Tag: Grow your business

7 Easy Steps For Better Business Communication

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Great communication is one of the most important skills for running a successful business. Overall, business communication is responsible for improving workplace efficiency, boosting morale, and creating a more open and collaborative environment for employees to thrive in. 

7 Ingredients For Unstoppable Business Communication

Despite the fact that 89% of people believe in the importance of effective business communication, only around 17% feel as if their workplace possesses it. Here are 6 ways to get started on improving your business’s communication style: 

#1: Find The Right Communication Channel

In today’s highly digitized workplaces, communication can take place on a multitude of platforms, so make sure that you are using the right one! Whether it’s an email, slack message, in-person meeting, or video call, it is important to think about the communication channels that you are using to deliver your information most effectively. 

For example, sending a couple of reminders can probably be accomplished in an email, whereas explaining a complex project might land better in a face-to-face meeting. 

#2: Value Listening Skills 

Business communication is so much more than just articulating YOUR thoughts and ideas. It is equally important to take a step back and listen to the needs and feelings of the coworkers around you to ensure that everyone feels heard and valued in a space. 

#3: Make Yourself Accessible 

Especially if you are a boss or leader, it is crucial for employees to know you are accessible to chat if they need to run something by you or have any questions or concerns. If employees don’t feel comfortable speaking out in the workplace, passive aggression and resentment are bound to happen. 

#4: Be Mindful of Body Language 

While the exact percentage of what communication is nonverbal versus verbal has been debated, the body language that you put out to others in the workplace oftentimes speaks louder than words. Great nonverbal communication starts with making eye contact, nodding, not crossing your arms, and leaning forward. 

#5: Keep It Simple

Many employees fall into the trap of using overly complex language and jargon while communicating with others, in turn leaving less experienced employees confused. To avoid this, always be mindful of the vocabulary you choose and keep communication simple whenever you can. 

#6: Ask Questions

Asking clarifying questions works wonders at clearing up any confusion or assumptions early on in a project or task, in turn saving stress and confusion down the line. Remember that if you have questions during a meeting, odds are other people in the room feel similarly and will appreciate your courage in asking. 

#7: Tailor Your Communication 

The way that you speak to your boss might look a little different than how you are speaking with a peer. In order to have effective business communication, it is important to know the audience that you are speaking to ensure you are tailoring your language and format of communication to best fit that specific dynamic. 

Maximize Your Business Communication With Allison Todd Today 

For more advice on improving your business’s operations from an experienced business coach and consultant, feel free to reach out today! 

For more advice on improving your business’s operations from an experienced business coach and consultant, feel free to reach out today! 

 

What’s Your 4th Quarter Business Strategy?

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Here Are 4 Reasons You Need to Hire a Growth Strategist Today.

We’re heading into Quarter 4 of 2021, and the year has flown by. It seems that we were laying down our annual goals only yesterday, combining our business New Year’s Resolutions. Suddenly, we’re almost at the same stage once more. 

As we enter quarter 4 of 2021, strategies demand to be refined, as it’s the last hurdle before we look at the annual data and reset our goals. 

So, what’s your 4th quarter business strategy? And how does it tie into your goals? 

Perhaps you’ve yet to revisit your overall business strategy. And, perhaps, you’re considering hiring a growth strategist to help you push for that final quarter to achieve your goals.

If so, here are 4 reasons you should hire a growth strategist today. But first:

What Is A Growth Strategist In Business?

In business, a growth strategist is a person who focuses mainly on the growth and development of a brand. They have expert knowledge of business strategy and how to propel a business from the land of startup to the universe of global recognition. 

Reasons You Need To Hire A Growth Strategist 

Outsourcing can, at times, feel frightening. We fear an empty investment, or worse still, a negative return on investment. However, hiring a growth strategist is fundamental to your business’s development. And, if you hire a qualified growth strategist with excellent experience and past results, you can guarantee that the investment won’t be empty. 

1. Growth Strategists Focus On Strategy And Have A Unique Set Of Tools 

Working in your business rather than on your business has consequences. You’re unable to view your business strategically because you’re too close to it. Having an outsider assess your current strategy, aligning it with your future goals, will allow you to understand whether it’s realistic, ambitious, or whether you’re pitching far too low.

Growth strategists also have a specific set of tools that have been crafted for the sole purpose of business growth. You’ll want those on your side when up against the competition. 

2. Growth Strategists Take Bold Action 

Without growth strategists, brand owners are prone to overthinking, sitting nicely in their comfort zone. The truth is, though, as they sit there watching the world go by, they’re actually missing out on hundreds of thousands of growth opportunities. 

It can be difficult for a brand owner to take risks and step outside their comfort zone. However, with the assistance of a growth strategist, you’ll be encouraged to take the risks that will pay off. 

3. Growth Strategist Focus On Short, Mid, And Long Term Goals 

With many marketers, the main focus tends to be on long-term goals. There are benefits to this, of course, as it allows your business to grow throughout time. However, there need to be short and mid-term goals to fund your business growth in the meantime.

Growth strategists are experts in short-term strategies and how to feed them into your mid and long-term goals. 

4. Growth Strategists Know All The Current Digital Trends And How to Use Them For Brand Growth 

Keeping up with the latest digital trends can be almost impossible when you’re wearing every single hat for your brand. Hiring a growth strategist means you’ll be saving time, energy, and effort, allowing you to remain in your zone of genius for the wellbeing of your brand. 

Plus, you’ll be including proven routes to success within your strategy, guaranteeing growth. 

Hire A Growth Strategist Today. 

As quarter 4 takes us under its wing, we reassess and reevaluate our current strategy and how it’s worked for the past 3 quarters of 2021. With the 4 reasons listed in this post, hiring a growth strategist allows you to end the year with a bang, meeting your business goals, and placing you in a strong position for the beginning of the upcoming year. 

Contact us today and schedule an appointment with Coach Allison to see how a business strategist can help uplevel your business.

Understand How to Identify and Attract Your Target Audience

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In the digital marketing world, understanding the audience for your product or service is key to growing your business. However, this can be a challenging task–but it does have its solutions. Read on to learn more about identifying your ideal audience and crafting the types of content they want.

Why Do I Need To Identify A Target Audience?

A target audience, by definition, is the people you’d like to engage with your content and then convert into clients and customers. At this point you may be thinking, I’ll just focus on making great content and the right audience will follow. While that can be true, great content only promises traffic–it doesn’t equal sales. 

On top of that, identifying your audience helps establish where you should be funneling your marketing budget–no one can afford to hit all digital and media channels with advertisements. By locating your niche in the market, you can create content that will produce a return on the money you invest in digital marketing advertisements. 

How Can I Identify My Niche Audience?

There are a number of tried and tested methods for establishing your target audience.

Current Customers

If you’re an established business, you already have a foundation of current customers. Use statistical analysis to dissect the demographics and then the psychographics of your current customers. These data points include identifying:

  • – The demographics of your current customers

 

  • – Where they buy from

 

  • – What their common interests are

 

 

You can also look at the analytics on social media to see what posts they share, like, and comment on the most and use that information to inform your content creation as well.

Start From Scratch

If you’re a new business, or it’s just time to revamp your systems, follow these steps for establishing a target audience:

  • Identify the features and benefits of your products/services and who would most likely use/benefit from them. 

 

  • Create several user personas. These personas are meant to help you visualize who you’ll be writing for. They’ll include details such as:

 

– Gender

– Personality

– Family life

– Job title

– Job function

– Employer

– Location

– Income

– Needs

– Pain points

– Challenges

 

After you’ve finished analyzing your audience, make sure that your niches aren’t too similar–if one marketing message works for more than one niche, you’ve gone too far. 

What Should I Focus My Content On?

At the beginning of this article we mentioned that just having great content won’t get you the ROI you want–and that’s true. However, creating great content crafted towards the needs for your target audience is a surefire plan every time. The secret to having great engagement with your audience is writing the content that they want to read–ask yourself, what exactly would make them stop, click, and consume your content?

You don’t have to make this a guessing game either–return to what you know: utilize statistics to see what content has done well in the past, and conduct keyword research around your products to see what your customer base is also interested in. 

What To Do When You Have a Difficult Client

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Unfortunately, not every client you take on is going to be a walk in the park. It’s inevitable that sometimes, you’ll have a difficult client. 

Since your professional reputation is at stake, you need some strategies for dealing with a difficult client.

The challenge with clients like this is that usually, they’re overly demanding. They may also clash with your working style. You have to finish whatever work you’re doing with them, but there are ways to do it that will make it as painless as possible.

When dealing with a challenging client, choose your words carefully to avoid confrontation and escalation.

Listen well and acknowledge without apologizing. Take breaks whenever you need to or limit communications, but not in a way that feels like you’re ignoring them.

Emphasize that you’re working together toward a common goal. Discuss things in terms of the results you’re trying to get and make sure they understand you’re on the same team.

If they’re asking you to do more than you offer, set clear boundaries, remind them gently of the job’s terms and your business’s capabilities. 

Even though they may be driving you insane, try your best to find a solution that will make them happy. 

Try to find a quick solution to finish and send the clients away feeling satisfied. The best-case scenario is that they leave you happy, and you never have to work with them again.

Keep in mind throughout the encounter that you shouldn’t take it personally. The person is probably unhappy because of unrealistic expectations or their issues. 

When you’re stuck with a problematic client, chalk it up to a learning experience. In the end, try to figure out what wasn’t working so you can avoid it in the future.