I just wrote about time management on another blog, because it is SUCH a big issue, today. One of the biggest challenges around time is in trying to ‘market’ your business via the current social networking venues.

I hear it all the time: “I need to market, but then I don’t have time for anything else!”

Seriously?

Let’s FIRST look at the term “marketing” and then let’s look at your social networking habits to see if we can get you back to work.

Marketing

Marketing is the strategy you will use to grow your business.

Marketing does not ONLY mean Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketing is a bigger picture of how you will accomplish the goals you’ve set up to accomplish with your business. Marketing is the tool for success. This also means newsletters, business cards, networking, phone calls, etc, just to name a few. Social networking should only be a PART of your marketing.

Literally, the definition of marketing by the American Marketing Association is “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007)”

Got it?

Ok, that’s the first step.

Social networking

Next, let’s look at your social networking habits. Looking at your current social networking habits, are you able to quantify your results? How many visitors are you driving to your website as a result of your postings? And, of those visitors, how many are signing up for anything you have to offer? First item should be your newsletter/eblast.  Second would be your main service or product you have to offer.

Do NOT tell me you don’t know!

If you find yourself spending hours on these sites and you do not KNOW the results you’re producing, then really, you’re not working, you’re playing!

Consider how much all that ‘playing’ is costing you! Where is your return on investment? If it is not driving business to you, how else could you otherwise spend your time and actually MAKE money? Afterall, that IS why you’re in business, right?

The best piece of advice my Social Media VA gave me was this: Spend no more than 5 minutes a day on these sites. She suggested pick one to visit 3 days a week, another 2 days, and another 2 days. It was like she lifted this huge weight of pressure off my shoulders! Oh, I CAN create a presence AND work at the same time!

The funny thing is I’m starting to see other business coaches/consultants suggest the same thing. Why? Because it works!

So, now you know what marketing is and what place social networking plays in the BIG picture. And you have a suggested guide for controlling your social networking time.

So now, SERIOUSLY, stop reading and get to work!

Margie

February 7-13 is National Coaching Week (NCW), where coaches from around the world celebrate the wonders of coaching.  NCW was created as National Personal and Business Coaching Week by Jerri Udelson in 1999 as a way to promote the profession of coaching. In 2000, coaches in Canada wanted to take part, so the name was changed to NCW, and the International Coach Federation (ICF) started to promote it.

ICW is a designated time for coaches and clients to educate the general public about the value of working with a professional coach and to acknowledge the results and progress made through the coaching process. During this extended commemoration, coaches around the world offer a variety of activities and pro bono services in their local communities to share what coaching has the ability to do. For more information about ICW, visit www.coachingweek.org.

Have you experienced coaching, yet? If you haven’t, you are really missing out!

I still remember when I started investigating coaching. I started attending teleclasses like they were going out of style, met my first coach in one of those classes, and not only did I learn a great deal (about coaching, about myself), but met some incredible coaches! This was also when I made the decision to BECOME a coach, and thus coach people from wherever I happened to be at the moment! It meant working while traveling, which combined my two loves. Since then, I have coached clients from my home, from cruise ships, from Zurich, Jamaica and even Rome.

What is the value of coaching?

• Coaching helps successful people accomplish more sooner. That’s really it in a nutshell.
• Or, as the ICF puts it: “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. “
• Coaching provides you with the questions you can’t ask yourself, or family and friends can’t ask, in an objective way.
• Coaching helps you really see or hear yourself as someone else does. It can open your eyes to awarenesses and perspectives that hadn’t occurred to you, helping you move past obstacles to achieving your goals.

To celebrate, my offer is a free, 30-minute coaching session during that week and a free article on business structures. But you have to contact me soon, because these spots WILL fill up quickly! To contact me to set up an appointment for your free session, you can call me at 909-867-7317 or email me to margie@meg-enterprises.com. I work with health, fitness and service professionals who wish to start or grow a business.

You can accomplish great things with coaching! If you haven’t tried it, now is the time. And give me a call to try it!

Margie

MEG Enterprises provides business coaching services to health, fitness and service professionals who wish to take their business dreams to the next level. As author of the book, “Just Jump: The No-Fear Business Start-up Guide for Health and Fitness Professionals”, President Marjorie Geiser helps clients do the introspective work that is often ignored, which then leads to lack of movement in accomplishing business goals.

I stopped working with my last coach when school got too demanding and I felt something had to go. However, I know that times between coaches will always be short.

Meanwhile, a friend is working on her coaching education and needs to complete her practical hours for graduation, so while we were working on a different project, she asked if I would like coaching from her to help her. Naturally *I* will benefit from it, too.

Our first session was yesterday and all day today I’ve been thinking, “I LOVE coaching!” I love it as a coach and I love it as a client! But I’m again reminded, as a client, just how powerful it is.

Since completing school, I’ve been meaning to sit down and put my updated goals and plans down on paper. And, yes, I knew I would get to it. However, working with a coach moves things into overdrive, which I LOVE! More focus and determination.

If you have goals that are not moving forward as quickly as you’d like, or especially if you feel ‘stuck’, I can’t recommend coaching highly enough! Naturally, if you are working towards starting a business or taking your business to the next level, I recommend looking into MY coaching, but above it all, I encourage you to just look into hiring a coach to help move you forward.

What IS coaching? Coaching is the process of helping successful people move towards their goals faster than they would on their own. Simple. Focused.

Margie

PS. I do offer a complementary 30-minute coaching interview to determine if my coaching can help clients achieve their goals. Feel free to spend time on my site to learn more: http://www.meg-enterprises.com.