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. 

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.

Launch-based or Sustainable -- Which Type of Business Do You Have?

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So many businesses are "launch-based" -- never earning revenue unless something is actively being promoted or clients are locked into long-term contracts.

And then, once that promotion is over, the business owner is frantically trying to create the next program, product or service to launch.

Imagine it. . .high revenue one month, low revenue the next two, then high again, then low. Your revenue isn't meant to be a roller coaster ride.

3 Ways to Ensure Your Business is Busy -- No Matter The Economy or Season

It’s summer. . .a time of school vacations; hazy, hot and humid weather; and, according to some, the slowest business season of the year.

Not so here in Lakeville! We’re going gangbusters and there’s a few reasons why which you can easily use/adapt for your business:

1. Plan for success and work the plan. Nothing secret here – it actually makes things easier if you have a plan to work by as there’s no wondering “What should I focus on?” thoughts when you walk in the office each morning.

2. Generate exposure all year round for a steady flow of business: consistent article marketing; regularly (at least 2x/week) posting on your, and others’, blogs; connecting with people “live” through social media; “touching” your readers through direct mail and, if conducive to your business, regularly hosting f.r.e.e. teleclasses.

3. Create systems to work for you. The busier you get, the more important it is to have the right systems in place so “no balls get dropped” and every client experiences Extreme Client Care™ from you and every member of your team. And the busier you are, the more clients who want to work with you.

The above is a longer way of saying that:

Ordinary things, done consistently, create extraordinary AND consistent, results!

Make It Real: My Request To You

It’s true. . .the above may not seem like the sexiest or most amazing secrets in the world.

It’s also true that 99% of all entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t do them. Always searching, hoping for the magic pill, they fail to do the things which practically guarantee success.

Every day you sit down to work, you have a choice: move steadily forward or sit and wait for success to find you.

Which are you going to do today?

Boundaries, Convenience and Perception in Your Business

So many coaches talk about "boundaries" and "holding your boundaries" with clients, team members, etc. in order to create the business/life of your dreams.

In fact, I remember a former business advisor who often said I needed stronger boundaries or else my clients wouldn't value me and what I had to offer.

Boundaries, to that advisor, existed, in part, to create a certain perception of when and how much one works in their business.

So what exactly are boundaries?

When Leverage Becomes a Liability

The title of today's article sounds a bit like an oxymoron -- after all, leverage is that thing we all strive for in business. . .how can it possibly become a liability?

 

A few examples. . .

 

In coaching

 

There's been a trend over the past year or so to create high ticket "platinum" programs and hire someone else to run them.

 

It makes sense from a leverage standpoint -- less of your time (someone else runs the calls, answers the emails), more revenue (it's a high ticket program -- usually over $10,000 -- and is quicker than making/selling products) and you only show up for live retreats (built in celebrity status).

 

Clients join the program for access to you because of what you've done, your reputation, etc. The leverage you gain comes with the cost of how your clients feel about the arrangement.

 

From a client perspective, why would I pay a "high ticket" price to you to be coached by Coach X when I could hire Coach X on my own for less money and more personal access?

How Different Personalities Deal With Change

The book "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard is a 98-page look at the various ways that we react to change. In the book, there are two mice and two mice-size humans and we see how each reacts when their cheese has been moved -- not just moved, but no longer in sight.

We all react differently to change:

Are you throwing money out the window?

 

You know that feeling when you sign up for a new program or service -- this is THE one, the one which will answer all your questions, particularly if it comes with a resource library of some sort.

 

You go in all bright-eyed and then it happens. . .life interferes.

 

Perhaps another program caught your eye (and wallet) or a well-meaning coach told you you're spending too much time working "in" your business and not "on" it.

 

Regardless, you're pulled off course and don't use the benefits you've paid for.

 

There it goes. . .more money out the window. . .and you?

 

You're wondering why you didn't achieve everything the program/service promised or you know why and you're frustrated with yourself for once again drowning in overwhelm.

I should grow my business "geometrically"?

I'd written a #SmarTini tip for Twitter and Facebook the other day stating that we should grow our businesses "geometrically".

It raised a few eyebrows to say the least.  After all, what the heck does THAT mean?!?

Here's what I mean when stating that all business owners should grow their business geometrically:

Rather than focus all your time on creating new products and services to sell to new customers and clients, you want to:

1. Sell EXISTING products and services to NEW clients,

2. Sell EXISTING products and services to EXISTING clients,

3. Sell NEW products and services to NEW clients and

4. Sell NEW products and services to EXISTING clients.

By spreading your marketing and promotion across these four categories, you ensure that:

1. You never have "all your eggs in one basket" or, better said, "all your clients in one program",

2. You minimize your product development costs since you continue to offer existing products to new clients (and existing clients) and

3. You minimize your new client acquisition costs since you focus on offering new and existing products to existing clients.

This describes the concept of growing your business "geometrically".

Give it a try -- I promise you won't regret it!  :-)

Integrity -- Has It Lost Its Meaning?

From www.Dictionary.com, the word "integrity" means:

1.	adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

2.	the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.

3.	a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

Looking at the first definition only and then PAYING ATTENTION to several online businesses, I have to ask, has the definition changed?

For example, one online business recently promoted that there were only X number of a physical product available so "get it before we run out".

Subsequent emails trying to get us to buy and showing how many more were sold (plus other calls the business owner was on pitching the product), added up to almost double the original "get 'em before we're sold out" quantity.

The issue for me -- aside from the blatant untruths -- is that this business owner, like so many others out there, preaches and teaches the concept of integrity.  It's become a case of "do what I say, not what I do".

This is just one example, I could easily cite many more.

You could ask, so who's being hurt by the above scenario...particularly if it's a good product/service/whatever and has the potential to help many people.

My answer is simple: All of us. 

After all, there are better, more honest ways of doing business and if someone is willing to lie (let's stop dancing and call it what it is) about something as small as "how many widgets" they have to sell, what about the bigger things?

I'd love to hear your thoughts as I have some pretty strong opinions around this topic and I know they may not resonate with everyone.