Strategic Business Tips from Kim Beasley

Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’

With the New Year starting today, I decided to start a new month-long series to help business owners find different ways to grow their businesses. During this month, I will share different tips that will help you to not only grow your business but also manage its growth.

Some of the topics that I plan on covering this month are:

• Cross marketing
• Social media
• Business management
• Virtual support teams
• Blogging

As I share these tips, I want to encourage you to respond with a comment about how they have helped you with your business or share additional information of how you currently are using the chosen topic. I’m looking forward to hearing of great things for everyone.

Yesterday I made a business decision to ask for accountability partners as part of my business makeover. I sent a request out to Twitterville* and three of my tweeples** answered back to let me know that they would hold me accountable. The three who will be my acccountability partners are Latara (@LataraHamYing), Christine (@neosoulsister), and Dee (@deegospel).

Why did I ask for accountability partners? I did this so that I will have someone who would check on me to make sure that I’m following through with my plans. It is always important that you not only have a mentor, who will guide you in the right direction, but you also need accountability partners, who will hold you accountable to what you have decided to do. Having accountability partners is not something new but if you don’t have at least one, you are doing yourself a disfavor.

When determining who your accountability partner should be, you should keep the following thing in mind:

• Have a plan first that you have created with your mentor
• Choose your accountability partners wisely
• Make sure that you trust your accountability partners
• Make a S.M.A.R.T.*** accountability schedule
• Be open to constructive feedback from your accountability partners
• HAVE FUN!

As I continue on my business makeover journey, I’m looking forward to having your feedback. If you have additional determining factors that you include with choosing an accountability partner, please share them. Also I will be creating an accountability list with my partners that we will all agree to. Do you have suggestion regarding what should be on this list? Please feel free to leave a comment containing your suggestions.

*Twitterville: the environment for those who use Twitter
**Tweeple: your friends on Twitter
***S.M.A.R.T. = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely

As I continue my business makeover, I’ve decided to look at my business like I’m on a spy mission and trying to determine who the enemy of my business is and destroy it. Realizing that if I don’t destroy the enemy of my business, it could have unrepairable damage. So… I decided to make a list of detailed and sometimes hard questions that will help me identify my enemy.

• What have I done in the past that was successful?
• What have I done in the past that was unsuccessful?
• Where am I unfocused on in my business?
• Do I have an identified target market?
• Have I developed an Internet marketing plan that reaches my target market?
• How am I monetizing my business websites?
• Do I have areas in my business that are causing me to lose money?
• When am I allowing myself to have down-time with my business so I can concentrate on refining it?
• Have I allowed my knowledge to increase by attending training that will help refine my business?
• Am I filling up my schedule with nonsense activities that take away from my business?
• Do I allow myself to spend to much time with the “newest thing” instead of networking to grow my business?
• Have I allowed myself to network to grow my business or do I network without a purpose in mind?

I know this is a long list but this is only a partial list of questions that I have asked myself during the process of my business makeover. Now with my spy hat on and my magnifying glass, I am investigating my business so that I can identify the enemies of my business. This is MISSION POSSIBLE to find the enemy and destroy it!

Have you asked yourself any of these question? If so, please share your input regarding how you applied these questions to your business and how you answered those questions. Looking forward to your answers.

Questions added by blog visitors:

• Provided by Wendy Y. Bailey of http://www.groupmastery.com
  • What problem does my service solve for my target market?
• Provided by Tim Bossie of http://www.timbossie.com/
  • [What] I ask myself is how effectively am I connecting with my target market?
• Provided by Jenn Givler of http://www.createathrivingbusiness.com/
  • Am I building relationships with people that will help me get my work out in the world?
  • Do I have the self-confidence to achieve my goals, and if not – who can help me get it?