Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

How to Design Your Business for Leverage and Profits

 
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Most entrepreneurs and small business owners create a business with big hopes and dreams about what their life will be like owning a successful business: the freedom, family time, financial security, etc.

 

Reality is often far different.

 

Reality is that most entrepreneurs and small business owners create jobs for themselves – working long days in order to eek out enough m.o.n.e.y to pay their bills, often not even covering the costs of the business.

 

Reality is that most entrepreneurs and small business owners spend their business lives trying to get new clients through a mishmash of information product and program launches, all the while burning out their lists.

 

Enough of the all-too-common reality.

 

When you design a business to suit your lifestyle (today’s and desired), your values and your goals, your business becomes freeing.

 

Rather than create a job, the entrepreneur who designs her business with the end in mind creates a path to freedom – a business which can run with or without her.

 

How it works

 

1. Make a list of everything you don’t want in your life and your business (it’s usually easier to start with what you do not want as opposed to what you do want).
2. Across from each item in #1, write the opposite of what you don’t want.
3. Check in with yourself – are these items accurate? If so, great. . .If not, add, tweak, delete until they are.
4. Write down your ideal day.  Be specific (when do you get up, what do you do, who are you with, etc. – it’s often easiest to take this in 6 hr chunks from the time you wake up)
5. Describe your business: what do you do in your business, what’s your business’ purpose, what makes your business unique from others offering the same services.  Again, be specific.
6. Now the fun begins. . .it’s time to design your business so that it fulfills its purpose and gives clients what they want and, in return, you get what you want (your desired lifestyle) and that design starts with answering 3 questions: 1/ Who are your ideal clients? 2/ What are you promising them? and 3/ How will you deliver on your promise?
7. Once you have the above, it’s time to create a marketing and visibility plan customized for your business, your personality and your values. 

Get Off The Roller Coaster and On The Escalator – Sneak Peek

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For years, decades actually, you’ve been taught to create marketing “funnels” and “pyramids” and that these, in essence, create the backbone of your marketing plan.

Truth is, they don’t work.

Let’s start with the marketing funnel. . .

Wide at the top, this is where your prospects first learn about you – where awareness is created.

The thought is that you want as many people “falling into” your funnel as possible as only a few will make it all the way through. It’s considered a numbers game.

And the funnel bottom. . .narrow, designed to allow only a few through, this is where the high end programs, products and services are located, waiting for those lucky enough to reach the bottom of the funnel.

All the motion surrounding the funnel is negative. . .not the energy a conscious or heart-based entrepreneur is seeking.

Extreme Client Care: The Final Frontier in Business

 

 

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Until recently, whenever I heard the words “the final frontier”, I thought of Star Trek.  Now, however, it makes me think of business:  

 

Business owners have waged war on prices, bonuses, early bird specials, scarcity tactics, buy one/get one offers, reputations, affiliate commission payouts and gifts, bring-a-friend specials and pretty much everything else you can think of.

The final frontier is service.

  

Good, even great, customer service is no longer enough.  

You have to practice Extreme Client Care™ -- it’s not about providing great customer service.  It IS about providing a recurring, memorable client experience.

 

 And, the best part. . .it’s easier than you think, particularly when you design systems so it happens automatically whenever possible: 

• Send birthday cards/gifts
• Openly promote your clients whenever you get the chance
• Create nurturing sequences to teach your clients how to consume your products
• Create QuickStart calls for new programs
• Hosting an event? Give attendees a thumb drive with all presentations and audio bonuses
• Include f.r.e.e. shipping
• Send a welcome gift to new clients or newsletter subscribers
• Remember, it’s about THEM, not you
• Hosting an event? Give attendees a postage-paid priority mail box to send binders home
• Design and implement referral plan

These are just a few ideas to get you started. 

  

Extreme Client Care™ involves giving clients what they want/expect and, beyond that, what they don’t even know they want/expect. . .that is, until you give it to them.

  

It makes you unique in your industry and it keeps you top of mind with your clients.

 

My Request to You 

How can you practice Extreme Client Care™ in your business?  Grab a pen and paper and make a list now.

 

And remember, anything you implement is more than you’re doing now and your clients will notice!

 

Are you going to file this away, thinking you’ll “get to it when you have time” or are you going to take action now?  I’d love to read how you plan on offering Extreme Client Care™ below. . .

7 Must Haves for a Successful and Sustainable Business

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Back in my Corporate and Federal Government days, I was all about excellence – reading all the latest business books and quickly gaining a reputation as the person you went to if you wanted results.

It was a simpler time: do your job well, anticipate future requests and do them before management asked.

The result? Jobs were created for me, offers made and raises received.

As an entrepreneur, things are different.

5 Common Mistakes in Creating and Sharing Content

 

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As a business owner who’s marketing online, you’re told to create content. . .lots of it. 

Content for your newsletter, content for your blog, content for your videos, content for your podcasts...and that’s all before we get to the actual content of your products and programs. 

But what happens when you’re producing all this content and not seeing revenue come in as a result? 

(And, sadly, “Yes, this IS what’s happening for most.”)

First, we need to take a look at the most common mistakes in creating and sharing content: 

1. Giving too much – often times, entrepreneurs give and give and give and so there’s no reason for someone to actually purchase your products.
2. Common knowledge – super common, especially for those who give too much, is sharing the same ‘ole, same ‘ole, nothing new or original which leads us to
3. Being boring – either sharing the same stuff we’ve heard for years or trying to be so perfect that your material reads like a scientific research paper.
4. And, when your material reads like a scientific research paper, you’ve made it too complex and people will unsubscribe, close out, turn off their machines. . .anything to get away from it.
5. No call to action – what do you want your reader to do after reading your content?  Tell them...don’t make them guess. 

And, like most things in your business, what’s the “why” of creating a particular piece?  What do you want your clients to get from the content?

These common content-creation mistakes result in less clients signing up for your programs or purchasing your products.  You haven’t made it compelling for them. . . 

My Request to You 

While it would be easy for me to tell you to “do the opposite” of what you see above, it’s not always that straightforward. 

When creating valuable content for your readers, you want to ensure that: 

1. The content is simple to grasp AND take at least one immediate action on.
2. When you see an industry issue, you bring it up AND advance a solution (similar to how my Escalator Marketing™ concept replaces the out-dated marketing funnel and pyramid).
3. You keep the content interesting. . .share a story when appropriate, remember it’s more important to be “readable” than to have perfect grammar.
4. When promoting a program or product, provide great content AND let your readers know that this “is only the tip of the iceberg” (see my video at www.TotallyTeleseminars.com for an example of this).
5. Include a call to action to engage your reader.  Whether it’s an invitation to comment on a blog, reply to an ezine article, join a teleseminar, etc.  Never leave them hanging wondering what to do next as they’ll go elsewhere.

So, let me ask you. . .are you going to file this away, thinking you’ll “get to it when you have time” or are you going to take action now?  I’d love to hear your thoughts here. . .

The Fine Line Between Inspiration and Imitation

 
Several months ago, I saw an ezine which looked very similar to mine – same format, same dots, etc.  I sent a note to the publisher and she said “I loved the design of your ezine so I gave it to my graphic designer and asked her to recreate it for me.” 

A couple of months ago, I was speaking with a client who said to me “Sandy, I love your passion about what you do and the way you teach it makes everything so easy, it’s infectious. . .I’m going to rebrand and become a marketing strategist too.” 

And a few weeks ago, I started getting emails from clients telling me that an alumni of my Create Your Best Year Ever program has taken my proprietary spreadsheets and templates, reformatted them and is now offering a program “designed to help you have your best year ever in 2011” and is claiming that she’s “never seen anyone tie marketing activities and revenue generation together” before her program. 

Seriously? 

There’s a fine line between being inspired by someone’s work and imitating it.  The above examples are pure imitation and not only do an injustice to me (or to whomever they're imitating), but to the business owners who are imitating. 

You see, everyone has unique strengths – created from our innate abilities and talents, the unique experiences of our lives and our education and learning. 

Rather than try to become someone else, the key to your business – and personal – success is to tap into your own well of uniqueness, from there, you’re naturally successful and everything is much easier for you.

How to know if you’ve crossed the line. . .

It’s fabulous to be inspired and motivated by someone – take that positive energy, embrace it and use it to fuel your own creativity. . .you're goals will start to manifest themselves almost effortlessly.

Imitation has a completely different energy about it – and your intuition knows when you’ve crossed the line.  Check in with yourself by asking these questions: 

• Am I flipping back to her program, info page, templates, etc. in designing my program?
• Am I giving my designer one source to imitate or am I noticing “this and that” from different places and asking for something which reflects my uniqueness?
• Has anyone said “that reminds me of…”, or have I said that to myself?

The best inventions, successes and biggest leaps in human history come from those who are inspired.  What will you create today?

If inspired, please let me know your thoughts below. . .  :-)

Entrepreneur's Math: When 95 = 56, or rather 11

Chances are, you've heard the saying that "money loves speed". 

I've altered it slightly for me to "success loves speed", with success defined as "achieving a goal", whether it be personal, business, revenue-related, etc.

That said, the calendar shows we have 95 days left in 2010.  Or do we?

95 calendar days actually translates to how much time to get things done?

 

5 Instant Ways to Gain Leverage in Your Business

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Most business owners go into business, in part, to create a desired lifestyle and that lifestyle usually doesn’t involve working 24/7. The best way to avoid that is, wherever possible, to create leverage.

When looking to increase leverage in your business, chances are, you’ve considered the most obvious:

* Raising your prices

* Creating premium VIP programs

Getting Things Done – the Right Things – in a Crazy Unrelenting World

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Let’s face it. . .the world’s crazy. No matter how much you do, it seems as if there’s another avalanche ready to bury you and you’re constantly running, running, running to stay ahead or even to keep up.

And that’s just for your business – add in personal stuff and it’s understandable why you want to put your head under a pillow some mornings.

Small Business Retreats: The 1st Step to Getting Off The Revenue Roller Coaster

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Do you spend so much time working in your business that you never work on your business and, as a result, ride the revenue roller coaster month in and month out?

The corporate world knows the value of taking time out for a step back, taking time to assess what is going right, what is going wrong and what just plain isn't going anywhere. As a business owner, it’s critical to take time out to plan, be it for a year, 6 months or even a long-term goal.