You might be like scads of solo business owners who think you understand marketing and are doing it but in fact it isn’t working  the way it should or could.

Everyone knows marketing is important and in fact, essential. What most people don’t get is how to do it so it gets the results you want.  Take this short self-assessment to see where you are at.

• Do you go to lots of networking groups, share your elevator speech, and get no response?

• When you tell people what you do, do they seem confused or don’t get it?

Do you struggle to get more clients even after six months of marketing?

• When people go to your website do they sign-up for something and leave their  email address?

• Do you put out a lot of effort with not enough results and don’t know why?

If you answered yes to most of these questions you are wasting your time. This is very important because as solo business owners you are doing everything yourself and it is important to use your time wisely.  If you are going to run a business, put in that much effort, why not  make it work?

1. Know who your niche market is and their problem and make that your elevator speech.
2. Grab people’s attention when you speak about your business.
3. Watch your client load increase easily.
4. Offer many free tastes on your website so people get involved and sign-up.
5. Create a marketing plan that works and focus your time and effort.

I know this works by the way. I do all the above and I have watched my business grow by leaps and bounds. It means you have to be willing to make changes, get help and be willing.

Join with a focused group of entrepreneurs just like you and to easily figure this out. Awaken Your Money Stream . Is it worth it? Only you know that answer. I have had my best month ever this month while I recovered from knee surgery. Why?  I am reaping the benefit of my marketing from the past six months. It works.

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It’s very easy to get sucked into spending a lot of time on SEO and social networking. It is like a magnet and can feel like  a quick fix too. You think if you can drive oodles of people to your website and  gets lots of Twitter followers your business will pick-up and your phone will ring off the wall.  Wrong!

All this stuff can side-track you from the core of what you need to be doing. Business is business and  the basic premise hasn’t changed that much with the onset of  the internet. The internet offers a powerful marketing tool but  you still have to have a solid marketing message first and a clear vision of your business.  Here are  Five  important things that work like magic. Until you do these five things, it won’t matter how much time you spend on Twitter.

1. Know explicitly who you are marketing to. Who wants your help and why. You cannot be fuzzy or wish-washy with this. It has to be focused and definite.  These people have to have a big problem and compelling enough that they will seek help. They have to want the benefits you are offering.

2. You need to acknowledge your speciality. People want specialists these days and will search for the right person to help them with what they need. If you are too general they will move on to the next person.  You must be willing to stand tall in that space and not worry about losing clients who want a different specialist. All your worry does is confuse your potential clients.

3. Focus on the value and benefits you offer to your clients. Get to know who they are and what their issues are and speak to that directly. All of your messages need to be about them and not about yourself.  As a rule of thumb- everything above the scroll line on your website should be about your client, not about you and your business.

4. Acknowledge your self-doubt and do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Your self-doubt will seep through as lack of confidence in your service and you will feel unworthy and end up giving away everything for free or under-charging. Your self-doubt will undermine everything else you are doing. It is a huge mistake to ignore it and until you shift it you will be dealing with a huge disability.

5. Know that there is a system and when you follow it, you will not just get more clients but you will see how to grow a larger and more prosperous business. So make the commitment to learn the steps, find the key and be willing to do whatever  it takes. Yes, it will mean investing money, but it’s an investment in your success. It is impossible to do it any other way.

Which of these five things have you done? Which ones do you need to work on? What will you do? Once you do all of the above,  SEO will be important and social networking will play an important part of your  marketing plan.

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If you are a heart-centered person who offers services to people and you want to make a difference, you might be falling into the trap of “give away itis.”  Are you giving away much more than you are getting back.  If you answered, “Yes,” this is no way to run a business!

Here are some common traits:

• Not thinking like a business person.
• Wanting to help everyone.
• Giving away too much.
• Uncomfortable asking for money.
• Over-empathizing with people who can’t afford it.
• Not having a clue how to grow your business.

Ok- breath! It’s ok. You are a good person and offer wonderful help to people. But you need to look at your own sense of self-worth and understand that a business is meant to have a positive cash flow. Here are a few places to start.

1. Begin to understand that  ”giving” something for free can be a good marketing strategy but  it must be part of a larger marketing plan, otherwise it doesn’t work. Marketing give-away is about giving a small taste and having it lead into a paid program.

2. Look at your value and ask yourself if you are ok with people paying you large amounts of money for your help. If not, you need to look at your  self-esteem and how that might be keeping you small. If you are poor and struggling you might think that everyone is that way and that no one can afford your programs.

3. Develop a vision of your fully developed business, otherwise you will be stuck in the treadmill of constantly looking for new clients. Your larger business shows many income streams.

You’ll be able to help a lot more people and make a much bigger difference when you begin to think like a business person and get paid well for your work.

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If you are still struggling to get enough clients, have positive cash flow and be successful, you could be getting in your own way and not even realizing it.  Or maybe you do realize it but you don’t know how to change it. Even if you did know, you might be too scared.

I talk to people everyday who call me for help with their marketing or business focus. They know things aren’t working. We talk and begin to peel back the layers and by the end of the conversation they  hesitantly admit that they are scared to really face their fears and self-doubt. Have you ever felt like this?

•  Worry if you charge a too much people will feel they’re not getting their money’s worth.
•  Not good enough to work with high paying clients.
•  Uncomfortable having a vision that’s too big.

You really have only three choices:

1. Do nothing, keep struggling and envy other people who seem to be doing well.

2. Quit your business and get a job where you don’t have to deal with your inner demons. The steady paycheck has it’s value.

3. Decide to do whatever it takes to move out of your comfort zone, stretch, grow and be willing to trip, fall and then get up again.

What makes one person grow a lucrative business and another one stay stuck. It’s that decision to step into number three and do whatever it takes to become a leader of your business, develop a much larger vision of what you are creating and overcome your inner fears that hold you back.

If you are reading this and thinking that you are an exception and have no inner demons, you are wrong.  Even the wealthiest, most successful people have them.  It’s the parts inside that gravitate to staying comfy.  Everyone has a default that is set at “comfort zone.” It’s like your comfort food that you like to eat when you are feeling vulnerable.

My comfort default is deadly for my business. It’s the part of me that says,  “You’re tired, you’ve had a full day so just go to sleep and you can write this later.”  My inner leader says different. I need to keep this deadline because what I am writing tonight is part of a bigger marketing strategy and a much bigger picture.

Are you ready to see your larger picture?
Are you ready to face your fears and go for it anyway?
Are you worth the investment of time and money?

If you say, Yes, yes and yes, good for you!
And here are two opportunities.

Awaken Your Money Stream 6 month seminar.

Unleash Your Visionary Leader Mastermind for Women Entrepreneurs.

If you are saying yes, the important thing is to make a change. You are so worth it!

Pricing seems to be the hot issue this month. Many of my clients are asking  for help with how to decide how much to charge for their services. Low self-worth thinking is  common with solo business owners who begin their business from the expertise of their service but lack sound business skills,

Self doubt is the catalyst for making some very poor decisions. Here are a few issues that I have noticed with my clients.

• You look at what other business owners are charging for a similar service, and then end up comparing yourself to them and feel bad and confused. You try to copy what they are doing but it doesn’t work because you don’t know what their business plan is and how they arrived at their figures.

• You are desperate to bring in cash right away in any amount, and are relieved  when people pay you anything. Money stress will cause you to  feel poor and constricted, which turns into a downward spiral.  You become lost in your own feelings of failure which make it hard to make good money or business decisions.

•  You choose a ‘stab in the dark’ price based on what you feel ok with and what you think people will pay.  Since your self-doubt is high, you end up picking a low price thinking you are not good enough to charge more.

The truth is, if you truly feel you are not good enough at what you do, why would anyone pay you anything? Here are five solutions to these problems.

1. Focus on your niche market clients and listen to what they need and want. Begin to develop services and products that are exactly meeting their needs.  Doing this helps you to keep your focus on how you are offering value to them.  As this focus grows, there is no room for your own self-doubt and you will begin to value your expertise. In truth, if what you are offering isn’t good value people won’t want it even if it’s free.

2. Be a business owner, not a practitioner. Many years ago when I was a counselor, I had a client tell me I must be rich because I was earning $60 an hour. He wasn’t a business owner so he didn’t get it that only a small percentage of that went into my personal pocket. In order to offer your excellent service to your niche clients, you are also providing:

• On-going support services and follow-up.
• Good organizational systems that help your business function.
• A team you manage, to help keep this all going.
• New products as business develops.
• Marketing, technical development. research and office organizing.

This growth offers even more value to your clients. Your prices need to reflect all of the above.  You are not charging for one hour of your time. You are running a business.

3. Develop excellent money management. Many solo business owners who are struggling financially, become money avoiders because looking at unpaid bills creates anxiety. It is human nature to want to move away from anything that causes stress.  However, this is an incorrect instinct. The stress will actually be much less once you take control of your money systems and know exactly what is going in, going out and owing. I think it was T. Harv Eker that said, “If you can’t manage a small amount of money, the universe won’t give you a large amount.”

4. Develop a business plan and vision that reflects financial goals that show where the revenue will come from. Many solo business owners begin with no plan, no vision and no idea where they are going. I use  simple pie charts ( Money Map) to help people  to understand what their business needs to generate. Your prices begin to make more sense based on that picture. The marketing/sales funnel will also help you to generate a plan based on providing valuable products and services for each level of the funnel. This gives people price and product choices and also allows you to build from a solid business model. You need to develop a  vision that sees you being much bigger than you are now and a plan to get there.

5. Be clear and confident. Discounts and sliding scales are confusing and inconsistent. Most people won’t make a decision based on that 20 percent money difference. People want help and expertise. Discounts work at Wal-Mart but not for service based businesses. They make you look desperate. For the same  reason it’s not good to immediately offer to lower the price if someone seems hesitant, or offer a sliding scale that puts the pressure on your customer to decide where they fit. You want to give people a feeling of confidence and clarity.

It’s better to offer bonuses that give more value to the sale and offer payment plans to make it work for people who want your programs but have cash flow challenges. In this way you offer support and options that help people get the help they need and at the same time allows you to run your business responsibly. One you feel clear about your prices based on the above points, make sure you “check-in” that your prices feel correct.

Most people have their techniques. For me, I can feel it in my solar plexus when something is not quite aligned. It’s also good to share with your mentor or mastermind group. If you have any self-doubt,  figure out where it is coming from and face it head on as  your clients will sense it  and it will affect your business.  Remember, prices change as your business grows, but if you follow these five points you will always stay on track.

Are you  ready to get help?

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