Business and Health Blog » Entrepreneurs

Successful Business Entrepreneurs

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:30:05 +0000

Studies have shown that successful business entrepreneurs possess these characteristics:

1. Self-confidence

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.

2. Achievement Oriented

Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks.

3. Risk Taker

They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals.

Business entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck.

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don’t believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence.

Positive Thinking

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn’t it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc.

Persistent Action

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can’t get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it.

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful business entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don’t give up. If you can do that, you’re already half way there!

If you liked this article, You may also like

Starting A Business – The Three ‘ps’

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:27:12 +0000

There are a lot of factors to consider when starting a business. Primary among these are the three “P”s – Plan, Prepare and Persist.

Plan

After you have selected some ideas from your brainstorming to base your business around, create a plan of attack. List what you’ll need before your business starts. What will your ongoing expenses be? Factors include rent, utilities, permits, licensing, legal fees, inventory, staff, design, marketing collateral, mailing lists, software, advertising and more. Get as much as you can out on paper and set deadlines to get things accomplished. This will allow you to evaluate your pace.

Prepare

Once you have a plan, carry it out. Preparing to start a business can be a lot of work. Tasks include getting an identity designed, creating business cards, brochures, web sites and other marketing material, consulting with CPA’s, lawyers, and HR professionals, in some cases finding and renting or buying a storefront or office, furnishing the business space, getting utilities in place, receiving and organizing inventory, getting a database for your customers and leads and any number of other tasks. By running a home business, some of these steps will already be taken care of, yet opening a business of any kind can be an enormous task. While planning your business make sure to leave plenty of time to get up and running. Better to plan your setup time too long than too short and finding yourself running out of money.

Persist

This is the most important step of running a business. Without persistence, you won’t even be able to finish your business plan. Hang on like a pit-bull. When the going gets tough, get tougher. Have worst case scenario plans to fall back on, as well as best case scenario plans.

Some businesses become over-night successes, while other take year to develop. If you plan, prepare and persist, you’ve got a very good chance of making it.

If you liked this article, You may also like

Great Ideas And Tips For Entrepreneurial Success From Jeff Bezos Of Amazon.com

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:24:54 +0000

For ten years the world has been watching with Awe and Admiration the Phenomenal success of Jeff Bezos the Founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

The goal of each and every Entrepreneur be they Home Based Business or not is to achieve success and rise to the top.

Success does not come easily. It requires Hard Work, Commitment and Dedication to reach the top as an Entrepreneur. Attaining your goal is often easier if you can follow the path already trodden by Brilliant Entrepreneurs. Pick up some Great Ideas and Tips that rocketed them to Fame and Fortune and try to implement them.

In this respect the Phenomenal success of Jeff Bezos, dubbed by Time Magazine as the ” King of Cybercommerce” comes to mind. His spirit of Adventure, Imagination, Innovation and Creativeness are some of the qualities that have made Amazon.com what it is today.

In 1994 he set up his Home Based Business in a two bed roomed house in Seattle with extension leads running to his garage. There was no turning back and the tremendous progress he made is history.

Today Amazon serves over 45 Million customers and well over 600,000 Associates. Amazon.com is the Internet’s most popular brand name. It is the largest Internet retailer in the world. Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO is a multi-billionaire and one of the richest men in the world.

A few quotes of Jeff Bezos will display the characteristic thinking behind the success of this brilliant entrepreneur and the dominance of Amazon.com.

1.”A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

2.”If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

3.”There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. we will be the second”

4.”We see customers as invited guests to a party and we are the hosts. It’s our job everyday to make every important aspect of the customer’s experience a little better.”

5.” What we want to do is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.”

About his vision Jeff Bezos says “Our vision is the world’s most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy on line.”

To top it up he places great emphasis on the importance of the six core values-he insists on.
1. Customer obsession. 2. Ownership. 3. Bias for action. 4. Frugality. 5. High hiring bar. 6. Innovation.

Here are some very useful Ideas and Tips that all Entrepreneurs including the Home Based Business Entrepreneur can pick up from Jeff Bezos.

You have to be:

1. A Dreamer and never give up your dream
2. An Optimist and be Confident in what you do.
3. A Strategist, ready to meet all situations and circumstances.
4. Prepared to tread into areas where others have never trodden before.
5. Customer focused more than Marketing focused.
7. Obsessed about customers not competitors.
8. Innovative and keep on innovating.
9. Always thinking Big.
10.Working hard and charge less.

Finally a tip from Jeff Bezos for all Entrepreneurs,” Work hard, have fun, make history”. Yes,That’s what the “The King of Cybercommerce” has done with Amazon.com.

If you liked this article, You may also like

Great Franchise Opportunities

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:21:29 +0000

If you are thinking of setting up a small business yet you are still unsure of what you exactly want to do or are scared to death of not being able to generate good business, then you must try looking into these franchise opportunities and choose the right one that will suit your taste and budget. An important factor to take in consideration is your ability to actually run your chosen franchise opportunity efficiently and successfully.

One of the most popular franchise opportunity nowadays is the “EmbroidMe” franchise opportunity wherein you can create custom-made apparel as well as merchandise which has embroidery on it. EmbroidMe actually has the tagline, “Casually Dressing the World” in its retail showrooms wherein it aims to make their company known through all forms of medium, in corporate marketing programs as well as over the internet. EmbroidMe is outfitting their customers with creatively customized apparel not just for work but for play as well. They also offer all sorts of promotional merchandise as well as advertising specialty items.

The catch point(s) of the EmbroidMe franchise opportunity are its sudden commercial boom. It’s a highly new and fresh revolutionary industry concept. This franchise opportunity’s great and organized system allows the wonderful opportunity of being your own boss. You do not have to answer to anyone but yourself! According to Ray Titus, the president of the EmbroidMe company. They are looking for willing entrepreneurs who are dreaming of running and managing their own business but in spite of just having a small business, they are well provided with many benefits that a stable global company can offer them – not to mention, mass purchasing power as well as great advertising apart from the other possible additional help that your EmbroidMe franchise opportunity might be needing in the future.

EmbroidMe offers full service embroidery as well as screen printing and other promotional products to its customers. The EmbroidMe “empire” actually now has over 250 stores all over the world and has been rated as #1 in the industry for four consecutive years as well as being one of the 50 fastest growing franchise opportunities according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

When it comes to the EmbroidMe staff’s training and support, a turnkey franchise the EmbroidMe company will actually assist in the demographic studies of the area that you want to put up your EmbroidMe franchise. A study on your site selection as well assistance on lease negotiations would be conducted. The EmbroidMe company will also coordinate with you for renovations that will be done on your store. This franchise opportunity will also provide an excellent 4-week training program for you and your staff. Not only that, this franchise opportunity will also assist you in conducting interviews, hiring and training prospective EmbroidMe employees since this is a service oriented franchise opportunity it is highly important that every employee must be able to comply and adhere to EmbroidMe’s strict rules and regulations.

The special features of this franchise opportunity are the following: turn key, absolutely no experience is needed, it is not a seasonal type of franchise opportunity, it is a business to business franchise opportunity, it needs only two employees and is a part of a $20 billion plus industry.

Another hot franchise opportunity is the “SIGN*A*RAMA” franchise opportunity which is considered as the largest full service sign franchise in the whole world and has over 700 “SIGN*A*RAMA” stores in 30 countries while being rated as the #1 in the industry for 6 years running by Entrepreneur Magazine. Also headed by EmbroidMe’s president Ray Titus, “SIGN*A*RAMA*” is just like EmbroidMe. “SIGN*A*RAMA*” is also looking for willing and able entrepreneurs who want to have their taste of being their own boss while having the incredible opportunity of being part of a well-known company.

When you sign up for this franchise opportunity expect to receive the following premium features: when it comes to equipment, they have the full service sign centers wherein they make the most of computerized sign making technologies. The “SIGN*A*RAMA” Sign Center actually allows the customer to have a look at the draft of the sign that they wish to be made before it gets the “go-signal” for it be printed. This franchise opportunity will also assist franchisees in picking out their desired franchise location, their lease as well as in the marketing aspect of the business.

If you liked this article, You may also like

Facing Your Fears As An Entrepreneur

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:15:54 +0000

Everyone I have ever talked to that is an entrepreneur has had to come face to face with their fears. I have had to as well. I want to share with you some of the techniques that I have used to face them. The first step is not to be in denial. You have fears even if you don’t readily acknowledge them. They sometimes take the form of that chatter in the back of your head that says you can’t do it.

Fear is such a huge issue preventing people from becoming entrepreneurs. I have heard from the CEO of a real-estate based network marketing company that even though he has people packing out company seminars, that maybe 2-5% of people will actually go out and apply the knowledge by putting offers on real estate. He is convinced that the rest are paralyzed by fear.

Here are some of the techniques I have used as I learned them from the entrepreneurs I know:

Think about what you do want. When you find yourself spinning the wheels in your mind over and again about your worst case scenario, turn it around and focus on what you DO want. Visualize yourself getting what you do want. See the new house. See yourself talking to the interested person as they become a part of your business. You get what you focus on.

Change the voice. When you hear yourself telling you that you’re not good enough – you’re going to fail. Just change the voice from yours to that of Mickey Mouse or Jim Cary or something that would hold little weight with you anyway! Who cares if Mickey Mouse thinks you’re not good enough? Is Mickey Mouse an entrepreneur?

Voice them to a trusted friend or associate. Hopefully you have been able to find some level of support from at least one other entrepreneur. Ideally, you have a significant other that supports you. If not, then you should have some kind of support network from your team, upline, or corporate that you can talk to. Some people may tell you that it is silly you could even believe that you’re not good enough. For me, my wife has been a constant source of support. However, don’t go looking for support to all those people who doubted you and told you it was crazy to go out on your own. They will never understand the entrepreneur.

Have a personal development library. I draw tremendous support from my library. It is not just filled with how to resources, but also stories of others who conquered their fears. I couldn’t begin to list the many sources I have, but if you email me I can recommend something based on your own description of your circumstances.

Go ahead and do it. Sometimes just making the smallest step will help get you going enough that the fear of not doing something can go away. An example would be neglecting to write an article such as this one out of fear of failure. Just starting it can create enough momentum to see it through.
Visualize the result, but make the action the goal. There is a subtle difference here for the entrepreneur. Of course you want the result, but maybe that’s not in your direct control. Visualize the result in your mind, but make your goal the consistent and persistent action of the entrepreneur. The action will eventually produce the result and you can certainly achieve that goal.

Never, ever quit. I hate to even use that q word. If you do quit, you cease to be an entrepreneur – otherwise you’re not beaten, you are moving ahead!

If you liked this article, You may also like

Where Can I Find My Niche? Finding Your Ideal Prospects So You Can Sell To Them

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:11:10 +0000

Most marketing experts will tell you that you need select a niche or a target audience. That you can’t just market to “whoever is paying attention” and be successful.

Why is that? Think about it this way: if you are having a conversation with a total stranger, how do you know what to talk about? Unless you are able to find some common ground, the conversation will probably be short-lived.

Because neither of you have an understanding of the other, you must find a way to make a connnection to involve each other into the conversation.

The same holds true for marketing. You must make a connection with your audience if you want them to pay attention and stay around to find out what your product or service is all about.

And, in order to make a connection, you have to know something about them. You have to know what problems they have that you can help to solve. You have to understand them.

That is why it is so important to select a niche or clearly defined target audience. Because once you’ve selected a distinct group of people you believe you can best help, you can research them so you begin to understand them.

Then and only then can you really communicate effectively with them. And that’s what marketing is; communication.

But once you’ve identified your target or niche, you must also be able to find and market to them.

The first step in doing that is to define them more specifically. How?

My suggestion is to ask yourself the following 10 questions to help develop a very clear description of your target. Then it will become much clearer to you where you can find them.

You may need to make some educated guesses when answering these questions and that’s okay. It’s a start and you can always refine your answers as your business grows and you begin to understand your target more.

As I go through these 10 questions, I’m going to use an example of a client of mine who is a life coach who wants to help adults who are childhood victims of maltreatment or victimization, improve their health and wellness.

Why am I using this example? Because it is a clearly defined group, BUT these people do not wear a sign around their neck advertising who they are. So, they can be difficult to find and market to. Therefore, it makes a great example.

You can apply these same 10 questions to your business or niche, regardless of what they are. They are universal questions that apply to any type of business or target audience.

1. What is their primary problem you can help solve?

Our life coach needs to clearly identify the current problem her potential clients are dealing with as a result of their childhood maltreatment. That is the problem she can position herself to help them overcome. Is it relationship issues? Is it job issues? Be as specific and focused as possible.

2. Are they primarily male or female?

Our life coach has identified her target as females.

3. How old are they?

Our life coach says they are high functioning professional women. In that case, I’d say we’re primarily talking about women between the ages of 25 and 45 years old.

4. Where do they live? What type of community or neighborhood; urban area; suburban area? Also, do you have any geographic limitations (real or self-imposed) regarding where you can market or deliver your services or products?

If they are high functioning professional women, they likely live in a nicer suburban neighborhood or perhaps an urban area. Our life coach will need to identify where she believes the majority live in her area and whether she only wants to work with women in her immediate geographic area, or if she wants to do distance coaching.

5. What type of work do they do? And where do they likely work? Their type of business as well as geographic location.

Professional women could be corporate professionals, doctors, attorneys, entrepreneurs or solo-professionals. Our life coach will need to identify the fields she wishes to focus on, taking into consideration the ones she feels include the greatest number of her target clients.

6. What is their socio-economic status or annual household income?

High functioning professional women are probably enjoying financial success, making them of a higher socio-economic class. They probably earn a good income and enjoy the finer things in life. Money is probably not an issue.

7. How do they spend their leisure time?

Do they belong to a gym or health club? Do they go to the movies or out to dinner frequently? Or, do they have young children and spend their time at elementary school functions, family picnics, children’s birthday parties or weekend soccer tournaments? Our life coach may need to make some assumptions here based on what she knows about her target. Again, that’s okay to start with. She can always fine-tune this later as she begins to understand these women better.

8. What is their family structure or home environment?

This niche of professional women probably includes single women as well as those who are married and have children. Therefore their home environments may vary. They may have no support or family network. They may have strong family support. Or, they may be having issues with their family based on their past. Our life coach will need to keep this in mind when she selects marketing avenues and writes her marketing messages. She’ll want to focus on what they have in common and steer away from areas of abiguity.

9. Do they belong to any associations or professional organizations?

If our life coach selects one or several industries to target, she should be able to easily identify associations or professional organizations these women belong to. Once identified, these are excellent venues for networking and speaking opportunities.

10. What are their media habits?

Do they read the newspaper or magazines? If so, which ones? Listen to the radio? If so, which formats do they likely listen to? Do they watch TV? If so, which programs do they likely watch? Do they spend time on the Internet? If so, what kinds of web sites do you think they are visiting? Where do you think they are currently getting their information about health and wellness? These are all potential places to reach your niche with your marketing message.

Yes, again our life coach may need to make some assumptions. However all of these media can provide you with detailed demographic profiles of their audience. So if we’re looking for professional women in a certain geographic area, we’ll be able to find out if they are among the audiences for these different mediums.

Answer each of these 10 questions to the best of your ability. Talk to current clients to get insights. Or, talk to friends or colleagues who fit your client profile to gain a better understanding of who and where they are.

Once you build this target client description, you’ll have a much better sense of where you can find them.

The next step is putting together a marketing message that speaks directly to them and what they are dealing with. The more you understand them, the more you’ll be able to craft a message that will hit home with them. That message will become your magnet, attracting the people who you can best help.

If you’d like to learn 10 strategies you can use to easily start attracting exactly the clients you want to work with, I highly recommend my new 10-Step Guide, “How to Get Clients in 10 Simple Steps.” This step-by-step “how-to” guide includes a 60-minute audio CD and a complete resource guide. You can find all the details on it and the complete 10stepmarketing System at http://www.10stepmarketing.com

If you liked this article, You may also like

Tracking Your Way To The Top!

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:08:02 +0000

I often wonder how people without a plan know where they’re going. Or, how they know when they’ve arrived at their destination.

Think about it.

If you never specify what your goal is, how do you go about achieving it? And how do you know when to celebrate?

Step One

Having a clearly defined, and written goal is the first step in creating a successful business.

How Will You Measure Your Success?

Whether you choose to measure your success in number of clients or revenue per month or year, or in any other terms, is up to you. The point is to establish a measurable goal.

Step Two

The second step to creating a successful business is creating a plan to achieve your goal. This is your marketing plan and it ensures all your time, energy and money are focused on achieving whatever it is YOU want to achieve.

But it doesn’t stop there.

A Goal And A Plan Are NOT Enough

Just having a goal and a plan are not enough. You must track your progress so you can determine if it will require more or different effort to achieve your goal.

So how do you track your progress?

You Need Two More Things … One

First, you track your progress toward your overall goal. I recommend you evaluate this at least every couple of months.

But why not just make a habit of doing it once a month?

Make it a practice to review your marketing plan and how well it is moving you toward your goal, at the end of every month. A good day to do this is the day you take care of your end-of-month administrative tasks (things like paying bills and running sales and financial reports).

If you break your goal down into twelfths, you can easily tell each month if you’re on track. And, if you’re not, you can easily make adjustments, like increasing your level of marketing if necessary, to get back on track.

By keeping close tabs on your progress toward your goals, you greatly increase your odds of achieving them. Partly because you give yourself time to make adjustments and take a different route if necessary.

And, partly because you are constantly reminding yourself of your intentions.

And … Two

The second way to stay on track is to track each of your individual marketing activities. This is how you’ll know if each activity is moving you toward your goal.

For Example … Tracking Your Web Site Stats

If you’re generating your prospects or clients via your web site, do you know how many visitors you need to generate the number of clients you’re shooting for?

It’s pretty easy to determine if you utilize web site tracking reports. Your web host should provide tracking reports to let you know how many visitors your site is getting, and ideally you can track this for each page of your site.

WebStat is a great tool that provides detailed reports on web site traffic. I use it as a supplement to the reports provided by my web host, and I love it. You can try it out at no cost, plus there’s a free version, or you can subscribe for a very low monthly fee. Learn more about WebStat here.

If you have a newsletter or special report that web site visitors can subscribe to you can then determine what your conversion rate is: Total Subscribers divided by Total Visitors equals your Conversion Rate.

Do You Know What Your Conversion Rates Are?

You can then take this one step further by determining what your conversion rate is, from subscribers to clients. Or, to measure what your sales conversion rate is if you are selling products or services on your web site.

Once you know your sales conversion rate, you should be able to calculate how many web site visitors you need to generate to achieve your sales or “number of clients” goal.

This will tell you pretty quickly if you’re on track to achieve your goal, or if you need to generate a lot more web site traffic to do so.

A Little Bit Of Math Upfront Will Guarantee Your Success

While at first it may be disheartening, especially if you’re way off the mark, at least you have a clear picture of what it will take to reach your goal. Then it’s simply a matter of finding ways to generate the traffic. And then it’s only a matter of time until you achieve your goal.

Track Your Speaking Engagements or Teleseminars

You can track other marketing activities in a similar way. For example, with speaking engagements or teleseminars, what percentage of your attendees typically subscribe, and then what percentage of those typically become clients or buy?

You can determine how big of an audience or how many speaking engagements or teleseminars you need to do to reach your goals.

Track Your Public Relations Efforts

For public relations, how many people do you need to reach, or impressions do you need to achieve to generate the return necessary to meet your goals? You can then send your releases out more frequently (just make sure they’re newsworthy) or to media with a larger audience.

Again, if you monitor your results every month, you’ll have a very good idea if you’re on track to meet your goals. And, you’ll have plenty of time to make adjustments to your plan if necessary.

So, What’s Your Goal For This Year?

And do you know if you’re on track to achieve it? If you haven’t committed your goal to writing, I encourage you to do so today.

If you’re not sure what you can achieve, then take your best guess and work towards that.

You Can Track Your Way To The Top!

Put some tracking practices into place and stay on top of them every month. If you do this, I guarantee you’ll achieve a lot more than if you just “wing it!”

If you’d like some help creating your goals and developing a marketing plan to help you achieve them, check out The 10stepmarketing™ System. It walks you through the process in a simple, step-by-step manner, making it easy. To learn more, visit www.10stepmarketing.com

If you liked this article, You may also like

Take My Commitment (to Your Biz) Quiz!

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:04:44 +0000

Starting and managing a successful small business takes time, energy, money and a HUGE commitment. But the payoff can also be HUGE, in terms of personal accomplishment, satisfaction, happiness, and M0NEY! So just how committed are you?

Here’s 10 questions to help you find out:

(1) Have you taken the time to create a business plan?

A business plan ensures you have a well-thought-out plan for your business. It doesn’t have to be a big, formal document. But it should outline your budget, your goals, and how you plan to achieve those goals. This way you have focus.

(2) Have you taken the time to create a marketing plan?

If you don’t have a marketing plan chances are you’ll spend more money trying to get clients AND you’ll achieve fewer results. Taking the time to create a marketing plan, even if it’s only a one-page document, will enable you to be laser-focused so you’ll get better results.

The 10stepmarketing System makes it easy to create one plan that serves as BOTH your business and marketing plans. To learn more visit www.10stepmarketing.com.

(3) Have you committed enough financial resources to operate and market your business for at least one year?

You have to invest in your business if you want it to succeed. It doesn’t have to be a big sum of money, but it’s got to be enough to accomplish the goals you’ve set in your business and marketing plans.

(4) Are you willing to invest in yourself?

To grow yourself and your business you must always be learning. Take seminars. Buy books and CDs. As one of my teachers Brian Tracy says, turn your car into a “University on Wheels.”

Education to help you grow your business is a business expense and is tax deductible. Let Uncle Sam finance your growth!

(5) Are you willing to spend time to learn how to better operate and market your business?

If you don’t know everything you need to know to successfully operate and market your business (and who does?!?) commit the TIME to learn.

Not only should you be willing to invest money in courses, books, CDs, coaches or whatever it takes, you have to be willing to spend the TIME.

(6) Do you seek advice from those are already successfully doing what you’re trying to do?

Have you identified other businesses or individuals who have already accomplished what you’re trying to accomplish? If not, find them. Learn as much as you can about their businesses. Model them. Get advice from them.

I just paid a big chunk-of-change for a one-hour consultation with someone who has successfully done what I want to do. Was it worth the money to get her advice and recommendations? You bet! It’s definitely faster and easier than trying to figure it out on my own.

(7) Do you have a team?

If you’re still trying to do everything on your own, you should ask yourself how serious you are about building a business. For years, I worked alone. But I now realize I was making a living not building a business.

If you’re serious about building a business, get the proper team in place to ensure your success. You should be spending your time doing what you do best, and find others to help you with everything else.

(8) Have you created systems in your business?

All successful businesses have systems in place that allow routine activities to be repeated over and over again, to ensure the same results. This also ensures your business does not rely solely on you for its success.

(9) Do you track everything you do?

The only way to truly know if what you’re doing is working, is to track. While it takes a bit more time and planning upfront, it can definitely save you time and money in the long run.

Every time you make a change in how you run your business, track it so you know if that change is making your business more successful, or not. Track every marketing activity so you know what’s bringing you business and what’s not.

(10) Are you willing to take a good, hard look at what you’re doing, and make changes if it’s not working?

Sometimes we have so much time, money or energy invested in doing something a certain way we have a hard time changing our approach if it isn’t producing success. That would be admitting failure, right? WRONG!

It would be a failure to NOT make a change! Being in business is a learning experience and one that requires constant fine-tuning.

Try this formula: Plan, take action, evaluate, fine-tune. And repeat as often as necessary until you find what works for you.

So, how’d you do? Don’t worry if you didn’t pass my commitment quiz. Your business is a work-in-progress. Your goal should be to work toward having all 10 of these pieces in place.

If you do, your business will have a much greater chance of success AND you’ll be a whole lot happier!

If you liked this article, You may also like

Stellar Customer Service In 10 Simple Steps

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:00:19 +0000

If you’re like me, you’ve had plenty of experience with BAD customer service. Just think about the last time you had a bad experience with a product or a service.

Perhaps the product or service did not live up to the sales pitch. Maybe the company was unresponsive to your calls or emails. Maybe they did not do what they said they were going to do. Or they gave you the run-around when you called to report a problem or ask a question.

If you think about it, all of these negative experiences boil down to one thing, a lack of customer service. And a lack of customer service usually stems from a lack of customer focus. It seems many businesses have simply lost sight of who they are really in business to serve.

Instead of the old saying, “the customer is always right,” many businesses seem almost bothered by customers these days. In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret from my early ad agency days. We used to have a saying, “this business would be great, if it wasn’t for the clients.”

How ridiculous is that?! We wouldn’t have had a job if it weren’t for the clients (I’m older and wiser now!). Yes, sometimes clients can be difficult, but they are the reason we are in business. Our job is to serve them. If they are upset, we should welcome the opportunity to find out why, and use that information to improve our product or service.

Yes, sometimes you’ll run into some yahoo who is being totally unreasonable and you just have to deal with it. But very often, client complaints uncover a problem or something we can improve upon.

So make it a point to really listen to your customers. Make a commitment to treat all your customers well. After all, giving great customer services is one of the best and cheapest marketing tools available. When you treat your customers well, or even better, when you deliver beyond their expectations, you will be rewarded.

Those happy clients are the same clients who will happily refer you. The opposite is also true. If you disappoint a client, or don’t deliver what you promise, or you just plain treat them badly, they will likely tell everyone they know how horrible you are. In fact, those disgruntled clients are more likely to talk about you than your happy clients. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it usually works.

The good news is, it’s not hard to give great customer service. You simply have to be aware and make it a priority. Following are 10 tips to help you offer stellar customer service.

(1) Be accessible

Your customers should be able to get a hold of you, or someone in your company, if they have a question or if they need service. Provide multiple ways for your customers to get in contact with you, such as email, phone, mail or fax.

(2) Respond in a timely manner

Make it your policy to return all phone calls or emails within 24 hours. And, if you cannot commit to that, then determine what timeframe you can manage and let your customers know upfront they can expect to hear back from you within that amount of time.

(3) Listen to your customers

Often when a customer calls or writes to complain, they just want to be heard. In fact, sometimes, just listening is all you need to do. Take the time to listen to what your customers have to say before you start responding or defending your product or service. They may just have a point.

(4) Treat your customers with respect

Even if the customer on the other end of the phone is acting irrationally, or being rude, don’t lower yourself to their level by reciprocating. Treat everyone with respect and you will be respected in return. Plus, you never know when someone’s just having a bad day, and they happen to be taking it out on you (we’ve all done it).

(5) Don’t argue with your customers

You can never win an argument with a customer. Because if you do win, you’ve more than likely alienated the customer and you’ve lost their business. We all know the customer isn’t really always right, but instead of focusing on what went wrong and defending yourself, focus on how you can solve the problem or fix the situation.

(6) Honor your commitments

If you say you will answer emails, then answer them. If you offer a guarantee, then honor it. Nothing spoils a customer relationship faster than being promised something and not getting it.

I got a nice email last week from a client that made me realize just how important this is. Here’s what he wrote:

“Many thanks for your prompt and comprehensive reply. Your personal interest, caring and enthusiasm is clearly apparent. Most company owners invite you to respond and promise to reply personally, they seldom do so …”

Yes, it took me some time to respond to his email. But I promise email support to all clients who purchase my 10stepmarketing System and therefore it is important to honor that commitment. If I ever get to the point I can no longer respond due to the volume of requests or other time commitments, I will stop offering this service, not just stop responding.

(7) Do what you say

If you say you’re going to call someone on Tuesday, call them on Tuesday. It’s as simple as that. If you want your customers to trust and believe you, you have to follow through and do what you say.

(8) Focus on making customer relationships, not sales

The long-term success of your business rests on your ability to make long-term customer relationships. If you sacrifice relationships to make short-term sales, your business will be short-lived.

(9) Be honest

Don’t exaggerate the results your product or service will provide. Don’t promise things you cannot deliver just to make a sale. I see hype all over the web these days; everything is a quick fix or a silver bullet. It suckers people into buying the product, and then the product doesn’t deliver. Think that customer is ever going to make another purchase from that business? Not likely. Be honest and direct about what your products and services can deliver.

(10) Admit when you make a mistake

No one’s perfect. We all make mistakes; it’s part of learning. So when you do make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up or deny it. Just admit it and if necessary, do something to make the situation right. Your customers will appreciate it and they’ll be more likely to stay customers.

So how does your customer service measure up? Are you practicing these 10 steps and offering stellar customer service? If not, I challenge you to take your service up a notch. Approach it like Ken Blanchard and instead of just being satisfied with happy customers, create “Raving Fans” (a great little book if you haven’t read it).

Commit to putting these 10 tips into practice. Get to know your customers. Make them the focus of your business. It’s one of the keys to marketing success and best of all, it doesn’t cost very much!

If you liked this article, You may also like

Relationship Marketing: 10 Tips For Keeping Clients Happy

Shonta — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:57:15 +0000

You’ve probably heard the saying “It’s easier to keep an existing
customer than to get a new one.”

Well, it’s more than just a saying, it’s true.

That’s why you want to take very good care of your current
clients or customers and do whatever you can to give them
lots of reasons and opportunity to buy from you over and over again.

Who wants to constantly be out there pounding the pavement
looking for new clients and customers? That’s a lot of work. It’s much
easier to up-sell or cross-sell to people who already
know and love you.

Here are 10 tips you can use to put a successful Relationship
Marketing program into place so you can reap the benefits for
years to come.

#1 Create a customer database or file

Whether you have many clients or customers or just a few,
make sure you keep records with important details about them.
These details may vary depending on your line of business,
but they may include their purchase history, special dates
such as their birthday or anniversary, family member names
or their favorite restaurant or leisure activity.

#2 Never take your customers for granted

Your customers are the reason you are in business.
Never assume they will always be there. Continue to earn
their trust and show them you care and value their business.

#3 Show your appreciation

Do little things to show how much you appreciate having
them as a client. Send them a thank you card or token of appreciation.
Do something nice for them. Sometimes its even as simple
as just saying “thank you.”

#4 Stay in touch

Find ways to stay in touch with your clients. Send out a regular
newsletter. Clip and send them news articles about their
industry or issues they are concerned about. Make regular
telephone calls or send email. Send holiday cards. Use these
tools to remind them you’re still around and that you still care.

#5 Take an interest in them and their business

Ask questions. Find out what their challenges are and see
if you can help them. Show them you understand their business
or their issues and you’re interested in more than just their
last purchase.

#6 Serve them

Make it a priority to go out of your way to provide services that
truly deliver and make your customers’ lives or their businesses
better. Provide great customer service. Do whatever you can
to help them achieve their goals.

#7 Give extra value

Exceed expectations. Give more than your clients are expecting
so they are dazzled and anxious to work with you more. Act as if
their business is your business and their problems are your
problems and help them any way you can.

#8 Ask them what else you can do for them

Find out how else you can serve them. Other products or services
you might be able to provide to help them reach their goals
and be more successful. Take an interest in looking beyond
your last sale into how you can help them even more.

#9 Be responsive

Always respond in a timely manner to your clients. Get back to
them quickly when they have a question or need help. Return
phone calls and emails promptly. Be on time, or better yet, be
early for meetings and appointments. Being responsive tells your
clients you think they are important and that you respect them
and their time.

#10 Make things easy for them

Always be looking for ways you can make things easier for them.
If you meet with clients in person, go to them instead of always
making them come to you. Make it easy for them to use your
services or buy your products in ways that are convenient for them.
Give them options and choices.

If you put these steps into action, I promise you your customer
relationships will be strong. And, when you make your customer
relationships your top priority you’ll be rewarded with long-term,
profitable clients.