Archive for June, 2009

‘Today’s business success strategy is about honing in on your target audience.

You’ve heard this a hundred times…people do business with people they know and trust.  But if you don’t know who your target market is how do you find those people that want to do business with you? In today’s economic climate  its even more important to hone in and focus on your ideal client.

I have said this before and I will say it again…you can’t market to everyone.  When I first started my coaching practice I thought I could “coach” anyone.  What a chore it was to craft a message aimed at the entire world.  How do you address the entire universe’s biggest challenges?  Sounds funny doesn’t it?

But it’s not.  I am totally and 100% serious about this point.  Figure out who your audience is and then craft a stategy that puts you in at the events, in front of the people and at the businesses.  Start to develop a relationship with these people and see how easy it becomes to market your products and services to your ideal clients.

Many of you who read my blog regularly know that DARE To Be Phenomenal runs a Women’s Only Networking Event once a month.  We meet  at the Evenfall Restaurant in Bradford, MA from 7 pm -9 pm.  This month we are meeting on June 24th!

What  many people don’t know is that when I started this group on March 18, 2009 I knew it would be successful, but I didn’t realize it would take off and explode in numbers so quickly.  As of this post we have 107 members and 62 women registered for next weeks event.  Is that phenomenal or what?

You know what else is phenomenal?  How many women are dedicated to coming out and helping other success minded women grow their business.  We have a little tribe here…well actually, a big tribe and our tribe is growing all the time.  So if you are looking for a group of like minded women who are dedicated to supporting one another as they strive to have the most phenomenal business and life, join us next week on June 24th.  We would love you to join us.

Daring you to success…….

Today’s business success strategy is about the right business mindset.

What is your business mindset?  Is it working for you or against you?  Do you constantly hear that nagging voice of self doubt telling you it can’t be done or do your intentions clearly have you on a path of success and abundance?

It’s hard to change those limiting belief and self doubts.  I know, I used to have them.  But when I started working with my coach and mentor those limiting beliefs and self doubts started to melt away.  Why?  Because often times we are so enmeshed in negative self talk that we are unable to challenge those beliefs on our own.  Working with a coach who can point it out and help you shift those beliefs to ones that empower you and move you forward is well worth it!

Today’s business success strategy is about goal setting.

Do you know where you want to be next year, month or week?  How will you know if you have achieved what you are aiming for?  What are you focused on each that day that consistently moves you toward the goals you have for your business?

If you can’t answer these questions its because you don’t really know the goal!  Goals need to be written down and referred to often.  When you take the time to write out your goals you are making a commitment to yourself and your business.  Goals are what keeps you focused when times get demanding and when you start to loose your way.  It’s a reminder about what you are trying to accomplish.

Check out my free report at www.daretobephenomenal.com to learn some additional tips about goal setting.  By following these simple tips, you can start planning and goal setting with an eye on the future  success of your business!

Starting on Saturday, June 13, Facebook started allowing us to create our own unique profile name. Now we can provide a link to potential followers using our real names instead of an ID number.

I don’t have a very common name so I was able to scoop mine up without a problem.  But for those of you who have a common first name and last name, be sure to create your user name right away because it may already be taken.

You can click here to set up your new profile name:

http://www.facebook.com/username/

If you are not already on my list on Facebook, you can find me here:

http://www.facebook.com/MaureenCampaiola

Today’s economic situation has  many of us shaken and scared.    Whether you are a CEO, a one woman band, or owner of a small business the ways in which we handle these changes are different for each of us.

Over the next several days I am going to focus on one time tested key business strategy that will keep you focused and moving in the right direction.

Key Strategy #1:  Know Your Vision

I stare at my vision  each and everyday…it hangs above my desk and it represents how I see myself and my success.  It’s my vision board and it gives me the inspiration, direction, and purpose to what I do everyday.

Do you know what your vision is?  Do you know where you are going and how you are going to get there?  A vision board is a great way to capture the feelings, goals, and purpose you have for yourself and your business.  Include clippings, colors, words, pictures, glitter; anything that helps to capture the vision you have of yourself and your phenomenal business.

Tomorrow Key Strategy #2…Know Thy Goals!

Sunday is my absolute  favorite day of the week.  I don’t know what it is about Sunday, well,  I take that back.  I do know what I love most about Sunday!  It’s my one day to do absolutely  nothing and not feel one iota of guilt.

If you are anything like me, you work hard  building your business, marketing effectively and keeping up with social media all in attempt to have that phenomenal business and life of your dreams.  But if you work yourself into the ground, you will end up despising your business because it does nothing but suck the life out of you!

What do I suggest?  Do what I do.  Make Sunday or at least one day each week a day where you give yourself permission to not think about your business.  Shut the cell phone off and  give yourself that well deserved rest that you not only need, but deserve.

When Monday comes, you can look at your business with a fresh perspective knowing that you took care of yourself first.

What do you do to take care of yourself?  I would love to hear from you.

It seems that I have a conversation almost daily with someone about the importance of “niche marketing”. Just the other day a group of us where talking about how hard it is to market your products or services to everyone…it’s literally impossible. But so many business owners and entrepreneurs fall into this trap and make this mistake all the time.

How do you know what your clients want? Did you know that your potential clients may or may not buy what they NEED, but they always buy what they WANT? So how do you find your niche so that you can effectively market what they need? Here are a few simple tips to help you hone in on your niche market.

Step 1: Who NEEDS what you sell?

The first step is to identify the demographics of your ideal client base. Where do they live? How old are they? How much money do they make? Do they have children and if so what are their ages? The answers to these questions will vary greatly depending on the type of business that you have. Don’t skip this step; it’s one that is greatly overlooked by many of my clients. Take the time to sit down and answer these questions so that you can start to see clearly who NEEDS what you sell.

Step2: What do your potential clients WANT?

This step requires that you sit down and figure out what your client’s biggest problems, challenges and obstacles are. Now you may be thinking, “I don’t have many clients yet.” or “I have no idea what my clients want.” If you are new to business close your eyes and think about what your potential clients challenges are and see what comes to mind. Write it down, refer to it and revise it as necessary. If you have been in business for awhile what are you clients telling you are their biggest concerns? This is what your clients want from you; to help them solve their most difficult business challenges.

Step 3: What is your passion?

When you can think positively and excitedly about a group of clients and the work you will do with them; you have found your passion and your niche ! If you are in business  reading this and thinking, “Oh boy, I am definitely not working with my ideal clients”, then maybe its time to work with a coach who can help you sift through this information and help move you towards those ideal clients that will reignite your passion for your business.

Are you a perfectionist?  Do you worry about every little detail till it makes you sick or drives you crazy?  Well I used to be that way and it was no fun at all to be constantly worried about something being out of place and not 100% perfect!

How did I change that not so great aspect about myself (sorry if you are offended that I think it’s not a great trait)?  I stopped…that’s right, I just  stopped trying to make everything perfect and allowed things to just be the way they were.

Once I started living in the moment and accepting the ups and downs and stopped needing things to be without error, things started falling into place perfectly.

Try it out and see what happens for you and let me know how its working.

Today, I was at my BNI Meeting and was discussing my networking event that is coming up next week (you can find out more about it at http://tinyurl.com/ce3nfc).  My friend Lynn, was telling me a story about a conversation she was having at the May, DARE To Be Phenomenal Networking Event.

She had asked one of the participants for her business card.  The individual asked her in reply what she did for a living.  When Lynn explained what line of work she was in, the women said, “Oh, my business has nothing to do with your business…we wouldn’t be able to work together and you couldn’t give me many referrals.”  She was flabbergasted….and quite frankly so was I!

This women made the mistake, like many people do,  that just because you are in completely different lines of work you can’t help each other grow your businesses.    What a mistake!

The reality is that every person you meet is someone that you can help AND that can possibly help you.  That is the RIGHT mindset to have. Not the kind of mindset that was demonstrated by this particular person.    If she had gone to the event thinking about how she could be of service to others and less focused on her business and what she was going to get out of the event she may have found herself in a win-win situation.  Instead she  closed the door on a potential hot bed of  referrals (my friend Lynn is a big on giving referrals!).

Next time you are at a networking event don’t make this same mistake.  Instead go into the moment with the mindset and attitude that you are there to  help others and see how much help YOU get in building YOUR business.