Do you use testimonials to market your small business? (You should – they’re great credibility-builders. But, I digress…)

The FTC changed the rules about what your testimonials can say back in October of 2009. Here’s how it boils down:

1. If your testimonial talks about outstanding results, and these results aren’t those seen by everyone who gets your product, you have to add a disclaimer stating “results not typical”.

2. You have to disclose if you gave payments or free products to the people giving your testimonials. Did you send out free copies of your ebook in exchange for early reviews? Allow people to sit in your teleclass free of charge for a glowing testimonial? Now you have to make that clear.

3. Celebrities have to disclose their relationships with advertisers.

If you already have testimonials, consider reviewing them and making sure that they’re “up to par”.

This information should help you add value to your consulting clients as well, if you’re involved in a role that involves testimonial gathering or marketing with testimonials.

More details via www.ftc.gov

I just heard last night about a California state proposal to begin to require companies to withhold three percent of all monies paid to 1099 independent contractors.  MANY organizations are opposing this for the following reasons:

• Extra costs for local governments to enforce the withholding
• Extra costs for businesses to administer the withholding
• This is not incremental revenue for the state…just accelerated revenue

These are some good reasons…but I have a few more that impact me personally…

• I use subcontractors and pay at least 10 subcontractor invoices each year…I would need to do accounting/reporting/payment on each of those to the state (monthly? quarterly?)
• This is a double-hit since I would be receiving three percent less on all of my own project invoices, even though I’m already required to pay 70% of my estimated state taxes by June 30th for at least the next two years

Any of you who are independent contractors and 1) pay estimated taxes and/or 2) hire subcontractors/1099 resources will also be impacted.

The California Chamber of Commerce, California Special Districts Association, and others are encouraging anyone in opposition to this proposal to write letters to your California Senators and Assemblyman.  See this link to get the info you need to identify who to write to, including their mailing address.  See a sample letter/template to inspire your creativity (you’ll need to ‘make it your own’ since this is a template for businesses/CEOs to send).

Hearing about this proposal makes me realize that I need to stay much more informed about legislative issues that impact my business…good sources of information for small businesses and independent contractors: California Chamber of Commerce, National Association for the Self-Employed, and National Association of Women Business Owners.   We all need to stay informed!

Networking Etiquette

Women in Consulting is a great place to network to meet potential clients, friends, and referrals. But let’s be honest, we’ve all had days after a meeting where we get bombarded with well… SPAM. Here are a few rules of etiquette that I suggest for those attending WIC Events, or any networking environment similar to our meetings.

1. Just because you got someone’s card doesn’t mean you have permission to SPAM them.
While it is true that the CAN- Spam Act (see http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm)
allows you to contact people once you have received their information by personal means, this does not mean that you should. Bombarding people with your newsletters, personal rants, or marketing attempts does not endear you to your fellow WIC members or motivate them to hire you or refer you.

Due to the nature of our table networking, you collect cards from a number of other individuals at the meetings. This does not, however, necessarily mean that they are interested in your services or want to receive marketing email from you. If you feel that you made a real personal or professional connection, feel free to add them to your email marketing list. But if you made no personal or professional connection, don’t add them to your list.

2. Don’t sell, transfer, or aggregate WIC email and contact information and pass it on. I don’t believe this has been an issue, but just in case, I’d like to remind everyone to please respect the privacy of our members and do not pass on contact information to people that may utilize it for any other reason than they requested a referral.

3. Represent yourself! Networking is all about first impressions. Make sure you’re bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to talk about what you are doing and why. Make sure that you don’t hog the networking time. You don’t want to look selfish or self-important.  What you do want is to act interested in other people. And I should scarcely need to remind you that you should dress like you’re meeting a client for the first time—because it’s just possible that you might!

We created a new Women in Consulting member benefit late in 2009, the WIC Mentoring Program. Our successful six-week pilot run ended in mid-October.

The pilot included seven mentees who agreed to help us test the new program. These were WIC members who were interested in the program, but also ready to invest some time (and do some homework!) in order to apply the information we shared with them to help improve various aspects of their businesses.

Desiree Lehrbaum (Lumen Consulting) and I (J. G. Richards Consulting) worked together as a team to mentor the pilot group. We’ll also lead the spring session, which runs from March 24-April 28.

Desiree’s mentoring focus is on marketing and business development of mentees’ businesses. I lead the vision-setting, action planning and “optimizing your business operations” parts of the program.

Once again, the spring session will use a webinar format once a week for an hour, supplemented by a 30 minute 1:1 mentoring call between each mentee and each mentor in the final weeks of the program. We hope to hold our kickoff session as a group, in person.

So how did the pilot go?

I’ll let the Fall, 2009 mentees speak for themselves. Here’s some of their feedback, provided on the anonymous feedback survey we sent them soon after the pilot was over:

“The content was awesome! I can’t imagine it being better.” (This came from a participant during our follow-up call a month after the session ended).

“Not only did I learn specific skills, but I felt more focused on my business and more motivated to actually get past hurdles and get things done.

“A very practical way of approaching the steps of marketing for my business, and identifying and confronting issues holding me back.”

“The program was extremely well thought out, structured into a business development focus with actionable tips and tools to take my thinking to the next level.”

There are more participant quotes I could share, but I think that gives you enough information to know if this is a program that sounds right for you, too.

If you’re interested in the Spring, 2010 WIC Mentoring Program, send me an e-mail at jan@jgichardsresults.com to let me know. We’re finalizing the Spring 2010 Mentoring group soon.

WICsters: I want to turn you on to a great FREE resource called HARO, an acronym for Help A Reporter Out. HARO’s tagline is “Everyone’s An Expert At Something.” This dynamic “get publicity without breaking a sweat” site reveals a nifty secret: all members of the media — from national TV producers and local radio show hosts to magazine editors and daily newspaper reporters — need help finding sources of expert commentary. And when they need it, they need it fast.
Enter HARO, a terrific resource enabling you to respond to journalists’ requests for commentary sources on behalf of your clients, your business, or both. If you haven’t heard of HARO, take a few moments to visit the newest version of the site, sign up and create a profile. Then sit back and watch your inbox fill with targeted opportunities. Jump on those that suit your business; forward posts perfect for fellow consultants.
Beyond getting your clients ink in a glossy lifestyle mag or a guest spot on a top morning TV show, you can use HARO for informal market research. Simply reverse engineer daily HARO media requests for an informal temperature check on macro trends like economic recovery time frames, projected consumer spending habits, or nascent technology innovations. Armed with information that may impact and influence your clients’ decision-making habits, you and your business will become better positioned to gain a strategic edge.

As my term as president of Women in Consulting comes to an end this week, I find myself reflecting on all the incredible experiences I’ve had throughout the last two years.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary in 2008 with not only a gala event, but a new look & feel for our website and a new blog. In 2009, we expanded our social media presence to include LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

We expanded the reach of our organization, with strong and vibrant satellite groups in San Francisco, the East Bay and North Bay/Marin, as well as the South Bay and Peninsula.

We created a mentoring program and offered workshops to help consultants grow profitable businesses.

We expanded our Leaders Network to provide a venue for seasoned consultants to meet and exchange thoughts and ideas with their peers.

We expanded our profile in the community–partnering with a wide variety of organizations and associations, including the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, the Association for Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), FountainBlue, Astia, IMC NorCal, NorCAL BMA, and others.

We provided benefits to our community from groups like People OntheGo, SD Forum, Cubes & Crayons, Vertical Response, MarketingProfs, Egnite, WeMeUs, Zoomerang, and PR Newswire. And we continued our partnership with Million Dollar Consultant Alan Weiss and the Society for the Advancement of Consulting.

We held silent auctions to benefit Girls for a Change and collected donations for the Georgia Travis Center in San Jose.

Not only did we offer a top-notch set of outstanding speakers for monthly programs, but we launched teleseminar and webinar programs as well.

We continued to offer outstanding value to members and affiliates through our renowned mail list and other resources.

In fact, through the worst recession in nearly a century, we grew our community to be nearly 500 strong–with our ranks of full members swelling by nearly 40% this year.

And we did all this as an entirely volunteer run organization, with over 100 consultants taking on pro bono consulting roles for WIC.

Why, in a time when many organizations are struggling or even closing their doors, is WIC thriving? Because in addition to everything I’ve already mentioned, one of the most important things WIC provides is a strong, collaborative community–a place where consultants can come to learn as well as to socialize, to build their businesses as well as to connect with colleagues, to share experiences and develop referrals, to grow as individuals as well as part of a bigger whole.

For all of these reasons I feel extremely lucky to have had the privilege of guiding this organization over the last two years. And I feel extremely confident in turning over the reigns to the extremely capable and passionate Avery Horzewski to take WIC to the next level.

Thank you to all of you who are a part of WIC. WIC is community and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you. Here’s to more wonderful WIC happenings in 2010 and beyond!

I just finished reading a wonderful article on The Huffington Post by Morra Aarons-Mele, called “The Women We Know.” It’s a good read, so make sure to visit the site. Morra convenes an online group for the American Cancer Society, so she uses her experiences in, and mini stories from, that realm to illustrate her point: that there’s a new women’s movement about, one grounded in personal support and social change and that’s largely happening online in micro communities and large gatherings.

The article sparked a number of thoughts (a sign of a good post!), but the first one that came to me is “I know. I experience the power of women almost daily through my involvement in Women in Consulting (WIC).”

Now, I know some of you’ll think, “Of course she’d write that. She sits on the board. She’s the president-elect. She’s supposed to say how wonderful WIC is.” You’re right. It is part of my job to promote WIC. But — and this is a big but — WIC is an all-volunteer organization, save for our administrative support and a small stipend for PR. I don’t get paid for the work I do for WIC. It’s all pro bono — same for all of WIC’s board of directors, program chairs, and coordinators. If I didn’t believe everything I wrote or said about WIC, I wouldn’t be here. If I didn’t receive all the benefits that I tout, I wouldn’t donate so much of my time to help keep WIC going. So, yes, I drink the Kool-Aid, but only because I know first had that it’s mighty tasty.

It’s Not About Perfection. It’s About Connection.

Is WIC perfect? Heck no. Is it for everyone? Nope. No organization is — that’s what keeps life interesting. “Variety is the spice of life” didn’t become a cliché for nothing. What WIC is though is a community…a place to connect, to learn, to get support, to be motivated.

Now you may say, “Morra’s post was about movements. WIC isn’t a movement.” And you’re right. WIC isn’t a movement or even necessarily about social change (although the organization and many or our members do get involved). However, Morra’s post is about community and women and their power to bring about change. And WIC is all about that.

WIC is first and foremost an online community. It started as a small group of women meeting in person to support each other. And we still have regular monthly meetings (six total to accommodate the Bay Area geography), as well as special events and workshops. But WIC’s true value comes from the knowledge bank that is the WIC online Community, the partnerships we make with other organizations and businesses, and the relationships that one can build simply by getting involved. 

Make a note of that last point, as it’s one of WIC’s best kept benefit secrets and also the reason that movements grow. It’s only natural that the WIC people that I’m closest to are the ones that I’ve worked with in my various roles. I started small (helping with a silent auction, managing one of WIC’s newsletters) and slowly moved into larger roles. I’ve been on the board for almost four years now, serving in two different capacities.

The people that I turn to first for business advice are the people with whom I’ve collaborated with at WIC. The people I refer first are the people I work with, as I’m familiar with their work ethic and deliverables. And, as I’ve mentioned in the past, at least 75% of my business can be directly tied to having volunteered at WIC. And it’s not like I see all of my coworkers all the time. Heck, one of them I didn’t meet face-to-face until we’d worked together for two years! Our communications were all through the Internet or the phone for quite a while. Not only do we refer each other for projects, but we’ve developed a friendship that will last beyond our work on WIC.

It’s Not About Competition. It’s About Collaboration.

The current women’s movement works because the women work together for a common cause. It’s simultaneously about each woman and all women. Everyone is important, but no one is more important than anyone else.  This philosophy is the life blood of WIC and taps into the true power of women. Sure there are exceptions, but overall women tend to be about collaborating with others not working against them.

I and so many other WIC members that I know are more than happy to help a fellow consultant brainstorm ideas on how to improve and promote their business. Our archives are full of members and affiliates openly sharing consulting best practices. And I know that I recommend other writers for projects and other writers recommend me. It feels good to help. And I firmly believe what goes around comes around — and I’d rather see the good karma coming and going vs. bad.   

It’s Not About Going Alone. It’s About Going Together.

In her post, Morra wrote, “This week, in the midst of frenzied online organizing to promote gender equality in health care, I had a family crisis. And when I had to bow out of the action, Jodi Jacobson wrote, ‘Don’t apologize for anything…that’s what a movement is for….”

Consulting can be a solitary business. Social media communities make it less so. But even before the advent of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…I didn’t feel alone, because I was part of WIC — a pre-social-media community. The people I’ve come to know at WIC are my colleagues. And that group continues to grow as I continue to meet more people from the WIC Community. I’m continually amazed at the organization’s ability to attract sharp, savvy individuals who are so open and willing to share.

I don’t promote WIC and tout its benefits because I’m going to be president. Rather, I accepted the president role because I believe so strongly in WIC and want to help ensure its continued success.

Brand design can extend into all realms of a business’s designs – even into the design of feedback or subscription forms on your website. Here’s an example of how you can customize a form to match your brand design.

This is the original output of a form-creation program:

It’s decent, certainly – but we can do better.

When you’re designing your form, keep your brand’s color palette, font style and other brand standards in mind. Here’s a designed version of the same form, followed by a discussion of the changes that were made.

1. Adding a headline can help to make the purpose of your form clear. Headlines also make the form design more eye-catching. Design the headline to match either the other headlines or sub-heads on your page, in terms of font face, alignment, color choice and size.

2. Include instructions on how to use the form, and set expectations about what will happen once the form is filled out. This helps to visually anchor the form and to also make the person filling it out feel more comfortable about doing so. Again, the font face, alignment, color choice and size of these instructions should be matched to your other materials – in this case, your body copy.

3. Style the form field labels. Change the font face, size and color palette on the form field labels (Name, Email, Company, etc.) to match your body copy.

4. Align the form field labels (usually left, unless your brand guidelines specify another choice). You may be able to do this by just styling the text, but you may have to change the table styling if your form was delivered in an HTML table.

5. Design or style the “Submit” button. Your choices here include:

1. Keeping the default style (shown here)
2. Changing the text that appears on the button. This can be done in the HTML code by changing the ‘value=”Submit”‘ text to read ‘value=”Your Text Here”‘.
3. Swapping out the default button style for a graphical button. The code for this is: <inputype=”image” src=”images/submit.jpg” value=”Submit” alt=”Submit”> where ’submit.jpg’ is your image file. If you choose this route, design the button to match your color palette and brand, but make sure that it is still easily identifiable as a submit button. You may do this through the words on the button, or by using an arrow graphic if space is limited.

6. Consider placing a border around your form. This can help to distinguish it from other elements on the page, and help it stand out from the rest of your content. Your border can be solid, dashed or dotted. Choose the option that aligns with your brand.

7. Add a background color. This is another way that you can make your form stand out and call attention to itself. Choose a background color that your headline and body copy colors contrast with, to ensure that they will be legible. And, make sure the background color coordinates with and compliments the rest of your brand. You may also choose to place a subtle pattern in the background if your brand calls for that.

Tags: Running a Consulting Business, web 2.0 marketing strategy

If you’re tired of reading about what Twitter can do for your business, may I suggest you pause, take a deep breath, and consider one more source. A recent Fortune Small Business article, “Tweeting for Profit,” profiled the success of a skeptical, first-time Twitter user and business leader at a small Emeryville-based company Fliqz. 

The point of the article: not only will Twitter not “go away,” but it’s growing, it’s free marketing, and is NOT a time suck if done properly.

Setting up a Twitter account for your business takes mere minutes. So what’s stopping people? What are the Twitter trigger-pull barriers? Business owners often cite reluctance to tweet because of the transparency and immediacy. They also fear properly translating their company’s offerings into a brief message.  I don’t think immediacy and transparency fears are the barriers. Companies, particularly small businesses, know the value of nimbleness. I think “Twitter block” lies at the intersection of writer’s block and a new language way. 
 
Tweets are definitely a language in which marketers and business leaders must become fluent. The good news: the tweet learning curve is a mere 140 characters and yields massive rewards. “What will I say?” you think. Answer: Not much, so don’t fear writer’s block, because you’re not really writing, merely Tweeting. And Tweet block is quite surmountable with a (very few) flicks of your fingers.

Getting Past Twitter Block

Here’s how to unblock and learn the basics of this new language: when composing a Tweet, consider the success of the San Francisco bakery Mission Pie. Think of your business as a bakery of ideas and services. Tweets are hot fresh offerings. Your tweet simply broadcasts a) the availability of your “pies”; b) their attributes, like an irresistable wafting hot apple smell; c) and a call to action. For the bakery, it’s a countdown that the pies are selling out. 
 
Here is an example: Today’s pie: Granny Smith crumb top crust, 10”, heat @ 350 for 12 mins to bring out scent of crisp apples, cinnamon and brown sugar. 14 left.  This is exactly 140 characters! Victory!

 “Okay,” you are thinking, “but what about my business (let’s call it) Accounting Expansions Strategies? It’s much more complex than pies. Our latest offering, which we’re launching with a webinar, is a newly packaged marketing program to help small and midsized accounting firms expand their footprint into China.”
 
Try this: 
Gain global reach in 10 wks w/free webinar China by the Numbers. [Insert your tiny URL here]. Head East with AES!
Notice how you didn’t have space or need to describe the market segment that you’re targeting, which is small and midsized accounting firms? Your Twitter followers will know your target market sufficiently to be interested in your latest hot pie. New prospects are armed with enough “Twit”-formation here to click through to your webinar. You’re done with that Tweet after mere moments and 140 or fewer characters. And you’ve set up the opening for a Twitter cycle.

Note: A best practice is to make sure your next tweets are NOT always all about your company. Alternate promotional tweets with news and facts that bring value to followers. For example, the next few tweets in this cycle could be fresh news stories impacting small and mid-sized accounting firms; then a tweet teasing the webinar content; then persuasive opinions from other business leaders about the potential value of doing business in China. With a little practice you will stride right through the intersection of Writer’s Block and New Language Way into the land of Twitter. Welcome to the Twitterhood!

You just never know what’s going to happen when you walk onto the field, metaphorically speaking.

You might end of the game having won or lost. And if you’re the victor, you may even produce a performance that’s one for the record books.

Jonathan Sanchez, a San Francisco Giants pitcher, pitched a no-hitter Friday night – the first for the San Francisco Giants since 1976 and the first at home since 1975.

Any superb performance, no matter what field of play in which it occurs, is a thing of beauty to be part of, and to observe.

These are some of the “how to get your own no-hitter” guidelines that occurred to me as we watched and listened to this rare feat on Friday, and listened to the extensive post-game analysis:

1. Prepare in every way you can, ahead of the game.

Do everything you can to be mentally, physically and emotionally ready for the work, the challenge at hand.

2. Learn from the masters.

Jonathan Sanchez had, apparently, listened a lot to Randy Johnson, a legendary pitcher in the final years of his career.

The odds are, he learned many things in those talks – mental, physical, and emotional preparation for the challenges he might face as a pitcher.

3. Be open to the moment.

Once you’ve prepared, in all ways, then you have to be open to whatever may happen. You can’t control what will happen…you just have to be ready to freely, fully respond.

4. Be in the moment.

Respond to what is happening now, right now. You’re not in the next inning, or the last one. You’re not in the next game. You have no business worrying, at this moment, about the full season, your career, or dreaming about the next vacation.

“Be here now.”

5. If someone has a no-hitter going and it’s a guy, LEAVE HIM ALONE.

And if the “no-hitter” is underway in a different field, and it’s a woman who has excellence unfolding, take your cues from her about what would help.

On Friday night, no one would talk to, look directly at, or go ANYWHERE NEAR Jonathan Sanchez when it was the Giants’ turn at bat, and they were in the dugout.

The dynamic was fascinating to me, never having seen a no-hitter before. My husband and son knew right away what was going on. The commentators, one a former major league pitcher himself, talked at length about not wanting to be the one to “jinx” the streak, or break Sanchez’ concentration.

6. It takes a team.

For Jonathan Sanchez, it took many players and advisors to create the nearly perfect game, and no-hitter.

It took a catcher, Eli Whiteside, with whom Sanchez had great communication, and in whom he had great trust to make the right calls about which pitch to throw. It also took Whiteside’s calming presence to keep Sanchez focused at crucial times.

It took a patient and persistent pitching coach, Dave Righetti, to coach Sanchez for days or weeks to adjust his pitching mechanics, bringing out his full potential, at that time, in that moment, under the pressure of history in the making.

It took an outfielder, Aaron Rowand, who could catch a ball that might have turned into a double, a triple – but certainly would have taken the no-hitter down if he had missed the ball at the wall.

It took a manager, Bruce Bochy, who believed in the pitcher to do the job.

7. It takes serendipity, too.

It took a few serendipitous changes of plan for the unlikely combination of Sanchez and Whiteside to be working together on this night. Veteran and legendary pitcher, Randy Johnson, who was scheduled to pitch that night but could not. And catcher, Bengie Molina, was scheduled to catch but his wife went into labor, so he, too, was gone from the line-up.

8. It takes a personal support system.

The final detail that “made the moment”?

Sanchez’ father flew in to see his son for the first time as a major league starting pitcher. We’ll never know what impact that had on Sanchez’ no-hitter, but it was a beautiful experience for them to share, and to observe.

9. It takes getting out of your own way.

All the raw talent and diligent preparation can be there. But you also have to get out of your own way to let success happen.

If you start questioning your luck, ability, or belief that it can happen while the action is underway and the opportunity for success is at hand, that might be all it takes for the potential to become a would-be, should-be, could-have-been-if-only story.

There’s more, certainly, that goes into creating excellence.

If not, no-hitters and their counterparts in each of our own fields of work would be more common.

For now, these are just a few places to start if you’re going for your own “no-hitter.”

What ideas would you add about how to produce a “no-hitter” in your field?