3 Phrases To Stop Saying Now!

If you look up any marketing or PR strategy, you will notice that visibility seems to be priority number one. Well, yes. Visuals do help any cause but content is always going to be king. With this said, what you say is important and it can harm you, your reputation, your company, or cause major turnover within your company!

So, what are the top 3 phrases you must stop using ASAP?

1. "I need you to be more like..." Wow, so much for treating people like individuals. People are not the same... not even twins. So, why are you expecting certain individuals to live up to the expectations of others? Don't drag other people into the conversation when you're having a one-on-one with anyone. Be specific and be direct.

2. "How do you think you're doing?" This is a set-up. The person on the other side of this question will become defensive and this will turn into a game that you don't want to play personally or professionally. Instead of asking someone how they think they are doing, tell them how they are doing at a job or as a client regardless if the news is good or bad.

3. "Hopefully, soon." This is not a commitment to anything and a waste of words. Again, be direct with people, employees, and clients. Don't give a rough and round about way of when someone is going to get started on something. It is OK to say, "I don't know when but my eventual plans within the next (months, years... whatever) are to have you...." If you can be specific, do so. If you can't, say so.

Until tomorrow,

Twyla N. Garrett

Save Your Company Money

We've all been there. We had one great year and then the economy took a plunge. Many of us are still recovering. Well, for you fellow business owners out there- I have some great money saving tips!

1. Shop around for health coverage. If you have to pay for health benefits, do your comparison shopping and do it often. Don't just "spam" the offers that arrive in your email. Forward them to your assistant and set-up an appointment for consideration. You never know what money you could be saving if you don't look at every offer on the table.

2. Mortgage. If you own your business' office space take time to speak with the bank. You may be in a position to refinance and get a better interest rate. It is very possible these days. Don't discount refinancing based on what the news is saying about it. Always speak with your bank about your specific circumstances.

3. Go paperless and help the environment Paper costs tons of money, hurts the environment, and takes up lots of office or storage space. Plus, going paperless can save on ink costs. There is money to be saved here and the environment will benefit. Take a look at your paper and ink costs combined with file storage costs. How much could you be saving right now if you turned to the cloud for storing files and obtaining electronic signatures?

4. PPC campaigns. These are the worst! Pay-Per-Click advertising doesn't work like it use to. Why? Well, we have social media now and blogs. We don't need to pay someone to advertise for us. We can do it ourselves or invest in a great copywriter! Either way, PPC campaigns are expensive and don't covert to a ROI.

5. Shop for new providers on everything. Remember item number one? Apply it here- but to all things business. The janitorial service, the overnight mail provider, phone provider, Internet provider, hosting service, domain service, company party venue- anything item that can be provided by another business, ask! Get quotes from everyone / business that you use on a day-to-day basis. You may not have to switch providers to get the best deal!

Have these tips worked for you? Let me know!

Twyla