Time2Market Business Development Coaching & Consulting

LinkedIn - Beyond Jobs. Business.

Yes, LinkedIn can be used for more than your job search. This topic came up today while meeting with a business associate.  So, here's a quick Top 5 list specifically for those who have leadership roles, or are in consultative, business development and sales roles.  

5 LinkedIn features that can help you build your business:

1. Companies. Research and follow companies, tracking headcount changes, job openings, your connections there, statistics about employees, and more. This feature is getting better all the time. Are there prospective client companies that you should be tracking? Do you know what's happening at the company where your customer works?  Are there competing companies that you want to keep an eye on?
2. Events.  Are there events you or your staff should be attending for networking or professional development?  This feature can help, allowing you to search and find relevant events and/or see which events your contacts (customers and/or colleagues) are attending.  Identify events relevant to your business and connect with people who are important to your business.
3. Groups.  Join them! These provide an opportunity to build your expertise and/or showcase your knowledge/products/services/events.  You connect to existing and new contacts.
4. Updates.   Periodic updates keep you intouch with your network.  Read others' updates and post yours! Let people know what you are doing, or where you are going. You can also use updates to announce new products/services/events/company news, etc.  I’ve found some great information from watching updates, including identifying research of interest for my clients. I've even identified consulting projects to pursue.  You can too.
5. Applications.  Add your business blog to your LinkedIn page, highlight upcoming trips, post presentations and more.  There are many applications that can be used to further connect with your network. 

Annual Report - Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011

In 2011, revenue from the world's 900 strong mobile operators is expected to pass the $1 trillion mark* – a new milestone for this continually evolving industry. Dr. Mehmet Unsoy's annual read out on MWC will help you understand key trends and events. It covers:

·         Industry stats

·         Nokia-Microsoft announcement

·         Google update

·         Tablets and next gen devices

·         Semiconductors

·         App Stores & WAC

·         Cloud computing

·         Social Networking

·         Location Based Services

·         Mobile Money

....and more.  This is one report I love to get annually.  Read it here at News from mSolve Partners.

 * From Informa at MWC

 

Leadership Video Series

Ann Spoor will be conducting a series of leadership interviews this year in Colorado.  I'm sharing the first here. Thank you, Ann!

Resilience - it's ordinary, not extraordinary

Resilience: recovering from or adjusting easily to change or misfortune. You may think it's something you're either lucky to have or unlucky to lack, but that's not so. Resilience is an ordinary ability, and you can take focused action to build it in your life. Don't wait. Start today.

The first step to building resilience is accepting change. With Spring being a time we welcome change, this first step should be easy. Beyond acceptance, focus on your adaptability, strategic planning, results-oriented actions, and persistence-- so you can build resilience and achieve goals. While the economic forecast is looking rough in many parts of the world and here in New York the Department of Labor warns that 2008 was the good year, 2009 can still be fine.

To work toward keeping 2009 just fine, concentrate on building your resilience a little bit at a time and successfully seizing new opportunities. A few tips to do this include:

1. Avoid viewing crises as insurmountable.

2. Establish and grow your professional support network, making contact to ask for and accept help, and to help others.

3. Nurture a positive outlook, discover what restores you mentally, and take care of yourself physically.

4. Do not stop looking for new opportunities.

5. Take decisive action to work toward goals, proactively working a plan.

Resilience is an ordinary ability that everyone has, it is not extraordinary. But you must build and foster this ordinary ability to have it ready in challenging times to drive favorable business and professional results.

Work the list on your own, or foster your resilience working with a Time2Market coach or consultant to move forward faster. We're helping professionals daily. Contact us here if we can help you or your organization be resilient too.

Marketing Innovation for Today's Publishing World

January has been an exciting month, with Gabriella Goddard, a UK-based Executive Coach who is part of the Time2Market team of experts, launching Gulp! in the US and visiting New York. I'm receiving my signed copy this week! I've known Gabriella for about ten years now and loved the UK version, which was fun and inspiring. I also learned some very funny expressions that stick with me today. One of those was "nut it on the head", which I'll write about later. But for now, if you need to nut your book marketing on the head (if I can actually use the expression that way), here are a few tools to help make your mark:

• Blogs
• Book trailer videos
• Podcasts
• Interactive facebook

Gulp! is a great example of marketing innovation in the publishing world, with these on-line tools in action. Check out www.gulptoday.com, and give up living passively. Your marketing campaign can take on a whole new look, integrating these digital tools.

Start up and Small Business Tips - Lessons Learned

9 small business owners share what they would have done differently starting their businesses today and the following tips result:

• create a marketing plan to promote e-commerce and build your customer base faster
• focus time and money on search engine optimization, especially if you are in a competitive market that is closely tied to on-line shopping and/or information gathering
• emphasize employee commissions as incentives to drive more business
• seize multicultural product offering and/or marketing opportunities
• consult your board of directors to sound out ideas for growth
• have a marketing and PR budget
• create a local, scalable, sales development program/model
• have a partner to work with
• get help/staff to support the business and pick up some of the work

Check out the article from Entrepreneur.com, which highlights e-commerce, real estate, health-care management, restaurant, hair care, catering, video game, and apparel retail businesses.  And, contact us, if you need to move forward fast with tips above for business growth.

International expansion – Are you prepared?

If your business is expanding internationally, look closely before you leap.  Both large and small companies sometimes underestimate the requirements and difficulty of expanding operations abroad.  Recently noted examples in the press include Google’s experiences with Orkut in Brazil, as well as the experiences of smaller firms.

Apart from understanding the business environment from a marketing perspective (e.g., business/consumer demographics, competition, etc.), examine key areas, such as:

• country specific practices and regulations relevant to your business operations and industry
• cross-border, as well as, local taxes and duties
• labor laws and practices
• foreign currency, in the context of local and global economic trends

You can read about how these factors have impacted some large and small businesses by clicking the links above.  Be sure you are prepared to create detailed market analyses and entrance plans for growth.  And, find a dedicated local person, or firm, to help establish your local presence in target markets before launch.

Leaders Shift Paradigms for Success

Last month I was looking for a leader's perspective around a few key areas that some struggle with, which include holding a vision and committing to goal achievement.  This month, I had the opportunity to hear Billie Jean King convey her story, which addressed these points very well. Her perspective shed further light on the paradigm shift that leaders need for success. From an early age, on her second day in tennis practice (!), she committed to becoming the best tennis player in the world.  She pursued and achieved top tennis rankings by the mid-70's, but her legacy includes much more which makes her stand out as a truly unique champion and leader. Her legacy includes building new professional opportunities for women in tennis, and driving a level playing field for women, i.e., equality. Throughout her career and life, Billie Jean King has moved toward, and also created, new paradigms to achieve success. 

Billie Jean King continues to live her legacy and build further success.  She shared three key learnings, which she continues to apply in her life for achievements. These three learnings can help you too!

I like Juice too...Juice Wireless and JuiceCaster that is

Qualcomm's not the only one. See Red Herring.  Great news yesterday for Juice Wireless, with the announcement of great funding partners. I like everything I've learned about Juice so far. JuiceCaster is quite interesting and the company has moved forward fast!  I'm adding Juice Wireless as my first "Showcase-able Start up", with high-energy, experienced and focused entrepreneurs leading the way.  Wishing the company and team lots of luck and will continue to watch.

Is Business Blogging for you?

Business leaders take note - an increasing number of people, from the C-level executive to staff employee, are engaging in business and personal blogging, as well as other social media activity.  This affects your business development efforts in a number of ways. It's time to plan how business blogging and social media interaction can be used for effective business development in your business. I explored this topic at the Blogher.org conference in New York this week.