November 2020 - Focus Guru

How Being Consistent On Social Media Is One Of The Keys To Business Success

Nobody says being consistent is easy at first, but I will promise you that it makes a big difference. Just think about the most prominent brands on the market and you’ll spot they all have something in common. They are consistent. They’re always on your social media radar and through Focus Guru I’ll show you how you can do the same for your business too.

It doesn’t matter whether you make and sell your own products or services, or if you’re part of a network marketing team selling pre-packaged items, being consistent in your marketing and on social media makes a huge difference. If you’re part of a network marketing team, perhaps with Arbonne, Utility Warehouse, Forever Living, Enjo, PartyLite, or Tropic, you might already be using your company marketing material and upline support.

But do you use your marketing tools consistently?

Are you posting on social media regularly?

Have you made the most of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and Email to attract new customers?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, please contact me. If you would like more sales, please contact me and I can help. To do this, I’m offering a free 15 minute chat for business owners to help uncover anything which may be stopping you from being consistent in your social media.

“A quick phone call with Rachael has led to a page of notes with ideas and steps to take to help both of my Wedding and Kids businesses take a step forward!” – Charlotte Elizabeth

The free 15 minute chat may uncover areas in your personal life which are be preventing you spending time on business activities, and vice versa. For example, through the chat we may discover you’re more productive in the morning, perhaps there is less stress or fewer interruptions. It makes sense to keep this time free to complete your core activities, the “big rocks”. Equally, if the chat identifies you’re carrying out the school run ten times a week, don’t count on these hours to write your weekly newsletter.

In the Focus Guru Power Hours I’ll help identify your “best hours”, the times during the day where you can carry out the marketing tasks to propel your business towards a consistent social media presence. I’ll cover how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and Email consistently, without any stress or overwhelm. Having a consistent approach pays off in many ways.

“Definitely worth a phone call, Rachael had thought of marketing ideas I hadn’t even considered or thought of!” – Charlotte Elizabeth

Building consistency into your marketing has far-reaching and sometimes unexpected results. It can take many contacts with a prospective customer before they are ready to buy from you. Estimates range from two or three contacts to more than twenty times. That means someone may need to see your marketing message twenty times before they buy from you.

I help make the process of being consistent really simple and easy to implement. Taking out a Focus Guru package makes sure your marketing message is delivered on time each day or each week in front of your targeted customers. You can choose exactly when and where your social media marketing is posted and if you need help writing the content, I can arrange this for you too!

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Are You A “Messy Desk” Person And Does It Matter?

Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

and there’s certainly evidence to support a theory that a messy desk belongs to someone with a streak of creativity, thinking outside of the box ideas, an entrepreneur or inventor, perhaps even someone with a touch of genius.

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

But if your messy desk is causing you stress or overwhelm, don’t panic! I can help. I won’t be able to tidy your desk for you, but I will empower you with real strategies to tackle the mess, to become more organised and show you how to restore order to chaos. I do this through Focus Guru Power Hours, where you’ll learn key skills to apply in your business and at home and achieve your goals.

“Rachael has great ideas and a fantastic system for getting yourself organised. Certainly worth a conversation to explore options.” – Sharon Broer

How Desks Get Messy

For some people, the flat surface of a desk becomes a magnet for clutter. It can only take a few minutes for a coffee cup, unopened post, receipts hastily scooped out of a wallet, a phone charger, loose papers and a multitude of other items start balancing one on top of the other. There comes a point when you don’t know if your desk is black or white or made of wood or metal, because it has vanished out of sight! Was there a mouse and keyboard somewhere under the clutter?

Possible Consequences

Loss of time is almost certainly a possible consequence. How long does it take you to find your car key, a client’s phone number, or the agenda for your next meeting? Not keeping on top of your paperwork can lead to losing client enquiries, failing to attend meetings and missing important deadlines. But it can also lead to feelings of anxiety, stress and depression. You may find you experience a tension headache, or backache. A messy desk also attracts dust, dirt and mould.

How To Change

In my Focus Guru Power Hours I will help identify the messy triggers in your life. Without fail, there is always a reason why you don’t file your receipts, or you have random phone numbers written on post-its. I can teach you systems and processes to manage clutter so that it doesn’t build up unmanageably. I will recommend strategies to make sure you don’t run out of time or energy to keep on top of things. The key skills are “Organisation” and “Accountability” and in your Focus Guru Power Hour you’ll learn exactly how to put these in place.

Why It Matters

Decluttering is proven to make us feel good. It’s satisfying to feel on top of clutter and mess. This doesn’t mean you can’t still have a coffee cup on your desk, or that you have to move every piece of paper into a filing system (or the bin). It’s about creating a positive working environment to enable you to sit at your desk, knowing what needs to be done, by when, and freeing up your time to pursue your goals.

Your Next Step To Achieving A Tidy Desk

I’ve mentioned Focus Guru Power Hours where in sixty minutes we’ll chat and I’ll guide you through proven strategies to improve your organisation and accountability skills. You’ll find the benefits reach far beyond whether your desk is tidy or cluttered. These are strong habits you’ll be forming to help you achieve more in your work and personal life.

Those goals you thought were out of reach will become achievable and the best part is you don’t need to leave your desk to participate! I offer a free 15 minute consultation to establish where you would like to start and give you a choice of Focus Guru Power Hours to help solve your most pressing problems.

To book your free 15 minute consultation, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Mailchimp Training – Make Your Mailshots Work For You!

Focus Guru Power Hour Mailchimp Training – Make Your Mailshots Work For You!

Sending a personalised email is still one of the best ways to communicate with your customers. Whether you want to talk about a new product or service, relay industry news or share a special offer, sending an email gets your message directly in front of your customer at any time of the day or night.

There are several ways you can set up an effective mailshot and through Focus Guru, I recommend using Mailchimp, the easy-to-learn software that gives you full control of your mailing list. You can create emails to go to every customer, or set up custom tags, for example to email people you met through 4Networking, or at a trade show, or those who haven’t bought from you for a while.

“I was really impressed with Rachael’s knowledge of Mailchimp and how she helped make it really easy to keep in touch with my customers.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

A number of my clients are using Mailchimp to send out a weekly newsletter promoting their services and announcing time-limited special offers. The response rate is excellent and Mailchimp includes a comprehensive dashboard so you can see at a glance how many emails have been opened and who has clicked on your links.

Armed with this level of detailed information, follow up messages can be sent, phone calls can be made, deals can be done, and sales can come flooding in. In your Focus Guru Power Hour covering Mailchimp Training, I show you from start to finish how you can make the most of your list of business contacts.

How does it work?

In your Focus Guru Power Hour, I’ll show you how to set up your Mailchimp account, or if you already have an account, we’ll start in the “Contacts” section. I’ll help you add your contacts and tag them in appropriate categories, which will be used time and time again to match the right contacts with the content you want to share with them.

For example, if you have 1000 email addresses, you can sub-divide your contacts into places where you’ve met, or services they are interested in, by location, or any demographic you choose. Sending relevant content to the right people will automatically increase your read response rate and reduce unsubscribe requests

We’ll run through a test email and then set up a real-world campaign so you can begin using Mailchimp straightaway. Or you can schedule your email if preferred. I’ll show you how the Mailchimp Scheduler enables you to send emails at your chosen time, on your chosen day.

Following the Focus Guru Mailchimp Training Power Hour, some clients choose to send their emails using the scheduler, for example regularly emailing their targeted customers first thing on a Monday morning. Others prefer to only send emails when something happens in their business or business sector.

The final step is the analytics, where I show you how to analyse and act on the response from your email campaign. This is where you can assess the effectiveness of your email. How many people opened your message? Who clicked on a link? What happened next?

“I’d definitely recommend the Focus Guru Power Hours to anyone who wants to learn more about Mailchimp and set up their own campaigns.” – Jenny Leggott, Transcend Zero

If you would like to book a Focus Guru Power Hour on Mailchimp Training, please contact me on 07756 772950. I also offer Focus Guru Power Hours on using Zoom, Hootsuite, online calendars, plus building organisation, networking and accountability. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How to Maximise the Benefits of Calendly and Zoom

Focus Guru Power Hour – How to Maximise the Benefits of Calendly and Zoom

Using an appointment scheduler to arrange meetings with colleagues and customers is one of the best ways to make sure everyone knows what’s going on, and when. There’s no excuse someone didn’t get the memo or the post-it on their desk. Using an app to manage your online diary is proven to increase attendance and reduce “no shows”.

How to use Calendly and zoom to organise meetings

In my Focus Guru Power Hours, I work with business owners and team members to optimise their working hours. I help people use their time twice, avoid squirrels, and increase productivity. I do this through 121 learning sessions, offering easy to implement techniques in organisation, time management and accountability.

“I spent time doing one of Rachael’s training sessions, which has gone on to benefit my management team and also in the process saved time within the business. Highly recommended.” – Mike Woodcock, Adept Cleaning Services

One of my favourite topics is time management and nothing demonstrates this better than knowing what you want to achieve, having a deadline to aim for, and the resources to make this happen. Whether you’re doing this for yourself, or for your team, having an appointment scheduler, such as Calendly, is one of the key foundation blocks to unlock your time.

These are my top tips for managing time and resources using Calendly and Zoom. I cover this in more detail in my Focus Guru Power Hours and ensure you have the knowledge and skills to run efficient meetings at any time of the day or night.

Tip 1 – Schedule Meetings

Have you been in a meeting where the time has run away with itself? Perhaps you’ve gone round in circles, avoiding a key issue. Maybe the decision maker hasn’t turned up. Maybe you didn’t have the right facts and figures to implement a solution.

Scheduling meetings using Calendly makes sense. You can offer a choice of timeslots and keep meetings running to time.

Tip 2 – Use Zoom Video Conferencing

This year, more than ever before, we’ve used Zoom to meet family, friends, colleagues and customers virtually when we haven’t been able to meet in person. The term “Zooming” has entered our language. To “Zoom someone” is in our 2020 vocabulary.

Calendly supports Zoom video conferencing. Instead of booking a meeting and sending a separate Zoom link, simply add “Zoom” as your venue and the meeting link is automatically generated.

Tip 3 – Respect Your Time

I think this is really important. No one wants to be the person clock-watching, or checking their watch worrying they’ll be late for the next meeting, collecting children from school, or feeling stressed that the meeting could have been wrapped up twenty minutes ago.

Using the Calendly appointment scheduler and Zoom video conferencing allows a finite time for a meeting (if you wish). This offers peace of mind to all parties, enabling everyone to organise their day in the most efficient way.

If you’d like to know more, please contact me on 07756 772950. I offer a free 15 minute consultation to find out more about you and your business and how we could work together to implement time, energy and resource solutions.

Focus Guru Power Hours are available for yourself or members of your team. In the space of sixty minutes I’ll make sure you have the knowledge, software and skills to run efficient meetings everyone will benefit from attending. Let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How Do You Feel When Someone Asks You To Use Their Appointment Scheduler?

Love them or hate them, the use of online diaries and appointment scheduling apps is on the increase. Designed to maximise productivity, these clever apps are running our lives. But how do you feel about appointment scheduling? Does it work? Is it rude? Has it changed your life?

How to use automation to organise meetings

At Focus Guru, I help business owners make the best use of their time, energy and resources. Speaking recently with different clients, I’ve noticed a big change in the way they want to book appointments with prospective customers, organise team meetings and plan their networking follow-up calls.

Using an appointment scheduler, my clients have time to work during the day as well as speaking with their customers, without the time spilling into home life, hobbies and holidays.

A shift towards online calendars

Instead of an old-fashioned paper-based diary, there is a distinct shift towards online calendars and appointment schedulers. Having an electronic diary means appointments and events can be scheduled and shared with colleagues or family members, as and when required.

Your time can be divided into segments, colour-coded and reserved, for example, for meetings, sport or family activities. The time segments can be a five minute slot for a quick check-in at home, or a capped half hour consultation with a prospective client.

Automatic reminders encourage attendance

There’s nothing worse than being ready for a call and the other person fails to show up. How many times has this happened to you? Do you give them a second chance? Or a third?

Appointment schedulers have a great feature where they can be configured to send a reminder about your upcoming meeting. The app can also remind the person you’re speaking with that they have a meeting with you.

This alone is responsible for ensuring both parties are aware of the upcoming meeting and encourages attendance.

Rude and impersonal or does it show you value your time?

When the first person asked you to use their appointment scheduler, how did you feel? Did it feel rude and impersonal? After all, you were just asking for a chat with them. You might have wanted to buy their product or service. Perhaps you met someone at a 4N Online meeting and wanted to carry on your 121 and they asked you to book a time slot.

However, is it any different booking a 3pm to 3.30pm phone call via an appointment scheduler than verbally arranging a time? Does it show you value your time? Is it more reliable than writing the meeting time and date on a scrap of paper?

Would an appointment scheduler work for you?

There are many good reasons to use an appointment scheduler. From your side, you can choose the times you want to be available and when you want to switch off the phone. It can be relaxing to know you have a quiet hour or two to spend with family, to shop, read, or catch up with friends.

You’ll also know in advance who’s calling and can prepare documents or check facts and figures before they call. Having the answers ready and information to hand automatically reduces stress and creates a positive impression.

In my Focus Guru Power Hours, one of the topics I cover is how to choose the right appointment scheduler for your business. There are several to choose from and cater for single users, families, teams and entire organisations.

I’ll make sure you know how to set up appointments, send out professional invitations and organise the times you wish to be available. This will give you the right tools to manage your appointments and increase your working productivity.

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact book a free discovery call into my calendar and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way