accordingly channelize your efforts and focus on those tools that work the best. The approach maybe is slow to begin with, but ultimately it bears maximum fruits.
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Lena Morrish and Dima Nikolayenko, internet publishers, can show you how to start up an internet business and use appropriate tools such as website building tools, keyword research tool, follow up autoresponder etc. to make your customers happier and create their desire to keep returning to your website.
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Photo Credit: katerha
6 Tips on Getting Traffic to Your New Blog
We know a blog can be a great tool for businesses. If you’ve finally got your blog off the ground, the next step is to get some traffic to it. This guest post by Andrew Rondeau of Webuildyourblog.com offers up 6 tips to getting the traffic flowing in.
There’s a popular saying in business, that the hardest part of anything is simply showing up. While it holds true throughout many aspects of corporate culture and success, it’s certainly not true for the blogging world. If the blogosphere’s got anything, it’s millions of people who’ve shown up, some uninvited. Showing up simply isn’t enough to become a blogging success anymore.
You’ve got to generate traffic and promote yourself.
You’ve got to create timeless posts that circulate throughout social bookmarking services for years to come.
You’ve got to take an active presence in getting your blog out there.
It’s no longer about simply writing; promoting is the biggest part of blogging today.
Here are six tips for getting traffic to your new blog.
#1: Don’t just write for cash
It’s tempting to write solely for Adsense revenue, but doing so is a bit of a failed metric for success. There are ultimately two different kinds of blog content, made-for-revenue and organic. When you focus on revenue-generating content, you end up destroying your long-term financial potential. Focus on generating readers, not just cash, and start looking at monetizing your blog later on.
#2: Guest posts are great for generating traffic
There are always going to be bloggers out there with more traffic than you, regardless of what niche you write on or how often you write. There are millions of blogs around, and the spread of traffic between them all is truly stunning. Don’t think that you can get it all to yourself — cooperate and collaborate with other bloggers and expand your reach. Contact a big blogger about guest posting on their blog, and you could see some serious traffic come over to yours.
#3: Social bookmarking loves images
Got a post that could succeed on Digg or Reddit? Make sure you’ve included images in the post’s body copy. Most social bookmarking services seem to favor articles that have images and dynamic media included in the page, so ensure you’ve got something interesting for people to look at, as well as something interesting to read. Make sure you add tags to your images.
#4: Don’t sell out to promoters
Promotional posts are great, so long as they’re intelligently targeted and used sparingly. However, subscribers hate unnecessary promotional content, and using too much of it is a great way to see your readership dramatically decline. Focus on generating traffic, and leave promotional or sponsored posts out until you’ve reached a sustainable subscriber level.
#5: Experiment with different posting mediums
Video blogging is fun, and experimentation with it could generate more readers for your blog. Trying different post formats, topics, and styles is great for boosting traffic. When more people enjoy at least some aspect of your blog, more people talk about it, which means much more traffic.
#6: Use social media to compliment and sustain your blog
A Twitter account is great for promoting your top blog posts, generating buzz, and of course, increasing traffic. When you pair your blog up with social media services, you give yourself an avenue to drive traffic to your blog. A Facebook page might cost an hour of your time to set up, but it’s well worth the long-term promotional benefits.
What tips would you add? Share your views in the comments below.
Andrew Rondeau is the author of the free guide Income Blogging Guide. Click on the following link to grab your complimentary copy of Andrew’s Income Blogging Guide.
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