The answer to that question is an emphatic yes and no!  It’s a well know fact that people like others who are most like themselves. They enjoy the company of those they believe share their views and opinions. There is a point, however, when what is essentially a business relationship can cross the line.

Becoming friendly with a client or customer is fine. In fact, in can enhance a relationship. There is, however, a line which must be drawn. Your personal problems need to remain personal. When you continually share your burdens you burden the relationship. While the person you share it with may listen politely, he has his on problems and does not want to be burdened with yours.

If your problems are so bad that you need someone to talk to and perhaps to get advice from, go see a priest. Just avoid ever taking personal problems to appointments or phone calls with you.

How long have you been using the same sales presentation? While it’s important to have a presentation you can make with confidence and style, if it’s the same one you’ve used for years consider freshening it up a bit.

Keep the presentation you’re comfortable with, but add to it on a regular basis. If part of your presentation is to offer stories of how successfully another client used your product, change the story regularly. Hopefully you are continually adding new features to your product or service; share that with the client. If there is or has recently been something in the news pertaining to something you know is of interest to your client or soon to be client, share it.

When you make changes to your product or service pick up the phone and call your client to make him aware of the upgrades and changes. If you can’t reach him by phone, send a hand-written note on company letterhead instead. In today’s high-tech world everyone gets enough, actually too much email. A note sent via US Mail will get his attention.

Do you use a day planner? Perhaps you have a pad you write everything on and that works fine for you, or does it. All I have to say to that is INVEST IN A DAY PLANNER. I use the Franklin Day Planner. It was recommended by our business coach and it has been invaluable. Keeping records of our calls, conversations, meetings, etc. lets us see at a glance where we’re spending the majority of our time.

Keeping notes from phone conversations and in-person meetings is easily accomplished with a Day Planner. The Franklin is set up to make it easy to cross reference and keep great records. I call my Franklin Planner, my personal assistant. It’s always with me and at a glance I can retrieve detailed information in seconds. It saves me time and money and keeps me well organized.

If you’re serious about continuing to building a successful business you may want to look over and evaluate your business plan. You do have a detailed business plan in writing, right? While there must be a plan that takes you to your intended end result, the interim plans are vitally important as well.

Okay, you have your business plan. The question is what do you do today? Failure to plan each day of your business life can cost you dollars and future business. Planning your day the night before has proven to be an income increaser. When there is no well organized plan for the day ahead it’s likely that you will be easily distracted and in many cases wind up moving papers from one side of your desk to the other ….and then back again. Have a well thought out plan and by all means, work your plan.

Albert Einstein once described insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly expecting to get a different result. While at every business meeting, or at Chamber of Commerce events I go to, someone refers to those words. The interesting thing about that quotation is the fact that those who share those words are continually doing the same thing expecting a different result.

It would seem these people are actually doing something they preach against and warn others about. Until we hired a coach and marketing strategist, we were as guilty as the rest of them. We continually did the same thing and when it didn’t work we did more of it. As our coach pointed out, while we thought we were experimenting with different approaches, we were actually doing the same thing, only in a slightly different way. Now with guidance we are in the mode of make complete shifts when what we’re doing isn’t as effective as it could be.

How important is your business to you? Is your goal to see it grow and create wealth for you or are you willing to take whatever may come your way?

No matter how great your business is, it can be better. Isn’t that the goal, to grow it and either have an incredibly thriving business to turn over to your children when the time comes or sell it, cash out and travel the world? If you own a small business and have survived for five years or more, congratulations, most small businesses don’t.

At Canova we found that actually hiring a business/marketing coach has done wonders for our bottom line. There was a time when I followed the daily or weekly advice to the guys who provide Tip of the Day type messages and while there is some good advice in each of those tidbits, they were not enough. Piecing together a string of tips may, in the long run, be the worst thing you could do for your business.

After serious trial and error situations we decided to spend the money to hire a business/marketing coach. Our coach now knows as much about our business as we do and that has increased our revenues tremendously. To grow a business it’s necessary to examine and work with the entire picture and, of course, as our business coach would tell you, planning backwards is a necessary component to business success.

Domain Names: When choosing a domain name people often choose a name that has special meaning to them. Actually, the name they choose should be one that has some meaning or significant recognition by their potential customers, clients and/or following. It needs to be a name so intriguing that no one can resist checking it out because the name indicates what your business is all about.

If you’re a known and thriving business you should use the name everyone knows so you can be found easily in the search engines. If it’s a new business and you’re still in the process of choosing a name, look for something that tells people what you do or what your product is by using keywords and phrases that describe your product or what you do. Your MAIN KeyWord should be the first word in your domain name if that is at all possible.

Example: Marshalls.com or MarshallsInc.com could be good names if your goal is to build an internet business for a company named  MARSHALLS. On the other hand, id you sell marshmallows your better choice might be MarshallsMarshmallows.com because people would guess that you have marshmallows for sale.

Often, when a client is unshakable in his or her name choice and not likely to attract the people they’re looking for, we recommend that they use two domain names and point both of them to the website’s nameserver.

For example: Marshalls.com and MarshmallowsGalore.com could both be pointed to the same website and either would get you where you wanted to go.

If you need a fun name to play with on the internet, make it your personal domain name and use a recognizable name that indicates what you have to offer. If YOU are a well recognized individual in your industry, you might even use your own name for your website.

Note: If I were making the decision in the above examples, I’d choose MarshallsMarshmallows.com and MarshmallowsGalore.com and point them both to the www.Marshalls.com nameserver.