With this in mind, educate your employees on your small business brand. It’s time to hold a Brand Slam. Bring them all together and follow these 5 simple steps:

1.  Share your personal business story

Whether a start-up or a multi-generation family business, you’ve got a story. Your employees need to know why you started this business, the passion that drives you, why you named it what you did, etc. They need to realize and proudly claim they are now a part of the continued story in progress as you work in unison to achieve your business goals.

2.  Express the meaning of your Tagline or Slogan

Your small business Slogan means something. It says something. It’s goal is to clearly define what you do in a few simple words. The word slogan comes from Scots Gaelic where it means a battle-cry. Make sure employees not only know the words of your slogan, but understand the substance of your unique battle-cry.

3.  Discuss what makes you different

Open up the room for discussion. Get your employees involved in the conversation. Spend some time talking about what it is that set’s your business apart in your industry, your niche and your community. This is your Unique Selling Proposition and before you ever use it in marketing or slap it on an ad, you’d best make sure all employees can quickly and effectively communicate it when asked.

4. Submerge them into your value system

For small business owners, your core values are personal. Your personal core values define who you are and what you believe in. They align your business with your true self, offering a clear path for the tough decisions every small business will face. Likewise, your employees will be making decisions for your business daily and even the smallest of decisions need to be aligned with your core values.

5.  Include them in your business goals

Share your overall business goals and how each employee plays a major role in your success. Paint a vivid picture of where you want to be in one year, three years, ten years. Include their personal growth within your business goals and encourage them to stretch their personal skills and grow along with your business. Sharing and including employees in your small business goals will help to create a unified force marching toward your business success.

Don’t think about it. Schedule an employee meeting for this week and get your employee Brand Slam on.

Here’s to Your Small Business Success.

Kicking off your shoes while working relaxes you, helping you to have greater focus on the task at hand.

Back when I was a radio station sales manager, I implemented a policy called, After Two No Shoes For You. The typical day for a radio advertising account executive is spent visiting 25 or so businesses located all over the community. Your car becomes your office on wheels as you keep the insertion orders and production forms organized from visit to visit. By 2:00 P.M. your feet are throbbing as you head to the office to process the often 15 to 20 new sales. Quite frankly, your pooped right when your focus requires the most of you in-order to process each new order so that the ads will run correctly in the traffic system.

As a sales manager it was evident that I somehow needed to revive my staff to reduce potential errors in the the ad sales orders. What to do, what to do.

One day while retreating to my office following a morning sales meeting, the answer hit me just as I closed the door, walked to my desk and slipped off my shoes. Duh! An idea was born.

I am happy to say the results were so much better than I expected. Not only did my employees fall in love with the policy, production increased, the atmosphere in the office was lighter, a spirit of Team Work began to sprout – and mind you radio account executives are paid commission only, you are usually out for old number one. I’d say the results are a big deal.

To this day, when my thoughts wander back to these good old days, the majority of my thoughts are of moments in time from, After Two No Shoes For You.

What crazy way might you implement in your small business to boost employee productivity?

Being a single parent for more than 15 years, once I left the Corporate environment and started my own business, I fell in love with working from home. I tell you, kids need their parents as much when they are teenagers as they did when toddlers!

Although it took a few months in the beginning to train my kids on not disturbing me when on the phone and all the other work-at-home rules necessary, it worked perfectly for both my family and my growing business. It’s been quite a few years now and both of my boys have grown and left home, leaving it only myself, my Daughter who is a Senior in High School and my main little man, Jack, my min-pin!

No longer the need for work-at-home rules, I have nestled into the comfort of basically no interruptions when working, and I love it. Shoot, I’ve been able to grow my business at a much steadier pace as a result. I had also come to the realization that I had outgrown myself and it was time to hire a few virtual employees.

I’ve interviewed a few, done some research. I’ve spoken with some trusted networking partners. I’ve tested the budget requirements and written job descriptions, but this was more than a month ago.

So there I was, deeply focused on a product launch strategy for a client. I had been at it for several hours so my mind was entrenched, when my cell phone rings. A tad irritated at the interruption, I reached for my phone and said hello. It was my oldest son. How odd for him to call in the middle of the day, I quickly thought to myself. No sooner had that thought passed, I heard these words,

Hey Mom, listen I have some news for you. Ashley, the kids and I are loaded in a Uhaul and headed your way. I got a job there. We need to move in for a few months. We’ll be there in about 5 hours. I love you.

My mind felt like someone had stretched my ears and wrapped them around my head! Actually, it was a no brainer. Family first, but wow did that news come from out of left field!

Fast forward two weeks and here we are today. I’ve now have them moved into their own home and I again can focus on the business at hand.

The moral of the story is, had I taken action on what I knew was needed in my business over a month ago, I would have had a trained Team in place to cover my occasional absence while I got my kids settled.

Stop planning and take action today!

Here are a few examples:

• Increase Targeted Website Traffic:  Drive traffic from our targeted audience/buyer personas

• Grow Facebook Engagement:  Engage & interact with Facebook Fans and develop personal relationships

• Become Trusted Authority:  To build authority and trust, both online and off

• Nurture Current Leads:  To communicate with leads that may not be ready to buy or to take the next step

• Direct Sales:  To encourage “buy now”

• Build Brand Advocates:  To meet our customers need with professionalism and personal attention that they share our products and entice others to connect.

 Once you have clearly defined what is it you wish to accomplish with each campaign, you will have built the firm foundation of your plan and can then begin to strategize and build your campaign to reach your intended goal.

So let’s put this into action. Please download my Marketing Campaign – Goals Planning Template and detail your own marketing goals for March.

What are your March Marketing Campaign Goals? I’d love for you to share!

I am dead-set and full-steam-ahead focused on breaking free from my comfort zone, both in my personal and professional life. One of the areas I will focus on is Blogging. In-fact, you are my witness as I make that first step. One link broken in my journey to break free and expand my comfort zone.

I spent too many months researching, developing sophisticated topics and post schedules to only become frustrated when I actually sat down to write a blog post. I’m not a writer and I don’t use sophisticated terminology. I am certainly not a Guru, besides who would want to be, the term sounds like an As Seen On TV Product.

Scratch the plan and scratch the sophisticated same old. My mission is to share my journey of expansion and encourage you to join in.

What areas are you working on to break free and expand your comfort zone in 2012?