THE REPORT BLOG

Promotion at NY Report

I am pleased to announce that Daria Meoli has been promoted to Executive Editor. Daria joined the team two years ago as managing editor and as her role within the company has changed to include more and more responsibilities, I felt the time was right to give her a promotion. In her new position, she will not only continue to manage the magazine content, but will lead our new online content initiatives, as well as contribute to special projects.

Congratulations Daria on a well deserved promotion!

How Not to Say Happy Thanksgiving

This year, I received no less than 10 Happy Thanksgiving e-cards. Two years ago, I wrote a blog about why I think they suck, and tis the season to revisit why Thanksgiving e-cards are such a bad idea:

• E-cards are not appropriate for business. We know they are easy to send which doesn't say much about the effort on the part of the sender. They also clog up my precious inbox and require me to also click. Sorry, too many steps for something that I don't appreciate.
• About half the cards I received were from people I don't know (or maybe I met them once and I am in their contact management system).
• Several of the emails (not that I looked in detail) looked like they were the exact same thing. So what is the point of sending something when 10 other people will send the same thing? 
 

Because many people/companies send out cards during the traditional holiday season (around Christmas), I do think that sending something out around Thanksgiving is a good idea. But when I mean sending something, I mean a gift or a snail-mail card. Something that shows that you went through an effort.

Come Friday, I know one thing I will be thankful for – no more e-cards.

An NY Report Team Member Does the Herkie (and I Missed It)

Yesterday afternoon, I heard a commotion of laughing and clapping coming from outside my office door. I came to find out that one of my non-sales employees agreed to do a herkie jump, a stunt commonly performed by high school cheerleaders, in front of the whole staff when one of my salespeople made a sale over $20,000. It was her challenge to the sales team. The result was the entire company rooting for the big sale, everyone had a good laugh and it created a camaraderie across departments.

I heard that there is a video tape of the "performance," but am told that no one is giving it up. So my team did something cool without me and now they are sticking together. I'm so proud.

Taming Email Overload at NY Report

One of my big issues when managing my own time is not allowing anyone else set my agenda. However, when you are a slave to email, that is exactly what you are doing. At our weekly company meeting, Amy, our sales director, brought up this issue and referred to an article that appeared in our November issue - "Staying Productive in the Information Age." As part of an effort to become more productive, she is going to try to only check emails four times a day. If that fails, she'll limit herself to once an hour. Since that "new mail" icon can be difficult to resist, she can either turn off the alerts, turn email offline, or log out of email completely and keep the BlackBerry out of sight.

Several of the other employees chimed in with how they reduce email distractions. Business development manager Chris Peel said he creates rules in email account to have all his newsletters delivered directly into a designated folder, instead of his inbox, so he is able to see only relevant emails as they come in and view newsletters when he has the time. I subscribe to newsletters under my Gmail account, so that only business-related correspondence is sent to my Outlook inbox.

It is just as important to be respectful of other's time. Instead of distracting others with several emails each day, managing editor Daria Meoli keeps draft emails open for other team members and as thoughts or projects come up, she adds them to the draft email and saves it, but doesn't send it. She sets the email rule to send after a specific time, so the team member receives only one email from her the next morning.

Marketing, Creativity & Branding, Oh My!

Here are a few ideas I shared with the audience at yesterday's New York Entrepreneur Week panel:

1) Don’t think about “old vs. new media,” but instead, choose the mediums where your audience is.

2) Make sure you have a marketing plan; people need to know who you are and what you offer. I have seen too many companies in the exact same place they were six years ago because they just rely on networking.

3) Another mistake I have seen from many entrepreneurs is not spending enough time on the creative process. Being creative takes time and you need to do that to create a message; regardless of medium, that is very compelling.

4) According to sales expert Jack Daly, selling is about the transfer of trust. One way to gain this trust is through your branding; in terms of trust in the B2B world, print outweighs online by a lot. 

Top Tips from New York Entrepreneur Week

I participated in a panel discussion yesterday for New York Entrepreneur Week, titled “New Media Strategies vs. Old Media Strategies: What is the Future? Is Print Approaching the Dinosaur Age?” My fellow panelists were: Sergio Fernandez de Cordova, founder of Fuel Outdoor; Bob Johnston, founder of Executive Council of New York; Matthew Weiss, global learning chair of Entrepreneur's Organization (EO); Shervin Pishevar, founder of SGN; and moderator Bryan Janeczko, founder of Wicked Start. We covered everything from newsweeklies to print vs. online advertising and the weight of editorial content through different mediums. Though the conversation was all over the place, I noted a few helpful tips:

Shervin Pishevar: “Social media is the greatest form of advertising; people are spreading the word for you via Facebook fan pages, for example.” In order to effectively balance this “free” form of advertising, you must engage the community in terms of content creation – give the people what they want and need to build loyalty to your service or product. Send out Facebook alerts with news and updates to keep your audience involved and engaged.   

Matthew Weiss: “Use new media as a listening tool, not just a talking tool.  Set up Google Alerts for your company and your competitors as well.” Not only will this clue you in to what people are saying about you or your company, but it will give you a heads up as to what’s happening in your industry.

Here is a schedule for the remaining panel discussions at New York Entrepreneur Week. I will blog about some ideas I shared with the audience later today.  

Who was at the "In Her Shoes" Reception?

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to our networking reception at La Pomme in Manhattan, to honor our In Her Shoes video series subjects: Shenan Reed, Sarah Beatty, and Sandi Webster. Check out the pictures from last night’s event.

Last Chance to Register for "Web Tools to Tackle Top Small Business Challenges" Webinar (11/18)

Luc Vezina, director of product marketing for MyFax at Protus IP Solutions, and Danny Estrada, director of CRM Practice at Net@work will be hosting a live webinar this Wednesday (11/18) from 2-3pm EST, titled “Web Tools to Tackle Top Small Business Challenges.” This webinar will provide expert help about the pros and cons of web applications, how to use web apps to portray a larger company image and better compete with big business, and how outsourcing IT work could help your business. Register now for free.

Last Chance to Meet the "In Her Shoes" Entrepreneurs

Meet three amazing women entrepreneurs at the In Her Shoes Women Business Leaders Reception this Tuesday, November 17th from 6-9pm at La Pomme in NYC. This is your last chance to get advanced tickets to this special networking reception, where you can meet the In Her Shoes entrepreneurs - founder and managing director of Morpheus, Shenan Reed, president and founder of Green Depot, Sarah Beatty, and principal of Consultants 2 Go, LLC, Sandi Webster. Registration for advanced tickets ($60) closes at noon tomorrow (11/17). Tickets are $75 at the door, if available. Register here before noon tomorrow.

EO24: Grow Your Business

I recently had lunch with Matt Weiss of Weiss and Associates. Matt also is the Global Learning Chair at Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). We talked about a unique event happening on November 19th. EO chapters worldwide will hold EO24 “Grow Your Business” events to promote themes like take-home business value, growth and innovation. There are 60 events planned throughout the world and participants will get a real sense of the impact of business culture on a global level. Presenters include: author and blogger Tim Ferris, PR expert and founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) Peter Shankman, and president of new media marketing agency, New Marketing Labs, Chris Brogan. Visit eo24.org for more information.

 

 

RE: Is Everything Ok?

I recently asked my sales team for tips on how to get a silent prospect to respond, here is what they said:

- Sales director, Amy Mancuso: “One thing that seems to be effective also in both email and voicemail is contacting someone to make sure they are ok. It’s not a sales approach, but they will respond, often with an apology and reason why they haven’t gotten back to you. Then, the door is once again open for conversation.” The “is everything ok” approach is also my go to email subject line when trying to get someone to respond to my call or email. I find that it quickly reminds people about our conversation and acts as a call to action for a response.

- Business development manager, Chris Peel: “The one thing I have found that works really well is also really simple. By writing “response kindly requested” in a subject of an email, a prospect is more likely to get back to you. I’ve had several occasions where email and direct mail correspondence goes unanswered, and this line works.”

- Business development manager, Theresa Nguyen: “I talked to a prospect at the Xpo and when he gave me his card I noticed he worked right down the street from us. He professed his love for a particular restaurant near our office during our initial conversation, so in my follow-up email, I titled the subject line “working in close proximity to [restaurant name] is awesome,” so he wouldn’t forget our conversation.”

Read more tips from contributing editor Steve Bookbinder in NY Report's November issue.

Hiring From the Top – Questions to Ask Overqualified Candidates

 
The “new normal” for hiring is to wade through the pool of overqualified talent to find an employee who won’t sink, but who won’t still look for a better offer. When I interview a job candidate, I ask about the size of the companies they have worked for in the past. Larger companies have more resources than smaller businesses can offer, and if a potential hire is accustomed to more resources, this could mean they will get frustrated and cause trouble for the rest of the staff down the road. I also ask how a potential new hire plans to adapt to the new work environment; set up a plan with goals and targets in line with other employees in their department to set the course of what’s expected.

All of that said, overqualified hires have the potential to help you upgrade your staff, so you should not be afraid to do so with someone who can take your company to the next level, even if this means replacing a current employee who is idly floating by. Read more tips on how to manage overqualified new hires.

Who’s Setting YOUR Agenda?

 
Most of us are guilty of focusing on the urgent, not the important. This is because the urgent is coming at you from all directions – social media, email, phone calls, etc. To cut down on the distractions, you must set your own agenda. Here are some things I do daily to reduce unwanted interruptions:

- Make a list of the important goals you need to accomplish for the day.

- Do NOT check email (this may be hard at first, but I find that by switching my Outlook to offline, it makes it really simple).

- On Fridays, set an agenda for the next week; book time for meetings and phone calls and list them on your calendar. 

- Set up specific times to meet with employees (I prefer 1:1s), or in the case of drop-ins, ask employees if it is urgent. If it isn’t, it’s ok to tell them to come back later.

Read more on how to stay productive and prioritize your to-do list.

Where Do Your Customers Drink?

I just heard the head of Ogilvy New York mention 2 things: 1) They got the UPS account and 2) They recently moved their offices to 46th and 11th. He then mentioned that they are responsible for an uptick in the Landmark Tavern which is also on 46th and 11th.

Where am I going with this? A good friend of mine who is a very successful publisher told me that to be successful in sales you need to "make friends." So if a media salesperson wants to sell to Ogilvy, wouldn't the Landmark Tavern be a great place to have a drink around 6pm?

Is This the Most Important Thing You Do?

 
One of the things that Jack Daly (pictured above) suggested at last week's NY Report event was to create a "contract with one's self" of things you will commit to doing. On the top of my list was regular one-to-one (1:1) meetings with everyone that reports to me (at NY Report that is almost everyone in the company). I have been doing 1:1s with my sales team but they have been sporadic as they are the first thing that gets blown off once something urgent comes up.

Of the three 1:1s with the sales team this week, two of them went for about two hours each (we planned on about an hour). I really felt that we both (me and each of the salespeople) got a lot out of them. We spoke about opportunities and getting past the obstacles in the way. We spoke about what activities need to get done. We spoke about goals, etc. As I thought about these meetings I realized that this is one of the only times that an employee and I have to really focus on figuring out what makes them happy and productive. And the end result is usually a few good ideas that will help drive the value of the business.

Because I don't want to be the one at my company doing all of the work and coming up with all of the ideas, I think these 1:1s are the most important thing I do.

Avoid the Brick-Wall Treatment with Prospects

Getting a call back from a prospect is the aim of every salesperson, and the art of crafting a put together voicemail or email ensuring that call back is not as complicated as you might think. November’s contributing editor Steve Bookbinder explains how to pique a prospects curiosity by sending voicemails or emails with a simple call to action and asking a question the prospect can answer to avoid the brick-wall treatment. Read on.

Cover Stories in Action on Halloween

Halloween is big business, as is exemplified by our November cover story about Ricky's NYC. I took the picture above on Halloween morning and, despite having more than 20 Ricky's costume shop locations around the city, the line is still out the door. 
 
When I interviewed our October cover story subject Kevin P. Ryan a few months ago, somehow the subject of Halloween came up. Kevin and I live in the same neighborhood and I knew that on one of the blocks nearby, each building puts on extravagant Halloween displays. Turns out, Kevin lives on that block and his building took home the top prize - a $25 gift certificate - last year. Watch this video and you'll see why.

Amazing Opportunities Right Now

I had breakfast with a friend this week who told me that she had bought a small "old" media company. By old media, I mean something that is printed on newsprint. My friend was able to purchase this company, which has been losing money, for less than a million plus some back end. In less than five minutes she was able to tell me her entire business plan.

- Upgrade the technology so the production department could be reduced significantly
- Change the sales comp
- Build a complementary website
- Ensure the sales team is calling on new accounts (novel concept)
She said that they will be profitable before the end of the year. I have heard a couple of other similar stories recently. While there are always bargains, there are a lot more now. Here's why:

- More companies are losing money and the owners can't fund the losses
- Companies that didn’t invest (in technologies, people, etc.) and don’t have an infrastructure that reduces costs get especially hammered in a bad economy.
- Owners are too beat up from the last 12 months and just want to get out.

Who's going shopping?

By Appointment Only: Tips to Staying Organized

In this month’s “WorkSmart,” organizing goddess Sharon Lowenheim teaches readers tips on how to stay goal-oriented through today’s age of information and overwhelming communication. Lowenheim’s tips include cutting out interruptions by not taking every phone call (that’s what voicemail is for), setting up meeting appointments with employees or co-workers to reduce distracting drop-ins, and to cut out multitasking. Read to see if Lowenheim’s advice might work for you. 

Want to Walk In Her Shoes? NY Report’s Premier Video Series Launched

NY Report’s first ever video series launched earlier this week – In Her Shoes – which is sponsored by Aetna. The three-part series profiles three women entrepreneurs as they open up about issues they face and the lessons they learned about growing as leaders, as their businesses grew.   
 
Our first In Her Shoes profile is of Shenan Reed, founder of Morpheus Media, who talks about how she motivates her staff without spending much money. Her personal mission is to make the lives of her staff easier. For example, Morpheus has a pet-friendly policy and employees are allowed to bring their dogs to work, making it much more convenient for the staff to give their pups a mid-day walk. She also discusses her inspiration for becoming an entrepreneur, why she has introduced a client she previously fired to another agency, and more. Watch it here. 
 
NY Report is also hosting a networking event to celebrate these three featured entrepreneurs, as well as other business owners. Visit nyreport.com/bizleaders for more information.