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When you're constantly working on and in your business you forget to schedule in some down time for yourself. The summer is the perfect time to take that downtime, especially if it means taking a vacation somewhere nice.
But then there's always the worry that if you're not involved in your business on a daily basis that things will fall apart and you won't have any business to come back to when you return. Today I'd like to share with you three simple steps that you can take to ensure your...
•10 Tips to Beat the Overwhelm and Stay Focused
Many business owners share with me that one of their biggest problems is information overwhelm which in turn leads to lack of focus, and therefore they don't actually get stuff done in their business. They're so busy trying to keep up with all the information that they're being hit with that they don't actually get around to any implementation and so they stay stuck.
With all the information that's thrown at us via our inbox, social networks, and even through the mail, it's so easy to become...
•5 Challenges and Mistakes Faced by Every Solopreneur
I was recently a presenter in a Telesummit and even though I had a specific topic to present on, the hosts also felt it would be appropriate to talk about some of the biggest challenges and mistakes that I faced (and still do face today) along my path to solopreneurship!
These are the same issues that EVERY solopreneur faces at some point or other in their business so, in case you missed my presentation, I thought I'd share those challenges and mistakes with you here in the hope that you can...
•Hosting Your Own Teleclass? 6 Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Outcome
Hosting Your Own Teleclass? 6 Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Outcome Hosting teleclasses is one of my absolute favorite list building strategies. Apart from being easy to do, it's a great way to interact with my audience and get to know them, and also let them get to know me. But as with anything new there's always a learning curve involved.
Over the years I've developed my own style for hosting teleclasses and found some shortcuts that allow me to present my content so that everything...
•Increase Product Sales with These 3 Types of Special Offers
When you're an online solo service professional (solopreneur) it's crucial that you move away from the hours-for-dollars business model and create a multiple streams of income business, i.e. your income comes from a variety of different sources:
1. Passive income through the sale of information products.
2. Leveraged income by creating and running group programs.
3. One-on-one client income; this is your highest level service and you only work with a few clients at this level.
Creating...
•How to Create a Sales Policy That is Fair to ALL of Your Clients
When you start developing your multiple streams of income business by adding products and programs which are available on your website, there's a very specific policy you need to have in place ... and that is a clearly defined Sales Policy.
Before we get into what this is about and why you need it, let me just take a minute to ask you how you would handle the following scenarios:
* You offer a discount to prospective clients of either a dollar amount or percentage off the price of your...
•4 Simple Steps for Creating Your Strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP)
4 Simple Steps for Creating Your Strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP) Your strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP) is a document that is used to plan your day-to-day marketing activities/strategies for running your online business; in other words it's your MAP to online business management success. And just like a real map, your MAP tells you exactly how to get from point A to point B and the route you need to take in order to get there.
When you have your MAP in place it eliminates the...
•3 Easy Tips for Keeping Your Client Information Organized
For many solopreneurs a large part of their business is working one-on-one with clients, and that means having a way of keeping all of their client information organized and easy to access.
In this article I'm going to share with you my top three tips for keeping everything together, so that you can easily access your client information and know exactly where your clients are in your programs.
1. Physical: Create a Client Contact Sheet
For most business owners there will be a physical...
•Creating Your Online Marketing Flow in 3 Simple Steps
Many business owners make the mistake of picking one or two online marketing strategies, trying them for a couple of weeks, deciding that they don't work because they're not bringing in new subscribers, and then moving on to the next hot online marketing strategy that they've heard about.
Don't make this same mistake!
There are many, many, different online marketing strategies you can implement to grow your business and attract new subscribers to your list, but the key to making any of them...
•Info Product Creation: How To Create Your FIRST Info Product in 7 Easy Steps
Once you've mastered your online marketing system and you're growing your list on a daily basis, this is a good time to then set about creating additional offerings for your subscribers. This is where you start to look at your Product & Marketing Funnel and see where the gaps are and where new products can fit.
If you're like most solo service professionals you'll have something at the top (i.e. the widest part) of your funnel, which is usually your free taste, and then you'll have...
•Create Joint Venture 'Giveaways' to Boost Your List
One of the best ways you can give your list building efforts a HUGE boost is to partner with other solopreneurs to create a giveaway event ... also known as a joint venture (JV). If done right this strategy can literally add hundreds of new subscribers to your list in a very short period of time. I've been involved in this strategy a number of times over the years and have welcomed several hundred new subscribers into my community in a matter of days. The latest joint venture I participated...
•Create A Business Plan in 3 Simple Steps
There comes a point in every solopreneur's business where they need to sit down and plan ... and I mean, really plan! Not just write down a few ideas on the back of an envelope and hope for the best, but really map out a long-term strategic plan for their business.
Creating this kind of business plan is so important as, for one reason, it immediately eliminates a lot of the overwhelm and frustration that you're probably feeling, but it also allows you to:
* See where you're going;
* Know...
•5 Ways to Significantly Increase Attendance of Your Free Teleclass
Hosting a free teleclass is one of my favorite ways to increase my subscriber base as well as get to know members of my community. Setting up your teleclass is relatively straightforward too - all you need is a:
* Registration page
* Teleconference bridge line
* Follow-up system usually via an autoresponder
And you're good to go. And hosting a free teleclass is low to zero cost to you too!
But once you've got your registration page all set up, the bridge line booked, and have invited...
•Publish a Successful Ezine with these Top 10 Tips
One of the systems I help my clients to implement is a schedule for getting on track with their ezine (electronic newsletter) as it's so important that you have a systematic stay-in-touch strategy in place and a regular ezine is the perfect medium for achieving this!
However, the downside, and where so many solopreneurs fail, is that they don't get into a regular publishing schedule and they start to lose their connection with their subscribers.
Today I'd like to share with you my top 10...
•Podcast Creation in 3 Easy Steps
For a long time I was reluctant to add podcasting to my list building arsenal thinking it was simply another task on my already long To Do list and, to be honest, it sounded tedious ... manually submitting my podcast episodes to the various podcast directories so that people knew they were there; I didn't have time for that!
Little did I realize how easy it was to implement this strategy, and reach a whole other audience too - those who prefer to learn by listening! But now that I know how...
•Effectively Utilize Outlook to Increase Productivity and Save Time with These 5 Simple Tips
Members of my Easy Office Organization program and my private clients know that I'm a die-hard Outlook fan. I've tried many email and contact management systems over the years, but keep coming back to this one tool. Why?
Because it does everything that I could possibly need in order to effectively run my business. It's my:
* Email manager
* Contact manager
* Calendar planner
* Task scheduler
* Notes space
In short, it's my command central for running my business.
If you're not fully...
•Get Organized to Get Clients
This article has been inspired by one of the respondents to my recent survey who commented "I need clients not organization". This particular comment really stuck out for me because I feel that a lot of business owners become so focused on getting the clients that they really don't understand being more organized means getting more clients, and therefore do not put in place the foundational pieces that will allow their business to grow.
You will probably have heard me say before that you...
•7 Simple Steps to Organizing & Hosting a Successful Teleclass
One of the best ways you can grow your list practically overnight and interact with your audience is to host your own Teleclass. After all they are a low-cost, yet simple, marketing strategy that you can implement on a regular basis to reach your target market, and they have the advantage of you being able to interact with your audience - they'll be able to hear your voice and you will become more 'personable' to them.
Just some of the reasons why teleclasses are so popular are:
* They show...
•4 Social Networking Pitfalls ... And How To Avoid Them
Social networking sites originally became popular as a way for friends to stay in touch with one another and to keep up-to-date with what was happening in their lives, but they quickly became a place for business owners to grow their networks too. These days you can use these sites as a business building tool, but, more importantly, you can get to know your prospects, clients, and colleagues in a more relaxed and friendly environment.
This means that if you're active on these sites and...
•How to Create the "VIP Experience" for Your Clients with a Welcome Packet
When you start working with a new one-on-one or high-end client you want to set the scene for your relationship together and make them feel that they really have made the right choice in deciding to work with you - even though YOU know that they have!
Whether you're a coach, VA, or other service professional when you work one-on-one with your high-end clients you need to develop the "VIP experience" so that your clients feel that they are more than "just another client". This goes beyond the...
•5 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Business for Successful Business Growth
Let me share a secret with you that many successful online solopreneurs already know - you have to manage your business before you can market your business, and if you've been with me for a while you've no doubt heard me say this many times!
So, if you can answer YES to at least ONE of these questions then you know you are not effectively managing your business:
* Do you feel overwhelmed at the start of each day - you don't know what to do first?
* At the end of each day do you feel like...
•Top 5 Automation Tools for Your Online Solo Service Business
Part of running an efficient and organized business is making full use of the technology and resources available to you. It's great to set up systems and processes and have them work for you, but in order to fully automate your business you also need to know which technologies are going to work best to support you in that.
Over the years I have worked with many different automation tools (either in my own business or for my clients) that have helped to support an online solo business owner,...
•Build Your Relationship With Your Subscribers With These 7 Simple Ways
As an online business owner you know how important it is to build your list in order to have a ready pool of clients, potential clients, and customers who are interested in your business and your services/programs. But as a list owner you also have a responsibility to those people on your list to treat them well and build a relationship with them - it's known as creating the like, know, and trust factor - and is crucial for sustaining a long-term business.
People will only work with those...
•Sending Emails To Your List: How Often Is Too Often?
? Knowing how often to send emails to your mailing list is a big dilemma that many solopreneurs face. You don't want to bombard your subscribers with emails, but neither do you want them to forget you. One of my own subscribers recently emailed me to ask me about how often you should send emails to your subscriber.
Here's an excerpt of what she said:
"Your article piqued my interest today, and offered solid advice. It is interesting to note that I just attended a teleseminar where it was...
•4 Top Tips to To Keeping Your Newsletter on Track
Whether your newsletter is a weekly, monthly or quarterly commitment it's important that you have a plan for keeping the production flowing. Your subscribers need to know that you will deliver exactly when you say you will, otherwise you will be in danger of appearing unreliable and not doing what you said you would. Remember: as a solo service professional it's important to build the like, know, and trust factor, and getting your newsletter out on time, every time, is one of the ways in...
•5 Tips for Finding a Great Virtual Assistant
I've been hearing too many stories of late from fellow business owners, clients, and colleagues who have had bad experiences when partnering with a virtual assistant.
So in this article I thought I would shake things up a bit and share with you my five tips for finding a GREAT virtual assistant for your business... and believe me, there ARE many great VAs out there; you just need to know what you want before you go looking!
1. Decide what your requirements are. What skills and abilities do...
•Autoresponders - Put Your Follow-up On Autopilot!
As a solopreneur being able to follow-up with your clients and potential clients is crucial in growing and sustaining your business, and keeping a steady flow of new clients coming on board. However the downside is the time it takes to follow-up with each and every one of your contacts - after all spending all day following up with clients isn't a good use of your time; you also need to spend your time on income generating activities and generating cash flow for your business.
So what is a...
•Communication With Your Virtual Assistant is Essential
Pulling together a virtual team is vital to the success of any solo professional, but even more important is maintaining regular communication with your team. If you were all sitting together in an office environment, communication wouldn't be such a big issue - you could just walk over and chat to your assistant. But working virtually you have to set aside that time on a regular basis to talk and update one another.
This is true for all of your team members, not just your virtual...
•How to Ensure That Your Business Continues to Run in the Event of a PC Failure
Have you ever stopped to think what would happen to your business if your PC were to crash? Would you be able to continue to support your clients and/or generate income in the event of a computer failure?
If you run an online solo service business having a system in place that automatically creates a back-up of your PC's files and folders is essential. It's not just older PCs that are prone to glitches and complete system failures - it can happen to newer PCs too! Whatever age your PC...
•3 Tips for Overcoming Writer's Block
Your next newsletter is due out this Friday! You've got your newsletter template in front of you; you're sat at your PC all ready to go, and, horror of horrors... you've got blank page syndrome a.k.a. writer's block. Your mind is a complete blank and you can't think of a single thing to write about!
Writing articles is one of the main reasons why many solopreneurs put off producing a newsletter - they think they won't have anything to write about and writing an article is too time consuming...
•5 Tasks You Can Delegate to Free Up Your Time
Very often solo business owners know they have a need to partner with a Virtual Assistant (VA), but are not really sure how a virtual assistant can help them grow their business - they don't fully understand what services the VA provides. This is usually discussed during the client consultation process, but sometimes the client can still feel a little overwhelmed and are not sure about delegating their workload - in fact that is how one of my clients felt recently!
If you've not partnered...
•Ezine vs Blog? Making the Right Choice For Your Solo Service Business
Ezine vs Blog? Making the Right Choice For Your Solo Service Business I often read debates on forums about whether you should have just a blog or just an ezine, with questions like,
"I currently publish an ezine and a blog, but I'm thinking of dropping the ezine and going with just the blog."
My answer... you need both!
And here's why:
Creating a blog post is much easier to do than going down the whole ezine publication route; however, as you do not know who is reading your blog you...
•3 Winning Strategies To Use For Building Your List
My clients and regulars to my ezine have heard me say many times that the gold in your business starts with the list. Having a list of interested potential clients, who want to know more about you and your services, will provide you with a long-term, successful, business.
And guess what?
When you have a list in place of potential clients who are interested in you, your services and your products they come to you! You don't have to go out and find clients - they're right there!
And to...
•5 Surefire Ways To Get Highly Targeted Traffic To Your Website
As a solopreneur, one ingredient you need for a successful online business is traffic... and lots of it! But there are so many websites out there, all competing for the same traffic, that it can be difficult to attract visitors to YOUR website!
Today, I'd like to share with you my top five strategies for attracting highly targeted visitors:
1. Offer a Free Taste
Your free taste is something that you give to someone in exchange for them giving you their name and email address, and...
•3 Simple Strategies for Discovering What Your Target Market Wants
As a solo service professional you are probably already clear on who your niche is, i.e. you know who those people are who want and need your services, but are you providing the solution to their problems in the way that they want?
If your products, programs, and/or services are not selling as well as you thought they would it could be there's a mismatch between what your market wants and what you're providing them with. In other words, are you providing the solutions based on what YOU think...
•Top 5 Strategies to Get Your Office Schedule Back on Track!
After the long, lazy, summer you may have let your office schedule slip -- follow these great tips and get YOUR office schedule back on track!
1. Clear out your desk and files
Make way for those exciting new projects that have been put on the backburner over the summer. I recently did this and apart from getting rid of four grocery bags of papers, I felt much more motivated to start those projects that had been lurking for months! And it's amazing what you come across too!
2. Set up a...
•5 Steps To Keeping A Steady Flow of Clients And Prospects Coming Into YOUR Business
Building a successful long-term profitable business isn't about "marketing" your business, it's about "managing" your business - the marketing comes once you have your management systems in place. You cannot begin to market your business if you can't find the information you need, don't know who you are marketing to, and don't know where you are in your business. So, let's go back to basics and take a look at one of the key office organization systems you need to have in place to "manage"...
•3 Simple Steps To Manage Your Budget & Cashflow
I bet just the very title of this article is enough to make you run for cover! Along with paper piles, budget and Cashflow is another area that can drive solo business owners over the edge! In your corporate days you would have had a bookkeeping/accounting department that took care of all of this for you - they paid the invoices, they tracked the receivables, they tracked the income, and they told you the bottom line!
Now that you're running your own business you are also the Chief...
•7 Essential Elements For Creating A Filing System
I know... you probably think of filing as the most boring job in the world, and there are probably a 101 other thing that you would prefer to do instead. However, as a solo business owner, it is down to you to do the filing and stay organized. As a result this is one of the areas that a lot of solo business owners find overwhelming - they simply do not know where to start, or how to systemize their business.
Papers here; papers there; papers everywhere!
The more piles of paper there are,...
•Online Marketing Systems - An Overview
One question I get asked a lot is which online marketing service should I use (or variations thereof):
"I use Constant Contact for my newsletter but want to start selling products via my website. Do I need 1ShoppingCart to do this?"
"Which is the best service to use for my newsletter - Constant Contact or Aweber?"
"I want to use an autoresponder service. Do I need 1ShoppingCart or Aweber?"
You get the idea!
This is something that many solopreneurs find a difficult decision to make;...
•Break Out Of Your Email Jail - 7 Top Tips for Managing Your Emails
Email management is a major source of overwhelm for many solo business owners; I only have to read my new subscriber notices every day to know this! When I ask my subscribers what their biggest office headache is email is right up there with the rest of them! Comments such as:
"Emails - yikes!"
"Responding to emails"
"Managing email"
"Emails overload"
Sound familiar?
By cleaning up the flow of emails into your Inbox, you can then improve the flow of your business, and spend your time...
•3 Quick Tips to Banish Your Bookkeeping Blues!
Are you one of those people who are guilty of just stuffing your receipts into a folder and thinking 'I'll sort that out when I've got time'? Do you need a more organised bookkeeping system, nothing too flash, just something that's simple and easy to manage?
Follow my tips below and you'll soon have that simple and easy-to-manage bookkeeping system that won't bring you out in a cold sweat whenever you hear the words 'tax return'. And I promise you, it works!
1. Gather your supplies!
Get...
•The Low Down on Online Shopping Cart Systems Exposed
I recently ventured into the world of creating digital information products and selling them via my website. One of the biggest dilemmas I faced was deciding which shopping cart provider to go with.
Having worked on various shopping cart systems for clients, I knew my way around setting these up, but when it came to my own online shopping cart system I couldn't decide the best way forward.
Ultimately I ended up making a poor choice by going a cheaper alternative route, than the service I...
•The Ultimate Guide To A Client Conversion System
One of the best time-saving strategies I've implemented is my client conversion system. You know the drill; a potential client comes along and emails/calls you asking about your services. You spend time responding, maybe even putting a detailed proposal together, and then you never hear from them again! Not even a thank you for your email!
This is one area that's a huge time drain for solo service professionals, but one that is so important - you need paying clients so you have to spend...
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