Do you have a backup plan for your business and clients if something happens to you?

Hey you, small business owner, sole proprietor, one-person business do you have a plan if / when something happens to you? This backup plan and a succession plan are essential and your responsibility as a small business owner. If you are like me, you have your plan all thought up in your head, but nothing documented. It’s time to get busy typing.

First, I want to share a little background on why I am saying this to all of you right now. Recently a young God fearing, beautiful, energetic, successful business woman, Denai Downs Vaughn was in a fatal car accident.  She not only left behind a beautiful little girl and a husband, but a business, a successful BlogTalkRadio show and had an Online Radio Summit planned out and starting very shortly with a colleague, Dale Little. It was a slap in the face for me and many of my friends, which are also many of hers! She was the exact same age as me.

I know, because I am there with you, something happening to you that makes it so you can no longer do business as usual, is a topic no one wants to talk about, think about, etc. However we have to do it! It’s ugly, scary and unpleasant, but it must be do anyway. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a death, as it was in Denai’s case, that makes it so you can no longer work. It can be a heart attack, stroke, or even a loss of limb. As much as we all would like to think we are in control of our fate, we are not.  We can control how we act, drive, the risks we take, etc., but we can’t control weather, tornados, Acts of God, or the actions of others.

I am a small business owner, a sole proprietorship and in many cases, a one-person shop. I do have a team that I bring in on a project-by- project basis, but in general it’s all on me. Every single Tweet, LinkedIn and Faceboook Page update for a client is completed by me.  The blog posts are put up on their websites and published by me. Their email newsletters are drafted and finalized by me.  The logins, passwords and the flow for these accounts are known only by me in most cases.

So what is my plan:

1.  After I complete the setup for a social media client on their accounts I will make sure I give them immediately the websites, logins and passwords for the accounts I created. Print off the logins and passwords and put in my lock box.

2. Backup plan – keep a close friend or relative (my sister in this case) updated on the background about my business. Where it is at growth wise and what kind of services I am doing. She doesn’t necessarily need every detail about who my clients are (she can get this from the lock box and computer records if the times comes where it is necessary), but she needs an understanding of how many clients I have / project scope etc.  (Sis, we are going to need to schedule a monthly meeting I think.)

3. Your team – document who your team is, what kind of information you trust/share with each one, their contact information, what your payment agreement is and the scope of work they complete for you. Print it off and put it in the lock box.

4. Outline – What you do for each client and when do you do it.  Of course I have this and you do to when you submit a proposal to them and get a signed contract back from the client, however you need this accessible easily in case something happens to you.

5. Colleague - You must talk with and designate a trusted professional in your industry with your skills set who can / will finish up the projects for your clients if something was to happen to you.

6. Successor – Is your business going to continue on with another owner if something was to happen to you. Do you want it to continue on? Do you want someone else to use your business name?  You need to document this information carefully and share with the person you designate in item #2.

The person you designate to know your backup plan – item #2 and item #5 the colleague can be the same person, but I don’t necessarily recommend that. You want someone #2 to make sure the colleague #5 is finishing the projects and keeping their commitments.  You might decide two have to colleagues that you designate. One to complete some of the tasks and one to complete the others, or the primary person and the backup person, who knows, something could happen to the first person at the same time as you.

7. Business Records - Document your system for how you keep account of your business expenses. Your spouse or backup plan person, as designated in item #2, will need to be able to organize these records for tax purposes, etc.

8. Business Debts – Document your monthly business expenses, who you pay what and when. Automatic drafts, etc. Your backup plan person will need to get these accounts closed and the automatic drafts turned off or determine if your colleague mentioned in item #5 has these same accounts, so she can finish the scope of work. Obviously, your colleague wouldn’t be able to keep all of the money made from the clients for the projects they complete if your business is still paying for the expenses attached to the individual clients.

Keep your business debts paid current. Try not to have any IOUs out there. If you pay your team flat rates per project, pay them promptly when they complete the project. If you pay monthly, document each occasion for each team member you owe them – a monthly history.

9. Keep your hard drive (yes, a techy word) organized – I know this one might throw you for a loop, but seriously, you know where and how you save your documents and records, but will someone else be able to make sense of it if they need to access the records later.

Make sure you have printed details on how you organize your computer files in the lock box. (For the non-techy, a hard drive is where are you files are saved are your computer.)

10. Passwords - If you are like me all of your clients’ logins and passwords are written down and documented, but all your login and passwords to your accounts (social media, bills, bank, etc) are in your memory. You don’t write them down because you are protecting yourself from getting hacked and someone stealing the file.

Write them down anyway, you may be protecting yourself by not documenting them, but that is the only person. You are not protecting your spouse, team, debtors, etc. when you don’t. If no one can access your accounts, how in the heck can they close them, pay anyone, etc.

Wow – what a TO DO list! I just shared 10 things with you to check out and act on, and in the process gave me many things I have to go do right now. I already have my #2 person picked out and designated, Jimi Bratt, and my #5, two people actually, Web Designer / Graphic Artist / Marketing Authority – Robin Moss and Social Media Marketing Consultant / Online Marketing Extraordinaire - Ana Lucia Novak, they already know – aren’t they lucky! LOL! Between the three of them, I know they will get my clients fixed up and finished out if an emergency was to happen.

What about you? Do you have a plan? It’s time for you to get busy and do some serious thinking?

It’s your turn … comment below the other steps you thought of that I need to do and the other steps everyone reading this post needs to do. Please comment away and remember, we are only as good as the friends and team we surround ourselves with.

P.S. This blog post is dedicated in Loving Memory to Denai Downs Vaughn. She was an inspiration to many. Please do keep her family and friends in your thoughts, say a quick prayer and end it with a WOOHOO for Denai, as she is with her maker now.

Twitter in Business for Success Tip #2

So you want to know the secret to my Twitter success that you can apply it to your Twitter business marketing strategy? You are not alone in the quest to learn what to tweet for success in marketing your business. This blog post is about Tip #2 in My Twenty Tips for Twitter Success.

Why are you reading this post – did one of your friends shared it via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter? Are you subscribed to my blog via email or RSS (f you aren’t certainly click & do so now! LOL!)  Perhaps the title of this post caught your attention, you are curious about My Twenty Twitter Success Tips!

As you may already know I love talking Twitter, teaching Twitter and playing on Twitter. My passion is helping small business owners and individuals use social media marketing sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and now adding Google+ to the mix!

If you missed Tip #1 – “Register your account, SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio, and Upload a Profile Picture” you can read it here.

2^nd tip to achieving Twitter success:

Send your 1^st Tweet: Welcome your new friends – Don’t SELL in the tweet

What exactly do I mean? Often someone will register a Twitter account and wait to send their first tweet. They will go out and start following others, which is an invitation for them to follow back, but they don’t send any tweets out for the potential follower to judge who they are and what they are about. When you follow someone they look at your Twitter stream and see what you are tweeting to determine if they want to follow back. If you haven’t tweeted they have nothing to look at to help them to make their decision.

If you are tweeting and it is all self-promoting, they will decide not to follow you and perhaps even block you so you can’t even follow them. Here are a few samples of these no-no first tweets:

• Check out my website http://websiteurl.com! (If they want your website url it’s included with your profile information.)
• Follow me on Facebook http://facebook.com/IAmVain. (If they want you on Facebook that bad right away – they will go find you & ask for the link connect with you on Facebook.)
• Let’s connect on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/MoreVanity. (Same as above – they will go find you or ask.)
• I need a job in the _________ industry. Can you help me? (They might really know someone or have a good lead for you, but if you seem too pushy before they even get to know you it will scare them off.)

Quick add: It is ok to send the above tweets out occasionally after you have grown your following and developed a relationship with your followers.

The first tweets you send need to be worthy of a read.  When I am setting up a new Twitter account or teaching one of my social media coaching clients how to use Twitter I tell them the first tweet needs to be something sincere. Don’t use any links at all. Give them a welcome, what you stand for …something that will help them decide to follow you.  This is the tweet I use or something similar:

Welcome! Thank you for checking out my stream. I’ll be sharing __________ information with you. I am passionate about ____________.

You have sent the first tweet, the tweet that lets them know who you are!  Now, go out and find some content that backs up this tweet and tweet it. Content that you can share that is information related to your business, what you’ll be sharing and what you are passionate about.  Make sure and send out at least three others tweets. I realize you might be new to Twitter and you will not be tweeting as much as an experienced user, that’s ok, but do make sure and check your Twitter daily and tweet.

Realistically, you probably have already sent your first tweet and unfortunately you can’t undo that! Are you proud of what you sent? Maybe not ….

You can make up for it.  Send out a few tweets on different days at different times letting those already following you know why they did – who you are and what you are passionate about.  Luckily, Twitter is a timeline and those self-promoting tweets won’t be as visible after you have tweeted awhile.

Make sure you are tweeting to a theme. If you are using Twitter for business you would tweet stuff related to your industry. (i.e. If you are a web designer tweet articles and content related to design, graphic arts, technology trends, SEO related content).

Do mix it up a little and tweet some content about things you are passionate about also! Remember though when you tweet to avoid topics like politics, religion and profanity. When you are growing your following on Twitter you don’t want to tweet stuff that would make your potential follower decide not to follow or something that would make a follower unfollow!

That’s it for Twitter Business Success Tip #2. What I thought was going to be a very short blog post ended up a very long blog post.  Hope you don’t mind!

It’s your turn – share your first Tweet success stories and horror stories. We all learn from each others’ mistakes after all!

(P.S.: People really don’t want to know what you are eating – keep those tweets to yourself, unless of course you consider yourself a foodie and want to share a great place you just checked out.)

Twitter in Business for Success Tip #1

Want to know the secret to my Twitter success, so you can apply it to your Twitter business marketing strategy?

You are not alone in the quest to learn how to use Twitter in business better and more effectively to succeed in marketing your business. Several weeks ago, Fred Campos of Fun City Social Media and I got together to honor Social Media Day and presented a joint presentation, Facebook vs. Twitter.  The attendees gave us excellent feedback and really seemed to enjoy learning about both Facebook and Twitter, how they work together and separately in marketing your business.

The presentation flowed quite well, I gave a brief overview of the different types of Online Marketing and when you might want to use of them. I then dove right into My Twenty Tips for Twitter Success.  Each tip I shared included an explanation of how businesses could apply it to their social media marketing campaign and how I applied it to achieve my Twitter success.  In August of 2009, I had about 200 Twitter followers. By October of 2009, I had built this up to around 4000 and now I have over 18,000.  It is important that I tell you I grew my following using organic tactics only, being real, having genuine conversation with my followers (I really consider them my friends). The 20 tips I am going to share over the next series of blog posts will help you achieve this same Twitter success if you apply them effectively.

First, I want to share with you a little about Fred’s presentation on Facebook Marketing. Most of the tips I shared in My Twenty Tips to Twitter Success can be applied to your social networking strategy on multiple platforms, so it played well into the kind of content you would share on your Facebook Business Page also.

One of the tips Fred shared that really got my attention was a strategy to grow the “Likes” on your Facebook Business Page. He said “While logged in as your page, go to other Facebook Business Pages that would compliment your services and strategic partners and post messages on their wall. Also, go to pages that your ideal customer would frequent and post wall messages there too.” He advised “be sincere in the messages you post, don’t’ try to sell, or be spam like, give them a compliment so the page will leave your comment on their wall”.  The fans that frequent their page will see your wall post, most likely click on it, and go “Like” your page.  I started using Fred’s strategy to grow some of my pages and my clients’ pages. It works. To read more about this tactic, Fred’s business partner, @FunCityGal, wrote a blog post. Check it out!

I know … I know …. You are reading this post because you want My Twenty Tips for Twitter Success and you want all 20 tips right now.  You want Twitter success now … Patience, my friend, I am writing an eBook with all twenty tips for Twitter business success and how to apply each one.  It will be available for download shortly and you can have all 20 Tips pronto.  In the meantime, it will be a blog post at a time …

1^st tip to achieving Twitter success:

Register your account, SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio, and Upload a Profile Picture

What name should you use to register your Twitter username? If you are your business, i.e. coach, speaker, etc. register your Twitter id in your name.  If your business provides a service such as dry cleaners, jewelry store, restaurant, etc. register the Twitter id in the business name. 

Still need help deciding? Answer this question – What do you want to brand? You or your business? You can always take a poll and ask your friends how they would look for your particular service online.  You can always register multiple Twitter ids. I would suggest if you are new to Twitter to master its use with one Twitter id, before making it more complicated by managing more however.

How do you SEO Optimize your Twitter Bio? Use keywords to describe you or your business. Think of this as a short bio using the keywords in your industry that others would search for to find you or your service. If you have room include the state you live in if your service is for a particular area only (i.e. serving Texas.).

I don’t like my headshot and am still waiting on the company logo. You would like to use a picture of something else temporarily, perhaps a default Twitter avatar or picture taken of you from a distance.  Don’t make this mistake! If you use a default Twitter avatar people that are considering following you will not take you seriously. They will decide you are a spammer and either decide not to follow you or unfollow you if they already have.  I personally don’t follow/unfollow anyone who doesn’t have a real picture for their Twitter avatar.

Should you use your picture or your company logo? That depends on what your Twitter id is that you registered. If you registered the Twitter username as your name, use your headshot, if you registered under the business name use your company logo.

That’s it for Twitter Business Success Tip #1. Now go out and check to make sure you are following these suggestions closely.

It’s your turn … Don’t forget to comment below about what you have learned about this part of the process. Your thoughts and feedback are just as important as mine!

Trends: What do you do when you see a new trend developing? Ignore, implement or keep a watchful eye.

What do you think when you see someone following / doing what you think is a silly trend?  Do you ignore them, do you read up and research it? What exactly do you do?

I know looking at the pictures to the left of me “planking” on a guard rail you are probably laughing and puzzled. I was inspired to write the post based on a recent photo I look following a trend “planking”. You can read all about the trend online. They even have a Facebook page.  I took some “planking” pictures over the weekend to have a laugh with a friend who spent Saturday taking his 13 year old son “planking”. Some trends are silly and come and go quickly, however some trends are here to stay. 

Here are a few social media trends that most people ignored and they are still around and thriving:

• Facebook was started by some college students. People thought it was a trend for kids.  Facebook now has over 800 million users. Quite a trend! Wouldn’t you have liked to say you were one of the first, I know I would have. 

There are businesses that just focus solely on building Facebook applications and games. Any website that doesn’t have Facebook “Like” and the other social media integrations they offer are considered behind the times. If you have a business and don’t have a Facebook Business Page you are behind. If you don’t have a Facebook Profile you are even more behind.

• Twitter was started in March of 2006. The first Tweet was sent at 9:50 pm PST by Jack Dorsey. At first there were only a few regular users, now they have over 200 million users. I remember the first time someone mentioned Twitter to me I had never heard of it. I needed a training lesson and live demonstration to see what it was all about (a far cry from my Twitter addiction today). This Wikipedia post about Twitter is quite interesting.  

Developers are now continually building the new latest greatest Twitter tools to manage your following, grow your following, Tweet, etc.  I personally have used and use many of them.  To name a few of my favorites – SocialOomph.com, Tweetdeck.com and Tweepi.com.

If a trend is something that could affect your business look at it a little closer before just dismissing it.  Follow it!  I am not saying act on it, but watch it a little closer than turning a blind eye. 

This is my approach with a new technology trend:

1. Does it make sense?
2. What are others saying about it?
3. Could it be applied to your business?
4. Would it damage your reputation?
5. Does it cost you little or nothing to implement the trend for a short time to test it?

I usually will test a new social media trend, so I can support my clients and friends with answers to their questions. I like to know the positives and the negatives. I then will think about the strategies that can be used with the new trend for business owners.

These are just a few thoughts I have on trends.  I know you have some great feedback also. Now, it’s your turn! Please comment and share!  Thank you!

P.S. I realized after taking the “planking” photos last weekend, I was actually doing it wrong. To me, that made it even funnier! If you want to see the rest of the photos I made, check out the album on Facebook. Also, for those that are thinking I am losing my mind, I was “planking” on a guard rail in a park, not on the side of the highway!

Are you ready to STOP diluting your network and STOP polluting online? Tips for Proper Online Etiquette

Are you ready to STOP diluting your network and STOP polluting online? That is right … I just said online pollution – the trash we put out to our friends and about our friends online via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, etc.

I recently spoke with a great group of ladies at Essential Energy.  I was presenting the “Not So Secret ‘Secrets’ of Social Media Marketing”.  Their experience level with social media ranged from zilch to aficionado. 

One of the attendees asked me “What can I do about friends that take photographs of me and post them on Facebook.  I told her “unfortunately, you are at their mercy”. 

Etiquette tips about Digital Photographs:

• Show the digital photo to those in the photo when it is taken. Anyone that doesn’t approve of the photo can speak up.
• Email those in your digital photographs a copy.  Give them the opportunity to request you don’t post the photograph.
• Crop the picture.  Look at the picture closely at all those in the picture. If the picture isn’t flattering or shows someone in a bad light, cut them out of the photograph.
• Tagging photos on Facebook. Don’t tag your friends on Facebook in the photos. Let them do it.  Send them a link to the album via a private message on Facebook and say “You are in a couple of these photos. I didn’t tag you, but go in and tag yourself in the ones you want to.”

More about this  … “Is this Photo of You? Are You Protecting Your Digital Footprint?”  for suggestions how to avoid getting photos snapped of you don’t want out there.

Another asked about ”Proper Online Etiquette”.  I have been thinking about this topic quite about since this time. A few thoughts …

Proper Online Etiquette:

1. Get permission. Before you share something a friend told you privately via a message, email or Twitter Direct Message get their permission. Give them the chance to say “No”.
2. Facebook Tagging. So you post an article or something on Facebook (a note, photo, status update, etc.) and you want to tag some friends so they see it.  Make sure you have an understanding in advance with those you tag, so they don’t care that you do it.  Send them a private message and say, “I posted a Facebook Note I wanted you to see, I tagged you. I hope you don’t mind”.  Once they give you the ok a few times when you ask them in advance, from then on tag away!
3. Facebook Event Invitations. I don’t know about you, but I am getting so many of these on a daily basis it is hard to keep track of the ones I actually want to receive.  Here is my advice on this:  Spend some time when you create an event and actually select the people that would be interested in going and live in the area of the event. You can target this event invitiations by lists and area. Put this tool to use and STOP diluting your network and polluting online.
4. Twitter Mentions. This is like Facebook tagging and it is just as annoying when someone mentions you in a Tweet and all they want to do is drive you to their article.  Especially, when you don’t even give them a name of the article.  I myself will do some mentions like this, but it is with friends that have told me they don’t read their Direct Messages and the best way to get their attention is this method.  I myself will send a Direct Message to someone if I have some content I have written I want them to see.  There is a fine line between spamming and annoying with this, so be cautious on doing too much of this.
5. Give credit where it’s due! When you are on Facebook, Twitter, etc., if you have a friend / business page that has shared a piece of content via a status update or tweet and you share it with your network – give them credit for it.  Your friends can tell when you have taken their content and shared it to your profile without giving them proper credit. Tag them on Facebook or mention their Twitter id in the tweet. (If the Facebook tagging isn’t working, put their name in the update and if they see it, they know you tried!)

More about this …. From Chris Brogan – Etiquette in the Age of Social Media and from eHow – Social Media Etiquette!  

One final thought to keep in mind …. I have found in using many different social networking sites, people do things online that are not proper online etiquette, but that is not their intention. They usually don’t realize what they are doing or how it affects and possibly offends you and others. Keep that in mind and be patient, gentle and tactful in letting them know.  (You could just send them a link to this blog post and say “see item # and so on”. LOL! #Joke)

I hit a few of the high spots. It’s your turn …. Now! Share some of your Online Etiquette Tips and lets help each other to grow and develop online!

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