You've heard me talk about Nancy Juetten's Publici-Tea^TM  event before, and I often recommend  her Do-It-Yourself Media Savvy kit to my clients.   The price is usually  $99 for the  Media Kit, but if you order it before August 14 and in the digital format you get it for the unbelievable price of $57.  Click here to buy:  Media-Savvy-to-Go Publicity Toolkit

Nancy's electronic toolkit contains worksheets, press release examples, pitch letters, engaging audio files, special reports, and other actionable information to make it easy for you to create winning press materials of your own. 

If you need a little bit more help with your publicity efforts, consider attending Nancy's August 15 Publici-Tea^TM event in Tacoma for some hands-on help.  Her special guests include little ole me speaking about blogging as well as Rachel Costner, SBA Women in Business Champion. 

Nancy will be returning to Bellevue in September for another Publici-tea^TM if Tacoma is not the right location for you.

Publici-Tea™ Training Event - Register now !!

If you don't have a publicist on the payroll and aren't doing it yourself, how are people going to know about your fabulous business?

A system is nothing more than a recipe.  You decide what you want to prepare and follow instructions to get a predictable (and delicious!) result.  Too many times I've talked to clients about setting up systems in their business - everything from answering email to providing a service - and they resist it. 

• "I'm the only one who can do that."  Do you have a business or do you have a job?  If you have a business, you must be able to teach others or you will always have a job.  A very expensive, time-consuming job.
• "My business is too small for systems."  How will you grow if you always plan to do everything yourself?
• "It takes too long to document what I do."  How much longer will it take you to train an employee without documentation?  Or try different methods to improve service or save money?  If you can't track it, you simply won't know.

Since hearing Michael Gerber speak about systems a few days ago, I've been trying to figure out a better way to introduce the idea of systems to my clients. 

World's Best MomI'm visiting my parents this week in New Mexico, and that always involves a batch of Mom's famous chocolate-chip cookies.  As she started making them, I had a brainstorm.  Her cookie recipe is a system, perfected over time, that always turns out delicious, perfectly baked cookies. 

1. 
   The basic recipeShe starts with a proven recipe for a successful cookie, the basic Nestle Tollhouse recipe.
2. Through trial and error, she has determined that butter-flavored Crisco is a better option than butter because it leaves the cookie with a better consistency.  So she altered the original recipe based on her results.
3. My dad loves pecans, and my parents are quite famous locally for their abundant pecan trees.  Mom doesn't have to worry about the price of pecans at the grocery store since she
   Modifying the recipe to improve itgets hundreds of pounds every year, so she generously adds pecans to the recipe.  Another change to the recipe to satisfy her "customers."
4. To keep her cookies from sticking to the pan and to make reloading the pan easier between batches, she uses parchment paper.  This is also a change from the original recipe that makes cleanup much easier.
5. Time has shown that in her oven and at her altitude, the cookies bake perfectly at 11 minutes per batch.  She knows how long it should take.  When the timer goes off, they are perfect.
   Production to Storage
6. She cools the cookies on an elevated cooling rack so the bottom of the cookies are firm.  This keeps them from sticking to each other and getting mushy.  She is just as concerned with storage as she is with production.
7. If she can keep Dad away long enough, they cool and are then placed on a plate to enjoy with a glass of milk.  She knows how to deliver her product for maximum impact.

That's it.  Perfect success every single time.  A system is really no more complicated than a chocolate-chip cookie recipe. 

You can cook up your own recipes for almost every task in your business:

• Marketing
• Lead conversion
• Customer fulfillment
• Lead generation
• Production
• Accounts receivable/payable

If a system is no more than a recipe, than an operations manual is no more than a cookbook.  You can literally start with a recipe box.  Jot your notes down on a recipe card as you perform the necessary tasks to your business.  Evaluate what you are doing, what should stay in the system and what should change, and then make it so. 

As you write your business "cookbook" you will be amazed at what you know and how much more focused your business will become.

Now get that apron on and start cooking!

"This recipe is certainly silly.  It says to separate the eggs, but it doesn't say how far to separate them."

~ Gracie Allen

Do you wonder how some businesses always have their names floating around?  You see them in the paper, on blogs, in the news, and as speakers at events.  How do they do that?  More importantly, how can YOU do that?

Well, some of them no doubt hire a high-priced publicist with great connections to do all the legwork for them.  But not everyone has that in the the budget.  After all, you need more publicity to generate more customers to afford a publicist, right?

It doesn't have to be that way.  There are at least 99 things you can do for little or no money to start publicizing you or your business, and Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy can show you the way.  

Do you live in the Seattle area?  If so, Nancy will be hosting a Publici-Tea(TM) half-day training event on Friday, June 13 at The Village in Bellevue.  I have taken this workshop before and it is terrific for giving an entrepreneur the information and tools to go out and immediately make an impact.  I landed my first professional speaking engagement within a week of taking Nancy's class. 

Publici-Tea™ Training Event - Register now !!

As a special bonus, I will be speaking on blogging at the June 13 event to show how your blog can work with your publicity campaign to generate huge rewards for your business.   In addition, I'll be hosting a drawing for one free spot in my upcoming 8-week online Blogging University Course.  With a maximum of 14 attendees, you have a pretty good shot at winning!

If you don't live in the Seattle area or prefer to get started on your own, Nancy has a host of do-it-yourself products that start at the unbelievable price of FREE and go all the way up to completely reasonable.  I have many of them and refer to them often.

So, next time you see a meeting notice, article, or announcement about another company, think about how they got there.  If you don't make it easy for people to find you, you won't ever get that kind of press and the amount of business that comes along with it.  Make an investment in yourself and start taking your publicity seriously.

"There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary."

~ Brendan Behan 

Yesterday I went to a sale at a local artist's studio.  He was selling paintings at a discount to make room in his new workspace, and I was amazed at the difference between his work 20 years ago and today.  As a matter of fact, I bought one from 1994 and one painted 6 months ago, and you can barely tell they were from the same artist.  I love them both for different reasons, and it was interesting to hear him talk about the growth of his style over time.

Which brings me to today's topic.  Is there a visible evolution to your business?  When you offer a service it is not as easy to see the evolution as in a series of paintings.

Are you stuck in the Stone Age or zooming into the 21st Century?:

• Are your life and goals the same as it was when you opened your business?  If not, have you changed your business to adapt?
  
•  Are you still serving the same market as when you first opened your doors?  If not, have you changed your marketing message to reflect this?
• If you have been running your business for longer than a year, have you become seasoned enough to have processes in place, operations manuals, and other systems to help you delegate tasks as you grow?

Just as children grow to adults, your business should grow and mature.  Think about your growth over time and make sure you are keeping up with your business and your business is reflective of your goals.

"We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution."

~ Bill Hicks 

This week I became the Seattle Women and Business Blogger for Examiner.com, one of the fastest-growing websites for local news and information with over 2 million unique monthly visitors.  It serves 57 local markets, with Seattle being one of the major markets.

Is this big news?  You betcha!   This is great exposure for my business and for my message of challenging women entrepreneurs to think big about their small businesses.  It is also just one more piece of evidence that using social media can propel your business to new heights, and I love being a walking, talking example of this for my clients.  

Check out my Examiner.com blog  - better yet, why don't you subscribe?  I will still be blogging here several times a week on business for women, and the Examiner blog will have more information specific to the Seattle area.  It would be great to see you at both places - it will definitely be worth your time.

If you have not already done so, check out this post on using a feed reader to make blog reading faster and easier.  Keeping up with your industry and business news should be a regular part of your day, and I always read my blogs with the morning coffee.  This makes it easy to do.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Seattle Women & Business Examiner!