Archive for June, 2010

When your starting it out in business it can be really frustrating if you don’t know what marketing activities you should be focused on.

Here are four simple ways to market yourself:

1.  Speak

Find as many speaking engagements as you can. Speak for free if you must, but get out there regularly and speak at places where your ideal clients would be.

There are plenty of organizations out there that are always looking for people to speak at one of their meetings.

When you do speaking engagements make sure that you get the biggest bang for your effort by ensuring you:

• Record it
• Collect the names of the attendees
• Provide a handout
• Mingle about before and after your talk or speech

2.  Network

…like crazy.

When I say network I don’t mean just going around and collecting business cards.  It does mean spending time at networking events where you’re  going to meet your ideal clients and critical buyers.

3.  Publish

Don’t have a blog?  Start one.

Write for your local community newspaper or on line magazine where you’re clients would be looking for information.

If you’re a women entrepreneur there are some great free on line communities where you can post your articles for free and gain valuable exposure.  The Diva Toolbox is one that comes to mind.

Get out there by spreading your message.

4.  Internet

Again start a blog.  Blogs are great because they add valuable content to your website regularly and the search engines love them.

Start a newsletter so that you can stay in touch with your clients and potential clients.

Check out HARO (Help A Reporter Out) to search for queries by reporters who are looking for people to be interviewed or other opportunities to expose yourself to the masses.

One of these marketing efforts is good, but use all of them as part of a comprehensive marketing plan and your efforts will really pay off.

Why do so many people play it small?

Because of fear — simple as that.

Fear of what? Fear of failure or even the fear of success. But most people fail because they feel unworthy, not good enough, small or just not important.

Unfortunately, our culture has made us believe for many years that it is all about us as individuals. That is absolutely not true!

Feelings of self worth can best be cultivated when we are in service of others. When we focus on the greater good and begin to add to the value of other people’s lives are self worth increases.

You have gifts and talents and those gifts were given to you so that you could share them with others. Sharing those talents means you must begin to start playing it big, to start stepping into your greatness.

When you start playing it big you will begin to see and immediate shift not only in your own self worth but your bank account will begin to reflect your greatness as well.

Playing it small usually means a small bank account. If you want more money then I suggest you start using those gifts and talents to impact others. When you do, the money will follow.

We all know what the process of manifestation looks like — thoughts lead to feelings, feelings lead to actions, and actions lead to results. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

If you have a poor person’s mindset, then you probably “think” about being rich. Maybe you even wish about having more money.

Possibly, you sit and meditate about money, visualize it and say countless affirmations that sound something like, “Money is flying at me in all directions!”

I don’t know about you but money hasn’t flown into me lately…instead I have had to actually do something for the money to appear.

Which brings me to the point: affirmations, visualizations and meditations are all wonderful tools, but if you want to change your financial circumstances you are going to have to take action!

Actions are what help to bridge the inner world, where all the meditations and stuff go on, with the outer world, the world where you need to actually do something.

So what stops us from taking the action?

Fear, doubt and worry are the top contenders and are the roadblocks to our success and happiness. But here’s the difference — people who have accumulated wealth do not let fear stand in their way. In fact, they act in spite of that fear. Poor people let fear stand in their way.

Which one are you?

I love working with women (and men too) to help them achieve the six figure business they always dreamed of.  But, while I understand that many people are afraid they will never realize the dream of a six-figure or even multiple six-figure business, I know that it takes 5 key elements to create six figures and beyond in ANY business.

The problem is that if you are just getting started in may seem like a dream and completely out of reach.

So, to help you out, I created this checklist so that you can see what it takes to create your six-figure business.

1.  Clarity

I don’t know about you, but when I was starting out in business I had hundreds of ideas swirling around in my head.  All these ideas kept me really unfocused.  The more unfocused I was the less clients I seemed to attract into my practice.

Once I got real clear about who my target market was and who I wanted to work with all that confusion changed and I got crystal clear.

Gaining clarity is as simple as that!  Decide who you want to work with, what problem you are going to solve and in an instant you will have changed your circumstances so that you can begin attracting clients like a magnet.

If you need help with this, hire a coach that can help you hone in on your niche.  This new found clarity will help you gain confidence which is the next topic in our checklist.

2.  Confidence

Can you feel the confidence swelling up inside of you now that you have identified your niche?

When you get clear and focused you gain a lot!  Nothing makes you feel more confident than in knowing exactly what problem you solve and who you work with to solve that problem.

Next time you feel your confidence slipping away ask yourself if you are unclear about some aspect in your business?  I would be willing to bet that you need a little fine tuning.

Once the tune-up is complete, check in with yourself to get a handle on where you are on the confidence scale.

Your confidence level has a direct impact on how you attract clients, which is the next topic.

3.  Clients

Now you’re probably saying, “No kidding, Maureen, of course I need clients.”

But some businesses seem to get clients quickly while others…well, not so much.  Why is that?

The businesses that have a ton of clients flowing in have a lot in common because they have these key factors in place.  While any one of these factors can help propel a business, more than one can result in impressive growth.  Here they are:

• Found an underserved niche with a group of hungry buyers
• Found buyers who had money to spend and were willing to spend it
• Found a niche where competition was minimal or manageable
• Developed a repeatable system for connecting and selling to these buyers that worked again and again
• Developed compelling, benefit-laden marketing messages
• Developed joint ventures and strategic alliances to dramatically increase sales
• Developed a strategy to get repeat business
• Protect their time
• Outsourced simple tasks

No secret here, just some simple ways to build your client base.  Now measure your business against this list and see what changes you need to make.

4.  Cash Flow

If cash is king, then cash flow is well, whatever is better than being a king!

Without consistent cash coming into your business it will be impossible for you to grow into a six-figure or more company.

Don’t make the mistake that many entrepreneurs have made — and who consequently are no longer in business.  Good cash management is simple and involves:

• Knowing when, where, and how your cash needs will occur
• Knowing the best sources for meeting additional cash needs
• Being prepared to meet these needs when they occur, by keeping good relationships with bankers and other creditors

5.  Courage

Don’t be one of those business owners who hangs back, waiting and wondering to see how it’s all going to work out.  Sorry, it doesn’t work that way in business or in life.

Sometimes you just need to be courageous.

The more frequently you take a leap of courage by joining a coaching program, networking, attending an event, hiring more employees or a team you get to flex and strengthen that courage muscle.

Eventually, it becomes easier and easier.

Isn’t There More to Having a Six-Figure Business Than This?

There are specific action steps that any business owner needs to take.  But if you focus on these five steps you will be more than halfway there.

I had to share something that happened on Facebook today.

Here goes…I would love for you to give me your take on this so feel free to comment.

Early this morning I received an email from someone I didn’t know.  The email went something like this.

“Are you in the habit of befriending married men? Joe (not his real name)  is my husband so remove him from your list!!!!

Here is my response:

I run a business and “friend” anyone who requests a connection. I have a huge data base and it makes no difference to me if someone is married or not as I use Facebook for business purposes.

I’m sorry that his friend request to me has upset you but if you are uncomfortable with it you really should be discussing this with your husband and not me.

Wow…I couldn’t believe that she thought is was ok to address this issue with me,  a complete stranger rather than confronting her husband about the issues.

I kinda felt bullied by this women.  Almost as if she would come and beat me up if she knew where I lived and didn’t remover her husband from my friend list!

Navigating social media can be tricky especially when you use it for business and are in the habit of  “friending” everyone.

Hope this bully leaves me alone and any other women her husband has friended recently.

Have you ever been bullied on Facebook?  Got any other humorous stories you would like to share?  I would love to read them.

There are so many ways that we as business owners prevent money from flowing to us. Look around. What do you see? Which areas of your environment are likely holding you back from making more money?

Not sure what I mean? Well let’s start with Physical Clutter. Now you might be asking what physical clutter has to do with opening the floodgates to making more money; but rest assured it has a lot to do with your ability to attract and make more.

Is your office or home a mess? Do you have papers strewn all over the place that need to be filed? Does your office have files that should be removed and put in storage? I want you to look around and see if you have clutter in any of the following places:

• Desk Clutter
• Email Clutter
• Bookshelf Clutter
• Newsletter Clutter

Take the time to clear out this clutter. This clutter is an energy drain which takes your attention away from and blocks your ability to make more money.

Make the commitment necessary to clean out the clutter from your life.

In my last post I talked about the feelings of envy, jealousy and resentment at people who have more money or wealth and the dilemma this raises if you are aspiring to be like them.  The two feelings almost cancel each other out.

On the one had you want more money and a successful business and on the other, you resent the heck out of people who are better off than you.  Feel the disconnect?  Understand how impossible it is to achieve greater success when you feel envious or jealous of those more fortunate?

A friend wrote me after my blog post and told me that he often struggles with these similar feelings as well as confusion around his mindset which tells him you can’t be a good person and be rich.  In other words, you can’t be spiritual and wealthy…you need to be one or the other. I know where this belief came from and I want to help you realize this old belief system is false.

There was a time when I was exploring my spirituality and was reading anything and everything that I could get my hands on.  I grew to love reading and listening to Marianne Williamson and her talks on the principles of A Course In Miracles.

Marianne states:  “Like everything else, money is either holy or unholy, depending on the purposes ascribed to it by the mind. We tend to do with money what we do with sex: we desire it but we judge the desire. It is the judgment that then distorts the desire, turning it into an ugly expression. Because we are ashamed to admit that we want these things, we have insidious ways of pretending that we don’t – such as condemning our desires even as we act them out. “

The reality is, our judgment of money is just our ego’s way of making sure we don’t have any.

What we repel against, we can never have.  But on the other side, what we bless, we draw to ourselves.

It’s our small ego’s that make us believe  we have to sacrifice if we are to be spiritual or a good person.  This just isn’t so.  The world is there to support us and lead us to whatever abundance awaits.

I know that many people intellectually understand the statement, but there is a lot of work to be done to overcome the feelings and old beliefs that we carry around with us, weighing us down and preventing us from having all that we desire.

My coaches request to you today is to try on this new mindset:  Be open to receiving money and trust that it always will find its way to you.

This small but simple mindset shift will have a profound effect on your ability to start attracting money into your life.  Post your comments as I would love to hear how this mindset shift helps you.

When you drive down the street and see a home that is a great deal nicer than yours, what is your reaction? Do you feel jealous, envious, or resentful?   Do you think the people in the house are “lucky” or “rich a—holes?”

Does this sound familiar?  Are you spewing anger and resentment towards people who are better off than you?

I have a friend who has displayed this type of bitterness in the past.  Oh, she has proclaimed more than once to me that she desperately wants to change her financial situation.  But how on earth can she improve her circumstances and create wealth when she clearly despises the very people she is attempting to become?

Many years ago I started a cleaning business.  My company cleaned some of the biggest homes in the area.  I am talking multi million dollar homes in some of THE best neighborhoods.  When I would pull up to these homes I was always excited to see what the house would look like inside.  I enjoyed walking through those homes and complimenting the owners.

I understood that most, if not all of these owners worked very hard for what they had.  Nobody handed them this terrific home in the most upscale of communities.  In fact, most of them where business owners who worked round the clock for many, many years before enjoying the success they had today.

They were my hero’s.  If they could achieve this success, I knew I could too.  I never did and still don’t feel one iota of jealousy, hatred, envy or resentment towards them.

But this doesn’t mean those feeling don’t creep up in other situations from time to time.  Sometimes I find myself making disparaging remarks to people who drive nicer cars than me.  I’m pretty sure it has more to do with their driving abilities (or lack thereof) than the car they are driving.  I realize my human tendency and stop the negativity immediately.

You see, you don’t have to be perfect in your thinking or behavior to achieve greater financial success, but you do need to be able to recognize it and change directions when it surfaces.

Here’s my request to you: If you are committed to achieving financial freedom, then the next time you hear yourself saying disparaging remarks to those with bigger bank accounts immediately stop yourself and release the negative energy.  Now think of more supportive thoughts and behaviors that will spur on your financial growth and increased awareness.

Remember, your thoughts are neither good nor bad.  But they can make or break your efforts in achieving financial independence.  Replace the negative dis-empowering thoughts with positive empowering ones that support your desire to achieve greater wealth and you will be making the strides necessary to turn your financial destiny around.

The other day I was on a coaching call with a client; I’ll call her Mary.  Mary was lamenting how she had so many weaknesses that prevented her from being successful in reaching her goals.  This isn’t the first time that I have heard this from Mary.  She often focuses on her perceived negative qualities and it has become a real stumbling block for her.

Do you have any qualities that you perceive as negative?  I used to. Heck, in fact if you asked me to make a list of all the qualities I have that some found annoying or just plain awful, I bet I could fill a page.

But what I have learned is that the same qualities that I thought of as negative are really strengths in the right circumstances. For example, say one of your perceived negative qualities is that you are a wimp.  When might being a wimp be a positive attribute?

I once read a story of a man who didn’t want to go drinking with his buddies because he was afraid to be in the car with someone who was drinking and driving.  He told his friends that he had a date…he was a wimp…he didn’t want to tell them he was scared to go.  That evening his friends got into an accident while driving drunk and one was killed.  Being a wimp saved his life.

When we separate ourselves into “good” and “bad” we fail to recognize the importance that all parts of ourselves are necessary.  When we can accept all parts of ourselves we can stop hiding…we can be who we are.  It is in the acceptance of the “perceived bad” that we are transformed.

If you are new to article writing and ezine publication you know you need more than you sister Cathy and your dad Frank reading your ezine.    What are you supposed to do to add new readers to your list and where do you start?

Here are 5 super effective tips to help you get more subscribers.

Make it Super Easy

Nothing is worse for your potential followers than to go to your website and have only one option for signing up for your newsletter.  Your opt in box should be clearly visible on each and every page.  If this isn’t possible add other options’ throughout your site.

Give your potential subscribers as many incentives for signing up as you can so that it is super easy to get on your list.

Don’t forget to use your email signature to promote your newsletter as well as on your business card or other materials you create. Making it easy means getting more signups!

Send a Mailer

You’re probably thinking, “Send something in the MAIL?”  I know it may sound counterintuitive but actually snail mail isn’t dead.

Sometimes throwing something different into the mix is just what’s needed.  By developing a really cool mail piece and sending this to your target audience where you inform them about your ezine and invite them to sign up is something different that many people are not doing.

Advertize

Check out other newsletters and websites which are complimentary or cater to your target market and advertise on their site or in their ezine.

Focus on those sites that cater to your niche and you will have a higher chance of getting potential subscribers to sign up for your newsletter.

Speaking

I recently spoke at a luncheon and offered a free subscription to my ezine.  This is without a doubt the fastest way to build your list and get new subscribers.  As an added bonus they also received my FREE report.

You can speak at your local chamber of commerce, or networking groups and associations or at any civic groups such as Rotary Club or Kiwanis.

Ezine Directories

You can submit your ezine to online directories such at Charlie Page’s Directory of Ezines.   People search the Directory by topic and decide if they wish to subscribe. It also allows other ezine publishers to contact you about using one of your articles in their newsletter.

Check it out at www.directoryofezines.com.

There are dozens of ways to build your list and although you may feel overwhelmed with the process, remember that everyone started at the beginning.

But,  if you want to build your list faster and easier then I invite you to sign up for a FREE Teleseminar that my friend Joel Christopher is doing on Thursday, June 17th 2010, 9:00 PM EST.

Joel Christopher is a best-selling author, world-class speaker and mentor known worldwide as “The Master List Builder”.

He built and grew his own opt-in list to more than 200,000 subscribers and on the way to that figure there was one period where he tripled his list to over 30,903 in only 99 days.

Joel now has an email list of half a million people from 105 countries and is building his list even bigger and faster using social media marketing tools like Twitter where he built a list of 251,02 followers in the last 12 months alone!

To register for this FREE call follow this link: http://www.maximizingsuccess.com/teleseminar