Watch my latest FREE webinar where I cover 7 Essential Tips for Generating and Retaining More Business Using LinkedIn? You can leave your feedback at my Marketing Mentor Facebook Page

Firstly, welcome to all our new subscribers to “Biz Growth Express” – I’m delighted you have joined our community. 

Each week you will receive this on-line newsletter with details of this week’s expert teleconference, the next “Biz Growth Live” call and tips that I personally find helpful in growing my business – and I hope that you do to.

We feature live events, new products or recommended resources that we believe will assist you in building your brand and growing your business.

Our goal is your success, providing you with strategies, inspiration and tips that you can adapt, adopt and apply to grow your business. 

IN THIS WEEKS “BIZ GROWTH EXPRESS”

- Details of the “Biz Growth Live” call for 28 August 2006
- Personal Reflections – Turning lemons into lemonade
- Feature Article – Are you ready to be “Googled”?
- Featured Resources and Programmes
- Advance Notice – “Biz Growth Live” 4 September 2006

BIZ GROWTH LIVE TELECONFERENCE – MONDAY 28 AUGUST 2006

GUEST EXPERT – JEN BLACKERT

SUBJECT – ‘MANIFESTING YOUR VISION’

Do you have a vision of selling your business but are unsure how to do this and who would buy it?
 
And how do you achieve this in less than 12 months?

Join me as I interview Jen Blackert, who ESTABLISHED and SOLD for HANDSOME PROFIT her nutritional coaching business in LESS THAN 12 MONTHS!  Jen puts her success down to “manifesting” her vision.

So if you are struggling to build your list of clients, want to enhance the profitability of your business and increase your personal freedom, you will not want to miss this weeks call.

Please note attendance is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the call. This pre-call announcement does NOT ensure your place.

To secure your spot, please plan to dial in promptly as we will start on time.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS – TURNING LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change’ – Wayne Dyer

Before I go any further, I would like to extend a HUGE apology for the problem we had last week with the call.

Our new service provider for telephone conferences who have an amazing list of facilities, hence my move to them, let me down in a really BIG way.

Neither myself nor Professor David Clutterbuck could join the call – but apparently you were all on line waiting for us!

Thank you to those of you who emailed me to let me know you had a problem – you will find the recording on the “Biz Growth Live Archive” page and we are now arranging for a transcription of the call to be made available for everyone – I’ll let you know how to access it when it’s ready.

Yes, I tested the new service and used it several times before making the change.

How embarrassing was that?

Not only inconveniencing you but also it’s not a great way to impress such an expert as David.  He was very understanding and I can assure you the call is worth listening to for 60 minutes of great content.

Just so you know, for future reference, I am now including a back up service should this ever happen again.  We now have a new protocol to follow – you will see it in the notes for the call above.

So my reflection for this week is how can we make lemonade from lemons and turn around a “crisis”?

Here are three things we did:

- Leveraged the resources we had at our disposal in the moment (the back-up line and email to communicate with as many people as we could we knew were on the call about the problem)
- Looked to maintain credibility to our clients (you) by providing added value (the transcription) in recognition of the error
- Created a new process should this happen again.

FEATURE ARTICLE – ARE YOU READY TO BE “GOOGLED”?

Before you meet someone do you check them out in the search engines?

You may not be surprised to find that a recent article in “Business Week” reported that 82% of candidates expect recruiters to look them up on-line and 35% of executive recruiters who check out prospects on-line say they have eliminated candidates based on what they found (an increase from 26% last year).

In fact in the order of 75% of recruiters and head hunters will look up someone’s profile before meeting them.  And around 25% of people check out INDIVIDUALS not their, before they meet them.

It is therefore critical whether we are an executive in an organisation or an owner of our own professional services firm to build our brand on-line.

Recently a magazine contacted me about what I knew of consultant – they wanted me to give information on someone I had interviewed on my terrestrial radio show as they could not find much information on line about them, yet they had been in business for many years.

Do you want to leave your reputation to chance?  I know I wouldn’t.

So how can we start to build our brand on-line?

Here are 3 quick low cost branding tips:

1. START BLOGGING – It’s the fastest way I know of getting found by the search engines.  I didn’t really consider my online identity other than having a corporate web site until just over a year ago when my good friend Andy Wibbels took me by the hand and helped me get my first blog on line. 

If you think you have a problem with your name, consider this – there are over 23 million listings for the name Krishna – most to do with the Hindu God. 

I started with a TypePad blog which is super easy to set up – if you can write you can blog.  With a concerted effort on my marketing plan, in less than a year I am delighted that you can find me at the top of the search engines if you type in Krishna De (not everyone knows or remembers to use “YOUR NAME” to focus a search).

My Alexa ranking (a measure of how popular my site is) is pretty healthy too, but I’ve still more work to do!

You can see my blog here.

2. BUILD YOUR ONLINE PROFILE AT ZIGGS – If you are not yet ready to develop your on-line website, blog or portfolio, one way you can guarantee in being found in the search engines is with Ziggs.  You can find them here.

For a VERY small investment of US$50 you can have them host an online profile for you.  This will mean that your name will be found at the top of the search engines.  It is easy to set up and makes sure that you don’t let getting found on-line to chance.

You can check out my profile there and see how I have customised it with a call to action.  Each time someone clicks on my profile I know that someone has looked for me on-line through Ziggs. 

A few months ago an ex-colleague of mine wanted to ask me some questions about an issue she knew I could assist her with – she just could not remember my company name – my Ziggs profile meant that she quickly found me and my contact details and we reconnected.  You see, many people remember our names but not always our position or the company we work for – especially as the years roll on.

3. WRITE A PRESS RELEASE – If you are in a large corporation, it’s not likely (unless you are in the senior team) that you will  to be detailed on the corporate web site.  However when you are speaking at an event or hosting something, you can create a press release and submit that to the online press release sites such as PRweb.

(You might need to check with your corporate affairs department if they have a strict policy in relation to the media). 

Also check if the event organiser is planning to send out a press release or feature you as a speaker on their web site – you can influence what they say about you by making sure you provide them with a short speaker bio.

So here’s your assignment this week to further strengthen and build YOUR brand on-line:

1. Check out the strength of YOUR on-line profile in the search engines:

- Check it both by typing in YOUR NAME and “YOUR NAME”.
- What do you find?
- Does you on-line profile reflect what you want people to know about you and your expertise?

2. Develop a plan of action:

- What can you do to enhance your brand on-line between now and the 31 December 2006?
- Is it getting started with a web site or a blog?
- Is it making sure that your on-line brand is more aligned to how you want to be known?
- Don’t’ forget, even if you don’t find clients through the internet, your potential clients, partners or even employees will be checking you out.

3. Join next weeks “Biz Growth Live” call where I will be answering your questions about how to build a strong personal brand.  I have a VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT I WILL BE MAKING TO EVERYONE ON THE CALL and you can find out HOW YOU CAN WIN AN IPOD NANO™ – so don’t forget to join me!

You can ask me your question about building your brand here – I’ll be answering as many of the questions as I can on the call.

If you are searching for support about building your brand the following solutions may be of interest:

BrandStart™ for newly established professional practices

BrandStorm™ if you want to review your brand strategy to strengthen the interpretation of your brand both online and offline.

FEATURED RESOURCES AND PROGRAMMES

A PASSION FOR PRODUCTS™

Fast track your passive revenue success and join me at the live-in-person workshops being held in Dublin on 11 October 2006 and in Cork on the 12 October 2006.  More details here.

THE BUSINESS SPA™

Join me and Ireland’s leading energy and fitness expert, Helen Walsh, at Europe’s premier business spa for women where together we will create your success blueprint and get balance back in your life.  More details here.

THE “WOMEN IN BUSINESS” RADIO SHOW

My weekly radio show from 103.2 Dublin City Annalivia is available as a pod cast here – you’ll find great tips and advice from successful women in business.

NEXT “BIZ GROWTH LIVE” TELECONFERENECE

DATE - 4 September 2006

GUEST EXPERT – Krishna De, on how to Bring YOUR brand to life!™

SUBJECT – Do you want to differentiate yourself from your competition?  How do you position yourself as an expert and build YOUR brand?
 
Ask me your questions about building YOUR brand in next week’s call I will over as many of them as possible.  I’ve a special announcement to make just for those members of the “Biz Growth Live” community who join me on the call.  And I’ll be sharing how you can WIN A NEW IPOD NANO.

So if you looking for the inside track to building a strong brand, don’t miss next weeks call.

Submit your question about branding  here.

Wishing you continued success until next week.

Best wishes,

Krishna De
Bringing YOUR vision to life!™

If you have friends and colleagues who would like to join the weekly teleconference call, they would be very welcome – please invite them to register here.

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2006.  All rights reserved.

“Biz Growth Express” is a Oneocean Publication.  Oneocean Ltd is a leading business development consultancy with a difference – we focus on the unique strengths of an organisation and its people to unlock extraordinary performance and growth.

TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish extracts from “Biz Growth Express” in your own online ezine or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2006. All rights reserved. Reprinted from “Biz Growth Express”, a Oneocean Ltd publication for leaders in professional services practices, featuring inspiration, strategies and tips to build your brand, attract your ideal clients and enjoy greater success with less stress.  Subscribe today at: http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/ … and access free weekly teleconferences where we interview experts from across the globe on how to build your brand and expand your professional and personal success