As an entrepreneur, you presumably put a lot of thought into naming your business. I sure did. It’s a very big decision. You have to try the name on for awhile and see how it feels. You have to write it out and see how painful it will be to write down a million times in the future. You have to see if it will continue to suit you as you grow. Will it make sense when you tell someone your domain name over the phone? (With my name, I always have to say “Mann with two ‘n’s and no, it’s m-a-d-e, not m-a-i-d.”)

Twenty years ago (yes, it has been two decades) the New Kids on the Block appeared on the scene, weakening young girls knees everywhere. They were five young guys who have been credited with starting off the boy band craze in the 90s. (They seem to disagree, saying there were lots of boy bands around before them and perhaps they were the first “white” boy band. ) Whatever they were, they were a phenomenon. I was absolutely nuts over them. I spent every dollar I had on their tapes, ‘Teen Beat’ magazines with posters of them, earrings, t-shirts, even socks and sunglasses. I had a club and we had t-shirts and binders…spending lunch hours swooning over our favorite ‘Kid’. It’s really a good thing that twelve year old girls can’t get tattooed, cause you can bet I’d have the NKOTB logo somewhere on my person.

I don’t recall what happened to NKOTB, but they have reunited and are going on a reunion tour this summer. How exciting! And how brilliant. Their concerts are selling out, and why wouldn’t they be? They already have a huge fan base, made up of 25-35 year old women who have been loyal to them for 20 years. We have more money now to sink into their music and concert tickets and we still love them…even if our husbands think we’re dorks.

My point here is that perhaps the name “New Kids on the Block” wasn’t brilliant. It seems odd to choose a name that will not make sense after a couple of top ten hits. How ‘new’ can you be when you’ve been on the charts for a few years? And now with the guys ranging in age from 35-40 something, they sure aren’t kids anymore. I wonder if they’re sorry they chose that name. It doesn’t seem to be hurting them much, but it seems kind of silly to see a bunch of 40 year old men called the New Kids.

Anyway, think about your name before you brand yourself

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If you read my blog regularly, you know I have a deep love of the Food Network. Because I have two little ones in my house, I rarely get to watch anymore, except at night when they don’t need to be watching Max and Ruby. Although the best cooking shows aren’t on then, the more interesting ones are including my very mostest favorite one - Kitchen Nightmares. I think I’ve developed a crush on the show’s star (the very intense Gordon Ramsay) but that’s beside the point. I come away from each one hour episode with a new business lesson that can be applied to my virtual assistant business.

Last night’s episode had Ramsay trying to rescue Lela’s , a “fine dining” restaurant that served instant mashed potatoes and frozen vegetables. Not so fine, right? The restaurant was only eight months old and failing desperately. There were problems with staff members stealing, being loud and rowdy in the kitchen while diners could hear, a lack of leadership from the owner, and a very bad menu without one single fresh item on it. After his initial tasting of the restaurant’s  dishes (many of which were not available that day) and comments on the multiple spelling errors on the menu, he went to scout out the neighborhood to poll locals.

Many hadn’t ever visited the restaurant because it was out of their price range, and everyone wanted a place where they could just feel comfortable and eat good food at a good price.

He quickly found out that a “fine dining” restaurant was not going to fly in a neighborhood made up of either homeless people or young people without much of an expendable income. When he looked at the other restaurants in the community, the one thing missing was a place where people could just order a burger or another casual and affordable meal. He completely changed the look, feel, and menu of Lela’s. People loved it.

Are you trying to sell your service or product to a demographic that will never buy in? Or are you offering the same service to the same target market as fifteen other companies? You need to either niche yourself or differentiate. Take a look at your target market. What are their pain points? What do they need that nobody else is offering them? Can you provide this service?

Turns out that Lela’s was  in too deep a hole to get out of, even with the experience, charm and good looks of Gordon Ramsay. That doesn’t mean this approach wouldn’t have worked, I believe it would have. You have to give your audience what they want. Even if it’s the lowly cheeseburger. Just make it the best damn cheeseburger anyone has ever tasted. If that’s what people want, why bother trying to perfect your lobster bisque recipe?

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We are all familiar with the story. Winter is coming and the little industrial ants are busy hunting and gathering food for the long cold months of being holed up in their hill. Their minds are focused on one thing - getting food. It’s what they need to sustain themselves and no matter how well they stock their little ant cupboards, they keep going and going until they’re forced to stop. Through the winter months, they’ll have lots of little ant snacks to enjoy while watching Grey’s Entomology on their little ant TVs.

Meanwhile, the ‘live in the moment’ grasshopper has a full belly and doesn’t feel the need to prepare for the winter. He’s out dancing and hopping…in the grass…poking fun at the busy little ants and wondering why they don’t just relax a bit.

Some entrepreneurs are ants, and some are grasshoppers. If you think of leads as food - fuel you need to thrive - this will make much more sense. A business that depends on leads must never stop generating them. Even if you don’t feel hungry for new business today, things can be dramatically different tomorrow. Winter could be just around the corner.

Are you marketing your business even when you have a full roster of clients? Or are you waiting for the day when the snow flies and you’re starving?

In the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, the hospitable ants took the grasshopper in, gave him something to eat and I think they had a big party or something. Unfortunately, this is business, and I don’t know many business ants that would share their hard earned leads with a hungry  business grasshopper.

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So I’m getting packed and ready to travel to Toronto tomorrow for FoVA where I’ll meet many of my virtual friends for the very first time.

Because I’m leading a workshop on following up with leads, I’ve decided to put a stupidly low price on my ebook, The Art of Follow Up, in honor of FoVA.

It normally retails for $24.95 but from today until May 9th you can get a copy for $10.

To order your copy, visit this link. Don’t let one more lead fall through the cracks!!!

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I’m going to bare a bit of truth about myself here so please don’t judge me! When I started my business, I had a dedicated office in the third bedroom of my home. That worked because at the time, my only daughter was a year old and was relatively easy to keep an eye on. Then, when I was expecting my second child last summer, I quickly realized that set up was just not going to work. There was no way I could work in that room with an infant and a two year old to watch constantly. So, I moved my office into our family’s main living area. It allows me to work whether the girls are watching cartoons, playing or sleeping. However, this summer I’m hiring a ‘Mother’s Helper’ and am going to move my office back to where it originally was so that I’ll be able to close the door on everyone for a few hours a day, and close the door on Mann Made Time when it’s family time.

My business has grown significantly since those early days in a separate area of the house and I know I could do a better job at organizing my office than I have been. I can organize anyone else, but when it comes to organizing myself, well, it’s kind of the same as the mechanic who always drives a jalopy. You’re too busy making a living doing what you’re good at to actually do the same for yourself.

I have found a few things that work for working from a home office with youngsters and I hope some of my readers will contribute their tips as well. Here are mine:

• I keep an office spike on my desk to stab receipts with, so they’re all there at the end of the month for me to organize.
• I have an old fashioned Hilroy scribbler for each client. I put all of their contact details, usernames and passwords and other frequently needed information on the inside cover. Anytime I speak with a client on the phone, I grab their notebook and keep all notes there in one place for them so I can retrieve details quickly.
• There is a Rubbermaid file tote thingy that I keep these scribblers and project details in that I can bring with me if I need to work from the kitchen, or when I had a dedicated office I could haul it with me when I needed to be mobile.
• I always keep some old cell phones, cameras, calculators and daytimers in a desk drawer to occupy the little ones since they always to play with things that they shouldn’t have.
• The beloved laptop. I am using the same notebook computer I did when I started my business two years ago. For Mann Made Time’s second birthday, which coincides with my “last-year-before-turning-30″ birthday next month, I’m purchasing a new machine. I think I’ll go with a desktop this time since my notebook will still allow me to work from anywhere in the house, which is key when you work from home with children.
• Make your space off limits! I often discover that my tape has gone missing, or my fancy stapler has disappeared. Where do pens go? Post-it notes get sucked into a black hole and it seems as soon as I buy them they are gone forever. I don’t think it’s the little ones either, I think it’s the other grown up I share my home with. When Mann Made Time moves its headquarters over the next couple of weeks, there will be some new rules in place. When the door is closed, nobody goes in, whether I’m there or not! I think I’ll be getting myself a sign to attach to the door with my office hours.

Anyone else have some tips? I’d love to hear them!

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