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In any business whether online or brick and mortar, customer service is important. Actually it’s more than important, it is a priority.

Let’s face it without customers or clients our business will not succeed.  The service we provide to our customers/clients should be impeccable from the moment they see you or hear your voice.  Nothing is more annoying than hearing a receptionist or assistant with a voice that lacks enthusiasm or professionalism.  When considering your customer service, it must be evaluated from all angles of your business.

You may provide the best service or have the best product but if everyone on your team is not on the same page it will not be reflected.  If you have a brick and mortar business, it is important to have your employees understand the importance of a positive attitude. The attitude can be heard in the voice as well; therefore a smile should be heard in the voice.

With an online business, the attitude is still important.  The assistant should have a pleasant voice as well as a manner of approaching prospective clients and existing clients.  Everything should be of utmost professionalism.  It shouldn’t matter where you work or where your business is located, professionalism is reflected through customer service.

To be competitive in the business world and continue to have a successful business, the number one priority should be to improve customer service.  Besides the quality of the product or service, customer service will set you apart amongst the rest.

Now is the time to evaluate your business, your staff and determine if a lesson in customer service is needed.  Too often we can get complacent in our business and neglect the simple yet most important aspect of our business which is customer service.  Make the changes today that will affect your business tomorrow, don’t wait.

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Search Engine Optimization or SEO is important for your website. People do searches all the time to find what they are looking for. It doesn’t matter if they know the business is down the street from where they live or if they are traveling to a town and want to know what to do while they are there.

The internet is the ‘in thing’ and everybody and anybody is online. When you add a website and other things to the internet people will likely find you. When you make it easy for them to navigate around your site and you tell them what you want them to do they will stay and look around.

Search engine optimization is important to your business and your website. There are things you need to include when you are setting up your site for search engine optimization.

With your website, you have the ability to set up titles, descriptions, and keywords for each page. This is important for your website. The reason for that this information shows up in the search engines.

1. Title

You want to put as much into the title as you can. This is the first thing that people will see when your site comes up in a search. You are limited to the number of words you can use so you’ll want to keep an eye on that. It’s approximately 90 characters, so make the most of your words.

2. Description

The description is what comes up below your title in the search. You are limited to 160 characters in this section. Again you want to make the most of your words. Describe the page in as much detail as you can get with the amount of space you have.

3. Keywords

Keywords are the most important part of your SEO work. These are the terms people will use to find your site. So make sure you use words that people will use. You can use approximately 12-13 keywords so pick them wisely.

Search engine optimization is important in the growth of your business. When you use the right titles, descriptions, and keywords for your business and your website, you will grow and your page rankings will be high. Consider all your options and make the most of your search engine work.

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Some business owners don’t even consider press releases for their business. They feel nothing will happen with them so what’s the point in wasting the time on them. Well, this is far from the truth.

Press releases are a great way to get your business noticed in publications that you may not have ever been able to get into. Could be the cost or it could be other reasons.

Press releases used to be submitted to local newspapers only, but that is not the case anymore. More and more of the newspapers are starting to gather these requests online and they are publishing them both in their paper and on their website. Press release directories are popping up online as well.

Press releases are a great way to share with others:

• what is going on in your business
• a new service you added to your business
• a new person you hired to do a specific task that is booming
• to announce a monthly newsletter that you started

Submitting keyword specific press releases to online sites will help with your website traffic and search engine rankings. News related websites and search engines will pick up on this and they will include yours within their site.

Press releases also give you credibility. The best way to build the credibility factor is to continually submit them. When you submit well written press releases and you continue to submit them on things that are important and really matter, people will begin to trust and believe in you. One thing to remember is that you should write one or two a month and submit them to both local, online, and out of state venues.

Press releases are a great way to share your business with people all over the world; people that you may never find any other way. Sharing what you offer and what you can do to help others is an added benefit that will come when you submit press releases regularly. Building trust and new business relationships will come when you submit press releases on a regular basis to the same locations each time.

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No, I don’t like to wear shoes.

It’s a preference.

But really – that isn’t what being a ‘Barefoot Executive’ is all about.

It’s a statement. A choice. A suggestion that YOU can live on YOUR terms (like I do mine) when you embrace the lifestyle of working for yourself, to benefit your family and your life.

This might be part-time or full-time. Again, that’s up to you!

My goal is to give you hope. Resources. Ideas. Encouragement.  So that You can be barefoot (if you choose) or in heels (again, if you choose)..it’s about designing your life to fit your dreams, goals, and desires for the benefit of your family and community.

Merry Christmas from my gang to yours!! (and thanks to Barefoot Executive site member Linda Bingham for the precious ‘family foot’ photo of my gang!!)

(FOOTNOTE: how can you use the next 10 days to gear up for 2009 in a powerful way?)

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See, we quit focusing on FOCUS and look what happens! We lost a month!

We’ve been traveling, networking with some really great business-minds and also adding some things to the Barefoot Calendar!

How about a CRUISE?

Cruise free! You can enter at www.CruiseBarefoot.com

Also – our new teleclass and products are up at:

www.barefoot-executive.com/products/index.cfm

ok – back into the blog habit – I promise!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the ezine after you watch www.theBossMovie.com!

Carrie Wilkerson

The Barefoot Executive ™

PS We’ve been watching some other blogs and encourage you to:

1) BLOG on your own blog and link back to us

2) Comment on other BLOGS to link back to yours

3) Comment HERE and link to your blog!

Check out this great interview:

http://athomemomblog.com/monday-motivation-interview-with-brianna-young/

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Our ‘home” team has been busy, busy as usual – but one of us has
been especially busy. LauraLee, our 11-month old, has been really
focusing on her walking! She will be 1 in a few weeks (where has
the last year gone?) and she decided about 6 weeks ago that walking
looked like something she wanted to figure out!

This is my 4th walker and so I’ve not been rushing her, but I
have been intently watching the process.

·  She’s wobbly.

·  She falls a lot.

·  She sometimes needs a hand to hold…sometimes just a pinkie or
finger for confidence.

·  She prefers to walk towards someone who is reaching out their
arms for her.

·  She’s bumped and scraped from obstacles.

·  When she hits her head (or any other body part) it doesn’t seem
to hurt as much as normal because she’s so focused on her
destination.

But, most importantly, she keeps getting up and trying again.

Things I’ve noticed about those of us around her…

·  We clap when she takes steps (even if it’s just one or two).

·  We reach out to help her up when she topples.

·  We praise her and cheer for her (yes, even if she falls flat).

·  We hold our arms out for her so she knows where she can fall
safely.

·  We tell everyone about her successes. We dwell on the steps,
not the tumbles.

And most importantly, we encourage her to get up and try again.
Not ONCE have I heard anyone say, “well, you’ve fallen – this
walking stuff might not be for you. You should stick to crawling.”

 ”I know someone that tried that and still can’t walk, just save
yourself the trouble.”

“Wow, that sure is taking you a long time to figure out. Your
sister walked a lot faster than you did.”

“You know you’re not supposed to walk yet. This is too early.
Sit back down and let us carry you for awhile.”

“Why would you want to bother with that when you’re already so
good at crawling?”

“Don’t, Don’t, Don’t – you know you always fall when you do that!”

Interesting, isn’t it?? There are SO MANY parallels in this lesson
that I hardly know where to begin!

Are you surrounding your family, friends and business associates
with encouragement, praise and positive words?  Are you telling
them why they CAN succeed instead of why they cannot?

And just as important – are you surrounding YOURSELF with others
that encourage YOU in that same way?

LauraLee knows she is in a safe place, surrounded by people who
love her and want her to be the best baby she can be! We want her
to learn new things, to progress in her ‘walk,’ her journey.

I want to be one of those people for YOU! 

And who needs YOU?  Will you choose someone today that might need
your arms reached out to them? Might need a finger to hold (or
just the end of your pinkie)? Is there someone that needs you
clapping for them?

Find them today. Help them in their walk.
(c) 2008 Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive
http://www.BarefootExecutive.ws

sharing permitted as long as (c) info and website remain intact.
(It occurs to me that Boot Camp would be great for this! Surrounding
yourself with a group of women that are supporting you,
encouraging you and reaching out to you – offering a safe place.)

http://www.BarefootBootCamp.com

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5 days left – just 5 days…that means FRIDAY we’ll be checking back in with results, success stories, things that sidetracked us, etc.

Business-wise, I’m right-on where I wanted to be! Wahoo!

Fitness-wise, not so much…(note to self, refocus!)

Family-wise, doing great and have come up with some great systems and strategies during this last 35 days.

What about you?

I love this definition of Focus by James Allen

It is a process of diverting one’s scattered forces into one powerful channel.

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Can you focus, REALLY focus for 9 more days?

I know it’s hard.

We’re so pulled. Distracted. Torn.

School is winding down. Weather is changing. Summer ’slump’ is coming.

But guess what? HOW YOU HANDLE ALL OF THAT is a CHOICE!

I don’t have a summer slump in our business..why? because we keep working and working (and yes playing too) – but I don’t expect customers to go away and quit spending just because school is out, weather is different, vacation is here, etc (you fill in the blanks)

HOW ARE YOU FOCUSING today? Choose one hour to turn off your email, turn off the incoming phone, disregard mail, bills, etc and just FOCUS on something that will produce income or appointments.

ONE HOUR OF FOCUS.

I cannot wait to hear how that goes.

Mine is starting NOW!

Carrie

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Just like any good deadline, we’re feeling the heat now!

I have just 12 days left to accomplish the things on my ‘40 Days’ list!

How are YOU doing?

What has side-tracked you?

What has helped you?

SHARE HERE! We want to know!

I have been spinning plates – I’ve been doing really great on business goals and family stuff – but I’m not as focused on health and wellness as I wanted to be.

Guess what? I get to start over TODAY!

Wahoo! What about YOU?

Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive

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My dad sent me this interesting article (THANKS DAD!) —>actually, this is a good example of ‘focus’ — because he knows what I do…when he’s reading the news and listening to media — his radar is set to ‘hear and see’ things that apply to me.  That’s why you need to keep your WHY prevalent…so your radar will be ON!

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art19692.asp

FOCUS TIP TODAY:

write a list of your reasons…your WHYs….those things that will motivate you long after the promise of income, prizes and titles fade away

POST THEM HERE if you feel free enough to share!

Keep them in front of you – on index cards on your mirror, your car visor, your fridge.

This week I got a ‘make your own tumbler’ at Starbucks — you can put pictures of your family, your goals, quotes, etc – anything that helps you stay on target!

Keep it in front of your eyes so that it stays at the ‘top’ of your mind!

SOME great ones that were shared with me this last weekend:

• I want to pay for my grandson’s college because I was unable to pay for my child’s
• I want to fund a non-profit organization and I know that those proceeds must begin from my own business
• I want to fund 3 private adoptions for others a year (that’s one of MINE)
• I want to be able to be a blessing to others and this will financially enable me
• I don’t want to miss one more moment of my daughter’s life while she’s still living at home

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