This Business Is Serious: The Professional

I've been thinking about "professionalism" lately.

I think it's easy to fall into making judgments about what is "professional" or not, as if it's some universal and obvious quality.

Typically, one hallmark of "professionalism" here in the United States is always keeping a calm, collected, and above all, serious (but friendly) demeanor.

This leads us to tone down our clothing, our sense of humor, our hobbies and passions and things we hold very dear.

We strip all the personality out of what we say and do, in order to conform to this "professional" image.

I think this is a mistake, especially when you are small.

People want to do business with people they know and like.  If you take the "you" out, how can they know or like you?

You see, one advantage we have over the big guys (usually) is the fact that people can actually have relationships with us - the honest-to-goodness people providing a good or service to other honest-to-goodness people.

We aren't a faceless corporation that treats customers like accounts rather than human beings!

So, don't be afraid to have a sense of humor, or to be colorful and memorable, if that is your personality. Don't wear the uniform of a banker if you are a carpenter or artist or air conditioner repair guy.  Don't hide your passion for fishing, or skiing, or (like me) the martial arts.

Don't completely take the "you" our of your business.

I have a joke in my LinkedIn profile (tip - look at the education section). I've been told a couple of times (especially when I was job hunting) to remove that joke, as it might look "unprofessional".

You know what? If that joke makes a potential employer or partner think I'm not right for them, well, they are probably right! Because that joke goes to the heart of who I am, and I'm going to bring that to work with me.  If that joke turns you off, then yeah, we're not a good match.

And that's okay with me.

In closing, when I think of "The Professionals", this is what comes to my mind. Some language at the end NSFW, so keep your earphones on!

Agree? Disagree? Want to talk about this movie?  Let me know in the comments!

DOTC: Free or Cheap Business Tools (Part 2)

Over in Part 1, I gush about all the free stuff by Google, mostly.  I didn't even mention the Google Apps for mobile devices, which I'm also a huge fan of (I'm starting to use Google Keep and I like it!)

Now let's examine other great free (or cheap) tools you should check out for your business.

MARKETING TOOLS:

There's lots out there, and all of the social media services have free apps and can be used via your PC browser, so I'm going to focus just on the ones I think highly of.

Kid, that ten bucks will pay
 for two months of Google Apps.

I've mentioned HootSuite before.  I can't stress enough how easy I think it is to use to manage your social media channels.  It's hard to find any tool at this price (which for less than five accounts is nothing) that does better.  However, you might try BufferApp - like HootSuite, it has free and paid versions also.

For email marketing, MailChimp is well known as the best free tool around.  You don't have to pay tons of money out of pocket especially if you are sending one newsletter a month.  It also has a free and paid version.

For customer relationship management, try Zoho CRM. It's limited to three users in the free version, but for most of you, that should work fine.  Bonus is that there's no software to install - run it via your browser, or any browser, from anywhere.

I always recommend to my clients that they get professional help with web sites and SEO.  That being said, it's very easy to set up a free web site (starting with a blog) on Wordpress or Blogger.  Both offer to help you buy a unique URL and have templates that are very easy to use.

The folks over at Small Business CEO have done an excellent job of collecting a ton of white papers on a variety of topics.  Again, all free! Small Business CEO: Free Small Business Tools

Need images for blogs, social media and other marketing purposes?  My go-to site is Morguefile.  Lots of images, completely free, no attribution required.  I used Morguefile for the image on this very post.

Finally, if you're looking for a good news reader, use Feedly.  I use it to subscribe to lots of marketing and small business blogs.  I then share that content via my social media channels.  It's also a great general education resource.

OTHER BUSINESS TOOLS:

Apache offers a free productivity suite called Open Office.  It's been around a long time and has been a competitor to Microsoft Office for years.  While I prefer Google's offering, this is a very good alternative to Office, with a ton of apps for your business.

Alternate (or additional) to Google Drive for cloud storage is Dropbox and Box.  However, if you have an Amazon account, you also have some cloud storage there. Learn more here: Amazon Cloud.  And of course, for Apple users, there's always iCloud.

For basic accounting - can't afford QuickBooks?  Try Freshbooks.  They have a free version as well as paid services.

For notes, to-do's and planning, lots of people swear by Evernote.  It's free and you can use it on multiple platforms.

You can have calls completely free (video chats too) using Skype.  It's also a great chat tool.

So what do you you think?  Did I miss anything important?  Let me know!

DOTC: Free or Cheap Business Tools (Part 1)

I love cheap stuff.   I write a lot about it here, and I use every free or cheap service I can get away with.  I advise my marketing clients to do the same, as well as teach Abanico Workshops on the topic.

Fry is unclear on the concept.

Last week I talked about the tools I use in my business.  Most of what I use, I use the free version. 

I'd like to expand on that a bit.

Many of us do things the long and difficult way - or spend money we don't have - on business tools because we don't know what's out there.

By “tools” I mean things like:

• Network and cloud drives
• Productivity software, like a word processors, spreadsheet, presentations
• Email clients, contact managers and address books
• Notes and productivity tools
• Marketing tools and services

You may be a one-man-band but you need these things to run your business.  Lucky for us, living in the modern world, there are tons of tools available.

In my opinion, it’s best to look for solutions that don’t require you to enter the same information in more than one place, more than once.  If you have to manually insert duplicate information in multiple places, you’re wasting your time and you might want to consider a different tool.

I’m a huge fan of Google services: Chrome, Gmail, Blogger, Picasa, Google Calendar, Google Apps, Google Tasks, and Google Drive, just to name what I use most often.  I’m also an Android user - I have a Samsung Galaxy II smart phone and a Google Nexus 7 tablet - and by associating my Google account to my Android devices, all of the services/content I get on my PC are also available on my phone and my tablet, and I don't have to duplicate any work.

I am never anywhere without my contacts, my files, my email, or my tasks.

It's awesome.

And it's FREE!

Here’s the list of active Google services (scroll down to “Home and Office” to see many of the tools I mentioned above): http://www.google.com/about/products/

If you need a more powerful solution, Google Apps for Business is available at a crazy low price and offers more tools and bigger storage.  Learn more here: http://www.google.com/intx/en/enterprise/apps/business/

I know Apple has similar services for free or cheap , and I see that Microsoft is offering Office 365, but in my opinion, Google has cornered this space by providing free services that are worth paying for when you can afford it.

I didn't go into other popular (and free) services in this post; I will in Part 2.

Do you like something more than the Google tools I've mentioned?  Let me know!

Tool Talk

I admit, I've been struggling to write original content this week.  I have a lot on my plate that I'm trying to resolve, and as such, I haven't been able to get rolling.

BusinessCat never has writer's block.

So I'd like to share with you some of the tools I use that you might find helpful.

CONTENT FEEDS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

For use in my social media channels (and to spark my own creativity), I use Twitter and Feedly to follow people, blogs and organizations that give me lots of good marketing content.

I use HootSuite, mostly, to share and schedule posts for my social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn.

Twitter

Feedly

HootSuite

GREAT MARKETING SITES

Here's a few of my favorites places for advice about marketing, including blogs, white papers, online and offline training, and much more!

Marketing Profs

Clickz

Direct Marketing News

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Today
Loyalty 360

TOOLS

I'm a Google fangirl (all of my mobile devices are Android, of course).  I use GMail, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Picasa, and of course, this site is on Blogger. My main browser is Chrome (but I also use Firefox when I need to).

I use the apps on my phone and Nexus 7 tablet as well.  So as you can see, if Google makes it, I'll try it!

I'm also a power user of Microsoft Office. While I don't think you have to have Office - Google has some great (and free) stuff - there are some cool capabilities it's hard to get elsewhere.

I'd love to know what tools and sources you use - let me know!