Monday Minute ~ Stress

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, leaving nothing but your middle a little heavier and your wallet a little lighter.....the holiday season is officially in full swing! What steps have you taken this year to keep the holiday stress down?

Tune in for the Wednesday Words this week for an article of interest to anyone who needs some stress relieving tips and tricks!

In the meantime, if you have any questions on how to relieve stress, please leave a comment and I will try to cover that in my article :)

Wednesday Words ~ Is Your Business Web Present?

If you are a small business owner who is not marketing your business online, you may very well be missing the mark with your target market.

In this day and age, almost everyone is online. With the world literally at their fingertips, it takes mere minutes to find the plumber, landscaper or electrician they need. Will they find you there?

Thinking of it in that manner, doesn’t it make sense to have some sort of web presence in place?

Even if you are selling a product or service that cannot be shipped or delivered virtually, you owe it to yourself and your business to have this marketing tool.

At the bare minimum, you should have a page that lists who you are and what you do. A basic small website may consist of a home page, a contact page with hours and phone number, and an about us page with company history.

If you are a service industry, such as an electrician, heating & cooling company, plumber or landscaping company, you can include other pages with experience, organizations your company is affiliated with, testing or classes taken, types of projects you work with (business or residential), pictures of jobs completed or even a slideshow of photos progressing from start to finish. The latter is a great tool for landscapers and builders!

Testimonials are another good item to include on your website, either throughout the site or on their own page. This will help potential clients feel more comfortable if they decide to call you.

A website does not need to be large and flashy. A small do-it-yourself website will run you from $10-$21 a month depending on the provider and features that you may be looking for. Companies such as www.godaddy.com or www.internetbasedfamily.com offer web hosting services with easy to use site builder tools and templates. If you are not the ‘techie’ type, you could possibly trade services with a local web design company. Start small and work your way up if you outgrow it later on.

Not having a website will not necessarily kill your business, but with so many affordable options out there, it is one more way to get your company and message in front of potential clients, even if you have a product or service that caters only to a local market.

About the author: Chelle Barnett is the owner of Your Virtual Admin Pro, a virtual assistance company that specializes in providing administrative support services to small business owners. You can find her on the web at www.yourvirtualadminpro.com.

Monday Minute

Today on the Monday Minute, I want to give you a little food for thought before you gorge on Thanksgiving Dinner!

Do you have a website? If so, are you using it to it's full potential? If not, why don't you?

Either way, be sure to stop by for the Wednesday Word this week! The article for this week will explore web presence and why you need one, even if you only do business locally.

Blogophobia defined and defied!

Blogophobia: the fear of saying something totally stupid on one's blog. Can be treated with patience and usage of the "edit" button. Blogophobia symptoms include a blog with one lonely post welcoming readers and yet has no other content. Treatment of blogophobia: set a schedule and get to it! See also: Chelle.

Ok, I admit it, I’ve been avoiding the blog. Much like your weird Aunt Edna at the family reunion, I’ve looked at the blog from afar and kept my distance, lest it pinch my cheeks and leave big lipstick imprints all over my face. But not anymore!

After a month of one lonely “Welcome to the blog” post, I’ve taken the bull by the horns and made a schedule ::gasp:: I will kick this blogophobia ~ one post at a time!

For those brave souls who wish to go on an adventure with me, subscribe to my feed. It’s the easy way to keep an eye on me ::smile::

For those of you who are feedreader challenged, my tentative schedule is below. I’m starting out slow and working my way up to 5 days a week ::faints::

Monday we will have “Monday Minute”. Since Monday’s tend to be a busy day for everyone, I’ll keep this one short and sweet.

Wednesday will bring “Wednesday’s Words”. Some weeks this will be my own words and some weeks this will be an article of interest to small business owners.

Friday is “Friday Funnies”. A little humor to end the week on!

After I get in the swing of things, I plan to add on “Tuesday Tips” and “Thursday Thoughts”.

In the meantime, if there is anything you wish to have my thoughts on, feel free to leave me a comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you ::smile::

Until Wednesday….

Chelle

PS. If you are looking for the one lonesome post that was here before, the blog ate it :X