Archive for free
Want to Get More High-Paying Clients Without Doing More Selling?
Posted by: | CommentsWanna learn a proven effective approach for attracting your ideal (and highest-paying) clients, without feeling like a slimy, pushy salesperson?
Or how ‘bout systems for running your business that let you consistently make more money—without running yourself ragged?
Who wouldn’t, right?!?
For most small business owners, the two hardest jobs are:
1) Getting new clients in the door
2) Finding time to get everything done
The thing is, once you know how to attract your ideal client, you really don’t have to do much selling. In fact I’ve found it’s easier to target my ideal client, and get paid what I’m worth, by using “Pull” style marketing focused on helping and building relationships instead of “Push” style marketing that’s focused on making sales.
Pull marketing draws your idea clients to you like bees to honey, instead of forcing you to chase them like a lion on the hunt. And it’s especially easy to do these days thanks to the Internet.
You don’t even have to do all the work yourself (nor should you)! That’s one of the beauties of attracting clients instead of going after them—especially on the Web. You can automate or outsource a lot of it.
While I’ve learned a good bit about all this by doing it myself over the past few years, I’ve found someone else who’s actually developed an entire “Client Attraction” system—Fabienne Frederickson. This month I’m going to be interviewing her on my regular Small Business Success Teleseminar!
Join us for FREE by going here to reserve your spot on the call:
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-17.htm
Fabienne has promised to share her secrets and system for:
- How to break down the marketing process into easy steps
- Using the secrets of PULL (versus push) marketing to get clients effortlessly
- Getting clients who happily pay you what you’re worth
- Delegating, automating and systemizing every aspect of your business (so it runs without you!)
- Your chance to ask Fabienne your own Client Attraction questions live!
Fabienne has a reputation for turning her clients on to resources they’d never even heard of in their fields. And those solo-entrepreneurs that follow her advice end up standing out in even overcrowded marketplaces and snagging the best clients and customers.
The teleseminar calls are no-charge, but phone lines are limited. So be sure to reserve your spot right now while you’re thinking about it:
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-17.htm
Got any specific questions about client attraction you’d like Fabienne to answer? Leave your question as a comment below and I’ll make sure we cover it on the call.
Get Images for Your Small Business Presentation or Marketing Piece for Free!
Posted by: | CommentsNeed images for an upcoming presentation, or marketing piece but don’t have much budget? No worries! Thanks so the Internet there are plenty of options for finding free and low-cost images you can use for your small business.
For example, you can find all kinds of images at no charge from the Creative Commons on Flikr. Just go to flickr.com/search/advanced/. Choose “Creative Commons Commercial License”. Then enter a search term in the box at the top of the page to find the type of image you’re looking for.
Source: Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/where-to-find-g.html
Have you used flikr for images? How was your experience? Please do share by leaving a comment below…
Got Questions About Small Business Bookkeeping? You’re not Alone!
Posted by: | CommentsDo you hate doing your own bookkeeping for your small business…?
Does QuickBooks drives you crazy because the data always seems to be messed up, or you don’t really know what to look at in there anyway…?
Did you hire an accountant or bookkeeper but find your books are still confusing…?
If so, you are so not alone!
Before I hired my current Virtual Bookkeeper, Jen Petersen, 3 years ago I’d been through 2 bookkeepers and years of bookkeeping hell. First because I did my books myself in Excel, which meant I ended up spending about 10 hours a month just doing invoicing!
I came to hate bookkeeping (and I don’t use that word lightly!!). So I decided to get QuickBooks, and even hired a bookkeeper to get it all set up for me. When I finally made time to look at my books after 3 months they were a total mess!
I found duplicate entries, missing entries, and almost nothing in the right categories. Then, to add insult to injury, it took me months to get all my files back from that bookkeeper. And she came via referral, mind you.
My next bookkeeper made some headway in straightening out my books. But then she handed my files off to another woman at her firm who did a terrible job. So I was paying them, then spending 5-6 hours a month finding all the problems and having them fix everything.
During those years I literally had no idea how much money, if any, I had in net profit from month to month. I was pretty much going off gut instinct and my total receivables. So I never knew what I could invest in my business. Or if I had the money to, say, replace a computer that died suddenly.
Plus, as a marketer, it drove me nuts because it was really hard to track the return on investment of many of my marketing strategies. Or the value of a customer. Or which products and services were most profitable. And it was sure hard to plan for future initiatives.
Not having a handle on my bookkeeping was really, really stressful and held my small business back in a big way.
Then I found my wonderful Virtual Bookkeeper, Jen Petersen. She straightened out my books in a jiffy.
Finally, for the first time in almost 3 years, I actually knew what was going in my business financially at any given moment (instead of just at tax time)!
She also gave me a tour of QuickBooks, explaining which reports and numbers were important to me and why. And she’s been invaluable in helping me keep everything straight as my online business has diversified and grown.
As a result I’ve been able to invest more money in the right aspects of my business. And I stress about my cash flow WAY less!
That’s why, for this month’s Small Business Success Series teleseminar I’m interviewing my own Virtual Bookkeeper and QuickBooks expert Jen Peterson.
Jen is going to show you everything you need to know to get the bookkeeping for your business under control so it’s no longer a headache, hassle, and huge time-suck. And so you can actually use the info to grow your business.
Best of all, you can listen to the call for FREE and ask Jen your specific bookkeeping questions! Or request a recorded copy of the call if you can’t make the call live.
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-16.htm
Here are just a few of the things that Jen has promised to share on this call:
#1 Do you really need a bookkeeper, and if so, how do you know when you’re ready to hire one?
#2 The difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, and when you need each.
#3 Many small business owners start out doing books in Excel…When and why to use QuickBooks.
#4 Should you go virtual? The pros and cons of hiring a Virtual Bookkeeper.
#5 Critical areas of your books and budget you should be keeping your eye on in order to maximize cash flow, grow your business and pay yourself a good salary!
#9 Tips for organizing your bookkeeping files to make life easier for you, and your bookkeeper.
And much more!
If you’re still doing your own books, find you get overwhelmed or confused anytime you open the QuickBooks, or are thinking of hiring a Virtual Bookkeeper, this free call is for you.
While it’s free to join us on the live call, you do need to register because phone lines are limited. Even if you can’t make the call live, you can request a copy of the interview audio.
Go here for all the details:
http://www.success-stream.com/teleseminar-16.htm
Got questions about small business bookkeeping or Virtual Bookkeepers? Leave them in a comment below and we’ll make sure to cover them on the call!
Years ago, I worked with a small business owner who had a love affair with “free or cheap” marketing and advertising. Just like someone who is addicted to coupon shopping…If it wasn’t “free or cheap” she wasn’t going to do it. And if it was, you can bet she would jump at the chance—no matter what the opportunity was.
She simply could not seem to help herself.
She advertised on a bench at a golf course because it was only $200. She had a “free” column plus an ad in a community newspaper because it was only $50 a month. She put together a packet to be handed out by someone else to their clients, because it was “free”.
Her goal with all of these was to get new clients now.
You see she had started a new small business, and was badly in need of clients. Plus she didn’t think she could afford to do anything else. As a result, she ended up spending thousands of dollars on the wrong ideas.
How so?
Well, the graphic design and copywriting for the bench cost money. Plus an ad on a bench is more of a branding piece—like all the McDonalds or Coke ads you see. It was not the type of marketing that gets someone to take immediate action. So if she needed new clients now, the bench was probably not going to do the trick.
As for the free column and $50 ad, well…She wasn’t a writer. So she paid a couple hundred dollars a month to have the column ghostwritten. Plus she paid for copywriting and graphic design for the ad.
Not a bad idea, if you are looking for a way to gain visibility and build a reputation as an expert over time. Unfortunately, she did not check the paper’s circulation, where it was distributed or who the target audience was. So she ended up promoting her business to people who would never buy what she was selling.
The packet had the best chance of getting new clients in the door because it included a special, limited time offer. But it was far from free. She still had to pay for copywriting, graphic design, printing and materials costs. Plus spend time folding and putting the packet together (it was pretty fancy).
In the end she was easily spending over $1000 a month on “free or cheap” marketing and advertising.
And you know what the saddest part was? None of it was working.
Because she was choosing her tactics based solely on the up-front cost. Not on whether they were actually the right fit for her and her business, or would reach her target market. Or whether she really had the time to execute them well. And certainly not on whether they would help her achieve her number one goal—get new clients now.
The moral of this story? There is no such thing as “free advertising”, and even cheap advertising usually isn’t. So don’t base your marketing and advertising decisions solely on initial cost.
To create a good marketing strategy, you have to consider your goals, the true costs and the potential gains or ROI of every tactic. Not sure how? Try using the quick list of questions below to help you make your decisions.
1) Will this get me in front of my ideal client or target market?
2) Will this help me achieve my end goal or desired result?
If you answer no to either of these, stop right there and pass on the opportunity. If you answered yes to both, then it is time to calculate true cost.
3) What is the initial, up front cost?
4) How much time will it take to put everything together?
Now add on 1/3 more time than you think you will need, then multiply the number of hours by your hourly rate to calculate your time cost.
5) Will I need any professional services like printing, graphic design or copywriting to complete the project?
6) If so, how much will it cost to get my project done by the due date? Not sure? Call around and get estimates.
7) Do I have time to do this right, or will I have to pull an all-nighter to get everything done?
If you have to work late, count it as time and a half and multiply by your hourly rate.
Now add up all these costs and ask yourself…
8) Does this fit my budget?
9) How many new clients would I need to break even on the investment (Divide the total cost by the average revenue generated by one new client)?
10) Is that even possible, let alone probable?
Now you should have a reasonable idea of the true costs of your opportunity. And I bet it is more than what you were thinking when that “cheap or free” ad, trade show booth, or marketing opportunity first came your way.
The bottom line is…never make a marketing decision based solely on cost. After all which is more expensive: A $5000 campaign that brings in 20 new clients who each spend $300 (net profit of $1000), or a “free” ad that really costs you $800 to create but does not bring in any new business at all? You decide…


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