Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Focused: Creating Cash Flow with Email Marketing

Join me and Lisa Almeida of Planit Production for a fun and informative session on generating cash flow through email marketing this Thursday, December 4th at 2pm Eastern.

You'll learn the following in this 60-minute call:

• Why online marketing is important for EVERY business, no matter your industry
• How to launch an online marketing campaign in less than 1 week – even if you don’t have a website or have never bought or sold a single thing online
• The three essential ingredients to online marketing success for beginners and veterans
• A simple strategy you can implement immediately to generate holiday cash flow plus how to duplicate those results throughout the year

Click here to sign up today (and yes. . .the call will be recorded in case you can’t join us live – although you’ll miss out on the live spot coaching)!

Online Business Mentoring Program

It's official. . .today's the LAST DAY to sign up for my LAST EVER 90 Day Intensive which starts TOMORROW!

With everything going on in the financial world and the government, you owe it to yourself to have a business which will support you, through good times and bad.

The 90 Day Intensive will give you the tools, the strategies and the support you need to implement a long term growth-oriented strategic marketing action plan.

Don't you owe it to yourself -- and your business -- to succeed. . .for the LONG TERM?

Click here to learn more about my LAST EVER Online Business Mentoring Program!

6 Proven Strategies for When Clients Don't Pay

You’re psyched!  You just landed a new client who is going to keep you busy with projects.  Life is good.

You love the people, you’re really enjoying the work, things are going great. Everything proceeds along smoothly for several months until that fateful month where you submit a large invoice and payment isn’t immediate.

“No problem” you think.  “Things are somewhat tight.  It will just be paid a little late.”

What are your options when a client doesn’t – or can’t – pay you?

There are several things you can do when a client doesn’t pay you. Before you start down the path however, you need to think about what type of future, if any, you want with this client.

1. Gentle reminder.

Your invoice could have been forgotten, misplaced or buried in a pile on your client’s desk. If they have gone past your due date, email – or call depending on what is most comfortable for you – a gentle reminder asking them the status of payment.

If you use QuickBooks or QuickBooks Online, you can also email a statement directly from the system.

2. Be personal.

If you’ve reminded the client and no payment has come, it is time for either another email or a phone call. Your client may tell you that he is very busy and apologizes that he “forgot” again.

Explain that cash flow is very important to your small business and that you can not afford to carry the unpaid invoice any longer.

Always remember to make it easy for your client to pay you. Tell him that you are happy to be paid via wire, PayPal, credit card – offer him all the options and be sure that you have more than just “send a check” available. Make it as easy as possible!

3. Be the “squeaky wheel”.

If your client is having his own cash flow issues, he may need to make hard choices about who gets paid when. Send an email reminder or statement every other day or every week – take your comfort level and go one step further.

By being the “squeaky wheel”, you insure that you are at the forefront of his mind when he is paying bills.

4. Cut him off.

As hard as it is, sometimes you need to tell the client – even though you’ve become friends – that you can not do any additional work until your invoices are paid in full.

As a small business owner, you are responsible for the running of your business and, as a result, there are times when you need to make tough decisions that are best for your business. You can’t afford to work without compensation and your client should understand that.

5. Get tough.

You’ve tried being gentle. You’ve tried being personal. And you’ve squeaked so many times that you’re tired of hearing your own voice. Now it’s time to put that prepaid legal plan to use!

Have your attorney send a formal letter stating that if you are not paid, in full, within X number of days, that you will either take the client to small claims court (the normal limit is between $2,000 and $7,500 – it varies by state in the U.S.) or to arbitration. Whether you sue or go to arbitration depends on the contract you have with your client as some state that disputes will be arbitrated.

6. Bigger than small claims.

If the client owes you substantially more than the small claims process will allow you to sue for, you may wish to sue in a formal state trial court. Debt collection cases are usually simple and few collection cases actually make it to trial as most defendants either settle before trial or fail to show up for court (in which case you would receive a default judgment).

Chances are if you threaten legal action, your client will pay up. If he doesn’t, you may have to follow through on your threat. Just remember to make this decision taking into account how much you are owed, your time for the legal action and whether or not you ever wish to work with this client in the future.

Note that if the client never pays you, you *may* be able to deduct the amount as a “bad debt”. See your tax advisor for more information regarding the bad debt rule.

You want to take collection actions that you are comfortable with while thinking about how they will affect your future relationship with the client. Keep in mind however that you are a small business owner and should be promptly paid for services rendered and accepted. After all, you didn’t go into business for yourself to work for free!

For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.

Proven Method to Build Your Business -- YES, REALLY

73% of the program spots are already taken for my 90 Day Intensive Online Business Builder Mentoring Program! Here's what a couple of members said as they signed up:

• "I've been waiting for this! I'm happy now!" and
• "I couldn't pass this up! I'm ready to get things done."

Here's an overview of what my exclusive 90-Day Intensive, Fast Start Program includes:

1. 12 WEEKLY curriculum-based calls/webinars where I teach you the exact steps needed to build your business AND how to do them with a focus on fast implementation so you can see real results throughout the program. Each module builds on the previous one and leads into the next one.
2. 6 biweekly Q&A calls where I answer your questions to ensure you continue moving forward.
3. Monthly marketing material review. Each month, I'll provide examples of materials submitted to me for review with my written comments -- Program members are encouraged to submit materials for review.
4. Monthly call-in coaching days with me where you have the opportunity to work with me privately for 15 minutes - whether to delve deeper into a topic or get a gentle nudge, this is your time!
5. A weekly online "check-in" (which I review and respond to) to keep you on track and motivated to reach your goals.
6. Assignments designed to be implemented immediately so you make real changes in real time and build your business throughout the program.
7. An intimate group Mastermind experience where everyone receives the support they need as I'm allowing less than 20 members in the Program.

Spots ARE limited and registration ends April 22nd so if this sounds like something you may be interested in, I encourage you to check out the information page here.

As you can see, the Program focuses on implementation while providing you the real information you need to propel your business forward.

I'm excited about the members who have already signed up and would love to see YOU in the Program!

4 "Must Know" Tips for Pricing Your Services

One of the worst moments in a business owner’s life is that silent moment between when you quote your rate to a potential client and his response. True, that hardly a second goes by, but it can feel like an eternity.

“Will he hire me?”

“Did I go too high?”

And when he says “YOU’RE HIRED!”, a new set of doubts creeps over you:

“Should I have gone higher?”

“Did I lowball the price just to get a client?”

You know the feeling. You’ve got the job, the project, the new client and it almost always turns out to be more work than you thought when you signed up for the task. Be sure that you know your worth and communicate it to the client up front.

1. Know your worth.

If you charge your clients hourly, how do you know what to charge them? Did you pick a number out of the air? What was your rationale?

For those who choose to bill hourly, I recommend the following approach to determining what you charge:

(a) Determine what you want your salary to be.  How much will you take out of the company?

(b)  Add to that any subcontractor expense that you may have.  This is your “labor total”.

(c) List out and then add all your expenses: advertising, promotion, rent, self-employment tax, supplies, etc. This is your “non-labor expense total”.

(d)  Add your labor total to your non-labor expense total.

(e)  Add in any profit goal you may have for your business.

(f)  Bullets (d) plus (e) equal your Total Required Revenue.

(g) Divide your “Total Required Revenue” by the number of BILLABLE hours for the year. Remember that you will not be billing 40 hours/week. The result will be the amount you need to charge per hour to make your salary goal.

If you bill hourly, take the time to complete the above exercise and, if necessary, increase your rates accordingly.

2. No haggling.

It can be hard when you have few clients or need more money, but whatever you do, do not haggle with your clients/prospective clients over your pricing.

You can haggle at a flea market. You can haggle for the price of a house. You can negotiate (a.k.a. “haggle”) for a corporate job salary. As a self-employed individual, you must not haggle over your pricing. To do so immediately lowers your perceived worth with that person and will set you up for a relationship of nitpicking over every nickel and dime.

3. Provide a “solution” and not a “service.”

Insure your clients understand the benefits they will receive from hiring you. You are not providing them a service; you are providing them a solution.

The difference being that people value solutions more than they do services. Whenever discussing price with a potential client, focus on the benefits, the “solutions” that she will receive as a result of hiring you.

Will she have more free time?  Will her business see an increase in profits or clients?  Know the benefits and speak to them!

4. Be prepared to say “Goodbye”.

Not everyone is going to accept your terms. Deal with it. They weren’t meant to be your clients anyway and would have just taken up the time that you could use for a better qualified client. Save your time and energy for those who recognize your worth – you’ll both be happier and more productive.

Pricing your services is one of the most emotional things you’ll do as a business owner. Be sure to take the time to review the project at hand before just blurting out a price – doing so will save you a lot of time and frustration down the road.

Leading small business expert Sandra Martini is the "Automatic Business Coach." Sandra delivers simple proven, yet innovative, ways entrepreneurs can implement processes and systems to create a waiting list of clients while giving them more money, time, and freedom in their businesses. For free articles, free resources and to sign up for her free audio mini-seminar "5 Quick & Easy Ways to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot" visit www.SandraMartini.com.

So - You Want to be Rich? 7 Wealth Attraction Tips for Entrepreneurs

We all hear it. We all say it. Everyone wants to be rich but, short of picking the lucky numbers or winning the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, most people go don’t know how to amass the wealth they dream about.

Here are the top tactics of successful entrepreneurs:

1. “Dig the well before you’re thirsty” – Confucius

We discussed this last week. Marketing, whether your business or yourself, is the one task that wise people do daily – YES...DAILY. You should do at least one thing each day to keep your marketing funnel full.

2. “The moment you begin to think of time as precious and that it has a price, the richer you will become.” – Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Do you spend your time wisely or do you squander it by spending hours in front of the TV? Successful entrepreneurs understand that how they spend their time determines their future. It’s critical to do the things that will move you/your business forward each day.

3. Have a wealth mindset

Successful entrepreneurs are focused, first and foremost, on being secure. Then on being comfortable and finally, on being rich. It is this focus on security that forces them to build systems and look at the big picture as opposed to doing what is best only for the short-term.

Successful entrepreneurs also understand that they need to invest in themselves and their business in order to reach their long-term goals. Doing things “quick and dirty” or for the fast buck doesn’t create the long-lasting success that you are looking for.

4. Have a sense of urgency

Successful entrepreneurs are not procrastinators – they get things done and done today! Their sense of urgency is borne not only of their appreciation for the value of time, but also as a way of insuring their clients are always satisfied. Why make them wait? Happy clients purchase from you and they do so repeatedly.

5. “Don’t feel overwhelmed...just do one thing at a time.” -- Rose Lindsey character in “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” movie

The above quote may sound familiar and is a trademark of all successful entrepreneurs. Have 100 things to do? Don’t know where to start?

Just pick one and do it. It doesn’t matter which one, just do something. Sitting and staring at the pile or fretting about how much you need to do won’t get you anywhere. But doing one thing, and then another, and then another will.

6. Be a “big picture optimist and detail pessimist”.

Direct marketing guru Dan Kennedy tells the story of how he travels a lot and never worries about the plane going to the wrong city or exploding in midair or experiencing some other trouble that would result in his never reaching to his destination (big picture optimist). At the same time, he plans for the plane to leave late and arrive late, for his luggage to be lost and for the food (when you get it) to be inedible (detail pessimist).

Using this approach in project (and travel) planning insures that you’ve anticipated the potential problems which Murphy’s Law usually provides and have solutions already in hand. The worst that can happen is that you never need your “Plan B”.

7. You can't (and shouldn't) do it all

Successful entrepreneurs know and understand that trying to do everything themselves is a prescription for overwhelm and burnout.

The truly successful create teams and delegate effectively. Having one (or several) good virtual assistants, a bookkeeper, a pre-paid legal plan, etc. takes the day-to-day minutiae off you so that you can focus on the big picture.

No matter where you are today, I encourage you to do one thing today that will move you forward in your goals. Remember Confucius (knew a lot, didn’t he?): “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take that step today and feel the momentum carry you forward.

Sandra P. Martini, the Automatic Business Coach ™, is creator of the “9 Simple Steps to Creating an Automatic Business” system. To learn more about this step-by-step program for small business success, and to receive her FREE “5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot” e-course/audio mini-series and how-to articles and teleseminars, please visit www.SandraMartini.com.

 

3 Strategies for Protecting Your Business

You’ve done the marketing, you’ve filled your funnel and the phone starts ringing – you’ve got a new client! Now what?

Whether you are a consultant, coach, virtual assistant or other type of service provider, it’s important to insure you start off your client relationship properly.

You don’t want to let the exhilaration of signing a new (or your first) client get in the way of sound business practice. There are three ways I recommend you protect yourself when dealing with clients.

1. Have a contract or client agreement.

You should have some form of contract or client agreement which states, at a minimum, your work hours, your hourly fee (if you charge by the hour), payment terms, a statement regarding confidentiality, your status as an independent contractor, an “out” clause (e.g., either party may terminate the agreement with 14 days notice) and any other data that you feel pertinent (such as an arbitration clause).

If you choose to have a contract or client agreement, it is in your best interest to insure that your client signs and returns it before any work is performed – remember to send your client a signed copy back.

2. Create Client Service Plans.

If you’re not sure how many hours a client will require each month, you may want to consider creating “Client Service Plans” which allows clients to know they have purchased a certain amount of your time for any given month.

For example, if you are a coach, you could charge $X/month for three 30-minute calls and email support. Or $Y/month for three 45-minute calls and email support.

If you are a virtual assistant, you could charge $X per hour for clients who commit to using 40 hours/month and $Y per hour for clients who commit to using 20 hours/month. Each set of hours/pricing would be a separate plan – Platinum, Gold and Silver, for example, where Platinum clients commit to the most hours and Silver clients the least.

Don’t be afraid to tailor your plans to your specific business and your clients. It’s important that they know you can be flexible while still maintaining your internal standards.

3. Require a deposit or get paid in advance.

It makes good business sense to require a deposit before you start work for new clients. The deposit doesn’t need to be prohibitive, but just enough to guarantee that you are paid at least something for your work if the client decides to try and stiff you.

Most coaches I know are paid in advance of the month. For example, clients pay at the end of November for December’s coaching. Many virtual assistants require a percentage deposit at the beginning of each month and credit it on the invoice.

The above strategies are not mutually exclusive. I use all three to a certain degree in my business along with a “Client Intake Form” that I’ve created. This allows me to learn something about the client before we’ve had our first session.

I include all of this information in my Client Welcome Kit along with a one-page informational sheet indicating how I best work. This allows us each to determine if our work styles mesh – thus creating a win/win situation for both.

In the end, it’s about creating expectations and insuring that both parties are happy with the arrangement.

Sandra P. Martini, the Automatic Business Coach ™, is creator of the “9 Simple Steps to Creating an Automatic Business” system.  To learn more about this step-by-step program for small business success, and to receive her FREE “5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot” e-course/audio mini-series and how-to articles and teleseminars, please visit www.SandraMartini.com.

Who's Watching YOUR Money? 7 Tips for Hiring the Right Bookkeeper

While I’m a strong advocate of hiring virtual assistants, there are two things that no entrepreneur should ever fully delegate: marketing and bookkeeping. The marketing and the bookkeeping of your business can easily make or break you (just think “new” Coke and Enron). That said, if bookkeeping is not your forte, hire someone to do it – you will save so much in frustration – just be sure to keep your fingers in the books.

If you choose to hire a bookkeeper, keep the following in mind:

1. Get QuickBooks.

For ease of use, I highly recommend using QuickBooks and hiring a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. QuickBooks ProAdvisors have taken certification exams to insure that they know the system. I have used QuickBooks both for myself and my clients since 1996 and highly recommend it for its ease of use/understanding.

The online version is great in that you can see the latest version of your books at any time and eliminate the annoyance of emailing files back and forth and wondering who has the latest version.

2. She must see both the forest AND the trees.

You want your bookkeeper to be detail-oriented AND to see/understand the big picture. She needs to know what happens consistently – every month – and update your books without bothering you for items she should know about.

At the same time, she needs to be astute enough to see the larger picture and warn you of any impending problems before they happen. If you purchase a piece of equipment, she should know how to properly enter it into your bookkeeping software to avoid problems – and therefore save time and money – with your accountant (and the IRS) later on.

3. She must know your industry.

You don’t want to have to train your bookkeeper on your industry language, standard industry income or expense categories or other basics. The more up-to-speed she is, the faster she can hit the ground running and the sooner you will have good data. If she doesn’t know your industry however, be sure to give her a rundown of lingo and how you refer to your customers/clients/tenants in order for you to get the most meaningful reports out of the gate.

4. She must provide timely reporting.

In hiring your bookkeeper, insure that you put in a provision for when you want to see monthly financials. The date will depend on when your bank month ends – give her a few days after that date to reconcile your accounts and produce reports. At a minimum, you want to see a profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Take the time to review the reports so you can spot any irregularities before they blossom into problems. Not sure how to read a cash flow statement? Get a check/electronic funds transfer (eft or “auto debit”) transaction detail instead. It will help you see where the cash is going.

5. She must know accounting terms and still speak “English”.

Your bookkeeper needs to know the difference between assets, liabilities, income, expenses and equity and be able to provide your accountant with the necessary data upon request. At the same time however, if you are not “numbers oriented”, she also needs to be able to explain the financial statements to you in plain English.

6. She must be trustworthy.

Hiring someone to keep track of your bookkeeping requires a level of trust between you both. You need to feel comfortable that she will keep track of your information and maintain your confidentiality. At the same time, if she pays your bills and has access to your bank accounts, you must also trust that she will not abuse that privilege. And make no mistake, it is a privilege to have someone (particularly in a virtual relationship) trust you with their finances, their checkbook and their business.

Good business sense demands that you protect yourself “just in case”. I highly recommend that, in addition to a confidentiality agreement, you insure that your bookkeeper is bonded and you get a copy of that bond.

7. She must have great communication skills.

If your bookkeeper will be communicating with your clients and vendors, she must represent your business as you would. Whether virtual or in-house, it’s critical that your bookkeeper be a positive force that further enhances relationships. The question of money can, at times, be a sensitive matter. You need someone who recognizes that and communicates appropriately.

Always remember – these are your books and this is your business. While you may hire someone to manage the details of tracking your finances, and should do so if this is not one of your strengths, the ultimate responsibility for oversight is yours. Michael E. Gerber of the “E-myth” series said it best: “Delegate, don’t abdicate.”

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE?  You can, as long as you include
this complete blurb with it: The Get Control of Your Business Now! Coach, Author & Entrepreneur, Sandra
Martini, publishes the 'Success Strategies' weekly e-zine. She also coaches small business owners
to more efficiently manage their businesses while increasing profits and having fun. Sandra's
coaching programs are available via teleconferencing, emails and telephone calls.  For more information or to sign-up for 'Weekly Success Strategies', visit www.SandraMartini.com today.