Successful Women in Business

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All entrepreneurs have been THERE. They are looking at their project and trying to make it JUST RIGHT. They say to themselves, “If I can get this just right, I can sell more!” or “If I get this perfect, I can really gather more customers!” We have all been there…convincing ourselves if we do this ONE THING just ONE LEVEL BETTER we are going to have a completely different result. But is it worth it?

I recently worked with a client who was a total perfectionist and it was stifling. She had a vision for her company (a bridal planning company) but was worried about the 800-number she was going to use. So I met with her and she spent the first ten minutes talking about the 800-number. Should it end with XXXX or XX*X? Should it start off with a catchy word or end with one? Should she go with Company A or Company B for it? I listened to her talking and could hear the confusion (self-created) that was going on. So the question that I posed to her was “Is perfection with a PHONE NUMBER really worth it?” She thought about it for a second and said, “Well- how do I decide then?” This may sound odd, but in the end we decided to flip a coin on the company. We decided to call customer service and find out what their numbers available were (none of the catchy-word numbers were available). We let customer service pick the number. Bam! DONE!

Sometimes as business owners getting the job DONE is what really matters. Perfection has its place and sometimes it is going to be critical to the task at hand, but not always. Sometimes it is best to just pick. I heard a quote the other day that fits this perfectly: “My friend Andre said to me, ‘You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great. I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.”~ Marissa Mayer, VP, Google.

A lot of clients are wondering about this wonderful thing called social media and how to manage it. Let’s face it, things are no longer simple! It used to be that there were a few social media outlets, but that was it. Now- you have so many to pick from it can be daunting! So how can you put together a social media plan that works? Now if you have the budget, you can always hire a Social Media Manager. These are the people who manage it all for you. It’s great- you tell them what you want to say, the specials you have out there, the promotions you want announced and VOILA! They post it everywhere. Here’s the problem- they cost. Not every small business owner has the ability to pay for a full time Social Media Manager at about $48k (minimum) a year. So if your budget doesn’t allow for it, what can you do?

Like a lot of things in the world of business, planning is key. If you can get it down to a model to follow, you likely can manage it yourself. Social media management has to be scheduled into your day like other things. What I personally do is pick  two days a week when one hour is dedicated to social media postings. No- I can’t do every social media outlet available, but I can get the word out enough on my products/services that I’m happy. There are so many tools to use right now that you can be picky, depending on how much time you have to dedicate to updating. There also are some services that will allow you to auto-post to a number of different social networking websites. Whatever you choose though, never discount the power of social networking. It is a great way to get your business out there and promote yourself even more!

OH- and here’s the other thing…when it comes to social media and networking, yes- the purpose is to promote yourself, but don’t become a one-stop shop for every promotional possibility you can think of. That gets annoying! Consider if you follow someone on Twitter and ever tweet is about their new sale! Wouldn’t you get tired of it? Make sure that you give something (without asking for a return) too. This is a great way to really form a relationship with your followers and get them to stick around!

…SO now you have figured out WHO your market is and WHY they are buying…now what? The next step is to figure out how you can continue to build value. Let’s say you provide Widget A to the world. It is the best widget out there and it has a ton of features that are cutting edge! How long do you think that is going to last? There is a little thing called competition that likely is going to continue to develop around you. Your job is to KEEP UP! Sometimes this is not an easy task to undertake! If you want to be a continuous success though, you have to figure out how to do just that.

I worked with a company (that shall remain nameless for obvious reasons) a few years ago. They specialized in offering wholesale projects to the mid-western market but was seeing a decline in business. The company began way back in the 70s and grew a successful base market. The owner was used to going door-to-business-door selling his products. Over the years, he was able to build up a successful following as a result. From the 70s to the 90s he was a leader in the market. Then everything changed…suddenly the internet changed how people shop. People were no longer waiting for a salesman to come to their establishment; rather,they were looking to the top search engine results. In a few decades personal relationships with buying, i.e. “knowing your salesman” is no longer a business strategy. Now, it is all about the internet. Although he built his business on personal relationships, he failed to realize that when the “why” of people buying changes, a business has to have a strategic plan to keep up. Sure his model worked twenty years ago, but now it was highly outdated. Relying on how you did business yesterday isn’t always a viable way of doing business today!

Your job as a business owner is to keep your business relevant…to respond to the market as IT shifts. It’s almost like balancing on a surf board. If you aren’t ready to ride the wave, you aren’t going to get far! The surfers who are able to shift their weight in response to the water stay up the longest. It is the same with business. You have to be willing and able to shift with change. Nothing stays the same…and that’s a good thing!

The key to making revenue is constantly creating new business. Let’s face it, this is one of the most difficult things because it is a never ending job. Whether you are selling a new product or a new service, your job IN ADDITION TO YOUR JOB is to market yourself. Now you could be one of the lucky ones who can hire someone to do all the marketing work for you but that isn’t the majority of new or even mid-level business owners. Normally, entrepreneurs are ready to jump in to any part of their business they need to– that’s what makes them entrepreneurs, after all– but marketing is such a huge part of building a business that it can be difficult. So here is a crash course in marketing…

First of all, who is your market? This is the core question to getting the entire process right. If you can’t answer the question, then that should be your number one priority TODAY! The easiest way to do this is to collect information on who is buying what you are selling one by one. Next time you see people in your storefront, or visiting your website for purchase, include a survey. As about things like their age range, their income level, their gender, their education level, etc. Depending on what part of the market you are in, you may find some information useless and other information invaluable. You want to figure out who the people are who are spending their cold hard cash on your business. The next question is: why.

Second, you want to know WHY people are buying. This is important to understand because this is how you are going to frame your product/service in the future. Let’s say you are a consultant who specializes in organizational behavior maximization. You already figured out that the businesses who contract you are those with 50-or less employees, roughly generate $1-1.5-million in revenue annually and are product-based. Now you want to know WHY it is you seem to successfully fill the needs of that company. It could be that you are secretly great at understanding the manufacturing process and tightening it up. Or, it could be that you are great at working with small teams and motivating them. Whichever, you want to know so you can modify it, or strengthen it, depending on what your personal business goals are.

Part two coming next.

So a lot of our readers send messages on how they should get into the online business world. The bottom line is that there are millions of people  everyday doing searches for products and services. They know that it is the best and quickest way to find whatthey are looking for. Let’s face it- your choices are:

1) Drive around town – from one city to another – to find exactly what you are looking for. This involves using up time and gas money. If you don’t find what you want at one store, you have to go to another.

—– OR —–

2) Search for what you want online with a few keystrokes. Locate the exact item or service you want, purchase it securely and have it delivered within a few days or downloaded within a few minutes.

Which one would you choose? I know which one I choose! Today’s world is about efficiency and finding what you want within a few minutes is pretty much always a “better” option. So how do YOU get into it?

Well if you have a product, then this is pretty easy. You start up a website and start pitching it! You could give some insight into its use/uses. Tell the potential buyer how it will make their lives better/easier. And then repeat as often as you possibly can. This could take time, but for people with a good product, this is all that much easier. They just have to let the product’s innate value lead and then put the hard work into marketing it. If however, you don’t have a product, this could get tricky…

Coming up with your own product can 1) take a lot of time and 2) take a lot of money to develop. There is a constant stream of products flowing into the marketplace no matter what sector you are in. To bring your own product in, you must have some expertise and find your own niche. It isn’t impossible, but it isn’t easy either.

There is another option though – you could sell information. This is called the “Age of Information” for a reason. Everything is at people’s fingertips these days and what they want is more information to help them reach their desired goals. In my experience, it is the perfect “product” to sell because everyone has their own specific take on it. Even if two workers are employed at the same company for years, they likely have completely different takes on what their experience is. Information is perfect to market because it is consumable. That means that people are in search of it, they read it and are ready for the next step to be laid out for them. This means if you contribute E-Book A to a market and they like it, the are going to want E-Book B to take the initial concepts farther. That makes a ready-made market for you! The other benefit of providing information is that it is easy to create. It isn’t always easy to come up with Widget A when Widgets B-Z are already out there BUT it can be easy to come up with your personal story on how-to or what-to for the public.

4) Dr. Dyer’s statement (paraphrase): No branches of a tree find it wise to fight with the others. This tells us that there is no value in fighting people. We are all of the same whole, so why fight it?

5) Finding your passion in life is what opens the door to success. Abundance and prosperity are natural…why fight them? Just like trees don’t question whether or not they are worthy of the sun, so we shouldn’t question whether we are worthy of all good things.

6) Be independent of the opinion of others! This may seem hard- and it is- but it is critical to learning to truly flourish. Anyone who cares about the opinions of others is going to be in a constant tailspin! “What does SHE think?” & “What will HE think?!?” Let it go!

7) Meditation is key for everyone. Finding a quiet time during the day (even a few moments) can give you clarity and bring you back to what your soul knows is already true. It can center you and motivate you!

We don’t normally promote “events” here at Successful Women In Business, but when something good comes along we do herald it. That is why we are incluing this banner for this week’s post. Dr. Wayne Dyer is a leader in the world of self help. If you want to know about the Law of Attraction and manifesting, then he is the way to go. Here are some of his principles:

1) What you focus on, grows. This isn’t a new concept but Dr. Dyer is one who is doing a great job of promoting it. His belief is that if you focus on bad stuff, you get bad stuff; if you focus on good stuff, you get good stuff.

2) You get what you don’t want just as easily as you get what you do want. (See #1)…if you focus on how life is “unfair” or “difficult” then you are going to naturally find situations that confirm that. On the other hand, if you focus on how life is “generous” and “easy” then you are going to start noticing the ways that it is. Whatever your mind believes, your experience is going to try to confirm.

3) An ‘attitude of gratitude’ is essential for receiving good things. This goes back to focus. If you are grateful and happy about what you have now, the Universe automatically wants to give you more.

Part two coming next.

Here is the thing about “failing”…as a small business owner you have to think of life as decisions. One after another. Just think of how many decisions you make in any given day. Let’s take the other day for me. Here’s what I had to tackle:

* find an css expert
* find an assistant
* interview three assistants
* do background checks of said possible assistants
* update all a/p’s and a/r’s in Quicken
* print out monthly revenue sheets for November
* write three sales letters for clients
* write a sales letter for myself
* write ten blogs for another client
* outsource blogs for a high-demand client
* coordinate print materials for promotion
* finalize logo and designs for said materials
* 75 other things I’m forgetting

The bottom line is that in the midst of all these items there were numerous decisions to be made and numerous ways to go with each one. The same can be said of life. When making decisions, it’s important to think of circumstance as not “good” or “bad” but just “this has to be done.” Sometimes letting go of the qualifier is what it takes to get going. If you can do that, then there isn’t any “failure” to be had.

The other way to think of life is like a huge array of ways you could possibly go. When there is a “no” that ends one thing, you still have hundreds of other ways to go. The “no” is just the Universe’s way of saying to you “Not this way!” There are still hundreds of others to explore though.

The bottom line is that “failure” is the end of nothing. Period.
Forget past mistakes.
Forget failures.
Forget about everything except what you’re going to do now- and do it.
~William Durant, founder of General Motors

Explanation to come in part 2. Ruminate on this: there is no such thing as failure. 

So it has been a while since the last post but there is a lot going on. The bottom line for any business owner is that you have to be always “on” mentally. You are always plotting your next move/s, planning your next strategies, etc. It is part of what keeps you engaged in the business in the first place. Let’s face it- a lot of people would throw in the towel at the first sign of the average entrepreneur’s task list!

One thing we have been working with figuring out what it REALLY takes to be a freelance online content writer. By definition this is easy: “to supply writing content for online outlets, including websites, press releases, sales letters, resumes, ‘ghost writing’ pieces, etc.” Yes this is literally what we do, but is that it? This is a question that I focused on for a while with my customers and realized that this isn’t what I do. Here’s how it happened:

I was commissioned to write a sales letter for a customer. He asked it to be “kick a**” (his words) because its purpose was to be the first thing potential customers got when they asked for more information. I wrote it. It was great, but in the end when he did his metrics, it didn’t quite do what he wanted. He came back to me and asked for slight changes. I suddenly found myself completely engrossed in figuring out what the end-user really wanted to hear and what would really spur the sale. We put our heads together to come up with a letter more tuned into exactly what the end-users seemed to want. I wrote the new letter and it did the trick. I got paid. End of story? No.

Here’s where I started doing some assessments of my own. What was it that made me snap to attention when the original letter wasn’t working? What really motivated me? I asked myself a series of questions and came up with this: I wanted him to sell his products. Period. Why? Because I care about his business! I want my clients to be successful. NOT just because it means more jobs for me and more nice recommendations, but because we talked enough about his business passion that I completely bought into his vision. I cared about his success like it was my own. Being ‘freelance’ doesn’t mean disconnected. It just means you connect that much more with a variety of different companies and not just one. 

So what is the secret to be a freelance online content writer? It is to see my client’s passions, buy into them and then take their vision on as my own. It’s not just about writing words for money. That is what I do, but it isn’t why I do it. The next time you are looking to freelance, think of it as a complete buy-in of what your client’s are offering. This isn’t going to be difficult because most entrepreneurs have plenty of passion to get you going!