What's Bugging You?

What's bugging you about your business? Is it cranky clients? Too few clients? Non-paying clients? How about your environment? Are you in the perfect space for your business? Location right for you? How about the hours you work or the need for you to be there no matter what? Are you able to take vacations? Are your vendors treating you well? All of these things and more depend on your intent, your desire, and your clarity about what you truly want from your business.

What does this mean? It means the clearer you are about what you want from your business, the easier it will come to you. And if you are not clear, you will get a random assortment of circumstances, people, etc. to make your business life less than ideal.

One of the exercises I ask my entrepreneurial clients to perform is to write down their "ideals". What is their idea of an ideal client? Many know they want clients, but they wrongly think that means whoever walks in the door and buys is a good client. I suggest that you can have all ideal clients simply by defining what that looks like and focusing on receiving them.

Let me give you an example. I was recently talking with a fellow coach who was bemoaning the fact that people only wanted to be coached at night and on weekends. I was surprised since I have no evening or weekend clients. Early on, in my business, I defined my ideal working hours as 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday with Fridays being mostly administrative days. In the two years, I've been a professional life coach, I've only had two potential clients ask for times outside these hours. One wanted 7 am (I don't think so!!) and the other 9 pm at night. That's kind of amazing when you think of it. But really it's not. It is my ideal. I decided it was what I wanted, I wrote it down not only in my business plan, but in my journal and just accepted that it would happen that way. Consequently, I am attracting the right clients for me, ones who can meet with me during my working hours.

I suggest we all write "ideals" for all the facets of our work, especially those that are not working for us in our professional lives. For example, to define the ideal client, here are some possibilities:

My ideal client will:

• pay my fees and prices on time, happily, and will appreciate the true value of my work


• be generous with their money, their time and their energy with regard to my work


• appreciate me, my methods, my work and love the results of our time together


• show up on time


• be easy to work with


• be open to change, ready to change, eager to change


• value my time and be ready to work during our calls and during the week on their assignments


• will happily refer me to other "ideal clients" often and easily


• will want appointments during my working hours, will keep appointments or let me know way ahead of time if something comes up


• will be the kind of person I am able to help either easily or with a reasonable "reach" on my part


• will be able to easily afford my fees


• will know when our work is completed and will have a finishing session to gain closure with the process


• will have a good sense of humor, be easygoing, and apply right effort


• be happy to be coached by phone


• will also attend workshops and classes and buy my products


• will write great testimonials for me

Here are some other areas where you may want to define your "ideals".

• Ideal office or work environment


• Ideal finances


• Ideal vendors and suppliers


• Ideal employees or support staff (accountant, printer, banker, web developer, etc.)


• Ideal product


• Ideal service


• Ideal working schedule (hours, weeks per year, days per week, etc.)


• Ideal equipment, fixtures, furnishings

Will you give it a try? Just write it down. Make it a living document as you will want to refine it as you experience what is coming your way. Make it firm in your mind that it is what you want and then just expect it to come your way.

Feel free to ask questions or leave a comment below.

All content copyrighted, 2006, Life Unfolds and Mary Anne Fields. All rights reserved.

Is Fear Stopping You?

Fear can keep us from starting a business, from running a business, from growing a business, from enjoying our business. Is fear stopping you from the next action you need to take to make your business as successful as you wish?

Stuart Knight, one of my favorite motivational speakers, has a new video out on fear.

I strongly encourage you to watch his latest weekly video.

Watch Video At: http://www.decideshow.com/fears.html

and Stuart says: "I challenge you to grab the beautiful key and to use it. Choose something that you are afraid of doing, and do it. Open that door. I think you will love what you find on the other side."

Your Customer List is Solid Gold

I recently had the chance to talk candidly with several small business and solo entrepreneurs. One mentioned she was going to have a booth to show her wares at a community festival in the next few weeks. I mentioned that I had not gotten a notice or an invitation to that. She looked puzzled. She said something like "it's only a booth at a festival, who would want to come to that?" From that I figured she did not use her mailing list with any frequency or marketing plan and that turned out to be true.

This business owner was missing out on a golden opportunity to make more sales, to build relationships with her clients and potential clients, and to build her brand identity. She has ambitious goals and her mailing list could be a primary part of her marketing strategy. Many solo entrepreneurs and small business owners are in the same boat. It is not uncommon but it certainly leaves money on the table!

Here were her concerns (paraphrased and interpreted) about emailing those on her list:

1. I don't want to bug them.
2. Why would they want to see my stuff, they already bought from me.
3. I would be embarrassed to "toot my own horn" with them.
4. What would I say in an invitation.

In this case, she had developed a new line that would be exhibited in the booth. She had kept a list, but did not use it. Here are the ideas I gave her and the rest of the group.

1. Determine what your own rules are for how frequently you contact your list. For example, do you contact those in your local area more frequently than those far away? Do you limit to twice a week or twice a month or twice a year? You may have to test these frequencies to see what works.
2. Determine how to segment your list. Buyers versus inquiries? All in one? Local versus distance? Gender? Age? Occupation? Depending on your business, any or all of these can be a reasonable way to segment your list.
3. Create a strategy for contacting your customers. Do you send out an newsletter (either email or snail mail)? How often? That counts as a contact each time you send it out. Do you send out seasonal sales notices? Birthday or Anniversary cards? Holiday cards? Each counts as a contact with your list. How about blog reminders each time your blog is updated? Do you contact each time you have a speaking engagement, an exhibition at a career fair, industry conference, or are giving a workshop?
4. Be sure you have the right tools to make the contact as easy as possible. For example, e-zine templates and leads lists, blogs and autoresponders all make this job easier.
5. Follow all spam laws. Learn about what is allowed and not. Keep your lists clean.
6. All of your marketing pieces are a way of allowing potential customers and clients a way to get to know you and your products and services better. They can be as sales like as you wish, but also should give a flavor of who you are. I think of them as conversations, not as sales or marketing pieces.
7. All marketing communication should mirror your company's image (casual, fun, folksy, executive/professional, edgy, etc.) You should be presenting a consistent image and message.
8. Tooting your own horn is a good thing! It can be done low key or screaming out loud, whichever is your style. Announcing you won an award or have been chosen to exhibit or speak or author a chapter are great ways to toot your own horn. Showing your wares and inviting others to see them is a way of tooting your own horn. If you do not communicate the excellence and value of your products and services, who will?

So, in the case above, I encouraged this professional to send an email or snail mail note announcing she would be exhibiting her "new line" at a booth at the festival and to be sure and stop by to visit and see what's new in her work.

All content copyrighted, 2006, Life Unfolds and Mary Anne Fields. All rights reserved.