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Small Business Marketing – A Different Look at Understanding Your Niche

You typically hear in many marketing circles that the first thing you need to do is identify your niche. This terminology of a ‘niche’ doesn’t work for me because it feels very much like, “Find a group of people to sell to.” I’ve found a better way to identify these people is to ask, “Who needs me most?”

When you look at who needs you most and you can recognize what your ideal client is, it’s very important for you to be aware that you shouldn’t work with everyone.

I was once at a networking group and someone asked this gentleman, “So who’s an ideal client for you?” and he answered, “Anyone breathing.”

That’s so not the case. If we agree on the fact that we have a unique gift and if we try to use that gift to serve everyone, it’s just not possible. It’s simply not possible.

First of all, we can’t do it well. You just can’t do everything and you can’t please everybody and you don’t have the skill set and the energy to try to spread yourself that thin.
The second part of that is if you can focus on what your real gift is, combined with the people that that gift can be served by, that makes you really powerful.

It’s important to understand these, the people who need you most, and to develop yourself as a perceived expert to them. That’s something that you really want to work towards – being an expert – not because you want to know it all but because that is a way that it can make your clients feel comfortable and confident with you.

I have asked clients this question before – “If you need brain surgery and you’re given the choice of two doctors, and one doctor does brain surgery only and he’s really great at it, and the other doctor does hip replacements, knee replacements, and some brain surgery, who are you going to pick?” It is so obvious.

When I ask that question, it’s always obvious to the person I’m asking, but we don’t do that with ourselves and within our own businesses. We tend to ignore the fact that if we were looking for anything else for ourselves – from plumbers to brain surgeons to a designer – we would look for the best of the best that is specific to the area that we’re working in.

We need to really relate that to ourselves, develop the skill sets and connections necessary to be considered an expert in our area, and then focus on, “Who needs me most?” which will be a more useful guide in developing our businesses than stressing over finding our ‘niche.’

Small Business Marketing - A Different Look at Understanding Your Niche [3:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Small Business Marketing - A Different Look at Understanding Your Niche [3:25m]: Download

Posted on June 25th, 2009 by admin in Marketing | No Comments ».

Solopreneurs: Speak Fast to Fill Your Business

There are a multitude of ways to market, but some just have higher and faster impact. The #1 question I receive is how do I get clients. Here is one way to do it fast and get in front of lots of people.

SPEAK! (in person)

This is the way I built my business so quickly. I spent about 70% of my marketing time looking for speaking opportunities and organizations. There are a few important steps to getting gigs, having gigs that bring in clients, and having fun!

Here are my quick tips.

1) Put the work in. You must spend research time to find places to speak. I would often carve out 2-3 hours a day of “Google” time to research organizations, opportunities, and groups in my area to speak. Here is an example:

If you are a career coach for women and you live in Raleigh, NC you might Google the following: Women’s organizations, career associations, churches, social clubs all in NC.

Any possible place women gather who have jobs. In the beginning it might feel vague and that is ok- get your foot in the door. Remember you will need to contact 6-7 people to get one booking or opportunity. Do a lot of research and make a big list. Keep carving away at that list daily.

2) Follow up. Email or call the contact with an initial request and let them know you will be following up. Remember pay for speaking would be great, but that is not the priority. Be thrilled to speak pro-bono to promote your business. Then, follow up appropriately until you get an answer. I am not following up to push someone for a yes, but for an answer whatever that might be. Most people fail in the follow up.

3) Craft a killer title. Notice I said research, contact, and follow up PRIOR to crafting your speech. Believe me, WHEN you land your first speaking gig you will write that speech very quickly. Your primary focus should be going after the opportunities and then craft the message, but you should have a title ready. A killer title is one with specifics! Numbers, percentages, steps, and tangible benefits. Here are some great examples:

3 Steps to Increase Your Profits by 50% in 30 Days
5 Secrets to Lose 10% Body Weight and Lower Cholesterol
3 Ways to Discover Your Life Passion and Change Your Career This Month

4) Monetize the opportunity. When you land that first speech you may or may not be paid. No worries! Be sure to have two things ready when you go: a) A way to collect all the names for your database. I suggest raffling of a month of your services, a spa basket, or a book depending on your target market. b) Have something to offer them at a special deal if they sign up with you that evening. (i.e. your new group forming is $199 per month, but if they register today it is $149)

5) Don’t be a character. The best way to speak is from the heart. Don’t try to be over professional or perfect. People enjoy being inspired by people they can relate to. Have fun, bring your personality out, and tell your story. Have a good time.

Speaking can build your list fast, get people to know-like-trust you on the spot, and you can close the sale without selling. So, go speak!

About the author: Suzanne Evans is best known as the ‘action expert’ and has coached hundreds of solopreneurs to model her multiple six figure business. Learn how you can help more people, make more money and have more fun doing what you love by signing up for your free copy of the 5-Part Mini-Course ‘Awakening Your Authentic Entrepreneur’ at http://www.helpmorepeople.com

Posted on June 25th, 2009 by admin in Tell It Like It Is | No Comments ».

Solopreneurs: Earn More With Your Environment

Your income is directly tied to your environment. Take a pause. Look around you right now. Also, quickly jot down the 5 people you spend the most time with. The space you create for yourself is the mirror to your income and business potential. One of my Soul Business Sisters, Tamra, says that she loves helping people create a space that is a reflection of their soul. Often, we do that naturally. Who and what is around us is a pretty good indication of what’s going on inside of us and how we value ourselves.

Our income, our environment, and our business are all based in choices. You can turn your environment, and thus your income, around just as quickly as you turn a light switch on or off. I have often found that when I feel a bit stuck in marketing or business growth, I really need to be working on my surroundings. I need to be up-leveling. And yes, anytime we move ourselves into more abundance, joy, and beauty, we must leave something behind. We always exchange something of a lower nature for a higher nature. So, maybe you don’t need to be marketing this week. Maybe you need to be expanding the potential of the space and people around you. Try these quick tips:

1) Expand your reach. We are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. I know this can be difficult. We have best friends and family and loved ones, but the time spent with those NOT stretching you keeps you stuck. You may need to let some people go or just bring more abundant, juicy, positive people into your life. When you up-level the people around you, your income and joy will up-level. Remember the Rule of 5.

2) Smell the Roses. We often forget the smell sense and how it can have a massive effect on our mood and energy. I love Young Living Essential Oils and I can take my mind, motivation, and mojo anywhere fast by shifting the sense of smell. My favorites are Lavender, Peace and Calming, Envision, and Peppermint. Remember everything we breathe, taste, touch, or see effects our earnings.

3) See the Roses. Flowers are luxurious and they can change the mood of any space…maybe you want fresh flowers on your desk or you position your office so that you can see flowers or trees outside. Either way- your confidence is raised when you see beauty because you feel beautiful. Is your office and work space beautiful?

4) Clear out the clutter. Money is energy and it must have space to travel. Some ways it does NOT travel well: through stacks of paper, piles of clothes, or disorganized and unused files. Find huge chunks of open space and air for all the good stuff to come in. And no excuses…if this simple thought overwhelms you or scares the heck out of you, contact a personal organizer.

5) First Class. Travel first class. Air, hotel, meals. I know you might say, “THAT is not where I can spend my money right now” and believe me, I know what you mean…I thought that was a luxury reserved for millionaires and billionaires, but I discovered that it actually doesn’t cost THAT much more and it has changed my life. I can travel with ease and no matter where I go, my surroundings remain abundant and exciting. When you up-level, your income up-levels every time.

Your environment reflects your income. What is yours saying? Success is all about choices. So simply choose differently for today.

These are easy to implement and fun! This week try a little mood marketing.

Posted on June 22nd, 2009 by admin in Business Growth | No Comments ».

Relationship Marketing Tips: Essential Principles to Successfully Ask for What You Want in Your Business

One action you can implement immediately to help more people and make more money this month is to ask. It seems basic, just ask! It is so often overlooked. Have you asked for more business? Have you asked for more clients? Have you asked people to work with you? It’s really fundamental.

The first thing I’d encourage you to do in asking is understand what you’re asking for. What do you want your clients to look like, to be like? What is an ideal client? Get clear about that and know what you want from a client.

Also, just how do you know when you have it? If you’re going to get really clear about what you’re going to ask for, say, “How will I know when I’m standing in front of or speaking to the person that’s right for me?”

Honor the value of the connection between you and the client. To ask for business, to ask a client to work with you, to ask a stranger if they’re interested in Reiki or coaching or whatever it might be, you have to have a real respect and honor to the connection and relationship between you and the client.

Then the second part is having a plan for asking. “How am I going to ask? Where can I go to ask?” Take that vision that you worked with in part one and apply it to the plan. This is really key. What we don’t ask for we never get. What we don’t seek out never comes to fruition for us.

It’s very powerful to ask for clients and business. A lot of people get scared about it. They say, “I don’t want to ask. I just want people to see my value and come to me.” Do you value yourself? If you’re afraid to ask, I don’t think you do.

Asking is such a powerful tool, because it allows the potential clients to know about you. That’s number one, because people have to know that you’re there to work with you. But more so for you, it leverages the value of what you do, because you share it with others and you ask of them to take a part in your services, your gifts, how you help people.

So make a mini goal for yourself in the next couple of days, “How many people will I ask to work with me, or ask to have a complementary session, or ask to come to a complimentary seminar?”

Also, realize what you’re asking for. Sometimes you’re asking for a complimentary session. Sometimes you’re asking for someone to be a client. It’s all very relative, because certain things are going to be easier for some of you to ask for. Some of you may just be asking for them to be on your newsletter or on a mailing list. Decide what you want to ask for. See what feels comfortable to you and really ask for that.

Now here’s one of the really important factors in asking. After you decide how and what your goal is and where you’re going to ask people for business, be aware that it needs to be continuous. I don’t want you to just spend an afternoon and go, “Okay, I’m going to go ask 10 people. That’s my goal, then I’m done.” I want you to constantly and consistently ask.

Just focus on the asking, because it will prepare you for always being free and open to ask for business. That will serve you for years and years. You’ll automatically start attracting clients.

If you ask for business, if you ask for the opportunity to share your gift with someone, you will automatically, consistently and immediately see a shift in your business.

Posted on June 7th, 2009 by admin in Business Growth | No Comments ».

Solopreneurs: Now Is Not the Time to Give Up!

It is the most extraordinary experience I have with my clients and colleagues…watching how and when they stop. I see it over and over again….

Temporary Defeat = I Quit.

I share this idea in almost every newsletter, but it is because it is the most important concept you will ever embrace. And it is simple.

If you want to succeed, make more money, help more people, or have more of an impact- Keep going! Ignore the outcomes, setbacks, and no shows~ keep going! THIS is my secret. People keep asking how I did it….the secret is this is how I continue to do it!

1. I keep going in every situation

2. I stay focused on the dream and visions and not on the how or temporary outcome.

3. I get the right help when I need it. I seek out the right mentors. I do not do it alone.

4. I keep going in every situation.

This is my favorite story in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich… Read it once and then over again. Is this where you are? What will your next step be?

“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The “Junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, be cause he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say `no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his “quitability” in the gold mining business.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeatovertakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to QUIT. That is exactly what the majority of men do.

More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known, told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning.

It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.”

Now is not the time to give up! Keep going, ask for help, and change the world.

Posted on June 4th, 2009 by admin in Tell It Like It Is | No Comments ».

Law of Attraction Marketing – Attract Your Ideal Clients When You Embrace Your Inner Helping Guru

As a solo coach building your practice, reaching the right people is about discovering your gift and embracing that it is a gift, it is not something you do, it is not your profession or your title.

One of the concepts I teach is that marketing is a moral obligation. When I say this people kind of scratch their heads and ask, “Marketing is a moral obligation?”

It really is. If you get clear about two things:

* What your gift is
* Who needs you most

If you don’t market to that group of people, share what you have available, share how you can help them, solve problems, and support them and benefit them, you are really not fulfilling your moral obligation.

We’re all given a gift for a reason and it’s about what you do with the gift, or embracing that inner helping guru that is important.

And making a good living at sharing your gift is also a moral obligation, because it allows you to pay your bills and have a lifestyle that empowers you to continue teaching through your gift to benefit more and more people. Remember that concept the next time that you’re feeling unsure about stating your rates, raising your rates, or setting your payment policies.

I would very seriously doubt that there are many people in the coaching world that don’t already know what that special gift or talent is for them. To embrace it is to agree to put it at the forefront of your message and share it with others so that you can really make a difference.

I’d like to invite you to learn how to help more people, make more money and enjoy more freedom with the free 5-day mini course, “Awakening Your Authentic Entrepreneur,” at http://www.HelpMorePeople.com/minicourse.htm

Suzanne Evans is best known as the ‘action expert’ and has coached hundreds of solopreneurs to model her multiple six figure business.

Law of Attraction Marketing - Attract Your Ideal Clients When You Embrace Your Inner Helping Guru [2:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Law of Attraction Marketing - Attract Your Ideal Clients When You Embrace Your Inner Helping Guru [2:31m]: Download

Posted on June 1st, 2009 by admin in Marketing | No Comments ».

Solopreneurs: Does Your Business Have Values?

I first realized the importance of a value based company when I visited Zappos this year and was inspired by a business that operates daily off of a specific set of values to serve the company and the customers. It really got me thinking about my own values for Help More People and how living those values daily serves my clients, my subscribers, and my life.

We often get so busy marketing, strategizing, and serving that we don’t take the time to identify our core values for the business. I think this is one of the most important visions I have created for myself lately and when you can stay on track with your business values, you naturally help more people and make more money. It is really key to have them in writing so that you can be reminded of your purpose. We all get busy, overwhelmed, and frustrated…when your mission gets marginalized by life, you can revisit these and get back on track.

Here are the values of Help More People! I am proud to say that I strive to work and live by these daily as does my support team.

1. Always more. Provide all that we can to change people’s lives and businesses. More support, more help, more love, more gratitude, and more accountability. Keep providing MORE.

2. Gratitude. Take time in every transaction and with every client to be thankful.

3. Equality. Treat every client, customer, and subscriber with the same high level of support, service, and love no matter what package or program they participate in.

4. Own it. We are 100% responsible for all that happens at http://www.helpmorepeople.com. The good, the bad, wins, losses, mistakes, and opportunities. Own all of it.

5. Model. Be a model for those we serve by never giving up, always learning, and supporting people unconditionally.

6. Think Big. Playing small does not serve anyone. We can only help more people if we are raising our standards, our vision, and our own bar for success.

7. Play. What’s the point of anything if not fully, deeply, and richly enjoyed. Play more!

8. Be fearless. Even in the face of uncertainty and possible failure we do it anyway. Embracing fear is the key success component.

9. Ask. Always ask what our clients and customers want. Be on a continual quest to over serve.

10. Honesty. Tell the truth even when it loses us money, time, or resources. Be an open company that values integrity.

A defined and specific set of values can be one of the best ways you serve your clients, market your services, and change the world!

Posted on June 1st, 2009 by admin in Tell It Like It Is | No Comments ».

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