Category Archives: Uncategorized

How to Put Your Minute Book Together

Posted on by June 29, 2017
Reply

Have you ever wondered, “Where do I put my annual meeting minutes?” or “What does a company minute book look like? And how do I organize it?”

Well, in this video, I show you what annual meeting minutes look like and where to put them.

You’ll also see what annual meeting minutes look like if you have Just A Minute, LLC on your team.

You see, we do everything for you. You don’t have to do a thing except to put them in your Minute Book.

How To Put Your Minute Book Together

Ready to get started?
btnSignUpNow-small

Surveying your Clients

Posted on by April 4, 2013
Reply

3-13-client-survey-tips

 

If You’re Not Surveying Customers, You’re Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

Do you truly know how well you’re doing with your clients and customers? Are there problem areas or holes in your customer service you’re unaware of? Would you like to find out what they really think? There’s only one way to get this information—ask them! A well-crafted customer survey can be a useful tool that will help you discover the answers to these and many other items you may not even have known were issues for your customers.

So why ask questions at all?

The primary incentive for a customer survey is to eliminate problems before they become part of your reputation, and find ways to improve your service or products. Most of the time, we never learn about a disappointed customer: they’ll simply look somewhere else. CustomerThink.com has discovered that more than half of consumers have experienced issues and complaints with the products and services they’ve purchased. Creating a survey helps you find and correct mistakes that can be the difference between holding onto a client or not.

What kind of questions work best?

Make sure you have a clear goal to your surveys, and you ask questions that require  more than ticking a box, or assigning a numerical value to your query. Avoid “Yes” or “No” questions. Allow them to expand on their experience and feelings. (This can also be a great way to collect testimonials!)

How exactly should you hold the survey?

There are many ways to conduct a survey. However, if possible, the most effective way appears to be via an online survey, thus giving the respondent a good chance to think about and form well thought-out answers, something which may not occur via a phone call or personal contact. Look at offering a bonus for filling out your survey, and try to be timely as to when you send it. If you’re a new comer to this, consider using a company that specializes in this type of data collection, such as SurveyMonkey. However you achieve it, getting a read on how your customers view your business is invaluable data to have.

Online Reputation Management Strategies

Posted on by April 2, 2013
Reply

3-13-online-reputation-strategies

 

Use these 5 Online Reputation Strategies to Manage your Company’s Brand

You might think that online reputation management isn’t something you ought concern yourself with. I would implore you to reconsider that thought!

According to eMarketer 83% of consumers declare that online reviews sway their opinions about a particular company, and 8 of 10 of these people added that a negative entry online is the cause of them changing their mind regarding that company. Even one negative review, justified or not, can negate all of your finest efforts if you haven’t planned an online reputation strategy to manage it. So to help out with that I’d like to present five strategies your business, and your brand, can implement to monitor and manage your online reputation.

  1. Monitoring your brand names – Listening what’s being said about you and your business is critical. There are lots of wonderful free tools to help in this regard. Check out Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Social Mention and others.
  2. Claim all of your social properties – Unclaimed social media sites can be used by your competition for nefarious exploits. Be sure you claim all social sites that could pertain to your brand.
  3. Own as much of page one of Google as you can – One assertive way to make sure what individuals learn about you when they Google you is to own most if not all of Google page one for your brand names. This makes it much more difficult for flyby attacks to have much if any impact.
  4. Ask for customer reviews – Customer reviews aren’t just gonna magically appear: you must actively court them. Make a point of prompting your clients to write reviews, and do everything possible so that it’s easy for them: links to review sites, examples from other customers, etc. And if you offer incentives, let them know that you’re not attempting to bribe them or influence their review!
  5. Engage with your people – Interacting with those writing comments, Facebook posts and tweets is an excellent way to head off any damage from the get-go. Don’t participate in mud-slinging however, no matter how justified you’re feeling! Thank them for their contribution to the discussion, and politely disagree, standing up for yourself. (If they’re not right, of course!)

Online reputation management is incredibly important these days, when customers can tweet, post or video form wherever they happen to be. Don’t forget this one!

Top 7 Ways to Delight and Engage your Facebook Fans

Posted on by March 19, 2013
Reply

2-13-How-to-delight-and-engage-FB-fans

 

You have a Facebook page. You have some fans. Nicely done. Now, like the smart business you are, you’re looking for some proven ways to engage your followers so you can acquire more of them and make the most of your presence on Facebook.

Engaging your fans is a critical piece to building and maintaining a long-lasting relationships on Facebook—and offline! Here are a few timeless strategies that local businesses are using with great results.

1. Spread the Love

Tell your fans how much you appreciate them. Tell ‘em often!

Thanking your fans for their questions, complimenting them on their comments, highlighting their success stories—these things go a looong, long way in social media. Many smart businesses on Facebook run a ‘Fan of the Month’ promotion to encourage and reward engagement.

This is really savvy way to make people feel good about themselves and your business while also capitalizing on the power of social proof.

2. Offer Coupons and Run Promotions

Discounts, coupons, special offers … your followers will NEVER get tired of opportunities to save money and get more value from their purchases. Pro tip: If you want to run a promotion for a specific geographic location, use the Custom menu when you’re posting to target your followers in a certain area.

3. Share Your Knowledge

You run a business. You have special knowledge and insight. You can help people. So share! People are always grateful for information that makes their lives easier or more fulfilling. Sharing helpful tips is some of the best engagement around.

It also helps you take advantage of the reciprocity principle: do something nice for someone, they’ll feel bound to return the favor.

4. Issue a Challenge

We humans are deeply competitive by nature and simply cannot resist a challenge, an opportunity to show the world that we’re pretty darn smart. Test your fans’ knowledge using fun quizzes and polls. Trivia, brain teasers, riddles … you’ll have your followers eating out of your hand by day’s end, trust me.

5. Take Photos of Your Happy Customers

Don’t hire a professional photographer. Just start snapping photos with your cellphone and post them to Facebook. You will be amazed—truly—at how people respond. Data collected by social media expert Dan Zarrella shows that photos get more shares and likes than text, video and link updates. This also a great social-proof strategy: other folks will see people enjoying your products/services and they’ll want to join the party, so to speak.

6. Ask for Advice

The highest compliment a business can pay to its customers is to ask for their input. If you own a pizza parlour, ask your fans to come up with a new pizza recipe! Or let them name your new product. Make it a contest! Solicit ideas and then let your fans vote for their favorite.

7. Use Insights to See What’s Working

Here’s the beauty of Facebook: you can see what’s working and what’s not. Just export your Facebook Insights data to an Excel spreadsheet to a get quick, clear look at which status updates performed best, what kind of media your audience responds to and what’s driving engagement.

Using Facebook to Market Your Business

Posted on by February 21, 2013
Reply

2-13-Tips-for-using-FB-to-market-pic

 

 

 

 

Traveling in Facebookistan: A Guide for Businesses

With 9 billion users, Facebook is far and away the most used social network in the world. If Facebook were a country, it would contain the third largest population, behind China and India. And like China and India, Facebook possesses its own unique customs and norms, and you should understand them to be able to fully leverage the site’s potential as a marketing tool. When I see businesses fail on Facebook, it’s often because they don’t bother to find out the local customs.

You’re a guest in Facebookistan. Behave yourself!

What makes Facebook distinct from other social networks? It’s that users have strong ties with one another. They are connected with their best friends, their family members, their in-laws and their long-lost friends from grade school. They share intimate areas of their lives. Such things as:

  • Birthday celebrations
  • High school graduation footage
  • Baby photos
  • Wedding announcements

The upshot for businesses? They need to be conscientious and careful in their technique. You can’t apply the old forms of one-way, direct-response marketing on Facebook, since people aren’t there to listen to sales pitches. They’re not necessarily in a buying mindset. They’re in a socializing mindset. You have to respect that.

Keep it real (for real)

If you try to port the old model of marketing into Facebook, you’ll be disappointed. The natives can get irritated and shun you. “With Facebook, marketers of any size can do effective, word-of-mouth marketing at scale for the very first time,” says Annie Ta, a Facebook spokeswoman. “But Facebook is about authenticity, so if your small business is not being authentic or engaging with customers in a manner that feels genuine, the community will see right through it.”

Don’t be fooled: It’s meant to be hard

Don’t be fooled by social media “gurus” who make wild promises about effortless Facebook success. Social media is all about creating relationships and influence—and this needs time to work. Many organizations think that if they set up a page on Facebook, that’s all they have to do. Marketing on Facebook is definitely an extremely effective way to reach local customers (we wouldn’t be talking about it if it weren’t). But here’s the rub: it’s also difficult (and rewarding) if you’re doing it correctly. The payback is well worth the investment in time and attention. According to a study from Social Media Examiner, nearly two-thirds of small businesses involved in social media point out that Facebook has improved their overall marketing effectiveness, and 80 percent report forming new partnerships after just two years of involvement.

Gratitude to a Successful Year

Posted on by December 18, 2012
Reply

The Power of Gratitude…

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” –Sarah Ban Breathnach, inspirational author

 

 

 

This is the best time of the year, and the most hectic time of year for most small business owners. It is easy to fall into the anxiety and rush of the season.

But when you pause to reflect on what you are thankful for, it can put you in a positive mood; Last month we talked about gratitude journaling, and the great way it brought meaning to the season of Thanksgiving. We have continued this feeling of gratitude through to this month, focusing on what we have accomplished this year with our business. And isn’t that the greatest way to end the year? Take a look at how far YOU have come this year, and use this to remind yourself to be grateful and positive.

One tradition we have at our business, is to take time to list all of the major (and some of the minor) accomplishments for the entire year. We write them all down and schedule an entire morning to review them with everyone in our office. It becomes an energetic time to share and reminisce about the year! And if I left anything off of the lengthy list, someone is sure to let me know. We love to celebrate how far we have come and reward those who have done an outstanding job.

This “meeting” gets us in the frame of gratitude for all who have helped to move the business forward, and becomes a time of recognition (which everyone loves).

We also take time to recognize the feedback we receive from our clients and how those suggestions have made us a better company.

It is amazing to see this “Year in Review” and spend the time to show our employees our appreciation.

Here’s a few questions to ask yourself that will put you in that grateful perspective, and get you ready to think about your direction for 2012:

1) Who has made a difference in your life this year? What did they do? Have you thanked them for it? (It’s not too late to send a card of thanks!)

2) What has created the biggest impact on your business this year? Was it an event, an employee, a new marketing strategy? Who has helped you to implement and create positive change in your business?

3) What are some of your unique talents and gifts? What are some talents of your employees? What outstanding trait could you recognize for each employee?

4) Name five new things you learned this year related to the business. Is something working well…not working…does something need to change? Write them down and use this as a starting point for the new year.

We Love doing this! It leads us into a new year with a feeling of great accomplishment and gratitude, as well as preparing us for a great year ahead! What are your biggest accomplishments that you are grateful for this year?

 

 

When Minute Books Can Be Spooky

Posted on by October 25, 2012
Reply

I was talking to a business owner friend the other day and he asked me to review his minute book to see what needed to be done.

I asked him “When was your company filed?”

“In 2010,” he said, “and I’m pretty sure I’m missing some minutes…”

So I opened his minute book and that is when I got a surprise

(cue spooky music here)….

Inside his book, he had his Operating Agreement (a good first sign), but it wasn’t signed, there were no minutes at all…not even his Organizational Meeting, and the certificates were blank.

It is something we see a lot unfortunately: a client gets their Minute Book and then promptly puts in on the shelf.

I asked him, “Why haven’t you done any minutes, or even signed these documents that ARE done?”

And the answer he gave was typical: “I didn’t KNOW that I needed to do anything!”

That IS spooky! A Minute Book needs some attention and care to keep it up. And that’s why I’m sending a simple (not scary) reminder to take a look at yours and get that book up to date!!

If you’re not sure what needs to be documented, click here to review our simple checklist. If you need help, click here to learn more about our service.

No tricks, just treating you and your minute book right!

 

Fiverr.com . . . Is It Worth It?

Posted on by February 14, 2012
Reply

At a recent business conference, we heard about a website called fiverr.com, where you can find all sorts of help for just five dollars. So we decided to check it out and pass our research on to you.

Our first task: find someone who could provide a video introduction for our future videos. There were many to sift through, but I found one that looked promising and I hired him. Then I waited.

I received this video back within 24 hours:

Check out the video here…and comment below to let us know if you LIKE it or HATE it!!

We want to hear from you:

Have you ever used fiverr.com? Were you satisfied? Would you recommend them to other business owners?
Our second task: find someone who can provide a professional looking logo for just $5 in a reasonable amount of time.

Click here to see the results