The 5 Groups you need to join NOW

February 14, 2017February 14, 2017Leave a comment

Are you growing your business? Are you starting just now?

Here are the 5 Facebook groups that I found the MOST useful to learn about social media, time management and I use for networking and most of them are free!

Jo Bendle’s Productivity Boosters for Female Entrepreneurs is amazing! You cannot miss out if you want to get organised and get your things done! Here is the link to the group. Also, go and check out Jo’s Facebook Page, she knows her thing.

ABW – Aspiring Business Women – already the name tells it all. Lady entrepreneurs who are aspiring and serious about business. The leaders of ABW are experts on business support and they register local networking groups under their umbrella in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, UK. Joining is free for a week, so you have time to look around and have a feel about the community. This networking group has a reasonable membership fee after the trial. Connect with Clair or Andrea when you ask for joining! 😉

WAHMS Café is a group for creative people who are about to launch their business and they are not sure about the steps. The talented entrepreneurs (ladies and gentlemen, too) get inspired by the continuous discussions, thought-provoking questions and challenges. You can join the virtual café here and there is no membership fee at all.

Not for networking but learning about WordPress, this group, WordPress Help and Share, is a wonderful source of information and help. I learned a lot only by reading! Ask the admins to approve your joining request by clicking here!

And do you know where do I run when I need to ask something about my books? Right, I go to the experts. The group called ‘I run a small business’ has always been helpful, from day one. It is UK based, crowded with experienced and helpful small business owners. Click here to join them! Remember, no advertisement in this group!

Anyway, always read the descriptions before you join and open the pinned post for instructions. These groups are for your benefit, show respect. And enjoy networking! GO!

See you in the groups,

Mariann Hornyák

WAHMs Café – a virtual place to share creative ideas

February 6, 2017February 24, 2017Leave a comment

Why do you want to belong to a community? What is WAHMS CAFÉ? It is a Facebook group to network, learn and grow AND there is NO membership!

I see many groups growing on Facebook, Forums that have more thousands users. It is not possible to keep up a decent conversation when 1,2k people comment within one hour. Networking is great but connecting is better!

wahms café invitation.jpg

We aim to keep our group small and informative, interactive. What do we talk about there?

We talk about you. Your business, your success and your weakness. How to grow, how to change, how to stand tall. We learn together, nobody is an expert in every single field of business management. But we are all expert in one field or another. So, better if we share.

You can boost your marketing, learn about campaign planning, set your goals clearly. This bunch of talented and creative entrepreneurs await you already.

Mariann Hornyák

Do you plan your working hours well?

February 3, 2017February 2, 2017Leave a comment

Time management is one of the hardest things to learn. You know what you should do, in most cases… and then you spend your time with something else. Worst case scenario: you waste your time! How will your business suffer from your bad habits? Have you realised it where you could be right now if you spent your working hours well planned? Do you think you are as effective as you could be?

I am sure you want to do more. You started your business to become more, to express yourself, to do something for yourself and of course, to earn money! I know we do not need to race and it is not always priority as often family comes before work. BUT, what if I tell you that you can actually do something very small every day that will change your way of work? Would you like to know what I am talking about?

First, work in teams. Are you self-employed with no colleagues? Join our WAHMS Café club on Facebook!

Second, clear your mind before you go to sleep! I am sending you a template to copy. Here you can add your e-mail. (I hate spams, I do not spam. But I send out important training materials and access to online courses soon.)

You can simply subscribe to my newsletters that I draft once a month, and you will see it is good to be connected.

Newsletters, online courses – BIG NEWS!

February 2, 2017February 2, 2017Leave a comment

Hi there! I am so excited, I am launching a new service, I will send you newsletters from now on. This is something very new and I decided that I will value my newsletter audience and they will get the best of the best! I will start a vlog about business basics and tips and tricks and I might add social media – and I will use human language that every one of you will understand! Are you interested now? Sign up, do not miss out. Oh… did I mention that it is all free???

Here is the link to sign up to my newsletters and vlogs and info and you will get one surprise immediately! I cannot tell what it is yet 🙂

Have you clicked already?

here –> SEND ME NEWS

Talk soon!

Mariann xx

The best job you can do from home

September 25, 2015September 27, 20152 Comments

Source: raising humans

I run a management and business consultancy and I got this question already so many times from mothers who do not want to return to be employed but want or need to earn money. What is the best job I can do from home?

I always give the same answer: There is no answer to this question that I would be able to phrase for you.

If anyone gives you a list of business opportunities, think! Think! Why would they do that? How would they know what is best for you, for your family? How would they know what fits your personality the best and what kind of work makes you happiest?

So, simply just stop asking this question, please. At least, stop asking others!

Ask yourself the following questions instead:

what makes me happy?
when I run my day what type of activities make me feel energized?
do I love talking, meeting people?
do I prefer writing or talking?
do I love people or numbers and papers?
am I an introvert or extrovert or highly sensitive introvert or extrovert?
am I gifted or talented?
is there any hobby I love and makes me happy?
how many hours do I want to work?
do I want to leave the house for work at all ever?
do I know anything about business administration?
do I have any sort of knowledge of marketing?
am I able to motivate myself or do I need a team?
can I invest any money?

and so on, so on, so on… listen to yourself for at least a week and create a list of all the good things that make you feel happy, refreshed and energized.

Also ask your partner or sibling or who knows you best what they would answer the questions above.

Then do your research. If you need a team and you want to socialize you might consider an MLM business. If you know nothing about marketing, try a franchise. If you are happy with administration and numbers, open a virtual assistant service. And this is how you build up who you are, what you want. Then, once you start to form a picture about your dream work, start to plan: what you want to achieve, how much money you need to earn, when you want to get to certain mile stones, etc.

BEFORE you commit yourself to anyone or you invest, think about why you want to do this. List your reasons that will motivate and reinforce you. Create a vision board and keep it somewhere you see it every day. What is a vision board and how to make it? This is how I made mine: just click here for the article.

2 ways how to lose your potential customer

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015Leave a comment

Your products are beautiful! Everybody admires how talented you are. You have thousands of likes on your Facebook page – yet nobody really wants to buy from you.

You are maybe offering a service and everyone says you are really knowledgeable, you know your stuff, then you just sit and wait but nobody really calls you to book an appointment.

What could have gone wrong? It is clear that those people do not know that your product or service is clearly what they need! They do not understand the value it can bring to their life – YET!

There is a chance that those people who look at your page do not understand what you are selling! It can happen if you are a service provider. The other day, I got an e-mail about something that I did not understand clearly along with an offer that it might be useful for my business. No website or company name, only “marketing advisor” or similar title in the signature. I could have ignored but I could not resist to hit reply and say: I do not actually understand if that thing you are offering could bring any value to me, but if you really want me to look into it, please send a link to your website or any information how I could benefit from it. And then I got the website and no news since then. Why? They sent me a useless proposal and I even replied! and nothing! They are not getting back to me and I will not write them again to ask them to sell something to me. I will not go and tell them how to sell something to me even if I could be interested in their products. I could but would not worth the time and effort. They lost it. It is that simple.

Lesson learned: Make it clear what you want to sell. Make clear packages if you are a service provider! Do not expect people to spend time to figure out what you do and if they need you or not… Tell them!

I have an other story about a lady who tagged me in a comment of a post in a group on Facebook (so quite publicly), saying that she added me as a friend (means my private profile) and if I confirm the request, she will show me how to make my Twitter profile more visible, active and so it will be working better. Excuse me? Are you telling me that I am doing it wrong? Who are you to stop me and tell me publicly that I need help because I am not good enough according to you? So who are you again?

Lesson learned: Never try to sell before engagement. You do not know who you talk to! You have no idea what the other person wants! Not everybody wants to be visible on social media. Be a little bit more open minded and imagine that there is a world outside of Facebook and Twitter. While I know that the digital economy is growing fast,

Be Polite

I also know that NOBODY will convert if you approach them randomly with a sale offer, specially if phrased in an insulting style. Talk to people as if you met on the street – you are a random stranger. Smile first, say hi, introduce yourself, tell something about yourself, engage the other person. Be polite!

Talk to people in a way you want to be treated, you want to be talked to. Love your potential clients, respect them, provide value, otherwise they go away before you know it!

Did you find this article useful? Then you might want to read about HOW TO CONVERT PROSPECTS TO CUSTOMERS! Here is a book that I recommend from Khalid Saleh. This is an affiliate link to the book on Amazon if you want to see the details: Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers

Enjoy reading it! Now I am going to write more about this conversion topic as it proves to be very exciting!

Talk soon,

Mariann

How to USE your network – 8 tips

April 21, 2015April 21, 2015Leave a comment

It will be short, so have an espresso this time rather than a big cuppa. Enjoy reading!

Are you member of a networking group? For what reason did you join? What was in your head when you clicked ‘apply’? Is this a free group or do you pay a yearly or monthly fee? If yes, how much? A few hundreds per month or per year? Or just a few pounds per month?

Do you spend much time there? Do you use that group? What do you get for your time and for your money?

Lots of questions, I know.

So here is a list of ideas what your networking group can do FOR YOU!

meeting like-minded people – great to have a tea with someone who understands what I am talking about.
getting discounts from members – wonderful, do Christmas shopping without problem.
promoting each other’s business pages – spreading the word, their friends might be your ideal client.

These are great but is this enough? There must be more in this!

And then you can do all these for them, right? Because the golden rule of networking is: Give five times, ask once! Share, comment, like, recommend, promote and invite. You do it first, then expect it back.

What else can a networking group do for you? (and you for them?)

T.E.A.M.

skill-swap – you can get your eyebrow waxed in return for a few cards. Connect with those who offer services that you would use anyway.
team-up – have a shared giveaway! You sell deli, she sells boxes, promote your products together!
link your services or products – do you offer training, invite a 20 minutes office massage in the lunch break so you add fantastic value to your product. Or if you run a place for kids then team up with a nanny or crafter to do extra classes together.
delegate the job – you take beautiful photographs, others have fantastic copy writing skills, so combine them, work on each other’s website or blog weekly. Add value, add extra content to the pages.
post on Facebook for each other – some people have more time to do social media and are more skilled. Others cannot really get there to post weekly. So offer something for each other! You can find the businesses around you who are linked to yours and you can have a common social media campaign or you can just run your platforms together by adding each other as admin.

Being in a networking group means that you are not alone to do the job. You have lots of people around you to share with. You all save time, you all save money. You inspire each other and you will feel so much more creative and open.

Connect, share and enjoy! This is networking. And this is just the basic level.

See you soon for a cuppa,

Mariann

Training * Workshop * Consulting

International Inclusion and Neurodiversity Consultant

Tag: networking

The 5 Groups you need to join NOW

WAHMs Café – a virtual place to share creative ideas

The best job you can do from home

How to USE your network – 8 tips