Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

A new, and I think better, way to plan for 2010 #fb

As I plan for 2010 and reflect on all that happened in 2009, I realize that there are several things I was tolerating in 2009 which will not be a part of my 2010.

You may choose to call this "adhering to boundaries" or "acknowledging and eliminating pet peeves", I simply refer to it as clearing space.

After all, if my energy isn't being ursurped by the things which take, rather than nourish, there's more space for those things which I want to attract.

Here's a partial list of those things (and people) which (who) won't be coming with me into the New Year (warning, this isn't for the faint-hearted):

• Vendors who don't meet the terms of our agreement (they've been fired)
• Clients who want everything and yet implement nothing (yes, I've let a few go)
• Biz owners who fail to recognize the importance of building relationships and being authentic (we can tell when you're being inauthentic, REALLY!)
• Companies who don't know the meaning of customer service or who retain employees who don't believe in it (I'm boycotting)
• Negative Nellies (I wish them well and would gleefully welcome them back into my life if they could display some optimism)
• Voicemail messages with no contact info, no real message (just "call me") and no good time to return the call (do everyone a favor, leave a detailed message with your phone or email so we can actually get back to you)
• Ditto incoming faxes with no return contact info (DUH!)
• Sales letters which promise the world and don't even deliver a county (we're back to being authentic)
• "No shows" who schedule a call and don't call or reschedule (this one shows absolutely no respect for the person being called)

In case you're wondering, the above isn't negative...it's about respecting my time, energy and "self" -- after all, those things we tolerate have a way of taking over and affecting our creativity, ability to manifest and general well-being.  And my family, and clients, deserve the best me I can give them.

Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you were tolerating in 2009 and how your 2010 will be different -- I'd love to hear from you!  And remember, YOU control your environment -- no one else.

5 Things Which Make the Difference Between a Hobby and a Business

I'd like you to take a step back, look at your business as an outsider would and ask the question "Is this a hobby or a business?"

Put aside the anger that immediately boils to the surface because, after all, you are working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week; eating and non-sleeping this entity known as your business with little financial return and look at it objectively.

There will come a time (if it hasn't come already) when you get up one morning, exhausted and overwhelmed, and ask yourself "What happened to my vision of carefree self employment where I'm my own boss, there's plenty of money and I'm a raging success? Did I take a wrong turn on the road to success?"

Conversions What do they mean and why do they matter?

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We hear all the time that we need to "increase our conversions" or "get our numbers up". But what exactly does that mean and what else do we need to know?

"Conversion" is all about turning leads into paying clients and, when done well, more leads into more clients while doing it better, faster and with the least possible expense.

"Conversion" is also used to describe the result of desiring someone to take a step -- whichever step you want them to take -- whether signing up for a f'ree report, register for a strategy session, join a teleseminar or webinar, etc. -- the result is a desired action.

"Conversion Percentage" (sorry, just a little bit of math here) is defined as the "number of NEW sales" divided by the "number of leads" times 100.

And in the above case, "NEW sales" are people who are giving you money for the very first time (they're not repeat clients) and "leads" are people who have expressed, in some way, interest in what you're offering -- whether they visited your website, called your office, sent you an email, etc.

"New Client Cost" is defined as how much it costs for you to market to someone such that they give you money for the first time.

"Extreme Client Care(tm)" describes the process by which the better the care you provide to your clients, the less likely they'll be to switch to another vendor. (More on this in an upcoming series.)

Why do these terms matter?

Quite simply put, the better your conversion, the lower your new client cost AND the better your client care, the less new clients you'll need as existing clients won't leave your service and will refer others who cost almost nothing to market to (and therefore lower your new client cost even further).

You may want to read the above paragraph again to truly absorb the logic.

Make It Real -- My Request to You

Before we can even chat about increasing your conversions, you need to know where you stand today.

Ask your webmaster or assistant to get you signed up with a service such as Webstat if you don't already get statistics about the number of visitors to your site, blog, ezine sign-ups, etc.

After all, you need to know where you are in order to determine where you want to be. :-)

What happens when you fail to track

For the past month I've been involved in a 30 day blogging challenge hosted by Connie Ragen Green and have been blogging right along.

"Right along"...today I counted my posts and realized that I'm falling far short of the "30 posts in 30 days" and since the challenge ends tonight, this is one goal that I won't meet -- well, I could, but then you'd be inundated with blog posts this evening and that hardly seems fair.

So what happened?

Quite simply, I didn't track my posts. I "trusted" that I'd reach 30 posts in 30 days in the normal course of running my business and didn't create a plan to ensure that I hit the target.

And the result...I missed my goal.

What aren't you tracking or planning for in your business?  And what results can you expect to have as a result?

Do you fully embrace your freedom to. . .

During this week of Independence holidays in the US and Canada, I have to wonder. . .

Do you fully embrace your freedom to take back your power and create your business without falling to all the pomp and circumstance (a.k.a. "hype") that's *out there*?

A new private client called me the other day in complete overwhelm.  You see she had a desk full of info products and systems designed to "take [her] business to the next level" and had just received another email promising the same if she would only sign up for this 4-day workshop.

Credit card in hand, she called me to ask if she should go (we had discussed that there would be "no new" purchases until some critical pieces were in place in her business. (I can't share more due to confidentiality.)

My advice to her:

Does your business need a reality check?

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During a consultation last week, I was speaking with a 5-figure business owner who wanted to make $150,000 this year.

Doable?

Absolutely!

Doable with the plan she had?

Absolutely not.

So many business owners create good solid goals and then take haphazard action, constantly led astray by another bright shiny object or thinking the Law of Attraction will deliver it all to them.

The “reality check”?

It’s a combination of taking the RIGHT action in the RIGHT way at the RIGHT time WHILE maintaining a positive and abundant mindset that will propel you forward to your goals.

While you may think this sounds a little tough, it’s a whole lot tougher to close your doors and get a J O B working for someone else, especially after spending thousands of hours and dollars on programs and products, all designed to get you “to the next level”.

Make It Real: My Request To You

First, revisit your goals for this quarter (July through September) and this year.

Second, determine if your goals are REALISTIC given where you are now and your plans (HOW will you bring in the revenue, which projects, implemented when?) for the rest of the year.

Third, either revise your goals, your plan or both so that they’re in alignment and doable.

Fourth. . .take action. Now!

If you want help determining if your goals are realistic and building a plan you can implement to reach those goals (or others we set), you’ll want to see if a strategy session with me works for you.

7 + 1 Summer Resources To Keep/Get You on Track

Despite the rain, wind and chilling temperatures today, it's officially the first day of summer here in Massachusetts.

As you prepare to have the kids home from school and determine your own summer projects, here are a few resources -- both business and personal -- which may make things easier:

For the kids as they start hanging around the house (and your office) asking "What can I do? There's nothing to do, I'm bored", etc. -- free guide on 50 Easy Ways Your Kids Can Make Money

Okay, now that they're taken care of, on to you. . .

1.  If you've been struggling to get your first ebook out, I recommend Connie Ragen Green's Ebook Writing & Technology Home Study Course 

2.  If you've been wanting to get your first teleseminar under your belt, but have been unsure of how to pull it all together, I recommend my own "How to Host Your Own Teleseminar: The Tools to Make It Happen...without fear

3.  If you're looking to clean up your eating habits some, summer is a perfect time to do it and I recommend Karen Knowler's ebooks on incorporating more raw foods into your meals (note that you don't have to be a total raw foodie to get tons of ideas and recipes from Karen's stuff!)

4.  If summer's the time you're going to get your article marketing in gear, my favorite places include: Ezine Articles, Best Article Marketer and Submit Your Article. Submit Your Article charges about $37/month, but they'll forward your article out to several other sites for you which makes it a bargain (cheaper than doing yourself or hiring someone to do it for you)

5.  If you're thinking about turning your knowledge into product, but need a little nudge, here's a free (no opt-in required) video for you. . .

6.  And if you're planning on hanging out and manifesting some great things, here are two of my favorite manifesting tools: Magnetize Absolutely Anything audio and workbook and Wildly Wealthy book and workbook

7.  Or if you're looking for some organizing tips, tools and assistance, you'll want to check out my two favorite organizers: the MomMentor, Debbye Cannon and Elizabeth Hagen

My best wishes for a VERY Happy AND Productive Summer!

 

 

Target Fixation -- Is your goal killing your business?

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There are very few television shows I watch with any regularity and NCIS is one of them -- whether it's the investigative plots themselves or Mark Harmon, I can't say for sure. :-)

One episode discussed the concept of "target fixation" -- a concept where you are SO focused on your target that you fly right into it.

In the entrepreneurial world, I attribute "target fixation" to being SO incredibly focused on your goal (your target) that you fail to see all the other opportunities around you.

While working with a private virtual retreat client last week, we soon discovered that she was so concerned with staying "on message" (her fixation) that she completely missed a whole section of her business which, with a little tweaking, is completely in tune with her message and could be a significant revenue stream.

Even better. . .her clients are already eager and looking for this knowledge and service.

Now let's take a look at what could have happened had she not acknowledged this segment of her business. Note that this is what typically happens with small business owners:

1. We focus SO much on the goal that we regularly miss additional opportunities all around us -- thus losing both the opportunity to have a greater impact on our clients AND our bottom lines or
2. If something happens to the one area we ARE focused on (ie, clients stop calling), we're not prepared and have no other revenue streams to pick up the slack.

And if you doubt that such a thing as "target fixation" exists, just think back to your teenage years when you were "SOOOO in love" with that one person -- the person who everything else revolved around and whom you considered in all your plans. . .

Now that you're aware of our tendency as humans to focus so intently on one goal, one revenue stream, one "whatever" that we unintentionally neglect other areas of our business, or lives, what are you going to do about it?

Make It Real: My Request to You

Here are my suggestions for tackling your target fixation:

1. Determine where you're fixated and willfully take your eyes OFF the target -- this can be more difficult than it first seems
2. Take a step back from your business and review it as an outsider (say, a banker determining whether or not to give you funding) would
3. After Step 2, what do you see? Where are there opportunities for improvement or enhancement? What should you start doing? Stop doing?

So what are you going to add to, or change in, your business this week?

Blog Tag: 10 Honest Traits About Me...

Hey Everyone,

I've been tagged in a "blog tag" by my friend and Mastermind buddy Nancy Marmolejo of Viva Visibility.  These are so much fun and will give you a little more info on bloggers you like to follow.

The name of the game is for me to share 10 honest things about myself and then invite more people to do the same.

Here goes...

1. I'm a first generation American -- my Dad was from Italy (RIP Dad, I miss you SOOO much!) and my Mom is from England.
2. My friends are constantly telling me I have a career in stand-up comedy if I ever want to go there.
3. My hobbies consist of swimming, gardening, reading, volunteering and learning what I can about Atlantis. 
4. The plane that crashed onto the White House South Lawn on Sept 12, 1994 came close to ruining a Presidential event I had spent months planning and that was to be held later that day -- we held it on the North Lawn instead (AmeriCorps).
5. I inherited my keen intuition, strategic mind and common sense from my Dad -- whenever in doubt, I ask myself "What would Dad do?".
6. Languages come easily to me and I've learned Chinese on a bet, Turkish for a guy, Russian to fight the Cold War (I'm dating myself here), French because no one had ever studied two languages at my high school before and Italian to survive family gatherings (in Italy).
7. I've never eaten a pickle (the smell turns me off) and get sick when in the vicinity of tuna fish.
8. A PETA poster of chickens in the D.C. Metro sytem is what turned me into a vegetarian.
9. One of my goals is to run, and finish, the Boston Marathon.
10. Over the course of 5 years, I had 7 jobs (and turned down 3 others), but only applied for 2 -- the rest were offered to me as a result of my ability to get things done, no matter what.

I now tag the following friends and ask for their 10 honest traits.  They'll then tag 7-10 other people:

Baeth Davis www.handanalyst.com/blog

Adam Urbanski www.themarketingmentors.com

Fabienne Fredrickson  www.clientattractionsystem.com/blog

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein www.thewealthspa.com

Shama Hyder http://clicktoclient.com/blog/

Mari Smith www.marismith.com/blog

Sandy Grason www.theroadtofabulous.com

Wendy Y. Bailey www.wendyy.com

And I'm looking forward to reading Karen Knowler's, Anese Cavanaugh's, Helen Grave's and Kendall SummerHawk's!  :-)

2009 At-a-Glance

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

I'm amazed at the amount of emails and calls (yep, people are still using the phone!) asking me what programs I'll be coming out with in 2009.  As a result, I wanted to give a quick "2009 At-a-Glance" for those of you who are interested:

• Launch of "Revenue Roadmap" -- for those who understand the importance of systems and want to leapfrog over figuring them out on their own -- details coming soon
• Accepting applications for my Success Mastermind Program (starts in February) -- email Gina@SandraMartini.com for an application
• Release of 90 Day Intensive Online Business Builder Mentoring Program Home Study -- due out in mid-February
• Accepting 3 private clients to work 1-on-1 with me in January-- email Gina@SandraMartini.com to learn more
• Debut of Clients-Only Newsletter (and you think the ezine is good!) -- for clients only
• 2-day workshop coming this fall -- details coming soon
• . . .and a whole lot more stuff I'm not quite ready to share yet  :-)

If you're ready to figure out just what the heck you should be doing in order to maximize profits while minimizing overwhelm, I'll be giving you lots of ways to do it...you just gotta pick the ones that work best for you. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!