The contest we posted to find out about the best thing you've found via social media brought some wonderfully inspiring answers! The most common answer has been friendships - old and new.

Two of our favorite answers were the confidence Nicole found and the birth mother Jen was able to connect with. We weren't able to decide on the best between the two so we had a chat with Annie of Small Act and let her make the final decision. It was tough... but the winner is...

Both of them!!! Congrats to Nicole (@nicoleindc) & Jenn (@dateabledc) for your incredible entries!

Small Act thinks "you can't top finding your birth mother" but Nicole's was so well articulated. They will both receive a 1-year free subscription to Thrive!

Thank you to all who entered our contest. We appreciate you sharing your stories. All entrants from the contest will receive 2 months free trial of Small Act's social media software, Thrive.

CNN came to Sisarina HQ in downtown Bethesda to interview us on how the downturn in the economy is affecting small businesses and came up with a piece on avoiding burn-out at work. We wrote a blog post in April about the experience giving tips on creating a better work life balance. Kudos to Sandra Endo for a great segment!

On CNN.com

“Will you walk into my parlor?”

Getting a client takes a lot of time, motivation and resources. Now that you have the client, how do you keep them coming back for more?

Being a business owner means keeping your best foot forward throughout the entire process to be sure they’ll talk about you or use you again. Making sure your clients are being taken care of while not taking advantage of you is the key.

Set expectations upfront

Make sure your client knows everything they’ll be receiving from and giving to you in the first meeting. Give them the full 4-1-1 on how you operate, your timeline for delivery, milestones for payments, and items they need to give you throughout the process.

If a client has their expectations set from the beginning, it’s hard for them to complain when you deliver just what you said you would.

Have a detailed agreement

People have been saying for years “the customer is always right.” As business owners we know that’s not true.

I believe we should change that to “the customer is always the customer.”

The first step of taking care of your customer is having a signed agreement in place detailing everything you will be providing along with everything they’re expected to provide. This protects them from getting less than they agreed to and protects you from having to give them more than you expected.

Be prepared to give a little

Although you have a detailed agreement you will still be asked to give a little to ensure the customer experience is up to par with their expectations. If the client isn’t fully happy with what they’ve received, realize you may have to put in extra time to appease them.

Being too stiff can cause you to lose your client or not tell others about your great products or services.

Don’t let the client walk all over you

In the same vein of giving a little, make sure your client doesn’t take license to walk all over you and your staff. Even though you set expectations upfront, giving a little sometimes gives clients the feeling you’re a pushover.

Reiterate what your agreement states and make sure they realize you have already gone above and beyond. If they continue to do so, they might not be a good client for you.

Be aware of the signals from the beginning and choose clients wisely in the future.

Up-sell to benefit the client

Up-selling typically benefits your company, but it should really benefit your client most of all. The initial meeting can flesh out a lot of what your client needs but other things will come up during the process of taking care of them that you can make a point of letting them know you also offer. Be sure you don’t try to sell them services they don’t need, as most business owners will realize your scheme.

If they feel you have their best interests at heart they will sing your praises for taking care of them.

Send a thank you card

Thank you cards are a nice touch as they are more personal than sending an email or just thanking them over the phone. Hand-written thank you cards are so rarely sent anymore that the recipient will typically hang it up near their desk.

Custom-branded cards are a great reminder of your business when they need to share your info with their colleagues or call you to discuss something new they’d like to do.

Send a survey

A short survey asking questions about your services or products gives your clients the chance to tell you how you and your staff did taking care of them. This gives them the power of suggestion to help you do things better, or a way to give you a reference you can use when finding new clients.

SurveyGizmo is a free service that allows you to setup a survey, which you can send directly to them through a link.

Keep them on your mailing list

Your regular newsletter will have new products or services along with reminders of things you’ve done which will keep you at the top of their mind.

You can also use these to feature your clients and the work you’ve done for them.

This gives them the sense that you really cared about their company and how you helped them. Stroking an ego is never a bad thing.

More from:

• Lori Saitz aka Zen Rabbit on the power of following up with customers
• How to become the “go to” person for your clients, again from Lori (there’s a reason she’s our customer service guru)
• Mayra Ruiz-McPherson on “PR drivel”

By Melanie Spring - as published in Women Grow Business (Original Article)
Image: William Cho, Creative Commons

Reflections from Melanie Spring:

One year ago, on May 1, after years of giving my skills to help entrepreneurs & corporations, I went back to what I was meant to do – be an entrepreneur myself. It’s been one year of hiring, setting up an office, growth, pain and excitement. The knowledge that you and those working for you are relying on you and your decisions is scary but can show you who you really are.

Over the last year I’ve gone from having an office in my bedroom and being a jack-of-all-trades to being a boss with employees and an office in downtown Bethesda. Being salesperson, project manager, admin and accountant is no easy task for anyone so I found people to replace my lesser skills and every one of them excelled. Thinking you know everything is one of the biggest hurdles any entrepreneur has to get over.

Starting #DCTweetup and watching it grow has been a wonder in itself. In June 2009 we had our first, consisting of 10 locals. Our April event had 90 attendees and now we’re sponsoring #TEDxPotomac’s pre-party & after-party. The amount of incredible people I’ve met through these events is astounding. Networking & friend-making at its finest.

Setting up an office seemed like it would be cut and dry until our painter turned out to be the maintenance guy who knows less than I do about painting. After having the flooring installed and throwing painting parties to finish the paint, we started ordering furniture. Every day brought a box full of goodies. Waiting in painful anticipation for 100-year-old door desks custom-made by my father, as we worked at our conference room table while sewing curtains between projects, had its own set of excitement and drawbacks.

While I sit here looking out my big open windows reflecting on the last year of clients ranging from restaurants to coaches and international non-profits to government contractors, I smile that things have gone so well. We've even been interviewed by CNN! I wouldn’t be a true entrepreneur if I didn’t have knots in my stomach about what’s to come but with the ups and downs that have already happened, I’ve learned I can’t worry about what I can’t control.

Being an entrepreneur has taught me so much about my personality, how I deal with good things and bad, and I’ve grown from being an employee for someone else to running a full-grown company in just a year. Thank you to all who have brought me to this point. Sisarina, my once imaginary friend, is now my life and I have all of you to thank you for that.

The Sisarina bookshelf holds a wide variety of books. While we all work towards engaging our users and positioning their brands successfully in the marketplace, it doesn’t mean that we approach design and marketing from the same direction.

Earlier we discussed the different ways we find inspiration. The books we read cover a wide array of topics and interests, but essentially they all have the power to awaken us professionally, steer us in new directions and provide alternate perspectives.

Here are just a few of the current reads that have reveled the Sisarina staff.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Daniel H. Pink

Pink cites a dizzying number of studies revealing that carrot and stick can actually significantly reduce the ability of workers to produce creative solutions to problems. What motivates us once our basic survival needs are met is the ability to grow and develop, to realize our fullest potential.

World Orders Old and New
Noam Chomsky

Marshaling meticulous scholarship, this leading critic of American foreign policy  argues that Washington's support - open and covert - for repressive regimes in Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Angola and elsewhere has undermined attempts to create meaningful democracy, thus exacerbating poverty and misery.

Crisis Counseling: A Guide for Pastors and Professionals
Scott Floyd

Provides a much-needed resource for the professional, pastoral, and even lay counselor.  Providing a spiritually based framework for responding to a crisis event and the following times of trauma, loss, and grief.

How We Decide
Jonah Lehrer

The author arms us with the tools we need, drawing on cutting-edge research as well as the real-world experiences of a wide range of deciders and shows how people are taking advantage of the new science to make better television shows, win more football games, and improve military intelligence.

Breaking Into the Boys' Club: 8 Ways for Women to Get Ahead in Business
Molly D. Shepard, Jane K. Stimmler, Jane K. Stimmler

Why do women still have so much trouble making their way into the upper echelons of corporate America? According to the authors, it's not quality of work that holds them back but something more insidious. While women try to get ahead by logging long hours and working to become experts in their fields, their male counterparts are easily included in corporate culture (golf, drinks, lunches, etc.) and get inside information and more face time with superiors.

Woman of Influence: Ten Traits of Those Who Want to Make a Difference
Pam Ferrell

The author helps women see the call to mentor other women as part of the spiritual maturity process. By developing ten character traits, all starting with "I": impassioned, individual, intimate, idealistic, interdependent, initiative, integrity, intense, inquiring, and infectious, she tells stories from great women of the past, and those living today.

Share Your Bookshelf

What books are currently by your bedside? On your iPod or Kindle? Please share with us.

For many of us the places where were have moments of creative genius are unconventional to say the least.

A quick poll of coworkers, friends and family indicate that our inspirational moments happen in a variety of ways—whether it be in the shower, washing dishes, reading or as of recent—while shoveling.

Are super smart ideas generated from the mundane, or is it that we need to be more mindful of how our actions can influence our ideas? Maybe it isn’t that routine work frees up space in our creative brain, but rather we feel less constrained or pressured at that moment, so we are free to let our mind wander and play.

Being more mindful of what it is that brings creative enlightenment may let us recreate it elsewhere. Yet, perhaps it wouldn’t make doing such “mindless” tasks as productive for our right brains.

What do you think? Tell us where your creative insights come alive. Do you think they happen during those moments on purpose?