You may not realize it, but search results on Google are highly influenced by how well you are ranked within the Google network services, such as Google Places (formerly known as Google maps).  If your business is optimized in Google Places, it will be given a higher placement in the search results.

So what does this mean for your business? Well, to put it bluntly, if you’re not in the top in Google Places, your competition will be…need we say more?

Get your free diagnostic report now! After you discover the results – and where your potential clients are going, know that we are here to help to optimize your Google Places listing!

Consumers are being sollicited incessantly. Volunteerism is decreasing. And there is no shortage of worthy causes.

So what are these organizations to do to raise funds? How many gala evenings? How many spaghetti dinners and silent auctions? How many bake sales and yard sales? How many bottle drives and car washes?

These traditional fundraisers are time and labour intensive and the payoff is limited.  Especially considering how many other competing events there are by other organizations as well.

The Need for an Easy Fundraising System

We decided it would be much more effective to teach non-profit groups how to fundraise strategically.  Groupe Synergos is prooud to introduce our Easy Fundraising System where you will learn how to quickly and efficient put together a targeted campaign and generate a significant influx of cash in your organization for a fraction of the effort.

We are focused primarily on small organizations who normally turn to traditional fundraising events like the ones mentioned above.

If you are the person responsible for fundraising for your sports team, scout troop, or other not for profit organization and you would like to know more about our Easy Fundraising System, simply fill in the contact form below for our FREE Report and we’ll be in touch to explain how it all works!

CLICK HERE to enter the F1 contest and do your part to eradicate blood cancers.  Who knows, maybe you’ll be the lucky winner of our services…

The TNT F1 Contest is made possible using the Contest Burner WordPress Platform. We are in the process of reviewing this product.  In the meantime, you can learn more about Contest Burner here (this is a Groupe Synergos affiliate link). Our detailed review, will be published at the conclusion of the F1 Contest.

The article refers to a 2006 study where participants who multi-tasked, and as a result, took up to 30 percent longer and made twice as many errors as those who completed the same tasks in sequence.  This is because our brains can’t successfully tell us to perform two actions concurrently. When we switch tasks, our brains must cognitively turn off from the old task, and then turn on  for the new one.  This takes time. Our brains are thus required to set up to do the task at hand  much like we set up a machine in a factory.   Set up time is just like down time – the end result is reduced output.  Now imagine continually switching tasks and all the time it takes to set up between them.  The first tip how to improve productivity is to make sure tasks are done sequentially, not concurrently.

How to Improve Productivity – Focus

Focusing on the task at hand is a key component when it comes to how to improve productivity.  It requires a discipline to eliminate all distractions and a desire to stay concentrated on the activity that needs to be done.  For small business owners this can be a great challenge with so many issues and problems to address and a reality that the business owner is more often than not, the prime resource to address them.  A tip how to improve productivity is to divide your day into chunks, or boxes of time that are reserved for certain activities.  This is called time boxing.  By time boxing, you not only develop a habit but you also educate those around you of your routine.  For example, if your email and voice mail advise those trying to reach you that you will be returning your calls between 3 and 5 pm, then they won’t try to reach you by other means if you don’t answer or call them back right away.

How to Improve Productivity – Filter

A particular challenge how to improve productivity is to manage the volume of information we are exposed to.  Small business owners need to be able to filter information so that the most important or urgent is easily discernible from all the rest.  Email filters work extremely well in this regard and should be used all the time.   Some small business owners may wish to delegate the management of their email to an employee or virtual assistant as well.  The key here is to establish the work rules and then adjust them until the desired level of filtering is reached.  This can be particularly effective when combined with delegating responsibility to handle some of the tasks or issues that arise.

How to Improve Productivity – Forget

This leads into the last component we will discuss on how to improve productivity, which is probably the most important, and at the same time, the most difficult for solo-preneurs.  That is that you have to be able to let go.  Delegating will undoubtedly increase your productivity but you have to accept to relinquish some control.  This is a hard habit to develop if you like being in the know all the time and want to have a say in every single decision.  As business picks up, it becomes harder and harder to do and the “boss” becomes the bottleneck.  It is best to develop the habit of delegating early on.  The other aspect of this is obviously to make sure you put your business aside when you have to.  Many solo-preneurs decide to go into business for themselves because thay desire to have more freedom, only to discover that they are “working” all the time.  This is actually counterproductive.  Turning off from work actually helps recharge, change perspective, and make people more productive when they turn back on.  So get in the habit of doing physical activity during your day, or reading a novel, or playing with your kids after dinner instead of reading emails.  You will actially get more done anyway…

More resources on how to improve productivity

If you found this article useful, we invite you to view the FREE recording of our Get More Done mini-class at this link.  It is an hour and twenty minutes full of tips and strategies to teach you how to improve productivity.

This time management course is not like anything currently available because it addresses particular needs that have been ignored until now.

What makes

“Practical Learning Time Management Skills” Different?

You see, we have come to the realization that although there is an obvious need to educate people on matters related to managing time, solution providers are missing the boat on 2 key realities, and these are :

1. if someone is searching for solutions for learning time management skills, they are probably already pressed for time in the first place and so will likely not be able to set aside large chunks of their most precious commodity to go through long lectures or read copious amounts of material before actually putting the time management course content into practice. It seems kind of like a catch-22 doesn’t it? Well, not really because we have found the winning formula.
2. not everyone is the same.  People have different personality types and different challenges when it comes to self-management. They learn differently and are motivated by different sources.  While some tools will work for some, they may not work for others.  A cookie-cutter, one size fits all, approach to learning time management skills is not a realistic solution. Learning time management skills has to take individual uniqueness into consideration for it to be a sustainable life change.

Groupe Synergos provides a course that can be consumed in much smaller segments and at the students own pace. Each segment covers specific topics related to learning time management skills and at the end of each, there are practical exercises to put to use immediately.   In addition, we have developed our tools and segments to “speak” to the challenges and needs of very specific personality profiles. This unique approach to learning time management skills and then applying them helps our students to benefit much more rapidly by seeing immediate and progressive results of the incremental changes they make and also improve their long term retention and sustainability because of the “see it – do it” training cycle. Our Practical Learning Time Management Skills e-course is a $497 value and will be offered at an introductory price of $297 for a select group of students in exchange for an after-course review and follow-up interview a few months later to validate the effectiveness of the time management course material and approach. If you are interested in being considered for this inaugural class of the Practical Learning Time Management Skills e-course, simply complete the form below.

saved in Practical Learning Time Management Skills e-course v1-1.

After explaining what he does, poor George is unsure what he just agreed to…

What do you think?

If you would like help getting your business found, contact us TODAY.

For more information on how Groupe Synergos can show you how to market small business online, and claim your FREE consultation, simply provide your contact information below and we’ll call you back within 24 hours!

Oh, and just so we’re clear – we don’t limit ourselves to marketing for nail salons!

A recent McKinsey & Company report provides a very good indication of what the answer to that question is.

“A new class of company is emerging—one that uses collaborative Web 2.0 technologies intensively to connect the internal efforts of employees and to extend the organization’s reach to customers, partners, and suppliers… [The] networked enterprises are not only more likely to be market leaders or to be gaining market share but also use management practices that lead to margins higher than those of companies using the Web in more limited ways.”

This report implies that companies can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging the use of social media.

As a result, it is reasonable to conclude that these companies will want to do it right  - and do it fast!

The demand for experts in Web 2.0 technologies will therefore increase substantially as more and more companies realize the benefits of social media and make the decision to leverage it.

However, this is a multidimensional undertaking.  The networked enterprise will use social technologies both internally and externally for efficiency gains but also for social media marketing.  Consequently, firms specializing in social media marketing services will be ideally suited to fill this need.

The problem is that social media marketing can be a very time consuming and labor intensive undertaking.  Providers of social media marketing services must be positioned to leverage technologies to the greatest extent.

Answering The Need for

Social Media Marketing Services

One way to quickly tap into this market for social media marketing services is to set up a consulting business, but this comes with some challenges:

• Start up costs
• Establishing credibility with prospective customers
• Proving Processes, Tools, and Systems

So what are the options?  Starting from scratch and building a business from the ground up, or buying into an established business model.

The first scenario of setting up a social media marketing services firm has it’s obvious drawbacks and risks so we won’t get into them here.  Suffice to say that this option will require a significant investment of time, money and resources to overcome the aforementioned challenges.  As a result, there is a risk of missing out on the leading edge of demand, which can become, in an of itself, a competitive advantage.

The second option can be a costly one depending on the choices made but can also be accomplished rather reasonably with a business-in-a-box approach.  One such solution offers a complete package including tools, systems for automation, training, business forms and templates, and even support services.  All at a reasonable price of less than $3000, and backed by an established company.

The Best Way to Provide Social Media Marketing Services

Compared to the cost of purchasing a consulting franchise or building a business from the ground up, this alternative to setting up social media marketing services company offers a cost advantage but more importantly, the advantages of speed and credibility.

For more information on this social media marketing services business-in-a-box, we invite you to watch the promotional videos here, but be advised that this edition is only available until midnight December 18th, 2010.

How to market small business online – the usual story

Here is a typical scenario we come across way too often:

• Business owner pays for local phone listing and yellow pages listing
• Business owner has a web developer put together a website for them – this is usually a really slick looking site that has fancy flash graphics and an appealing layout.

But here is the reality -

• The Return on Investment (ROI) on the phone and yellow pages listings is rarely measured, and is simply considered a cost of doing business.
• Web site traffic is not monitored and the site is not optimized to attract customers to your business.
• There is no way of knowing if your site is actually resulting in qualified leads or leading to sales.

How to market small business online – the simple truth

Let’s face it, business owners are not expected to know how to market small business online. You are too busy running your business! That’s completely normal.

The last thing you want to have to worry about is all the technical stuff of site optimization, keyword selection, competition, lead generation and opt-in techniques, hosting, auto-responders, and all that jazz.

What you need is peace of mind that somebody is taking care of it for you and a way to know it works so you know you are getting your money’s worth through measurable results!

No, what you need to help you how to market small business online is…

With our proven system, we can help you -

• Automatically generate qualified leads for your business
• Optimize your web presence and virtual sphere of influence to reach the appropriate audience
• Ensure your Return on Investment (ROI) for your marketing/advertising dollar
• Achieve sustainable and measured results that you can control

For more information on how Groupe Synergos can help you market your small business online, simply provide your contact information below and we’ll call you back within 24 hours!

Article title : How to Market Small Business Online

We get asked this simple question very often by our clients who are local business owners or adults who are not as tech savvy as the younger generation.

To be honest, this question actually has several possible answers, so in the paragraphs that follow, you will find some short answers that will help demystify the Twitter phenomenon and make it less foreign to you.  But more importantly, we will make Twitter less intimidating for you so that you can go forth and enter into the world of tweeting with confidence, and capitalize on the enormous potential this social media platform offers.

Q. What is twitter.com about ?

A. Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ messages called tweets.  Tweets are short text-based posts that are generally publicly visible.  Users may subscribe to other authors – this is known as following, and subscribers are known as followers.

Q. What is twitter.com about ?

A. Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and currently has more than 100 million users.  It has been described as the text messaging service of the internet because of the short posts (max 140 characters) and the ability to converse quickly with specific followers.  Users tweet about anything and everything, at any time of day, to anyone anywhere in the world.

Q. What is twitter.com about ?

A. Interestingly enough, Twitter is mainly used by older adults who might not have used other social media sites before.  According to comScore only 11% of Twitter’s users are aged 12 to 17.  In addition, a 2009 study by Sysomos in 2009, found that 5% of users accounted for 75% of all activity on Twitter, and that New York has the most Twitter users.  Twitter also has a search function that allows users to look for tweets containing specific keywords.  What this all means for businesses is that it is relatively easy to develop a demographic profile of twitter users and then target your marketing messages to those users.

Q. What is twitter.com about ?

A.  Twitter provides real-time information.  It has become a source for news feeds and and current events.  The Twitter home page even has a trending function that displays the topics that are most tweeted at any given moment, and this information is also fed into the search engines, like Google, who are now trying to keep up by displaying the “Latest” information related to a search term.  For businesses, this can be a great source of market information.

To recap from the perspective of the small business owner – what is twitter.com about ?   Well, Twitter :

• provides a platform to target specific markets and niches;
• provides valuable and real-time market information; and
• offers the ability to reach an enormous number of people quickly, easily, and effectively.

So now that you know what Twitter  can be used for, the next question is HOW do you do it?  Well we’ve got you covered….Simply fill in your name and email in the form below, and we’ll give you access to a FREE  video and pdf course material that will quickly and easily show you “How To Use Twitter To Rapidly Expand Your Business & Social Networks”.

With this material, you’ll learn:

• How To Use Twitter simply and effectively
• The Best Twitter Applications you should take advantage of
• How to Get More Twitter Followers
• How to Automate Your Twitter Account
• How to Expand Your Business Reach
• How to Grow Your Social Network
• How to Make Money using Twitter

So, what is twitter.com about => opportunity!

disclosure statement :  In the spirit of full disclosure, please note that this is a product for which Groupe Synergos is an affiliate. we do not earn any commissions on this material, however, we may earn a commission from follow-on products related to it if referred prospects choose to purchase them.  Groupe Synergos takes pride in only endorsing quality products and supporting our advertisers is a WIN-WIN-WIN for our visitors, us, and them.  We thank you for your encouragement.

Article title : what is twitter.com about?

so how do you embed audio in your content like this?

well it’s actually quite simple and with technologies today, you can create audio content just about anywhere! I created this message this morning while waiting in line for my latte! I simply recorded a voice note on my phone and emailed it to myself. I then copied the audio file to my server and plugged it into the html code to embed it on this site…it was that simple! I didn’t even have to convert the file format or anything. my phone creates .amr files and they are recognized by the Quick Time plugin. several other file types are supported as well such as (wav, midi, mp3 or aiff), so go ahead and have fun with it.

here is the code you need to do it like i did :

<EMBED height=”20″ SRC=”http://www.YOURFILENAMEHERE.WAV” VOLUME=”50″ loop=”false” controls=”console” AUTOSTART=”FALSE” width=”128″>

there are also some variations you can make to this to support different file formats and to adjust the autoplay functions. you can get more info about that from this link.

by the way, the audio clip from me was true! in this article, i just gave you a hint about what our new product will be when i revealed how i created that voice note. so if you’re not already subscribed to our newsletter, do it now so you don’t miss out on what’s coming soon!