From Retirement To Career Change

SELLING Is Not A Bad Word

The word selling is not a common part of the vocabulary for my clients. I work with professionals who perform services such as physicians and attorneys. I work with small businesses that perform services such as realtors, movers, heating and cooling companies. None of these clients have a product they can package in a box and ship. None of them thought they were sales people…until they started working with me.

Selling is nothing more than influencing people to make a decision that they believe will improve their personal or professional life.

Most people have the image of a salesperson as the scoundrel who will do whatever it takes to make the sale whether it will help or even harm the customer. Integrity selling, on the other hand, demonstrates that you genuinely care about the decision your customers or clients make and that the decision is in their best interest.

Interestingly, many professionals and small business owners understand the concept of marketing and often pour much of their resources into various marketing approaches. Great, that is a start but it is also an absolute waste of money unless you ask for the sale. You need to close the deal.

One of the biggest hurdles you may face is overcoming your own sales resistance. Once you realize that what you offer brings value to your clients or customers, making the sale will seem more natural to you. Here are a few tips that will help you reach your comfort level:

• Write a short script for the close.
• Practice out loud what you will say.
• Role play the sale with a friend.
• Write down what you hope to achieve.
• Visualize the end result.

Think about it. If you believe that what you have to offer brings value to your clients and customers, it would be a shame if you did not give your clients the opportunity to choose. Mind you, they may not purchase your service, but you did give them the chance.

To your success in business and in life.

Ruthan

Market Yourself So That Clients Come To You

These past few weeks I have been knee deep in marketing activities for several clients. I am also actively engaged in learning more about marketing because the approaches to marketing are now in constant flux thanks in no small part to the Internet.

Where to Find Part-Time Work in Retirement

It is not easy to find part-time work these days because so many people are looking for different ways to earn extra money. You have an advantage, however, as someone who is retired.

The first place you can look for employment is where you worked before. You retired from the company or the school district. Your previous employment didn't disappear because of the economy. The one caveat is that you accept less pay and don't try to put yourself into your former status. Employers know your skills and you may find lots of part-time work for you to do. For instance, if you worked for an insurance company they may love it if you came in two days a week researching claims that were disputed in whatever your area of expertise may be.

Other places you can look for employment are the competitors of your former employer. Those companies would also prefer hiring someone part-time that they don't have to train or offer health insurance.

If you have a technical skill, business management skills, or know a foreign language or two, check out your local community colleges for a teaching job and the adult education programs in your area.

Also make inquiries about part-time work in businesses that hire seasonally or have unusual hours. Employers need extra help at resorts during peak vacation times including ballparks during baseball season.

Above all, make sure you enjoy what you will be doing because you won't be compensated for your value. You will be paid for the work you do and that is what you are looking for – extra money.

To your success in retirement.

Ruthan Brodsky

Working Part-Time After Retirement

This recession has battered retirees and the need to replace the money is intense. Getting a part-time job may be just the right solution.

One of the more interesting and very pleasant enjoyments of retirement is having the ability to do all the interesting things you always or even sometimes thought about doing. While having lots of interesting things to do doesn't mean you have to work, it certainly can include work in your list as long as you enjoy what you are doing and you have time to do other activities.

It will be easier to think of working part time if you realize that working from 9 to 5 is no longer the absolute mantra. The computer has enabled the adjustment of working hours as well as the location of where you work. This is probably a good time to step out of your box of traditional thinking.

Maybe it will be two or three part-time jobs that you find during the year. For instance you could be the late afternoon golf ranger working from 4 pm to 7 pm making sure players are getting around the course with no delay. If early morning is more to your liking, maybe a local school could use your services as the staff person in charge of the children who get dropped off at school early because their parents work.

The one factor to your getting a job is to overcome your shyness. For some reason, most people over 60 become less outgoing and shy people can become invisible. Half of the problem is that you are not even aware this is happening to you. Check yourself out. This is not the time to be shy.

Decide upon just how much you want to earn, what you would like to do, then start networking, making queries and phone calls, and updating your resume.

If you have found a part-time job after your retirement tell us how you went about getting the job. I'm sure your achievement will inspire someone!

To your success in retirement.

Ruthan Brodsky

Make Business Emails Work for You

I use Email letters most often when I respond to a proposal request for a new project that involves writing content. I should have saved the responses when I first started working with professionals and small businesses because they would have lent humor to any situation. They were horrible!

Without giving it much thought, I wrote the Email letters in the same manner as I would if they were hard copy and I wanted to mail them. The tone was almost formal and for sure very traditional, almost academic. They were stilted and lengthy, officious, and contained a lot of 5 syllable words. It is not easy giving up a writing style that you have practiced for years so be aware of the challenge.

Today my Email letters have a different tone; they are more informal and at the same time demonstrate efficiency and focus. More importantly my priority about formatting and what I want to say in the letter are very different from a letter I'd send in the mail.

First, I concentrate on the Subject because I need to give the recipient a reason to open my Email. If the response is to a current client, for example, I will use our topic for the subject and add my name. For example, the subject field to a client might read like this:

Press Releases for conference from ruthan

That subject line just about shouts at my client because it points directly to his conference. I know he is going to open my Email.

An Email response to a stranger, however, will differ because there is no instant recognition. Even so I can still refer back to his requests for proposals. My subject line might read:

 Response to John Smith's request for writing an article series.

In other words I have just repeated the request in my subject line. And I make sure I reference the prospect's name, not mine, in the subject line to acknowledge the request. As a result, my Email responses do get opened. Whether or not I get the job is another story.

What kinds of advice would you suggest for the subject line in your business Emails? I bet there are a lot of good ideas we could share. Just post them in the comment box.

To your career success,

Ruthan Brodsky

Develop Your Facebook Marketing Strategy

You can find their names on Facebook but the small businesses and professionals I work with never developed any kind of marketing strategy with this social networking medium. So naturally they tell me Facebook is useless unless they want to get in touch with friends or keep track of their kids.

Facebook is just like any other marketing platform. For instance, you've been receiving and sending mail for years but you may or may not use the mail to market your practice. Do you send out direct mail advertising? If you are placing an ad in a coupon mailer once a month you have a marketing strategy. It's the same with Facebook. If you aren't doing anything to market yourself on Facebook why would you expect people to find you? This is especially true if you're only posting on Facebook to your friends and family.

My one rule for online networking, however, is that whatever you do, it is building relationships first which may or may not lead to business. Marketing or selling your business or practice will turn off many who could have been your prospects.

Before you start implementing your Facebook strategy set some guidelines for yourself otherwise you will be all over the board and be back at square one with no results.

1. Determine how much time you want to give to marketing on Facebook either daily or weekly.

2. Identify which market you want to target then narrow that market down even further.

3. Set up a Facebook page that focuses on your profession or business niche.

4. Set up a Facebook group or groups that focus on one or more of your specialties. For example, if you're a dermatologist you may want a group focusing on preventing skin cancer or reducing wrinkles.

5. Set up an opt-inbox on your Profile and your Page or have a Virtual Assistant or Webmaster do it for you. Make sure that you are taking your subscribers to a page that will market you and provide value for them. For instance, send your subscribers a free report about clothing that protects you from the sun.

These are just a few steps you'll need to put in place when you develop your marketing strategy for Facebook. If you don't have the time hire someone who knows how to do it for you – someone like a Virtual Assistant.

There is no reason why you can't make a change of direction in your career and market it efficiently and within your budget.

For those of you already on Facebook, we are open to your success stories. Scroll down to Comments and share your experiences.

To your career success.

Ruthan Brodsky

Facebook Is Changing Your Online Business

Due to the content and viral tools, Facebook provides you with a unique opportunity to put yourself in front of literally thousands of targeted potential new clients, customers, suppliers and future partners.

If you are in business for yourself, this is the time you must start to familiarize yourself with one of the latest Web 2.0 marketing mediums including Facebook. Facebook is an Internet site that first allows you to stay in touch with people you know. Secondly it lets you reach out to people you don't know yet and begin to build and maintain relationships with them.

When I write about web 2.0 I am targeting those mediums in which you can talk, interact and be heard. In other words, you can be involved, share information and collaborate. Blogs, social networks like Facebook, and membership sites are all part of the Web 2.0.

Social networking is about connecting to others, building rapport, establishing a relationship and then nurturing that relationship.

You already know how to network. When you attend a family celebration, visit your local chamber meeting or your monthly book club, you are networking with others. Social networking anywhere, but particularly on the Internet when you are focused on your business, is more than chit-chatting. You are reaching out to connect with others. You are building rapport, establishing new relationships and taking steps to maintain and nurture those relationships. They may be potential clients, partners, or suppliers. The bottom line is that social networking on the Internet, gives you the opportunity to seek and select those people who you want to know better wherever they may be on this globe.

Are you on Facebook yet? You can find me at ruthan brodsky. You know, Facebook is not just for kids anymore.

To your career success

Ruthan Brodsky

Get More Traffic to Your Blog

I am continuing the theme of using a blog as a primary tool for developing relationships with readers and getting them to know you.

One of the first things you need to do is to make sure you have a subscription form for your blog clearly displayed at the top. You may give them a choice of subscribing by e-mail or through FeedBlitz. I use FeedBlitz more often because like most people, I don't surf the blogosphere daily and I need to be notified when there's a new post or an article.

Send an announcement about your blog to your friends, colleagues, and professional groups. Write the URL of your blog under your signature along with the URL of a website.

Create a landing or Opt In page for your blog subscription offering your prospects a free special report if they will sign in for the subscription with their first name and email address. The topic for the report should be about something in your area of expertise. For example, one of the free reports I give away is titled "How to find reliable health information Online". It gives the readers tips that I've learned about researching on the internet for the health articles I'm writing.

If you have a newsletter, invite those readers to visit you blog. And put a link to your blog on every page of your website. Maybe it will fit in the footer or right sidebar.

Include a link to your blog as a standard part of your correspondence such as sales letters, reports, and invoices.

Post often so that more people come back and refer your blog to others.

Make sure the link to your blog is on your business card.

These tips will get you off to a good start. If you have other suggestions type them in the comment section and post.

To your successful career.

Ruthan Brodsky

Getting Traffic to Your Blog

Working out a strategy for their blogs is one of the first steps I am taking with the four small businesses and professionals that have hired me to help them market their business on line. All four are in that in between place where they want to continue with their business or profession but not the way they had been operating. They also recognize that the Internet will be their primary tool for taking their careers to another place.

The purpose of your blog is not to sell a product or a service. Instead, your blog is a tool that positions you as the expert in your field. Your blog is where you begin to develop a relationship with your readers by telling them a little about yourself, your aspirations and values. This is where your readers first learn to trust you as you provide them with information that is reliable and helpful.

At first you won't have many readers but keep writing those posts. You may not receive any comments but keep posting. Not every reader likes to make a comment on a blog. After all, how many comments have you made on other people's blogs.

Speaking of which, this is a good time to do exactly that – post comments on other blogs. Search for other blogs that relate to your topic and post something meaningful such as your opinion on an issue or a piece of information that may be helpful. Each time you comment you sign your name and include your blog URL. Bloggers like to see what others are doing so it's highly likely that the blogger you commented on will check you out. If they like what they see on your blog, they may mention you in their posts and have a link for you. Some of their readers become your readers. It does happen and it's legit.

Are you blogging yet? Are you commenting on other blogs? What's your best method for finding good content on other blogs so you can comment? There's nothing better than sharing ideas as we all move forward on our journey.

To your career success

Ruthan Brodsky

Get Noticed to Find New Clients and Customers

I bet you have looked at hundreds of articles, websites, online programs and books to figure out how you can create your own business or give the one you have an Internet presence or just find more clients and customers for the business you already have. Most everyone gives you the same traditional advice: establish relationships, network with civic groups, advertise in different media, and write articles in trade magazines.

My suggestion is to get your name out on the Internet, brand yourself, and do all that by starting a blog. The phenomenon of blogging has exploded. The social media tracing site, Technorati, follows more than 112 million blogs each day.

For someone looking for more clients and customers, a blog, focusing on your area of expertise, your niche, can be your advertisement in motion. It can tell the world who you are, show your potential, indicate how much you know and understand, how well you solve problems and all of that without delivering hype or sounding like a salesman. There is nothing as good as using the content for your blog as a virtual calling card, telling the reader what you know.

Once your blog is up then you can tap into the social and professional networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Brightfuse.com. Once you're comfortable on the networking sites, go to Twitter and explore the groups. You probably will find several groups whose primary topic is very much related to what you do. Join those groups and start making friends by giving advice and joining the discussion.

Yes, this is all work. Yes it does take time but the results will be worth your time and energy.

To your success in life and business,

Ruthan Brodsky