How Self Help Can't Get Help By: Suzanne Evans | - Most service providers and helping professionals, coaches, consultants, or change agents get into business by accident. Here is how it often looks.
Sally is unhappy.
She wants to change her life.
She seeks support to change her life.
She gets it.
She likes it.
She wants to give back -- wants to be a part of the same.
Use Your Emails As A Billboard By: Suzanne Evans | - Ok, so how do you get attention? Without it — no one knows. If no one knows — no one cares.
One of the most simplest ways to get our point of view out there and get people to have the "whiplash" factor is in your email and subject lines! So, I was playing with you a little today in my subject line because I wanted to show you exactly what I meant. It's a busy world. It's a loud world. And there are a few simple ways you can cut through all of that with your emails and s ... Tags:authentic marketing, relationship marketing, coach, coaching, entrepreneur, solopreneur, solo professional, six figure income
Do You Like Me? By: Suzanne Evans | - Remember when Sally Field won the Oscar and squealed, "You like me. You really like me?"
Truth: Many of you are doing that in your business. Maybe it happens when you get a client; maybe at networking groups; in your Master Minds; or even in your marketing copy.
I love to talk about money. I particularly love to talk about the impact money can have on people, the planet, and change. Most of you are reading this because you want to make more money and you want to make a difference. Making a difference starts with your behavior. It launches from how you respect money. Money is energy and the greater respect you have, the more vibrant that energ ... Tags:authentic marketing, relationship marketing, coach, coaching, entrepreneur, solopreneur, solo professional, six figure income
Business Owners Need A Plan: Here's Mine (happy To Share) By: Suzanne Evans | - Most business owners have a passion, a good idea, or a skill and they get inspired to monetize. That's always the seed of a great start-up. Where most start-ups fail is they believe that their passion will bring them the money. Passion will inspire you to work hard and get you out of bed in the morning, but it is not a plan. You need a solid plan and it needs to be based in 10% information and 90% implementation.
10 Ways To Get The Money You Need Every Time! By: Suzanne Evans | - I know the biggest objection I hear from people working with me is, "I would love to, but I don't have the money". AND I know it is the biggest struggle you have when landing clients, as well. Out of all the objections for people to get the help, support, coaching, or healing they need, money is the biggest. I have spent years working on this and finding ways to coach people into reality. The reality is two things:
Let's Stop This Rumor By: Suzanne Evans | - There is a nasty rumor in the business world. Coaches, healers, helpers, "well, 'those people' just aren't serious about business." I hear it all the time and there are some facts to back it up. Typically, helping professions earn less, focus less on numbers, and carry more debt.
The more money you make the more people you can help. It's true.
My mentor says that money is not the most important thing in the world, but it touches everything that is. Money is the great equalizer and it brings equality. I was never as clear about this as when I was in Africa. It allows you to be truly free and ultimate financial freedom allows you to help others be free. Most of you reading this know that ... Tags:authentic marketing, relationship marketing, coach, coaching, entrepreneur, solopreneur, solo professional, six figure income
Gas, Groceries, Or Coaching By: Suzanne Evans | - ***Please note: In all of my advice please take note that if anyone has a child under the age of 18 you have an obligation to take care of that child's needs before all else, so please do not send me emails about the need to feed your children. Feed your children first.***
The Most Important Thing I Did By: Suzanne Evans | - In person is the fastest path to success. When you can look someone in the eye, connect with them, and share your gifts nothing else compares. In this world of technology, gadgets, and high-tech the pendulum is swinging back to face-to-face relationship based marketing.
And the best way to make that happen is events. Now, there are multiple types: intimate, one day, and large multi day... the model is not that important, but what is important is the following:
Are You Telling The Truth? By: Suzanne Evans | - Many of you are lying to yourself. You have been for a while.
Don't get huffy — you know it's true and it isn't intentional, but it is happening. I see it day after day after day. Usually it shows up in the form of:
Who You Are Being Is What You Are Earning By: Suzanne Evans | - You have to have a clear message to attract clients. Then, you have to have the right marketing to pull in those clients. Then, you better understand the math game (volume) to make it all work. There is definite strategy to business and without realistic practical plans businesses fail. But, I can also share emphatically how those practical plans never get implemented.
What Are You Known For As An Entrepreneur? By: Sue Painter | - Just a few months ago I was helping an entrepreneur who has many talents take a look at her business to figure out why she wasn't making the income she wanted to make. As we talked, I realized that she had the same problem many solo professional entrepreneurs have. She wasn't clear about what she offered her customers. She knew she added value for them but she was having a hard time explaining who she was and what she did to me. I knew, then, that she was not clear to potential customers (pr ... Tags:marketing, entrepreneur, Sue Painter, The Confident Marketer, solo professional, marketing strategies
Entrepreneurs - Can Your Web Pages Pass This Acid Test? By: Sue Painter | - Website design is both an art and a science. If you are an entrepreneur, your website is critical for visibility, and, as I like to remind my clients, your website is absolutely never done. It will (or should be) ever-growing and changing.
Think about it this way — your website is your "bricks and mortar store." It is your visible representation of your business. When you go off to the mall and walk past a store front, your eyes automatically shoot to the windows to check ... Tags:Entrepreneur, web site, sales, marketing, solo professional, web design
Article Title: What If We Stopped Marketing? By: Suzanne Evans | - I am trying to be as real with you as I can - honesty is my strong suit. A lot of marketers and coaches have been lying to you. Now, I do believe that most of them have not done it intentionally. They forgot or are so focused on their position they have ignored their own facts.
So, I ask the question, what if we stopped marketing?
5 Challenges And Mistakes Faced By Every Solopreneur By: Tracey Lawton | - I was recently a presenter in a Telesummit and even though I had a specific topic to present on, the hosts also felt it would be appropriate to talk about some of the biggest challenges and mistakes that I faced (and still do face today) along my path to solopreneurship!
These are the same issues that EVERY solopreneur faces at some point or other in their business so, in case you missed my presentation, I thought I'd share those challenges and mistakes with you here in the hope tha ... Tags:challenges, mistakes, solopreneur, biggest, solo professional, entrepreneur
Are Customers Hungry For What You Offer? By: Sue Painter | - Here you are, an entrepreneur. Maybe you're a small business owner who finally decided to work at what you've been dreaming of for years. Or maybe you are a solo professional who loves working for yourself and helping others. I'd bet you LOVE what you do. I'd also bet that you are GREAT at what you do. So here's the question......how come your business is slower than you'd like it to be? Are you not so great, or what's the problem?
How To Sell With Love By: Suzanne Evans | - You aren't really in business if you aren't selling. The transformation is actually IN the sale. I know many people are really concerned about feeling pushy, hard, or aggressive. There is one easy key that makes sales fun, easy, and profitable - LOVE!
Wish, Hope, And Pray Marketing By: Sue Painter | - With apologies to one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert, I want to ask you to assess your marketing with a cold eye and an honest look. Tell me.....is your marketing system based on the wish, hope, and pray method? Here are some signs that it is:
1) No one in your organization has a clear mission of responsibility for creating and running a constant marketing system.
Are You Ready To Make A Difference By: Suzanne Evans | - A series of global and economic changes puts us in a new age of entrepreneurship - thank goodness. New ways of doing business are emerging and some sales/business has dried up and some has truly flourished. There is a difference. I want you to know what is working and how you can build, and build while others are scrambling to figure out what went wrong.
The One Strategy That Doesn't Get Said By: Suzanne Evans | - There are many skills it takes to grow, sustain, and build a business. Everything from marketing, mindset, and math has to be in play to make real money and a real difference. All of the education, time, and money you have put into growing your business won't much matter if you don't embody this- tenacity!
Never give up. Never quit.
People always want to know how I did it and what the one big shift was that happened.
Pioneer Marketing For Small Business Owners By: Sue Painter | - When I was a kid living (briefly) in Oklahoma, one of my favorite times was the local "Pioneer Days." Everyone dressed up in pioneer clothing, old Conestoga wagons were brought out of barns, and re-enactments of the early days of the town were carried out in the town square and at the fairgrounds. Everything was "old-timey" -- the way it used to be. Some of the men would even grow their hair long and sport the old fashion handlebar mustache and side lamb chops.
Can You Make It As A Part-time Solopreneur? By: Sue Painter | - One of the questions I get asked most frequently is about working for yourself part time. Solo professionals and entrepreneurs often are trying to bootleg their businesses, still working at a full time job elsewhere to pay the bills. This is often the source of a good bit of frustration, exhaustion, and worry.
There are 5 things to think about if you are a part time entrepreneur or solo professional.
Your List Of Prospects - The Goose That Lays The Golden Egg By: Sue Painter | - I've just finished three days at a great workshop for entrepreneurs, where I've had the chance to talk with many attendees, especially solo professionals, and hear about their businesses. One of things that hit me hard is that so many people told me they have either a very small database of potential clients (prospects) or, despite years in business, have no list at all. This is a major issue for entrepreneurs, one that will quickly hamper their success and make it a lot tougher to make much m ... Tags:entrepreneur, solo professional, list building, prospect list, marketing, Internet marketing
Does Your Self-esteem Need Upleveling? By: Sue Painter | - I read an interesting article just the other day about the economic value of self esteem. Not many people would argue the point that having reasonably high self esteem correlates with doing reasonably well as an entrepreneur, or as a worker for someone else. But above that, this article pointed out how our rapidly changing world economies, and the way in which people work, are putting a high monetary value on self esteem. Not only that, but new models of working demand upleveled self esteem.< ... Tags:self esteem, financial success, solo professional, small business owner, entrepreneur, self improvement
Why Do Your Customers Buy From You? By: Sue Painter | - Here's a fun way to figure out why people are willing to get out their credit card to buy from you, a small business owner. Ready? Sit down and think about why YOU bought the last dozen items you spent money on. You might be surprised at the reasons, and you can use the insight to help structure the offers you make to your own customers.
I just spent over $200 on Magellan's travel supplies website. Why?
Only Followers Make More Money By: Suzanne Evans | - Leaders are key in business and motivation, but if you truly want to make money you need to be a follower. I was thinking of two very special clients tonight who have experienced some very massive success in 6 months. When Paige and Brian came to me they were barely getting by (and this is NO exaggeration). They needed help in their business and they needed direction. From our first session I was pretty tough with them. But, I also loved them from the first five minutes of our call. I told ... Tags:authentic marketing, relationship marketing, coach, coaching, entrepreneur, solopreneur, solo professional, six figure income
Why A Solopreneur Can Increase Sales By Limiting What Is Offered By: Sue Painter | - One of the most surprising things for solo professionals to find out is that their prospects (potential customers) actually will buy more often when they have less choice about what they can buy. It seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it? I've seen more than one solopreneur run herself ragged, trying to finish many different "product lines" because she believed it was the way to make more money. In other words, if you have 3 e-books to sell, 12 e-books is better because there are four times as m ... Tags:entrepreneur, target market, solo professional, make more money, sales, ideal client
You Can't Be Both! By: Suzanne Evans | - I had a need to be right for a long time. Maybe about 30 years - it kept me in a job I hated, my max earning was about $50k, I had no free time, and had created a situation where I could hardly make any of my own decisions. It became clear to me that being right no longer served me. I went as far as to have the belief that I wasn't really interested in seeking therapy or coaching. Period. I realize I was deeply afraid they might make me "wrong".
You Gotta Leave The House! By: Suzanne Evans | - The single fastest way to get clients and grow your business is to get in front of peopleand get in front of them IN PERSON! There is nothing like a one-on-one connection to build the know, like, and trust factor, as well as hold someone's captive attention. I am amazed how many entrepreneurs I speak with who have been trying to build their businesses from home. I know it is part of the appeal of an online/virtual business lifestyle, but starting with in person connections builds faster and more ... Tags:Keywords authentic marketing, relationship marketing, coach, coaching, entrepreneur, solopreneur, solo professional, six figure income
7 Ways To Get More Clients To Attend Your Events By: Sue Painter | - One of of my clients who lives overseas is in the midst of marketing his year-long high level Mastermind group. We've been through setting up the sales copy for his website, and he's pulled together some introductory workshops to give his potential clients a taste of what he does and how he works. Still, he wants to do all he can to maximize enrollment, so he asked if I had more suggestions for him. Sure do! Here are 7 ways to fill your events:
Your Legacy Is At Stake By: Suzanne Evans | - In this article I will show you the most simple path to marketing your business you may have ever experienced. When you woke up this morning what did you think first? What was the first thoughts that ran through your mind? (OK, now we are all human- mine was Nooo! Because the puppy was eating trash- lol) what I mean is when you are finally awake and clear headed.
Matching Your Target Market - A Lesson From Mexican Entrepreneurs By: Sue Painter | - How to reach your peeps is just about always on my mind - it comes with the territory of being a marketing therapist. So here I was, two days ago, lounging around on the public beach in Puerto Vallarta. And I ended up, no big surprise, watching the vendors who sell up and down the beach. It is a great case study of how to figure out what to sell to a specific target market.
Who Is In Your Entrepreneurial Community? By: Sue Painter | - For the past few years now I've experimented with just about every method of coaching and mentoring that is available to solo professional and entrepreneurs. All of them have their pros and cons. But one thing that I've come to know for sure is that if you are in your own business, you need a great community of like-minded entrepreneurs around you. Why?
Can You Really Describe Your Ultimate Target Market? By: Sue Painter | - One of the real "rookie" mistakes made by new entrepreneurs is to completely fail to know their target market. This is something that is very easy to spot. A few of the signs are:
1. Her business is not thriving, meaning she needs more customers and she is not financially successful.
2. When asked who she works with, she replies "Oh, I work with just about anyone."
Does Your Business Suffer From Perfection Syndrome? By: Sue Painter | - Perfectionism will kill your business. The goal that you have as a solo professional is to provide a service that solves the problem your customer has. If you do that, you'll succeed. Notice that I don't say you have to PERFECTLY solve your customer's problem. In fact, if you push for a perfect solution you run the risk of putting your customer off, because you will begin to nit pick at tiny little things you are offering, and you'll lose focus on the big picture.
Three Ways To Boost Your Income This Month By: Sue Painter | - The new year is off and running already! Is your business off and running, too? I don't know many business owners who would say no to making more income right now - before the end of this month. Here are three ways to boost your income, and if you implement even one of them, you'll have extra money to show for it.
1. Increase the number of clients or customers you have. This means letting folks who are new to you and your business know about you and the problems you solve. Ho ... Tags:sales, marketing, confidence, entrepreneur, solo professional, income
Could Your Business Withstand A Disaster? By: Sue Painter | - The plight of the Haitian people and their country is on everyone's mind. The images we see on the news are horrific, pulling at my heart. Literally, Haiti will have to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. Even with massive aid from many countries, getting the country set up and the people well will take much time.
Cure Stress And Anxiety Naturally And Enjoy Life Forever By: Sue Painter | - Are you constantly dealing with huge amounts of stress? Maybe you would like to find some natural ways with that you could eliminate that stress and start enjoying life a bit more. The great news is that you can cure stress and anxiety naturally, allowing you to have the relief you need without taking any medications that can be dangerous and addictive. Here is a look at some excellent tips and ideas that will help you to cure stress and anxiety naturally and enjoy life forever.
Hammertoes- Key Information On Causes And Treatment By: Sue Painter | - Hammertoes, are sometimes referred to as claw toe or mallet toe. They can occur in the second, third, or fourth toe. In general however, it is the second toe that is most usually affected. It is also generally women who are the most frequent sufferers of hammertoes. So what causes hammertoes and what is the most effective form of treatment.
How To Set Your Price And Get It By: Sue Painter | - Here's a case study in how an art supply company trained me to NEVER pay full price.
People who know me know I'm in Internet shopper and a paper crafter. I'm always feeding my habit of new and different papers, inks, stamps, and embellishments. One business I used to frequent (notice the past tense there) was a paper art supply house that offers many specialty items. But their constant e-mails with constant sales actually cost them a steady customer -- me!
Five Ways That Discounting Hurts A Solopreneur Business By: Sue Painter | - One of the things I hear from solo professionals pretty often is that the way to make more money is to discount their prices. I've railed against this for years, and told stories about talented entrepreneurs who discounted themselves right out of business. If you are one to think that discounting does your biz good, think again and take these points to heart.
Are You The Block That Keeps Your Business From Succeeding? By: Sue Painter | - To make your business profitable, you must have two critical things in place. The first is a business model that adds up. In other words, what you offer and how you offer it will generate the amount of money you need, minus all your expenses. Your business plan and projected financial statements prove that your plan will take you where you want to go.
How To Tell If You Really Want Your Dream Biz By: Sue Painter | - As a marketing therapist, one of my jobs is to help the people I work with discover the inner blocks that keep them from going where they say they want to go. Sometimes, we SAY we really, really, really want to create a certain business or achieve something new in our existing business, yet it never seems to happen. When this happens, there is sure to be a block or two lurking within. Once you know how to step back and listen to what you are saying to yourself, you will easily be able to iden ... Tags:solo professional, entrepreneur, business success, inner blocks, personal development, strategic marketing
How To Surf To Solopreneur Success By: Sue Painter | - If you want to get a sense of how you act in your business, go catch a wave! How you tackle surfing is a good indicator as to how you tackle bringing in new business.
I saw what a great lens a surfer's habits can be while I was watching a long line of surfer dudes at Ho'okipa Beach Park on Maui. Surfers have to be prepared if they want to successfully ride the waves. They have to have decent equipment (their board, and maybe a paddle). They have to be willing to get into the wate ... Tags:marketing, solo professional, solopreneur, business strategy, professional development
Solopreneurs: Speak Fast To Fill Your Business By: Suzanne Evans | - There are a multitude of ways to market, but some just have higher and faster impact. The #1 question I receive is how do I get clients. Here is one way to do it fast and get in front of lots of people.
SPEAK! (in person)
This is the way I built my business so quickly. I spent about 70% of my marketing time looking for speaking opportunities and organizations. There are a few important steps to getting gigs, having gigs that bring in clients, and having fun!
Solopreneurs: Are The Details Getting You Down? By: Suzanne Evans | - Where do I start? When launching a product, program, service, or new business everything has to be done. Right? A little overwhelming? Right? I know. It is important to keep focused on the part of your business that makes everything flow... marketing. When you are sharing the benefits and solutions you have for people, that is where we truly make the largest difference. Then why do we so often put it last on the list?
Solopreneurs: Are You Looking Left And Right? By: Suzanne Evans | - I used to be a professional water skier in a former life. (OK, I will dig up a picture at some point) and when skiing in a lineup, it is important to keep looking straight ahead to keep clean lines and not run into someone. I always struggled with this. If I am talking to you I need to look at you. Have you ever driven with someone who turns their head to talk WHILE driving? It can be scary.
