In my first post about Pinterest, I provided a basic overview of what Pinterest is and how to use it. In my second post in this series about Pinterest, I gave you some fundamental rules and a few general ideas of how you can use Pinterest to market your business. And last week, in a “hey, this is an interesting topic post,” I talked about ways to protect your content in Pinterest (and all social media, for that matter).

Today, as I complete this series on Pinterest, I want to start out by sharing something interesting that happened as a result of having posted this article series about Pinterest on Pinterest. One of my Pinterest pals asked me, “I have a sign shop and was thinking about doing some type of advertising on Pinterest but I definitely don’t want to turn people off. I’m going to read your pin but I’m just curious if you have some feedback for me.”

I wrote:

“The real key is the same for Pinterest as for all social media: focus on the community, not the advertisement. It’s not about flooding the site with a one-way broadcast, but about engaging in conversation with your audience.

What kinds of things do sign customers want to know? What can you teach them? Post in your blog on those topics. Best practices for signs, what makes a great sign, how to make your sign stand out, etc. Then pin the blog post and tweet about the pin.

I’d also recommend that you create a board dedicated solely to crazy signs. You could also run a contest asking people to create a board with your business name on their accounts and pin weird signs, the weirder the better. Weirdest sign wins…I don’t know, something awesome.”

One thing I really like about social media is that blog posting initially feels a little abstract or isolated…until someone comments and a conversation can begin. Blogging is only the start of the conversation. And sharing this blog post on Pinterest turned a general post into something quite specific. I love that! So I’d like to encourage you to think about how you can write blog posts for your business that can initiate a conversation, once you share the posts in social media, including Pinterest.

Look, Pinterest is cool. It’s fun. It’s addictive. But at the end of the day, it really is just like every other social media platform, in that the rules are the same across the board. Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, and whatever else comes along, the rules are the same. 

So whatever new platforms emerge, while there may be some sort of learning curve associated with the new technology and perhaps some fun and exciting new ways to leverage the specific platform for marketing, the rules of engagement probably won’t change. They won’t change because the rules for social media are the same rules we use in person, and those haven’t changed for eons. We’re talking about things like: When you’re in a room full of people, don’t talk about yourself exclusively. Ask people about themselves. Get to know people. Focus on them and not on you. Build your KLT Factor (know, like, and trust). Engage, converse, discuss. Don’t broadcast or advertise. Deliver value, bring something to the table. Be interesting, but more importantly, be interested.

Break these rules, and you’ll be perceived as obnoxious and your business will suffer. Follow these rules, and you’ll be a welcomed member of the community and you’ll see  a return on your efforts. It’s really just that simple.

I recently posted a series on Pinterest and how to use it for small business marketing. A couple of days ago, one of my readers, Joan, posted this comment:

Thanks for two great articles on Pinterest Susan. There is a lot of controversy around the re-pinning of third party content from around the web and Pinterest TOS. Photographers and Artists appear to be perturbed about Pinterest taking ownership, and being able to use their works without requiring permission.

Personally I like the ease of use Pinterest has introduced, sharing of information is global. [The] majority online love for their content to be shared. Any idea on copy right for the above mentioned, to protect their work?

I thought this was a great question and as I started writing my response, I realized that I had enough to say on this topic that it warranted a full blog post.

I, too, have followed the controversy on Pinterest, copyright, ownership, etc. It’s the same debate we’ve had for years about other sites, and I imagine the debate will continue. But because Pinterest is the newest platform to be engaged in the debate, I thought it worth mentioning today.

Of course, there are benefits to artists and photographers when people share their content on Pinterest. In the big picture, you generally do want people to share your stuff, because the wider dissemination of your materials, whether your “stuff” is art, photography, writing, products, or services, builds visibility for your brand, which should lead to more business. On the other hand, if people are sharing anyone’s content without attribution or permission, there’s no business benefit and obviously, that’s a problem that must be addressed.

(Side note: This isn’t an issue that affects only artists and photographers. I recently discovered that a stock photo I bought to use on the Business in Blue Jeans web site was pinned as an inspiration image for how someone wants to look in their blue jeans! The image was pinned directly from my site, so I received credit, but it surprised me a lot to see how that image was showing up.)

Unfortunately, we’ve had this problem since the early days of the internet. There are far too many ways to take content, no matter what kind of content it is. With writing, there are ways to find out if people are using your content without permission. For example, Copyscape is a fantastic site that searches the web to help you find out if your content’s been stolen. Their Copysentry tool will even track your site and content and notify you if and when anyone ever uses your content.

As an artist or photographer, it’s more difficult to locate if your images are being used inappropriately. There are, however, several strategies you can use to protect yourself, each coming with its own pros and cons (and most of these apply across the board, regardless of which social media or other site you’re worried about, with regard to infringement):

• You can check http://pinterest.com/source/businessinbluejeans.com (replacing “businessinbluejeans.com” with your own domain name) to see what’s been pinned from your site. However, if someone has downloaded and posted/pinned your images, you won’t see it there.
• You can embed your images with Digimarcs, allowing you to convey copyright information in the image, but this option comes with an annual fee.
• You can use text to put a copyright and your business name on the image itself, though with the right skills and technology (read: Photoshop or similar), that can be stripped away.
• You can use coding on your web site to prevent downloads, but I’m not sure that would prevent people from pinning images, and I’m certain it doesn’t prevent people from using screen captures to take those images anyway.
• You can use TinEye, which is a reverse image search tool, but reviews indicate it’s not fully reliable.
• You can hire a company like ImageRights to track down images being used without your permission and to get paid for their use (ImageRights takes a portion of the money they help you collect).
• You can also use Flash, which can’t be pinned, to display your portfolio (just don’t use it for your entire web site or your SEO can suffer).

Pinterest does care about your copyright. In the terms and conditions of the site, they explicitly say,

You agree not to do any of the following:

Post, upload, publish, submit, provide access to or transmit any Content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy;…

Also, they have a listing in the About menu specifically for Copyright specifically intended to tell you what to do if you find out someone has been taking your content without your permission. Here’s what they say:

Pinterest (“Pinterest”) respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects its users to do the same. It is Pinterest’s policy, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.

Then they go on to tell you what to do if you discover a copyright infringement on their web site.

As for Pinterest claiming ownership, they don’t:

By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services. Cold Brew Labs does not claim any ownership rights in any such Member Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to use and exploit any such Member Content.

I always find this kind of “We want to exploit your content” legal language somewhat distasteful, but frankly, it’s not uncommon to have this kind of language in a site where members contribute the bulk of the content. The company wants to use your content to market their site and they want to be able to distribute your content socially, which is the entire purpose of the site- they just need your permission to do so, and if you want to use the site, you have to give them that permission. That’s how all social media works, pretty much. You’ll find similar language on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and CafePress, for example.

I’m not sure what else Pinterest could do. CafePress has super-secret digital scanning algorithms that scan every image uploaded to ensure that you’re not using copyrighted materials to create products for sale. But Pinterest isn’t selling anything, thus the sharing of links and copyrighted content is and should be encouraged. The issue is in using the content inappropriately or illegally.

Philosophically, it’s difficult to know where the responsibility lies, if members of a site are engaging in copyright infringement. Is it the job of the social media platform to police its members, or is it the job of the artist and photographer to adequately protect his or her work? In this day and age, when it’s so easy to steal an image here and bootleg a DVD there, I imagine this debate is far from over.

Welcome back! Last week we covered the basics of Pinterest, a new social media bookmarking site that’s taking the online world by storm. This week, I’ll cover ways to use Pinterest in your marketing, what to pin, and how to get your stuff into Pinterest without being obnoxious about it.

The first thing I want to address is the issue of how to use Pinterest for business marketing. Marketers have gotten a bad reputation on social media. Plain and simple, there are folks out there who get it wrong and blanket social media with advertisements that feel a lot more like demands than the conversation that social media is intended to be. And that group of marketers have given marketing in general a bad name, because their advertisements and “in your face” commercialism have, at least according to some, ruined sites that others found to be pretty enjoyable on a personal level.

So let’s talk about how to avoid that with Pinterest, because Pinterest is one of the coolest, most enjoyable sites out there right now. Let’s not ruin Pinterest with a bunch of marketing junk! Instead, let’s join together to bring quality content and a higher level conversation to Pinterest that enriches the community, instead of transforming it into a much less-appealing, commercialized marketplace.

1. Don’t be all business. Create boards that are business-oriented, but also create boards that are personal and let people get to know you. Also, bear in mind that Pinterest does not want you using the site for self-promotion, as they tell you in the rules.
2. Don’t be spammy. Whatever you post, post it only once. Don’t repeat-post on Pinterest. See Rule #1.
3. Be a part of the community. Don’t use Pinterest just for marketing and SEO. It’s great for those things, but if that’s the only reason you’re there, you’re missing the point. This holds true for every other social media site, by the way. Join in the conversation. Use the comments field on pins to engage in dialogue with other users.
4. Contribute in multiple ways. Maintain a new pin to old pin ratio of anywhere from 5:1 to 10:1, just make sure you’re both repinning and adding new content.
5. Don’t be the only one pinning from your own site. Make your blog more “pin-worthy” by creating fantastic content, using amazing images in your blog posts, and adding a “Pin It” button on your site (in WordPress, you can use the “Pinterest “Pin It” Button” plug-in, or the “Social Discussions” plug-in, which includes Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). The “Pin It” buttons make it easier for people to pin your stuff and the quality content makes it more likely they’ll do so.
6. Use the Pinterest-provided “goodies” to let people know you’re on Pinterest. Pinterest provides “follow me” buttons and all kinds of other cool stuff for free here. You can also use plug-ins in WordPress to display your latest pins, which makes it more likely you’ll build a following on Pinterest.
7. Display your pins. You can install the “Super-Simple Pinterest Widget” plug-in in your blog to let people see what you’ve been pinning. This also helps to build your Pinterest following. You can also connect your Facebook presence to Pinterest. Connecting all these social media platforms really helps you to build a tribe. I’ve gotten to know people on Pinterest in a way that I haven’t known them on Facebook or Twitter, and vice versa.
8. Pin first, tweet second. Pin cool stuff to your Pinterest boards, then tweet about the pin. This serves the purpose of expanding your Pinterest following while also delivering your web site or blog content to both social media platforms.
9. Check your web analytics. Pinterest will give you great data. Facebook, not so much, because clicks go through a script filter before heading to your site. On Pinterest, you’ll know exactly what pins sent people to your site. That’s great information!

That’s it for now on the Pinterest front. More next week. Got more ideas about how to use Pinterest? Share ‘em!

Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of today, the day of love, I thought I’d share a few insights into what I’ve learned about business from the one who knows more about love than anyone else: Cupid. Why Cupid? Well, first of all, he’s build an extremely successful personal brand for himself and has been around forever. Second, he’s a cute little baby…and who doesn’t like babies? So here goes…

1. Do what you love, but don’t let passion get the better of you.

Love matters in business, believe it or not. In fact, it’s so important that I made it the first lesson of Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs: Find Your Fervor – find what you love and what you’re really fervent about and that’s the first step to finding success. It’s not the only thing that matters, but if you don’t love what you do, you’ll wake up dreading every day. In contrast, when you do what you love, you wake up excited about what you get to do every day.

However, you don’t want to let passion get the better of you, which is why I try to avoid using that word, “passion,” when I talk about business. I reserve passion for things like my family and personal life, so that I can keep a cool head in business and make decisions from a place of calm.

2. Age is irrelevant to success.

Cupid is a baby and he’s mega-successful. So…why should age matter? It doesn’t matter if you’re young and it doesn’t matter if you’re a senior. You’re not too young and you’re never done. Take a cue from the baby with the arrow and follow your dreams, no matter what your age.

3. Good PR can overcome an ugly history.

Before Geoffrey Chaucer, St. Valentine was a name that actually referred to a few different guys, all of whom were martyred. The head of one of the Valentine’s was even preserved. Seriously, I read it on Wikipedia. Point is, as soon as Chaucer showed up in the High Middle Ages and he and his friends started giving each other candy and flowers, nobody remembered the bloody history of Valentine. Even if you make a few mistakes or don’t get things right at first, history can be pretty forgiving with the right PR.

4. Success in business requires good aim.

If Cupid misses with his bow and arrow, people don’t fall in love. What a sad, lonely, loveless world we’d live in if Cupid had bad aim, right? Likewise, if you have bad aim, you’ll miss your target market and no one will find your products or services or know you exist. Success in business requires good aim- there’s a reason they call it a target market.

5. Sometimes a good thing needs a little nudge.

Love isn’t always easy- sometimes a little help is required to move things along. That’s what Cupid is for. Likewise, business isn’t always easy- sometimes a little help is required to move things along. That’s what coaches and consultants are for. Sometimes you need a little help to create a structured plan for your business growth, to learn new marketing strategies, to gain insight into the ways that mega-successful entrepreneurs become so mega-successful.

Believe it or not, even though I help entrepreneurs to create and grow mega-successful businesses, I have a business coach/consultant of my own who can see the forest of my business when all I can see is the trees. Lovers turn to Cupid when they need a nudge…you can turn to a trusted business coach or consultant.

There are lots more business lessons you can learn from Cupid, I’m sure, but these are the first five I learned. And stay tuned…next month, I’ve heard St. Patrick will be stopping by! Until then, have a very happy Valentine’s Day! May you receive many bouquets of roses and chocolate hearts!!!

Lately there’s been a ton of blog posts, conversations, and more about Pinterest, the social bookmarking site that’s growing crazy fast. I’ve been using Pinterest for several months and knew right away I wanted to leverage Pinterest as a business-building tool…but before I shared my ideas with you, I did what I usually do when I want to come up with a new marketing strategy for you- I studied how big brands re using Pinterest to build and market their brands so I could translate their big business ideas into small business strategies.

As we’ve been working on the new Business in Blue Jeans web site, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to how I can make the site and the blog more Pinterest-friendly. But maybe you’re not yet familiar with Pinterest or maybe you’re still trying to figure out how a site like Pinterest can benefit your business…or maybe you think that the recent proliferation of Pinterest-related posts are really just awesome justifications for Pinterest addicts to justify all the time we’re spending pinning spectacularly beautiful images to imaginary boards.

Well, let’s break it all down, shall we? We’ll start with the basics this week, then move on to more advanced “how to’s” of marketing next time.

What Is Pinterest?

They’re calling Pinterest a social bookmarking web site, but it’s far more than that. Imagine a cork bulletin board where you use pushpins to hang all kinds of things you love- beautiful images that inspire you, photos of places you want to go, ticket stubs from events you enjoyed, hairstyles you ripped out of magazines, home improvement projects and recipes you want to try, articles with diet tips or social media how-tos, etc. Pinterest is pretty much just like that, only in a digital, web-based medium.

Why do I want to use Pinterest for business?

On the surface, let’s be honest, Pinterest seems like an enormous time-suck. But once you dive into the research, you’ll be amazed at what Pinterest is doing for businesses. First, Pinterest is growing. Massively. In fact, it’s the fastest-growing site ever. Ever.

With well over 10 million members and more signing on every minute, Pinterst is The Place To Be. So your audience is probably already there.

Pinterest is also driving a lot of clicks, so if your content is good and your images are pretty, your stuff will get shared, re-shared, and every share will deliver referrals to your web site.

And, if you’re a micro-entrepreneur and building a personal brand, Pinterest is a great way to get a little more personal with your audience. I spend most of my time writing about business, but all you have to do is hang out with me on Facebook for a few minutes to find out that I have a lot more going on in my life than just business. But there’s a lot in my life that I don’t get to share in a meaningful way with my audience, simply because it doesn’t come up. Pinterest is a wonderful way for me to connect with people in a new, more intimate way that allows people to get to know me and my style a little better than they would otherwise.

Pinterest also offers a lot of creative, interesting ways to connect with other professionals and reach your target audience in entirely new ways. You can hold contests, offer special promotions, do a giveaway to reward users who repin and share your content, and much more.

Plus, Pinterest offers an entirely new way to get to know your audience, what their interests are, and what they find appealing. Looking at the number of repins you receive should give you a good way to gauge what content your audience likes…so that you can create more of it.

How do I get an account on Pinterest?

Pinterest is invitation-only, which means you can go to Pinterest.com and request an invitation, or you can find somebody who has an account and request an invitation from them, which is usually the faster route.

What do I do, once I have an account?

First, I suggest the same thing I recommend for all social media sites- take some time to look around. Click on the Pinterest logo in the middle of the top of your screen, then roll over “Everything” and just start looking around. Find some people whose pins and boards you like and connect with them by following them. Get a sense for how things work in this social medium.

Note that, just as with other social media platforms, the brands that are building the strongest visibility on Pinterest aren’t just pinning their own stuff. The goal is to build community- just as with Twitter, where you build relationships by retweeting and commenting on others’ tweets, build relationships on Pinterest by commenting on others’ pins and repinning them.

Once you get a sense of how things work, set up your profile. Some marketers have been suggesting that you use your business name as your Pinterest username. I strongly disagree with that idea. Definitely include your business name in your profile (see below) and link to your web site. But unless you’re a larger-scale business with staff contributors/pinners or a magazine, use your own name.

People want to connect with you on social media. For example, I have a business page on Facebook, but I find that more people want to know me than my brand. And especially if you’re in a service industry, people do business with people. Remember that old, “Know, Like, and Trust Factor?” Well, if you hide behind a brand and don’t give people the chance to know you, it’ll be hard for them to build that KLT Factor with you.

Just as on Twitter, my user ID on Pinterest is SueBMoe.

Once you’ve set up your profile, start setting up your “pinboards,” which are like those cork boards I was talking about earlier. You can create as many as you want. Topic-based boards work best. For example, I keep recipes I like in my “Nom Nom Nom” board and business tips in my “Business Tips” board. Then start pinning stuff you like.

How do I pin stuff on Pinterest?

To pin stuff that you find outside of Pinterest, I highly recommend the Pin It bookmarklet. You’ll find that in your “About” menu under “Pin It Button.” The bookmarklet allows you to pin anything from a web site (except Facebook, unfortunately) by just clicking “Pin It.”

*Pinterest Secret Tip*
If you highlight text on the page before you click “Pin It”
then the text appears in the description field of your pin.

You can also upload your own stuff by clicking “Add +” from the top right corner of your screen. This link allows you to enter a web site address or upload your own images from your computer.

Finally, you can look through the overall feed or, once you’re following people, your own feed, and re-pin others’ pins to your own boards by rolling over the top of the image and selecting “Repin.” You can also Like pins and Comment on pins, and all of your activity will show up in your feed so every single one of your followers will see all of your activity (so don’t pin anything you don’t want everyone to see- currently there’s no way to create private boards).

(For more details on how to use Pinterest, especially if you’re a techie newbie and need more help than I’ve provided here, make sure to check out Neil Patel’s post. He’s got some great step-by-steps and also has a list of how several companies are using Pinterest in their marketing and branding strategies.)

Next time, I’ll cover some more advanced strategies- ways to use Pinterest in your marketing, what to pin, and how to get your stuff into Pinterest without being obnoxious about it.

The end of 2011 was a mixture of absolute holiday perfection and complete technological mayhem for me. When last we left the story of my laptop disaster, Lenovo was sending a technician with a new motherboard in mid-January.

However, the very next day after I posted my story about “How A Laptop Meltdown Forced Me to Create Balance,” I received a phone call from Lenovo’s tech support saying that “middle of January” had turned into the middle of February.

Once I stopped alternating between hysterical laughter and mild crying (LOL) I decided that enough was enough and initiated return proceedings for the Lenovo laptop that was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Moments later, I had ordered a new Macbook Pro and was driving to the Apple Store to pick up a new iPad (upon which I’m writing this post, as I await the new laptop). I’m starting the New Year right!

How can you start the new year right? Follow these three steps:
1) Forgive yourself for everything and give yourself permission to succeed in 2012.
Before you head too far into 2012, forgive yourself for anything that didn’t go the way you wanted in 2011. Learn whatever you can from past mistakes, and then let them go so you can move on. Then, give yourself permission to succeed in 2012.

2) Toss out whatever isn’t working.
Your purge should include outdated systems, inefficient tactics, and underperforming strategies. Look at everything- your marketing, your products and services, your customer service, even yourself. What’s not working that you can either improve or get rid of?

3) Work some new stuff into your structure.
At the end of each year, I take some time to look over the past twelve months and see what worked and what didn’t, but at the beginning of each year, I come up with new stuff to work in. For example, this year, I’ll have a new radio show, a new web site, new products, new training programs, and I’m even working on some new time management strategies I’ll be testing out.

Over the years, I’ve discovered that there’s a fascinating split between those who, like me, embrace a new year as a fresh start and a new beginning, and those who see January 1 as just another day.

If you’re one of those who don’t see the point in New Year’s Resolutions or in making the new year a starting point for an exciting time in your business, I’d like to encourage you to give it a try and experience what it feels like when you give yourself permission to wipe the slate clean at the beginning of this new year.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Every year, I’m surprised by how many people don’t make them. I love making New Year’s Resolutions, and I even have a strategy for keeping them. Mostly, my strategy involves making sure I keep my resolutions visible in my office and check in monthly to see how I’m doing in terms of making progress with those resolutions…and I could talk today about how to make resolutions you’ll keep. But instead, today I want to talk about the most powerful resolutions that can not only transform your business, but multiply your profits within 2012.

Resolution #1: This Year I Will Think Of My Business As A Business.
You wouldn’t believe how many times clients come to me for our second meeting, after doing their “homework,” only to tell me they’re shocked to discover that they never really thought of their business as a real business.

To be successful, you must have a plan- it doesn’t have to be a big, formal business plan that a bank would require to give you a loan (unless you’re seeking venture capital or loans), but you do want to plan the future of your business and start looking at how you’re going to get there. Believe it or not, once you change the way you look at your business, you’ll be much more likely to take success actions that will increase your profits.

Resolution #2: This Year I Will Improve My Time Management.
One of the biggest factors that sucks away your profitability is poor time management. You can so easily fritter away a day thinking you’re being active and productive, only to get to the end of the day and realize you haven’t really accomplished anything.

To increase your profitability, make every working minute count. Remember that every second you’re spending on Facebook “noodling” around, you’re essentially stealing from your business. You wouldn’t want an employee doing that to you…so don’t do that to yourself.

Resolution #3: This Year I Will Invest In My Business.
For many entrepreneurs, one of the hardest things to do is to invest in your business. Especially if your business has suffered during the recession, even more so if you’ve been “taken” by so-called business coaches and gurus who don’t really have much actual business experience, you’ll find it difficult to part with your hard-earned money, even if it could really help your business to grow.

This kind of fear is understandable. But if you want your business to grow, you do have to invest money back into the business. Invest in an improved web site, work with a business consultant who can give you the direction you need to get your business growing, invest in  a new marketing campaign, a PR campaign, or something, but also make sure you know the likely results of whatever you’re investing in. There are no guarantees, but good research can give you a solid sense of how well you’re betting. If you put money into something, know what it is and how it’s going to help grow your business, and then take action.

Resolution #4: This Year I Will Stop Worrying About Motivation and Take Action.

Many entrepreneurs get so caught up in trying to get motivated that they spend most of their time learning from others and attending webinars and teleseminars and live events in the hopes of finding that one thing that will motivate them that they never take the next step to action. In fact, do you know how many people buy books and products and never read or use them? Fully 85% (or more!) of the people who buy personal growth and business books (including e-books and products) never even open them up!

This year, commit to finding your true fervor, that which you love doing and get excited about, so that you can stop worrying about “getting motivated” and just start doing.

Resolution #5: This Year I Will Trust Myself and Relax.
So many micro-entrepreneurs think they have to be doing everything to grow their businesses. What I mean is, I talk to people every day who receive five, ten, or twenty (or more!) business e-mails every week, and think they have to do everything that’s been recommended to them. They get one e-mail saying, “You should have a viral video,” and they scramble to get that set up. They get another e-mail saying, “You should speak from the stage!” and scramble to start doing that. They get yet another e-mail saying, “You need to be invested in social media!” and think they need to figure all that out. Next, an e-mail comes talking about blogs, articles marketing, e-zines, podcasting, internet radio shows, public relations….

It’s overwhelming. It’s too much. And it’s okay for you to relax a little bit and take a step back to think about what’s best for you, your business, and your target market.

When all else fails, trust yourself. It took me ages to trust myself and to listen to my gut instincts, but when I did, that’s when my confidence as a thought leader and as an expert really grew.

So this year, relax, stop trying to do everything, and trust yourself to know what’s best for you and for your business.

This time of year isn’t just about making resolutions that stick, it’s about making resolutions that can kick your business out of a rut and into profitability. And that’s what your 2012 should be all about. Happy New Year!

Last week I talked about Step #1 of successfully delegating: deciding what to delegate. The next two steps are to find qualified, reliable professionals and to delegate the work to them. But…how?

Step #2: Choose Qualified, Reliable Professionals

When you delegate to professionals, you have to choose the right ones- people who you can trust to do high quality work on time at a reasonable price. You’ll want to look for people who you can work with personally, who you like and find pleasant to work with. You’ll want people who meet your needs professionally. It’s important that they are able to meet your standards, time constraints, and price requirements.

I have a database of pros I’ve been working with for the last fifteen years, people I know I can trust to do great work on time and within set budgetary requirements. I’ve been sharing these folks with my clients exclusively for years, but what if you’re not one my clients yet? In 2012, I’ll be providing you with an option to access my database of amazing pros, but for now let me say that there are few guarantees when you work with someone for the first time, so protect yourself by getting excellent referrals and references, preferably from sources you know and trust.

Step #3: Delegate to Your Team

Now let’s talk about Step #3, the how of delegating. When you delegate a task to someone, you must remember that you know how to do it- they don’t. Of course there will be some things you’ll offload that are tasks your assistant or web developer handle regularly, but much of the time, your tasks will be unique to you and your business, at least in some way.

As you move forward with delegating, focus on the following:
a) Breaking down your tasks into easy-to-follow steps.
Every task can be broken down into steps. And even if you aren’t quite ready to delegate something, it’s never too soon to start creating a “manual” for each task- you never know when you might need or want to have someone step in and manage something for you.

In the book, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber talks about creating a manual for each part of your business. For every job that you do, create a manual that would allow someone to take over that job at any time. And when someone takes on the job, it becomes their responsibility to keep the manual updated with any changes or new procedures. This makes it easy to promote people or replace people, when necessary.

b) Writing clear and concise instructions for each step.
When you write instructions for someone, start by assuming the person reading your instructions has no idea what the job is or how to do it. Write down every single step, even if it’s something that seems obvious to you. Remember, what seems obvious to you may not be so apparent to someone else.

c) Answering questions before you get them.
Sometimes, including an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section in your instructions can be useful. That way you can head off spending a lot of time answering things you might already have answered previously. Check through your sent e-mails for answers to questions you’ve had in the past and re-use the answers in the FAQ. And again, this is a great place where the person you’ve delegated to can take over- let them manage and update the FAQ section as needed.

d) Being available as any questions you haven’t anticipated come up.
As you delegate to others, you’ll find that you want to be sure you have a little time set aside to reply to e-mails and phone calls as your new assistant has questions about his/her new tasks. there are always questions that need to be answered and fine-tuning that needs to be done, so plan ahead and make sure you have the time to manage the transition.

I’ve been thrilled with delegating various tasks and the time (and headaches) I’ve saved myself. There’s always a transition, but it is relatively painless and the reward is almost always worth the effort. A year ago, I delegated the management of one of my online stores to my assistant. There was a substantial learning curve- it took about two weeks before he felt comfortable managing the stores on his own, and during that time, we were e-mailing back and forth several times a day and talking on the phone at least once every couple of days. But once that transition was complete, I was free to spend my valuable time working on other, more profitable tasks, while he managed the day-to-day updates and operations of my store. I saved both time and money and was able to start a whole new business as a result (which he now also manages for me).

Don’t be afraid to delegate. It may be one of the best decisions you can make for your business!

Santa knows a lot about business! Even if, say, this particular guy looks slightly sinister.

This time of year, many of us are thinking about Santa Claus and looking forward to his visit down the chimney (and trying to remember not to light a fire on Christmas Eve!)It occurred to me this morning that Santa is a deliverer of quintessential customer service.

Is anyone truly unhappy with Santa’s work? Not really. People return year after year to Santa to put in their holiday wishes, and he rarely gets complaints. So I thought it appropriate to share with you some of the business lessons I’ve learned over the years by observing St. Nick.

Pay attention to detail.
Santa makes a list and checks it twice. He really pays attention to detail and makes sure no mistakes are made. Are you as careful? Be diligent with your customers and clients and give the same attention to detail as Santa, and you’ll have loads of happy customers, which translates to repeat business.

Hire good people.
The elves always do amazing, impeccable work. They have a strong work ethic, they know how to get things done, and they put a lot of care into creating the best toys possible. These are the qualities you should look for when you hire people to do work for your business, too, even if you’re outsourcing. Your employees and contractors and their work product represent your company. Make sure they represent you well.

Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it.
Santa promises to deliver all toys on Christmas Eve, so that when you wake up Christmas morning, your stocking is filled and your biggest wish is granted. You never wake up on Christmas, only to discover that Santa just didn’t make it. You never get an e-mail from Santa saying, “I’m sorry, we just couldn’t make our deadline this year.” Likewise, always deliver what you promise within your projected timeline and you’ll make your customers and clients very happy.

Love what you do (or at least look like you do).
Did you ever notice how Santa is always smiling? Whether he’s asking children what they want for Christmas, checking off his “naughty and nice” list, or delivering the toys, he’s always smiling. You get the sense that Santa really loves what he does, and that makes it so much nicer to receive gifts from Santa, because you know he’s getting joy out of doing good. One imagines that Santa wouldn’t frown, even if the elves revolted or the reindeer just weren’t behaving properly that day. Your customers and clients should always feel like you love what you do, no matter what’s going on in your day (or the day of your customer service reps). They should never feel like a burden, but always like a joy.

Market yourself well.
Santa does an amazing job of marketing himself, doesn’t he? You can’t pass a grocery store without hearing the clang clang of the Salvation Army Santa, and you can’t visit a mall without seeing a line of children waiting to talk to Santa. You see, Santa has wisely set up a network of outsourced Santas who deliver exceptional PR for him, plus he’s made strategic partnerships with charities so he appears just about everywhere. And don’t get me started on merchandising. You can market yourself just as well as Santa does by setting up your own marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships. Get yourself out there and increase your visibility.

Do good.
Speaking of strategic partnerships, Santa does good in the world. He delivers toys to children who live in poverty and brings a certain measure of comfort to millions around the world. He lends his image to thousands of charitable causes and makes a difference in the world around him. I hear that every one of Santa’s elves is required to volunteer a certain number of hours each month. You can do good in the world, too, through your business. Business in Blue Jeans donates a portion of our profits to a list of charities that are meaningful to me, but you can make a difference in a ton of different ways. Always be on the lookout for ways to do good in the world.

Santa’s not the only one who can do an amazing job, delight people around the world, and make a big difference. You can do the same thing with your business…you just have to have the spirit of the holidays. Enjoy!

Recently, my friend and informal mentor, Larry Winget, posted a fairly controversial blog post entitled, “Passion Has No Value.” When I saw that post, I knew that once again, Larry was going to light some fires. And indeed, after a week and a lively debate on Larry’s site, it seems I was right.

I might have opted into the dialogue on Larry’s site, but I wanted to spend some time with this one, rolling it around in my brain.

My initial gut reaction to Larry’s post was that indeed, passion itself isn’t enough for success. As Larry and I have always agreed, it takes expertise (and other things) to be successful. Ultimately, you’ve got to have the goods to back up whatever you promise, there’s no way around that. If you’ve got passion but no expertise, you can look forward to a short business life, leaving a lot of unhappy clients and customers in your wake.

But…the whole “passion has no value” thing…that’s got me feeling like a doorknob snagged my sweater: I can’t shake it loose.

I admit, I’ve evolved over the last year. I don’t really talk much about “passion” these days. I admit, I have talked about passion’s role in the micro-entrepreneurial business, but I never really felt quite settled about it. Passion is a word that has been overused and misunderstood.

These days, instead of “passion,” I talk about “fervor,” which the dictionary defines as “great intensity of feeling or belief.” Why fervor? Because just about every mega-successful person I know is intense in his or her own way, including (and perhaps especially) Larry. Passion, though, as Larry suggests, is a word that refers to an “uncontrollable” emotion, that frankly,  doesn’t have a place in business.

Emotion in general certainly has a role- it’s how we connect with people. After all, people do business with people and emotion plays a role in relationship-building. But uncontrolled emotion (passion) often gets in the way of an open, evolving, questioning mind, a necessary ingredient for success.

I do love working with entrepreneurs and I love helping small businesses grow. But I love the results I get more…and so do my clients.

And even if fervor and intensity are different from passion, they still aren’t enough for success. You can never exclude expertise from the equation. Without the “chops” to back up your fervor, you’ll never be successful (or at least, not for long). Successful business lies in the “sweet spot” that’s found in the cross-section of what you’re fervent about, what you’re really good at, and what sets you apart (the “power triad”).

I assume that Larry would agree with me that even if you’re great at what you do, you still have to find something that sets you apart, something that distinguishes you from the rest of the world (whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur). Why do I assume Larry would agree with me? I mean…have you seen his boot collection alone? Larry himself has build a successful brand that fuses his unique personality (and fashion sense) with what he’s fervent about (cutting through the nonsense) and what he’s really good at (communicating that “straight shooter” vibe through multiple mediums).

I’ve worked with micro-entreprenuers who set up shop solely under the premise of turning their “passion into profits” and failed before looking for help. I’ve worked with small business owners who focused only on what they were good at, but didn’t enjoyed it and didn’t find much success before deciding to make a change.  And I’ve worked with folks in both of those categories who never packaged their business in a way that set them apart from everyone else in their industry, couldn’t reach their audience, and didn’t understand why.

Fervor, expertise, and packaging (or branding) are the first keys in success. They’re not the only keys, but they’re a good place to start.

And as for passion…as Larry suggests, perhaps that uncontrolled emotion is perhaps best left to the personal realm. Passion is what you feel about the things you want to create in your life- the ultimate outcomes like more time with family or creating a feeling of stability, safety, and security.  Passion about what you’re working towards is what keeps you motivated…and that does have value.

It’s just not enough for mega-success.