Five Ways To Deal With a Boss Who Piles On Work

The managing director of the company is looking for a team that would be able to handle an additional assignment. Manpower is stretched and most department heads are keeping silent. Suddenly, one hand shoots up. Your overenthusiastic boss has just volunteered you and your team for months of hard work and long hours. Lately, he’s been piling on the work, with little regard for what you have on your plate. Devina Sengupta has some suggestions for how to deal with a boss like this.

Learn to say no
This is an art that needs practice. If the boss asks for a submission at noon, delay it by an hour or two. “But do this only if the assignment is not crucial, and certainly don’t do it all the time,” says Pravesh Aggarwal, manager at a Bangalore-based retail firm. When asked about the assignment, say the number of things that you have on your plate are making it difficult for you to finish things on time. “But this could have an adverse effect during appraisals so you must learn to prioritise what you can,” adds Aggrawal.

Play it down
If the boss jumps at every idea you suggest, then amend your list. “Get the most important ones you want to work on out there, alongside the ones that are doable,” says Dwiwesh Debuka, an advertising professional. “It helps not to volunteer and lie low for a few quarters, and then put your name up for another assignment.” When you can’t keep up with the boss, sometimes it helps to slow things down for a bit.

Align with the super boss
When your immediate boss is a buzzing bee, it helps to do a quick check of the tasks on your super boss’ list, if that’s possible, and align yourself accordingly. Salil Saxena, an HR professional with a manufacturing firm, has frequent meetings with his super boss where he gets to know the man’s top five requirements. “Prioritise accordingly, and work towards those five things since the super boss is likely to ask your boss for those first,” says Saxena. He realised recruitment is top-of the list for his super boss, so he makes sure that despite being saddled with other tasks, he works on that first. It helps him score brownie points, by keeping all his bosses happy.

Take stock of resources
The next time a task is assigned to you, speak up and ask for more resources, if necessary. This is also a way to get the message across to your boss that perhaps the job requires more than one person, and he must get others to pitch in too. Getting more hands on the deck is never easy, especially when the organisation is short-staffed. Rohit Gopal works for a Mumbai-based equity firm and has a boss who piles on the work. “I make it clear that the extra work can only be done if I get some help from others, and then the work is divided,” he says. This has made his boss think twice before dumping extra tasks on him.

Be honest
If all of the above fail, then just have a talk with the boss on why you cannot take on the additional responsibilities. Explain the tasks you are working on, their deadlines and how you will not be able to give your best to the new assignments. Be prepared for negotiations, but remain firm when he coaxes you to take up the job. 

(Some names changed on request)

(The Economic Times, Mumbai, 31-05-2011)

Five Ways To Monetize Your Blog Without Advertising

One of the topics I receive the most questions about is blog advertising. When can you start accepting sponsors? How do you price your ads? How do you manage advertising?

The bottom line: doing advertising right is hard work.

From ads on Scoutie Girl – a 3.5 year old blog with a monthly readership of 35,000 unique readers – I only generate 15% of my income. Sure, I like that 15% – but you have to ask yourself just how much money that would mean for your blog, because doing the work is about the same. In most cases, that means the same amount of work for a lot less money.

And the truth is you can make a LOT more money from selling your own stuff or service via your blog.

Here’s how:

• Sell a service.
• Sell a digital product.
• Sell other people’s stuff.
• Sell your stuff better.
• Sell your content.

Oh wait? You wanted explanations for those? Right on. Keep reading…

Advertising on a blog is the least personal way to make money. It’s the most traditional – magazines & newspapers have been supported by ads for decades – but the least fitting the medium. Choosing one of the 5 ways listed above gives your readers a personal experience and a way to support you directly. Consistent blogging – good blogging – is hard work, an entrepreneurial endeavor whether you’re making money already or not.

Be thoughtful about the way you monetize your blog and you’ll be rewarded!

Sell a service.

You probably blog [for the purposes of this post, feel free to substitute "writing" or "creating content" for the word blogging] about lots of things. But I bet you’re really good at just 1 or two. This one thing is what you’re most passionate about, what you have experience or education in, and it’s what you have proven track record of success with.

Offer your expertise to others. Offer your infectious spirit, your enthusiasm, your empowering ideas to others who aren’t gifted in this area. You can sell consulting services, skill-based services, or any kind of outsourcing you can think of! The key here is to match your network’s need with a skill you possess.

The benefit of offering a service is that there’s interaction, personalization, and a higher ticket price because of both of those things.

Sell a digital product.

Do you love giving presentations? Could you write a book on a your favorite biz topic? Have a pattern you’d like to share with the world? Turn it into a digital product.

Any PDF, video, audio, image, etc… can be sold. The days of purely free content are over (were they ever really here?) and people are willing to pay for really good, useful content that saves them time & energy and solves a problem. Use your expertise to create a product that does just that.

The benefit of selling a product is that you can price it slightly lower than a service because it can be sold over & over again ad infinitum. And earning money in your sleep rocks. Hard core.

Sell other people’s stuff.

This might be new to you. You can help other people sell their products & services and earn a commission for each sale you make. While many corporations like Amazon have million dollar (billion?!) affiliate programs, many small ma & pa companies have affiliate programs as well. Even individuals (like me!) have affiliate programs.

Companies & entrepreneurs are thrilled to get word of mouth exposure and they will pay you for results. And pay well.

Consider supporting books you love, classes you’re taking, your web hosting service, your email service… anything you pay for and LOVE, you should check for an affiliate program for. It’s a great way to earn passive income and your readers appreciate knowing about the services you recommend.

The benefit here is that you review products that you love and already use. Other people click & buy – you make money (sometimes in your sleep). This is a real no-brainer. It’s just figuring out how it will work for you.

Sell your stuff better.

Do you mention the product that you sell regularly? Do you talk about how it was created? Do you talk about the problem it solves and the people who love using/wearing/engaging it?

If you don’t, you should. Your blog is not all about you – it’s about your potential customers. Tell them how they will benefit from using your product and use it they will.

Is your online store or product page displayed prominently in the sidebar? Or even in your header? Or your footer? Or before your comments? Some place people are going to click it and click it often? Some place people can tell you’re selling something?

Your business blog will convert more readers into customers if people know you’re trying to sell something. Seem silly? Look around at blogs in your niche. Probably very few feature a prominent link to a store or product. Sad, but true.

The benefit to selling more of what you’re already creating? Easy. You get to do more of what you love for more money. Jack pot.

Sell your content.

Take the first 4 ideas and use content that you’ve already generated to create income. Take several blog posts, write transitions, fill them out, answer questions that came up in the comments – and you have an ebook. Take podcasts you’ve created, have them transcribed, and turn them into a free ecourse that promotes other products. Take your preparation from workshops you do in the area and turn them into a paid ecourse.

The benefit here is that you’ve already done most of the work. You can create income quickly and easily. Just remember to do your best to add value to what you have. People pay for value.

Sometimes, thinking big is about thinking outside the box. It’s about forgetting what you see everyone else in your community doing and embracing something new or something that works better. Challenge yourself to create new streams of income within your own business. And don’t forget to let me know how it goes!

About the Author: 

Tara Gentile

I turn your big ideas into a creative life-well-lived through a generous helping of practical philosophy, a few kicks in the pants, and a signed permission slip to reach your goals. Learn more about me.

Original Link:http://www.taragentile.com/monetize-blog-without-advertising/

Five Ways To Sell Your Ideas Steve Jobs Way

1.) Plan in Analog

Steve Jobs made his mark in the digital world of bits and bytes, but he plans presentations in the old world of pen and paper. A Steve Jobs presentation has all the elements of a great movie—heroes and villains, stunning visuals and a supporting cast. And, like a movie director, Steve Jobs “storyboards” the plot. Before you go digital and open PowerPoint, spend time brainstorming, sketching or whiteboarding in the early stages. Remember, you’re delivering a story, the narrative.

2.) Create a Twitter-Friendly Description

Steve Jobs creates a single sentence description for every product. These headlines help the audience categorize the new product and are always concise enough to fi t in a 140-character Twitter post.

3.) Introduce the Antagonist

In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same holds true for a Steve Jobs presentation. In 1984, the villain was IBM, known as “Big Blue” at the time. Before Jobs introduced the famous 1984 television ad to a group of Apple salespeople, he created a dramatic story around it. “IBM wants it all,” he said. Apple would be the only company to stand in its way. It was very dramatic and the crowd went crazy. Branding expert Martin Lindstrom says that great brands and religions have something in common: the idea of vanquishing a shared enemy. Create a villain that allows the audience to rally around the hero—you and your product.

4.) Focus on Benefits

Your listeners are asking themselves one question: Why should I care? Steve Jobs sells the benefifi t behind every new product or feature—and he’s very clear about it. Why buy an iPhone 3G? Because “it’s twice as fast at half the price.” What’s so great about Time Capsule? “All your irreplaceable photos, videos and documents are automatically protected and easy to retrieve if they’re ever lost.”

5.) Stick to the Rule of Three

Nearly every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. When Jobs returned from a health-related absence on September 9, 2009, he told the audience he would be talking about three products: iPhones, iTunes and iPods. Along the way he provides verbal guideposts such as “iPhones. The fi rst thing I wanted to talk about today. Now, let’s move on to the second, iTunes.” The number “three” is a powerful concept in writing. Playwrights know that three is more dramatic than two; comedians know that three is funnier than four, and Steve Jobs knows that three is more memorable than six or eight.

Five Ways to Sell Anything

Back in the day, the doorbell would ring, you’d open the door, and a salesman would say, “Good evening, ma’am. I was wondering if I might demonstrate a new type of vacuum cleaner; it’s called a Hoover.”

If you were interested, you’d smile, swing the door wide open, and say, “Please, won’t you come in? Can I get you some tea?” If not, you’d tell him you’ve already got a nice vacuum cleaner that does the job just fine. He’d politely thank you for your time, say have a nice evening, and be on his way.

To say things are different today would be like saying Lady Gagalooked strange dressed in meat.

Today, you, me, and everyone else is constantly bombarded with an overwhelming assault from our smart phones, inboxes, the media, social networks, advertisements, blogs, and yes, still, people trying to sell us stuff.

This isn’t how it was supposed to be. The Internet started out so benignly, you could casually check out a website and then move on. Now, it’s nothing but push, push, push.

So, if you want your ideas, products, services, whatever you’re selling, to become hopelessly lost in the deafening roar of the Internet collective, that ginormous cloud up in the whoknowswhereosphere, then sure, by all means, sell it, and sell it hard.

If, on the other hand, you’re an entrepreneur who actually wants his ideas to be heard, or a sales rep who actually wants to sell her products or services, here are five ways to help you actually engage people and not get virtual doors slammed in your face.

1. Never waste people’s time. Given that we’re all so overworked, overstressed, and overwhelmed, that means the absolute worst, dumbest  thing you can do if you want to sell anything these days is waste someone’s time. Yeah, I know what you’re going to say, how do you know until you try? Well, I think that if you dig down deep, most of the time, you know.
2. Try making sense. No, not to you, to the person or company you’re targeting or pitching. And that inherently means doing two things that, for inexplicable reasons, people rarely do. First, ask yourself what’s in it for them. Second, actually try it out in advance on the closest thing you can get to the audience or targets you’re trying to reach. Third, iterate until you get the sort of “aha” reaction that means you’ve gotten through their defenses.
3. Differentiate. No, that doesn’t mean yell louder, be more over-the-top, or get more hits. Few of us have the budget or the brand to register above all the noise. What it means is offering an idea or solution that solves a problem better than anyone else does. How do you do that? By doing hard research you really don’t want to do. And if you can’t come up with a truly differentiated value proposition, then ditch the idea and try something else. Seriously, don’t waste your time.
4. Give and get. As sales techniques go, this is a relatively subtle and cerebral approach. First, offer something of value. No, not some dumb self-serving study your company funded or a cheap MP3 player. Something of real value that might actually get folks to engage. Ask them what they think, and then, guess what, you’ve got interaction. I’m sure you can take it from there.
5. Get humility. I don’t know why, but some salespeople think they need to pump themselves up so, when they finally get in front of someone real, we either want to punch them or run away screaming. Understand that you’re just a person who’s genuinely trying to connect with others to offer them something they might really need. If you’re genuine, they’ll react in kind. But if you come off like a preacher on steroids, be prepared for some ugly rejection.

Bottom line. It might seem that, to move the needle these days, you’ve got to really be over-the-top. Don’t fall into that trap. Let those who lack a unique value proposition, the confidence to be genuine, or the good sense to not waste people’s time, compete with all the noise. If you want to sell and win, you need to be smarter than that.

About the Author

Steve Tobak is a consultant, writer, and former senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He's the managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based firm that provides strategic consulting, executive coaching, and speaking services to CEOs and management teams of small-to-mid-sized companies. Find out more at www.invisor.net Follow Steve on Twitter or Facebook.

Original Link: http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/5-ways-to-sell-anything/5796

Five Ways To Use Twitter To Market Your Business

Twitter is one of the top social networking sites and can be used for business networking as well. The site offers a great opportunity to business owners as a marketing tool. If you’re somewhat new to Twitter in this regard you may not have the clearest idea of how to go about promoting your business using the site. The following are some ways to use Twitter to market your business.

Tweet About Your Website

One of the simplest ways to use Twitter to promote a business is to tweet about your company’s website. Of course this requires creating a website if you don’t already have one, but that is easily done. Once you’ve created a website you can leave tweets concerning it to increase traffic there. Try to say creative, witty, or attention getting things about the site. Gauge which types of tweets get you the most site traffic (note: there are analytical tools that you can use to get a very good idea of this).

Create a Blog to Tweet About

Blogs often have even more draw than websites and fit in with the general Twitter ethos of progressive, ongoing dialogue. It’s sometimes even easier to promote a blog than a website. You can set up a blog that deals with the general topic your company is involved in (e.g. glassmaking and glassware if you sell glass items) and then link back to it at the end of blog posts. In turn, you tweet on Twitter about this blog to get traffic to it, traffic which is next directed to a sales page or website.

Listen to Your Audience

There are a plethora of analytical tools that can help you tune into your Twitter audience. A tool called Twitter Search allows you to listen in and find out who is using your name and/or the names of competitors. You can find out whether these people are followers and if not, try to court them as such. Send them tweets of a friendly nature aimed at encouraging them to check out your business.

Along these same lines you can conduct informal market research on Twitter by asking general questions such as what people are in the mood for, what they buy as gifts, what has their attention, and so on, subtly shifting these questions toward the product or service your company provides.

Tweet About Other Things Than You Business

This is in fact very important. You don’t want to create the image of being a salesman on Twitter at all. So you need to tweet about all kinds of things unrelated or distantly related to your business. Focus on making your Twitter page an interesting and diverse one and which people will like to follow if they are in the market for your product or service. The goal is to be perceived as a Twitter contact and friend, the personal connection to the brand and to the market your brand exists in. Accessing what your business has to offer should merely be something that one of your twitter followers can elect to do if he or she wishes.

Follow Interesting People

You can follow interesting people or companies using Twitter. These may relate to your business or they may not. For instance, if you sell scuba you can follow the tweets of a prominent oceanographer or a larger scuba gear retailer. Tweet about them, and then add your own links, information, and insights into the topic in general.

About The Author: 

Domenic Manganelli, Consumer Engagement Manager

Dom oversees the development and implementation of consumer engagement and campaign strategies. Dom helps clients gain market share and leads by understanding how to attract consumers online with creative and compelling campaigns that drive revenue. Dom got his start in sales when he was 13, selling newspapers on the street. He even wore a newsboy cap. In a college during an internship Dom developed a sales initiative for a travel company aimed at students in Greek organizations. After college he gained B2B sales experience at a regional importer of natural stone. Dom graduated from Babson College with a concentration in global business management and economics. He was the first student at Babson to be accredited for classes in cooking, taking a course in at Newbury College senior year. 

Original Link: http://www.messageamp.com/internet-promotions-blog/5-ways-to-use-twitter-to-market-your-business/