Spring Training/Cleaning for Business

Spring is just around the corner. For many of us, that means a rebirth of sorts. We shrug off the winter doldrums by tackling the cluttered attic, basement, or garage and raking away the dead branches and left over leaves from fall, clearing the way for the seeds of growth.

Make sure you give your business the same treatment. It’s time to discard that pile of dead leads, outdated names and old addresses. Revisit the list of to-do’s that were never done, refresh project plans by casting off the activities and ideas that never took hold or blossomed and focusing your energy on those behaviors that proved most fruitful. Revitalize your business by creating new ideas and cultivating those with the best chance of producing the biggest yield.

Stay informed. Toss outdated sales material. Keep abreast of new product and service developments. Reach out to existing clients and keep them informed of new developments.

Expand the boundaries and scope of your business. Look for ways to affiliate with other businesses whose products & services compliment yours.

Major League Baseball teams have begun Spring Training in Florida and Arizona. Players are vying for positions (and contracts), while General Managers and coaches are putting their team rosters together, trying to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

How do you stack up against your competition? What do you need to do to set yourself apart from the rest? In Spring Training, every team gets a fresh start. Every team feels like they have a chance to win, but only a handful of teams make the playoffs and only one champion is crowned.

This is your fresh start. Are you ready for Opening Day?

Automate your small business marketing

John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing blog has a great post this week about technology available at a low cost to small business marketers. The idea is to automate contacts, sales follow-up, tasks, email, marketing materials distribution, orders, upsells, referrals and campaigns thus freeing you up for even more face-to-face time with clients and prospects. You can cast a wider net by using these types of applications.

We've used some of the tools he mentions such as Jott and Basecamp. Jott is especially useful for business people constantly on the go. It allows you to transcribe a message over the phone and then converts it into a text message and can send it back to you at a specified time of your choosing (kind of like a reminder) and will also email it to you. Best of all...it's a free service.

Here are some more applications you should check out:

Send Out Cards - automatically sends out birthday & anniversary cards on your behalf. Create greeting cards to send to one or one thousand people.

Vertical Response - Email Marketing & Direct Mail Postcards automation with a very attractive pricing model.

What are some of your favorite marketing automation tools?

CBS Early Show calls Chattanooga green

If you happened to miss this while running out the door to the office....check it out

The CBS Early Show recently featured "green" vacation spots and the Scenic City made it to the list. I must admit that I haven't watched the program much since they broke up the duo of Harry Smith & Paula Zahn (and the other big weather guy-not Willard or Al) Maybe we should all watch them a little more now that they're singing the praises of Chattanooga.

The report noted that “Memphis loves to sing the blues, but in Chattanooga, the tune is ‘Go Green.’ The river town has come a long way since being designated America's most polluted city in 1969. Today, 22 miles of once inaccessible riverfront have been reclaimed for public use, and revitalization projects have made the city a model eco town and tourist hotspot.”

The host, Maggie Rodriguez, having lived/worked in Los Angeles, Miami and now New York remarked "look how beautiful it is"....we couldn't agree more.

Facebook Group

So you're good about showing up to the Chamber of Commerce breakfast meetings, and have no problem attending the after hours mixers, but are you networking online? Think it's just for high school and college flunkies? Think again. Social networking for business purposes is taking off big time.

Perhaps you are on Facebook, but haven't considered how your being on there can enhance your business networking prowess. According to Charlene Li, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, there are two reasons why people don't find applications like Facebook relevant to their professional lives: 1) Your professional colleagues are likely not actively using Facebook; and 2) Most of the applications today aren’t designed for a business context.

She goes on to say..."Let’s take the first problem – you may not have many friends in these social networks. This was my problem – it was only this past spring that people I actually know started using Facebook. My friends are posting links, book reviews, the events they were going to, and suddenly, I now find myself at a near addiction with Facebook. I went to an event because five friends said they would be there. And when I saw them at the event, I congratulated them on closing a round of financing and asked about their recent vacation – all of which had been shared on Facebook. What’s the business value of staying on top of your network? As we know from experience, priceless."

"Now for the second problem. Business applications on services like Facebook have yet to take off, which is why people like Tom Davenport have a hard time seeing the business value of social networking sites. I don’t blame him – after all, the most popular applications on Facebook today include such frivolous things like playing Scrabble and Vampires (where you “bite” your friends – don’t ask). That’s because these applications are being designed by 20-something developers for their 20-something friends."

Read the full article, then click on the image to join our Facebook group.

Motor City anyone?

Soon we can all get away to Detroit for the weekend (although I don't know why you'd want to leave this mecca of outdoor adventure). Northwest Airlines has announced non-stop flights starting up on June 5th.

The new daily service to Detroit is Chattanooga's 13th nonstop destination and seventh airline available from Chattanooga.

Daily travel will depart Chattanooga at 7:10 a.m. and arrive in Detroit at 9:20 a.m. Returning flights will depart Detroit at 7:10 p.m. and arrive in Chattanooga at 8:45 p.m. These schedule options are great for business travelers who would like to do their business all within the same day. The new Chattanooga-Detroit service will be operated by Northwest Airlink partner Pinnacle Airlines using 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft.

Visit Northwest Airline, or call your travel agent. Say, if you know of a good one...let us know!

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Business Chatt is an ongoing conversation with the people & companies that make Chattanooga a great place to live, work & play