• thedeadrule@blahblah.com (the guy was selling insurance but was a big fan of the Grateful Dead).
• liquidlover@blahblah.com (an owner of an upscale private clothing seller). I didn’t ask the meaning of that one.
• chewchewhuhhuh@blahblah.com (Uh, what?)

Do you get the idea of how inappropriate these e-mail addresses are for business?

Another pet peeve of mine is business people using Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL e-mail accounts for their business address.

Now, I have nothing against those providers per se, but they do not project a professional image for your business. Plus, they often severely limit what you can do with your e-mail accounts.

Save these accounts for using to sign up for mailing lists but never use them in the professional arena with your clients or prospects.

The best thing you can do right now is to register your own domain name and start using that as your e-mail address. Like mine: marty@martymarsh.com marty@successfulsoulproprietor.com or yours would be yourname@yourbusinessURL.com.

If your budget just simply does not allow for this and you must use a free e-mail account, at least use something tamer in the name portion of the address, preferably your own name or the name of your business. For example: martymarsh@yahoo.com or successfulsoulproprietor@aol.com.

These days, you can register a URL very inexpensively and get e-mail service at the same time, even without a Website. I personally like GoDaddy.com.

There is just no excuse any longer for not having your own domain name. Without it you’re likely to be perceived as being unprofessional in the way you deliver your services.

And remember, right or wrong, true or not, how you are perceived --- especially online --- trumps everything else.

Join the conversation: Please add your comments below. 

So, let me ask you this (please add your response in the comment section below):

What can YOU do today to take care of your business?

----

Now, for a slightly different view: While I personally love interacting with my clients and the readers of my ezines and my blog, and I have no desire to be just another anonymous entrepreneur on the internet, other folks do like the anonymity that the internet can provide.

For me, half the fun of being in business is the people I get to interact with every day. But many folks like the idea of being relatively anonymous to their clients and customers and the internet allows them to do just that.

As I was writing this week's blog post above, I stumbled on this article that talks about this very thing. My view is not the only one and you might find this notion to be more to your liking.

Aside from the sheer artistry of the performers, the technical aspects of mounting a show like that are even more breathtaking. What a fun night.

It was one of those experiences --- it was truly an experience, not just a show --- that left us all wanting more. You could tell in the hesitation of the audience to get up and start leaving that everyone in that theater was spellbound and not yet ready to let the experience go.

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about my business. If you’ve been paying attention you know that I have blogged recently about the Disney experience and The Lion King, natch, is another Disney production.

All of us in that audience, I would guess, were left wanting more. It’s a long show and yet it seemed like it was over in the blink of an eye.

This idea of “leave ‘em wanting more” is one we should keep in mind whenever we are interacting with our own business “audience.” Do your marketing materials and programs leave your prospective clients wanting more? And by that I mean, do they then want to know more about what you’re offering? Do they want to experience more by working with you?

Every marketing strategy you employ --- from networking to ebooks to your ezine --- should be designed to leave your audience wanting more from you.

I find that to be true from folks who download my ebook, How to Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do. While it is chock full of “take it to the bank” content, that ebook has done more to generate more paying clients for me than anything else I’ve ever done. (If you downloaded it but haven’t read it yet, I suggest you spend some time reading it as soon as you can.)

So, let me ask you this:

How can you leave your target audience wanting more (of what you're offering)?

I was 15 when they opened the park near Orlando (now you can figure out how old I am if you want to) and I’ve been there so many times I long ago lost count.

Last Saturday we decided to go to Disney World again after having not been in about 4 years. The thought of going again did not thrill me so much until I decided that I would visit the park as if I was visiting for the very first time.

And what a nice difference that made in how much I enjoyed the day. Disney does things so well anyway, I believe, and the magic there always seems quite real.

For anyone who has been there as much as I have, you’ll know that they pretty much do the same things over and over and over. They may repackage the shows and themes a bit differently but underneath, it’s all the same stuff.

And most park visitors aren’t even aware of it, but everything they do is one big promotion of their products. Their products being their characters, their films and their shows.

People will still stand in line for hours with their kids so they can talk to their favorite characters and the crowds always go nuts whenever Mickey Mouse shows up. It’s quite the phenomenon to behold.

All of that promotion is obviously working just fine because people were buying Disney stuff by the armloads.

If you stop and think about it, how many of us would ever consciously buy access to a place for an exorbitant amount of money (admission is $75 bucks these days) only to get inside so that we could spend even more money? Boatloads of it. But that is exactly what happens at Disney World.

And we do it with big smiles on our faces and squeals of delight.

There are so many marketing and business lessons to be learned when you pay attention at Disney.

So this got me to thinking about my own business (and you may want to start thinking about yours as well).

Right now I'm thinking about how the Disney experience is so much fun that you don't think twice about spending $5 bucks for a hotdog. The Disney experience is so much fun that you want to go over and over and over again.

I want to create THAT kind of environment for my own clients. An environment so valuable and magical that they are happy to pay me to share my knowledge and experiences. An environment where they learn so much, where they see so much in the way of results in their own business, that they want to keep coming back again and again.

So, it’s back to the drawing board for me to re-think and re-imagine what kind of magic I can create so my clients can have that kind of experience when they choose to work with me.

So let me ask you this:

What kind of magical experiences can you create for your own clients?

If you’re inclined to share, please leave a comment below.

This week, among the comments in the responses to the business needs survey I did, one of the respondents mentioned that she was going to be visiting her local S.C.O.R.E. office (that's the Service Corp of Retired Executives for those not initiated) for help with her business and marketing plan.

Quite some time ago, when I was first going out on my own, I made an appointment at my local S.C.O.R.E. office to talk about how to structure my business and how to best reach customers.

The person I was assigned had no interest whatsover in hearing about my business nor in helping me with it. He spent our entire time together regaiing me with stories from his glory days in business. All the deals he did and all the deals that got away. Everything I asked or said reminded him of another story. Story after story.  

I left disappointed but just figured I got a lonely old man who needed someone to talk to. So I tried again and didn't fare much better.

This time, the "counselor" responded to virtually everything I asked with a variation of (say these phrases with the voice of a movie pirate): "No, that'll never work." Arggghh! "In my day we wouldn't have...." Arggghh! "It'll never fly...." Arggghh! "Did I tell you about the day I sold...." and on and on.

My pirate counselor didn't offer any solutions but he had an opinion about everything.

So I gave up. 

This reminded me of an exchange I had with my friend Barbara Winter (author of Making a Living Without a Job) sometime back about the value of (or lack of) using a retired volunteer for advice about business issues — and especially marketing — in the 21st Century. She had experienced much of the same that I had but at least she got some advice: outdated, not in touch with the 21st Century, advice from someone who was quite proud of the fact that he knew nothing about computers and didn't intend to learn.

I noticed on S.C.O.R.E.'s website that they no longer mention the "retired" part of their name. Now they are the "Counselors to America's Small Business." I couldn't find a single mention of the words behind their acronym.

So, I just caution anyone visiting S.C.O.R.E. to do so with your eyes open.

Perhaps I'm much too hard on these folks. I'd love to know what your experiences with S.C.O.R.E. have been, if any, and especially would love to hear about your positive experiences with them.

So let me ask you this:

Have you ever visited a S.C.O.R.E. office and if so, what was your experience?

Every news outlet in the world, I believe, must have run that story. (You can see a video of it, if you missed it, here.) 

Many of us dream of doing something to promote our business that is so creative and so outrageous that we garner the same kind of attention this stunt has gotten. But most of us, I venture to say, are too timid to really put ourselves out there.

Most business owners seem to have a hard time "putting themselves out there" in the most ordinary ways to attract clients let alone doing something totally outrageous.

I keep telling folks, "master the basics first" then go do something wild and crazy.

So let me ask you this:

Have you ever done something outrageous to promote your business? (And how did it work for you?) 

Please comment below. 

• Need a website? Go to blogger.com (or TypePad.com or Wordpress.com) and start a blog. They don't charge you a thing, and you'll have an instant web presence. Yes, instant!
• Start an ezine. It's one of the best no-cost tools for building relationships with your clients that I know of. Start with a service like constantcontact.com. Until your list grows beyond a certain point, they don't charge you anything. No readers for your ezine, you say? Doesn't matter. Start one anyway. Ask people to join your list. Then ask them to ask others to join your list.
• You say you hate to write? I hear that from just about everybody. Get over yourself and start writing. Write like you talk. Be authentic. Use your spell checker. But write. Everything you write can be published in an ezine, published as an article, published as a special report, and then published as an ebook. Notice I said "and" just now, and not "or"? Everything single thing you write can have many uses.
• Go to networking events. Go to events where people hang out together who are most likely to buy your services or know people who will. Go with a specific purpose (and going just to see how many business cards you can get doesn't count!)  Know what you want to accomplish at any event you attend. Too shy to talk to people? Volunteer to pass out the name tags at the front. Position yourself at the front door, introduce yourself to everybody, and direct each of them to the food and the bathrooms. Be interested in other people. Ask them, "So, what do you do?" Then when they ask you the same question, know what you are going to say. Then say it.
• Speak to a group about your business, about your expertise. Every organization I know of is looking for speakers. Start with groups like Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary. Sure, a lot of times they're mostly older retired people, but you'll get lots of experience, and those people have connections. You say you're too afraid to speak in public? The only thing you're really afraid of is being embarrassed. Well, from time to time you might be, but the truth is, an audience wants you to do well, and if you mess up, no one is going to know but you. They'll love you. Want to get polished at speaking? Find a Toastmasters group and join.
• Ask for referrals. If you're offering outstanding service with every client and with every sale you make, then there's no reason people would not want to give you a referral, but you really must ask them to do it. Be very clear about the kind of client you want --- your perfect client --- and tell people who and what you want when you ask for a referral.
• Give out samples of your work. No matter what kind of business you're in, whether selling products or selling services, you can find a way to sample your work. You can offer free get acquainted sessions, write special reports and articles, or give away actual samples of products you sell. Be creative.