True Personal Value Increases True Market Value

March 11th, 2010

What’s the one thing that you excel in, but you never had to go to school for, attend a seminar for, or sweat your way through testing for?  Do you have a talent that you can’t remember learning, and that was never a struggle for you?  Something you would do for free, just because you enjoy being good at it?  That’s your true value.

Often, it’s easy to believe that if something is easy for you to do, then surely, no one else can benefit from it, or would want it.  We’ve been conditioned to believe that we can only use the things that we’ve worked for, or paid for, for profit.

What’s important to remember here is that what comes easily for you might be highly valuable to, and worthy of payment from, other people.

My friend Veronica is a good example.  Before I had assistants to help me with administrative tasks, my desk was a paperwork wasteland.  When Veronica called on me, early in my career, she found my desk buried beneath a clutter of papers.

Veronica tackled my messy office, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, it was transformed from a disaster zone to a well-organized, functioning space.  My wonderful friend had offered her true value, her talent, to me in a way that not only helped me, but left me awestruck with her ability.

Organization is not impossible for me, but it’s not easy, either.  Tears of gratitude filled my eyes when Veronica had finished with my office space.  The value that she presented me with was immeasurable.

As I explained earlier, sometimes it’s difficult for the giver of true value to understand the impact they can have.  Veronica seemed taken aback with my pouring out of emotion.  She looked at me, as if to say, “What’s the big deal?”  She had difficulty accepting my thanks.

You can help yourself to market your true value when you:

• Identify your inborn gifts and talents; the things that come easily to you.

• Combine those true values into a package that you can offer to the world – something unique that offers significant benefit.

• Identify a genuine need that can be fulfilled with your true value.

Now, this might seem like a speech you got back in grammar school or high school, but it’s still important to remember:  don’t choose paths because they’re “cool,” or because they’ve been successful for others.  You’ve got to stay true to you.

Don’t think that your abilities are insignificant just because they come easily to you.  In fact, your thinking should be moving in the opposite direction.  You were given your talents by God for a reason.  When you use them purely and fully, you automatically offer something that cannot be duplicated by another.

Because you are unlike any other person on Earth, your unique abilities can be combined to equal a unique contribution.  Everyone’s looking for the next big thing.  Seems to me that if you want to find something unique and valuable, you need only to look inside yourself.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter with invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease – register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

True Personal Value Increases True Market Value

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Posted in Business Plans, Business Success, Marketing, Motivation, Personal Productivity, Small Business Marketing, Success Secrets, Systems | 2 Comments »

Do You Need To Change Direction?

March 4th, 2010

You’ve worked hard to define yourself and your business. You have distinguished your area of expertise and identified your niche – and business is good.

But, somewhere along the line, as you work within your niche, serving those specific clients who are benefiting from your services and products, your business may start shifting in a slightly different direction. Keep a look out for this shift in direction.  It can be a very positive step – presenting more opportunities available than you’d realized.

If this starts to happen in your business, it maybe time to reposition yourself. If you’re noticing that your skills and expertise lend themselves beyond the niche you created, don’t be afraid to refocus your vision.

For example, a client of mine initially established herself as an expert in helping working moms and moms who wanted to start a business.

She noticed the same things coming up over and again in her target market – guilt, confidence, work-life balance. She did a lot of research and gathered a lot of information because she was coaching, mentoring, and advising her clients.

Although she was very successful and very satisfied with her business, she uncovered an opportunity for corporate work. Though she is still working within her area of expertise by offering workshops and services for working mothers, the corporate niche is totally different.

What she is selling to companies isn’t mom coaching. She’s selling them the end result of retaining working mothers. This is a really important distinction. She isn’t abandoning what she’s been doing with her coaching of moms, but the corporate client is really a new direction. In essence, she has two clients – the corporation who hires her and the end user, the moms that she’s already been working with in the other part of her business.

In this case, the opportunity to expand and work outside her niche led her to reposition herself to accommodate these additional opportunities.

In some cases, you might find that certain aspects of your niche aren’t working for you. This is another instance of the need to reposition your business in order to find a more suitable direction.

Another of my clients spent more than 18 months putting large tenders together to submit to government organizations, where a particularly strict type of bidding process is required by law. It’s very difficult to establish personal relationships that lead to a sale in that type of environment. Though he’s had some success in his business, he began weighing whether it was worth the enormous amount of effort he was putting in. All of the bidders are essentially on the same level, with no personal rapport with the potential client to help win the bid.  He was essentially operating in a buyer’s market. And that is not where you want to be. To attract clients, you need to turn that traditional sales dynamic on its head so that you’re operating in a seller’s market. You want to be the one with all of the advantage, and position yourself so that there is no competition. In his case, looking to private companies with whom he can establish relationships would put him in a better position.

Look for markets where it will be easier for you to build those personal relationships, and where you can position yourself as an expert.

Whether you have noticed the opportunity for additional business, or recognized the need to shift from your current niche, repositioning is an excellent way to expand your options.

You can still work within your area of expertise, but by repositioning yourself, those same skills could be very valuable on a larger scale.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Do You Need To Change Direction?

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Posted in Business Networking, Business Plans, Business Success, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Small Business Ideas, Success Secrets | 1 Comment »

Determine Your TRUE VALUE

February 26th, 2010

What comes easily to you?  The thing that you believe is just common sense, is in fact, the most important thing for you to share with the world. We all have things which come easily to us, in fact so easily, that we fail to recognize that other people can have difficulty doing the very same thing. To unleash the power of your online business, you must determine what this thing is. This is your unique value proposition.   Your unique value proposition is your ‘Gold’. It is what you can leverage to create and grow an online business; a proven method of boosting your business’s bottom line, without boosting your required long term time investment.

Try This Brainstorming Exercise: Draw a large square on a blank piece of paper. The square should fill the entire page. Within the square, draw two lines dividing the space into four quarters. In the top left hand quadrant, write the words, ‘hard to learn’. In the top right hand quadrant, write the words, ‘easy to learn but hard to do.’ In the bottom left hand quadrant, right the words, ‘hard to learn, easy to do.’ And, in the bottom right hand corner, right the words, ‘so easy to learn and easy to do.’

Now, write thoughts that come into your mind about your skill sets, placing them into the appropriate quadrants:

• Hard to Learn - What seems extremely challenging for you to learn? If it’s hard to learn and you have to study for years to do it. And, it takes a fair about of effort and focus to do it.

• Easy to Learn, Hard to Do – Filling paperwork. This task is easy to accomplish, yet hard to make yourself do it, at least it is for most people.

• Hard to Learn, Easy to Do – This would be something which is hard to learn initially, but easy to do once you learn it as you love it.

• So Easy to Learn, Easy to Do – This is something you wouldn’t dream of charging people for as you get so much pleasure doing it.

Now that you have completed the exercise, consider where the most money to be made in the world would fall in terms of categories. Where most of the world thinks that there is money to be made is in the hard to learn, hard to do quadrant. The assumption is often made that anything which is hard to learn will have less competition, causing the compensation to be greater.

But, your true value, the area in which you can make the most difference for yourself and for the rest of the world, is the place that comes most easily to you. That’s where your natural talent lies. And, that is the quadrant which you should be operating out of.

Now that you know what your true values are, you can align your online business with them. By doing the brainstorming you’ll discover your unique value proposition, and you will be taking the first step toward boosting your business’s annual revenues.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Determine Your TRUE VALUE

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Posted in Business Plans, Business Success, Marketing, Personal Productivity, Small Business Ideas, Success Secrets | 1 Comment »

Recognize Your Niche

February 23rd, 2010

Are you waiting for that “aha!” moment to finally figure out your special role on the world’s stage? Do you expect that one day your specialty will just hit you like a bolt of lightning?

If you’re waiting for the light bulb to turn on, you may end up sitting in the dark for a very long time. More often than not, identifying your niche and your specialty is more like a silhouette emerging through the fog.

In my own experience, picking a niche always comes about gradually. You’re working on one thing, and then another thing similar to that, and before long, you are being associated with a specific specialty or setting.

You probably don’t even realize it as it happens because the process of creating your niche is steady and progressive – the feeling isn’t at all like your expectations. No fireworks, no clashing symbols.

The whole evolution of my own niche probably took 12 to 18 months. I didn’t just ask myself one day, “I wonder what my niche is?” and the next day decide to be a cold calling expert. And, once I became a cold calling expert, I didn’t stop there.

You need to just keep going and continue defining yourself in your business. Ask yourself, “What is it that people are struggling with that I can help them with?”

I honed in on the area of appointment setting and appointment making. At that time, no one else was really offering courses on that specific topic. That helped me to stand out in the marketplace. Part of the reason that I stuck with that niche was that the market kept me on track.

I’m not where I am today because I decided at a very early age that I wanted to be an appointment setting expert. If there is a demand for what you are doing, the market will tell you whether you should continue in that direction. It just may not be a direction you ever saw yourself heading in.

Keep it simple.  Look around you and ask yourself, “What am I seeing that’s coming up as a problem for people time and time again?”

You can look at the needs of existing clients, read trade magazines for your industry or visit online forums to find similar topics that come up again and again.

There will be some that you’re drawn to and others where you don’t have that same attraction. Follow up on the ones that you feel a pull toward and see what happens.

Don’t confuse identifying a niche with “what’s my purpose in life?” That is a much bigger question. You are a magnificent being with so much to do on this earth. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to boil it all down into one sentence.

But, that’s actually exactly what you need to do when you pick a niche. Boil it down. Pick one phrase. “I help ____ to achieve or to solve ____.” Maybe you help moms who want to start their own business, or need another example here.

If you’re approaching your niche as a life purpose question, it’s going to be nearly impossible to answer. Take yourself off the hook and take that pressure off yourself.

Your niche will evolve with your business. Again, learn from my situation. I didn’t stop at being a cold calling or appointment setting expert. Today I’m teaching people how to find new business. The way in which I’m helping people and the types of people I’m helping is completely different from what I started out with.

So, don’t be concerned that what you decide today is irreversible. The market may take you in another direction over the course of time.

Approach finding your niche more pragmatically. Identify the area where you think there could be demand and where you feel you’ve got some expertise and can add some value. You don’t have to have it all perfectly figured out from the outset.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Recognize Your Niche

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Posted in Business Networking, Business Plans, Marketing, Niche Marketing, Success Secrets, target audience | 4 Comments »

Declare Yourself the Expert

February 11th, 2010

Are you waiting for permission to be considered the expert in your field? Are you lingering at one level, waiting for someone’s approval to move on to that expert status?

Good things do not always come to those who wait. You need to stop waiting for permission and approval. No one is going to come along and deem you the expert or hand you an award. This is something that you must step up and claim.

Only when you have the guts to step up and claim it, will you be thinking and acting like a winner.

When I began my first business, at 26 years old, I had no track record. I had no past clients and no success stories to talk about. I had no marketing experience, and no budget.

I basically had every possible disadvantage.

The one thing I did have was alot of enthusiasm and a very positive mindset about what I was doing. I started positioning myself and calling myself an expert – long before anybody else came along and awarded me that title.

To think and act like a winner, you need to keep your focus on where you’re heading, not where you’re starting from.

Many people get crippled by this. Don’t be one of them. Don’t get caught up in this cycle of looking for some type of approval or permission that will suddenly make you step up and be the expert.

Once I chose to define myself as a cold-calling expert, I started acting like one and before too long, I did indeed become one. I was honest about it; not arrogant and thinking I knew it all. I brushed up my skills and learned the things I needed to in order to claim my expertise.

The same holds true for my friend, Carrie Wilkerson, who has an absolutely huge following on Twitter. A big part of how she gathered that following was that she just acted like the expert. Before long, people started treating her like the expert and inviting her to speak at events.

A lot of people call her “the overnight expert” because she went from zero to a million dollars in less than 12 months.

You have that ability too. The thing that you need, first and foremost, is a positive mindset. You need to be confident enough in your skills and your knowledge to step out in front and make yourself known.

You also need to be astute enough to research and master all of the things that your area of expertise requires. Make a list of exactly what an expert in your field needs to know in order to be considered “the expert.” You probably have all of those qualities and requirements already.  If you don’t, you will at least know what you need to do or improve upon to claim the role.

Once you know that you have what you need, you can begin to act the part of expert. Then you can pass on all of that expertise to your clients.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Declare Yourself the Expert

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Posted in Business Plans, Business Success, Internet Business, Marketing, Motivation, Niche Marketing, Online Marketing, Personal Productivity, Success Secrets, Words Of Inspiration | 6 Comments »

Eight Steps to Attracting More Clients

January 11th, 2010

There’s a logical sequence to building a business, whether it’s online or offline. There are certain things that must be done in order to see your business grow. By committing to follow these eight steps, you can attract more clients and have the kind of income you want.

Step One: Get Clear On Who You’re Targeting
Before you begin any marketing, you must find your target audience. Do your research and discover who your products or services can help the most. Without a clear understanding of exactly who you’re targeting, your marketing can’t be effective.

Specializing your approach will definitely help your conversion rate. It may make you nervous to think of narrowing your options, but it’s the first step in attracting more long-term clients. Here’s one more benefit to narrowing down your focus: each time you specialize a little more, you’re able to charge more for your services.

Step Two: Understand What They Really Want Emotionally and Logically
Once you’ve identified your best target audience, it’s time to learn what they really, really want. What do they dream of accomplishing? What keeps them awake at night?

There’s no point in marketing your products if you aren’t sure what your target market wants. Here’s a key concept: people buy what they want, not what you think they need. Get to know your market and you’ll find making sales much easier.

Step Three: Package What You’re Offering Toward Desired End Results
Because you understand your market so well, you know the desired end result they’d like to achieve. The closer you get to that desired end result, the better you’ll do in business. Package your products toward that result, so that you’re always meeting the needs of your clients.

When you’re really tuned into the needs of your target market, you’ll experience the rush of business running smoothly. You’ll stop having to push and shove to make sales and see how it all flows together—the needs of a group of people, and products packaged to meet those needs. What’s the takeaway? People don’t buy because they understand something, they buy because they feel understood.

Step Four: Create an Irresistible Offer
What, exactly, are you delivering with your products, and what must the client give in return? To be effective in marketing, you need to be able to answer that question in one sentence. Here’s an example: “Give me ten minutes per day and I’ll give you the body you’ve always wanted.”

You want to state your offer in a compelling way that has people raising their hands to say “I want that!” Work on developing your one-sentence offer; it will form the basis of all your other marketing.

Step Five: Go Find Your Target Audience
Where do the people most likely to buy your products hang out? Do they congregate on online discussion forums? What publications do they read? Which organizations do they join?

If you’ve done good market research in the previous steps, you’ll already know the answers. Now, go out there and make your irresistible offer to them in ads, talks, comments on forums and whatever way you can that makes them affordably reachable.

Step Six: Practice Great Follow-up
You’ve done your research, created great products, packaged them to meet the needs of your target audience, and made your offer where they congregate. To maximize all the hard work you’ve already done, you must follow-up consistently.

What’s the best way to make sure that happens? By automating and systematizing as much of your follow-up as possible. Here’s the rule: Always follow up, and find ways to make it automatic.

Step Seven: Close the Sale
This one gets stepped around so often, and that’s a shame, because it’s essential if you want to succeed. Learn how to ask for their business. For some companies, that might mean a face-to-face meeting, and for many others, the entire sales process can be automated. Unless money changes hands, you’re not really in business.

Whichever way you chose to close, you must give your prospects enough information that they can buy with confidence. Automate that information-sharing as much as you can, with webpages, sales letters and brochures, so that you can expand your impact in less time.

Step Eight: Make Additional Offers
The bulk of your profits are going to be made from additional sales to satisfied customers. You’ve already built a relationship with them and they know you can be trusted. Create products you can offer them as you continue to listen and hear what solutions they need.

These long-term clients give your business stability, and you’re not out chasing new clients constantly. Learning to make additional offers will make the difference in whether your business lasts.

Following the eight steps puts you on the path to attracting new clients and earning more income. Keep working through them until you’ve perfected your products and your offer. Automate as many of your processes as you can, and don’t forget to offer additional products to satisfied customers. By doing so, you’ll be on the road to the income you want.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Eight Steps to Attracting More Clients

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Posted in Advertising, Business Plans, Business Success, Closing The Sale, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Law Of Attraction, Niche Marketing, Personal Productivity, Sales Motivation, Small Business Ideas, Success Secrets, target audience | 3 Comments »

Jack-of-All-Trades Business Syndrome

November 8th, 2009

As a small business, and for those of us who are self-employed, it’s so easy to fall into the “Jack of All Trades” syndrome.  You know the old saying, “The Jack of all trades, master of none”?  If we’re flying solo in a business, we have to do it all – from A-Z we have to do it to keep our businesses running.  Or do we?

Are you hurting your business by offering too many services?  Many of us think that the more areas we can handle the more business we’re going to generate.  That’s not the case.  You’ll be spreading yourself too thin.

Finding Your Focus

This doesn’t have to be as difficult as you may think.  It’s about finding your specialty; it’s about narrowing down your business to a more manageable focus and taking your business to the next level with that focus.

You can find your focus by examining your work and career:

1. Review your resume. Is there a common expertise showing through your work history and background?
When I started out in training, I focused on NLP Sales.  That’s what I found interesting.  So I thought if I work hard at that, I’ll succeed in my business.  But there were so many other trainers offering that service.  I knew I had to offer something besides that general expertise.  That’s when I looked through my work history and skills and came up with cold calling.

2. Ask yourself “What do I have that no one else has?”
It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle if your expertise is too general.  You’re going to spend your time trying to climb your way to the top of the pile.

Consider how you view businesses in the telephone book.  You have a leaky faucet, you check the plumbing section.  Do you choose a plumber with an advertisement saying he’s the least expensive plumber in your area?  Or does the ad that says “we’re the leaky faucet experts” catch your eye.

3. Put yourself in the client’s shoes – determine the client’s problem and focus on the solution you can offer.
For example – managers don’t wake up saying I need training today.  They think about how to meet their sales goals, they worry about their numbers.  You need to offer them the quick solution to their problem.  That will create an urgent demand for your product.  In my case, I was selling specific training on cold calls, and I could offer strategies and tips that were going to show the quick results the manager needed.

4. Don’t take your skills for granted.
Just because a skill is easy for you, don’t assume that it’s easy for everyone.  Recognize the value of your skills and don’t underestimate them.  It’s easy to overlook talents that come naturally to you.  These skills could be your focus, your specialty and the next step to focusing your business.

Pick your area of specialism at a level where people can identify it to their needs and issues.  Once you accomplish this, you’ll be positioned to become the “Master” of your trade.

Jack-of-All-Trades Business Syndrome

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Posted in Business Plans, Business Success, How To Make Money, Marketing, Personal Productivity | 2 Comments »

Finding Your Niche

October 24th, 2009

It’s interesting how we talk about ‘finding’ your niche, as though your niche is lost or hidden. In truth, there is a part of you that already knows exactly what your niche is. The question is, are you willing to listen to this part?

This week I want to share some tips from my own experience establishing the Client Magnets niche, and also what I have learned from helping clients uncover their niches.

Stop Undervaluing What Comes Easily To You

A common theme I have noticed when helping clients to ‘find’ their niche, is that often their niche is right under their nose! But often we undervalue things that come easily to us, assuming ‘everyone knows that’ or ‘isn’t that obvious?’ Let me give you an example. Some time ago, my friend Veronica came round to help me with some office reorganisation. It made such a difference I almost cried. Veronica was baffled by my response and gratitude, shrugging off the difference she had made as though ‘it was nothing’. The fact is, it may have been ‘nothing’ to Veronica, but it was EVERYTHING to me. Do you have skills and expertise which comes so easily to you that you have underestimated the value it makes to others?

Don’t Expect A ‘Road to Damascus’ Type Experience

Sometimes I think we put pressure upon ourselves, and anticipate that the moment we suddenly uncover a niche, that it will be accompanied by lights flashing and dramatic music. The reality, I have found, is rather more mundane. Whilst I have worked with clients who have experienced light-bulb ‘eureka’ moments, they are rare. For me personally, I think that uncovering a niche is more like a silhouette emerging through fog. Has expecting a ‘road to damascus’ type experience, prevented you from seeing what is right under your nose?

Expect Your Niche To Change Over Time

The niche you select for yourself today is not cast in stone. It can evolve and develop as you do. When I first became self-employed, my niche was cold calling, but that has now evolved into a marketing approach which gets prospects calling YOU. Bob Burg, an expert in sales and prospecting, started his career as a memory expert. Doreen Virtue is now best known for her work with angels, but was formerly known as the dating doctor. Are you avoiding committing to a niche because you are afraid you will be trapped forever?

Your Niche Is Already Seeking YOU

All day every day you are being presented with clues and nudges in the direction of your niche. Are you paying attention to those little signs, or are you too busy making other plans? The phrase ‘Client Magnets’ first floated into my consciousness in the summer of 2001. It took another six months before I started a newsletter on the same topic. I didn’t ‘find’ Client Magnets. It came to me. My part was noticing and responding. From day one I felt that Client Magnets had a life and an energy of it’s own, and that my job was to work in partnership with that energy rather than trying to ‘make it all happen’ all by myself.

Are you so busy trying to ‘make things happen’ all by yourself, that you are overlooking opportunities which could be easy for you?

This week, take a stand wherever you are right now. Make a commitment to yourself, to your niche, to your audience. When you truly commit to where you are right now, you will be surprised how quickly opportunities open up for you.

Finding Your Niche

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Posted in Law Of Attraction, Marketing, Motivation, Niche Marketing, Success Secrets | 4 Comments »

Chasing Shiny Objects Can Sink Your Business

August 16th, 2009

Ever been in a large city at night and noticed the birds flying between buildings? There’s an awful thing that happens; some birds are attracted to the lights inside a window, fly straight into the glass and crash to the pavement below. Some business owners also tend to chase “shiny objects” straight into walls of debt and failure. Let’s look at some of the shiny objects that may be distracting you from success.

Chasing the Newest Fads

Starting and running a business takes an enormous amount of legwork. Writing a business plan, creating products and perfecting your offer require hard work, but all those are productive steps toward growing a business.

What’s not productive is chasing things that won’t make a bit of difference to your success.

To illustrate that point, here’s the story of one young entrepreneur who seemed destined to make it big:

Karen, our fledgling business owner, had a gift for helping others with their relationships. She had great credentials as a coach, all the right training, and testimonials from friends and colleagues.

Having paid a proven marketing expert to help her gain clients, Karen seemed headed down the path to coaching success. Her website was first-rate, her email campaigns compelling and her client base growing.

But Karen had trouble keeping her business plan in focus. She became obsessed with pursuing every new marketing bell and whistle. She began rescheduled coaching appointments to travel to marketing seminars and her budding business soon began to wither.

Chasing the shiny object of “faster income” distracted her from delivering the service she’d promised her clients. She soon crashed into a wall of debt and her business was headed for failure.

Does Karen’s rush down the road to failure sound familiar? Shiny objects often come in the form of marketing techniques, technology or “get rich quick” schemes. Knowing what’s available is great, as long as you’re not constantly changing your plan to pursue it.

Building a truly successful business requires planning, putting in the hours and keeping your eye on the ball. If your experience as an entrepreneur has been full of bumps and bruises, ask yourself, “Am I guilty of chasing shiny objects instead of focusing on business-building tasks?”

How to Maintain Your Focus

It’s incredibly easy to become distracted, given the amazing array of business-building tools available. How, then, can you keep your focus on things that bring real success? Follow these rules to keep yourself centered and the bright, shiny objects at bay:

Rule #1: TRUST YOURSELF - If you’ve created a solid plan for building your business, you don’t need to constantly ask “gurus” what they think will work. Seek advice, if necessary, when you encounter something completely out of your league, but trust that by having great products, listening to your market and making adjustments when necessary, your business will grow.

Rule #2: FINE-TUNE YOUR FILTER – Sometimes, when business hits a dry spell, it’s easy to be distracted by “get rich quick” schemes. Fine tune your filter to keep out improbable offers by comparing them to time-tested business principles. If it sounds too good to be true, tune it out.

Rule #3: STICK TO YOUR PLAN – Agility is required to maneuver shrinking markets and tough financial times. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s necessary to change your plan to incorporate everything someone tells you will bring in more business. Turn on that filter, trust your instincts and stick to your plan to experience success.

You must develop laser-like focus to keep your business headed in the right direction. Recognize that the “latest thing” may cross your desk today, promising to bring you success. Take a deep breath and refocus on what’s already bringing in clients. Trust your instincts to keep your company on track; you’ll gain fewer bumps and bruises as well as the success you deserve.

Chasing Shiny Objects Can Sink Your Business

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Posted in Business Plans, Business Success, Marketing, Personal Productivity, Success Secrets | 1 Comment »

Tweak Your Product to Suit Your Market

August 14th, 2009

As a business owner, you may be wondering why it’s so hard to find new customers. Maybe you’re spending a lot of money on marketing, but haven’t seen much of an increase in sales. It may be time to take a second look at the actual product you’re offering. Learning how to “tweak” your products to suit your market can be transformational for your business.

Many times, business owners believe if they continue in the same direction, the results will suddenly change for the better. They pay good money for marketing campaigns that aren’t working and wonder why they’re not seeing sales.

This approach to business makes as much sense as banging your head against a wall to cure a headache. Continuing to use unproductive strategies to bring in more money will never result in success. Lasting success will come when you learn to adjust what you have to offer to meet your market.

Here are two ways to successfully tweak your products to match your market:

1.  Adjust your offer to meet your market …

A quick way to determine how your products need to be tweaked is to find out which similar products are selling well to your target market. For example, if you’ve been offering prepackaged suppers for busy moms, but sales have never been strong, visit stores offering similar products. If you see lowfat prepackaged meals rushing out the door, that’s a big hint you might want to offer a lowfat line.

When your product is yourself, think of the services you’re often asked for that you’re unable to provide. Is it time to branch out and become more full-service? Niche markets are great, if they meet the needs of enough people to be profitable. Make sure you’re not boxing yourself into a very exclusive corner.

These changes may, of course, cost some money to implement. But what is it costing you to lose sales to the competition? At some point, you must be willing to shift what you offer if it’s no longer appealing to your market.

2.  Try Repackaging:

Sometimes what you’re offering isn’t the problem, it’s the way it’s packaged for clients. If, for instance, you only offer your coaching time in twenty hour blocks, you may be missing clients who prefer making a smaller commitment.

Here’s how that coach might repackage her services to find more clients:

• Offer smaller blocks of her time
• Offer a discount to clients purchasing larger blocks of time
• Create new products such as ebooks, DVDs and special reports to share her coaching expertise

Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to products and services can mean closing the door on people who need what you’re offering. Consider tweaking your product packages to make yourself available to clients.

It would be wonderful if each of us could create a single product or service and sell it for twenty years. But that’s simply not realistic in today’s wide-open global marketplace. If you’ve noticed a distinct lack of clients lately, take the time to review what you’re offering. A few simple tweaks to make it accessible and appealing to more people could be all it takes to have you back on top in your market.

Tweak Your Product to Suit Your Market

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Posted in Advertising, Business Success, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Niche Marketing, Personal Productivity, Sales Motivation, Success Secrets | 2 Comments »

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