Let me say right off the bat, this is not going to be a rah-rah “went from sleeping in my car, eating dog food to my first million overnight” story. I certainly admire anyone whose commitment leads to a hugely successful business, but those accounts tend to leave out the years of preparation that went into that “overnight” million.
And that makes the rest of us doubt ourselves and our abilities when our own fortunes don’t appear instantly.
I’m proud of the fact that I went from literally negative cash flow (and four previous business failures) to a 6-figure income in three years. Quick, but not overnight by any means.
Growing a successful business takes some time. That’s because even beyond learning the necessary how to’s, what’s inevitably required are some serious shifts and shake ups in our mindset. It’s like peeling an onion – we uncover and transform one limiting habit or belief, only to discover another one beneath it.
Truthfully, if you could get to your goals with your current patterns and thinking – you’d be there already! You have to be willing to invest the time and resources it takes to grow into the person whose habits, behaviors and beliefs support that new, bigger level of success.
With that in mind, here are my three most important tips for putting you on the path to your 6- or 7-figure dream.
The smart service-based entrepreneur is always looking for ways to increase the sales of their programs, products and services.
No, not because they’re greedy. It’s because they know clients can’t experience breakthroughs and transformation until they get off the fence and make the purchase.
One of the simplest ways to remove the barrier to buying and increase sales is to offer a guarantee.
When it comes to offering a guarantee, however, most service-based business owners say “No way! I can’t control what the client is going to do, so how can I guarantee my program or service?” They’re afraid too many clients will take advantage of it and they’ll lose money.
It’s important to keep your eye on the big picture. The value of a guarantee lies in giving potential clients peace of mind, making it easy for them to say yes to your offer. Backed by a strong guarantee, the number of sales you make is invariably greater than if you had no guarantee at all. So even if you do get a small number of returns (and that’s really the exception, not the rule), you’ll still come out ahead.
To get you going, here are three simple tips to help you craft guarantees that cause your sales to soar.
Having done it myself many times, I know there’s nothing quite as thrilling as creating a product or program that fills a need your audience has, and then making lots of sales with it.
Problem is, there’s that tricky thing in between the “creating” and the “making sales” – and that’s the actual launch campaign.
Truly successful business owners (no matter what they’re offering) know that “the thing” never sells itself. And even if you do create something that doesn’t seem to need much in the way of marketing, a winning launch campaign will mean it gets into even more hands than it would otherwise. (So you’re helping more people and making more money as a result.)
I’ve been teaching the essentials of how to run a profitable launch campaign for the last two years, and my clients have seen some pretty amazing results.
There’s the spirit-centered business coach who pulled in $25,000 on the first day of her launch and went on to bring in another $20,000 of additional signups for the same program.
And the intuitive coach who, after getting a disappointing zero response to her first attempt, relaunched her small group program with my guidance and happily brought in over $10,000.
As well as the marketing coach who applied the “Elements of Influence” I teach to help her create an incredibly successful $70,000 in sales in one day.
It’s important to understand the individual parts of a profitable campaign.
To help you with that, here is my elegantly simple 4-Step Winning Launch Prescription PLUS 3 tips to maximize your ability to make sales with your launch.
Growing a successful business, and all the attendant marketing and business-building tasks involved, isn’t meant to be done alone.
Yet when clients aren’t appearing, income is not flowing, and joy has left the building, the default perspective most women take seems to be, “I’ll just knuckle under and do more. I’ll deny myself support, mentoring and encouragement because it would be selfish or weak to ask for help. Gosh darn it, I should be able to do this on my own!”
As women, we often think we should muscle through any struggles –business or otherwise- that come up. To my way of thinking, that’s the female equivalent of refusing to ask for directions. (And we all hate when a man does that, right?)
It would appear the Universe’s idea of fun was to put us in separate bodies and minds, so we think we’re meant to experience life on our own.
But have you noticed? Our ability to expand, leap and soar doesn’t happen when we muscle through. It only happens when we connect – with Spirit, with our own inner voice, with each other.
That’s true in personal relationships, and it’s true in your business too.
What’s at stake in trying to do it alone is, really, nothing less than your ability to reach more people, impact more lives and truly fulfill the purpose you were put here to do.
Here are some simple ideas on how to foster the connection that will make your business flourish. . .
1) You can begin connecting more with Spirit by giving yourself the gift of nature. Go out for a walk today, even if it’s just around the block. Better yet, put it in your calendar as an everyday thing.
2) You can begin connecting more with your inner voice by getting curious and asking your heart, “What do you want for me now?” and just listening to what your intuition says (even if it doesn’t “make sense”).
3) You can begin connecting more with others by actively looking for experiences and events that get you out of your regular environment and let you mingle with like-spirited women. (They’ll benefit from your encouragement as much as you’ll benefit from theirs.)
The more connection you create, the more success you’ll attract in your business. And the more success you attract in your business, the more lives you’ll be touching. Clients, income, joy - it’s all one big, happy spiral!
Not using online marketing, or using it incorrectly, can cost you more lost income than you want to imagine.
It can also cost you enormous amounts of wasted time and frustration because you’re duplicating your efforts reaching people in dribs and drabs instead of en masse.
Not to mention countless lost opportunities for opening up doors to more media exposure and joint venture alliances.
I’m sure you’ll agree that’s not a pretty picture.
Heart-based, creative coaches and wellness professionals are out to be of service to their clients, not to become marketing pros. Unfortunately, that means most of them have not been taught how to use online marketing to their best advantage.
The good news is all you need are the basics to start making your online marketing pay off. And the even better news is that the basics are simple to learn.
At the “Passionate Purpose, Inspired Income” workshop, you’ll get a workbook loaded with the same templates, checklists, tipsheets and examples I’ve used to reach 6-figures, as well as 3 days of hands-on experiential learning with me.
Until then, here are three core focus areas to make sure you’re making the most of your online opportunities:
By now, most people realize that a website is the 21st century equivalent of a business card. And those doing any kind of online marketing are likely familiar with the strategy of having a free giveaway on their website.
Unfortunately, many of them view their free giveaway, or your Irresistible Free Taste, as I call it, as an after-thought. That means they’re missing out on the full impact it can have for their online marketing.
Your Free Taste as really the starting point. It’s one milestone on the way to a much larger objective, which is to build your list. And even that goal is in service to another goal, which is to make sales and offer your unique “message” in the form of either products or services.
Put very frankly, your Irresistible Free Taste is a way to introduce yourself and your services so you can build relationship and lay the foundation for future marketing. The whole reason your Free Taste exists is so you can gather together (metaphorically, at least) a group of people who have expressed interest in what you do. Then when you have something to promote – a product, a service, an event - they’re ready for it.
This is an important pathway because as obvious as it sounds here, you can’t make sales if no one is listening to you. Your giveaway is the first place to grab your potential client’s attention and show her you’ve got valuable information to offer. Think of it as your “online ice breaker.”
Very important - because we all know that, despite what anyone tells us, first impressions DO count.
A nice-looking, professional website will likely hold people’s attention at least briefly. But from that point on, your online ice breaker has to do more than look good. It has to promise value. It has to immediately communicate to your visitors that they’re in the right place and that you’ve got some great party favors for them.
Otherwise they’ll just head off to the shindig at the website next door.
Inspired, heart-centered entrepreneurs like us are often kept dizzy and overwhelmed by our own creativity.It’s a case of too many choices, too little time.
With all the projects, tasks and activities involved in marketing and growing a fun, profitable business, it’s all too easy to find yourself worn out at the end of the day without having many tangible results (like income) to show for it.
As I hear from clients all the time, that usually means money is going out faster than it’s coming in.We can’t have that!
The antidote to this troublesome situation is knowing which projects and activities to pursue and which to ignore (or put on hold).
Not all business endeavors are created equal.And you simply can’t follow through on all of them.It’s imperative that you have a way to sort through the abundance of ideas and possibilities to determine which ones are worth your time, attention and money.
One of the first things I did with client Marlene Clay (DivorcedHappilyEverAfter.com) when she came for a private 2-day business-building retreat last month was help her create her “Return on Resources” filter.
It’s a quick and easy method for sorting through the options and zeroing in on the most profitable, productive ones. She was so delighted with the freedom and confidence it gave her in making decisions about her business projects that she asked if we could create a ROR Filter for her money decisions as well. =-)
Your ROR Filter:
Keeps you grounded in practical action
Let’s you avoid time- and money-sucking disasters
Is unique, flexible and grows with you and your business
And just before lunch on Day 1 of my upcoming “Passionate Purpose, Inspired Income” workshop, I’ll teach you the same powerfully simple decision-making technique.
I have no doubt you’ll love the ease and speed with which you make effective business decisions once you’ve got your personal Return On Resources Filter to support you.
This simple technique will provide immediate relief from overwhelm and put you in position to greatly increase your money-making capacity without working any harder. You’re not doing more, you’re just doing it differently.
Then you’re free to allow your creativity to run wild, knowing you’ve got a surefire way to choose just the right ideas to develop.
Ever find yourself sitting in front of your computer, unable to write that promo email? Or sorting through the paper clips instead of making those JV calls you intended? Or putting off drafting this week’s blog post?
Since it’s doubtful you went into business for yourself because you love the idea of marketing and selling, it makes sense you’d rather put your time and attention elsewhere – like working with clients.
Problem is, hit or miss marketing actions produce hit or miss results. So you’re impacting fewer lives than you could and bringing in less income than you’d like.
Creative coaches and healing professionals –people like you, with a deep desire for self-awareness- usually hold strong values about using their gifts and talents to make a difference in the world. This often shows up as a disconnect between delivering their services and marketing their services. So marketing feels both morally questionable and like a lot of hard work. (Makes sense you wouldn’t enjoy it!)
What you need to know, or perhaps remember again, is that you are a spark of the Divine. You’re meant to be sharing your greatness with the world, and your business is evidence of living your purpose.
When you come from that place, marketing becomes another way to create the connection you desire with your clients.
These three of my best tips will make it easy for you to boost your zest for marketing (aka, connecting):
Having finally torn myself away from the glamour of waiting tables, I’ve morphed into the Grand Poohbah of Crackerjack Marketing and Online Strategy. I’ve spent the last 4 years learning the hard-won secrets to attracting high quality leads with your online marketing.
