The presence of people who many would not be able to get along with is only natural. These are people who have their own beliefs and principles and rarely can anyone change them into something that they should be. While there are some who successfully shift and change for the better, there are also some who refuse to change and would fight for what they believe in. Well, naturally, this would be something that would pose a problem among working employees. But to cross the line and go head on with your superiors is like committing suicide.

The verdict? Well, obviously he will be terminated and with the various inputs coming from his different co-workers, there is no recourse but to part ways with this person. Despite issued memorandums, it seems there is no hope for people like this. The work performance can easily be identified as far as enjoying and being more productive. Sad to say, all of these are academic and seen by the superior themselves.

It is never easy to terminate an employee. But to cross the boss is certainly something that would make it easier. Here is an article that emphasizes how hard it is to terminate employees.

One webinar that is coming is Cold Calling Live. It is a project that spans about 6 weeks of training and will be launched in April 13, 2010. Sponsored by Weiss Communications, the project includes a free webinar, which will be held on the 30th of March, 2:00 PM Eastern time. Here’s more information from the press release:

Sales professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to ‘try out’ Cold Calling College Live 2.0 will have an opportunity to do so on Tues., March 30th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. At that time, Ms. Weiss, will deliver a free, information-packed, preview webinar of Cold Calling College Live 2.0. She will be sharing some of the tools, scripts and strategies that will be available to participants in the program. Those who attend the preview webinar will also have the opportunity to submit their questions ahead of time or ask questions live during the webinar.

For more information and/or to register for the information-packed, free, Cold Calling College Live 2.0 preview webinar: visit the Wendy Weiss website.

Even if you’re not planning on enrolling for the whole program, this webinar might help you!

Web presence has always been a popular term. It means that people know that you exist and that they can find you online easily. One way you can achieve a strong web presence is by exposing your content to your audience.

What do I mean? You have a web site, right? You want people to visit it and see what you have to offer. This means you might have to engage in activities such as paid search so that your site will come up as a sponsored link (such as in Google). This is one way to go about it.

Another way is to push your web site content to other locations which receive more traffic. Let us say you have videos on your web site. What is the first web site that comes to mind when I say video? I bet it’s YouTube. The idea is to publish this video on YouTube as well. The chances of people discovering that video through YouTube are way higher than if you let the video remain on your web site alone.

The same principle applies to other context such as text and photos. You have to figure out which sites aggregate various content and make sure that your content gets in there.

The question remains, however, of whether these social media platforms can be made useful for business purposes. The truth of the matter is that IF you want your business to stay competitive, you NEED to engage in social media activities. What are the reasons for this? There are several, but the main thing that I can think of is the fact that social media platforms serve as an alternative means of communicating to the outside world; a means which is practically free; a means which reaches out to a much wider audience.

Let’s look the reaching out part. I don’t have hard numbers, but I can say without doubt that a huge majority of people in the WHOLE WORLD are engaged in social media activities. Facebook and Twitter are only a couple of the most popular platforms today, and a lot of businesses have already set up their own accounts. Why? Because they know that they can communicate with existing and potential customers through these sites; customers which they may not reach otherwise.

Of course, there is the FREE part. No need to pay consultant fees. No need to pay for the account – unless you want to upgrade. You can have someone in your staff to maintain the account, or you can even do it yourself!

So yes, social media should be an important part of marketing your business.

Now, more than ever, businesses are feeling the crunch of the times. It was so easy to be overly optimistic in December, when the year was ending. The rationale of many people was that, a new year brings new beginnings. Things can only get better, right?

But did you see Circuit City closing? How about Timberland? Not to mention many other smaller companies closing shop because of financial reasons.

This does not mean, however, that your business has to close as well. In fact, you can even bank on the economic troubles as part of your selling point. Instead of painting the prettiest picture you can come up with, you might want to stick closer to reality and use that picture to convince people to buy. When doing so, however, you should bear some things in mind.

One, do not lay it on too thick. Everyone knows how hard the times are but it does not mean that you should dig too deep to make a connection between “recession” and your business or product. If your business is related to the financial sector, then yes, you cannot avoid talking about the recession but let’s say you sell meat products – you really can’t go around using big words such as financial planning and relate it to what you sell. Don’t force it.

Two, find the right approach. This is to counterbalance the first point. Going back to the example above, the meat products store…instead of throwing around big financial terms, why not stick to something that your customers will understand? Something like value for their money? Make your sales pitch revolve around this idea and cash-strapped people will flock to your store.

Got any other sales/marketing ideas banking on economic woes? Why not share them with us?

Schedule more ME time
This is in line with learning to delegate and to let go of work. Though I put so much weight on work and its importance in my life, I also have come to realize that work is not everything. There are some times in my life when I have to sit back and put my feet up – even for just an hour or so. This is necessary to maintain a balanced life and to be even more successful in various respects. This year, I will make it a point to set aside time for myself, for something I enjoy outside of work.

Revamp promotions and marketing
Marketing is something that is essential to any business – I have long come to that realization a long time ago. However, I would have to admit that I have not been really paying that much attention to this aspect of the business. Perhaps an infusion of fresh ideas and activities would be beneficial to the business. This is something that needs to be looked at in 2009.

So there you have some of my most urgent business New Year’s resolutions. What do you have on your list?

Just to recap the tips that I gave in the last post…when choosing Christmas cards to send for your business, remember to bear in mind these three things:

1. Do not be a scrooge.
2. Be careful with your sense of humor.
3. Be sensitive to your customers’ religious beliefs.

Here are some more things you can bear in mind for your business Christmas cards.

Do write a personal note inside the card.
If you decide to get store bought Christmas cards, there will be messages written on the inside already. However, what you want is to make your customers feel your personal touch and that is why you have to add at least a short note of your own. If you have time to write it yourself, that would even be better.

Do use a company stamp.
Remember that one of the reasons that you are sending out Christmas cards is to help promote your business. As such, it would be good to include information about the company in your Christmas cards. To make it look professional, have a company stamp made which contains all the pertinent info – business name, address, contact number, web site, and email. Alternatively, you can print out small labels which contain the same information. Just make sure you use high quality paper and ink when printing out these labels as the last thing that you would want is to make your card look tacky.

I hope that I convinced you to send Christmas cards to your clients with my last post. I really think that it is one way of keeping in touch with them in a genuine manner. Here are some things that I believe you should bear in mind when choosing Christmas cards and sending them out.

Don’t be a scrooge.
There are Christmas cards and there are Christmas cards. What I am saying is that you can probably buy Christmas cards for dirt cheap but the quality might suffer. How would you feel if you received a card that is obviously of poor quality? I need not explain further, do I?

My point is that you should go for the best quality cards you can find. If needed, you can have your own printed out. The impression that this will impart to your clients is worth the extra that you might have to pay.

Be careful with “humorous” Christmas cards.
Between friends, naughty and humorous cards will probably not be a problem. However, if you are sending out cards in the name of your business, I suggest playing it safe. It is not really business-like to be sending out cards with a naked Santa on them, right? Well, unless your business leans towards that nature, that is.

Be sensitive about beliefs.
There are two things that you should be careful with on most occasions – religion and politics. When sending out Christmas cards, do realize that not everyone shares the same beliefs. If you are unsure as to what faith your clients may have, stick with the generic themes – Happy Holidays and the like.

(more in the next post)

When I was a child, one thing that I looked forward to each Christmas was the chance to send out Christmas cards. There was no email back then. We had to go to the bookstore to pick out the cards, write on them, and send them through postal mail. I would almost clap my hands in glee as I picked out special card for each person I wanted to send one too. It was like a ritual for me.

In these days where email and other electronic means of communication are the rave, it is quite rare to see people going gaga over Christmas cards. However, I would like to challenge you to think of ways that sending out Christmas cards would benefit your company. In one way, it could be a marketing technique. Having Christmas cards – “real” ones and not the electronic kind – made and sending them out to your customers is a great way to personalize your business!

If you are thinking about the cost, why don’t you just add it to the total cost of your marketing plan? After all, you are already probably setting aside a certain sum for marketing activities. Just add Christmas cards to that. The time, money, and effort that you spend on Christmas cards will definitely be worth the results. This is especially true if you place high value on building relationships with your clients – which is always advisable. If I were you, I would get those cards printed now and send them out asap.