06.23.09
Posted in Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 11:58 am EDT by Michele PW
Running a business isn’t easy. There’s so much to do, so much to keep track of, so much to learn. Worse, who can you trust? With all the information and so-called “experts” floating around out there, how do you know if you’re listening to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about or not?
Well, that’s why I created the Ka-Ching Community Calls. Each month I’ll be hosting a teleclass where I’ll be sharing powerful, real-world information on running a successful business. (As you know, not only am I running a business but I also continue to work with clients so I see first hand what’s working and not working in the real world.) You’ll either hear from me or I’ll be interviewing an expert (a real expert, someone you can trust).
And the best part? These calls are FREE. Yep. The Ka-Ching Community Calls are free for you. Just sign up here.
This month I’m so excited to welcome Shannon Cherry, APR MA, The Power Publicist
“The Endless Publicity Formula Attracting more clients, making more money for free” on Thursday, June 25,12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern
Are you getting all the clients and customers you want?
Are you tired of spending tons of marketing that doesn’t pay the bills, let alone give you the credibility you need to make more money?
Tired of seeing you competition get more recognition and attract more business than you do?
Then you need the power of publicity.
When people see you in the media, you become familiar - even famous! And it gives you credibility. When you are written about in the newspaper, or interviewed on TV or radio, you are news; and that’s better than any advertising you can buy.
In this exclusive call for, you’ll leave:
* Thinking like a reporter to create newsworthy stories — even if don’t think you have anything to say
* Understanding the tricks to getting the media’s attention — and keeping it
* Armed with the tool to get publicity for yourself
* Discovering the secret to promoting your products and services, without feeling like a sleezy salesman
* And much more
Here’s that link again to sign up: http://www.kachingcalls.com
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06.19.09
Posted in Business at 12:45 pm EDT by Michele PW
As if articles and teleclasses weren’t enough you can now learn from me via video. I’ve just been named an expert for yourBusinessChannel. I’ll be sharing my expertise via video tips. Stay tuned!
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Posted in Business, Marketing, PodCast at 3:15 am EDT by Michele PW
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It’s never a good thing when you rely on one stream of income. That stream dries up and you’re, ahem, up that creek without a paddle.
That’s why having multiple streams of income is so valuable. One stream dries up, you’ve got a few other ones to depend on.
(On another note, have you noticed how often money is referred to in water terms? Cash FLOW, multiple STREAMS of income or just income STREAMS. Just something to think about.)
But talking about multiple income streams and actually implementing them in your business are two entirely different things. That’s why today I’m going to share 3 quick and easy ways you can start adding more streams right now.
1. Information products. Creating a product based on your expertise is a fabulous way to start diversifying your income. This is especially good if you’re a service provider — now you’re providing other ways for your customers to work with you rather than them paying you to work with them one on one.
But creating information products doesn’t mean you have to sit down and write a book. You can do a teleclass or a series of teleclasses. Or maybe you do a video. Just make it easy for you to create. (The idea here is NOT to spend months or, worse, years crafting your product — the faster you get it done the faster you’ll make money on it.)
Still feeling stuck? Try this. What’s the biggest problem your customers come to you to solve for them? Can you do a teleclass or write a special report walking them through how to solve it themselves? Granted working with you would probably get the faster, better results, but remember not everyone has the money nor even the inclination (there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers out there, and you don’t want to exclude them from your customer base.)
2. Licensing or certification programs. Do you have a special process you take your clients through? Why not package it up and sell it to other consultants like you? Lots of people are looking for proven methods and systems they can add to their business income streams. So in essence you’re helping other people add income streams to their business while you’re also adding income streams to your business.
Now this one may not be all that quick to do, but I wanted to include it so you weren’t just thinking “info products” as your only option. Open yourself up to other options to making more money.
3. Offer advertising or sell other people’s products. With this one, you’re capitalizing on an asset you’ve built — your list. You have people who follow you, right? They’re on your list, they’re following you on social networking sites, they listen to your podcasts and/or teleclasses. Well, with this one you make money either by promoting someone else’s products and getting a commission, or you charge for advertising.
For advertising, think bigger then just selling spaces in your newsletter or web site or blog. What about offering sponsorships? Sponsorships aren’t just for corporate — they can also be your colleagues who want to reach your target market.
Of all the options, this one is definitely the fastest to pull together and takes the least amount of time for you to manage. However, if you don’t think it through, it does have the potential of diluting the impact you have with your list. If you’re interested in this option, do your homework. Find one or two people who have successfully offered this and ask them about it.
Above all, think creatively. There are lots of ways of reaching your target market, try a few and see what works for you and them.
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05.14.09
Posted in Advertising, Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:27 am EDT by Michele PW
In the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” after Earth is blown up, Arthur (the main character) is presented with a small computer (not unlike an iPhone I’d imagine) with these words on the front — “Don’t panic.” Arthur finds this oddly comforting, even though Earth is gone and he is on a spaceship with a guy he really didn’t get along with too well when they were both on Earth.
Although no one said those words, that was the underlying theme of this past Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference. Don’t panic. Yes we’re in a recession. Yes the government is doing crazy things. Yes we have pirates and pig flu and everything else. But you shouldn’t be panicking because it’s very possible for us to not just survive but thrive. (Hey, if Arthur can keep from panicking after watching the end of the world, we should have no problems.)
So what can we do? In a word — lots. Here are 3 things to get you started:
1. Don’t allow what’s going on to paralyze you. Over and over again we kept hearing stories about business owners who have just stopped doing anything. Whether it’s from fear or because they believe it’s not going to make a difference so why bother or they think this is smart to hunker down and do nothing while they wait things out, the end result is they’re frozen. And because they’re frozen, their businesses are dying.
Now is not the time to be doing nothing. Now is the time to be doing something. Lots of things. Like marketing. Lots of marketing. In fact, this is an excellent time to be marketing because your competition is probably panicking and frozen and hiding in a closet somewhere, so you have the chance to not only solidify YOUR position but take customers away from your competition.
2. Work harder. Ivanka Trump came and spoke to us, and the biggest thing I took from her is she works 16-hour days. Yes she’s rich. Yes she has a trust fund. Yes she’s in the family business. And she works her little tush off.
Now, I’m not necessarily advocating ignoring your family and your health and everything else and just focusing on your business. What I AM saying is if your business isn’t where you want it to be, rather than shutting down or doing less, try doing more. Whether that looks like hiring someone to do a marketing campaign for you or you get some systems in place to free up your time so you can focus on other things or you roll up your sleeves and do things you wouldn’t normally do, you might need to do more right now rather then less.
3. Fix any fundamental flaws. Dan said what’s really happening right now is the recession is exposing flaws in businesses that were always there, it’s just before the businesses were making money despite those flaws. So, again, don’t panic, don’t shut down, and look at this as an opportunity. You’re able to fix problems in your business so when we do come out of the recession, your business will be that much stronger.
And the most important thing to remember — don’t panic. You CAN not only survive this but thrive.
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05.05.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Marketing at 11:14 am EDT by Michele PW
Between deadly pig flu, government bailouts and pirates, talking about the recession seems almost anticlimactic – nevertheless I wanted to share something I learned from Dan Kennedy at the Super Conference.
Dan had a special session about Recession Rescue, which included a bunch of good info about thriving during this time (I’ll be sharing more in later posts). He had an interesting point I wanted to talk about today:
One of the main reasons why spending is down is because businesses have stopped asking for the sale.
Businesses all over have cut back their marketing and sales budgets because they think it doesn’t matter. “Why bother?” they say. “People aren’t buying anyway, so why bother trying to sell to them?”
Of course, as all good students of copywriting know, if you don’t ask for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. So if you stop marketing and selling, people WILL stop buying. (Yes it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
And especially now, you need to sell and market even harder because people are more cautious with their money, so if anything you should be stepping up your marketing strategies and efforts, not cutting back.
When business is slow, there’s no question it makes sense to cut back on expenses. But cutting back on things that directly relate to income (i.e. marketing and sales) is not a smart business move.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed less selling in your life? What have you noticed in YOUR business? Leave me a comment and let me know what YOUR experiences are.
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04.21.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Online Marketing, PodCast at 10:41 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales?
It starts with the headline.
You see, people are busy. They’re only going to take a few seconds to determine if they want to spend any time with your promotional materials or not (whether that’s an email, a web site, a sales letter or something else).
How will they make that decision? A big part of it will come from reading your headline. So if your headline doesn’t pull its own weight, your prospects will most likely simply move on.
So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect. Chances are, your prospect landed on your site because they have a problem. And they’re looking for a solution to that problem. And they’re impatient because they’re squeezing in searching for this solution in between taking the kids to dance class, sending a few last emails and figuring out what to throw together for dinner. (Okay, that was a very female-biased day, but men are equally as stretched.) So if they’re not feeling confident they’re going to find a solution, they WILL move on. And fast.
But, if you create a headline that embodies the solution, then they’ll probably stick around and keep reading. For instance, a headline like this:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to make more money while working far less
If you’re considering writing a headline like this, then your prospects are probably completely overwhelmed, exhausted, struggling to get everything done and not making much money. See how the headline entices them to read on because it promises a solution?
Here’s another one:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to lose weight without crazy fad diets, pills, hours of sweaty exhausting exercise or feeling hungry.
(Ah, don’t we all wish?)
Okay, so your prospect wants to lose weight and has tried a lot of things without success.
See how this works?
2. Give them a time limit. If you were wondering in the above examples why I had a time limit in there, it’s because that resonates with people. Again, people are impatient. They don’t want to wait years or decades for the solution to take effect (even if that’s what it takes). They want to know the solution is within reach and it’s a manageable time frame. So if you can frame your solution around something that sounds doable (a couple of weeks, days or minutes are best yet if you can distill it that far).
3. Use language your prospects will relate to. Whether it’s language that resonates with your prospects (hours of sweaty exhausting exercise would probably resonate with prospects who don’t like to exercise whereas it wouldn’t with people whose hobby was running marathons) or using words like “Free” or “Guaranteed,” making sure you pick the right words can mean the difference from a kick-butt sales piece to a so-so one.
And don’t be afraid to simply tweak a couple of words. Sometimes that’s all it takes to tweak a word or 2 to transform a blah headline into a sexy, profit-pulling one.
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03.31.09
Posted in Business, PodCast at 8:22 pm EDT by Michele PW
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I first learned about the Twilight series this summer. I read an article about how this series was even more popular than the Harry Potter books amongst teenage girls.
Well, as a fiction writer, I had to check that out. So on the Saturday before I was leaving on vacation, I went to the bookstore and bought Twilight (which is the first one in the series) and another book. I figured reading the first one would be enough — after all, it’s been a few years since I was in high school.
I started reading Twilight Saturday night. By Sunday night I was back in the bookstore buying the second two in the series. I had the second one read before I left for vacation and forced myself to wait until I was in the airport to start the third. (Needless to say, I ended up having to work part of my vacation because I got so caught up with those books.)
I’m not even going to tell you what I went through to get my hands on the fourth one.
Now, before you think I’ve got the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old, let me assure you I am not the only adult woman out there who got caught up in these books. In fact, there’s a massive online community out there called “Twilight Moms” — which, as its name suggests, was created for adult women. Not to mention I’ve given the books to my adult friends who have also devoured them. Read the rest of this entry »
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03.04.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing, PodCast at 1:54 pm EST by Michele PW
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In the movie, The Prestige, one of the main characters dissects the elements of a magic trick.
You start by showing the object you’re going to manipulate in some way (i.e. make disappear).
You manipulate the object, in this case you make it disappear.
Then, you bring it back. This is the prestige. It’s not enough to make something disappear. You need to bring it back.
In essence, what he’s talking about is closure. You need to bring closure to whatever you’re doing or it will feel unfinished. This is true for a lot of things in life, including your marketing and copywriting.
How do you do this? Well, let’s look at how people buy. For the most part it looks like this: Read the rest of this entry »
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02.10.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 8:12 am EST by Michele PW
If you remember nothing else in this article, remember this: even during the great depression, people still bought things. And not just food and necessities — lipstick and entertainment were hot sellers. (In fact, that’s where the cosmetic industry got its start.)
Why am I starting here? Because I know it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of negativity right now but if you want to succeed you absolutely MUST rise above it. People are still going to buy no matter what the economy is doing. It’s YOUR job to position your products and services as the ones they buy.
So how do you do that? Here are 3 tips to get you started.
1. Dance with the one who brought you. In other words, now is not the time to abandon the marketing strategies and tactics that got you here. A lot of business owners will be tempted to cut back, especially their marketing. This is a mistake. If anything, you should increase your marketing now.
However, by increasing your marketing I don’t necessarily mean increasing how much you spend. It’s perfectly acceptable to find low-cost or no-cost marketing methods to still keep the momentum going. One word of warning — there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Chances are you’re going to pay somewhere, and that payment Read the rest of this entry »
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01.30.09
Posted in Business, Marketing at 8:47 pm EST by Michele PW
I love my iPod.
It’s funny because I didn’t think I’d be an iPod person. I got an iPod a few years ago because I wanted to put all those educational audios on it rather than carting around a million CDs. I didn’t think I’d be that interested in the music part.
Why? Because I never could get the hang of the whole music thing. I have such eclectic taste that radio never worked well for me — I found myself picking stations not because they played more of what I liked but less of what I didn’t like. I almost never bought records because for the most part I would like one song from a band and that’s it.
But that all changed when I started to get ready for my first marathon. I decided maybe I better bring some tunes to keep me motivated. I started going through the CDs my husband had (my hubby has about 400 CDs, the complete opposite of me) and loading songs. And I started downloading those 1 or 2 songs from other bands from iTunes.
And now I finally get it. iTunes has allowed me to finally create the mix I want. I mean, I can’t stand country (although I have 3 songs from Faith Hill) and I got a lot of 80s and hair bands (but there’s a lot of bands I can’t stand in those categories who will never be MPW iPod-worthy). My taste ranges from Boomtown Rats to Queen (lots and lots of Queen, they were an exception to the no-album-buying rule, but no “Another Bites the Dust” or “You’re My Best Friend”) to Def Leppard to The Guess Who to George Michaels (gotta love him) to even a Ted Nugent song. (My husband couldn’t believe I put that Ted Nugent song on the iPod. I’ve often thought someone should have a contest, can you guess which Ted Nugent song I have on my iPod? In fact, I think I will have that contest. If you email me the correct answer I’ll send you a digital download of one of my info products. But I digress.)
Anyway, so where am I going with all of this? Well, I read an article about how the music industry is having a heck of a time making money now — for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is because they can no longer make money the way they used to.
You see, as I learned in this article, the music industry is financially based on selling albums, not individual songs. In other words, they make money by cramming albums down buyers’ throats, even if those buyers only wanted 1 or 2 songs. Now with iTunes, buyers buy the songs they want, they’re not forced to buy everything.
And the music industry is having some problems adjusting. So that means I’m actually in the majority of music buyers rather than the minority. And that’s why iTunes is making money hand over fist (because they’re allowing buyers to buy how they want, rather than forcing buyers to buy how they want to sell to them) and the record companies still haven’t figure out what hit them.
So what does this have to do with you? Well a couple of things. First off, is your business based on a way of doing business that makes more sense for you (the business owner) or your customers? If you aren’t selling your products or services in a way your customers want to buy, you ARE vulnerable. Even if this is the “way it’s done” in your industry, you’re a sitting duck for an Apple to burst on the scene and take it over. (Note, if this is you, there’s a big opportunity here for YOU to be the Apple in your industry.)
Second, are there ways you can restructure your products or services to make it a no-brainer to do business with you? Is there an opportunity to sell to your customers the way they want to buy?
Remember, buyers always have the power. They can choose to do business with you or not. It’s up to you to decide if you want to make it easy for them or not.
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01.23.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:12 am EST by Michele PW
Brace yourself. The Arizona Cardinals, known as one of the most woeful franchises in all of professional sports (not just football), has done the near impossible and is now headed to the SuperBowl.
They’ve been the underdog in every single one of their playoff games (including their home games) — they’ve been disrespected, dismissed and disregarded. In fact, they’ve even been called the worst NFL team to make the playoffs in history. (And if they win, I suspect they’ll be called the worst NFL team to win the SuperBowl.)
Yet they’re now headed to Tampa and the SuperBowl (where again they’re the underdogs). And, they’ve done with this a head coach who is only in his second year of coaching, a bunch of no-name players and a 37-year-old quarterback everyone thought was washed up years ago.
This is just such an incredible story to begin with, but why I’m talking about it is because there is so much you can learn and apply to your business. And if there’s anything you can take away from this story, it’s that anything is possible. No matter what your business looks like right now, no matter what the economy is doing, you CAN turn your business around. This is a story of hope — no matter what your circumstances currently are, you can change them.
So, what are the Cardinals’ secrets? Let me share two I’ve noticed –
1. They don’t give up. Actually there’s a story within a story here. Kurt Warner, the quarterback, was initially cut from Green Bay, no other team would take him and he had to take a job bagging groceries. But he didn’t give up, he kept plugging away, finally got signed on by the St. Louis Rams, took the Rams to the SuperBowl twice (winning once), before being cut by the team, had a forgettable stint with the New York Giants and again looked like his career was over until Arizona gave him a one last shot (the only team willing to give him one more chance).
And look whose laughing now?
No matter what everyone was telling him, Warner kept believing in himself. Just like the Cardinals. No matter what the rest of the NFL and sports media was telling the Cardinals, they kept believing in themselves. Actually, they did more than believe in themselves, they used all the negativity as ammunition to prove everyone wrong.
The entire team refused to stop fighting. They refused to listen to what was being said about them. In essence, they refused to lose.
So what is your attitude with your business? Do you find yourself saying things like “well, the media is saying we’re in a recession so I can’t expect to make any money or grow my business now?” Or “all these other businesses are shutting their doors, I guess I better follow their lead and just hunker down until the economy improves?”
Think about it. If the Cardinals had listened to what everyone was saying about them, and had believed it, then I wouldn’t be writing this article right now because some other team would be headed to Tampa. Instead, the Cardinals decided to go down swinging. Shock the world. Prove them all wrong.
And they did.
2. They play to win. Boy, watch the playoff games and you see those AZ coaches take some pretty gutsy chances. Some of those other playoff teams, well, those teams were playing not to lose. They took no chances and played conservatively.
Those teams are all staying home. (The Pittsburg Steelers, the other team going to Tampa, also plays to win.)
You got to play to win. You got to take chances. You can’t play conservatively.
So what does play not to lose mean in business? I invite you to do this exercise for yourself, but here are a few ideas to get you started –
* Are you cutting your marketing budget to bare bones (or nothing at all)?
* Are you no longer investing in yourself (you’ll wait until the economy turns around)?
* Have you decided to start doing things yourself because you don’t want to pay someone else to do them?
If you answered yes to any of those, I would say you’re playing not to lose.
Now, I’m not advocating putting yourself in the poorhouse or running up a bunch of debt, but you have to be smart at what you’re cutting. Just doing an across-the-board slash of your marketing is not the answer. Strategically reviewing your marketing and cutting what isn’t working IS a smart thing to do (and you should do this all the time, not just when business is slow).
Deciding to do your bookkeeping right now because you want to save a few bucks is not smart. Should you really be spending hours struggling with something you’re not good at versus taking that time and focusing on your strengths and bringing more business in the door?
Yes it can feel scary. I’m sure it was scary for those Cardinal coaches when they chose plays that while could win them the game, it also could just as easily have blown up in their faces. But, I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn’t have won those games if they hadn’t taken those chances.
Remember, no one wins playing scared. Even if you fall on your face and the play completely backfires on you, you can’t stop playing to win. Because in the long haul, you WILL win more then you lose.
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01.15.09
Posted in Business, General at 4:01 pm EST by Michele PW
As we say goodbye to 2008 and hello to 2009, I thought I’d take a moment and share with you the business lessons I learned in 2008. (Yes, it appears to be one of those lovely facts of life that you never stop learning no matter how much you think you learned the year before. But I digress.) Here are my top five lessons for your studying pleasure.
1. Gotta keep focusing on your mindset. I saw it over and over with myself last year. I get cloudy and I start struggling with my business. I’m clear and focused and my business is easy and effortless to run.
If I forget myself and allow myself to get distracted by whatever what’s going on (in other words, get in my “stuff”) then all of sudden I find I’ve attracted a whole bunch of problems (or “issues”) into my business. When I keep my focus on the positive and what I CAN control, then suddenly things get a lot better.
One of the lessons I learned is you should never stop working on your mindset. Even if it’s only 5 minutes a day, just enough time to take some deep breaths and center yourself and maybe say a few affirmations, that can be the best thing you do for yourself AND your business.
2. It’s like an onion. Sadly, this was the most unfortunate lesson I had to learn in 2008. You know all those issues and blocks you work so hard to get through? Well, guess what — they never actually go away. Yes, no matter how much you work on them and through them, they keep sticking around, just at a deeper level.
(Sigh.)
So, I’m here to tell you this is a lifelong process. Don’t beat yourself up over it, just accept it and keep working through them. And remember, even though it can get frustrating at times, the more you work on these things, the more you WILL see success at every breakthrough. The rewards are there if you’re willing to do the work.
3. Your habits are more important than you think. What do you do each day? Are you spending hours checking email and pushing paper around your desk? Do you find your days disappear and you look back and wonder what exactly did you get done?
I’ve studied a lot of successful people, and one thing they all have in common is they have pretty rock-solid habits. They get up early, they make time to read, exercise, work on their mindset, etc. Yes, they might not always get everything done on their to-do list, but every day they’re working toward the bigger picture.
I made a point this year of dumping old habits of working that no longer served me, and starting new habits. Now, I’m going to admit I’m not perfect yet. Some of my old habits still creep back now and then. And it wasn’t easy (I broke habits I had for years.) But, it was worth it. I’ve more productive than I’ve been in years, but even more importantly, I’m more relaxed, calm, and at peace than I’ve ever been.
What habits do you need to break? Do you numb yourself with too much television, Internet surfing or some other distraction? Do you find yourself sucked into drama or gossip? Or maybe you just waste time doing things in your business you could hire a virtual assistant for half (or less) of your hourly rate?
And what habits should you be doing? Journaling? Reading? Exercising? Meditating? Eating healthier? Once you start replacing your old habits with new, healthier ones, you’ll probably be amazed at what starts to happen in your life.
4. Get the right people on the right seats on the bus. Building a team, and making sure the team is the right one for you, is crucial. You can’t do it alone. You need people around you to support you and do the work you have no business doing. But you need to make sure it’s the right team for you. And don’t be afraid to make changes — sometimes the team that was right for you 3 years ago is no longer right for where you are now.
When your team is clicking, it’s a great feeling. The work is getting done, you know you’re supported and it takes such a huge burden off of you.
5. Don’t be afraid to give up control. The smartest thing I did this year was give up control of the operations of the business to my husband. If you’re anything like me, you’re not the best person to be running the operations. You should be focused on the vision and leadership of the company, plus the other aspects you’re good at. The details of whose doing what and is it getting done is probably not your strong suit. That’s why, after you’ve grown to a certain level, you need to take yourself out of that role.
Now, you might not have a spouse who can handle the operations, and if that’s the case I encourage you to look for an operations manager. While it might feel like a big leap, it’s an amazing freeing feeling. All of a sudden I have the energy and space to truly focus on what I should be focusing on, instead of getting dragged down by the minutia.
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12.19.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 7:11 pm EST by Michele PW
For those of you who don’t watch professional football, let me give you a (very) brief synopsis so you have some context. (Trust me, this will be worth it.)
Brett Favre, who was the quarterback for the Packers and is considered one of the top quarterbacks ever to play the game, retired last spring, then decided to unretire last summer. The Packers sent him, well packing, to the New York Jets because they wanted to give their new, young quarterback Aaron Rodgers a chance.
Since then, the Jets (who were dreadful last season) have a winning record and are probably headed to the playoffs whereas the Packers are 5-9 (when last year they were 13-3 and almost made it to the Superbowl) and headed nowhere.
Now, before I go any further, I want to preface this as I’m a Packer fan, an Aaron Rodgers fan and a Brett Favre fan, so this is not an article about whether or not the Packers should have done what they did. Rather, this is an article about what (I think) happened and how you can use this lesson to be more powerful in your business.
So, what DID happen? I mean, while the quarterback is an important position, it’s still just one guy on a team (and football is a team sport). He’s not even on the field half the time. Is the quarterback really responsible for a team winning or losing?
And, for that matter, is Rodgers really that much worse than Favre?
I’ll answer the last question first. Actually, Rodgers has a higher quarterback rating than Favre this season. So at least in terms of being able to throw the ball, Rodgers and Favre are on par.
But what Favre brings to the table that Rodgers doesn’t (at least right now) is the legacy of what he has accomplished.
Here’s what I think happened. When Favre went to the Jets, the Jets suddenly got this boost of confidence they didn’t have before. Now they had a Hall of Fame quarterback on their team. Oh my gosh! This means they might actually win!
At the same time, the Packers lost that shot of confidence. I know Packers publicly stood behind Rodgers, and he’s done a great job, especially when you consider it’s his first season. But regardless, he doesn’t have the track record that Favre has. It’s not Rodgers fault, how on earth could he bring that same confidence to his first season? Favre didn’t have it either in his first season, in fact the Falcons traded Favre early in his career.
Now, a shot of confidence doesn’t sound like much, but the Packers have lost almost all of their games by less than 4 points, and usually lost it in the last couple of minutes in the game.
Okay, so how does any of this pertain to you or your business?
One of the traits I’ve noticed in my associates and colleagues is what happens after they break the 7-figure mark in their business. Something changes. There’s an air of confidence in them that I don’t want to say was lacking before, but it’s even more pronounced. Now, they know they can do it. Why? Because they HAVE done it. And all of a sudden it’s easier and faster to double, triple that and more.
The more confident they are that they can make that kind of money, the more effortless it is for them to actually do it.
To take it one step further, because they believe deep down inside they can easily make 7 figures, they DO make 7 figures. Much like the Jets now believing they can win with Favre whereas they weren’t nearly so sure without him, entrepreneurs who believe they will make that kind of money actually do.
So, what can YOU do to start feeling that confidence about building a successful business? And knowing, deep down inside, you will break six or seven figures? The faster you can start feeling that, the faster you’ll start experiencing it.
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12.04.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 10:12 pm EST by Michele PW
It’s an odd time of year. For some industries and businesses, this is their busiest season, when they make most of their money. For others, especially service businesses or B-2-B, it’s their slowest time of year.
But it doesn’t have to be.
If you’re someone who really would like to get more work in November and December to pay for those extra holiday expenses, here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Don’t stop marketing. Does this sound familiar? You know your business is slow over the holidays, so you think “why bother” and don’t do anything. After all, no one is interested in buying services now, you might as well wait until January when people have their head back in their business.
So, you cut back or stop your marketing. And what happens? Well, business slows down. (Amazing, isn’t it?)
Then, if you’re one of those business owners whose marketing suffers when you’re busy, and you have a busy September and October, well that’s a double whammy. You’ve basically guaranteed a slow down in December and January.
I know, it seems like you’re competing with a lot of holiday advertising, and it’s true you are. But, because a lot of businesses stop marketing, it’s actually a pretty good time to get in front of your prospects because there’s less of that type of marketing going on.
2. Know what your prospects are thinking about and join in the conversation already going on in their head. So what they are thinking about? The holidays, right? That’s true, but they’re also thinking about what they liked or didn’t like about this year, what they want to be different about next year, etc. Even for people who don’t sit down and do formal planning, there’s still a feeling of closure (for the old) and preparation (for the new). If you can position whatever it is you’re selling to fit that, you have a good chance they’ll want to start the “new year off right” by hiring you.
Now, you might be saying, but everyone says something like that, won’t I sound like everyone else? Well, yes and no. Yes that’s a common message because it resonates so strongly with us as humans. But you don’t have to phrase it like everyone else. By stating it differently or coming at it from a different angle, that’s what’s going to set up apart from everyone else.
Which leads me to the last point…
3. Inject some urgency into your marketing. It is true that because people are spending a lot of money on holiday stuff, they might want to hold off on spending any money on their business until January (and they might not want to even focus on their business until January). Well, the new year is also a natural time to raise your rates. So, what better time of year then to encourage them to hire you NOW so they lock in the old rates?
The trick is to get them eager to hire you because they want their business to look different in the new year, and they better hire you NOW because they want to lock in this year’s rates.
And, you can take this one step further — if you don’t want to actually start the work until January (because you want some time off for partying as well) then have them pay a deposit in December or extend it somehow, where they get extra time for the same price. Now you have money now, you have work lined up in January and your prospects are happy because they’re getting a deal. It’s a win-win-win.
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11.20.08
Posted in Business, General at 3:18 pm EST by Michele PW
I grew up in the Midwest (Wisconsin) where hard work is not just valued but revered.
Taking care of yourself is not.
Of all the lessons I’ve had to learn in my business (and trust me there have been many) this is probably one of the hardest for me, and one I have to make a point of remembering.
Maybe this sounds familiar — you work and work until something happens and you stop for awhile. Maybe you get sick. Maybe you get over tired. Maybe a personal emergency happens (and be honest — it probably happened because you were neglecting your personal life to begin with) and you have to drop everything to deal with it.
Whatever it is, outside circumstances force you to take a break. You’re not taking a break for YOU.
Everyone is different, but for me I would battle feelings of guilt when I would take some time off. I should be working. There’s a to-do list sitting on my desk I should be going through. But the reality is your business is like your house. There is ALWAYS something you could be doing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should (or have to) be doing it.
If any of this is sounding familiar, read on. I’m going to share 3 reasons why you need to take regular breaks and be good to yourself.
1. There’s only one “you.” As an entrepreneur, your energy level is intimately tied to the success of your business. If you are constantly sick or have no energy, how on earth can you grow your business? And, for that matter, when you aren’t feeling well, do you really think you’re giving your clients the best service you could be? For the sake of your business and your clients, you owe it to yourself to take time off so you can be the best you can be during work times.
2. Get more done faster. Which scenario sounds better for your business — you wake at 7 am, exhausted and stressed, because you haven’t gotten enough sleep having gone to bed at midnight (and not falling asleep until 2 am) trying to finish “one last thing?” Or you wake at 7 am (or maybe 6 am) refreshed and energized for your work day, because you knocked off work at 5 pm, took some time off for yourself or your family, and was asleep by 10 pm?
I think you know the answer.
Yes, it can be very seductive to try and get “one more thing” done before you turn in for the night. But the reality is, you need your sleep. And you need time to unwind and get away from the computer before trying to fall asleep, or you aren’t going to sleep well.
Then, what ends up happening? You wake up dragging. So you’re not working as fast or as efficient as you could be. And you don’t finish everything you need to during a normal work day. So you try and catch up at night — and then you screw up your sleep for another night.
It’s a vicious cycle. But if you can flip that, start getting a good night’s sleep each night, you’ll find that you have more energy during the day, you’ll get more done, and you don’t have to stay up late to finish those last to-do items.
This one can be tough to reverse. Be good to yourself. You might have to reorganize your schedule or to-do list for a week or two, so you have less to do during the day and can actually knock off at a reasonable time each night until you get yourself on a regular schedule.
3. Projects expand to fit the amount of time allowed to them. I never took physics but if this isn’t a physics law, it should be. As a freelancer, I experienced this all the time. During my slow periods, I still found myself working nearly the same amount as during my busy periods.
If I had 1 hour of work to do, and all day to do it, somehow it would take me all day to do it. If I had 6 hours of work to do and 4 hours to do it, I might not get everything done, but I would definitely zip through most of my to-do list.
It’s like when you’re about to go on vacation. There’s always this list of stuff you want to get done. You might not get everything done, but you’re probably more efficient the week before your vacation then the month prior.
Now if you start valuing taking time off for yourself, for instance maybe one day you decide you’re knocking off at 2 to go to a movie or take a nap or go to your kid’s soccer game, you’ll probably discover you get more done that day then you do on the days where you have a huge amount of open time available and no set “end” to your day.
The end result of all of this? You’ll end up working less hours overall, but during those hours you do work, you’ll probably be more efficient, productive, and happy (and you’ll also see your business grow more effortlessly and your clients will also be more satisfied).
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