Johnnie Firari

Archive for the ‘Thinking about you and your business’ Category

Do not get me wrong, I still value great content but the value is extremely low and is only going to go lower.

Many people are forgetting some basic economics, “Supply and Demand”. With more and more people looking at producing “CONTENT” through video, blog post and pod cast we have to realize what is happening. More content is being produced than what is demanded. Supply goes up, demand(value) goes down!

So should you keep producing content?

This is a decision that needs to be based on the strategy of you and your business. You hear others such as Gary Vaynerchuk who scream you can produce some income based off of blogging (producing content) about your passion. Do not get me wrong it can happen but lets be honest if you do not ultimately have a product or service the content is not going to bring you income (granted some income will be made off of advertising. I have done it and have made a fair amount from my site www.socialmediadj.com).

I still believe you should produce content around your business and what you care about but you have to make it part of your strategy if trying to produce income. Just remember the content is not the “Value” you bring to your community. Your services or products you provide is what is important.

Technorati Tags: Content, Social Media, Supply and Demand

Next to all the post on predictions for the new year and so many people tweeting “2010 will be the best year yet and they are so excited for the new year”, is over! I think it is great to be excited about the upcoming new year (Note the new year has started, did you?)but come on, honestly a new year is not going to change anything, unless you are excited about what you do daily.

Stop predicting and get productive today!

Technorati Tags: today, 2010, predictions, focus

At Yougo Network we work very hard to build on old and new client relations. I can openly admit our competition is great and we are not the best. We do work very hard to provide what we call the “WOW effect” to every client. We work to exceed expectations regardless of the budget. It has been the “WOW effect” as to why we have grown and added new services.

To answer my question, we do have a good relationship with our clients.

• Clients tell us when they are not happy.
• Clients tell us when they are happy.
• Clients refer us to others.
• Clients ask us to provide a new service that we currently do not offer, just so they can leave their other service provider!

It all comes down to one thing for us and that is to “CARE”. It might also be that we have the best clients in the world!

I would love to hear how others build relationships with their clients and how they know their relationship is good.

Technorati Tags: clients, CARE, service provider

So you are in business and working hard to build on what you have accomplished. Great job!

Are you monitoring your competition? You could have a problem! Some forget that the smaller businesses, you know the place where most business owners start, are competition. We tend to measure ourselves next to businesses of the same size or bigger. The smaller companies are the ones to watch out for. They bring new thoughts and originality to your industry. They are smaller and can react faster. Think about your business and how much drive you had when you started out, is it the same? I would bet it isn’t.

Technorati Tags: Indiana, competition in business

Hi my name is ? Do you know ? Have you heard what happen to ?

How do you define your name. If you have not figured it out yet we are not talking about your actual name but the name that your business stands for. The more people in business I meet, the more I realize more than 70% of people in business know their name!

NETWORKING EVENT
How do you introduce yourself? I meet you at a networking meeting where people are all looking for new business. You introduce yourself as “Hi my name is John Doe and I do blah blah blah.”. How many people remember names? Not many, studies show most forget names. Next, you start off telling me what you do, do you even think I care? I understand you have to convey to me what you do, how else will I know if I can use your service. How are you going to earn my business? It will not be because you have a cool name (like mine Johnnie Firari). It is going to because of our relationship. If you start our relationship with a buyer, seller routine, do you think you are going to get my business. Start off our relationship with a natural even playing field. It might look something such as, “Hi my name is John Doe, how are things going? Do you know many people here? Then you may lead to talk about the weather or something you think we both can discuss. Leave business outside until I ask you what you do.” Doing something like this will allow us to build a relationship, once we have a relationship you are going to be more likely to get my business.

WEBSITE

Ok someone shows up on your website, do they see your name? What type of message are you sending? This is a no brainer but your website should reflect the proper message. Either you are serious about your business having a online presence or you are not. Come on do you think people are really going to buy something from your website if it looks like a 1996 website template that was done on a scrap budget? If they are not going to buy from your site, what is going to make them buy from you. Your website should reflect the image if your business. Get feedback from people you do not know, cause sometimes that template site you felt great about building, looks terrible and is not functional. Send me your link through the contact page and I will give you my honest opinion. If you can handle the truth!

FLIERS

You give me this flier, I am suppose to look at it and see what you do? Is this thing printed on cheap paper and missing your website address? Is the message the flier sending clear? Do not let your flier tell me you are cheap, unorganized and leave out important information. Design is a big plus. Colors, text, image texture and size are important for more than just visual reasons.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Make sure you relay your name properly within the social Media platform. For more information on Social Media I recommend reading my Social Media Blog. (click here)

It is tough to build a good name for your business. Make sure people want to get to know your name and come to like what your name stands for. Figure out what your name is and how to better market your name and your business will succeed.

Hi «First_Name»,

Hope everyone is pumped for another great week. So yes the title reads correctly, this may be my last email I send out to my contact list. It is greatly dependant on your response because I value your opinion and would love to hear your feedback. I have been working really hard to maintain my blog and was thinking that it might be a good idea, just to post directly to my blog and not take up the room in your email box. So what do you think? I look forward to your response and again I value any feedback you can provide. O yea do not forget to check out my latest blog entry at My Blog. Any and all comments are appreciated.

Clip of “My life my story”

I have to say things are really going good both professionally and personally. Cathy Patton, some other coaches and I are opening up our first office September 15! We are launching a new website for Coaching Achievement & Success Network September 4. Click here for a sneak peek and let me know what you think.
My little girl is doing awesome in school and has not been too hard to get up every morning. J My wife and I are looking at some after school activities. My daughter wants to do something with edible insects? Still learning more about the activity but should be interesting. I really do not understand why seeing as she is still scared of bugs… I guess we will see, we are also enrolling her into Girl Scouts. Should be fun!

Thinking about you and your business

I have been thinking more and more about creating a unique experience for my customers.

I have been talking more and more about creating an experience for customers. This could be a really long email but I am going to try and keep it short. So we know we all pay for customer service. As I think on this more and more, I keep searching for away to completely separate customer service from the actual customer’s experience. I know customer service is part of the experience but I truly believe if you, as a business owner can create a unique experience for your customer/FAN, your business will grow outrageously faster. Going to Disney World is an experience, going on a cruise is an experience, and we need to figure a way to create a unique experience for our clients. I am coming closer and closer on finalizing this for my businesses and would be happy to bounce ideas off each other if you would like. For me making it fun and thinking outside the box helped me identify how I will work to create my clients own unique experience.

Sincerely,

Johnnie Firari

Yougo Network | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | CASN | Smaller Indiana | My Blog

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Hi «First_Name»,

First I want to thank all of those who responded to my previous email from last week. It was great hearing everyone’s kind words and hearing more about your lives both professionally and personally.

Clip of “My life my story”

Nothing to eventful this week. I did not mention this in my last email but last weekend the family and I went to the Westfield Festival. I am not going to complain too much about prices but come on $12 for three people to take one trip around on the Ferris wheel! Surely they could figure some better pricing? Anyways, my daughter won 2 goldfish on the game where you throw the ping pong balls into the little fish bowls. My daughter made 7 balls in the bowls and Dad made 1 ball in. Now I cheated a little because my ping pong ball was no longer round but very dented, so it did not have the normal bounce. J I am happy to report, for the first time in my life of winning fish at a festival, they are still alive after a week. I think these two little fish might just make it as they seem to be doing great. Did you know the myth about goldfish only having a 3 second memory span was false? It turns out that goldfish tend to have a memory span of 6 moths. What would I do without Google?

Thinking about you and your business

Resource utilization – Explained

Last week I talked about utilizing your resources to improve your travels down your tunnel. At both C.A.S.N Business Referral Breakfast meetings on Tuesday and Thursday this topic was discussed. I thought I might discuss this a little more in detail and see if it helps anyone. Last week I asked the question “what resources are you utilizing to move down the tunnel”. From some of the responses and discussions we had last week it appears that some are still treading water when it comes to this part of their business. Some people explained it was fear that they might not use the right software, others just said I do not know where to start and some feared the cost. It was obvious that the key resource they were talking about was mostly computer/technology based. This is a problem that people need to look at differently as it relates to resource utilization. For example if you were building a swing set for your child and you had no clue where to start, the cost and you were worried if you built it wrong, your kid could become injured. You would not hesitate to look things up on the computer, talk to the people at home depot, talk to your co-workers, ask your neighbor for help (maybe even borrow some tools), hire someone, buy a prefabricated swing set, etc… Everyone would provide you with support, knowledge, things to do, things not to do, or at least some encouraging words to keep you motivated. So my question is why do you not to this with your business? Ask for help from everyone around you that you think might have some valuable input. If you have a business relationship with someone who is doing something you would like to happen in your business, ask them for advice or how do they get it done. Test these relationships you have and utilize them as a major resource. The purpose of resource utilization is to improve your business, so you can focus on managing the business. It is up to you to do your homework and learn as much as you can and decide the best decision for your business. Start by doing some research, talking to others and then decide how to execute and improve your business.

I would like to applaud a local business owner, John Cannon owner of My Car Doc. I love what he is doing with his business and I am so excited for him. The man works very hard and has recently hired 3 new My Car Doc techs. Hiring these new techs allowed Mr. Cannon to aggressively go after more business in an economy where other businesses are pulling back and cutting hours. Without the people (resources) he hired he would not be able to continue to focus on the growth of his business. He has a great story and if you have a moment check out his business at www.mycardoc.com.

Sincerely,

Johnnie Firari

Yougo Network | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | CASN | Smaller Indiana

Hi «First_Name»,

Clip of “My life my story”

My daughter graduated Kindergarten and is moving on to first Grade. It was awesome seeing her on stage singing and dancing. Crazy how fast times goes. I took her to Red Robin afterwards for a dad and daughter graduation lunch. She had her graduation cap on and Red Robin bought her lunch! Thanks Red Robin, for the great customer service and for making my daughters day that much more special.  As we walked out we grab a balloon from Red Robin. My mother recently passed away. She was a great woman who overcame great adversity in her life. At my mother’s funeral we released balloons into the sky to close the ceremony. Very beautiful way to close a funeral ceremony. Back to Red Robin, so my daughter grabbed a balloon and immediately said she wanted to send it to Mammal (my mother). Talk about powerful stuff! We released the balloon and took a minute to watch it drift off into the sky. A great minute spent celebrating and remembering life is precious.

Thinking about you and your business

Resource utilization

Are you tunnel-visioned? You might not know. You’re moving your business forward and you are headed straight where you want to be. Congratulations but wait a moment, step back and size up that tunnel. Many of us start out with a clear plan and direction to achieve our goals. Then we get so involved we disregard the advancements and technology that happen every day to allow businesses to operate smarter. Utilizing the correct resources will make your travels down the tunnel more effective, less costly and so much easier. I am curious to hear where your tunnel is headed and what resources (employees, coaches, software, websites, etc.) you are utilizing to move down the tunnel?

Johnnie Firari

Yougo Network | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | CASN | Smaller Indiana