I recently ordered an Apple ipad and in my different online searches for ipad information, I ran across a video by Paul Colligan which talked about how he was going to take 30 days and only use his ipad for his business. He had a lot of great points…

In just the past couple days, my computer died… AGAIN.. This is the 2nd hard drive it’s chewed up. Well, that got me to thinking about if all I had was my ipad and my cell phone (Droid), would I be able to run my business and how would I do it?

After taking some time to think about it and getting past the amount of stress most of us would feel at first, I begin to realize if my business was systemized in the right kind of way, things would be must easier on me.

Let me explain…

With my computer dying and then working with my wife’s computer that has Vista on it.. yuck! I realized I was now forced to work with just the basics to continue on with business. Which I began to take as a blessing.

Think about it…

How much stuff do you have on your computer that you can and do get sidetracked with. Or because your computer does this or that, you do this or that instead of the profit making tasks you should be focusing on.

If I was do to business with just my ipad and my Droid, I would be forced to not have a bunch of things going at one time. I would be able to focus on just one task and get it done right.

I would also be forced to:

- Hire someone to do video editing for me.
- Manage my social media strategies at a specific time and not just whenever.
- I would have to hire someone to do graphics and audio.
- And the list goes one.
- Have a system in place to handle customer service.
- Automate many areas in my business.

Do you see a common thread with the list above? All of those things I should already be outsourcing!! Those are important, but they’re not the profit making tasks.

But because I might have some awesome video editor, I do it myself, which takes me away from the things I should really be doing.

Isn’t it easy to over complicate our business? In what ways do you over complicate your business?
How would do you things if all you had was an ipad and a cell phone?

Keep moving forward!

P.S. If you are looking to simplify your business, join me for this live webinar!

Have you ever felt like Social Media was a waste of time? Or you aren’t getting the results you thought you would. Well, this could be due to a lack of systemization. When you have your social media marketing working like a well oiled machine, that is when you are not wasting your time and you begin to see the desired results.

I want to give you four steps to help you systemize your social media marketing strategies to help you get more done in less time… And keep it simple!

1. Think Strategically – Do Strategically.

The first step to systemizing your social media is to think strategically and define your purpose. Although, it may not always seem like it, everything I post on Twitter and Facebook has a purpose. I am always testing to see how everyone responds.
Here is a little tip: Remember, the point to Social Media in NOT to sell! It is to build a tribe and position you as the expert and the leader in your niche.

2. Keep It Simple and Easy.

Once you know your purpose and you are thinking strategically. It’s time to make everything simple and easy for you to do more in less time. There are different social media applications come in real handy.
Apps like Tweetdeck.com, Hootsuite.com and Seesmic.com just to name a few make life much easier and more systemized. With these apps you can write one update and it will send it to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace pages with one click! Talk about a time saver!! Also, with these tools, you can follow, engage, research and engage people in your Industry. I go into much more detail on this in my Strategic Tweet training.

3. Don’t Make Things Harder Than What They Are.

There are so many tools and web sites out there now that offer different free and paid services for Social Media, especially Twitter.

Take advantage of these! For example, instead of checking Twitter every 30 minutes to see if someone is talking about you or your brand, you can use a tool called TweetBeep.com which will notify you when someone mentions your brand. Then with it is time to devote some time to Social Media Marketing Strategies you can open those emails and engage those people accordingly to what needs to be done. TweetBeep is a great reputation management system.

4. Putting It All Together.

In order to have everything run smooth for you, let me give you an idea of how all this fits into a system or sub-systems…

After you have setup all your accounts and everything is synced up, this is how your day may look:

- Log into Tweetdeck or whatever app you have chosen, (a sub-system) to check up on things, see if people have DM’ed you or mentioned you and any other advanced strategy.
- Then you could check in with your other sub-systems such as TweetBeep to see if there is anything you need to know about.
- After all the basics are out of the way, then you can move on to engage people and offer valuable content.

- You can even hire someone do all of this for you!

Now if you stand back and look at this, it’s a system made up of sub-systems. If you’re not seeing it yet, that’s okay… You will! This is why it is so important to be a systemized entrepreneur. What does that mean? Well, it’s an entrepreneur that is able to look at his or her business as a system. When you are able to do this you are able to pinpoint the areas in your business that need a “tune up”.

I am going to be going over systems in great detail on a free webinar, if you are interested in joining me on this “Systemizing your Business” webinar, click on the following link to register.

When your business is systemized and you are thinking of things in a systemized manner, you begin to start seeing the results you have been working so hard for in less amount of effort.

I hope to see you on the webinar!

Click Here To Grab Your Seat To This Amazing Free Webinar!

In today’s Simple Business Growth System video, I am going to be sharing with you the #1 reason why most small businesses fail… This might be a brand new concept for you that can revolutionize the way you grow your business. So watch the video below, enjoy and check out my notes after the video.

So there you have it, systems are the Key to your success. When you truly systemize your business, you then begin to have freedom and not be a slave to your business. When I have shown this to different clients they immediately felt a freedom just thinking about how there is hope to get out of the same routine of struggle.

If reaping the benefits of having your business systemized interested you, but maybe you still don’t even know where to start…

I am very excited to share with you, I am going to be hosting a free Systemizing Your Business webinar. I will be doing in to much greater depth about systems and how to start systemizing your business.

If you would like to grab your seat to this complementary webinar that will revolutionize the way you think about your business, please fill out your name and email in the form below.

This exciting webinar will be held live on May 12th at 5:00 pm PST.

This is going to be an amazing webinar and I am super excited to see what you think about it.

I look forward to seeing you on the webinar!!

Mentioned In This Video:

Samantha Hartley’s Site

Attracting Perfect Clients

In this Business Blogging video, I am sharing with you some of the things I shared at a recent Marketing Workshop I did with Juli Amodei. I hope you enjoy!

Here are some of the links to different Wordpress Themes that I recommend.

- Thesis Theme

- Builder

- Flexx

I hope those help… I have to be honest… My favorite theme so far is Thesis. If you need help with your blog or would like to hire us to make your business blog, please feel free to contact us. Talk to you soon!

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the 30 day Simple Business Growth System video series I am doing.

Summer is almost here and because of this we need to take a look inside our customer’s minds…

If you are a seasonal business, then you are probably already gearing up for summer, but I cannot stress enough the importance of getting inside your customers mind. What’s going on in their mind as they are planning their summer?

As you begin to understand what’s going on in their minds, you can better prepare and map out a strategic marketing plan to explode your growth.

I have been working with different businesses involved in the Travel Industry lately and right now its the perfect time to implement the different strategies we are about to talk about as their clients are starting to think about trips and vacations they want to take this summer.

The following is a list of 5 different marketing strategies that you can implement in your summer marketing plan…

1. Email Marketing

Email marketing is something that you need to be doing if you aren’t already doing it. I am amazed at how many businesses have a perfect opportunity to collect their customer’s email addresses and don’t!
So make an effort to give your customers the perfect opportuinity to give you their email. Maybe you need to add an optin box on your web site or even your Facebook page… Or maybe you need to have a place near your cash register where people can write it down.

I recommend giving them an incentive to give you their email address. Maybe for free coupons, a free report that is relevant to your niche, a free MP3, etc.

I also recommend doing all of this the professional way and use something like Aweber Email Marketing System. This will make things MUCH easier for you and more effective.

2. Where Are They At?

Be thinking about where your customers are going to start searching for your products or service. Once you have figured this out, you can strategically start advertising there.
This could also mean VERY strategically forming different joint ventures with people or other companies. Notice I underlined very… I strongly recommend not just parntering with just any one… Be picky! You’re entire brand is at stake.

3. Social Media Revolution.

If you haven’t joined the Social Media Revolution, you NEED to!! If you are not using it, you are missing out on loads of Free traffic, keeping you in front of your target market, free market research and much more.

I remember when I first discovered how to use Social Media for my offline business, I was thrilled! Since then, I have had clients of mine get results their first week using the social media strategies I have shown them.

Social Media can be a powerful tool when used right.

4. SMS Mobil Marketing.

Now this is on the cutting edge of marketing right now. Think about it…
How many emails do you have in your inbox that you have never looked at? Or how many advertisements you have seen, but not really paid any attention to? But, how many times has your phone vibrated or beeped to notify you that you just received a text and you looked at it immediately?

Text message marketing is something to defiantly look into. There is a new training course available on the the topic that you can check out here: SMS Mobil Marketing.

5. Simple Business Growth System

If you have found yourself in the whirlwind of craziness trying to grow your business, then you need to systemize your business.
I am excited to announce that starting April 1st I am launching a 30 day Video series all about Simple Business Growth. I hope to see you there! We are going to be taking a much deeper looking into many topics similar to what we have talked about today.

Find out more here: Simple Business Growth System.

So what are you going to implement this summer to grow your business? I would love to hear!

I truly hope you have a great summer and experience much growth in your business.

Keep moving forward!