What's Your Story?

Every business owner has a story; a story about why they started their business; what the key reasons were at the time and what drove them to make the decsion and to take the first step.

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart had his story, Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express had his story and Ray Kroc, the founder of MacDonalds had his story. In fact Ray Kroc would sit down with his future MacDoanlds Francishees and before they went on their training and before they got the keys to their new store, Ray Kroc would share his story with them.

Michael Gerber recently started his new business at the young age of 73 and he calls it "The Dreaming Room". His latest bestselling book, "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within" explains his latest story.The book is excellent and takes you on the whole journey of creating a new business from the initial idea right through to getting going. Part of this process is creating your story. It must be compelling and passionate so that people can buy into it. Especially important if you are going to be employing staff. Your new recruits need to know your story - you will need to tell it to them so they know your dream; your vision and they can join you on your journey.

It's often difficult for staff who don't know the owner's story. They do their job but it would be way more fulfiling if they knew the story of the business, the reason why the company is doing what it's doing. Can you imagine how much more exciting it would be if you knew your boss' dream and vision for the business? How many bosses have sat down and told each member of staff their story? Think about how your staff would feel if you took the time to actually sit down with them in the next week and told them your story and how important your business is and what you want to achieve in your business and how you need their help. You're on a journey together and you want their help and their committment. During these tough times you can explain why it might not be possible to give them a pay rise, but by spending some quality time with them, telling them your story, you'll be surprised at how much happier they will be and how much more effective they will be at their job.

If you run your own business then you need to have your story and be ready to tell it at every opportunity. Martin Luther King, Jr had a dream. He knew what his story was and in telling it to the world on 28th August 1963 he changed the course of history.

People buy people and if you have a passionate story then people will warm to you and will be more ready to help you. It will help you when you engage suppliers - they will understand your story and know what you're trying to achieve and be more likely to help you if they can. If they love your story and buy into your story they will be almost as enthusiastic about it as you and be pleased to partner with you.

What's My Story?
I call myself an Internet Evangelist! I love everything to do with the Internet. I'm passionate about helping business owners get back control and stay in control of their online business. So many people don't know where their website is hosted or if the domain name is even owned by them. See my Blog post from June - http://blog.dickiearmour.me.uk/2010/06/are-you-in-control-of-your-online.html . I spend every day helping people get back control of their domain names and it gives me a massive sense of satisfaction. The Internet is perceived to be quite complicated and people get really confiused about domain names, websites, and email and so I love to help our customers understand and I give them help and advice on how they can remain in control which helps them avoid many of the pitfalls.

So what's your story? What's the story of your business and why you started it? Take time out today to hone your story and then go and tell the world! If you have staff make a promise to meet with each of them within 1 week and sit them down and tell them your story and the vital part they play in it.

Personal Domain Names & Why you Should Own Yours

It still surprises me the number of people I meet who do not own their personal domain name. I own:
dickiearmour.com
dickiearmour.co.uk
dickiearmour.me.uk
richardarmour.co.uk
and my wife and daughter have their personal domain names too.

A domain name is a finite source. There can only be one dickiearmour.co.uk and once it's been registered no one else can get it, as long as I renew it at the time of renewal, or I forget to renew it! You never know when you might want to use your own domain name and if you haven't protected it by registering it, then you could be disappointed when the time comes that you do want to use it and try to register it.

The obvious two main uses of a personal domain name are for:

1. Email
   and/or
2. A website

You Don't have to use your Broadband email address!
When you get broadband you automatically get an email address from your broadband provider. So if I was with BT or Sky my email address might be dickie.armour@sky.com or dickiearmour134@btinternet.com. Now that's all well and good but what happens when I change broadband provider to say Orange? I lose my old email account and have to set up a new email address with Orange and then go through all the hassle of telling my friends and family, many of whom won't remember and will still continue to send emails to you at your old email address!

With your own personal domain name this doesn't happen. I'm with Tiscali - now TalkTalk - for my broadband and even though I do have a tiscali.co.uk email address I never use it. I don't need to. I use an email address on my personal domain name - dickiearmour.me.uk. So if and when I change broadband providers it makes no difference to me that TalkTalk will delete my old tiscail.co.uk email account because I don't use it. And, I won't have to bother telling my friends, family and business contacts because they all use my dickiearmour.me.uk email address already.

My wife rides dressage horses and has represented GB on numerous occasions; in March 2007 on The Spanish Sunshine Tour, August 2007 at Hickstead and May 2009, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. She hasn't got a website but does have a personal domain name which she uses for email. But she is now considering getting a website designed and as a rider she wants to use her own name for the website because like most sports people they promote themselves using their brand - their own name. So she has no worries on that score because she's already got her own domain name!

Update: 2013
My wife now does have a website - www.nicolacooper.co.uk   

Perhaps there will come a time when you want to set up a website on your own personal domain name. You might want to start blogging and use your own name for your blog or perhaps you are a business coach or a consultant or a trainer. It makes sense to use your own name as your business and therefore a personal domain name would be needed. 

The other area where I'm a huge advocate of getting a personal domain name is for our children. I bought the .co.uk and .com in our daughter's name and I'm really pleased I did. She is already beginning to use it with friends at school and even had to send her maths teacher an email of some photos of shapes last week. He was so impressed she had her own email address! I bought her domain names soon after she was born. It appears there is a Doctor in the Midlands with the same name. After a year or so I got a phone call from her asking if I was prepared to sell my daughter's domain name as she wanted to use it! There can only ever be one version on any domain name extension and my daughter has all the main ones for her name. I politely declined the doctor and so she'll have had to look for alternative domain names. 

In America there has been a trend of buying domain names for newborn babies since about 2007. See this article from the Fox News website - Parents Rush to Register Newborn Babies' Internet Domain Names and I'm surprised more people here in the UK don't do this. The children of today and tomorrow are going to be living and breathing the Internet and will no doubt have websites and blogs of their own. The other thing you can do with your own domain name is point it to your Facebook, Twitter or whichever social network page of your choice. With the younger generation embracing these social networks I think we'll see a lot more of this in the future. 

So protect your's and your children's Internet identity today and get your personal domain names before someone else does.

Writing Copy for Email Campaigns - How I get in the Zone

When I sit down to write an email or letter firstly I make sure I will have no distractions.

No Distractions

So I close all other applications on my PC so I just have Word open. I use Word for doing my draft emails too. I then just cut and paste them into an Outlook email when it’s ready. I make sure my mobile phone is off or at least on silent. I also unplug the phone socket in my office and tell reception that I will not be available for 20 minutes or however long I need. To really make sure I won’t be disturbed I very often go to a coffee shop with my laptop.  As I mentioned in My Business Time Table I use an online countdown timer www.online-stopwatch.com to set chunks of time and at the end of that time a loud alarm rings alerting me to stop.

Then I start to think about what the reason is for the letter or email – what is my desired outcome? What is the objective I’m trying to achieve? For example if it’s to tell someone about my great products or services with a view to getting an appointment then I make it short sharp and snappy and I always make sure that I have a VERY OBVIOUS call to action. So they know what I would like them to do next.

Email Marketing Campaigns

If you're doing an email marketing campaign you will need to send out a number of different emails. It's important for you to spend some time deciding on the different emails and what your call to action is going to be in each one. For example; let's suppose you're a vocal coach and you want to work with music producers and vocal artists. Your two key target markets are obvious - vocal artists and music producers. Assuming you have a contact database you can now start to plan your email campaign to them.

You'll probably aim a seperate campaign at each target market, but some of the content will be relvant to both so you can re-use some of your content. For the Music Producers you could plan the following emails:

• Initial introduction email - your service and what makes you special with a call to action of a FREE session with one of their vocalists to show what you can do.
• 1st Follow Up email - Just a polite email briefly reminding them about your service and mentioning the special offer and ask them to get in touch.
• Outside of the email campaign I always recommend a phone call to the person to follow up the email.
• 2nd Follow Up email - great to speak to you and just wanted to show you this video of some testimonials. Again mention the call to action.
• 3rd Follow Up email - Include some recent success story you've had working with a music producer and how you helped them cut down studio time.
• 4th Follow Up email - Send them a few links to some articles you've written on vocal coaching or perhaps promote an event your running.

You get the general idea. You should always be looking for reasons to get back in touch with your prospective customers and also your existing customers. To make it relevant I make sure I know my target market and make sure my message tells them NOT about the features but instead it MUST tell them about the benefits – what they will get from dealing with me; my company; buying my products and services. What is it they are looking for and does my product or service fulfil that need?

Just get Writing

Then I just start to write the message. I don’t worry about the spelling or grammar too much to begin with. I even switch my paragraphs around after I’ve read the message a few times. I find that just writing the beginning part gets my creative juices flowing and I can get into the right groove and then I find the right approach and message.

It's also a good practice to read other emails you get from time to time. Find the ones you like and which made you take action and look at them. What was it about those emails? Copy their ideas and tailor them for your business and products and services.

You should start with a beginning a middle and an end and make sure there are compelling calls to action. For example if you are offering them a FREE session with you then make sure your email states this clearly:

Call today to secure your FREE session with me - only 10 FREE places left.

Use an offer with a deadline so they are more persuaded to act quickly.

Also, make sure you include links back to your website in your emails so it's nice and easy for them to click and get to your website. These links can direct them to the exact place on your website where you want them to visit.

The Subject Line

The other area when email marketing you must spend time on is the Subject Line of the email. The subject line is the first thing they will see so it must grab their attention without being too over the top. I always include their first name at the beginning of the subject line. This is very effective at grabbing their attention because you've used their name and they will assume you know them.

James, this amazing new service is set to revolutionise the Music Business!

There are words and phrases you should try to avoid using in subject lines otherwise you get caught in ISP Spam filters, but that's a huge subject all on it's own and not my speciality.

So Plan & Get Writing

So make sure you plan your campaign and what each message subject will be and then just start writing. Put aside some time each day to work on your content and keep going. And if you'd like some help and guidance or if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Please add your comments below and please do add your advice too.

Nobody is Practising Anything

If you run your own business or you run a department of a business what do you do every day?

Have you ever taken time out to think about what happens each day at work? 

A typical day for a sales person called John might look something like this.

09:00 Arrive, relax into their desk place and chat
09:30 Make a coffee

09:45 Open their email

09:50 Call their spouse to let them know they arrived to work safely

10:00 Go to the loo

10:15 Have a chat with office colleague

10:30 Reply to some emails

10:45 Post arrives

10:50 Read through post

11:00 Make first cold call

11:30 After 6 NOs on the calls they break for a coffee

11:45 Call their friend to make plans for the evening

12:00 Reply to some emails

12:30 Follow up on a few leads and quotes

13:00 Lunch Break

14:10 Back from lunch

14:15 Close 1 lucky deal

14:20 Celebrate by making a coffee

14:45 Drive to appointment

15:45 Arrive unprepared not really knowing anything about the potential client

16:15 Leave having had a great meeting

17:15 Arrive back at office to tell boss how great the meeting was

17:30 Head for home

Anyone running their own business has to make every hour of every day count. They could never afford to waste time in the way that John does.

But most small business owners aren't practising anything. Instead, like John, they are reacting to the day. To the emails that arrive; to the phone calls they receive; to the post that arrives etc. This is a fundamental flaw in most small businesses. 

Instead they should be practising every single day. Michael Gerber of eMyth Worldwide tells a great story about his saxaphone teacher, Merl. Merl told Michael if he wanted to be the best saxophone player in the world he had to practice 5 hours a day, 5 days a week.
One day he said, "Michael, you don't make music; the music finds you. Your job is to practice." 

And that is what Michael says we should do; practice, practice, practice - looking for the music, looking for the music. And one day after Michael had been practicing his saxophone playing for a few weeks, suddenly the music would just turn up, and all the hairs on the back of Michael's neck would stand on end and Merl would join in and play harmony. It was amazing. 

Michael says we can do the same in our businesses. If we practice the right things everyday, suddenly our music will show up.

So what are you practicing in your business? Don't be like John, who doesn't really practice anything and hopes and prays the music will show up for him.


Instead, practice the right things for your business. Don't react to the things that you know are going to happen everyday - email; post; phonecalls etc.
Make the things that don't usually happen, happen. Become proactive and see what a difference it can make to your business.

My Business Time Table

Time Management  Inspired by my Daughter!

It amazes me how much my daughter learns at school. It also amazes me at how much holiday she gets! Which led me to think she probably spends more time on holiday than she does at school!

Yet, she gets so much done. This got me thinking. If she and her classmates spend such little time at school how come they are able to learn so much and do so much at school?

Then it hit me. They have a school time table which they stick to. The teachers and the children know what lessons they are doing and when. Every day is mapped out on the school time table which includes breaks and lunch time. 

I loved this idea - it was so simple and yet so effective! So I decided to create a business time table for my daily tasks. 

I spent some time planning the layout and I now have the perfect template for my Business Time Table. It even has breaks and lunch time which for me is great because I never, ever took morning or afternoon breaks. In fact, it's still tricky to stick to, as here I am at 11pm writing this blog post! 

How do you manage your time? Do you end up getting distracted by the events of the day? Checking your email too often and feeling you have to respond right away? Do you find the incoming phone calls distract and take you off on a different tangent?
 
Don't let these day to day events distract you. Don't be reactive - instead get proactive on your business. When you're working on a particular blog post or article then close all the other applications on your computer. This will really help you focus. 

I also use a wonderful online timer at www.online-stopwatch.com. I set a certain chuck of time to a task and when the alarm bell rings I stop what I'm doing and move on to the next thing. Just like a bell at the end of lesson at school. But no, I don't scramble to put all my books away and rush to my next class! However, it could be a bit of fun to run out of my office and then back in again!

Start using a time table for your business and begin controlling the things you need to focus on.

And if you would like a copy of my Business Time Table template please email me at info@dickiearmour.me.uk and I'll be glad to send it to you.

My Day Job Versus My Passion

So many people are employed and

My Twitter Presence

This blog post has been triggered by a great post I read by Chris Brogan at www.chrisbrogan.com.
In Chris' article he talks about how hard it can be to manage 146,000 followers and to be able to engage with them. He then explains his mindset and methodology and some of the tools he uses.

Here I'll share what I do. Like Chris, his way is wonderful, your way will be wonderful too. My way is just the way I choose to use Twitter.

My Twitter Presence

My Account

@DickieArmour

The Tools

Here's a list of the tools I use for Twitter:

Hootsuite – for my desktop.
TweetDeck - for my desktop.
Hootsuite – for my phone.
TweetDeck - for my phone.
Seesmic Mobile - for my phone.
Echofon - for my phone.
ManageFlitter - for manual deletion of inactive followers
Twitter Search – for search strings.
Listorious – for finding good Twitter lists.

My Twitter Goals

I use Twitter for many different things. My main goal is to connect with like-minded people around the world. My reasons for using Twitter are probably different to your's. Your goals are also okay. (Oh, and you’re doing it wrong!)

• I use Twitter to find like-minded people
• I use Twitter to have 2 way conversations
• I use Twitter to raise my profile
• I use Twitter to provide interesting stuff to my community
• I use Twitter to promote other people’s stuff much more than I do to promote my stuff 
• I use Twitter to find out about upcoming events
• I use Twitter to keep in touch with friends
• I use Twitter to keep in touch with customers
• I use Twitter to find business (via search) 
• I use Twitter to find new suppliers
• I use Twitter to spy on competitors
• I use Twitter to get help with all sorts of things
• I use Twitter to send & receive DMs rather than email sometimes
• I use Twitter to give me magical moments of Serendipity

My Twitter Methods

• I never follow the Home Feed (Your Friends). It flows too fast to keep up!
• I use loads of different search strings.
• I save these searches and have them in columns in both TweetDeck and Hootsuite.
• I always check my @replies and DM columns so I can be sure to reply and join in the convesrations.
• I use lists so I can catch up on conversations and tweets from the different groups I'm interested in.
• I follow lots of other Lists. You'll find people have already done the hard work for you. 
• For example Nigel Legg has a great List of people in Bristol,UK where I live. So I follow this list instead of wasting time creating my own.
• I tend to follow back most people. I won't follow you if you don't have a profile photo or logo.
• I like to provide interesting articles on Internet marketing, Social Media, business, sales & marketing
• I schedule my article tweets using Hootsuite, usually the previous night.
• I always retweet things I find of interest and think others will also find interesting. 
• I often post tweets with photos of where I am or things I see or books I'm reading.
• I try to reply as often as I can. If I miss your @ message, I’m very sorry.
• I like Echofon on my iPhone because it autocompletes @ usernames for the more tricky ones which are easy to forget or mistype.
• I use Twitter to send & receive DMs rather than email sometimes.
• I often use Twitter to get answers and to get help.
• Twitter is a great place to connect with companies like BT. BT have been excellent with their customer service on Twitter.
• Don't rely on using Twitter to always reach me. If you need me immediately, just call me on my mobile phone. 
• But of course, the old fashioned ways of communicating like email and phone still work! 
• Twitter is an amazing place for serendipity! Try it and see!

How do YOU use Twitter?

This is how I use Twitter. Chris Brogan said it would be fun to see your post on his “My Twitter Presence.” Or feel free to put your links to such posts and comments in the comments section below.